Name: terrestrial radio
Age: 100
Occupation: entertainers and informers of the general public
Last Seen: everywhere
Bee-otched For: going to Jesus
Age: 100
Occupation: entertainers and informers of the general public
Last Seen: everywhere
Bee-otched For: going to Jesus
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Friday night marked a sad, painful moment in Boston radio history.
Several former DJs at Boston rocker WAAF clamored into the station's broadcast booth to bid adios to their loyal fans. At about 11:55 PM, they played their final song, which was "Black Sabbath" by Black Sabbath.
At the stroke of midnight, the station switched over to their new format: Christian Contemporary Music.
WAAF was Boston's only home for new rock music in recent years. But poor decisions made in management and programming had sunk the station below a one share in the ratings. Before they signed off Friday night, one of the jocks admitted that they were going to revamp the station a week from today. They claimed that the station was going to play more new music from newer artists and they were also going to rid themselves from their syndicated night program The Men's Room.
But, it wasn't meant to be.
WAAF's parent, Entercom announced late last week that they were selling the station to Educational Media Foundation for $10 million. The news was a shock to everybody in the radio business, especially since it was a fast change. WAAF is now playing EMF's K-Love format, whose artists include For King and Country (an ex of mine's favorite band... barf), TobyMac, Casting Crowns and Hillsong Worship.
In the past few years, EMF and K-Love have purchased many commercial-band FM stations, especially in major markets. Classic Rock WLUP 97.9 The Loop in Chicago, Hot AC WPLJ 95.5 New York City and Detroit's WPZR Praise 102.7 (which was Z-Rock in the 1990s) have been among the stations sold to EMF in recent years and are now K-Love stations.
And the K-Love bug has had an effect on my old stomping grounds of northern Michigan as well.
As I've reported since late last year, geezer rock WKLT 97.5 was sold to Midwestern Broadcasting, which also owns WTCM-AM/FM, WCCW-AM/FM and Z93 for $450,000. However, because Midwestern was now capped regarding the number of FM stations they could own, simulcaster 98.9 WKLZ Petoskey was not included in the sale. So, WKLT's old owners, Northern Broadcast sold the station for a mere $400,000 to EMF. Well, today marked the first day of Midwestern running KLT and there were some notable changes. One was that Steve "Omelette" Normandin is back in mornings as speculated for some time. Afternooner Derek, aka "Sasquatch" is now his sidekick. For the time being, weekender "California Girl" is handling afternoons. The station's former morning host "Racin Jason" has been sacked.
And yes, there's been no change in the music. Same shitty 1970s butt rock that they've been murdering to death for 30 years.
But guess what? KLT lives in the Petoskey area, sadly. At midnight, WBCM 93.5 - which has been simulcasting WTCM 103.5 Traverse City for some 30 years - will flip to KLT's new simulcaster for the Straits region. It will mark the first time in its 42 years on the air that 93.5 - which started as WCLX and broadcasted from a dairy barn - will not be a Country-formatted station.
WTCM will now lose the Straits area, especially since their transmitter is in northern Wexford County. Of course, Country fans will still have plenty to choose from, including Big Country 102.9 and Big Country Gold 1240. I was going to say "Straits Country 97.7", but that was recently sold to one of the morons, "Trucker Randy" Bishop who owned failed teabagger talker 94.5 WYPV in Mackinaw City. It's now a hybrid of his tinfoil hat diatribes and Oldies from artists who probably wouldn't agree to his politics.
Meanwhile, as I'm typing this, 94.3/92.5 The Fox is alive and well for the time being. The 80s and onward station's 94.3 signal in Leland was sold to CMU, though 92.5's fate in uncertain. I'll betcha as soon as CMU gets their shit together, all business at 1020 Hastings Street, Suite 102 in Traverse City will cease to exist.
Granted, I'm not surprised that KLT didn't really change music-wise and neither did the addition of 93.5. But, I've also heard that KLT might be getting a THIRD(!!!) signal. they have a few stations in Alpena, including another popular Country outlet, WATZ 99.3 and 96.7.
But here's another question: will KLT be involved in yet another sale?
You see, Midwestern's been around since 1939. Its founder, Les Biederman passed it to his son, Ross when he died in 1986 at the age of 75. Ross is now 80. I know some folks who work inside the hallowed halls of both the Paul Bunyan Building and Radio Centre. Ross has no biological family to pass Midwestern to when he dies or is unable to run the company. But, he has his stepson, company Business Manager Chris Warren. Warren's father died and his mother, Brenda married Ross. Biederman has been a father figure to Chris so much that he pretty much has the keys to Midwestern. Rumor has it that Ross no longer runs the company day-to-day. Even though he apparently is a nice guy, Chris is just like Matt Hanlon when it comes to broadcasting. He's a suit and not a broadcaster. He's all about making money and not giving the people of northern Michigan a quality product. Case in point: Z93. For a CHR, the imaging is bland and it doesn't help that morning man Ron Pritchard is known for posting some pretty hateful shit on Facebook. Z93 is currently in the shitter ratings-wise and yet Warren will put Pritchard in a hotel if the roads are bad since he lives over by Boyne City.
There's rumors that Midwestern is for sale, and Townsquare - which owns radio stations here in Grand Rapids, plus Flint and Lansing - is interested. Part of the reason why Midwestern wanted KLT was because they wanted some type of rock station in their portfolio. Townsquare is a pretty friendly company when it comes to rock, especially classic rock.
But then again, Townsquare does raise another issue and it's part of the reason why WAAF's ratings sucked towards the end. That issue is the fact that many rock stations that are the home of current rockers like Disturbed, Tool, Five Finger Death Punch and Green Day think they now have a license to play geezer rock from Lynyrd Skynyrd, Queen, ZZ Top and even fucking Kansas. Yes, I've heard "Carry On Wayward Son" just moments after I've woken up and those beginning five seconds of that flaming piece of boomer shit have almost given me a heart attack. But sadly, that's the price I've paid for having an old alarm clock that has WGRD tuned to it.
Look, I'll be 39 in a few months and I sure as hell don't want to hear the same tired, burned-out horseshit my parents forced me to listen to growing up. KLT was sadly the de facto rock station in northern Michigan in the 90s and they spat on the music of my generation. I was too young for KLT and too old for most of the wussy-ass pop shit on KHQ and The Peak. I've even heard from people from Detroit and other major cities saying on social media something to the tune of "I love northern Michigan! BUT THE GODDAMN RADIO UP THERE SUCKS!" Now with Pandora, Spotify, SiriusXM and other digital radio platforms, us youngin's can have good, quality radio on our phones while the fogeys have terrestrial radio.
And the funny thing is that Rock 105/95-5 has a better playlist than GRD! I just peeked at their last ten songs and it's a nice mix of 90s (Pearl Jam, Black Crowes and Nirvana), 00s (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Switchfoot and Stone Sour), 10s (Ghost and Arctic Monkeys) and YES! CURRENTS! (Blue Stones and Shinedown). In some situations, one would wonder where the Pink Floyd, Def Leppard and Jimi Hendrix is. I know! THEIR SISTER STATION, THE BEAR!
If terrestrial radio wants me and others back, they need to be more like Rock 105 and 95-5 and less like GRD. Leave the Classic Rock to the Classic Rock stations and knock it off thinking that butt rock will work on a station that spins the latest Slipknot. Most Oldies stations don't even play music from the 50s and 60s anymore, so why should I have to sit through Molly Hatchet to get to Foo Fighters? Sorry, but the music my drunk polack ex-stepdad listened to doesn't and never will define me.
And if this trend continues, more stations could be finding themselves seeing Jesus.
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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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