WYNT (95.9
FM) is a
hot adult contemporary
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet ...
station formerly located in
Upper Sandusky, Ohio
Upper Sandusky is a city and the county seat of Wyandot County, Ohio, Wyandot County, Ohio, United States, along the upper Sandusky River, which flows north to Sandusky Bay and Lake Erie. The city is approximately 59 mi (96 km) south of ...
now located with its studios in
Marion, Ohio
Marion is a city in and the county seat of Marion County, Ohio, Marion County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in north-central Ohio, approximately north of Columbus, Ohio, Columbus.
The population was 35,999 at the 2020 United S ...
and its transmitter and city of license moved to
Caledonia, Ohio
Caledonia is a village in Marion County, Ohio, United States. The population was 577 at the 2010 census.
History
The village was named after Caledonia, an ancient name for Scotland, the ancestral home of a large share of the first settlers.
The ...
. It broadcasts music from the 1990s through today as "Majic 95.9" and is part of the
iHeartMedia, Inc.
iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...
's Marion cluster which includes
WMRN and
WMRN-FM
WMRN-FM is a country music radio station in Marion, Ohio, currently owned by iHeartMedia.
Station history
The previous WMRN-FM had served the nearby Marion, Ohio area at 106.9 MHz with a country music format under the on-air monikers “FM-1 ...
. Its Cleveland FM sister
WMJI
WMJI (105.7 MHz) – branded ''Majic 105.7'' – is a commercial FM radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio. It is owned by iHeartMedia and broadcasts a classic hits r ...
also uses the "Majic" branding for its 1960s/70s oldies station. WYNT was also formerly an oldies station under the same branding.
The station had for years, served as a full-service adult contemporary/country music station serving Upper Sandusky, the seat of Wyandot County, as well as the communities surrounding Upper Sandusky, which is not to be confused with the town of Sandusky, Ohio...about 50 miles due north in Erie County, best known as the home of
Cedar Point
Cedar Point is a amusement park located on a Lake Erie peninsula in Sandusky, Ohio, United States. Opened in 1870, it is considered the second-oldest operating amusement park in the U.S. behind Lake Compounce. Cedar Point is owned and op ...
.
History
According to the 1981 Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook, WYNT first went on the air on December 11, 1973 with the original call letters WYAN, licensed to Upper Sandusky.
The station was founded by Wendell A. Triplett, president of Triplett Broadcasting of
Bellefontaine, Ohio
Bellefontaine ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Logan County, Ohio, Logan County, Ohio, United States, located 48 miles (77 km) northwest of Columbus, Ohio, Columbus. The population was 13,370 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 Cens ...
; which also owned the former WTOO (now
WBLL
WBLL (1390 AM) is an American radio station in Bellefontaine, Ohio. It currently broadcasts with country music programming, along with certain sporting events (Cleveland Guardians baseball, local high school sports). The station is owned by V-T ...
) in Bellefontaine, founded the former WPNM (currently
WBUK
WBUK (106.3 FM) – branded ''106.3 The Fox'' – is a commercial classic rock radio station licensed to Ottawa, Ohio. Owned by the Findlay Publishing Company through licensee Blanchard River Broadcasting, the station serves the Northwest Ohio co ...
) in Ottawa and the former WAXT (later WHTI, now
WBKQ
WBKQ (96.7 FM, "Blake FM") is a radio station licensed to Alexandria, Indiana. It serves the Muncie area and is owned by Woof Boom Radio Muncie License, LLC and airs a new country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre o ...
) in Alexandria, Indiana. Triplett's brother and company vice president Robert S. Triplett served as the station's first general manager, and also served as the station's chief engineer. T.P. Communications, a company headed by Charles Earl, then acquired WYAN in October 1979. Forest Whitehead, who would become a driving force in the station's future rescue from financial turmoil, became the station's general manager in 1980.
By 1981 the company had run into financial trouble and WYNT was silenced. However, the license was already in the planning stages of a return to the air by the end of 1982.
Determined to keep the radio station in local hands, then-general manager and morning DJ Forest Whitehead and a local funeral director formed an ownership group, which subsequently returned the station to the air under the name U.S. Broadcasting in 1986. The funeral director stated he would invest in the station on the condition that it would provide the community with local high school sports game broadcasts, especially football.
According t
the Radio Locator website a construction permit has been granted to move the transmitter and city of license from Upper Sandusky to Caledonia located northeast of
Marion, Ohio
Marion is a city in and the county seat of Marion County, Ohio, Marion County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in north-central Ohio, approximately north of Columbus, Ohio, Columbus.
The population was 35,999 at the 2020 United S ...
. Concurrent with the move, the station moved from an
oldies
Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as we ...
to a
Soft AC
Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet sto ...
format, which has since been switched to Hot AC. Most of the station's programming comes from Clear Channel's
Premium Choice
The majority of programming syndicated by iHeartMedia is distributed through its subsidiary, Premiere Networks, owned by the company since 1999 and purchased by antecedent Jacor in 1997. However, several music and talk shows originated on iHeartM ...
Hot AC format, except for the locally originating morning show. Clear Channel ran a similar format previously on 94.3 WDIF (now the home of
WMRN-FM
WMRN-FM is a country music radio station in Marion, Ohio, currently owned by iHeartMedia.
Station history
The previous WMRN-FM had served the nearby Marion, Ohio area at 106.9 MHz with a country music format under the on-air monikers “FM-1 ...
after
the original WMRN-FM was moved into the Columbus market).
Wendell A.Triplett died October 15, 1991 at the age of 65. Robert S. Triplett died April 5, 2020 at the age of 97.
As of November 20, 2006, this station was advertised for sale, along with other Clear Channel-owned radio stations operating out of Marion, Ohio. In May 2007, WYNT and the other stations of the Marion cluster of
Clear Channel Communications
iHeartMedia, Inc., formerly CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc. (formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc.), a company fou ...
was to have been sold to Florida-based
GoodRadio.TV LLC, but the deal has since collapsed.
References
1974 Broadcasting Yearbook1975 Broadcasting Yearbook1981 Broadcasting YearbookRobert S. Triplett Obituary
External links
WYNT websiteInformation on WYNT*
{{IHeartMedia
YNT
IHeartMedia radio stations