WRVF

WRVF

City of license	Toledo, Ohio
Broadcast area	Toledo, Ohio
Branding	101.5 The River
Slogan	Today's Soft Rock
Frequency	101.5 (MHz)
First air date	August 11, 1946
Format	Soft Rock (Soft Adult Contemporary)
ERP	41,000 Watts
Class	B
Callsign meaning	"W-RiVer-FM"
Former callsigns	1971-1995: WLQR 1946-1971: WSPD-FM
Owner	Clear Channel Communications
Website	http://www.1015theriver.com

WRVF (101.5 FM, "101.5 The River") is an American soft adult contemporary music formatted radio station in Toledo, Ohio, owned by Clear Channel Communications. The station boasts a signal that covers most of northwestern Ohio and southeastern Michigan and can be heard well in parts of the Detroit area, as far east as Sandusky, Ohio, westward almost to the Indiana state line, and almost as far south as Lima, Ohio. The 101.5 frequency has featured some form of soft music format for decades, evolving from easy listening into mainstream AC.

The River is locally well known, some might say infamous, for playing non-stop Christmas music between mid-November through Christmas day, one of the first AC stations in the country to do so. This tradition began in 1995 (the year the station's calls changed from WLQR-FM), several years before the practice became commonplace for AC stations around North America. The morning show of WRVF featured Toledo radio legend Jack "Mitch" Mitchell until March 31, 2006.

WRVF's studios and offices are located at Superior and Lafayette in downtown Toledo. The station's transmitter is located at North Wynn Road at Cedar Point Road in Oregon, Ohio.

History

What is now WRVF began as WSPD-FM, signing on the air on August 11, 1946. The station served as a partial simulcast of WSPD-AM until the late 1960s when the station adopted a MOR format using Drake-Chenault's "Hit Parade" package. In 1971 the station was sold to Susquehanna Broadcasting and became a beautiful music station, known as "Stereo 101 - WLQR". It played half-hour music tapes mastered at Susquehanna's studios in York PA with local announcers Steve Kendall, Mike Stanley, Larry Weseman and Bill Stewart. The station retained this format until 1987 when it became "Soft Rock 101.5 WLQR"; by this time the station was again co-owned with WSPD.

A few years later the station began stunting by playing "Friends in Low Places" by Garth Brooks with a man with a southern voice announcing that something new was coming to WLQR on Monday. The following Monday the station kept its soft AC format and became "101.5 The River", changing its call letters to WRVF. The WLQR calls are now used on AM 1470 in Toledo (the former WOHO and WWWM-AM), and over 106.5 FM as of June 2009.

Since 2007, WRVF-FM has been broadcasting in IBOC "HD RADIO". The "HD1" programming is the digital version of its analog audio, while the "HD2" 'channel' broadcasts Clear Channel's nationwide "Premium Choice" Hot AC format, also streamed over iHeartRadio as "Today's Mix." WRVF is also the (LP) Local Primary (EAS) Emergency Alert Station in Northwestern Ohio. The station broadcasts with an effective radiated power of 33,000 watts.

WRVF became the new home of the popular "Friday Night '80s" feature in May 2007 after crosstown competitor WWWM (Star 105) dropped it in favor of Delilah six nights a week. (Delilah has since been dropped from Star 105.5 in favor of Billy Bush, leaving Toledo without a Delilah affiliate.) However, from 7 p.m. to midnight on Friday nights, the show consists of John Tesh's show with '80s music played in place of the normal AC format. The River also aired the '80s version of Casey Kasem's American Top 40 Saturday nights from 6 to 10 p.m., until the show was dropped after Christmas of 2011.