WCWA
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| City | Toledo, Ohio |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Toledo, Ohio |
| Branding | Fox Sports 1230 Toledo |
| Slogan | Toledo Sports Play Here |
| Frequency | 1230 kHz |
| First air date | April 10, 1938 |
| Format | Sports |
| Power | 1,000 watts |
| Class | C |
| Facility ID | 19627 |
| Callsign meaning | W C-WA (after the St. Lawrence Seaway) |
| Former callsigns | WTOL (1938-1965) |
| Affiliations | Cleveland Indians Radio Network |
| Owner |
iHeartMedia (Citicasters Licenses, Inc.) |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | Fox Sports 1230 |
WCWA is a radio station licensed to and serving Toledo, Ohio. Owned by iHeartMedia, it is the second-oldest radio station in Toledo, and during AM radio's heyday it was a close second in popularity to WSPD-AM for many years.
The station signed on in 1938 as WTOL-AM, founded by former Toledo prosecutor Frazier Reams (whose family would continue to own the station all the way until 1996). Originally licensed for daytime operations only, WTOL was granted authority for around-the-clock operations in 1939 and affiliated with NBC's Blue network (later to become ABC) shortly thereafter. Programming on WTOL until the mid-1960s was a typical full-service hodgepodge of news, information, sports, ABC network programs and various types of music, including pop, country, jazz, and, by the early 1960s, some rock and roll. The station started broadcasting 24 hours a day in 1962 with the new format "Demand Radio 123". The format was very tightly controlled, and the announcers said very little, other than time and weather. there were scripted intros for songs. The playlist contained about 200 popular favorites of the 40s and 50s. The tight format wore out in less than two years. In 1964 WTOL became a personality driven full service facility, and played popular music, while avoiding "hard rock". You could hear the Beatles, and the Stones, but only songs like Yesterday, Michelle, and As Tears Go By. For many years, WTOL was a family of three broadcast stations which included TV-11 and FM-104.7. Channel 11 remains WTOL to this day and is the most popular television station in Toledo.
The call letters were changed in 1965, when the two radio stations split from Channel 11. The call sign "WCWA," or "seaway," was meant to pay tribute to the St. Lawrence Seaway, of which Toledo is a major port (and the seaway itself a major boon to the city's economy. The call sign was originally assigned to a German merchant ship (the MS Karl Trautwein) which gave up the call sign for a modest payment. The easy listening format continued. In 1969, Station Manager Garry Miller persuaded Former WCWA DJ Jim Felton to leave CKLW in Detroit and return to program the station. The new format included PAMS jingles, and a slightly more Top 40 approach, while still avoiding the "harder rock'. The playlist contained the biggest variety of music available, and gained a much larger audience, even topping the ratings of local station WSPD, which remains as a news/talk station, and Detroit stations like WJR and CKLW. Meanwhile Felton, and his boyhood friend, Dennis Moon, who was now working in the engineering department, attempted to move WCWA-FM to "Album Rock", a format which was taking hold all over the country. The idea was met with great disdain by Frazier Reams, Jr. who asked if the two were out of their (bleeping) minds? (The FM finally switched to "Album Rock" some years later, and became an enormus success as WIOT.) Felton left in 1971. Moon remained, and is, to this day, the finest engineer any radio station ever had.
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