northeast ohio branding 90.3 wcpn frequency 90.3 mhz also on hd radio first air date november 21 1938 format public radio jazz hd2 classical wclv simulcast erp 47 000 watts haat 155 meters class b facility id 234782 transmitter coordinates 41 22 18.00 n 81 42 48.00 w 41.3716667 n 81.7133333 w 41.3716667 ; 81.7133333 callsign meaning cleveland public network former callsigns wboe 1938 78 former frequencies 41.5 mhz 1938 41 42.5 mhz 1941 48 affiliations bbc world service npr public radio international owner ideastream sister stations wclv wviz webcast listen live hd2 listen live website wcpn.org wcpn 90.3 fm branded 90.3 wcpn is a non commercial educational radio station licensed to cleveland ohio . owned by ideastream the station serves greater cleveland and much of surrounding northeast ohio . broadcasting a mix of public radio and jazz wcpn is the cleveland affiliate for npr public radio international and the bbc world service . the wcpn studios are located at playhouse square in downtown cleveland while the station transmitter resides in the cleveland suburb of parma . besides a standard analog transmission wcpn broadcasts over two hd radio channels and is available online . 1 contents 1 history 1.1 wboe 1.1.1 emergence 1.1.2 public radio involvement 1.1.3 death of wboe 1.2 90.3 wcpn 2 current programming 2.1 ethnic shows 3 references 4 external links history edit wboe edit for the ravena new york radio station which carried the wboe callsign from 2006 to 2007 see wykv . wboe was initially licensed on november 21 1938 to the cleveland board of education to broadcast on 41.5 mhz with 500 watts using high frequency am also referred to as apex . facilities were located in the lafayette school on abell avenue . two months later the station moved to the sixth floor of the board of education building on east 6th street . the studios remained there until 1973 74 . 2 by 1940 it was joined by a few other educational stations such as wnye in new york broadcasting in the spectrum of 41 43 mhz using am although it was presumed these educational stations would change to fm when such broadcasting became practical . in september 1940 wboe requested authority to relinquish its 41.5 mhz am operation and change to fm operation on 42.5 mhz . in march 1941 wboe became an fm station broadcasting with 1 000 watts on 42.5 mhz the first educational station to convert to fm . at the time fm broadcasting was in its infancy and only about a dozen fm stations were on the air in the entire country most of them experimental stations . in 1945 the fcc decided to shift all fm broadcasting up to the present spectrum of 88 108 mhz with 88 92 mhz reserved for noncommercial broadcasting . initially wboe changed its frequency to 44.5 fm on may 1 1947 . this change was necessitated by an fcc decision to allocate the 42 45 megacycle band to non government fixed and mobile services . emergence edit wboe moved to 90.3 mhz on august 3 1948 increasing its power to 3 000 watts with an effective radiated power of 10 000 watts . the change to 90.3 fm caused quite a controversy due to the costs schools would incur to buy new radios and the time they needed to budget for it . subsequently wboe requested reauthorization for 44.5 fm for as long as possible original letter to fcc 07 13 1948 . from september 1 1948 to the end of the year wboe was licensed to broadcast on both frequencies . on january 1 1949 a modified license authorized wboe to broadcast solely on 90.3 fm . on december 9 1959 . wboe increased power to 5 000 watts with an e.r.p. of 15 000 watts . in 1973 74 wboe had new studio facilities built at 10600 quincy avenue in the eastern side of cleveland . in 1975 76 the station s power was increased to 50 000 watts with the transmitter and tower in parma ohio one of the southwestern cleveland suburbs . 3 until december 1976 wboe s programming was limited primarily to instructional programming mostly intended for cleveland school classrooms . generally the station broadcast from 7 55 a.m. or 8 00 a.m. until 4 30 p.m. on school days ; school programming would often end at 3 00 p.m. light entertainment public service or educational programs of general interest would conclude the broadcast day . under the direction of dr. william b. levenson the station won national recognition for its use of radio broadcasts synchronized with lantern slides and playscripts speakers on such topics as health and science and student produced programs on current events and student etiquette were aired . citation needed cleveland school district teachers and curriculum administrators often hosted the shows . series programs in most curriculum areas were featured . most programs for in school use ran for no more than 15 minutes . until the use of reel to reel audio tape in the 1950s programs were recorded onto 16 electrical transcription e.t. discs . upon examination of these discs it seems that many programs were broadcast live and recorded simultaneously for repeat later . citation needed for example in the mid and late 1940s the social studies department produced current topics which discussed current events in the news . a duo of children s story time series were called once upon a time and the story lady . a practical science series was titled electrical living . later on a mathematics competition series get the answer right debuted . during the 1950s through the 1970s 15 minute segments from the all city music groups performances were broadcast . throughout most of its life wboe also aired non commercial and educational programs from other producers and distributors . in the 1940s these included series produced by other cleveland radio stations . public radio involvement edit by the mid 1960s if not before the predecessors to national public radio nern national educational radio network and naeb national association of educational broadcasters distributed programs produced by member stations for use on wboe and other stations . an example of one of the general interest programs was the old record box a 15 minute series featuring cylinder records from the turn of the century produced in the mid 1960s by wfbe the station owned by the flint michigan board of education . in the 1970s national public radio continued to provide this service to educational stations . examples of educational programs for in school use included what you see is what you get a social studies economics program and the english language program fun from the dictionary . the wboe produced series drama on stage and screen was picked up and distributed nationally by npr . this series featured interviews conducted by wboe s best known broadcaster cecilia evans . she interviewed people involved in stage screen and television careers such as actor greg morris of cbs tv s mission impossible series . as educational television developed the effectiveness of educational radio was reduced and work began in the early 1970s to build wboe into a national public radio npr affiliate . progress was slowed by technical matters including concern that wboe s 50 000 watt signal might interfere with the tv audio of wviz pbs channel 25 . it has been estimated by wboe s station manager of the time that this technical issue stopped the debut of npr in the cleveland market by over a year . from december 20 1976 through december 31 1976 wboe increased its broadcast day until 6 30 p.m. for the airing of the popular npr program all things considered . on january 1 1977 wboe increased to an 18 hour per day 7 day a week schedule 6 00 a.m. to midnight . programming for in school use continued on school days from 8 30 a.m. until 3 00 p.m. adult npr ethnic and other programming consumed the rest of the broadcast day and all day on weekends . locally produced programming included yes you can a weekly feature designed to encourage adults to continue their education ; parenting a family life series ; and elementary school highlights . death of wboe edit in its final years wboe fm s staff included station manager jay robert klein whose five minute weekly feature you and your wheels featured up to date information about automobiles and discussed issues pertaining to automobile transportation ; coordinator charles siegel who produced shows like cavities don t care and the ins and outs of gardening ; karl johnson the producer host of the morning drive show thank goodness it s name of day which aired monday friday from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. ; senior high school programmer cecilia evans who was an award winning cleveland broadcaster providing theater reviews for wboe and commercial station were am ; tom altenbernd who was the junior high school programmer ; and elementary programmer ervine jaworski . the technical staff included first class engineers bill nelson who died in 1976 and was replaced by ed shaper al hrivnak and dennis batig who hosted a 1950s and 1960s music show let the good times roll . full time board operators and production personnel were ted mazurowski and richard shenker . part time personnel included john l. basalla jim stincic and bruce van valkenburg . basalla produced rock concepts and stincic produced sessions in swing using the air name jim matthews . the cleveland school system entered a difficult period in the late 1970s as it was faced with a massive court mandated desegregation order . 4 additionally an ad hoc community group believing that the in school programming should cease in favor of full time adult npr fare took steps to take control of the radio station . due to a teachers strike school programming did not resume as scheduled in september 1978 . the financially strapped board of education finally took wboe off the air the next month . wboe s final day of broadcasting was october 7 1978 . at the stroke of midnight the final program was broadcast . station manager jay robert klein and cleveland newspaper journalist dick feagler provided a pre recorded eulogy . the 90.3 frequency fell silent until the fall of 1984 save for the sideband broadcast of the cleveland radio reading service crrs . crrs temporarily ceased broadcasting in may 1982 . 90.3 wcpn edit the non commercial license was still available and an effort was organized to restart a public radio station for cleveland . kent state university s station wksu fm had been the sole full npr member in northeast ohio since the network s beginnings in 1971 the station itself dates back to 1950 . wksu provides a strong signal to most of the cleveland area and to this day claims cleveland as part of its primary coverage area . however wksu fm lacked programming directed specifically to the immediate cleveland cuyahoga county region ; the main city in its service area was akron . in 1979 the cleveland public library bid 205 000 for wboe fm s license which ended up beating out a 200 000 bid by the northern ohio public radio group ten days before . an attempt by cleveland public radio to bid 234 360.87 was rejected because the group could not immediately make a minimum 200 000 cash payment . plans were made for the station to be moved from the old wboe eastside cleveland studios to the main library downtown with a proposed change in call letters to wcpl cleveland public library . the effort by the library eventually failed and the license wound up in the hands of cleveland public radio anyway . by july 6 1983 cleveland public radio had changed the wboe callsign to wcpn . wgar am by then a country music outlet