WCOL-FM (92.3

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

) – branded 92.3 WCOL – is a commercial

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

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 radi ...

licensed to Columbus, Ohio, serving the Columbus metro area. Owned by iHeartMedia, the WCOL-FM studios are located in Downtown Columbus, while its transmitter resides northwest of downtown on the

WBNS-TV WBNS-TV (channel 10) is a television station in Columbus, Ohio, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside the company's sole radio properties, WBNS (1460 AM) and WBNS-FM (97.1). The stations share studios on Twi ...

tower. In addition to a standard

analog transmission Analog transmission is a transmission method of conveying information using a continuous signal which varies in amplitude, phase, or some other property in proportion to that information. It could be the transfer of an analog signal, using an an ...

, WCOL-FM broadcasts over one HD Radio channel, and streams online via iHeartRadio.

History

WCOL-FM first came on the air in 1948. In the early 1970s, it carried religious programming in the daytime and rock music in the evening. During the 1970s, WCOL-FM was known as ''"Stereo Rock 92, The New WCOL FM"'' and largely played Rock 'N' Roll, from the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, the station used the WXGT call letters and relaunched as ''"The All New 92X FM, WXGT"''. When 92X was launched it went to a Top 40/CHR format. During this period then locally famous Suzy Waud hosted evenings; in the latter part of the mid-to-late 1980s, 92X went into a Rock 40 format. 92X launched the careers of several major market disc jockeys during the 1980s, including the late great Joseph "Smokin' Joe" Dawson (later at B96 in Chicago), Gary Spears (also later at B96 and then at

KIIS-FM KIIS-FM (102.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California, United States, and broadcasts to the Greater Los Angeles area. The station airs a top 40 format. Owned by iHeartMedia, KIIS-FM is the origin of the conglome ...

in Los Angeles), Baltazar (who went to

WQHT WQHT (97.1 FM, ''Hot 97'') is a commercial radio station, licensed to New York, New York, which broadcasts an urban contemporary music format. The station is owned by Mediaco Holding and operated by Emmis Communications under a shared servi ...

a.k.a. Hot 97 in New York after that, and then he went to WJMN, & now he's on WBQT both in Boston), and Douglas Ritterling, whose on-air name was Doug Ritter (who later went to

KITS Kits may refer to: *Kitsilano, a neighbourhood of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada *Kits, an American taffy candy made by Gilliam Candy Company * KITS, a San Francisco, California radio station * Kottayam Institute of Technology & Sc ...

a.k.a. Live 105 in San Francisco) and Jon Zellner who went on to run programming at Sirius XM and iHeartMedia. WXGT dominated the CHR/ AOR a.k.a. the Rock/40 hybrid format in Columbus, Ohio during most of the decade. On November 5, 1990, WXGT changed to

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as ...

as "Cool 92" under the WCOL-FM call letters.92X Going, Going Gold
Radio & Records, Issue 864, November 2, 1990, p. 26 When the country format was ushered in on February 14, 1994, the station

stunted Stunted growth is a reduced growth rate in human development. It is a primary manifestation of malnutrition (or more precisely undernutrition) and recurrent infections, such as diarrhea and helminthiasis, in early childhood and even before birth, ...

over the course of several days by broadcasting a computerized numeric

countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

. The WCOL call sign had also been used on an

AM band Medium wave (MW) is the part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band The radio spectrum is the part of the electromagnetic spectrum with frequencies from 0 Hz to 3,000 GHz (3 THz). Electromagnetic waves in this frequency ...

station, which was the area's primary Top 40 station in the 1960s and early 1970s and was branded as ''"The New WCOL"'' and ''"Super 'COL"'' It briefly returned to its Top 40 roots in the early 1990s simulcasting ''"Cool 92"'' and in automated form as ''"Real Oldies 1230 AM WCOL"'' from 2003 to 2004. That station is now known as

WYTS WYTS (1230 AM) is a commercial black-oriented news radio station licensed to Columbus, Ohio. Owned by iHeartMedia, the station serves the Columbus metro area. Besides a standard analog transmission, the station is available online via iHeartR ...

and is an affiliate of the Fox Sports Radio network. WCOL-FM is one of two country music outlets in Columbus metro as it faces competition with WCLT-FM for country music listenership in Columbus. However, WCOL-FM is the only country station in Columbus that covers the entire metropolitan area with a full-powered signal.

References

External links

* * {{IHeartMedia 1990 establishments in Ohio Country radio stations in the United States Nationwide Communications Radio stations established in 1990 COL-FM IHeartMedia radio stations