WGAR-FM
WGAR-FM is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, United States, featuring a country music format. Owned by iHeartMedia, the station serves Greater Cleveland and surrounding Northeast Ohio as the local affiliate for The Bobby Bones Show. WGAR-FM's studios are located at the Six Six Eight Building in downtown Cleveland's Gateway District, and the station's transmitter is in nearby Parma. Along with a standard analog transmission, WGAR-FM broadcasts over two HD Radio channel and is available online via iHeartRadio.
Signing on in 1952 as the FM extension of WGAR, WGAR-FM mostly operated in obscurity until 1970, when owner Nationwide Communications instituted a progressive rock format as WNCR. Airstaff turnover, conflicts with management and increased competition from other rock stations led to a format change to Top 40 in 1973, country in 1974 and again to easy listening as WKSW in 1975. Returning to country in 1980, WKSW became WGAR-FM in 1984 in tandem with WGAR, with the AM simulcasting the FM from 1986 to 1990. WGAR-FM has remained in the format ever since, even with multiple ownership, management and airstaff changes. Since 1999, iHeartMedia has owned WGAR-FM as part of their Greater Cleveland cluster.
History
WGAR-FM (1952–1970)
The WGAR Broadcasting Company, a group led by George A. Richards and owner of WGAR, first filed paperwork on January 17, 1944, to establish an FM adjunct at but due to the number of applicants exceeding the number of available channels, WGAR's application was put through a competitive hearing in April 1946. The Federal Communications Commission decided in WGAR's favor that June, but the commission's proposed power output and height above average terrain was significantly less than what the station had requested, thus putting the application through another set of oral arguments. Richards died on May 28, 1951, during a prolonged legal fight to keep his station licenses; widow Frances S. Richards was bequeathed the radio station group and sold WGAR to Peoples Broadcasting Corp. for $1.75 million on December 4, 1953.WGAR-FM launched on December 15, 1952, co-located with WGAR at the Hotel Statler in downtown Cleveland and with their transmitter at WGAR's existing Broadview Heights facilities. For the next 17 years, WGAR-FM operated either as a simulcast of WGAR for the majority of the day, breaking away in the evenings to carry three hours of classical music, or operated for only two hours a week to maintain their license. WGAR-FM adopted a separate program schedule on December 19, 1967, becoming the last FM station in the market to conform with the FCC's FM Non-Duplication Rule; Tom Armstrong's WGAR morning show continued to be simulcast alongside a mix of album music, jazz and classical. Peoples Broadcasting was renamed to Nationwide Communications in February 1967; in an interview with Broadcasting magazine later in the year, George Washington Campbell announced intentions to turn WGAR-FM into a separate entity "as soon as major technical improvements are made". By November 1969, WGAR-FM's transmitter was moved to Parma alongside State Road.
WNCR (1970–1975)
Starting in 1970, WGAR-FM underwent substantial changes alongside WGAR, both being regarded by Nationwide executives as "sleeping giants" in the Cleveland market. Having upgraded to stereo the year before, WGAR-FM was renamed WNCR on May 4; the callsign being a direct reference to "Nationwide Communications Radio" similar to co-owned WNCI in Columbus. On July 6, 1970, WNCR launched a progressive rock full-time, returning the format to Cleveland for the first time since WMMS had dropped it in late May 1969. The format choice reportedly caught Nationwide management off guard, with some executives expecting the music direction to have a Top 40 style similar to WNCI. One month later, Jack G. Thayer was hired as WGAR's general manager, and along with program director John Lund, initiated an adult contemporary format on the AM station headlined by Don Imus. Thayer's managerial style soon conflicted with WNCR's airstaff. After an attempted mediation with Thayer and Imus as a mediator failed, the entire on-air staff staged a walkout on September 18, 1970, demanding contracts for existing staff, the maintaining of control over music selections and managerial changes; all were fired and later conveyed their discontent to Plain Dealer reporter Jane Scott.A replacement airstaff was hired within ten days having astrological signs as their stage names; WCLV announcer Martin Perlich was hired for late evenings in late October but refused to participate in the gimmick. WIXY announcer Billy Bass became program director at year's end, and hired two WIXY staffers to augment the airstaff. Bass had prior on-air experience with the first iteration of progressive rock on WMMS in 1968 and had attained considerable success as WIXY's overnight host despite knowing little about the Top 40 format. Both he and Perlich had been under consideration for WNCR's initial airstaff months earlier but were bypassed due to their political beliefs; Bass later referred to Perlich as FM rock's conscience "even though he was a communist!" Even with no managerial experience, Bass has been credited for building WNCR into a credible progressive rock station that he called "People Radio", centered around community involvement. As Bass later stated to Radio & Records, "WNCR became an unbelievable commercial success. We were interested in breaking acts and it just happened. It was great."
Bill Barrett, radio critic for the Cleveland Press, began a multi-part review of WNCR in late April 1971 by replying to a reader asking him what kind of station it was with, "dadburned if I know!" Barrett critiqued the station's use of "musical crudities" in songs played that included "the ultimate four-letter word" along with editorial-heavy newscasts being "a sort of little theater of news" analogous to the conservative-leaning Paul Harvey on WGAR. David Spero—son of area television producer Herman Spero, who produced a half-hour late-night television show starring Don Imus—was hired by WNCR on referral by Imus. WNCR's success got the attention of WMMS general manager David Moorehead, who began extending an invitation for Bass to rejoin that station. An eventual series of conflicts between WNCR management and Nationwide executives led Bass to publicly resign on September 23, 1971, in an interview with alternative newspaper Great Swamp Erie da da Boom, disclosing in the process that he had relieved of his program director role several weeks earlier. Moorehead immediately hired not only Bass, but Perlich and Spero, all of whom joined WMMS the following week, but neither of them were aware of WMMS and WHK's pending sale to Malrite Communications three months later or of Moorehead's transfer to KMET in Los Angeles. WNCR continued the format with the remaining airstaff and moved their studios to the Stouffer Building in Playhouse Square, but rumors persisted of internal conflicts between management over the station's musical direction.
WNCR dropped the rock format on January 16, 1973, in favor of Top 40 now directly patterned after WNCI, dismissing the entire airstaff. Future WMMS program director John Gorman saw the move as Nationwide's conservative ownership "torpedoing" the station as they were uncomfortable with a progressive format. The Top 40 format lasted until March 4, 1974, when WNCR switched to country music, returning the format full-time to the Cleveland market since 1971, when WCJW was sold off. Within weeks of WNCR's switch, WHK also flipped to country, a format Malrite had originally intended for WMMS. Despite the immediate competition from WHK, the next Arbitron ratings book showed WNCR as one of four Cleveland FM stations among the market's top ten stations, which was also attributed to increased presence of FM tuners installed in automobiles. Gorman retrospectively stated that WMMS "dodged a bullet" with this switch, as Nationwide had declined to move WGAR's highly rated contemporary format over to the FM dial.
WKSW (1975–1984)
Despite positive ratings that Radio & Records columnist Biff Collie referred to as "husky", Nationwide announced WNCR would drop the country format on June 1, 1975, dismissing all airstaff in what was termed a "power struggle in the corporate structure". The station switched to an automated beautiful music/easy listening format developed by, and named after, Jim Schulke; WNCR management cited the success of the Schulke format in 70 other markets. Dubbed "FM-100: All music, All the time", the call sign changed to WKSW on September 15, 1975. "FM-100" featured a minimum of on-air talk and no backselling of songs played, but Schulke would later add a local airstaff in 1979—including veteran middle of the road host Ted Lux for mornings—in an experiment to boost ratings. The previous summer, rumors of WKSW flipping to Lee Abrams' "Soft Superstars" format were downplayed by management but WKSW was one of three beautiful music stations in the market and typically ranked third in the ratings. WKSW's format was switched back to country as "KS100" on April 8, 1980, conceding the station's continued ratings struggles.While initially re-entering into competition with talk-heavy WHK, WWWE also switched to country in December 1981, emphasizing a balance on personality and music as opposed to WKSW, which WWWE's program director likened to "a jukebox ... maybe 16 or 17 songs an hour." Ratings for all three stations struggled, with WWWE failing to catch on in the Spring 1982 Arbitron book, while WHK and WKSW both saw slight declines. At the same time, WKSW became the target of a "practical joker" who submitted fraudulent press releases of a format change to adult contemporary using the station's old stationery. Chuck Collier, an on-air host at WGAR from 1970 to 1973 and again beginning in 1975, moved to WKSW in September 1983 as evening host and music director. WKSW's competition eventually bowed out: WWWE returned to MOR by August 1983, while WHK flipped to oldies in April 1984. WWWE general manager Tom Wilson cited WWWE's lackluster ratings performance and WKSW and WHK's struggles as proof of "declining demand" for country, saying "Cleveland is more cosmopolitan than a lot of people take it for."