WARF

WARF (1350 AM) – branded Fox Sports 1350 The Gambler – is a commercial sports radio station licensed to Akron, Ohio, serving the Akron and Greater Cleveland metro areas. Owned by iHeartMedia, WARF serves as the Cleveland affiliate for Fox Sports Radio, and the home of Cleveland Monsters hockey.
The WARF studios are located in Independence, Ohio, while the station transmitter resides in Cuyahoga Falls. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WARF broadcasts a digital signal through the HD Radio in-band on-channel standard, and streams online via iHeartRadio.
1350 AM has been primarily a sports oriented station since 1999 (sans a two-year period when it had a progressive talk format), having been affiliated with ESPN Radio and Sporting News Radio before settling on Fox Sports. For decades, the station had served the Akron market, most notably under the original WADC call letters, then as WSLR "Whistler 1350". In 2020, the station changed its focus to serving the Cleveland market.
History.
Beginnings.
The station traces its origin to a temporary station, WADC, authorized for a February 1925 car show at the Central Garage. The call letters were derived from the show's sponsor, the Automobile Dealers' Company. After the show ended, Allen T. Simmons, owner of the Allen Theater, bought the equipment and obtained a permanent license which was granted on March 23, 1925. A slogan — "Watch Akron Develop Commerce" — matching the call letters was adopted, which was soon slightly modified to "Watch Akron Develop Commercially". (Allen's 1965 obituary stated that the station's slogan was "Watch Akron Deliver Cars", although an "Akron Beacon" columnist later noted that "Several readers... reported that it actually meant 'Watch Akron Develop Commercially'".)
WADC was the second radio station in Akron (after WOE which went on the air on April 27, 1922, but was off the air in July 1923). Regular broadcasts began on April 8, 1925 from studios in the Portage Hotel. The station originally broadcast at 1160 kHz with 100 watts, but its signal increased to 500 watts by 1926.
WADC was a charter member of the CBS Radio Network, being one of the 16 stations that aired the first CBS network program on September 18, 1927. The station soon opened new studios in Tallmadge and increased its power to 5,000 watts. Its frequency jumped around from 1160 to 1010 to 1260, and to 1320 after the FRC's General Order 40 went into effect on November 11, 1928. On March 29, 1941 it moved to 1350 kHz as part of the NARBA frequency shifts.
As the CBS affiliate during the 1930s and 1940s, WADC was the leading Akron radio station, rivaled later only by WAKR after it took to the air in 1940. Akron had no NBC Red affiliate, since WTAM's signal from Cleveland covered the area. WADC's success was symbolized by the two-story art-deco WADC Building, which was completed on May 6, 1949 and became a local landmark on the southeast corner of Main and Mill Streets in downtown Akron. The entire second floor of the building was occupied by the station's studios and offices.
"Whistler" 1350.
WADC was sold in late 1964 to Welcome Radio, Inc. headed by Cleveland lawyer Harrison Fuerst. In January 1965, the station became WSLR, known as "Whistler 1350". It brought a country music format to the area, with morning host Jaybird Drennan. Jaybird died on December 10, 2006. On August 22, 1984, Welcome Radio sold WSLR to OBC Broadcasting, Inc., headed by Richard A. Nicoletti. Faced with competition from WQMX in Akron, along with WGAR-FM in Cleveland and WQXK in Youngstown, WSLR dropped its country format.
Post "Whistler".
On September 1, 1994, the station adopted an urban contemporary format delivered by ABC Radio called "The Touch", and it switched to call letters WTOU on September 29.
In October 1999, the station switched to a sports talk format. It first carried programming from ESPN Radio and kept the WTOU calls but dropped "The Touch" nickname and instead went by "1350AM ESPN - Akron's Sports Network." WTOU and sister station were sold by OBC Broadcasting to Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia) on August 15, 2000. In September 2001, months after the sale to Clear Channel, WTOU then flipped to Fox Sports Radio, branded as "Fox Sports 1350". The networks' offerings at the time also included Tony Bruno and "Kiley & Booms," co-hosted by Cleveland Heights native Chuck Booms (who broadcast on his end from Clear Channel's Cleveland facilities in Independence, Ohio). WTOU also became the Akron-Canton affiliate for "The Jim Rome Show", and became the home station for the Akron Aeros for the 2002 season.
The sports talk format was dropped on June 2, 2005, and the station switched to a liberal talk radio format (albeit with no Air America programming at first), changing its call letters to WARF. Branded as "Radio Free Ohio", WARF carried Al Franken and Randi Rhodes from Air America Radio, and Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller from Jones Radio. WARF also held the distinction of being the only station in the country to carry Bill Press's radio show when it debuted on June 27, 2005, until KRXA picked up the show on August 22. On February 13, 2006 veteran radio personality Joe Finan (long heard on rival talk station WNIR) began a locally produced talk show 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. weekdays. Finan was released from WARF that October 27, and died that December 20.
WARF changed back to a sports format on March 30, 2007; branded as "Sportsradio 1350", becoming an affiliate for Sporting News Radio. Its logo used a blue-and-gold color scheme, a nod to the University of Akron. In June 2009, WARF switched back to Fox Sports Radio, which it airs to this day.
Shifting focus to Cleveland.
On January 27, 2020, WARF rebranded as "Fox Sports 1350 The Gambler", as it added programming from the Vegas Stats & Information Network (VSiN) related to sports betting. The accompanying press release also formally repositioned WARF as a Cleveland market station, billing itself as "Cleveland's Fox Sports 1350", though the station's city of license assignment to Akron and transmitter site in Cuyahoga Falls remained unchanged.
Current programming.
WARF personality Mark "Munch" Bishop hosts "Munch on Sports" weekday mornings. Fox Sports Radio programming airs the bulk of the day (both during the week and on weekends) with programming from VSiN - namely the weekday evening show hosted by Brent Musburger and weekend show hosted by Mike Lombardi - also featured. Longtime Cleveland radio host Jimmy Malone hosts a weekly show Friday mornings.
WARF is also the radio home of the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League (AHL) as of the 2020-21 season.