30, 1996, WAOZ changed its call letters to WAZU, with a news/talk format. That format, in turn, changed back to sports talk as "1360 Homer" on December 12, 1997. The WAZU call letters were changed to WCKY, following the merger of Jacor with iHeartMedia (then known as Clear Channel Communications) that allowed WKRC to be restored on 550 AM. "Homer" was initially seen by many as an also-ran in the market when compared to Cincinnati Reds flagship WLW, and against crosstown sports talk rival — and Bengals flagship — WBOB. However, WBOB — which simulcast the games with sister WUBE-FM — did not renew the Bengals' rights after the 1999 season, as its parent company AMFM merged with Clear Channel and both stations were split up. WCKY slowly gained respect by gaining the radio rights to the Cincinnati Bengals via a three-way arrangement with WLW and WOFX. "1360 Homer" served as the AM flagship when the Bengals and the Cincinnati Reds baseball team share the season schedule. After the Reds' season ends, the games moved to WLW. For several years the station operated as Original Hits 1530, WSAI and featured a nostalgia format featuring former TV personalities Bob Braun, Nick Clooney and Wirt Cain. Later years In January 2003, WSAI's Top 40 roots were revived on a sister station as "Real Oldies 1530 WSAI", which featured some of the original WSAI "good guys" from that era such as Dusty Rhodes, Jack Stahl, Ted McAllister and Casey Piotrowski as well as longtime Cincinnati Oldies personalities "Dangerous" Dan Allen, Marty (with the party) Thompson and Tom "Cat" Michaels. Some of the original 1960s jingles from the station's Top 40 days were used in addition to a sampling of some Drake-styled production values and the voice of CKLW veteran announcer Charlie Van Dyke voicing station IDs and promotional "liners" in-between songs. On January 17, 2005, WCKY and WSAI swapped their call letters back to the original dial positions, with AM 1360 returning to WSAI, and AM 1530 returning to WCKY, although WSAI retained its sports format (albeit with the call letters only mentioned at the top of the hour), while AM 1530 as WCKY switched formats from oldies to liberal talk as radio stations were pressured to include left-leaning stations to balance the right leaning stations they also programmed. On July 7, 2006, WCKY and WSAI switched formats, with the "Homer" sports/talk format