page_title: WAKR
section_title: Enter Knight, FM and TV
hierarchical_section_title: WAKR / History / Enter Knight, FM and TV
caption_attribution_description: English: Huntington Tower
context_page_description: WAKR – branded Soft Hits 93.5 FM – is a commercial full service/soft adult contemporary radio station licensed to serve Akron, Ohio. Locally owned by Rubber City Radio Group, Inc., the station covers the Akron metro area, and is the local affiliate for: CBS News Radio; the Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Cleveland Indians radio networks; as well as the Ohio State Sports Network. The WAKR studios are located in Akron's Wallhaven neighborhood, while the station transmitter is located in the city's southeast side. Besides a standard analog transmission, WAKR simulcasts over low-power Akron FM translator W228EL, and is available online.
  While not the first radio station to have been built in Akron, nor the oldest surviving station, WAKR has had the most measured historical impact of any broadcast outlet in the city, especially during their first 50 years of operation. During its creative and ratings pinnacle in the 1940s and 1950s, WAKR employed a succession of announcers who would find greater success elsewhere, most notably Alan Freed, Scott Muni and Art Fleming. Founded by S. Bernard Berk and operated for many years by his son, Roger G.
context_section_description: In April 1946, Akron Beacon Journal publisher John S. Knight, who had been previously critical of the efforts to establish WAKR, purchased a 45 percent interest of Summit Radio Corp. for an undisclosed amount; no changes in management or operations came with this transaction. Knight's stock acquisition came after purchasing ownership stakes in both WQAM/Miami and WIND/Chicago, as his fledgling newspaper chain owned both the Miami Herald and Chicago Daily News, respectively. Despite remaining separate entities, WAKR and the Beacon Journal would often share news resources and cross-promote each other for the next 30 years. An FM adjunct, WAKR-FM (97.5), commenced regular operations on October 12, 1947; with its transmitter located on top of the First Central Tower, it was the first FM station licensed to the city of Akron. J.N. Bailey, executive director of the FM Association, a non-profit trade organization of FM broadcasters and enthusiasts, notably predicted at a WAKR-FM sponsored function of radio store owners that a network composed solely of FM stations having complete coverage throughout the contiguous United States could be established as early as 1948.
  As WAKR-FM was being established, Summit Radio Corp. and WADC filed competing applications for the lone television channel assigned to Akron, originally intended as a VHF license on channel 11. The applications were filed at the same time WEWS-TV commenced operations as the first television station in Ohio. Both applications remained under review and went before a commission hearing on July 15, 1948, and WAKR had gone so far as to make a purchase order for VHF transmitting equipment from RCA, before the FCC implemented a freeze on any additional television licenses that September 30, while it studied the possibility of adding additional channels via the UHF band. When the freeze was lifted, the FCC's Sixth Report and Order reassigned the proposed Akron license as one of two potential UHF signals for the market. Summit Radio won the license for WAKR-TV on channel 49 by September 4, 1952; a coin flip determined the winning bid between Summit and WADC, as the other frequency available, channel 65, was not considered operable at the time. While initially based at the First Central Tower, and with a UHF mast affixed to the top of the building, WAKR, WAKR-FM and WAKR-TV moved the following year to new studios at the former Copley Theatre, which only had existed as a theater between March 1947 and October 1952.
  From the start, WAKR personalities also appeared on WAKR-TV; including Jack Fitzgibbons, Bill Murphy and Bob Wylie. Scott Muni hosted a nightly weather segment on the TV station at 6:55 p.m., directly leading in to his nightly Top 40 program on WAKR, and also hosted The Hop, a local music and dance program. Charlie Greer also hosted a limited-run dance program devoted to big band music over WAKR-TV in 1958. Muni and Greer's former colleague Jack Ryan would later serve as the lead weatherman for WAKR-TV's evening newscasts throughout the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s. Ted Henry began his career as a reporter for WAKR and WAKR-TV in 1965. Sports coverage on WAKR would also find itself shown on WAKR-TV; this included Akron Zips football and basketball broadcasts, Wylie in particular soon became known as the "Voice of the Zips". WAKR-TV also touted itself as having broken news of the armistice agreement which formally suspended the Korean War well before any of the Cleveland market stations reported the news.
  Despite the touting of UHF signals as not being any different from VHF signals in a technical sense, along with optimistic words from S. Bernard Berk at launch that "about 99-44/100% of the Akron area will receive (WAKR-TV) without difficulty", the station immediately ran into issues with poor reception, transmission issues relating to inclement weather conditions, and a lack of adequate UHF channel tuners. Even with passage of the All-Channel Receiver Act, these problems which would not be totally resolved until Summit Radio successfully petitioned the FCC to amend
caption: The First Central Tower, now the Huntington Tower, was WAKR's first studio home; a 120 foot (37 m) tall transmitter mast once used by WAKR-FM and WAKR-TV remained on top of the building until July 9, 2019.[63]
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