930 AM

Frequency	Call Letters	Moniker	Format	Owner
930	WKY	The Sports Animal	Sports	Cumulus Media

City of License: Oklahoma City
Power: 5 kw (Day)/0.51 kw (Night)
Website: http://www.thesportsanimal.com
Notes: This station was licensed as WKY on March 16, 1922. It was an experimental station named 5XT before then.
It was purchased by E.K. Gaylord, owner of OKC’s two daily newspapers in 1928, The Oklahoman and The Oklahoma City Times. It was a key NBC affiliate during radio’s “Golden Age.” Gaylord started the market’s first television station WKY-TV in 1949 (now KFOR-TV) and dabbled in FM in 1947 with WKY-FM at 98.9 (now sister station KYIS) before turning in the license in 1952 because there were so few FM radios.
“93 WKY” was the dominant top-40 station in the late 1950s, 1960s and 70s (consistently beating then-KOMA-AM 1520 which was more well known outside the market due to its 50kw signal).
In the 1980s and 1990s, the WKY shifted to Adult Contemporary (then MOR), country, then easy listening, Christian adult contemporary then finally settling on talk. From 2000-2002, the station also flirted with sports talk, with two local sports talk shows in the drive time periods.
In 2003, WKY was sold to Citadel, ending Gaylord/OPUBCO ownership after 75 years. In the past few years, Clear Channel Radio was operating the station through an LMA. After Citadel’s purchase, WKY shifted to an all-local news/talk operation during the day. Some syndicated programming and local pro sports were broadcast at night. During Citadel’s news/talk days, the station still played some music, with a gospel music and contemporary Christian music shows on Sunday mornings. The station also played Christmas music standards on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. In January 2006, Citadel flipped the station to a simulcast of its Regional Mexican sister station, then on 105.3 FM.
In June 2007, Citadel flipped WKY to all-sports to compliment sister WWLS (The Sports Animal) using ESPN Radio programming and some local programming, making WKY the fifth station in Oklahoma City to go “All-Sports.” WKY went back to Regional Mexican as the La Indomable format and moniker moved from 105.3 FM in January 2008.
In 2016, its facility changed as KFOR-TV (the original WKY-TV) built new studios. The construction changed WKY’s tower site and it dropped its nighttime power from 5kw to 510 watts.
In 2017, the station dropped the music for Spanish Sports, becoming a ESPN Deportes affiliate. The station also served the Spanish broadcast home of the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder. In 2019, with the ESPN Deportes network shutting down, it changed to a simulcast of sister sports station WWLS-FM (which had lost its original simulcast partner at 640 in 2012 after 640 became a full-time ESPN affiliate).

There is one really good aircheck of WKY’s Top-40 heyday at reelradio.com.
WKY has had the same call letters since being licensed in 1922. It is also one of the few three-letter call letter stations that still exist. It was the first station in Oklahoma and (although there’s some debate about this) it’s claimed that it is the oldest station west of the Mississippi River.

Audio Archive

Previous Call Letters/Formats:
WKY (Spanish Sports Talk – ESPN Deportes –  February 2017-September 8, 2019)
WKY (Regional Mexican – La Indomable – 2009-February 2017)
WKY (Sports Talk – Jox 930 – June 12, 2007-January 7, 2009)
WKY (Regional Mexican [simulcast of KINB 105.3] – La Indomable — January 9, 2006-June 12, 2007)
WKY (News/Talk – Super Talk 930 WKY – March 3, 2003-January 9, 2006)
WKY (Talk Radio 930 WKY, Hot Talk 930 WKY – ??-March 3, 2003)
WKY (Christian Adult Contemporary – AM 930 WKY — Dates Unknown)
WKY (Easy Listening – AM 930 WKY – Dates Unknown)
WKY (Country – Great Country Music, AM 930 WKY – Dates Unknown)
WKY (Adult Contemporary – 93 WKY, AM 930 WKY – 1980-??)
WKY (Top-40 – 93 WKY – 1958-1980)
WKY (Full-service NBC affiliate – 1930s-1958)

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