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WERE
WERE (1490 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland Heights, Ohio, United States, featuring a talk radio format as "NewsTalk 1490". Owned by Urban One, the station serves the Greater Cleveland region and carries The Rickey Smiley Morning Show, is the home of syndicated personalities Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, and is the Cleveland affiliate for Red Eye Radio. WERE's studios are located in Independence while the transmitter is near University Circle adjacent to the Case Western Reserve University campus. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WERE's programming is available online and simulcast on an HD Radio subchannel of co-owned WZAK.
Built and launched in 1947 as WSRS, a suburban station focused on Cleveland Heights proper, this station became the second in the Cleveland market to use the WJMO call sign in 1959. During this period, WJMO carried a rhythm and blues/soul music format continuously from 1959 to 1999, reputedly longer than any other such station in the United States, and was one of the first major-market radio stations to have an African-American serve as their general manager. At the same time, a number of legal issues surrounding owner United Broadcasting, repeated technical violations committed, strained relations between station management and the station's staff and audience, and a controversial ownership transfer in 1992 attracted criticism and scrutiny by the public, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), at one point putting the station's broadcast license in question. A series of ownership buyouts in the late 1990s saw the station adopt an urban gospel format, then come under control of Radio One (now Urban One); a 2007 format swap resulted in 1490 AM picking up the format and calls of WERE from 1300 AM, which it has maintained to the present day. Since 2008, an emphasis has been placed on brokered programming.
Samuel R. Sague established this station as WSRS on December 12, 1947, the call letters being derived from his initials; an FM sister station, WSRS-FM (95.3), followed one week later. Both the AM and FM stations were licensed to Cleveland Heights, and positioned themselves as focusing on the Cleveland suburb specifically as opposed to all of Greater Cleveland. WSRS-FM duplicated the AM station's programming full-time, but Sague—an early proponent of FM broadcasting—referred to it in a Cleveland Press profile as WSRS that was simulcasting WSRS-FM.
WSRS's establishment on the class C local channel frequency of 1490 kHz was made possible in part after WGAR (AM) had completed a frequency switch from 1480 AM to 1220 AM two and a half years earlier. Operating initially with 250 watts around the clock, WSRS billed itself on-air as the "Community Information Voice of Cleveland", featuring a diverse lineup of block programming. WSRS's staff announcers also included the first male and female African-American announcers in Cleveland radio: "Walkin' Talkin' Bill Hawkins", who later worked for multiple radio stations at the same time, and whose on-air presentation has been seen as a significant influence on Alan Freed; and Mary Holt, who initially played country music, later becoming a newscaster at different radio and television stations in the market. By 1949, Sague entered into an alliance with other foreign language/ethnic radio programmers, including WOV (AM)/New York City and stations in Boston, Scranton, Pennsylvania and Detroit, titled the "Foreign Language Quality Group", with intent of launching a broadcast network of their own.
WSRS was notable for different area promotions and gimmicks. One such content was a "Big Week-End" competition in 1956, where WSRS acted as an intermediary for the winner and negotiate with said winner's employer for paid time off. The station engaged in an ad campaign with an area appliance store based on a "mystery song" of the day, this was intertwined with WSRS's afternoon lineup. In 1957, WSRS celebrated its tenth anniversary by holding a "Super-Chek" contest, where the station's advertisers received numbered certificates resembling dollar bills to distribute to customers, and the station would announce the winning number hourly. Another promotion was aimed as housewives listening to the station at home, with recorded spots suggesting that their spouses' possible bad humor is the result of his employer's poor sales, suggesting that he contact WSRS for advertisement information. In addition, the station hosted a nightly hour block at midnight devoted to music unpublished elsewhere; titled "Tune Quest," this program was sponsored by a local recording company.
The station, and Sague himself, publicly advocated for the use of courtroom photography and broadcasting in the Judiciary of Ohio. On April 25, 1957, WSRS and Sague hosted a private screening of mass murderer Jack Gilbert Graham's trial, compiled from television and film coverage, for the judges of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas; Graham's trial was the first one to have such coverage. WSRS would also make news on July 15, 1958, when two on-air hosts of a panel discussion program dealing with trade unions and right to work legislation were attacked by two unknown assailants outside the studio; the station had previously been subject to a series of threatening telephone calls over the program's subject matter. Rival organizations Ohioans for the Right-to-Work and the Cleveland AFL-CIO both offered up rewards for the arrests and convictions of the attackers.
Originally an independent station, WSRS picked up an affiliation with the Mutual Broadcasting System on September 30, 1956, then added ABC Radio Network programming in January 1958 after WJW (850 AM) dropped the affiliation. The dual affiliation lasted until that July 23, when Mutual programming moved to WDOK (1260 AM).
Sague initially sold WSRS and WSRS-FM to John Kluge for $500,000 in July 1958 under the "Shawn Broadcasting Company" name. That sale was withheld by the FCC, then withdrawn by Sague, due to a review of WLOF-TV/Orlando's establishment by the commission, of which Kluge was a principal in; Kluge also acquired controlling interest in Metropolitan Broadcasting, which had purchased WHK (1420 AM) and WHK-FM (100.7) earlier in the year. Consequently, Sague sold 95% of both stations to Richard Eaton's United Broadcasting for $306,000, plus a consultant's fee of $20,000 annually for five years, and a five-year non-compete clause preventing him from working for any other station in the Cleveland market.
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WERE
WERE (1490 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland Heights, Ohio, United States, featuring a talk radio format as "NewsTalk 1490". Owned by Urban One, the station serves the Greater Cleveland region and carries The Rickey Smiley Morning Show, is the home of syndicated personalities Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, and is the Cleveland affiliate for Red Eye Radio. WERE's studios are located in Independence while the transmitter is near University Circle adjacent to the Case Western Reserve University campus. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WERE's programming is available online and simulcast on an HD Radio subchannel of co-owned WZAK.
Built and launched in 1947 as WSRS, a suburban station focused on Cleveland Heights proper, this station became the second in the Cleveland market to use the WJMO call sign in 1959. During this period, WJMO carried a rhythm and blues/soul music format continuously from 1959 to 1999, reputedly longer than any other such station in the United States, and was one of the first major-market radio stations to have an African-American serve as their general manager. At the same time, a number of legal issues surrounding owner United Broadcasting, repeated technical violations committed, strained relations between station management and the station's staff and audience, and a controversial ownership transfer in 1992 attracted criticism and scrutiny by the public, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), at one point putting the station's broadcast license in question. A series of ownership buyouts in the late 1990s saw the station adopt an urban gospel format, then come under control of Radio One (now Urban One); a 2007 format swap resulted in 1490 AM picking up the format and calls of WERE from 1300 AM, which it has maintained to the present day. Since 2008, an emphasis has been placed on brokered programming.
Samuel R. Sague established this station as WSRS on December 12, 1947, the call letters being derived from his initials; an FM sister station, WSRS-FM (95.3), followed one week later. Both the AM and FM stations were licensed to Cleveland Heights, and positioned themselves as focusing on the Cleveland suburb specifically as opposed to all of Greater Cleveland. WSRS-FM duplicated the AM station's programming full-time, but Sague—an early proponent of FM broadcasting—referred to it in a Cleveland Press profile as WSRS that was simulcasting WSRS-FM.
WSRS's establishment on the class C local channel frequency of 1490 kHz was made possible in part after WGAR (AM) had completed a frequency switch from 1480 AM to 1220 AM two and a half years earlier. Operating initially with 250 watts around the clock, WSRS billed itself on-air as the "Community Information Voice of Cleveland", featuring a diverse lineup of block programming. WSRS's staff announcers also included the first male and female African-American announcers in Cleveland radio: "Walkin' Talkin' Bill Hawkins", who later worked for multiple radio stations at the same time, and whose on-air presentation has been seen as a significant influence on Alan Freed; and Mary Holt, who initially played country music, later becoming a newscaster at different radio and television stations in the market. By 1949, Sague entered into an alliance with other foreign language/ethnic radio programmers, including WOV (AM)/New York City and stations in Boston, Scranton, Pennsylvania and Detroit, titled the "Foreign Language Quality Group", with intent of launching a broadcast network of their own.
WSRS was notable for different area promotions and gimmicks. One such content was a "Big Week-End" competition in 1956, where WSRS acted as an intermediary for the winner and negotiate with said winner's employer for paid time off. The station engaged in an ad campaign with an area appliance store based on a "mystery song" of the day, this was intertwined with WSRS's afternoon lineup. In 1957, WSRS celebrated its tenth anniversary by holding a "Super-Chek" contest, where the station's advertisers received numbered certificates resembling dollar bills to distribute to customers, and the station would announce the winning number hourly. Another promotion was aimed as housewives listening to the station at home, with recorded spots suggesting that their spouses' possible bad humor is the result of his employer's poor sales, suggesting that he contact WSRS for advertisement information. In addition, the station hosted a nightly hour block at midnight devoted to music unpublished elsewhere; titled "Tune Quest," this program was sponsored by a local recording company.
The station, and Sague himself, publicly advocated for the use of courtroom photography and broadcasting in the Judiciary of Ohio. On April 25, 1957, WSRS and Sague hosted a private screening of mass murderer Jack Gilbert Graham's trial, compiled from television and film coverage, for the judges of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas; Graham's trial was the first one to have such coverage. WSRS would also make news on July 15, 1958, when two on-air hosts of a panel discussion program dealing with trade unions and right to work legislation were attacked by two unknown assailants outside the studio; the station had previously been subject to a series of threatening telephone calls over the program's subject matter. Rival organizations Ohioans for the Right-to-Work and the Cleveland AFL-CIO both offered up rewards for the arrests and convictions of the attackers.
Originally an independent station, WSRS picked up an affiliation with the Mutual Broadcasting System on September 30, 1956, then added ABC Radio Network programming in January 1958 after WJW (850 AM) dropped the affiliation. The dual affiliation lasted until that July 23, when Mutual programming moved to WDOK (1260 AM).
Sague initially sold WSRS and WSRS-FM to John Kluge for $500,000 in July 1958 under the "Shawn Broadcasting Company" name. That sale was withheld by the FCC, then withdrawn by Sague, due to a review of WLOF-TV/Orlando's establishment by the commission, of which Kluge was a principal in; Kluge also acquired controlling interest in Metropolitan Broadcasting, which had purchased WHK (1420 AM) and WHK-FM (100.7) earlier in the year. Consequently, Sague sold 95% of both stations to Richard Eaton's United Broadcasting for $306,000, plus a consultant's fee of $20,000 annually for five years, and a five-year non-compete clause preventing him from working for any other station in the Cleveland market.