WXKS (1200 kHz) – branded Talk 1200 – is a commercial news/talk AM radio station licensed to Newton, Massachusetts, serving the Greater Boston area. Owned by iHeartMedia, WXKS serves as the Boston affiliate for Fox News Radio, The Glenn Beck Program, The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, The Sean Hannity Show and The Mark Levin Show; and the home of syndicated personalities Bill Handel, Ron Wilson, Gary Sullivan and Leo Laporte. The WXKS studios are located in the Boston suburb of Medford, while the station transmitter resides in Newton. Besides its main analog transmission, WXKS streams online via iHeartRadio. History WKOX (AM) On April 21, 1947, the station signed on as WKOX, a daytime-only station on 1190 kHz in Framingham. WKOX would be paired with an FM adjunct, WKOX-FM (105.7), on February 10, 1960. Fairbanks Communications purchased WKOX and WKOX-FM in 1970. In 1985, WKOX switched frequencies to 1200 kHz and received authorization to broadcast around the clock. For many years, WKOX functioned as a full service station oriented towards the MetroWest region. Following stints with satellite-fed oldies and talk radio, WKOX became a partial simulcast of its FM sister station, then known as country-formatted WCLB (105.7 FM), on March 1, 1993. The only deviation from this simulcast was morning drive, which continued to be programmed separately with a local talk show. That August, WKOX switched to ABC Radio/Satellite Music Network's "Real Country" format, featuring classic country to complement the more contemporary country sound on WCLB; the local morning news-talk program was again retained. Another attempt at talk, including a show hosted by former WEEI (590 AM) and WRKO host Gene Burns, was made on October 2, 1995. By this point, WKOX had begun to orient itself to the Boston market as a whole rather than MetroWest. WKOX's talk format was largely replaced with brokered programming in October 1996, mostly consisting of ethnic and foreign language shows; by 1997, WKOX's daytime schedule largely featured programming in creole and Spanish, with some talk programming remaining in other time periods. Notably, contemporary Christian music station WJLT (1060 AM) leased out WKOX's overnight hours to extend its programming schedule, since WJLT was bound at the time to daytime-only operations; by 1999, the bulk of the station's daytime programming was also religious in nature, in Spanish. As early as 1995, WKOX pursued options to upgrade its power and serve the entire Boston area.