WNCX (98.5 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, United States, featuring a classic rock format. Owned by Audacy, Inc., WNCX serves Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio as a co-flagship station for the Cleveland Browns Radio Network and the Cleveland affiliate for Steve Gorman Rocks!, Little Steven's Underground Garage and Rewind with Gary Bryan.
The WNCX studios are located at the Halle Building in Downtown Cleveland, while the station transmitter resides in the Cleveland suburb of North Royalton. Besides a standard analog transmission, WNCX broadcasts using HD Radio,http://hdradio.com/station_guides/widget.php?id=70 HD Radio Guide for Cleveland and is available online via Audacy.
History
Early years
The station first went on the air in 1948 as WERE-FM and was the FM outlet for WERE (1300 AM), where it primarily simulcast the programming of its more popular AM sister station over the next 24 years. Founded by former Cleveland mayor Ray T. Miller's Cleveland Broadcasting Incorporated, WERE-FM actually signed on one year prior to its AM counterpart.
During the 1950s, WERE, and by extension, WERE-FM, was the first popular Top 40 station in the market, spearheaded by now-legendary personalities like Bill Randle, "Captain" Carl Reese, Phil McLean, Ronnie Barrett, Howie Lund and Bob Forster. Randle was the most influential of the group, as he was the first major-market disk jockey in the Northeast United States to play Elvis Presley and bolstered the careers of a number of up-and-coming musicians, including The Four Lads, Bobby Darin and Fats Domino. Future NBC announcer and voice-over artist Danny Dark also was a host on WERE in the early 1960s.
After Ray T. Miller's death in 1966, Cleveland Broadcasting Incorporated was acquired by Atlantic States Industries (ASI) for a combined $9 million in May 1968. Due to ASI already owning five AM stations and one FM station and because of an interim policy/proposed rule by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that prohibited the purchase of an AM and FM station in the same market—the "one-to-a-customer" policy—the FCC ordered the divestiture of WERE-FM, along with WLEC and WLEC-FM in Sandusky, to a third party. WLEC and WLEC-FM were divested to RadiOhio that December, and WERE-FM was sold to L. E. Chenault (of Drake-Chenault Enterprises) concurrently; both deals fell through. (Guide to reading History Cards) WLEC AM/FM were ultimately retained by the sellers and spun off to a limited partnership, Lake Erie Broadcasting.
KFAC and KFAC-FM in Los Angeles were given waivers to the "one-to-a-customer" policy, and the deal was approved by the commission on October 29, 1969, on the condition that WERE-FM would be sold "as soon as practicable." General Cinema Corporation acquired WERE-FM in May 1970 for $525,000, the deal was approved that July; ASI was later granted a tax break by the FCC with the sale.
WGCL G98
WERE-FM's call letters were then changed to WGCL on December 16, 1970, and programming changed from a fully automated format to Top 40 as "G98". WGCL began as an affiliate of the Drake-Chenault Solid Gold and Hit Parade formats, which featured a Top 40/Oldies mix, but eventually went live and local with personalities such as Tim Davisson, David Mark and Mike Dix (formerly of the legendary WIXY 1260). Famed programmer Lee Abrams helmed the station and George Jay was its news director.
General Cinema sold WGCL to Olivia-Neuhoff Broadcasting on August 9, 1976, for $2.5 million; the sale came in the wake of years of litigation over a proposed purchase and format change of WEFM in Chicago, as well as lost revenue and advertisers over a failed format change at WGKA, GCC's former AM station in Atlanta. Olivia-Neuhoff was headed up by George Olivia, Jr. and WERE general manager Paul Neuhoff; they had also acquired WERE from ASI for $3.1 million that April, reuniting both stations. Despite the sale, both stations kept "GCC Communications of Cleveland" as the licensee name until they were sold again in 1986.
During the next 14 years, the station would go on to enjoy moderate success in the face of significant competition from crosstown rock juggernaut, WMMS. WGCL enjoyed some of the areas best-known air personalities over time, such as: J. Michael Wilson, Bumper Morgan, Dave Sharp, Eric Cramer & Uncle Vic. Of course, one of G98's most recognized air personalities throughout the 1980s was "Dancin" Danny Wright, who later had a long stretch in afternoon drive at country WGAR-FM. He later hosted a nationally syndicated show, Jones Radio Network's Danny Wright All Night.
WGCL's best showing in the Cleveland Arbitron ratings was in 1982 when they briefly overtook WMMS in the top overall position, but after WMMS re-tooled and recaptured first place a short time later, WGCL slowly lost ground.
The North Coast eXpress
WGCL and WERE were sold by George Olivia's GCC Communications to Detroit-based Metropolis Broadcasting on June 18, 1986, for a combined $10 million. After the deal was completed, Metropolis changed WGCL's call letters to WNCX on October 22, 1986 (WNCX was to have stood for "North Coast eXpress", but was downplayed entirely after Metropolis executives failed to service mark the slogan and WMMS did).
The planned new format for the station notably boasted a large on and off-air staff composed mostly of Cleveland radio veterans–eight of whom had directly departed WMMS. This included: John Gorman, former WMMS program director, as WNCX operations manager; Denny Sanders, 15-year WMMS veteran, as WNCX program director and afternoon host; Rhonda Kneifer, former WMMS program coordinator, as WNCX music director; Paul Tapie, former WGAR (1220 AM) morning host, in the same capacity; former WHK (1420 AM) program director and air personality Bernie Kimble, as midday host; "Spaceman Scott" Hughes, formerly of WMMS, as evening host; and Nancy Alden, formerly of WKDD (96.5 FM) in Akron, as late night host. Recorded station IDs and imaging were created by acclaimed "Word Jazz" artist Ken Nordine.
To signal a sign of the changes to come, after WGCL's CHR format was dropped on October 20, the station stunted by playing Beatles records non-stop for 72-hours. WNCX's permanent eclectic rock/top 40 mixed format was unveiled afterward; Sanders and Gorman promised "a much different sound than other stations," and that they would "play a wide variety of music, 360 degrees of rock 'n' roll, from old to new to R&B," emphasizing new music, local records and included a Saturday night dance club music show. The station also billed itself as one of the first radio stations in Cleveland to have a complete on-air library made up of compact discs.
Due to the last minute inability by Metropolis Broadcasting to buy out his contract (which Gorman and Sanders were promised) and his incompatibility with the new format, Danny Wright was moved to the overnight slot for several weeks as a board-op with no speaking role whatsoever to finish out his contract.
Switch to classic hits Just four months into the station's high-visibility launch, on February 9, 1987, WNCX abruptly -- and with no explanation -- switched formats to classic hits; employing Mike McVay's consulting firm."WNCX scraps rock format for oldies," The Plain Dealer, February 12, 1987. While the existing staff remained in place at first, Gorman promptly departed, and later filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Metropolis. By April, Rhonda Kiefer, Spaceman Scott and Nancy Alden left; followed shortly thereafter by Bernie Kimble, then Denny Sanders at the end of August; Paul Tapie was the only on-air staffer from the previous format that remained. WNCX's relaunch as a classic hits station at first featured a mix of pop-rock classic artists like Elton John, Paul McCartney and Cat Stevens, with little promotion and dramatically reduced expenses under consultant Mike McVay; McVay had prior experience as former program director and general manager at WMJI.
Most of the dismissed personalities enjoyed longevity and success in the market elsewhere: John Gorman became WMJI program director in 1991 and again at WMMS in 1994, later establishing internet radio station oWOW Radio. Sanders joined WMJI in 1988 and succeeded Gorman as program director in 1996, with the station winning the National Association Of Broadcasters "Large Market Station Of The Year" award in 1998; Spaceman Scott went to WRQK in Canton as program director, then rejoined WMMS in the early 90s; Nancy Alden went to WDOK later in 1987 and was a fixture at that station for many years; Bernie Kimble joined WNWV as program director; and newscaster Jack Speer is currently a news anchor for NPR in Washington, D.C.
Throughout January 1987, Metropolis entered in negotiations to purchase WWDC and WWDC-FM in Washington, D.C. for $53 million, but a tentative deal was never fully reached. As it turned out, Metropolis wound up exiting broadcasting completely within the next 18 months; WDTX in Detroit—their sole other station—was sold for $12 million in March 1988, and Metropolis co-owner Harvey Deutch died from cancer the following month. WNCX and WERE were then put on the block, leading most observers to conclude that Metropolis Broadcasting was poorly organized and under-financed right from the start. Cleveland-based Metroplex Communications, in a joint venture with area jeweler Larry Robinson, purchased both stations in July 1988 for $11.6 million. Metroplex was headed by Norman Wain and Bob Weiss, who once owned WIXY and WDOK in the late 1960s; Robinson also had previous station ownership experience—having owned WIXY's successor WBBG, along with WMJI—in the early 1980s.
Evolution to classic rock Despite having little promotion and advertising, in sharp contrast to the prior eclectic top 40/rock format (which was suddenly and prematurely aborted after little more than 90 days), the classic hits format was given more time to establish and eventually proved to be a ratings success with Cleveland audiences, ultimately re-positioning itself with a harder-edged classic rock format centered on local personalities, several of which have had or continue to have lengthy tenures with the station. Cleveland native Walt Garrett joined the station in June 1987; under the name "Mr. Classic", Garrett hosted the Saturday Night Live House Party for 31 years (two of those years with Ron Sweed as co-host under his "The Ghoul" persona) until leaving in August 2018. Bill Louis, also a Cleveland native, took over as midday host on September 25, 1987, a time slot he hosted until he retired on December 31, 2021; Louis was promoted to program director in December 1996. Perhaps the station's best-known local personality, area rock musician Michael Stanley joined WNCX on September 17, 1990, to host an early-evening program entitled In the Heartland. The success of that one-hour show eventually led to Stanley taking over the afternoon shift outright in May 1992, which he continued to host for nearly 29 years until his death on March 5, 2021.