which identified as wgar from 1930 to 1990 see whkw . wgar fm city cleveland ohio broadcast area greater cleveland northeast ohio branding 99.5 wgar slogan real life . set to music . frequency 99.5 mhz also on hd radio first air date august 1952 format country hd2 classic country erp 50 000 watts haat 152 meters class b facility id 47740 transmitter coordinates 41 22 18.00 n 81 43 4.00 w 41.3716667 n 81.7177778 w 41.3716667 ; 81.7177778 callsign meaning george a. richards former callsigns wgar fm 1952 70 wncr 1970 75 wksw 1975 84 affiliations city club of cleveland iheartradio premiere networks premium choice total traffic and weather network westwood one owner iheartmedia inc. citicasters licenses inc. sister stations waks whlk wmji wmms wtam webcast listen live website 99.5 wgar wgar fm 99.5 fm branded 99.5 wgar is a commercial country music radio station licensed to cleveland ohio serving greater cleveland and much of surrounding northeast ohio owned by iheartmedia inc. . the wgar fm studios are located in the cleveland suburb of independence while the station transmitter resides in nearby parma . besides a standard analog transmission wgar fm broadcasts over two hd radio channels 1 and is available online via iheartradio . contents 1 history 1.1 wgar fm 1952 70 1.2 wncr 1.3 wksw 1.4 wgar fm 1984 present 2 current programming 3 references 4 external links history edit wgar fm 1952 70 edit wgar fm began broadcasting in august 1952 simulcasting the programming of its am sister station wgar 1220 am as was the case for most fm stations at the time . hours of operation were very limited usually at the bare minimum of two hours per week . 2 wncr edit in 1970 wgar fm underwent several massive changes . it started broadcasting in stereo that april 1 and became wncr which stood for either nationwide communications radio or north coast rock on july 2 . 3 the original air staff was mitch michaels mornings chris gray midday steve scott afternoons ginger evenings and david elmore overnight . by august all of the air staff tired of being at odds with management about the huge amount of commercials and attempts to commercialize the station sound went on strike . all were fired after a midnight meeting with the gm mediated by don imus . ginger went to columbus then to wmms . michaels followed him in short time . this ushered in the second era of wncr . while a considerable success at first conflicts between management and staff prompted key members to jump over to wmms . wksw edit on january 1 1973 wncr gave up the progressive rock format and changed to an automated country format . in 1975 the format was changed to beautiful music easy listening using jim schulke s format . a few months later the call letters changed to wksw and the station s slogan became wksw fm 100 . all music . all the time . for a brief period no local announcers were used . instead recordings of philadelphia announcer nelson hobdell were used for all station breaks . eventually wksw went to all local personalities including david mark who had the highest ratings the station ever achieved tom mart jim field and ted lux . with the lone exception of david mark whose ratings in cleveland were bested only by cleveland indians baseball on wwwe and rock music on wmms the station was never quite able to equal or better the ratings at competitors wqal and wdok and the format was switched back to country by 1980 . wgar fm 1984 present edit on july 15 1984 it switched its calls to wgar fm . it has continued its country music format since then . the country music programming was simulcast on the am outlet for a time during 1986 before wgar am was sold off and became wknr 1220 am . wgar fm was sold to jacor communications in 1997 as part of a 620 million purchase of nationwide communications and its 17 stations by jacor . in may 1999 clear channel communications completed its 6.5 billion purchase of jacor and its 454 stations including wgar fm . from 1992 2010 the wgar fm morning show starred longtime personality jim mantel along with various sidekicks and co hosts through the years . in addition to the morning show the on air staff included the noted marconi award winning chuck collier whose broadcast career extended over four decades in cleveland between radio stations wgar fm 1986 2011 wgar am 1970 90 and wmji . in march 2009 chuck collier was inducted into the country radio hall of fame in nashville . collier was the music director afternoon host until his death on september 22 2011 due to a heart attack . 4 current programming edit local wgar fm personalities include brian fowler and leeann sommers mornings charley shotgun taylor connolly afternoons and kat jackson evenings . other music shifts are either voice tracked out of market specifically for wgar fm or programmed via premium choice . syndicated programming includes cmt after midnite with cody alan overnights via premiere networks 5 6 and bob kingsley s country top 40 sundays via westwood one . the hd2 digital subchannel broadcasts a classic country format via premium choice under the brand foggy mountain . 7 8 references edit hd radio guide for cleveland wgar hd radio.com webmasters mike olszewski 2002 03 04 . cleveland ohio broadcast radio archives project . cleve radio.com . retrieved 2014 08 18 . webmasters mike olszewski 2002 03 04 . cleveland ohio broadcast radio archives project . cleve radio.com . retrieved 2014 08 18 . collier passes away wtam.com wgar schedule wgar.com cmt after midnite all access and radio live with cody alan radio stations . aftermidnite.com . retrieved 2014 08 18 . washington julie e. may 16 2009 . broadcast blues clear channel does some clear cutting of on air radio talent . the plain dealer . plain dealer publishing co. p. e1 arts & life . clear channel ... is rolling out premium choice a menu of national formats chosen by headquarters . there is no local programming on premium choice stations except for commercials ... corrections and clarifications . the plain dealer . plain dealer publishing co. august 1 2009 . the cleveland clear channel stations using the premium choice programming package are waks wgar wmji and wmms . each station uses it overnight on weekdays and for selected hours on weekends . local hd radio stations . hd radio . retrieved 2014 08 18 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to wgar fm . 99.5 wgar query the fcc s fm station database for wgar radio locator information on wgar query nielsen audio s fm station database for wgar v t e radio stations in the cleveland ohio market by fm frequency 87.7 88.3 88.3 88.7 89.3 90.3 91.1 91.5 92.3 93.1 95.5 96.5 98.5 99.1 99.5 100.7 102.1 103.3 104.1 104.9 105.7 106.5 107.3 107.9 by am frequency 850 930 1000 1040 1100 1220 1260 1300 1320 1330 1380 1420 1460 1490 1540 1560 defunct by wx frequency 162.55 by callsign khb59 w256bt wabq waks watj defunct wbwc wccd wccr wclv wcpn wcrf fm wcsb wdlw wdok wenz weol were wfhm fm wgar fm whk whkw whlk whwn wint wjcu wjmo wjtb wkhr wknr wkrk fm wlfm lp wmji wmms wncx wnwv wobl wqal wruw fm wtam wwgk wzak online owow radio 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 radio stations in southwestern ontario clear channel stations with extended nighttime coverage . v t e country music radio stations in the state of ohio by frequency 770 790 910 1090 1130 1320 1320 1340 1500 1540 1560 1590 92.1 92.3 93.1 94.1 94.3 94.3 94.5 94.9 95.3 96.1 97.5 97.7 98.3 99.1 99.5 99.9 99.9 100.3 100.5 100.5 100.9 100.9 101.3 101.5 101.5 102.1 103.1 103.7 103.7 104.5 104.5 104.7 104.9 105.1 105.1 105.5 105.7 106.1 107.1 107.5 107.7 107.7 by callsign wais wbbg wbco wbgi fm wbzi wcho fm wcjo wcky fm wcli fm wclt fm wcol fm wedi wfgf wgar fm whko whth wimt wize wkfi wkfm wkkj wkko wkky wklm wkna wkxa fm wloh wlzz wmjk wmrn fm wnco fm wnnf wnto wnus wobl wpfb wpfx fm wqkt wqmx wqxk wrac wseo wsrw wtgr wtns wtuz wube fm wwkc wxbw wxiz wybl wydb wzom wzvl by city ashland ashtabula bellaire belpre buchtel bucyrus caldwell chillicothe cincinnati wnnf cincinnati wube fm cleveland clyde sandusky columbus coshocton dayton defiance eaton englewood dayton enon dayton findlay fostoria gallipolis geneva heath hillsboro huron sandusky jackson lancaster lima lima logan luckey toledo marion medina akron middletown millersburg montpelier nelsonville newark niles oberlin pemberville toledo philo racine salem springfield toledo uhrichsville union city waverly washington court house west union wilmington wooster xenia see also adult contemporary classic hits college country news talk npr oldies religious rock sports top 40 urban other radio stations in ohio v t e iheartmedia corporate officers bob pittman chairman ceo board of directors lowry mays irving azoff b. j. red mccombs j. c. watts john h. williams radio stations list of radio stations owned by iheartmedia radio networks fox sports radio premiere networks premium choice total traffic and weather network miscellaneous clear channel outdoor clear channel uk iheartradio list of programming syndicated by iheartmedia mediabase radio computing services retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wgar fm & oldid 743407450 categories hd radio stations1952 establishments in ohiocountry radio stations in the united statesiheartmedia radio stationsnationwide communicationsradio stations established in 1952radio stations in clevelandhidden categories use mdy dates from december 2012commons category with page title same as on wikidata 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 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