Age: ageless
Occupation: supposed entertainers and informers of the general public
Last Seen: everywhere
Bee-otched For: still putting people last
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The 1990s were a dark age for rock fans in northern Michigan.
Castle Farms in Charlevoix shuttered, forcing people to drive hundreds of miles to see their favorite acts. Even worse, WKLT was the de facto rock station up north. Instead of allowing locals to hear the bands of the time, they had to play their daily quota of "Juke Box Hero".
Then, in 1998, somebody actually stepped up and gave KLT real competition. A Chicago firm called Calibre Communications announced that they were buying Del Reynolds' group of stations. They reformatted Del's classic rock stations - collectively known as WGFM - into The Bear. Since Reynolds was WGFM's morning man, he stepped aside and they newly-minted stations brought in the syndicated Bob and Tom Show.
Calibre knew that people were sick of classic rock, too. So, they flipped Reynolds' underperforming smooth jazz "Coast FM" stations to The Zone, Northern Michigan's Modern Rock. The good news was that finally, rock fans didn't have to sit through moldy oldies to hear new music. However, The Zone was just another soccer mom station. David Gariano, Calibre's president told the Traverse City Record-Eagle that northern Michigan simply wasn't a hard rock or metal market. For two years, The Zone was one of northern Michigan's lowest-rated FM stations.
Then, their new program director, Kimberly Fox, proved Gariano wrong.
When Calibre's buyout of Reynolds fell through, some of its backers formed Northern Star Broadcasting. With Fox at the helm of The Zone, obscure and forgettable beer break rock from no-namers like Sinead Lohan and Susan Tedeschi were out and bands that were ignored by KLT and the rest of northern Michigan radio were in.
With a playlist infused with a musical Jagerbomb, The Zone started whipping KLT's pitiful ass. Even KLT themselves started throwing their long-ignored Gen-Xer audience a bone by spinning bands like Disturbed, Nine Inch Nails and a few others. Of course, you had to sit through "Carry On Wayward Son" to get to "Because I Got High" by the great 2000s one-hit-wonder Afroman.
Boy, have times changed. The Zone begat to Rock 105 and 95-5 and KLT is almost 100% classic rock. Not to mention that both stations have had their ups and downs. It's typical of the radio world and in life itself. These days, KLT is almost at the top of the northern Michigan radio rat race. In the most-recent Nielsen ratings book, KLT was *almost* #1, only losing to Rock 105's country sister, Big Country 102.9 10.6 to 10.2.
Rock 105, however, is in a tough spot.
The active rocker was tied in 10th place with a dismal 1.9 with piss-powered adult hits 104.5 Bob FM. The station has been in a ratings free fall since longtime afternoon jock and Programming Director Nate "Smitty" Smith left the station a few years ago.
For years, fans of Rock 105 and The Zone have fought tooth and nail to support the station. Before it flipped to Rock 105, The Zone lost 94.5 in the Straits area, claiming that there were no ad dollars to support the station. It flipped to hot AC as "Star 94.5" to zero fanfare. When the switch to what was then called Real Rock 105 & 95-5 was made, fans were happy. However, musically, the station was a mixed bag of some new rock and a lot of butt rock already heard on KLT and The Bear, which took over the 94.5 spot. Eventually, the butt rock disappeared.
But then on April Fool's Day 2014, Traverse City listeners were pissed when 95.5 flipped to sleepy easy listening music as "Easy 95-5". Once one got south of TC, Fans of active rock were stuck with KLT or The Bear. Of course, It took owner Del Reynolds' wife to have a stroke to force him to sell his stations to a couple of former Greater Media Detroit execs and put rock back on 95.5.
And yes, the bullshit a troll from KLT pulled that damn near killed Smitty's radio career. Of course, Black Diamond convinced advertisers that Smitty was the innocent one, so all was well.
So, the question is, why in the hell is KLT scoring double digits while Rock 105 is doing so pitifully? Musically, Rock 105 - IMHO - is sounding great! Better than WGRD here in Grand Rapids, which plays too much stale shit that belongs on WLAV. Granted, KLT has a live and local morning show with Omelette, who attracts a lot of popular celebs - local and nationwide - on his show. Governor Whitmer is a frequent guest, and was on the show the day she was heckled by a loser who opposed her COVID-19 policies.
Rock 105? Well, they have a 400-pound jerk who once aired a fake political ad blasting former Governor Jennifer Granholm for Michigan's economic woes in the 2000s, even though the fault was really BusHitler and his fake wars and tax cuts for the wealthy, which landed this country in the economic breakdown of 2008. Of course, I'm still not over the fact that he photoshopped a photo of himself peeing on 106 KHQ's promo vehicle, I posted it on a media-based internet message board and some jerk claimed that I was the one responsible for it. Ummmm, I posted it STRAIGHT from his MySpace page. Gee, ever hear of finding the page source? But since one of his then-co-workers was the aforementioned KLT troll, who has several handles on said board and now has no real job, well, there you go.
Oh, and said Rock 105 morning host is now based in Green Bay, WI where he handles afternoons on CHR WIXX as "Fife". Allegedly, he now pre-records his show for NoMi the night before.
Voicetracked the night before from Packerland or live and local should be a no-brainer. But then again, I have SiriusXM on both my phone and vehicle. But, here's something to think about: is Nielsen telling the truth?
Big Country 102.9 is a station whose signal is scratchy in the Grand Traverse region. As a matter of fact, its city-grade signal fades south of Elk Rapids. Its transmitter is located north of Harbor Springs. Now, true, WTCM-FM - which fell to third place - has lost some listeners when Midwestern flipped 93.5 in the Petoskey region to a WKLT simulcast. But a 10.6? Something's fishy.
Now, it's true that Nielsen and its predecessor Arbitron had issues when an employee at then-AC 106.7 WSRT sent in fake diaries to them, affecting their ratings. He was caught and fired while WSRT made a few format flips and fell silent when Northern Broadcast - which also owned KLT and The Fox - went belly-up. As for WSRT, MacDonald-Garber Broadcasting bought the station and is now Star Country 106.7, playing mostly country from the 90s and 00s.
The good news is that 106.7 is back with a format that will definitely work for the Straits region. However, it will tack off a few points from Big Country and will give KLT an advantage when the next book comes out in early 2022. Or, was it all a flaw?
Of course, anything can happen. With Smitty gone (again), The Bear's numbers could tank, new Traverse City signal and all. 106 KHQ's morning show also quit recently. At least Rock 105 is taking a shot at KLT by now calling themselves "The REAL Rock Station" as opposed to KLT's slogan, minus the word "Real".
Meanwhile, up north, viewers of co-owned NBC WPBN-TV 7&4 and WGTU ABC 29&8 recently noticed that the two stations had been looking like shit as of late. Commercials aren't being run, newscasts have been abbreviated and syndicated fare like Wheel of Fortune and Dr. Phil were being pre-empted for programming by the TBD Network.
The reason was because the two stations' parent, Sinclair Broadcast Group had a major ransomware attack at their headquarters in Maryland a few months ago. Apparently, it encrypted a lot of their files, causing their stations to not air commercials, station IDs and syndicated programs.
Here in west Michigan, Sinclair O&O CBS affiliate WWMT-3 seems to be back to normal. Other Sinclair stations haven't been so lucky. It's been reported that other Sinclair properties were also having similar issues.
WPBN's evening newscast had multiple glitches, such as the screen being off-center, an on-screen volume control on the screen and a frame that was on at the beginning of a commercial asking if they should proceed. Obviously, 7&4 was being run off of what appears to be a make-shift system.
Sinclair had been mum on what might have caused the issue, though many think that it's simple karma for making their stations a right-winged mouthpiece. They force them to air features like the Terrorism Alert Desk, which bashes brown-skinned people. They air commentary from Boris Epshteyn, a Russian-born attorney who spews right-winged horseshit. And so on.
Thankfully, Sinclair is hurting. The company is BILLIONS in debt because of many factors, such as their botched buyout of Tribune, which ended up with Nexstar. Remember when it was rumored that they wanted to transform WGN America into a news channel anchored by has-been Bill O'Reilly? Thankfully, Nexstar transformed that channel - which hadn't been relevant since the days of Bozo The Clown and when Empire Carpet was strictly a Chicago company - into NewsNation, which supposedly presents news sans bias.
Of course, Sinclair also spent a pretty penny on Fox's regional sports networks, which they renamed Bally Sports after the chain of casinos. It's almost funny that they co-own Bally Sports with a company headed by comedian-turned-media mogul Byron Allen, who labels himself a "strong Democrat". Even he too is buying up TV stations left and right, such as Flint ABC stalwart WJRT-12.
Watching Sinclair's TV stations turn to shit is like watching a Detroit Lions game. I'll betcha the folks at 9&10 in Cadillac are having a field day. Unlike 7&4 and 29&8, they're locally-owned. However, 9&10 is far from perfect. After all, one reason why I started this blog in 1999 was because 9&10 dropped Howard Stern's already-doomed Saturday night TV show for NRA infomercials. In 2006, they yanked a CBS 9/11 documentary claiming that it contained too much profanity. However, CBS aired the documentary commercial-free and it was an election year. With Dick DeVos buying up ad time left and right, they simply wanted to sell their soul to someone who was worth billions and ended up losing the gubernatorial election as it was. Not to mention that 9&10 has been accused of airing paid spots as news stories in the past, an FCC no-no.
Tragically, northern Michigan is a tough spot when it comes to the media. Not only do you have four TV stations owned by two companies that have created fake companies to "own" their local sisters, but the radio dial has always been problematic. They, too, had turned their noses on Howard Stern, but most of the station owners in the area had at least one station airing Rush Limbaugh's hate-filled vitriol. Thankfully, only two of those radio groups - Midwestern Broadcasting (WTCM, WCCW, Z93, etc) and MacDonald-Garber (KHQ, Lite 96.3, Bob FM, etc) still exist. In Midwestern's case, speculation has it that the company could be sold to a bigger broadcaster in the coming years as company president Ross Biederman is now in his 80s and his stepson, Chris Warren is more of a bean counter than a broadcaster. In MacGar's case, Trish is training her sons to take over the ranch.
Recently, Midwestern fired longtime WATZ 99.3 Alpena jock Steve Wright after 32 years of service. His wife - also a WATZ staffer - was also terminated. Speculation has it that WATZ might be soon a simulcast of WTCM-FM, especially since former simulcast partner WRGZ 96.7 Rogers City is now simulcasting WKLT.
Since we made our first blog in 1999, the radio groups that have been put by the wayside included Northern Star Broadcasting (The Bear, The Zone, Big Country etc) which is now Black Diamond. I'm still amazed that Northern Broadcast (KLT, The Fox and ESPN Up North) went out of business when they ended up selling their properties one-by-one. Of course, karma hit them hard when they killed 106.7 The Peak for WSRT and Delilah, whose show sucks so bad that her own son killed himself.
Here in Grand Rapids, the latest radio ratings book shows that B93 still rules with WCSG, WSNX and WOOD following. WGRD is in 5th place. Maybe it's time for them to shitcan the awful butt rock that needs to stay on LAV. The losers included Thunder 107.3 and of course, the former ESPN 96.1, now known as The Game, now at a .9. Sadly, they recently picked up the fat blowhard known as "Huge" Bill Simonson, who was on WBBL for 20 years. WBBL moved back to the AM with a weak FM translator not long ago, and apparently, the Big Fat Retard's owner, Marty Booher wanted a stronger affiliate in Grand Rapids. After all, he just lost WXYT-AM Detroit when they went to sports betting talk. When 96.1 had a local afternoon show, they beat the living shit out of Big Boy in the ratings.
Also lacking ratings is 102.5 The Ride, now run by Tyrone Bynum. According to reliable sources, the station had WAY better ratings when it was Public Reality Radio. I shake my head knowing that Bob Goodrich simply gave Tyrone the keys to that station, especially since he already ran another station - 640 WMFN - into the ground. Why he continues to be on the radio is anyone's guess.
What's more depressing is the amount of good people LEAVING the Broadcasting biz. Here in Grand Rapids, we've lost too many good personalities as of late. WOOD-TV's Leon Hendrix now works for a hospital. Meteorologist Kyle Underwood - who came to WOOD-TV from Duluth's legendary WDIO - is now a financial advisor. Lynsey Mukhomel is now Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's press secretary. Sportscaster Larry Figurski is going to work for an interior designer. Reporter Heather Walker recently moved to Miami to work for NBC O&O WTVJ. It goes on and on.
Here in west Michigan, the Big Four TV stations - Sinclair's WWMT-3 (CBS), Nexstar's WOOD-TV 8 (NBC), TEGNA's WZZM-13 (ABC) and Scripps' WXMI Fox 17 - have been bought and sold multiple times over only the past few years. Undoubtedly, management changes have hurt the reporters and anchors of the aforementioned stations to The point of simply quitting and moving to another business. And some of those folks - like Larry Figurski - have been in broadcasting since the 80s.
Tragically, some people who stay in the business for too long suck.
Not long ago, I mentioned that I know someone who works in retail and one of their customers is a well-known news anchor here in Grand Rapids. This anchor in particular was on vacation last year and SCREAMED at said person on the phone because of their overinflated ego. Well, this person *was* close to retiring, but changed their mind because of financial concerns. Sadly, I see too many egomaniacs in the broadcast business while the decent people wise up and move on.
It's sad that I see people who have broadcast degrees quit and move on. But, that's what happens when the FCC allows fewer ownership limits. It used to be that if you lost your job, you could go across the street. Not anymore.
Even worse are the amount of egomaniacs running the airwaves. How many years has "Huge" Bill Simonson been on the air here in Grand Rapids? Like twenty? And how many listeners does he have? Maybe three? Oh, and I know their last names: DeVos, Loeks and Brann.
Thankfully, some shitty DJs do get fired, and even shittier managers like Matt Hanlon, who ran WKLQ into the ground. One asshole that comes to mind reminds me of an old 1928 silent MGM flick called "The Crowd".
In this movie, a man lives the American Dream of being married, having two kids and working a good-paying job. Early on in the film, he and his wife ridicule a poor man dressed as a clown and wearing a sandwich board. As the film progresses, the man's daughter is killed in an accident, has a nervous breakdown at work and quits because of poor performance and his wife leaves him. As he walks to a bridge to commit suicide, his son follows him and tells him that he likes him. That gives the man enough strength to move on. So, he goes to an employment agency, and guess what his new job is? A man dressed as a clown with a sandwich board.
Earlier, I mentioned that Smitty once again quit his position as the morning man at The Bear and is now working as a bartender at a small bar in Traverse City. He also hosts several podcasts. Recently, he started a GoFundMe page where he tried to raise funds to go to Ireland. On his YouTube page, one of his former competitors decided to troll him by saying that he'll donate if he went the week after and stayed for two years.
Yes, the same douche who had a competing afternoon show and ripped off Smitty's material. The same douche who helped to get Smitty canned from Rock 105 by allegedly creating a fake audio file of him playing a song loaded with the word "cunt" and sending it to their advertisers. And allegedly, the same asshole who many years ago called me an "$8 per hour loser" on a popular Broadcasting message board. This, of course, coming from someone who has been fired from six different radio stations and Broadcasting firms. One of his former coworkers even told me that in between radio jobs, he worked as a pizza delivery man and a blackjack dealer.
And who's the $8 per hour loser now? I'm sure it's not gonna help feed his three kids' mouths. Plus, I have to wonder how his wife - the president of the Chamber of Commerce in a town where if a woman sees a black guy walking down the street, she would switch her purse to the opposite shoulder - feels about her husband - 14 years her senior - can handle having to take care of a 60-year-old douchebag who sits around all day spewing shit on a Broadcasting message board.
The more I think about this loser, the more I feel happy about myself. When I was first on my own nearly 20 years ago, it was just after 9/11 and I was given an ultimatum: stay up north and make chicken shit wages or move downstate and make something of myself. Moving to Grand Rapids turned out to be the right move. Yes, my first boss here was an asshole, but, this past decade has been loaded with wage increases and upgrading from a shitty apartment to a decent house in a good part of town. Aside from my mortgage, I'm debt-free.
Yes, the first ten years at my job sucked. I spent more than I earned thinking that raises were around the corner. I was wrong. I was lied to, and I was the one who paid the price. But, guess what? I wasn't alone. I knew a lot of people older than I was being forced to move back in with their parents because they were in worse shape than I was. People with college degrees were making $8 per hour at Walmart because of downsizing and outsourcing. And yes, the bottom fell out in 2008 thanks to the severe income inequality that has long besmirched us all.
Today, I'm doing well. As a matter of fact, I have more money than my parents COMBINED. True, I'm still single. But, I see the advantages. Most women these days only want losers. Plus, do I want to bring a kid into this world with all the SHIT going on? It's worth noting that my cousin's son attends the same school system whose high school was shot up by a troubled 15-year-old. It's even more daunting that his parents are asshole Drumpf supporters who bought him the Sig Sauer gun and made virtually no attempts to stop him.
This world is turning to the one the movie "Idiocracy" predicted, albeit sooner. I don't think I would want my offspring to see that kind of travesty that I know will happen in the future. Today, we still have companies that pay their workers starvation wages and force them into working in haphazard conditions like the candle factory in Kentucky that got blasted away by a tornado. I shook my head when Michael Strahan got to go to space thanks to Jeff Bezos just hours after six people were killed inside one of his fulfillment centers due to a tornado.
Folks, this is why I don't trust a lot of baby boomers. In 1980, they voted to bust the unions. They voted to give the wealthy a tax break. They voted to stop raising the minimum wage. They voted to reduce freedom of speech in broadcasting and to create more monopolies.
And this asshole allegedly called me an "$8 an hour loser"?
Look, I've never been fired from a job. Douchnozzle's been canned from six different stations because of his overinflated ego. My bosses love me because they know I bust my balls hard enough to deserve their trust and respect. This is why I'm successful while he-who-shalt-not-be-mentioned is a fucking has-been.
Seriously, the one thing I'll never understand is the fact that people will cover up for the shit he's done. I've had two people telling me to call them so they can lie to me about his shenanigans. On the message board he frequents, one person defended him by saying that he's done "wonderful things for his community". The same asshole who ran The Bear into the ground by thinking that A Flock of Seagulls and Depeche Mode would work on a classic rock station. He was fired and now works at a country station in Shitstain, Indiana. The reality is, is that some in the broadcast business do post on there. But, they're usually the bottom feeders who work in tiny markets. Honestly, I think most big-league broadcasters have better things to do than to wear a tinfoil hat and post vitriol on a message board.
Smitty deserved better. He's seved this country in the military and gave Rock 105 some of its best ratings. For this loser to step out of his hole and lie to advertisers about what he does on the air was severely unprofessional of him. I hope to God that he's never heard on the air ever again. Instead of being a bully, he needs to be a man and support his wife and kids.
In the end, HE'S the one who needs to shut up.
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