Technical Profile: DWTOT

AM Technical Profile: DWTOT

Frequency:: 980
Format:: Oldies
Transmitter Location:: [map] [street view] On Edgewood Drive in west Marianna, south of US-90.
Power (ERP):: Day: 1 kW; Night: 340 watts
Antenna:: 1 tower
Other Information:: 0.5 mV/m Daytime Groundwave Service Contour from the FCC's Public Files

[FCC]
[FCCdata]; [Radio-Locator]; [Wikipedia]

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[Article] From the Jackson County Floridian on the storm damage to the radio station, with pictures.

[Studio] Street View imagery for the station's studio on US-90 in Marianna.; Simulcast with WTOT-FM, Graceville, FL.

Owned by Jackson Radio Group, LLC.

// W271DM Marianna, FL

Silent
History:: The Chipola Corporation was granted a permit for a new AM station in Marianna in June 1958. The station was authorized for 1 kW daytime only on 980 kHz. It's possible that this station was associated with J. Dige Bishop, who put on several stations in Alabama during era. FCC history records indicate that the Chipola Corporation was associated with a C. Davis Turner of Wynn Street in Marianna, however. The transmitter location was the same as it is today, about 1.5 miles west of downtown, south of US-90. The original studio location was listed as the corner of Market and Green Streets in Marianna. A license to cover for the station was filed in mid-September 1958, however, and listed the studio location as 111 Market Street. It also specified an RCA BTA 1R transmitter. In October 1959 it appears the studio moved to a location listed as 104 South Caledonia Street in Marianna.

Other that those technical specifications, not much is known about the early history of the station. They spawned an FM sister station, WTOT-FM on 100.9 MHz, in 1964. It was programmed separately from the AM.

In November 1975 ownership was transferred to Marianna Broadcasting Corporation. The Broadcasting Yearbook didn't regularly start including formats until this year, however WTOT is not listed with any specific format, only noting that they offer 12 hours a week of Country & Western music and farm-centric programming. It wasn't until the end of that decade that it was decisively listed with a Country music format.

The station maintained the same format until either late in 1989 or early 1990, when Marianna Broadcasting's president, James L. Brewer, transferred the license to his Brewer Broadcasting Company. Afterwards there were several changes: the format flipped to R&B (Rhythm and Blues), displacing the Country to the FM outlet; the studios moved to 144 West Lafayette Street (US-90); the station was granted its first nighttime authorization, for 500 watts after sunset.

MFR, Inc. acquired the station in 1996 and flipped the format to News/Talk. Around this time, the studio located was moved to 4376 Lafayette Street in Marianna, which is where the studios are to this day. This would also be a turning point for the station's reliability, as it would begin suffering from technical issues as the 21st century neared. The station filed an STA (Special Temporary Authority) to run low power in August 1999.

By 2003, the station was listed in The Broadcasting Yearbook as having a Beautiful Music/Oldies format. In later years that listing would indicate it as Adult Standards, via Citadel's Time Standards satellite format.

More STAs for low power operations occurred in March 2003 and July 2004. The station filed a Silent STA in March 2006, citing transmitter failure. The station attempted to return to the air in November 2006 but the transmitter reportedly failed after just two hours of operation. A Resumption of Operations notice was filed in May 2007, co-filed with another STA for operating at variance to the license asking to continue operating at low power. In February 2010 the station switched to a Christian Contemporary format after Citadel discontinued their Timeless Standards satellite music format. It also was the end of a long-running R&B program hosted by local musician Melvin “Smokehouse” Moore. Through these changes, the station continued to file extensions to the low power STA, through June 2010. In August 2010 they filed another Silent STA, citing lack of funds for a new transmitter and a pending sale of the AM and its FM companion.

In April 2015, ownership of the station was transferred from MFR/BRO Management, Inc., to Jackson Radio Group, LLC. Unfortunately, new ownership could not stem the tide of bad luck the station seemed to be experiencing. Although Wikipedia listed the station with an Urban Contemporary format as of May 2015, local listener reports noted the station was off through most of that year and again during a check in April 2016. It's possible the station was never on the air consistently during this time, if at all. The new owners did install a new transmitter for the AM, but copper thieves struck and the station was unable to stay on the air again.

The winds of change were blowing in January 2017, as the station was finally reported to be back on air, and with the Westwood One “Good Time Oldies” format from sister WTOT-FM. The winds of change got a little too aggressive, however, as not even a month after returning on air, the station was again silenced, this time by devastating straight line winds which broke the tower in half, taking both the AM and FM off the air again. The station was back on the air (again) in mid-March.

A bit of good news for the station occurred in early December 2018, when the station was granted a permit for a new FM translator on 102.1 MHz for Marianna. In June 2020 the call letters changed to WTID. This call sign had formerly been on a struggling lower powered FM in Thomaston, Alabama, and before that, a station in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In August 2020, the call sign changed back to WTOT, while the WTID call sign moved to WTOT-FM.

A license to cover for that FM translator was filed in December 2021, although the FCC didn't approve it until January 2022 for some unknown reason.

That facility filed a license to cover in December 2021. For reasons unknown, it was not actually approved by the FCC until the end of January 2022.

On 7 May 2023, the tower holding the station's translator, along with FM companion WJAQ was felled by an errant backhoe. Later that month, the AM itself filed another Silent STA, noting that the equipment was being moved to a new location.

In November 2024, the FCC cancelled the license of the station after sending a letter in September noting that the station had either not been operating or was operating at variance to the license since at least May 18th, 2023.