Radio Oldies WMVO

WMVO is an AM radio station in Mount Vernon, Ohio located at 1300 kHz. The station plays a full service oldies format along with assorted talk and sports programming. It carries syndicated host Doug Stephan in the morning, local hosts in the midday hours, and Citadel Media's "The True Oldies Channel" format in all other hours. Naturally, WMVO is also an ABC News Radio affiliate.WMVO and sister station WQIO-FM were founded by Helen E. Zelkowitz in the 1950s and remained locally owned and operated until their pending sale in 1994. Then Ashland Broadcasting purchased the stations to pair with WNCO-A/WNCO-F in nearby Ashland. The name of the company was Ohio Radio Group.In 1996 Ohio Radio purchased WGLN-FM in Galion, and later that fall were able to purchase WWBK-FM in Fredericktown and WBZW-FM Loudonville which they turned Country.In 2001 Ohio Radio Group was purchased by Clear Channel in the sole purpose to move WMRN-FM to Columbus and trade WBZW Loudonville for Dix Broadcasting's WQKT-FM Wooster which they would move to Barberton to replace WKDD.Clear Channel couldn't take all the stations, so they had to sell off WBCO-AM/WQEL-FM to Scantland Communications of Columbus. Also that year WYXZ put the cluster over the limit and it was sold to Elyria Lorain Broadcasting. The swap for WQKT/WBZW also never took place.Clear Channel's newly realigned cluster in 2001 looked like:WNCO-AM Ashland - NostalgiaWMVO-AM Mount Vernon - NostalgiaWMRN-AM Marion - News/TalkWMAN-AM Mansfield - News/TalkWNCO-FM Ashland/Mansfield - CountryWQIO-FM Mount Vernon - Adult ContemporaryWWBK-FM Mount Vernon - Top 40WBZW-FM Loudonville/Ashland - Top 40WYNT-FM Upper Sandusky - OldiesWDIF-FM Marion - Top 40WMRN-FM Marion - CountryWFXN-FM Galion - Classic RockWSWR-FM Mansfield - OldiesWYHT-FM Mansfield - Hot ACIn 2005, Clear Channel spun off WMVO and WQIO to BAS Broadcasting, based out of Fremont, Ohio. Most of WQIO's airstaff (which by then was predominately voicetracked) and long-time WMVO personality Ron Staats were dismissed with the ownership change. Since then, WMVO has maintained its' local programming block during the morning and midday hours up to the present day.Prior to February 13, 2010, WMVO was an affiliate of ABC Radio/Citadel Media's Timeless satellite channel, which it carried during non-local programming. After that format's shutdown by Citadel, WMVO switched to a relay of The True Oldies Channel.