Adam was "Bob Franklin" at WSRS

End of WSRS Cleveland

Another thing about WSRS 1490 in Cleveland Heights, before I forget - in case someone reads this and says that WJMO has been on 1490 in Cleveland forever.

Well almost forever. The way I get it, back in 1948 or '49, Sam Segue's mother bought WSRS for her son to play with, complete with a set of jingles that ended with a big "DOO-WAH." I have no idea how old he was. At that time WJMO was at 1540 on the dial. Someone told me once that it was first owned by John Marshall Law School. Anyway, it was a daytimer with studios at about 22nd and Euclid where Cleveland State is now. It was in an old house, in the middle of a great big public parking lot. The station was in the basement of the house. They programmed R&B music, and had all black announcers. In 1958 United Broadcasting, the owners of WJMO, bought WSRS AM & FM for about 250 Grand. Since in those days it was not legal to own two AM stations in the same market, UBL sold 1540 AM to WABQ. UBC was owned by Robert Eaton and his son. (I remember I was at SRS the day they did a walk-through; the old man was wearing spats and Jr. had on a sharkskin suit with a fin in the back, a belt too I think.) At that time it took about six months for a station to change hands. Imagine our surprise one night when the back doorbell rang and it was the WJMO staff and DJ's - records and all. They even brought the little hanging-around kid that every station has. The sun had gone down; they had signed off on 1540, got in their cars, then came up the hill to take over 1490. We were all shocked. I remember telling the engineer, "What the hell? There's a bunch of guys at the back door to evict us!" We called the boss. He said it was okay and he would come right over! So we read our sign-off, they read their sign-on, and WSRS Cleveland Hts., Doo-Wahed its way into history!

PS About 20 years ago we were driving up in New England and I got the chicken skin when I looked up and saw WSRS painted on a big billboard for a station in Worchester, Mass.

- Adam Jones
2-24-07