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A SPECIAL HERO OF THE DAY!
Name: Black Diamond Broadcasting
Age: 12
Occupation: radio giant
Last Seen: Rochester Hills, MI
Awarded For: making mornings better
-Age: 12
Occupation: radio giant
Last Seen: Rochester Hills, MI
Awarded For: making mornings better
Frank Sinatra. Cher. Elvis. Smitty.
For decades, the entertainment world has seen its share of comebacks. And now in northern Michigan, it's Nathan Smith's turn.
The long-time afternoon host at Rock 105 (Straits area) and 95-5 (Traverse City) recently hung up his headphones for the last time because he got a nice gig at Right Brain Brewery in Traverse City. However, he did host a Saturday night program called The Box where he played deep tracks and tunes that haven't been played on the radio for a while.
But now, that show's off the air. The reason? He's waking up a little early.
Starting today, Smitty's now the morning host at Classic Rocker 98.1 (Traverse City) and 95.3 (Straits Area) The Bear. The announcement comes only a few weeks after they parted ways with Steve "Omelette" Normandin, who was their wake-up for two years.
Prior to O-Man, the station carried the once-popular Bob and Tom Show for nearly 20 years. That show is now carried on 106.3 Mac-FM in the Straits area.
Meanwhile, Normandin's ex-partner, Guy Dark is now handling nights on Rock 105 and 95-5, the station's first real night jock since its days as Modern Rock The Zone. The addition of Dark at night makes Rock 105 and 95-5 the only rock station in northern Michigan to have a local night jock.
The Bear had phenomenal ratings in the late 90s and well into the 2000s. However, ratings started to slip when KLT beefed up its classic rock playlist and added in Omelette for mornings. When he was fired, The Bear hired Omelette in hopes of boosting its sagging ratings. Well, it didn't work.
According to a close source, O-Man made over $80,000 per year at KLT.
You know, it's wise for Black Diamond - Rock 105/95-5 and The Bear's parent - to put Smitty in the morning on The Bear. After all, in Traverse City, it will put him next to good 'ol KLT, a station that tried to lure him to do mornings when they fired Omelette a few years ago. Of course, he reportedly said no TWICE since he didn't want to work for Terri Ray. So what does KLT do? When Smitty made a personal attack against KLT on his show on Rock 105/95-5, well, it depends on who you talk to. Smitty claimed that KLT afternoon weasel Tom Devitt - who worked for The Bear and The Zone two different times - and a jock on Classic Hits sister The Fox, Mike Misico made a very vulgar audio file of him bashing KLT mixed in with a song Smitty posted on his personal SoundCloud site and told advertisers that it actually went over Rock 105/95-5's airwaves. Meanwhile, Jerry Coyne, whose Blarney Stone Broadcasting was trying to buy KLT from longtime owner Langer Gokey, who lives in Minot, ND, told me personally that they only sent advertisers the unedited clip of Smitty trashing KLT. The reason being was due to his wife, Sheryl's involvement in the Michigan Lottery.
Smitty was fired because of the incident, but rehired three months later.
Since the incident, Blarney Stone - which owns Rock Q100 and Sports WGRY 101.1 in the Grayling area - withdrew from purchasing WKLT, The Fox and ESPN Radio Up North and now operates N Content Marketing's stations in Traverse City, including longtime AC 101.9 WLDR. Misico was brought in to host mornings on WLDR, but was recently fired to make way for... Omelette's old partner on KLT, Sean "Finster" Finnegan.
You know, I hate people who ask me why I hate KLT with a passion. And most of the people who ask tend to be the morons who grew up with the station. The reason why is because when I was a teen, they avoided bands that would become legends of my generation: KoRn, Rage Against the Machine, Slipknot, Tool and the list goes on. Their excuse? "We don't play kids music" and "the kids already have 106.7 The Peak". Well, 1) The Peak NEVER played any of the aforementioned bands because Top 40 radio ignored them like the plague and 2) the Gokeys would buy out The Peak and flipped it to an ultra-shitty AC (remember WSRT?) that had ZERO ratings.
Well, it's been 20 years, and 1) BOTH Tool and Slipknot had #1 albums recently and KoRn's new album's getting rave reviews (sadly because many of the songs were inspired by Jonathan Davis's wife's death) and 2) KLT and Rock 105/95-5 are tied in the ratings. Not only that, it's the only station of the Gokeys that has any good ratings since neither The Fox or ESPN are above a two share. Hell, it's funny that Taylor Swift's fans call Tool "Grandpa Rock" on Twitter and just 20 years ago, KLT's people passed it as "kids music"!
The truth with Black Diamond is that this is a company that seems to get it. One of the guys worked for WRIF in Detroit and knows rock. This is why Rock 105/95-5 might be THE best Active Rocker in Michigan. No overplayed butt rock from the 70s and most-importantly in this time and age of corporate radio, A LOCAL NIGHT SHOW! Christ, they're eons better than WGRD, which plays shit like Lynyrd Skynyrd, has a midday jock with five chins and a shitty nighttime show that corporate forces them to air. Yes, Rock 105/95-5 has its flaws, too. Their midday jock voicetracks her show from Detroit (though she's way easier on the eyes than the elderly Terri Ray or the porker at GRD) and their morning host also voicetracks out of Green Bay and looks like an old lesbian.
Look at it this way: KLT is dying and will continue to die from the fact that most of its listeners are now fucking old and kiss Drumpf's ass. Oh, and guess what KLT no longer has? A NIGHT JOCK! When Ida quit earlier this year, they never replaced her. It wouldn't shock me that their shitty business and music decisions chased away advertisers. Last time I was up north, I only listened to them for maybe one minute, especially since they started playing Kid cRock's overplayed tribute to northern Michigan set to "Sweet Home Alabama". I'll betcha that once Terri Ray retires, the station will finally change to accommodate the listeners they've disenfranchised over the years.
But thanks to Rock 105/95-5, SiriusXM, Pandora, Spotify and others, it will be too little, too late.
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Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!
Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com
Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!
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