WKNR
Encyclopedia
WKNR — branded ESPN 850 WKNR — is a commercial sports
radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio
. Owned by Good Karma Broadcasting
, WKNR is the primary Cleveland affiliate for ESPN Radio
; together with sister station
WWGK, WKNR is often referred to as ESPN Cleveland.
WKNR is the Cleveland affiliate for The Jim Rome Show
(hours two and three only). Local program The Really Big Show is heard middays, and local station personalities include Michael Reghi
and former NFL
safety Je'Rod Cherry
. WKNR shares flagship duties for the Lake Erie Monsters
, Cleveland Gladiators and Notre Dame College
football; and also serves as the Cleveland affiliate for Ohio State
football
and basketball
.
The WKNR studios are located in the Galleria at Erieview in Downtown Cleveland
, and the station's transmitter resides in the Cleveland suburb of North Royalton
.
WJW moved to Akron in 1932. By 1936, the station was owned by WJW, Inc., with studios located at 41 South High Street. On March 29, 1941, WJW, like most stations around the country changed its frequency with the implementation of the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement
. By 1942, the station was broadcasting at 1210 kHz with 250 watts.
On November 13, 1943, William M. O'Neill purchased the station and moved it to Cleveland, with facilities in the Guardian Building (now the National City–East 6th Building at 619 Euclid). Marvin Cade signed on the station that Saturday and was the evening news announcer. On the 11 of June 1985, Marvin Cade was invited to sign off WJW Radio for the final time when it switched over to WWWE at 1100 kHz. WJW became Cleveland's fifth radio station (after WHK
, WTAM
, WGAR
and WCLE
). The frequency was moved to 850 kHz, and power was increased to 5,000 watts. The station became an affiliate of the Blue Network
, soon to be ABC
. WJW also brought the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts
to Cleveland. The station also featured news commentary by Dorothy Fuldheim, and for a short period in the early 1950s was home to a disc jockey called Soupy Hines, later known as Soupy Sales
.
WJW opened an FM outlet WJW-FM at 104.1 MHz in 1948
http://members.aol.com/jeff560/1948fm.html.
The new FM station went on the air just as the Cleveland Indians
began their world championship season. WJW was the flagship of a six-station Ohio network that carried the games in 1947 and 1948. However, the full games were often carried on WJW-FM, since the AM outlet did not have available air time due to its ABC network commitments. As a result, Cleveland became an FM hot bed, and more FM radio sets sold in Cleveland than in any other market in the country in 1948.
O'Neil sold WJW to Storer Broadcasting
on November 17, 1954. Storer also purchased television station WXEL and changed the call letters to WJW-TV. Within two years, radio and television operations were consolidated at new studios at 1630 Euclid Avenue, near Playhouse Square, in a remodeled Georgian building that formerly housed the Esquire Theater. WJW dropped its ABC Radio Network affiliation in 1957, and became an independent station, although the station later had a brief affiliation with NBC
before becoming independent again. By 1959, WJW broadcast with 10,000 watts daytime, and 5,000 watts at night - which would last for the next forty years.
joined WJW in 1951 from WAKR
in Akron, Ohio
. Shortly thereafter, Alan began making broadcasting history with his shows in which he was known as the "Moondog." Freed played rhythm-and-blues music by black artists for a largely white teen-age audience. He is purported to have given the music the name by which it is known today—rock and roll
.
In addition to his radio program, Freed also organized local concerts by early rock artists, called the Moondog Coronation Ball
, which many consider to be the first rock concert in American history. The concert on March 21, 1952 at the Cleveland Arena turned into a riot when far too many listeners filled the hall, causing Freed to apologize on the air the next day.
Freed left WJW in September 1954 for WINS
New York, but he had established WJW as the premier rock and roll outlet.
640 AM in Akron. His "Mad Daddy" persona later was adapted by Ernie Anderson
for his "Ghoulardi
" character on sister station WJW-TV in 1963. Myers' show was heard nightly from 8 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Myers had a brief but meteoric career at WJW, lasting only until May 13, 1958, when he resigned to go to Metromedia
's WHK
which was establishing itself as the new Top 40 powerhouse in Cleveland.
WJW enforced a 90-day noncompete clause, and "Mad Daddy" could not be heard on WHK
until August 10. To keep his name in front of the public while he was off the air, Myers concocted a publicity stunt on June 14, 1958, parachuting from a Piper Cub 2200 feet over Lake Erie, and composing a poem on his way down.
He was fished out the waters shortly thereafter, and handed out copies of the 45 record "Zorro" to hundreds of fans who greeted him when he got to shore. Some initial reports of the stunt incorrectly stated that Myers did not survive the jump, but they were quickly revised.
"Mad Daddy" reached the peak of his popularity at WHK
, hosting record hops and live after-midnight shows dressed in a Dracula costume. In July 1959 he moved to WHK
's sister station in New York, WNEW
1130 AM, where "Mad Daddy" was not well received. He played it straight as Pete Myers there until 1963, when he moved to WINS
and resumed the "Mad Daddy Show." This show was syndicated to other stations until WINS changed format to all-news in 1965.
As again just Pete Myers, he returned to WNEW
once more. Myers lived until November 4, 1968, when he took his own life in New York City, shortly after he had been informed that his show was to be moved from afternoons to evenings at WNEW
.http://wnew1130.com/pete_myers.shtml
(then known on-air as "Casey at the Mike") for the evening shift. With both WHK and KYW on the rise, however, WJW would abandon its Rock and Roll format and settled into a format featuring news, talk and middle-of-the-road music during the 1960s, featuring personalities such as Ed Fisher during the morning hours. In the late 1960s, WJW-FM was spun off to become WCJW, and now operates today as adult-contemporary WQAL
.
In the fall of 1976, Storer sold WJW radio (then known on-air as "JW Radio 85") to Lake Erie Broadcasting, which was headed by Cleveland Browns owners Art Modell
and Al Lerner
with WEWS TV sportscaster Gib Shanley as a minority owner. Storer retained WJW-TV whose calls were changed to WJKW. The new owner continued the format highlighting talk shows and adult popular music. The adult standards music format continued under General Manager Richard Bremkamp and Program Director Dick Conrad featuring several legendary Cleveland broadcasters, including Conrad, Carl Reese, and David Mark.
WJW was sold to Booth American Broadcasting in 1985, and its news/talk format moved over to WWWE
, which Lake Erie simultaneously acquired from Gannett in the process. As a condition of the prior sale from Storer, the WJW calls were exchanged in favor of WRMR on June 11, 1985. With the abandonment of the historic three-letter call sign
by the AM outlet, the television station was able to change its call letters from WJKW back to WJW-TV, then to just WJW shortly after it became a Fox
owned-and-operated station
.
, and Diana Krall
proved successful. Under Davis (Program Director and an on-air host) the station (changing ownership; Booth Broadcasting to Embrescia Broadcasting) grew to become top AM stick in the Cleveland market and gained national prominence. During this period Davis, also serving as the Director of Operations for the nationally syndicated Al Ham "Music of Your Life
" format (1991 to 1996), brought such legendary personalities as Bill Randle, Carl Reese, Ted Hallaman, Ronnie Barrett, Chris Daniels, Ray Marshall and Ted Alexander into the on-air talent stable.
On May 15, 1999, WRMR upgraded its daytime signal to 50,000 watt
s with a new transmitter pattern built at the old WJW/WRMR site in North Royalton. The station's daytime signal is dominant in much of northern Ohio, but it must protect the signal of WKGE 850-AM in Johnstown, Pennsylvania
, impairing the signal to the south and as close in as Cuyahoga Falls and Akron
.
On August 12, 1998, Chancellor Media Corporation of Texas announced its purchase of WRMR and WDOK
from Independent Group Ltd., along with its purchase of five other Cleveland radio stations, WZJM 92.3-FM, WZAK
93.1-FM, WQAL
104.1-FM and WJMO
1490-AM, for $275 million. It was, at the time, the largest radio deal in Cleveland broadcasting history.
Then, on July 13, 1999, Chancellor Media merged with WKNR
1220-AM owner Capstar Broadcasting to form AMFM Inc., at that time the nation's largest radio station owner with 465 stations. AMFM then sold WRMR and WKNR
to Salem Communications
and WDOK
to Infinity Broadcasting on July 20, 2000 as part of a required divestiture when AMFM merged with Clear Channel Communications
.
Under Salem ownership, Jim Davis returned to the programming chair, as well as an on-air shift and WRMR started to segue into playing more contemporary ballads, which were billed on the air as "easy-listening oldies." WRMR also started to air long blocks of brokered talk shows in the evenings and weekends, most of which were carried over from brokered talk station WERE
1300-AM.
In May 2001, Salem
officially announced plans to move the WHK
calls and religious format from 1420 kHz to 1220 kHz, and the WKNR calls and sports talk format were to move from 1220 kHz to 850 kHz. In turn, the standards format on WRMR was set to sign off, with the brokered talk shows in the evenings to be carried over to WKNR. A last-minute arrangement by Salem Communications and WCLV
parent company Radio Seaway led to WRMR's intellectual property being traded to WCLV for an undisclosed amount, and the format ended up moving to the 1420 kHz signal.
used the WGAR
call letters exclusively to identify its FM outlet at 99.5 MHz. WKNR slowly assembled several blocks of locally-based sports talk shows, starting in January 1991. Within a few months, the new station gradually adopted a sports talk format, and lured the Cleveland Indians
broadcasts away from long-time flagship WWWE
, starting with the 1992 season.
For several years in the mid 1990s, WKNR was home to Cleveland Indians
, Cleveland Browns
, and Ohio State
football and basketball broadcasts. At this time, the station was owned by Cablevision Systems Corp, but was sold to Jacor Communications on August 19, 1997. Jacor
, which also owned WTAM
, ended up moving the Cleveland Indians broadcasts back to WTAM
beginning with the 1998 season. In addition, the Cleveland Browns
rights were then transferred to WMJI
and WTAM for the 1999 season, leaving significant holes in WKNR's programming.
Jacor then swapped WKNR with Capstar Broadcasting’s WTAE
in Pittsburgh in 1998 as part of the Justice Department
settlement when Jacor
purchased Nationwide Communications
— coincidentally, the same people who sold WGAR (AM) in 1990 and still owned WGAR-FM
. On July 13, 1999, Chancellor Media merged with Capstar Broadcasting to form AMFM Inc., at that time the nation's largest radio station owner with 465 stations. AMFM sold WKNR to Salem Communications
on July 20, 2000 as part of a required divestiture when AMFM merged with Clear Channel Communications
.
Following WKNR's move to the 850 kHz location, it inherited much of WRMR's brokered talk show lineup in morning drive, evenings, and much of the weekends for several months. Otherwise, WKNR's sports hosts included the midday team of Greg Brinda and Kendall Lewis (the former moved from morning drive due to the brokered programming situation), Jim Rome
, Kenny Roda, Bruce Drennan
(who ended up taking the morning slot in late August), the late John Antus, Bob Karlovec and Ken Silverstein. The station's program director at the time was Steve Legurski, who had held the post since 1999.
A series of budget cutbacks by Salem in January 2004 led to the dismissal of Brinda, Lewis, Silverstein, Legurski and several other staffers, with Micheal Luczak taking over as program director. Bruce Drennan was reassigned to the midday slot, while ESPN Radio
's flagship program Mike and Mike in the Morning
took Drennan's place. Greg Brinda was then brought back to the station one week after his dismissal to do fill-in work and host several specialty shows, but wound up taking Drennan's slot following his sudden (and controversial) departure in October 2004.
A number of divestures and format changes with other Salem-owned sports talk stations in the past few years (such as WBOB
in Cincinnati and KHHO
in Tacoma, which was LMA
'ed to Clear Channel
) left WKNR the only remaining sports station in Salem Communications
' portfolio.
On July 2006, ESPN Radio cancelled its affiliation with WKNR with a 90-day notice effective that October 8, following Beaver Dam, Wisconsin
-based Good Karma Broadcasting's purchase of WABQ and new affiliation deal. With that change, WKNR then became the Cleveland affiliate for Fox Sports Radio
that October, while WABQ relauched as "ESPN Radio 1540" WWGK. Several weeks later, Good Karma would end up purchasing WKNR for $7 million weeks later on December 4, 2006, which now formed a two-station duopoly. A local marketing agreement
immediately began for WKNR, with the deal officially being closed on January 2007.
On February 23, 2007, it was made official that WKNR would regain its former ESPN Radio affiliation and be rebranded as ESPN 850 WKNR. As a result, Fox Sports Radio then switched over to WWGK, which is now known as ESPN 1540 KNR2 (a play on ESPN2
).
Since then, the station made a series of schedule overhauls, adding now former longtime WJW-TV sports director (and former WHK show host) Tony Rizzo in the late morning slot, former WMMS
/WMJI
sports director Mark "Munch" Bishop in afternoon drive (and subsequently being promoted to sports director and given a morning show), and former Cavaliers TV play-by-play voice Michael Reghi
to host their post-game call in show, then succeeding Bishop in afternoon drive following the latter's promotion to sports director (and move to mornings). On July 6, 2010, Former Buckeye
and Brown
LeCharles Bentley
and former Super Bowl
winner Je'Rod Cherry
were added as co-hosts of the evening show. Bentley would depart from the station on September 29, 2011 .
On July 29, 2011, WKNR announced a partnership with the Browns to air the daily hour long program Cleveland Browns Daily. The team produced program features longtime NFL.com writer Vic Carrucci as host.
The studios for WKNR and WWGK were officially moved from WKNR's former transmitter site in Broadview Heights, Ohio
on October 29, 2007 under a $500,000 combined facility at The Galleria at Erieview
, effectively ending 30 years of continuious use by WKNR and by WGAR-AM.
Daily with Vic Carrucci, 3 Deep hosted by Will Burge & Je'Rod Cherry
with Emmett Golden and Dave DeNatlale, and ESPN Cleveland Sports Night hosted by Michael Reghi
& Kenny Roda with Dave DeNatale.
Syndicated weekday programs include Sportscenter Nightly, Sportscenter All Night, Sportscenter AM with Jay Reynolds
, and Mike and Mike in the Morning
hosted by Mike Golic
and Mike Greenberg all from ESPN Radio
, as well as The Jim Rome Show
hosted by Jim Rome
from Premiere Radio Networks
(the first hour airs on sister station WWGK).
Inside Football with Bruce Hooley, Greg Brinda, and Je'Rod Cherry airs on Friday afternoons, previewing pro and college games (with emphasis on the Browns and Buckeyes).
WKNR airs Buckeyes Roundtable hosted by Paul Keels
and Jim Lachey
on Monday nights and The Urban Meyer
Show with Keels, Lachey, and Buckeyes head coach Meyer on Thursday nights. Both shows are from the Ohio State radio network.
On Browns game days, ESPN 850 airs a five-hour local pregame show featuring all of WKNR's weekday talent (ESPN Cleveland NFL Countdown), as well as Browns React with Greg Brinda after the game. For Ohio State games, WKNR airs a local 2½ hour pregame show (Buckeye Gameday) with Kenny Roda and Mark "Munch" Bishop prior to OSU network coverage. After the network postgame show, the station airs a local postgame show (Buckeye Wrap Up) with Kenny Roda.
WKNR airs a high school football "Game of the Week" Friday nights (and occasionally on Saturdays as well), with Chris Fedor and Will Burge as the announcing team. High School Hysteria airs Friday nights before and after the game (hosted by Aaron Goldhammer or Dave DeNatale), and another version airs Saturday mornings reviewing all the games played the previous night (hosted by Jason Gibbs).
for:
Cleveland affiliate for:
- shared with sister station WWGK - shared with WHKW
Sports radio
Sports radio is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A popular format with an almost exclusively male demographic in most areas, sports radio is characterized by an often-boisterous on-air style and extensive debate and analysis by both hosts and...
radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. Owned by Good Karma Broadcasting
Good Karma Broadcasting
Good Karma Broadcasting LLC is a broadcasting company in the United States. Good Karma operates eleven radio stations in the states of Wisconsin, Ohio, and Florida...
, WKNR is the primary Cleveland affiliate for ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio is an American sports radio network. It was launched on January 1, 1992 under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN." ESPN Radio is located at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut...
; together with sister station
Sister station
In broadcasting, sister stations or sister channels are radio and/or television stations operated by the same ownership....
WWGK, WKNR is often referred to as ESPN Cleveland.
WKNR is the Cleveland affiliate for The Jim Rome Show
The Jim Rome Show
The Jim Rome Show is a sports radio talk show hosted by Jim Rome. It airs live for three hours each weekday from 9 a.m. to noon Pacific. The show is produced in Los Angeles, California, syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks, and can be heard on more than 200 affiliate radio stations in the U.S...
(hours two and three only). Local program The Really Big Show is heard middays, and local station personalities include Michael Reghi
Michael Reghi
Michael J. Reghi is an American television play-by-play announcer and radio sports talk show host. He is best known for being the former television play-by-play announcer of the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball , and the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association...
and former NFL
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
safety Je'Rod Cherry
Je'Rod Cherry
Je’Rod L. Cherry is a retired American football safety in the National Football League who played from 1996-2004.-Biography:...
. WKNR shares flagship duties for the Lake Erie Monsters
Lake Erie Monsters
The Lake Erie Monsters are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League. They began play in the 2007–08 AHL season at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio...
, Cleveland Gladiators and Notre Dame College
Notre Dame College
Notre Dame College, also known as Notre Dame College of Ohio or simply NDC, is a Catholic, coeducational, liberal arts college in South Euclid, Ohio, USA. Established in 1922 as a women's college it has been coeducational since January 2001...
football; and also serves as the Cleveland affiliate for Ohio State
Ohio State Buckeyes
The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate sports teams and players of The Ohio State University, named after the state tree, the Buckeye. The Buckeyes participate in the NCAA's Division I in all sports and the Big Ten Conference in most sports...
football
Ohio State Buckeyes football
The Ohio State Buckeyes football team is an intercollegiate varsity sports team of The Ohio State University. The team is a member of the Big Ten Conference of the NCAA, playing at the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly Division I-A, level. The team nickname is derived from the state...
and basketball
Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball
The Lucas Sapp men's basketball team represents The Ohio State University in NCAA Division I college basketball competition. The Buckeyes are a member of the Big Ten Conference. The Buckeyes won their only National Championship in 1960 and have made a total of 21 NCAA Tournament appearances...
.
The WKNR studios are located in the Galleria at Erieview in Downtown Cleveland
Downtown Cleveland
Downtown Cleveland is the central business district of the City of Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. Reinvestment in the area in the mid-1990s spurred a rebirth that continues to this day, with over $2 billion in residential and commercial developments slated for the area over the next few years...
, and the station's transmitter resides in the Cleveland suburb of North Royalton
North Royalton, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 28,647 people, 11,250 households, and 7,695 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,345.9 people per square mile . There were 11,754 housing units at an average density of 552.2 per square mile...
.
Early years
WJW (AM) began broadcasting as WLGV in Mansfield, Ohio, on November 13, 1926 under the ownership of John F. Weimer. In 1928, the call letters were changed to WJW, reflecting the owner's initials. By 1931, the station had been sold to Mansfield Broadcasting Association, and it was broadcasting at 1210 kHz with 100 watts.WJW moved to Akron in 1932. By 1936, the station was owned by WJW, Inc., with studios located at 41 South High Street. On March 29, 1941, WJW, like most stations around the country changed its frequency with the implementation of the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement
North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement
The North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement, usually referred to as NARBA, is a treaty that took effect in March 1941 and set out the bandplan and interference rules for mediumwave AM broadcasting in North America. Although mostly replaced by other agreements in the 1980s, the basic bandplan...
. By 1942, the station was broadcasting at 1210 kHz with 250 watts.
WHK (AM)
WHK is the oldest radio station in Ohio, and 15th oldest in the country still broadcasting. WHK is currently owned by Salem Communications and broadcasts on 1420 kHz with a news/talk format with programming provided by the Salem Radio Network, as well as being the Cleveland affiliate for The...
, WTAM
WTAM
WTAM — branded Newsradio WTAM 1100 — is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio. Owned by Clear Channel Communications, the station broadcasts primarily a news/talk format...
, WGAR
WGAR-FM
WGAR-FM — branded 99.5 WGAR — is a commercial radio station in Cleveland, Ohio with a country music format. Studios are located at 6200 Oak Tree Boulevard off of Rockside Road in Independence, Ohio along with other local Clear Channel stations, and its transmitter is located in Parma.- WGAR:The...
and WCLE
WHLO
WHLO is an AM radio station in Akron, Ohio, USA, operating on 640 kHz, and owned by Clear Channel Communications.The station has a news/talk format with Jim Quinn's program from WPGB in Pittsburgh, and a schedule of syndicated talkers during the day, headed by Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, with a...
). The frequency was moved to 850 kHz, and power was increased to 5,000 watts. The station became an affiliate of the Blue Network
Blue Network
The Blue Network, and its immediate predecessor, the NBC Blue Network, were the on-air names of an American radio production and distribution service from 1927 to 1945...
, soon to be ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. WJW also brought the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts
Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts
The Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts are a regular series of weekly broadcasts on network radio of full-length opera performances. They are transmitted live from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City...
to Cleveland. The station also featured news commentary by Dorothy Fuldheim, and for a short period in the early 1950s was home to a disc jockey called Soupy Hines, later known as Soupy Sales
Soupy Sales
Soupy Sales was an American comedian, actor, radio-TV personality and host, and jazz aficionado. He was best known for his local and network children's television show, Lunch with Soupy Sales; a series of comedy sketches frequently ending with Sales receiving a pie in the face, which became his...
.
WJW opened an FM outlet WJW-FM at 104.1 MHz in 1948
http://members.aol.com/jeff560/1948fm.html.
The new FM station went on the air just as the Cleveland Indians
Cleveland Indians
The Cleveland Indians are a professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. Since , they have played in Progressive Field. The team's spring training facility is in Goodyear, Arizona...
began their world championship season. WJW was the flagship of a six-station Ohio network that carried the games in 1947 and 1948. However, the full games were often carried on WJW-FM, since the AM outlet did not have available air time due to its ABC network commitments. As a result, Cleveland became an FM hot bed, and more FM radio sets sold in Cleveland than in any other market in the country in 1948.
O'Neil sold WJW to Storer Broadcasting
Storer Broadcasting
Storer Broadcasting, Inc. was an American company which owned several television and radio stations in the northeast United States. It was incorporated in Ohio in 1927, and sold its broadcasting properties in 1983.-1920s—1940s:...
on November 17, 1954. Storer also purchased television station WXEL and changed the call letters to WJW-TV. Within two years, radio and television operations were consolidated at new studios at 1630 Euclid Avenue, near Playhouse Square, in a remodeled Georgian building that formerly housed the Esquire Theater. WJW dropped its ABC Radio Network affiliation in 1957, and became an independent station, although the station later had a brief affiliation with NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
before becoming independent again. By 1959, WJW broadcast with 10,000 watts daytime, and 5,000 watts at night - which would last for the next forty years.
Alan Freed
A young disc jockey named Alan FreedAlan Freed
Albert James "Alan" Freed , also known as Moondog, was an American disc-jockey. He became internationally known for promoting the mix of blues, country and rhythm and blues music on the radio in the United States and Europe under the name of rock and roll...
joined WJW in 1951 from WAKR
WAKR
WAKR — branded 1590 WAKR — is a commercial radio station in Akron, Ohio. It is owned by Rubber City Radio Group, Inc. which also owns Akron's WONE-FM and WQMX...
in Akron, Ohio
Akron, Ohio
Akron , is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Summit County. It is located in the Great Lakes region approximately south of Lake Erie along the Little Cuyahoga River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 199,110. The Akron Metropolitan...
. Shortly thereafter, Alan began making broadcasting history with his shows in which he was known as the "Moondog." Freed played rhythm-and-blues music by black artists for a largely white teen-age audience. He is purported to have given the music the name by which it is known today—rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
.
In addition to his radio program, Freed also organized local concerts by early rock artists, called the Moondog Coronation Ball
Moondog Coronation Ball
The Moondog Coronation Ball was a concert held at the Cleveland Arena in Cleveland, Ohio on March 21, 1952. It is generally accepted as the first major rock and roll concert....
, which many consider to be the first rock concert in American history. The concert on March 21, 1952 at the Cleveland Arena turned into a riot when far too many listeners filled the hall, causing Freed to apologize on the air the next day.
Freed left WJW in September 1954 for WINS
WINS (AM)
WINS , known on-air as "Ten-Ten Wins", is a radio station in New York City, owned by CBS Radio. WINS's studios are in the combined CBS Radio facility at 345 Hudson Street in the TriBeCa section of Manhattan, and transmitting towers in Lyndhurst, New Jersey.WINS is one of the nation's oldest...
New York, but he had established WJW as the premier rock and roll outlet.
Pete “Mad Daddy” Myers
In January 1958, Pete "Mad Daddy" Myers joined the station from WHKKWHLO
WHLO is an AM radio station in Akron, Ohio, USA, operating on 640 kHz, and owned by Clear Channel Communications.The station has a news/talk format with Jim Quinn's program from WPGB in Pittsburgh, and a schedule of syndicated talkers during the day, headed by Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, with a...
640 AM in Akron. His "Mad Daddy" persona later was adapted by Ernie Anderson
Ernie Anderson
Ernie Anderson was an American disc jockey, and television and radio announcer/voiceover artist...
for his "Ghoulardi
Ghoulardi
Ghoulardi was a fictional character invented and portrayed by disc jockey, voice announcer, and actor Ernie Anderson as the horror host of late night Shock Theater at WJW-TV, Channel 8, in Cleveland, Ohio from January 13, 1963 through December 16, 1966....
" character on sister station WJW-TV in 1963. Myers' show was heard nightly from 8 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Myers had a brief but meteoric career at WJW, lasting only until May 13, 1958, when he resigned to go to Metromedia
Metromedia
Metromedia was a media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and owned Orion Pictures from 1986-1997.- Overview :...
's WHK
WHK (AM)
WHK is the oldest radio station in Ohio, and 15th oldest in the country still broadcasting. WHK is currently owned by Salem Communications and broadcasts on 1420 kHz with a news/talk format with programming provided by the Salem Radio Network, as well as being the Cleveland affiliate for The...
which was establishing itself as the new Top 40 powerhouse in Cleveland.
WJW enforced a 90-day noncompete clause, and "Mad Daddy" could not be heard on WHK
WHK (AM)
WHK is the oldest radio station in Ohio, and 15th oldest in the country still broadcasting. WHK is currently owned by Salem Communications and broadcasts on 1420 kHz with a news/talk format with programming provided by the Salem Radio Network, as well as being the Cleveland affiliate for The...
until August 10. To keep his name in front of the public while he was off the air, Myers concocted a publicity stunt on June 14, 1958, parachuting from a Piper Cub 2200 feet over Lake Erie, and composing a poem on his way down.
He was fished out the waters shortly thereafter, and handed out copies of the 45 record "Zorro" to hundreds of fans who greeted him when he got to shore. Some initial reports of the stunt incorrectly stated that Myers did not survive the jump, but they were quickly revised.
"Mad Daddy" reached the peak of his popularity at WHK
WHK (AM)
WHK is the oldest radio station in Ohio, and 15th oldest in the country still broadcasting. WHK is currently owned by Salem Communications and broadcasts on 1420 kHz with a news/talk format with programming provided by the Salem Radio Network, as well as being the Cleveland affiliate for The...
, hosting record hops and live after-midnight shows dressed in a Dracula costume. In July 1959 he moved to WHK
WHK (AM)
WHK is the oldest radio station in Ohio, and 15th oldest in the country still broadcasting. WHK is currently owned by Salem Communications and broadcasts on 1420 kHz with a news/talk format with programming provided by the Salem Radio Network, as well as being the Cleveland affiliate for The...
's sister station in New York, WNEW
WBBR
WBBR is a radio station broadcasting at 1130 AM in New York City. It airs Bloomberg Radio, a service of Bloomberg L.P. WBBR's format is general and financial news, offering local, national and international news reports along with financial market updates and interviews with corporate executives,...
1130 AM, where "Mad Daddy" was not well received. He played it straight as Pete Myers there until 1963, when he moved to WINS
WINS (AM)
WINS , known on-air as "Ten-Ten Wins", is a radio station in New York City, owned by CBS Radio. WINS's studios are in the combined CBS Radio facility at 345 Hudson Street in the TriBeCa section of Manhattan, and transmitting towers in Lyndhurst, New Jersey.WINS is one of the nation's oldest...
and resumed the "Mad Daddy Show." This show was syndicated to other stations until WINS changed format to all-news in 1965.
As again just Pete Myers, he returned to WNEW
WBBR
WBBR is a radio station broadcasting at 1130 AM in New York City. It airs Bloomberg Radio, a service of Bloomberg L.P. WBBR's format is general and financial news, offering local, national and international news reports along with financial market updates and interviews with corporate executives,...
once more. Myers lived until November 4, 1968, when he took his own life in New York City, shortly after he had been informed that his show was to be moved from afternoons to evenings at WNEW
WBBR
WBBR is a radio station broadcasting at 1130 AM in New York City. It airs Bloomberg Radio, a service of Bloomberg L.P. WBBR's format is general and financial news, offering local, national and international news reports along with financial market updates and interviews with corporate executives,...
.http://wnew1130.com/pete_myers.shtml
Later years
After losing both Freed and Myers in successive fashion, WJW turned to a young Casey KasemCasey Kasem
Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem is an American radio personality and voice actor who is best known for being the host of the nationally syndicated Top 40 countdown show American Top 40, and for voicing Shaggy in the popular Saturday morning cartoon franchise Scooby-Doo.Kasem, along with Don Bustany and...
(then known on-air as "Casey at the Mike") for the evening shift. With both WHK and KYW on the rise, however, WJW would abandon its Rock and Roll format and settled into a format featuring news, talk and middle-of-the-road music during the 1960s, featuring personalities such as Ed Fisher during the morning hours. In the late 1960s, WJW-FM was spun off to become WCJW, and now operates today as adult-contemporary WQAL
WQAL
WQAL — branded Q104 — is a commercial Adult Top 40 radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio. Studios are located at One Radio Lane along with CBS Radio sister station WDOK.-History:...
.
In the fall of 1976, Storer sold WJW radio (then known on-air as "JW Radio 85") to Lake Erie Broadcasting, which was headed by Cleveland Browns owners Art Modell
Art Modell
Arthur B. Modell is an American businessman, entrepreneur and former National Football League team owner. He owned the Cleveland Browns franchise from 1961–1995 and the Baltimore Ravens franchise from 1996–2004. Modell is the grandson of the late Morris Modell who founded the northeast...
and Al Lerner
Al Lerner
Alfred "Al" Lerner was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was best known as the Chairman of the Board of credit card giant MBNA and the owner of the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League...
with WEWS TV sportscaster Gib Shanley as a minority owner. Storer retained WJW-TV whose calls were changed to WJKW. The new owner continued the format highlighting talk shows and adult popular music. The adult standards music format continued under General Manager Richard Bremkamp and Program Director Dick Conrad featuring several legendary Cleveland broadcasters, including Conrad, Carl Reese, and David Mark.
WJW was sold to Booth American Broadcasting in 1985, and its news/talk format moved over to WWWE
WTAM
WTAM — branded Newsradio WTAM 1100 — is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio. Owned by Clear Channel Communications, the station broadcasts primarily a news/talk format...
, which Lake Erie simultaneously acquired from Gannett in the process. As a condition of the prior sale from Storer, the WJW calls were exchanged in favor of WRMR on June 11, 1985. With the abandonment of the historic three-letter call sign
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...
by the AM outlet, the television station was able to change its call letters from WJKW back to WJW-TV, then to just WJW shortly after it became a Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
owned-and-operated station
Owned-and-operated television stations in the United States
In the United States, owned-and-operated television stations constitute only a portion of their parent television networks, due to an ownership limit imposed by the Federal Communications Commission...
.
WRMR
The new music format (under ownership of Booth Broadcasting) for WRMR was initially middle of the road, aimed at the 40 to 49 year-old age group, flopped. In 1988 Booth Broadcasting convinced Cleveland veteran programmer, Jim Davis (formerly of 3WE and WBBG) to return to the Cleveland airwaves with his version of the "Music of Your Life". The Davis mixture of 40's, 50's and 60's ballads, standards, big band tunes and Broadway and Movie Musicals, sprinkled with newer artists of the day, such as Harry Connick, Jr.Harry Connick, Jr.
Joseph Harry Fowler Connick, Jr. is an American singer, big-band leader/conductor, pianist, actor, and composer. He has sold over 25 million albums worldwide. Connick is ranked among the top 60 best-selling male artists in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America, with...
, and Diana Krall
Diana Krall
Diana Jean Krall, OC, OBC is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer, known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 6 million albums in the US and over 15 million worldwide; altogether, she has sold more albums than any other female jazz artist during the 1990s and 2000s...
proved successful. Under Davis (Program Director and an on-air host) the station (changing ownership; Booth Broadcasting to Embrescia Broadcasting) grew to become top AM stick in the Cleveland market and gained national prominence. During this period Davis, also serving as the Director of Operations for the nationally syndicated Al Ham "Music of Your Life
Music of Your Life
Music of Your Life is a satellite-delivered radio network featuring the Adult Standards music format. Created by record executive and jingle writer Al Ham, and now under the direction of Marc Angell, Music of Your Life has more than 50 AM, FM and HD-2 radio station affiliates, and has been in...
" format (1991 to 1996), brought such legendary personalities as Bill Randle, Carl Reese, Ted Hallaman, Ronnie Barrett, Chris Daniels, Ray Marshall and Ted Alexander into the on-air talent stable.
On May 15, 1999, WRMR upgraded its daytime signal to 50,000 watt
Watt
The watt is a derived unit of power in the International System of Units , named after the Scottish engineer James Watt . The unit, defined as one joule per second, measures the rate of energy conversion.-Definition:...
s with a new transmitter pattern built at the old WJW/WRMR site in North Royalton. The station's daytime signal is dominant in much of northern Ohio, but it must protect the signal of WKGE 850-AM in Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Johnstown is a city in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, United States, west-southwest of Altoona, Pennsylvania and east of Pittsburgh. The population was 20,978 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Cambria County...
, impairing the signal to the south and as close in as Cuyahoga Falls and Akron
Akron, Ohio
Akron , is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Summit County. It is located in the Great Lakes region approximately south of Lake Erie along the Little Cuyahoga River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 199,110. The Akron Metropolitan...
.
On August 12, 1998, Chancellor Media Corporation of Texas announced its purchase of WRMR and WDOK
WDOK
WDOK — branded Soft Rock 102.1 WDOK — is a commercial adult contemporary radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio. Studios are located at One Radio Lane along with CBS Radio sister station WQAL, and its transmitter is located in Parma on a tower that it shares with WQHS-TV channel 61...
from Independent Group Ltd., along with its purchase of five other Cleveland radio stations, WZJM 92.3-FM, WZAK
WZAK
WZAK is a commercial FM radio station in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, broadcasting at 93.1 MHz with an Urban Adult Contemporary format. WZAK is Cleveland FM affiliate for Tom Joyner's syndicated morning show and Michael Baisden's Love Lust and Lies afternoon show.WZAK began as an ethnic radio station,...
93.1-FM, WQAL
WQAL
WQAL — branded Q104 — is a commercial Adult Top 40 radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio. Studios are located at One Radio Lane along with CBS Radio sister station WDOK.-History:...
104.1-FM and WJMO
WJMO
WJMO — branded Praise 1300 WJMO — is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio broadcasting a mix of gospel music and urban talk. The station is owned by Radio One, and has studios at 2510 St. Clair Avenue and a transmitter located along Ridge Road in Parma...
1490-AM, for $275 million. It was, at the time, the largest radio deal in Cleveland broadcasting history.
Then, on July 13, 1999, Chancellor Media merged with WKNR
WHKW
WHKW is an AM radio station in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, operating on 1220 kHz. The station is owned by Salem Communications and carries religious programming from the company's radio network. The bulk of WHKW's programming is simulcast on WHKZ in Warren, Ohio.The 1220 frequency in Cleveland was the...
1220-AM owner Capstar Broadcasting to form AMFM Inc., at that time the nation's largest radio station owner with 465 stations. AMFM then sold WRMR and WKNR
WHKW
WHKW is an AM radio station in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, operating on 1220 kHz. The station is owned by Salem Communications and carries religious programming from the company's radio network. The bulk of WHKW's programming is simulcast on WHKZ in Warren, Ohio.The 1220 frequency in Cleveland was the...
to Salem Communications
Salem Communications
Salem Communications is a U.S. radio broadcaster, Internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher specializing in evangelical Christian and conservative political talk radio. It owns 99 commercial radio stations, 65 of which are in the top 25 markets. Salem is the fifth largest U.S....
and WDOK
WDOK
WDOK — branded Soft Rock 102.1 WDOK — is a commercial adult contemporary radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio. Studios are located at One Radio Lane along with CBS Radio sister station WQAL, and its transmitter is located in Parma on a tower that it shares with WQHS-TV channel 61...
to Infinity Broadcasting on July 20, 2000 as part of a required divestiture when AMFM merged with Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
.
Under Salem ownership, Jim Davis returned to the programming chair, as well as an on-air shift and WRMR started to segue into playing more contemporary ballads, which were billed on the air as "easy-listening oldies." WRMR also started to air long blocks of brokered talk shows in the evenings and weekends, most of which were carried over from brokered talk station WERE
WERE
WERE — branded News/Talk 1490 WERE-AM — is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland Heights, Ohio broadcasting a news/talk format. The station is owned by Radio One, and has studios at 2510 St. Clair Avenue, while the transmitter is along Euclid Avenue near East 118th Street, adjacent to...
1300-AM.
In May 2001, Salem
Salem Communications
Salem Communications is a U.S. radio broadcaster, Internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher specializing in evangelical Christian and conservative political talk radio. It owns 99 commercial radio stations, 65 of which are in the top 25 markets. Salem is the fifth largest U.S....
officially announced plans to move the WHK
WHKW
WHKW is an AM radio station in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, operating on 1220 kHz. The station is owned by Salem Communications and carries religious programming from the company's radio network. The bulk of WHKW's programming is simulcast on WHKZ in Warren, Ohio.The 1220 frequency in Cleveland was the...
calls and religious format from 1420 kHz to 1220 kHz, and the WKNR calls and sports talk format were to move from 1220 kHz to 850 kHz. In turn, the standards format on WRMR was set to sign off, with the brokered talk shows in the evenings to be carried over to WKNR. A last-minute arrangement by Salem Communications and WCLV
WCLV
WCLV — branded WCLV 104.9 — is the classical radio station licensed to Lorain, Ohio serving Greater Cleveland and western parts of surrounding Northeast Ohio; WCLV is one of the few remaining classical music stations in the United States....
parent company Radio Seaway led to WRMR's intellectual property being traded to WCLV for an undisclosed amount, and the format ended up moving to the 1420 kHz signal.
WKNR
The call letters WKNR (formerly used in the 1960s for a Top-40 formatted station in Dearborn, Michigan as "Keener 13") were introduced to Cleveland on July 13, 1990, when Douglass Broadcasting acquired WGAR 1220-AM and Nationwide CommunicationsNationwide Communications
Nationwide Communications Inc. was a media subsidiary of the Nationwide Insurance Company, which operated from 1946 until 1997. Based in Columbus, Ohio, Nationwide Communications owned and operated a variety of radio and television stations across the United States until it sold off all its radio...
used the WGAR
WGAR-FM
WGAR-FM — branded 99.5 WGAR — is a commercial radio station in Cleveland, Ohio with a country music format. Studios are located at 6200 Oak Tree Boulevard off of Rockside Road in Independence, Ohio along with other local Clear Channel stations, and its transmitter is located in Parma.- WGAR:The...
call letters exclusively to identify its FM outlet at 99.5 MHz. WKNR slowly assembled several blocks of locally-based sports talk shows, starting in January 1991. Within a few months, the new station gradually adopted a sports talk format, and lured the Cleveland Indians
Cleveland Indians
The Cleveland Indians are a professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. Since , they have played in Progressive Field. The team's spring training facility is in Goodyear, Arizona...
broadcasts away from long-time flagship WWWE
WTAM
WTAM — branded Newsradio WTAM 1100 — is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio. Owned by Clear Channel Communications, the station broadcasts primarily a news/talk format...
, starting with the 1992 season.
For several years in the mid 1990s, WKNR was home to Cleveland Indians
Cleveland Indians
The Cleveland Indians are a professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. Since , they have played in Progressive Field. The team's spring training facility is in Goodyear, Arizona...
, Cleveland Browns
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, and Ohio State
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
football and basketball broadcasts. At this time, the station was owned by Cablevision Systems Corp, but was sold to Jacor Communications on August 19, 1997. Jacor
Jacor
Jacor Communications was a media corporation which owned a large number of radio stations in the United States. Inside the radio industry, Jacor was seen as one of the most competitive broadcast companies in history. Jacor's re-image in 1996 created the slogan "The Noise You Can't Ignore".Jacor was...
, which also owned WTAM
WTAM
WTAM — branded Newsradio WTAM 1100 — is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio. Owned by Clear Channel Communications, the station broadcasts primarily a news/talk format...
, ended up moving the Cleveland Indians broadcasts back to WTAM
WTAM
WTAM — branded Newsradio WTAM 1100 — is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio. Owned by Clear Channel Communications, the station broadcasts primarily a news/talk format...
beginning with the 1998 season. In addition, the Cleveland Browns
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
rights were then transferred to WMJI
WMJI
WMJI — branded Majic 105.7 — is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio broadcasting a classic hits format. The station serves Cleveland, Akron and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio....
and WTAM for the 1999 season, leaving significant holes in WKNR's programming.
Jacor then swapped WKNR with Capstar Broadcasting’s WTAE
WEAE
WDDZ is an AM radio station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, broadcasting at 1250 kHz with a power level of 5,000 watts. The station is an ABC owned and operated station and serves as the Pittsburgh affiliate of Radio Disney...
in Pittsburgh in 1998 as part of the Justice Department
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
settlement when Jacor
Jacor
Jacor Communications was a media corporation which owned a large number of radio stations in the United States. Inside the radio industry, Jacor was seen as one of the most competitive broadcast companies in history. Jacor's re-image in 1996 created the slogan "The Noise You Can't Ignore".Jacor was...
purchased Nationwide Communications
Nationwide Communications
Nationwide Communications Inc. was a media subsidiary of the Nationwide Insurance Company, which operated from 1946 until 1997. Based in Columbus, Ohio, Nationwide Communications owned and operated a variety of radio and television stations across the United States until it sold off all its radio...
— coincidentally, the same people who sold WGAR (AM) in 1990 and still owned WGAR-FM
WGAR-FM
WGAR-FM — branded 99.5 WGAR — is a commercial radio station in Cleveland, Ohio with a country music format. Studios are located at 6200 Oak Tree Boulevard off of Rockside Road in Independence, Ohio along with other local Clear Channel stations, and its transmitter is located in Parma.- WGAR:The...
. On July 13, 1999, Chancellor Media merged with Capstar Broadcasting to form AMFM Inc., at that time the nation's largest radio station owner with 465 stations. AMFM sold WKNR to Salem Communications
Salem Communications
Salem Communications is a U.S. radio broadcaster, Internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher specializing in evangelical Christian and conservative political talk radio. It owns 99 commercial radio stations, 65 of which are in the top 25 markets. Salem is the fifth largest U.S....
on July 20, 2000 as part of a required divestiture when AMFM merged with Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
.
Following WKNR's move to the 850 kHz location, it inherited much of WRMR's brokered talk show lineup in morning drive, evenings, and much of the weekends for several months. Otherwise, WKNR's sports hosts included the midday team of Greg Brinda and Kendall Lewis (the former moved from morning drive due to the brokered programming situation), Jim Rome
Jim Rome
Jim Rome is an American sports radio talk show host syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications....
, Kenny Roda, Bruce Drennan
Bruce Drennan
Bruce Drennan is an American sportscaster in Cleveland, Ohio. He has been a radio and television sportscaster for 39 years....
(who ended up taking the morning slot in late August), the late John Antus, Bob Karlovec and Ken Silverstein. The station's program director at the time was Steve Legurski, who had held the post since 1999.
A series of budget cutbacks by Salem in January 2004 led to the dismissal of Brinda, Lewis, Silverstein, Legurski and several other staffers, with Micheal Luczak taking over as program director. Bruce Drennan was reassigned to the midday slot, while ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio is an American sports radio network. It was launched on January 1, 1992 under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN." ESPN Radio is located at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut...
's flagship program Mike and Mike in the Morning
Mike and Mike in the Morning
Mike and Mike in the Morning is an American sports-talk radio show hosted by Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg on ESPN Radio and simulcast on television, normally on ESPN2. If ESPN is broadcasting a live sporting event during the show's timeslot, Sportscenter will air on ESPN2, and the show's...
took Drennan's place. Greg Brinda was then brought back to the station one week after his dismissal to do fill-in work and host several specialty shows, but wound up taking Drennan's slot following his sudden (and controversial) departure in October 2004.
A number of divestures and format changes with other Salem-owned sports talk stations in the past few years (such as WBOB
WDJO
WQRT is a radio station licensed to Florence, Kentucky in the Cincinnati, Ohio metropolitan area that carries a conservative talk format primarily from Talk Radio Network.-At 1180 AM:...
in Cincinnati and KHHO
KHHO
KHHO is a radio station broadcasting a Sports radio format. Licensed to Tacoma, Washington, USA, the station serves the Tacoma portion of the Seattle-Tacoma radio market. The station is currently owned by Clear Channel and features programing from Fox Sports Radio and Premiere Radio Networks...
in Tacoma, which was LMA
Local marketing agreement
In U.S. and Canadian broadcasting, a local marketing agreement is an agreement in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another licensee...
'ed to Clear Channel
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
) left WKNR the only remaining sports station in Salem Communications
Salem Communications
Salem Communications is a U.S. radio broadcaster, Internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher specializing in evangelical Christian and conservative political talk radio. It owns 99 commercial radio stations, 65 of which are in the top 25 markets. Salem is the fifth largest U.S....
' portfolio.
On July 2006, ESPN Radio cancelled its affiliation with WKNR with a 90-day notice effective that October 8, following Beaver Dam, Wisconsin
Beaver Dam, Wisconsin
Beaver Dam is a city in Dodge County, Wisconsin, United States, along Beaver Dam Lake and the Beaver Dam River. The population was 16,243 at the 2010 census, making it the second largest city in Dodge County, and the largest city fully located within the county. It is the principal city of the...
-based Good Karma Broadcasting's purchase of WABQ and new affiliation deal. With that change, WKNR then became the Cleveland affiliate for Fox Sports Radio
Fox Sports Radio
Fox Sports Radio, abbreviated FSR, is an international radio network consisting of sports talk programming. The network is a service of Premiere Networks...
that October, while WABQ relauched as "ESPN Radio 1540" WWGK. Several weeks later, Good Karma would end up purchasing WKNR for $7 million weeks later on December 4, 2006, which now formed a two-station duopoly. A local marketing agreement
Local marketing agreement
In U.S. and Canadian broadcasting, a local marketing agreement is an agreement in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another licensee...
immediately began for WKNR, with the deal officially being closed on January 2007.
On February 23, 2007, it was made official that WKNR would regain its former ESPN Radio affiliation and be rebranded as ESPN 850 WKNR. As a result, Fox Sports Radio then switched over to WWGK, which is now known as ESPN 1540 KNR2 (a play on ESPN2
ESPN2
ESPN2 is an American sports cable television network owned by ESPN. The channel debuted on October 1, 1993.Originally nicknamed "the deuce," ESPN2 was initially branded as a network for a younger generation of sports fans featuring edgier graphics as well as extreme sports like motocross,...
).
Since then, the station made a series of schedule overhauls, adding now former longtime WJW-TV sports director (and former WHK show host) Tony Rizzo in the late morning slot, former WMMS
WMMS
WMMS — branded 100.7 WMMS: The Buzzard — is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, widely recognized as one of the most influential rock stations in America throughout much of the history of FM broadcasting...
/WMJI
WMJI
WMJI — branded Majic 105.7 — is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio broadcasting a classic hits format. The station serves Cleveland, Akron and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio....
sports director Mark "Munch" Bishop in afternoon drive (and subsequently being promoted to sports director and given a morning show), and former Cavaliers TV play-by-play voice Michael Reghi
Michael Reghi
Michael J. Reghi is an American television play-by-play announcer and radio sports talk show host. He is best known for being the former television play-by-play announcer of the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball , and the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association...
to host their post-game call in show, then succeeding Bishop in afternoon drive following the latter's promotion to sports director (and move to mornings). On July 6, 2010, Former Buckeye
Ohio State Buckeyes
The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate sports teams and players of The Ohio State University, named after the state tree, the Buckeye. The Buckeyes participate in the NCAA's Division I in all sports and the Big Ten Conference in most sports...
and Brown
Cleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
LeCharles Bentley
LeCharles Bentley
LeCharles Vernon Bentley is a retired American football center of the National Football League. He was drafted by the New Orleans Saints in the second round of the 2002 NFL Draft. He played college football at Ohio State.A two-time Pro Bowl selection with the Saints, Bentley was also a member of...
and former Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
winner Je'Rod Cherry
Je'Rod Cherry
Je’Rod L. Cherry is a retired American football safety in the National Football League who played from 1996-2004.-Biography:...
were added as co-hosts of the evening show. Bentley would depart from the station on September 29, 2011 .
On July 29, 2011, WKNR announced a partnership with the Browns to air the daily hour long program Cleveland Browns Daily. The team produced program features longtime NFL.com writer Vic Carrucci as host.
The studios for WKNR and WWGK were officially moved from WKNR's former transmitter site in Broadview Heights, Ohio
Broadview Heights, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 15,967 people, 6,411 households, and 4,378 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,222.7 people per square mile . There were 6,803 housing units at an average density of 521.0 per square mile...
on October 29, 2007 under a $500,000 combined facility at The Galleria at Erieview
The Galleria at Erieview
The Galleria at Erieview is a two floor shopping mall that opened in 1987 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, on the east side of the city's downtown. It is adjacent to the Erieview Tower, a 40-story office building. The Galleria is a few blocks away from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.- History :The concept...
, effectively ending 30 years of continuious use by WKNR and by WGAR-AM.
Weekday
Locally originated weekday programs include Munch in the Morning hosted by Mark "Munch" Bishop with T.J. Zuppe, The Really Big Show hosted by Tony Rizzo with Aaron Goldhammer, Casey Kulas, and Chrissy Prebonick middays, The Hooligans hosted by Bruce Hooley and Greg Brinda with Chris Fedor in afternoon drive, and evening programs Cleveland BrownsCleveland Browns
The Cleveland Browns are a professional football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
Daily with Vic Carrucci, 3 Deep hosted by Will Burge & Je'Rod Cherry
Je'Rod Cherry
Je’Rod L. Cherry is a retired American football safety in the National Football League who played from 1996-2004.-Biography:...
with Emmett Golden and Dave DeNatlale, and ESPN Cleveland Sports Night hosted by Michael Reghi
Michael Reghi
Michael J. Reghi is an American television play-by-play announcer and radio sports talk show host. He is best known for being the former television play-by-play announcer of the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball , and the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association...
& Kenny Roda with Dave DeNatale.
Syndicated weekday programs include Sportscenter Nightly, Sportscenter All Night, Sportscenter AM with Jay Reynolds
Jay Reynolds
Jay Reynolds is a British music producer, songwriter and musician. He is best known for his work with Just Jack, including the #2 hit single "Starz in Their Eyes", which was nominated for an Ivor Novello Award for Most Played Song of 2007...
, and Mike and Mike in the Morning
Mike and Mike in the Morning
Mike and Mike in the Morning is an American sports-talk radio show hosted by Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg on ESPN Radio and simulcast on television, normally on ESPN2. If ESPN is broadcasting a live sporting event during the show's timeslot, Sportscenter will air on ESPN2, and the show's...
hosted by Mike Golic
Mike Golic
Michael Louis "Mike" Golic is a co-host of ESPN Radio's Mike and Mike in the Morning and a former defensive lineman at Notre Dame and in the NFL. The NFL website lists him as and ....
and Mike Greenberg all from ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio
ESPN Radio is an American sports radio network. It was launched on January 1, 1992 under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN." ESPN Radio is located at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut...
, as well as The Jim Rome Show
The Jim Rome Show
The Jim Rome Show is a sports radio talk show hosted by Jim Rome. It airs live for three hours each weekday from 9 a.m. to noon Pacific. The show is produced in Los Angeles, California, syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks, and can be heard on more than 200 affiliate radio stations in the U.S...
hosted by Jim Rome
Jim Rome
Jim Rome is an American sports radio talk show host syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications....
from Premiere Radio Networks
Premiere Radio Networks
Premiere Networks is an American radio network. It is the largest syndication company in the United States based on popularity of programming...
(the first hour airs on sister station WWGK).
Specialty programming
Greg Brinda and local PGA pro Jimmy Hanlin host The Golf Show on Saturday mornings during golf season.Football Season
WKNR airs numerous football themed programs during the season.Inside Football with Bruce Hooley, Greg Brinda, and Je'Rod Cherry airs on Friday afternoons, previewing pro and college games (with emphasis on the Browns and Buckeyes).
WKNR airs Buckeyes Roundtable hosted by Paul Keels
Paul Keels
Paul Keels is the current play-by-play announcer for Ohio State University's football and men's basketball teams for WBNS Radio and the Ohio State Buckeyes Radio Network....
and Jim Lachey
Jim Lachey
James Michael Lachey is a former American football offensive tackle who played for ten seasons in the National Football League with the San Diego Chargers, the Los Angeles Raiders and the Washington Redskins from 1985 to 1995, missing the 1993 season with a knee injury.Lachey graduated from St...
on Monday nights and The Urban Meyer
Urban Meyer
Urban Frank Meyer, III is an American football coach and former player. He is head football coach at Ohio State University, having been hired for the position in November 2011...
Show with Keels, Lachey, and Buckeyes head coach Meyer on Thursday nights. Both shows are from the Ohio State radio network.
On Browns game days, ESPN 850 airs a five-hour local pregame show featuring all of WKNR's weekday talent (ESPN Cleveland NFL Countdown), as well as Browns React with Greg Brinda after the game. For Ohio State games, WKNR airs a local 2½ hour pregame show (Buckeye Gameday) with Kenny Roda and Mark "Munch" Bishop prior to OSU network coverage. After the network postgame show, the station airs a local postgame show (Buckeye Wrap Up) with Kenny Roda.
WKNR airs a high school football "Game of the Week" Friday nights (and occasionally on Saturdays as well), with Chris Fedor and Will Burge as the announcing team. High School Hysteria airs Friday nights before and after the game (hosted by Aaron Goldhammer or Dave DeNatale), and another version airs Saturday mornings reviewing all the games played the previous night (hosted by Jason Gibbs).
Sports play by play
Flagship stationFlagship station
In broadcasting, a flagship is the broadcast which originates a television network, or a particular radio show or TV show, primarily in the United States and Canada. This includes both direct network feeds and broadcast syndication, but generally not backhauls...
for:
- Lake Erie MonstersLake Erie MonstersThe Lake Erie Monsters are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League. They began play in the 2007–08 AHL season at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio...
hockey** - Cleveland Gladiators arena football*
- Notre Dame CollegeNotre Dame CollegeNotre Dame College, also known as Notre Dame College of Ohio or simply NDC, is a Catholic, coeducational, liberal arts college in South Euclid, Ohio, USA. Established in 1922 as a women's college it has been coeducational since January 2001...
football* - The MACMid-American ConferenceThe Mid-American Conference is a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I college athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twelve full member schools are in Ohio and Michigan, with single members...
men's and women's basketball tournaments*
Cleveland affiliate for:
- Ohio State football
- Ohio State basketball*
- MLB on ESPN RadioMLB on ESPN RadioMajor League Baseball on ESPN Radio is the brand name for exclusive play-by-play broadcast presentation of Major League Baseball on ESPN Radio...
* - NBA on ESPN RadioNBA on ESPN RadioThe NBA on ESPN Radio is a broadcast of National Basketball Association games on the ESPN Radio network. Games on ESPN Radio are distributed on over 200 radio stations in the United States and Canada. The program began on January 21, 1996 and the current contract runs through the 2015-2016 season...
* - The BCS on ESPN Radio
- NCAA football (ESPN RadioESPN RadioESPN Radio is an American sports radio network. It was launched on January 1, 1992 under the original banner of "SportsRadio ESPN." ESPN Radio is located at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut...
) - NASCARNASCARThe National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
coverage (MRNMotor Racing NetworkThe Motor Racing Network is the principal radio broadcasting operation of NASCAR, promoting themselves as "The Voice of NASCAR." It broadcasts coverage of most major NASCAR races at the top three levels of NASCAR at tracks owned by International Speedway Corporation as well as Dover International...
/PRNPerformance Racing NetworkThe Performance Racing Network is a radio network controlled by Speedway Motorsports, Inc..Performance Racing Network broadcasts all NASCAR-sanctioned Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series events held at Speedway Motorsports-controlled tracks which include Atlanta, Bristol, Infineon, Las Vegas,...
)*
- shared with sister station WWGK - shared with WHKW
WHKW
WHKW is an AM radio station in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, operating on 1220 kHz. The station is owned by Salem Communications and carries religious programming from the company's radio network. The bulk of WHKW's programming is simulcast on WHKZ in Warren, Ohio.The 1220 frequency in Cleveland was the...