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WMMS

Here are a few thoughts:

The morning show is hit or miss - Rover is good with interviewing guests (when he's alone), but the sidekicks are irritating.
The afternoon show is pretty good - Alan Cox is a good host. Chad Zumock is likeable one minute, annoying the next.
The music mix - A MESS!!!! The blend of Classic Rock and Alternative Rock is horrible. It seems to become an afterthought.
The imaging - Not too bad.

It seems WMMS focuses more on their Hot Talk shows and Browns games than any of the times they have on music. They don't seem to care too much on being a rock station. If they care more about talk, then they should flip their format full time to Hot Talk. The line-up could be Rover (6-10a - I know he's on till 11a, but one less hour of him can make him more enjoyable), a local sports show (10a-12p) that can compete with WKNR, a local or syndicated show (12-3p), Alan Cox (3p-7p), a local or syndicated show (7p-10p or 12a), Loveline (10p-12a or 12-2a), and syndicated talk (12a or 2-6a). You can throw some hosts from WTAM (Matt Patrick, Bob Frantz, any of the sports personalities) to have shows on the station. It could work if done right and flank WTAM.

If WMMS wants to continue with their Rock/Talk hybrid format, they should do something about their playlist. I think they should go Alternative Rock full-time. The only other Alternative station is Radio 92.3, but its signal only covers the Cleveland area and get weak in the Akron area to protect WDJQ 92.5 in Canton. There should a full-time Alternative signal serving Cleveland and Akron (and Canton in cars). With WNCX and WONE having Classic Rock (though WONE does occasionally go in the modern route), and WRQK having an Active Rock format with Classic and Alternative; it makes more sense for WMMS to back to being Alternative full-time...well not really with the talk shows.

Or if ratings slip big time, maybe one talk show and the rest of the dayparts being music. Mornings would be likely, and so would Rover. There's no way WMMS will go without Rover at this point since he's kept the station alive, even after Maxwell's departure. Without that morning show, and if it was just Alan Cox carrying the station, ratings would've tanked big time, and we could very well see The Lake on 100.7 instead of 106.5 or something else drastic would have been done on WMMS.

What are your thoughts?
 
They need to diversify their playlist. Disturbed/Ozzy/Shinedown/Metallica, wash, rinse, repeat.
 
Rover's show should be clipped to 10am instead of 11am. In fact, the unconventional 6:30am-11:00am show time dates back to the failed "FreeFM" syndication attempt (and when Shane not only originated his show in Chicago and had affiliates in St. Louis and Milwaukee).

It should be cropped (or moved to the conventional 5:30am-10am slot), but it probably never will happen. The station probably feels that his ratings are still enough to prop up their lowly midday ratings, if but for one hour.

As for the putrid music selection, I tuned in by chance late one evening and heard them dead segue War's "Low Rider" to Rob Zombie's "More Human than Human." I turned it off immediately. UGH.

And yes, WMMS was briefly all-talk from 6am to 7pm, back in April 2008 after adding Rover. That was because the station had to burn off Bob & Tom's contract for a month, so they stuck him in the midday slot.
 
I like the hybrid Alternative/Classic mix on WMMS. They played an early Black Sabbath tune and followed it with Soundgarden. Sounded good.
Playing music from only one era can become quite boring in that everything, or at least of a lot of it, starts sounding the same.
 
That's why I like WONE. They play a nice mix of old and new, mostly old, and they have an identity. WMMS doesn't have an identity. They're just another puppet being controlled by Clear Channel (stating the obvious, I know).

WEBN in Cincinnati, for example, is WMMS, but they substitute a frog for a buzzard. They might as well start simulcasting each other's programming, if they haven't already.
 
40 oz said:
That's why I like WONE. They play a nice mix of old and new, mostly old, and they have an identity. WMMS doesn't have an identity. They're just another puppet being controlled by Clear Channel (stating the obvious, I know).

WEBN in Cincinnati, for example, is WMMS, but they substitute a frog for a buzzard. They might as well start simulcasting each other's programming, if they haven't already.

They already do. WEBN's "Shroom" is piped in overnights on WMMS via the soul-less "Premiere Choice" VT system. And "Big Rig" is piped in from WXTB-FM in Tampa. "Maria" still originates from Oaktree, but it's all Memorex.

In fact, virtually NONE of WMMS's DJs are live-and-local in any sense of the word.

And whatever remained of WMMS' identity was utterly destroyed in the "Death of the Buzzard" incident back in October 1998. Since then, the station has meandered in the ratings wilderness.
 
At the end of the day, WMMS has postioned themselves as a testosterone feuled, hot talk/rock/sports station. A radio "man cave" if you will.
 
WMMS' rock/talk format, as much as I'm not a fan, is a ratings winner. Don't expect it to change anytime soon, especially as Cox gains ground.

40oz....

re: WEBN went on the air in 1967. WMMS, 1968. The Buzzard mascot I believe came to be in 1974, http://buzzardbook.wordpress.com/2010/01/17/buzzard-walls/

As for WEBN's Frog debut.. not sure if it pre-dates the Buzzard or came after as a sort of "copy cat". I believe it was in place by the mid-70s.

WMMS took on WEBN's "attitude" with the Jacor purchase of WMMS in '98. Including adding longtime WEBN VO talent John Wells (on WEBN since '84). I LOVE Wells for rock radio. Used him at WRDU/Raleigh.

WMMS's ratings in 98-99 were pretty good as a mainstream rocker. Had Dick Dale worked out I think he'd of done really well. SLATS was great. Loved working with him. He's now in Orlando and works part-time for WJRR.. who until recently used a Buzzard as their logo.

I'm a fan of WXTB/Tampa based Ron "Big Rig" Michaels. Great guy, and talent. Love his energy! I can't stand rock jocks who are sedate. So old school. I believe in addition to the multiple stations he tracks he's also CC's Director of Interactive for all of Florida. Met him years ago when he tracked nights for rock WRDU/Raleigh. We flew him in for a station event to press flesh, give the impression he's local, etc. Had him do a remote too.

I've always been a fan of WEBN's imaging. Joel Moss, Creative Director since the early 80s, is responsible for the branding that is WEBN. Cousin Deke is one of Moss' protege's.
 
Here you go:

The WEBN Frog came about first as a brand of beer. Treefrog Beer!
Cincinnati had 2 huge breweries in town. The station was famous for " spoof " commercials. Part of the entertainment was, when listening to commercials on WEBN, you never knew when a "spoof " would air. These fake commercials were hialrious and a long running trade mark of Frank Wood's station. So they conconcted " Tree Frog Beer ". Eventually they used the " frog " for other applications, other than the spokesman for a beer. It was not a copycat concept.
Date of origination was likely the late 60s.
The station also had a hot air balloon logo-ized and flown by the owner. That was some cool radio. Of course anyone who knows Ohio radio knows The WEBN Fireworks is the biggest and longest running event ever staged by a radio station. Happens every year and draws a 1/2 million people to banks of the Ohio River. Magic stole the " station fireworks" promotion idea from WEBN. It never worked up here. They didn't know how to do it.
 
Capulet said:
Magic stole the " station fireworks" promotion idea from WEBN. It never worked up here. They didn't know how to do it.

I would seriously contend that last point. WMJI, along with WUAB/43, operated the "Festival of Freedom" VERY successfully for many years (mostly during the station's prime in the mid 90s). WMJI only backed out of it in 1999 due to CC not wanting to fork over the $$$ to continue... they only saw it as a dollars-and-cents issue and not a civic pride issue. You didn't have that with OmniAmerica or Nationwide.

The AMFM, Inc. station group took over the radio sponsorship that year, but shortly thereafter, AMFM merged with CC, and those stations were sold to CBS, Radio One and Salem. The event never was the same after that.
 
Like I said " they didn't know how to do it ", otherwise it would not have been abandoned.
The Wood family in Cincinnati knew how to get the finanacing and make it win-win-win......sponsor-city-listeners.

Ownership changed and the WEBN Fireworks remains a constant. The didn't know how to do that on the north coast.
 
to piggyback on Nathan's post... WMJI certainly knew how to draw for the "Freedom Festival" fireworks. OmniAmerica and Nationwide were the two that propelled it. Jacor even did. After the Jacor/CC merger is when it fell apart. Hell... the city is as much to blame as the owners. They weren't much help charging for this and that....and once trying to take credit for the fireworks show (Mayor White) which Lanigan quickly shut the mayor down on air ripping him and the city. During the time WMJI put on the fireworks at Edgewater it would draw 400k-500k people, weather permitting (which was an issue at least two years that I'm aware of). As for the soundtrack, which I helped to produce. I agree. Not the level of WEBN. But also two different formats. We took a different approach. I don't believe there's been a huge fireworks show like "Freedom Festival" in Cleveland since WMJI stopped (forced by CC in 2000 or 2001). WEBN's fireworks show, specifically Joel's soundtrack, is unmatched.
 
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