What may go down in history as the most complex programming swap took place in Cleveland at the stroke of midnight on July 3, 2001. Triggered by a three way ownership swap involving Radio Seaway, Salem Communications, and Clear Channel the changes went down as follows:
- 1420 WHK Cleveland and 98.1 WHK-FM Canton’s programming moved to 50kw 1220 in Cleveland.
- 1220 WKNR Cleveland’s sports programming moved to 850 in Cleveland.
- 850 WRMR’s Cleveland’s Standards programming moved to 1420 Cleveland as WCLV.
- 96.5 WKDD Akron moved to 98.1 in Canton.
- 104.9 WAKS “Kiss-FM” moved to 96.5 in Akron with a new tower covering the entire Cleveland metro.
- 95.5 WCLV Cleveland’s Classical programming moved to 104.9 Lorain as WCLV-FM
- 95.5 debuted a new Contemporary Christian format as “95.5 The Fish” WFHM.
WCLV moved its Classical programming to the weaker 104.9 signal in an attempt to preserve the longevity of the format in a day and age when Classical radio stations are rapidly disappearing from the radio dial. They put the money made from the sale of the 95.5 signal to establish a nonprofit foundation that will enable the 104.9 and 1420 signals to operate for a long time to come.
