Cumulus Media is shutting off “TalkRadio 1470” WTOD Toledo OH tonight and potentially turning in the station’s license.
The WTOD programming will remain in place however as the all-syndicated Talk lineup will replace Alternative “100.7 The Zone” on 100.7 W264AK Toledo/105.5 WQQO-HD2 starting Wednesday, September 28 at 12pm. The station’s lineup includes Imus In The Morning, Chris Plante, Jonathan Brandmeier, Dave Ramsey, Mark Levin, and Michael Savage.
WTOD has been operating via Special Temporary Authority since August 2003, however its most recent extension is set to expire on Sunday, September 25. Its ground system has required repair or replacement and the station has had multiple CP’s to build a new four tower array on the west side of Toledo. Market Manager Andy Stuart told the Toledo Blade, “The cost to fix it and what the expected return is not a good investment. We decided the best thing is to turn [the license] back and maybe someone else will want to operate it.”
The WTOD call letters will be shifted to sister Sports “106.5 The Ticket” WLQR-FM Delta/Toledo. 1470 was one of the building blocks of Cumulus as a company. The station, first known as WOHO, was acquired by Lew Dickey Sr.’s Midwestern Broadcasting Company in 1965. When his son Lew Dickey Jr. started Cumulus in 1997, 1470 (then sporting the WLQR call letters) and sister 105.5 WWWM were purchased from his father’s company. Despite no longer running Cumulus, Lew and brother John Dickey own the land where WTOD’s faulty towers are located.
Dan 
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Kyle G. 
Charles Everett 
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I look for more AM standalone type stations, especially in the bigger cities, to shut down over the next few years. It’s getting harder to sell such a station. Unless they have a FM relay, in place, I just don’t see these broadcasts making it too much longer. Kudos to Cumulus for doing the right thing, with this standalone. It’ll save them money in the long run.
Dan
It was part of a six-station cluster, translator included. But they no longer have to pay rent to their former CEO and CFO to use a faulty and failing transmission site.
It’s the second AM station this year that Cumulus has shut down… which had borne the WTOD calls. (The other station, WTOD 1450 in Hartville SC, swapped calls with what-had-been WLQR 1470 in March before shutting down the next day. The FCC database lists it as “DWLQR.”)
Hopefully The Zone moves to 98.3 to replace to the terribly rated Nash Icon. For Cumulus to try everything in their power for the past 13 years to get The Zone to work in Toledo (which it seems to have paid off in recent years), it would be a shame to see a great station go to waste.
Yeah, because that “great station” doesn’t have a measurable audience and Nash Icon does.
The shutdown of AM 1470 also means Bowling Green State University sports moves to 100.7 analog/105.5-HD2 as the Toledo Blade reported.
The Zone struggled in the ratings at both 106.5 and 100.7 (it was excusable to run it on 100.7 because it was a translator) and would not fare well at all on the Monroe-positioned 98.3. Plus Cumulus outsourced the music to a Westwood One-based format in recent months.
The Detroit Tigers are also completely devoid of a Toledo affiliate as a result of 1470’s shutdown, as both the signals of 106.5 and 105.5-HD2 overlap considerably with the signal of WMTR/96.1 Archbold OH.
Does either WMTR or Tigers flagship WXYT (97.1) have a listenable signal in Toledo?
WMTR can be heard pretty well on the west side of Toledo and beyond. 97.1, not really. You have to be over the Michigan line for it to have a great signal. Drops in and out a lot in Toledo itself.
Faulty towers – I see what you did there, Lance…