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| Broadcast area | |
| Frequency | 610kHz |
| Branding | Newsradio 610 WIOD |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Format | Talk radio |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| History | |
First air date | January 18, 1926; 99 years ago (1926-01-18) |
Former call signs |
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Call sign meaning | "Wonderful Isle Of Dreams" (original station location) |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 14242 |
| Class | B |
| Power |
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Transmitter coordinates | 25°42′40.4″N80°28′30.2″W / 25.711222°N 80.475056°W /25.711222; -80.475056 |
| Repeater | 105.9 WBGG-FM HD2 (Fort Lauderdale) |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Webcast | Listen live (viaiHeartRadio) |
| Website | wiod |
WIOD (610AM) is acommercial radio station inMiami, servingSouth Florida. It airs atalk radioformat and is owned byiHeartMedia, The studios are on SW 145th Avenue inPembroke Pines. WIOD'stransmitter site is on Krome Avenue inWest End, Florida.[2] WIOD is powered at 50,000 watts by day and 20,000 watts at night.It uses adirectional antenna with a four-tower array.
WIOD is also heard on theHD2subchannel ofsister station 105.9WBGG-FM inFort Lauderdale.
Weekdays on WIOD begin with two Florida-based talk shows, wake-ups with Ryan Gorman (from co-ownedWFLA inTampa) and late mornings with station veteran Manny Munoz.[3][4] The rest of the schedule is made up ofnationally syndicated shows, mostly from co-ownedPremiere Networks:The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show,The Sean Hannity Show,The Glenn Beck Radio Program,The Jesse Kelly Show,Coast to Coast AM withGeorge Noory, and fromCompass Media Networks,This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal.
On weekends, specialty shows are heard on money, health, retirement, cars and pets, some of which are paidbrokered programming. Weekend syndicated shows includeArmstrong & Getty,The Ben Ferguson Show andSunday Nights with Bill Cunningham. In June 2024, WIOD began syndicatingThe Josh Hammer Show on weekends.[5] Most hours begin with an update fromABC News Radio.Accuweather supplies forecasts and the station has a news sharing arrangement withWTVJ channel 6.
Experimental broadcasts byCarl Graham Fisher, a Miami Beach developer, began in the spring of 1925. The station was licensed on January 9, 1926,[6] and formallysigned on the air on January 18, 1926.[7] Fisher selected WIOD as thecall sign, signifying the "Wonderful Isle of Dreams" to commemorate Collins Island, where studios and offices were located. WIOD is Florida's seventh-oldest continuously licensed broadcast radio station.
On February 7, 1925, an earlier station, WMBF, had been licensed to the Fleetwood Hotel Corporation in Miami Beach, with studios on the 16th floor.[8] However, in early 1929 WMBF was consolidated with WIOD, with the combination assigned the dual call sign of WIOD-WMBF.[9] The consolidated station was briefly assigned to WMBF's old frequency of 560 kHz, before moving to 1300 kHz later the same year.[10]
In 1937, the station moved to 610 kHz. In 1940, the WMBF call letters were dropped from the dual call sign, and the station became just WIOD.[11] It was anNBC Red Networkaffiliate through the 1930s, '40s and '50s, airing NBC's schedule of dramas, comedies, news and sports during the "Golden Age of Radio".[12] The studios were at 600 Biscayne Boulevard in Miami. In the 1950s, as network programming was moving from radio to television, WIOD switched to afull service format ofmiddle of the road music (MOR), news and sports.
In 1956, a new Miami television station, channel 7 WCKT (nowWSVN), began operation. Its owner was Biscayne Television, which was a joint arrangement with Miami's two daily newspapers, theCox-ownedMiami News and theKnight-ownedMiami Herald.[13]
In 1956, Biscayne Television acquired 610 AM, and changed the call sign to WCKR, taking the first letters of Cox, Knight and Radio for its call letters. BrandedWacker Radio, it broadcast adult pop music by day, but offeredTop 40 hits at night. The station featured noted South Florida disc jockey Rick Shaw. It also carriedNBC Radio's "Monitor" program on weekends.
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On April 1, 1963, the station returned to its original call sign of WIOD.
On June 16, 1981, WIOD began operating with 10,000 watts day and night, after having been powered at 5,000 watts, the normal maximum for U.S. stations on "regional" frquencies, for most of its post-war history. This was to counter interference being caused by a high-powered Cuban station. This was permitted by aspecial temporary authority (STA) granted by the FCC, that was regularly renewed.
On April 6, 2017, WIOD filed an application for an FCCconstruction permit to move to a new transmitter site, increase day power to 50,000 watts and increase night power to 20,000 watts. It was accepted for filing the following day.[14]
WIOD has been a frequent winner in annual Florida Associated Press statewide competitions.[citation needed] WIOD may be best known for its continuous storm coverage, particularly duringHurricane Andrew,Hurricane Katrina andHurricane Wilma.
WIOD was the radioflagship station of the2006 NBA championsMiami Heatbasketball team from 1996 until 2008. From 1966 until 2001 it was the radio flagship of theMiami Dolphinsfootball team, the longest partnership between a Miami sports team and a radio flagship station. It also was theFlorida Panthers' original flagship station from 1993 until 2003. Currently WIOD is the official broadcast emergency station for the Broward County Commission.
From April 2010 to March 2014 WIOD had beensimulcast onFM translator W262AN at 100.3 MHz. That frequency is now used by a low-power FM station, WQNB. WIOD is also heard on theHD3subchannel ofsister stationWBGG-FM 105.9.
WIOD's former hosts includeLarry King,Neil Rogers,Sally Jessy Raphael,Ron Bennington, Mike Reineri, Bill Calder, Alan Burke, Sandy Peyton, Rick and Suds,Hank Goldberg, Ed Berliner,Randi Rhodes, Big Wilson, Chris Baker,Phil Hendrie,Joey Reynolds, Tom Gauger,Dave LaMont,Tom Leykis, Jack Ellery and Ed Arnold. Former full-time anchors include Mike Woulfe, Lori Shepard, Lauren Pastrana, Patty DeMendoza, Wendi Grossman, Andrew Julian, Ron Hersey, Aron Bender, Randy Lantz, Christina Kautz and John Levitt. Mike Reineri hosted the last music show on WIOD on weekday mornings from 1974 to 1989. At that point, the station switched to a full time talk format. He was still with WIOD till 1992. Reineri's traffic reporter, Dave Mitchell, hosted the show on Saturday and Sunday mornings in the same time slot. Longtime anchor and News Director Lori Shepard left WIOD in August 2013. Other traffic reporters on WIOD in the 1980s and 1990s and 2003-2007 were Miami radio veterans: Richard Lewis, Joe Brennan, George Sheldon, Teri Griffin and Don Anthony (Dave Agony from the WAXY FM days). Joe Brennan left I-Heart's WIOD in 2018, Don Anthony (aka Don Agony) retired from radio broadcasting in 2009, George Sheldon retired from radio/television broadcasting January 31, 2013, in Asheville, NC, Teri Griffin (retired from broadcasting and has moved out of South Florida), and Trish Anderson (deceased). Since 1989 WIOD has had a news-talk format.
Jingles best remembered at WIOD have included "WIOD/Someplace Special", "The sunshine machine is coming your way/WIOD", "Mike Reineri/will get you started and on your way/every morning on WIOD", "Your Hometown Station/WIOD", "Go Dolphins! on WIOD" and "The Miami Heat on WIOD/The Game's On Us/WIOD". WIOD primarily usedTM Productions jingles during the 1970s, mostly resung fromKDKA packages. The station did not have an image song until it hadJAM Creative Productions' "First of All" jingle package resung and customized for them in the mid-1980s. Other JAM jingle series that were reworked to accommodate the six-note WIOD logo include "The Spirit of New England", "New Day", "Superstation" and "New York Fan".WFAN New York's jingle melody is actually modeled after WIOD's jingle melody and, when WIOD had "New York Fan" resung for them, the station ordered a custom package, "Extra Innings", to accompany the "New York Fan" jingles. All JAM Creative Productions jingle series used by WIOD remain available from the company.
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