is a
News /
Talk Radio Station in broadcasting at 1300 kHz.
It is the oldest radio station in West Michigan and one of the oldest in the world, having signed on
September 16 ,
1924 as WEBK. The station opened at the Baxter Laundry Company and the call letters stood for "World-wide Baxter Dry Cleaning". The station's original owners were backed by the Furniture Manufacturers Association of Grand Rapids. At their suggestion, the station became WOOD on January 26, 1926.
It broadcast on Sundays and Wednesdays during its early years in order to avoid competition with stations in
Chicago ,
Detroit and
Cleveland --all of which could easily be heard in West Michigan.
It went through numerous owners over the years before being bought by John King (known as John Kunsky until
1936 ) and
George Trendle , owners of
WXYZ-AM 1270 in Detroit, in
1930 . They bought Grand Rapids' second radio station, WASH, a year later; the two stations had shared the same frequency, 1270, for four years. The station operated as WOOD-WASH (with WASH on the air during the day and WOOD at night) until
1942 , when the WASH license was dropped. At about the same time, WOOD's broadcast power was increased from 500 watts to 5000 watts.
In
1946 , the fledgling
American Broadcasting Company bought the King-Trendle stations, but the
FCC forced ABC to sell WOOD since it had been an
NBC affiliate since
1935 . After a two-year dispute between competing buyers, the station was finally sold to Harry Bitner, former general manager of the
Hearst Newspaper Chain , in
1948 .
Time, Inc. bought WOOD in
1957 and owned it until
1972 , when a local group bought the station. After a series of ownership changes over the next quarter-century, Clear Channel bought WOOD in
1996 . Over the years the station's format evolved from full-service
Middle Of The Road into standard News/Talk.
Today, WOOD's lineup includes the area's only all-news morning program, "Grand Rapids Morning News" with Gary Allen, John Matlak & John Bry, the locally hosted "Rick & Scott Show" with Rick Beckett & Scott Winters,
Rush Limbaugh ,
Sean Hannity ,
Michael Savage ,
Paul Harvey ,
Neal Boortz ,
Jerry Doyle , and
Coast To Coast AM . Local programming runs weekdays from 5:00am to 11:45am, and national programming runs weekdays from 11:45am to 5:00am.
WOOD Radio's award winning local newsroom provides local, regional and national news every day of the week, plus top of the hour newscasts from
Fox News Radio from 8pm-4am weekdays It also utilizes reports and breaking news coverage through an ancillary affiliation with
CBS Radio News . The WOOD newsroom is staffed by four full time and two part-time reporters including John Bry, Gordon Gould, Curt McKay, John C. Smith, Drew Harmon and News Director Rob St.Mary.
Weekend programs and hosts are:
Mike McConnell ,
Neal Boortz ,
Cigar Dave ,
Rusty Humphries ,
Bob Costas ,
Coast To Coast AM ,
Kim Komando ,
Monica Crowley ,
Dave Ramsey ,
Bruce Dumont ,
Matt Drudge and local how-to programming covering
Cars ,
Home Improvement ,
Gardening ,
Mutual Funds ,
Health ,
Law ,
Pets , and
Military . The station also airs
Paul Harvey "News & Comment" weekdays at 8:30am and 11:45am, and The "Rest Of The Story Feature" at 6:59pm weekdays, and 12:05pm Saturday. The weekly presidential radio address airs Saturdays at 12:20pm.
NEWSRADIO WOOD 1300 AM is the Grand Rapids home of
University Of Michigan Football and
Basketball , and it serves as flagship station for
Grand Rapids Griffins Ice Hockey .
Since
1951 , the station's mascot has been Willie Wood, a cartoon
Woodpecker .
