area branding 1590 wakr slogan news talk sports frequency 1590 khz first air date october 16 1940 format news talk sports power 5 000 watts daytime 5 000 watts nighttime class b facility id 43871 transmitter coordinates 41 01 14.00 n 81 30 20.00 w 41.0205556 n 81.5055556 w 41.0205556 ; 81.5055556 callsign meaning akron affiliations cleveland browns radio network cleveland cavaliers radio network cleveland indians radio network cumulus media networks ohio state img sports network wall street journal radio network owner rubber city radio group inc. rubber city radio group inc. sister stations wone fm wnwv wqmx webcast listen live website wakr.net wakr 1590 am branded 1590 wakr is a commercial radio station licensed to akron ohio serving the akron metro area . locally owned by rubber city radio group inc. the station broadcasts a mix of news talk and sports . wakr is also the akron affiliate for the cleveland browns cleveland cavaliers and cleveland indians radio networks as well as the ohio state img sports network . the wakr studios are located on west market street in akron while the station transmitter resides near the firestone country club . contents 1 history 2 current programming 3 references 4 external links history edit the station began broadcasting on october 16 1940 founded by s. bernard berk and licensed to his family owned business summit radio corp. it became the blue network and then the abc radio affiliate for akron broadcasting with 5 000 watts . while crosstown rival wadc now warf had the advantage of being a cbs affiliate with its popular network programs wakr built its reputation primarily through local programming supplemented with an active news department . the local emphasis worked and during wakr s peak in 1946 and 1947 hooper ratings showed the station with as much as 60 percent of the akron audience . in 1945 alan freed joined wakr and became a local favorite playing hot jazz and pop recordings . radio editor for akron beacon journal followed freed and his request review 1 nightly program of dance . when he left the station the non compete clause in his contract limited its ability to find work elsewhere and he was forced to take the graveyard shift at cleveland s wjw radio where he eventually made history playing the music he called rock and roll . 1 in 1946 berk expanded ownership of summit radio corp. by selling 45 % to the beacon journal publishing co. publishers of the akron beacon journal . the newspaper company would continue to own a piece of summit s operations for 30 years . 2 during the 1950s and 1960s wakr was akron s premier radio station . it operated as a very successful top 40 station during the 1960s competing with cross town whlo . wakr also started akron s first fm station wakr fm in 1948 . it changed to easy listening waez in the late 1960s and became rock wone fm on january 1 1985 . wakr also started akron s first television station wakr tv in 1953 . originally intended as a vhf licensee on channel 11 it wound up on channel 49 after an fcc imposed freeze on future vhf stations as well as a merging of the cleveland and akron markets into one single market . the station moved to channel 23 in 1967 and was affiliated with abc despite cleveland s wews also holding an abc affiliation . many of wakr s personalities shared airtime on the tv side throughout this time period ; current afternoon host tim daugherty was a weatherman on wakr tv for many years . the tv station changed its callsign to wakc tv in 1986 when group one was broken up and it now known as ion television owned & operated station wvpx tv targeted to the cleveland market . since taking to the air wakr has been the home to many personalities who would become national stars among them film actors lola albright and mark stevens ; radio names peter hackes scott muni and charlie greer ; and the first host of tv s jeopardy art fleming known there as art fazzin . ownership of the berk family broadcasting interests was organized as group one broadcasting around 1965 when it purchased wone am and wone fm later wtue in dayton . it bought kbox and kbox fm in dallas in 1967 and klz and klz fm in denver in 1972 . summit radio and group one were dissolved in june 1986 and the station passed through four different owners in the next seven years . by then wakr was airing a full service adult contemporary pop music format . wakr along with wone fm and the other group one stations were sold to dkm broadcasting in june 1986 wakr s license was transferred in september 1986 . dkm dyson kissner moran sold all of its properties including other stations in dayton dallas denver baltimore springfield and lincoln on january 1 1988 for 200 million to summit communications group which had no connection to summit radio wakr s previous owner . ownership passed to u.s. radio headed by ragan henry on december 7 1989 . not too long after the gulf war in early 1992 wakr abruptly dropped its standards format and went into a news talk format . it featured national hosts rush limbaugh and larry king local talk hosts bill hall and dave milo plus a morning drive news program hosted by bob allen the lone holdover from the previous format . wakr and wone fm were then transferred on december 6 1993 to gordon thomas communications inc. headed by thom mandel which also owned wqmx . the company changed its name to rubber city radio group on the same day . wakr failed to catch on with the news talk format and mandel himself felt a need to revert wakr to its full service format . in mid 1994 wakr did just that becoming a pop standards talk hybrid with bob allen bob friend and christie maxx during the daytime and national talk with bruce williams and jim bohannon at night . in 1997 the station went back to talk but on a more national scale with gary burbank the fabulous sports babe and espn radio programming eventually added into the schedule . news intensive local programming was kept in both morning and afternoon drive . in 1999 the station reverted into a standards format with most music programming being satellite based from westwood one with its morning news program as the lone holdover of the previous format . coincidentally two of the westwood one adult standards personalities that were heard on the station had local ties format program director chick watkins was program director at wcue and wcue fm from 1956 to 1970 and also was program director for cleveland s wgar 1220 am from 1970 to 1982 while overnight voice jerry healey was wakr s morning host in the late 60s and early 70s . an all local weekday lineup was officially unveiled on august 30 2006 . a variety of service talk shows gardening money home improvement is heard along with sports on the weekends while bob allen moved from afternoons to weekends before retiring in february 2010 . with this change wakr s newscasts were also increased in terms of length and content . it was a key affiliate for paul harvey up until harvey s passing in march 2009 . in the fall of 2007 wakr began to shift the music portion of its format from adult standards to oldies . wakr commemorated their 70th anniversary in 2010 by revived many of their classic jingles from the 1960s and 1970s while also airing montages and airchecks from past personalities . current programming edit in 2014 wakr moved to a talk format featuring expanded local and syndicated talk shows joining the existing news and sports programming . one of wakr s sunday morning religious programs uniform faith with the furnace street mission is the oldest continuing christian radio program in the united states originally airing on wadc in 1926 . 3 references edit jude sheerin 20 march 2012 . how the world s first rock concert ended in chaos . bbc news . http 12.100.23.254 8080 bj news 2000 september 10 docs 031187.htm dead link http www.furnacestreetmission.org radioshow.html . retrieved july 5 2009 . missing or empty title help dead link external links edit official website query the fcc s am station database for wakr radio locator information on wakr query nielsen audio s am station database for wakr v t e radio stations in the akron ohio market by am frequency 640 1150 1350 1590 by fm frequency 88.1 88.9 89.7 91.3 94.9 97.5 98.1 100.1 by callsign wakr waps warf wcue whlo wkdd wksu wnir wone fm wqmx wstb wzip online black squirrel radio defunct 1520 wjmp ohio radio markets akron canton cincinnati cleveland columbus dayton lima marietta toledo youngstown warren other ohio radio regions ashtabula ironton mid ohio sandusky southern ohio wheeling steubenville see also list of radio stations in ohio v t e news talk radio stations in the state of ohio stations wabq painesville wakr akron wasn youngstown wbex chillicothe wbtc uhrichsville wclt newark wcvx cincinnati weol elyria lorain were cleveland heights cleveland whbc canton whio dayton whio fm piqua whk cleveland whlo akron wint willoughby wkbn youngstown wkrc cincinnati wlw cincinnati wman mansfield wman fm fredericktown wmoh hamilton cincinnati wmrn marion wnir kent akron wonw defiance wspd toledo wtam cleveland wtod toledo wtvn columbus defunct wjmp kent akron see also adult contemporary classic hits college country news talk npr oldies religious rock sports top 40 urban other radio stations in ohio retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wakr & oldid 735091687 categories radio stations in akron ohioradio stations established in 19401940 establishments in ohionews and talk radio stations in the united stateshidden categories all articles with dead external linksarticles with dead external links from march 2012pages with citations lacking titlespages with citations having bare urlsarticles with dead external links from may 2016 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 18 august 2016 at 15 19 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view