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87.7 Cleveland's Sound

I agree 100% the morning guy has no radio experience. A total let down . Rick O'Bannion is the guy we need in there.. Or any other suggestions? We know Archie is black. But lets keep the rap off of a good station. If I went into Z107.9 as a white dj with Pink Floyd records.Management would show me the door.If the idea is to bring talk into the mix of music..Rick O 'Bannion can get a good topic onto the airwaves. Like he did on 107.9 The End. Why race divides music. I have no answer. But the rap background of Archie is also an ego thing on his part. He tends to throw that in our faces.Just play the music..And Tom ...Hire Rick. If this made any sense what I wrote agree with me .LOL
 
I think your post made sense Jim and I agree with you. Rick would be pretty good on AMD. Heck, anyone from The End and maybe any of Rachel Steele's former co-workers from Xtreme/X/K-Rock would be good.

Other ideas for jocks, especially if they want more voices to fill other slots, can be going to any of the college stations (WBWC and WJCU for example) to develop fresh talent and/or maybe grab someone from The Summit as well.

I think Archie would work better as a sidekick, weekend or overnight talent or a producer. Maybe if he wants to do some rap show, have it as a specialty show down the road.
 
Recently I have been doing some traveling around the Cleveland area - from Lorain County to Brandywine area and then back out past Ashtabula. The signal was very strong all the way to Geneva. The first song I heard that stopped my scanning the dial was Lyle Lovett’s “That’s right your not from Texas” a song I am not familiar with. I have enjoyed this station’s mix of music. I am a 49 year old music lover. I do not limit myself to any one genre of music. I have not had the opportunity to hear any of the DJ’s yet and I am glad. Sometimes there is just too much talk and not enough music. I wish this station well and I hope they keep the same format with the mix of old and new as long as the songs are all upbeat. I like the channel so much I had to do an internet search to find out what the story is and I ended up here.
 
chrocket87 said:
Well, got to listen today and here are my thoughts, FWIW. Maybe it's just my car radio, but the signal is really bad in Lorain County. Got better in Olmsted/Berea, but 99x even sounded better the entire drive to the Brook Park RTA. Any opinions from the east siders? The music is pretty good, definitely better than V was. I hope this one will succeed.

I live in Lorain County and think the signal is just fine, better than expected.

I also really like the "unfocusedness" of the playlist. Its a throwback to the old school, when radio stations can be a good mix and not just "labeled and formatted and fit into nice little defined boxes". Its cool to have a station that just plays good music, across a variety of styles. It leans modern rock a little, for those who are hung up on that, but there are other aspects that make it unique.

Havent heard the morning guy yet, but based on his promos from last week, Im a little skeptical.

I dont know how long it will last, but I know Ill listen and if it keeps up at this pace, likely enjoy.
 
If the public isn't aware of a new station, does it truly exist? And when I mean public I mean the masses. Not industry people or forum folks. No marketing = no cume.

Audio quality 99X wins all day.

Music mix is disjointed. Not old school. A block of AAA hits, then some alt rock, then a poor quality live track (live tracks on the whole are no-no's) or an off the wall "Lost and Found" which is usually a track *Found* on either WMJI or WNCX.

What AAA fare they do play I like. Don't ruin it with a button pusher "Lost and Found" from The Chantays ("Pipeline").

The AM show? They'd be better off running "More Music Morning" sweepers between songs.
 
99x is a throwaway music program that Clear Channel thought would be a cheap way to satisfy those who never knew what good Cleveland radio used to be like. It is not programmed here. It is a robotic station put on the FM band. Programmed in Malaysia. 87.7 will thrive. Give it time.
 
Jim4Rock said:
I agree 100% the morning guy has no radio experience. A total let down . Rick O'Bannion is the guy we need in there.. Or any other suggestions? We know Archie is black. But lets keep the rap off of a good station. If I went into Z107.9 as a white dj with Pink Floyd records.Management would show me the door.If the idea is to bring talk into the mix of music..Rick O 'Bannion can get a good topic onto the airwaves. Like he did on 107.9 The End. Why race divides music. I have no answer. But the rap background of Archie is also an ego thing on his part. He tends to throw that in our faces.Just play the music..And Tom ...Hire Rick. If this made any sense what I wrote agree with me .LOL
Seems Rick O'Bannion's agent is commenting on this thread. ;D
 
I do believe, getting a solid Monday through Friday crew will do nothing but good, not just drive times.

Lots of ideas though on who could possibly make a jump. Shame that the "talent search" wasn't more than what it was.

Maybe even someone trying to break into Cleveland who has been honed a little right outside of Cuyahoga County in Lorain County. Maybe the new signal and format are just what Cleveland needs to shake things up from the norms lately.

Lets just enjoy and see what happens?
 
Mr. Baylor..Kinda funny about our catchy names you brought up. If either of us was named Rick we may have considered the Rockin Rick ID. Thanks for the observation. If Sue will have coffee with me and a cast of others to discuss other catchy "Rockin" names. We will be glad to oblige to make your visit to this sight more useful. Why people bash a new good thing for this town .I will never know why in my lifetime. Maybe 87.7 is getting its opinions off of here to help determine the direction they take in the future. ::)
 
Pros:

Nice to hear Rachel Steele back on the air in Cleveland
Interesting and non-cookie cutter mix of music
Station should only get better over time as they kind of feel everything out
Its a BRAND NEW and INDEPENDENTLY owned station, how freakin' cool is that!

Cons:

The morning guy is HISTORICALLY BAD, I can't understand how anyone thought that was a good move
The audio is all over the place, sometimes it sounds like a real FM station, other times it sounds like my clock radio.
 
I am not bashing anything. I am cautiously optimistic about any new venture. I don't think AAA will survive in Cleveland. Alternative itself has a hard time staying around for very long in Cleveland. I am disappointed in general at the lack of rock radio stations in a town that bills itself as the Capital of Rock and Roll. Nobody playing 50s music, 60s is virtually going away and we are left mostly with 70s. One station is playing 80s right now and the others are all Top 40 dance stations pretty much as true Top 40 stations like Power 108, WKDD of old and 92Q are long gone.
 
The license is good til 2015. The FCC WILL shut it down. FCC is not fond of the loophole that permitted these "Franken FMs". The DTV license associated with Ch 6/87.7 will rake in millions for the owners. At that time they may say "We tried but the FCC won't play ball, yadda yadda yadda" and sell the TV license. This is not a station for the long haul. It is what it is til it's not anymore. In fact, there could still be a LMA being shopped. Who knows? Beats bleeding money.

Brings me back to marketing. It's one thing to flip a format on a signal the masses are aware of and try to make a go. That's hard enough. But a non traditional signal that never existed before? Below most college frequencies? That my friends is a marketing uphill battle in the tens of thousands of $$$. It's not like they've got sister stations cume to cross promote with. We're talking TV blitz ongoing for months on end. Billboards (which arguably don't work but they would need to do them), even direct mail (which is costly at $25k a pop usually) for interactive contesting or $$$ giveaway - why? People like to win $$$.

That's the thing most broadcast companies, even the larger ones, don't do well. Marketing. They preach to their clients "reach and frequency" but radio doesn't take it's own advice.

This station should be streaming already. When the OTA license is yanked they could have enough interest (cume) in three years to seamlessly go to online only. Which is the future. Esp with in car WI-FI on the near horizon. That will be a game changer for everyone, including Pandora.
 
SixOnTheFloor said:
The morning guy is HISTORICALLY BAD, I can't understand how anyone thought that was a good move
The audio is all over the place, sometimes it sounds like a real FM station, other times it sounds like my clock radio.

The morning guy: Reportedly a former go-fer for one of the owners with no on-air experience. So he is rewarded with the star shift on the station! I guess this is the owners' opinion of talent. Anyone---virtually ANYONE----can do it. Besides, I am sure he's historically CHEAP, too.

The audio: Terrible. I guess they don't spend any money on equipment, either.
 
Need sub. to read the Crain's article. Was listening to FrankenFM in the car today, now they're touting "It's like 92-3 and V1073 rolled up into one station". Or something like that. Music mix was pretty darn good today, listened before noon, then again PM drive time. Strong signal all the way from West Park to Lyndhurst to Euclid (480/271/90) then back on 90 to West Park. By contrast, 99X petered out badly just north of Harvard on 271, but could get spots of reception further north.
 
dannykewl said:
Need sub. to read the Crain's article. Was listening to FrankenFM in the car today, now they're touting "It's like 92-3 and V1073 rolled up into one station". Or something like that. Music mix was pretty darn good today, listened before noon, then again PM drive time. Strong signal all the way from West Park to Lyndhurst to Euclid (480/271/90) then back on 90 to West Park. By contrast, 99X petered out badly just north of Harvard on 271, but could get spots of reception further north.

Thanks for pointing it out. It wasn't subscribed when I first posted the article.

What it featured...

1. The launch was delayed when a consulting engineer from Chicago could not come into town until early August (original launch target was July), and there were problems with the signal.

2. The station installed a transmission line from its studio to their tower to make sure the audio quality and sound is better.

3. The cattle call back in July with roughly 170 people auditioning resulted in one hired and two being considered.

4. Rachel Steele loves the local ownership and says there will be no Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica on the station.

5. Tom Wilson saying some of the best talent are the ones who are raw when asked why Archie was hired for mornings.

6. WLFM has signed a five-year lease for the station to broadcast at the Agora.

7. People were commenting online of the signal problems before launch, and now on how great the station is after launching.

8. Archie won't get into gossip on Kim Kardashian or anyone from Hollywood on his show.

If missed anything or messed up in any of the points, let me know. Thanks. Hoped it helped, Danny.

I too heard the combination of Radio 92.3 and V107.3 promo. Very unique to describe the music mix.
 
Interesting, thanks.

"6. WLFM has signed a five-year lease for the station to broadcast at the Agora."

Should've did a 3 year lease. What they gonna be broadcasting on when the FCC says "no more" in less than 3 years? Hopefully they'll have another freq. obtained. I hope they do good. I listen to them in the car. They're good and they're trying. We need some good non-corporate radio here besides the college stations.
 
"It's like 92-3 and V1073 rolled up into one station".... referencing two defunct stations? Interesting.

Where's the marketing? If no one knows about you, do you exist?

The music can be had ANYWHERE; ipods, internet, pandora, SXM, etc etc.... What keeps people listening are personalities that connect, content, having the community on the air, and exciting promotions. Music is secondary.
 
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