WJER

City Dover-New Philadelphia, Ohio
Broadcast area Tuscarawas County, Ohio
Branding 1450 WJER
Slogan The Voice of the Valley
Frequency 1450 (kHz)
First air date February 22, 1950
Format full service/soft rock/oldies/Adult Contemporary
Power 1,000 watts
Class C
Callsign meaning Jerimiah E. Reeves, the father of the first owner
Affiliations Cleveland Browns Radio Network
Cleveland Cavaliers Radio Network
Ohio State IMG Sports Network
Owner Gary A. Petricola/WJER RADIO LLC.
Website www.wjer.com

WJER (1450 AM "The Voice of the Valley") is a commercial radio station. Licensed to the area of Dover-New Philadelphia, Ohio, it serves the Tuscarawas County area. It first began broadcasting in 1950, and had an FM sister station (WJER-FM) that operated from 1969 to 2006, which is today WHOF. The station had been owned by Clear Channel Communications in a reverse LMA by former owner Gary Petricola, who repurchased the AM station in 2007.

History

Origins of WJER

Jeremiah E. Reeves, of which WJER had been named for, was a member of one of the most influential family in Tuscarawas County, starting several major industries, banks and hotels in the Dover-New Philadelphia area. After his death in 1920, the Reeves family continued the leadership traditions begun by Jeremiah.

Following World War II, the United States government saw the need to increase radio reach to citizens in rural as well as urban population centers, and many new AM stations were created. Jeremiah's daughter, Agnes (Reeves) Greer, filed for ownership of a new radio station for Dover, Ohio and was granted the license in 1949. As a tribute to her father, Ms. Greer requested the call letters for the station that were her father's initials, Jeremiah E. Reeves, or "JER".

On Wednesday, February 22, 1950 at 6 a.m., WJER Radio began broadcasting operations in the present studio facility at 646 Boulevard, a parcel of land that was part of the Reeves family estate. The 175 foot "original" tower was erected on land with 5 miles of copper wire buried beneath its surface.

WJER-FM was granted a license and began broadcasting in 1969 at 101.7. Originally, the FM station programmed "beautiful music" and was popular in doctor's offices and in elevators. As time went by WJER put more emphasis on the FM station, going "live" full-time by 1992. Both stations were locally-owned by Gary Petricola until 2003, when he sold them to Clear Channel Communications. Petricola, however, continued to operate both 101.7-FM and 1450-AM in a reverse LMA with Clear Channel.

In 2006 Petricola's WJER Radio LLC later repurchased WJER-AM from Clear Channel for $200,000.

Relocation of the FM signal

On April 14, 2006, the Federal Communications Commission approved Clear Channel's request to move WJER-FM's community of license to North Canton, Ohio. The new location allowed the station to increase its power from 3,000 watts ERP to 6,000 watts ERP after the move.

In a gradual process, the stations began simulcasting for most of the broadcast day, a process which completed in December 2006.

WJER-FM signed off on December 27, and the license was transferred to North Canton, Ohio under the new callsign WHOF the next day. WJER-AM continued to broadcast the original Dover/New Philadelphia-based programming.

Clear Channel signed on WHOF as Adult contemporary-formatted "my 101.7" serving the Akron/Canton area on January 16, 2007.

Programs heard on 1450

There are other programs that can be heard throughout the week at 1450 WJER

The Sports Voice of the Valley

WJER is also known as "The Sports Voice of the Valley". They are the local affiliate for the following teams:

WJER is also well known for delivering play-by-play coverage of local High School sports.

Contests

WJER has many chances for their listeners to be added to the "Endless List of Winners"

On-air line-up

'"The Classic Canteen"—12:30-2:00pm--"Your Favorite Oldies at Lunchtime"'

Other on-air personalities

The "Award Winning" WJER News Team

The WJER News Department is constantly being honored by the Associated Press for things such as the "Most Outstanding Small Market News Media in Ohio", "Best Reporter", "Outstanding News Operation" and "Best Regularly Scheduled News"

WJER News also teams up with the Associated Press and the Ohio News Network to bring listeners the most complete news coverage in Tuscarawas County.

In 2014, WJER News was awarded with first place General Excellence by The Associated Press for the most outstanding news operation in the State of Ohio

External links

Coordinates: 40°30′46″N 81°27′25″W / 40.51278°N 81.45694°W / 40.51278; -81.45694

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/24/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.