WOLF-FM (92.1 MHz) is a

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 ...

serving the community of

Baldwinsville, New York Baldwinsville is a village in Onondaga County, New York, United States. The population was 7,898 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Syracuse Metropolitan Statistical Area. Baldwinsville (the village itself) is located in the towns of Lysande ...

in the Syracuse, New York metropolitan area. The station is owned by Craig Fox, through licensee FoxFur Communications, LLC, and is currently running a

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, o ...

format Format may refer to: Printing and visual media * Text formatting, the typesetting of text elements * Paper formats, or paper size standards * Newspaper format, the size of the paper page Computing * File format, particular way that informati ...

branded as 92.1 The Wolf.

History

In 1967, the station began operations as a full-time country outlet as WSEN-FM. It was the sister station to WSEN 1050, one of the first country stations in the northeastern United States. Century Radio sold the stations in 1974. On September 7, 1975, WSEN-FM began operating on a 24-hour basis continuing with a country music format hosted by Carl Knight from 1-6 a.m. The new 24 hour full-time programming lineup included: Bob Paris 6-10 a.m.; Daniel J. Dunn 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.; "Uncle" Rob 2-6 p.m.; Les Howard 6-10 p.m.; Al Jenner 10 p.m. - 1 a.m. In 1986, the station format flipped 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 wel ...

. Both AM and FM were owned by Buckley Broadcasting during much of the 2000s, until being sold in 2008 to Leatherstocking Media Group. In 2011, as the oldies format drifted into

classic hits Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes songs from the top 40 music charts from the late 1960s to the early 2000s, with music from the 1980s serving as the core of the format. Music that was popularized by MTV in the early 198 ...

, WSEN (at the time playing a 1960s/1970s mix of songs) split its simulcast: the FM side switched to a modern-leaning classic hits format centered on the 1970s and 1980s, while the AM side went for a "real oldies" approach featuring 1950s and 1960s music.

Acquisition by Family Life and trade with Craig Fox

In late 2015, the station was sold to the

Family Life Network The Family Life Network is a Christian radio network simulcasting via FM stations across Western and Central New York, as well as northern Pennsylvania from flagship station WCIK. It is owned and operated by the larger Family Life Ministries o ...

, a regional religious broadcaster, along with WMCR-FM and rights to

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 stat ...

. WSEN-FM's intellectual property (including all on-air programming and staff contracts, but not the rights to the WSEN call sign) was sold to

Galaxy Communications Galaxy Media (formerly Galaxy Communications) is a radio broadcasting company with radio stations entirely in the Central New York area. History Ed Levine, current president, attended the Newhouse School at Syracuse University where his love f ...

, who merged it with that of WZUN (which Galaxy reacquired in February 2016). Family Life Network then promptly traded the 92.1 license to Craig Fox in exchange for the former WOLF-FM (105.1) in DeRuyter and WWLF-FM (96.7) in Oswego. WOLF's

format was installed on 92.1 on March 29 at 5:00 p.m. The WSEN-FM call letters were swapped with Fox's WNDR-FM on April 6, 2016. The station adopted the WOLF-FM call sign on April 14, 2016. On June 15, 2016, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) denied the trade and fined FoxFur and Wolf Radio $20,000 for violating the multiple ownership rule (because the companies' owner Craig Fox illegally operated eight licenses, where ownership limits in the market are seven). In late June 2016, FoxFur filed a second request for the transfer of 105.1 and 96.7 to Family Life. However, because of the FCC's ruling, FoxFur ceased operation of WOLF-FM. As a result, Fox temporarily installed the country music format on his station WOSW. The station's previous owner, Family Life, then simulcasted WOSW on 92.1 until the transfer was finalized.After Fine, FoxFur Takes Second Crack at Family Life Deal
/ref> At the time, WOLF-FM was the only station in FLN's portfolio running secular programming. The transaction was approved in September 2016 and the consummation occurred simultaneously with FoxFur's purchase of

on August 21, 2017 in order to keep Fox under the ownership limits in the market. The transfer of translator W252AC to Family Life and translator W207BH to FoxFur affiliate Wolf Radio, Inc. was also included in the final deal. Shortly after the consummation in late 2017, WOLF-FM began HD radio broadcasts. It also began simulcasting sister stations WSEN and WMVN on its HD2 and HD3 subchannels, respectively.

Repeaters and translators

References

External links

* {{Craig Fox, OLF-FM OLF-FM Radio stations established in 1967 1967 establishments in New York (state)