WJMO

Infobox Radio Station
name = WJMO


area = Greater Cleveland
city = Cleveland, Ohio
branding = "Praise 1300 WJMO"
slogan = "Cleveland's Inspiration Station"
airdate = June 4, 2007
1949 (as WERE)
frequency = 1300 (kHz)
format = Urban Gospel/Urban Talk
power = 5,000 watts
class = B
owner = Radio One
sister_stations = WENZ, WERE, WJMO, WZAK
website = [http://www.praise1300.com/home.asp www.praise1300.com]
former_callsigns = WERE (1948–2007)
callsign_meaning = Wentworth J. Marshall, (original) Owner

WJMO is an AM radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio operating on 1300 kHz, with studios at 2510 St. Clair Avenue and a transmitter located along Ridge Road in Parma. The station is owned by Radio One, and has a gospel music/urban talk format. "Praise 1300" is the Cleveland affiliate for "The Yolanda Adams Show" and "The Al Sharpton Show", and is the flagship station for Cleveland State University basketball.

Prior to June 4, 2007, the station had operated at 1490 kHz frequency, where it had been at since 1958. That frequency is now home to sister station WERE.

History

At 1540-AM

WJMO went on the air on June 1, 1947 licensed to Cleveland as a daytime-only broadcaster at 1540 kHz with studios at 2157 Euclid Avenue and a power of 1000 watts. The owner was Wentworth J. Marshall, formerly head of the Marshall Drug Co. chain, and the general manager was David M. Baylor. When it debuted, WJMO was the only Cleveland radio station without a network affiliation. As a result, the station specialized in recorded music. Early staff included Gene Carroll (mornings), Howie Lund (afternoons), and Billy Evans on sports.cite encyclopedia
last = Van Tassel
first = David D., ed.
authorlink =
coauthors = John J. Grabowski, ed.
encyclopedia = The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History
title = WJMO
publisher = Indiana University Press
date = 1996
edition = 2nd ed.
location = Bloomington
pages = pp. 1058–59
url = http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=W23
accessdate = 2007-01-01
doi =
id = ISBN 0-253-33056-4 ]

In 1948 WJMO carried the football games of Western Reserve College Red Cats, both at home from League Park and on the road. In the first broadcast on September 25 Gil Gibbons called the action as Western Reserve met Western Michigan in Kalamazoo.cite web
last =
first =
authorlink =
coauthors =
title = WJMO History
work = Cleveland Broadcast Radio Archives Project
publisher =
date =
url = http://www.cleve-radio.com/index2.htm#WJMO-AM%20&%20FM
format =
doi =
accessdate = 2007-01-01 ]

On June 5, 1952, in an attempt to emphaze music rather than DJs, Baylor issued an orders to play four songs every 15 minutes. As a result a number of DJs chose to leave the station. Later than year, Wentworth sold the station on August 20 for $100,000 to Maryland-based United Broadcasting, headed by Richard Eaton. Ownership was later put in the name of Eaton's affiliated company Friendly Broadcasting of Ohio.

At 1490-AM

On February 1, 1958, Friendly Broadcasting of Columbus assumed control of WSRS 1490-AM and 95.3-FM from Sam R. Sague, and switched call letters, licenses, studios and facilities. WJMO took over the former WSRS offices at 2156 Lee Road in Cleveland Heights, and WSRS-FM became WJMO-FM, later WCUY. WSRS 1540-AM soon became WABQ, whose format and call letters currently reside at 1460-AM. The 1540-AM frequency is currently WWGK.

Shortly after the frequency change in the early 1960s, WJMO moved to a black-oriented R&B format. In 1970 a dispute arose over working conditions and the lack of blacks in key positions. Key station personnel staged a "sick out," which took the station off the air. The dispute attracted the involvement of a number of groups, including the Cleveland chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

The SCLC asked sponsors to withhold advertising from WJMO or face a boycott by black community groups. In retaliation, the personnel involved in the "sick out" were fired. In the efforts to resolve matters, the fired personnel were reinstated, and Kennard "Ken" Hawkins was appointed the station's general manager. Hawkins became the first African American to hold that position at a Cleveland radio station.

United Broadcasting ran into problems with the FCC regarding the operation of its stations in Washington and Miami. It was also alleged that Eaton bribed the ABC network to gain favorable terms for three of its stations.

Meanwhile in Cleveland, United Broadcasting had other problems. On December 11, 1973, station vice president Van Lane (real name Morris Schecter) and engineer John Rees of Washington's WRC radio pled guilty in federal court to charges of bugging Hawkins' office. It was later revealed that the lines were linked between Hawkins' office at the station and Lane's home in Shaker Heights. Lane and Rees were fined $500 each. Former United Broadcasting controller and VP Morton Silverman of Columbia, Maryland, was also charged with three felony counts of illegal wiretapping, but the Justice Department agreed to reduce the charges to a misdemeanor.

A year later, on December 2, 1974, Washington-based attorney Roy F. Perkins, Jr., the former attorney for United Broadcasting, pled guilty in federal court to a misdemeanor charge of bugging Hawkins' office. He was fined $2,000. Perkins claimed that he authorized the bugging because of rumors of payola at the station.

In January 1990, United Broadcasting re-acquired the 92.3 MHz facility, by now WRQC, and changed its callsign to WJMO-FM. United Broadcasting sold WJMO and WJMO-FM in 1992 to Zebra Communications, owned by Xenophon Zapis (owner of Zapis Communications and WZAK), Lynn Tolliver (WZAK program director) and Bobby (Otis) Rush (WZAK DJ). Although Tolliver and Rush were both African Americans, Zapis was a key party in the new ownership, and the sale was contested by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

The sale was approved by the FCC in 1993, [cite news
last = Santiago
first = Roberto
coauthors =
title = WJMO sale approved by FCC, but SCLC appeal is likely
work =
pages = 1B
language =
publisher = The Plain Dealer
date = May 22, 1993
url = http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:NewsBank:CPDB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=0F8074245A242118&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated4&req_dat=0D1C2ED46ABD2E15
accessdate = 2007-01-01 ] and WJMO became the first radio station with significant African American ownership in the Cleveland area. In 1994, as a result of the legal battles, the SCLC gained significant control of WJMO, [cite news
last = Santiago
first = Roberto
title = SCLC gains control of WJMO-AM
pages = 1A
publisher = The Plain Dealer
date = December 10, 1993
url = http://docs.newsbank.com/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info:sid/iw.newsbank.com:NewsBank:CPDB&rft_val_format=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:ctx&rft_dat=0F807969AD9C2B0D&svc_dat=InfoWeb:aggregated4&req_dat=0D1C2ED46ABD2E15
accessdate = 2007-01-01 ] which was seen as less profitable than WJMO-FM and WZAK.

The SCLC appointed a local group (dubbed NewCo) that directly had an input in stations' programming, and produced talk and public affairs shows between the hours of 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. Meanwhile, due to the high legal fees incurred by Zapis, Zebra and the SCLC, all of the local deejays on the station were replaced with ABC Radio's "Solid Gold Soul" music service. [cite news
last = Santiago
first = Roberto
title = FCC Approves Transfer of Two Urban Stations
pages = 4B
publisher = The Plain Dealer
date = February 18, 1994
url = http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_action=doc&p_topdoc=1&p_docnum=1&p_sort=YMD_date:D&p_product=NewsBank&p_text_direct-0=document_id=(%200F807C708F8D268B%20)&p_docid=0F807C708F8D268B&p_theme=aggregated4&p_queryname=0F807C708F8D268B&f_openurl=yes&p_nbid=V6CU5CIWMTE3OTc5NTQzMC4xNzAwOTM6MTo2Om5jZGNwbA&&p_multi=CPDB
accessdate = 2007-05-21 ] In addition, the call letters of the FM station were changed to WZJM—a combination of WZAK and WJMO. (The WJMO-FM calls did resurface on the 99.5 MHz facility in Washington, DC—then co-owned with WJMO—in 1999. Today it broadcasts as WIHT.)

On August 12, 1998, Chancellor Media Corporation of Texas announced its purchase of WJMO and WZJM from Zebra Communications, along with its purchase of four other Cleveland radio stations, WZAK, WDOK 102.1-FM, WQAL 104.1-FM, and WRMR 850-AM, for $275 million. [cite news
last =
first =
coauthors =
title = Company News; Chancellor Media to Buy Six Cleveland Radio Stations
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = The New York Times
date = August 13, 1998
url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907E5D9123AF930A2575BC0A96E958260
accessdate = 2007-01-01 ] It was, at the time, the largest radio deal in Cleveland broadcasting history.

. [cite press release
title = Justice Department Requires Clear Channel and AMFM to Divest 99 Radio Stations in 27 Markets. Required Sale is Largest Radio Divestiture Ever
publisher = U.S. Department of Justice
date = July 20, 2000
url = http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2000/July/415at.htm
accessdate = 2007-01-01 ]

The station became a gospel music outlet on May 17, 1999 after nearly forty years with an rhythm & blues format, which was reputed by many to have been the longest running such station in the country. [cite news
last = Feran
first = Tom
coauthors =
title = WJMO Gives up Soul for Gospel
work =
pages = 2E
language =
publisher = The Plain Dealer
date = May 19, 1999
url = http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_action=doc&p_topdoc=1&p_docnum=1&p_sort=YMD_date:D&p_product=NewsBank&p_text_direct-0=document_id=(%200F80D3C45AEBAAFF%20)&p_docid=0F80D3C45AEBAAFF&p_theme=aggregated4&p_queryname=0F80D3C45AEBAAFF&f_openurl=yes&p_nbid=O68J58XSMTE3OTc5MDk0My4zNDMxOToxOjY6bmNkY3Bs&&p_multi=CPDB
accessdate = 2007-05-21 ]

At 1300-AM

Exactly eight years after WJMO's format switch to gospel music, the May 19, 2007 edition of the Cleveland Plain Dealer [cite news
last = Washington
first = Julie E
coauthors =
title = WERE and WJMO trading AM frequencies
work =
pages = 1E
language =
publisher = The Plain Dealer
date = May 19, 2007
url = http://blog.cleveland.com/pdextra/2007/05/gospel_singer_and_morning_radi.html
accessdate = 2007-06-04 ] reported that station owner Radio One swaped the WJMO call letters and "Praise" gospel format with the WERE callsign and urban talk format. WJMO moved to the 1300 frequency (which had been home to WERE since 1949), while WERE switched to the 1490 frequency. All of this took place on June 4, 2007.

In the months following, WJMO began airing the daily morning show featuring Yolanda Adams, brought over the daily afternoon show featuring Rev. Al Sharpton (which had been on sister station WERE), and became the new flagship station for Cleveland State Vikings basketball.

WJMO also carries Cleveland Gladiators arena football when flagship stations WKNR and WWGK are unable to due to scheduling conflicts.

ports Coverage

Flagship station for Cleveland State basketball

References

External links

*AMQ|WJMO
*Transmitter|WJMO|41.341111|81.741389

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