View source for WEOL

{{short description|Talk radio station in Elyria, Ohio}}
{{Infobox radio station
| name = WEOL
| logo = WEOL 2019 logo.gif
| city = [[Elyria, Ohio]]
| area = [[Lorain County, Ohio|Lorain County]]<br />[[Medina County, Ohio|Medina County]]
| branding = AM 930 & 100.3 FM WEOL
| frequency = {{Frequency|930|[[Hertz#SI multiples|kHz]]}}
| translator = {{Radio Relay|100.3|W262DM|Elyria}}
| airdate = {{start date and age|1948|10|17|p=y|br=yes}}
| format = {{ubl|[[Talk radio]]|[[Sports radio]]}}
| power = 1,000 [[watt]]s
| class = B
| licensing_authority = [[Federal Communications Commission|FCC]]
| facility_id = 19463
| coordinates = {{coord|41|16|8.59|N|82|0|13.91|W|region:US-OH_type:landmark_source:FCC}}
| callsign_meaning = "Elyria, [[Oberlin, Ohio|Oberlin]], and Lorain"<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cleve-radio.com/index2.htm#CALL%20LETTERS|title=CLEVE RADIO - Mengetahui Musik Terbaru|access-date=2012-11-21|archive-date=2008-05-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509082729/http://www.cleve-radio.com/index2.htm#CALL%20LETTERS|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| affiliations = {{ubl|[[ABC News Radio]]|[[Fox Sports Radio]]|[[Westwood One]]}}
| owner = Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting Co.
| sister_stations = {{hlist|[[WKFM]]|[[WLKR (AM)|WLKR]]|[[WLKR-FM]]}}
| webcast = {{ubl|{{listenlive|http://weol.northcoastnow.com/listen-live}}|{{TuneIn|WEOL-930-s28567}}}}
| website = {{URL|weol.com}}
| logo_size = 175px
}}
'''WEOL''' (930 [[AM broadcasting|AM]]) is a commercial [[Radio broadcasting|radio station]] licensed to serve [[Elyria, Ohio]], and features a [[Talk radio|talk]] and [[sports radio]] format. Owned by the Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting Co., WEOL services [[Lorain County, Ohio|Lorain]] and [[Medina County, Ohio|Medina]] counties and the western parts of [[Greater Cleveland]]. The station is the local affiliate for ''[[The Ramsey Show]]'', [[Kim Komando]], [[Fox Sports Radio]] and [[ABC News Radio]], and the [[Cleveland Guardians Radio Network|Cleveland Guardians]], [[Cleveland Cavaliers Radio Network|Cleveland Cavaliers]], [[Columbus Blue Jackets Radio Network|Columbus Blue Jackets]], and [[Ohio State Sports Network|Ohio State]] radio networks.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://weol.northcoastnow.com/programming|title = Programming}}</ref>
WEOL's studios are located in Elyria, and the station transmitter resides in nearby [[Grafton, Ohio|Grafton]].  In addition to a standard [[analog transmission]], WEOL simulcasts over low-power analog Elyria [[Broadcast relay station|translator]] W262DM (100.3&nbsp;[[FM broadcasting|FM]]), and is available online.
==History==
WEOL signed on October 17, 1948, at both 930 [[Kilohertz|kHz]] and 107.3 [[Megahertz|MHz]], in [[Elyria, Ohio]] with studios in the [[First Merit|Elyria Savings and Trust]] Building in downtown Elyria. The FM installations, like most of the era, were established as an adjunct to the AM programming. Both stations were owned by the newly created Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting Co.  The station's early years were spent fighting for its very survival. In the 1930s and 1940s, the Lorain Journal (today known as [[The Morning Journal]]) enjoyed a [[monopoly]] in news coverage and advertising revenue in Lorain. With the establishment of WEOL, however, the Journal feared the presence of this new competitor. In response, the Journal unofficially instituted an "exclusivity policy" that prevented Journal advertisers from doing business with WEOL.  WEOL's owners sued Journal Publishing, and it went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the 1951 decision ''[[Lorain Journal Co. v. United States]]'', 343 U.S. 143, it was found that the Journal violated key provisions of the [[Sherman Antitrust Act]] by seeking to maintain their near monopoly on advertising revenue. In addition, the Journal was found to have acted in a "predatory" and illegal manner.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=342&invol=143|title=LORAIN JOURNAL v. UNITED STATES, 342 U.S. 143 (1951) &#124; FindLaw}}</ref>
On May 15, 1958, Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting Co. was purchased by the Lorain County Printing and Publishing Company, making it a wholly owned subsidiary. LCP&P also owns the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram and Medina Gazette; in effect forming a radio/newspaper duopoly. This arrangement has lasted to this day, grandfathered by FCC legislation that now prohibits such arrangements.  Through the 1950s, WEOL was a "real hot rocker," playing the early gyrating rhythms of [[rock 'n roll]] to sock hops throughout Lorain County, and as far away as [[Ontario, Canada]]. By this same time, records show that the station had obtained a construction permit in the mid-1950s for WEOL-TV on channel 31, but the television station never made it on the air.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://members.aol.com/jeff560/1958tv.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000302065434/http://members.aol.com/jeff560/1958tv.html |archive-date=2000-03-02 |title=U. S. and Canadian TV stations (1958)}}</ref>
Personalities who worked at WEOL in their early years include Alice Weston (later with [[WUAB-TV]] - and who was present at WEOL's sign-on), Dick Conrad, Gary Short (later with WERE, WDBN, WDOK, WJW-TV, WUAB-TV), Ron and Dick Barrett, [[Ron Penfound]] (better known as "[[Captain Penny]]" on [[WEWS-TV]]), [[Neil Zurcher]] (later with [[WJW-TV]]), Jim Mehrling (later with WERE and WCLV), David Mark (later with [[WEWS-TV]], [[WGAR-FM|WNCR/WKSW]], [[WQAL]], and [[WDOK]], the promotional voice of many Fox and UPN TV stations across the country, and radio image voice for radio stations around the world) and Jeff Baxter (later with [[WDLW|WWIZ/WLRO]], [[WQMX|WDBN]], [[WLEC]], who later teamed up with [[Jack Riley (actor)|Jack Riley]] at [[WERE]]). For over 30 years, Jim Mehrling has produced and hosted The High School Scholastic Games of Lorain County programs on WEOL with David Mark as the program announcer.  Jeff Baxter also helped make nationally popular a recording artist in [[Laura Lee Perkins]]. Laura, who recently moved to Elyria from her home state of [[West Virginia]], broke out into a song while visiting the WEOL studios. Hearing her sing, Jeff gave her airtime on the station, and eventually parlayed it into a west-coast recording deal.
In 1968, WEOL-FM started separate programming under new calls WBEA with an automated easy-listening format that still served the [[Lorain County, Ohio|Lorain County]] audience. The format changed in 1982 to top-40 while retaining the same call letters. Initially an independent station, WEOL affiliated with the [[Mutual Broadcasting System]] in the early 1960s, and then switched to [[Cumulus Media Networks|ABC Radio]]'s American Entertainment Network in 1968. Throughout the 1970s, '80s and '90s, WEOL was "Your Hometown Radio Station," a middle-of-the-road outlet that put a heavy emphasis on local news and sports programming. WEOL also hired the first radio newswoman in the county back in the mid-1970s with Sandy Kozel, now with [[Associated Press]] Radio.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://weol.northcoastnow.com/about|title = About}}</ref>
In 1982, WEOL and WBEA moved to new studios on 538 Broad Street, where WEOL remains to this day. WEOL began broadcasting in [[C-QUAM]] [[AM stereo]] in the mid-1980s before dropping the standard in the late 1990s. On New Year's Day 1987, WBEA changed to "Z-Rock" WCZR with an automated rock format; then eleven months later, WCZR changed to [[smooth jazz]] as "The Wave" [[WNWV]], positioned to serve the [[Cleveland]] market. WNWV was sold off in December 2011 to the [[Akron, Ohio|Akron]]-based Rubber City Radio Group, and subsequently moved out of their Elyria studios.
Over the course of time, WEOL's news and sports department has garnered dozens of awards from the Ohio Associated Press and Cleveland Press Club, particularly "Outstanding News Operation" in large market radio. On November 28, 1997, WEOL dropped its MOR format for a "news all day, sports at night" approach with the [[Associated Press]] All News Radio network from 5:00&nbsp;a.m. to 7:00&nbsp;p.m., and One-on-One Sports (today [[SB Nation Radio]]) from 7:00&nbsp;p.m. to 5:00&nbsp;a.m., along with long-form local news programming in drive-time hours. WEOL was re-branded as "The News Station," taking its cue from the All News Radio positioners.  WEOL started to segue into airing topical talk programming by adding [[Clark Howard]] in the late 90s, [[Jim Bohannon]] in 2000, [[Sam Donaldson]] in 2001, and [[Mitch Albom]]'s show in early 2003. In May 2005, WEOL picked up [[Glenn Beck]] in the late morning slot, one year after the cancellation of Sam Donaldson's talk show. At the beginning of 2006, WEOL replaced [[Mitch Albom]], whose show was no longer distributed nationally, with [[Sean Hannity]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.loraincounty.com/entertainment/feature.shtml?f=7304|title = Sean Hannity Added to WEOL AM 930 Line-up}}</ref> Hannity's show was dropped from the lineup at the end of 2016, and ultimately replaced with a local news/interview program hosted by area broadcaster Andy "Bull" Barch.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archives.loraincounty.com/entertainment/feature.shtml?f=39467|title=WEOL AM 930 names host for new afternoon program|website=LorainCounty.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
|last=Nix
|first=Katie
|title=WEOL-AM 930 adds local afternoon drive duo
|language=en
|publisher=The Chronicle-Telegram
|date=February 1, 2017
|url=http://www.chroniclet.com/Local-News/2017/02/01/WEOL-AM-930-adds-local-afternoon-drive-duo.html
|access-date=2017-05-27 }}</ref>
On July 15, 2005, the [[Associated Press]] All News Radio network ceased operations. While this prompted WEOL to pick up [[Fox Sports Radio]] for evening and weekend programming, the station maintained use of the All News Radio "News Station" name for on-air promotions until April 2006.  On November 5, 2008, WEOL replaced Glenn Beck with [[Laura Ingraham]] as WTAM reacquired the rights to Glenn's program.<ref>{{cite news|last= Washington|first=Julie E.|title=Glenn Beck heading back to WTAM|newspaper=[[The Plain Dealer]]|date=October 22, 2008|url=http://www.cleveland.com/tv/index.ssf/2008/10/glenn_beck_heading_back_to_wta.html|access-date=2008-10-28}}</ref>
From May 31, 2005 until August 20, 2010, ''Les in the Morning'', hosted by Les Sekely, ran in morning-drive as a mixture of news updates, comedy, contests and interviews.  Sekely left WEOL to take a full-time teaching job at [[Westlake High School (Ohio)|Westlake High School]] as the advisor of the school television station. His replacement, Jeff Thomas, has been a long-time sports update anchor with Metro Networks and [[WKNR]].  Thomas then left on August 26, 2011 to become the new morning sports anchor on [[WKRK-FM]] in Cleveland; his successors are long-time WEOL staffers Bruce Van Dyke and Craig Adams.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://weol.northcoastnow.com/weol-morning-show/|title=WEOL Morning Show - WEOL Radio 930 AM WEOL Radio 930 AM|website=weol.northcoastnow.com}}</ref>
On October 17, 2008, WEOL marked its 60th anniversary of broadcasting.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.weol.com/60.html |title=Not archived |access-date=March 13, 2023}}{{dead link|date=May 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>
=== FM translator ===
Since August 2, 2019,<ref>{{cite news
|last=O'Brien
|first=Dave
|title=WEOL expands news/sports/talk broadcast to FM
|language=en
|publisher=The Chronicle-Telegram
|date=August 2, 2019
|url=http://www.chroniclet.com/Local-News/2019/08/02/WEOL-gets-FM.html
|access-date=2019-08-06 }}</ref> WEOL has been [[rebroadcaster|rebroadcast]] over [[Elyria, Ohio]] FM [[Broadcast relay station|translator]] W262DM (100.3&nbsp;FM).
{{RadioTranslators
| callsign = WEOL
| call1 = W262DM
| freq1 = 100.3
| city1 = Elyria, Ohio
| fid1 = 202991
| watts1 = 25
| class1 = D
| haat1 = 196.48
| coord1 = {{coord|41|16|10.2|N|82|0|15.5|W|region:US-OH_type:landmark_source:FCC}}
}}
==Programming==
The station's lineup includes ''[[This Morning, America's First News with Gordon Deal]]'' and ''[[The Ramsey Show]]'' on weekdays, and [[Kim Komando]] on weekends. [[Fox Sports Radio]] programming is also extensively featured throughout the week. WEOL serves as the Lorain and Medina County affiliate for the [[Cleveland Guardians]],<ref>{{cite web| url = http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/cle/schedule/radio_affiliates.jsp| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070829120720/http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/cle/schedule/radio_affiliates.jsp| archive-date = 2007-08-29| title = The Official Site of The Cleveland Indians: Schedule: Indians Radio Affiliates}}</ref> the [[Cleveland Cavaliers]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/multimedia/broadcast.html |title=Broadcast Information &#124; THE OFFICIAL SITE OF THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS |website=[[NBA.com]] |access-date=2014-08-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140924023053/http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/multimedia/broadcast.html |archive-date=2014-09-24 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Ohio State Buckeyes]] football and basketball<ref>{{cite web |title=Ohio State Buckeyes Radio Broadcast Team/Affiliates |url=http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/radio-network.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130127064844/http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/radio-network.html |archive-date=2013-01-27 |website=Ohio State Buckeyes}}</ref> and the [[Columbus Blue Jackets]];<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://bluejackets.nhl.com/club/page.htm?id=48232|title = Columbus Blue Jackets Broadcast Info}}</ref> additionally, WEOL airs various local high school sports.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://weol.northcoastnow.com/baseball-softball/|title=Baseball & Softball|website=WEOL Radio 930 AM|language=en-US|access-date=2020-01-18}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
*{{Official website|http://www.weol.com/}}
*{{FCC letter|callsign=FCC History Cards for WEOL|letterid=52263}}{{AM station data|19463|WEOL}}
;FM translator
*{{FCC-LMS-Facility|202991|W262DM}}
*{{FXL|W262DM}}
{{Cleveland Radio}}
{{News/Talk Radio Stations in Ohio}}
{{Fox Sports Radio stations}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weol}}
[[Category:1948 establishments in Ohio]]
[[Category:News and talk radio stations in the United States]]
[[Category:Radio stations established in 1948]]
[[Category:Radio stations in Cleveland|EOL]]