WCKY-FM (103.7

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base u ...

, "Buckeye Country 103.7") is a

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

licensed to Pemberville, Ohio. Owned by

iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...

, the station - branded as Buckeye Country 103.7 CKY - features a classic country format, and is the Toledo affiliate for ''

The Bobby Bones Show ''The Bobby Bones Show'' is an American, nationally syndicated country music radio show aired during the morning hours. The Bobby Bones Show, which originally aired from Austin, Texas, now broadcasts from studios at WSIX-FM in Nashville. Premie ...

''. From its inception until 2008, the station was licensed to (and originally broadcast from)

Tiffin, Ohio Tiffin is a city in Seneca County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Developed along the Sandusky River, Tiffin is located about southeast of Toledo, Ohio, Toledo. The population was 17,953 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

where the

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter (often abbreviated as XMTR or TX in technical documents) is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna with the purpose of sig ...

is located. Originally it simulcast and was a

sister station In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio or television stations operated by the same company, either by direct ownership or through a management agreement. Radio sister stations will often have different formats, and somet ...

to WTTF, now an AM station at 1600

kHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), often described as being equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose formal expression in terms of SI base uni ...

. WCKY-FM's studios and offices are located at Superior and Lafayette in downtown Toledo.

History

Beginnings: as WTTF-FM

WCKY-FM 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

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s at the time of its inception. In the mid-1980s, WTTF-FM was granted a construction permit to operate at an

effective radiated power Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would ha ...

of 50,000 watts making 103.7's signal listenable over much of

Northwest Ohio Northwest Ohio, or Northwestern Ohio, consists of multiple counties in the northwestern corner of the US state of Ohio. This area borders Lake Erie, Southeast Michigan, and northeastern Indiana. Some areas are also considered the Black Swamp a ...

. 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 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 ...

and

adult contemporary music 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, sou ...

, with high school and college sports from Heidelberg College and

Tiffin University Tiffin University is a private university in Tiffin, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1888. History Tiffin University began as a Commercial College, affiliated for 30 years with Heidelberg College, as a financially independent and sepa ...

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 Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancer is caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often caused by cigarette smoking or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged ...

in the early 1980s. His younger son Richard, who served as the station's

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

, ascended to the position of General Manager. Wright's other son, Robert "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 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 ...

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

and some

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

. There was a Saturday

programming on vinyl records supplied by the station and

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at nightclubs or music fes ...

s. Prior to the

FCC The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains ju ...

Telecommunications Act of 1996, which made the EAS (

Emergency Alert System The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a Emergency population warning, national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via Cable television, cable ...

) the law of the land, radio stations broadcast emergency information through EBS (

Emergency Broadcast System The Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), sometimes called the Emergency Action Notification System (EANS), was an Emergency population warning, emergency warning system used in the United States. It was the most commonly used, along with the Local ...

). 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. Bob Wright handled morning DJ duties with two others handling the midday and evening on-air DJ shifts, as well as a

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the te ...

staff of two. Bob also did a daily talk and opinion show called "Sound Off" from 11 to 11:30 a.m. Under the Wright ownership, the station only broadcast about 16 hours a day. The station had a community service and

format during the day. During the evenings after 6pm, the station played

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 ...

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 10 p.m. 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.

Sale, present day

In 1996, at the age of 56, Bob Wright was killed by a head-on collision with a pickup truck during a snowstorm. As a result, the station was sold to

Jacor Communications Jacor Communications was a media corporation, existing between 1987 and 1999, which owned many radio stations in the United States. In 1998, Jacor was purchased by Clear Channel Communications, now iHeartMedia, for $2.8 billion. Jacor Communicat ...

, which was in turn acquired by Clear Channel Communications (now

) in 1999. 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, 200

Clear Channel initially was selling their Findlay, Ohio, Findlay cluster, along with other small market clusters, over to

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

-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 was not included in the deal, this ended 45 years of common ownership between the two stations. In December 2007, the ''Buckeye Country'' moniker was dropped in favor of branding with its call letters. Its city of license was also shifted to Pemberville, Ohio, to closer target Toledo. On July 2, 2019, WCKY shifted to a traditional

format focused primarily on country hits from the 1980s and 1990s, and revived the previous ''Buckeye Country'' branding.

References

External links

* * {{coord, 41.139, N, 83.246, W, type:landmark_region:US_source:FCC, display=title

CKY-FM CKY-FM (102.3 MHz) is a commercial radio station in Winnipeg, Manitoba, branded as '' KiSS 102.3''. The station airs a hot adult contemporary format, switching to Christmas music for most of December. It is owned by Rogers Radio, a division ...

Classic country radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1963 1963 establishments in Ohio IHeartMedia radio stations Tiffin, Ohio