WIOT
WIOT (104.7 FM) – branded 104-7 WIOT – is a commercial mainstream rock radio station licensed to Toledo, Ohio, serving Metro Toledo and Monroe County, Michigan. Owned by iHeartMedia, Inc., WIOT is the Toledo affiliate for The Bob & Tom Show and The House of Hair with Dee Snider. The WIOT studios are located in Downtown Toledo, while the station transmitter resides in the Toledo suburb of Oregon. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WIOT broadcasts over two HD Radio channels, and is available online via iHeartRadio.[1][2][3]
 | |
| City | Toledo, Ohio |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Metro Toledo Monroe County, MI |
| Frequency | 104.7 MHz (HD Radio) |
| Branding | 104-7 WIOT |
| Slogan | Toledo's Rock |
| Programming | |
| Format | Mainstream Rock |
| Subchannels | HD1: WIOT analog HD2: Sports talk (WCWA simulcast) |
| Affiliations | iHeartRadio Premiere Networks Premium Choice United Stations Radio Networks |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | iHeartMedia, Inc. (iHM Licenses, LLC) |
| WCKY-FM, WCWA, WRVF, WSPD, WVKS | |
| History | |
First air date | October 1949 |
Former call signs | WTOL-FM (1949–65) WCWA-FM (1965–72) |
| Technical information | |
| Facility ID | 19628 |
| Class | B |
| ERP | 50,000 watts |
| HAAT | 165 meters |
Transmitter coordinates | 41°40′23″N 83°25′31″W |
| Links | |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | 104.7 WIOT |
History
WIOT began as WTOL-FM in October 1949.[4]
WIOT was Toledo's first FM rock station when it went on the air December 25, 1972, replacing a beautiful music/classical format.
WIOT's call letters came about from doodle using the frequency numbers 1-0-4-7 and in the Spring of 1972 newly appointed operations manager Chuck Schmidt was trying to derive the calls from the frequency number dials 1=I 0=O and 7=T. W-I-O-T. "W" because the station is East of the Mississippi.
The origins of the calls and what they mean are hotly contested but it took longtime WIOT engineer Dennis P Moon confirms this. Dennis was present when Chuck created the calls in 1972 as a derived on the word "Riot" but with a "W" instead, to this day Dennis is still the chief engineer as of 2020 the call letters were in the past WTOL-FM and WCWA-FM.
Buck and O'Connor hosted mornings in the early 1980's the morning show was consisted of 2 WIOT morning DJ's Bucky "Buck" McWilliams and Christopher O'Connor, they left WIOT to Milwaukee at WZUU now WRIT and then Minneapolis at the legendary KDWB.
Other WIOT DJ's during that time in the '80's were Terry Sullivan one half of the Sullivan and O'Connor show, Lee Randall, Joanie Major, Lawrence "Larry Wyatt" Weseman, with Donald "Don" Jardine, and of course WIOT's 1st ever male and female morning duos of all themselves, Patrick Still and Janet Perry A.K.A. Pat and Jane.
In the late 1980's Bob and Brian became the next Toledo favorite morning duo, they also too left for Milwaukee where they remain to this day currently at WHQG.
The next morning duo that created an impact was The WIOT's Dawnbusters A.K.A. Jeffrey Lamb and Mark Benson.
Jeff provided all of the voices and skits while Mark kept the shows pace, somehow the WIOT's Dawnbusters was a major success.
Other WIOT DJs during this time in the '90's were Program Director Lyn Casey, Michael "Party!" Young, Don Davis, Dave Duran, Rebecca "Becky" Shock, Dennis O'Brian, with Beth Daniels, and the one and only Will Worster.
In 1994 The station introduces the 2nd WIOT's Dawnbusters Karlson and McKenzie, these two brought a new life in morning radio for Toledo and Karlson and McKenzie drew large morning numbers.
But after about 2 years at WIOT Karlson and McKenzie left for Boston at WZLX, and the new owners Enterprise Media rehired the 1st WIOT's Dawnbusters themselves Jeff and Mark.
In 1998 the station was bought by Jacor Media where they tweaked the format a bit more hard rock and they inked a deal with syndicated morning show The Bob and Tom Show where it airs to this day.
Around this time new WIOT DJ's were introduced to the listeners, like Susan Gates, Troy Michaels, and Grizzly Brown, while Darrin Arrens became the PD, and then one year later both Darrin and Susan left in 1999.
Longtime WIOT DJ Don Davis left the station in 2001 and he was replaced by Dave Rossi as PD from WAVE-FM in South Carolina.
WIOT began to return to its major stranglehold on the Toledo rock ratings.
Dave Rossi left in 2003 to head back to South Carolina, Troy Michaels took over the afternoon shift and Grizzly Brown moved up to the evening shift.
WIOT's broadcast studio is at the iHeartRadio building at South Superior. The station's transmitter is located at North Wynn and Cedar Point Roads in Oregon, Ohio. In September 2019 WIOT's transmitter site was named the Dennis P Moon Transmitter Site, in honor of engineer Denny Moon's 50 years at the station. Prior to its home on South Superior, the station was located on the third floor of Fort Industry Square. WIOT's beginnings were at 604 Jackson Street, the site of the former News-Bee building and what is now One Government Center. Their longtime owner was Reams Broadcasting, begun by Fraser Reams Sr. and later by his son, Fraser Junior. Reams also owned WCWA and WTOL-TV and WCWA-FM's transmitter was on WTOL-TV's tower.
WIOT is licensed for HD Radio operations. Its HD2 programming consists of a simulcast of WCWA-AM's Fox Sports Radio format.[5]
Broadcast area
The station serves Toledo and northwest Ohio, but its signal also reaches downtown Detroit, the southern and western suburbs (the latter due to the hills) as well as most of Essex County, Ontario, including Windsor, Ontario and Leamington, Ontario. Under exceptionally good conditions (such as fog), the station's signal can reach Chatham, Ontario. The signal reaches as far south as Marion, Ohio and Bucyrus, Ohio and into Michigan as far north as Flint, Michigan, Lapeer, and Port Huron, Michigan before it starts to interfere with Woodstock, Ontario's CIHR-FM, which is also on 104.7 FM.
The station also experiences regular interference from Geneva, Ohio's WKKY, which is also on 104.7, near the Wheatley, Ontario and Comber, Ontario areas (mostly in the southeastern corner of Essex County).
During 2011, WIOT was also experiencing interference from Detroit repeater W284BQ, which was simulcasting WGPR's The Oasis smooth jazz subchannel on 104.7 MHz. In May 2011, WIOT filed a complaint with the FCC,[6] saying that W284BQ interferes with WIOT in the Michigan portion of their broadcast area. WIOT had also solicited comments and reception reports from listeners in the affected area.[7] Martz Communications Group, which owns the repeater and programs The Oasis, would soon after establish a website, http://www.savetheoasis.com/, which explains the station's position on the issue, stressing that WIOT should not get special treatment on the grounds that it is an Ohio radio station that serves no part of Detroit, though the statement is not exactly true. WIOT's protected contour does serve parts of the Detroit area, in part due to its grandfathered status.
On October 18, 2011, the FCC sided with Clear Channel on the issue, and ordered W284BQ to cease operation immediately.[8] Martz would later apply with the FCC to relocate W284BQ to 93.9, potentially interfering with Windsor, Ontario station CIDR-FM, then later to 93.5,[9] before giving up on the concept altogether.[10]
References
- http://www.allaccess.com/mediabase/q/report/stations/by/format/for/R5
- http://houseofhaironline.com/house-of-hair-stations-list-by-city/
- http://www.ibiquity.com/hd_radio/hdradio_find_a_station?state=SA&thisBeColorOver=ff920f&thisBeColorOut=11839d&theCity=89#stationlist
- http://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/Archive-BC-YB-IDX/60s-OCR-YB/1963-YB/1963-BC-YB-OCR-Page-0346.pdf
- http://hdradio.com/station_guides/widget.php?id=84 HD Radio Guide for Toledo
- FCC document of WIOT's complaint, May 19, 2011. Archived March 24, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- WIOT website: "Signal Interference"
- "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 30, 2011. Retrieved October 18, 2011.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
- FCC licensing data for W284BQ
- http://radioinsight.com/blog/headlines/55478/detroits-bone-oasis-go-dark/#.TyiGlZiqC70
External links
- 104.7 WIOT
- WIOT in the FCC's FM station database
- WIOT on Radio-Locator
- WIOT in Nielsen Audio's FM station database