WYDB

WYDB (94.5 FM, "B94.5") is a radio station broadcasting a Country Music format. Licensed to Englewood, Ohio, USA, the station serves the Dayton area. The station is currently owned and operated by Aloha Station Trust. Its studios are located in Kettering, Ohio (with a Dayton address) and its transmitter is in west Dayton.

Early history

WYDB was originally given the call sign WKET in 1962 airing classical music from a basement studio at the former Hills and Dales Shopping Center. The station failed to attract a sizable listening audience (AM was the dominant band at that time) and was later sold to the University of Dayton in 1964 and changed the call letters to WVUD (for the "Voice of the University of Dayton"). The WKET calls are now used at 98.3 FM in Kettering.

FM-100 WVUD "The Radio Station"

In the 1970s WVUD became Dayton's first album oriented rock station, providing an alternative to Top 40-formatted WING. The station leveraged a 50,000-watt transmitter and a 500-foot tower (situated on Stuart Hill, the highest point on the university's campus) allowing the station's signal to reach well into eastern Indiana and northern Kentucky, gaining a wide and extremely loyal listening audience in the tri-state area. While the station's management, programmers and sales staff were all seasoned radio professionals, the air staff consisted solely of University of Dayton students. From the late 1960s through the mid-1970s, WVUD's General Manager was University of Dayton Communication Arts Department Chairman George Biersack. Biersack hired former WVUD staffer and UD grad Chris Cage (Caggiano) from WING as the station's Program Director and Biersack's marching orders for Cage were to "grab the 18- to 34-year-olds" but to "avoid that WING sound". Cage's Music Director was Kevin Carroll, who went on to work for several major record labels. Cage was succeeded by Geoff Vargo, and Carroll was replaced by Dan Covey, who later landed at WING.