WPTW

WPTW "The Voice of Miami County" (for Piqua, Troy and West Milton) is a commercial AM radio station in Piqua, Ohio USA operating 24/7 at 1570 kHz with a power output of 250 watts plus a live audiostream on the internet. It is currently owned by Miami Valley Radio LLC, owned solely by Mark Hiner. It currently airs a number of network talk and sports programs with local news anchored by Joe Neves. CBS Radio Network news airs at the top of the hour. It's music format is a mix of 1960s and 70s classic hits with Bruce Chandler in the morning. Local high school sports coverage remains a tradition at the station in addition to Cleveland Indians baseball.

Early History

WPTW began operation as a daytime-only AM station with a middle of the road format on December 7,1947 and was founded by the Miami Valley Broadcasting Company.It opearated with extended hours during the November 1950 blizzard.

Auxiliary studios in the 1950s

For much of its early years WPTW held the distinction as the only commercial radio station in the Upper Miami Valley between Dayton and Lima...as such,the station opened up several locally originating studios in its service area including the Hotel Lollis in Troy,the Ohio Building in Sidney plus a studio on South Broadway in Greenville. That distinction was held until the late 1950s and early 60s with the founding of stations in Bellefontaine,Sidney,Greenville,Urbana and Wapakoneta.

1960s and 70s

As the newer stations emerged,the Troy,Sidney and Greenville studios were eventually closed by the mid 1960s,however its legal ID remained until 1974 as the ever formal: "This is WPTW...FM Stereo...(brief silence on AM frequency to allow for FM ID)...transmitting from Piqua,Ohio."

The Piqua/Troy ID emerged afterwards in 1975.

ources

*Book: "Miami County History 1807-1953" by the Miami County Sesquicentennial Historical Committee.
*Book: "An Encyclopedia of Piqua,Ohio" by James Oda published by M.T. Publishing.
* [http://home.cinci.rr.com/cincyradio/history.html Greater Cincinnati Radio Guide]

eparate business ventures

WPTW also founded and grandfathered WCSM AM & FM in Celina in 1964 (currently owned by Hayco Broadcasting Inc). By this time WPTW was locally owned and opearated by Richard Hunt and C. Oscar Baker (dba: WPTW Radio Inc.)Hunt also owned WSOO-AM and WSUE-FM in Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan and Valley Antenna Systems (aka:Piqua CATV) as separate entities in addition to becoming the sole owner of WPTW following Baker's passing in 1974. Hunt sold WPTW-AM to Frontier Broadcasting and WCLR-FM to Cox Radio(dba:Xenia Broadcasting) in 1997 several years before his passing in 2002. Steve Baker,who is the northern bureau chief for WHIO-TV's "News Center 7" had his start at WPTW's news department in the early 1970s.

WPTW-FM

WPTW-FM at 95.7 began operation in 1960 with a beautiful music format and began operating in stereo later in that decade in addition to airing Muzak-styled "elevator music" on its sub-channel. Its operating power was 35,000 watts upgraded to 50,000 watts in 1976. That station later became soft adult contemporary WCLR,"Clear 95" in 1989 switching to 50s/60s oldies in 1993 as "Kool 95"(with WZLR in Xenia as a repeater.) It was later sold to Cox as the branding "Oldies 95" in 1998. Another format switch to late 70s and 80s classic hits in 2000 as WDPT "95.7 The Point" and currently as WHIO-FM simulcasting news/talk WHIO-AM in Dayton since Novermber of 2006. Its FM transmitter is currently located north of Piqua near the rural community of Houston with WPTW operating a working studio in Piqua which relays the audio from its Dayton studio to the Houston transmitter.

WHIO-FM previously operated in Dayton at 99.1 MHz airing beautiful music before a format switch to contemporary country becoming WHKO in 1989. After WHIO-FM dropped easy listening for country, 95.7 FM hired some former WHIO-FM announcers in an attempt to woo the beautiful music audience that WHIO-FM had abandoned, but it didn't last long and the station soon shifted from beautiful music to AC.

In January 2007,Cox applied for a change of WHIO-FM's city of license from Piqua to Sharonville (near Cincinnati) provided the new FM station operates with reduced power. That change has not yet been approved by the FCC. It is not yet known if Piqua will still have an FM station on the 95.7 frequency operating with reduced power should that change officially take place. It is hoped that 95.7 will be shared in both communities operating with reduced power.

WPTW Today

In 1986,WPTW-AM began opearting 24 hours a day with full power following a decision by the FCC to allow local stations operating on Mexican clear channel frequencies to continue opeartion during nighttime hours with its normal licensed power. It currently airs a talk format but for most of its years,it maintained a traditional middle of the road format until the 1980s when it slowly began moving towards adult contemporary occasionally switching to adult standards in the 1990s,then back to its previous format mixed with 1950s/60s oldies (a satellite-delivered format from ABC Radio called "Unforgettable Favorites," which has since been discontinued). 1570 WPTW for several years broadcast in C-QUAM AM Stereo in the 1990s which was later abandoned by 2000.

1570 WPTW continues to serve Piqua, Troy and the Upper Miami Valley with local news plus local and area high school sports coverage. Glenn Beck, Tammy Bruce, Jerry Doyle, Rusty Humphries, Michael Reagan and G. Gordon Liddy all are national hosts broadcast on the station. Joe Neves, Sonny Fulks, Heath Murray, Mike Piatt and others anchor the local live sporting events for the station. Neves is also station manager and news director. The station is now an affiliate for both the Cleveland Indians and the Cleveland Browns, airing all games.

The station's website http://www.1570wptw.com has taken off and is one of the stations most valuable assets.

ee also

*WHIO-FM(originally WPTW-FM,later WCLR and WDPT respectively)
*List of radio stations in Ohio

External links

* [http://www.1570wptw.com Official WPTW site (with streaming audio)]
* [http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/amq?call=WPTW Query the FCC's AM station database for WPTW.]
* [http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/finder?call=wptw&sr=Y&s=C WPTWs technical information from Radio-Locator website]