The station took the air in 1949, licensed to Skyland Broadcasting Corp. It was sold in 1961 to Brush-Moore Newspapers, publisher of the Canton Repository. In 1965 the station was sold to Group One Broadcasting of Akron, owner of WAKR. During the mid 1960s WONE was known as "Channel 98," and it was one of Dayton's two popular Top 40 stations, the other being WING. The format changed to adult contemporary around 1967, when it was called "Charisma Radio". Sometime thereafter, around 1969 it switched to country music calling itself "One Country" or "Country-Wide W-1" to remain synonymous with its then-owner Group One.
During most of the station’s years of programming country music, WONE did well in the Dayton market ratings, usually scoring first or second place in ratings among adults 18-49 years of age. The weekday programming lineup for most of the country years started with David G. McFarland in the “morning drive” time period, followed by Jim Howell, John Ross, Terry Wood from 4-7PM. The 7P-Midnight show was hosted over the years by Dean Taylor, Ed Riley and Chuck Wheeler. After-midnight shifts and weekends were hosted by Lee Nolan, Jim Lyons and others.
Adult standards
After 25 years as a country music station, WONE changed from "98 Country" to Adult Standards, Dayton's ONE for Original Hits, on November 29, 1994 and acquired Springfield-based former Top 40 giant WIZE along the way. WIZE since then virtually simulcast all of WONE's programming until April 22, 2011, when WIZE broke away to launch a country format aimed specifically at the Springfield region.
WONE adopted its present sports talk format on December 8, 2003, again competing with WING, then adopted the "Homer" nickname and weekday programming associated with WSAI 1360-AM in 2005. This simulcast with WCKY would eventually be severed in 2007, when WONE would start to air local sports talk in the afternoon, as well as clearing Fox Sports Radio in the morning hours They are now known as Fox Sports 980. The station airs mostly Fox Sports Radio with one local show. The show is the Outdoor Connection which airs on Sunday Nights 6 to 9 p.m. 980 is one of the only stations that has an Outdoor talk show on the air. The station is an affiliate for the Dan Patrick Show. WONE is streamed online via iHeartRadio.
