in favor of syndicated talk and consumer advice shows that appealed to a largely female audience. WSAI went back to a sports format in July 2007, this time as a 24-hour ESPN Radio affiliate to complement WCKY. WCKY and WSAI would switch network affiliations again on February 15, 2010, with Fox Sports Radio moving to WSAI and ESPN Radio moving to WCKY, dropping the "Homer" nickname on-air in favor of "ESPN 1530". WCKY's daytime coverage is not nearly as large as that of other 50,000-watt stations. Its daytime city-grade signal only covers the Tri-State Area and the outer suburbs of Dayton. By comparison, WLW can be heard at city-grade strength in large portions of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. However, WCKY's daytime signal provides at least secondary coverage to most of southwestern Ohio (including Dayton), central Kentucky (including Lexington and the outer suburbs of Louisville) and eastern Indiana (as far as the outer suburbs of Indianapolis). At night, power is fed to all four towers in a directional pattern to protect KFBK, concentrating the signal in the Cincinnati and Dayton areas. While the Indiana side of the market only gets a grade B signal at night, WCKY can still be heard in much of eastern and central North America with a good radio; it can be picked up as far as Chicago, Detroit, Wichita, and Miami. The station has a long history of a powerful night-time signal. Its country music programming of the 1950s and 1960s brought listener responses from many points even outside the United States. In 1964, in connection with WCKY obtaining Reds games, the station held a contest for the farthest listener. The winner was a U.S. serviceman stationed in Japan. The runner-up was in West Berlin. Dating back to the early 1970s, the station leased out much of the overnight hours to religious ministers because of the signal's overall reach. It is a practice that has survived numerous format and call sign changes to this day, although with a reduced presence following the most recent change to sports talk. Play-by-play Flagship station for: Cincinnati Bengals (since 2000; shared with sister stations WEBN and WLW) Cincinnati Reds (1964–69) FC Cincinnati (since 2021) Cincinnati affiliate for: University of Kentucky Wildcats football and basketball. University of Louisville Cardinals football and basketball. References External links FCC History Cards for WCKY Jim Hawkins' WCKY Transmitter Page Scott Fybush's WCKY Transmitter Page (under