WOOD (AM)
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| City | Grand Rapids, Michigan |
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| Broadcast area | Grand Rapids, Michigan |
| Branding | NewsRadio 1300/106.9 WOOD |
| Slogan | West Michigan's News, Talk, and Weather |
| Frequency | 1300 kHz |
| First air date | September 16, 1924 |
| Format | News/Talk |
| Power | 20,000 watts |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 73604 |
| Callsign meaning | FurnWOOD Broadcasting |
| Former callsigns | WEBK (1924-1926) |
| Affiliations | Fox News Radio, CBS Radio Network, Premiere Radio Networks, Talk Radio Network, Michigan IMG Sports Network, Michigan Radio Network |
| Owner |
iHeartMedia, Inc. (CC Licenses, LLC) |
| Sister stations | WBCT, WBFX, WMAX-FM, WSNX-FM, WSRW-FM, WTKG |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | woodradio.com |
WOOD is a news/talk radio station broadcasting at 1300 kHz and 106.9 MHz in Michigan, United States. WOOD-AM is licensed to Grand Rapids, Michigan and WOOD-FM to Muskegon, Michigan.
WOOD-1300 is the oldest radio station in West Michigan and one of the oldest in the world, having signed on September 16, 1924 as WEBK as a marketing tool for the C.J. Litscher Company, a seller of radio receivers. The station's original owners were backed by the Furniture Manufacturers Association of Grand Rapids. At their suggestion, the station became WOOD on January 13, 1926.
It broadcast on Sundays and Wednesdays at 1170 kc. 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.
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 in Detroit, in 1930. They bought Grand Rapids' second radio station, WASH, a year later; the two stations had shared the same frequency, for four years. The station operated as WOOD-WASH (with WASH on the air during the day and WOOD at night) until 1942, when the WASH license was dropped. At about the same time, WOOD's broadcast power was increased from 500 watts to 5,000 watts.
In 1946, the fledgling American Broadcasting Company bought the King-Trendle stations, but the Federal Communications Commission (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. Over the years the station's format evolved from full-service Middle of the Road into standard News/Talk.
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Wikipedia