WDLW
Encyclopedia
WDLW — branded Kool Kat Oldies 1380AM — is a commercial radio station broadcasting in Lorain, Ohio
. It studios are at co-owned WOBL
's studio/transmitter site in Oberlin
, and its transmitter is located in Sheffield Township. WDLW features a 1950s/1960s rock and roll
oldies
format, and carries ethnic programs on Sunday.
, WWIZ was the first to directly serve the city of Lorain. Studios were set up in Lorain's downtown area, and a transmitter was built in adjacent Sheffield Township. Among the early radio hosts at "W-WIZ" included Bob Lockwood, Alan Mink, Jeff Baxter (who doubled as program director), Bob Lee and Bob "BJ" Sellers, later known as "The Polka King" in the morning slot. WWIZ signed on on October 26, 1958, and soon promoted itself as "Lorain's Most Listened to Radio Station." Behind the scenes, however, WWIZ's history was troubled right from the start.
The station was founded by Sanford A. Schafitz, a native of the Youngstown
area. Schafitz also started up WFAR
in Farrell, Pennsylvania
and WXTV-TV
in Youngstown a few years earlier. But on September 15, 1958—one month before the station signed on—Schafitz arranged a deal with The Journal
in Lorain. The Journal, as it turned out, was a party that actually tried to get the station assigned in the first place via a complicated straw-man transaction designed to circumvent the legal requirements which prevented Journal Publishing from holding a license. This likely came about after the parent company of The Journals chief competitor, The Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, acquired Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting (owner of WEOL
AM/FM) months earlier.
The station was incorporated as "WWIZ, Inc.", and while the Journal was not the controlling shareholder of WWIZ (the ratio was 55% to 45% in favor of Schafitz, who now held the titles of president and director), it ended up controlling the operations nonetheless. Schafitz, however, told the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) that he held total control of the station at the time, and the deal was not made public until announced on February 26, 1959. Harry Horvitz, chief owner of Journal Publishing, then bought the station outright on June 20, 1961.
Both WEOL and the FCC soon objected to the move, as neither was properly notified of the previous action. WWIZ's license was put up for immediate renewal by the FCC in March 1962. After a lengthy court fight, the renewal was denied in April 1964, appealed before the Supreme Court
, and revoked in late 1966. The station then operated under a temporary permit until being ordered off the air entirely on July 14, 1967.
, any reactivation of the station was treated as a new station application. Therefore, WWIZ and its successor are considered separate stations. The license was open for bidding during the next year, with Lorain Community Broadcasting Co. emerging as the new license holder. Intending to give WWIZ a new and fresh start, the call letters were changed to WLRO, which naturally stood for LoRain, Ohio. The station was silent until December 4, 1969, when WLRO signed on under a temporary permit. (The official license for the station was not granted for over a year.)
WLRO initially had a middle of the road and oldies
format. The initial staff composed of Bill King, Bob Ladd, Rodger Glover, sports anchor Jim Allen, news director Bill Wilkens, production director Jeff Baxter and music director Norm N. Nite
. During this time, it was also an affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting System
and carried Mutual's coverage of Notre Dame Football throughout the 1970s and 1980s. WLRO also carried Cleveland Indians
daytime games in 1971 and 1972.
Among the air talent that was on "Golden 13 Radio" at this time included Dick Conrad, John Antus, Donovan "D.K." Kent, Charles LuBear, Dave Rush, Lauren Wreath, John Ryan and sportscaster Jim Allen. Newscasts were handled by Craig Demyan, Joan Lowry, Mike Partin and Terry Burnabell. Ethnic programming on Sundays included "The Polka Express" with Jimmy Bryda and the "Ecos Latinos" Hispanic music show hosted by Miguel Berlingeri.
On February 12, 1990, Jon Veard sold WRKG to Victory Radio, Inc. headed by Vernon Baldwin, who was also the owner of WZLE
104.9-FM. (Clear Channel Communications
since acquired WZLE in 1999 and changed the music format to Top 40 as "Kiss 104.9.") WRKG's format changed to country gospel
during the day with personalities Terry Lee Goffee and Teri Drda, with Hispanic
music played in the evening and overnight hours.
By the spring of 1997, WRKG entered into a daytime-only simulcast arrangement with WELW
in Willoughby, Ohio
. WRKG ended up carrying WELW's mixture of ethnic programming and brokered-time talk shows, plus carried the television audio from WOIO-TV's morning, noon and 6 p.m. newscasts. Accordingly, the callsign was first changed to WELL on June 6, 1997 — but eventually switched it again to WDLW that August 1. The WDLW calls previously were used on a Waltham, Massachusetts station during the 1980s.
baseball and Cleveland Crunch
indoor soccer.
The station ended up becoming popular in the Hispanic and Latino community within Lorain, and even in portions of the Cleveland area. The flagship show was their morning show The Milton Rivera Show which starred Milton Rivera and his co-host and producer Chris Haslage.
On January 2, 2002, WDLW was sold to WOBL
Radio, Inc.'s owners, Doug and Lorie Wilber (which also resulted in a call letter bacronym). Technical upgrades were made to the air signal, and WDLW's studios were moved from the Antlers Hotel to WOBL
's studio/transmitter facility in Oberlin
, but the station kept the Hispanic format. But by that November 8, citing a lack of advertising revenue outside of Lorain in order to keep the Hispanic format on a full-time basis, WDLW switched to a 1950s/1960s rock-and-roll oldies format as "Kool Kat Oldies 1380-AM." "Kool Kat" was a play on "Cool Cat," the name of a 1960s Warner Bros.
cartoon character, and a popular catch-phrase in that same period. The very first song played after the format switch was The Tremeloes
' "Here Comes My Baby."
The station's airstaff currently includes Gene Briscoe in mornings, Wally Mintus in middays and Johnny Z in afternoons, with Sabrina and David "Q" on Saturdays, and "Hey Look What I Found!" with Pete Delmonico on Friday nights (from April until August). Newscasts are handled by broadcasters Brian Engle, Darryl Maynard and Christy O'Neil, with sports covered by Sports Director Brian Deitz. In addition, WDLW still maintains a lengthy lineup of ethnic and variety shows on Sundays.
The best known of these ethnic programs is The Polka Express, whose on-air tenure spans that of 1380-AM's current incarnation with two different hosts—first with Jimmy Bryda from 1969 until his passing in 2003, and with Tom Borowicz from 2003 to the present.
WDLW broadcasts high school football, basketball and hockey. Sister station WOBL broadcasts the same, along with Oberlin College football.
Lorain, Ohio
Lorain is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on Lake Erie, at the mouth of the Black River, about 30 miles west of Cleveland....
. It studios are at co-owned WOBL
WOBL
WOBL is an AM radio station licensed to Oberlin, Ohio and serving the western portion of the Cleveland, Ohio market, operating on 1320 kHz. WOBL features a classic country format, dubbed as "Gold Country 1320," along with an array of local newscasts and high school sports coverage.WOBL signed on in...
's studio/transmitter site in Oberlin
Oberlin, Ohio
Oberlin is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States, to the south and west of Cleveland. Oberlin is perhaps best known for being the home of Oberlin College, a liberal arts college and music conservatory with approximately 3,000 students...
, and its transmitter is located in Sheffield Township. WDLW features a 1950s/1960s rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
oldies
Oldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....
format, and carries ethnic programs on Sunday.
WWIZ
WDLW's roots can be traced back to WWIZ, a modest 500-watt daytime-only station at 1380 kHz. The second AM station in Lorain CountyLorain County, Ohio
Lorain County is a county located in the U.S. state of Ohio, and is considered to be a part of what is locally referred to as Greater Cleveland. As of the 2010 census, its population was 301,356. an increase from 284,664 in 2000...
, WWIZ was the first to directly serve the city of Lorain. Studios were set up in Lorain's downtown area, and a transmitter was built in adjacent Sheffield Township. Among the early radio hosts at "W-WIZ" included Bob Lockwood, Alan Mink, Jeff Baxter (who doubled as program director), Bob Lee and Bob "BJ" Sellers, later known as "The Polka King" in the morning slot. WWIZ signed on on October 26, 1958, and soon promoted itself as "Lorain's Most Listened to Radio Station." Behind the scenes, however, WWIZ's history was troubled right from the start.
The station was founded by Sanford A. Schafitz, a native of the Youngstown
Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Mahoning County; it also extends into Trumbull County. The municipality is situated on the Mahoning River, approximately southeast of Cleveland and northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
area. Schafitz also started up WFAR
WLOA
WLOA is a radio station licensed to Farrell, Pennsylvania. It serves the Sharon, Pennsylvania and Youngstown, Ohio areas. Though licensed to Farrell, WLOA transmits from a facility on South State Line Road in Masury, Ohio...
in Farrell, Pennsylvania
Farrell, Pennsylvania
Farrell is a city in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 6,050 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Youngstown–Warren–Boardman, OH-PA Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
and WXTV-TV
WYTV
WYTV is the ABC-affiliated television station for the Mahoning Valley of Northeastern Ohio and Northwestern Pennsylvania that is licensed to Youngstown. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 36 from a transmitter on Shady Run Road in Boardman Township...
in Youngstown a few years earlier. But on September 15, 1958—one month before the station signed on—Schafitz arranged a deal with The Journal
Morning Journal
The Morning Journal is a daily newspaper based in Lorain, Ohio. Originally the Lorain Journal, it was an afternoon paper which was historically more popular in an industrial town like Lorain, but switched to morning publication in the 1980s....
in Lorain. The Journal, as it turned out, was a party that actually tried to get the station assigned in the first place via a complicated straw-man transaction designed to circumvent the legal requirements which prevented Journal Publishing from holding a license. This likely came about after the parent company of The Journals chief competitor, The Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, acquired Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting (owner of WEOL
WEOL
WEOL — branded AM930 WEOL — is a commercial radio station licensed to Elyria, Ohio. The station serves both Elyria and Lorain, as well as the western portion of Greater Cleveland...
AM/FM) months earlier.
The station was incorporated as "WWIZ, Inc.", and while the Journal was not the controlling shareholder of WWIZ (the ratio was 55% to 45% in favor of Schafitz, who now held the titles of president and director), it ended up controlling the operations nonetheless. Schafitz, however, told the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) that he held total control of the station at the time, and the deal was not made public until announced on February 26, 1959. Harry Horvitz, chief owner of Journal Publishing, then bought the station outright on June 20, 1961.
Both WEOL and the FCC soon objected to the move, as neither was properly notified of the previous action. WWIZ's license was put up for immediate renewal by the FCC in March 1962. After a lengthy court fight, the renewal was denied in April 1964, appealed before the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
, and revoked in late 1966. The station then operated under a temporary permit until being ordered off the air entirely on July 14, 1967.
Relaunch as WLRO
Because WWIZ's license had been revoked and placed in a trusteeshipTrusteeship
Trusteeship may refer to*Trust law *Trusteeship *United Nations Trusteeship...
, any reactivation of the station was treated as a new station application. Therefore, WWIZ and its successor are considered separate stations. The license was open for bidding during the next year, with Lorain Community Broadcasting Co. emerging as the new license holder. Intending to give WWIZ a new and fresh start, the call letters were changed to WLRO, which naturally stood for LoRain, Ohio. The station was silent until December 4, 1969, when WLRO signed on under a temporary permit. (The official license for the station was not granted for over a year.)
WLRO initially had a middle of the road and oldies
Oldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....
format. The initial staff composed of Bill King, Bob Ladd, Rodger Glover, sports anchor Jim Allen, news director Bill Wilkens, production director Jeff Baxter and music director Norm N. Nite
Norm N. Nite
Norm N. Nite , was born Norman Durma and is the author of the Rock On! series of books. Rock On is coined as the official encyclopaedia of rock and roll music. He has spent many years on radio stations such as WGAR-AM and WMJI-FM in Cleveland and WCBS-FM in New York City...
. During this time, it was also an affiliate of the Mutual Broadcasting System
Mutual Broadcasting System
The Mutual Broadcasting System was an American radio network, in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the golden age of U.S. radio drama, MBS was best known as the original network home of The Lone Ranger and The Adventures of Superman and as the long-time radio residence of The Shadow...
and carried Mutual's coverage of Notre Dame Football throughout the 1970s and 1980s. WLRO also carried Cleveland Indians
Cleveland Indians
The Cleveland Indians are a professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. Since , they have played in Progressive Field. The team's spring training facility is in Goodyear, Arizona...
daytime games in 1971 and 1972.
WRKG
On July 7, 1984, WLRO was sold by Lorain Community Broadcasting to local real estate developer Jon Veard. Shortly thereafter, on July 13, the call sign was changed to WRKG and a pop standards format was installed. The WRKG calls stood for their new slogan, "WoRKinG for you is our business." The station's studios were moved to the Antlers Hotel in downtown Lorain, of which Veard also owned. The station still remained as a daytime station for many years, with overnight service (via just 57 watts) being added as of the fall of 1986.Among the air talent that was on "Golden 13 Radio" at this time included Dick Conrad, John Antus, Donovan "D.K." Kent, Charles LuBear, Dave Rush, Lauren Wreath, John Ryan and sportscaster Jim Allen. Newscasts were handled by Craig Demyan, Joan Lowry, Mike Partin and Terry Burnabell. Ethnic programming on Sundays included "The Polka Express" with Jimmy Bryda and the "Ecos Latinos" Hispanic music show hosted by Miguel Berlingeri.
On February 12, 1990, Jon Veard sold WRKG to Victory Radio, Inc. headed by Vernon Baldwin, who was also the owner of WZLE
WCLV
WCLV — branded WCLV 104.9 — is the classical radio station licensed to Lorain, Ohio serving Greater Cleveland and western parts of surrounding Northeast Ohio; WCLV is one of the few remaining classical music stations in the United States....
104.9-FM. (Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...
since acquired WZLE in 1999 and changed the music format to Top 40 as "Kiss 104.9.") WRKG's format changed to country gospel
Country gospel
Christian country music is music that is written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music...
during the day with personalities Terry Lee Goffee and Teri Drda, with Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
music played in the evening and overnight hours.
By the spring of 1997, WRKG entered into a daytime-only simulcast arrangement with WELW
WELW
WELW is an AM radio station licensed to Willoughby, Ohio and, while technically part of the Cleveland, Ohio radio market, its main area of service is Lake County and Eastern Cuyahoga County, Ohio.It operates on 1330 kHz...
in Willoughby, Ohio
Willoughby, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 22,621 people, 10,265 households, and 5,892 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,225.3 people per square mile . There were 10,700 housing units at an average density of 1,052.6 per square mile...
. WRKG ended up carrying WELW's mixture of ethnic programming and brokered-time talk shows, plus carried the television audio from WOIO-TV's morning, noon and 6 p.m. newscasts. Accordingly, the callsign was first changed to WELL on June 6, 1997 — but eventually switched it again to WDLW that August 1. The WDLW calls previously were used on a Waltham, Massachusetts station during the 1980s.
WDLW
This simulcast did not last long, however, and WDLW was flipped into a 24-hour Spanish/tropical format by January 1999. With programming leased over to the Latino Media Group, this move made WDLW the first, and only, such licensed-station in Ohio. WDLW also offered Spanish-language broadcasts of Cleveland IndiansCleveland Indians
The Cleveland Indians are a professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. Since , they have played in Progressive Field. The team's spring training facility is in Goodyear, Arizona...
baseball and Cleveland Crunch
Cleveland Crunch
The Cleveland Crunch was formed in 1989 as an expansion team in the Major Soccer League to replace the Cleveland Force, which had folded on July 22, 1988. Akron businessmen George S. Hoffman and Stuart Lichter formed an ownership group, named Al Miller general manager and former Force star Kai...
indoor soccer.
The station ended up becoming popular in the Hispanic and Latino community within Lorain, and even in portions of the Cleveland area. The flagship show was their morning show The Milton Rivera Show which starred Milton Rivera and his co-host and producer Chris Haslage.
On January 2, 2002, WDLW was sold to WOBL
WOBL
WOBL is an AM radio station licensed to Oberlin, Ohio and serving the western portion of the Cleveland, Ohio market, operating on 1320 kHz. WOBL features a classic country format, dubbed as "Gold Country 1320," along with an array of local newscasts and high school sports coverage.WOBL signed on in...
Radio, Inc.'s owners, Doug and Lorie Wilber (which also resulted in a call letter bacronym). Technical upgrades were made to the air signal, and WDLW's studios were moved from the Antlers Hotel to WOBL
WOBL
WOBL is an AM radio station licensed to Oberlin, Ohio and serving the western portion of the Cleveland, Ohio market, operating on 1320 kHz. WOBL features a classic country format, dubbed as "Gold Country 1320," along with an array of local newscasts and high school sports coverage.WOBL signed on in...
's studio/transmitter facility in Oberlin
Oberlin, Ohio
Oberlin is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States, to the south and west of Cleveland. Oberlin is perhaps best known for being the home of Oberlin College, a liberal arts college and music conservatory with approximately 3,000 students...
, but the station kept the Hispanic format. But by that November 8, citing a lack of advertising revenue outside of Lorain in order to keep the Hispanic format on a full-time basis, WDLW switched to a 1950s/1960s rock-and-roll oldies format as "Kool Kat Oldies 1380-AM." "Kool Kat" was a play on "Cool Cat," the name of a 1960s Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
cartoon character, and a popular catch-phrase in that same period. The very first song played after the format switch was The Tremeloes
The Tremeloes
The Tremeloes are an English beat group founded in 1958 in Dagenham, Essex, and still active today.-Career:They formed as Brian Poole and the Tremoloes influenced by Buddy Holly and The Crickets...
' "Here Comes My Baby."
The station's airstaff currently includes Gene Briscoe in mornings, Wally Mintus in middays and Johnny Z in afternoons, with Sabrina and David "Q" on Saturdays, and "Hey Look What I Found!" with Pete Delmonico on Friday nights (from April until August). Newscasts are handled by broadcasters Brian Engle, Darryl Maynard and Christy O'Neil, with sports covered by Sports Director Brian Deitz. In addition, WDLW still maintains a lengthy lineup of ethnic and variety shows on Sundays.
The best known of these ethnic programs is The Polka Express, whose on-air tenure spans that of 1380-AM's current incarnation with two different hosts—first with Jimmy Bryda from 1969 until his passing in 2003, and with Tom Borowicz from 2003 to the present.
WDLW broadcasts high school football, basketball and hockey. Sister station WOBL broadcasts the same, along with Oberlin College football.