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Name: WJML
Age: 46
Occupation: talk radio station
Last Seen: Petoskey, MI
Bee-otched For: losing Ed Schultz for some right-winged hack
Age: 46
Occupation: talk radio station
Last Seen: Petoskey, MI
Bee-otched For: losing Ed Schultz for some right-winged hack
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It's official: northern Michigan has four major talk radio stations, and none of 'em air the most-popular progressive host in America.
WJML 1110 Petoskey/1210 Traverse City has officially canned Ed Schultz's popular radio show. The station - which used to give big Eddie a reasonable slot back in the day, sometimes even live - had buried his show at the 8-9 p.m. slot, which is a somewhat massive tape delay since it airs live noon to 3 p.m.
In its place is somebody waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay on the other side of the political spectrum as Eddie, Alex Jones. Jones is a whacko Republican and a conspiracy theorist who believes that President Obama is a tool for everything from banks to the Federal Reserve. Not to mention, he even made a movie in 2009, The Obama Deception that even makes these claims. It's worth noting that he's on mostly smaller stations and that his biggest affiliate's a notorious shortwave station, WWCR out of Nashville.
Like many AM stations, WJML started its life as a music station (as a matter of fact, their infamous slogan was The Music Station), although it was a simulcast with its FM sister, formerly at 98.9 FM. However, the FM signal of WJML was sold to Northern Broadcast, the owners of WKLT 97.5 in 1989 and is now a repeater of that station. WJML 1110 was sold to Rick Stone, who owned oldies outlet WAIR 92.5 (also now owned by Northern). After the sale, Stone eventually flipped WJML to a talk station and even added nighttime coverage to the 10KW daytimer, a whopping 10 watts.
As some of you know - and I explained this on The Back Page - WJML used to be TWO stations: 1110 and WWKK 750, which originally signed on with oldies in 2000 but eventually morphed into a progressive talk station. It carried programs from the Michigan Talk Network and Air America. Some of its hosts included Schultz, Thom Hartmann and Randi Rhodes. However, top-of-the-hour news came from USA Radio, which is a conservative network.
But in 2008, Stone made a deal with country WLDR-FM 101.9 Traverse City owner Roy Henderson to trade 750 for what was then WLDR-AM 1210 in Kingsley, near Traverse City. 1210 became a simulcast of WJML while 750 flipped to a simulcast of WLDR-FM. For Stone, it was a win since WJML's programming would have a better signal in Traverse City while for Henderson, 750 is giving WLDR a chance to go up against FM powerhouses WTCM and Big Country 102.9, both with huge presences in the Little Traverse Bay area.
But for the liberal talk radio fan, eh, fuck 'em. WJML did contend that they would merge some of the programming together, but in reality, most of the progressive heavyweights were left in the cold. Case in point, Thom Hartmann and Randi Rhodes were both demoted to the midnight shift when WJML's signal's almost nonexistent. Eventually, WJML canceled both shows and is now airing Phil Hendrie in their slot.
Also, WJML did add a buttload of right-winged crap from the likes of Laura Ingraham (does she still have breast cancer?) and Lou Dobbs, who is currently being the victim of being a hot potato. WJML canned him, and he ended up on 106.7 You FM. But You FM also canceled his show, and surprise! He's now on WTCM 580.
Today, WJML is the northern Michigan home of right-winged nutjobs such as Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz, Ingraham and Michael Weiner. Surprise! Their ratings SUCK. True, the northern Michigan Arbitrends have been embargoed since 2009, but the last time around, WJML was at a .7.
Thankfully, one of the most-improved stations up north is (GASP) You FM - which suffered with bland AC music throughout the 2000's - since they do air a few folks who aren't drinking the Republican/tea party/birther/KKK Kool-Aid. True, they air crap from Dave Ramsey and Dennis Miller, but they also air Stephanie Miller and the final hour of Leslie Marshall. Plus, Michael Smerconish and Doug McIntyre both voted Obama in 2008, so not all is lost in the northern Michigan radio world.
But in a market that also has four rock stations that all have a license to play overplayed ZZ Top at any given time, not all is perfect, either.
The point is, you can judge a city by what type of radio or TV is being produced. When there's four talk stations with little-to-no progressive content, it tells anybody with an IQ over 70 that the people of northern Michigan are gun-toting hicks who still think that Obama was born in Kenya even though there's enough evidence that he's Hawaiian. However, the WTCMs, the WMKTs, the You FMs and the WJMLs of the world all need to know that they do have major competition from SiriusXM and MP3s. Not all talk radio fans like Rush or his 3,000-plus clones. Not all rock fans like Styx or Foreigner. Not everybody likes top 40, country or oldies. The point is, when you can't provide enough selection and variety for your listeners, they're gonna turn away and might not come back. Tragically, northern Michigan has done this for way too long, mostly due to the fact that in order to survive up north, ya gotta have strong signals and enough repeaters to jam up both AM and FM bands, hindering selection for the listener.
In all fairness, WJML *still* has some liberal talk from Alan Colmes; they still air the last hour of his show at Midnight.
But one hour of a wuss on a 10-watt signal that hardly blankets Petoskey ain't gonna cut it.
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