Growing up in the 90s, I mainly listened to WMJI as that's what my parents listened to. I had no siblings or many friends, so there was no influence on modern day music at the time. As a result, most of my listening on radio was music from the 50s and 60s, stuff many people my age wouldn't even listen to.
I remember getting ready for school and listening for the Cash Bribe Oldie, which was played somewhere around 7:20 AM. If I was home in the afternoon, I would tune in to when the Cash Bribe Oldie was about to be played (somewhere around :45-:50 of the announced hour) just to see who would win. My mom was able to get through one night to request Old Time Rock & Roll (wish I still had the tape as I remember recording it), and once she told me to listen for the "touch tones" and let her know so she could call in for whatever they were giving away on the air at the time.
I also remember when things like the themed weekends (example: British Invasion Weekend) were a big deal, and I wanted to be home by 4 PM on Friday just to listen and catch the start of it. Also events like the Majic 500 countdown or Memorial Day countdown were things that I wanted to tune into. And who can forget the jingles? At least changed up from time-to-time so that they didn't get stale. Not to mention this one that scared me a couple of times..
(Uplifting jingle, suddenly stops. Ominous voice: This is WMJI Cleveland. When the music stops. That's news... DUM DUM DUUUMMM.... Do-do-do-do-do. Do-do-do-do-do!) Still gives me chills.
It was around 1999 when I noticed WMJI's playlist starting to become repetitive, which I believe was the time when Clear Channel (A.K.A. iHeart Radio) took over the station. The playlist also started to shift more towards the 70s, and the consisted more of top hits. I remember traveling down to Columbus around the start of the new millennium and tuning into I think 107.9 FM down there, which was once an oldies format as well, and thinking, "man, their playlist is much better compared to Majic's". I occasionally streamed the station from my computer at home, but dial-up at the time made it impossible for constant listening. Eventually I moved away from listening to WMJI and slowly shifted to WDOK's soft AC format, until they dumped that in 2012 for New/Star 102. Most of my classmates listened to stations like WKDD, Q104 or 96.5 Kiss FM, with music that was unappealing to me. I credit my early listening to stations like WMJI and even Radio Disney for helping maintain a good taste in music. It kept me from listening to rap and other suggestive content that most pre-teens listen to this day, as well as awful sounding music and artists.
As far as presentation, regardless of the station, today's youth is really missing out on just how creative and engaging broadcast radio was. They are spoiled by their Spotify and other streaming platforms. The internet has really killed broadcast radio to the point where no station does anything creative in order to stand out from their competition. Heck, even their websites are nothing but a corporate template, and 90% if its content has nothing to do about the station.
