From the station's sign-on in 1940 until 2000, the station was known as WTRY which made an early splash by taking the CBS affiliation from WOKO. The station's original owner was Troy Broadcasting Co. During its 63 years, led by principal owner C. George Taylor and others, WTRY gave birth or adopted three other stations at varying times: WTRI-FM 102.7, co-owned WTRI-TV from 1954 to 1955 with Van Curler Broadcasting, and WTRY-FM 106.5. When WROW took the CBS affiliation in 1954, WTRY briefly was the ABC affiliate before WPTR took that affiliation several years later. In the early 1960s, the station took a Top 40 format, which they maintained in some form until the early 1980s when it went through a long-term evolution which resulted in the station becoming oldies in 1986. In 1992, WTRY gained a simulcast on WTRY-FM which they lost in 1994, then regained in a mutual arrangement two years later in which the FM became primary and the AM secondary with the AM splitting for alternate programming at points. WTRY went through several ownership changes. Follow the selling its stake in WTRI, Troy Broadcasting, changes its name to Tri-City Radio, Inc. in late winter of 1956. In 1965, the station was acquired by New Haven based Kops-Monahan Communications. In 1972, WTRY and WTRY-FM were sold to Scott Broadcasting of Pennsylvania, Inc. In 1985, television personality Merv Griffin through his company Merv Griffin Enterprises brought the stations and then sold it to Capstar Broadcasting in 1994. In 1999, Capstar merged with another Hicks-owned company Chancellor Media Corporation to form AMFM Inc. After the merger of AMFM and Clear Channel Communications in 2000, WTRY and WTRY-FM were permanently split with 980 AM flipping to sports and becoming WOFX while the oldies format stayed on 98.3 FM. WTRY was eligible to move from 980 to 1640 kHz however this was never done. On September 20, 2010, with the flip of WHRL to a simulcast of talk radioWGY, WOFX's programming can now be heard on WGY-FM's HD2 channel.
Previously, WOFX has held the rights to the New York Giants, New York Jets football, and New York Mets baseball. They were the home of Albany Devils hockey until the team relocated following the 2017 season. They were the home of Westwood One's coverage of the National Football League until 2019. In the rare case of play by play conflicts, the latter games are usually heard on sister WTRY-FM, a procedure that has become more solidly done in the wake of the mild success of UAlbany football and the success of the Mets in the 2006 season.
