Name: William Langer Gokey
Age: 69
Occupation: owner, Northern Bottling Company, Northern Broadcast
Last Seen: Minot, ND
Bee-otched For: selling his stations... 20 years too late
-Age: 69
Occupation: owner, Northern Bottling Company, Northern Broadcast
Last Seen: Minot, ND
Bee-otched For: selling his stations... 20 years too late
In 1986, when I was five, my grandparents moved from their longtime home of Troy, near Detroit to a cozy, three-story home overlooking Elk Lake by Traverse City.
One of the fond memories I had driving around with my grandparents was that they had a favorite radio station: 96.3 WMBN out of Petoskey. In the 80s, the station played mostly instrumental easy listening music. Needless to say, it sucked. To me, it was old music for old people.
However, in 1989, WMBN's owner, Ken MacDonald died from a heart attack at 67. Per his wishes, WMBN changed its format to Soft AC as Lite 96.3. Well, my grandparents didn't care for the new changes, so they found solace in Unforgettable 1310 WCCW out of Traverse City. They played the music from the 40s and 50s that Grandpa and Grandma loved. Well, my grandparents moved to Florida and in 2001, my Grandfather died.
Not long after Grandpa passed, I remembered driving my Grandma around Traverse City. I turned it to 1310 and showed her that it had flipped to ESPN Sports. My Grandma's response: "we're dying off!"
In 2001, my Grandmother was 72. She died from Dementia last year, almost two months after her 89th birthday.
The sad thing is that today's current 72-year-old was born in 1947. They grew up with AM radio, 8-tracks, vinyl and American Bandstand. While vinyl sales are now overpowering CDs, very few AM stations play music (and those who do might have an FM translator) and Bandstand had its last Spotlight Dance over 30 years ago. It just couldn't compete with MTV, and even they hardly run music videos anymore.
Now, terrestrial radio is quickly becoming just like AB with many in the Generation X, Y and Z brackets long-abandoning it for Spotify and Pandora. Radio ratings are down across the board and revenue is down as well.
The major reason why I started this blog and website was because 20 years ago, I was in Radio Hell. The rest of my family was blessed to live in Detroit and Grand Rapids, two cities with way better rock choices than what we had up north. Detroiters had WRIF and 89X while Grand Rapids had WKLQ. Northern Michigan's new rock choices were WKLT - which was too heavy on 1970s butt rock - and The Zone, which was heavy on Lilith Fair and wuss music. KLT should have been the WRIF of the north, but that was not to be.
In 1984, a family from North Dakota, the Gokeys, who made their fortune in running a successful Pepsi bottling company bought WKLT, which at the time was known as 98 Rock. According to people I've talked to, they were a decent station back in the day. But then, the Gokeys made an idiotic decision and hired a jerkoff named Richard Dills to manage their stations. I've talked with a guy who worked at KLT during this time, and he told me that the reason why KLT had long been a shitty station was because Dills wanted it to be that way. He believed that most people in northern Michigan were white trash, which explained why KLT has long been heavy on bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Journey, Styx and Foreigner. While bands like KoRn, Rage Against the Machine, Tool (whose lead singer, Maynard Keenan grew up in northern Michigan) and Metallica were ruling rock in the 1990s, KLT avoided them like the plague (as a matter of fact, "Enter Sandman" was pretty much the only Metallica song KLT ever played up until 2000). Simply put, station management passed those bands as "kids music". During the late 90s, the only radio station that targeted my generation was 106.7 The Peak.
Which happened to be a station the Gokeys blew up.
When the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was passed, radio stations up north were being sold at a rabbit's pace. The Gokeys bought WKPK 106.7 The Peak and sister station 96.7 WMLQ in Rogers City - later spun off and is now part of a simulcast of Country WATZ 99.3 in Alpena - for $3 million from station founder John DeGroot. It was always neck-and-neck with fellow CHR stalwart 106 KHQ, which was more-adult-friendly and played more 80s music as opposed to the more-rhythmic Peak. However, according to a former Peak DJ, the Gokeys were waiting for a ratings dip for The Peak. Why? So they could flip it to Adult Contemporary.
You see, the Gokeys had made it apparent that they were not in the business of entertaining those born after the Baby Boom. KLT was heavy on geezer rock, they had an underperforming country station in The Bee and now, they wanted to flip 106.7's monstrous 100,000-watt signal to shitty soccer mom music. Well, a lightning strike screwed up 106.7's transmitter and ratings did go down. In 2000, The Peak began its transition to WSRT: Soft Rock and Great Talk since the station aired the syndicated Bob and Sheri Show mornings and Delilah at night. The ratings continued to drop, though they did have a slight bump in one ratings book thanks to their idiot programming director, Todd Martin sending Arbitron a bunch of fake ratings diaries. And yes, he was caught and was fired as a result.
Of course, 106.7 continued to have problems, even afterward. Even a rebranding as "You FM" in 2010 didn't help matters. The station flipped to a talk format that was a mix of left and right-winged talkers. Too bad they originally carried Dr. Laura, who pissed off everybody when she unleashed a string of racial slurs some years ago, ending her terrestrial radio career. In 2012, WSRT flipped to ESPN, its longest-serving format since dumping The Peak many years ago.
The problem the Gokeys had was simple: they alienated their younger audiences years ago and as they grew up, they found other stations to listen to, either on terrestrial or internet radio. In recent years, Rock 105 and 95-5 has been gaining up on KLT's ass while the Gokey's two other stations, the aforementioned ESPN Up North and Classic Hits 94.3/92.5 The Fox (the former Bee) are both under a two share in the ratings. Not only that, but the fact that they've had a long history of firing popular DJs from their stations all in the name of money. Just ask Tim Murphy and Steve "Omelette" Normandin.
Now, the Gokeys are selling off their stations. Not as a cluster, but one by one. Allegedly, they wanted $9 million for all six of their stations, but nobody was willing to pay the price for all six of them. It was also a huge reason why Blarney Stone Broadcasting, the owners of Q100 and 101.1 WGRY balked on trying to buy the stations several years ago.
All we know is that 94.3 - legally WFCX Leland/Traverse City - is being sold to Central Michigan University. CMU has long-wanted a full-power signal in the Grand Traverse region, an area that's been long-loyal to Interlochen Public Radio. However, 92.5 WFDX Atlanta/Alpena/Petoskey is not in the deal because CMU already has 91.7 WCML Alpena. It's expected that 92.5 will fall silent once the deal goes through. For now, The Fox is still on the air.
Last week, 106.7 WSRT Gaylord and 105.5 WSRJ Honor both signed off the air. The fact that the Gokeys paid $3 million for this station only to run it well into the ground is nothing short of laughable.
But now, there's good 'ol KLT. Word has it that Midwestern Broadcasting - which already owns WTCM, WCCW and Z93 - is buying only 97.5 and not 98.9 because of FCC ownership caps. Speculation has it that 98.9 - WKLZ Petoskey - will be sold to a religious broadcaster. Bear in mind that when Blarney Stone was trying to buy out the Gokeys that they were planning to sell 106.7 to Baraga Radio, a Catholic broadcaster. Now that Baraga's been sold to Relevant Radio, that has changed no matter how you look at it. It's also noted that Midwestern traded off some of their stations in the past to Good News Media, which owns WLJN 89.9 out of Traverse City. In 1982, they donated the old frequency of WTCM, 1400 AM to Good News. They've also donated 1370 Cadillac and 107.9 Charlevoix to GNM as well.
Already, changes are being made at both KLT and The Fox. Speculation has it that most of the sales staff has been broomed out and so have been a few jocks. Granted, being the holidays, I should hand the Gokeys BOTD for firing people. But since one of those was former KLT afternoon jock Tom Devitt, I'll make an exception. After the shit that he put Smitty (now mornings on Classic Rocker The Bear), me and others through, all I have to say is good riddance. Asshole bombed as the morning man on The Zone, he couldn't make it at a shithole station in Caro, got canned again at The Bear and now KLT. Maybe if he had an original bone in his body, he'd be retained.
I expect a more-formal announcement in the first quarter of 2020, or maybe sooner. After Langer sells his stations, there will now be three major radio operators with some sort of super focus. Midwestern will have the Baby Boomers with Country (WTCM-103.5/93.5), Conservative Talk (WTCM 580), Oldies (WCCW 1310), Classic Hits (WCCW 107.5) and (MAYBE) Classic Rock (KLT) with CHR Z93 as a hanger-on, Black Diamond will have a wall of men with Rock 105, The Bear and Big Country 102.9 and MacDonald-Garber will have women with KHQ and Lite 96, though they have other formats like Adult Hits (104.5 Bob FM), Sports (93.7 WKAD Cadillac/1340 WMBN Petoskey) and Country out of Cadillac (96.7 The Bull). But as it stands, there's going to be several silent stations in northern Michigan both now and in the near future.
The sad situation is that to me, radio is like Kmart. As a kid, your parents loved it because they were cheap. But you hated them because while all the cool kids at school wore Reebok Pumps and Nike Air Jordans, you got stuck with some sweatshop POS that broke apart on you three months after mommy bought them for you. Kmart had every chance to redeem themselves, but thanks to Eddie Lampert, their stores got run down while you went elsewhere to shop. Look at Kmart now: at the beginning of 2020, they will be down to just 70 locations. I expect by this time next year, Kmart - and maybe Sears - will be long gone.
In the 1990s, the Gokeys simply told my generation to fuck off by making KLT a haven for Boomers. They should have evolved like WRIF, but they didn't. Instead, they told me to listen to The Peak, which saturated their playlist with shitty boy bands and mindless pop sluts who probably had to suck 20 record exec cocks to get a hit record. But they killed that station. Look at WRIF now: they are #2 in the Detroit radio ratings while dying KLT is now tied with the growing Rock 105/95-5. I'm pushing 40 and I hate KLT with a passion, Tom Devitt or not. When their current listeners die off, they might as well shut down since I don't associate them with kick-ass rock music. Sorry, but a radio station that still probably plays "Carry On Wayward Son" ten times per day after all these years has lost me for life.
One more thing: with all the firings, movers and shakers up north radio-wise, I'm forever thankful I never got into radio. I wanted to as a kid, but not with the fact that it's an unstable job with no future. I'll betcha that if I started a weekly podcast, I might actually make more money than a lot of DJs. Just saying. I've been at my current job for 17 years and business is pretty good. Yes, I've had my struggles with former management, but now that I'm making twice than what I was making a decade ago, life is good.
With Langer being the last Bee-otch of the Day this year and this decade, I only have two words to say:
Good riddance.
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Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!
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