WTOP-FM

This article is about radio station WTOP-FM. For the complete history of the Washington, D.C. 103.5 MHz facility, see WGMS (defunct). For other stations that use or have used the WTOP call sign, see WTOP (disambiguation). For the Hubbard-owned freeform station that broadcasts on former WTOP repeater W282BA, see WWFD.
WTOP Radio
City Washington, D.C.
Broadcast area Washington, D.C.
Baltimore, Maryland
Northern Virginia
Shenandoah Valley
Virginian Piedmont
Central Maryland
Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia
Branding WTOP Radio (general)
WTOP News (newscasts)
Slogan Washington's Top News
Frequency 103.5 MHz
(also on HD Radio)
Repeater(s) WTLP 103.9 Braddock Heights
WWWT 107.7 Manassas
First air date September 25, 1926
Format Analog/HD-1: All News
HD-2: WorldBand Media
HD-3: The Gamut
ERP 44 kWs
HAAT 158 meters (518 ft)
Class B
Callsign meaning Originally at 1500 kHz, which was regarded as "at the TOP of your radio dial" (former)
Washington's TOP News
Affiliations CBS Radio News
ABC News Radio
WRC-TV
Owner Hubbard Broadcasting
(Washington, DC FCC License Sub, LLC)
Sister stations WBQH, WFED, WWFD
Webcast WTOP Webstream
WTOP Webplayer
Website WTOP Online

WTOP is an all-news formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Washington, D.C., serving its metropolitan area. WTOP is owned by Hubbard Broadcasting.[1][2][3][4] The studios are located in the McLean Gardens neighborhood on D.C.'s northwest side, and the transmitter is located at nearby American University.

WTOP is one of three all-news stations in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, the second being sister station AM 1500 WFED, which is aimed at federal government employees; the third being 99.1 WDCH-FM, owned by CBS.

WTOP's primary signal is at 103.5, with simulcasts on WTLP 103.9 FM from Braddock Heights, Maryland and WWWT 107.7 FM from Manassas, Virginia. All stations in the WTOP "network" broadcast in monaural to increase their coverage areas.

WTOP broadcasts in HD.[5]

History

WTOP's logo in 2000.
The WTOP logo before WWWT 107.7 was added to the "tri-mulcast".
The WTOP logo after the WWWT signal was added.

1920s: Born in Brooklyn

WTOP's origins trace back to Brooklyn, New York, as station WTRC (operated by the Twentieth [District] Republican Club), going to air September 25, 1926, on 1250 kilocycles with a power of 50 watts. The Twentieth Republican Club, on August 2, 1927, WTRC migrated to Mount Vernon Hills, Virginia On January 10, 1929, the call sign was changed to WJSV, reflecting the initials of James S. Vance, who was publisher of "The Fellowship Forum" and a KKK Grand Wizard in Virginia. Realizing the expense of running a 10,000-watt radio station, Vance quickly worked out a deal with the nascent Columbia Broadcasting System to become the new network's primary station in Washington, D.C. CBS took over all of WJSV's programming and engineering costs, with an option to renew or purchase the station after five years.

1930s: CBS O&O

In June 1932, CBS finally purchased WJSV and moved it from Mount Vernon Hills to Alexandria, Virginia. After three months off the air, WJSV resumed broadcasting on October 20, 1932. Arthur Godfrey, who later hosted a variety program on CBS Radio and CBS Television, hosted a program on WJSV called The Sundial on which he honed a laid-back, conversational style that was unusual on radio at the time.

On September 21, 1939, WJSV recorded its entire broadcast day for posterity. The famous "One Day In Radio" tapes still exist and copies can be found at various Old Time Radio websites.

WJSV was also a key training ground for pioneering newsman Bob Trout in the 1930s before he became a network correspondent. (One of his broadcasting mentors was Wells (Ted) Church, who later became a CBS News executive.) Longtime Los Angeles-area TV newscaster George Putnam worked at WJSV in 1938 and continued to work in radio for seven decades until his death in 2008. Frank Blair, who later became an NBC News correspondent and later was a long time news anchor on the Today show during the 1960s and early 1970s, worked at WJSV. John Daly, longtime host of game show "What's My Line?" and 1950's anchor on ABC-TV news, also got his start on WJSV.

1940s

In 1940, WJSV's operating power was increased to 50,000 watts, with a new transmitter site built in Wheaton, Maryland, still in use today. On March 29, 1941, with the implementation of NARBA, WJSV moved its broadcast frequency from 1460 to 1500 kHz.

On March 16, 1943, after paying the Tiffin, Ohio police department $60,000, the calls were changed to the current WTOP because its new frequency was now at the "top" of the mediumwave AM band. The Washington Post bought a 55% share in WTOP from CBS in February 1949 and took over the remainder of the station in December 1954. The WTOP callsign was a coincidence under the newspaper's partial ownership as the callsign never stood for WashingTOn Post.

1960s and 70s: All-news

After its signature personality Arthur Godfrey left WTOP in 1948 to concentrate on his television and midday network radio shows, the station gradually faded in popularity as it faced competition from the Washington Star's WMAL with the morning team of Harden and Weaver, and NBC-owned WRC which featured future Today Show personality Willard Scott. In the 1960s, after a series of failed music formats, WTOP phased out its music programming for a combination of newscasts and phone-in talk shows; eventually the call-in shows were dropped in favor of an all-news format. Among those working for WTOP during this time were Sam Donaldson, later on ABC-TV; Jim Bohannon, who took Larry King's place on his all-night radio network talk show after King went to CNN; and including Ralph Begleiter and Jamie MacIntyre, both of whom went to CNN.

WTOP studios were apparently a critical link in Emergency Broadcast System activation scenarios during the Cold War era. [6]

The Post sold WTOP to The Outlet Company company in June 1978, in reaction to the FCC looking askance at common ownership of newspapers and broadcasting outets in the same city, believing one company should not have too much control of local media. One month later, WTOP-TV was swapped with the Detroit News's WWJ-TV, and became WDVM-TV. The station is today WUSA-TV, owned by Gannett. The original FM frequency for WTOP-FM was 96.3 MHz, but that frequency was donated to Howard University. That station became WHUR in 1971, a commercially run radio station.

1990s-2010s: Move to FM

Outlet re-organized and sold WTOP to Chase Broadcasting in 1989, who in turn sold it to Evergreen Media (which eventually became Chancellor Broadcasting) in November 1992. In April 1997, Evergreen's newly acquired 94.3 MHz facility in Warrenton, Virginia began simulcasting the WTOP signal for better coverage in the sprawling Northern Virginia suburbs. Shortly afterward, on October 10, 1997, Bonneville International Corporation purchased WTOP.

On April 1, 1998, 94.3 was swapped for a stronger signal at 107.7, also licensed to Warrenton. (The 94.3 facility now relays the air feed for sports station WTEM.) Then in December 2000, WTOP gained another simulcast in Frederick, Maryland with WXTR at 820 kHz, establishing the "WTOP Radio Network", a name it used until 2006.[7]

In 2005, the station began providing podcasts of selected broadcast programs, and in 2006, WTOP began broadcasting in digital "HD Radio", utilizing iBiquity Digital Corp.'s IBOC (in-band on-channel) technology.

On January 4, 2006, Bonneville International announced that WTOP would move to a new primary frequency of 103.5 FM, then held by classical station WGMS (which would move to 103.9 and 104.1 FM). WTOP's longtime facility at 1500 AM, as well as both FM translators (107.7 in Warrenton and low-powered 104.3 in Leesburg), would be reassigned to the new "Washington Post Radio" for a March 30, 2006 launch date. Fittingly, this new partnership also signaled the Post's return to the radio scene on the very same dial spot WTOP once held. The station has been dominant in the 25-54 demographics since moving to FM.

The stations' respective call signs were changed as of January 11, 2006: the former WTOP pair became WTWP (The Washington Post) and WTOP's new primary stations assumed the WTOP calls. HD Radio digital subchannels of the 103.5 carrier originally had broadcast Bonneville International's "iChannel" music format, which features unsigned, independent rock bands on the HD2 channel, and the HD3 channel aired continuous traffic and weather updates. Later iChannel was dropped for an LMA of the HD2 to a group that currently airs programming aimed at the South Asian community in the Washington area. Currently, WTOP-FM's HD3 channel is carrying a wide-ranging pop music channel called "The Gamut".

In 2006, WTOP dropped its long-standing association with The Weather Channel and began airing weather reports exclusively from WJLA-TV all day long. Previously, WTOP had used weather reports from WJLA chief meteorologist Doug Hill during morning and evening rush hours and The Weather Channel all other times. Until 2015, the station used all WJLA meteorologists, not just Doug Hill. WJLA's "Live Super Doppler 7" has been featured in weather reports as necessary. In 2015, WTOP began airing weather reports and using meteorologists exclusively from WRC-TV all day long.

In 2007, the WTOP radio configuration was realigned once again. WTLP-FM (formerly WGYS) at 103.9 picked up the WTOP simulcast on April 6, 2007 after the adult hits "George 104" simulcast with WXGG (now WPRS-FM, since sold to Radio One) was broken up, and adopted the WTLP calls on July 5, 2007.

Also in 2007, WTOP began broadcasting on WJLA's "Weather Now" digital sub-channel, which is carried on cable systems well beyond WTOP's broadcast area, though this was ended in late July 2009.

In May 2007, WTOP sold the naming rights to its "Glass-Enclosed Nerve Center" (its nickname for its studio) to area business Ledo Pizza.[8] That sponsorship concluded at the end of 2007. Other sponsorship continues, with sportscasts being "fed" by Ledo Pizza.

WTOP AM (which was now on 820 in Frederick) changed its calls to WTWT and switched to the Washington Post Radio simulcast on June 28, 2007. On September 20, 2007, the 1500/107.7/820 multicast changed format over to a general talk format as "Talk Radio 3WT" under the WWWT/WWWT-FM/WWWB call letters, which was cancelled on August 11, 2008. WWWT and WWWB took over the "Federal News Radio" format (and for the 1500 kHz facility, the WFED calls),[9] while WWWT-FM went back to simulcasting WTOP-FM. The former WFED took over the WTOP callsign on the AM dial and became a simulcast of WTOP, with preemptions for sporting events. On June 13, 2009, the 1050 AM frequency changed to a separate news/talk format, operated by Air America Radio as WZAA. On January 26, 2010, following the shutdown of Air America Radio, WZAA returned to the WTOP simulcast. It took back the WTOP call letters on February 1, 2010. WTOP AM left the simulcast on June 23, 2010, as Bonneville leased the station to United Media Group. United Media changed the call letters to WBQH and flipped to Regional Mexican.

In March 2008, WTOP-FM completed a year-long, $2.5-million state-of-the-art renovation of its newsroom and studios, the first since 1989 when the station moved into the building it presently occupies in northwest Washington.

In 2008, WTOP-FM generated $51.75-million in revenue, the sixth-highest total for any radio station in the United States and the only station not based in New York City or Los Angeles to crack the top ten.[10] In 2009, the station generated $51-million in revenue, good for second among all radio stations in the United States, trailing only KIIS-FM in Los Angeles.[11] In 2010, WTOP generated $57.225-million in revenue, making it tops among radio station in the United States.[12] In 2011 WTOP once again generated more revenue than any other station in the United States, this time with $64 million.[13]

WTOP reporter filing story, Inauguration Day 2013

In 2010, WTOP-FM's coverage of the record Washington-area snowfalls in early February earned it record ratings as the only local media outlet on the air and covering the storm live all day and night. During the week of the storms, which dropped two feet of snow in the area, WTOP had a 16.9% share of the area's radio audience, far exceeding its typical weekly average of around 10%. Consumer research company Arbitron estimated a total of 1.49 million people tuned in at some point during the week, 39% of the total local radio audience of 3.8 million.[14]

Bonneville announced the sale of WTOP-FM, WTLP, and WWWT-FM, as well as 14 other stations, to Hubbard Broadcasting on January 19, 2011.[15][16]

In 2011, WTOP-FM brought their traffic reporting in-house, ending their relationship with Metro Networks. This meant that Lisa Baden, the longtime "voice of D.C.-area traffic" and a Metro Networks employee, was forced to leave the station in what WTOP's Vice President of News and Programming Jim Farley said was strictly a business decision. Farley said WTOP tried to bring Baden and other Metro Networks employees to WTOP, but they have clauses in their contracts prohibiting them from working for competitors for one year. Baden said she was "devastated".[17] Shortly after that, Baden joined rival radio station WMAL.[18]

Station profiles

Callsign Frequency City of license ERP Class HAAT Facility ID Former Callsigns
WTOP-FM 103.5 MHz (also on HD Radio) Washington, D.C. 44,000 watts B 158 meters 11845 WGMS (1951–2006)
WQQW (1948–1951)
WTLP 103.9 MHz (also on HD Radio) Braddock Heights, Maryland 350 watts A 292 meters 47105 WGYS (2006–2007)
WWVZ (1996–2006)
WXVR (1995–1996)
WZYQ (1980–1995)
WWWT-FM 107.7 MHz (also on HD Radio) Manassas, Virginia 29,000 watts B 197 meters 21626 WTWP-FM (2006–2007)
WTOP-FM (1998–2006)
WUPP (1997–1998)
WRCY (1992–1997)
WMJR (1984–1992)
WWWK (1982–1984)

The HD3 subchannels of each station, along with WWFD (820 AM, Frederick, Maryland), and W282BA (104.5 FM, Leesburg, Virginia), air a freeform music format known as "The Gamut". Prior to flipping to The Gamut in 2013, WWFD simulcast WFED and W282BA simulcast WTOP. In 2015, WTOP moved The Gamut from 104.3 FM to 104.5 FM.

Programming

Affiliations

WTOP is affiliated with the CBS Radio Network, and reports from several of WTOP's correspondents (including Neal Augenstein, Hank Silverberg and Tom Foty) are played on CBS's network. WTOP's basic format and hourly broadcast schedule, as noted above, is similar to that used by the CBS-owned-and-operated all-news stations, such as WCBS from New York City. WTOP is also affiliated with CNN and the Bloomberg Radio Network.

Ratings

As of July 2009, WTOP is ranked #1 in the Arbitron ratings among radio stations in the Washington area.

As of November 25, 2014, WTOP is still #1 in Washington, DC according to Arbitron. [19]

Recurring segments

Friday Freebies: Usually every Friday, though there are exceptions, WTOP presents sales and deals local stores and businesses are having.

To Your Health: Anchors discuss health topics such as health warnings and how to stay fit every hour.

Garden Plot: Mike McGraph answers listener's gardening questions.

Mystery Newsmaker Contest: WTOP plays a clip from the past week and if a listener guesses who the voice belongs to, they win something, usually tickets to events or museums.

Core Values: Former WMAL pundit Chris Core has a few minutes long monologue similar to Bill O'Reilly's Talking Points memo segment on The O'Reilly Factor.

Sprawl & Crawl: A correspondent usually discuss road construction that could slow down traffic and why it's happening.

Data Doctor's Tech Tips: In this feature they discuss tech scares such as viruses or offer tech advice, similar to Mike McGraph's Garden Plot.

My Take: Similar to Core Values, except that this time it's hosted by Clinton Yates.

Winning Word: Several times a day the host wull say a word and tell listeners to text it back to WTOP. Like Mystery Newsmaker, in which WTOP gives out tickets or coupons, WTOP gives those out as well has hard cash as prizes.

Awards

See also

References

  1. ↑ "WTOP Facility Record". Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  2. ↑ "WTLP Facility Record". Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  3. ↑ "WWWT Facility Record". Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  4. ↑ "W282BA Facility Record". Federal Communications Commission, audio division.
  5. ↑ http://hdradio.com/station_guides/widget.php?id=8 HD Radio Guide for Washington D.C.
  6. ↑ NIAC Order No. 1, Dec 1970, Retrieved on 2010-10-22.
  7. ↑ "Washington, D.C.". TopHour. 2014. Archived from the original on March 21, 2015. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
  8. ↑ "DCRTV.org". Retrieved 2011-12-03.
  9. ↑ Federal News Radio Expands to Full Market Signal (3wtradio.com)
  10. ↑ "WVbroadcasting.net". WVbroadcasting.net. 2009-04-13. Retrieved 2011-12-03.
  11. ↑ Clabaugh, Jeff (March 17, 2010). "Bizjournals.com". Bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2011-12-03.
  12. ↑ "BIA/Kelsey". Blog.kelseygroup.com. 2011-03-28. Retrieved 2011-12-03.
  13. ↑ Clabaugh, Jeff (April 12, 2012). "Bizjournals.com". Bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2012-04-13.
  14. ↑ Farhi, Paul (2010-03-03). "WTOP (103.5 FM) tops ratings with coverage of Washington's Feb. snowstorms". Washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2011-12-03.
  15. ↑ Farhi, Paul (January 20, 2011). "WTOP news radio to be sold to Minnesota broadcaster". Washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 2011-12-03.
  16. ↑ "Hubbard deal to purchase Bonneville stations closes". Radio Ink. May 2, 2011. Retrieved May 2, 2011.
  17. ↑ "Voice of D.C.-area traffic reluctantly leaves WTOP". Washingtonexaminer.com. Retrieved 2011-12-03.
  18. ↑ "Traffic Reporter Lisa Baden Joins WMAL/Washington". 2015-06-11. Retrieved 2016-02-16.
  19. ↑ "RADIO ONLINE ®". radio-online.com.
  20. ↑ "2010 Marconi Awards". FMQB.

Coordinates: 38°56′10″N 77°05′31″W / 38.936°N 77.092°W / 38.936; -77.092

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