WOLX-FM
WOLX-FM is a commercial radio station licensed to Baraboo, Wisconsin, and serving the Madison metropolitan area, owned by Audacy, Inc. The station airs a classic hits format, its studios and offices are on Ganser Way in Madison. WOLX broadcasts from a transmitter in Devil's Lake State Park near Baraboo in Sauk County, Wisconsin.
WOLX-FM broadcasts in HD Radio.
History
The station first started experimental broadcasts in 1945 and was licensed as WWCF in 1947. It was the sister station to WIBU in Poynette, Wisconsin, which went on the air in 1925. At first, WWCF mostly simulcast WIBU. By the 1970s it separated its programming from WIBU, airing a beautiful music format, using the call sign WLVE meaning "Love". In 1984, it moved to soft adult contemporary as WNLT with the LT standing for "Lite Music". In May 1985, the call letters changed to WILV.On April 3, 1989, WILV flipped to an oldies format, initially concentrating on 1950s and 1960s music. Branded "Oldies 94.9", the station changed its call letters to WOLX-FM. The new format proved immediately successful; in the Spring 1989 Arbitron report, WOLX-FM jumped to second place among adults 25–54 in the Madison market from eleventh in the same period the previous year. In May 1996, long-time owner Shockley Communications, headed by Terry K. Shockley, sold WOLX-FM to Dubuque, Iowa-based Woodward Communications for $10.5 million.
In May 2000, Woodward sold all of its Madison stations – WOLX-FM, WMMM-FM, and WYZM — to Entercom for $14.6 million. As the 2000s progressed, WOLX-FM adjusted its format to classic hits, dropping the "Oldies 94.9" moniker in favor of "94.9 WOLX" and featuring primarily music from the 1970s thru the 1990s.
Syndicated programming on WOLX-FM includes Dick Bartley's Classic Hits, America's Greatest Hits hosted by Scott Shannon, and M. G. Kelly's Classic Hit List.