WBOE went on the air on November 21, 1938, as an AM station operating at a high frequency requiring specially-constructed radios. The station was owned by Cleveland Public Schools. In 1941, it was the first educational broadcaster in the nation to convert to FM as its high-frequency band was eliminated by the Federal Communications Commission. Under the direction of Dr. Wm. B. Levenson, the station won national recognition for its use of radio broadcasts synchronized with lantern slides and playscripts, speakers on such topics as health and science, and student-produced programs on current events and student etiquette. A financially strapped Board of Education finally took WBOE off the air in 1978. Despite the formal closure of WBOE, the station continued to transmit so as broadcast the Cleveland Radio Reading Service over its 67 kHz Subsidiary Communications Authorization subchannel, although unlike its regular programming this could only be received by persons with special receivers.
From the combined records of the National Association of Educational Broadcasters (NAEB), held by the University of Maryland and the Wisconsin Historical Society, and compiled as part of the Unlocking the Airwaves project (unlockingtheairwaves.org).
