May 31, 1985 F5 Tornado May 31, 1985 – WOKG 1570 AM Warren OH  On May 31, 1985, the first weather watch report came at 4:35 PM when the alarm on the weather radio sounded. The radio monitors NOAA weather service broadcasts from the Akron-Canton Airport. The alarm indicated a tornado watch for all of northeastern Ohio, including Trumbull, Mahoning, and Columbiana counties, effective until 11:00 PM.  Within ten minutes of the tornado watch announcement, we received a call from the Ohio State Patrol regarding the watch. The initial reports reached WOKG during Jack Darrow’s Sportsman Corner, which airs from 4:30 to 4:45 PM. Following the sports program, we aired a recorded message from the weather service about the tornado watch and played a public service announcement from the Ohio Tornado Safety Committee, explaining the difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning. We rebroadcast the recorded tornado watch during our 4:58 PM news headlines.  While I was live on air with the news headlines, at 5:00 PM, we received an Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) alert from WKBN about a thunderstorm warning for Trumbull County, effective until 5:45 PM. Since I was on the air, I could not record the warning. Helena Gostovich, WOKG’s Operations Manager, stayed after 5:00 PM to assist. She first tried to call the National Weather Service at the Youngstown Airport, but the line was busy. She then contacted WKBN, asking if they could send us the weather report they received. By 5:10 PM, WKBN attempted to transmit the report but faced technical difficulties. Five minutes later, at 5:18 PM, WKBN successfully called back with the National Weather Service report. After preparing the report, we ran the EBS tone and aired the report at 5:23 PM, repeating it again during the 5:25 PM news.  The thunderstorm warning for Trumbull County ended at 5:45 PM. Meanwhile, multiple thunderstorm warnings were being issued for other mid-eastern Ohio counties, including Summit, Holmes, Portage, Tuscarawas, Carroll, and Medina counties. Throughout this time, the tornado watch remained active.  At approximately 6:18 PM, a listener called to report hearing on a scanner that a tornado had touched down in the Bloomfield-Mesopotamia area, near Routes 88 and 45. I immediately contacted the Ohio State Patrol and the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office. Both confirmed reports of a tornado touchdown in upper Trumbull County but could not provide further details due to emergency communications needs. Attempts to reach the National Weather Service were unsuccessful as the line remained busy.  During WOKG’s 6:25 PM news, I reported the tornado touchdown in Bloomfield-Mesopotamia, noting that no additional details were available. At 6:27 PM, WKBN activated the EBS again with another thunderstorm warning for Trumbull County. This time, I recorded the announcement. At 6:42 PM, I aired the EBS tone followed by the new warning. WKBN subsequently sent another EBS tone at 6:41 PM with a thunderstorm warning for Columbiana County. I repeated the Trumbull County warning announcements during the 6:48 PM and 6:58 PM news headlines.  At 7:05 PM, a power fluctuation knocked WOKG off the air briefly—about 15 seconds. Upon returning to the air, we re-aired the tornado watch report and updated listeners on the tornado reports in Trumbull County. However, at 7:10 PM, the electricity failed completely, and WOKG went off the air for the night.  After waiting 15 minutes without power, I went outside and flagged down a Warren Township police officer. He informed me that several tornadoes had touched down in Newton Falls, Niles, Hubbard, Liberty, and Warren Township. I grabbed a tape recorder and headed to Todd Avenue to survey the damage. Officer Penney from the Warren Township Police, who was directing traffic, confirmed that the hardest-hit areas were Niles and Newton Falls.  I spent the night visiting damaged areas, particularly along U.S. Route 422 in Niles, speaking with witnesses, police, and fire officials. Around 4:00 AM, I returned to the station, hoping the power had been restored. By 4:45 AM, the station was still without power, but by 5:00 AM, Ohio Edison began restoring electricity to parts of Todd Avenue and Lane West S.W.  It took about an hour to edit the reports I had gathered throughout the night. At 6:00 AM, WOKG signed on, and I began the broadcast with a 10-minute newscast detailing the widespread devastation across Trumbull County. Immediately after the newscast, the phones began ringing with calls from listeners seeking information and updates on the disaster areas.  At 7:15 AM, Helena Gostovich called to offer assistance and arrived within 15 minutes. WOKG canceled all Saturday programming to focus entirely on news coverage and public service announcements related to the disaster. At 11:00 AM, News Director Jeff Good arrived, and he and I launched a live, all-talk format allowing listeners to call in, share information, and assist one another.  Throughout the day, WOKG logged 65 calls from listeners trying to reach relatives, report damage, or offer help. The talk format continued through the afternoon. At 4:00 PM, Art Byrd took over programming, returning WOKG to a partial music format while continuing to take calls from listeners until sign-off at 9:00 PM, Saturday, June 1, 1985. The original report was drafted and printed on June 11, 1985, utilizing a Commodore 64 (C64) computer equipped with 8-bit architecture and 64 KB of RAM. Storage and file management were handled via a C-1541 5.25-inch floppy disk drive. Output was produced on an Okidata 120 dot matrix printer, known for its distinctive “daisy wheel” sound and rugged reliability. Communication and data transfer were facilitated by a 300 baud duplex modem (Model 1660), a device that exemplified the early era of online connectivity. Together, this setup captured the pioneering spirit of personal computing in the mid-1980s. Download Original Report Here F5 Tornado May 31, 1985 – WOKG 1570 AM Warren OH – Timeline  Event Date May 31, 1985 – June 1, 1985 Initial Tornado Watch Notification (May 31, 1985) 4:35 PM: Weather radio alarm sounded. Tornado watch issued for northeastern Ohio. 4:45 PM: Ohio State Patrol confirmed watch. During ‘Jack Darrow’s Sportsman Corner’: First reports aired. 4:58 PM: Tornado watch rebroadcasted during headlines. Thunderstorm Warnings and EBS Alerts 5:00 PM: EBS alert for thunderstorm warning (Trumbull County). 5:23 PM: Broadcasted the warning after EBS tone. 5:25 PM: Warning repeated during news. 5:45 PM: Warning expired, monitoring continued. Tornado Touchdown Reports 6:18 PM: Listener reported tornado touchdown (Bloomfield-Mesopotamia). 6:25 PM: WOKG reported the touchdown. Additional Warnings and EBS Activity 6:27 PM: Another thunderstorm warning recorded. 6:42 PM: Warning aired. 6:41 PM: WKBN warned Columbiana County. 6:48 PM & 6:58 PM: Warning announcements repeated. Power Outages and Station Shutdown 7:05 PM: Brief outage, off-air 15 seconds. 7:10 PM: Complete power loss; off-air for the night. Field Reporting and Overnight Updates Confirmed tornadoes in multiple locations. Surveyed disaster areas overnight. 5:00 AM: Power partially restored. 6:00 AM: Station resumed broadcast with 10-min newscast. Saturday, June 1, 1985 – Emergency Broadcasts Listener calls flooded in for information. 7:15 AM: Helena Gostovich arrived to assist. Regular programming canceled for disaster coverage. 11:00 AM: Jeff Good joined; started all-talk format. 4:00 PM: Art Byrd returned station to partial music. 9:00 PM: Signed off.                WOKG 1570 AM signal coverage with Tornado Path (Yellow)           F5 Tornado Path (Yellow) w/ WOKG 1570 AM Studio/Transmitter Location (Red Arrow) BACKGROUND   GEORGE T BUNDY On Friday, May 31, 1985, I was a full-time student at Youngstown State University (YSU) and a part-time employee at WOKG 1570 AM, a small AM radio station in Warren, Ohio. That spring afternoon began like any other. I wrapped up my classes on the downtown Youngstown campus around 3:00 p.m., got into my car, and made the familiar drive to the station in Warren Township for my evening sign-off shift, scheduled from 4:00 to 8:30 p.m. I arrived at the studio around 3:50 p.m., unaware that I was walking into one of the most catastrophic weather events in Ohio’s history. Just six years earlier, in 1979, I had stood on the other side of the glass in that same farmhouse studio during a personal tour of the station—then called WTCL 1570—watching a live broadcast and dreaming of one day sitting at the microphone. Now, I was that broadcaster, but nothing could have prepared me for what was about to unfold. That day, a massive outbreak of tornadoes would sweep across parts of the United States and Canada, with the worst of the destruction hitting northeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Among the 41 tornadoes that tore through the region, one would be classified as an F5 on the Fujita scale—the highest possible rating. Winds exceeding 260 miles per hour would rip through homes, businesses, and entire communities. The devastation would ultimately leave 89 people dead and hundreds injured. The job was no longer about playing records or airing commercials. It was about staying on the air and keeping people informed, even as the power flickered and the wind howled outside the studio walls. In hindsight, that evening marked a turning point—not just for me as a young broadcaster, but for an entire region. Communities like Niles, Newton Falls, and Wheatland would spend months, even years, recovering from the wreckage. The 1985 tornado outbreak remains one of the deadliest in modern American history, and to this day, those who lived through it recall where they were and what they were doing when the sky turned black. For me, I was behind the microphone, doing what little I could to help a community under siege. And though I didn’t fully grasp the magnitude of the moment when I arrived at WOKG that day, I left that night forever changed.  WOKG 1570 AM – WARREN, OHIO In 1985, WOKG operated as a 500-watt daytime-only AM radio station, broadcasting on 1570 Khz and licensed to Warren, Ohio. The station utilized a directional 2 tower antenna system [DA-D] (Daytime, Directional Antenna) and maintained both its studios and transmission facilities in a renovated farmhouse located at 1295 Lane West Road in Warren Township. As a daytime-only AM broadcaster, WOKG was mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to cease transmission at local sunset and resume at sunrise. However, the station held Pre-Sunrise Authority (PSA), allowing it to commence broadcasting daily at 6:00 a.m. with a reduced power output of 116 watts until sunrise. During the spring and summer months, its sign-off time extended later into the evening, with sign-off occurring at 8:30 p.m. in May and 9:00 p.m. in June (Eastern Daylight Time). The station’s frequency, 1570 AM, was (and remains) designated as a Mexican clear-channel frequency, with XERF in Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, serving as the dominant Class A broadcaster at 100,000 watts. This status necessitated careful coordination to avoid interference with XERF’s powerful nighttime signal. At the time, WOKG was owned and operated by Geri Taczak, a notable Trumbull County businesswoman based in Brookfield, Ohio. Taczak, operating under Geri Taczak Media, Inc., acquired the station—formerly known as WTCL (Where Trumbull County Listens)—from Mike and Lee Stauffer of the Niles Daily Times in 1981. Under Taczak’s leadership, WOKG (We’re OK Geri) served as an essential voice in local radio, delivering programming tailored to Trumbull County residents during the 1980s. The report I compiled on the event (Above) was subsequently integrated into a detailed account provided by the owner of WOKG to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This submission played a pivotal role in aiding the agency’s investigation into the response of local stations to the F5 Tornado and the activation of the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) on that day.