Living in the sprawling Metropolis that is North Ridgeville, Ohio, I often wondered why the city doesn't have its own radio station. Even though I pass it a minimum of once a week, there’s a radio transmitter right there on Root Rd., on a large plot of land, a couple hundred yards away from the Ohio Turnpike. I didn’t dwell on the subject, I just knew that the transmitter was there. For the first few years I lived here, I had thought that the transmitter could have been for Talk Radio WEOL in Elyria, but I was wrong…
One of the first things I noticed when I moved to North Ridgeville about a decade ago, was there were a lot of kids playing in the streets, which was a good thing. My wife and I wanted to start a family and we saw North Ridgeville as family friendly. Well, except I did notice a lot of the teens were wearing Insane Clown Posse T-shirts. Okay, not everyone has great taste in music, but that fad will pass, I thought. But now, in 2016, I notice that a lot of the businesses are now playing country music in their establishments. Sorry North Ridgeville, but country music is not much of a step up from Juggalo nation. The point is, I’ve been snooping around wishing, hoping, that maybe that transmitter would host a station that would play Classic Alternative, Modern Rock, or maybe an Eclectic Mix. So after a minimal amount of research on radio-locator.com, I found out that that transmitter is attached to WJTB-AM 1040 in North Ridgeville. None of the research to this point has been that deep. I found out that AM 1040 plays Gospel Music, the studios are in Elyria, and the station is owned by the Taylor Broadcasting Company. I have never, ever, in the 10+ years I have lived here, met someone who listened to AM 1040 OR listened to the format of Gospel Music. It is here where we start the journey down the rabbit hole.
Okay, it says here that the studio’s address is 105 Lake Ave in Elyria. Easy enough, type in the address in Google Maps and….-Voila-….pictures from September 2015:
Here is the Google Maps link for you to see for yourself:
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.3705043,-82.1105073,3a,37.5y,44.93h,87.92t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s3jwpd3Jj-R-joGeRhvreCQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1
Ummm, that’s not exactly what I was expecting. It is obvious that the picture was taken during the daylight hours, but there’s no one there. Other angles from Google are even less flattering. So I return to radio-locator and in the fine print it says the station’s FCC license expired in 2012. Okay let’s google FCC and WJTB.
2011 Forfeiture Order Here:
https://www.fcc.gov/document/forfeiture-order-wjtb-am-north-ridgeville-ohio
2012 FCC fined the Taylor Broadcasting Company $10,000 for failing to maintain staff. ¹
2014 There is an article in the Lorain Morning Journal about Martin Luther King Jr. At the end of the article, one James Taylor makes a statement to the press: James Taylor, owner for 35 years of the WJTB 1040 a.m. radio station, broadcasts the event live every year for people who are unable to attend.
“It’s the recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr,” Taylor said. ²
That’s nice. But how can you broadcast with no license?
2014-2015 Apparently I’m late to the Whatever happened to WJTB? party. Now you can’t believe everything you read on the message boards, but there seems to be a lot of answers here, but also more questions that I hadn’t thought up:
https://radioinsight.com/community/topic/wjtb-status/
I also found the address to the Taylor Broadcasting Company on google. I found 2 different addresses for the owner in Elyria, one on Wayne St. and one on Middle Ave.
Alright, this is where the article stops. I will not be going to either address. The Wayne St. address is clearly a private residence, but not one of a resident who owns a radio station. The second is part of Elyria High School. So unless WJTB was sold to the school, that address is incorrect. Maybe we’ll escalate this to real reporters and not curious bloggers. Maybe they can also shed some light on the elusive James Taylor….
References:
1 http://www.radioworld.com/article/fcc-upholds-three-multi-thousand-dollar-fines/213278
2 http://www.morningjournal.com/article/MJ/20140121/NEWS/140129854