WSHY

WSHY is a radio station licensed to Lafayette, Indiana, United States, located at 1410 kHz on the AM dial. WSHY broadcasts at a power of 1,000 watts during daytime hours and 60 watts at night. The station broadcasts using a two-tower directional antenna 24 hours a day. WSHY is owned by Star City Broadcasting (a joint venture between Waypoint Media and Vision Communications) as part of a cluster with Fox/NBC affiliate WPBI-LD, ABC affiliate WPBY-LD, and sister radio stations WBPE, WYCM and WAZY-FM. All six stations share studios and offices at 3824 South 18th Street in Lafayette, with WSHY's transmitter also located at the site.
Until April 2013, it was a 24-hour-a-day simulcast of FM sister station, WBPE, 95.3 Bob-FM. The simulcast was broken precisely at the top of each hour for station identification and throughout the year for Purdue University women's volleyball, baseball, and softball broadcasts. Through the simulcast of WBPE, WSHY also carried Purdue University women's basketball.
History.
WSHY first signed on the air as WAZY on November 28, 1959. It was joined by FM sister radio station WAZY-FM on October 1, 1964. Both radio stations were owned by WAZY Radio Inc., J.Edward "Ed" Willis was Owner, President and General Manager.
On March 1, 1970, ownership of both radio stations transferred to Radio Lafayette, Inc. (Group Owner: the Peoria (IL) Journal-Star newspaper) with F. Patrick Nugent serving as vice president and general manager. The radio station format was shown as Contemporary, simulcast on both AM and FM. By the 1975 Broadcasting Yearbook, WAZY was shown as programming a Contemporary/Top 40/Rock format.
By 1978, WAZY-FM had moved from the original 96.7 mHz frequency to 96.5 mHz, with a resulting increase in power from 3,000 watts to 50,000 watts. By 1980, WAZY-AM was being programmed separately from WAZY-FM. The format was Adult MOR.
Lightfoot Broadcasting acquired WAZY, now using the call letters WFTE on January 7, 1982. The format shifted from MOR to Country. The station also aired Notre Dame football games during this period.
On July 4, 1984, ownership of WFTE was transferred from Lightfoot Broadcasting to Lafayette's First Assembly of God Church. As a result, the format was flipped to Contemporary Christian music with a mix of Bible teaching, talk, and music. Callsigns were also flipped at this time to WCFY (We Care For You).
Artistic Media Partners acquired WCFY on September 30, 1998. Call letters were changed back to WAZY and the station launched with a News/talk format, which brought the format back to Lafayette 7 months after crosstown stations WASK-AM/FM dropped the format in favor of oldies.
As a talk station, "News/talk 1410 WAZY" carried programs such as Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura, and Jim Rome. The station also carried a short-lived local talk program hosted by Rick Mummey. A live audio feed of CNN Headline News covered all other dayparts.
The news/talk format was short-lived. It lasted a little less than 2 years following very low ratings. In 1999, the format was dropped and 1410 kHz began simulcasting WAZY-FM's Hot adult contemporary format. In 2000, the simulcast with WAZY-FM was dropped and the station began simulcasting WGBD's alternative rock format.
Later that year, in September 2000, the station broke away from WGBD's simulcast to run an Adult standards format via Westwood One. A year later, 1410 WAZY changed network affiliations, but remained adult standards with Jones Radio Network's Music of Your Life. In August 2002, the callsign were changed to WLAS, but the format remained for about a month before the station flipped to a full-time simulcast of Artistic Media Partner's country outlet, WLFF, now WBPE.
On May 3, 2007, WLAS changed their call letters to WSHY and on December 6, 2007, the format was flipped to Adult hits to coincide with WLFF's flip to the format.
In August 2008, a local investment group headed by local media host, Jeff Holmes, acquired a limited marketing agreement of the frequency to bring the news/talk format back to the Lafayette market after a 10-year hiatus. "Newstalk 1410 WSHY" signed on quietly after stunting with C-SPAN Radio in late September 2008. Programs heard on the station at the time included Imus in the Morning, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Dennis Miller, Jim Bohannon, and George Noory. Newstalk 1410 also aired an hour of local talk programming in the afternoon drive initially hosted by Holmes called "The L-Town Hour" as well as a weekend oldies show. In 2009 while maintaining the talk format, the station's name was tweaked to "Fox 1410" due to their affiliation with Fox News Radio.
The news/talk format was short-lived, however. After only a year, the format and the LMA agreement were dropped and WSHY returned to the hands of Artistic Media Partners. At this point, WSHY's programming returned to a simulcast of WBPE (95.3 Bob-FM).
On April 1, 2013 WSHY split from its simulcast of WBPE 95.3 and changed their format to sports, branded as "Fox Sports 1410".
Artistic Media Partners sold its Lafayette stations to Star City Broadcasting, owner of WPBI-LD (channel 16), in 2016. The transfer to Lafayette TV, LLC was completed on January 3, 2017.
On July 23, 2018 WSHY changed their format from sports to news/talk, branded as "104.3 The Patriot" (simulcasting on FM translator W282CJ 104.3 FM Lafayette).
Programming.
WSHY programs an entirely network-driven lineup from Salem Radio Network (Hugh Hewitt live and Dennis Prager and Mike Gallagher during the overnights) and Premiere Networks ("The Glenn Beck Radio Program", "The Rush Limbaugh Show", "The Sean Hannity Show" and "The Buck Sexton Show"). Tony Katz's regionally syndicated show is carried in the late-night time slot.
Sister station WGGO in Salamanca, New York has shared WSHY's program lineup and branding since 2019, without Katz's show and with local commercials and weather forecasts inserted.