Tuesday, August 7, 2018

8.7.18 Hero of the Day: Black Diamond Broadcasting



Bee-otch of the Day honors are awarded Monday through Thursday, Bee-otch of the Week is awarded Friday on Chuck69.com.

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A SPECIAL HERO OF THE DAY!          

Name: Black Diamond Broadcasting
Age: 11
Occupation: broadcasting company
Last Seen: Rochester Hills, MI
Awarded For: caring about northern Michigan rock fans


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It's official: people in northern Michigan actually love rock music that was recorded after 1990.

In the latest Nielsen ratings book released on Monday, Rock 105 and 95-5 went from a 4.8 to a 5.5, making them the third-highest-ranked station on the list. The station is now more-popular than WTCM-AM, Lite 96, WCCW 107.5 (and 1310, which is flipping to oldies later this month), Bob FM and all their sister stations, 98.1/95.3 The Bear and 102.9 Big Country just to name a few.

Two stations that beat Rock 105/95-5 were WTCM-FM with an 11.3 and just by a hair, CHR giant 106 KHQ.

That's as far as we know.

There's five major radio groups and only three subscribe to the Nielsens. There's that one owner who can't keep most of his stations on the air most of the time and left downtown with a massive 30-foot hole in the ground and there's Northern Broadcast, the owners of geezer rocker WKLT, classic hits The Fox and ESPN Up North. Now, since NBI doesn't subscribe to the Nielsens, we don't know how their stations are doing, or how Rock 105/95-5 are doing vs. KLT.

Well, this is for sure: Rock 105/95-5's ratings keep going up while I don't hear much buzz anymore about KLT. I was up north last weekend and spent some time with my ex-stepsister, whose husband is somehow related to Rock 105/95-5's Smitty. We talked about how KLT tried to fuck over him and how he got back on the air. We also talked about how much of a fucking prick Tom Devitt really is and how he thinks he's the best afternoon jock in the world, yet he's been fired from his last four or five stations.

Yes, I have a grudge against KLT. Twenty years ago, rock radio was a joke in northern Michigan. While the downstaters had awesome stations, we were stuck with butt rock on KLT, more butt rock and the awful Bob and Tom Show on The Bear and The Zone, which OD'd on bitch ass hos singing about how they wanted to cut off their ex's penises. Did you want Rage Against the Machine, Tool, KoRn or Slipknot? Well, too fucking bad. And this was before we all had Sirius or smartphones with Pandora or Spotify, Instead, rock fans in northern Michigan had to sit through KLT's daily quota of them playing "Carry On Wayward Son" 20 times.

Thankfully in 2000, The Zone booted out the Lillith Fair thots and finally starting playing the music us hard rock fans wanted. Of course, this was AFTER I moved downstate. Yes, KLT still had good ratings thanks to Omelette and (insert partner here), but let's face it: he's gone and the current morning show is rumored to be a dud. Along with Terri Ray yakking away about useless shit and Tom Devitt ripping off everybody's ideas, well, there you go.

You see, I compare a northern Michigan man under 40 to a black person in Detroit. They simply don't get enough respect. When I was 13, Castle Farms went out of business. I went to few concerts as a teen as a result. Between how Del Reynolds treated The Zone and Rock 105 and 95-5 and how KLT treated young people over the years, it makes me happy that Black Diamond came in and swooped up the Northern Star stations. Hell, I was even happier when they rehired Smitty after what KLT did to him. And look at Rock 105/95-5 now.

True, Rock 105/95-5 does need work. They don't have a midday person (then again, automated music better than Terri Ray blabbing about her little dog, Sven) and they tend to wait on new music. Plus, it sucks that their morning man, Cartman is voicetracked out of Wisconsin these days leaving Smitty to pick up the slack.

But then again, it's better than the butt rock WGRD is playing these days.

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