WIOD

WIOD

City of license	Miami, Florida
Broadcast area	South Florida (targets Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Florida)
Branding	News Radio 610 WIOD
Slogan	"South Florida's News, Traffic and Weather Station"
Frequency	610 (kHz)
Translator(s)	W262AN 100.3 Tamarac W228BY 93.5 Allapattah
Repeaters	WBGG-HD2 105.9-2
First air date	January 19, 1926
Format	Analog/HD: News/Talk
Power	5,000 watts Currently operating at 10,000 watts under a special temporary authority
Class	B
Facility ID	14242
Callsign meaning	Wonderful Isle of Dreams
Affiliations	The Weather Channel Fox News Radio Wall Street Journal Radio WFOR
Owner	Clear Channel Communications
Sister stations	WBGG, WHYI, WINZ, WMGE, WMIA, WMIB
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	610wiod.com

WIOD (610 AM, "News Radio 610 WIOD") is a news/talk formatted radio station in Miami, Florida. For over 80 years, it has been a major information station in South Florida. It features nationally conservative syndicated programs wrapped around locally produced news, traffic and weather reports, 24/7.

Installed in the spring of 1925 by Carl Graham Fisher, a Miami Beach developer, the station made its formal air debut on the South Florida airwaves on January 19, 1926. Carl Fisher selected the letters WIOD as the call letters signifying “Wonderful Isle of Dreams” to commemorate Collins Island, on which the station was situated. WIOD is Florida’s seventh oldest continuously licensed broadcast radio station.

From 1959 to 1962 the call letters were changed to WCKR - Cox-Knight Broadcasting had once owned the station as well as WCKT television, now WSVN. Branded Wacker Radio, they attempted a rock & roll format but were unsuccessful against strong competition.

"NewsRadio 610 WIOD" arguably features one of the largest radio news departments in the Southeast United States and has consistently been the most frequent winner in annual Florida Associated Press statewide competitions. 610 WIOD may be best known for its continuous hurricane coverage, particularly Andrew, Katrina and Wilma. Despite the station's class B status, it has strong daytime and nighttime signal. This is due to parts of the tower's guy ground system resting in the brackish mix of fresh and salt waters of Biscayne Bay.

WIOD, positioned as "South Florida's News, Traffic and Weather Station" is owned and operated by Clear Channel Communications, Inc., the largest U.S. radio owner. WIOD is an affiliate of the Fox News Radio network. It also is affiliated with The Weather Channel, Dow Jones & Company (for "The Wall Street Journal Business Report") and has a news and weather content sharing relationship with WFOR-TV ("CBS 4", former partner was WPLG "Local 10"). 610 WIOD was the radio flagship of the 2006 NBA champions Miami Heat from 1996-2008. It is also the "official" broadcast emergency station for the Broward County Commission.

In April 2010, WIOD launched a simulcast on FM translator W262AN 100.3 MHz. They also broadcast on WBGG-HD2, 105.9.

On August 24, 2011, it was announced that Clear Channel Communications purchased W228BY 93.5 FM from WAY-FM Network for $200,000.

Current Hosts & Reporters

The show airs syndicated programming outside of weekday mornings. "South Florida's First News" is the morning news/talk program from 5am to 9am. Jimmy Cefalo is the host. Nathalie Rodriguez is the news anchor. Wendi Grossman is reporter and Christina Kautz provides updates. Ron Philips & Richard Lewis are the traffic reporters. Weather information is provided by The Weather Channel. Sports updates are provided by Jeremy Marks-Peltz, who also serves as the studio host of the Miami Heat Radio Network. Michael Woulfe is WIOD's afternoon news anchor.

The rest of the weekday lineup includes mostly syndicated and some local talk programming such as:

• Glenn Beck 10AM - 12PM
• Rush Limbaugh 12PM - 3PM
• Rich Minaya 3PM - 6PM
• Sean Hannity 6PM - 9PM (on a 3-hour tape delay)
• Todd Schnitt's The Schnitt Show 9PM - 12AM (on a 6-hour tape delay) The Schnitt Show originated on WIOD in 2001 before moving to WFLA-AM.
• George Noory's Coast To Coast AM

Up until June 2009, weekend programming included mostly syndicated programs. Since then, the station has replaced most of those hosts with infomercials or brokered programming.

Former Hosts & Reporters

WIOD boasts some big names along its alumni including Larry King, Neil Rogers, Sally Jessy Raphael, Ron Bennington, Mike Reineri, Bill Calder, Alan Burke, Sandy Peyton, Rick and Suds, Hank Goldberg, Randi Rhodes, Big Wilson, Chris Baker, Phil Hendrie, Joey Reynolds, Tom Gauger, Dave Lamont, Tom Leykis, Jack Ellery, and anchor Ron Hersey. Reineri hosted the last music show (Adult Contemporary format) on WIOD from 6 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday from 1974 to 1989. Reineri's traffic reporter, Dave Mitchell, hosted the show on Saturday and Sunday mornings in the same time slot. Other known traffic reporters on WIOD in the 80's and 90's & 2004-2007 were Joe Brennan (now at Total Traffic Network), George Sheldon (now at WLOS TV CH-13 Asheville, NC as their traffic reporter), Don Anthony (aka Agony) is retired, Teri Griffin (has moved out of South Florida),and Trish Anderson has left Clear Channel but still resides in South Florida. Since 1989 WIOD has had an All-News or News/Talk format.

Controversy

In June 2007, the all-Democratic county commission in Broward County was on the verge of rejecting WIOD as the official channel for emergency information because of concerns it is also home to Rush Limbaugh and other conservative talk show hosts. On his radio show Rush Limbaugh said, "They are politicizing the delivery of emergency news, which is non-partisan." After complaints from around the country the commission decided to keep using the radio station.

External links

• Main page
• Schedule page
• Streaming page
• History of station page
• Query the FCC's AM station database for WIOD
• Radio-Locator Information on WIOD
• Query Arbitron's AM station database for WIOD
• Query the FCC's FM station database for W262AN
• Radio-Locator information on W262AN