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Power 108 airchecks from 1990

MarioMania said:
Why did Power 108 flip in 92?
Click to expand...

Because WPHR was struggling in the ratings, like many CHRs were at that time. You have to remember that this was a bad time for CHR radio nationwide as the audience begin to leave for Country, AC, and other formats during this period. "M Street Journal" had reported in 1991 alone, about 150 stations left the format altogether (Most were the "secondary CHRs" in markets that were in 2-way CHR battles, but there were several markets that had lost their only CHR during this time period as well).

Anyway, back to Power 108: IMHO, I don't think there was anything that would have save the station at that point. Q104 and Mix 106.5 was taking the upper end of Power's audience while Jammin" was taking a good chunk of the younger 18-34 demos that liked Dance and Rhythmic music full-time. The image of Power 108 by the time of the flip was a struggling, teen-oriented station which in a market like Cleveland, is unsellable. Since there was a hole for Modern Rock in the market and KWOD/Sacramento, CA had proven the year before that a CHR/Modern Rock hybrid can work, the decision was easy (Besides it would had been better than being the 3rd Country station, right?)

Robyn
 
The switch to the End was a good move and they had a solid air talent lineup with Brian/Joe, Rick Michaels and Maria Farina. Disappointed that they flipped formats in 1999. The End was probably the best of the Alternative stations. WMMS just never fit the format in my eyes. I know they tried in the mid 90s but the End was always better at it.
 
CleveRadioInsider said:
WMMS just never fit the format in my eyes. I know they tried in the mid 90s but the End was always better at it.
Click to expand...

Speaking of The Buzzard, here's a brief aircheck of WMMS during their "Modern Rock phase" from 1996.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff_kxvAm4MQ

It doesn't sound bad, but I find it funny that this was the same station that ripped on "The End" about a year or 2 previous for playing a lot of "bands no one has heard of" (as evident in this FMQB station composite from 1994).

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

Robyn
 
One more bit of food for thought in regards to The End...

I think one key factor that prevented the station from being dominate in the market (and this holds true when they were Power 108 as well) is their signal doesn't cover the entire Cleveland market very well. As I understand it (and it was discussed in the documentary on the station as well), the tower was located SE outside of the main metro near Newbury, but there is a ridge that prevents a clear signal from making it into downtown or the lakefront (or areas southwest and west of the city like Parma and Lorain). Meanwhile, areas like Youngstown east to the Pennsylvania state line were receiving a near-city grade signal which caused 107.9 to show up in the ratings in that market during both the Power 108 and The End incarnations on several occasions. Problem is, Youngstown is not part of the Cleveland market! The End did eventually move the tower westward toward the city to the present site near Russell Township, but you still have terrain issues to content to.

Here is the clip from the documentary about signal issues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqHP5bW3qAM&list=UUS0DD67K42XldKf2n4lesLw&index=6

Robyn
 
RobynWattsV2.0 said:
One more bit of food for thought in regards to The End...

I think one key factor that prevented the station from being dominate in the market (and this holds true when they were Power 108 as well) is their signal doesn't cover the entire Cleveland market very well. As I understand it (and it was discussed in the documentary on the station as well), the tower was located SE outside of the main metro near Newbury, but there is a ridge that prevents a clear signal from making it into downtown or the lakefront (or areas southwest and west of the city like Parma and Lorain). Meanwhile, areas like Youngstown east to the Pennsylvania state line were receiving a near-city grade signal which caused 107.9 to show up in the ratings in that market during both the Power 108 and The End incarnations on several occasions. Problem is, Youngstown is not part of the Cleveland market! The End did eventually move the tower westward toward the city to the present site near Russell Township, but you still have terrain issues to content to.

Here is the clip from the documentary about signal issues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqHP5bW3qAM&list=UUS0DD67K42XldKf2n4lesLw&index=6

Robyn
Click to expand...

Any idea where one could find the entire documentary?
 
I have a friend who's aunt lived on 87, and the WNOB tower was literally in her back yard. I used to go with him to visit her in 1970's, she was elderly then, and passed on not much later, since I'm curious what's there now, I just Google Street Mapped the area and what it shows as of 2009 the stick is still there, and a company called Dist Tech is on that land now where my friend's aunt's house used to be. IIRC, back in the WNOB days, they were pushing 70K watts? I remember WDBN listed as something like 216K watts at one time? I remember in the 70's too 97.5 used to be a powerhouse all over Cleveland, now I can't receive them on the west side except on the car radio.
 
Yes back in the WNOB, WELW FM and WDMT days 107.9 was pushing 70,000 watts from that tower in Newberry. It was grandfathered in before the FCC put a 50,000 watt limit on station in Ohio. The studios and offices were located there also. Even when WELW AM & FM simulcasted their programming almost all of it came from those studios in Newberry while certain shows would be broadcasted from the AM studios in Willoughby.

While the station always had Cleveland as it's COL, back in the those days it never really tried to promote it's self as a "Cleveland" station all that much concentrating it's efforts on the eastern counties. In fact when WELW FM was doing it's country format it did have a listener base in the Warren/Youngstown area as it's signal easily covered those cities also.
 
I feel there is now more appreciation for Power as there have been t-shirts being sold with the classic 1988-92 logo. The imaging on those airchecks during those years made the station sound even bigger.
 
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