Detroit's 94.3 The Bone is Gone

BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF T-SHIRT HELL AND MAKE SOME MONEY! 2.1.12 HD RADIO TROUBLES IN MICHIGAN Detroit's Bone de-boned, TC gets more Rush DETROIT: Looks like fans of new rock in Detroit are back down to only two choices - WRIF and 89X - today as translator station 94.3 The Bone has been forced off the air. The 99-watt Alternative station, owned by Martz Communications is still streaming on their website, but they released a statement on their Facebook page:  "All good things must come to an end. We're sorry to say that The Bone has ceased operations today. Thanks for your support Detroit. You're the best."  The same situation goes for their Smooth Jazz sister The Oasis, which used to broadcast on 104.7 until Clear Channel complained to the FCC that it was interfering with their geriatric rocker WIOT in Toledo. Both The Oasis and The Bone broadcasted on the HD subchannels of WGPR 107.5, which had been owned by the Freemasons, but recently entered a Local Marketing Agreement with Radio One to operate the station. Yesterday, WGPR abandoned their HD broadcasts, and per FCC rules, if a translator station doesn't have a full-power originating station, it cannot broadcast.  It was announced just a few weeks ago that The Bone would carry the syndicated Bubba the Love Sponge and Loveline shows. As of late last night, the station is still broadcasting online. TRAVERSE CITY: Looks like fans of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, George Noory and Mark Levin now have an FM home for those shows... Sorta. The HD-4 subchannel of Roy Henderson's WLDR-FM 101.9 is now simulcasting his recently-launched Manistee News/Talk station WCUZ 100.1 in Bear Lake. The station is supposed to simulcast with another Henderson acquisition, WMTE 1340 in Manistee, but that station remains silent as Henderson looks for a new transmitter site for the silenced station. This is the first regular format for WCUZ in so many years.The station has a long history of not staying on the air partly due to the Manistee area's lack of ad dollars and Bear Lake seeing better days in the past. According to an old newspaper article, 100.1 - then AC WRQT - first fell silent in 1990 due to tax troubles.   It was AAA WZTU "The Storm" in the 1990s and along with 92.1 Beulah (now WBNZ), 80s-centered Classic Hits "Star FM" in 1999 to 2000. Henderson bought the station in 2000, but it had been silent for most of the decade as Henderson figured what to do with it.  Like I said, there's no real ad dollars in Manistee, a town that can't even support a movie theatre. So, what does Henderson do? Simple: play hardball once again with arch enemy Ross Biederman and put all of his talkers on his HD subchannel in hopes of siphoning listeners away from WTCM.  Oh! WCUZ is also the only station in Michigan that airs Imus. Oh, brother... It's sad that talkers with high IQs like Ed Schultz, Thom Hartmann and Randi Rhodes are all homeless up north, but Traverse City now has two stations carrying Rush? Somebody's gotta bring a stop to this.