WCLV
WCLV is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, carrying a fine art/classical music format. Owned by Ideastream Public Media, the station serves both Greater Cleveland and Northeast Ohio as the home station for the Cleveland Orchestra and an affiliate of the BBC World Service.
This station traditionally has dated its start to September 8, 1984, when regular operations began under its current broadcast license. However, other accounts trace its history to the station it supplanted, WBOE. Under the auspices of the Cleveland Board of Education, WBOE signed on in 1938 as the first formally recognized educational radio station in the United States on the Apex band. In 1941, the station converted to the FM band, becoming not only the first educational FM station, but also the first licensed FM station in Cleveland and one of the first FM stations in Ohio. Featuring in-school instructional programming throughout the majority of its existence, WBOE joined National Public Radio in 1977 but shut down the following year due to extreme fiscal distress within the Cleveland Public Schools; this resulted in the absence of public radio in Cleveland proper until successor station WCPN's launch in 1984. Originally one of two NPR member stations in the Northeast Ohio region alongside Kent–licensed WKSU, this station assumed the format and calls of WCLV from WCPN| on March 28, 2022, following a programming merger between WCPN and WKSU.
WCLV's studios are currently located at Playhouse Square in Downtown Cleveland with the station's transmitter residing in the Cleveland suburb of Parma. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WCLV broadcasts over three HD Radio channels, is simulcast over the third HD sub-channel of WKSU and its repeater network, relayed over WVIZ's 25.8 audio-only sub-channel, and is available online.
WBOE (1938–1978)
AM Apex establishment
Organized radio broadcasting was introduced in the United States in the early 1920s, and by the mid-1930s, the standard amplitude modulation broadcast band was considered to be too full to allow any meaningful increase in the number of stations. Looking to expand the number of available frequencies, the Federal Communications Commission began to issue licenses to parties interested in testing the suitability of using higher transmitting frequencies between roughly 25 and 44 MHz. These stations were informally known as "Apex" stations, due to the tall height of their transmitter antennas, which were needed because coverage was primarily limited to local line-of-sight distances. These original Apex stations operated under experimental licenses, and like standard broadcasting stations, used AM transmissions.Meanwhile, the Cleveland Public School system in Cleveland, Ohio, had shown interest in utilizing radio broadcasts as an instructional aide as early as 1925, broadcasting a music appreciation class over WTAM twice each week. Contracting with WHK in 1929, the school system purchased 15-minute blocks of airtime at reduced rates, focusing on specific subjects like arithmetic, music and geography; two Cleveland schools were selected for this experiment, with their existing public address system connected to WHK's signal. By February 1932, the district moved their broadcasts back to WTAM, now NBC-owned, which offered them a daily block of airtime. During the WTAM partnership, the school programs became more sophisticated, including a 43-part series on literacy, geared towards specific age groups from elementary to high school. It would be a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation's General Education Board in 1937, coupled with the demands of accommodating commercial radio, that prompted the school system to enter broadcasting.
On July 22, 1937, the Cleveland Board of Education filed paperwork to establish an experimental radio station on but the FCC reallocated the Apex frequencies after discovering ionospheric strengthening from high solar activity resulted in strong and undesirable skywave, with two existing stations being heard as far away as Australia. Announced in October 1937, the new allocations resulted in a dedicated band for Apex stations consisting of 75 channels with separations, and spanning from. In addition, the band's first 25 channels, from, were reserved in January 1938 for non-commercial educational stations. The school board's application was accordingly modified on January 31, 1938, from an experimental station to an educational station at with 500 watts. Assigned the WBOE call sign, the station became fully licensed on November 21, 1938, as the first authorized educational broadcasting station with facilities and transmitter located at Lafayette School on Abell Avenue. 150 custom-built crystal radio sets were purchased by the district and distributed to all the schools, tuned to pick up WBOE and the respective school's public address system. Because conventional radio sets could not pick up the Apex band, WBOE did not have any discernable audience otherwise; as educator Paul C. Reed summarized the station, "WBOE, as originally set up, could reach its schools but could not reach an adult audience at home."
At launch, WBOE only operated on school days for seven hours from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with instructional material for students from kindergarten to high school. Because of the prior arrangements on WTAM and WHK, several divisions in the school district already boasted as much as eight years of broadcasting experience. Studios were constructed on the sixth floor of the Board of Education building in Downtown Cleveland, which radio supervisor William B. Levenson boasted as "one of the finest in the country". All but one of the high schools in the district launched radio workshops that originated educational programming for WBOE in a method likened to affiliate stations contributing to a radio network. In the spring of 1939, WBOE experimented with facsimile transmissions sent outside of regular programming hours for distributing printed materials such as lesson instructions, announcements and maps; this was demonstrated during the American Association of School Administrators' annual conference held in Cleveland.
Conversion to FM
At the same time the Apex band was established, the FCC noted that research would begin on the technical requirements of frequency modulation as a possible alternative to the ultra high frequency broadcasts that Apex utilitzed. FM experimentations soon revealed significant advantages to Apex, especially with sound quality and resistance to interference from static, including from lightning. The reassigned Apex band was also still prone to extreme skywave propagation, with WBOE receiving reception reports throughout the western and southwestern U.S. and as far as England. In May 1940, the FCC decided to authorize an FM broadcast band, effective January 1, 1941, operating on 40 channels spanning, with the first five channels reserved for educational stations. Apex stations were subsequently informed by the Commission that they needed to either go silent or convert to FM transmission, effectively eliminating the Apex band. WBOE was one of only three educational Apex stations to have ever signed on, the other two being WNYE in New York City and WBKY in Beattyville, Kentucky.WBOE applied on August 5, 1940, to change to FM operation with 1,000 watts on and new FM radio receivers were purchased for placement in the participating schools. A transmitter and FM exciter were donated to the station by FM's inventor, Major Edwin Howard Armstrong, who was impressed with the station's educational work during a tour of their facilities. On February 3, 1941, WBOE achieved several firsts: it became the first licensed non-commercial educational station on FM in the United States, the first licensed FM station in Cleveland and one of the first in the state of Ohio, still maintaining a schedule from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on school days. The National Association of Educational Broadcasters expressed hope WBOE's FM conversion and the coming availability of FM sets entering the marketplace could help the station find listeners outside of the classroom, a sentiment shared by U.S. Commissioner of Education John W. Studebaker, who lobbied for the non-commercial allotment.
Four years later, the FCC announced that, due to interference concerns, it was reallocating the current FM "low band" frequencies to other services, and existing FM band stations would be relocated to . Once again this meant that the transmitter had to be replaced, and the school radios upgraded for reception on the new band. In July 1946, the FCC directed that FM stations currently operating on would have to move to new frequencies by the end of the year, and WBOE was reassigned to. WBOE's initial assignment on the new FM "high" band was for, however a subsequent reallocation in the fall of 1947 moved the station to. During a transition period, the FCC allowed stations to simultaneously broadcast on both their old and new assignments, and in July 1948 the Board of Education requested permission to remain on "for as long as possible", and from September 1 to the end of the year WBOE was permitted to broadcast on both frequencies. On January 1, 1949, WBOE began broadcast solely on, increasing its transmitter power to 3,000 watts and an effective radiated power of 10,000 watts; a power upgrade to 5,000 watts and an ERP of 15,000 watts took place on December 9, 1959.
"America's Pioneer School Station"
From its 1938 sign on and in the 39 years that followed, WBOE operated as an adjunct of the Cleveland Public Schools, with broadcasts limited to school days and going dark during weekends, holidays and summer vacations. Additional "preview" programming was sometimes transmitted for teachers during after-school hours, introducing any forthcoming series and to familiarize themselves with course material and the presenters. By 1949, the school system employed eleven scriptwriters on a full-time basis, more than any of the 12 commercial radio stations in the city. Programs often had periods of silent intervals in order for teachers to present supplemental materials, and some programs incorporated the use of lantern slides in the classroom as a visual component.Saul Carson, writing for The New Republic, called WBOE "a model for the country" and "the most exciting broadcasting job being done". Contemporary historian Carroll Atkinson, Ph.D. regarded the Cleveland schools as the "strongest exponent of the 'master teacher' ideal in the value of radio instruction" while William B. Levenson called WBOE "America's Pioneer School Station". The station would soon have an international influence when Levenson was a featured speaker at a March 1946 conference for the Canadian National Advisory Council on School Broadcasting, with Canadian Broadcasting Corporation executives in attendance. The "Cleveland Plan" became a sobriquet to describe WBOE as a model for educational radio, but station director Edwin F. Helman downplayed this in 1949, writing, "we have the natural feeling that there is nothing different about our aims or programming—only the differences... from being a local and not a regional station." Edward L. Hoon of the Ohio Education Association cited WBOE as a way to effectively reach students who were sick, hospitalized or unable to physically attend classes.
| Radio Station WBOE — Second Semester Program Guide |
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Even as WBOE was a non-commercial station, the Cleveland Public Schools made special arrangements with WTAM, WHK, WGAR, WCLE and WJW to provide access to educational sustaining programs from the four major radio networks: NBC, Blue/ABC, CBS and Mutual. All stations supplied private lines to WBOE's studios for the purpose of either directly broadcasting sustaining programs to a classroom or to record them for future rebroadcast, sometimes with added narration. Provided daily listings from all four networks, WBOE had the ability to broadcast live speeches or addresses from world leaders if any network carried it. Newscasts from all four networks were also rebroadcast, along with locally originated programs from the stations if they were of educational interest. Sustaining programs relayed over WBOE during the 1939–1940 school year included Mutual's Intercollegiate Debates, NBC's Gallant American Women and Between the Bookends, and CBS's Young People's Concerts. This arrangement was briefly imperiled in November 1945 when American Federation of Musicians president James Petrillo directed networks to ban the duplication of programs containing music on FM stations, preventing WBOE from accessing CBS's The American School of the Air via WGAR; the AFM relaxed the ban for WBOE a few weeks later. WBOE also rebroadcast installments of The Ohio Story, a regionally syndicated anthology series WTAM originated by arrangement of Ohio Bell with all commercials excised.
As radio networks phased out sustaining programming, WBOE began carrying shows through the NAEB Tape Network, which functioned through mail order reel-to-reel tapes instead of dedicated phone lines. WNYE had already been supplying recordings of their weekly Assignment: U.N. to WBOE, which was utilized for high school students. By 1954, WBOE was one of approximately 90 stations that participated in the service, and one of nine in the state. WBOE occasionally did broadcast outside of the school day: for a two-week period in January 1954, WBOE experimented with a five-hour evening program block aimed at adults; such fare already aired over WBOE during semester breaks. When WERE-FM suspended broadcasting as part of an antenna upgrade, WBOE broadcast that station's evening programming commercial-free from late January 1958 until March 1958, with WERE-FM management sending a "sincere thank you" in return. WBOE and WERE-FM also collaborated for an experimental stereophonic sound broadcast over two Sunday nights in April 1959. Starting in 1960 and running through 1967, the station aired Healthlines, a weekly series aimed at physicians by the Academy of Medicine of Cleveland & Northeast Ohio that WGAR originated. The NAEB Tape Network was reorganized into the National Educational Radio Network in 1963, then sold to National Public Radio as part of that network's 1971 launch; the tape network affiliates did not join NPR proper despite the changes, a distinction NPR emphasized.