92.3 and 100.7 - an opinion

[DrC]

Got a chance to listen to WMMS and 92.3 over the past few days...

I'm thrilled that both 92.3 and 100.7 have completely dumped the Hot Adult Contemporary music (Nickelback, Creed) from their lineups and started digging deeper into the older alternative stuff. I'm not an elitist - but at this point, hearing the opening chords of a Creed song after, say, Disturbed or Guns N Roses triggers an involuntary impulse where I either switch the station or turn on Sirius. I would make an educated bet that 75% of the 92.3 and 100.7 audience collectively feel the same way, based on my completely nonscientific sampling.

For example, I heard 92.3 play "Pennyroyal Tea" by Nirvana, 100.7 played "Nutshell" by Alice In Chains. Every rock station in America plays Nirvana and AIC, but recognizing that each of the bands recorded more than three songs each is the kind of thing that gets me to shut off the satellite radio - which may be the point. The average WMMS listener or rock listener in general isn't going to change the station because they played a deep cut of Alice In Chains instead of "Man In The Box" for the 8000th time in a week. Glad SOMEONE finally realized that.

The WMMS 11PM metal block is great - I needed some late night driving music last night, and hearing Slayer on the radio is always welcome. 92.3 K Rock sounds more like KROQ out of LA than the old NY K-Rock - and that does nothing but good for anybody as far as I'm concerned.

With 92.3 and 100.7 sounding as good as they do now, and the fact that you can fill an entire row of presets with college stations (two of which are playing speed metal at any given time), I can't think of a better rock radio market than Cleveland. San Diego / LA has good commercial stations, but barely any college stations. NY rock radio is an oxymoron (except for one - ONE - classic rock station). Only city I can think of that could compete with Cleveland on the rock radio front is Boston.

 

[HHH]

> I can't think of a better rock radio market than
> Cleveland.

It's pretty good these days. Set your buttons to:

WBWC 88.3
WJCU 88.7
WSTB 88.9 (south of Cleveland)
WCSB 89.3
WRUW 91.1
WAPS 91.3 (south of Cleveland)
WOBC 91.5 (Lorain County)
WXRK 92.3
WONE 97.5
WNCX 98.5
WMMS 100.7
WRQK 106.9 (south of Cleveland)

I am not counting pop, AC or Urban stations. I can usually find at least ONE thing to listen to at any given time among the stations that I listed.

 

[AllMightySting]

I agree that both 92.3 and WMMS have REALLY stepped it up lately....I'm hearing lots of good stuff on both stations. Both not afraid to step out of the box and take chances.....very exciting radio. WMMS is doing an excellent job IMO of mixing the classic rock with the newer stuff...it all sounds seamless. Maxwell is coming along nicely as an afternoon drive host...keeps me entertained. Great imaging too, by far the BEST the station has sounded since the NextGen Buzzard days.

However K-Rock is really rocking my world lately....they are putting together a pretty damned good alternative station....though the DJs could still use some work....the music is really good. I got goosebumps the other day when I heard Depeche Mode's "Policy Of Truth" into "I Stay Away" from AIC, into XTC's "The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead". They're playing a great variety of stuff from the past 20 years of alternative rock, the perfect compliment to the music on WMMS....I hope it lasts!! <P ID="signature">______________
Ben Toplek
DJ/WBWC</P>

 

[bigwoody]

Great imaging
> too, by far the BEST the station has sounded since the
> NextGen Buzzard days.

Miles does a great job with the imaging. Argubaly the best in the market. Not bad for a guy who had no previous experience doing imaging!

Keep in mind the imaging of today's 'MMS and NexGen appeal to a certain demo. IMO, having worked at MMS during NexGen and later when Jacor took over, I personally think the imaging was more "creative" when Mitch Todd, and later Cousin Deke, were doing the imaging (1998-03). It was more WEBN like. Avant garde, humorous, yet still smokin' production.

For what it's worth Mitch has been the Director of Creative for Sirius since 2000 and Deke is at The Edge/Dallas. Nothing against Miles or what Bo has done, from an imaging standpoint. I like a lot of it...and steal an idea or two here and there when I come to town. In fact, I was offered the WMMS imaging gig January 04, before Bo got there. Budget was slashed $25k. It would've been a lateral move salary-wise, so I stayed put. THings happen the way they do for a reason. Miles ended up with the gig and rightly so. He's very good!

<P ID="signature">______________
www.OhioRadio.net

</P>

 

[timbuc2]

> > I can't think of a better rock radio market than
> > Cleveland.
>
> It's pretty good these days. Set your buttons to:
>
> WBWC 88.3
> WJCU 88.7
> WSTB 88.9 (south of Cleveland)
> WCSB 89.3
> WRUW 91.1
> WAPS 91.3 (south of Cleveland)
> WOBC 91.5 (Lorain County)
> WXRK 92.3
> WONE 97.5
> WNCX 98.5
> WMMS 100.7
> WRQK 106.9 (south of Cleveland)
>
> I am not counting pop, AC or Urban stations. I can usually
> find at least ONE thing to listen to at any given time among
> the stations that I listed.
>
You can throw in a few rim shot stations as well.

CIMX 88.7 (Windsor/Detroit, alternative)- here in Parma I can pick it up sometimes during the summer (over powering WJCU) and I imagine it's more prominent the farther west you go

CFPL 95.9 (London, ON, rock)- seems to put a decent signal into the northeast suburbs and during the summer comes in pretty good here in Parma on a regular basis

WRIF 101.1 (Detroit, active rock)- pretty much the same as CIMX

WYFM 102.9 (Sharon/Youngstown, classic rock)- for those south and south-east of Cleveland
<P ID="signature">______________
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."
Albert Einstein
</P>

 

[nate]

Warm weather

As the weather warms up, it is interesting to hear what people have playing in thier cars.
The past two days I have heard at least 4 other cars playing 92.3.
Usually it's 96.5, 107.9 or 99.5 that I hear (unless there's a Tribe game on).

I was really surprised to hear 92.3, a very pleased about it too. I hope the current "everything alternative" idea sticks.

 

[thefutureofradio]

> Well its about time 92 did something right. They should have gone alt/rock years ago. The night jock Iggy, HE is real bad, he sound like hes 15 and knows nothing about music, everybreak is a train wreck for him and hes worse then any OCB grad I have ever herd. Speaking of jocks I would have to say that the only good weekend/fill in jock is verlain and the old end jocks, well, thats what they sound like OLD JOCKS. I love the music I just cant listen to the jocks, rover still rocks and nard is ok in the afternoons but he has nothing on maxwell. They should fire their jocks go jockless and hire a new staff, maybe bring back guys like luchbox or even mikey they seemed to know their music well and both fit the sound of the station back then and I thnk they would work on k-rock. One more thing, the imaging is NOT GOOD. whoever is incharg over there nard or kim or whoever needs to do something about that, Igor was the best imaging guy they have ever had. Put a little excitement on the air dont just sound boring and lame.






Got a chance to listen to WMMS and 92.3 over the past few
> days...
>
> I'm thrilled that both 92.3 and 100.7 have completely dumped
> the Hot Adult Contemporary music (Nickelback, Creed) from
> their lineups and started digging deeper into the older
> alternative stuff. I'm not an elitist - but at this point,
> hearing the opening chords of a Creed song after, say,
> Disturbed or Guns N Roses triggers an involuntary impulse
> where I either switch the station or turn on Sirius. I
> would make an educated bet that 75% of the 92.3 and 100.7
> audience collectively feel the same way, based on my
> completely nonscientific sampling.
>
> For example, I heard 92.3 play "Pennyroyal Tea" by Nirvana,
> 100.7 played "Nutshell" by Alice In Chains. Every rock
> station in America plays Nirvana and AIC, but recognizing
> that each of the bands recorded more than three songs each
> is the kind of thing that gets me to shut off the satellite
> radio - which may be the point. The average WMMS listener
> or rock listener in general isn't going to change the
> station because they played a deep cut of Alice In Chains
> instead of "Man In The Box" for the 8000th time in a week.
> Glad SOMEONE finally realized that.
>
> The WMMS 11PM metal block is great - I needed some late
> night driving music last night, and hearing Slayer on the
> radio is always welcome. 92.3 K Rock sounds more like KROQ
> out of LA than the old NY K-Rock - and that does nothing but
> good for anybody as far as I'm concerned.
>
> With 92.3 and 100.7 sounding as good as they do now, and the
> fact that you can fill an entire row of presets with college
> stations (two of which are playing speed metal at any given
> time), I can't think of a better rock radio market than
> Cleveland. San Diego / LA has good commercial stations, but
> barely any college stations. NY rock radio is an oxymoron
> (except for one - ONE - classic rock station). Only city I
> can think of that could compete with Cleveland on the rock
> radio front is Boston.
>

 

[MIKE75]

> > Well its about time 92 did something right. They should
> have gone alt/rock years ago. The night jock Iggy, HE is
> real bad, he sound like hes 15 and knows nothing about
> music, everybreak is a train wreck for him and hes worse
> then any OCB grad I have ever herd. Speaking of jocks I
> would have to say that the only good weekend/fill in jock is
> verlain and the old end jocks, well, thats what they sound
> like OLD JOCKS. I love the music I just cant listen to the
> jocks, rover still rocks and nard is ok in the afternoons
> but he has nothing on maxwell. They should fire their jocks
> go jockless and hire a new staff, maybe bring back guys like
> luchbox or even mikey they seemed to know their music well
> and both fit the sound of the station back then and I thnk
> they would work on k-rock. One more thing, the imaging is
> NOT GOOD. whoever is incharg over there nard or kim or
> whoever needs to do something about that, Igor was the best
> imaging guy they have ever had. Put a little excitement on
> the air dont just sound boring and lame.
>
> You are right about Iggy. He is horrible. He is showing no improvement. I don't think he's even good enough to be a part timer. Pat the Producer or even Bull should be in the 7-midnight shift.

As far as the imaging goes I don't think its that bad. They do however need to get some new top of the hour Id's. I think they have only one. The imaging voice they have is good.

>

 

[DrC]

> You can throw in a few rim shot stations as well.
>
> CIMX 88.7 (Windsor/Detroit, alternative)- here in Parma I
> can pick it up sometimes during the summer (over powering
> WJCU) and I imagine it's more prominent the farther west you
> go

Several times, I've driven past the Cedar Rd exit on I-271, and 89X has blown out WJCU. Heck, I'm living in Pittsburgh for the time being and can hear 89X 90% of the time on the car radio north of the city, although it fades in and out.

Once you hit Erie County on I-80, 89X is as good as a local signal.

> CFPL 95.9 (London, ON, rock)- seems to put a decent signal
> into the northeast suburbs and during the summer comes in
> pretty good here in Parma on a regular basis

I spent every other weekend last summer at Mentor Headlands - 95.9 comes in like a local signal on the beach there. 180,000 watts with no obstruction, even 100+ miles away - any $10 boombox will pull it right in.

> WRIF 101.1 (Detroit, active rock)- pretty much the same as
> CIMX

Good station, used to listen when I lived near Toledo - too far southeast to get it when I'm in Cleveland though. 101.1 out of Youngstown destroys it.

> WYFM 102.9 (Sharon/Youngstown, classic rock)- for those
> south and south-east of Cleveland

Possibly the only FM station whose signal stretches from Cleveland city limits to Pittsburgh city limits. Or at least the only one I'd bother to listen to that long.