Tiffin station WTTF/1600 is set to move to their new home, and meet new neighbors WHEI/88.9 and cable access “WHEI-TV10,” sometime this month.
It’s been a bizarre trip for the station founded by Bob Wright and Milton Maltz (now you know how “Malrite” – Maltz-Wright(e) – got its name!) ever since Clear Channel sold off WTTF, along with now-silent WPFX/107.7 North Baltimore and their Sandusky cluster, to Fremont-based BAS Broadcasting back in early 2008. (The remaining Tiffin station, WCKY/103.7, moved their city of license to Pemberville in 2009, but has rarely – if ever – made any sort of attempt to target the Toledo market.)
One day after taking over the two stations, BAS announced the sale of WTTF to radio talk show host Doug Stephan’s Tiffin Broadcasting, LLC. Weeks after the purchase, Stephan then made public his intention to donate the station to his alma mater, Heidelberg University, as a training operation for students.
Until then, BAS has been operating WTTF via a reverse LMA, clearing Stephan’s “Good Day” show (naturally) and, for now, Citadel’s Scott Shannon-programmed “The True Oldies Channel” – with a skeleton staff. (News coverage had also been supplied from BAS/Sandusky news director Steve Shoffner.)
That arrangement is slated to end at some point this month, when WTTF makes the move to Heidelberg University’s Adams Hall School of Business – the former Laird Hall of Science. That building was just dedicated last month and is now open to the public. While still operating as a commercial entity, WTTF will combine operations with student-run WHEI. (Curiously, WTTF operations manager Russ Snyder alluded to a WTTF-FM surfacing on the radio dial next year – is he referring to a potential renaming for WHEI?)
BAS will continue to assist Tiffin Broadcasting and Heidelberg in some of the station’s operations, mainly for sales but also for some programming purposes. That makes sense, given the close working relationship between BAS’ principal owners and Stephan himself.
The dreams that Doug Stephan has made for the small station now slowly are starting to come to life…
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