In early 1971, Storer sold off WCJW, along with WPNA in Philadelphia, to SJR Communications for a combined $1.4 million. With the change in ownership, SJR Communications changed WCJW's callsign to WQAL on May 12, 1971 after an unrelated FM station in Philadelphia gave it up; the WQAL calls also had an unrelated history on an early AM radio station in Mattoon, Illinois, which signed on in 1921 and shut down one year later. The meaning for the Cleveland call letters – "Quality Music" or "Quality Listening" – was carried over from the Philadelphia station. SJR merged most of their broadcasting assets, including WQAL, to Gulf United Broadcasting in 1981; Gulf would later spin off WQAL to WIN Communications, a locally-run company, in October 1984 for $4.8 million.