WFRO was a radio station licensed to Fremont,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, United States, to operate on 900 kHz. It signed off June 23, 2004 to allow WFDF/910 to increase power. WFRO's programming was at times simulcast on

WFRO-FM WFRO-FM is a commercial FM radio station, licensed to the Sandusky county seat of Fremont, Ohio. The station operates at the federally assigned frequency of 99.1 MHz, and is owned by BAS Broadcasting. History WFRO had for much of its exis ...

, which continues.

History

For much of its existence, WFRO had been a combination AM and FM station, with FM first going on the air in 1946, and AM (at 900 kHz) going on the air three years later. Both stations simulcast each other for a portion of the broadcast day, breaking away for separate programming during the midday hours, with AM concentrating more on information and talk, and FM focusing on music. For many years, WFRO AM broadcast a full-service

MOR Mor or MOR may refer to: Names and titles * Mór (given name), a list of people named Mór or Mor * Mor (surname), a list of people named Mor or Mór * Mor (honorific), or Mar, in Syriac Radio and television * Middle of the road (music) genre * ...

format heavy on local news and information; WFRO-FM played

beautiful music Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator musi ...

during non-simulcast dayparts. AM 900's directional signal allowed WFRO programming to be heard clearly throughout much of southeastern

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(including the metropolitan

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

area) and southwestern

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in addition to Ohio's North Coast region. By the 1990s, WFRO and WFRO-FM were simulcasting each other for most of the broadcast day, and WFRO's music format had evolved into a more contemporary mix of AC and adult-appeal CHR hits, but the full-service emphasis remained. The station was founded by Wolfe Broadcasting Company, which controlled the station until 2001, when both stations were sold separately to two different owners. BAS Broadcasting purchased WFRO-FM, while Disney/ABC purchased the license to WFRO, but not to run it as a separate entity. ABC purchased the license as part of an initiative to move recently purchased AM 910 WFDF in Flint, Michigan to Farmington Hills (in the Detroit market).The AM Stations of Flint, Michigan
/ref> The move was made to allow AM 910 to broadcast at an increased daytime power of 50,000 watts, up substantially from 5,000 watts. WFRO-FM changed to the satellite adult contemporary format it currently airs, and WFRO/900, after a brief period of silence, returned to the air using ABC's "Real Country" format and then

ESPN Radio ESPN Radio, which is alternately platform-agnostically branded as ESPN Audio, is an American sports radio network and extension of the ESPN television network. It was launched on January 1, 1992, under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN". ...

while preparations for WFDF's move into the Detroit area were made. WFRO/900 was officially silenced forever in June 2004 when ABC surrendered the license to the FCC.

References

External links

Query the FCC's AM station database for WFRO
{{Disney–ABC stations FRO Radio stations established in 1949 Defunct radio stations in the United States Radio stations disestablished in 2004 1949 establishments in Ohio 2004 disestablishments in Ohio FRO Former subsidiaries of The Walt Disney Company