WCCR (1260 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, known as "AM 1260 The Rock" and carrying a Catholic-oriented religious format. Owned by St. Peter the Rock Media, Inc., a nonprofit corporation which has applied for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service, WCCR serves Greater Cleveland as the local affiliate for EWTN Radio. WCCR's studios are located in the Cleveland suburb of Broadview Heights and the station transmitter resides in neighboring Brecksville.
History
WDOK
The station began on April 30, 1950, as WDOK when Wayne Mack resigned his position at WGAR (1220 AM) to establish the station with Frederick C. Wolf and chief engineer Morris Pierce, who became station president. Wolf himself was a longtime ethnic broadcaster on Cleveland stations WHK, WJAY, and WGAR, in addition to being the founder of Cleveland Recording Co. for the production of spot commercials, nationality music, and auditions.
Early programming was highlighted by Wayne Mack's imaginary concert programs, such as "Hometown Band Concert", "Candlelight Concert", and "Waltz Palace." WDOK's format was soon simulcast full-time on WDOK 102.1-FM. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, the station maintained a format of adult standards, although it did buck contemporary music trends by broadcasting two hours of classical music programming each night. By 1957, WDOK also was the radio home for 18 different nationality programs, most of them broadcast on Sundays. Wolf sold his stake in WDOK and WDOK-FM to Transcontinent Television Corp. of New York in 1962.
Meanwhile, across town in the early 1960s, top-40 radio was flourishing led by KYW and WHK. In July 1964, three account executives at WHK – Norman Wain, Bob Weiss, and Joe Zingale – quit their jobs to form Westchester Corporation. They purchased WFAS in White Plains, New York (located in Westchester County, hence Westchester Corporation) in December 1964, and honed their skills in running a top-40 station. They returned to Cleveland the following year and purchased WDOK and WDOK-FM in November 1965.
WIXY 1260
On December 12, 1965, the AM station changed its call sign to WIXY, branding itself as WIXY 1260 (pronounced "Wicksy Twelve-Sixty"). The new call sign was similar to WXYZ in Detroit - and which also used the "Wixie" nickname - and also was selected for its rhyming with the 1260 frequency. The initial on-air lineup included Al Gates, Howie Lund, Johnny Michaels, Johnny Canton, Mark Allen, and Bobby Magic. Allen later moved on to Chicago's WCFL under the name Bob Dearborn. The news staff included Bob Engel, Fred Griffith, and Gary Ritchie.
WIXY soon began to dominate top-40 radio in Cleveland, despite having a weaker signal than either WKYC (formerly KYW) or WHK. In 1966, WIXY sponsored The Beatles' second concert in Cleveland on August 14. (WHK had sponsored the first concert in 1964.) DJs who are remembered for their stint at WIXY during the late 1960s and early 1970s include Mike Reineri, Dick "Wilde Childe" Kemp, Larry "the Duker" Morrow (who settled in Cleveland after a stint as "Duke Windsor" on CKLW), Billy Bass, Lou "The King" Kirby, Bob Shannon, Chuck Dunaway, and Jackson Armstrong (Big Jack Armstrong "Your Leader").
WDOK-FM was, however, left untouched and still programmed by Wayne Mack. When Westchester Corporation saw the growing and devoted listener base that their largely ignored FM station was developing, WDOK was branded "Stereo Cleveland – Beautiful Music for the land of the Western Reserve." While the FM station soon passed over into separate ownership, Wayne Mack stayed at WDOK until 1980, and died in October 2000.
In 1969, Westchester Corporation took the format to the Pittsburgh market, purchasing WMCK in suburban McKeesport, Pennsylvania, and changing the calls to WIXZ. The Pittsburgh-area station used the same graphics and jingles as the Cleveland station - it was called "WIXZ 1360" (pronounced "Wick-zee Thirteen Sixty") - but failed to impact Pittsburgh as it had Cleveland, putting only a dent in the dominance of top-40 leader KQV. The top-40 format at WIXZ lasted in various forms until 1974, and the call letters remained in place until it became talk station WPTT in 1999.
The local ownership of WIXY was gobbled up by larger communications corporations in the 1970s. Wain, Weiss, and Zingale merged Westchester Corporation into Globetrotter Communications for $14.3 million in December 1971. Combined Communications (later Gannett) purchased Globetrotter in May 1975.
"WIXY 1260" exists today as an online tribute station based in the Cleveland area airing the original PAMS jingles and classic 1960s and 1970s hits.