WTOD (AM)
| File:WLQR Talk 1470.png | |
| City of license | Toledo, Ohio |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Toledo Metropolitan Area |
| Branding | Talk Radio 1470 |
| Frequency | 1470 kHz |
| First air date | October 1954 (as WOHO) |
| Format | Talk radio |
| Power | 1,000 watts |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 65958 |
| Transmitter coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (NAD83) |
| Callsign meaning | originally used on WWYC, whose broadcast frequency of 1560 kHz was regarded at the time as the Top Of the AM Dial |
| Former callsigns | WOHO (1954–1990) WWWM (1990–1995) WLQR (1995–2016) |
| Affiliations | Westwood One Network Ohio State IMG Sports Network |
| Owner | Cumulus Media (Cumulus Licensing LLC) |
| Sister stations | WKKO, WLQR-FM, WRQN, WMIM, WWWM-FM, WXKR, WXKR-HD2/W264AK |
| Webcast | Listen Live Listen Live via iHeart |
| Website | talkradio1470.com |
WTOD (1470 kHz, "Talk Radio 1470") is a commercial AM radio station licensed to Toledo, Ohio. It is owned by Cumulus Media and carries a talk radio format. WTOD is the Toledo affiliate for the Detroit Lions, Detroit Pistons, Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers and the Ohio State IMG Sports Network. The station also broadcasts high-school football games.
Most of WTOD's schedule are nationally syndicated talk shows from Cumulus Media subsidiary Westwood One. Most hours begin with national news from the Westwood One News network.
History
For many years 1470 AM in Toledo was home to WOHO, a leading "Rockabilly" music station in Toledo from the 1950s under the auspices of Program Director "Johnny Dauro" and owner Sam Sloan. In 1962 Johnny and most of the staff were let go, including George Mishler who went to WMGS in Bowling Green as Program Director. Mishler in 1964 went to the Voice of America in Washington, D.C., ultimately to become a manager of the Special English programming where he retired in 1984. Bob Martz, the Program Director for WTOD 1560, an "early 5,000-watt rock station", was hired and he immediately replaced the "Rockabilly" jocks with "Rock & Roll" jocks. During the Top 40 years, the disc jockeys were known as the "WOHO Good Guys". Music-era D.J.s included: Tommy Dean, Swingin Sweeney, Gary Calvert, Peter Tripp, John Garry, Larry Obrien, Bob Martz, Sam Holeman, Rick Randall, Bob B. Rich, E. Alvin Davis, Program Director Don Armstrong (late 60s/early 70s), Bill Manders, Bob Kelley, Larry Love (Larry Weseman), Ben Gall, Russ Simpson, Buddy (Fred Malnofski) Carr, Earl (Sharninghouse) Richards, Tommy Vance, Norm Davis, Ken R. Deutch, Sir Bernard J. Quayle, Mike Cook, Mike Morin, Chris "Beau" Elliot, Ron Sobczak, Johnny Zion, Steve (Matt Zaleski) Matthews, Jeff McCarthy, Corey Deitz,and Jay Scott, News Director Craig (Hugh Ledoux) Edwards, and Ed Corey (early 1980s). News staffers included Cheryl Deutsch, Scott Feldman, Lou Hebert, Irwin Young, Hank Neyer, Ken (Robey) Roberts, Larry Jewett, Shannon Bauer, and Matt Zaleski (news & traffic reporter). There was also the inimitable Gear Jammin, Double Clutchin', Cookie Crunchin', Curb Jumpin' "MOJO MAN" aka Sid D. Grubbs.
Russ Simpson, a Canadian, became the host of "Royale Windfall" on CHAN-TV in Vancouver; he died in 2004. Buddy Carr (who later became the original owner of WRED is the only former "Good Guy" still on the air in Toledo. WOHO was also a longtime affiliate of Casey Kasem's American Top 40. Craig Edwards retired in 2008 as Program Director of KRLA in Los Angeles.
In the late 1960s, WOHO was the home to a nightly talk show called "Rap". It aired at 11pm Monday through Friday. The show continued into the early 1980s. Over the years the hosts included Harold Salverta, Karen Sue Martinsen, and Carty Finkbeiner who was elected three times as Toledo mayor.
In the 1980s, the station was the home of Toledo Goaldiggers (IHL) hockey broadcasts.
WOHO evolved from Top 40 into an adult contemporary station by 1983, and remained so through the rest of the 1980s. The station changed its call sign to WWWM in 1990; it was briefly a country music station, before switching to urban adult contemporary music as an affiliate of Satellite Music Network's The Touch (radio network) (now part of Cumulus Media). The station switched to sports radio as WLQR in November 1995.
From 1971 to 1995, WLQR was also the call sign of an Easy Listening (then Adult Contemporary music) station on 101.5 MHz FM in Toledo (later WRVF 101.5, "The River").
Later developments
WTOD broadcasts on 1470 kHz with a power output of 1,000 watts. It has a different signal pattern during the day than it does at night, using a directional antenna.[1] The transmitter and four towers are located on Pickle Road, east of Toledo (in Oregon, Ohio). The station first signed on the air in October 1954 as WOHO. WOHO AM 1470 was owned by the Lew Dickey family, who later controlled the Cumulus Broadcasting Company; therefore, AM 1470 was their first station. The studios at the transmitter site are no longer in use, since the WTOD studios have been moved to the Cumulus Toledo-Cluster facility in South Toledo. The Pickle Road studios were also later shared with sister station WXEZ/105.5 FM, ("Z-105" during the 1970s and 1980s, and later WWWM-FM Star 105-5).
The station had been the flagship station for Toledo Mud Hens minor league baseball team from 2003 to 2007, but the team announced in October 2007 that it would move to Clear Channel-owned WCWA.
On June 22, 2009, the modern rock format of "106.5 The Zone" WRWK, suffering from declining ratings, was dropped in favor of a full-time simulcast of the then-WLQR and the new call sign of WLQR-FM. WLQR-FM also broadcasts in HD Radio. "The Zone" programming moved to the HD-2 side channel of sister station WXKR and later also to a low-powered translator station of WXKR-HD2, broadcasting on 100.7 MHz FM. However, WXKR-HD2 and its translator have since switched to a contemporary hit radio format as "The Vibe"; "Zone" programming is available only on WXKR-HD3. Due to aging towers and a failing ground system, the transmitter power of WTOD has been reduced to approximately 330 watts from its licensed 1-kW allocation. Cumulus hopes to restore WTOD with new towers and resume its rated power from a new location.
On August 9, 2012, it was announced that AM 1470 would drop its sports format (which would still be carried on WLQR-FM) to become a talk station, featuring such nationally syndicated personalities as Don Imus, Jonathan Brandmeier, Dave Ramsey, Michael Savage, and Mark Levin.[2]
On March 11, 2016, WLQR changed its call letters to WTOD, picking up the call sign formerly used with the current WWYC. Cumulus had effectively "parked" the call sign on a Hartsville, South Carolina AM station after trading the 1560 kHz license to CSN International in exchange for FM translator W264AK at 100.7 MHz.
