Salem Communications’ NewsTalker WHK in Cleveland began a new brand and imaging campaign on the air and in outside marketing, beginning on 4/14. WHK became AM 1420 The Answer, following a theme that Salem launched in New York, Los Angeles, Riverside, Dallas, Houston, Columbus and Chicago.
“As our listeners are preparing to write Uncle Sam that fat check, I can’t think of a better day to give Cleveland ‘The Answer’ to why their taxes are so high,” said Salem VP Director of Spoken Word Format, Phil Boyce. “We have the answer for little things like ‘why am I stuck in traffic’ to bigger things like what can conservatives do to win back the White House,” said Boyce. The on-air lineup will remain the same, with a significant major addition to the stations ability to cover Cleveland news. WHK has hired morning news anchor Jim McIntyre, one of the most trusted news voices in Greater Cleveland, delivering newscasts on Cleveland’s radio airwaves for more than two decades. His name invokes credibility and integrity. Jim will be joined by an expanded local traffic reporting team, along with weather from TV meteorologist John Loufman.
WHK is also adding a new night time talk show called “The 11th Hour” hosted by McIntyre and long time Cleveland veteran talker Tom Kelly. This program will air at 11pm, and will focus on both local and statewide stories that affect the WHK audience, with news updates and interviews of the day’s newsmakers and journalists. Otherwise the lineup remains the same, including:
Bill Bennett’s Morning in America, 6-9am
Mike Gallagher, 9am to Noon
Dennis Prager, Noon to 3pm
Michael Medved, 3pm to 6pm
Hugh Hewitt, 6pm to 9pm
Mark Levin, 9pm to 11pm
11pm, The 11th Hour
“These are very exciting times at Salem Communications of Northeast Ohio,” said WHK General Manager Mark Jaycox “To be able to take a station like WHK – one rich in Cleveland heritage and Ohio tradition…celebrating its 91st birthday this year – and make it even more relevant and current, while maintaining that strong identity…we are confident our WHK listener – the best listener in town – will be pleased with this change.”
Flipping to “The Answer” at Chicago’s WIND-AM has done wonders for them. Kidding. There was no change in line-up to speak of and that station continues to scrape along the bottom of the rankings. Talk radio needs to wake up. People want entertainment, interesting stories and a little news and sports sprinkled in. Not the stuff on the far extremes of politics – either end of the spectrum. WCKG-FM in Chicago during the early 2000’s offered a talk line-up that delivered #1 rankings in 25-54 numbers across all weekday prime. But the people in power yanked the line-up once sales dipped a bit – down a few million from a peak of $23 million annually. Now it’s not even a station today but a FM speaker for the local AM news leader. I doubt they’ve made up 20% of the revenue. Geniuses abound in talk radio. Mark Jaycox – your listeners will be pleased with the change. All 75 of them. It’s not the answer.
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