wknr

WKNR (850 AM) – branded as ''850 ESPN Cleveland'' – is a commercial sports radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland. Owned by Good Karma Brands, WKNR is the Cleveland affiliate for ESPN Radio and the AM flagship station for the Cleveland Browns Radio Network; the Cleveland affiliate for the Ohio State Sports Network, and the radio home of Je'Rod Cherry and Tony Grossi. The WKNR studios are currently located in the Galleria at Erieview in Downtown Cleveland, while the station transmitter resides in the Cleveland suburb of North Royalton. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WKNR is available online.

WKNR originated as WLBV in Mansfield in 1926. After adopting the WJW call letters in 1929, the station relocated twice, first to Akron in 1932 and again to Cleveland in 1943. During the early 1950s, disc jockey Alan Freed began to popularize the term "rock and roll" as a name for the music genre both through his late-night radio show, and by what is often considered the first major rock and roll concert: the WJW-sponsored Moondog Coronation Ball. WJW also served as an early home for Dorothy Fuldheim, Soupy Sales, and Casey Kasem.

Under Storer Broadcasting ownership from 1952 to 1977, WJW sported a beautiful music format throughout the 1960s. After Art Modell's Lake Erie Broadcasting purchased WJW, the format transitioned into middle of the road in 1978, and again to talk radio in 1982. Relaunched as WRMR in 1985, the station became best known as an adult standards outlet from 1988 to 2001 featuring Bill Randle.

A complicated series of asset swaps resulted in the transfer of WKNR's all-sports format and call sign from to on July 3, 2001. Since 2007, WKNR has been under the ownership of Craig Karmazin's Good Karma Brands.

WLBV (1926–1929)

Mansfield origin

What is today known as WKNR launched at midnight on December 31, 1926, from the Southern Hotel in Mansfield, Ohio, under the WLBV call sign. Founded by John F. Weimer and D.A. Snick, WLBV was the first radio station to operate in Mansfield, transmitting with at . Weimer had been fascinated with electronics since the age of 7 when growing up in Tuscarawas County, and after his family moved to Mansfield, established his first wireless station in 1911 and progressed to aural transmissions by 1913. Helping run a family butcher shop after his father's death, Weimer ceasing operations of those stations during World War I, but resumed hobbyist work after the war. The Southern Hotel studios were temporary, by March 1, 1927, WLBV relocated to the nearby Chamber of Commerce building. The station quickly progressed under Weimer's watch, which also saw a frequency shift to on May 1, 1927. Initially criticized for a "tin-pan" air sound, the fidelity improved near the end of 1927 and earned the praise of Westinghouse Broadcasting executives as "an unusual station" for such a small city. One notable program on the station was presented with inmates of the Mansfield Reformatory, with armed guards surrounding the studios.

WLBV briefly found itself in jeopardy after Weimer struggled to raise money to renew a music tax license with the Composers, Authors and Publishers Association at the end of March 1928, prompting the station to announce a forthcoming closedown, but found enough financial support from area businesses to remain operational. The station initially operated without a chain broadcasting link, but was admitted into the Federated Broadcasting System upon that network's 1929 launch. Listener reception for WLBV was overwhelmingly positive, with thousands of complementary letters by April 1928 and no complaints. The station received phone calls from New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and Chicago, and one long-distance reception report as far west as Des Moines. A secondary studio was also constructed at the Charles M. Zitzer music store by January 1929.

WJW (1929–1985)

The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) General Order 40 saw WLBV reassigned again to on November 11, 1928, with a power increase to by December 14. In order to better identify with Mansfield, WLBV management applied for a call sign change request to WMO, which was granted by the FRC on May 14, 1929. Two days later, the FRC abruptly changed the station's calls again to WJW after a clerical error by the agency failed to account for the WMO letters existing usage on another station, the rename to WJW was made retroactive to May 9. Despite the random selection by the FCC, the WJW calls also ended up reflecting John Weimer's initials.

Aided by income from sponsored programming, WJW moved their facilities once again to the ninth floor of the Richland Trust Building when it was completed on November 2, 1929, one week after Black Monday occurred. Two large radio towers were erected on top of the building, visible for several miles and was thought to the highest point in Ohio for a transmitter; at the time of the move, WJW operated for one hour in late mornings and during the early evenings, but Weimer promised an expanded broadcast lineup.

Move to Akron

John F. Weimer—d/b/a the Mansfield Broadcasting Association—filed a request with the FRC on February 12, 1932, to relocate WJW to Akron maintaining the same frequency and power output. In testimony before FRC examiner R. H. Hyde, the operators for both Zanesville's WALR and Columbus's WSEN supported the move as it would reduce interference for their stations, while Weimer promised to have multiple Akron civic organizations on WJW and emphasized the benefits of moving to a larger city (Akron's 1930 population was 300,000 compared to Mansfield's 30,000). WADC was Akron's lone radio station licensed to serve the city, and had been as such after WFJC was consolidated with a Springfield station to form WGAR on December 15, 1930, and moved out of Akron to sign on in Cleveland. Examiner Hyde recommended denying the application, citing a lack of evidence to support another Akron radio station, but the FRC reversed his findings and gave full approval on September 8, 1930.

After a "swan song" final broadcast from Mansfield on October 5, 1932, WJW's transmitter was dismantled and transported to Akron for an October 15 sign-on; all on- and off-air personnel were retained. A ''Mansfield News'' piece on the station after the move noted Mansfield listeners were now unable to receive WJW due to interference from WSEN. Note that WSEN is misidentified as "WSAM" in the article. Still broadcasting at with , WJW's transmitter and studios were located at 41 South High Street in downtown Akron. Weimer incorporated WJW on January 31, 1933, becoming the station's president. Among the stakeholders for WJW, Inc. were William F. Jones, who founded WADC in 1925 and owned WFJC from 1927 until 1930, while Weimer held a 20 percent stake. Sam L. Townsend, a former manager for WFJC, also assumed the same position at WJW.

Along with three associates, Weimer founded the "WMAN Broadcasting Company" in early 1935 and applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a replacement station in Mansfield. During the hearings, Weimer disclosed that he held stock in WALR and a gold mine, and claimed to have no immediate cash on hand, having relied on family to provide the money for his investments. The FCC rejected the application on October 23, 1935, citing uncertainty with the group's financial viability in addition to objections raised by Fort Wayne's WGL.

Monetary issues revealed themselves again when WJW joined WADC in objecting to a 1937 application by S. Bernard Berk for a full-time high-fidelity radio station at , claiming that Akron could not support more than two stations. During the three-year-long legal fight with Berk, WJW's legal counsel stated in a 1939 hearing that the station operated at a loss since 1936, and the majority of any profits went directly to employee salaries. A second attempt at a new Mansfield station did succeed when the FCC awarded a license for WMAN on June 7, 1939, with Weimer as secretary-treasurer and chief engineer. Prior to WMAN's sign-on, Weimer was involved in a July 5, 1939, vehicular collision that killed a 15-year-old pedestrian; Weimer was ultimately ordered to pay $3,500 to the victim's estate.

While WJW had operated as an independent for most of their early existence, the station finally obtained an affiliation with the Transcontinental Broadcasting System (TBS), which had a proposed launch date of January 1, 1940. Despite WJW scheduling a local "salute" to TBS and having rearranged local shows to accommodate the new chain, TBS's launch was abruptly cancelled with one hour's notice after their two largest sponsors "repudiated" all programming contracts. William M. O'Neil, Jr. purchased a majority of shares in WJW on June 25, 1940 for $41,500 and assumed control on July 1. This transaction occurred after Weimer and Townsend divested their shares while Jones sold his shares directly to O'Neil, with one of the two other remaining shareholders being M. F. Rubin, who also held a stake in WMAN. O'Neil was the son of William F. O'Neil, president of Akron-based General Tire and Rubber Co.—which also entered broadcasting in 1943 with the purchase of a station group in New England—but operated WJW independently from the tire manufacturer. Weimer was forced to divest his WMAN shares in 1942 after admitting on a witness stand to falsifying financial statements submitted to the FCC that helped secure that station's license. Despite helping build and sign-on Canton's WCMW in 1946, Weimer never worked in broadcast radio again.

Move to Cleveland

One of William M. O'Neill's first moves as WJW's new owner was to link the station up with the Mutual Broadcasting System on September 22, 1940, bringing that network's programming to Akron for the first time. Coupled with S. Bernard Berk signing on WAKR as an NBC Blue outlet the following month and WADC's extant Columbia affiliation, WJW's Mutual link gave Akron three radio network affiliates at the end of 1940 after beginning the year with only one. Of particular note was Mutual's array of live music and sports, including the World Series; Mutual's nightly dance music program extended WJW's broadcast day to 1 a.m. nightly. Despite being an independent, WJW previously fed their coverage of the '' All-American Soap Box Derby'' nationally over Mutual in 1939 and 1940, and did so again on August 16, 1941. The station also helped celebrate Barberton's golden jubilee on June 29-30, 1941, by carrying much of the outdoor festivities live. WJW and the United States Navy originated a live remote broadcast from Goodyear's K-3 blimp during a flight over the region on September 11, 1941, relaying it over Mutual.

WJW changed its frequency on March 29, 1941, with implementation of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA), moving to while retaining output. O'Neil filed paperwork in late August 1941 proposing that WJW move to with fulltime, while having to share nighttime skywave with Boston's WHDH and Denver's KOA. The FCC gave O'Neil the construction permit on January 21, 1942, but construction of a new transmitter site in Botzum was delayed due to challenges procuring materials for construction and finding an engineer. Meanwhile, WHK's switch from NBC Blue to Mutual in the fall of 1942 left Cleveland without a Blue affiliate, prompting O'Neil to requesting an alteration to the construction permit allowing WJW's operations to move to Cleveland. The proposal centered on WJW becoming that market's new Blue station, with studios at the NBC Building that housed NBC-owned WTAM and a new transmitter site in Cuyahoga County. The transmitter WJW had set up at Botzum but never activated was simply transported up to North Royalton.

While the FCC approved the proposal on December 4, 1942, O'Neil requested another modification on June 23, 1943, for WJW to remain in Akron using the current facilities under a new licensee name "The Akron Broadcasting Company", concurrent with the new Cleveland station signing on. Buckeye Broadcasting Co. would then purchase the license, renamed WAJV, with the WJW name affixed to the new facilities. This request was denied after WGAR successfully petitioned for a frequency move of their own to , in effect rendering WJW's facilities unusable. WJW continued operating in Akron until the move to Cleveland at 2:30 p.m. on November 14, 1943, following a special celebratory program; an advance station schedule supplied by WJW to the ''Beacon Journal'' ended with, "SORRY GONE TO CLEVELAND." The first Blue program to air following the move was General Tire-sponsored ''Thanks to America'', with WJW becoming a primary Blue affiliate the following day. The majority of staff moved up from Akron to Cleveland; announcer Marvin Cade signed on the station and was the evening news announcer. Competing station WGAR collaborated with WJW for a special broadcast on both stations the day of the move, WGAR also took out advertisements in Cleveland's three daily newspapers "welcoming" the station into Cleveland.

With facilities in the Guardian Building (now the National City–East 6th Building at 619 Euclid), WJW became Cleveland's fifth radio station after co-owned WHK and WCLE, WTAM and WGAR; the number of stations would be reduced back to four in May 1945 when WCLE moved their station operations to Akron as WHKK. To help recruit and develop on-air talent, O'Neil launched an agency in early 1945 dubbed "The WJW Bureau", with radio actor Gene Carroll as president. "Broadcast Melodies" was another subsidiary launched in 1946 to provide background music for area businesses to help boost morale and improve productivity, holding a local franchise for the World Broadcasting System's transcription library. WJW also added broadcast rights to Cleveland Rams NFL football for the 1945 season; announced by Earl Harper, it was the last season played prior to the Rams' relocation to Los Angeles. Harper was succeeded by Jimmy Dudley in late 1946 as the station's lead sportscaster.

The station began airing daily commentaries by Dorothy Fuldheim as part of their ''Newspaper of the Air'' program in June 1944. In addition, Fuldheim hosted ''Young America Thinks'', a weekly public affairs program produced with the Cleveland Board of Education. WJW hired Fuldheim on her reputation as a public speaker but her broadcast experience previously included programs over WTAM and the NBC Red Network as the first female news analyst in network radio. In addition, WJW assigned Fuldheim to attend the San Francisco Conference that established the United Nations. Fuldheim's tenure at WJW ended when Scripps-Howard hired her for WEWS-FM (102.1) and, in turn, WEWS-TV upon their December 17, 1947, sign-on as the first female news anchor in American television.

Cleveland Indians baseball

WJW reached an agreement with the Cleveland Indians to become the team's new flagship station on February 25, 1948. WJW replaced WGAR, which had been in the role since team owner Bill Veeck allowed it and three other stations—WJW, WHK and WTAM—to broadcast the games starting on June 28, 1946. No radio station expressed interest in Indians games at the start of 1946, along with the majority of the 1945 season; WJW and WHK expressed interest in 1944 but neither station could find a sponsor. Veeck ended WGAR's three-year contract following the 1947 season after WGAR found itself unable to broadcast all the games due to CBS commitments. With this deal, WJW agreed to carry 147 of the team's 154-game schedule including both games of any doubleheaders live on-site, eschewing in-studio recreations of road games via telegraphy.

Also established was a 15-station statewide radio network sponsored by Standard Brewing, led by FM adjunct WJW-FM (104.1) which was slated to sign on in April. The network soon offered additional programming outside of game coverage billed as The Standard Network, also with WJW-FM as flagship. Longtime broadcaster Jack Graney was paired with Jimmy Dudley; Dudley also began hosting a nightly sports program over WJW titled ''Sports Page'' which was carried over Standard Network affiliates.

The 1948 season, however, became immediately problematic. WJW arranged ABC commitments to broadcast games starting at 3 p.m., but the Indians moved the start times to 2 p.m. and failed to notify station management in time, resulting in WJW-FM broadcasting games in their entirety and WJW joining them in progress. Listeners in Akron unable to receive WJW-FM had to tune in to either WCMW or Wooster's WWST, neither of which were easily accessible in Akron proper. The team was repeatedly criticized for the WJW deal, with some estimates showing only 10,000 FM receivers were in use in Northern Ohio, even as more FM radio sets were reputedly sold in Cleveland than in any other market in the country.

As radio network programming, particularly in the daytime, consisted of sponsored shows, WJW had to accommodate those shows along with the Standard Brewing-sponsored Indians games. Multiple games were scheduled only on WJW-FM, but one previously unscheduled Indians-Yankees game aired on WJW due to a rain delay. One ''Cleveland Press'' editorial on September 4, 1948, called the situation "disgraceful" considering the team's pennant run, and urged WJW to carry all the games in their entirety in hopes of "washing out... the large amount of ill-feeling which WJW has built up for itself this summer by its baseball broadcasting undependability". The radio network did grow in size as the pennant race heated up, expanding to 26 affiliates by September. Standard's Erin Brew beer—popular in the city's Irish community—saw a substantial increase in sales thanks to Dudley's in-game advertising.

Major League Baseball's radio contract with Mutual gave that network exclusive coverage of the 1948 World Series, which the Indians advanced to after a tie-breaker game against the Boston Red Sox. Mutual's play-by-play was typically composed with one announcer from each league champion but Graney was ineligible as he played for the team prior to entering broadcasting, violating American League policy, while Dudley was not chosen because of his relative inexperience. MLB commissioner Happy Chandler consequently paired Boston Braves announcer Jim Britt with Yankees announcer Mel Allen, playing up their experience as World Series broadcasters. Veeck was furious at the slight, calling the selection "patently unfair" after Dudley and Graney's regular-season efforts representing the team. Veeck's anger was justified. Graney and Dudley's narration of the pennant run had captivated the region, with all other forms of entertainment—even the Cleveland Browns—suffering steep declines in attention and revenue; one Akron business firm canceled their long-running radio program after finding out their customers were listening to the games on WJW instead. Along with WHK and WHKK, Mutual's Gillette-sponsored coverage boasted over 500 affiliates across the country, plus simulcasts over Armed Forces Radio and the CBC in Canada.

Despite being on printed radio schedules, WHK did not air Mutual's coverage of the tie-breaker game after Veeck refused to grant the station permission; the game was offered to Mutual for free at the recommendation of Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey. Locally, WJW carried the playoff game with Graney and Dudley. Prior to game three of the series at Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Veeck directed Mutual engineers to a press box normally used for football games and was unusable for baseball, prompting Mutual and Gilette to threaten a boycott, angering Happy Chandler. The impasse between Veeck, Chandler, Mutual and Gillette was resolved 15 minutes prior to the first pitch when WJW owner William M. O'Neil, Jr. urged Veeck to let Mutual broadcast in the normal press box. At Veeck's insistence, O'Neil issued a telegram requesting that flagship stations for teams participating in the World Series matches be permitted to carry Mutual's play-by-play and that one announcer from each team had to be selected, which became MLB policy the following year.

Unlike the previous season, WJW was able to resolve ABC network commitments for the 1949 season, allowing the station to carry all games in full. The station's relationship with the Indians ended in 1950 when newly established WERE (1300 AM) took over as team flagship, with Standard Brewing retaining sponsorship. One of the affiliates from the WJW-led network, Sandusky's WLEC, has remained an affiliate with all subsequent iterations of the network up to the present day.

Alan Freed and "rock and roll"

One of WJW's most influential personalities was a young disc jockey named Alan Freed. Freed had already achieved fame at WAKR hosting a daytime music program along with the nightly ''Wax Works'' and ''Request Review'', but his February 1950 departure for WADC prompted a lawsuit by WAKR ownership to enforce a one-year non-compete clause. Freed repeatedly lost in court and the non-compete—which extended for a radius of from Akron—barred him from radio work for a full calendar year, although he was able to host an afternoon program on WXEL (channel 9). The non-compete expired on February 11, 1951, allowing Freed to join WADC for the midnight program ''Dreamville'', in a more subdued presentation than his "Ol' Knucklehead" persona at WAKR. The expenses incurred by the year-long legal fight drove Freed to file for bankruptcy on May 9, 1951.

At the same time, record shop owner Leo Mintz was sponsoring a late-night program of classical music on WJW. Mintz's Record Rendezvous had acquired a reputation in the music industry for selling rhythm and blues music and allowing customers to play records prior to purchase, and had heavily advertised on radio stations. After listening to airchecks of Freed's past work after he inquired about job opportunities in Cleveland, Mintz scrapped the classical program and picked Freed to host a new show playing current R&B recordings personally selected by Mintz. Freed adopted the nickname "The King of the Moondoggers" purportedly after listening to Louis "Moondog" Hardin's 1947 "Moondog Symphony", using that piece as his program's theme song. Largely inspired by WLAC's nighttime programming, Mintz set up ''The Moondog House Party'' to feature R&B recordings by black artists instead of covers by white artists, and doing so for a predominantly white audience. Freed initially objected to this, considering those recordings as race records, but soon conceded to Mintz's insistence. While Freed started using "rock and roll" on-air to describe the music, Mintz conceived of the phrase in 1948 while watching customers seemingly "rocking and rolling" into Record Rendezvous instead of ''just'' walking in, and suggested the phrase to Freed.

As Freed's popularity grew, he and Mintz decided to organize live events that showcased some of the musicians on ''The Moondog House Party''. With assistance from concert promoter Lew Platt, the first such event—the Moondog Coronation Ball—was booked for March 21, 1952, at the Cleveland Arena, with Paul Williams, Tiny Grimes, The Dominoes, Varetta Dillard and Danny Cobb among the featured performers, with a ticket price of $1.50. While the Arena normally could host 15,000 people, both the Cleveland Division of Fire and Division of Police started receiving warnings about the event potentially being significantly oversold. Mintz had intended for a second concert due to overwhelming ticket sales, but a printing error forgot to include the concert date, which was further exacerbated by counterfeit tickets. Mintz and Platt had hired 25 security guards for the Arena's entrance, but the overflow crowd of approximately 6,000 people crashed the gate at 9:30 p.m. and charged into the Arena, prompting 40 policemen and 30 fireman to be called in. Whiskey bottles were smashed on the Arena floor, four panel doors were destroyed, and two people were stabbed. Compounding matters was the shock of black people in the audience seeing Alan Freed for the first time in person, resulting in a uproar.

Fire officials and riot police entered the Arena and ended the event after only one song was played, but the song was inaudible due to the large crowd noise of 25,000 attendees. Mintz and his wife were in Florida that night; when notified about the riot, Mintz immediately flew back to Cleveland and rode a taxi to the arena. Witnessing the large group of people walking around outside the arena, and seeing the fire department hosing rioters inside the arena, Mintz directed the cab driver to take him back to the airport. Freed was located by officials in a radio booth, with the city's fire chief threatening to arrest him on deliberately overselling the event. The next night, Freed apologized on-air for the melee, even admitting that he could not fathom a music event having such a massive attendance. An Associated Press wire story summed up the event as being "such a success (that) it failed". In a more contemporary analysis, ''Plain Dealer'' music critic John Soeder considered it the "Big Bang of rock 'n' roll" and is now generally recognized within popular culture as the first rock concert.

Freed signed a contract with New York City's WINS in July 1954 in what was one of the largest talent contracts for an air personality, including an annual $75,000 salary and a syndication deal. While this necessitated his departure from WJW on August 14, 1954, the station was one of nine that agreed to carry his syndicated show in the same timeslot. Prior to the deal, a similarly-titled "Moondog Coronation Ball" at the Newark Armory on May 8, 1954, staged by WNJR attracted a crowd of 20,000, filling the Armory to capacity and preventing those in attendance from being able to dance. The move to New York would cost Freed the "Moondog" nickname when Louis Hardin sued for $100,000 in damages and copyright infringement, and the judge enjoined Freed. Freed's involvement in the genesis of "rock and roll" has largely taken precedence over Mintz's behind-the-scenes role, particularly after the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame committed to a location in Cleveland. Freed was a member of the Rock Hall's initial induction class, while Mintz is a mention within the museum's Freed exhibit.

Pete Myers and Casey Kasem

From May 1951 to early 1953, WJW was home to a disc jockey called Soupy Hines, later known as Soupy Sales.
O'Neil sold WJW and WJW-FM 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 at the end of 1957 and became an independent station, although the station later had a brief affiliation with NBC. By 1959, WJW broadcast with 10,000 watts daytime and 5,000 watts at night.

Pete "Mad Daddy" Myers had a short but metoric stint at WJW. Myers made his debut on January 20, 1958, joining the station from Akron's WHKK, where he had been at since October 22, 1956. Myers' acting abilities—having trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, attempted work as a character actor in New York City and participated in community theatre—helped foster the adoption of his "Mad Daddy" persona, which partially came out of desperation to create a "career-making splash". Speaking in rhyme and with hipster-like lyricism, Myers popularized phrases "wavy gravy", "mello jello" and "zoomeratin'", with the bulk of his witticisms all improvised. Myers remained at WJW until May 13, 1958, when he abruptly resigned to join Metromedia's WHK for double the salary he had at WJW but failed to give a 90-day notice for his departure, resulting in enforcement of a non-compete clause in his contract. A publicity stunt engineered by Myers during the interregnum involved him parachuting from a Piper Cub over Lake Erie on June 14, 1958, and composing a poem on his way down.

Having lost Freed and Myers successively, WJW ultimately turned to Casey Kasem for the evening shift as 1959 began. Kasem identified himself as "Casey at the Mike" owing to varied misspellings of his name in both contemporary news accounts and station promos. Within three months, Kasem reached second place behind WHK in ratings surveys on weeknights and number one on Saturday nights, entering the market "with a vengeance" against Top 40 stations WHK and KYW. Like Myers and Freed before him, Kasem featured R&B recordings in a "high-energy rock" style, with his "wild-tracking" distinguishing himself from WJW's daytime pop-oriented fare that featured Perry Como and The McGuire Sisters as core artists. Converstly, the fourth hour was more laidback with his news reader as a co-host. In addition to his WJW work, Kasem also hosted the dance show ''Cleveland Bandstand'' over WJW-TV.

Beautiful music format

On May 1, 1960, WJW dropped the majority of their personality-based programming for "good music", a beautiful music presentation that featured music played uninterrupted in stretches ranging from 12 to 20 minutes, commercials played in clusters, and a limit to commercials played per hour. WJW was the first station in the entire Storer chain to adopt a beautiful music format, eventually joined by Miami's WGBS and Los Angeles's KGBS, with Storer's national radio program manager Grady Edney personally overseeing the launch in Cleveland. Casey Kasem attributed the switch directly to the payola scandal and left WJW for Buffalo's WBNY, but remained in contact with friends in the Cleveland area. NBC Radio programming was retained on WJW until 1962, when the affiliation moved to WGAR and WJW became independent again. Despite the "beautiful music" descriptor that was even prevalent on station letterhead as late as 1972, management emphasized WJW was a "modern MOR station heavy on personality."

Leading the station throughout much of this era was morning host Ed Fisher. A native of Butler, Fisher started his radio career at WMAN while also working in the ''News Journal'' mailing room, spending time at stations in Zanesville and Moline, Illinois before joining WJW in 1962. In addition to his WJW work, Fisher also hosted WJW-TV's version of ''The Bozo Show''. Presiding over the ''Grouch Club'' morning show, Fisher added lighthearted humor and wit to the music selections, punctuated by his daily catchphrase "take good care of the babies." As WJW had moved their studios to their transmitter site in North Royalton, Fisher soon dubbed the suburb "High on a Friendly Hill". Nicknamed "The Captain," Carl Reese joined WJW in 1964 after prior work at WERE and WHK, becoming a fixture at the station for 18 years with a genial, friendly on-air style. Along with Fisher and Reese, personalities heard on WJW during this era included Ted Lux and David Mark. In 1968, Storer changed WJW-FM's call letters to WCJW, and launched a "countrypolitian" country music format featuring WJW's air talent as announcers via voice-tracking. WJW celebrated their 25th anniversary as a Cleveland station on November 14, 1968, by interspersing songs from 1943 into the general playlist.

WJW and Top 40-formatted WIXY entered 1970 as the dominant AM stations in the Cleveland market, while WJW commanded 25% of all revenue in the Cleveland market between 1965 and 1970. Storer had estimated that WJW's audience resided in the suburbs and were more affluent in comparison to other stations. WJW enjoyed a disproportionately large audience of people aged 18 and older in ratings surveys, even as their target demo was supposed to be 35–plus; conversely, WIXY attracted an equally disproportionate audience of people 35 and older. This disparity was caused by considerable overlap between WJW and WIXY's playlist, with WJW having played eleven songs that were listed on WIXY's weekly music survey at the end of 1970, motivating Jack G. Thayer to relaunch WGAR with an adult contemporary format in September 1970. WJW's penchant for attracting a contemporary audience despite the MOR format persisted into 1973, with then-program director Bob West implementing a color-coded playlist driven by current songs picked by air talent enthusiasm, oldies and lesser-known songs by established artists. West also began adding international recordings into the playlist, including songs recorded in Poland, China, Germany and Africa, believing that they didn't sound out of place with WJW's regular format.

While Ed Fisher continued to attract strong ratings in morning drive, WGAR, along with FM beautiful music stations, slowly began to erode WJW's overall standing in the market. One of those stations happened to be the former WCJW, which Storer sold along with Philadelphia's WPNA to SJR in April 1971 for a combined $1.4 million and was relaunched as WQAL one month later. The sale was part of a dispersal of Storer's FM properties over the previous year, with their Los Angeles FM being the only one left. In the February 1971 Pulse ratings survey, WDOK was the only FM station to place among the top 10 stations in ratings surveys; by March 1974, WQAL and WDOK were ranked #2 and #3 overall behind talk-formatted WERE, with WGCL-FM and WMMS also charting, but Ed Fisher still placed at second in morning drive. Carl Reese had been offered positions at FM stations, but declined them all, citing a personal lack of interest in FM formats. WJW experimented in afternoons starting in 1973 with a music-and-talk show fronted by Ronn Owens, but his show ended after WJW committed to a "more music" presentation that emphasized "adult music" over MOR. WIXY, the market's last remaining AM Top 40 outlet, also converted to adult contemporary as WMGC in 1976; at the same time, WJW began to operate at a loss financially.

Shift to talk radio

Storer Broadcasting sold WJW radio in early September 1976 to Lake Erie Broadcasting for $2.5 million. Lake Erie Broadcasting was headed primarily by Cleveland Browns owners Art Modell and Al Lerner, with WJW general manager Richard Bremkamp and WEWS sportscaster Gib Shanley holding minority stakes. The sale was made after Storer began to express reservations about radio ownership but already owned the maximum amount of television stations under existing FCC regulations. Moreover, Storer president Peter Storer noted that the $2.5 million representing "a significant profit" for the company, especially since WJW was now losing money. Lake Erie prevailed in a bidding war against Booth American Broadcasting for WJW, which had even put their existing AM property WABQ up for sale in the process. Storer retained WJW-TV, whose calls were changed to WJKW the following April 22, 1977, as Lake Erie was granted full legal rights to the WJW call sign. The deal was consummated in July 1977, and Bremkamp was elevated to station president at the start of 1978.

WJW's format shifted to middle of the road (MOR) on February 6, 1978, while retaining CBS Radio News and sports programming. Richard Bremkamp, who joined WJW in 1974 as general manager after prior work at WIXY, made the move after the station participated in a large-scale survey regarding music preferences among older age demographics that spanned 12,000 participants, 60 markets and 48 states. The survey results helped Bremkamp and program director Dick Conrad move the playlist away from record store chart-driven selections when most charts were now dominated by customers 25 years old and younger, resulting in what Bremkamp called "a hodge-podge of hits". The format change also resulted in the dismissal of Ed Fisher after a 15-year run in morning drive on March 10, 1978. Fisher subsequently joined WQAL, while WJW replaced him with veteran announcer Tom Armstrong. Despite the programming changes, WJW continued to lose money on an annual basis. WJW now found itself competing with FM stations for music listeners in an environment where other AM stations were beginning to drop music entirely. The station significantly downscaled their news department in July 1980, dismissing news director Jim Hale and two reporters, but kept the CBS Radio newscasts in place.

Compounding matters was a series of questionable investments made by Lake Erie principal Art Modell. Modell had previously purchased vacuum manufacturer Premier Electric in 1972 and stamper American Metal Forming Co. in 1977, but both companies closed in 1979 and 1982, respectively; American Metal Forming was shuttered after Modell refused to enter bankruptcy and paid off all debts instead. A group led by Modell purchased the Sheraton-Cleveland Hotel for $18 million in 1977, but Modell had to take out an additional $2 million loan against his holding company for Cleveland Stadium after two other investors had withdrawn. Rumors emerged in 1981 that Modell was under possible financial pressure to sell off WJW. Gib Shanley's stake in Lake Erie was bought out in March 1982, followed by Bremkamp's stake in May 1982, with Modell and Al Lerner as the remaining investors. Robert Gries, a minority owner of the Browns since their 1946 establishment, later claimed in court that Modell faced "possible financial ruin" in the spring of 1982 and had been in debt since purchasing majority control of the team in 1961.

The MOR format was abandoned entirely in favor of talk radio on July 6, 1982. In a transitional process that began at the end of May 1982, news director Merle Pollis was promoted to program director and added a late-morning talk show, while WGAR news director John O'Day took over Pollis' prior position. The switch put WJW in direct competition with WERE, which despite being the lone talk station in the market, had recently dismissed multiple local hosts in favor of carrying ABC's Talkradio service. Multiple WERE hosts joined the new WJW, including Rich Barrett, psychologist Stephanie Neuman and WEWS newscaster Joel Rose. Early evenings featured strip programming ranging from law advice, health and entertainment, including a Friday sports show with Casey Coleman; overnights consisted of NBC Talknet programming. Remaining music hosts Tom Armstrong, Joe Mayer, Ronnie Barrett and Carl Reese were all dismissed while Armstrong resurfaced at adult standards-formatted WBBG as their morning host, even as he expressed reluctance over that station's tightly-programmed playlist.

WJW's ratings improved after the switch, pulling even with WERE and drawing more younger listeners in specific dayparts. The station attracted attention when they partnered with the Cleveland Police for a four-hour drug abuse awareness program on January 20, 1983, encouraging listeners to call in with tips on any illegal activities; 50 suspected drug dealers were arrested over the course of the show. Broadcasts of both Cleveland State University basketball and Cleveland Force were dropped with the format switch, along with announcer Mike Snyder, but the Force and Snyder returned to WJW in November 1983 as part of a two-station arrangement with the team and WAKR. WJW's news department remained smaller than WERE's, with only one street reporter on-staff; a retrospective review cast the news department as "ordinary" while also citing Pollis and Rose as hosts "who make a lot of noise but seldom make sense". Joel Rose left both WJW and WEWS in December 1983 to focus on his broadcast consulting firm, with Westinghouse Broadcasting as a main client. While he initially found himself unable to keep the WJW show with the consulting arrangements, Rose returned to WJW as a fill-in host by April 1984, and eventually resumed full-time work.

Litigation and sale

WHK's longstanding radio contract for Browns games was set to expire at the end of the 1983 season, and Lake Erie made a substantial bid that included the team taking partial ownership of the station. While Browns executive vice president James Bailey claimed WJW's bid was the best the team had received, Robert Gries sued Modell on charges of anti-competitive practices on December 15, 1983. This lawsuit was one of multiple Gries filed against Modell and the team during the 1980s, but was dismissed in court. WHK had the right to equal WJW's offer for the 1984 season, which it did the following February. The Browns approved another offer by Lake Erie for the radio rights on February 18, 1985, but rumors quickly emerged about Lake Erie purchasing WWWE and WDOK from Gannett

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