WABQ (1460 AM) is a commercial

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

licensed to

Painesville, Ohio Painesville is a city in and the county seat of Lake County, Ohio, United States, located along the Grand River northeast of Cleveland. Its population was 19,563 at the 2010 census. Painesville is the home of Lake Erie College, Morley Libra ...

, currently carrying a gospel music format. Owned by Radio Advantage One, LLC, WABQ serves Lake County and eastern parts of

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 is a local affiliate for the

Cleveland Cavaliers Radio Network The Cavaliers AudioVerse is an American radio network composed of 19 radio stations which carry English-language coverage of the Cleveland Cavaliers, a professional basketball team in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Cleveland sister ...

. WABQ's studios and transmitter tower are located off of One Radio Place on the northeastern end of Painesville.

History

The station went on the air April 25, 1956 as a daytime only station under the call sign WPVL (Where People Value Listening). Somerset Broadcasting, Inc. was the original owner under President/General Manager & Chief Engineer, Carl R. Lee. The station was originally located 102 S. Park Place in downtown Painesville, just a few steps to the NE from Carlisle-Allen Department store and the Parmly Hotel to the NW. The original staff featured Elwood Thompson, who moved from WVSC, Somerset, Pennsylvania to be WPVL's first Program Director, James Ahlstrom was News and Sports Director and Tom Christen acted as the station's Farm Director. A couple of years later, the Sales Manager was Don Atkin, on-air personalities were, Jim Stephenson, Promotion Manager and on-air talent, Dick Gascoigne, and Bill Starkey, Sports Director. In 1959, WPVL, Inc. built new studios in a new building at 713 Fobes Street which later was rechristened One Radio Place. The station is still located at this address. Carl R. Lee also was involved in the ownership and building of another AM daytime station, WDLR (1550 AM) in

Delaware, Ohio Delaware is a city in and the county seat of Delaware County, Ohio, United States. Delaware was founded in 1808 and was incorporated in 1816. It is located near the center of Ohio, is about north of Columbus, and is part of the Columbus, Ohio ...

. It became WQLS on January 15, 1984. WQLS would be purchased by Dale Broadcasting, then the owner of WBKC (1560 AM) in Chardon, in late November 1985 for $750,000; after the purchase, WQLS's calls were changed to WBKC on March 3, 1986. WBKC later had an adult contemporary format until 2001, when it became a

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simulta ...

of classical station

WCLV WCLV (90.3 FM) is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, carrying a combined fine art/ classical music and jazz format. Owned by Ideastream Public Media, the station serves both Greater Cleveland and No ...

104.9 FM in Cleveland. WBKC's simulcast was meant to help overcome some of WCLV's signal problems in the eastern portion of the Cleveland radio market, after that station's move to a weaker signal licensed to Lorain, west of Cleveland. WBKC was the Lake County affiliate for the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (A ...

and

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tre ...

. The station was sold to Dale Edwards, owner and operator of WABQ in Cleveland, in 2004. With the sale, Edwards operated WBKC under the "Radio Advantage One, LLC" banner, but maintained the simulcast of WCLV programming. In October 2006, Edwards sold off WABQ's 1540 facility over to Good Karma Broadcasting for their purposes of launching a sports talk station, WWGK. In response, WBKC dropped the WCLV simulcast, and switched over to the gospel format that was previously on 1540. The station would also drop coverage of all Cleveland sports teams, choosing to focus all of its schedule (save mornings) on gospel music and religious programs aimed at the East side of Cleveland (where the bulk of the city's African-American population resides). WBKC swapped call signs with WABQ on October 24, 2006, and the WBKC call letters were then retired on November 7, as AM 1540 took on WWGK as their new calls (reflecting the new ownership). On July 26, 2011, '' Cleveland Scene'' reported that WABQ would flip to a

progressive talk Progressive talk radio is a talk radio format devoted to expressing left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoints of news and issues as opposed to conservative talk radio. In the United States, the format has included syndicated and indepe ...

format on August 1, 2011. The change came about due to a lease management agreement with veteran radio station executive Gary Richards, who at the time operated like-formatted station WVKO (1580 AM) in Columbus; the actual flip occurred on August 4, 2011. As part of the progressive talk format, WABQ was a local affiliate for ''

The Stephanie Miller Show ''The Stephanie Miller Show'' is a syndicated progressive talk radio program that discusses politics, current events, and pop culture using a fast-paced, impromptu, comedic style. The three-hour show is hosted by Stephanie Miller and is syndicat ...

'', ''

The Ed Schultz Show ''The Ed Schultz Show'' was a progressive talk radio program hosted by Ed Schultz. It was formerly broadcast from KFGO in Fargo, North Dakota. It was heard on a network of over 100 stations, including seven of the ten largest radio markets. It ...

'', and '' The Mike Malloy Radio Show'', as well as programs hosted by nationally syndicated personalities

Thom Hartmann Thomas Carl Hartmann (born May 7, 1951) is an American radio personality, author, former psychotherapist, businessman, and progressive political commentator. Hartmann has been hosting a nationally syndicated radio show, ''The Thom Hartmann Pr ...

, Bill Press, Leslie Marshall, along with being an affiliate for

NBC News Radio NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

and MarketWatch. At an unspecified date, the lease agreement of WABQ by Gary Richards ended, and the station reverted to gospel music programming. WABQ remains an affiliate of the

References

External links

FCC History Cards for WABQ (WPVL)
{{Religious Radio Stations in Ohio 1956 establishments in Ohio Gospel radio stations in the United States Radio stations established in 1956

ABQ ABC Television in Brisbane comprises national programming on the ABC television network in or from Brisbane, Queensland which broadcasts on a number of channels under the ABC call sign. There is some local programming from the Brisbane studio ...