Broadcast area Canton, Ohio Frequency 900 kHz | Branding Joy 900 WCER First air date 1947 | |
Format Defunct (formerly Gospel Music) Power 500 watts (daytime)
75 watts (nighttime) | ||
WCER (900 AM) — branded Joy 900 WCER — was an American commercial radio station licensed to Canton, Ohio, which broadcast a gospel music format in addition to some assorted religious programming. It also carried Walsh University football and high school football games.
WCER was owned by Melodynamic Broadcasting Corp., whose shareholders include Jack Ambrozic and former Cuyahoga County Judge Leodis Harris and is being leased to Curtis Perry III, the former programmer for now-defunct WINW. Likewise, WCER's current gospel music format is a direct replica of the format that was featured on WINW over the past few years.
History
The station began in 1947 as WAND. It became WCNS and later WNYN in the 1960s. WNYN, along with sister station WNYN-FM 106.9, was purchased in 1965 by Don Keyes, who had made his mark as a national programmer for legendary station owner Gordon McLendon. He sold the AM station sometime after 1971, when he sold WNYN-FM to Susquehanna Radio. The FM station became WHLQ, then WOOS, and is now WRQK-FM.
After Keyes sold the AM station, it was known as "Country 9" and featured a country music format in the 1980s. The station became WTOF on March 15, 1985 when it was commonly owned with WTOF-FM 98.1 (now WKDD). WTOF-FM was first station owned by Mortenson Broadcasting. After Mortenson sold the AM station, the call sign was changed to WBXT on March 1, 1988 (with a short-lived Urban format), then to WCER on September 29, 1992. The WCER call letters originally stood for "Canton's Entertainment Radio," but have taken on different meanings with the station's Christian and religious-leaning format.
Notable weekday programming on WCER's talk format included Alex Jones, Christian Teaching/Preaching, Derry Brownfield, Dave Ramsey, Doctor Laura, "The Patriot News Hour", and "The Flip Side" with Robby Noel.
On March 31, 2011, early reports began to surface that WCER would permanently cease operations by the end of that day. However, such plans were rescinded for undisclosed reasons, and WCER continued broadcasting. A lease agreement with Curtis A. Perry III, former programmer for WINW, took effect on July 8, 2011, and WCER dropped all existing talk programming for a revival of WINW's gospel music format.
The WCER call sign was previously assigned to AM 1390 and FM 92.7 in Charlotte, Michigan during the 1960s and 1970s. WCER/1390 became WGWY (now WLCM) in 1980 & WCER-FM 92.7 became WMMQ in 1979.
On September 27, 2011, WCER filed a "notification of silent operation", stating that the station went off the air September 14, 2011.
WCER's license expired on October 1, 2012, as the licensee did not file an application for renewal. On October 5, 2012, the station's license was cancelled by the Federal Communications Commission.