WATJ

Infobox Radio Station
name = WATJ


area = Chardon, Ohio
branding = AM 1560 WATJ
"SportsRadio 1560 AM"
slogan = Music, Memories and More
"Where the Season Never Ends"
airdate = 1969 (as WBKC)
"fell silent in 2004"
frequency = 1560 (kHz)
format = Sports
power = 1,000 watts
class = D
owner = Music Express Broadcasting Corp.
website =
former_callsigns = WATJ (1990-2004)
WCDN (1986-1990)
WBKC (1969-1986)
WGLD (1960-1965)
callsign_meaning = Warren And Ted Jones
(last owners of the station)

WATJ was an AM radio station licensed to Chardon, Ohio and serving the Cleveland, Ohio radio market. Its transmitters are located off Claridon/Aquilla Road. The station operated on 1560 kHz during daytime hours only, but is currently silent. Its FCC license was last updated on June 14, 2004 and has expired on October 1, 2004.

History

Origins of WBKC

What ended up becoming WATJ first went on the air in the early 1960's as WGLD, which was a mere 500-watt daytimer. WGLD fell silent around 1965. Al Kipp, who was the general manager of WELW in Willoughby at the time, was hired by a new group to put the station back on the air. They built studios and a four-tower directional array on Aquilla Road east of route 44 in Chardon, boosting power to 1000 watts with a very tight directional pattern, the largest lobe of the signal beamed up into populous Lake County.

At one time, WBKC even had a satellite studio at the Great Lakes Mall. Al Kipp did much of the field engineering work for the construction permit. The call letters WBKC stood for this: the B was for Oliver Bolton, Congresswoman Frances Bolton's son, and one of the owners. The K stood for Albert King, owner of the Chardon-based King Trucking Company, another owner. The C stood for Chardon.

This group owned the station, with Al Kipp as GM, until it was sold to Painesville businesman Don Smith in the early 1980's. Clarence Bucaro of WERE, who had been a salesman at WBKC in the mid-'70's, became the general manager.

Painesville's 1460

Meanwhile, there was another station that existed in Painesville under the WPVL calls at 1460 kHz. It first went on the air as WPVL on April 25, 1956 as a daytime-only station at 500 watts and was later granted a twenty-four hour a day license.

Locally owned and locally programmed, WPVL claimed a huge chunk of the Lake County audience, and billed almost as much as Cleveland stations, with a full air and news staff, local programs and high school sports games, remote broadcasts and toward the end a simulcast on a Lake County cable TV channel. WPVL became WQLS on January 15, 1984, and slowly shifted its' focus to covering all of Lake County .

When Don Smith bought WQLS, WBKC's programming and call letters moved to 1460-AM March 3, 1986. 1460-AM and 1560-AM simucast each other for several months as the "B-K Country Network," but the previous WBKC was soon sold to Smith's son-in-law, taking the call sign WCDN, for Chardon. Bucaro eventually assumed ownership of the Painesville incarnation of WBKC, and owned it until 2004.

In 2001, WBKC entered an arrangement with WCLV to simulcast the classical music station for the Lake County area, save for a morning-drive news program. This lasted until 2006, when WBKC's sister station in Cleveland, gospel music WABQ, was sold off to a different owner. WABQ's format and call letters moved to 1460 kHz that October. Before the sale closed, the WBKC calls temporarily moved to what was WABQ in Cleveland, but were retired in favor of WWGK on November 7, 2006.

The End of 1560

When Warren Jones bought 1560, he changed the calls to its final incarnation of WATJ, after him and his father, Ted. Jones placed WATJ, and FM country outlet WKKY - licensed to the city of Geneva - under the "Music Express Broadcasting Company" banner.

WATJ once played a beautiful music format with ethnic programming on the weekends, but was last aired a sports radio format under the name "SportsRadio 1560 AM." This format was far from successful; its' first try was with an all-local lineup, but that was dumped for Sporting News Radio programming.

Ted Jones turned the license back a couple years ago, so as to focus on WKKY. FCC rules now prohibit the re-licensing of daytime stations, so the station is gone forever.

External links

* [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=41.56750,+-81.19250+(WATJ-AM)&om=1 Aerial photo of WATJ transmitter from Google Local]
* [http://www.radio-locator.com/cgi-bin/finder?sr=Y&s=C&is_lic=Y&is_unl=Y&is_cp=Y&call=watj Technical Info On WATJ] (WATJ is still listed here)
*AMQ|WATJ (WATJ is no longer listed in the FCC database)