WTOL is the CBS television affiliate in Toledo, Ohio. The station broadcasts on channel 11 (analog) and 17 (digital) and can be seen quite clearly throughout Northwest Ohio, Southeast Michigan (including Detroit), and southwest Ontario (including Windsor and Essex County, where it is also carried on cable, along with WTVG and WNWO.
History
WTOL began broadcasting on December 5, 1958 as a CBS affiliate with a secondary NBC affiliation. It shared NBC with WSPD-TV (now WTVG) until 1970, when WSPD became exclusively affilated with NBC. WTOL has been exclusively affiliated with CBS ever since. WTOL is also the only station in Toledo to never change its primary affiliation.
The station was originally owned by the Clients of Toledo, Ohio Investors along with WTOL radio (AM 1230, now WCWA; and FM 104.7, now WIOT). and was then sold to Filmways (now part of Sony Pictures Television) 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. 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. Liberty merged with Raycom Media in 2005. Raycom already owned WNWO, but couldn't keep both because the FCC does not allow one person to own two of the four biggest stations in a single market. It opted to keep the higher-rated WTOL and sold WNWO to Barrington Broadcasting.
In December 1994, WTOL replaced Detroit's WJBK on the lineup of Shaw Broadcast Services (formally known as CANCOM) which provided American networks to cable and satellite viewers across Canada. WJBK had recently switched from CBS to Fox, and WTOL was the nearest large-market CBS station to Detroit. WTOL was part of CANCOM until 1999, when it was replaced with Detroit's WWJ-TV.
Also from 1995-1999 WTOL became the de facto CBS affiliate for the southern part of the Detroit-Windsor television market. In 1999 WWJ-TV upgraded its signal and replaced WTOL in CANCOM. Also in 1999, WLNS, the CBS affilate for Lansing-Jackson, Michigan, built a translator in Ann Arbor.
WTOL preempted network programming for many years, but in recent years has carried the entire CBS network schedule, the only exceptions are for the airing of Billy Graham and St. Jude's Hospital specials. As of April 2006 it is still the most watched television station in Toledo. As of May, WTOL topped the ratings in every newscast, except for mornings, where WTVG took the ratings crown.
Since their debuts in syndication, both Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune have aired on WTOL.
Digital Channels
Personalities
News 11 Your Morning
- Brad Harvey
- Melissa Voetsch
- Meteorologist Mike Stone
- Larry Whatley with Traffic
- Dan Bumpus with Breaking News
- Jennifer Boresz- reporter
News 11 Your Day and at Noon
- Dan Bumpus
- Melissa Voetsch
- Meteorologist Mike Stone
- Jennifer Boresz- reporter
News 11 at 5
- Jerry Anderson
- Chrys Peterson
- Chief Meteorologist Robert Shiels
News 11 at 5:30
- Brad Harvey
- Chrys Peterson (temporarily)
- Chief Meteorologist Robert Shiels
News 11 at 6
- Jerry Anderson
- Chrys Peterson
- Chief Meteorologist Robert Shiels
- Dan Cummins
News 11 at 11
- Jerry Anderson
- Chrys Peterson
- Chief Meteorologist Robert Shiels
- Dan Cummins
News 11 Your Morning Saturday and Your Morning Sunday
- Tim Miller
- Colleen Wells
- Meteorologist Tara Hastings
News 11 Weekend Edition
- Jonathan Walsh
- Meteorologist Chris Vickers
- Natalie Grise
Meteorologists
- Robert Shiels
- Mike Stone
- Chris Vickers
- Dave Carlson
- Tara Hastings
Sports
- Dan Cummins
- Natalie Grise
Reporters
- Dick Berry
- Jennifer Boresz
- Dave Carlson
- Mika Highsmith
- Paula Johnson
- Tanieya Lewis
- Tim Miller
- Lisa Rantala
- Ryan Vetter
- Colleen Wells
- Rob Wiercinski
Past Personalities
- Evan Rosen author of The Culture of Collaboration
- Terry Thill
- Jeff Heitz
- Orris Tabner
- Marilou Johanek (Toledo Blade)
- Shelby Croft (WISN)
- Rachel Pfanner Wulff (WDSU)
- Rodney Tims
- Alva Taylor
- Jim Taylor
- Bob Jones (WEWS)
- Phil Jones (WTVF)
- Darrel Richter
- Carly Walker
- Kimberly Craig (WXYZ)
- Eric Haubert (WNWO)
- Joe Nugent (WTVG)
- Kristian Brown (WTVG)
- Bill Hormann (WTVG)
- Joe Rychnovsky (BCSN, WUPW)
- Eric Richey
- Rebecca Fondessy
- Tess Rafols (KTVK)
- Patrice Kennedy
- Faith Murphy
- Chris Casquejo
- Janis Lane
- Jill Olmsted
- Amy Marsalis
- LuAnn Canipe (U.S. Rep. Brad Miller (NC-D)
- Steve Hartman (CBS News)
- Marshall McPeek (WCMH)
- Charlie Umpenhour
- Joscelyn Moes (WFMZ)
- Scott Brown (Edward Jones)
- Shelley Brown (WVUE)
- James Canterbury
WTOL's HD launch
WTOL News Director Mitch Jacob says that WTOL is in the planning stages of it's switch to HD. However, no date has been set.
Station Presentation
Newscast Titles
- George Thompson and the News (1958-1961)
- The Six O'Clock News/The Eleven O'Clock News (1961-1966)
- Eyewitness News (1966-1977)
- NewsCenter 11 (1977-1984)
- Toledo 11 News (1984-1995)
- Toledo 11: The News Channel (1995-2004)
- WTOL News 11 (2004-present)
Station Logos
WTOL's test pattern from around 1984, with the current time on the screen.
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WTOL's "Italic 11" logo, from late 1980s to around 2000. This is from around 1992.
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WTOL's former 1990s logo as "Newschannel 11". Logo is from 1998.
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WTOL's News logo from the early 2000s.
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Bumper advertisement for WTOL's news, from 2007.
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External links
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Raycom Media |
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| Corporate Staff |
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| Network Affiliates |
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| Annual Revenue: Unknown at this time. · Employees: 4,200 · Stock Symbol: None, privately held. · Website: www.raycommedia.com |
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