WWWM-FM

WWWM-FM 105.5 FM is an American radio station licensed to Sylvania, Ohio and broadcasting as part of the Toledo market.

"Star 105.5", as the station is known, carries a hot adult contemporary format.

History

The 105.5 MHz spot on the radio dial in the Toledo area began in the late 1960s as WGLN, located in a cornfield in western Lucas County, the remote studio-transmitter location was the home of the "Jones Boys", a concept introduced for the first time in Toledo by station manager and native Toledoan Michael Drew Shaw. Like WTRX AM in Flint, Michigan where Shaw had been program director several years before being named manager at WGLN, every DJ used the last name Jones. Among the more notable, Davy Jones, Casey Jones, Tom Jones, and John Paul Jones. More notable D.Js' sporting the name JONES were Joe Hood, Rick Wright, Earl Sharninghouse, and Klaus Helfers, The station featured country music and broadcast live performances.

Later the format shifted to oldies ("Golden 105") and then album-oriented rock in 1971. It was Toledo's first so-called underground FM station playing the songs and deep album cuts that no one else in the market was playing at the time. Many of the these DJs later became the backbone of the staff at WIOT. The station, however, was later sold in 1972 to Midwest Broadcasting and by spring of that year, 105.5 FM became a beautiful music station with the callsign of WXEZ. In response to the format change, a citizens' group known as the Citizens' Committee to Keep Progressive Rock filed an objection with the FCC on the basis that Toledo already had several other middle-of-the-road/easy listening-type format stations and did not need another; the FCC rejected the appeal, and the committee continued to appeal the rejection until the Reams family changed WCWA-FM 104.7 to WIOT in December of 1972, after which the objection was withdrawn.

At this time 105.5 FM was still located in its tiny studio in the rural cornfield setting at its transmitter site in Berkey, Ohio. It later was moved into the newly remodeled garage at the Pickle Road studios of WOHO. By the late 70s it had transformed into an automated "Z-Rock" (current hot hits, no relation to Satellite Music Network's later satellite-delivered format of heavy metal music also called "Z-Rock") station known as "Z-105".

In 1979/1980 the station had a simulcast of big-sister station WOHO 1470 AM for morning drive time as well as for weekend broadcasts of "American Top 40". In 1980 the station went on its own with live local on-air talent. As the format changed from rock to oldies to adult contemporary, it was known as "Z-105", "3WM", and "Magic 105", respectively. After dumping the WXEZ calls (to a Chicago station) they obtained WWWM-FM (From a Cleveland station who went by "M105"), hence the "3WM". The station rebranded as "Star 105" in 1998, keeping its calls and Hot AC format.

Their AM sister station on 1470, WOHO, then also changed their calls to WWWM (AM) from 1990-1995. The format was urban contemporary music at the time.

The Toledo duopoly of 1470AM/105.5FM has always been owned by the Lew Dickey family, first as Midwestern Broadcasting, then as Cumulus Broadcasting/Media.

In April 2008, WWWM-FM began continuous HD Radio digital radio broadcasts, but without any HD2 service at this time.

Trivia

In April 2007, Star 105.5 became Toledo's home for Delilah's syndicated love-songs program, which competes with the John Tesh show on Clear Channel's WRVF. WWWM had previously aired Delilah for a time during the late 1990s. At the same time, the station became known as "Star 105.5" rather than simply "Star 105" and modified its playlist in a more mainstream AC direction, adding more music from the 1970s. However, since Star 105.5 dropped Delilah, and replaced her with the Billy Bush show, the station has returned to hot AC (actually now closer to Adult Top 40), and no longer plays pre-1980's music. Star 105.5 does not play some of the harder rock music featured on many other Hot AC stations.

Star 105.5 features music of the 1980s from 6 p.m. to midnight on Saturday nights. The station airs an '80s program on late Friday afternoons (5 p.m. to 7 p.m), and was formerly an all-evening program, prior to Delilah and the Billy Bush show.

Prior to their current use, the WWWM call sign was previously used on the 105.7 MHz facility in Cleveland, Ohio from 1972 to 1982; using the moniker "M105", the station was a sister station to the 50,000 watt 1100 AM station "3WE" - WWWE (now WTAM). The FM station operates today as WMJI.

Broadcast area

Though the station broadcasts out of Toledo and covers Northwest Ohio, the station's signal also currently reaches Windsor, Essex County, and Detroit; however, the station may become inaudible in this area when a rebroadcaster of CBEF, also on 105.5, signs on.

External links

• Query the FCC's FM station database for WWWM
• Radio-Locator information on WWWM
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WWWM