WLW 700

WLW (700 AM) is a commercial news/talk radio station licensed to Cincinnati, Ohio. Owned by iHeartMedia, WLW is a clear-channel station, often identifying itself as "The Big One".

Its studios are located in Sycamore Township (with a Cincinnati address). WLW is a primary entry point station in the Emergency Alert System for Southwest Ohio, Kentucky and Eastern Indiana. Besides its main analog transmission, WLW is simulcast over low-power translator W233BG (94.5 FM) and on a digital subchannel of WKFS, and available online via iHeartRadio. WLW operates with 50,000 watts around the clock. The transmitter site in nearby Mason features a distinctive diamond-shaped Blaw-Knox tower. Its daytime signal provides at least secondary coverage to almost all of Ohio and Indiana, and much of central Kentucky. WLW is heard at city-grade strength as far as Indianapolis, Indiana; Lexington, Kentucky; and Columbus, Ohio, with secondary coverage as far as Louisville and the outer suburbs of Cleveland and Detroit. At night, with a good radio, it can be heard in much of North America. Launched by industrialist Powel Crosley Jr., WLW became the flagship station of the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation, later a part of Avco. One of four charter affiliates of the Mutual Broadcasting System, WLW holds the distinction of being the only AM radio station authorized by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to broadcast with a power of 500,000 watts, which happened in the 1930s. Avco later launching television adjunct WLW-T (channel 5), which itself became the core of a regional television station network bearing the "WLW" name. The breakup of Avco resulted in WLW having a succession of owners before becoming the flagship of Jacor in the mid-1980s; under Jacor ownership, WLW adopted an aggressive, talk lineup programmed by Randy Michaels, becoming the home of Mike McConnell, Gary Burbank and Bill Cunningham. Since 1999, WLW has been owned by Clear Channel Communications, later renamed iHeartMedia.