The Saturday Aircheck

The Best Of 1220 WGAR, Cleveland 1976



With the demise of network radio in the 1950s, WGAR tried various music formats, settling into an adult contemporary format in the 1960s. Don Imus did a stint at WGAR as a morning drive personality from 1970 to 1971 before moving on to WNBC in New York. (He returned to Cleveland in 1979 to do afternoons on WHK.)

Imus was replaced in 1972 by John Lanigan who had a very successful run as the morning man until he left for a Florida station on February 9, 1984. (In 1985 John Lanigan returned to Cleveland and went to work at WMJI, using much of the material he developed at WGAR.)

WGAR abandoned its adult contemporary format for a country music format on July 15, 1984. WGAR soon simulcast the country music format with its FM sister station, WGAR-FM, starting in 1986.

By 1990, WGAR was sold off to Douglas Broadcasting, and it changed its call sign to WKNR-adopting a sports/talk format-while WGAR-FM assumed the WGAR identity (as allowed by the FCC regulations at the time.)

WKNR maintained studios at the 1220-AM transmitter site in Broadview Heights-which were used by WGAR (AM) since the early 1970s, while WGAR-FM moved to new studios in nearby Independence, Ohio.

In January 1998, WKNR was sold to Jacor Communications, but were forced to spin it off to Capstar that very same August as a condition of the Jacor-Nationwide Communications merger - which ironically took WGAR-FM under the Jacor umbrella. Then, Capstar merged with Chancellor Media-who owned six other stations in the market-to form AMFM, Inc. in 1999.

When AMFM merged with Clear Channel in August 2000, WKNR was spun off again, this time to Salem Communications. And then, Salem moved WKNR to 850 kHz - formerly home to WRMR and earlier, WJW (AM) - in the July 2001 Great Cleveland Frequency Swap. WHK's programming and call letters moved to 1220 kHz in that same swap, but changed again to WHKW in 2005 when the WHK calls moved back to 1420 kHz following Salem's re-acquisition of that frequency.

Following the move, WKNR still broadcast from its studios at the former WGAR (AM) transmitter site (currently in use by WHKW), which were officially vacated on October 29, 2007, ending 30 years of near-continuous use.

Source: wikipedia

1220 WGAR Alumni and Tribute Page, click here.

CC Re-Launches Greensboro's Country WTQR

Clear Channel-owned 104.1 FM WTQR radio announced a format change on Friday, tossing out old country tunes in lieu of new hits.

The station, which has been on the air in the Triad for 37 years, rebranded itself as "New Country Q 104-1," the station said in a news release.

The new format will include hits from artists including Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Jason Aldean, Zac Brown Band, Tim McGraw, Lady Antebellum, Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts and Miranda Lambert, the station said.

The on-air personality list doesn't change with the new format.

Jeff Roper will continue to host the morning drive show from 5-10 a.m., followed by Angie Ward during the mid-day and Jeff Wicker during the afternoon drive.

The disc jockeys have been off the air recently as the station prepared for the re-launch.

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Facebook Fan Page, click here.

CC Expected To Swamp Formats On AM, FM

In Minneapolis, sports 1130 AM KFAN  will soon ditch its AM frequency and swap spots with traditional talker 100.3 FM KTLK, according to a story by David Brauer at minnpost.com.

In some markets, up to 50 percent of adults — especially younger ones — don’t touch the AM band, analyst Sean Ross estimates. Therefore, going FM should help KFAN battle Hubbard Broadcasting’s year-old AM sports competitor, 1500 AM KSTP ESPN.

Clear Channel Communications, which owns KFAN and KTLK, isn't commenting, but it's fair to say they wouldn't mind repeating history.

Five years ago, Clear Channel switched Smooth Jazz KJZI-FM to conservative talk, ultimately vanquishing 1500’s long-dominant predecessor, KSTP-AM.

The KFAN-KTLK swap will happen before the opening of the Minnesota Vikings regular season Sept. 11, and conceivably, early in the exhibition schedule.

Clear Channel already simulcasts the Vikings on KTLK and KFAN, and was slated to do the same with newly acquired Minnesota Gophers football games.

Is this a sign that conservative radio is fading? Nope, write Brauer.  The move comes as KTLK’s ratings are near the top of its two-year range, buoyed by the strong performance of the recently debuted "Davis & Emmer" morning show.

In the June Arbitron ratings, KTLK had a marginally higher share of the total Twin Cities listening audience — 3.6 percent to KFAN’s 3.3 — but the sports station had roughly 50 percent more 25-to-54-year-old listeners.

The swap, then, is partly because sports has the bigger upside. It’s generally accepted that KFAN reaps far more ad revenue than KTLK, so even if conserva-talk loses in the switch, the added (or at least, preserved) sports dollars should more than make up for it.

KTLK will still have an FM presence, though it might require some button pushing. Clear Channel is assembling a portfolio of four low-power FMs, and KTLK will appear on some or all of them.

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A Peek Inside Merlin Media's New 101.9 FM

The Newsroom

Kathleen Maloney

Brett Larson, Daniela Billota

No word on official launch date.

Cleveland's 850 ESPN Preps For Competition

Craig Karmazin, head of Milwaukee-based Good Karma Broadcasting — the parent company of 850-AM WKNR, until Thursday the only all-sports-talk station in Cleveland — said changes were afoot in the station's programming as 92.3-FM WKRK changes to all sports and brings new competition to the market.

He answered  the main questions of Joel Hammond at crainscleveland.com, centered on the loss of Westwood One's NFL coverage, in a Thursday morning voice mail, and had a simple explanation for Westwood One joining with WKRK: WKNR, through fan surveys, said it found more Browns coverage was in demand. So it now will have five hours of pregame and postgame coverage, and thus other NFL games on the station were impossible.

“Westwood One was a great partner for many years, but we weren't able to continue as an affiliate,” he said.

Tom Herschel, CBS Radio's senior vice president and market manager in Cleveland, said the addition of Westwood One was a big factor. He wouldn't comment, though, on whether Westwood One signed with CBS Radio here, forcing WKNR's hand, or whether WKNR cut ties first.

The new station also will have Big Ten Football, though Ohio State will remain on WKNR.

“We really look at this as an incredible opportunity,” Herschel said.

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Max Media Flips WLGL In PA.

Norfolk-based Max Media blew up its three station FM simulcast of WWBE Mifflinsburg, Pa Thursday. 

Country formatted B98 was aired for more than a dozen years on three FM Class A frequencies in the Susquehanna Valley:   98.1 FM Mifflinburg, down-river on 100.5 FM WYGL in Elizabeth and 'up-river' on 92.3 FM WLGL Riverside, PA.

That ended Thursday as a '80s and '90s based Classic Rock format made a debut on WLGL.  The station is now branded as The Drive and is jockless.

Uses of FM Translators Morph Quickly

From Randy J. Stines, rwonline.com

Translators aren’t just for filling in FM signal coverage gaps anymore.


They have become a more important part of radio owners’ spectrum strategy toolkit. Many commercial and noncommercial radio operators — both AM and FM — are using FM translators in ways previously unimagined, not only supplementing local signal coverage but leveraging them to gain a more lucrative footprint on the FM dial for content that originally airs on AM stations or FM HD2/HD3 channels.


Demand for translators also is increasing as broadcasters realize they effectively can create additional radio stations in markets by location-hopping and moving towards more heavily populated areas, according to several technical radio observers.

An FM translator retransmits the signal of an AM or FM radio station without significantly altering characteristics of the original other than its frequency and amplitude. FM translators historically have been used to fill in coverage where terrain blockage was an issue.


There were 6,141 licensed FM translators and boosters as of March 2011, according to the FCC. That compares to 3,897 in 2005 and 3,243 in 2000, according to commission data. FM boosters essentially are translators that operate on the same frequency as the primary station. The FCC doesn’t distinguish between FM translators and boosters in its database.


Approximately 500 FM translators simulcast AM broadcast stations. That’s a measure of the success of a rule change, adopted just two summers ago, allowing AMs to use existing FM translators in certain circumstances.


Observers say radio’s evolving translator strategies simply take advantage of current translator rules. For instance, a broadcaster can add a fill-in translator with power up to 250 watts regardless of antenna height as long as it does not exceed the protected contour of the associated primary station.


Interestingly, the 60 dBu of a 250 watt fill-in translator at 2,000 feet height above average terrain presents the same coverage area as a Class B or C2 FM station, thus “creating fairly high-power entities,” said Doug Vernier, president of broadcast engineering consulting firm V-Soft Communications.

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Time On WIP Advisory Panel Proves Enlightening

From James D'Arcangelo Council Rock North High School for phillyburbs.com

I came to the radio station to share my opinions, but ended up learning a lot more than I thought.

There are times when you are positioned to teach and impart wisdom, but you actually absorb and learn more than you end up sharing. That often happens to me in my volunteer work with kids.

It happened to me, big time, when I showed up at the offices of Philadelphia sports radio leader WIP (610 AM) to participate on their listener advisory panel last week.

Having heard WIP program director Andy Bloom's on-air request for panel applicants, I submitted my application and waited hopefully and anxiously. I knew that the station would elicit a substantial number of responses and that my odds were unfavorable. So I was extremely excited when, out of the more than 1,000 people who had applied, I was chosen to be a member of the 40-person team, and was the only teenager in the group.

The "team" was broken into four sets of panelists, ranging in number from nine to my 14-person session. Showing up for the two-hour meeting that started at 8 p.m., I was very ready to talk sports and sports radio.

I listen to WIP quite a bit, mostly during the afternoon and evenings, and mostly during the Phillies' and Flyers' seasons, so I was ready to share my opinions. I wasn't alone — many panelists came with pages of notes!

Over the course of the two-and-a-half-hour session, the group discussed day shifts, hosts, technology use and the right mix of "hard" sports talk versus "general entertainment." The diversity of the panelists in the room (notably age ranges and the times that they listen to WIP throughout the day), led to discussions that were lively, straight and mottled — and disagreements certainly arose, but were treated respectfully by all.

Throughout, Bloom asked very pointed questions about preferences and what would prompt panelists to listen more, listen longer or simply not turn away.

I learned a lot throughout the session, but even more after the conclusion of the meeting and the ensuing station tour, as I sat down with Bloom to ask what the impetus was to create the panel. Despite the late 11 p.m. hour, he and his staff happily indulged me (and "indulge" me he did; he is a legend in Philadelphia radio, with well over 25 years in the market, and noted as the man who brought Howard Stern to Philadelphia in 1986, enabling Stern's first syndicated market expansion from New York).

I asked Bloom why he would create such a group, when times were great at WIP (in-market, the station is regularly at or near the top in its target demographic group, males 18-54), and what his goals were. He shared that the "best way to grow steadily and to be steadily top-rated is to seek out your customers' opinions, listen and act. Radio listeners follow the classic ‘80-20 Rule,' so you want to build loyalty among that group of most-active listeners."

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RIP: Annette Charles, 'Cha'Cha' From 'Grease'

Annette Charles, who played 'Cha-Cha' in 'Grease,' has died at age 63. She was the most memorable student at St. Bernadette's High.

Annette Charles, who played bad girl "Cha-Cha" DiGregorio and famously danced with John Travolta's Danny Zucko and Jeff Conaway's Kenickie in the 1978 movie "Grease," passed away Wednesday night at her Los Angeles home.

RIP: Dorothy E. Brunson, Station Owner

She was the first African-American woman to own a radio and TV stations

Frederick N. Rasmussen, The Baltimore Sun

Dorothy E. Brunson, who became the first African-American woman in the nation to own a radio station when she bought WEBB-AM in Baltimore, died Sunday of complications from ovarian cancer at Mercy Medical Center, Baltimore. She was 72.

"Thanks to the pioneering work of Ms. Brunson, the world of broadcast media was opened up to African-American entrepreneurs and business leaders," Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said in a statement. "Her vision and commitment to excellence at every level of the business led to her success and paved the way for others to find success in cities across America."

Ms. Brunson was also the first African-American woman to own and operate a television station, with her purchase of WGTW-TV Channel 48 in Philadelphia in 1986.

Dorothy Edwards was born in Georgia and raised in Harlem, N.Y. A graduate of New York City public schools, she hoped for a career in the arts and studied drama, fashion, photography and advertising.

"But I needed something more," she told The Baltimore Sun in a 1986 profile.

She returned to college and earned a bachelor's degree in finance and accounting in 1960 from the State University of New York Empire State College in Saratoga Springs, and went to work in 1962 as assistant controller of WWRL-Radio in New York City.

Ms. Brunson advanced very quickly and within three months became controller. Before she left in 1969, she was the station's assistant general manager and corporate liaison.

"When I first came to WWRL, yearly advertising billings were around $700,000. By the time I left, they had grown to nearly $5 million," Ms. Brunson said in the 1986 Sun article.

By 1978, annual sales rose from $500,000 to more than $23 million, and as manager of WBLS, Ms. Brunson had turned the failing operation into the sixth-largest radio station in the nation.

She gained listeners by initiating a Top 40 format that also leaned heavily on rhythm and blues.

Ms. Brunson turned her attention to Baltimore after leaving the New York station in 1979, when she established Brunson Communications Inc. and purchased WEBB for $485,000. WEBB was established in 1955 and named for the legendary Baltimore-born and raised swing-era musician, William Henry "Chick" Webb.

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WKRK-FM Cleveland To Flip To All Sports

It comes as no surprise to many that CBS Radio has finnaly made the move many have expected.

The company has announced that on August 29th, 92.3 FM WRKR Cleveland will flip from Alternative to Sports to be branded as "92.3 The Fan".  PD is Andy Roth who makes the move down I-90 from Buffalo, NY, where he programmed 550 AM WGR.   Roth has also put intime with WFAN NYC and WIP in Philly.

Former Fox Sports Radio Network talent Kevin Kiley and Chuck Booms will handle AM Drive., who previously co-hosted a show together on the Fox Sports Radio Network.

"CBS Radio is the leader when it comes to the all-Sports format," says CBS/Cleveland SVP/Market Manager Tom Herschel. "Having the pioneering station -- WFAN -- among our portfolio along with a number of new entrants to the FM dial in major markets across the country, we are confident we know what it takes to make this move a success in Cleveland."