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2001 Frequency Switch

M

MediaLover

This year marks 25 years since seven radio stations switched frequencies and formats across Cleveland, Akron and Canton.

WCLV goes from 95.5 to 104.9
WKDD goes from 96.5 to 98.1
WHK-FM goes from 98.1 to 95.5 and eventually becomes WFHM
WAKS goes from 104.9 to 96.5
WRMR goes from 850 to 1420 as WCLV-AM before the WRMR calls eventually return
WKNR goes from 1220 to 850
WHK goes from 1420 to 1220

Only WKNR, WAKS and WKDD are still at where they are at from 2001. Christian music is still at 95.5, but now part of the K-LOVE brand and ownership as WKLV, while Christian talk is still at 1220, but at WHKW.

The WHK calls returned to 1420 back in 2004 with Salem reacquiring the station around the same time and launching a Conservative-leaning News/Talk format.

WCLV moved to 90.3 back in 2022, while 104.9 became a simulcast of 89.7 WKSU after that station merged operations with WCPN around the same time. By the way, the WCPN calls are now on 104.9.

Any thoughts and memories of the big switch?
 
MediaLover said:
This year marks 25 years since seven radio stations switched frequencies and formats across Cleveland, Akron and Canton.

WCLV goes from 95.5 to 104.9
Click to expand...

I remember that. My parents were pissed. They lived out in Mentor and lost the ability to recieve it. I seem to remember them simulcasting on 1460 but then they also did sports. Which again didn't go down well.

I think WKSU did classical but that was fringe. They had normal radio cassette players not nerd radios and even my Grundig YB 400 struggled with 104.9
 
I was in junior high in Toledo at this time, so I had no idea of this until moving to the area after college.

Can someone tell me why such a mass frequency swap happened here? Especially when this involved multiple owners?
 
25 years...time does fly
chrocket87 said:
Can someone tell me why such a mass frequency swap happened here? Especially when this involved multiple owners?
Click to expand...
Long story short, WCLV owner Robert Conrad wanted to preserve the classical music format in Cleveland (even if it meant being stuck on a rimshot you couldn't hear in the eastern part of the market) because he feared it would disappear in the age of companies owning huge clusters of stations.

So he got the ball rolling on some wheeling and dealing, and here we are.
 


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