Fiktiv USA - WIOD 610

WIOD (610 AM) is a commercial news/talk radio station licensed to Miami, Florida, serving the Miami metropolitan area and much of surrounding South Florida. The station is owned and operated by iHeartMedia. The WIOD studios are located in the Miami suburb of Miramar, while the station transmitter resides in nearby North Bay Village. Besides its main analog transmission, WIOD simulcasts over the HD subchannel of co-owned WBGG-FM, and streams online via iHeartRadio.

Usually powered full-time at 5,000 watts, WIOD is one of multiple AM stations in the region that operate with increased power via special temporary authority from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) due to interference from a Cuban radio stations intentionally overriding their signals.

Experimental broadcasts began in the spring of 1925 by Carl Graham Fisher, a Miami Beach developer. The station formally signed on the air on January 19, 1926. Carl Fisher selected WIOD as the call sign, signifying the "Wonderful Isle of Dreams" to commemorate Collins Island, on which the station's studios and offices were situated. WIOD is Florida's seventh oldest continuously licensed broadcast radio station.

From 1959 to 1962, the call letters were changed to WCKR (for Cox-Knight Broadcasting, which also owned television station WCKT, now WSVN). Branded Wacker Radio, it broadcast middle of the road music, but offered Top 40 hits at night, featuring noted South Florida disc jockey Rick Shaw. WIOD also carried NBC Radio's "Monitor" program on weekends. To accommodate WCKT, a new addition housing television studios was built on Broadcast Key in North Bay Village, Florida.

On June 16, 1981, WIOD began operating with 10,000 watts day and night to overcome interference caused by a high-power station in Cuba. This special temporary authority, granted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has been renewed on a regular basis since then.

On April 6, 2017, WIOD filed an application for an FCC construction permit to move to a new transmitter site, increase day power to 50,000 watts and increase night power to 20,000 watts. It was accepted for filing the following day, but iHeartMedia has not yet built the new facility.

WIOD has been a frequent winner in annual Florida Associated Press statewide competitions. WIOD may be best known for its continuous storm coverage, particularly during Hurricane Andrew, Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Wilma.

WIOD was the radio flagship station of the 2006 NBA champions Miami Heat basketball team from 1996 until 2008. From 1966 until 2001, it was the radio flagship of the Miami Dolphins football team, the longest partnership between a Miami sports team and a radio flagship station. It also was the Florida Panthers' original flagship station from 1993 until 2003. Currently, WIOD is the official broadcast emergency station for the Broward County Commission.

From April 2010 to March 2014, WIOD had been simulcast on FM translator W262AN at 100.3 MHz. That frequency is now used by a low-power FM station, WQNB. WIOD is also heard on the WBGG-FM 105.9 HD-2 subchannel.

Weekdays begin with a morning talk and information drive time show, South Florida's First News with Jimmy Cefalo, followed by Brian Mudd in late mornings. Afternoons are hosted by Rich Minaya. The rest of the weekday schedule is made up of nationally syndicated conservative talk programs, hosted by Clay Travis, Sean Hannity and Buck Sexton. Nights feature Ground Zero with Clyde Lewis and Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. On weekends, specialty programs on money, health, home improvement, technology, cars, veterans, real estate and the outdoors are heard, as well as repeats of weekday shows. Weekend syndicated shows include The Ric Edelman Show and Live on Sunday Night with Bill Cunningham.

WIOD has a 24-hour local news department shared with sister station WINZ, which is one of the largest radio news departments in the Southeast United States. The local news and weather updates can be heard at top and bottom of every hour, with traffic reports every 15 minutes (only two traffic reports an hour are provided during the overnight hours). World and national news is supplied by NBC News Radio. WIOD also has a news and weather sharing agreement with NBC affiliate WTVJ (channel 6).