WAKR (1590 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Akron, Ohio, and known as "Soft Hits 93.5 FM". Locally owned and operated by Rubber City Radio Group, Inc., the station primarily services the Akron metropolitan area, including both Summit County and Portage County.
The station's current format, launched on , features soft adult contemporary music and program features that are characteristic of full-service radio. In addition to carrying local news reports and top-of-the-hour newscasts from CBS News Radio, WAKR is the Akron radio market affiliate for the Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Cleveland Guardians radio networks, as well as the Ohio State Sports Network. Prior formats on WAKR have included talk radio (in three distinct iterations), oldies and adult standards.
Signed on by S. Bernard Berk on , WAKR was neither the first radio station to have been built in Akron, nor the oldest surviving station, but has had the most measured historical impact of any broadcast outlet in the city, especially during its 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, with Alan Freed, Scott Muni and Art Fleming being the most famous of alumni. WAKR's sustained success yielded both FM adjunct WAKR-FM (97.5) in 1947 and TV outlet WAKR-TV (channel 49, later 23) in 1953, and culminated as the flagship of "Group One Broadcasting", a nine-station chain with broadcast outlets in Akron, Dayton, Dallas and Denver. The station remained in the hands of the Berk family until a series of ownership transfers starting in 1986 resulted in the Rubber City Radio Group purchasing it and WONE-FM (the former WAKR-FM) in 1993; Rubber City has operated both stations in tandem with WQMX into the present day.
WAKR's studios are located in Akron's Wallhaven neighborhood, while the station transmitter is located in the city's southeast side. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WAKR's programming is relayed over low-power Akron FM translator W228EL () and is available online.
History
A third voice for Akron
S. Bernard Berk, a practicing attorney and electrical appliance store operator in Akron, first filed paperwork with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on January 6, 1937, to establish a third radio station for the city, after WADC and WJW (); WTAM in Cleveland also serviced Akron with its transmitter site in Brecksville, north of the city. In addition to his law practice and business, Berk also had experience as an inventor. He held a patent for an early photoelectric cell that automatically dimmed automobile headlights for oncoming traffic at night, and also designed a five-speaker public address system for Western Electric.
Akron Beacon Journal publisher John S. Knight publicly showed skepticism in his column that the commission would even grant the permit, and could not justify the need for a third station. Both WJW and WADC objected to the establishment of another radio station in Akron, as did KXBY in Kansas City, Missouri; despite those objections, John T. Brambill, an FCC examiner, recommended that the permit be granted. The FCC, however, reversed that examiner's ruling on May 11, 1938, citing that there was "no lack of radio broadcast facilities and service in Akron, Ohio" and that Berk's party did not propose "a program of research and experimentation" to the development of high-fidelity broadcasting. Berk appealed the decision, claiming that the commission ignored testimony from Akron officials and leaders desiring a third station, and after securing statements of support from 34 different civic, religious and community organizations in the city, the FCC reversed itself on August 8, 1939, granting the permit.