WTOL (channel 11) is a
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
in
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...
, United States, affiliated with
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
. It is owned by
Tegna Inc.
Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into tw ...
, which provides certain services to
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
affiliate
WUPW (channel 36) under a
joint sales agreement
In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or time ...
(JSA) with
American Spirit Media
American Spirit Media, LLC is a broadcasting company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Founded by Thomas B. Henson in 2003 as Ottumwa Media Holdings, it owns television stations in several cities in the Southeastern United States.
History
In 2 ...
. Both stations share studios on North Summit Street in downtown Toledo, while WTOL's transmitter is located on Cedar Point Road in
Oregon, Ohio
Oregon is a city in Lucas County, Ohio. It is a lakefront suburb of Toledo, located on Lake Erie, just east of the city. Oregon is known for its scenic lakefront, bike trails, and Maumee Bay State Park. The population was 19,950 at the 20 ...
.
History
WTOL-TV began broadcasting on December 5, 1958, as a CBS affiliate with a secondary NBC affiliation, sharing it with then-ABC affiliate WSPD-TV (channel 13, now
WTVG
WTVG (channel 13) is a television station in Toledo, Ohio, United States, affiliated with ABC and The CW. Owned by Gray Television, the station maintains studios on Dorr Street (Ohio State Route 246, SR 246) in Toledo, and its transmitter is loc ...
) until 1969 when WDHO-TV (channel 24, now WNWO-TV) replaced WSPD-TV as the ABC affiliate. WTOL then became exclusively affiliated with CBS. WTOL is also the only station in Toledo to never change its primary affiliation.
The station was originally owned by the family of former area prosecutor and congressman
Frazier Reams
Henry Frazier Reams Sr. (January 15, 1897 – September 15, 1971) was an American politician of the United States Democratic Party from Toledo, Ohio. Reams served as a U.S. Congressman from Ohio from 1951 to 1955.
Life and career
Reams was bo ...
along with WTOL radio (AM 1230, now
WCWA
WCWA (1230 AM) is a radio station licensed to and serving Toledo, Ohio, airing a sports format. Owned by iHeartMedia, it is the Toledo affiliate for Fox Sports Radio, and the city's second-oldest radio station.
History
The station signed on in ...
; and FM 104.7, now
WIOT
WIOT (104.7 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Toledo, Ohio, and features a mainstream rock format. Owned by iHeartMedia, Inc., WIOT serves both Northwest Ohio and Monroe County, Michigan, as an affiliate of ''The Bob & Tom Show'' a ...
). It was sold to
Filmways
Filmways, Inc. (also known as Filmways Pictures and Filmways Television) was a television and film production company founded by American film executive Martin Ransohoff and Edwin Kasper in 1952. It is probably best remembered as the production c ...
(now part of
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
) in 1962. The Broadcasting Company of the South, a subsidiary of
South Carolina
)''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
insurer Liberty Life Insurance Company, bought WTOL in 1965 and later changed its name to Cosmos Broadcasting Corporation; WTOL was that company's only station located outside the Southern United States. Liberty reorganized itself as a holding company, the
Liberty Corporation
The Liberty Corporation was a media corporation originally based in Greenville, South Carolina. At its peak, Liberty owned 15 network-affiliated television stations across the Midwest and Southern regions of the United States. Cable advertising ...
, in 1974, and WTOL came directly under the Liberty banner after Liberty sold off its insurance business in 2003.
![WTOL-TV italic Toledo 11](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/WTOL-TV_italic_Toledo_11.svg)
From the mid-1970s to 2003, WTOL was known on-air as "Toledo 11" (sometimes spelled out as "Toledo Eleven").
In December 1994, WTOL replaced Detroit's
WJBK
WJBK (channel 2) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan
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 o ...
on the lineup of Cancom (later
Shaw Broadcast Services
Shaw Broadcast Services (French: Services de Radiodiffusion Shaw) is the division of Canadian telecommunications company Shaw Communications that is responsible for providing and managing the distribution of television channels to cable companies ...
), which provided American networks to cable and satellite viewers in many areas across
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
(particularly
Atlantic Canada
Atlantic Canada, also called the Atlantic provinces (french: provinces de l'Atlantique), is the region of Eastern Canada comprising the provinces located on the Atlantic coast, excluding Quebec. The four provinces are New Brunswick, Newfoundlan ...
and the
Prairies
Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...
). The changeover occurred shortly before WJBK was due to switch its affiliation from
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
to
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelve sp ...
as part of Fox's deal with New World Communications. CBS was unable to sign a new Detroit affiliate (WGPR, now
owned-and-operated station
In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...
WWJ-TV
WWJ-TV (channel 62) is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, owned and operated by the CBS television network. Under common ownership with CW affiliate WKBD-TV under the network's CBS News and Stations group, both station ...
) until mere days before the change, partly because of a deal reached by
Scripps which saw
WXYZ-TV
WXYZ-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Detroit, Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Independent station (North America), independent st ...
renew its affiliation with ABC and caused
three
3 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
3, three, or III may also refer to:
* AD 3, the third year of the AD era
* 3 BC, the third year before the AD era
* March, the third month
Books
* '' Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 ...
other
Other often refers to:
* Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy
Other or The Other may also refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack
* ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...
stations
Station may refer to:
Agriculture
* Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production
* Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle
** Cattle statio ...
to switch to the network. As Cancom had to seek regulatory approval several months in advance, it elected to go with WTOL, the largest CBS station closest to
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 ...
. WTOL was carried by Cancom until 1999, when it was replaced with WWJ-TV. During this time, WTOL was the de facto CBS affiliate for the southern part of the Detroit market, as WWJ-TV was all but unviewable in that area at the time. The station provides city-grade coverage to most of
Monroe County Monroe County may refer to seventeen counties in the United States, all named for James Monroe:
* Monroe County, Alabama
*Monroe County, Arkansas
* Monroe County, Florida
* Monroe County, Georgia
*Monroe County, Illinois
*Monroe County, Indian ...
and much of southern
Wayne and
Washtenaw counties, and grade B coverage to most of Detroit itself.
Raycom Media
Raycom Media, Inc. was an American television broadcasting company based in Montgomery, Alabama. Raycom owned and/or provided services for 65 television stations and two radio stations across 44 markets in 20 states. Raycom, through its Commun ...
announced its acquisition of Liberty Media in 2005. Raycom already owned WNWO, but couldn't keep both because the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC) does not allow one entity to own two of the top four rated stations in a single market. It opted to keep the higher-rated WTOL and sold WNWO to
Barrington Broadcasting
Barrington Broadcasting Group, LLC, headquartered in Schaumburg, Illinois was an American corporation focused on broadcast television, primarily in middle and small size media markets. Barrington owned or operated via duopoly twenty-four televi ...
, who acquired that station in 2006.
WTOL's broadcasts became digital-only, effective June 12, 2009.
Digital channel 11 transmits at a lower power than it did on digital channel 17, so in some locations, there has been a reduction in coverage. Many VHF stations are applying to the FCC for power increases to restore their coverage area after moving from
UHF back to VHF.
On January 30, 2012, WTOL replaced its News 11 Now on 11.2 with
MeTV
MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television program ...
. In January 2012,
LIN TV Corporation announced it would sell its local Fox affiliate
WUPW to
American Spirit Media
American Spirit Media, LLC is a broadcasting company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Founded by Thomas B. Henson in 2003 as Ottumwa Media Holdings, it owns television stations in several cities in the Southeastern United States.
History
In 2 ...
for $22 million. As most of American Spirit Media's stations are operated as
duopolies with a Raycom-owned station in the same market, it was expected that WTOL would establish a
joint sales agreement
In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or time ...
with WUPW. On April 20, 2012, WUPW finalized its acquisition and its shared services agreement with WTOL. WUPW's remaining staff now operate from WTOL's facilities (though its management and sales departments will remain separate). A shared news site was also unveiled for the two stations, ''Toledo News Now''.
Tegna ownership
On June 25, 2018,
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
-based
Gray Television
Gray Television, Inc. is an American publicly traded television broadcasting company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1946 by James Harrison Gray as Gray Communications Systems, the company owns or operates 180 stations across the United St ...
announced it had reached an agreement with Raycom to merge their respective broadcasting assets (consisting of Raycom's 63 existing owned-and/or-operated television stations, and Gray's 93 television stations) under Gray's corporate umbrella, in a cash-and-stock merger transaction valued at $3.6 billion. Because Gray owned WTVG (which the company acquired in 2014 from
SJL Broadcasting), and since WTOL and WTVG rank among the four highest-rated stations in the Toledo market in total day viewership, Gray announced that it would retain WTVG and sell WTOL to an unrelated third party, in order to comply with FCC ownership rules; the JSA involving WUPW would be included in the sale of WTOL.
On August 20, it was announced that
McLean, Virginia
McLean ( ) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. McLean is home to many diplomats, military, members of Congress, and high-ranking government officials partially due to its proxim ...
-based
Tegna Inc.
Tegna Inc. (stylized in all caps as TEGNA) is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into tw ...
would purchase WTOL and sister station
KWES-TV
KWES-TV (channel 9) is a television station licensed to Odessa, Texas, United States, serving the Permian Basin (North America), Permian Basin area as an affiliate of NBC. The station is owned by Tegna Inc. and maintains studios on West County R ...
in
Odessa, Texas
Odessa is a city in and the county seat of Ector County, Texas, United States. It is located primarily in Ector County, although a small section of the city extends into Midland County.
Odessa's population was 114,428 at the 2020 census, mak ...
for $105 million.
The deal was completed on January 2, 2019. This made WTOL a sister station to NBC affiliate
WKYC
WKYC (channel 3) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. Its studios are located on Tom Beres Way (a section of Lakeside Avenue in Downtown Cleveland named after the station's longti ...
in
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
(and later to fellow CBS affiliate
WBNS-TV
WBNS-TV (channel 10) is a television station in Columbus, Ohio, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside the company's sole radio properties, WBNS (1460 AM) and WBNS-FM (97.1). The stations share studios on Twin R ...
in
Columbus
Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to:
* Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer
* Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio
Columbus may also refer to:
Places ...
from a separate deal), while separating it from WOIO/WUAB.
Even with the ownership changes that have occurred since 2006, WTOL retains its Liberty-era logo.
Subchannels
The station's digital signal is
multiplexed
In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...
:
Programming
Sports programming
WTOL airs regional and national sports programming from
CBS Sports
CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W 5 ...
. WTOL also carries preseason
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...
games from
WEWS-TV
WEWS-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with ABC. It has been owned by the E. W. Scripps Company since its inception in 1946, making it one of two stations that have been built and signed on by Sc ...
.
News operation
, WTOL presently broadcasts 40 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with six hours each weekday, three hours on Saturdays and two hours on Sundays). In addition, WTOL produces 18½ hours of locally produced newscasts each week for Fox-affiliated sister station WUPW (with 3½ hours each weekday and a half-hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). Through the shared services agreement with WUPW, WTOL may also simulcast long-form severe weather coverage on channel 36 in the event that a
tornado warning
A tornado warning ( SAME code: TOR) is a severe weather warning product issued by regional offices of weather forecasting agencies throughout the world to alert the public when a tornado has been reported or indicated by weather radar within the ...
is issued for any county in its northwest
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 ...
viewing area.
In October 2011, WTOL was certified by WeatheRate as having the most accurate forecasts for Northwest Ohio and Southeast
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
.
On January 2, 2014, it was officially announced that longtime evening news anchor Chrys Peterson would be leaving WTOL after nearly twenty years at the station. Peterson decided to leave the station in order to spend more time with her family. Chrys Peterson's final news broadcast was on February 28, 2014, and an hour-long special aired at 8:00 p.m. in celebration of Peterson's twenty years at WTOL. On April 24, 2014, it was officially announced that Emilie Voss would succeed Chrys Peterson and join Jerry Anderson as the evening anchor on WTOL.
In January 2017, Emilie Voss announced she would leave WTOL after five years. In February, Kristi Leigh (formerly of WNWO, WUPW and WTVG) was named co-anchor of the 5, 5:30, 6 and 11 p.m. broadcasts. In June 2018, Jerry Anderson announced his retirement, with June 15 being his final day on the air. Morning anchor Andrew Kinsey was promoted to the evening shift while longtime reporter and fill-in anchor Tim Miller assumed morning anchor duties as of June 18, 2018. Longtime sports director Dan Cummins, a fixture at WTOL since 1980, also moved to the news desk and is co-anchor of the noon news. Jordan Strack was named the new sports director.
In March 2019, WTOL attracted viral attention for video it posted on
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
to motivate local high school students heading into their exams, which featured its anchors excessively using
slang
Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-gro ...
. The segment received mixed attention, with some observers considering it to be an exaggerated attempt to appeal to the
demographic
Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings.
Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as edu ...
, but others applauding the anchors' willingness to participate in the video. It was quickly removed by the station, but mirrored copies on sites such as
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
reached as high as 3 million views.
On-air staff
Notable former on-air staff
*
Evan Rosen
Evan Rosen is an American author, speaker, business strategist, blogger, and journalist. He is Executive Director of The Culture of Collaboration Institute and Chief Strategist of Impact Video Communication, Inc., which he co-founded.
Rosen is the ...
author of ''
The Culture of Collaboration
''The Culture of Collaboration'' is a business book by Evan Rosen. It's the first book in The ''Culture of Collaboration'' series by Rosen. The second book in the series is ''The Bounty Effect: 7 Steps to the Culture of Collaboration''. ''The Bou ...
'' and ''The Bounty Effect: 7 Steps to the Culture of Collaboration''
*
Steve Hartman (now at
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...
)
References
External links
*
{{Toledo
CBS network affiliates
True Crime Network affiliates
Grit (TV network) affiliates
Quest (American TV network) affiliates
GetTV affiliates
Twist (TV network) affiliates
Laff (TV network) affiliates
TOL
Tegna Inc.
Television channels and stations established in 1958
1958 establishments in Ohio