WVKS

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92.5 KISS FM is a Clear Channel-owned station serving Toledo, Ohio with a Top-40 format; it is the most popular Toledo station in this format.

WVKS' studios and offices are located at Superior and Lafayette in downtown Toledo. The station's transmitter is located at McCutcheonville near Eckel Junction Road in Perrysburg Township, OH.

[edit] Inception and early usage

92.5 went on the air in the Toledo area as WMHE on October 14, 1957. The station was founded by William A. Hillebrand (1917-2005). Though FM broadcasting was still in its infancy at the time, Hildebrand saw FM radio, with its superior sound quality for musical recordings, as an investment that would prove viable in the long run. "He foresaw things that he thought was going to be successful and he was right," his widow, Marvel Hillebrand, told The Toledo Blade after his death in 2005 (1). The call letters stood for "Wired Music Hillebrand Electronics".

WMHE's initial format consisted of "fine arts" music programming, including classical, jazz, and big band music. By the early 1970s, the station had adopted a packaged beautiful music format called "Escape." In 1975, WMHE switched to rock music, then later flipped back to beautiful music and then went through a disco format ("Turn MHE On"), which was changed again, after the death of disco, to a very successful Album Oriented Rock format. In the early 1980s, WMHE was named one of the 500 most-listened-to stations in the country.

In the late 1980s, WMHE switched to Top 40/CHR. To compete better with then rival WRQN, 93Q, the station dropped the call letters WMHE in favor of WVKS and moved to an Adult Top 40 presentation. Their slogan was "The Right Music, Right Now." The new "92.5 KISS FM" became a ratings powerhouse in Toledo, consistently racking up 12+ shares in the double digits and challenging the market's longtime #1 station, country-formatted WKKO (K100).

In the mid-'90s the station was sold to Noble Broadcasting, and its dominance continued. WVKS left its original studio on Bancroft Street and moved downtown with sister stations WRVF and WSPD in 1998 when Clear Channel took over operations. Shortly thereafter 92.5 KISS FM lost its individual identity and became part of Clear Channel's standard issue KISS format. Due to competition from Cumulus Media's WTWR-FM (Tower 98-3), which recently moved from Monroe, Michigan to achieve better coverage of the market, as well as urban stations WJZE and WJUC, 92.5 KISS FM is no longer the ratings giant it was in the 1990s, but still does respectably.

Past owners- Osborne Communications, Noble Broadcasting, Jacor Broadcasting

[edit] Past air talent

• Brad Hanson
• Timm Morrison - now at WWWM in Toledo
• Doug Bermick- now President of Professional Sounds in Toledo.
• Ron Finn - now PD at WRQN in Toledo
• Dave Kennedy (1971) - Now CEO of Susquehanna Media
• Fred Lefebvre - now AM drive at WSPD in Toledo
• Mike Wheeler - now program director at WZGC in Atlanta
• Jim Biggins and Mark Olsen (The Breakfast Club)
• Kim Carson - now at WLHT Grand Rapids, MI
• Dave Fuller - currently at WWWM Star 105.5 in Toledo
• Russ Ryder - now PD at WMLX/WLWD in Lima, OH
• Johny D - now at WCKY-FM in Findlay, OH & WLWD
• Bill Michaels - now PD at WIOT Toledo, as well as Clear Channel Toledo OM
• Larry Weseman - WMHE rock format in mid 70s
• Mike O'Mara - WMHE rock format in mid 70s
• J.T. Dunkin (J. Taylor Dunkin)
• Greg Brady
• Denny Schaffer
• Stacey Latona
• Curt Kruse
• Kramer
• Jerry Gysin
• John Mcknight
• Shannon Bauer
• Margaret Hood
• Carrie Collins
• Tricia Courtney

[edit] Today

92.5 Kiss FM is the #1 CHR format radio station in the Toledo area. On Sundays, it airs American Top 40.

[edit] Current air talent include

• Andrew Z in the Morning
• Randi West
• The Mookie Show
• Boomer On The Radio

[edit] External links

• 92.5 KISS FM official website
• WVKS FM 92.5 at Michiguide
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WVKS