- WDOK
Infobox Radio Station
name = WDOK
city =Cleveland, Ohio
area =Greater Cleveland
branding = Soft Rock 102.1 WDOK
slogan = Today's Soft Rock
airdate =1950
frequency = 102.1 (MHz) HD Radio
format =Soft AC
erp = 12,000watt s
haat = 306meter s
class = B
facility_id = 28525
owner =CBS Radio
webcast = [http://cbsplayer.streamtheworld.com/index.php?CALLSIGN=WDOKFM Listen Live]
website = [http://www.wdok.com www.wdok.com]
former_callsigns = WDOK-FM (1950-1965)WEWS -FM (1950)
sister_stations =WKRK-FM ,WNCX ,WQAL
callsign_meaning = emphasis on "OK"WDOK is a commercial FM
radio station inCleveland, Ohio broadcasting at 102.1 MHz with anadult contemporary format. Studios are located at One Radio Lane (at St. Clair Avenue, between 26th and 30th Streets) along withCBS Radio sister stationWQAL , and its transmitter is located in Parma on a tower that it shares withWQHS-TV channel 61. On-air personalities include "Trapper Jack" Elliot in morning drive and the syndicated Delilah in the evenings.History
WDOK began on
April 30 ,1950 as WDOK (AM), anAM radio station at 1260 kHz. The station functioned as a middle of the road radio station playing adult standards, with blocks of ethnic programming on Sundays and classical music in the evenings.Wayne Mack left WGAR Radio to help start the station with fellow WGAR staffers Frederick C. Wolf and chief engineer Morris Pierce (who became station president). Mack presented his imaginary "Hometown Band Concerts," a weeknight "Candlelight Concert" and a program called "Waltz Palace".
WDOK-FM was established as an adjunct to the AM outlet in the 1950s, simulcasting the AM programming. Eventually, WDOK-FM originated its own programming and featured a
beautiful music format.On
December 12 ,1965 WDOK (AM) became WIXY, adopting aTop 40 format. WDOK-FM continued as simply WDOK. The station was branded as "Stereo Cleveland: Beautiful Music for the Land of the Western Reserve," with personalities like Wayne Mack (the founder of WDOK-AM, who stayed at WDOK-FM until 1980) and Tom Armstrong (previously the morning host at WGAR 1220-AM in the 40's and 50's.)By the 1980s, WDOK had come under common ownership with WWWE (AM), and both stations were sold on
November 30 ,1987 by Lake Erie Radio Company (owned byArt Modell andAl Lerner ) to the Independent Group Limited partnership (owned by Tom Embrescia, Larry Pollock, and Tom Wilson).While WDOK's beautiful music format did well in ratings, it attracted mostly older listeners in advertiser-unfriendly demographics and not the younger audiences courted by advertisers, and so WDOK switched to an
adult contemporary format in 1987. The station promoted its new AC format with TV commercials announcing that it was "coming out of the elevator" (as in "elevator music"). WDOK initially positioned itself as asoft AC , midway between beautiful music and the mainstream AC format played on WLTF andWMJI , but eventually the format evolved into the current "soft rock" approach.Traditionally, the station goes to an all
Christmas music format fromThanksgiving week until right after Christmas.External links
* [http://www.wdok.com WDOK Official Web Site]
* [http://www.cleve-radio.com/index2.htm#WDOK-AM WDOK Timeline from Cleveland Broadcast Radio Archives]
*FMQ|WDOK
*FML|WDOK
*FMARB|WDOK
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.