WCOS (AM)


WCOS is a sports radio station licensed to Columbia, South Carolina and serves the Columbia market. The iHeartMedia, Inc. outlet is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to broadcast at 1400 kHz with a power of 1,000 watts. The station goes by the name Fox Sports Radio 1400. Its studios are in Columbia and the transmitter is east of downtown Columbia.
The station was an affiliate of the Atlanta Braves radio network, the largest radio affiliate network in Major League Baseball, but that designation has shifted to AM 560 when the sports programming shifted from WCOS to WXBT.

History

WCOS signed on in 1939, making it Columbia's second radio station. The station featured programming from NBC's Blue Network as well as local programming.
In 1958, the station stunted by playing Sammy Kaye's "I Wish I Was In Dixie" over a period of 24 hours before switching over to the "Top 60 in Dixie" playlist, a format that it kept for the next 20 years under various monikers like "Super COS", and "Position 14".
In 1980, after being beaten in the ratings by rival FM Top 40 WNOK, WCOS changed over to Country, simulcasting parts of the broadcasting day of their sister FM, WCOS-FM. In the early 1990s, the station adjusted its format to satellite-fed Classic Country, but went back to simulcasting WCOS-FM within a year's time. In 1995, WCOS switched to CNN Headline News.
In 1996, WCOS adopted its present Sports talk format.
In 2007, WCOS re-branded itself as "The Team". On January 3, 2012, as part of a three-way swap, WVOC's news/talk format moved to WXBT-FM, which changed its calls to WVOC-FM. WVOC then changed its calls to WXBT, which took WCOS' sports talk programming. WCOS became "Hallelujah 1400", an Urban Gospel station.
On November 6, 2014, WCOS switched back to sports while WXBT returned to news/talk as WVOC, and WVOC-FM returned to urban contemporary as WXBT.
The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications, which owns Country WCOS-FM, CHR WNOK, Variety Hits WLTY, Urban contemporary WXBT and News/Talk WVOC in the Columbia radio market.