WLEC

WLEC
City Sandusky, Ohio
Broadcast area Sandusky/Port Clinton
Lake Erie Islands
Branding 1450 AM WLEC
Slogan News, Sports, Timeless Favorites
Frequency 1450 (kHz)
First air date February 1947
Format Adult Standards/Soft AC/Sports
Power 1,000 watts
Class C
Callsign meaning The Lake Erie Corporation
(founding owners)
"We Love Erie County"
Affiliations Cleveland Cavaliers Radio Network
Cleveland Indians Radio Network
Ohio State IMG Sports Network
Westwood One
Owner BAS Broadcasting
Sister stations WMJK, WCPZ, WFRO-FM, WOHF
Webcast Listen Live
Website www.wlec.com

WLEC is an AM radio station in Sandusky, Ohio, USA broadcasting at 1450 kHz. It is owned by BAS Broadcasting.[1] WLEC carries an Adult Contemporary/Adult Standards format. The station also features longtime local hosts Mark Fogg and Steve Shoffner.

It is also the Vacationland area AM affiliate for broadcasts of the Cleveland Indians baseball, Cleveland Cavaliers basketball,[2] Ohio State football and basketball, and the NFL on Westwood One. In addition, WLEC is the home for weekly local high school football and basketball broadcasts.[3]

History

WLEC began broadcasting December 7, 1947, as a Mutual affiliate on 1450 kHz with 250 W power (full-time). The licensee was Lake Erie Broadcasting Company.[4] In 1960, WLEC AM and simulcasting WLEC FM were sold to former Cleveland Mayor Raymond T. Miller who also owned WERE AM and WERE FM along with additional radio and television stations across the country. In 1972, Miller owned Cleveland Broadcasting Co. sold the stations to then General Manager Richard H. Miller.

In July 1986 the station was sold by Miller Broadcasting, headed by Richard H. Miller of Cleveland, to Erie Broadcasting Co., owned by Cleveland's Jim Embrescia. After a brief period in the hands of Signal One Communications from October 1987 to May 1990, it passed, along with WCPZ FM 102.7, to Erie Broadcasting II, Inc., a new company also headed by Embrescia. The format at the time was full-service adult contemporary.

On April 30, 1997, it was announced that Jacor Communications, Inc. agreed to buy WLEC and WCPZ from Erie Broadcasting II, Inc. for $7.65 million .[5] The sale was approved and the license transferred on June 25. In May 1999, Clear Channel Communications completed its $6.5 billion purchase of Jacor and its 454 stations, including WLEC.

WLEC itself maintained a pop standards/beautiful music format dubbed "American Music Classics". This was a traditional leaning standards format playing artists like Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Nat King Cole, Neil Diamond, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Carpenters, Ames Brothers, and others. The station also mixed in small amounts of contemporary artists doing standards such as Rod Stewart, Michael Bublé, Diana Krall, and others. WLEC dropped standards and switched to Fox Sports Radio on September 8, 2006.

On November 16, 2006, WLEC, WCPZ and WMJK were formally announced for sale as part of Clear Channel's divestiture of almost 450 small and middle-market radio properties in the U.S. The cluster was sold on January 15, 2008 to Fremont, Ohio based BAS Broadcasting, and BAS took over all three stations on February 1.[6] WLEC then sort of changed back to a standards format on March 3, 2008, using the more classic adult contemporary Timeless format of soft oldies from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s from ABC Radio (later Citadel Media).

Following Citadel Media's ending the Timeless format in February 2010, WLEC adopted the "Lounge" format from Dial Global Local (formerly part of the Waitt Radio Networks umbrella of formats). This went on until June 2012, when the Lounge was discontinued. AM 1450 then went with Dial Global's America's Best Music format, which is similar to "The Lounge".

References

  1. ↑ BAS Broadcasting - BAS Ohio.com
  2. ↑ Cavs on WLEC - WLEC.com
  3. ↑ High School football on WLEC - WLEC.com
  4. ↑ "WLEC Sandusky Debuts As 250-w Mutual Outlet" (PDF). Broadcasting. December 22, 1947. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
  5. ↑ Jacor buys WLEC - Biz journals.com
  6. ↑ WLEC format switch - Sandusky Register.com

External links

Coordinates: 41°26′28″N 82°41′14″W / 41.44111°N 82.68722°W / 41.44111; -82.68722

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