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WTOL
Channels
Branding
  • WTOL 11[1]
  • WTOL 11 News
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
WUPW
History
FoundedDecember 5, 1958 (66 years ago) (1958-12-05)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog: 11 (VHF, 1958–2009)
  • Digital: 17 (UHF, 2002–2009)[1]
NBC (secondary, 1958–1969)
Call sign meaning
Toledo ("TOL" is also the IATA airport code for Toledo)
Technical information[2]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID13992
ERP26 kW
HAAT305 m (1,001 ft)
Transmitter coordinates41°40′22″N 83°22′47″W / 41.67278°N 83.37972°W / 41.67278; -83.37972
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.wtol.com

WTOL (channel 11) is a television station in Toledo, Ohio, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Tegna Inc., which provides certain services to Fox affiliate WUPW (channel 36) under a joint sales agreement (JSA) with American Spirit Media. The two stations share studios on North Summit Street in downtown Toledo; WTOL's transmitter is located on Cedar Point Road in Oregon, Ohio.

History

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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)[3] 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 along with WTOL radio (AM 1230, now WCWA; and FM 104.7, now WIOT). It was sold to Filmways (now part of Amazon MGM Studios) in 1962. The Broadcasting Company of the South, a subsidiary of South Carolina 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, in 1974, and WTOL came directly under the Liberty banner after Liberty sold off its insurance business in 2003.

WTOL's italic "Toledo 11" logo, used from 1980 to 1996. The "11" from this logo is currently in use at former sister station WTOC-TV.

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 on the lineup of Cancom (later Shaw Broadcast Services), which provided American networks to cable and satellite viewers in many areas across Canada (particularly Atlantic Canada and the Prairies). The changeover occurred shortly before WJBK was due to switch its affiliation from CBS to Fox 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 WWJ-TV) until mere days before the change, partly because of a deal reached by Scripps which saw WXYZ-TV renew its affiliation with ABC and caused three other stations 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. 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 and much of southern Wayne and Washtenaw counties, and grade B coverage to most of Detroit itself.

Raycom Media announced its acquisition of Liberty Media in 2005. Raycom already owned WNWO, but couldn't keep both because the Federal Communications Commission (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, who acquired that station in 2006.

WTOL's broadcasts became digital-only, effective June 12, 2009.[4] 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.[5] In January 2012, LIN TV Corporation announced it would sell its local Fox affiliate WUPW to American Spirit Media 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 with WUPW.[6] 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.[7]

Tegna ownership

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On June 25, 2018, Atlanta-based Gray Television 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.[8][9][10][11][12][13] On August 20, it was announced that McLean, Virginia–based Tegna Inc. would purchase WTOL and sister station KWES-TV in Odessa, Texas, for $105 million.[14] The deal was completed on January 2, 2019.[15] This made WTOL a sister station to NBC affiliate WKYC in Cleveland (and later to fellow CBS affiliate WBNS-TV in Columbus 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.

News operation

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As of September 2023, WTOL presently broadcasts 45 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with seven hours each weekday, three hours on Saturdays and two hours on Sundays). In addition, WTOL produces 18+1⁄2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week for Fox-affiliated sister station WUPW (with 3+1⁄2 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 is issued for any county in its northwest Ohio viewing area.

In October 2011, WTOL was certified by WeatheRate as having the most accurate forecasts for Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan.[16]

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 p.m. in celebration of Peterson's twenty years at WTOL.[17] 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.[18]

In January 2017, Emilie Voss announced she would leave WTOL after five years.[19] 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.[20] In June 2018, Jerry Anderson announced his retirement, with June 15 being his final day on the air.[21] Morning anchor Andrew Kinsey was promoted to the evening shift[22] 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 to motivate local high school students heading into their exams, which featured its anchors excessively using slang. The segment received mixed attention, with some observers considering it to be an exaggerated attempt to appeal to the demographic, 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 reached as high as 3 million views.[23]

Notable former on-air staff

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Subchannels

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The station's signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of WTOL[1]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
11.1 1080i 16:9 WTOL CBS
11.2 480i Crime True Crime Network[24]
11.3 Grit Grit
11.4 Quest Quest
11.5 Shop LC Shop LC
11.6 Get TV GetTV
11.7 Nest The Nest
11.8 Laff Laff

References

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  1. ^ a b c "RabbitEars TV Query for WTOL". RabbitEars. Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  2. ^ "Facility Technical Data for WTOL". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  3. ^ 1959 Broadcasting Yearbook (PDF). Broadcasting Publications, Inc. p. B-66 (64).
  4. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). hraunfoss.fcc.gov. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved January 17, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. ^ "WTOL11 to launch ME-TV on channel 11.2 Jan. 30 - Toledo News Now, News, Weather, Sports, Toledo, OH". Wtol.com. January 25, 2012. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  6. ^ Malone, Michael. "LIN Deals Toledo Fox Affiliate to American Spirit". Broadcasting and Cable. Retrieved April 22, 2012.
  7. ^ Baird, Kirk. "TV news merger moving forward". Toledo Blade. Retrieved April 20, 2012.
  8. ^ "GRAY AND RAYCOM TO COMBINE IN A $3.6 BILLION TRANSACTION". Raycom Media (Press release). June 25, 2018. Archived from the original on June 25, 2018. Retrieved July 3, 2018.
  9. ^ Miller, Mark K. (June 25, 2018). "Gray To Buy Raycom For $3.6 Billion". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheckMedia. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
  10. ^ Eggerton, John (June 25, 2018). "Gray Buying Raycom for $3.6B". Broadcasting & Cable.
  11. ^ Hayes, Dade (June 25, 2018). "Gray Acquiring Raycom For $3.65B, Forming No. 3 Local TV Group". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Media Corporation.
  12. ^ "What the Raycom/Gray merger means for WTOL and you". WTOL. Raycom Media. June 25, 2018. Retrieved July 3, 2018.
  13. ^ Baird, Kirk; Chavez, Jon (June 25, 2018). "Big TV ownership deal affects Toledo". Toledo Blade. Retrieved July 3, 2018.
  14. ^ "TEGNA to Acquire the Leading Television Stations WTOL in Toledo, OH, and KWES in Odessa-Midland, TX". Tegna Inc. August 20, 2018. Retrieved August 20, 2018.
  15. ^ "TEGNA Completes Acquisition of Leading Stations WTOL in Toledo, OH and KWES in Midland-Odessa, TX". TEGNA. January 2, 2019. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
  16. ^ "StomTrack 11 certified as most accurate - Toledo News Now, News, Weather, Sports, Toledo, OH". Wtol.com. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  17. ^ Anderson, Jerry. "Chrys Peterson leaving WTOL 11 to spend more time with family - Toledo News Now, News, Weather, Sports, Toledo, OH". Toledonewsnow.com. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  18. ^ "Emilie Voss to anchor WTOL 11 News at 5, 6 and 11 - Toledo News Now, News, Weather, Sports, Toledo, OH". Toledonewsnow.com. Archived from the original on July 7, 2014. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  19. ^ "Voss leaving Toledo market after nearly 5 years". The Blade. January 6, 2017. Retrieved June 26, 2018.
  20. ^ "Leigh to co-anchor newscasts on WTOL-TV, Channel 11". The Blade. February 8, 2017. Retrieved June 26, 2018.
  21. ^ "Longtime anchor Jerry Anderson ready to sign off for last time". The Blade. June 14, 2018. Retrieved June 26, 2018.
  22. ^ "WTOL 11 plays 20 questions with Andrew Kinsey as he swaps the morning shows for the evening". Retrieved June 26, 2018.
  23. ^ "'Weather's going to be turnt, right?': A news team's experiment in teen slang left viewers 'cringing'". Washington Post. March 28, 2019. Retrieved March 29, 2019.
  24. ^ "MeTV to be replaced by Justice Network", WTOL, September 13, 2019, Retrieved October 1, 2019.
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