WREO-FM (97.1 FM) is a

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 radio ...

broadcasting a

soft adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quiet sto ...

format licensed to

Ashtabula, Ohio Ashtabula ( ) is a city in Ashtabula County, Ohio, Ashtabula County, Ohio, United States, and the center of the United States micropolitan area, Ashtabula micropolitan area. It is located at the mouth of the Ashtabula River on Lake Erie, nort ...

. It is one of five stations in Media One Radio Group's

Ashtabula Ashtabula ( ) is a city in Ashtabula County, Ohio, United States, and the center of the Ashtabula micropolitan area. It is located at the mouth of the Ashtabula River on Lake Erie, northeast of Cleveland. As of the 2020 census, the city ha ...

cluster, the others being

WFUN (AM) WFUN (970 AM) – branded as ESPN 970 WFUN – is a commercial sports radio station in Ashtabula, Ohio. Owned by Media One Radio Group, it serves Ashtabula County, Ohio and parts of the Erie, Pennsylvania region. It is one of five stations in M ...

WFXJ-FM WFXJ-FM (107.5 MHz) — branded 107.5 The Fox — is a commercial classic rock radio station licensed to North Kingsville, Ohio. Owned by Media One Radio Group, the station serves the Northeast Ohio county of Ashtabula, and is the local ...

, WQGR (FM), WYBL (FM), and

WZOO-FM WZOO-FM is an FM radio station in Edgewood, Ohio, United States, broadcasting at 102.5 MHz with a classic hits radio format. It is one of five stations in Media One Radio Group's Ashtabula cluster, the others being WFUN (AM), WFXJ-FM, WQGR ...

For many years, WREO broadcast an

easy listening Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, n ...

format. It moved with the trends of "office-safe" stations beginning in the early 1990s, converting to

Smooth jazz Smooth jazz is a genre of commercially-oriented crossover jazz and easy listening music that became dominant in the mid 1970s to the early 1990s. History Smooth jazz is a commercially oriented, crossover jazz which came to prominence in the 19 ...

in the early 1990s,

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, R&B, quie ...

in the spring of 1992, then switching to Hot AC in summer 2013. During the AC era, it branded as "Star 97.1", then switched to the "Mix 97.1" branding upon the Hot AC switch. On September 6, 2021, the station switched to a playlist with a more "Lite Rock" sound as "Lite Mix 97.1" with legendary Cleveland broadcaster Ted Alexander II serving as Program Director.WREO Moves To A Lite Mix
Radioinsight - September 8, 2021 Through it all, the heritage WREO-FM calls have been retained. Most of the station's programming is locally originated, either live or through advanced

voice tracking Voice-tracking, also called cyber jocking and referred to sometimes colloquially as a robojock, is a technique employed by some radio stations in radio broadcasting to produce the illusion of a live disc jockey or announcer sitting in the radio stu ...

, along with local news, weather and traffic coverage, and local community service features. Syndicated programming over the weekend includes the ''

Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 ''Rick Dees Weekly Top 40'' (sometimes known as ''The Weekly Top 40'') is an internationally syndicated radio program created and hosted by American radio personality Rick Dees. It is currently heard on over 200 radio stations worldwide. It is di ...

'', ''The'' ''

John Tesh John Frank Tesh (born July 9, 1952) is an American pianist and composer of pop music, as well as a radio host and television presenter. He hosts the ''Intelligence for Your Life'' radio show. In addition, since 2014, he has hosted ''Intelligen ...

Radio Show'', and ''Backtracks USA''. Because of the station's large signal range (formerly branded as "Powerhouse Of The North Coast") which also easily covers the eastern portion of the

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 ...

area, along with all of

Erie County, Pennsylvania Erie County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the northernmost county in Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 270,876. Its county seat is Erie. The county was created in 1800 and later organized in 1803. ...

, it is heavily competitive with

Erie Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 a ...

's in-city stations, sometimes topping them in

Nielsen Media Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

(and in the past, Arbitron) ratings. It also has good listenership across

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

London, Ontario London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...

and into the

Youngstown Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio, and the largest city and county seat of Mahoning County. At the 2020 census, Youngstown had a city population of 60,068. It is a principal city of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan area, which ...

Warren A warren is a network of wild rodent or lagomorph, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval Angl ...

metro to the south, and some fringe coverage into western

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. The station maintains a weather partnership with Cleveland

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

affiliate

WKYC WKYC (channel 3) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. Its studios are located on Tom Beres Way (a section of Lakeside Avenue in Downtown Cleveland named after the station's longti ...

(Channel 3), and a branding partnership with the

Ashtabula County Medical Center Ashtabula County Medical Center (ACMC) is an affiliate of Cleveland Clinic and is a not for-profit, community-oriented multi-specialty hospital, located in Ashtabula County, Ohio. It serves the people of Ashtabula County and the surrounding areas ...

, including studio sponsorship.

References

External links

*
FCC History Cards For WREO-FM
REO-FM Ashtabula, Ohio Soft adult contemporary radio stations in the United States {{Ohio-radio-station-stub