Cleveland Radio Feb 23 Ratings

[vw86]

96.5 just never felt like a true Cleveland station or has had a strong presence in the city.

I disagree 100%. From their humble beginnings at 104.9 to the early 2000s with Dan Mason as PD, Kasper as nights and then afternoons, Java Joel's first era on the station when he was based out of Chicago, that station owned Cleveland CHR and absolutely put their handprint on everything they involved themselves with. Dan and Kasper had genuine "old radio guy" souls for the next generation and made that station their own. The old school "Kasper Nighttime Radio Program" was appointment tune in back then.

Just because the city of license is Akron doesn't make them less of a true Cleveland station. That's silly.

I still remember listening to AT40 with Casey Kasem every Saturday morning on 96.5 in 2002 and 2003 and then sticking around for the entire day to catch weekend shifts from guys like Keith Hotchkiss (who has, you could say, moved up in the company ), LeeAnn Sommers (who I believe produced Valentine In The Morning for 96.5 M-F and then was doing middays down the hall at Mix), Allen Colon, and weekend shifts from the weekday guys. It was often forgettable early 2000s CHR music, but with guys that poured their heart into that station, and I have great memories of listening.

 

[OriginalSample]

The Akron license is not an issue. vw86 you have a great recollection of WAKS’ better years. They just seem to not have the same presence in the city as they did in the past. Nothing against the current crew there.

 

[OriginalSample]

Radiofollower said:
WAKS (Kiss) is a true CHR. As far as it not being a Cleveland station, that's rubbish. They broadcast from the same tower as WZAK with about the same power. Studios are in the main Cleveland facility. Technically they are an Akron license but you never hear it until they slip it in at the top of the hour. Like Z100 in New York which is actually WHTZ, Newark New Jersey
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Since you brought WZAK, I won’t compare their respective ratings because they serve different demos. However, just look how involve WZAK is with their audience and the amount of community events and station remotes that they do.

WAKS lacks that currently. They could rebrand as CLE 96.5 and release 10,000 balloons from Public Square and it wouldn’t make much hoopla if they’re not as engaged as before.

 

[VintageMac]

If you look at that, you find that a huge percentage of Americans live closer to trains than you think. Where I live, the Coachella Valley / Palm Springs market, nearly none of the over 400,000 permanent residents is more than about 12 miles from one of the busiest rail routes in the nation... ports of LA and Long Beach and LA in general to the east through our valley towards Arizona and the rest of the US.

There are both east and west bound trains about every 5 to 15 minutes apart, usually over 100 cars and some around 150 with 3 engines in the front, two in the middle and a couple at the rear. There are a number of sidings for slower trains to wait for others to go by, and apparently there are on-the-fly maintenance crews, too... from what I have seen.

When you have so many and such large trains, they become invisible to you. Even when one stalls or breaks down, it is not a news item and nobody covers it. I suspect anyone living nearer to a rail line becomes quite oblivious to the sounds and smells of trains after a few months or years.

But there's a big difference between living 12 miles or even 5 miles as oppose to living a mile or less which is what the East Palestine folks are dealing with. I know people who live near trains and the noise is not something you get used to similar to those who live near a freeway. You end up tolerating it or move if you can.

 

[vjm]

I thought I asked before, but apparently, I didn't: On the ratings list, I see three stations listed as -STR. What does that mean? Streaming versions? If it's streaming, then it seems odd that it's only 92.3, 107.3, and Q104 that are listed.

Correct, STR = streaming.

 

[davideduardo]

I thought I asked before, but apparently, I didn't: On the ratings list, I see three stations listed as -STR. What does that mean? Streaming versions? If it's streaming, then it seems odd that it's only 92.3, 107.3, and Q104 that are listed.

If a stream is a 100% simulcast of a "regular" station (AM, FM, HD subchannel) nearly 100% of operators select the option of "Single Line Reporting" or SLR where all sources of the same content are aggregated with the "main" source as selected by the Nielsen reported station.

So, if you have a 3 share on an FM and a 0.8 on the stream, would you rather be listed separately as, perhaps, 7th and 23rd in the market or, maybe, 5th when combined?

 

[Rusty Muck]

I disagree 100%. From their humble beginnings at 104.9 to the early 2000s with Dan Mason as PD, Kasper as nights and then afternoons, Java Joel's first era on the station when he was based out of Chicago, that station owned Cleveland CHR and absolutely put their handprint on everything they involved themselves with. Dan and Kasper had genuine "old radio guy" souls for the next generation and made that station their own. The old school "Kasper Nighttime Radio Program" was appointment tune in back then.

Dan Mason Jr. is also the son of former CBS Radio exec Dan Mason (likely best known for resurrecting CBS-FM in NYC and updating it for a new generation); radio runs in his family. Plus after WAKS, he took on an impossible task of programming KDND/Sacramento after their incredibly disastrous Wii giveaway stunt and succeeded despite the odds.

 

[MediaLover]

Dan was part of WAKS when it was at 104.9. That station was able to get numbers despite its signal coverage, and got a big boost after moving to the stronger 96.5.