WKNR

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This article is about radio station WKNR in Cleveland, Ohio. For the former station WKNR "Keener 13" in Detroit, Michigan, see WDTW (AM).

WKNR

City of license	Cleveland, Ohio
Broadcast area	Greater Cleveland
Branding	ESPN 850 WKNR
Slogan	The Voice of The Fan
First air date	November 13, 1926
Frequency	850 (kHz)
Format	sports/talk
Power	50,000 watts (daytime) 4,700 watts (nighttime)
Class	B
Callsign meaning	none, a disambiguation and nod to WGAR
Former callsigns	WRMR (1985-2001) WJW (1928-1985) WLGV (1926-1928)
Affiliations	ESPN Radio Premiere Radio Networks Westwood One CBS Radio
Owner	Good Karma Broadcasting, LLC.
Website	www.espncleveland.com

WKNR is an AM all-sports station in Cleveland, Ohio, broadcasting at 850 kHz with its transmitter in North Royalton, Ohio and studios at its former transmitter site in Broadview Heights, Ohio. The station began broadcasting on July 13, 1990 on the 1220 kHz frequency. In 2001, after a massive trade/purchase swap, WKNR switched frequencies to 850 kHz—originally the home of WJW (AM), and later to WRMR.

WKNR is the Cleveland affiliate of ESPN Radio, Mike and Mike in the Morning and The Jim Rome Show, and features local sports talkers Tony Rizzo, Mark "Munch" Bishop, Kenny Roda, Greg Brinda, and Michael Reghi on weekdays. The station airs local pre-game and post-game shows around Browns games.

WKNR holds the rights to Ohio State Buckeyes football and basketball, Cleveland State University basketball and Lake County Captains baseball.

The station - and sister station "AM 1540 KNR2" WWGK - is owned by Good Karma Broadcasting, LLC. Good Karma is headed by Craig Karmazin, son of Sirius Satellite Radio CEO Mel Karmazin.

1 History
2 Programming
- 2.1 Sports play-by-play
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

[edit] WJW

[edit] Early years

WJW (AM) began broadcasting as WLGV in Mansfield, Ohio, on November 13, 1926 under the ownership of John F. Winer. In 1928, the call letters were changed to WJW, reflecting the owner's initials. By 1931, the station had been sold to Mansfield Broadcasting Association, and it was broadcasting at 1210 kHz with 100 watts.

WJW moved to Akron in 1932. By 1936, the station was owned by WJW, Inc., with studios located at 41 South High Street. On March 29, 1941, WJW, like most stations around the country changed its frequency with the implementation of the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement. By 1942, the station was broadcasting at 1210 kHz with 250 watts.

On November 13, 1943, William M. O'Neill purchased the station and moved it to Cleveland, with facilities in the Guardian Building (now the National City–East 6th Building at 619 Euclid). WJW became Cleveland's fifth radio station (after WHK, WTAM, WGAR and WCLE). The frequency was moved to 850 kHz, and power was increased to 5,000 watts. The station became an affiliate of the Blue Network, soon to be ABC. WJW also brought the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts to Cleveland. The station also featured news commentary by Dorothy Fuldheim, and for a short period in the early 1950s was home to a disc jockey called Soupy Hines, later known as Soupy Sales.

WJW opened an FM outlet WJW-FM at 104.1 MHz in 1948 [1]. The new FM station went on the air just as the Cleveland Indians began their world championship season. WJW was the flagship of a six-station Ohio network that carried the games in 1947 and 1948. However, the full games were often carried on WJW-FM, since the AM outlet did not have available air time due to its ABC network commitments. As a result, Cleveland became an FM hot bed, and more FM radio sets sold in Cleveland than in any other market in the country in 1948 [2].

O'Neil sold WJW to Storer Broadcasting on November 17, 1954. Storer also purchased television station WXEL and changed the call letters to WJW-TV. Within two years, radio and television operations were consolidated at new studios at 1630 Euclid Avenue, near Playhouse Square, in a remodeled Georgian building that formerly housed the Esquire Theater. WJW dropped its ABC Radio Network affiliation in 1957, and became an independent station, although the station later had a brief affiliation with NBC before becoming independent again. By 1959, WJW broadcast with 10,000 watts daytime, and 5,000 watts at night - which would last for the next forty years.

[edit] Alan Freed

A young disc jockey named Alan Freed joined WJW in 1951 from WAKR in Akron, Ohio. Shortly thereafter, Alan began making broadcasting history with his shows in which he was known as the "Moondog." Freed played rhythm-and-blues music by black artists for a largely white teen-age audience. He is purported to have given the music the name by which it is known today—rock and roll.

In addition to his radio program, Freed also organized local concerts by early rock artists, called the Moondog Coronation Ball. The first concert on March 21, 1952 at the Cleveland Arena turned into a riot when far too many listeners filled the hall, causing Freed to apologize on the air the next day.

Freed left WJW in September 1954 for WINS New York, but he had established WJW as the premier rock and roll outlet [3].

[edit] Pete “Mad Daddy” Myers

In January 1958, Pete "Mad Daddy" Myers joined the station from WHKK 640 AM in Akron. His "Mad Daddy" persona later was adapted by Ernie Anderson for his "Ghoulardi" character on sister station WJW-TV in 1961. Myers' show was heard nightly from 8 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Myers had a brief but meteoric career at WJW, lasting only until May 13, 1958, when he resigned to go to Metromedia's WHK which was establishing itself as the new Top 40 powerhouse in Cleveland.

WJW enforced a 90-day noncompete clause, and "Mad Daddy" could not be heard on WHK until August 10. To keep his name in front of the public while he was off the air, Myers concocted a publicity stunt on June 14, 1958, parachuting from a Piper Cub 2200 feet over Lake Erie, and composing a poem on his way down.

He was fished out the waters shortly thereafter, and handed out copies of the 45 record "Zorro" to hundreds of fans who greeted him when he got to shore. Some iniital reports of the stunt incorrectly stated that Myers did not survive the jump, but they were quickly revised.

"Mad Daddy" reached the peak of his popularity at WHK, hosting record hops and live after-midnight shows dressed in a Dracula costume. In July 1959 he moved to WHK's sister station in New York, WNEW 1130 AM, where "Mad Daddy" was not well received. He played it straight as Pete Myers there until 1963, when he moved to WINS and resumed the "Mad Daddy Show." This show was syndicated to other stations until WINS changed format to all-news in 1965.

As again just Pete Myers, he returned to WNEW once more. Myers lived until November 4, 1968, when he took his own life in New York City, shortly after he had been let go at WNEW [4].

[edit] Later years

WJW abandoned its Rock and Roll format and settled into a format featuring news, talk and middle-of-the-road music during the 1960s, featuring personalities such as Ed Fisher during the morning hours. In the late 1960s, WJW-FM was spun-off to become WCJW, and now operates today as adult-contemporary WQAL.

In the fall of 1976, Storer sold WJW radio to Lake Erie Broadcasting, which was headed by Cleveland Browns owners Art Modell and Al Lerner. Storer retained WJW-TV whose calls were changed to WJKW. The new owner continued the format highlighting talk shows and adult popular music.

WJW was sold to Booth American Broadcasting in 1986. As a condition of the sale, the WJW calls were exchanged in favor of WRMR on June 11, 1985. With the abandonment of the historic three-letter call sign by the AM outlet, the television station was able to change its call letters from WJKW to just WJW.

[edit] WRMR

The new music format for WRMR was changed to "Music of Your Life," a mixture of 1940s, 50s and 60s ballads, standards and big band music, sprinkled with newer artists such as Harry Connick, Jr., and Diane Krall. Jim Davis, served as the station's Program Director and an on-air host from 1988 through 1996 when the format was the 'Flagship' station for the "Music of Your Life" format, with Davis also serving as the Director of Operations for the nationally syndicated Al Ham format from 1991 to 1996. Other on-air talent included, at one time or another, Bill Randle, Carl Reese, Ted Hallaman, Ronnie Barrett, Chris Daniels and Ray Marshall.

On May 15, 1999, WRMR upgraded its daytime signal to 50,000 watts with a new transmitter pattern built at the old WJW/WRMR site in North Royalton. The station's daytime signal is dominant in much of northern Ohio, but it must protect the signal of WNTJ AM 850 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, imparing the signal to the south and as close in as Cuyahoga Falls and Akron [5].

On August 12, 1998, Chancellor Media Corporation of Texas announced its purchase of WRMR and WDOK from Independent Group Ltd., along with its purchase of five other Cleveland radio stations, WZJM 92.3-FM, WZAK 93.1-FM, WQAL 104.1-FM and WJMO 1490-AM, for $275 million [6]. It was, at the time, the largest radio deal in Cleveland broadcasting history.

Then, on July 13, 1999, Chancellor Media merged with WKNR 1220-AM owner Capstar Broadcasting to form AMFM Inc., at that time the nation's largest radio station owner with 465 stations. AMFM then sold WRMR and WKNR to Salem Communications and WDOK to Infinity Broadcasting on July 20, 2000 as part of a required divestiture when AMFM merged with Clear Channel Communications [7].

Under Salem ownership, Jim Davis returned to the programming chair, as well as an on-air shift and WRMR started to segue into playing more contemporary ballads, which were billed on the air as "easy-listening oldies." WRMR also started to air long blocks of brokered talk shows in the evenings and weekends, most of which were carried over from brokered talk station WERE 1300-AM.

In May 2001, Salem officially announced plans to move the WHK calls and religious format from 1420 kHz to 1220 kHz, and the WKNR calls and sports talk format were to move from 1220 kHz to 850 kHz. In turn, the standards format on WRMR was set to sign off, with the brokered talk shows in the evenings to be carried over to WKNR.

[edit] WKNR

[edit] SportsRADIO 1220

The call letters WKNR(formerly used in the 1960s for a Top-40 formatted station in Dearborn, Michigan as "Keener 13") were introduced to Cleveland on July 13, 1990, when Douglass Broadcasting acquired WGAR 1220-AM and Nationwide Communications used the WGAR call letters exclusively to identify its FM outlet at 99.5 MHz. Within a few weeks, the new station adopted a sports talk format, and lured the Cleveland Indians broadcasts away from long-time flagship WWWE, starting with the 1992 season.

For several years in the mid 1990s, WKNR was home to Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Browns, and Ohio State football and basketball broadcasts. At this time, the station was owned by Cablevision Systems Corp.

The fortunes of WKNR, however, started to sour when the Cleveland Browns relocated after the 1995 NFL season. Despite a successful outcry by the community—and in part to competiting sports stations WKNR, WHK and WWWE—the intellectual property of the team was to lay dormant for three years. A popular draw on the AM dial, WKNR was left to carry Cincinnati Bengals football from 1996 to 1998.

In 1997, WHK was divested by Nationwide Communications to Salem Communications, and its' sports format was cancelled months later. Even though WKNR was now the sole all-sports station in the market (a distinction it still holds today), it was forced to overbid to beat WTAM - the former WWWE—into a renewal of its Cleveland Indians contract.

While this allowed WKNR to air the World Series run of the 1997 Indians, the deal put financial strain on WKNR—Cablevision's lone radio property. (Ironically, the current owner of the Cleveland Indians, Larry Dolan, is the brother of the president of Cablevision, Charles Dolan.) Consequentally, on August 19, 1997, Jacor announced the purchase of WKNR from Cablevision Systems Corp.^[1].

Jacor, which also owned WTAM, ended up moving the Cleveland Indians broadcasts back to WTAM anyway beginning with the 1998 season. In addition, the Cleveland Browns rights were then transferred to WMJI and WTAM for the 1999 season, leaving significant holes in WKNR's programming.

Jacor then swapped WKNR with Capstar Broadcasting’s WTAE in Pittsburgh in 1998 as part of the Justice Department settlement when Jacor purchased Nationwide Communications— coincidentally, the same people who sold WGAR (AM) in 1990 and still owned WGAR-FM.^[2]. On July 13, 1999, Chancellor Media merged with Capstar Broadcasting to form AMFM Inc., at that time the nation's largest radio station owner with 465 stations. AMFM sold WKNR to Salem Communications on July 20, 2000 as part of a required divestiture when AMFM merged with Clear Channel Communications [8].

[edit] Sportstalk 850

In spite of several management and lineup changes, WKNR continued at the 850 kHz location today with the same type of programming that it has had for the last decade. It picked up ESPN Radio in 1998 while still at 1220-AM, and Mike and Mike in the Morning in 2004. A number of divestures and format changes with other Salem-owned sports talk stations in the past few years (such as WBOB in Cincinnati and KHHO in Tacoma, which was LMA'ed to Clear Channel) left WKNR the only remaining sports station in Salem Communications' portfolio.

In July 2006, ESPN Radio cancelled its affiliation with WKNR with a 90-day notice effective that October 8. WKNR began carrying Fox Sports Radio on that day. ^[3] Two weeks later, Cleveland daytime-only station WABQ relauched as "ESPN Radio 1540" WWGK. That station was purchased by Milwaukee-based Good Karma Broadcasting, LLC.

Good Karma would end up purchasing WKNR for $7 million weeks later on December 4, 2006, forming a two-station duopoly.^[4]^[5] A local marketing agreement immediately began for WKNR, with the deal officially being closed that January. Plans have also been made to eventually combine both WWGK and WKNR under one facility at The Galleria at Erieview^[6].

On Feburary 23, 2007, it was made offical that WKNR would regain it's former ESPN Radio affiliation and be rebranded as "ESPN 850 WKNR." As a result, Fox Sports Radio switched over to WWGK, now known as "AM 1540 KNR2," a play on ESPN2^[7]. Since then, the station has made a series of schedule overhauls, adding WJW-TV sports anchor (and former WHK show host) Tony Rizzo in the late morning slot, WMMS/WMJI sports director Mark "Munch" Bishop in afternoon drive, and former Cavaliers TV play-by-play voice Michael Reghi to host their post-game call in show.

**Station Logos**
1990-2001	2001-2004	2004-2007	Current logo

[edit] Programming

**Monday-Friday**
Start	Finish	Program	Hosts
6 a.m.	10 a.m.	Mike and Mike in the Morning	Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic
10 a.m.	12 p.m.	Rizzo on the Radio	Tony Rizzo with producer Aaron Goldhammer
12 p.m.	3 p.m.	The Jim Rome Show	Jim Rome
3 p.m.	6 p.m.	Munch on Sports	Mark "Munch" Bishop
6 p.m.	9 p.m.	Happy Hour with the Road Man	Kenny Roda
9 p.m.	12 a.m.	The Wine and Gold Show (after Cavaliers games) or The 10th Inning (after Indians games)	Michael Reghi (The Wine and Gold Show) Greg Brinda (The 10th Inning)
12 a.m.	2 a.m.	GameNight	Freddie Coleman, Jeff Rickard or John Seibel
2 a.m.	6 a.m.	AllNight with Jason Smith	Jason Smith

**Saturday**
Start	Finish	Program	Hosts
6 a.m.	7 a.m.	Inside Golf	Steven Gribin
7 a.m.	9 a.m.	The WKNR Golf Show	Greg Brinda and Jimmy Hanlin
9 a.m.	12 p.m.	Saturday Morning Sports Show	various local hosts
12 noon	3 p.m.	GameDay
3 p.m.	7 p.m.	The Huddle	Sean Salisbury
7 p.m.	1 a.m.	GameNight	Freddie Coleman, Jeff Rickard or John Seibel
1 a.m.	6 a.m.	The V Show with Bob Valvano	Bob Valvano

**Sunday**
Start	Finish	Program	Hosts
6 a.m.	7 a.m.	RaceDay on ESPN Radio	Pat Patterson and Mike King
7 a.m.	8 a.m.	Pro Football Weekly	Hub Arkush and Wayne Larrivee
8 a.m.	10 a.m.	Costas on the Radio	Bob Costas
10 a.m.	1 p.m.	The John Kincade Show	John Kincade
1 p.m.	4 a.m.	GameDay
4 p.m.	7 p.m.	GameDay
7 p.m.	1 a.m.	GameNight	Freddie Coleman, Jeff Rickard or John Seibel
1 p.m.	6 a.m.	All Night with Jason Smith	Jason Smith