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WEOL
Catholic radio station in Elyria, Ohio From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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WEOL (930 AM) is a non-commercial radio station licensed to Elyria, Ohio, United States. Currently owned by the Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting Company and operated by St. Peter the Rock Media, Inc, it features a Catholic–oriented religious format as a full-time simulcast of WCCR, serving Lorain and Medina counties and the western parts of Greater Cleveland. The station's transmitter is in nearby Grafton; in addition to a standard analog transmission, WEOL simulcasts over low-power analog Elyria translator W262DM (100.3 FM), and is available online via WCCR's website.
From 1948 to 2025, this station featured a full-service radio format oriented towards Lorain County.
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History
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WEOL signed on October 17, 1948, at both 930 kHz and 107.3 MHz, in Elyria, Ohio with studios in the 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.[3]
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.[4]
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, 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 WWIZ/WLRO, WDBN, WLEC, who later teamed up with 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 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 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.[5]
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-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.
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Talk and information era
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WEOL dropped all music programming on November 28, 1997, for a hybrid format: all-news in the daytime largely supplied by the Associated Press, and sports in the nighttime via One on One Sports.[6] Program director Mike Whitmore (who also hosted mornings as "Mike James") said the move was partly made because of a decline of music listening on the AM dial, noting, "[w]e never were a music station".[7] Whitmore left the station in March 1998;[8] Bill King—with the station since 1996[9]—took over for him in mornings, while news director Craig Adams became operations manager.[10] While the format initially eschewed talk radio,[6] by 2003, WEOL carried syndicated hosts Clark Howard and Mitch Albom, along with The Other Side of Morning Drive, a late-morning local interview program.[11]
WEOL picked up The Glenn Beck Program in May 2005, several weeks after WTAM dropped it; The Other Side was also cancelled[12] and King was replaced as morning host by Les Sekely.[13] Beck's addition came after an assessment of the all-news format by station management.[12] The station also affiliated with Fox Sports Radio on July 16, 2005, for evenings and weekends.[14] Distribution of Albom's show ended on January 2006, with WEOL replacing it with The Sean Hannity Show.[15] Sekely's show was the lone local program remaining on WEOL's schedule by May 2008 as the station's noon news block was phased out.[16][17] The Laura Ingraham Show replaced Beck on November 3, 2008, after WTAM reacquired the rights to Beck's program;[18][19] Ingraham was replaced with The Stephanie Miller Show on April 30, 2012.[20]
Tim Alcorn was elevated to station operations manager in the mid-2010s;[21] under Alcorn, WEOL launched a local news/interview program hosted by Andy "Bull" Barch, replacing Hannity.[22] Alcorn left the station in October 2019 to become the radio voice of the Cleveland Cavaliers;[23] Joe Tait, the Cavaliers' first radio voice, frequently called high school basketball and softball games for the station alongside Alcorn, and lobbied for the team to hire him.[24][25] Tait additionally co-hosted a podcast for WEOL until his 2021 death, featuring recordings from his tape archive.[26][27] Barch's afternoon show ended in October 2020.[28] By 2013,[29] Craig Adams and Bruce Van Dyke co-hosted the morning show,[21] which ended in December 2023.[30]
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Switch to Catholic radio
On May 31, 2025, Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting announced the sale of WEOL's license to St. Peter the Rock Media, owner of Catholic radio station and EWTN Radio affiliate WCCR (1260 AM); the station became a WCCR repeater the next day. Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting retained WEOL's intellectual property and call sign with the sale, and concurrently announced WEOL's local programming—primarily high school sports coverage—would only be available online with new studios at the Chronicle-Telegram offices.[1][31] WEOL's broadcast of weekly services from the Elyria First United Methodist Church, heard over the station since 1958, was also dropped.[32]
FM translator
Since August 2, 2019, WEOL has been rebroadcast over Elyria, Ohio, FM translator W262DM (100.3 FM).[33] The translator was applied for as part of the FCC's "AM Revitalization" initiative.[34]
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