Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Cleveland Rocks. Soft Rock, That Is...

This week NEO Airchecks visit a familiar place; Cleveland. Thanks to our friend Bob Papa, we can present an aircheck of Fig Newton on WWWE/1100 (now WTAM), better known to listeners as "3WE". In this recording, Newton is heard making sarcastic comments about some of the music that was part of the station's AC format. Dave Smith presents the local headlines, while a complete CBS radio newscast provides a window on the world as is was on the afternoon of February 10, 1983.
By this time, Newton was already a veteran of the biz, having spent time at Cleveland's WGAR/1220 during its last days as a Top 40 outlet. Earlier still, he held down a gig at WOIO/1060 in Canton. Personal issues drove him out of the industry in 1988, and to the best of our knowledge, hasn't cracked a mic since.
WWWE had already been through several changes in ownership and format over the course of the previous decade, and would continue its schizophrenic ways until 1997. That's when Jacor Communications purchased the station and sister WLTF/106.5 (now WMVX) from Secret Communications. The WWWE calls had already been changed to 1100's historic WTAM callsign, which had been dropped forty years earlier. Clear Channel purchased WTAM in 1999, along with sister stations WMVX, WMJI, WMMS, WAKS and WGAR.

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