In the 1970's and 1980's, 700 WLW's studios were located on the third floor of 3 East Fourth Street in downtown Cincinnati. It was home to Bob Trumpy and his legendary SportsTalk show. And to Gary Burbank and his genius talent. And legendary morning man Jim Scott. His successor Mike McConnell became the midday host at 3 East Fourth with Dave "Yiddy" Armbruster at the controls. Now Dave is in charge of sports broadcasting at the Big One. The present king of midday, Bill Cunningham, became the king of late night radio at the downtown studios. His sidekick Bill "Seg" Dennison did everything from monitoring police scanners for traffic reports to covering the Reds and Bengals when he worked downtown. Legendary anchor and reporter Jeff Henderson started with 700 WLW at its downtown studios in 1983 and later became the news director until his retirement. Brian Combs started there in 1985 and today he is the dean of morning radio news in Cincinnati.
Thanks to Tom Millikin of The Port, Combs and colleague Matt Reis were allowed to take a tour of what used to be the old studios, where the news sound bites, music and commercials were played for listeners using tape cartridges and reel-to-reel tape machines.
In 1988, 700 WLW moved to Mt. Adams and eventually moved to Kenwood where it broadcasts today.
It's been a long time since the last broadcast from 3 East Fourth Street. 35 years this coming October, as a matter of fact. But Combs and Reis had no trouble locating site of the air studio, the news booth, the news room and the rest of the former home of 700 WLW.
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