On October 13, 2011, Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting Co. sold WNWV to the Akron-based Rubber City Radio Group for $6.5 million, a deal completed that December 16. Rubber City Radio would then announce it would return WNWV's prior branding as "The Wave", but with an updated smooth AC format, largely centered around jazz-influenced vocals; the format switch took place at 8:30 p.m. on January 3, 2012. Mark Ribbins returned to the station as midday host and program director. Initially, the previous smooth jazz format continued on WNWV-HD2 under the "Wave Classics" branding; that subchannel was discontinued as of January 2013.
