WCLI-FM

WCLI-FM (101.5 FM, "Hank FM") is a classic country radio station, licensed to Enon, Ohio, and serving the Dayton area. The station is owned by Alpha Media. Its studios are located in Kettering, Ohio (with a Dayton address) and its transmitter is in New Carlisle, Ohio, northeast of Dayton.

History

The station began on August 1, 1965 at 101.7 MHz as WCOM, the name coming from the founder and original licensee, Champaign COMmunications, the DBA of parent company Brown Publishing, then the owners of the Urbana Daily Citizen newspaper. It aired a mix of beautiful music and traditional middle of the road throughout the 1960s and 1970s, when the station was managed by Jim Bissey. In the early 1970s, it became FM stereo to liken itself with WHIO-FM and WPTW-FM at 99.1 and 95.7 FM, respectively. Future WIZE DJ Bill Hart began his commercial radio career under Jim Bissey. The station actually programmed some Top 40 rock music at night until Hart graduated from then Urbana College. He was drafted and ended up on the American Forces Radio and Television Network in 1973. Religious programming was aired on Sunday evenings until a gradual format change to adult contemporary began in 1979. The station studios were located across the street from the downtown Chakeres Urbana cinema at 225 South Main Street (upstairs) in an old brick building that also housed a local printing business (downstairs). The building was razed in the 1990s after the studios and offices moved to Springfield.