WOOD radio
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WOOD is a pair of radio stations in Grand Rapids, Michigan owned by Clear Channel on the frequencies of 1300 AM and 105.7 FM. The two stations have distinct formats.
The radio stations were co-owned with WOOD-TV, the NBC television affiliate for West Michigan, until 1972.
1300 AM
WOOD-AM is a news/talk radio station in broadcasting at 1300 kHz.It is the oldest radio station in West Michigan and one of the oldest in the world, having signed on September 16, 1924 as WEBK. It broadcast on Sundays and Wednesdays during its early years in order to avoid competition with stations in Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland--all of which could easily be heard in West Michigan. The station's original owners were backed by the Furniture Manufacturers Association of Grand Rapids. At their suggestion, the station became WOOD on January 26, 1926. It went through numerous owners over the years before being bought by John King (known as John Kunsky until 1936) and George Trendle, owners of WXYZ-AM 1270 in Detroit, in 1930. They bought Grand Rapids' second radio station, WASH, a year later; the two stations had shared the same frequency, 1270, for four years. The station operated as WOOD-WASH (with WASH on the air during the day and WOOD at night) until 1942.
In 1946, the fledgling American Broadcasting Company bought the King-Trendle stations, but the FCC forced ABC to sell WOOD since it had been an NBC affiliate since 1935. After a two-year dispute between competing buyers, the station was finally sold to Harry Bitner, former general manager of the Hearst newspaper chain, in 1948. Time, Inc. bought WOOD in 1957 and owned it until 1972, when a local group bought the station. After a series of ownership changes over the next quarter-century, Clear Channel bought WOOD in 1996
Today, WOOD's lineup includes the area's only all-news morning program, "Grand Rapids Morning News" with Gary Allen, John Matlak & John Bry, the locally hosted "Rick & Scott Show" with Rick Beckett & Scott Winters, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Alan Colmes, Michael Savage, Paul Harvey and Laura Ingraham. Local programming runs weekdays from 5:00am to 11:45am, and national programming runs weekdays from 11:45am to 5:00am.
WOOD Radio's award winning local newsroom provides local, regional and national news every day of the week, plus top of the hour newscasts from Fox News Radio from 8pm-4am weekdays It also utilizes reports and breaking news coverage through an ancilliary affiliation with [CBS Radio News ]. The WOOD newsroom is staffed by five full time and one part-time reporters including John Bry, Gordon Gould, News Director Rich Jones, Rob. St. Mary, John C. Smith and Curt McKay.
Weekend programs and hosts are: Mike McConnell, Neal Boortz, [Cigar Dave], [Startup Nation], Rusty Humphries, Bob Brinker, Coast to Coast AM, Kim Komando, Dave Ramsey, Monica Crowley, Bruce Dumont, Matt Drudge and local how-to programming covering cars, home improvement, gardening, mutual funds, health, law, and pets, and cooking. The station also airs Paul Harvey news & commentary weekdays at 8:30am, 11:45am, and The "Rest Of The Story Feature" at 6:59pm weekdays. at 12:05pm Saturday and the weekly presidential radio address, Saturdays at 12:20pm.
NEWSRADIO WOOD 1300 AM is the Grand Rapids home of University of Michigan football and basketball, and it serves as flagship station for Grand Rapids Griffins ice hockey.
Since 1951, the station's mascot has been Willie Wood, a cartoon woodpecker.
The station streams it's programming live 24/7 at http://www.woodradio.com
105.7 FM
In 1962, WOOD-FM signed on for the first time. It is an adult contemporary radio station on the frequency of 105.7 FM. WOOD-FM aired a Beautiful Music format for decades, which by the mid-1990s had evolved into the current AC format.WOOD-FM is promoted as Star 105.7 FM. Prior to adopting the "Star" name on November 12, 2001, the station had been known as "EZ 105.7." Presumably the name change was made to help dispel the station's image of being an "elevator music" station. The station's playlist was tweaked to become more of a brighter, more upbeat AC, which also meant dropping songs by "MOR" or "easy listening" artists such as Barbra Streisand, Barry Manilow and the Carpenters. "EZ 105.7"'s change into "Star" also corresponded with a switch to continuous Christmas music for the 2001 holiday season; at the time, it was not common for AC stations to adopt all-Christmas formats so early in the year, but Star 105.7 successfully promoted its holiday music marathon as musical "comfort food" after the catastrophic events of September 11, and the station has gone all-Christmas every holiday season since.
WOOD-FM also picked up Delilah's syndicated love-songs show (replacing its locally based "EZ Love Songs") after Delilah was dropped by Regent-owned competitor WLHT-FM (95.7 W-Lite). WLHT now airs John Tesh's syndicated night show to go head-to-head with Delilah on Star 105.7.
Relationship with WOOD-TV
Soon after Bitner bought WOOD-AM, he applied for a television license and bought a transmission site in northeast Grand Rapids. However, the application came just after the FCC imposed a freeze on new television construction permits. What was supposed to be a wait of a few months hadn't ended by 1951. Tired of waiting, Bitner cut a deal with Leonard Adrian Verslius, who owned WLAV-TV on channel 7, Michigan's first television station outside of Detroit. Verslius sold WLAV-TV to Bitner for almost $1.4 million, and on October 19, 1949, it became WOOD-TV. It moved to channel 8 in 1953 due to interference with WBKB-TV in Chicago (now WLS-TV. In 1955, WOOD-AM-TV moved to a modern studio in downtown Grand Rapids.Time sold WOOD-AM-FM in 1972 and kept WOOD-TV, which changed its calls to WOTV. In late 1991, WOTV asked its former radio partner for permission to change its calls back to the old WOOD-TV. The request was granted, and on New Year's Day 1992, WOTV became WOOD-TV once again.
External links
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