1230 WiTO radio station back on the air as ‘community partner’

“1230 WiTO” (complete with the lowercase “i”) is back, billing itself as “Classic Hits — the music you know, the station you love — 1230 WiTO.” 

“We flipped the switch on at 12 noon (on Monday, May 12) with the actual format. I’ve been monitoring on AM (radio) at the top of the hill,” Bryan Fowler, general manager with Fowler Media, said of the rebirth of the AM 1230 radio station that was a mainstay in Ironton for decades.

While it is available to listeners in Ironton, Ashland and surrounding cities and counties at 1230 on the AM radio band, it is also available via 1230wito.com online, and through an app available in the Google Play store for Android devices. The Apple Store app should be available this week.

The first song played on 1230 WiTO was the national anthem.

“I play that on all of our stations,” Fowler said. “It will play every day at noon.”

Fowler said everything is up and running with the new format, offering the station via 30 different digital platforms online. The station plays a hybrid of traditional classic hits such as pop, soft rock–1980s and 90s music.

“We will play music up until five years ago if it has been in the top five on the charts,” Fowler said. “It is upbeat and bright!”

The station’s music library, consisting of more than 1,800 songs, goes back to the 1960s.

“Stuff like the Hollies, the Beatles, some classic rock,” Fowler said. “It is a wide playlist.”

Fowler said when planning the strategy for the station the primary objective is to restore “excitement and interest into AM 1230.” Fowler said the station has been gone for a long time. 

“Many people did not even know the building is still here,” Fowler said. “You couldn’t see it anymore.”

The work on the station consisted of coming up with a format that would be of interest to people who are willing to listen to AM radio — the reason for offering 60s and 70s music, in addition to other culturally relevant songs from more recent decades. 

“If you get someone who’s 35 to 40 years old, they’re going to hear music that they heard when they rode around with Mom and Dad on the way to work or ball practice,” Fowler said. “Or grandpa driving a truck…”

There is just enough newer music that listeners will not “feel like they’re caught up in a time warp.”

Fowler said he feels like the station has a “good balance” in its presentation. 

“When you listen to it, you’re going to feel traditional,” he said. “That’s just to give people that good feeling of why we all fell in love with radio to begin with.” 

The station also has a modern feel to it, too, according to Fowler. 

“That is so younger people when they do listen, they don’t feel like they’re on an island,” he said. “1230 is tuned up; it sounds good. We also wanted to make certain it is available on all the modern platforms.” 

The community focus of the station, according to Fowler, has already begun. The Ironton-Lawrence County Memorial Day Parade committee is allowing 1230 WiTO to provide a patriotic soundtrack for this year’s parade on May 26.

“We’re putting together a patriotic, all-American presentation of songs through the decades — back to the 1920s — that will play during the parade,” he said. “Our station will be in the parade and as we’re going through it people will be able to listen to the music on a radio or the app.”

Fowler’s wife, Jody (an Ironton High School alumna), “is a big part of this.”

“She has been behind me, pushing really strong,” Fowler said. “She’s in town helping me.”

Fowler (a Symmes Valley alumnus) said “it feels good” to provide the station to its community.

The Fowlers have worked this week, clearing the hillside where the station’s transmitter is located, on Nixon Hill Road in Ironton, its familiar spot overlooking downtown. They will continue to work on the building. In addition to operating out of the original building in Ironton, there is another studio and advertising sales office on the sixth floor of the Skytower in Ashland.

“I hope the community accepts the station and is happy to hear it,” he said.