WDJO is an AM

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission 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 radi ...

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state lin ...

that airs an

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as wel ...

format. The station is the Cincinnati affiliate for 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 ...

. WDJO 99.5, 107.9 FM & 1480 AM (as it is branded) is owned by Robert T. Nolan, through licensee Mustang Media, Inc. The station operates at 4,500 watts during the day and 300 watts at night. The station was long known as WCIN, called "The Pulse of the City", and provided programming for the

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

community of the tri-state area until May 17, 2007, except for a brief time in the 1990s, when it broadcast classical music. In 2019 the station became the main radio broadcaster of

FC Cincinnati Football Club Cincinnati, commonly known as FC Cincinnati, is an American professional soccer club based in Cincinnati. The club plays in the Eastern Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The team succeeded the lower-division team of the ...

matches.

History

The station was established in 1953 as WCIN. During the 1960s, WCIN became a highly regarded

soul music Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the African American community throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It has its roots in African-American gospel music and rhythm and blues. Soul music became pop ...

station featuring a variety of

personalities. In 1995, then-owner J4 Broadcasting Network bought radio stations in

Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 cen ...

;

New Bern, North Carolina New Bern, formerly called Newbern, is a city in Craven County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 29,524, which had risen to an estimated 29,994 as of 2019. It is the county seat of Craven County and ...

; and

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina Myrtle Beach is a resort city on the east coast of the United States in Horry County, South Carolina, Horry County, South Carolina. It is located in the center of a long and continuous stretch of beach known as Grand Strand, "The Grand Strand" i ...

; and began distributing its "Classic Oldies" format of 50s-70s R&B,

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

and blues to those stations. J4 owner and president John C. Thomas hoped to expand to more stations. Allen Guess served as morning host, Marsha Robinson did afternoons, and Jim Morris handled evenings.Greg Paeth, "WCIN 'Classic Oldies' format expanding into syndication," ''

The Cincinnati Post ''The Cincinnati Post'' was an afternoon daily newspaper published in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. In Northern Kentucky, it was bundled inside a local edition called ''The Kentucky Post''. The ''Post'' was a founding publication and oneti ...

'', June 6, 1995. In January 2006, the station was placed up for auction to settle a $954,679 judgment against J4 Broadcasting and owner John Thomas. On May 15, Bob Cox of St. Louis, Missouri was appointed successor receiver by the federal district court. Two days later, after a stunt in which the station broadcast nothing but a simulated heartbeat and on the hourly station ID, listeners would hear: "You asked for it, and prayed for it... Coming soon", the station switched to a

smooth jazz Smooth jazz is a genre of commercially-oriented crossover jazz and easy listening music that became dominant in the mid 1970s to the early 1990s. History Smooth jazz is a commercially oriented, crossover jazz which came to prominence in the 1 ...

format. WCIN's programming was delivered via satellite from

Jones Radio Networks Jones Radio Networks & Jones Media Group were branches of Jones International before being sold to Triton Media Group. JRN and JMN provide local radio stations with satellite-delivered formats. They also offer other services to local radio such a ...

until September 30, 2008, when it switched over to Broadcast Architecture's newer Smooth Jazz Network. It was one of the few AM stations in the United States featuring smooth jazz, and is the first station with the format in Cincinnati since WVAE 94.9 FM dropped it in 1999 to become WMOJ. In May 2009, the station dropped smooth jazz and switched to a simulcast of then-sister station WDJO's oldies format, in preparation of picking up that station's format and call letters. The new WDJO was soon purchased by Alchemy Broadcasting. The company retained the smooth jazz programming as an online streaming statio

In 2011, WDJO became the Cincinnati affiliate the

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tree, ...

Radio Network, airing OSU football and men's basketball games and coaches' shows. Alchemy Broadcasting sold WDJO to Robert T. Nolan's Mustang Media, Inc. in a transaction that closed on April 6, 2015.

References

External links

Oldies 1480Cincinnati Enquirer: WCIN to be sold
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FCC History Cards for WDJO
{{Oldies Radio Stations in Ohio Radio stations established in 1953 DJO Oldies radio stations in the United States