WABQ

WABQ (1460 AM) – branded Talk 1460 – is a commercial progressive talk radio station licensed to Painesville, Ohio, serving Lake County and eastern parts of Greater Cleveland. WABQ is a local affiliate for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Ohio State football, The Stephanie Miller Show, The Ed Schultz Show, and The Mike Malloy Radio Show, as well as programs hosted by nationally syndicated personalities Thom Hartmann, Bill Press, and Leslie Marshall.

History

The station went on the air April 25, 1956 as a daytime only station under the call sign WPVL (Where People Value Listening). Somerset Broadcasting, Inc. was the original owner under President/General Manager & Chief Engineer, Carl R. Lee. The station was originally located 102 S. Park Place in downtown Painesville, just a few steps to the NE from Carlisle-Allen Department store and the Parmly Hotel to the NW. The original staff featured Elwood Thompson, who moved from WVSC, Somerset, Pennsylvania to be WPVL's first Program Director, James Ahlstrom was News and Sports Director and Tom Christen acted as the station's Farm Director. A couple of years later, the Sales Manager was Don Atkin, on-air personalities were, Jim Stephenson, Promotion Manager and on-air talent, Dick Gascoigne, and Bill Starkey, Sports Director.

In 1959, WPVL, Inc. built new state-of-the-art (for the time) studios in a new building at 713 Forbes Street which later was rechristened One Radio Place. The station is still located at this address. Carl R. Lee also was involved in the ownership and building of another AM daytime station, WDLR in Delaware, Ohio.

It became WQLS on January 15, 1984 and WBKC on March 3, 1986. The call sign WBKC was previously licensed to Chardon, Ohio on AM 1560, and acquired WQLS in order to provide 24/7 service. Prior to being WBKC, 1560 had a short life as WGLD in the early 1960s. The 1560 frequency later became WATJ, and fell silent in 2004.

WBKC later had an adult contemporary format until 2001, when it became a simulcast of classical station WCLV 104.9 FM in Cleveland. WBKC's simulcast was meant to help overcome some of WCLV's signal problems in the eastern portion of the Cleveland radio market, after that station's move to a weaker signal licensed to Lorain, west of Cleveland. WBKC was the Lake County affiliate for the Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Browns and Ohio State Buckeyes.

The station would be sold to Dale Edwards, owner and operator of WABQ in Cleveland, in 2004. With the sale, Edwards operated WBKC under the "Radio Advantage One, LLC" banner, but maintained the simulcast of WCLV programming. In October 2006, Edwards sold off WABQ's 1540 facility over to Good Karma Broadcasting for their purposes of launching a sports talk station, WWGK. In response, WBKC dropped the WCLV simulcast, and switched over to the gospel format that was previously on 1540. The station would also drop coverage of all Cleveland sports teams, choosing to focus all of its schedule (save mornings) on gospel music and religious programs aimed at the East side of Cleveland (where the bulk of the city's African-American population resides).

WBKC swapped call signs with WABQ on October 24, 2006, and the WBKC call letters were then retired on November 7, as AM 1540 took on WWGK as their new calls (reflecting the new ownership).

On July 26, 2011, Cleveland Scene reported that WABQ would flip to a progressive talk format on August 1, 2011. The change came about due to a lease management agreement with veteran radio station executive Gary Richards, who also runs Columbus progressive talk station WVKO AM 1580.

The actual flip occurred on August 4, 2011, ending a nearly five year run for AM 1460 with the gospel format^[1]

Current programming

As part of the progressive talk format, WABQ still features their long-running local weekday morning news block from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m., now known as The East Side Morning Drive hosted by Joe Cleveland with newsman Gary Webster.

The rest of the broadcast schedule features syndicated liberal hosts including Stephanie Miller, Ed Schultz, Thom Hartmann, and Bill Press (all from Dial Global), Leslie Marshall (Talk USA Radio), self syndicated Mike Malloy, and Boston based host Jeff Santos, who is syndicated in a few select markets.

WABQ also serves as an affiliate for NBC News Radio and Marketwatch.com (both distributed by Dial Global); the Cleveland Cavaliers;^[2] and Ohio State football.^[3]

Talk 1460 also broadcasts high school football during the season, featuring primarily teams from Cleveland's eastern suburbs, as well as Lake County. Station GM Gary Richards and Mitchell Paliobagis are the announcing team.

On November 10, 2011, WABQ began an online stream of the station's programming.

On January 4, 2012, WABQ and Columbus sister station WVKO joined the Revolution Radio Network from WWZN in Boston.

References

External links

• Official website
• Query the FCC's AM station database for WABQ
• Radio-Locator Information on WABQ
• Query Nielsen Audio's AM station database for WABQ