WCKY-FM

For the Cincinnati AM radio station with the same call sign, see WCKY (AM)

WCKY-FM
City	Findlay, Ohio
Broadcast area	Toledo metropolitan area
Branding	103-7 CKY
Frequency	103.7 MHz
First air date	1963 (as WTTF-FM)
Format	Country
ERP	50,000 watts
HAAT	131 meters
Class	B
Callsign meaning	BuCKeYe Country
Owner	iHeartMedia, Inc. (Citicasters Licenses, Inc.)
Website	www.1037wcky.com

WCKY-FM (103.7 FM, "103-7 CKY") is a radio station licensed to Pemberville, Ohio, serving the Toledo market. It operates a country music format. From its inception until 2008, the station was licensed to (and originally broadcast from) Tiffin, Ohio. Originally it simulcast and was a sister station to WTTF, now an AM station at 1600 kHz.

History

Beginnings: as WTTF-FM

WCKY first signed on the air as WTTF-FM in 1963, four years after the premiere of its AM sister. The station was founded by Robert G. Wright and Milton Maltz, who formed Malrite Communications, based in Cleveland, Ohio. The station first broadcast from its AM transmitter site at an effective radiated power of 3,000 watts at the time of its inception.

In the mid-1980s, WTTF-FM was granted a construction permit to operate at an effective radiated power of 50,000 watts making 103.7's signal listenable over much of Northwest Ohio as far west as Defiance, to the east where almost makes to Cleveland, to the south also almost making it to Columbus. WTTF, Inc. built a new tower on County Road 48 to accommodate the larger antenna needed for the upgrade, on the property of its then vice president, Richard J. Wright. After the upgrade, there were few changes in the station's program offerings.

As one of the few high-powered FM radio stations in rural northwest Ohio, the station offered a full-service format of both oldies and adult contemporary music, with high school sports and college sports from Heidelberg College and Tiffin University.

Break from Malrite

In the late 1970s, Wright sold his interest in Malrite to his partner. The transaction resulted in the split of WTTF-AM-FM from Malrite and operated as a separate entity under Wright's management. Wright died of lung cancer in the early 1980s.

His younger son Richard, who served as the station's engineer, ascended to the position of General Manager. Wright's other son Robert (who answered to his middle name Ed until his father's death, then took the nickname "Bob") E. Wright, continued in his capacity as Program Director.

WTTF in its heyday

WTTF prided itself on community service and had a full contingency of live on-air personnel at a time when most stations were automating. Music was delivered almost exclusively on records and the station had an extensive record library encompassing adult contemporary, country and some rock and roll. There was a special Saturday oldies programming, on vinyl records supplied by the station and by the disc jockeys.

Prior to the FCC Telecommunications Act of 1996, which made the EAS (Emergency Alert) system the law of the land, radio stations broadcast emergency information through EBS (Emergency Broadcast System). Rather than pay full price for an expensive unit to receive EBS messages, Richard Wright built his own receiver, called the DW-76 (meaning Dick Wright and the year it was manufactured). The unit field-tested successfully, and received FCC Type Acceptance for legal use, but only for WTTF-AM-FM.

Former WTTF-AM-FM afternoon announcer Ken Hawk in 1994, taken in the main on-air studio at former 185 South Washington Street studio location. The DW-76 is seen just below microphone boom (gray panel with two switches).

Bob Wright handled morning DJ duties with two others handling the midday and evening on-air DJ shifts, as well as a news staff of two. Bob also did a daily talk and opinion show called "Sound Off" from 11-11:30 a.m. Under the Wright ownership, the station only broadcast about 16 hours a day.

The station had a community service and adult contemporary music format during the day. During the evenings after 6pm, the station played country music on a program called the "Double T Roundup," which lasted until the early 1980s. The AM station (1600) signed off at local sundown until 1990, after receiving nighttime broadcasting rights. The FM station (103.7) broadcast until 10pm. During the day, the two stations simulcast.

Among the many announcers that had peopled WTTF over the years were Jack Kagy (who served as news director for 19 years), Rick (Cochran) West (nearly eight years in the mid-day slot), Kevin Craig, Randy Dean, Ken Hawk, Andree Sterling, and Frank Barber. Many of these announcers and many others went on to larger markets for many years as WTTF provided a fertile training ground.

Tragedy Strikes: Bob Wright dies

The Wright family's ownership came to an abrupt and tragic end in the winter of 1996 when Bob Wright was killed in a head-on collision during a snowstorm north of Tiffin on Ohio Route 53, when his Jeep Wrangler went left of center and struck an oncoming pickup truck. The 65-year-old woman driving the pickup also died in the crash.

Wright, who never married nor sired offspring, was 56. Surviving co-owners Richard Wright, along with his mother, Florence, agreed to sell WTTF to Jacor Communications later that year. Jacor eventually was absorbed into Clear Channel Communications, which continued to operate both stations separately as WTTF and WCKY-FM.

Today as WCKY-FM

After the sale of the station, former co-owner Dick Wright remained as an assistant engineer on a contract basis, up until his death January 1, 2008 .

Clear Channel initially was selling their Findlay cluster, along with other small market clusters, over to Florida based GoodRadio.TV LLC in May 2007, but the deal soon collapsed prior to FCC approval. Clear Channel ended up spinning off WTTF, along with the Sandusky cluster and WPFX over to Fremont-based BAS Broadcasting on January 15, 2008. BAS took over WTTF on February 1, and as WCKY-FM is not included in the deal, this ended 45 years of common ownership between the two stations.

As of December 2007, the station has dropped the "Buckeye Country" identifier and is identifying simply as "103-7 CKY." under former Toledo radio personality Johny D (formerly with WVKS and WKRK and WTWR-FM). Johny D now does morning's in Toledo on WPFX "107.7 THE WOLF". The station has also changed its city of license to Pemberville in the hopes of better targeting the Toledo market, where it currently has a minimal ratings presence competing with Toledo's other country staton's WKKO, WPFX and WMIM.

Tuesday February 14, 2012, Blanchard River Broadcasting Company changed "100.5 WKXA" format to country, giving "103.7 WCKY" competition for the Findlay market.

July 2014 "103.7 CKY" started calling itself "New Country 103.7CKY".

External links

WCKY-FM official website

Query the FCC's FM station database for WCKY

Radio-Locator information on WCKY

Query Nielsen Audio's FM station database for WCKY

Radio stations in the Toledo, Ohio market

By FM frequency	88.3 88.3 88.9 89.3 89.7 90.3 91.3 92.5 92.9 93.5 94.5 94.9 95.7 96.1 96.9 97.3 98.3 99.1 99.9 100.7 101.5 102.3 103.3 103.7 104.1 104.7 105.5 106.5 107.3 107.7 107.9

By AM frequency	730 1230 1370 1470 1520 1560

Digital radio	1230 1370 92.5-1 92.5-2 93.5-1 99.9-1 101.5-1 101.5-2 104.7-1 104.7-2 105.5-1 105.5-2 106.5-1

By callsign	W225AM W235BH W258BT W264AK W277BI W281AL WCKY-FM WCWA WGTE-FM WIMX WIOT WJUC WJYM WJZE WKKO WKXA-FM WLQR WLQR-FM WMIM WMLZ-LP WMTR-FM WNKL WNOC WNWT WOTL WPFX-FM WPOS-FM WRQN WRVF WSPD WTPG WVKS WWWM-FM WWYC WXKR WXTS-FM WXUT WYSZ

Ohio radio markets Akron Canton Cincinnati Cleveland Columbus Dayton Lima Marietta Toledo Youngstown–Warren Other Ohio radio regions Ashtabula Ironton Mid-Ohio Sandusky Southern Ohio Wheeling/Steubenville See also List of radio stations in Ohio List of radio stations in Michigan Detroit Radio South Central Michigan Radio Southwestern Ontario Radio

Country music radio stations in the state of Ohio

By frequency	770 910 1090 1130 1320 1320 1340 1500 1540 1540 1560 1590 92.1 92.3 93.1 94.1 94.3 94.3 94.5 94.9 95.3 96.1 97.5 97.7 98.3 99.1 99.5 99.9 99.9 100.3 100.5 100.5 100.9 100.9 101.3 101.5 101.5 102.1 103.1 103.7 103.7 104.5 104.5 104.7 104.9 105.1 105.1 105.5 105.7 107.1 107.5 107.7 107.7

By callsign	WAIS WBCO WBGI-FM WBZI WCHO-FM WCJO WCKY-FM WCLI-FM WCLT-FM WCOL-FM WEDI WFGF WGAR-FM WHKO WIMT WIZE WKFI WKFM WKKJ WKKO WKKY WKLM WKNA WKXA-FM WLOH WLZZ WMJK WMRN-FM WNCO-FM WNNF WNTO WNUS WOBL WPFB WPFX-FM WQKT WQMX WQXK WRAC WSEO WSRW WTGR WTNS WTUZ WUBE-FM WWKC WXBW WXIZ WYBL WYCL WYDB WZOM WZVL

By city	Ashland Ashtabula Bellaire Belpre Buchtel Bucyrus Caldwell Chillicothe Cincinnati (WNNF) Cincinnati (WUBE-FM) Cleveland Clyde/Sandusky Columbus Coshocton Dayton Defiance Eaton Englewood/Dayton Enon/Dayton Findlay Fostoria Gallipolis Geneva Hillsboro Huron/Sandusky Jackson Lancaster Lima Lima Logan Luckey/Toledo Marion Medina/Akron Middletown Millersburg Montpelier Nelsonville Newark Niles Oberlin Pemberville/Toledo Philo Racine Salem Springfield Toledo Uhrichsville Union City Waverly Washington Court House West Union Wilmington Wooster Xenia

See also adult contemporary classic hits college country news/talk NPR oldies religious rock sports top 40 urban other radio stations in Ohio

iHeartMedia

Corporate officers	Bob Pittman (Chairman/CEO)

Board of directors	Lowry Mays Irving Azoff B. J. "Red" McCombs J. C. Watts John H. Williams

Radio stations	List of radio stations owned by iHeartMedia

Radio networks	Fox Sports Radio Premiere Networks Premium Choice Total Traffic and Weather Network

Miscellaneous	Clear Channel Outdoor Clear Channel UK iHeartRadio List of programming syndicated by iHeartMedia Mediabase Radio Computing Services

Coordinates: 41°08′20″N 83°14′46″W / 41.139°N 83.246°W / 41.139; -83.246

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