WODZ-FM

WODZ-FM (96.1 FM; "The Eagle") is a radio station broadcasting an classic hits format. Licensed to Rome, New York, USA, the station serves the Utica-Rome market. The station is currently owned by Townsquare Media as part of a cluster with news-talk station WIBX, hot AC-formatted WLZW (Lite 98.7), and country-formatted WFRG (Big Frog 104).

History

WODZ-FM signed on in August 1968 as WKAL-FM, owned by Maurer Broadcasting Corporation and operating at 95.9 FM. The station originally simulcast its AM sister station, WKAL (1450 AM). In 1977, WKAL-FM dropped the simulcast in favor of beautiful music.

Maurer Broadcasting Corporation sold WKAL AM-FM to Wooster Republican Publishing Company of Wooster, Ohio in 1980. In July 1984, WKAL-FM changed its call letters to WTCO, and became a country music station, "Top Country." The following year, the station, along with WKAL, was acquired by Howard Green and Donald Simmons, owner of WENY AM-TV and WLEZ in Elmira and WOND and WMGM FM-TV in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The new owners reverted the station's call letters to WKAL-FM on February 10, 1986, and implemented a soft adult contemporary format.