Early years After the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lifted their "
freeze of 1948" for any additional television stations, WLOK, Inc., owner of
WLOK (1240 AM) and WLOK-FM (103.3), filed an application on June 25, 1952, to broadcast on the
ultra high frequency (UHF) band; WLOK was one of 95 such filings across the country. As part of the application, WLOK proposed expanding the transmitter site of the radio stations—in use since their December 1936 launch—to house both television and radio production. The FCC granted a permit for WLOK on November 20, 1952, to operate on channel 73; competing stations
WIMA/
WIMA-FM also applied for a permit and received one several weeks later on channel 35, initially planning to house WIMA-TV at the Cook Tower in Lima's downtown. WLOK-TV took to the air on April 18, 1953, becoming one of the first UHF stations to operate in the United States.
George E. Condon, television critic for
The Plain Dealer in
Cleveland, witnessed WLOK-TV's debut and praised the station for persevering through construction despite a factory strike preventing the station from getting all the necessary transmitter equipment in time. In addition to live local shows, WLOK-TV carried programming from
NBC,
CBS and
DuMont, all initially via
kinescope and film. NBC filed a request to connect the station into the
Bell System coaxial cable network, and by September 1953, WLOK was carrying network programs live via microwave relay, signing on every day at noon. WLOK radio and television was majority-owned by
Lloyd Pixley, a famed
Ohio State football player who purchased the radio stations from
Fort Industry Broadcasting in 1951. In early November 1953, Pixley issued additional stock in WLOK, Inc., to Columbus-based interests that already held a stake in the stations, reducing his share to 34 percent. Several days later, Pixley suffered a heart attack while watching the 1953
Ohio State–Michigan game and was hospitalized ever since; Pixley died on July 30, 1954, at the age of 54. The same day, WLOK personnel were notified that the stations were in the process of being sold, but the buyer's name was not revealed. The buyer was named on October 30 as the Northwestern Ohio Broadcasting Company, parent of WIMA-AM-FM, acquiring WLOK for $750 in stock and $188,691 in assumed obligations. As part of the deal, WLOK's license was to be shut down and the license surrendered due to FCC regulations banning one company from owning more than one AM station in a market. The FCC approved the deal on December 1, 1954, and WLOK ceased broadcasting seven days later. No loss in personnel took place, and Northwestern kept both WIMA and WLOK-TV operating at their existing studios. Northwestern applied to "move" WLOK-TV to channel 35 on December 7, 1954; Owing to WIMA's existing affiliation with
ABC Radio, the station contracted to carry select
ABC shows in late 1954, which it informally had been doing since earlier in the year. In its early years, the station had a range of local programs, including a local franchise of
Romper Room, two other children's programs, and
Little League baseball broadcast from a ballfield at the studio site which was known as "Telecast Field", as well as the long-running ''Easter's Parade
and Blue Flame Theater
. By 1962, it was no longer a CBS affiliate. One of the longest-running local programs originating from the WIMA-TV era was The Ric Bratton Show'', a talk show that debuted in 1969; Bratton, who had joined the station in 1967 and also served as a telethon host, news anchor, and announcer, was fired in 2002 amid a felony theft trial.
Split from radio In 1971, the owners of the WIMA stations opted to sell, splitting the radio and television operations. In June 1971, the locally owned Lima Broadcasting Corporation acquired WIMA-AM-FM. As a result, the news staffs for radio and television were split. Channel 35 could no longer use the WIMA-TV call sign and changed to WLIO-TV on September 1. WLIO was sold to the Lima Communications Corporation, headed by three businessmen from
Toledo, two associated with the
Toledo Blade newspaper and the third with Midwestern Broadcasting, owners of Toledo radio station
WOHO. After receiving FCC approval for the $1.5 million purchase, the new owners assumed control on February 1, 1972. Midwestern Broadcasting sold its stake in the station to
Blade Communications (also known as Block Communications) in 1982. Under Lima Communications, the station was stable in upper management. Jim Dages served as general manager from 1976 until he died of a heart attack in 1995; George Dunster served as news director from 1973 to 1999. As Lima's only major network affiliate, it enjoyed high ratings; in November 2000, its 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts had the highest share of household viewing in any market in the U.S. Because Lima was a trading center for an area larger than its television market, the station benefitted from Lima's outsized retail sales per capita. WLIO's digital signal on VHF channel 8 signed on in 2002.
From one network to four Over the course of the 2000s, WLIO gained a new competitor. In 1994, W67CA, previously a low-power
independent station based in
Van Wert, relaunched as
Fox affiliate
WOHL-LP. Under Metro Video Productions, WOHL began producing news in 2001 and added other major networks on additional low-power stations: CBS on
WLMO-LP in 2004 and ABC on
WLQP-LP in 2006. In 2007, WOHL overtook WLIO in prime time, a historic first. However, financial issues at WOHL and a desire for carriage on a full-power station with a larger coverage area led Fox to consider moving its affiliation to WLIO as early as late 2007. On June 30, 2008, Metro Video Productions sued Block Communications, alleging that Block was interfering with WOHL's relationship with Fox by lobbying the network to change affiliates. Greg Phipps, owner of Metro, alleged that WOHL's three-year affiliation renewal was nearing completion when Block began talking to the network; the contract had special provisions allowing Fox to move to a full-power station such as WLIO on 60 days' notice. A judge imposed a temporary injunction preventing Block and Fox from reaching an agreement. Metro Video sold WLMO, WLQP and WOHL, as well as
WFND-LP in
Findlay, on November 29, 2008, to West Central Ohio Broadcasting, a Block subsidiary. The deal placed all
Big Four television networks affiliations under the same owner, permissible as all three stations were low-power. The $2.4 million sale agreement also ended the pending litigation between the parties; it was initially stated that Block would not close the Metro Video Productions facilities on South Central Avenue and consolidate them with WLIO, but after the sale was completed in February 2009, operations of all stations were consolidated at WLIO's studios on Rice Avenue in several phases. The acquisition of the Metro Video stations and the concurrent conversion to digital television brought major changes to Block's local offerings. In June 2009, WLIO changed to major channel 8, broadcasting NBC on 8.1 and Fox on 8.2, and the analog signal on channel 35 was shut down on June 12. WOHL-CD, using major channel 35, began broadcasting ABC and CBS in digital format by August.
Pending sale to Gray On August 1, 2025,
Gray Media announced it would acquire all of Block's broadcast television stations, including WLIO and its low-power siblings, WOHL-CD, WAMS-LD and WPNM-LD, for $80 million. ==News operation==