Rover and Maxwell Yesterday

[AllMightyVoice]

During my 15 minute morning commute I caught some head scratching moments from Rover and Maxwell:

Maxwell was on the air coming clean about some consultant that WNCX brought in to help make the show better. Said that he made the mistake of trying to change the show, and will now resume doing the same show that he did over at WMMS. He basically admits that the show has not been very good so far on WNCX, and that he was being too much "Brian Fowler" and not enough Maxwell. He even admitted that WNCX can dump Maxwell in November. It was an interesting behind the scenes type look into whats going on over there, something that Maxwell has often done both at WMMS and WNCX. But really smacked of desperation, sort of a "hey, I know we've been bad and have no listeners, but hey, we're gonna change so please please start listening again." Makes me think, why bother telling us all this? Why not just keep quiet about it, make whatever changes you have to, and just start doing some good radio shows?

Meanwhile, Rover shares some breaking news on his show from a Gawker.com article that talks about fake radio. He is appalled to find out that Top 40 radio morning shows are using fake callers (a service offered by Premiere Radio). He also starts accusing Maxwell of using fake callers on his show. He goes on and on about how awful this fraudulent radio is. Ummmm....so if this fake radio upsets him so much, why isn't his show called Shane French's Morning Glory....and why did he lie for years on the air about his relationship with Duji?? I don't persnally know Rover, is he really that delusional??

 

[Rusty Muck]

During my 15 minute morning commute I caught some head scratching moments from Rover and Maxwell:

Maxwell was on the air coming clean about some consultant that WNCX brought in to help make the show better. Said that he made the mistake of trying to change the show, and will now resume doing the same show that he did over at WMMS. He basically admits that the show has not been very good so far on WNCX, and that he was being too much "Brian Fowler" and not enough Maxwell. He even admitted that WNCX can dump Maxwell in November. It was an interesting behind the scenes type look into whats going on over there, something that Maxwell has often done both at WMMS and WNCX. But really smacked of desperation, sort of a "hey, I know we've been bad and have no listeners, but hey, we're gonna change so please please start listening again." Makes me think, why bother telling us all this? Why not just keep quiet about it, make whatever changes you have to, and just start doing some good radio shows?

At least he's being honest, and it sounds like the consultants tenure at the station didn't end well at all.

Sadly, those consultants should have focused on the rest of the station so that it doesn't sound as boring, predictable and forgettable as it has been for decades.

Meanwhile, Rover shares some breaking news on his show from a Gawker.com article that talks about fake radio. He is appalled to find out that Top 40 radio morning shows are using fake callers (a service offered by Premiere Radio). He also starts accusing Maxwell of using fake callers on his show. He goes on and on about how awful this fraudulent radio is. Ummmm....so if this fake radio upsets him so much, why isn't his show called Shane French's Morning Glory....and why did he lie for years on the air about his relationship with Duji?? I don't persnally know Rover, is he really that delusional??

"Breaking News?" That article's been old news for two weeks. Is Mr. French grasping at straws THAT badly just to find something to say? And if Maxwell's supposedly doing awful, then why is he still mentioned on French's show? Pettiness, perhaps?

And funny that he's accusing CBS of using that service, when in fact Premiere's parent company, CC, just so happens to own WMMS. Betcha he didn't mention THAT. :

 

[vjm]

Are Rover and Triv that bored over at Oak Tree that they have to pick fights with Maxwell and Rizzo respectively?

 

[johnbasalla]

Not being a regular listener to either show, I do occasionally catch bits and pieces as I'm scanning through the dial. I must congratulate Mr. French. He did a credible interview with politician Rann Paul, the son of Ron Paul. I noticed that none of his crew said a word during the interview which lead me to believe that it was pre-recorded with only "Rover" in the room. The quality of the interview lead me to think that it might not be a bad idea for Mr. French to consider doing a serious spot once or twice a week. It's not something all of the "Hot Talk" guys can do well. In a way it's too bad that he even has one syndicated affiliate because that may stop him from doing something interesting, specifically for his home market here in Cleveland.

Maxwell: Laying out the "dirty laundrey" could give the show some credibility, helping to build the image that anything could happen, so be sure to tune in so you don't miss something. That's not unlike the "Jerry Springer Show" showing you what happened back-stage during the commercial break. It can make some viewers feel like insiders. On radio, that's right out of the Howard Stern manual. (Almost) anything that happens will happen on-air. If the main host is "mad" at one of his "zoo-crew", either don't argue about it at a staff meeting after the show, do it all on the air the next day, or at least make it seem that you're doing it all on-air.

 

[Jukebox Zero]

Personally, MWL's "rant" is a sad attempt at trying to salvage his show. He is halfway thru his contract with CBS and knows that come November, his show is going to get blown out. Why should CBS pay a salary for a morning show that only talks from 6:00AM-9:00AM? With commercials, comedy segments and music, he is only talking for 45-60 minutes a show. And that 45-60 minutes a show isn't bringing in any numbers, the music is.

Radio is a business, not a hobby. CBS will look at the numbers and see if what they are spending on Maxwell, Chunk and Stansbury's contract is worth what they are bringing in. So far, it has not. That's why he "ranted" about changing the show back to what it was.

The problem with changing the show back to what it was, is that he had no competition for demographic in the afternoon. He was competing with Triv. Now, he is competing with the Rover show, and is losing.

Friday's Maxwell "rant" is the total opposite of the guy who signed on in November and said he was going to destroy the Rover show and become #1 in Cleveland. This isn't all of his fault, it's CBS's too. They should have known that Maxwell would be a terrible fit for a Classic Rock station like NCX. It's like fitting a square peg into a round hole, no matter which way you try and force it to work, it doesn't.

 

[AllMightyVoice]

I agree that it can be cool to feel like you are getting an "insider" peek at what's going on at a radio show, just seems like Maxwell pulls this card way too often. He spends too much time talking about his show instead of just doing his show. Basically during the end of his WMMS tenure all we heard about was his contract. Now that he's at WNCX we heard more about what happened at WMMS, we kept hearing him talk about how people were coming over to his show in droves (completely unbelievable), and we kept hear him talking about how he needed to fill in all the new listeners on the insides jokes and everything, and how he's Maxwell version 2.0 now. Maybe that show on WNCX was doomed from the start, but I really feel they'd have been better off if they'd have hit the ground running and put the past behind them.

I agree with you Nate from a radio guy perspective that the rest of WNCX is pretty stale. I don't have access to specific ratings for them, but I'd honestly have to guess that when you take into account their target audience, they are probably doing just fine with what they have. And in my opinion, I'd say a station like WONE is even more stale than WNCX

The Rover thing is still such a joke. I see where John is coming from, but I wouldn't expect a whole lot of straight forward interviews. People at my work used to actually bring iPods in with them so they could listen to the League of Extraordinary Morons. I doubt they'd be even at least a little interested in an interesting interview with a controversial politician. Its not The Daily Show or Colbert Report...its Rover's Morning Glory. And Nate, he did make mention that KISS-FM was using the fake callers too, but he did not mention the affiliation
of Premiere and CC. Rover = zero credibility.

 

[CleveFan]

Maxwell ranting about WMMS has always been a semi-regular part of his WNCX show. It really seems like WMMS and Maxwell had a nasty fallout, and my guess is that Rover's presence helped fueled it to the next level. Each have two sides to the story. WMMS offered Maxwell a contract, and he wasn't satisfied. He wanted more money, but he said the station offered him a contract to him and Stansbury that was "a slap in the face." It's hard to say what really went on since the only people who knew about it were Maxwell, his crew, and WMMS. The whole Maxwell 2.0 doesn't seem to last since there were a time where recently Maxwell blew up at Chunk over something, just screaming at her, then acting like nothing happened. Go figure.

WNCX basically dumped Scott Miller and Jeff Blanchard in favor of Maxwell, Stansbury and Chunk to see if the new show could get their ratings higher in the morning. I noticed there were passionate fans of Scott and Jeff that were angry to see the two let go. Their show may have not been exciting, but it did fit the classic rock format well. WNCX saw that Maxwell was very popular in Cleveland, and with the ratings he got toward the end of his WMMS run, WNCX saw what they thought was their answer to their lukewarm ratings problems. The new problem, like what Jukebox Hero stated, is that Maxwell is not a good fit with WNCX and their audience. It will only be a matter until The Maxwell Show becomes the new Those Guys In The Morning as opposed to their new local Howard Stern. I'm only compairing the memorable morning shows on WNCX.

What's also not helping Maxwell is The Alan Cox Show. There are probably listeners who are now used to how Cox runs his show, that if they tried listening to Maxwell, they probably want to wait until Cox comes back on. His show on afternoons, from what I heard, is way better on WMMS than Rover. I think he's also blowing Maxwell, Rizzo, and Triv out of the water. Cox seems to have a wide range of topics, and tends to handle his co-hosts and callers better than other "hot talk" hosts, and plus, Cleveland's never had a show like Cox's in a long time. When I hear the callers, they seem to range from young 12-year-old kids to those over 50+. I have love and respect for Rover, Rizzo, Triv and Maxwell, but Cox to me is the best of the bunch.

I'm not surprised that Rover is talking about fake radio, while not admitting that his show is fake. I heard one morning that he and the crew got upset that one of the "Hook Up Thursday" girls wrote or told her father that the show is fake, and wanted her to retract her statements. They don't want people to find out how they really want their show. I'm also not surprised that it was only Rover who did the serious interviews. He knows his sidekicks would've dragged the interviews down because they are not skilled, ready, prepared and smart enough to contributed. Basically, anything "dumb" (no pun intended ) coming out from Dieter, Dumb, Charlie and/or Jeffery would made them look bad to the people Rover interviews. Or they could have turned off the casual listener.

For instance, Rover interviewing Salt from Salt-N-Pepa was good until Dieter tried to rap. I still remember years ago, during the show's K-Rock days, the interview Rover did with Tony Danza that didn't end well. Then, last year, they made Elisabeth Shue hang up when they asked her questions that made her upset. It seems that Rover's show has less credibility because he can go into questions that can make people really uncomfortable that can end abruptly. Then again, Cox's interviews with Kim Kardashian and J-Woww from "Jersey Shore" have ended in them hanging up. The former due to her sex tape being brought up that made up upset and the ladder due to co-host Chad Zumock screaming at her at the end because he hates her show and how popular it is. That seems to be WMMS' formula. Having the tough questions brought up and the sidekicks almost or completely ruin what were at least decent interviews.

 

[almaniac27]

Maxwell ranting about WMMS has always been a semi-regular part of his WNCX show. It really seems like WMMS and Maxwell had a nasty fallout, and my guess is that Rover's presence helped fueled it to the next level. Each have two sides to the story. WMMS offered Maxwell a contract, and he wasn't satisfied. He wanted more money, but he said the station offered him a contract to him and Stansbury that was "a slap in the face." It's hard to say what really went on since the only people who knew about it were Maxwell, his crew, and WMMS. The whole Maxwell 2.0 doesn't seem to last since there were a time where recently Maxwell blew up at Chunk over something, just screaming at her, then acting like nothing happened. Go figure.

WNCX basically dumped Scott Miller and Jeff Blanchard in favor of Maxwell, Stansbury and Chunk to see if the new show could get their ratings higher in the morning. I noticed there were passionate fans of Scott and Jeff that were angry to see the two let go. Their show may have not been exciting, but it did fit the classic rock format well. WNCX saw that Maxwell was very popular in Cleveland, and with the ratings he got toward the end of his WMMS run, WNCX saw what they thought was their answer to their lukewarm ratings problems. The new problem, like what Jukebox Hero stated, is that Maxwell is not a good fit with WNCX and their audience. It will only be a matter until The Maxwell Show becomes the new Those Guys In The Morning as opposed to their new local Howard Stern. I'm only compairing the memorable morning shows on WNCX.

What's also not helping Maxwell is The Alan Cox Show. There are probably listeners who are now used to how Cox runs his show, that if they tried listening to Maxwell, they probably want to wait until Cox comes back on. His show on afternoons, from what I heard, is way better on WMMS than Rover. I think he's also blowing Maxwell, Rizzo, and Triv out of the water. Cox seems to have a wide range of topics, and tends to handle his co-hosts and callers better than other "hot talk" hosts, and plus, Cleveland's never had a show like Cox's in a long time. When I hear the callers, they seem to range from young 12-year-old kids to those over 50+. I have love and respect for Rover, Rizzo, Triv and Maxwell, but Cox to me is the best of the bunch.

I'm not surprised that Rover is talking about fake radio, while not admitting that his show is fake. I heard one morning that he and the crew got upset that one of the "Hook Up Thursday" girls wrote or told her father that the show is fake, and wanted her to retract her statements. They don't want people to find out how they really want their show. I'm also not surprised that it was only Rover who did the serious interviews. He knows his sidekicks would've dragged the interviews down because they are not skilled, ready, prepared and smart enough to contributed. Basically, anything "dumb" (no pun intended ) coming out from Dieter, Dumb, Charlie and/or Jeffery would made them look bad to the people Rover interviews. Or they could have turned off the casual listener.

For instance, Rover interviewing Salt from Salt-N-Pepa was good until Dieter tried to rap. I still remember years ago, during the show's K-Rock days, the interview Rover did with Tony Danza that didn't end well. Then, last year, they made Elisabeth Shue hang up when they asked her questions that made her upset. It seems that Rover's show has less credibility because he can go into questions that can make people really uncomfortable that can end abruptly. Then again, Cox's interviews with Kim Kardashian and J-Woww from "Jersey Shore" have ended in them hanging up. The former due to her sex tape being brought up that made up upset and the ladder due to co-host Chad Zumock screaming at her at the end because he hates her show and how popular it is. That seems to be WMMS' formula. Having the tough questions brought up and the sidekicks almost or completely ruin what were at least decent interviews.

I didn't know about the J-Woww and Kim Kardashian interviews, but that makes my respect level for Alan Cox (and even Chad Zumock) go way up. Embarrassing and shaming those two and people like them is exactly what our society needs, because the less our society rewards people for being stupid and petty the better.

 

[Rusty Muck]

Are Rover and Triv that bored over at Oak Tree that they have to pick fights with Maxwell and Rizzo respectively?

That's what doesn't make sense. Especially with Rover, if all of the reports and ratings issues facing Maxwell are taken into account. Why would you mention and overtly promote a show on a competing station that's supposedly in trouble? Doing this just makes Rover sound like a petty and bitter 13-year old, or worse, along the lines of the stereotypical characters Susan Catanese, Dominic Dieter, Shawn Street and Mike Toomey all play.

I'm torn about the Triv vs. Rizzo feud, because after all, Goldhammer & Co. especially deserve all of the ripping in the world.

 

[CleveFan]

Maxwell ranting about WMMS has always been a semi-regular part of his WNCX show. It really seems like WMMS and Maxwell had a nasty fallout, and my guess is that Rover's presence helped fueled it to the next level. Each have two sides to the story. WMMS offered Maxwell a contract, and he wasn't satisfied. He wanted more money, but he said the station offered him a contract to him and Stansbury that was "a slap in the face." It's hard to say what really went on since the only people who knew about it were Maxwell, his crew, and WMMS. The whole Maxwell 2.0 doesn't seem to last since there were a time where recently Maxwell blew up at Chunk over something, just screaming at her, then acting like nothing happened. Go figure.

WNCX basically dumped Scott Miller and Jeff Blanchard in favor of Maxwell, Stansbury and Chunk to see if the new show could get their ratings higher in the morning. I noticed there were passionate fans of Scott and Jeff that were angry to see the two let go. Their show may have not been exciting, but it did fit the classic rock format well. WNCX saw that Maxwell was very popular in Cleveland, and with the ratings he got toward the end of his WMMS run, WNCX saw what they thought was their answer to their lukewarm ratings problems. The new problem, like what Jukebox Hero stated, is that Maxwell is not a good fit with WNCX and their audience. It will only be a matter until The Maxwell Show becomes the new Those Guys In The Morning as opposed to their new local Howard Stern. I'm only compairing the memorable morning shows on WNCX.

What's also not helping Maxwell is The Alan Cox Show. There are probably listeners who are now used to how Cox runs his show, that if they tried listening to Maxwell, they probably want to wait until Cox comes back on. His show on afternoons, from what I heard, is way better on WMMS than Rover. I think he's also blowing Maxwell, Rizzo, and Triv out of the water. Cox seems to have a wide range of topics, and tends to handle his co-hosts and callers better than other "hot talk" hosts, and plus, Cleveland's never had a show like Cox's in a long time. When I hear the callers, they seem to range from young 12-year-old kids to those over 50+. I have love and respect for Rover, Rizzo, Triv and Maxwell, but Cox to me is the best of the bunch.

I'm not surprised that Rover is talking about fake radio, while not admitting that his show is fake. I heard one morning that he and the crew got upset that one of the "Hook Up Thursday" girls wrote or told her father that the show is fake, and wanted her to retract her statements. They don't want people to find out how they really want their show. I'm also not surprised that it was only Rover who did the serious interviews. He knows his sidekicks would've dragged the interviews down because they are not skilled, ready, prepared and smart enough to contributed. Basically, anything "dumb" (no pun intended ) coming out from Dieter, Dumb, Charlie and/or Jeffery would made them look bad to the people Rover interviews. Or they could have turned off the casual listener.

For instance, Rover interviewing Salt from Salt-N-Pepa was good until Dieter tried to rap. I still remember years ago, during the show's K-Rock days, the interview Rover did with Tony Danza that didn't end well. Then, last year, they made Elisabeth Shue hang up when they asked her questions that made her upset. It seems that Rover's show has less credibility because he can go into questions that can make people really uncomfortable that can end abruptly. Then again, Cox's interviews with Kim Kardashian and J-Woww from "Jersey Shore" have ended in them hanging up. The former due to her sex tape being brought up that made up upset and the ladder due to co-host Chad Zumock screaming at her at the end because he hates her show and how popular it is. That seems to be WMMS' formula. Having the tough questions brought up and the sidekicks almost or completely ruin what were at least decent interviews.

I didn't know about the J-Woww and Kim Kardashian interviews, but that makes my respect level for Alan Cox (and even Chad Zumock) go way up. Embarrassing and shaming those two and people like them is exactly what our society needs, because the less our society rewards people for being stupid and petty the better.

You have a good point almaniac27. Those two deserved to have been embarrassed. They are celebrities who don't deserve to be celebrities. I'm sure the interviews are at Alan Cox's WMMS site.

 

[1sttimecaller]

The more I read the rantings of Nathan, the more I start to realize who these boards are filled with.

Why on earth you think it's important to use the real names of radio performers in your posts is an example of your immaturity. Do you think that they are upset over you using their real names? Do you feel like a bigger man calling somebody by their given name? Let me let you in on a little secret, while Tom was my radio name, everybody in my personal life called me John. It never offended me. Do you know why? It's my name.

Reading your posts, it appears you chastise the current performers in radio for using fake names, but forgive the performers of the past. Double Standard.

You also seem to get caught up in radios act. Radio is theater and not everything that is said on air is 1) true 2)legit 3) reality.

If Ohio Media Watch is reading, you might want to think twice about who covers your future hiatus,

 

[rubberchicken]

I echo Mr. Baylor's comments. I was on the first page of the thread, trying to think of why I didn't know who Susan whatever was. Then I saw Dominic Dieter and realized we were playing the name game again. Notice though, it's only the WMMS staff. He doesn't give the real names of anyone else.

 

[Rusty Muck]

The more I read the rantings of Nathan, the more I start to realize who these boards are filled with.

Why on earth you think it's important to use the real names of radio performers in your posts is an example of your immaturity. Do you think that they are upset over you using their real names? Do you feel like a bigger man calling somebody by their given name? Let me let you in on a little secret, while Tom was my radio name, everybody in my personal life called me John. It never offended me. Do you know why? It's my name.

Reading your posts, it appears you chastise the current performers in radio for using fake names, but forgive the performers of the past. Double Standard.

You also seem to get caught up in radios act. Radio is theater and not everything that is said on air is 1) true 2)legit 3) reality.

If Ohio Media Watch is reading, you might want to think twice about who covers your future hiatus,

Wait a minute.

The real immaturity rests on Rover and Rover alone. Who in their right mind would bring up a competing show on a different station that - according to all of the supposed buzz and apparent ratings data - doesn't deserve any mention whatsoever?

As for naming the names of the supporting actors on his show, geez. I'm not the first to do so. Connie Schultz wrote a column about Dieter back in November 2005 - and he played on Mount Union's football team. Toomey was a producer for Brian and Joe before transferring over to Rover and adopting the Chocolate Charley handle. Their names were known otherwise, so my mentioning of them was hardly earth-shattering. Besides, it's a scripted and phony show anyway (and a bad one at that).

A true radio actor like Gary David Gilbert (Gary Dee) would be ashamed.

Thank you for playing.

 

[Rusty Muck]

For instance, Rover interviewing Salt from Salt-N-Pepa was good until Dieter tried to rap. I still remember years ago, during the show's K-Rock days, the interview Rover did with Tony Danza that didn't end well. Then, last year, they made Elisabeth Shue hang up when they asked her questions that made her upset. It seems that Rover's show has less credibility because he can go into questions that can make people really uncomfortable that can end abruptly. Then again, Cox's interviews with Kim Kardashian and J-Woww from "Jersey Shore" have ended in them hanging up. The former due to her sex tape being brought up that made up upset and the ladder due to co-host Chad Zumock screaming at her at the end because he hates her show and how popular it is. That seems to be WMMS' formula. Having the tough questions brought up and the sidekicks almost or completely ruin what were at least decent interviews.

I didn't know about the J-Woww and Kim Kardashian interviews, but that makes my respect level for Alan Cox (and even Chad Zumock) go way up. Embarrassing and shaming those two and people like them is exactly what our society needs, because the less our society rewards people for being stupid and petty the better.

You have a good point almaniac27. Those two deserved to have been embarrassed. They are celebrities who don't deserve to be celebrities. I'm sure the interviews are at Alan Cox's WMMS site.

I echo those thoughts. May never listen to Cox or WMMS, but I can't thank him and Chad enough for calling out those two for what they are.

And don't forget Rover's disastrous interview (such as it was) with Weird Al Yankovic. Al got so furious over Rover's overtly personal and probing questions into his family - it happened not long after Al's parents both accidentally died - that he also hung up OTA. Totally tasteless.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Nathan can post whatever he wants here without worrying about his status as an OMW contributor being affected.



I had other things to say, but this "radio feud" bores me. Yawn. Maxwell is going after WMMS on his WNCX show, what a shock! Triv takes pot shots at everyone at the Galleria, not just Rizzo, and aims a few barbs at people in his own building (Rover, back when Maxwell was there, he used to call him "Folgers", and even freaking John Lanigan!).

It's just radio theatre, folks.

As far as Maxwell on WNCX's "new reality" schtick goes, that's what it is, schtick.

As Mama Carlson said when Andy Travis convinced her to keep the changed rock format at "WKRP"..."it's just business, that's all. And if the ratings aren't up by the next survey, you're all luncheon meat."

 

[DToTheJ]

Maxwell was on the air coming clean about some consultant that WNCX brought in to help make the show better... He basically admits that the show has not been very good so far on WNCX... He even admitted that WNCX can dump Maxwell in November...

That's it, I'm calling my shot: WNCX goes all-Christmas in November, and possibly - possibly - ditches its classic rock format; might as well, what with many of the other former Stern stations, most recently KUFO in Portland, perishing...

 

[74WIXYGrad]

I need to say this about Nate: His radio knowledge has always impressed me and sometimes makes me forget he is younger than my daughter. He also knows that I don't listen to Maxwell since Benjamin Bornstein's act doesn't appeal to me, and neither does the act of Shane French.

My friends over at Rubber City take care of my listening needs most of the time...

 

[Rusty Muck]

Maxwell was on the air coming clean about some consultant that WNCX brought in to help make the show better... He basically admits that the show has not been very good so far on WNCX... He even admitted that WNCX can dump Maxwell in November...

That's it, I'm calling my shot: WNCX goes all-Christmas in November, and possibly - possibly - ditches its classic rock format; might as well, what with many of the other former Stern stations, most recently KUFO in Portland, perishing...

Hmm.

I don't think so, as long as CBS doesn't sell. They are otherwise operating the Cleveland cluster in a very conservative mode, Maxwell show notwithstanding. (Not that it's a bad thing... it's just... a thing.) And even if someone actually bought them, think of the PR hell they would incur if Louis, Stanley, Balish and the entire classic rock format gets ditched.

Ideally, WNCX and WKRK should swap formats. Considering 106.5's success as an all-automated jukebox, the all-automated alt-rock on 98.5 is worth a shot. But then again, that's a common sense move... :

 

[CleveFan]

Maxwell was on the air coming clean about some consultant that WNCX brought in to help make the show better... He basically admits that the show has not been very good so far on WNCX... He even admitted that WNCX can dump Maxwell in November...

That's it, I'm calling my shot: WNCX goes all-Christmas in November, and possibly - possibly - ditches its classic rock format; might as well, what with many of the other former Stern stations, most recently KUFO in Portland, perishing...

Hmm.

I don't think so, as long as CBS doesn't sell. They are otherwise operating the Cleveland cluster in a very conservative mode, Maxwell show notwithstanding. (Not that it's a bad thing... it's just... a thing.) And even if someone actually bought them, think of the PR hell they would incur if Louis, Stanley, Balish and the entire classic rock format gets ditched.

Ideally, WNCX and WKRK should swap formats. Considering 106.5's success as an all-automated jukebox, the all-automated alt-rock on 98.5 is worth a shot. But then again, that's a common sense move... :

I actually fantasied about the 92.3/98.5 format switch since the Xtreme Radio days. I think that's a good idea considering that 97.5 WONE in Akron is 85-90% Classic Rock and Rock 106.9 WRQK is pretty much Canton's version of WMMS, expect with Bob and Tom and more music-oriented shows. Cleveland needs the "Radio" Alternative Rock format on a stronger frequency, and 98.5 would fit that bill really well.