WOLF (1490 AM) is a

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

formatted

broadcast Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio ...

licensed to

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...

, serving the

Syracuse metropolitan area The Syracuse Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of three counties in central New York, anchored by the city of Syracuse. As of the 2010 census, the MSA had a population of 662,5 ...

. The station is 100% owned by Craig Fox, who also owns several other radio and low-power TV stations in the

state of New York New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. state ...

. The WOLF

broadcast license A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which vary ...

is held by WOLF Radio, Inc. The station is also simulcast on FM

translator Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

W223CP at 92.5 FM and WOSW (1300 AM) and W253BZ at 98.5 FM, Fulton, NY.

History

WOLF first signed on in Syracuse shortly after the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Like all local-channel AMs, it was initially limited to only 250 watts of power. During the early 1960s it was permitted to raise daytime power to 1,000 watts, and increased night power to 1,000 watts a decade later along with nearly all other local-channel (Class C) AM stations in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It long programmed a personality

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

format, and for many years was highly competitive within its signal area with stronger regional (Class B) signals from similarly formatted stations including WNDR and

WFBL WFBL (1390 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Syracuse, New York and owned by Wolf Radio, Inc. It serves Syracuse and its suburbs, with studios and offices located on Smokey Hollow Road in Baldwinsville. Since September 2017 the statio ...

, although it was unable to achieve full metropolitan coverage especially after sunset. Past radio personalities at WOLF include: *

Dick Clark Richard Wagstaff Clark (November 30, 1929April 18, 2012) was an American radio and television personality, television producer and film actor, as well as a cultural icon who remains best known for hosting ''American Bandstand'' from 1956 to 198 ...

* Jim Sims * Fred Winston (

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

) *

Bud Ballou Dudley "Bud" Ballou (December 11, 1942 – April 15, 1977) was an American disc jockey and radio personality active for fifteen years on several commercial radio stations during the 1960s and 1970s. Ballou was born and raised in Liverpool, New York ...

and

Dale Dorman Dale Dorman (September 2, 1943 – October 21, 2014) was an American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame radio disc jockey on WODS in Boston. Until September 15, 2008, he hosted ''The Breakfast Club with Dale Dorman'' weekday mornings from 5:30-9 AM. Dorma ...

(Buffalo,

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

) *

Marv Albert Marv Albert (born Marvin Philip Aufrichtig; June 12, 1941) is an American retired sportscaster. Honored for his work as a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, he was commonly referred to as "the voice of basketball". From 1967 to 2004, he ...

and Don Bombard (

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

) * Wendell "Windy" Craig (

CBS Evening News The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature s ...

) On May 3, 1999, WOLF (alongside

WOLF-FM WOLF-FM (92.1 MHz) is a radio station serving the community of Baldwinsville, New York in the Syracuse, New York metropolitan area. The station is owned by Craig Fox, through licensee FoxFur Communications, LLC, and is currently running a countr ...

and WKGJ) became the

Radio Disney Radio Disney was an American radio network operated by the Disney Radio Networks unit of Disney Branded Television within the Disney General Entertainment Content, headquartered in Burbank, California. The network broadcast music programming ...

affiliates in the

. In June 2001, WBGJ started the simulcast of WOLF. On November 25, 2006, WAMF also started the simulcast of WOLF as result of the sale of the station to Craig Fox; although in October, the WAMF callsign was heard in the ID of Radio Disney stations in Syracuse. In December 2006, the FM stations split off and flipped to the

MOViN “Movin'” (capitalized as “MOViN'”) is a brand name used for a variety of rhythmic AC and top 40 radio stations in numerous broadcast markets in the United States. The name is a registered trademark of Alan Burns & Associates, a radio consul ...

format. In September 2012, WAMF (now WOSW) dropped Radio Disney and flipped to Country. In December 2013, WMBO dropped the WOLF simulcast and flipped to all-

Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developme ...

programming. On February 1, 2014, Radio Disney (as part of its phaseout of terrestrial broadcasting) canceled its affiliation with WOLF. WOLF was the last Radio Disney station not owned by the ABC, Inc. subsidiary of

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

. This resulted in the station going

off-the-air In the broadcasting industry, a dark television station or silent radio station is one that has gone off the air for an indefinite period of time. Usually unlike dead air (broadcasting only silence), a station that is dark or silent does not e ...

as it transitioned to a new format, originally slated according to FCC filings to happen in August 2014. At the time, a construction permit was filed for a new FM translator at 93.9 FM by Pathway Community Radio, Inc. to simulcast WOLF. However, this was never completed. WOLF was still silent in January 2015. As a result, the station temporarily signed on with a simulcast of WNDR-FM to keep the station's license active. On July 20, 2015, the station flipped to sports as the

Fox Sports Radio Fox Sports Radio is an American sports radio network. Based in Los Angeles, California, the network is operated and managed by Premiere Networks in a content partnership with Fox Corporation's Fox Sports division and iHeartMedia, parent company ...

affiliate on the area. The station broadcasts the national network lineup.WOLF-AM 1490 Relaunches as FOX Sports 1490AM in Syracuse - iHeart Oswego
/ref> Fox Sports Radio had previously been heard in the area on network owned-and-operated WHEN until late 2010. In May 2017, the station began simulcasting on FM

W223CP at 92.5 FM.

References

External links

*
The WOLF 1490 Tribute Site
* *
FCC History Cards for WOLF
{{Fox Sports Radio stations OLF Radio stations established in 1940 Sports radio stations in the United States Fox Sports Radio stations