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Classic Radio Thread: Lite Rock 106 1/2

C

CleveFan

With all the changes that were happening at WMVX over the past few weeks, let take a look at the station that was on before Mix: Lite Rock 106 1/2 - WLTF. I don't have airchecks, but here are some old commercials for the station:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xdWoNmJs3U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-D8DbC64yQ4

http://www.retrojunk.com/details_commercial/17376/

There's also an article written by WLTF PD Dave Popovich (now PD at WDOK and WQAL, two of WLTF's biggest rivals) on how the station rose to the top before falling. It was written when the station flipped to Mix.

http://www.danoday.com/articles/theriseandfallofwltf.shtml

I will say it was a cool station from the personalities to the music to the imaging. What are your thoughts? Also, if there are airchecks, post them in this thread.
 
WLTF is what kept WMJI from rising to #1. When WLTF flipped to MIX, Majic went the top and has never looked back.
 
Trapper Jack was indeed WLTF's star personality.

After he left to go to WDOK (around the same time Booth Broadcasting went public and was renamed Secret Communications), the succeeding show - hosted by Corey Dietz, Jay Hamilton and Maria Desiree Fenos - never was able to gain any traction.
 
The station changed from WZZP to WLTF in 1984 to better compete with the increasingly popular WMJI, and the two batted back-and-forth until WMJI changed to oldies. It went through a slew of morning hosts (one guy only lasted a day before quitting due to programming differences) before landing Trapper, but not with a legal dispute with his previous station in Pittsburgh. Once he came, the rest was history...until the mid-1990's.

It was big during the 80's and early 90's, but fell apart when WDOK and WQAL flipped to compete with the station, and both started tweaking to gain some of WLTF's audience. WDOK became a format between Easy Listening and Lite Rock, and WQAL became an Adult CHR that was funkier than WLTF. In fact, the rivalry between WLTF and WQAL was very heated around 1991 through 1995. Ultimately, "Q104" won out, but then WDOK evolved and also won out as well.

Today, while WQAL continues as "Q104" and WDOK continues with its "Today's Soft Rock" approach - with former WLTF personalities to boot including Trapper Jack, Bob McKay, and Desiray McCray (who has come a long way from the Corey, Jay, and Desiray show) - WLTF ended up flipping to WMVX - "Mix" after 13 years in October 1997 of "Lite Rock"...only to flip again after 13 years in December 2010/January 2011 to "The Lake."

Speaking of WQAL and WDOK, here are promos circa 1992 or '93:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvAYv3Ji1dQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q4NZNVye4k&feature=related

And just for fun, here one with WNCX from 1988:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OEkC02qQ5M
 
Somewhere off the highway near the city is a MacDonalds. Every morning at 5am a bunch of old timers come in, adjust their hearing aids, and tell each other about the radio stations where they used to go everyday. They tell each other how much better they were then than now.
Some of these men read the paper. Some get a 2nd cup of cofee. Then they go to watch their grandchildren before their doctor's appointments.

Tomorrow they will go to the MacDonalds again and talk to each other about the radio stations where they used to go every day. Iamgine that! Some will get a 2nd cup of copy. They will check the obituatries in the plain dealer. Then some will go see thier grandchildren after they get new batteries for their hearing aids. Those were great radio stations. The ones THEY used to go to every day.
 
Sounds like Capulet is wee bit bitter. And oblivious to the fact that radio was better before deregulation.
 
X-Nooz said:
Sounds like Capulet is wee bit bitter. And oblivious to the fact that radio was better before deregulation.
Click to expand...

Do the other cities' boards have all this reliving the past? ::) I am not bitter. Bored maybe. I did more things in my life both in and outside of electronic media that might evoke envy in some. I am certainly not oblivious to the devastation the people in this radio industry suffered as a result of deregulation. Is radio so homegenized, so corporate, so sterile in it's present state,that the history topics are more interesting than the currnet events? In the old days radio was touted for immediacy. Now the computer screen is the news breaker. I am tired of reading about the past. And I was in a MacDonalds at dawn the other day with the old timers there. ;) When I was reading this post ( which by the way did spark my interest enough to read one of the links ) I pictured the MacDonalds guys. In some poetic sense I saw the radio history buffs that I read here there.
For a brief artistic moment I saw the board having a cup of coffee at the MacDonalds. No offense intended. Just an observation.

CleveFan,to you I apologize if you were offended. I admire you taking the time to tell your story.
 
Capulet said:
X-Nooz said:
Sounds like Capulet is wee bit bitter. And oblivious to the fact that radio was better before deregulation.
Click to expand...

Do the other cities' boards have all this reliving the past? ::) I am not bitter. Bored maybe. I did more things in my life both in and outside of electronic media that might evoke envy in some. I am certainly not oblivious to the devastation the people in this radio industry suffered as a result of deregulation. Is radio so homegenized, so corporate, so sterile in it's present state,that the history topics are more interesting than the currnet events? In the old days radio was touted for immediacy. Now the computer screen is the news breaker. I am tired of reading about the past. And I was in a MacDonalds at dawn the other day with the old timers there. ;) When I was reading this post ( which by the way did spark my interest enough to read one of the links ) I pictured the MacDonalds guys. In some poetic sense I saw the radio history buffs that I read here there.
For a brief artistic moment I saw the board having a cup of coffee at the MacDonalds. No offense intended. Just an observation.

CleveFan,to you I apologize if you were offended. I admire you taking the time to tell your story.
Click to expand...

I do see other city boards reliving the past as much if not more than the Cleveland one. I like reading about radio history, and as long as there are discussions about current happenings in the radio world, I don't mind the "good old days" threads.
 
Capulet said:
X-Nooz said:
Sounds like Capulet is wee bit bitter. And oblivious to the fact that radio was better before deregulation.
Click to expand...

Do the other cities' boards have all this reliving the past? ::) I am not bitter. Bored maybe. I did more things in my life both in and outside of electronic media that might evoke envy in some. I am certainly not oblivious to the devastation the people in this radio industry suffered as a result of deregulation. Is radio so homegenized, so corporate, so sterile in it's present state,that the history topics are more interesting than the currnet events? In the old days radio was touted for immediacy. Now the computer screen is the news breaker. I am tired of reading about the past. And I was in a MacDonalds at dawn the other day with the old timers there. ;) When I was reading this post ( which by the way did spark my interest enough to read one of the links ) I pictured the MacDonalds guys. In some poetic sense I saw the radio history buffs that I read here there.
For a brief artistic moment I saw the board having a cup of coffee at the MacDonalds. No offense intended. Just an observation.

CleveFan,to you I apologize if you were offended. I admire you taking the time to tell your story.
Click to expand...

That's okay Capulet, I was not offended at all. I value your thoughts, opinions, and stories. BTW, I liked reading your McDonald's observation. A nice touch.
 
The short answer is: Yes. Yes, it is more interesting talking about old radio than the new stuff.
 
"WLTF is what kept WMJI from rising to #1. When WLTF flipped to MIX, Majic went the top and has never looked back."
By the time WLTF switched to "Mix" in 1997 it had been going downhill for some time. It made a major error in not re-signing Trapper Jack and then got caught in a squeeze between WQAL on the young side and WDOK on the older. While those three stations were duking it out for the AC crown, WMJI began growing. By 1997, WMJI was already on top and had been for a couple of years.
 
Little extra tidbit: toward the end, WLTF actually carried the "Deliah" show from 7p-12a. It only lasted a few months in early 1997, and was dropped shortly before the sale to Jacor.

I can't remember if it was Meghan Clemson or Maria Farina who replaced Deliah... but it was either one of them. Of course after the flip to Mix a few weeks later, Meghan took the slot dubbed "NightMix."

But carrying Deliah was indicative of the severe identity crisis that WLTF faced toward the end.
 
Here is a much longer aircheck of WLTF 'Lite Rock 106.5' from April 1995 (including promos and commercials)

http://www.mediafire.com/?hh66enwxhqszliw
Buckeyes2001 said:
Here is an aircheck I just uploaded from a cassette recording of what was then WLTF 'Lite Rock 106.5' from May 1995.

http://www.mediafire.com/?n87bame1gm5fm1o
Click to expand...

Disregard my previous post. (quoted one) This aircheck was from April rather than May 1995. The second link I posted (one at the top of this window) should work.
 
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