Radio station in Staunton, Virginia
WTON (1240 kHz) is a talk radio formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Staunton, Virginia, United States, serving Staunton and Augusta County, Virginia. WTON is owned and operated by Thomas Media, LLC.[4]
History
WTON had previously carried ESPN Radio and local and regional sports starting in 2000. Stu-Comm, Inc. purchased WTON and co-owned WTON-FM (94.3 FM) in 2023, intending to use WTON-FM as a full-powered relay of its WNRN-FM for the lower Shenandoah Valley.
In March 2024, Stu-Comm sold WTON and their now-redundant FM translators covering Staunton–Waynesboro and Harrisonburg to Joe Thomas, morning host and program director of WCHV in Charlottesville. WCHV owner Monticello Media fired Thomas when the sale was reported publicly, stating that the purchase of another station within its coverage area was an unacceptable conflict of interest.[5][6] Thomas then told the Staunton News Leader that he planned to return WTON to a competing format of local news, talk and sports programming.[7] The sale closed on May 24, with Thomas' programming launching the following day.[8][9] Monticello Media subsequently sued Thomas for violating a noncompete clause, due to the stations' overlapping signals, and a court prohibited Thomas from hosting his morning show over-the-air through January 19, 2025.[10]
Programming
Thomas's morning show moved from WCHV, with satellite-delivered conservative talk shows (Chris Plante, Dan Bongino, Dana Loesch, Lars Larson, Joe Pags, Lee Habeeb, John B. Wells, and Brandon Tatum) filling the rest of the station's schedule.[11] With Thomas temporarily barred from hosting a morning show, it is recorded in the morning and airs in the evening. Thomas also pledged to bring back live broadcasts of local high school football games that had previously aired on the station before its purchase by Stu-Comm.[7]
WTON is the Charlottesville–Staunton–Waynesboro affiliate for Virginia Tech Hokies men's basketball and football coverage beginning with the 2024–25 academic year, taking over after WCHV dropped them.[12]
Translators
W255DS's coverage area is Harrisonburg proper. W266BQ, located on Bear Den Mountain on the Blue Ridge, covers Staunton, Waynesboro, Charlottesville, and most of Albemarle and Nelson counties.
References
External links
