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8.30.10

NORTHERN MICHIGAN: TALK RADIO HELL
So, where are the lefties?

Imagine: you're getting off work at 5 p.m. in northern Michigan and you turn on your radio, hoping to find some stimulating talk. You've had a long day, dealing with your rich boss who hasn't given you a raise since Clinton was president.

But instead of listening to a talk show that agrees with the working man like Ed Schultz or Randi Rhodes, the local talk stations of northern Michigan - WTCM 580, WJML 1110/1210, WMKT 1270 and WSRT 106.7/105.5 You FM - all air right-winged BS. You've got Hannity on WTCM, tape-delayed Laura Ingraham and the last hour of the previous day's Michael Savage on 'JML, the outgoing Dr. Laura on You FM and no-namer Todd Schnitt on WMKT.

Of the four talkers up north, only two true-blue libs - Stephanie Miller on You FM and one measly hour of Ed Schultz on WJML - air. The rest - you guessed it - are all sympathizers to Bush and feel that rich people should pay less taxes than hard-working Americans.

What's more-daunting is the fact that thanks to big companies like Clear Channel dumping Air America and other lib-talkers on their weakest signals, it gives the Rush Limbaughs and Fox News Channel commentators fuel to say that liberal talk is dead. Right now in Michigan, there's only one progressive talker, and that's Clear Channel's WDTW 1310 in Detroit, a station with a history of having a weak signal and no promotion. Right now, WDTW's at a .3 in the current Detroit Arbitron ratings and is getting clobbered by stations out of Canada, Port Huron and Ann Arbor.

Michigan did have other progressive talkers, such as ones in Ann Arbor and (surprise) northern Michigan. The Ann Arbor station, WLBY 1290 also had a weak signal, but did very well in its very short existence. However, Clear Channel decided to sell out their Ann Arbor stations to Cumulus and the right-leaning Cumulus - who banned the Dixie Chicks on all their country stations after Maines' anti-Bush speech - got rid of WLBY's prog-talk format and replaced with with financial talk. End result? Yep: 0.0. True, the station carries heavyweights such as Dave Ramsey and Clark Howard, but The Lucy Ann Lance Business Insider and Bloomberg Radio's Live From London overnights? Wow! I'll keep my radios tuned for that!

Several years ago, Petoskey had its own lib-talker, WWKK "Kool 750". It carried the likes of Thom Hartmann, Randi Rhodes, Ed Schultz and a few other shows from Air America. It was the sister to WJML 1110, who promoted the two as 750 on the left and 1110 on the right.

But the reason why northern Michigan got screwed out of liberal talk radio is because of an expansion that ended up being a lose-lose-lose situation. A few years ago, WTCM and WMKT announced that both stations would be going to 50,000 watts daytime. WJML, on the other hand had the shorter end of the stick, especially at night since they only broadcast with a whopping 10 watts, barely enough to cover the city of Petoskey. So, owner Rick Stone made an agreement with Roy Henderson, who owned WLDR-AM 1210, then a classic country station known for its transmission problems.

WLDR-AM was the old WKNX 1210 out of Saginaw. However, it moved to Kingsley - near Traverse City - about 15 years ago so then-sister station WCHB-1200 in Detroit could boost its power. However, owner Bell Broadcasting - owned by African Americans - seemed to only care about the people of Detroit, so they put the station's transmitter in a toxic waste site, which disallowed the station's radials to not be allowed to be buried for proper transmission (AM is transmitted through groundwaves). Therefore, if it rained, the station ended up off the air. After several years of silence with the exception of the occasional urban oldies format, Henderson bought 1210 for the bargain basement price of $225,000.

Under Henderson, 1210 aired first a talk format from Michigan Talk Radio Network and then classic country.

Since he wanted to expand WJML to Traverse City and give Henderson an opportunity to give his WLDR-FM 101.9 a city-grade signal in Petoskey, Stone and Henderson switched stations. Stone got 1210 and Henderson got 750. Oddly enough, 1210 was renamed WJNL and 750 became WARD, both call signs of one of the notorious move-ins in network television history.

In the beginning, Stone promised fans of of WJML and WWKK that the most-popular shows from both stations would end up on WJML. However, in the end, it was prevalent. Ed Schultz was the sole survivor, and recently, his show was downgraded to just one hour per day at 8 p.m.. Even worse, after sundown WJML goes to only 10 watts and WJNL is a daytimer.

In the end, the loss of Kool 750 was a lose-lose-lose situation. WJML is still at a .7 in the ratings despite talk heavyweights like Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz and Michael Savage, WLDR is stuck with a lo-fi signal in the Petoskey/Straits region while WTCM and WMKC rule the country roost on FM and northern Michigan is stuck with mostly talk that speaks out to the teabaggers.

Then again, this is one reason I love my Sirius and northern Michigan radio can go to hell. Four talk stations and two liberals. Nice. Four rock stations playing Bob Segar at any given time. Nicer. Plus, there's the usual gamut of overplayed oldies, country, AC and CHR.

Somewhere, Michael Moore is tearing up.

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SPEAKING OF RATINGS...

With northern Michigan under yet another ratings embargo, let's do the next-best thing with how their websites right now via Alexa:

1) WKLT
3,187,487

2) WJZQ - Z93
3,873,833

3) WTCM-FM
5,290,293

4) WCCW-FM
6,106,631

5) WUPS
6,141,524

6) WLXT - Lite 96
7,417,969

7) WGFN - The Bear
7,678,945

8) WFCX - The Fox
8,793,202

9) WKHQ - 106 KHQ
9,194,249

10) WLDR - Sunny Country 101.9
9,544,447

11) WJML 1110/1210
11,636,181

12) WMKC - Big Country 102.9
12,070,772

13) WSRT - 106.7/105.5 You FM
18,487,306

14) WMKT 1270
22,276,659

Amongst the stations not making the list include WTCM-AM, Real Rock 105/95-5, Mix 96 and WCCW-AM.

Bear in mind that this is the near-end of Summer, and the possible reason for the weird ratings is because, well, it's nice out. We plan to do another ratings survey mid-Fall.

(Oh, and BTW, Chuck69.com is #7,154,823 and RISING.)

8.2.10

IS HANLON NEXT?
The atmosphere regarding Grand Rapids is changing

Here on this very website, we rarely talk about Phil Catlett, the GM of Regent/Townsquare Media's radio cluster here in Grand Rapids. Maybe because unlike their main competitors Citadel and Clear Channel, Townsquare hasn't screwed over Stern and his fans.

But, nonetheless, he's now without a job.

The 56-year-old Catlett was canned after 24 years on the job Thursday night. He told the Grand Rapids Press that part of the reason why he was canned was due to Regent's Chapter 11 restructuring into Townsquare, a company that owns radio stations and will investheavily into the internet and other non-traditional platforms as well.

Under Catlett, he transformed WGRD 97.9 from a wimpy Alternative station with ho-hum ratings into Grand Rapids' highest-rated rock station under the tutelege of Jerry Tarrents and the successful Free Beer and Hot Wings morning show. He also helped make WTRV 100.5 The River a highly-respectible station despite a spotty signal.

But, he's had some criticisms. Recently, WLHT 95.7 became a 'hip' AC station, scaring off a lot of listeners. He even angered many oldies fans in town by transforming WFGR 98.7 into a "Classic Hits" station, eliminating all 50's and many 60's numbers from the playlist and pushing more 80's into the playlist.

So, the question is: Is Hanlon next?

Like Townsquare, Hanlon's parent, Citadel ALSO went through bankruptcy. But unlike Townsquare, Citadel did keep many of the idiots who ran it into the ground in the first place, like Fahrid Suleman and Judy Ellis. Also, they didn't change their name, like Regent did.

Yeah, Hanlon DID do some good things. He brought Kevin Matthews back to Grand Rapids and he made a smart move by moving WBBL to the FM band to protect its brand when Clear Channel took the ESPN franchise from the station put it on 96.1.

But yes, looking back at his tenure, he's much worse than Catlett. The fact that he screwed over KLQ too many-fold and created stations like Thunder 94.5 and 105.3 Hot FM that have became B93 and WSNX's respective bitches made him a man I wouldn't keep with a 50-foot pole.

So, is Hanlon getting the boot, or will Citadel keep him and continue to offer penny stocks?

The world many never know.

7.6.10

ANOTHER WAY TO DIE
Why is northern Michigan's rock stations so anti-new rock all the sudden?

If you're a major rock fan, you should know by now that the hottest track in all of rock music is Disturbed's "Another Way to Die".

Here in Grand Rapids, the song is #5 at WGRD. It's #1 at WRIF in Detroit, #1 in requests at Sirius/XM's Octane, #4 Active Rock and #8 Mainstream Rock per Mediabase 24/7.

And while the Cherry Festival is in full bloom in Traverse City, Sirius/XM is the only place in town that's even playing the hit.

That's right! Despite the fact that the Cherry Festival has four rock stations, NONE of them has touched the tune yet. Just about most other rock stations not afraid to play new rock are spinning it like crazy, but not even Real Rock 105 and 95-5 has touched the tune yet.

So, why is it? Well, let's take a looksy: 98.1/107.1 The Bear is 100% Classic Rock and 97.5/98.9 KLT is catering to the baby boomer crowd nowadays, so neither station's an option. 99.3 The Wolf hasn't updated their playlist in a year probably due to a lack of programming staff, so that leaves... Real Rock.

With everybody else in the rock radio industry in town acting so lazy regarding updating their playlist, it gives Real Rock a license to suck ass when it comes to new rock. As a matter of fact, during their Band to Band Combat feature last week, the two songs in battle were Rains' "Liar" (which Octane has been playing for some time)vs.... Rise Against's "Savior", which has been out for a year.

What's even more funny is that Papa Roach recently came through TC and the station's yet to play "Kick In the Teeth". Cavo's playing August 18th and "Crash" never made it onto their playlist.

Ya know, I've always had a love-hate relationship with whatever's on 95.5 in Traverse City. Of course, for 11 years, that frequency was the home of the Modern Rock station known as The Zone. Their first two years sucked because they "played it safe", avoiding the Tools, Nine Inch Nailses and Rage Against the Machines of the worldin favor of 50-year-old manhaters with stinky vagin - er, I mean the Lillith Fair types. Well, the ratings sucked, and when their first PD, Shawn Sheldon called it quits and Kimberly Fox took over, The Zone started to rock, the ratings exploded and KLT was left shaking in their boots.

Of course, all good things had to come to an end. In 2006, most of their airstaff was reassigned - possibly to avoid paying unemployment - and The Zone - reduced to just 95.5 Traverse City when 94.5 in Mackinaw City went Hot AC as "Star 94.5" - became a member of Waitt Radio Networks' "Alternative Now" format.The good news was that northern Michigan still had a place to hear most of the edgier artists KLT was too scared to play. The bad news: all of the jocks - save for Cartman in the morning - were from Omaha and voicetracked to Traverse City. Not to mention, Alternative Now played too much obscure indie rock that kinda scared off some of the Traverse City area's more-whitebread rock fans.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that radio is indeed changing, and as of now, hurting. One company that's hurting is The Zone and The Bear's parent, Northern Star Broadcasting. Earlier this year, NSB sold almost all of their radio stations in the upper peninsula to Sovereign Communications for a mere $3.5 million. However, one station - 97.9 WIHC, one of The Bear's frequencies in the Sault Ste. Marie area - wasn't part of the deal per FCC limitsand has been shut down for now. According to the company's president, the reason for 97.9's current demise is due to the local economy and lack of advertiser support.

Then again, that's another reason for The Zone's original demise in the Straits area at 94.5: not enough money. Since their flip to Star 94.5, the station has flipped twice more, first to Classic Country as Big Country Gold and is now a truncated version of The Bear alongside another former Zone frequency, 93.9 in Mio. I mean truncated since there's no jocks, no Bob and Tom and (why?) USA News on the hour.

The final nail on The Zone's coffin came on September 12th last year when they stated simulcasting with 105.1 in Cheboygan - which moved its transmitter closer to Gaylord - becoming Real Rock 105 and 95-5. The good news was that some of The Zone's most-popular bands such as Disturbed, Rage, Nine Inch Nails and Tool survived the changeover, andother kick-ass acts such as Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica (although they were a Zone artist off and on throughout the years) and the long-verboten-from-northern Michigan radio Pantera all were added to the playlist.

However, the bad news was that 1) the new station has so far proven to be current-unfriendly and 2) many geezer rock acts already overplayed on KLT and The Bear such as Boston, Styx, Whitesnake and Bob Segar started appearing on their playlist. At least the station is live and local again with Cartman handling middays and Nate and Smitty - moved over from The Bear - doing afternoons. However, nights and overnights are still voicetracked from Omaha via Waitt, now a division of Dial Global.

What really grinds my gears about Real Rock is the fact that a few weeks ago while staying in Bellaire, I was listening to them and some of their liners refer to them as "Real Rock 105 and 95-5 FM", "where the FM stands for Free Music!" followed by a woman speaking through a loudspeaker "please insert $12 to continue". Obviously, the ad was a knock on Sirius/XM, which terrestrial radio is calling their omen.

Bear in mind that Sirius/XM's new rock station, Octane plays new rock the second it's out and in most cases, BEFORE it hits terrestrial radio. True, Octane ain't perfect. They do play a lot of minor stuff from like five years ago nobody cares about. That's why there's other rock stations on Sirius/XM I enjoy like Lithium and 1st Wave.

I think it's sad that northern Michigan has four rock stations and they all can't get their shit together. True, you might ask "so how come you don't program it yourself?" Simple: the pay sucks and radio is in a downward spiral due to increased competition from MP3 players, internet radio and Sirius. Hell, like I mentioned, NSB has one of their stations silenced.

So, how WOULD I program a station in northern Michigan? Simple: mix in a few currents, recurrents and a classic or two per hour.

If I were PD, THIS would be a sample hour on my station:

*KoRn "Freak on a Leash"
*Disturbed "Another Way to Die"
*Three Days Grace "The Good Life"
*Breaking Benjamin "Give Me A Sign"
*Deftones "Diamond Eyes"
*Alice in Chains "Rooster"
*Five Finger Death Punch "Bad Company"
*Doors "Break On Through" (note that I don't mind SOME classic content on my rock station)
*Taproot "Fractured"
*Static-X "Push It"
*Stone Temple Pilots "Take A Load Off"
*Ozzy Osbourne "Let Me Hear You Scream"

Ya see, LOTS of currents mixed in good classics. Other hours, you'd see more currents mixed in with oldies from AC/DC, Motley Crue, Hendrix and other bands whose fans aren't limited to the 50-and-over crowd.

But tragically in northern Michigan, it won't happen. Why? The ownership groups up north will tolerate CHR, Oldies, Country and AC, but when it comes to rock, it's gotta be for the geezers. After all, the 18-34 crowd's too hooked into modern technology to care.

Rock radio up north is like a 20-screen multiplex in a small, secluded town far, far away from other cities that's finally decided to show "Avatar" and charge $10 per ticket even though it's already on DVD. However, thanks to the internet, one could (illegally) download that current hit movie for freeeven though there's occasional Russian subtitles.

Personally, if I was playing Traverse City, and none of the local stations in town were playing my music, I too would proudly give 'em the middle finger and tell my fans to listen to my music on Sirius. True, it's nice to support locally-owned radio stations, but when they think that it's more-important to hit that daily quota of "Tush", I'd be giving Sirius my credit card number, too.

After all, northern Mich igan does have five different major radio station groups: NSB, Northern Broadcast, Fort Bend, Midwestern and MacDonald-Garber. Guess which one might still be there in ten years?

Note: Real Rock has added "Another Way to Die" to their playlist... A month late.

---

3.7.10

A SPECIAL WEEKLY THOUGHT
Can Michigan's 20-somethings survive?

Rachelle Consiglio-Wilkos, I love you in a non-sexual-or-else-your-husband-Steve-would-beat-the-living-crap-out-of-me-besides-you're-39-with-two-kids-kinda-way, but you've forgot something.

Late last year, the executive producer of The Jerry Springer Show and her hubby's show, The Steve Wilkos Show's bosses at NBC Universal released a statement stating that both her shows' ratings had skyrocketed from that time period the year before. Overall, Springer went from a .9 to a 1.2 (although it was an 8.7 in the late 90's, even beating Oprah at one time) while Steve rose to a 1.1 from a 1.0 the season before.

In the sugarcoated press release, the Detroit native Consiglio-Wilkos stated, "The move to Stamford, CT., has been a very positive one for us, both shows have more energy and excitement and Steve also has a new look, set and feel. The fact that the viewers are responding is very gratifying."

She was referring to the fact regarding her two shows moving from Chicago to Stamford, CT as part of a tax deal that benefited NBC Universal parent General Electric - based in Connecticut - and the ailing Stamford Center For the Arts. Both shows were given bright new sets and a whole new look. Both shows share their facilities with Maury Povich's talk show, which is nowbeating Oprah in many key demos.

But sadly, Mrs. Consiglio-Wilkos forgot one major detail as to why her shows' ratings have taken off in one year, and it doesn't take a Consiglio of her fellow Michiganders to understand why:

We ain't got no jobs.

Yep! The great state of Michigan is 50th place of all states in the union in regards to jobs. Thanks to eight years of Reagan, twelve combined years of Bushes and twelve years of good 'ol John Engler, we're in the shit. With both GM and Chrysler in bankruptcy and especially GM with the fact that they made more Hummers than vehicles people actually wanted to buy, no wonder why Michigan's economic situation is quite torrid.

So therefore, many of the un- and underemployed end up watching - you guessed it - the daily adventures of Maury, Springer and Steve Wilkos, making us more worried about who the babydaddy is than that of getting a real job. I'll admit that I tape Wilkos and Springer daily, and the local ad load includes the following:

*Car City: a ton of car dealerships with an annoying jingle that will finance everybody, even bums,
*Keller and Keller, a lawyer firm,
*Sam Bernstein, whose ads feature legendary Detroit newsman Bill Bonds
*and LKQ, a local junkyard.

Since these shows air at a time when most people work, most of their viewers tend to be those wishing for work. So, guess whose ads we see a lot of during these shows? Yeo, good 'ol Everest Institute, who'll probably put a D student in a job that'll pay them $20,000 per year with a lot of college loan debt.

The sad thing is, I went to one of those schools and, well, I'm still alive, aren't I?

Ya know, when my Dad was 29, he already had a house, a wife and was entering his first year of fatherhood. Not bad for a man living in traditionally-jobless northern Michigan without a formal high school education.

Now, I'll be the 29-year-old coming in May. Let's see: I have a high school education with like I said, a tech school degree. I live in a small apartment, no wife and no kid. Sadly, the last time I went to the bar, a gay dude hit on me and tried to convince me to have sex with him.

But, guess who's also close to 29? One of my cousins. He and his wife were living in the Detroit area and even though he has two college degrees, he's being forced to move away because of the lack of jobs. As a matter of fact, he's now moving to Dallas to become... A crime scene cleanup person. The pay's good, but as long as one can pick up scattered brains in the ghetto, good for them.

Of course, another huge reason for the lack of good jobs for us 20-somethings is simple: the baby boom. In just a few short years, their children will out-populate them. Many jobs that years ago took only a high school education now take a college degree and even those jobs will only give you $20,000 a year.

I do ask myself, "when does this madness stop?" When can Michigan's economy start to recover so I can get a better job, a wife and a better life? I heard one answer: 15 years. Who knows? Obama's plan has created new road construction jobs here in this state. Plus, with Toyota's gas pedal problems, people are now getting GM and Ford cars, putting Detroit back on the map.

In the end, I kinda hope that whomever Michigan chooses to replace Jennifer Granholm will be a wise one. Let's choose somebody who chooses people over special interests. True, people hate her guts, but the reason why Granholm won was because her opponents, Dick Posthumus and Dick Devos were both pro-Bush-like tax cuts for the rich. I agree that Granholm was a little too soft on some issues, but overall, theodds were against her. I hope Michigan's voters put our younger generation first, not the rich jerks in East Grand Rapids.

Let's get back to work. That way, 'ol Rachelle can praise the good lord for the DVR.

2.12.10

A NEAR MONOPOLY IN THE SAULT
Sovereign Communications buys nearly every single radio station in the eastern U.P.

Pending FCC approval, Sault Ste. Marie-based Sovereign Communications will own nearly every single radio station in the eastern U.P.

It was announced this week that Sovereign - headed by native Bill Gleich - will purchase eleven stations from Traverse City-based Northern Star Broadcasting for $3.5 million. As a result, Gleich will have a monopoly in the Sault area. The sole competition he'll have will be from NSB's last-remaining upper peninsula property, WIHC 97.9, which airs the Bear classic rock format also aired on 98.1 Traverse City and 107.1 Cadillac.Plus, there's a few stations out of nearby Sault Canada that he'll have to deal with. Other than that, Gleich has the market all to himself.

Gleich will also own several stations in the Marquette area: Country WJPD 92.3, Oldies WNGE 99.5, Rock WUPK/WIMK "The Bear", News/Talk WIAN/WDMJ, Hot AC WZNL 94.3 and Talk WMIQ 1450. The new Sault stations Gleich now owns - CHR WYSS 99.5 "Yes FM", Country WMKD 105.5 and News/Talk WKNW 1400 - will join Rock WSUE 101.3, Oldies WNBY-FM 93.9, Full-Serve WSOO 1230 and Country WNBY 1450.

NSB will retain their stations in Traverse City and Petoskey, including The Bear, Real Rock 105/95-5, Big Country 102.9/93.9, Big Country Gold 94.5 and WCBY 1230. Last year, the company sold WIDG 940 to a Catholic group. There have been rumors for a while that NSB is trying to get out of the broadcasting business.

However, there's a TON of controversy regarding the sale, and it regards WYSS. After the sale was announced earlier this week, NSB laid off most of their staff, but Gleich rehired 10 people. Six people lost their jobs, including most of Yes FM's airstaff, featuring Station Manager Doug Laprade, Program Director Paul Junior VanWagoner, News Director Scott Nason and Disc Jockeys Jason Mapes and Melissa Krahnke.

Since the WYSS bloodletting, there were a few Facebook pages set up protesting the sale, claiming that Sovereign threw their employees away. Even WYSS's website was sabotaged, blasting Bill Gleich and his staff for killing Yes FM.

Now, as much as I hate monopolies, I gotta hand it to Bill "Curtis" Gleich. I've met him twice, and even knows me by name. He's definitely one of the nicest guys I've ever met in the business and quite knowledgeable. After all, he's been in the business since he was 15. It's nice to know that despite the fact that 1) terrestrial radio is dying 2) Michigan is a tough place to run a business and 3) Sault Ste. Marie probably has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state that there's a radio company that's doing quite well. Why? According to Bill, he does his research. He does put people first and has great rapport with advertisers.

Look, when companies merge, people gotta go, grudge or not. Look at Sirius and XM; people from both services were canned when the merger was finally finalized. Same with Sovereign. Of course, the problem is this: if you get canned from Sovereign, you'll now have nowhere else to go.

But in my honest opinion, I'm not worried about the latter. When I see Sovereign's stand at the Straits Area Classic Auto Show, what I see is simple: one, big happy family of DJs proud to represent the U.P's largest radio broadcaster. As a rock fan, I'm happy to say that Bill's WSUE is impressive for a station in a small town. Edgy enough to impress young rock fans, but the right amount of classics to keep older rock fans tuned in.Of course, that's unlike WKLT in Traverse City, which puts the 50 and under crowd to sleep.

The moral of the story: a monopoly's not so bad, as long as it's done right.

2.2.10

NO, WAIT, THEY'RE OUT!
Radio trade site reveals Northern Michigan 12+ Arbitron ratings, embargo or not

After a year's absence, radio fans in northern Michigan who are not in the business now know how their favorite radio stations are doing.

Radio-info.com revealed the ratings - possibly last week - and here's how the Fall 09 12+-ers did:

1)WTCM-FM 103.5/93.5 (Midwestern/Country) 11.0
2)WKLT 97.5/98.9 (Northern/Rock) 10.2
3)WKHQ 105.9 (MacDonald Garber/CHR) 9.5
4)WCCW 107.5/107.9 (Midwestern/Oldies) 8.8
5)WTCM-AM 580 (Midwestern/News-Talk) 7.7
6)WJZJ 95.5/105.1 (Northern Star/Rock) 5.8
7)WLDR 101.9 (Fort Bend/Country) 4.0
8T)WLXT 96.3 (MacDonald Garber/AC) 3.7
8T)WMKC 102.9/93.9 (Northern Star/Country) 3.7
8T)WFCX 94.3/92.5 (Northern Broadcast/Classic Hits) 3.7
11)WGFN 98.1 (Northern Star/Classic Rock) 2.6
12)WJZQ 92.9 (Midwestern/CHR) 1.8
13T)WCCW 1310 (Midwestern/Sports)1.1
13T)WLJZ 94.5 (Northern Star/Classic Country)1.1
13T)WSRT 106.7/105.5 (Northern/AC) 1.1
16T)WOUF 99.3 (Fort Bend/Rock) .7
16T)WJML 1110/1210 (Stone/News-Talk) .7
16T)WMKT 1270 (MacDonald-Garber/News-Talk) .7
19T)WBNZ 92.3 (Fort Bend/AC) .4
19T)WLXV 96.7 (MacDonald-Garber/Hot AC) .4
19T)WMBN 1340 (MacDonald-Garber/Adult Standards) .4
19T)WUPS 98.5 (Coltrace/Classic Hits) .4

If you compare the Arbitrons listed above to our Alexa internet ratings below, there's many comparisons and contrasts, especially in Country and AC. On the Arbitrons, Country stations did well while their websites did not. AC stations, however, didn't do well in the Arbs (1.1 for 100,000-watt WSRT "You FM"? Daaaaaaammmmmnnn...) but did well on the web,probably due to the fact that both stations don't have the greatest office penetration with their signals, especially into Traverse City. Country, OTOH, well, since most Country fans are either older or aren't very tech savvy, it explains why WLDR and WMKC did well terrestrial-wise and not web-wise (not to mention, WMKC doesn't stream).

Same goes with the Petoskey/Charlevoix-based talkers; their shitty signals only gave them shitty ratings, but since both stream online, their web ratings are decent.

From now on, we shouldn't necessarily judge a station by their terrestrial signal, but also their websites. However, not all northern Michigan websites stream (off the top of my head, WCCW-FM, WJZJ, WMKC and WGFN to name a few), and not all northern Michigan stations have a website (like WLJZ, which airs a Classic Country format). Station owners need to realize that they need to think glocal, not local (and if you don't know what "glocal" is, go see "Up in the Air").

But here's the question: how many people right now are REALLY listening to their webstreams and visiting their websites? This site gets over 1,000 hits per week and is ranked 8,143,802 on Alexa. Therefore, I might get 150 visitors per day on average. In turn, low Arb-rankers like WSRT *ARE* worthless, and yes, I think that it's time for change.

Here's what I think should happen:

*The biggest change needed is definitely 106.7 You FM. They've been some type of AC format this past decade and it ain't workin'. I know, they shouldn't have flipped from CHR "The Peak", but I think KHQ and Z93 have that ground covered now. Ya know, how about some type of Alternative format? Not all rock fans are into Van Halen, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. With The Zone gone, is there ANY radio station up north playing bands such as Phoenix, Muse, Weezer or Silversun Pickups? True, I like the hard rock/metal myself, but the 20-somethings love indie stuff. Yes, northern Michigan's not that 20-something-friendly right now, but wait a few years...

*Neither WJML or WMKT have good ratings. WJML *should* have some ratings since they have Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz and Michael Savage, but geez, look at WMKT. Aside from their local morning shows from Greg Marshall and Vic McCarty, it's a programming nightmare. John Gibson? Dr. Laura? Dave Ramsey? Rusty Humphries? ROGER HEDGECOCK? WTF IS ROGER HEDGECOCK? Honesty, northern Michigan's ripe and ready for a liberal talk station. Yeah, laugh at the demise of Air America, but the truth is, NONE of the most-major liberal talkers were even with Air America. Most are with Dial or Premiere/Clear Channel. Air America failed due to poor management, not ratings.

*I'd give Z93 some time to develop.

*As for The Bear, maybe NSB should flip it to Big Country, giving them a Traverse City/Cadillac signal. Something to think about. They can even keep Bob and Tom since a few Country stations - like Kalamazoo's WYZO - carry them.

2.1.10

WEEKLY THOUGHTS: EMBARGOED AGAIN...
Northern Michigan left wondering how their favorite stations are doing

Once again, folks living in northern Michigan are out of the loop, wondering how their favorite radio stations are doing in the ratings. One or several radio groups have decided to not subscribe to Arbitron, causing the ratings firm to withhold or embargo the Fall 09 ratings released last week to the general public.

Thankfully, we here at Chuck69.com realize that the internet might be the best source to discover how radio station websites are doing thanks to Alexa. After all, why use a sample of a few hundred folks when MILLIONS around the world could make things possibly more accurate? Remember, we must think glocal, not local.

So, here's how northern Michigan radio stations are doing (that large number, BTW is their Alexa web ranking):

Green = ratings increase
Red = ratings decrease

1) WKLT AOR 97.5/98.9 "The Rock Station" - 3,871,170 (last rank: 1 - 1,386,410)
2) WKHQ CHR "106 KHQ" - 4,884,734 (2 - 2,251,630)
3) WUPS Classic Hits 98.5 - 4,935,826 (12 - 11,400,795)
4) WMKT News/Talk 1270 "The Talk Station" - 5,202,689 (11 - 10,778,142)
5) WLXT AC "Lite 96.3" - 5,831,970 (8 - 6,834,442)
6) WTCM-FM Country 103.5/93.5 - 5,955,851 (14 - 13,846,842)
7) WSRT AC "106.7 You FM" - 6,168,232 (10 - 9,575,194)
8) WJML News/Talk 1110/1210 - 7,658,147 (9 - 8,636,896)
9) WGFN Classic Rock 98.1/107.1 "The Bear" - 9,376,278 (3 - 3,899,928)
10) WTCM "News/Talk 580" - 10,582,429 (4 - 5,534,177)
11) WCCW-FM "Oldies 107.5" - 12,262,953 (6 - 6,676,896)
12) WFCX Classic Hits 94.3/92.5 "The Fox FM" - 13,967,005 (15 - 20,568,533)
13) WJZJ "Real Rock 105 and 95-5" - 14,371,246 (5 - 6,044,131)
14) WMJZ Variety Hits "Eagle 101.5" - 15,263,891 (unranked last time)
15) WJZQ CHR "Z93" - 17,518,713 (unranked)
16) WLXV Hot AC "Mix 96" - 17,959,743 (16 - 21,021,670)
17) WTWS Country "92.1 The Twister" - 19,683,048 (13 - 11,818,616)
18) WDEE Oldies "Sunny 97.3" - 20,173,850 (unranked)
19) WCCW Sports "ESPN 1310" - 21,186,058 (unranked)

Observations:

*Once again, WKLT is the winner of the internet ratings crop, possibly due to Omelette and Finster and their "MyTunes" weekends. For some reason, I never knew that fans of 1970's butt rock could have internet connections.

*This time around, rock had a crappy book despite KLT being tops. All rock stations on the list lost ratings ranks, possibly due to the changeovers at The Bear and what used to be The Zone, not Real Rock 105 and 95-5. However, Real Rock could be streaming REAL soon...

*AC had a great book with increases at both Lite 96.3 and the once-doomed 106.7 You FM. Both stations brightened up their playlists by modernizing their playlists although You FM continues to be Lite 96's bitch.

*I'm still shaking my head, wondering how WMKT could be northern Michigan's top-rated internet talk station, given the fact that the only real talent the station has is Dr. Laura and Dave Ramsey. Then again, Alexa can't be ENTIRELY perfect...

*As finally expected, the old 92.9 The Breeze flipped to Adult CHR as Z93 and they're finally on the ratings list. However, they'll continue to get crapped on by KHQ.

*Isn't it strange that two 100,000-watt Country stations - Big Country 102.9 and Sunny Country 101.9 WLDR, both stations with huge coverage of northern Michigan - didn't make the list, yet tiny 600-watt 92.1 The Twister out of Houghton Lake did?

As usual, IF the Arbs are available to the public, it'll be out around August.

1.24.10

WEEKLY THOUGHTS: IS HOWARD COMING TO CLEAR CHANNEL?
As Sirius contract nears completion, it's time to weigh his options

Five years ago, Howard Stern was telling his listeners that he would never go to terrestrial radio, ever, ever again.

Then again, he's relatively good at forgiveness, just ask Bubba the Love Sponge, Chevy Chase, Rosie O'Donnell and even David Letterman.

As we all know, thanks to Janet Jackson's nip-slip at the 2004 Super Bowl, radio and TV's a different animal these days thanks to more-sanitized programming. Of course that meant stations canning Stern left and right, mostly coming from Clear Channel. Thanks to the halftime controversy, Howard jumped to Sirius Satellite Radio in 2006 with a record five-year, $500 million contract.

In the five years since Stern's move to satellite, radio's now a different animal with many, many changes and not all of them are good. For years, radio has had trouble keeping their more-tech-savvy listeners hooked into MP3 players, Sirius and other platforms in this 'I wanna hear it now' society. Long gone are the days where if you wanted to hear a certain song, you'd have to call up a DJ, who'd be somewhat reluctant to spin it. Now, thanks to ye olde internet, the song's there and waiting for you to hear it.

Now, terrestrial radio wants Stern back. BAD.

Last week, Clear Channel CEO John Hogan told Business Week Magazine that Stern would be a perfect fit at Clear Channel. We clearly have both the willingness and the financial wherewithal to consider high-profile talent, we would be the most logical company for him to optimize his exposure and financial return," said Hogan. He said that as long as Stern keeps his statements within FCC reasons, all will be fair.

It was also announced that week that Stern received a few offers from other stations, but nothing "bona fide" as of yet.

Now, with Stern's contract ending the end of 2010, will Sirius/XM - who prevented bankruptcy late last year thanks to an investment made by Liberty Media - be able to pony up even more dough for the King of All Media, or will he go to Clear Channel, which is private? Well, that's a good question.

You see, Sirius DID make a profit off of Stern, thanks to the fact that he brought in millions of subscribers to the then-faltering sat net starting in late 2004 when his new contract was announced. Today, Sirius and XM now have nearly 19 million subscribers and growing. However, their stock's a different concern. Right now, it's standing at 69 cents down from something like $20 a few years ago. Then again it's not totally Howard's fault that Sirius's stock sucks. It's because they've invested in programming that doesn't do anything for most Americans, i.e. foreign language radio stations.

Also, most radio firms probably can't even afford Stern as-is. Citadel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month and Regent just missed a loan payment. Of course, lord only knows if CBS wants Stern back again.

But, if Stern were to return to terrestrial radio, his fans hope he's syndicated, me being one of them. It WOULD be a good thing if Clear Channel syndied him, since it could give him a strong station base ala Rush Limbaugh. Hell, they could carry him here in Grand Rapids on 101.3 The Fox, which COULD use a morning show. Maybe there's no show there at the moment so they can wait on Stern, but who knows? Just imagine: Stern can make Free Beer and Hot Wings their bitch.

However, I love the fact that I could listen to Stern anywhere in the country. Remember, I created this site because nobody in northern Michigan media gave two rat's asses about him, but now, he's quite the alternative to the moronic rants of Omelette and Finster.

But let's not forget that OTHER technology: the internet. Remember when Howard was on terrestrial radio he banned all streaming of his show? Simple: it was a plan for his out-of-range listeners to bitch to local stations to carry it. Sadly, with the high cost of carrying his show, plus the multiple Stern clones out there like Bob and Tom that are cheap - and let's not forget the religious right - when Howard left regular radio, he only had 40 affiliates.

I think the best thing to do for Howard at this point is to think about the listeners too. True, his rants on censorship were great, but it'll all come back to haunt him if he comes back. Yes, the cost of owning a Sirius unit ain't too cheap, but to people like me, it's worth it.

Whatever Howard chooses, I hope it's for the fans.

1.4.10

NFL SEASON RESULTS
Well, I was wrong

This year, I decided not to predict the whole NFL season, but hey, the Lions still sucked.

Despite a new head coach, the Lions went 2-14 on the season. But hey, it's two games more than the abmyssal abortion that occurred last season! So, how did I do? Well...

9.13 @ NO - (I predicted)L - (and I got it right) - W
9.20 MIN - W - L
9.27 WAS - DEFINITE L - L
10.4 @CHI - L - W
10.11 PIT - L - W
10.18 @GB - L - W
11.1 STL - L - W
11.8 @SEA - W - L
11.15 @MIN - L - W
11.22 CLE - W - W
11.26 GB - L - W
12.6 @CIN - W - L
12.13 @BAL - L- W
12.20 ARZ - L - W
12.27 @SF - L- W
1.3 CHI - L - W

END RECORD: 4-12 Nope, it was 2-14. My personal record was 12-4, which still ain't too shabby, IMO.

12.30.09
2009: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

THE GOOD:
*Barack Obama now president
*Bush out of office
*Chesley Sullenberger
*the death of WKLQ and Citadel going bankrupt
*Sirius/XM getting bailed out
*the Michael Jackson of the past 15 years dying
*"Capitalism: A Love Story"
*"Inglorious Basterds"
*"Avatar"
*Sal and Richard's prank calls to tradio

THE BAD:
*Rod Blagojevich
*Pirates
*GM
*Scott Roeder
*Jon and Kate
*the fact that pre-1994 Michael Jackson is dead
*Joe "YOU LIE!" Wilson
*the Heenes
*Tiger Woods
*losing Claborne Pell, Ron Asheton, Steven Gilborn, Ricardo Montalbon, Patrick MacGoohan, Billy Powell, Lux Interior, James Whitmore, Socks the Cat, Wendy Richard, Paul Harvey, Brian James, Colleen Howe, Bill Davidson, Andrew "Test" Martin, Hank Locklin, Jade Goody, George Kell, Natasha Richardson, Irving R. Levine, Nick Adenhart, Mark Fidrych, Marilyn Chambers, Harry Kalas, Bea Arthur, Dom Deluise, Chuck Daly, Blue Iris, Koko Taylor, David Carridine, Bob Bogle, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Billy Mays, Fred Travelina, Karl Maden, Dal McKennon, Gale Storm, Walter Cronkite, Heinz Edelman, John Hughes, Eunice Shriver, Les Paul, Vinginia Davis, Allen Shellenberger, Don Hewett, Ted Kennedy, Dominick Dunne, DJ AM, Army Archerd, Larry Gelbart, Patrick Swayze, Jim Carroll, Mary Travers, Henry Gibson, Al Martino, Lou Albino, Soupy Sales, Ken Ober, Veatrice Rice, Umaga, Roy Disney, Brittany Murphy, George Michael, Arnold Stang and Steve Williams

THE UGLY:
*Octo-Mom
*Susan Boyle
*the B93 flooding
*Heidi Montag's crappy Playboy spread
*H1N1
*Sarah Palin
*Ernie Harwell diagnosed with cancer
*Joe Lieberman
*Barney Fife
*the years between 2000 and 2009

12.21.09
OK, before we get to Bee-otch of the Decade...
CITADEL IS BANKRUPT
Company's current debt load: over $2 billion

Sunday afternoon, it was made official that Citadel Broadcasting, the nation's third-largest broadcaster and owner of several radio stations here in Grand Rapids announced that they had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The company's no stranger to trouble; in 2006, they bought out the ABC Radio Network from Disney and thanks to dry advertiser revenues and changes in both programming and listenership, the Las Vegas-owned company has a debt load of over $2 billion.

To me, this is no surprise since Citadel's been making VERY bad decisions in their Grand Rapids cluster alone over the years. Hell, the bankruptcy comes seven years to the day WKLQ started to dick around with their listeners in regard to Stern and his 'temporary' move to WBBL.

Oh, yes, let's not forget the fact that the only station Citadel has in Grand Rapids saving their asses is WLAV. Both Hot FM and Thunder 94.5 are getting mauled by WSNX and B93 respectively and what's even more laughable is the fact that the station that replaced KLQ earlier this year, WBBL's ratings are on par with KLQ's, and the station that replaced WBBL at 1340 AM, Chamber of Commerce Talk WJRW, is currently registering in the Arbitrends with a whopping 0.0.

Ya know, for Citadel, payback's a bitch, especially with the way they treated Stern fans with his move to Sirius. They thumbed their noses at their listeners and they bailed on them. Eye for an eye, plain and simple.

Oh, and I hear that 400 people may be losing their jobs and ALL of their radio markets will be affected. Will Farid Suleman and Matt Hanlon be two of 'em? I hope so.

Alrighty now...
BEE-OTCH OF THE DECADE
Oddly enough, it ain't Bush

Well, I'm not all that predictable.

Back in 1999, I introduced the Bee-otch of the Day on this very website to call out those who, well, screw up. The Bee-otch of the Day went into the running for Bee-otch of the Week, Bee-otches of the Week went into the running for Bee-otch of the Month, and Bee-otches of the Month became nominated for Bee-otch of the Year.

However, last year, a poster on a message board I'm a regular of, DigitalRadioCentral.com told me that I should have the Bee-otch of the Decade. After all, my choices would be Kathie Lee Gifford (2000), Canadian radio magnate John Hayes (2001), The D.C. Snipers (2002), Saddam Hussein (2003) and George W. Bush (every year after 2004).

Naturally, Bush should be Bee-otch of the Decade. After all, he deceived a nation - if not, the world, He squandered the surplus Clinton left us when he left office in 2001, he lied to us about 9/11, and, well, we know the rest of the story. However, he's not the Bee-otch of the Decade.

Maybe Al Gore should be Bee-otch of the Decade. Think about it. His running mate in 2000 was Joe Lieberman, a man the Democrats hate. Because of Gore's decision, many Democrat voters voted for a third-party candidate like Ralph Nader. As a matter of fact, Nader got 2.7% of the vote in the 2000 election. Bush still lost the popular vote; Gore had 50,999,897 while Bush had 50,456,002. Maybe if Gore didn't choose the right-leaning senator from Connecticut, Dubya wouldn't have ruined this country and GM wouldn't have went through bankruptcy since they'd be making cars people could afford.

Of course, there's Osama bin Laden. After all, he allegedly was responsible for 9/11. However, there's those conspiracy theorists who claim that this country was responsible for the attacks. After all, the only video of the plane crashing into the Pentagon showed that the object that was supposed to be a plane resembled more like a missile. Plus, there was no way that the impact of the planes could have caused the World Trade Towers to collapse. After all, jet fuel's not even flammable. Trust me. Ask Jesse "The Body" Ventura.

Of course, there's Saddam Hussein. He planned 9/11 with his 'ol buddy Osama, right? Well, that's what the Bush administration wanted us to believe. Well, the WMD were nowhere to be found, so there.

There's numerous choices for Bee-otch of the Decade. How about Jon and Kate? Paris Hilton? Lindsay Lohan? Chris Brown? How about the FCC for telling us what is/isn't acceptable? Pat Robertson? Virtually everybody who's been in a reality show? Brad Bitt and Angelina Jolie? Maybe we should award the news media for overhyping the above. Or, how about we give the Bee-otch of the Decade Award to Walmart for destroying main street America even further and forcing many Americans to work for them and their lousy wages. How about Bernie Madoff for his ponzi crap or businesses for not giving employees raises, even though the bosses get to go on lavish vacations?

Well, in part, they ALL deserve Bee-otch of the Decade. But, I've created an ultimatum.

I've decided to award Bee-otch of the Decade to the people that have allowed this all to happen. The people who talk but don't walk. The people who worry about losing their jobs to foreigners but yet go to the store and buy clothes made in a Taiwanese sweat shop. The people who worry about their downtown main street and yet they buy from Walmart. The people who hate the president but don't vote. The people who can't think for themselves, so they've allowed the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly to think for them instead of Thom Hartmann, Rachel Maddow and Randi Rhodes to think for them instead. Not to mention, these people buy from Rush's sponsors instead of Hartmann's.

Congratulations, the Bee-otch of the Decade Award goes to US.

I think we've all done something that has turned America - and the world - into a living hell. We shop at a big box store instead of the locally-owned shops run by folks who love and take care of the communities they serve. We buy cars made in Japan by people who are given free health insurance and can live off of top ramen while the $30 per hour union workers here in American struggle day-to-day. Instead of walking, we only talk and don't act.

OK, I'll admit: I didn't vote in the 2000 election. 1) I was out of the area Election Day and didn't get an absentee ballot and 2) I didn't like either Bush nor Al Gore. True, I love Gore for his efforts in helping the environment, but like I said earlier, Joe Lieberman is a backstabber. However, I did vote in the 2004 election and all elections onward.

I'm very happy to say that I do my best to support local businesses instead of big chains like Walmart. After I saw "Capitalism: A Love Story", I wanted to shop at a locally-owned store instead of Meijer, but I had no choice. I was too far from one. True, Meijer's based here in Grand Rapids, they're also one of the biggest retailers in the midwest. They are lesser of the two evils between them and Walmart, especially since they don't have a bleeped-out CD selection and they have workers who have been there for years with little turnaround.

If you think that Walmart is evil, go back to the 1930's. In my old hometown of Elk Rapids, MI, downtown was a cornucopia of restaurants, small shops and a movie theatre. In 1938, there was a grocery store downtown called A.P. Wilson's, and Mr. Wilson was one of these guys who knew everybody's name and had everything behind the counter. One day, Mr. Wilson was greeted by a man in a suit. The man said something to the tune of "Hi! I'm from the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company and I'm interested in buying your store." Mr. Wilson wasn't interested and the man continued, "Well, then we'll go ahead and buy out one of your competitors and you'll go under anyway." Within a few weeks, the A&P sign was hanging over the door at Wilson's old grocery store.

If you think that Walmart's domination of the retail market's bad, look at A&P; while Wallyworld has 4,300 stores, A&P had 16,000 in the 1930's. Most of their stores were in small towns and were about 5,000 square feet or less.

However, by 1970, A&P's market base had been cut down by 3/4 to only 4,000 stores. Part of the reason was due to larger stores replacing smaller ones with more efficiency and competition from (gasp) independently-owned stores in smaller towns.

In 1949, a man named Don Pozolo and his wife Mary rented out a gas station on the town's east side and brought groceries to that part of town. Around that time, A&P was starting to build bigger stores in larger cities and felt that building a bigger store in a podunk town like Elk Rapids - current population 1,700 - wouldn't be efficient. So when the lease ran out on his old gas station, Don purchased land across the street and built a much bigger store to put the 'ol A&P to shame. A&P would survive another decade before closing up shop in Elk Rapids in the late 60's.

As for Don's Supermarket? Well, after suffering health problems - probably due to stress - he sold his store to the Young and Prince families in 1974 with the Youngs buying out the Princes a few years later. Today, the Village Market is now run by two generations of Youngs, and the village is pretty lucky to have a family-run store that's reinvested a chunk of their profit back into the community. Today, many organizations, such as the town's schools and other community events have the Young family to thank. Even when it was announced that Walgreen's wanted to build a store a few years ago, the town's residents stood together and fought against them since it would have been a slap in the face to the Young's philanthropic efforts.

Heck, there's not even a McDonald's in Elk Rapids, and it might be one of the largest towns in northern Michigan without one. Wanna cheeseburger and fries? You actually have to go to one of the town's sit-down restaurants and order one cooked to order that will *actually* digest in your stomach. You might have to pay a few bucks more, but oh well.

You see, folks, the example of Elk Rapids shows that sometimes, the small guy is way better. Elk Rapids loves the Village Market and the Village Market loves them back. However, these same family-run grocers that kicked A&P out of town in the 1960's are now struggling, especially the ones that are 15 miles down the road from a Walmart Supercenter. Maybe if the Don Pozolos of the world were still alive today, they'd find their current biggest-weakness and build a store that would put them to shame.

I guess the moral is simple: maybe if we'd find our biggest weaknesses, we wouldn't be bee-otches. We're not perfect, and yet it's our imperfections that are bringing us down. True, we have a president that has been in office for not even a year, but we need to give him a chance. He's even told us that the only way we can reshape the nation is if we work together. Can we do it? Yes we can! However, thanks to the yahoos that still think that the Oxy-induced Rush is right, the sink-or-swim philosophy is, well, pointing to 'sink'.

Regretfully, as much as I hate to say it, hate this past decade? Blame yourself.

11.26.09

WEEKLY THOUGHTS: THE NEXT MIRACLE FOR TC (AND NORTHERN MICHIGAN) PART TWO
More proposals to further put the north into the 21st century

Michael Moore, you're a friggin' genius.

And the Traverse City Record-Eagle, you're a friggin' genius for being a newspaper that's actually SURVIVING the newspaper circulation crisis thanks to your not-so-cookie-cutter reporting, too.

A week ago Sunday, the Eagle published an op-ed by Moore called The Next Miracle For TC, in which Moore makes the following proposals for the city of 15,000:

*wire Traverse City for the 21st Century because there's still a lot of spots in town where there's no cell phone access to the internet,
*create middle class jobs for TC,
*make TC a cool place to live for young adults,
*make Northwestern Michigan College a four-year school,
*bring down the cost of living since a green pepper there costs $1.75 while it's 89 cents in New York
*make the rich pay more taxes,
*make downtown hipper by creating a nightlife, a grocery store and hip places to hang out
*and "sink or swim together" - people in northern Michigan need to listen to both sides of the political spectrum.

As a former northern Michigan resident, Michael Moore is dead on. Let's face it: after their original inventions or introductions, it took 21 years for Traverse City to get its first radio station, 13 years to get its first TV station, 17 years to get its first cable system, 23 years to get its first modern shopping mall (not counting the old Arcade downtown or Logan's Landing) and 20 years to get its first full-service top 40 radio station. Hell, I lived out in rural Antrim County and I didn't get cable TV until 1996!

Since I moved to Grand Rapids full-time in 2002, northern Michigan has indeed changed, mostly for the better. As a teen, the closest grocery store where I lived - a small party store - shut down for the winter. Now with new owners, it's a full-service grocer complete with meat and produce and even a restaurant. They're even open year-round now! Also when I was young, I wanted to go to a lot of rock concerts. However, it was impossible, thanks to Castle Farms shutting down and the Cherry Festival cracking down on major rock acts due to constant profanity. Now, there's The Terminal, which has given all music fans a place to go to for a decent concert.

Oh, yeah, Traverse City (GASP) has some advantages over Grand Rapids, like casinos, a weekly liberal-leaning paper ala Metro Times (although The Northern Express can be a kiss-ass paper), a great newspaper - the Record-Eagle - that doesn't bow to whatever Amway wants, and yes, Traverse City doesn't have a Nazi-influenced strip club ordinance (it's too bad, however, like Michael Moore points out that TC's not 20-something-friendly enough, since some of the girls at Fantasy's need to be sent out to pasture).

As pointed out in Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story", FDR tried to pass a second Bill of Rights that would have protected America's middle class, but he died only one year after proposing it. Well, since Moore himself made some proposals in his article, I've been given the liberty to add four things on to his list, including a proposal that would really, really, REALLY piss him off. I love Mike, but I don't 100% agree on everything he says.

CHUCK'S MIRACLE FOR NORTHERN MICHIGAN
1) TRAVERSE CITY NEEDS EITHER A DENNY'S, IHOP OR STEAK 'N SHAKE, OR ALL THREE. Ever since the Clock shut down, enjoying a good, sit-down nosh at 3 a.m. in the morning has been quite hard. Now, I might be out of the loop here, but I don't think there's ANY restaurant in Traverse City open 24/7 anymore, save for the fast-food drive-thrus. In the case of Denny's and IHOP, their ads have been on national television long enough, so why not open a locale in Traverse City? Same goes with Steak 'n Shake, especially since they're cheaper than the two aforementioned joints.

2) ELLSWORTH - AND OTHER SMALL TOWNS - NEED A GROCERY STORE. Hard to believe that 20 years ago, Ellsworth had two grocers. However, thanks to many factors, they're both gone. Because of heightened competition from the big boxers like Walmart and Meijer, many smaller towns are without a grocer. Usually when this happens, the local party or convenience stores end up taking part of the slack. After all, they are grocery stores minus the carts, meat and produce.

However, Ellsworth's a different situation. They DON'T have a c-store. As a matter of fact, the only gas station in town is the local Farmers Exchange, which sells farming supplies. In other words, in Ellsworth, you can't buy milk by the gallon, but yet, you can buy a lump of coal. Sad.

The last owner of Ellsworth's grocery store claimed that the reason why he closed up shop last year was due to the fact that local residents just didn't want to support their local grocer. He and his wife would see people just down the road from their store that would never set foot inside. Instead, they did their business in East Jordan - six miles one way - where there's a decent-sized Glen's and the deep-discount Save-A-Lot which sells a box of cereal for $1.60 while Ellsworth Grocery sold it for a buck or two more.

Ellsworth Grocery didn't even have a meat counter or produce, which probably killed off business even more.

Not long after Ellsworth Grocery closed, another closed shop, the Ellsworth Diner reopened as the Front Porch Cafe under new ownership: a non-profit group devoted to keeping a community together. It's one of only three restaurants in Ellsworth; the other two being the town bar and the expensive Rowe Inn. Another four-star restaurant, Tapawingo also closed in 2008. Anyway, the Front Porch is entirely run by volunteers and accepts donations. To make matters better, their entire menu is free, although they want you to consider donating your time and/or money to their operation.

So far, The Front Porch has been quite successful and has even gotten some media attention from several media outlets such as NPR. With their success, I was thinking of a clever way to bring back groceries to Ellsworth:

AS PART OF THIS BULLET POINT, I PROPOSE THAT IF ELLSWORTH AND OTHER SMALL TOWNS WERE TO GET A GROCERY STORE EVER AGAIN, THAT IT BE EMPLOYEE-OWNED-AND-OPERATED. It's true! In many cases, since the employees are the owners, they should be the ones who make-or-break their own store. Sometimes it works (like Kentucky's Houchens), sometimes it doesn't (like Michigan's Carter's). When a community comes together to run their own business, it does bring them together and the community benefits. Plus, you set your own hours, so the more you work, the more you get paid. It means tax money for the town's school system and other places that rely on funding and better competition for the stores in East Jordan. Go with either IGA or Nash Finch as your distributor. They might be more than able to help.

3) SOMEBODY, SOMEBODY, PLEASE BUY OUT NORTHERN BROADCAST. One the best things regarding northern Michigan radio is that most of the radio stations are locally-owned-and-operated. As a matter of fact, the only radio station Clear Channel ever owned up north was Houghton Lake's WHGR/1290, which they shut down to make way for WOOD/1300 Grand Rapids' power boost several years ago.

However, three stations in town are aren't locally-owned: classic-leaning rocker WKLT (97.5/98.9), classic hits/oldies WFDX (94.3/92.5 The Fox) and AC/chick chat WSRT (106.7 You FM). WKLT gets awesome ratings for a station that practically ignores the 45-and-under crowd but The Fox and You FM are a ratings abomination.

WKLT/WFDX/WSRT are owned by the Gokey family, who own a Pepsi bottler in Minot, ND. Their basic philosophy has always been to own these stations as real estate, not as radio stations people will listen to and it shows. They call KLT "The Rock Station" even though they've ignored 99% of all the bands of the past 20 years, partially due to the fact that they want to have an audience of senior citizens or $8/hr. factory workers. Thankfully, WKLT now has real competition in Northern Star's Real Rock 105 and 95-5, who are trying to sound like what KLT should be sounding like.

Plus, look at both WFDX and WSRT. How many formats have both these stations had over the past decade? WFDX had Oldies, Country, Classic Rock hits, Classic Hits from the 60s-90s and now, a Classic Hits/Oldies hybrid. WSRT? Well, NBI screwed up that one. BAD. A decade ago, its was CHR WKPK 106.7 The Peak and it was near the top of the ratings. Then, they flipped to Adult Top 40, Hot AC, then they went full-blown AC as WSRT and now they're trying out a more-upbeat AC format that STILL has Delilah at night.

I think people in northern Michigan want radio stations that replicate big-market sticks in Detroit or Chicago, not a town nobody cares about like Minot. Hell, their GM, Charlie Ferguson is a Minot native. I know that the Gokeys are trying to sell; but nobody's buying, thanks to the rotten economy. However, the economy's getting better, so somebody better pony up the cash to give to the Gokeys so they can keep their Minot BS to themselves.

Even better, the owners should be locals, or at least care about what the locals want. If I owned KLT, I'd get rid of most of the moldy, bland classic rock and make KLT more of an Active Rocker. Wimp Rock from Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, Boston, Styx, Journey and others would move to The Fox and so would Terri Ray, since I'd have her program it. It's obvious that she doesn't care much about new rock, especially since the bulk of it on KLT's from Nickelback and Kid Rock. As a matter of fact, I've just heard a new female jock on KLT named "Madison" and she don't sound bad at all. I'd have her run the Leetsville Cafe.

But you might ask, "Chuckles, what would you do about WSRT? Bring back The Peak?" No. I think if The Peak were to come back, it would too bastardized with few local jocks and satellite clutter from Ryan Seacrest and Billy Bush. Besides, KHQ and to an extent Z93's done a great job taking The Peak's old listeners. However, there's one major format missing from northern Michigan radio, which adds on to this bullet point:

TURN 106.7/105.5 INTO AN FM LIBERAL TALK STATION. It's true! Liberal talk radio CAN do well if it's on a great signal! Just look at 92.1 The Mic in Madison: that station gets a 2-to-3 share on just 3,000 watts. They're even beating out an FM sports station in the ratings! Right now, Traverse City has three AM talk stations with little-to-no liberal talk. WTCM has Rush, Hannity and Mark Levin, WJML has Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz, Lou Dobbs and Michael Savage and WMKT has Dr. Laura, Dave Ramsey and a lot of cheap no-namers. Yep! No liberals anywhere, unless you count the one hour of quasi-liberal Ed Schultz WJML airs everyday. They could be airing two hours of him, but Dr. Joel Wallach needs to sell more of his pills that make you poop out your fat everyday at 3.

There's a lot of pluses regarding liberal talk on 106.7/105.5. FM signals in northern Michigan are more reliable than AM, especially at night. Also, they don't have to pay licensing fees to play music. Most importantly of all, there's too many good nationally-syndicated liberal talkers out there, so hiring a local host might be out of the question. Just look at this:

6a-9a Bill Press
9a-12n Stephanie Miller
12-3p Thom Hartmann
3-6p Randi Rhodes
6-9p Air America
9p-12m Mike Malloy
12-6a Air America

See? Problem solved. Talk radio for smart people, not those who want to turn America inside out.

True, Detroit has a liberal talker at 1310 that has no ratings, but that's due to their crappy signal. Same went with 1290 Ann Arbor: decent ratings for a crappy signal. However, Cumulus bought it and flipped it to business talk. Even Petoskey had a liberal talker: WWKK "Kool 750", but it's now a simulcast of WLDR-FM Traverse City. It's not the talkers that are killing the progressive talk format, it's the companies that run them.

Up until now, Michael Moore would definitely agree with me with just about everything I said about what I would love to do with northern Michigan. Many of you would no be labeling me a Michael Moore worshiper, but it's not true. The reason is quite simple: bullet point #4 will definitely anger him to the core.

4) TRAVERSE CITY NEEDS A 20-SCREEN MEGAPLEX MOVIE THEATRE WITH STADIUM SEATING. Sorry Mike. I love the State Theatre and everything that you and your unpaid crew have done, but if I'm in Traverse City and there's a big Hollywood blockbuster that's out there, I don't want to see it in one of the 19 other screens in town. GKC proved that they could never build a comfortable and modern theatre. Even worse, current owner Carmike hasn't done ANYTHING to help except put in new - and VERY uncomfortable - seats in their TC theatres. True, they now have digital projection, but it was a Carmike mandate.

It's sad that Traverse City has a crapload of tourist-friendly spots, but when it comes to movies, both the Grand Traverse Mall and Horizon Cinemas are beyond outdated. Heck, even Dawson's theatres in Gaylord and Petoskey have stadium seating, and even the Elk Rapids Cinema - which had broken seats for years - replaced all of their seats with the same ones used in bigger theatres. What's even more laughable is that thanks to no competition - save for Moore - Carmike charges the same prices for their tickets as the Jack Loeks Celebration! Theatres here in Grand Rapids. At a Loeks Theatre, you get nice, comfy seats, stadium seating and digital picture and sound. At Carmike Cinemas, you get digital picture and sound, but you end up having to visit the chiropractor thanks to the neckaches caused by their crappy seats, plus the fact that you had to adjust your head because a 6'5" jerk sat in front of you.

No wonder why the State constantly sells out: it's because Carmike's TC operation BLOWS! Then again, the movies the State shows are a billion times more intelligent than seeing robots blowing up each other while the talentless Megan Fox cries since they blew up her dorky-ass boyfriend. Plus, the State's cheaper, too: $8 for adults while it's $9 at Carmike. The seats are comfy and the balcony does have stadium seating. It would be nice if Mike can pull a Landmark and buy out the buildings surrounding the State so it can be multiplexed, but if wishes were trees, the trees would be falling.

There have been talks aabout putting a megaplex downtown - even an IMAX - but Moore has told the media that it was the multiplexes that killed the original State, and he doesn't want it to happen again. Personally, I think that as long as he keeps showing films you won't see normally outside of Detroit or Grand Rapids, there's nothing he can worry about.

---

So there you have it. Four ways I'd push Traverse City well into the 21st Century. True, the area will forever have its share of backwards people and those who'd make great students of the Rachelle Lynn Consiglio-Wilkos School of Stupidity™©®. However, ALL towns will have those types of people, especially here in Grand Rapids. TC will have to work even harder to bring people like me back up north. But right now, I'm not sure if I want to spend the rest of my life stocking shelves or washing dishes, or even doing the same job I'm doing now for a few bucks less per hour (a view of the bay is half the pay, ya know), and being forced to live in a box since I couldn't afford housing. However, at this rate, I might have to wait til I'm retired until I become a full-time resident again.

That's if retirement still exists 40 years from now.

11.15.09

WEEKLY THOUGHTS: NORTHERN MICHIGAN'S TV MERGERS: TWO YEARS LATER
How the battle between 7&4/29&8 and 9&10/Fox 32 stacks up

In the good 'ol days, northern Michigan was a two TV station market. In Traverse City, there was Lester Biederman's WPBN-TV channel 7&4. Down the road in the BFE wasteland known as Dighton - 10 miles south of Cadillac - there was John Fetzer's WWTV 9&10. Both Les and John were innovators who brought people together through the magic of television and radio.

However, Kalamazoo-based John did it in a much bigger fashion while Traverse City resident Les put nearly his entire focus on northern Michigan. Fetzer owned a score of radio and television stations in the midwest including Kalamazoo's WKZO-TV and AM, plus what would become WBCT/B93 here in Grand Rapids, the nation's most-powerful FM station with 320,000 watts. Oh, yes, there was that little baseball team he owned from 1961 to 1983 called the Detroit Tigers; under his aegis, the team won two World Series. Biederman never owned a baseball team, although he brought radio to Traverse City for the first time ever in 1941 with WTCM. From there, he built up a daisy chain of little local channel AM stations in Cadillac, Alpena, Petoskey and a daytimer in Gaylord. Biederman also was instrumental in starting up Northwestern Michigan College in 1951 and helped aid several organizations even to today through his son Ross.

For many years, the difference between 7&4 and 9&10 was like night and day. Biederman was fiscally conservative while Fetzer had a decent budget, especially for a small market station like 9&10. As a matter of fact, 7&4 didn't even broadcast The Today Show for a decade from its 1954 sign-on because it didn't sign-on until noon. The reason was because Biederman felt that nobody would dare watch the boob tube in the morning. However, pressure from NBC changed all that and in 1964, 7&4 started signing on at 7 a.m. daily for Today.

For years, 7&4 was NBC while 9&10 was CBS with the two stations cherry-picking ABC shows, although 7&4 showed the most shows. However, that all changed in 1971 thanks to the sign-on of WGTU channel 29, which took ABC away from both stations. The station was started by a Detroiter named Tom Kiple and was run locally by several businessmen. However, both Biederman and Fetzer had nothing to truly worry about; 29&8's budget was puny and their overall broadcast quality was a joke. Same thing with WGKI Fox 33; when that station signed on in 1990 out of Gary Knapp's basement, the video and audio quality was beyond abhorrent.

Even though Biederman and Fetzer sold their stations in 1980 and 1978 respectively, 7&4 and 9&10 still dominate the market thanks to their local commitment to news and overall quality. Through several mergers and acquisitions, turnabout is definitely fair play. 7&4 is now owned by a group owner, Barrington Broadcasting while 9&10's owned by a local guy, Mario Iacobelli. While Barrington owns NBC affiliates also in Marquette, Saginaw and Toledo and others elsewhere, Iacobelli's main interest is real estate and 9&10 is his only broadcast property. Nonetheless, 9&10's ratings - especially in news - are higher than 7&4's, mainly due to the overall quality of the station itself since Mario is more of a hands-on owner, especially in an age when most TV stations are owned by groups like Barrington, LIN, Gray, Tribune and the big networks, NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox.

In early 2007, the northern Michigan TV market had Barrington with 7&4, Iacobelli and 9&10 with 29&8 owned by Virginia Beach, VA-based Max Media, whose investors included Tim Robertson, son of televangelist Pat Robertson and WFQX Fox 33, owned by New York-based Rockfleet Broadcasting. But once again on a technicality, northern Michigan was going to become a two-owner market again. That was when 9&10 announced that they were going into a "shared services agreement" with Fox 33 thanks to an Arizona-based firm called "Cadillac Telecasting" bought the station for $10 million. A few months later, 7&4 did the same thing when though a company called "Tucker Broadcasting", they bought 29&8. Technically, 9&10 cannot own what's now Fox 32 (thanks to the digital transition) and 7&4 can't own 29&8 due to the fact that the FCC forbids dual ownership in a mid-sized market like northern Michigan. In bigger cities like Detroit, CBS owns the CBS affiliate, WWJ and the local CW outlet, WKBD. That's because CBS is a top four network and The CW is not.

When the mergers happened, I knew that there would be pluses and minuses. Now that it's been two years, let's look at them:

THE PLUSES:

*Fox 32 has a real, honest-to-goodness news department. Prior to the mergers, WFQX's mandated 10 p.m. news looked like something you'd see on public access. Now, it's on the same path as 9&10 because, well, it's produced by 9&10! Currently, they air news from 7-9 a.m., 7 p.m. and 10 p.m., which is impressive for a station its size.

*29&8 no longer airs The 700 Club. Apparently, Barrington hates Pat Robertson since they don't air his daily hate-fest on any of their stations. Instead, 29&8 now airs chick shows after Good Morning America. Instead, the station leaves the hate up to Elizabeth Hasselback on The View.

*29&8 is now a 24-hour operation. Until Barrington's buyout, the station aired a test pattern overnight on the weekend. At least you can make money with infomercials.

*Better on-air quality. Since 7&4/29&8 and 9&10/Fox 32 share everything in-house now, they use the same graphics, images and, well, everything.

THE MINUSES:

*9&10/Fox 32's safe and viewer-unfriendly programming decisions. Remember when 9&10 canned a 9/11 documentary for "bad language" in 2006? Instead, they aired some crappy old Robin Williams movie and loaded the commercial blocks with political ads while the 9/11 documentary had no ads. Wow! What a great way to honor the people killed that day, 9&10! Also, explain why you've demoted Maury - now the 2nd-highest-rated talk show in America - to 3 a.m. in the morning on Fox 32, and yet, you decide to air The 700 Club at 10 a.m. with Pat Robertson's hate-filled rhetoric. Personally, I'd rather find out who de baby daddy is instead of 'ol Pat trying to siphon money out of the coffers of those on limited incomes. Plus, the fact that you seem to air the most infomercials out of any station cluster in the market amuses me somewhat.

*The Shepherd's Chapel Bible Study. Why do BOTH 29&8 and Fox 32 air this show at 5 a.m.? Good grief!

*Hardly any news on 29&8. While 9&10 beefed up Fox 32's newscasts (they even gave the station a mandated Fox O&O logo), Barrington decided to lay off 29&8 somewhat. Outside of weather breaks on Good Morning America and the 11 p.m. newsbreak hosted by Lori Puckett, there's no news on 29&8. If I were them, I'd still make 29&8 the syndication powerhouse it is and maybe have 7&4 produce a "6 at 6" or "11 at 11" newscast that would give 29&8 some news.

*WHAT?!? NO JERRY?!?! It's true. Nobody in northern Michigan wants to air The Jerry Springer Show. His show was on 7&4 for a while in the 90's before moving to Fox 32 in the mid-00's before getting canned. With 7&4/29&8 becoming Oprah-ville and 9&10 and Fox 32 'playing it safe', it's sad to say that Traverse City is the only market in Michigan where his show's not aired. Even stations in Marquette and Alpena carry his show. What's the matter with white trash brawls and transsexual love affairs? Better than Pat Robertson playing Hitler every day.

*Where's The CW? Since 29&8 and 7&4 merged, 29&8 kicked Northern Michigan's The CW off their digital channels for rebroadcasts of 7&4 while 7&4's doing the same thing for 29&8. Why? Is it because of the fact that northern Michigan's vest region makes things kinda difficult for stations to broadcast in digital? Plus, what about using the .3 portion of the digital channels?

True, Barrington and Mario might be happy with no real competition, but in the world of donkeys and elephants, there's the other animals. That's right! Northern Michigan has a MyNetworkTV affiliate: WLLZ-LP channel 12, run by Bob Naismith. Not only does WLLZ run the entire MNTV schedule of Smackdown and network repeats, but they also run programming from RTN - The Retro Television Network, which shows classics such as Kojak, Magnum PI and Knight Rider. Starting last Fall, WLLZ even started airing syndicated programs such as Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, My Name is Earl and Lost.

I think the moral to all this is simple: broadcasting duopolies in smaller markets can work, although in some cases, the viewer must pay with less choice. While 9&10 and Fox 32 have better news departments, their programming sucks, and while 7&4 and 29&8's overall broadcast quality's better, some people miss The CW. At least WLLZ's programming's improving, even though their over-the-air signal's far from perfect in comparison to the other stations in town. In the olden days, if you didn't like a particular show, you'd change the channel. But in the case of infomercials and The 700 Club, since stations get paid no matter what, the viewer gets screwed and people get brainwashed to the point where they're out a few bucks and both station and air time buyer all benefit.

Then again, winter's on its way to northern Michigan. Anybody up for sledding?

10.4.09

WEEKLY THOUGHTS
Update on northern Michigan's Z93 and You-FM, Merlin Dumbrille retires, Bob and Tom are back in Grand Rapids and Detroit gets AMP'd?

NORTHERN MICHIGAN CHANGES: Two weeks ago, we reported on the changes going on at Ross Biederman's WJZQ 92.9 and Northern Broadcast's WSRT 106.7/105.5. It was rumored that both stations would flip to some kind of CHR format, especially since both stations just aren't making it in the ratings. Well, they did change, at least somewhat.

WJZQ - formerly 92.9 The Breeze - is now an Adult-leaning CHR as Z93. The station has broomed out their geezer jocks and is promoting a new attitude station-wise. Sunday afternoon, we caught them playing TI's "Dead and Gone", which is DEFINITELY not Hot AC (especially since TI's serving a year-long jail sentence for weapons possession). PD Ron Pritchard is now the station's morning man while his night shift on WCCW-FM Oldies 107.5 is now covered by former WKLT 97.5/98.9 morning man Dean Berry.

As for 'SRT, the station remains AC as "You FM", although their music is more-upbeat than it used to be, especially during the day. However, the station still has the horrible, horrible Mary in the Morning and syndicated Delilah shows. But, to make things more interesting, middayer Ryan Dobry is gone while Lisa Knight continues to handle middays on sister station WFCX 94.3/92.5 The Fox.

Speaking of The Fox, did anybody notice that the station now uses the moniker "Music Radio" on their website? Hmmmm....

MERLIN, WE HARDLY KNEW YA: Last week, long-time WTCM-AM 580 host Merlin Dumbrille shocked his listeners and fans when he announced that he was retiring from the station after 57 years. The 76-year-old host of the daily Farm and Orchard Time since 1964 started his career at the station apparently when then-owner Les Biederman discovered him emceeing an event in the 1950's. He offered him a job and the rest became history. Dumbrille was also a long-time weatherman for Biederman-owned WPBN-TV 7&4 and a projectionist for the State and Tra-Bay Theatres (the latter is now the U&I Lounge). When the State re-opened, he became a relief projectionist (I've seen the projectors there, and they're HUGE).

Dumbrille was a one-of-a-kind; in a market where most DJs come and go, Dumbrille flat-out stayed in Traverse City all of his life. When Dumbrille came to WTCM in 1951, it was an NBC-affiliated station that aired regular network programming. It broadcasted at 1400 on the dial with 250 watts of power and broadcasted from 6 a.m. until 11 p.m. Over the years, WTCM had numerous formats - MOR, CHR, AC, Country and since 1988 News/Talk - and multiple power boosts. However, the only thing that never quite changed was 'ol Zeke, whose warm, welcoming voice helped made WTCM the station it became. It's sad to see him go and nobody will truly replace him. However, the memories will indeed linger on.

DAMMIT, REGENT!: Just as the champagne corks were popping over the demise of Bob and Tom on Clear Channel Classic Rocker WBFX 101.3 The Fox, Regent has decided to pick up the show for the Grand Rapids area. Starting this Monday, their ~~Oldies~~ Classic Hits station WFGR 98.7 will start carrying the lame-ass chuckle fest. It might be a good move for Regent, since the company also airs Free Beer and Hot Wings on top-rated Modern Rocker WGRD 97.9. B&T's ratings might end up being average on 98.7, but who knows? Obviously, though, I think 101.3 The Fox might end up flipping formats real soon if they can't get their head out of their ass.

DETROIT LOSES SMOOTH JAZZ; GIVES WAY TO CHR: After spinning Smooth Jazz for the masses for 14 years, CBS's WVMV V98.7 has flipped to CHR, currently known as "98.7 Takeover". By the time you read this, the station will have already announced its new name, which might be similar to its counterparts in Los Angeles (AMP 97.1) and New York (92.3 Now). CHR might be a great move for 98.7 since the top two stations in Motown are Citadel Hot AC WDVD 96.3 and Clear Channel CHR WKQI Channel 9-5-5.

9.20.09

WEEKLY THOUGHTS
Lots-o-changes in northern Michigan

THE ZONE, WE HARDLY KNEW YE: Last Monday, after 11 years of providing northern Michiganders with some type of Alternative Rock format, Northern Star's WJZJ 95-5 The Zone in Traverse City, along with one of the stations that made up Classic Rocker The Bear, WGFM 105.1 in Cheboygan flipped to "Real Rock 105-1 and 95-5", playing what appears to be an "Everything That Rocks"-style AOR format.

According to their website, core artists on the new station include Aerosmith, Metallica and Ozzy Osbourne. They even have a message on their site that states "WE DON'T BELIEVE IN LABELS. NO CLASSIC, NO MODERN... JUST REAL. REAL ROCK. PERIOD."

While The Zone has been, well, zoned out, The Bear has been reduced to just WGFN 98.1 Traverse City and WCKC 107.1 Cadillac, which aired a separate simulcast from their old Cheboygan station. That, plus 105.1's transmitter move to southeast Charlevoix County added to speculation that something was going to change as it was.

With the changes, 95-5 has added the Free Beer and Hot Wings morning show from WGRD here in Grand Rapids, which is one of the market's top morning shows. 105-1, however continues to air Bob and Tom per contractual obligations. The Zone's ex-morning team of Cartman and Mizz Christal have moved to middays and nights respectively on Real Rock while The Bear's afternoon show, The Afternoon Hangover with Nate and Smitty take over afternoons.

As for The Bear - a station that once upon a time, beat the snot out of the stalwart WKLT (97.5/98.9) in the ratings - they've been reduced to just Bob and Tom and the nighttime Alice Cooper show for the time being, at least according to their website. 105.1 had been a Classic Rock station since 1989 when Del Reynolds purchased what had been CHR WQLZ and flipped it to the area's first all-Classic Rocker as WGFM "W-Gold-FM". In 1998, he sold the station, along with simulcasters WGFN and WCKC to Calibre Communications, which also purchased what would become The Zone. WGFM became The Bear and added Bob and Tom, making the station a big player in the market.

It was also in 1998 that The Zone was born. The station was on 95.5 but also 94.5 WLJZ Mackinaw City and 93.9 WAVC in Mio, which also was an Alt-Rocker as 93.9 The River in a previous life. All three stations all simulcasted Smooth Jazz as "Coast FM" and according to Reynolds, it made a TON of dough. However, ratings for the stations were slipping, and Calibre realized that the market's two rockers - their Bear and WKLT - OD'd the north with way too much Classic Rock. So, The Zone was born.

However, The Zone's problem was the fact that many Alt-Rock fans hated the station for their lack of harder-edged rockers such as KoRn, Tool and Rage Against the Machine. I was in high school during the station's formative years, and my fellow classmates were, well, not kind, calling them "The Gay Pride Station", "The Lillith Fair Station" and "The SideTraxx Station" (SideTraxx is Traverse City's exclusive gay nightclub, BTW). Instead, listeners got another station overkilling on Dave Matthews, Hootie, Barenaked Ladies, Goo Goo Dolls and just about everything revolving around, yep, Sarah McLachlan's 1990's chick rock-fest. The station even aired a syndicated show devoted to women's music, "Today's Women" on Sunday mornings.

Thankfully, in late 2000, The Zone realized that their ratings were comme-si-comme-sa, so eventually, the ladies were all shown the door to Hot AC-ism and finally, the hard rockers started to pour in. Ratings soared, and along with The Bear they give KLT some of their lowest ratings in ages. However, the station's finances were far from pretty thanks to northern Michigan's oft-conservative advertiser-base. As a result, their 94.5 signal, covering Charlevoix and all points north flipped to Hot AC as "Star 94.5" and is now Classic Country "Big Country Gold 94.5". As for 95.5, all of their jocks - save for Cartman - were eventually given the heave-ho or stayed on board in a lesser capacity and the station started using Waitt Radio Networks (now a part of Dial Global)'s "Alternative Now" service where their Omaha-based jocks pre-record liners to make the station sound local. Despite the lack of signal, the station still mustered around a 3.5 in the ratings. The station was probably on borrowed time as it was due to northern Michigan's lack of 20-somethings, their overindulgence of emo and indie rock and yes, Sirius and MP3 players.

Problem was, KLT - with their combined 150,000-watt signal - started making The Bear and The Zone their bitches again, especially since 1) they added a new morning show "Omelette and Finster", 2) The Bear decided to "optimize" their playlist by adding non-Classic Rock artists to their playlist like A Flock of Seagulls and Depeche Mode, angering the Ted Nugent and Skynyrd crowd and 3) the lack of Zone in the tip of the mitt region gave KLT an advantage.

Now, everybody it seems is doing the 'ol "everything you can do, I can do better" shtick. A few months ago, Roy Henderson moved WBNZ to 92.3 so 99.3 could become "99.3 The Wolf", playing a mixture of harder classic rock and some newer rock, albeit with few currents. With 99.3's signal mostly feeding the fishes and barely making it past Traverse City, it might have made Northern Star want to pull a checkmate. Of course, Roy's moving 100.3 WCUZ to 100.7 and boosting the wattage of that station to 25,000 watts, so who knows? Maybe he'll flip his Country outlet, WLDR "Sunny Country 101.9" to some sort of Alternative Rock format or try to fill the void now left by The Zone. Sounds good on paper, but doubtful.

Northern Michigan now has four rockers: upstarts 99.3 The Wolf (AOR) and Real Rock 105-1 and 95-5 (possibly AOR or Active Rock), Classic Rock The Bear (still on 98.1 and 107.1 plus 97.9 in the Sault region) and the champeen, WKLT 97-5/98-9 (AOR with an extremely-heavy classic lean). Let's not forget Sirius, Slacker, MP3 players and whatever newfangled technology that's out there. Who'll win? May the northern Michigan rock fan choose.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!: The many moves involving northern Michigan rock radio are making other stations immune. It has been noted on several websites in northern Michigan that fumbling Hot AC 92.9 The Breeze is changing their name to "Z93 - Today's Best Hits" in the coming weeks (or maybe Monday). However, there's another mumbling that another faltering AC station, 106.7/105.5 You FM will go CHR later in the week.

Oddly enough, BOTH 92.9 and 106.7 had storied histories as CHRs. 92.9 might have been northern Michigan's first-ever Top 40 station in the 60's as WWTV-FM, owned by broadcasting legend John Fetzer. The station - along with simulcast partner WWAM 1370, which is now religious station WLJW - was CHR until possibly the 80's when they flipped to AC. By then, they were WKJF, standing for Kalamazoo's John Fetzer. In the 1990's, Ross Biederman's Midwestern Broadcasting purchased the station and flipped it to a semi-simulcast of his Country powerhouse WTCM.

Biederman then moved the station's transmitter to Kalkaska County - closer to Traverse City - and 92.9 The Breeze was born. They tried sat-fed Smooth Jazz for a few years, but the success of that station didn't last long. The station eventually morphed to an AC/Smooth Jazz hybrid with local personalities until morphing into a Hot AC last year. Sadly, even the more-upbeat music mix couldn't help the station, especially with a soft-sounding name, aging jocks and cheap imaging.

Biederman's also no stranger to CHR; in the 1970's WTCM-AM - then at 1400 - was a dominant station in town as "14T". However, success was short-lived thanks to WJML 98.9 in Petoskey, one of the market's first true CHR stations with their slick jocks, imaging and monster signal. Z93 was also the name of his WATZ-FM 93.5 (now a Country station at 99.3) in Alpena, which was CHR for many years.

With the news that 92.9 may be flipping to CHR, as aforementioned, Northern Broadcast's WSRT might be doing the CHR shuffle, too. Many radio critics - like myself - got pissed when the station flipped to Hot AC from CHR "The Peak" in 2000 and finally to full-blown AC in 2004 with the addition of the Delilah show. Even worse, in 2007, former Programming Director Todd Martin and his wife were both fired for sending in fake diaries to the Arbitron ratings service. Legally, since flipping to AC WSRT - You FM or not - has never achieved over a two share in the ratings, and it speaks volumes for a station that broadcasts with a combined 105,000 watts.

Now, if 106.7 returns to CHR, will it be The Peak? After all, the WKPK calls are now lodged at a Christian station in the UP. Also, will it use real jocks or be a canned format ala Dial Global's "Hits Now" format? And the $64,000 question is that will they have what it takes to overturn 106 KHQ in the ratings?

Ahhhh, mysteries that will get answered... Eventually. Meanwhile, they're playing an old episode of American Top 40 with Casey Kasem on 70's on 7.

9.11.09

NFL SEASON PICKS
To hell with the rest of the NFL, there's the Lions

For many years, I've predicted the outcome of that week's NFL games during the week. But let's face it, it's getting old for me.

Typing in the weekly results for a bunch of teams I don't give two shits about is getting old. But hey, there's one thing about football that's never old:

The Detroit Lions.

With their impressive 0-16 record last year, changes have been made. Hell, they now have a new logo! But, even with a new coach Jim Schwartz, I doubt if the Lions will achieve greatness in the football year. Hell, they WERE 4-0 last year... During the pre-season. This year, they were 3-1, but who cares?

Without the usual jibba-jabba, here's what the Lie-downs' season will look like this year.

9.13 @ NO - L
9.20 MIN - W
9.27 WAS - DEFINITE L
10.4 @CHI - L
10.11 PIT - L
10.18 @GB - L
11.1 STL - L
11.8 @SEA - W
11.15 @MIN - L
11.22 CLE - W
11.26 GB - L
12.6 @CIN - W
12.13 @BAL - L
12.20 ARZ - L
12.27 @SF - L
1.3 CHI - L

END RECORD: 4-12

9.8.09

WEEKLY THOUGHTS
Ernie Harwell is dying, remembering Big Boy and changes in Detroit

ERNIE: As announced last week, hall of fame Detroit Tiger broadcaster Ernie Harwell has an inoperable tumor in his bile duct and it is cancerous. Because of doctor's suggestions, he and his family have decided against having any surgery.

Bar none, Ernie might be the greatest broadcaster in not just sports, but all of Detroit broadcasting, ever. A man who worked for the Tigers most of his broadcast career, Harwell hasn't had to pay his way into a baseball game since he was five years old when he was a batboy for a small Georgian team. He announced for the Tigers 4/5ths of his broadcast career and brought smiles to the faces of ardent Tigers fans, even when the team sucked.

I think one of the brightest moments in his career came in the late 60's when Detroit was a town embroiled in riots. A common phrase uttered during this time was "drop that brick because the Tigers are on!" Not only was it important that the Tigers were in the World Series, but it was Ernie's voice behind the WJR mics that calmed a violent city down for just a few short hours.

Although he had his ups and downs throughout his career, I'd say without a doubt that he's lived quite the full life at 91. I hope that his final days on this Earth are without pain or suffering, but with the realization that he should be one of the greatest sports announcers of all time.

May God bless you, Ernie.

AND SPEAKING OF WJR (AND PLEASE READ, GORDON RAMSEY): One of the coolest things WJR did when I was growing up were those Radioguides you could get at Big Boy. Come to find out, you can still get them at CVS Pharmacies. Even though they are of a great service, they're kinda useless to those who have a Sirius or MP3 players. I used to be quite giddy when I would go into Big Boy and see those Radioguides since they were (mostly) up to date on the goings-on in Michigan radio.

(Oh, and to you Stern fans, one of the people who compile the lists, Art Vuolo supplied many of the W4 airchecks of Stern for The History of Howard Stern Part one.)

Sadly, I've grown up, and one of the signs that I've grown up is that I don't enjoy terrestrial radio like I've used to. Same thing with Big Boy. As a matter of fact, my last two trips there were, quite frankly, a joke. My last visit was last year in Kalkaska where the place was packed and there were I think maybe two (very old and bitchy) waitresses running the place. My waitress wiped down my table and it was still sticky from the last customer. I went to the breakfast buffet and the food was, well, just OK. My eggs tasted oniony, probably from somebody dipping the scoop into the onions.

The last time prior to the Kalkaska visit, it was to the one in near Grand Rapids in Cascade. It was 4 p.m. in the afternoon and there were maybe four other folks in the whole restaurant. I ordered a Big Boy, fries and milkshake. The fries were OK, but the Big Boy was more like a Big Mac and the milkshake was practically frozen chocolate milk. Total cost of the meal: about $12, tip included. Sadly, I could have gotten more at Steak 'n Shake for the same price. No wonder why that Big Boy is gone.

Hell, if I ain't mistaken, there's more former Big Boys than ones still in operation in Grand Rapids! There's three I can think of: downtown, one in a plaza near Rivertown and the one at (lol) Rogers Plaza. I'll betcha that the latter locale is shaking its head that they're in the king of all ghetto malls in Grand Rapids.

I think there's a lesson to be learned, and that radio station owners are also terrible restauranteurs. Several years ago, Bob Liggett, the owner of several radio stations in Port Huron, bought the chain out of bankruptcy. Since taking over the iconic chain - started in California by Bob Wian, who got the name "Big Boy" when a chubby kid walked into his restaurant - the whole quality of the chain has fizzled. Hell, many of their locales look tired and something that is denture-friendly. Maybe they're trying to attract some of the same folks left out when Bill Knapp's went belly-up. After all, hip places like Chili's, Applebee's and Red Robin all have alcohol licenses... And better food.

106.7 DETROIT CHANGES IDENTITY... AGAIN, PLUS THE REBIRTH OF WDFN: Man, why couldn't 106.7 in Detroit stay W4 Country in the first place?

Even though they were the #1 Country station in Detroit, WWWW flipped to Rock AC in 2000 as Alice 106.7. Then, it was Classic Rock The Drive and finally back to Country - albeit half-assed - as The Fox. Now, 106.7 has spun the format wheel once more as Rhythmic AC as "106.7 - The Beat of Detroit". Wow! A radio station using a format that has tanked pretty much elsewhere. I'll betcha that every gay dude and fat Latina in Detroit will drool!

In all honesty, I just don't see this station getting above a three share. It mgiht get half-decent ratings for a few months before tapering off. Clear Channel, better plan your next move.

With CBS's 97.1 The Ticket kicking major ass in the ratings, Clear Channel is giving its once-former sports ratings champ 1130 WDFN one more chance. After months of practically being a Fox Sports Radio affiliate, it's adding local talent back ot the lineup with Sean Baligan mornings, Ryan Ermanni and Jim Rome middays, Matt Shepard afternoons and the rest of the lineup being sat-fed from ESPN.

The biggest challenge of course is signal. It was speculated that Clear Channel would flip 106.7 to Sports since they did the same thing in Grand Rapids. But with 106.7 now airing disco, don't expect it. It's a foul-up on CC's part, and they're going to have to live with it, sadly.

8.31.09

WEEKLY THOUGHTS
It's official: Oldies is now a charity case

The year was 1971 when 26-year-old Don McLean wrote and performed the chart-topping eight-and-a-half-minute opus known as "American Pie". The song, a tribute to "The Day The Music Died" didn't just help revitalize the careers of long-forgotten artists such as Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, but it helped create a whole new music format for radio: Oldies.

Of course, the 1970's was the era of "American Graffiti" and Happy Days, and pretty much anything from 1955 to 1964 was hip again. Radio stations developed the Oldies format not as a chance to revive a bygone era in life, but to also get those coveted 25-54 numbers. For years, Oldies stations were big profit-makers, but the sick, sad truth is simple: the older the songs, the older the audience.

Look at it this way: if you were 18 years old in 1972, you're now 55, and you're now at that age where advertisers could care less about you. You now have one foot in the grave and one hand protecting your pocketbook since you now live off a pension. Of course, if you were 18 in 1955, the same year "Rockin' Around the Clock" became rock music's breakout hit, advertisers will be viewing you as somebody planning their funeral.

In this past decade, the once-fruitful format started seeing a decline. Many Oldies stations flipped to a variety hits format ala "Jack", playing some of those classics, but mixed in with more modern music from upwards to today. Even that format's proven a bust in many cases, but now some stations once calling themselves "Oldies" are modifying their name to the more-politically-correct "Classic Hits". Gone from those stations are pre-1964 hits from the likes of Buddy Holly, Chubby Checker and Little Richard.

Even here in Grand Rapids - a town that has had its fair share of format flips within the past four months - Oldies is not immune to change. Despite decent ratings - especially with a weak signal - Regent's 98.7 WFGR flipped to Classic Hits a few weeks ago, leaving these founders of rock 'n roll homeless. Now, WFGR - once a classical station - plays the likes of U2, The Police and ZZ Top mixed in with later oldies from The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who.

Of course, there's 100.9 WQXC out of Otsego, but their signal is quite marginal and only reaches Grand Rapids depending on atmospheric conditions. Yeah, I know, 50's on 5, 60's on 6 and so on, but let's pretend for a few minutes that the oldies format was truly SOL in Grand Rapids. After all, we had TWO Adult Standards stations just a few short years ago, and they've been replaced with a financially struggling Urban format and Spanish music.

Leave it up to Public Broadcasting to save our Oldies.

Late last week, Grand Valley State University's WGVU-AM 1480/850 here in Grand Rapids and Muskegon made radio history as becoming the first-ever member station of National Public Radio to become Oldies. Previously, the station aired a News/Talk format that's already heard on University of Michigan-owned WVGR 104.1. The man responsible for the newly-relaunched station, Len O'Kelly launched a similar station in Chicago several years ago to only limited success due to a lack of advertiser support. He moved back to Grand Rapids where he was the morning man at WFGR until their recent flip to Classic Hits. O'Kelly was also a personality at WODJ 107.3, which played Oldies from 1989 until 2004 when it flipped to active rocker WKLQ, which moved from 94.5 when that station was replaced with Country WTNR/Thunder 94.5. A few days after WODJ's demise, WFGR flipped from Classical to Oldies.

According to O'Kelly, WGVU-AM is now playing a huge 5,000-song rotation of songs from c. 1955-1975. The station does play a lot of hits, but many lesser-known songs have made the playlist. One reason for Oldies on the AM is simple: early rock tunes were mixed specifically for AM radio.

As a matter of fact, 1480 just happened to be a CHR back in the 1960's as WMAX. One of their personalities, Victor Lundberg had a surprise Top 10 hit in 1967 with the spoken word piece "An Open Letter to My Teenage Son". After many years of failed formats and call letters, 1480 fell silent until 1992 when Grand Valley State University bought the station.

O'Kelly is the station's afternoon man and PD. Handling mornings is another Regent Broadcasting alumnus, Bill Bailey. Currently, all other dayparts remain jockless.

So, why Oldies on an NPR station? O'Kelly told the Grand Rapids Press that public broadcasting is always about preserving important forms of music, whether it's mainstays such as Classical, Jazz and/or Blues. After all, NPR's television counterpart, PBS has done quite well showcasing doo-wop concerts for pledge drives. Of course, it's tough to visually mix the high-energy oldies format with the quiet, stodgy, slow-talking NPR announcers who all sound like they only received four hours' sleep the night before.

The thought of Oldies on an NPR station is a great thought since it puts the format in the hands of the public and its underwriters, but then again, it's kinda sad that rock's pioneers have now become a charity case. Advertisers just don't want to pay to keep Buddy Holly and early Elvis on the air. Who knows? Maybe within a decade, The Beatles and The Mamas and the Papas will completely disappear from the terrestrial airwaves, replaced with such future oldies such as "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Nuthin' But a G Thang" and "Smack My Bitch Up". To any oldster reading this, it is sad, but true. After all, next year will mark the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the 1980's. Anybody who remembers wearing a Mohawk, pogoing to The B-52's and Blondie will soon be receiving letters in the mail from AARP and slurping on Geritol.

When everything fails, at least there's Sirius.

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