WFUN (AM)

This article is about AM radio station WFUN in Ashtabula, Ohio. For the former legendary station WFUN in South Miami, Florida, see WAXY (AM).

WFUN
Broadcast area	Ashtabula, Ohio/Erie, Pennsylvania
Branding	ESPN 970 WFUN
Slogan	Your Sports Giant
Frequency	970 (kHz)
First air date	September 21, 1937 (as WICA)
Format	Sports/talk
Power	5,000 watts day 1,000 watts night
Class	B
Callsign meaning	"The FUN* spot on your dial!"*
Former callsigns	1937–1960: WICA 1960–1978: WREO
Affiliations	Cleveland Browns Radio Network Cleveland Cavaliers Radio Network Cleveland Indians Radio Network Ohio State IMG Sports Network
Owner	Media One Group (Media One Holdings, LLC)
Website	www.espn970wfun.com

WFUN is an AM radio station in Ashtabula, Ohio, USA broadcasting at 970 kHz with a sports radio format. It is one of four stations in the Media One Group's Ashtabula cluster, the others being WZOO-FM, WREO-FM, WYBL (FM) and WFXJ-FM—all of which were sold off by Clear Channel in September 2007.

History

The station signed on the air in 1937 as WICA (its call letters having stood for "Industry, Commerce, Agriculture"). WICA started an FM sister station, WICA-FM, on 103.7 MHz around 1950. The dial position of WICA-FM soon moved to the current spot of 97.1 MHz, duplicating the programming of the AM station. Both AM and FM stations were owned by Richard D. and David C. Rowley since their inception.

WICA and WICA-FM later became WREO and WREO-FM, taking their calls from the company name Radio Enterprises of Ohio, Inc. (albeit being formally formed on October 7, 1986). WREO would change its call sign to WFUN on July 3, 1978, taking the call letters of a legendary AM Top 40 station in Miami, Florida while eventually adopting an oldies format. The call letters WREO were retained by the sister FM station, which continues today with a Soft AC format.

In May 2000 the Rowleys sold the stations and WZOO-FM to Clear Channel. WFUN's oldies format was dropped in February 2001 for a standard news/talk format (Rush Limbaugh's show was the only one retained, as WFUN aired it since the early 90s), adding Dr. Laura, Jim Rome, Coast to Coast AM and Fox Sports Radio. Morning drive on the station remained local throughout this time, evolving into basic a local news and political talk show hosted by Roger McCoy and later by John Broom.

Clear Channel sold their Ashtabula cluster, including WFUN, in September 2007 to Media One Group (headed by Embrescia and dubbed "Sweet Home Ashtabula" as a placeholder). WFUN's programming changed on November 3, 2007 over to a sports/talk format affiliated with ESPN Radio, dropping all political talk programming and electing to go for a smaller, male dominated, core audience.^[1]^[2]^[3] logo before 2007

Since 2012 WFUN has served as the ESPN Radio affiliate for Erie, Pennsylvania due to WRIE taking the CBS Sports Radio affiliation.

WICA-TV

Main article: WICA-TV

Richard D. and David C. Rowley, the founders of WICA AM/FM, also started WICA-TV on channel 15 in the 1950s. Hampered both by broadcasting on the (then relatively unknown) UHF dial, and with no network affiliation of any sort, WICA-TV had limited broadcast hours, a sparse and often overused film library, and a heavy amount of local programming (usually filmed with only one camera). WICA-TV started broadcasting on September 19, 1953, but quietly signed off around June 21, 1956.

The Rowley family then reactivated WICA-TV on April 4, 1966, with an intent of donating it as a non-profit educational license. As was in its first incarnation, WICA-TV was again hampered with no network programming, an often overused and limited film library of mediocre and low rental fare. In addition, WICA-TV still broadcast only in black-and-white when most stations already converted to color (WQEX in Pittsburgh was the last licensed television station to convert in 1986.) and still filmed local programming with only one camera.

WICA-TV signed off for good on December 26, 1967, with its license returned to the FCC. The UHF antenna is the sole remaining element of WICA-TV's existence, still affixed to the WREO-FM tower.

References

↑ "WFUN/Ashtabula To Flip To Sports". AllAccess.com.
↑ "Making Moves: Morning Edition". Radio-Info.com. October 29, 2007.
↑ "WZOO goes oldies, WFUN to switch to all sports". starbeacon.com.

External links

Radio stations in the Ashtabula, Ohio region

By FM frequency	88.1 89.1 90.5 90.9 91.3 93.7 93.9 94.7 97.1 97.9 98.3 99.9 100.9 102.5 103.7 104.7 105.5 107.5

By AM frequency	970 1360

By NOAA Weather Radio frequency	162.400

By callsign	W201DP WERG WQLN-FM WCVJ WFUN WRTS WQGR-FM WRKT WXKC WFXJ-FM WGOJ WXBB WKKY WTWF WXTA WKSV WREO WWOW WYBL WZOO

Ohio radio markets Akron Canton Cincinnati Cleveland Columbus Dayton Lima Marietta Toledo Youngstown–Warren Other Ohio radio regions Ashtabula Ironton Mid-Ohio Sandusky Southern Ohio Wheeling/Steubenville See also List of radio stations in Ohio

Radio stations in the Meadville-Franklin, Pennsylvania market

By AM frequency	790 940 970 1120 1450 1490

By FM frequency	89.5 90.3 90.3 91.1 91.9 91.9 94.3 95.1 96.3 98.5 99.3 100.3 101.7 104.5 107.7

By callsign	W212BK W220BA WARC WAWN WFRA WFUN WGYI WGYY WHMJ WKQW WKQW-FM WGRP WGYY WMGW WMVL WOXX WPIC WSAJ-FM WUZZ WUUZ WVME WWGY WXXO

Defunct stations	WOYL/1340 WSAJ/1340

Pennsylvania radio markets Allentown–Bethlehem Altoona Bradford–Coudersport Chambersburg–Waynesboro Erie Harrisburg–Lebanon–Carlisle Lancaster Montrose New Castle Philadelphia Pittsburgh Reading Sayre–Towanda–Mansfield–Wellsboro Wilkes-Barre–Scranton Williamsport York Other Pennsylvania radio regions Bedford Indiana Johnstown Lewistown–Mifflintown Meadville–Franklin Punxsutawney–DuBois St. Marys–Emporium–Kane State College Stroudsburg Sunbury–Selinsgrove–Lewisburg Warren See also List of radio stations in Pennsylvania

ESPN Radio stations in the state of Ohio

Full-time affiliates	Ashtabula WFUN Cambridge WILE Cincinnati WCKY Columbus WBNS Columbus WBNS-FM Cleveland WKNR Cleveland WWGK Dayton WING Lima WWSR-FM Logan WLGN Mansfield WRGM AM/FM Marietta WJAW Massillon WTIG McConnelsville WJAW-FM Middleport WMPO Portsmouth WNXT

Part-time affiliates	Archbold WMTR Bellefontaine WBLL Celina WCSM Centerville WKBV Chillicothe WCHI Findlay WFIN Marietta WMOA Paulding WKSD Uhrichsville WBTC West Middlesex WWIZ

See also List of ESPN Radio affiliates See also adult contemporary classic hits college country news/talk NPR oldies religious rock sports top 40 urban other radio stations in Ohio See also ESPN Radio ESPN Deportes Radio Fox Sports Radio CBS Sports Radio NBC Sports Radio Yahoo! Sports Radio Sports Byline USA

Coordinates: 41°48′52″N 80°46′45″W / 41.81444°N 80.77917°W / 41.81444; -80.77917

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