For most of its history, WLOK was owned by the Fort Industry Company, predecessor to Storer Broadcasting, and later majority-owned by famed Ohio State Buckeyes football player Lloyd Pixley.

Herbert Lee Bly, who helped build and sign on WTBO in Cumberland, Maryland, sold his interests in both it and WRBX in Bluefield, West Virginia, in 1935, and moved to Lima, Ohio.

[3] The station signed on as WBLY on December 10, 1936, two weeks ahead of schedule, with the transmitter located at the intersection of Rice and Woodlawn Avenues.

[5] Less than nine months after taking to the air, Bly sold WBLY to the Fort Industry Company, based in Toledo and the owner of WSPD, for an undisclosed amount.

[9] Hugh Downs joined WLOK in 1939 as an announcer while still a student at Bluffton College; he was hired after walking past the station where a man on the street interview was being conducted.

[19] Fort Industry sold WLOK-AM-FM to a group headed by Lloyd Pixley for $137,500, in order to purchase WSAI and WSAI-FM in Cincinnati; both deals were approved on March 31, 1951.

[35] The FCC granted a permit for WLOK-TV on channel 73 on November 20, 1952; by then, WLOK was in the process of moving out from the First National Bank Building to the Rice Avenue site.

[36] WIMA also received a permit to operate on channel 35[37][38] but WLOK-TV aired its debut program on April 18, 1953,[39] as one of the first UHF stations in the United States.

[41] The same day, Lloyd Pixley died at the age of 54; he had suffered a heart attack while attending the 1953 Ohio State-Michigan game and had been in hospital care on and off ever since.

[25] Prior to the heart attack, Pixley issued additional stock in what was termed "a financial realignment" and "of no general importance"[42] but his ownership stake was reduced to 34 percent.

[43] The buyer was revealed on October 30 to be the Northwestern Ohio Broadcasting Corp., owner of WIMA, who intended to move WLOK-TV onto channel 35 by using their existing permit.