WDLR (1270 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to

Marysville, Ohio Marysville is a city in Union County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. The population was 25,571 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located approximately northwest of Columbus, Ohio, Columbus, it is part of the Columbus met ...

. The station primarily serves the Union County region, with limited coverage in the Columbus market. The station is under ownership of Brent Casagrande through licensee Delmar Communications, Inc, and features a locally programmed classic hits format.

Early history

WDLR signed on in 1984 as WUCO with a

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

format, switching to

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as well as for a radio format playing this music. Since 2 ...

in 1991 and

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

in the late 1990s. It was previously owned by Frontier Broadcasting, based in the Columbus suburb of Westerville, and was founded by Bart Johnson, the son of the late farm broadcaster Ed Johnson. WPTW in Piqua was also owned by Frontier Broadcasting (now owned by Muzzy Broadcasting). It switched again to a classic country format in 2003 before the station was sold to St. Gabriel Radio in 2005. Afterward, Bart Johnson and former ABN Radio farm director Dale Minyo formed Ohio Ag-Net under the umbrella of Agri Communicators Inc., the former parent company of ABN.

St. Gabriel Radio

In August 2005, WUCO was purchased by St. Gabriel Radio Inc. -- formed in 1998 and named for the

Archangel Gabriel In the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), Gabriel ( ) is an archangel with the power to announce God's will to mankind, as the messenger of God. He is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Quran. Many Chris ...

, the patron saint of communication workers worldwide—and adopted a Catholic-centered format aimed towards the Columbus market, with studios in Columbus. The majority of WUCO's programming schedule included content from

EWTN Radio The Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) is an American basic cable television network which presents around-the-clock Catholic programming. It is the largest Catholic television network in America, and is purported to be "the world's larges ...

. Beginning in February 2007, WUCO was also near-

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

on FM via Lexington-licensed WFOT 89.5 MHz, which services the

Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of the Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area and the second largest settlement in Nottinghamshire (following the city ...

area and is now a repeater of WNOC-based ''Annunciation Radio''. When WUCO moved its studios to Columbus in July 2007 as part of St. Gabriel Radio, Gene Kirby, a community-minded local citizen, stepped up to help fill the void for local

community radio Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial broadcasting, commercial and public broadcasting. Community broadcasting, Community stations serve geographic communities and communities o ...

when he started up WMHO, a micropower AM broadcaster at 1620 kHz. This

Part 15 Code of Federal Regulations, 'Title 47, Part 15(47 CFR 15) is an oft-quoted part of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules and regulations regarding unlicensed transmissions. It is a part of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulatio ...

-compliant broadcast first aired classic country and later an oldies format. WMHO was on the air until the summer of 2011 until its tower was irreparably damaged by a lightning strike. WUCO's connection to St. Gabriel Radio would last until December 2008, when the organization began leasing time on Columbus-licensed WVKO, at the time owned by Bernard Ohio, LLC. This enabled St. Gabriel Radio to expand its reach into the Columbus market and its volunteer base (culminating in the purchase of

WOSU (AM) WVSG (820 kHz, " St. Gabriel Radio") is a non-commercial AM radio station in Columbus, Ohio. It airs local Catholic talk programming in addition to the EWTN Global Catholic Radio Network. WVSG's schedule is simulcast on WSGR, 88.3 FM in ...

from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

in December 2011, rechristened as WVSG), while also necessitating a divestiture of WUCO.

True Oldies Channel

WUCO was leased over in late 2009 to ICS Holdings Inc., also then the owner of WDLR in

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

, adopting '' The True Oldies Channel'' a satellite-feed service of

Citadel Media Cumulus Media Networks was an American radio network owned and operated by Cumulus Media. From 2011 until its merger with Westwood One, it controlled many of the radio assets formerly belonging to the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), whi ...

, and branded itself as "True Oldies 1270 WQTT," despite the WUCO calls still in use and aired at the top of the hour. ICS Holdings eventually purchased the station in February 2010, changing its name to ICS Communications. In the summer of 2010, WUCO briefly aired Spanish language programming (not dissimilar to WDLR's Spanish-language format at the time) although the WUCO website - then using the WDLR domain and URL - did not initially reflect this change. WUCO changed back to The True Oldies Channel in December 2010, again with the "1270 WQTT" brand. WUCO's callsign finally changed to WQTT in September 29, 2011. ICS Holdings sold WQTT, along with WDLR and

WVXG WVXG (95.1 FM broadcasting, FM, "Classic Rock 95X") is a radio station city of license, licensed to serve Mount Gilead, Ohio, United States. The station is owned by Brent Casagrande, through licensee Delmar Communications, Inc., and serves the M ...

, to Delmar Communications, Inc. effective December 30, 2014. The price for the transaction was undisclosed WQTT broadcasts Marysville High School football, along with serving as the Marysville affiliate for both the

Cincinnati Reds Radio Network The Cincinnati Reds Radio Network is an American radio network composed of 69 radio stations which carry English-language coverage of the Cincinnati Reds, a professional baseball team in Major League Baseball (MLB). Cincinnati station WLW (700&n ...

and the

Ohio State Sports Network The Ohio State Sports Network from Learfield is an American radio network consisting of 62 radio stations which carry coverage of Ohio State Buckeyes football and men's basketball. Co-owned WBNS () and WBNS-FM (), both licensed to Columbus, O ...

. It also carries coverage of the annual Little Brown Jug horse racing event in Delaware each September, simulcasting sister station WDLR.

Classic rock format

On January 1, 2019, WQTT shifted from an oldies format to a classic rock format. The station relocated back to Marysville, and began airing the Bob & Tom Show.

My 96.7

On December 8, 2020, WQTT changed its call sign to WDLR (the WDLR calls and classic hits format moved from 1550 AM Delaware, Ohio).WDLR To Relocate As Part Of CD 92.9 Launch
Radioinsight - December 2020 On January 1, 2021, WDLR changed its format from classic rock to classic hits, branded as "My 96.7".

FM translator

WQTT launched an

FM translator A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater ( two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tr ...

on October 29, 2016. It broadcasts from East of town on US Route 36.

Previous logo

References

External links

{{Classic Hits Radio Stations in Ohio DLR Classic hits radio stations in the United States