Broadcast area | Buffalo, New York |
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Branding | The Station of the Cross |
Slogan | "Proclaiming the fullness of truth with clarity and charity." |
Frequency | 101.7 MHz |
First air date | August 15, 1999 |
Format | Religious (Catholic) |
Power | 2,800 watts |
HAAT | 148 meters |
Class | A |
Callsign meaning | Our Lady Of Fatima |
Former callsigns | WBTF WXOX (1998–1999) |
Owner | Holy Family Communications |
Website | www.thestationofthecross.com |
WLOF is a Catholic radio station broadcasting from Elma, New York. WLOF is located at 101.7 on the FM dial and covers much of Western New York, including Buffalo and Niagara Falls. Referred to as The Station of the Cross, WLOF is owned and operated by Holy Family Communications which also owns and operates WHIC in Rochester, New York. The call letters represent Our Lady of Fatima, to whom this station is dedicated. Both stations rely on the EWTN Global Catholic Radio Network for the bulk of their programming.
101.7 MHz in Elma, New York began its broadcasting life as WBTF "BT Country". It was the sister station to WBTA in Batavia, New York.
Beginning on February 13, 1998, 101.7 FM was acquired by Broben Communications, Inc. and used WXOX as its callsign. WXOX then forced nearby station WHUG in Jamestown to change frequencies in an effort to gain coverage area. While WXOX, 101.7 broadcast modern-rock as "The Spot", supposedly covering "Attica, Amherst and Buffalo" and acting as a challenger to WEDG. It made a significant advertising blitz in the Buffalo market and even created its own "Spotfest" music festival, but it never even registered a measurable audience in the ratings books, let alone make a serious challenge at any Buffalo station, because of its very weak signal (it had 1/15th of the signal strength of another Wyoming County station, WNUC, which was an average station at its best).
On August 15, 1999 Holy Family Communications acquired WXOX and began broadcasting Catholic programming as WLOF becoming the sixth Catholic Radio station in the United States.
On August 15, 2009, WLOF celebrated its tenth anniversary by hosting Fr. John Corapi, SOLT at the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York. Over 11,000 people attended this celebration.