WHKW (1220 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, and is known as "AM 1220 The Word" featuring a Christian format. Owned by Salem Media Group, the station serves both Greater Cleveland and the Northeast Ohio region. WHKW's studios are located in the Cleveland suburb of Independence while the transmitter site is in neighboring Broadview Heights.
A merger of two separate radio stations in Akron and Springfield that were moved into Cleveland in 1930, this station spent 60 years as the first radio home of WGAR. First under the ownership of George A. Richards' Goodwill Station group, it became a core affiliate of the CBS Radio Network, the originating station for Wings Over Jordan and an early home to comedian Jack Paar. Eventually owned by the forerunner to Nationwide Communications, WGAR transitioned into a personality-driven adult contemporary format in the early 1970s, headlined by personalities Don Imus, John Lanigan, Norm N. Nite and Chuck Collier. Later featuring a country music format in the mid-1980s in an eventual combination with FM adjunct WGAR-FM (99.5), the station changed to sports radio in 1990 as the first radio home of WKNR. assumed WHK ()'s callsign and Christian radio format on July 3, 2001, as the result of a complex radio station/intellectual property asset swap, and since 2005 has been known as WHKW.
In addition to a standard analog transmission, WHKW programming is repeated over low-power Cleveland translator W245CY () and streamed online.
Prior history as WCSO and WFJC
WHKW has traditionally dated its debut to December 15, 1930, when it made its first formal broadcast as WGAR. However, WGAR's formation was the result of the consolidation of two existing stations, WCSO in Springfield, Ohio, and WFJC in Akron, Ohio, which both started in the early 1920s.
WCSO was first licensed as WNAP, on October 13, 1922, to Wittenberg College in Springfield, operating on the standard "entertainment" wavelength of . As early as 1896, the college's physics department had experimented with radio transmissions, and a radio club composed of students was established in 1906. First receiving experimental license 8XAK earlier in 1922, Wittenberg professor E. O. Weaver and several of his students constructed the transmitter in advance of signing on, and programming was presented by the college's Speech and Drama Department.
The station's frequency was reassigned in the fall of 1923 to , to in early 1924, and to at the end of the year. The station's call letters were changed to WCSO—for Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio—on March 6, 1925, and the station was reassigned to on June 15, 1927. Originally located at Wittenberg's Carnegie Science Hall, the studios were eventually moved to Blair Hall, with the radio towers erected in front of the science building.
WFJC's first license, for 100 watts on , was issued in May 1924 under the station's original call sign, WDBK, to the M. F. Broz Furniture, Hardware & Radio Company at 13918 Union Avenue in Cleveland's Mount Pleasant neighborhood. It began broadcasting on May 15, 1924. WDBK was deleted in the fall of 1924, then relicensed the following spring, again with 100 watts, but now on . Programming included jazz selections interspersed with an imitation steamboat whistle as a station identification, along with live musical performances; reception for WDBK was limited outside of Cleveland and was barely audible in Akron. In early 1927 the owner was changed to WDBK Broadcasting (Inc.) (Stanley J. Broz) at the Bolton Square Hotel on Carnegie Avenue, using the slogan "Broadcasting from Cleveland".
Automobile dealer W. F. Jones purchased WDBK on July 15, 1927, with the intent of moving the station to Akron. Jones's involvement in the medium began when—at his insistence—a February 1925 auto show used a temporary station named WADC to broadcast the show's events, with a transmitter built by the Willard Storage Battery Co. After the show ended, Jones tried to sign on the station permanently, but theatre owner Allen T. Simmons launched WADC from the Portage Hotel on April 8, 1925. Jones was granted a permit to move WDBK to Akron but would remain on and sharing time with Cleveland station WJAY. Renamed WFJC, the station made its debut broadcast from the Akron Beacon Journal building on October 22, 1927, but merely as a tenant, the Beacon Journal did not have any ownership stake. Sam Townshend was listed as station manager, secretary and lead engineer.