Rob Anthony tapped as PD WMMS and 106.5 The Lake.

[Santa fe]

Walt Tibursky, who was GM at WMMS when Shamrock owned it and became GM of WNCX when WMMS was sold to Omni/WMJI, was one of the first to sign up for Howard Stern's national show. This was considered very risky, as the big wigs claimed no national show could be competitive in morning drive. Plus, stations paid for Stern, usually an amount about the same as a good local program. And, despite Cleveland's history of birthing shock jocks like Don Imus and Gary Dee, they said Stern's shtick wouldn't play in the heartland.

Stern's rise to the top in Cleveland was one of the fastest in the country. He moved WNCX from an also ran into a top contender and they stuck with him until he went satellite.

There were markets where Stern didn't catch fire and some never did carry it. But, like Rush Limbaugh and Larry King, he helped bust the theory that only local, live radio could capture big ratings and ad dollars and that changed the face of radio into what we have today.

 

[TheBigA]

There were markets where Stern didn't catch fire and some never did carry it. But, like Rush Limbaugh and Larry King, he helped bust the theory that only local, live radio could capture big ratings and ad dollars and that changed the face of radio into what we have today.

The example I use now is Steve Harvey.

 

[dlf1]

KISW in Seattle is similar, except no live sports.

KEGL in Dallas/Fort Worth is trying the Rock/Talk/Sports trifecta as well; results are not encouraging right now.

WMMS started drifting when they went CHR in the mid 80’s. The ratings were quite good, but they shifted to Rock 40, back to AOR, Alternative, Active Rock, farewell to the Buzzard (did not happen), Heritage AOR and finally the Talk/Rock/Sports model that has had fluctuations, but seems to have traction.

 

[Santa fe]

Correction: Walt Tibursky did not put Howard Stern on WNCX. It is correct that he joined WNCX as GM when WMMS was sold to Omni/WMJI, and he was GM when Stern had his Cleveland victory broadcast that was "cut short". But Stern was already in place, having been signed in 1992 by WNCX PD Doug Podell and was one of the first half-dozen stations to add Stern.
Stern did beat Jeff and Flash in the ratings. They were let go when Omni/WMJI bought WMMS. Brian and Joe were the WMMS morning team when Stern had his party.
As they say in journalism, I regret the error.

 

[davideduardo]

There were markets where Stern didn't catch fire and some never did carry it. But, like Rush Limbaugh and Larry King, he helped bust the theory that only local, live radio could capture big ratings and ad dollars and that changed the face of radio into what we have today.

The funny ("funny" = "peculiar" and not "funny" = "ha ha") thing is that the biggest two decades for radio ever were based on national network radio... the 1930's and 1940's. In some cases, stations even signed off in hours when there was no network programming.

Yet today, we have almost 100% national TV programming except for local news and many of the music services are international. In much of the rest of the world, national or wide regional radio with centralized programming on many local transmitters is the norm.

 

[MediaLover]

Walt Tiberski did play a role in bringing Rover to Cleveland at 92.3 when it was still Xtreme Radio.

 

[vjm]

Correction: Walt Tibursky did not put Howard Stern on WNCX. It is correct that he joined WNCX as GM when WMMS was sold to Omni/WMJI, and he was GM when Stern had his Cleveland victory broadcast that was "cut short". But Stern was already in place, having been signed in 1992 by WNCX PD Doug Podell and was one of the first half-dozen stations to add Stern.
Stern did beat Jeff and Flash in the ratings. They were let go when Omni/WMJI bought WMMS. Brian and Joe were the WMMS morning team when Stern had his party.
As they say in journalism, I regret the error.

Walt Tiberski did play a role in bringing Rover to Cleveland at 92.3 when it was still Xtreme Radio.

And to tie everything together. Rover was one of the original replacements for Stern when CBS tried a 3-pronged approach to fill the slot nationally in 2006 (David Lee Roth on the east coast,, Rover in the midwest, and Adam Corolla on the west coast)

Here in Cleveland, we had a unique situation in having both Rover (on 92.3 - which became K-Rock) and DLR (directly replacing Howard on 98.5 WNCX).

And to really connect all the dots - around this time, WMMS gave up on finding a local morning show after (seemingly) 47 different ones crashed and burned, and just plugged and played Bob and Tom.

Fast forward 2 years, Rover signs with WMMS (where he's had AMD on lock for about a decade and a half), and WNCX is in the middle of their own morning show merry-go-round (until Slats stabilized things in 2011, and he's now been a rock on 98.5 for over a decade).

 

[MediaLover]

Ironically, Maxwell was part of the merry-go-round at WNCX. What's even more ironic was that The Maxwell Show was replaced by the guy who actually hosted afternoons on WMMS right before him and that was Slats, who later had a brief stint on 92.3.

Yet, afternoons on WMMS were more stable than mornings for the longest. Today, Alan Cox has now been in the PMD slot longer than Slats and Maxwell.

 

[johnbasalla]

If you'll recall, either right before or soon after WNCX started airing Stern's morning show, John Lanigan on WMJI devoted some time to telling everyone how bad this was for Cleveland and Cleveland radio. I thought that this may have been unintended promotion for Stern's show.

 

[Yabadabado1]

And I think that was the only time Lanigan mentioned him. Never mentioned him again after that. Why give your competition ANY mention at all?

 

[johnbasalla]

And I think that was the only time Lanigan mentioned him. Never mentioned him again after that. Why give your competition ANY mention at all?

Agree with your question, maybe unless something happened that put the competition in the news outside of the radio station. But, that's what John Lanigan did. Once was too much.

 

[Northcoast43]

Agree with your question, maybe unless something happened that put the competition in the news outside of the radio station. But, that's what John Lanigan did. Once was too much.

I seem to recall on then, Sportschannel...Rick Manning doing a promo for Stearns show that John Saunders had to ask if it was a promotion or general question. As a viewer, I was thinking the same thing.

In Lanigan's case it may have been a simple case of notoriety. While acting like another fish in the morning show waters was no big deal.

 

[MediaLover]

Lanigan actually talked about Stern in his book, including when his wife got mentioned several times on the air.

 

[davideduardo]

Agree with your question, maybe unless something happened that put the competition in the news outside of the radio station. But, that's what John Lanigan did. Once was too much.

Of course, Stern provoked leading morning show hosts so directly that he obtained just what he wanted: notoriety and commentary on the competitor's stations!

 

[johnbasalla]

Of course, Stern provoked leading morning show hosts so directly that he obtained just what he wanted: notoriety and commentary on the competitor's stations!

Your response led me to remember Stern talking about one of Lanigan's eyes looking strangely and, seemingly, floating around his head in an odd sort of way. That was pretty direct, even if it wasn't true.

 

[Northcoast43]

Of course, Stern provoked leading morning show hosts so directly that he obtained just what he wanted: notoriety and commentary on the competitor's stations!

Admittedly, Stern may have been the first to receive such notoriety that he was brought up on other stations. Locally, I can't recall any competition that caused others to somewhat pause and mention the new competition on the block. (Being 1992, I'm thinking local TV format and newscast changes AND local radio adding new personalities or programming).

Two exceptions? 1981 WUAB (Television) added a local promo clearly attempting to remind viewers they've been around ("For close to 13 years") and intend to continue "Playing Favorites". When WCLQ was about to launch as a second independent.

To a lesser extent: 1987 - When WNCX didn't service mark it's intended "North Coast Express" concept, so WMMS did.