AM) picked up the program. In 1992, locally originated talk on WERE was replaced by an audio simulcast of CNN Headline News, with local news at :15 and :45. Hosts employed by WERE such as Merle Pollis, Joel Rose, and Les Levine (who had taken over for Brinda) were let go, with the only local talk shows left on the station being brokered programs, in which a host/producer buys the time from the station. The local news product was eliminated in August 1993, as news staffers Jim McIntyre, Bob Fuller, Tom Moore and Cindy Lin were let go; an article in The Plain Dealer on August 13, 1993, referred to this as a "shifting of the station's emphasis from local news to cheaper syndicated and community programming." Brokered programming WERE continued with the format featuring mostly brokered programs. Here, a radio producer would purchase blocked time from the station, and then produced the program, sold commercial air time, and keep the profit. As a result, the programming was very diverse, but listenership was very sparse, with WERE sometimes not even showing up in the Arbitron ratings. Select programs on WERE during this period ranged from America's Workforce (labor issues in the Cleveland area), to The Gay 90's (homosexual and diversity issues) to Talking Books (interviews with literary figures), to Those Antique Guys (appraisals and commentary on antiques). One of the most popular shows on WERE during this period was the Your Music Show, a daily weekday block of a variety music from the 1940s through the 1970s programmed by Jim Davis, who also served as an on-air host from 1–3pm (after illness took Carl Reese off the air), followed by Ted Hallaman from 3–5pm after WRMR 1420-AM signed off permanently in July 2004. The Your Music Show was sponsored by the Original Mattress Factory and aired from August 2004 through January 2006 when the WERE daytime format was changed. Later years Metroplex Communications merged into San Antonio-based Clear Channel Communications in October 1993 in a combined $54 million deal, this included WERE and WNCX; Clear Channel would then take control of WENZ's sales operations in March 1994 via a joint sales agreement, eventually buying the station outright in 1996. Following passage of the Telecom Act of 1996, Clear Channel announced a $4.4 billion merger with Jacor Communications in 1998; to comply with federal ownership guidelines, WERE and WENZ were sold