WLQR (AM)

WLQR (AM) is a sports/talk radio station on 1470 kHz in Toledo, Ohio. It is the Toledo affiliate of ESPN Radio and is owned by Cumulus Media. Since June 2009 the station has been simulcast on 106.5 MHz as WLQR-FM, calling itself "106-5 The Ticket".

WLQR-AM is the Toledo affiliate for the Detroit Lions, Detroit Pistons, Detroit Red Wings, Detroit Tigers and the Ohio State Buckeyes (football and basketball). The station also broadcasts high-school football games. It was the flagship station for Toledo Mud Hens baseball from 2003 to 2007, but the team announced in October 2007 that it would move to Clear Channel-owned WCWA.

History

For many years 1470 kHz AM in Toledo was home to WOHO, a leading Top 40 music station in Toledo from the 1960s until the early 1980s. During the Top-40 years, the disc jockeys were known as the "WOHO Good Guys". Music-era DJs included:

News staffers were:

• John Grimes
• Steve Lewis
• Cheryl Deutsch
• Scott Feldman
• Lou Hebert
• Irwin Young
• Hank Neyer
• Ken Roberts

For several years, WLQR was known as "1470 The Chicken" in reference to its mascot: a giant whole broiled chicken, dressed in seasonal clothing. There was also the inimitable "MOJO MAN" aka Sid D. Grubbs.One of the "Good Guys", Larry Love (Larry Weseman), was 16 years old and still in high school when he began working at WOHO during the late 1960s (making him Toledo's youngest DJ). 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.

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 callsign to WWWM-AM in 1990; it was briefly a country station, before switching to urban adult contemporary music as an affiliate of Satellite Music Network's The Touch format (now part of Cumulus Media). The station switched to sports 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

WLQR broadcasts on 1470 kHz with a power output of 1000 watts; it has a different signal pattern during the day than it does at night.^[1] The transmitter and four towers are located on Pickle Road, east of Toledo (in Oregon, Ohio). The station originally went on the air in 1954 as WOHO. WOHO AM 1470 was owned by the Lew Dickey family, who now control the Cumulus Broadcasting Company; therefore, AM 1470 was their flagship/first station. The studios at the transmitter site are no longer in use, since the WLQR 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).

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 WLQR-AM and the new callsign 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 WLQR-AM has been reduced to approximately 330 watts from its licensed 1-kW allocation. Cumulus hopes to restore WLQR with new towers and resume its rated power from a new location.

References

External links

• Query the FCC's AM station database for WLQR
• Radio-Locator Information on WLQR
• Query Arbitron's AM station database for WLQR