Purchased by Malrite Communications in 1973, WHK converted to a country music format headlined by shock jock Gary Dee, Joe Finan and, for a brief period, Don Imus.

[7] The 8ACS programs were soon recognized as providing "exceptional wireless entertainment", and B. Dreher's Sons Company donated a Steinway grand piano for use in the station's studio.

At first this new policy was loosely enforced, but in early February 1922, the government's official monitor of radio in the region, S. W. Edwards,[c] contacted the local stations to reiterate that amateurs were no longer permitted to make entertainment broadcasts.

Thus, on February 3, 1922, Edwin H. Poad, president of the Cleveland Radio Association, announced that his organization was ending the weekly broadcasts started nine months earlier.

WHK's debut broadcast, on Sunday night March 5, 1922, was advertised as a continuation of the suspended Cleveland Radio Association weekly concert series.

Rhythm and Rhyme Time was a Saturday night band concert on Mutual that originated from the Terrace Room of the Statler Hotel through the WHK's facilities.

[33] In 1945 as the FCC began enforcing a rule limiting owners to a single AM station in a market, United Broadcasting moved WCLE out of Cleveland to Akron[32] and changed its call sign to WHKK and its frequency to 640 kHz.

[46] Maltz originally intended to flip WMMS to country music[47] but rescinded those plans after the station's air talent, listeners, community activist Henry Speeth and Cleveland councilman Dennis Kucinich lobbied in support of the progressive rock format.

[54] WMMS program director John Gorman later recalled how Dee would typically conclude his show at 10 a.m., leave the studio, quietly stand against a wall and take deep breaths for a few minutes and eventually come out of character.

[53] On February 14, 1977, WHK and WMMS moved their studios from 5000 Euclid Avenue to the Statler Office Tower near Playhouse Square, which originally housed WGAR and their FM adjunct WNCR from 1930 through the early 1970s.

[71] Gorman, who helped oversee the launch of "14K", boasted that the station would play "full-service rock 'n' roll, and no wimpy stuff either, no Barry Manilow or Bobby Sherman.

[74] Following program director Bernie Kimble's departure for WNCX in 1986 (along with Gorman),[75] the station fired the majority of local air talent as February 1987 began, opting to use Transtar Radio Networks' "The Oldies Channel.

[6] WHK's format transitioned again to talk radio on August 10, 1992, when veteran local hosts Merle Pollis and Joel Rose joined the station in late-morning and afternoon drive.

[83] Early in 1992, Malrite found itself unable to service its growing debt, with Standard & Poor's putting $115 million of junk bonds held by the company for downgrading.

[87] Pollis and Rose both left on October 1, 1993, after the Shamrock merger cleared, with WHK airing an all-syndicated lineup of Doug Stephan, G. Gordon Liddy[88] and Charles Adler.

[91] In announcing the deal, Hirsch spoke of restoring WHK by possibly installing an aggressive locally oriented news and talk format, stating, "what you have now on AM radio doesn't work".

[86] Prior to the takeover, WHK/WMMS lost the Browns radio rights to both WKNR and WDOK,[92][93] while Hirsch also openly floated the idea of flipping WHK back to country.

WHK flipped to sports radio on May 16, 1994, featuring Tom Bush, Les Levine, Rick Bay and WMJI sportscaster Tony Rizzo.

[102] WHK struggled in the Arbitron ratings, with Levine as the highest-rated show but heavily outranked by both WKNR's Geoff Sindelar and WWWE's Mike Trivisonno.

[97] The Fall 1995 Arbitron ratings, influenced by the 1995 World Series and the Browns relocation controversy, showed WHK continuing to trail WKNR by substantial margins.

[104] Following an attempted merger with Citicasters announced on August 28, 1995,[105] and called off by November 17,[106] rumors soon emerged of OmniAmerica divesting their Cleveland radio properties, potentially to Clear Channel Communications.

[109] Les Levine left radio to host a call-in show on SportsChannel Ohio, remarking that WHK's pending format change made the last few months at the station "just horrible".

[111] All local programming was eliminated on June 28, 1996,[112] with Pat McCabe's final day documented by Plain Dealer staffers in a photo essay commemorating Cleveland's bicentennial year.

[113] Syndicated sports talk aired as filler until the sale closed on September 2, 1996, when Salem instituted a Christian radio format; the new ownership also announced plans to upgrade WHK's Seven Hills transmitter site.

[115] Salem later purchased WRMR (850 AM) and WKNR on May 6, 2000, as part of a court-ordered divestiture to complete Clear Channel's merger into AMFM, Inc.[116] In addition to the station's regular lineup of taped sermons and Christian music, nationally syndicated area pastor Alistair Begg[117] aired daily on both WHK and WHK-FM.

[124] Ultimately, Radio Seaway agreed to purchase the intellectual property of WRMR, including the station's music library and some equipment, for an undisclosed fee on May 31, 2001, and announced that 1420 AM would adopt the format but with the WCLV call sign.

[126] Acknowledging the signal weaknesses of 104.9 FM to the east of Cleveland, Radio Seaway arranged a partial simulcast for WCLV-FM programming with Painesville station WBKC.

[128] In response to WRMR's format attracting older demos, Robert Conrad, WCLV's co-founder and president, said, "the people who grew up with Bach aren't around anymore either.

[141] While WHK's conservative talk format was at launch entirely syndicated via the Salem Radio Network,[139] a local program hosted by area personality Bob Frantz was added in 2015.

[145] Brokered programming makes up the majority of the station's weekend lineup,[146] and WHK serves as the Cleveland affiliate for Notre Dame Fighting Irish football.