WERE (1490 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to serve Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and carrying a talk radio format known as "NewsTalk 1490". Owned by Urban One, the station serves the Greater Cleveland region. WERE is one of two Cleveland-area stations that carries The Rickey Smiley Morning Show, syndicated personalities Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, and is the Cleveland affiliate for Red Eye Radio. Since 2008, an emphasis has been placed on brokered programming. Built and launched in 1947 as WSRS, a suburban station focused on Cleveland Heights proper, this station became the second in the Cleveland market to use the WJMO call sign in 1959. During this period, WJMO carried a rhythm and blues/soul music format continuously from 1959 to 1999, reputedly longer than any other such station in the United States, and was one of the first major-market radio stations to have an African-American serve as their general manager. At the same time, a number of legal issues surrounding owner United Broadcasting, repeated technical violations committed, strained relations between station management and the station's staff and audience, and a controversial ownership transfer in 1992 attracted criticism and scrutiny by the public, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), at one point putting the station's broadcast license in question. A series of ownership buyouts in the late 1990s saw the station adopt an urban gospel format, then come under control of Radio One (now Urban One); a 2007 format swap resulted in 1490 AM picking up the format and calls of WERE from 1300 AM, which it has maintained to the present day. More information...
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