• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Jeny flips again!

fedacct1 said:
Jeny got a yeast infection. <joking> With a brand like that, it sounds like it‘s clearly aimed at chicks. Hence, the identity problem.
Click to expand...
jenY, luckily, hasn't been around since January of this year. Alternative Cleveland is a major improvement and is likely doing better than jenY.

Plus it was a mistake to call an Alternative station with a name like "jenY."
 
To be honest, "Alternative Cleveland" is an awful name for a radio station. I know both the big players have dueling copyright claims over the word "ALT" to describe the format, but c'mon, couldn't they come up with something better? "107.3 Xtreme Radio"? "Radio 107.3"? Anything else?

Also, I suspect "jenY 107.3" as an alternative-exclusive station was a holdover name because RCRG might have registered it for two years and had to stick it out, like how WDOK was "Cleveland's New 102" for such a long time before they finally changed it to something else. I did quite enjoy the jenY format at its launch - pop and alternative are my two music mainstays, and it was an eclectic enough mix that it kept my interest - but I could see how it might be confusing and/or off-putting to the general public. Either you're targeting the CHR/pop audience - which, let's be honest, a dozen other stations are also courting - or you're targeting the mostly-displaced alternative audience - 99X was highly localized unless you had smart technology and could stream it in your car - but to do both was splitting your listener base, as one format fan might not enjoy the other format.

Lastly, I saw this topic at the top of the page and thought it flipped again. For a minute, I wondered if there was some alternative/rock-focused Christmas station I should check out.
 
It’s certainly not a very creative name, but it’s to the point I guess.

While the brand name doesn’t do anything for me, the music selection is MUCH better than any Alternative station has done here, IMO. 99X/Alt was wayyyy too conservative, playlist wise. JenY was too loose with new music for me. This one is the porridge that is just right.
 
Yabadabado1 said:
Jeny [or Jenny] was a stupid choice for a name. How many guys thought "Oh, another station aiming for the female audience? No thanks! I'll go elsewhere."
Click to expand...
Well to be fair, when The Wave became Jeny in early 2020 (before the pandemic took effect), it was with a female targeted modern AC format (stuff basically from the GW Bush administration to Trump),

While still under the Jeny name, it flipped to alternative in October 2020, and in January of this year took the Alternative Cleveland name.

So the Jeny name wasn't meant to be linked to an alternative station, just kinda worked out that way for awhile.
 
Plus, the flip to Alternative happened after 99X/Alt 99.1 flipped to the Black Information Network. Had that not happened, the Modern AC would have lasted longer or it would have been more of a Hot AC.
 
107.3 has a new morning host - AJ DiCosimo.

He started as an intern turned board op at WKNR about 15 years ago, then became a podcast guy as well as a stand up comic on the local scene.
 
vjm said:
107.3 has a new morning host - AJ DiCosimo.

He started as an intern turned board op at WKNR about 15 years ago, then became a podcast guy as well as a stand up comic on the local scene.
Click to expand...
That didn't last long.

DiCosimo has now been replaced by Ryan Lang, who moves up the proverbial road from sister station WONE 97.5 in Akron, where he was the midday DJ.

Dave Spano - formerly a long time producer at WKRK 92.3 The Fan - takes over for Lang on WONE
 
ok.. total outsider question.

Whjy does it seem that the RCRG goes through staff almost as much as people change their underwear?
 
Probably the two biggest problems in what's left of the radio business these days:

1) Radio revenues are shrinking year-on-year, which in turn, causes management to continously find expenses to cut. They took a current WONE expense and simply transfered it to WNWV, replacing the WONE opening with someone who sounds less expensive.

2) Things are so tight revenue wise, that stations no longer give enough gestation period to anything....a format, a host.....anything. Especially in this era of many alternatives to radio, it takes even longer than it used to in order for people to discover something or somebody new on radio. The powers at be either won't --- or can't ---- give anything proper time to grow and get established.
 
I'm surprised they didn't just buy some voice-tracked DJ to be that replacement talent on WONE. You'd think that would be cheaper than hiring someone new, but RCRG isn't either of the Big Two, so there might be a higher cost to buying a voice-tracked person (or buying rights to a syndicated show) than hiring an actual DJ.

Also, the mention of 92.3 The Fan does make me wonder why Audacy never changed the call letters from K-Rock to something either sports or "The Fan"-related. Remember when Clear Channel launched their "Mix [numbers here]" stations, and all of them had some variant of MIX in their call letters? I mean, when 92.3 The Beat launched, they just went from WJMN to WZJM, so there wasn't much of a change there, either, but that's not as obvious as WKRK to someone who's lived in town through the entire alternative run of 92.3.
 
92.3 was WZJM even during the Jammin' 92 years. It was WJMO-FM until 1994, when it became WZJM. The calls wouldn't change until 2001 when it became WXTM Xtreme Radio.
 
MegaBlue said:
....RCRG isn't either of the Big Two, so there might be a higher cost to buying a voice-tracked person (or buying rights to a syndicated show) than hiring an actual DJ.
Click to expand...
Remember that the big chains have hundreds of stations, where they often REQUIRE their talent to voice track one (or several) other stations. A friend says that he gets paid 6K extra a year to VT a daily show on a co-owned station in another market. Doing the numbers, that's $500 a month, or $25 a show or (for a four hour shift) $6.25 an hour. You'll never be able to hire anyone that cheap. And wait until AI becomes more widespread, where they will sample a voice and then just write stuff for the AI "jock" to say. That will cost nothing.
 
Last edited:
MegaBlue said:
Also, the mention of 92.3 The Fan does make me wonder why Audacy never changed the call letters from K-Rock to something either sports or "The Fan"-related. Remember when Clear Channel launched their "Mix [numbers here]" stations, and all of them had some variant of MIX in their call letters? I mean, when 92.3 The Beat launched, they just went from WJMN to WZJM, so there wasn't much of a change there, either, but that's not as obvious as WKRK to someone who's lived in town through the entire alternative run of 92.3.
Click to expand...
Does anybody really care about call letters anymore? Probably not. Most stations just use a branding label - The Fan, The Fish, The Lake, etc..
 
SomeRadioGuy said:
ok.. total outsider question.

Whjy does it seem that the RCRG goes through staff almost as much as people change their underwear?
Click to expand...
The problem is that WNWV is a stand-alone in the Cleveland market with a rimshot signal 20 miles to the west of Cleveland. They can’t compete with the big chains in terms of economy of scale, let alone with a format that can’t bill to save its life.
 
MediaLover said:
92.3 was WZJM even during the Jammin' 92 years. It was WJMO-FM until 1994, when it became WZJM. The calls wouldn't change until 2001 when it became WXTM Xtreme Radio.
Click to expand...
What about their days as WLYT (an also-ran Top 40, (unless I'm getting my frequencies wrong). They also changed call letters to something else while staying with the Top 40 format (as I recall). Weren't they also "Disco 92" in the late 1970s? Then, for what Alternative listeners used to call "a long weekend", they were an Alternative station before that format became, well, hoped-for viable.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom