WQAL

For the Philadelphia radio station which carried the WQAL callsign from 1959–1970, see WISX.

WQAL

City of license	Cleveland, Ohio
Broadcast area	Greater Cleveland
Branding	Cleveland's Q104
Slogan	Today's Best Music
Frequency	104.1 (MHz) (also on HD Radio)
First air date	1971 (as WQAL) 1948 (as WJW-FM)
Format	Analog/HD1: Hot AC/Adult Top 40 HD2: AAA
ERP	12,000 watts
HAAT	293 meters
Class	B
Facility ID	72889
Transmitter coordinates	41°20′28″N 81°44′24″W
Callsign meaning	"W-QuALity"
Former callsigns	1965-1971: WCJW 1948-1965: WJW-FM
Owner	CBS Radio
Sister stations	WDOK, WKRK-FM, WNCX
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	Q104.com

WQAL (104.1 FM) — branded Q104 — is a commercial Adult Top 40 radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio. Studios are located at One Radio Lane (at St. Clair Avenue, between 26th and 30th Streets) along with CBS Radio sister station WDOK.

History

Early years

WQAL began in 1948 as WJW-FM as an the FM sister station to WJW (850 AM). The new FM station went on the air just as the Cleveland Indians began their world championship season. WJW was the flagship of a six-station Ohio network that carried the games in 1947 and 1948. However, the full games were often carried on WJW-FM, since the AM outlet did not have available air time due to its ABC network commitments. As a result, Cleveland became an FM hot bed, and more FM radio sets sold in Cleveland than in any other market in the country in 1948.

Storer Broadcasting sold off WJW-FM sometime in the mid-1960s. Following the sale, the station changed its callsign to WCJW.

WQAL

WCJW changed to WQAL around 1971 when the call sign became available after a station in Philadelphia gave it up. The WQAL calls also had an unrelated history on an early AM radio station in Mattoon, Illinois, which signed on in 1921 and shut down one year later. The meaning for the Cleveland call letters — "Quality Music" or "Quality Listening" — was carried over from the Philadelphia station.

WQAL's format throughout the '70s and '80s was beautiful music as "Easy 104 WQAL" with some of Cleveland radio's best-known personalities, including "Tall" Ted Hallaman, Ed Fisher, Al James, Frank Micale, and David Mark. This was until the decline of the format lead to a shift toward an adult contemporary approach similar to WDOK in 1990 as "Soft Hits 104." After that brief approach failed, the station then moved to a Hot AC approach as "The New Q104" in early 1991. The name soon changed to "Cleveland's Q104" before eventually becoming just "Q104." Although the music playlist has evolved over the years, WQAL has maintained their Hot AC format to this day.

Through most of the 1990s, after the switch to "Q104," the station had a solid line-up with Larry Morrow and Sally Spitz on morning drive, Johnny Williams on middays, Dan Deely on afternoon drive, Jon Russell on evenings, and Jay Lynn and "The Midnight Express" on overnights. Weekends have included Rick Allen (now at WONE-FM), Bill Ryan, Kelly Cannon, and Chuck Costanzo among other on-air hosts. Popular shows back then have included "Friday Night 80's," "Saturday Night Fever" featuring disco songs from the 70's and early 80's, and syndicated countdown shows hosted by Casey Kasem and Rick Dees. The shows and personalities would eventually leave WQAL, but the station has managed to maintain a roster of local personalities and syndicated programming to continue serving the Greater Cleveland listening area.

Long locally owned by Win Communications Inc., WQAL was sold off to Chancellor Media in January 1999, joining WDOK, WJMO, WRMR, WZAK and WZJM under the Chancellor Media umbrella via simultaneous buyouts for $275 million . It was, at the time, the largest radio station sale in Cleveland broadcasting history. On July 13, 1999, Chancellor Media merged with Capstar Broadcasting - who owned WKNR 1220-AM - to form AMFM Inc., at that time the nation's largest radio station owner with 465 stations. When AMFM, Inc. merged with Clear Channel Communications in August 2000, Clear Channel was forced to sell off WQAL along with the other Cleveland AMFM properties to comply with market ownership restrictions. WZJM, WDOK and WQAL were sold to Infinity Broadcasting, which is today CBS Radio.

WQAL moved to new studios at One Radio Lane, paired with WDOK, in December 2001. Ironically, current WQAL program director Dave Popovich held like duties at WDOK from 1999 to 2000 - and also worked at then-"Lite Rock 106½" WLTF, whose studios were at One Radio Lane in the late 1980s. In recent years, WQAL has been playing more Top-40 music in order to attract some of the younger 18 to 25 year old audience.

Current Programming

The morning show (Fee's Kompany) is hosted by longtime WQAL personality Allan Fee with Katherine Boyd. The rest of the lineup (all local) has Tim Richards middays, Kory in afternoon drive, and Cherise Navidad evenings.

References

• Morrow, Larry (2010). This Is Larry Morrow. Cleveland, Ohio: Gray & Co.. ISBN 978-1-59851-069-0. 

External links

• Official website
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WQAL
• Radio-Locator information on WQAL
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WQAL
• Aerial photo of WQAL transmitter from Google Maps
• Cleveland Broadcast Radio Archives: WQAL timeline