WNWV
WNWV is a commercial radio station licensed to Elyria, Ohio, United States, carrying an alternative rock format known as "107.3 Alternative Cleveland". Owned by Rubber City Radio Group, Inc., the station serves Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio. WNWV's studios are located in Akron, while the station transmitter resides off of South Island Road in Grafton. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WNWV broadcasts over two HD Radio subchannels and is available online; the second digital subchannel offers a Spanish CHR format as "Rumba 107.3 HD2".
This station originated as WEOL-FM, the FM adjunct to WEOL, and signed on the same day as its AM counterpart on October 17, 1948. Originally owned by the Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting Co., WEOL AM and FM spent over 15 years in litigation with The Lorain Journal over anticompetitive business practices with advertisers in Lorain, Ohio, that resulted in a Supreme Court decision, Lorain Journal Co. v. United States, a treble damages lawsuit, and two challenges to the licenses for both stations by the Journal. Debuting a nightly six-hour block of classical and high fidelity music in 1960, WEOL-FM became WBEA in February 1966, featuring an automated easy listening format aimed towards Lorain County. By 1982, WBEA switched to contemporary hits, then became WCZR on January 1, 1987, with a heavy metal format as a Z Rock affiliate aimed at Greater Cleveland. WCZR failed to generate revenue despite a cult following and switched again after 11 months to new age and smooth jazz as WNWV, "The Wave".
Originally satellite-delivered via a national feed of format progenitor KTWV, by 1990, WNWV's presentation became entirely local. Along with consistently high ratings, WNWV was also one of the few remaining locally-owned commercial radio stations in Northeast Ohio at the turn of the century. Declining ratings and demographic issues with the smooth jazz format precipitated a switch in 2010 to adult album alternative, first as "Boom! 107.3", then "107.3 Cleveland" and finally to "V107.3". Elyria-Lorain sold WNWV to Rubber City Radio Group at the end of 2011, where the prior "Wave" branding was revived but with a smooth AC focus. WNWV's format changed again to modern adult contemporary in January 2020 as "jenY 107.3" after a cryptic billboard campaign went viral. "jenY" gradually evolved into a straightforward alternative format before taking on the current branding in 2022.
WEOL-FM (1948–1965)
was news and sports director in the early 1950s before becoming "Captain Penny" at WEWS, and longtime WJW-TV reporter Neil Zurcher was news director in the mid-1960s.When WEOL AM/FM were established, The Lorain Journal, which held a monopoly on advertising revenue and news coverage in Lorain, instituted policies to intimidate and dissuade Journal advertisers from associating likewise with WEOL. In late 1949, the U.S. Justice Department sued the newspaper for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act; the subsequent trial in U.S. Northern Ohio district court found the Journal guilty of these charges and ordered them to cease said policies. The Journal appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the verdict in the 1951 ruling, Lorain Journal Co. v. United States. Elyria-Lorain then filed a treble damages lawsuit against the Journal in 1951 for revenue lost due to the Journals policies, and the Journal unsuccessfully challenged the license renewals for WEOL and WMAN in Mansfield, Ohio, who also sued the publishers for damages. The lawsuit was retried twice, once after the paper was acquitted of the charges, and again after the judgement was seen as too low, before being settled by 1967.
On April 1, 1958, the Lorain County Printing and Publishing Company, publishers of the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, purchased all Elyria-Lorain stock held by Roy Ammel for $214,200. LCP&P president Otto Schoepfle called the transaction an opportunity for the Chronicle to extend itself into broadcasting; Schoepfle was named president of Elyria-Lorain when the deal closed and Paul Nakel, formerly of WJMO, was hired as general manager. LCP&P filed to acquire all stock in Elyria-Lorain owned by the Loren M. Berry foundation in September 1964, which the FCC initially approved but was set aside after the Journal filed an objection. The Journals protest ran concurrently with Elyria-Lorain objecting to the Journal's full acquisition of Lorain station WWIZ, filed after the paper purchased a stake in that station in exchange for voting and nonvoting preferred stock. The Journal withdrew from the case as the evidentiary hearing began, and the stock transfer and license renewals were granted on October 6, 1966.
WBEA (1965–1987)
In a May 1958 column for the Chronicle-Telegram, WEOL announcers Dick Conrad and Jeff Baxter teased the possibility of WEOL-FM airing separate programming largely centered around classical music and high fidelity recordings. On March 11, 1960, WEOL-FM debuted "Formula 107", a nightly six-hour program block of classical, opera and Broadway musicals. "Formula 107" was developed after positive reception of a Sunday night stereophonic program over WEOL, sponsored by the Chronicle.WEOL-FM was renamed WBEA on December 7, 1965, the call sign stood for Bea Nakel, Paul Nakel's wife. WBEA debuted an easy listening format on February 24, 1966, with the activation of a new transmitter tower built at the Grafton site. Nicknamed the "Velvet Sound", WBEA boasted 100,000 watts of power and a coverage area of. The separation followed the FCC's enacting of the FM Non-Duplication Rule, which mandated FM stations no longer could fully duplicate the programming of their AM adjuncts. The station was heavily automated, with one computer operating two tape decks for music and one tape deck for commercials in state-of-the-art facilities; by 1971, WBEA aired eight newscasts daily and one commercial every 15 minutes. In 1981, WBEA picked up the Drake-Chenault "Beautiful Music Plus" format. WBEA and WEOL moved to new studios at 538 Broad Street in July 1982, again in Elyria's downtown.
WBEA changed to contemporary hits—a hybrid of Top 40, soft rock, album rock and oldies—on January 31, 1983, re-branded as "B-107". Developed by Burkhart/Abrams, the new format consisted of taped music along with local news updates, features and in-studio announcers. Paul Nakel retired in 1984 and was succeeded as general manager by Gary Kneisley; under Kneisley, Drew Bentley was hired as program director, tasked with infusing personality and making WBEA "a foreground station". During a publicity stunt in July 1985, morning host Mike Patrick attempted to sit in all 79,201 bleacher seats at Cleveland Municipal Stadium in a fund-raiser for the Lorain County American Red Cross. The stunt lasted around the clock for five days before Patrick gave up. In the spring of 1986, Arbitron combined Lorain County into the Greater Cleveland radio market, making WBEA a Cleveland-market station.
WCZR (1987)
On December 21, 1986, Elyria-Lorain announced WBEA would switch to heavy metal under the WCZR call sign, effective January 1, 1987. The station would affiliate with Z Rock, a 24/7 syndicated format operated by Satellite Music Network. WBEA's airstaff was dismissed, but program director Drew Bentley was retained. General manager Gary Kneisley was approached by SRN representatives in Chicago where he listened to the format for a two-hour span, and justified the switch by telling The Plain Dealer, "... there are eight other stations in greater Cleveland playing the same music". WCZR was the third affiliate for Z Rock, following WZRC in Chicago and WCXT in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Z Rock's status as a wholly-syndicated format was criticized by Bob Dyer of the Akron Beacon Journal, who noted, "utting a syndicated service on the air is cheaper than hiring an experienced, competent disc jockey. And the presentation is much better than it would be if a station hired a raw rookie for minimal pay."By March, retail sales of metal albums reported significant increases in greater Cleveland, largely attributed to Z Rock. The station and network positioned themselves as catering to younger demographics largely ignored by commercial radio. WCZR was scrutinized after a Chester Township teenager committed suicide on August 30, and "Z Rock" stickers were found throughout his room, leading his parents to suggest a correlation with heavy metal music. A statement by Bentley to The Plain Dealer expressed condolences and said, "ur music is intended to entertain our audience and is subject to the interpretation of the listener as are all types of artistic expression".
WNWV (1987–present)
Smooth jazz "Wave" era
Despite WCZR's cult following and some increased ratings by the end of October, Elyria-Lorain confirmed the station would switch again to new-age, soft rock and smooth jazz as "The Wave" on November 15, 1987, with new WNWV calls. The Wave Network was also syndicated by SRN and followed an identical format switch by WZRC weeks earlier. Kneisley said, "e feel bad for our heavy metal audience, but we just can't wait two or three years to see the kind of growth we'd anticipated". SRN's Wave Network was initially a syndicated version of KTWV in Los Angeles and like KTWV, featured no air talent but locally, WNWV utilized announcer Chris Daniels for mornings. Among protests, marches and letter-writing campaigns, Z Rock listeners began graffiti tagging "Z Rock Lives", including on a billboard promoting WNWV, prompting Cleveland City Council to pass an ordinance holding Elyria-Lorain liable for cleanup. A petition calling for the return of Z Rock gathered 5,000 signatures, 90 percent of them between the ages of 18 to 40.Magazine ads taken out by WNWV promoted the lack of personalities, while the station featured a telephone hotline that told callers what song was currently playing. Coupled with a television ad campaign featuring saxophonist David Sanborn, WNWV saw ratings success, jumping to a 3.5 share in the Spring 1988 Arbitron ratings, and a 4.5 in the Spring 1988 Birch Survey. By September 1988, the Wave Network began adding personalities, this followed SRN's iteration becoming independent from KTWV and ran concurrently with KTWV adding air talent. Consultant Lee Abrams was hired by SRN in February 1990 to oversee the Wave Network and de-emphasized the amount of instrumentals played in favor of songs from traditional AOR artists; Abrams told the Plain Dealer, "e want music that's mellow but never wimpy. And we want to get away from that whole California kind of thing—that audio valium." These changes proved unpopular and led WNWV to end their SRN contract two months in advance, on September 18, 1990. Bernie Kimble, formerly of WHK and WNCX, was hired as program director and midday host and was tasked with assembling a local airstaff and music library in three weeks when the station had neither. Kneisley said, "we had horn-withdrawal, so our first day was devoted to all-saxophone music".
Under Kimble, "The Wave" placed an emphasis on announcing every song played. WNWV aired WEOL-produced news in morning drive and Dow Jones Money Reports throughout the day; by 1992, WNWV hired a newscaster of their own, owing to listener demand and increased workload on WEOL staff. Kimble left WNWV in March 1993 to program WJJZ in Philadelphia and was succeeded by Steve Hibbard; after Hibbard left in May 1995, Kimble returned. By 1996, the station began featuring their on-air hosts broadcasting remotely to locations around the region. Through the late 1990s and the 2000s, WNWV's airstaff consisted of Tom Murphy in mornings, Mark Ribbins in middays and Richard Greer in afternoons. The station's overall stability and minimum talk by the air talent, led WNWV to finish among the top ten most listened-to stations in Cleveland by 1999, and repeatedly pulled the highest shares among all smooth jazz stations nationwide. WNWV was nominated for the National Association of Broadcasters Marconi Award for "Jazz Station of the Year" in 1995, 1997, 2000 and 2001, winning in 1995 and 2001.
Bernie Kimble left WNWV in June 2008 and was succeeded as program director by Angie Handa. After Richard Greer's departure that September, Mark Ribbins replaced Greer in afternoon drive, and Handa became midday host. Tom Murphy left in June 2009, with Mike Kessler taking over in morning drive.