WRQK-FM

WRQK-FM (106.9 FM) — branded Rock 106.9 — is an American commercial radio station licensed to Canton, Ohio, and broadcasting a mainstream rock format. The station is operated by Clear Channel Communications, with sister stations WHLO, WARF, WKDD and WHOF, at the Clear Channel Akron/Canton complex in Jackson Township, Ohio. Clear Channel is in the process of purchasing WRQK-FM from previous owner Cumulus Media.

The station was founded circa 1962 as WCNO by the Greer Group, which had purchased its sister station, WAND AM 900, later WCNS, now WCER. The stations became WNYN and WNYN-FM in the late 1960s.

Both stations were purchased in 1965 by Don Keyes, who had made his mark as a national programmer for legendary station owner Gordon McLendon. In 1971, he sold the FM station to Susquehanna Radio Corporation, the owners of WHLO (AM) Akron, and it became WHLQ.

Susquehanna sold the station in 1978 to the owners of WINW, who applied to change the FM call letters to WHOF (for the "Hall of Fame" city of Canton) but were rebuffed by the owners of WTOF, another local FM station. (Coincidentally, WRQK-FM now has a new Clear Channel sister station using the WHOF call letters.) 106.9 adopted an automated Top 40 format and became WOOS-FM on June 1, 1979.

WOOS-FM changed its call sign to WRQK on August 3, 1985, taking on an album oriented rock music format. For a while, the station called itself Goodrock 107, an apparent play on the name of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in nearby Akron. It formally changed from WRQK to WRQK-FM on February 14, 1989, when AM station WINW changed its call sign to WRQK. The AM station changed back to WINW six months later, but the FM call sign has remained WRQK-FM.

In 1995, the station was sold by Jim Embrescia's Canton/Akron Radio, Inc. to Sabre Communications. Then In 1997, SabreComm sold to Connoisseur. Connoisseur sold their entire radio group to Cumulus Broadcasting in 2000 (at the about the peak of earnings multiples, when companies paid stupid money for stations). Then, on August 8, 2006, it was announced that WRQK-FM would be sold to Clear Channel Communications, pairing WRQK-FM with former partner WHLO, as well as WARF, WKDD, and WHOF. Clear Channel took over operations of WRQK-FM on January 15, 2007, pending FCC approval of its purchase of the station from Cumulus.

In March 2007, WRQK-FM changed its branding from Rock 107 to Rock 106.9 — possibly to avoid confusion with WMMS, a rock station in Cleveland, with similar-sounding frequency of 100.7. It also changed its slogan from "Canton's Rock Station" to "It Just Rocks!", in an effort to also serve the Akron market.

References

External links

• Official website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WRQK
• Radio-Locator information on WRQK
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WRQK