Lakewood Lore

Local sports, music, news were offered by pioneer radio station

Do you remember listening to WLAL, Lakewood's own early FM radio station?

It broadcasted from 1948-52 from a new one-story brick building it erected, replete with tall antenna tower, at 14587 Madison just east of Warren.

It aired Lakewood High football games and other sports events, was heavy on music, including symphonies and operas, and carried a complete schedule of local, national and world news.

For an FM station, however, it was before its time and thus short-lived. Owner Arthur B. (Mickey) McBride and Daniel Sherby, tired of red ink, opted to close down while FM transmission was still on the threshold, so to speak.

Arthur B. McBride Jr., who now heads his late father's numerous enterprises, told us:

"FM radio was not a big thing in those days. It was just starting and, at the time, very few listeners in Lakewood were able to get FM on their radio sets. We were at least five years too early with the venture."

At the outset, the station was expected to become a big permanent plus for our community. Lakewood Mayor Amos I. Kauffman broadcasted the dedicatory address at 7 p.m. on May 14, 1948. Thereafter, WLAL was on the air daily from 7 a.m. to midnight.

Although it had an effective operational radius of from 40 to 45 miles, its chief objective was to serve Lakewood and West Side, according to Lloyd Chatterton, station director, in an announcement of its formation carried in the Lakewood Post.

Besides Chatterton, the staff included Willis Weygandt, program director; Robert Bachman, engineer; and Jack O' Brien, sales manager.

The newspaper story reported that the station was to be run by United Garage and Service Co.

The elder McBride, a well-known Cleveland entrepreneur who later owned the Cleveland Browns, and his partner Sherby did operate through United Garage, which they controlled and which was and still is the holding company of both the Zone and Yellow Cab firms here.

Sherby was originally from Washington, D.C., where he had a radio station. He came to Cleveland in the early '30s to join McBride Sr. in forming the cab companies.

WLAL'S tower was dismantled and the building was sold to the Society for Crippled Children in '52 to be used as a local branch under the direction of William Townsend. Townsend, who died in 1985, had founded the society and was descendant of Lakewood's prominent pioneer Beach family.

The society, which continues at the location today, eventually built additions to both the front and rear ends of the building, and, a few years ago, changed the name of its organization to Achievement Center for Children.

This article by Dan Chabek appeared in the Lakewood Sun Post August 2, 1990. Reprinted with permission.

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