WNWV
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| City | Elyria, Ohio |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area |
Greater Cleveland Northeast Ohio |
| Branding | 107.3 The Wave |
| Slogan | Cleveland's Smooth FM |
| Frequency | 107.3 MHz (also on HD Radio) |
| First air date | October 18, 1948 |
| Format | Smooth AC |
| ERP | 20,000 watts |
| HAAT | 238 meters |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 19462 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 41°16′10.00″N 82°00′16.00″W / 41.2694444°N 82.0044444°W |
| Callsign meaning | The WaVe |
| Former callsigns | WEOL-FM (1948–65) WBEA (1965–87) WCZR (1987) |
| Owner |
Rubber City Radio Group, Inc. (Rubber City Radio Group, Inc.) |
| Sister stations | WAKR, WONE-FM, WQMX |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | 1073thewave |
WNWV (107.3 FM) – branded 107.3 The Wave – is a commercial smooth AC radio station licensed to Elyria, Ohio. Owned by Rubber City Radio Group, Inc., the station serves Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio. The WNWV studios are located in the Cleveland suburb Independence, while the station transmitter resides in Grafton. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WNWV broadcasts over a single HD Radio channel, and is available online.
The station began as WEOL-FM, simulcasting the programming on AM station WEOL through the 1950s and most of the 1960s. The FM installations was established as an adjunct to the AM outlet around the same time as WEOL's 1948 sign-on. By 1960, WEOL-FM started separate programming on the weekdays as "Formula 107," playing a mixture of automated classical music and pop standards from 2pm until 10pm weekdays, while both WEOL and WEOL-FM played "Sterophonic Hi-Lites" from 9pm to 11pm on Sundays. WEOL-FM assumed a separate identity on December 8, 1965 as WBEA, with a mostly automated beautiful music and easy listening format aimed toward Elyria, their city of license. Many of the area's top broadcast talents made a stop at WBEA and WEOL early in their careers, including Dick Conrad, Jeff Baxter, David Mark, Ronnie Barrett, Ron Penfound, Jim Mehrling, Rick Martyn, Bob Tayek, and others. The easy listening soon segued to Top 40 as "WBEA B-107" in the early 1980s.
From January 1 until November 15, 1987, the station carried the callsign WCZR and operated as Z Rock with a heavy metal rock format. This format itself originated from the Satellite Music Network (later absorbed into ABC Radio) in Dallas, Texas, and WCZR was only the second station to have picked it up. WCZR gained a cult following in the Cleveland area, as most other rock stations did not devote their playlists to heavy metal. However, lackluster ratings and the spread of the "smooth jazz" format precipitated a format change less than a year later.
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Wikipedia