City Toledo, Ohio Format Religious | Frequency 1560 kHz | |
Broadcast area Toledo metropolitan area First air date June 16, 1946 (as WTOD) Power 1,500 Watts (Daytime)
920 Watts Critical hours
3 Watts (Nighttime) | ||
WWYC is a radio station in Toledo, Ohio. It is now a repeater of KAWZ in Twin Falls, Idaho, the originator of a network of repeaters and mostly translators owned by CSN International (for: Calvary Satellite Network).
Contents
History
WWYC signed on in 1946 as WTOD under the ownership of local labor rights attorney Edward Lamb. The station was notable at its launch for having been among the fastest radio stations to sign-on after being awarded a construction permit. WTOD's initial staff was composed largely of veterans returning from World War II.
Lamb sold WTOD in 1957 to Detroit-based Booth Broadcasting. Originally a station typical of the golden age of radio, it changed formats to Top 40 in 1959. This continued into 1969, when WTOD became Toledo's first country music station. Donn Williams, Mike Phillips, Bill Manders, Les Bortel, Earl Sharninghouse, Bill Halprin, were the first to play country music on WTOD. Joe Hill now of Tucson AZ was midday announcer in the summer of 1982 with decent ratings. However, in 1992, WTOD became a simulcast station of fellow country station WKKO. The call letters WTOD stood for "We're Top Of the Dial," which was WTOD's official slogan for many years (and a fact; as the frequency 1560 was, indeed, near the top of the AM dial until expanded to 1700 in the 1990s.) The station was more commonly known by fellow broadcasters as "We're Toledo's Only Daytimer-WTOD.
WWYC broadcasts on 1560 kHz from a tower adjacent to the Toledo-Cumulus-Cluster studios in South Toledo. While WWYC is licensed for 1,500 watts, the station has been run at reduced power (only 500 watts) for several years as the towers' ground radials suffered damage during building additions.
Notable former staff of WTOD
ON-air staff of WTOD included Jean Shepherd (1946), Ed Leslie/Leslie Edwards (Don Sizemore pseudonym 1948–1950), Bob Kelly (WRQN), "Country Dan" (Sunday nights on XM Satellite Radio) and long-time program director Bill Manders (over 30 years between WTOD and K-100), Bob Martz (who flipped the station to country and started 99.9FM), John Garry, Larry O'Brien, Lee Fowler, Bill Webb, Donn Williams, Bob Brossia, Bob "Mr Music" Parkinson, Mike Drew Shaw, Terry Shaw, Bill Hughes, Dave (Les Bortel) Obrien, Rick (Earl Sharninghouse) Allen, Tom (Bob Pepas) Rice, Tim Taylor, Mark (Mike Stutzman) Adams, Ed Hunter, Greg Lindemoulder (Son of John Garry),Tommy Dean, Bill Halprin, Mike Phillips, Joe Singer, Jim Wood as DJ & General Manager, and Mark Howell (Now at ABC, Hollywood). In the mid-1960s news reporting was handled by Bob Zraik, Mary Morrison, Ann Zalesky, and Chase Clements. WTOD had featured a very-popular Sunday polka music program hosted by Chet Zablocki (and later by his widow Sharon Zablocki) for over 40 years. Remember the WTOD traveling Goldmine (van), and music survey "The Popometer"?
The station had called itself "SuperTalk 1560".
WTOD started its talk radio format in 2004, competing with Clear Channel's WSPD. In 2006, WTOD became the Toledo affiliate for Michigan Wolverines football. Sister station WXKR covers any Michigan Wolverines games that start and/or finish after sunset. Its sister station, WLQR 1470 The Ticket, carries some Michigan Wolverines' men's basketball games (as many start after sunset).
Because it shares the same frequency as "clear channel" station WFME in New York City; WTOD operates during daytime hours, and as a consequence, the station's ratings remained near the bottom in the Toledo market.
Switchover and sale to CSN International
In March 2010, it was announced that WTOD would be taken over by CSN (Calvary Satellite Network) Radio, April 23, 2010 the talk format was dropped at 1pm, the station went off the air. It will be airing on a Christian Radio format once the station resolves its technical issues.
The new callsign WWYC took effect on April 23, 2010.
Prior to CSN International purchasing the AM station, it beforehand operated two FM translators, W264AK at 100.7 MHz licensed to Toledo and W205BP at 88.9 MHz licensed to Pemberville. W205BP has since gone dark, but was replaced by a 250-watt repeater on 99.5 FM.
The WTOD callsign was subsequently "parked" on another Cumulus station based out of Hartsville, South Carolina. On March 11, 2016, the WTOD callsign was moved back to the Toledo market on the former WLQR (AM), as both stations traded call letters.
The WWYC callsign was previously used at an FM station in Winchester, Kentucky.