A New Era at WOWO Radio

WOWO Radio, the radio station I work for and one of the stations I grew up listening to has promoted our News and Program Director, Kayla Blakeslee.  Starting Wednesday 10/16/18, Kayla has become the new host of Fort Wayne’s Morning News on WOWO.

What makes this newsworthy is the history of WOWO and the future of WOWO.

WOWO has been on the air since March 31, 1925, one of a handful of AM radio stations that were on the air, in the early days of broadcasting.  1190 AM has been the place to find WOWO all of my life, but that move to 1190 didn’t occur until about 20 years after they first signed on at 1320AM and later on 1160AM.

Bob Sievers was the morning man for WOWO from the 1930’s until the 1990’s.  Bob was who I woke up to in the 70’s and honestly, I lost track of who was on in the mornings when I moved out of state in 1986. When I returned to Fort Wayne 20 years ago, it was Macy in the Morning.  I worked with Dave Macy for awhile at another station in Fort Wayne after he left WOWO.

Over time, WOWO evolved from being what was known as a full service radio station that had radio personalities that played music and had news to becoming a full time news and talk station the past 20 years.  For the past 14 years, Charly Butcher has been the host on Fort Wayne’s Morning News on WOWO.  Charly unexpectedly passed away this summer while on vacation.  Charly is legendary because he actually came to Fort Wayne in the 1980’s and worked on the air at our sister station WMEE before making the switch to WOWO in 2004.

Charly was just 61. and we expected him to continue into his 80’s as he was full of energy and loved what he did on the air with WOWO and in the community. His loss was a shock and loss not just for the staff and his family, but for the thousands of people who listened to him for years.

At first we had local broadcast veteran Steve Shine who was Charly’s vacation fill in host, alternate with Kayla Blakeslee to cover the hosting duties.   But both of them had full time positions already and when WOWO got an offer from former WOWO News Director Mike Wilson to fill in for 4 weeks, we took it.

Mike gave us some breathing room.  He was not available to take the position long term, but having a month to review applicants and make a decision for the future of WOWO was a blessing.

When I found out that Kayla was going to be taking over, about a week before it was public, I was happy.

The initial reaction on WOWO’s text line and social media was also very positive. Here’s one of the Facebook comments:

Kayla was the obvious choice for the ‘morning drive’ at WOWO. Congratulations to Kayla, and to Federated Media for having the hootzpah to put a lady in that slot!! Nice going, everyone!!

In doing some research, a friend of mine, Blaine, only found one other woman who has been the morning host on a major news talk radio station in Boston, and her duties were that of a co-host, not the main anchor, or ringleader as I like to refer it to.

I honestly don’t think that the radio industry is sexist however Kayla is breaking new ground as the first female news host on WOWO.  This is different from being a news anchor or news reporter, WOWO has had women in that position for years.  Women on the air hosting a radio show on WOWO is not new either. Carol Ford was on in the late 1970’s when WOWO played music.

Kayla also represents a generational change.  Kayla is in her 30’s and quite frankly, she’s at the age when a lot of people start listening to news/talk radio. Being a member of the millennial generation creates a lot of positives.  For example, she has the ability to relate to the 2nd largest generation because she is one.  Baby Boomers are still the largest but as we age, the number of living Boomers is declining.

Kayla hosting Fort Wayne’s Morning News also presents a fresh opportunity for the local business community for advertising opportunities.  Our radio program hosts, Pat Miller, Rick Wolf and previously Charly Butcher offer the crème de la crème of advertising opportunities in Fort Wayne with Live Testimonial and Endorsement ads on WOWO.  These are usually the most effective and impactful ads available anywhere.  Ask me about them.

Kayla has been doing a recorded version of these testimonial endorsement ads for a few years taking advantage of her trusted name recognition as the WOWO news and program director, but now we are able to take the next step and do Live Testimonial and Endorsement ads with Kayla on Fort Wayne’s Morning News on WOWO.   These are limited and if you and your business want to see if you qualify, please contact me right away. Email Scott@WOWO.com, that’s Scott@WOWO.com.

The Future of WOWO is in good hands with Kayla and the Fort Wayne Morning News team starting the day for thousands of listeners every morning. The legendary Bob Sievers and Charly Butcher would both be proud as we are in the midst of history in the making at WOWO.