WHK (AM)

WHK (1420 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, carrying a conservative talk format known as "AM 1420 The Answer". Owned by the Salem Media Group, the station serves both Greater Cleveland and the Northeast Ohio region as an affiliate for the Salem Radio Network. WHK's studios are currently located in the Cleveland suburb of Independence while the transmitter site resides in neighboring Seven Hills. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WHK is relayed over low-power Cleveland translator W273DG () and is available online.

Formally established in 1922 but borne out of experimental broadcasts by founder Warren R. Cox, WHK was the first licensed radio station to broadcast in Ohio and is the 15th oldest station still broadcasting in the United States. Operated by Cox and then the Radio Air Service Corporation, WHK spent the 1940s and 1950s as the broadcast extension of daily newspaper ''The Plain Dealer''. Owned by Metromedia from 1958 to 1973, WHK signed on an FM adjunct which took on the identity of WMMS in 1968 as one of the city's first progressive rock outlets, while WHK boasted a popular Top 40 format earlier in the decade led by Johnny Holliday. Purchased by Malrite Communications in 1973, WHK converted to a country music format headlined by shock jock Gary Dee, Joe Finan and, for a brief period, Don Imus. Flipping to oldies in 1984 and business news in 1988, WHK and WMMS would be sold twice between 1993 and 1994, segueing to sports radio in the latter year. Purchased by Salem in 1996, WHK adopted a Christian radio format, then a complex asset swap on July 3, 2001, saw WCLV owner Radio Seaway purchase the license, along with the intellectual property of adult standards WRMR, using the WCLV calls from 2001 to 2003. Repurchased by Salem in 2004, it has carried a conservative talk format with the restored WHK calls since.

History

Experimental license

WHK received its first broadcasting station license in February 1922. However, the station's history dates back to a series of broadcasts begun in August 1921 over an amateur radio station operated by WHK's original owner, Warren R. Cox.

Radio broadcasting in the United States started to become organized in the fall of 1919, largely due to improvements in vacuum tube design. Many of the earliest programs originated from a mixture of amateur and experimental stations. The amateurs in the Cleveland area were particularly well organized, and in early May 1921 the Cleveland Radio Association announced that its members had inaugurated a weekly Friday evening series of live concerts, transmitted on the standard amateur wavelength of by a rotating roster of local amateur stations.

Warren R. Cox made his first contribution to the series on August 26, 1921, operating amateur station 8ACS at 3138 Payne Avenue S. E. This was the location of the Cox Manufacturing Company, which primarily produced electrical components for automotive markets and radio receiver construction. Cox's station was described as "one of the newer and most powerful in the city".

The 8ACS programs were soon recognized as providing "exceptional wireless entertainment", and B. Dreher's Sons Company donated a Steinway grand piano for use in the station's studio."Steinway Tone Heard by Radio"
''The Music Trades'', November 26, 1921, page 19. In October the Cleveland Radio Association concerts moved to Thursday nights. Around this time Warren R. Cox added his own weekly concerts, on Sunday evenings. In December the Cleveland Radio Association ended the Thursday broadcasts, and switched to exclusively supporting the 8ACS Sunday concerts.

Warren R. Cox's broadcasting activities gained special prominence during local elections held in the fall of 1921. The November 3 broadcast featured short speeches by six of the city's seven candidates for mayor. In addition, the ''Cleveland Plain Dealer'' made arrangements to relay vote totals on election night by telephone to 8ACS for broadcasting by the station.

Initially there were no specific standards in the United States for radio stations making transmissions intended for the general public, and numerous stations under various classifications made entertainment broadcasts. However, effective December 1, 1921, the Department of Commerce, regulators of radio at this time, adopted a regulation that formally created a broadcasting station category, and stations were now required to hold a Limited Commercial license authorizing operation on wavelengths of for "entertainment" broadcasts or for "market and weather reports". By the end of 1922 over 500 stations would be authorized nationwide.

At first this new policy was loosely enforced, but in early February 1922, the government's official monitor of radio in the region, S. W. Edwards, contacted the local stations to reiterate that amateurs were no longer permitted to make entertainment broadcasts. Thus, on February 3, 1922, Edwin H. Poad, president of the Cleveland Radio Association, announced that his organization was ending the weekly broadcasts started nine months earlier. This ban also ended the broadcasts over 8ACS, however it was soon reported that Warren R. Cox was making plans to apply for one of the new broadcasting station licenses in order to return to the airwaves.

WHK (1922–2001)

WHK was issued its first broadcasting station license on February 21, 1922, for operation on the 360–meter entertainment wavelength, with Warren R. Cox listed as the licensee. Prior to April 4, 1922, the Commerce Department issued three-letter call signs to most commercial radio stations; the WHK call letters were randomly chosen and did not have any particular meaning. According to one analysis, WHK was the second broadcasting station license issued for Ohio, and the 52nd in the United States, and is Ohio's oldest surviving radio station, and 15th in the country.

The station began broadcasting from the Radiovox Company, which was located at the Stuyvesant Building on 5005 Euclid Avenue. WHK's debut broadcast, on Sunday night March 5, 1922, was advertised as a continuation of the suspended Cleveland Radio Association weekly concert series. Cox announced that, in addition to the Sunday schedule, he planned to broadcast Tuesday night concerts in conjunction with the Keith vaudeville organization, with additional programs on Thursday nights. In July 1922 the station's transmitting power was reported to be 200 watts. Later in the year the licensee name was changed to "Radiovox Company (Warren R. Cox)".

In May 1923 the U.S. government made additional broadcasting station transmitting frequencies available. In late 1923 WHK was reassigned to , which was followed by moves to in early 1925 and in 1927. ( Guide to reading History Cards)

WHK was sold to the Radio Air Service Corporation in October 1925. In the following years, the station facilities underwent a series of moves, including 5105 Euclid Avenue, the Hotel Winton at 1010 Prospect Avenue (later the Hotel Carter), the Standard Building at St. Clair and Ontario, the top floor of the Higbee Company on Public Square, and Carnegie Hall at 1220 Huron Road. By 1928, the station was located in the Engineers' Building at 1370 Ontario Street.

On November 11, 1928, under the provisions of a major reallocation resulting from the Federal Radio Commission's (FRC) General Order 40, WHK was reassigned to . WHK became a CBS affiliate in 1930, operating with 1,000 watts full-time. When George A. Richards established WGAR on December 15, 1930, the new station had to sign on using WHK's backup transmitter at the Standard Building. On March 9, 1931, the station moved to the Terminal Tower, and celebrated with the live broadcast of Faust from its auditorium.

As of January 1, 1934, WHK was broadcasting with a daytime power of 2,500 watts and a nighttime power of 1,000 watts. The station broadcast a full season of Cleveland Indians baseball games in 1936, with announcers Jack Graney and Pinky Hunter.

United Broadcasting ownership

In 1939 the Radio Air Service Corporation sold WHK to the United Broadcasting Company, which also purchased WCLE, a station that had been broadcasting in Cleveland since January 5, 1927, and was currently transmitting on . WCLE's studios were relocated to the Terminal Tower to join WHK, and the two stations were placed under common management. WHK switched its network affiliation in 1937 from CBS to the NBC Blue Network plus the Mutual Broadcasting System, which had started three years earlier. In the 1940s WHK, like most Mutual affiliates, became a participant in network programming. ''Rhythm and Rhyme Time'' was a Saturday night band concert on Mutual that originated from the Terrace Room of the Statler Hotel through the WHK's facilities. In 1943, when the NBC Blue Network was sold to Edward Noble to eventually become ABC, the Blue Network switched its Cleveland affiliate from WHK to WJW, leaving WHK with just Mutual. The Mutual network brought its popular ''Queen for a Day'' program to Cleveland Music Hall on April 5, 1946, for a two days of broadcast with local contestants chosen by WHK.

On March 29, 1941, WHK, along with all the other stations on , moved to as part of the implementation of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement. In 1945 as the FCC began enforcing a rule limiting owners to a single AM station in a market, United Broadcasting moved WCLE out of Cleveland to Akron and changed its call sign to WHKK and its frequency to . (WHKK became WHLO in 1962.) This in turn meant United could now use the vacated 610 frequency in Columbus, where it was assigned to WHKC, which had been broadcasting daytime-only on 640. (WHKC became WTVN in the 1950s).

In August 1946 WHK received an experimental FM license, W8XUB, transmitting at ; this station became WHK-FM at upon receipt of a commercial license.

WHK also obtained a construction permit for television station WHK-TV on Channel 19, but this never made it on the air, due to the financial challenge of the time of launching a UHF station in a VHF market such as Cleveland.

WHK moved its studios in 1951 to 5000 Euclid Avenue, across the street from its first studio location, which it would occupy for 26 years. (This is presently the site of the Agora Theatre and Ballroom and Lava Room Recording.) In 1955, ownership was transferred to the Forest City Publishing Company, the parent company of ''The Plain Dealer''. In May 1957, as part of the station's 35th anniversary celebration, WHK honored founder Warren R. Cox with "a small transistor radio and a plaque".

Metromedia ownership

The February 10, 1958, issue of ''Broadcasting'' magazine reported that WHK AM/FM, along with the construction permit for channel 19, were "on verge of being sold", with the DuMont Broadcasting Corporation as the likely buyer. The $700,000 deal for all three stations (equivalent to $ in ) was approved by the FCC by April, with the company renaming itself as Metropolitan Broadcasting by July and again to Metromedia in 1961. The new owners soon adopted a rock and roll Top 40 format. Morning man Ernie Anderson was let go because he did not fit into the new format. Ironically, Anderson would later find local fame with his Ghoulardi character that would have been ideally suited as an early rock disk jockey. Pete "Mad Daddy" Myers, another early iconic rock DJ, was lured away from rival WJW for a successful stint in WHK's early rock-and-roll years, before he left for New York.

By the early 1960s WHK was Top 40 powerhouse, adopting the slogan "Color Radio" and "Color Channel 14." The station soared with fast-talking deejays like Johnny Holliday, who broadcast from "the glass cage" at 5000 Euclid, and dubbed the station's echo-chamber reverberation its "stratophonic sound." The "Action Central" newsroom included young reporters Tim Taylor and Dave Buckel. When The Beatles made one of their North American tours in 1964, WHK outmaneuvered rival KYW to sponsor the Beatles appearance at Cleveland Public Auditorium on September 15, 1964. The station offered free tickets to listeners with an on-air promotion; the winners were selected in what is believed to be the first automated audience selection. Those receiving tickets were selected by an IBM computer. In the mid-1960s, the WHK DJs adopted the name the "Good Guys" and included Joe Mayer. On the cover of The Beatles’ '' Sgt. Pepper'' album, a doll wears a sweater emblazoned with "Welcome The Rolling Stones" and "Good Guys", a possible reference to the WHK DJs.

Late in 1967, WHK stopped rocking to become "The Good Life Station," with easy-listening music and phone-in shows aimed at older listeners. Possibly the biggest reason for the format change at WHK, was the pressure put on the station by newcomer WIXY, an AM station at 1260 which started playing top 40 music in 1966.

In 1968 the FCC mandated that FM sister stations could no longer duplicate their AM sister's programming, and WHK-FM adopted a new progressive rock sound, one of a handful of commercial stations in the country to try that format. The callsign of WHK-FM was changed to WMMS on September 28, 1968.

From 1968 through 1984, WHK was the flagship station of the Cleveland Browns radio network. Gib Shanley provided play-by-play commentary for the majority of the Browns' run at WHK; he was succeeded by Nev Chandler. Color commentary duties were first held by Jim Graner, then Jim Mueller, and finally Doug Dieken, who continues in that position to this day.

Malrite years

Metromedia sold WHK and WMMS in November 1971 to Detroit–based Malrite Broadcasting for $3.5 million (equivalent to $ in ); co-founder Milton Maltz had applied for a job at WHK in 1958 while awaiting approval to build WTTF in Tiffin, Ohio. When the sale closed, Malrite moved its corporate headquarters to Cleveland. WHK dropped the beautiful music in 1973 for "Cover Hits", a modified Top 40 format developed by Mike Joseph featuring hit songs recorded by different artists instead of the more well-known versions. Despite a visible marketing and promotional effort, "Cover Hits" failed to catch on in the Arbitron ratings in the Fall 1973 book, while ratings for WMMS doubled.

Maltz originally intended to flip WMMS to country music but rescinded those plans after the station's air talent, listeners, community activist Henry Speeth and Cleveland councilman Dennis Kucinich lobbied in support of the progressive rock format. Ultimately, it was WHK that flipped to country on March 16, 1974, within two weeks of WNCR's format switch to country from Top 40. Veteran personality Joe Finan was originally placed in morning drive with the switch but former WERE host Gary Dee (Gary D. Gilbert) took over the slot in July 1975 after WERE switched to an all-news format. Dee's addition moved Finan to middays, turning WHK into a combination country and talk format and the lone country outlet in the market as WNCR flipped to beautiful music as WKSW. After being fired from New York City's WNBC for excessive drinking and absenteeism in 1977, WHK hired Don Imus—who briefly hosted mornings on WGAR in 1971—for afternoon drive until WNBC rehired him a year later.

The majority of attention and media coverage for the station, however, focused on the mercurial shock jock Dee. In one particular incident, Dee claimed "40 percent" of money raised during the annual MDA Labor Day Telethon went to Jerry Lewis with the MDA keeping the other 60 percent; after finding out WHK took out newspaper advertisements apologizing for his claim, Dee resigned on-air but management refused to accept it. Dee's volatile and public marriage with WEWS-TV anchor Liz Richards, which had the couple repeatedly trading insults on his show, ended after Dee's 1980 arrest on domestic violence charges. WMMS program director John Gorman later recalled how Dee would typically conclude his show at 10 a.m., leave the studio, quietly stand against a wall and take deep breaths for a few minutes and eventually come out of character

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