WCCD

WCCD (1000 AM "Radio 1000") is a daytime-only radio station licensed to Parma, Ohio, and serving Greater Cleveland. It airs a religious format of urban gospel music and Christian talk and teaching programs. It is owned by New Spirit Revival Center Ministries, Inc., co-founded by the Rev. Darrell C. Scott. The studios are at The New Spirit Revival Church on Mayfield Road in Cleveland Heights.

WCCD is powered at 500 watts. It uses a directional antenna with a four-tower array. But 1000 AM is a clear channel frequency reserved for Class A station WMVP in Chicago. That requires WCCD to go off the air at night to avoid interference. Programming is heard around the clock on 180-watt FM translator W287DQ at 105.3 MHz in Cleveland.

History

WSUM

The station signed on the air on May 31, 1973. The original call sign was WSUM. The initial lineup included longtime television fixtures Jim Doney, Linn Sheldon and Gib Shanley (sports director), plus Ted Alexander and Joey James. In addition, a full news staff included Michael Hissam (news director), Pat Longworth and Nancy Watson. Just a few months after its debut, WSUM's operators went bankrupt and the station had to leave the air.

The Christian Broadcasting Association of Canton purchased WSUM in October 1976 and resumed programming under new management. It began airing recorded religious programs from local and national sources. There was also talk radio programming with hosts including Merle Pollis.

Mortenson Broadcasting put both WSUM and WTOF up for sale in August 1986 after purchasing Akron station WHLO. Jack Mortenson, co-founder of the chain, purchased WHLO because it had a stronger signal than both WSUM and WTOF combined, and common ownership of more than one AM station with overlapping signals was prohibited at the time.

WCCD

When the sale to Jack Boyd's American Sunrise Communications was completed on January 1, 1987, WSUM was renamed WCCD on February 1, retaining the religious format. American Sunrise sold WCCD, along with four other stations, to Guardian Communications for $5.6 million in 1990.

Under Guardian ownership, WCCD marketed itself as a "family-friendly" Christian station that de-emphasized preaching of the "fire and brimstone" archetype, but still featured conservative personalities including Phyllis Schlafly and Dr. James Dobson. Despite the marketing, WCCD's most popular program was the reactionary populism-themed ''What's Right, What's Left'', hosted by the Rev. Ernie Sanders, a Berea pastor who became a visible leader in anti-abortion movements. He was described by station management as "even more to the right than Rush Limbaugh".

Guardian put up the nine-station chain for auction in September 1996 after Carl Linder (who through Great American Insurance held a 50 percent ownership stake in the company and recently divested its stake in Citicasters) announced his intention to sell his stake in Guardian, inducing the company's other co-owners to follow along. While the stations were originally intended to be sold separately, with a $700,000 minimum offer price for WCCD, Salem Communications purchased it, along with Guardian's Baltimore and Cincinnati stations, for $3 million. Salem retained the religion format as a complement to WHK (), which had been purchased by the chain the previous year.

WHK

During a transition period in the summer of 2001 when Salem divested WHK as part of a complex seven-station asset swap, WHK's three-letter callsign was temporarily " parked" on WCCD beginning on February 26, 2001, and lasting through August 3, 2001, when the WHK calls moved to .

Salem changed WCCD's format by late January 2003, dropping all of the religious and brokered programming in favor of conservative talk as ''The Voice'', programmed largely by the Salem Radio Network; syndicated hosts included Bill Bennett, Mike Gallagher, Dennis Prager, Michael Medved and Hugh Hewitt. This format moved to on July 14, 2004, when Salem re-purchased that station (then identifying as WRMR) and relaunched it as WHK.

New Spirit Revival Church

WCCD was put up for sale, airing a mix of Christian contemporary music and leased-time urban gospel music paid for by the New Spirit Revival Center Church. The church ultimately bought the station in April 2005 and over time turned it into a more preacher focused religious format, featuring a mix of local and national hosts. Dr. Darrell C. Scott - co-founder of the New Spirit Revival Center - hosts a daily program on WCCD, as does his wife Belinda.

The station filed for an STA request for a power reduction with the FCC on June 16, 2022, after their North Royalton transmitter site was to be redeveloped by the land owner. The station was taken silent on September 22, 2022, with an application to move to WHK's transmitter site in Seven Hills. The station returned to the air on June 13, 2023.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wccd
1973 establishments in Ohio
Gospel radio stations in the United States
Radio stations established in 1973
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Parma, Ohio