Beginnings The Akron Automobile Association established a
temporary station named WADC for a February 1925
auto show at the Central Garage, with a
transmitter built by the Willard Storage Battery Co. of Cleveland. W. F. Jones, head of the show's sponsor, the Automobile Dealers' Company, insisted for the station's establishment to help broadcast the show's events to a larger audience. After the show ended, Jones tried to get a permanent station launched; failing to find enough investor support, Allen T. Simmons—owner of the Allen Theater—obtained a permanent license which was granted on March 23, 1925. W. F. Jones would eventually purchase Cleveland station WDBK in July 1927 and moved it to Akron as
WFJC, A slogan — "Watch Akron Develop Commerce" — matching the call letters was adopted, which was soon slightly modified to "Watch Akron Develop Commercially". (Allen's 1965 obituary stated that the station's slogan was "Watch Akron Deliver Cars", although an
Akron Beacon columnist later noted that "Several readers... reported that it actually meant 'Watch Akron Develop Commercially'".) WADC was the second radio station in Akron (after WOE which went on the air on April 27, 1922, but was off the air in July 1923). Regular broadcasts began on April 8, 1925, from studios in the Portage Hotel. The station originally broadcast over 1160 kHz with 100 watts, but its signal increased to 500 watts by 1926. WADC was a charter member of the
CBS Radio Network, being one of the 16 stations that aired the first CBS network program on September 18, 1927. The station soon opened new studios in
Tallmadge and increased its power to 5,000 watts. Its frequency jumped around from 1160 to 1010 to 1260, and to 1320 after the
FRC's
General Order 40 went into effect on November 11, 1928. On March 29, 1941, it moved to 1350 kHz as part of the
NARBA frequency shifts. As the CBS affiliate during the 1930s and 1940s, WADC was the leading Akron radio station, rivaled later only by
WAKR after it took to the air in 1940. Akron had no
NBC Red affiliate, since
WTAM's signal from Cleveland covered the area. WADC's success was symbolized by the two-story art-deco WADC Building, which was completed on May 6, 1949, and became a local landmark on the southeast corner of Main and Mill Streets in downtown Akron. The entire second floor of the building was occupied by the station's studios and offices.
"Whistler" 1350 WADC was sold in late 1964 to Welcome Radio, Inc. headed by Cleveland lawyer Harrison Fuerst. In January 1965, the station became WSLR, known as "Whistler 1350". It brought a
country music format to the area, with morning host Jaybird Drennan. Jaybird died on December 10, 2006. On August 22, 1984, Welcome Radio sold WSLR to OBC Broadcasting, Inc., headed by Richard A. Nicoletti. Faced with competition from
WQMX in Akron, along with
WGAR-FM in Cleveland and
WQXK in
Youngstown, WSLR dropped its country format.
Post "Whistler" On September 1, 1994, the station adopted an
urban contemporary format delivered by
ABC Radio called "
The Touch", and it switched callsigns to WTOU on September 29. In October 1999, the station switched to a sports talk format. It first carried programming from
ESPN Radio and kept the WTOU calls but dropped "The Touch" nickname and instead went by "1350AM ESPN - Akron's Sports Network". WTOU and sister station
WKDD () were sold by OBC Broadcasting to Clear Channel Communications (now
iHeartMedia) on August 15, 2000. On September 18, 2001, months after the sale to Clear Channel, WTOU then flipped to
Fox Sports Radio, branded as "Fox Sports 1350". The networks' offerings at the time also included
Tony Bruno and "Kiley & Booms", co-hosted by Cleveland Heights native Chuck Booms (who broadcast on his end from Clear Channel's Cleveland facilities in
Independence, Ohio). WTOU also became the Akron-Canton affiliate for
The Jim Rome Show, and became the home station for the Akron Aeros for the 2002 season. The sports talk format was dropped on June 2, 2005, and the station switched to a liberal talk radio format (albeit with no
Air America programming at first), changing its call letters to WARF. Branded as "Radio Free Ohio", WARF carried
Al Franken and
Randi Rhodes from Air America Radio, and
Ed Schultz and
Stephanie Miller from Jones Radio. WARF also held the distinction of being the only station in the country to carry
Bill Press's radio show when it debuted on June 27, 2005, until
KRXA picked up the show on August 22. On February 13, 2006, veteran radio personality
Joe Finan (long heard on rival talk station
WNIR) began a locally produced talk show 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. weekdays. Finan was released from WARF that October 27, and died that December 20. WARF changed back to a sports format on March 30, 2007; branded "Sports Radio 1350", becoming an affiliate for Sporting News Radio. Its
logo used a blue-and-gold color scheme, a nod to the
University of Akron. In June 2009, WARF reverted back to
Fox Sports Radio programming.
Shifting focus to Cleveland On January 27, 2020, WARF rebranded as "Fox Sports 1350 The Gambler", as it added programming from the
Vegas Stats & Information Network (VSiN) related to
sports betting. The accompanying press release also formally repositioned WARF as a Cleveland market station, billing itself as ''Cleveland's Fox Sports 1350'', though the station's
city of license assignment to
Akron and
transmitter site in
Cuyahoga Falls remained unchanged. On March 21, 2021, WARF announced plans to move to a new combined studio/office facility at the
Six Six Eight Building in
Downtown Cleveland, utilizing
cloud storage technology. The relocation process completed in July 2022. On December 1, 2025, WARF began to carry more VSiN programming during the day, with Fox Sports programming airing middays and overnights/early mornings. The entirety of the Fox Sports lineup now airs sister station
WMMS-HD2 100.7/W256BT FM 99.1, broadcasting under the "Sports Radio 99.1" banner. ==Current programming==