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WHLK (106.5 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to
Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
, known as "106.5 The Lake" and carrying an adult hits format. Owned by iHeartMedia, the station serves
Greater Cleveland The Cleveland metropolitan area, or Greater Cleveland as it is more commonly known, is the metropolitan area surrounding the city of Cleveland in Northeast Ohio, United States. According to the 2020 United States Census results, the five-county ...
and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio. WHLK's studios are located in the Cleveland suburb of
Independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the st ...
while the station transmitter is in nearby Parma. Along with a standard
analog transmission Analog transmission is a transmission method of conveying information using a continuous signal which varies in amplitude, phase, or some other property in proportion to that information. It could be the transfer of an analog signal, using an an ...
, WHLK broadcasts over three HD Radio channels and is available online via iHeartRadio.


History

The station was originally supposed to be the home of WJMO-FM before a studio/call letter/format swap took place between the owners of WJMO and WSRS (now
WERE ''Were'' and ''wer'' are archaic terms for adult male humans and were often used for alliteration with wife as "were and wife" in Germanic-speaking cultures ( ang, wer, odt, wer, got, waír, ofs, wer, osx, wer, goh, wer, non, verr). In ...
) in 1958, putting the license in the hands of Tuschman Broadcasting Company. On May 4, 1960, the new station first signed on as WABQ-FM. By May 1961, the station changed its callsign to WXEN. The new callsign stood for XENophon Zapis, a station show producer who later helped to establish
WZAK WZAK (93.1 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, featuring an urban adult contemporary format. Owned by Urban One, WZAK serves Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio as a local affiliate for nationally ...
as that station's owner. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, WXEN and WZAK both featured mostly nationality programming, that is, one or two hour programs devoted to music and programming for different nationalities, such as Polish, Slovenian or Hungarian, with program hosts speaking in the native language. It used the slogan "The Station of the Nations." Tuschman Broadcasting Company sold both WXEN and WABQ to Booth Broadcasting of Detroit in 1964. Booth American installed a rock format on March 13, 1977 with the branding "ZIP 106", changing the call letters to WZZP on March 21, 1977.


Lite Rock 106½

The station changed to WLTF on March 5, 1984, and aired an Adult contemporary format as "Lite Rock 106½". Its "Lovelite" jingles were created for the station by
Jim Brickman James Merrill Brickman (born November 20, 1961) is an American pop songwriter, pianist and radio host. Brickman has earned two Grammy nominations for his albums ''Peace'' (2003) for Best Instrumental, and ''Faith'' (2009) for Best New Age Album. ...
in 1987. WLTF was Cleveland's number one radio station through the late 1980s and early 1990s, with its morning program hosted by "Trapper Jack" Elliott also rated number one. ''Billboard'' magazine named WLTF the "Adult Contemporary Station of the Year" in 1991. Soon other stations such as WQAL and WDOK started competing head-to-head with similar formats and gaining market share.


Mix 106.5

Booth Broadcasting merged with Broadcast Alchemy and the merged company became Secret Communications in 1994, ultimately selling off both WLTF and WTAM to
Jacor Communications Jacor Communications was a media corporation, existing between 1987 and 1999, which owned many radio stations in the United States. In 1998, Jacor was purchased by Clear Channel Communications, now iHeartMedia, for $2.8 billion. Jacor Communicat ...
in July 1997. Shortly afterwards, the station flipped its format to hot AC, branding itself as "Mix 106.5". The station changed its callsign to WMVX on October 17, 1997. Jacor would be absorbed by iHeartMedia (as Clear Channel Communications) in 1999. As WMVX, the station aired both the 80s and 90s versions of
Backtrax USA ''Backtrax USA'' is a weekly two-hour radio program hosted by former WHTZ (Z100) disc jockey Kid Kelly that premiered in 1992. The original show highlights hit music from the 1980s. Since 2003, ''Backtrax USA'' has also offered a 1990s version of ...
with Kid Kelly. From 2004 to 2009, WMVX also carried ''
American Top 20 ''American Top 20'' was the name given to two weekly spinoffs of the music countdown program ''American Top 40''. They were both hosted by Casey Kasem for Premiere Networks (originally AMFM Radio Networks) and premiered on the weekend of March ...
'' with
Casey Kasem Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem (April 27, 1932 – June 15, 2014) was an American disc jockey, actor, and radio personality, who created and hosted several radio countdown programs, notably ''American Top 40''. He was the first actor to voice Nor ...
until the show ended production. From 2009 to 2010, it aired the weekday ''Valentine in the Morning'' show, based from KBIG in Los Angeles. WMVX was also the home to ''The Brian and Joe Radio Show'', a popular local program, from September 1998 until April 2009; their dismissal was part of Clear Channel's nationwide budget and salary cuts.


106.5 The Lake

On November 12, 2010, WMVX flipped to an all
Christmas music Christmas music comprises a variety of genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or, in the case of carols or songs, may employ lyrics whose subjec ...
format, which lasted until
Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, ...
. WMVX went back to its Hot AC format until 10 a.m. the following Wednesday (December 29), at which point it began to stunt by playing a wide variety of music from various genres. The station's website contained a countdown to the time that a new format would take effect, which was on the morning of January 3, 2011. Leading up to the change, an hour of songs with "New" in the title were played, such as
Honeymoon Suite Honeymoon Suite is a Canadian rock band formed in 1981 in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The band's name was a nod to the fact that Niagara Falls is the unofficial honeymoon capital of the world. History 1981–1985 The band was originally formed ...
's "
New Girl Now "New Girl Now" is a song by the Canadian rock band Honeymoon Suite. It was written by Derry Grehan, and released as a single in 1984, from the album ''Honeymoon Suite''. The single reached No. 23 in Canada and No. 57 in the United States. The ...
", The Shins's "
New Slang "New Slang" is a song by American rock band The Shins, released on February 19, 2001 as the lead single from the group's debut studio album, '' Oh, Inverted World'' (2001). Written by guitarist and vocalist James Mercer, it concerns his hometown ...
", INXS's "
New Sensation "New Sensation" is a song by Australian rock group INXS. It was the third single released from their 1987 album, ''Kick''. The music was composed by Andrew Farriss and the lyrics were written by Michael Hutchence. The song reached 3 on the US ...
", the theme to ''
The Newlywed Game ''The Newlywed Game'' is an American television game show that puts newly married couples against each other in a series of revealing question rounds to determine how well the spouses know or do not know each other. The program, originally create ...
'', and Dead or Alive's " Brand New Lover". At 7:30 a.m. on January 3, 2011, the station changed its branding to "106.5 The Lake", and its format to adult hits. The first song played in the new format was Ian Hunter's " Cleveland Rocks". On January 17, 2011, the station adopted the callsign WHLK to reflect its new branding ("THe LaKe").


Current programming

WHLK does not feature any on air talent. The HD2 digital subchannel airs "
Pride Radio Pride Radio (stylized as PRIDE Radio) is an LGBTQ+ lifestyle and top 40 radio network launched by Clear Channel Communications Format Lab under the direction of Michael Albl, who conceived the format, on terrestrial HD2 & HD3 stations and onli ...
" and HD3 digital subchannel airs Pride Radio Flashback - both feature dance and pop music for the
LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...
community.


References


External links

* * {{iHeartMedia 1960 establishments in Ohio Adult hits radio stations in the United States IHeartMedia radio stations Radio stations established in 1960 HLK