WLIO - History

History

The station signed-on April 18, 1953 with the calls WLOK-TV. It aired an analog signal on UHF channel 73. The station was owned by WLOK Inc Incorporated, Former Ohio State football great Lloyd A. Pixley was President. R. O. Runnerstrom was General Manager. Lyle P. Lee was Commercial Manager. Dave Lee was Program Director. Darrell Hunter was Chief Engineer. Joe Rex was News Director. Perry Beaumont was Farm Director. WLOK Inc was also licensee of WLOK-AM 1240 and WLOK-FM 103.3. WLOK did not evolve into WIMA. The two were separate corporations and competed with each other in the late 40s and early 50s. WLOK-TV carried programming from all four networks of the Golden Age of television (NBC, CBS, ABC, and DuMont). It would eventually lose secondary affiliations with DuMont in 1956, CBS in 1972, and ABC in 1982.

In 1952, the F.C.C. files show two television Construction Permits. WLOK-TV had applied for Channel 73, while WIMA-TV had applied for Channel 35. WLOK was the first to get on the air, April 18, 1953, on UHF Channel 73, with 1,000 watts of power.

Northwestern Ohio Broadcasting Corporation, (WIMA), was owned by George E. Hamilton and Robert W. Mack. They acquired WLOK on April 24, 1955 after the death of Lloyd Pixley, to gain access to the WLOK-TV. Because F.C.C. rules stated a licensee could not own multiple AMs or FMs stations at the time in the same market the WLOK radio licenses were offered to Ohio Northern University, but the university declined due to the costs of operating them. Finding no other interests both the WLOK 1240 license, and the WLOK-FM 103.3 license were mailed back to the F.C.C. with a note to cancel them. Northwestern Ohio Broadcasting Corporation then filed to have the WLOK channel 73 license modified to channel 35, (which Northwestern Ohio Broadcasting Corporation held the C.P.), and changed the call sign to WIMA-TV.

WIMA-TV changed calls again to WLIO-TV after WIMA-AM was sold to the Lima Broadcasting Corporation. On February 1, 1972, WLIO was purchased by the Toledo Blade newspaper and Midwestern Broadcasting of Toledo. In October 1982, Blade Communications (now Block Communications Inc.) bought out Midwestern Broadcasting and became sole owner of the station. Its digital signal on VHF channel 8 signed-on November 18, 2002.

From late-1998 until September 18, 2006, WLIO operated cable-only WB affiliate "WBOH" in partnership with WB 100+. Specifically, this station performed sales and promotional duties for the cable-exclusive affiliate. UPN was seen in Lima on low-powered WLQP-LP. After The WB and UPN merged in September 2006 to create The CW, "WBOH" became part of the new network as part of The CW Plus. WLIO launched a new second digital subchannel in order to offer non-cable subscribers access to the new network. Meanwhile, then-Fox affiliate WOHL added the other new network (MyNetworkTV) in a secondary nature. That station aired programming from the network Monday through Saturday nights from 11 until 1 the next the morning. Eventually, Saturday shows were dropped.

On September 17, 2008, WLIO dropped The CW from its second digital subchannel and began transmitting NBC's WeatherPlus. The CW network reverted to cable-exclusive status in Lima. The cable channel slot was eventually taken over by WBDT from Dayton as the network's de facto affiliate.

In February 2009, Block Communications and WLIO purchased Metro Video Productions. Metro Video owned stations WOHL-CA (Fox), WLQP-LP (ABC), WLMO-LP (CBS), and WFND-LP (America One). On July 13, 2009, WLIO-DT2 became a primary Fox and secondary MyNetworkTV affiliate essentially becoming a second outlet in Lima for the two networks. WOHL-CA (analog) was shut down July 31, 2009.

On June 12, 2009, WLIO's analog operations on channel 35 were shut down. This cleared the way for WOHL-CA (channel 25) to change to digital on channel 35. The call letters were changed to WOHL-CD.

On November 29, 2008, it was announced Metro Video Productions would sell its stations (WLQP, WLMO, and WOHL) to West Central Ohio Broadcasting. One of that company's heads, Allan J. Block, is the chairman of Block Communications (owner of WLIO). While Block assumed control of those station's operations after the sale's completion on February 5, 2009, it was initially stated the company would not close the WLQP/WLMO/WOHL facilities on South Central Avenue and consolidate them with WLIO. It has since been stated some consolidation would take place with the stations moving to WLIO's studios on Rice Avenue. WLIO became digital-exclusive on June 12, 2009 after shutting down its analog signal on UHF channel 35.

On September 28, 2009, WLQP terminated its analog operations and ABC programming was shifted to WOHL. Primary Fox and secondary MyNetworkTV programming seen on that station continued to be aired on WLIO-DT2 and cable. Previously, WLIO-DT used Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) to display its virtual channel as 35. However, when WOHL moved to digital channel 35 in late-2009, the virtual channel assignment was displaced since that station opted to use the same channel number as its actual frequency. As a result, Lima is one of the few markets where two of the largest stations are currently using not only the same virtual channel numbers as their actual RF channels, but also virtual channel numbers different from their former analog channel number assignments.