Capulet said:
2) Jammin Oldies to Nu-Metal. Sure CBS wanted a rock format on 92.3. Changing to alternative rock was the right move, but the flavor of the month nu-metal station called " Extreme " was hideous. Horrible programming with bad music & poor execution. No concept.
PD fired, then rehired. What was Walt Tiburski doing over there? What was CBS doing?
After a few years they made a decent alternative rocker out it. Now it is an oldies based alternative automated jockless soul less juke box that gets some ratings. Bad format execution. No plan.
It was only when 92.3 aired Opie & Anthony the first time (up until their infamous "Sex for Sam" firing) and Rover when they got ANY ratings of note. Otherwise, 92.3 - even in the K-Rock years - was a non-factor in the ratings.
When Rover left, O&A finally scooted to mornings, and 92.3 adjusted their music rotation into a near-clone of WMMS. Both moves flamed out in spectacular fashion.
It's a sad irony that the current WKRK - with no personalities and a cookie-cutter modern rock-ish format - is getting their best ratings since... well, since "Jam'n 92" was blown up.
Capulet said:
3) The Fish. This debuted as a Christian Rock station, or CCM. All the music is about religion, but they try to fool you that it is not by saying " safe for the whole family " ad nauseum. Suprised it is still on. Cleveland has a million Catholics, but the right wing " born again " evangelicals running that group abhore catholicism. Bad flip. Wrong part of the country.
It may come as a surprise, but the Fish has been a majority sponsor for "The Fest" - an annual day-long festival that the Cleveland Catholic Diocese runs at one of their seminaries -
since 2002.
Regardless of Ed Atsinger's thoughts towards Catholicism, remember that they also operated WKNR - with a format even more incompatible towards Salem's M.O. - for many years, even with many of their advertisers (beer, night clubs, sports betting sites, Ohio Lottery) were and are 100% anathema to Salem.
And as you noted, Cleveland has 1M Catholics. That's a target audience worth pursuing with a CCM.
Capulet said:
4) 1220 as Brokered Bible Thumpers. See #3. Moving the long running format exclusive Sports Talk station to 850 and the domino effect on the other AM formats was a bad post Telecom Bill move. Matter of fact, you could lump #3 & #4 together and call it Salem comes to Cleveland.
Bad group.
It was addition by subtraction. "The Word" had to go somewhere in July 2001 after Salem gave up the 1420 facility to Radio Seaway. Problem was that move subsequently destoryed any chance that WKNR could get any relevant PBP ever again. Until they go on FM, the ceding of 1220's night signal (1220 at night is far from perfect, but at least it's receivable west of Crocker Road in Westlake, as opposed to the non-existent 850 night signal) will always come back to haunt them like none other.
WHKW is a wasted 50kW signal, but it's the equivalent to an ATM for Salem. It also justifies throwing money away into running conservatalkers like WHK.
Capulet said:
5) WMMS Flip to CHR. When was that anyway? 1985 or 1986? Did they do this to get CHR indie money for adding Michael Jackson records? Was this a reaction to G98 beating them in the ratings? Was it because that was a time when CHR music was at a high point in it's never ending up and down cycle? Was it greed? They had the young adults. Did they want the teens too? As far as I'm concerned that was the first time they " buried " the Buzzard. Didn't the staff sabotage/mass exodus led by Gorman to go to the competitor happen right after this mistake?
I wonder how many times they said " We should have stayed and fixed it! " ? If this thread was Letterman's Top 10 this might be the last one on the list, just sayin?
It began to happen in 1983, when "Billy Jean" was suddenly added to the rotation. WMMS ID'ed itself as "CHR" to trade papers for purposes of getting the same product that G98 was getting.
At first, it was to capitalize on both Micheal Jackson and Madonna, who were undisputed megastars in the pop world. WMMS wasn't getting that type of material with the AOR format - in fact, that format slowly ceased introducing new artists as early as 1980! It's also why WMMS took to adding some new wave acts a la carte to quickly go after 92Rock as soon as they flipped to 80s rock.
The tipping point, IIRC, was when Prince's label refused to give WMMS any material, seeing their "AOR" format registration and pigeonholed them right off the bat. The label became a liability, so it was 'conveniently' discarded for CHR.
This was also due to the "worst-to-first" sudden success story of Z100. WMMS started to copy many of Z100's elements - most notably, the "morning zoo" handle - because WHTZ was now a major cash cow and ratings monster for Malrite.
It's been said that the mass exodus was due to office politics at the top of Malrite (Carl Hirsch had already left under less-than-favorable circumstances) as well as longstanding loyalty to Gorman and Sanders.
And the station kept a semblance of CHR in some way until late 1989, when in the middle of constant turnover in the PD chair, it flipped back to AOR.
Capulet said:
6) WNCX Morning Shows post Stern. For years Stern was their meal ticket. They knew he was leaving. They made no plans for his departure and replacement while Stern advertised satellite radio for a year? Blunder. No plan B.
That's because CBS never gave WNCX a plan B. Opie & Anthony was actually the "plan B" for every other Free FM station that ditched David Lee Roth, but management saw it as incompatible on WNCX and instead sought to place O&A on 92.3 - in tape delay, no less.
So WNCX
really was left holding the bag.
Maybe I'm just jaded as they have only a a couple handfuls of songs I like on that station. I'm younger, I'm into more obscure indie/alternative music I guess you would say. Too bad 92.3 can't improve their signal, as I think CS moving him to afternoons their would hugely improve HIS ratings, although maybe drop NCX's slightly, ans I noticed they are currently ranked higher than WMMS. Although I'm sure Rover is still dominating over MWL at this point. Hell even just ripping the music and letting him talk from 530-10 instead of 6-9 (they now play Classic Rock Academy at 9 starting today I guess) I think would bring in his old demo more, maybe some away from rover. I don't know, I went through half of broadcasting school (til I decided I needed real education) so my knowledge of behind the scenes info is limited.