WNIO
iHeartMedia, Inc. | |
| WAKZ, WBBG, WKBN, WMXY, WNCD | |
| History | |
First air date | September 7, 1939 (as WFMJ) |
Former call signs | WFMJ (1939–1990) WHOT (1990–1995) WRTK (1995–1999) |
Call sign meaning | Previously used on the former WNIO (1540 AM) in NIles, Ohio, now WYOH |
| Technical information | |
| Facility ID | 13669 |
| Class | B |
| Power | 9,500 watts day 4,800 watts night |
Transmitter coordinates | 41°7′17″N 80°42′5″W / 41.12139°N 80.70139°W (day) 40°59′11″N 80°35′54″W / 40.98639°N 80.59833°W (night) |
| Links | |
| Webcast | Listen live (via iHeartRadio) |
| Website | 1390thegambler |
WNIO (1390
History
The station was founded in 1939 as WFMJ by William F. Maag, Jr. from whose initials the call letters were derived. Maag was also publisher of
In 1948, Maag launched WFMJ-FM at 105.1 MHz; the FM station is now
The AM station changed its callsign to WHOT on April 23, 1990, when it was sold by its original owners to the owner of WHOT-FM, and it used the historic call sign from the former Top 40 AM station that originally broadcast daytime only on 1570 kHz and later full-time on 1330 kHz. Four years later, it was sold to Connoisseur Communications, and it changed to WRTK on February 15, 1995, assuming a talk radio format as "Real Talk 1390."
In order to obtain Justice Department approval to purchase
The station became WNIO on November 1, 1999, after Clear Channel relocated WNIO's adult standards format and callsign from the daytime-only 1540 kHz facility in
Clear Channel Communications purchased WNIO along with WNCD (which switched dial positions with WBBG in late 2000) and WAKZ from Bain in 2005, after it had dropped its petition on January 14, 2004 to purchase those three stations along with WICT due to FCC objections,[2] and also included Clear Channel selling off their station clusters in New Castle and Johnstown to Forever Broadcasting, LLC.
From 2000 until 2010, WNIO also served as the flagship station for Mahoning Valley Scrappers minor league baseball.
In November 2010, Clear Channel announced that WNIO would drop its standards format in favor of Fox Sports Radio on December 27. The move will coincide with the displacement of the network from crosstown WANR 1570 AM in Warren, which switched back to its former classic hits format under the moniker "The Blizzard."[3] This is one of two Standards stations changing their format in the Youngstown region. Cumulus owned WSOM AM 600 has flipped to News Talk on December 13 of 2010.
On September 7, 2020, WNIO rebranded as "1390 The Gambler", becoming the second iHeart sports station in Ohio to carry the "Gambler" name (after Cleveland market station
Former logos
References
- ^ #441: 10-23-97 - Connoisseur Communications Gets Justice Department Clearance to Acquire Two Youngstown, Ohio Radio Stations
- ^ "Media Scope". Archived from the original on 2004-08-21.
- ^ "Youngstown News, Gross revenues for movies for the weekend of Oct. 29-31 in U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to". Archived from the original on 2012-03-20.
- ^ iHeart Brings The Gambler To Youngstown Radioinsight - September 8, 2020
External links
- WFMJ Oral History, Transcript of interview of Bill Crooks
- WNIO in the FCC AM station database
- WNIO in Nielsen Audio's AM station database