Occupation: entertainers and informers of the public
Last Seen: Grand Rapids, MI
Bee-otched For: having a lack of priorities
Last week, a giant in the world of Grand Rapids passed away.
Pete Secchia was a self-made businessman who helped to put Grand Rapids on the map. He was the Ambassador to Italy under George H.W. Bush and was a big donor to Michigan State University. Not only that, he also championed the building of Millennium Park near Walker.
At least, that's what the media wants you to know about Pete Secchia.
When he died on Wednesday at the age of 83 from COVID-19, among other health issues, the local Grand Rapids media did what they do best: they got on their knees and puckered up. They wanted people to think that he was the greatest human to walk the streets of Grand Rapids. But, he was nothing more than your typical, far-right-winged Repukelican who really didn't care about the small guy.
On Southpaws last weekend, host Darren Gibson recalled that when he was working at WOOD-TV in the late 80s, when Secchia stopped by, he had to have coffee ready for him. Yes, he was that pompous. Gibson also pointed out that when the Larry Nassar scandal broke out, Secchia made some very stupid quotes in regard to his victims. One time, he was heard saying that Nassar's victims had to be stopped and that if they were so angry regarding what he did, they should have switched colleges.
And yet, WOOD-TV, WZZM and other stations in west Michigan, along with the Grand Rapids Press all gave him a hero's send-off.
But, you know what? They did the same 14 years ago when Gerald Ford died. He was never elected president and pardoned Nixon for all the shit he pulled. Ditto with Richard Devos. He busted unions, used his religion to bash others and made sure that people who lived in Grand Rapids made paltry wages.
When a rich Rethuglican dies, the local media will begin their newscasts with a somber version of their theme music and devote much of their program to all the good things they did to the community. When Richard Devos died, WZZM created a memorial top-of-the-hour slide in his memory. If I were TEGNA, WZZM's owner, I would have replaced it with an image of him rotting in hell with the Sanford and Son theme playing in the background since scAmway sells nothing but junk.
The only good news in all this, is that in most cases in west Michigan, there's only one duopoly in regards to television, and that's Nexstar owning WOOD-TV, along with that *other* ABC affiliate, WOTV. Radio-wise, it's an abortion with only three companies controlling most of west Michigan radio. One of them, of course is iHeartMedia, who took 20 years to finally fix one of its biggest mistakes: 101.3.
On Saturday, the flat-sounding 101.3 The Brew had its last round and flipped to "101.3 Big FM: Fun Hits You Know", playing mostly 60s and 70s oldies. A sample hour from last weekend featured Gladys Knight and the Pips' "I Heard It Through The Grapevine", The Kinks' "All Day and All of the Night", The Beatles' "Hey Jude", Elvin Bishop's "Fooled Around and Fell In Love", The Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On" and "My Maria" by B.W. Stevenson.
Before 101.3's flip, Grand Rapids' sole true oldies station was non-comm WGVU AM-1480. Townsquare's soft AC 100.5 The River does spin an oldie here and there while sister classic hits WFGR 98.7 - which morphed from being an oldies station many years ago - is mostly centered around the 80s.
Now, I have mixed feelings regarding 101.3's flip to oldies. Hell, I remembered the first time I heard rock music on 101.3 in 2000 driving back home in GR after visiting my mother up north. I was around Cadillac, listening to ZZ Top. My thought was, "damn, is 101.3 in Sault Ste. Marie coming down here loud and clear!" Then, an ID popped up: It was now 101.3 The Fox. Previously, it was a classic country station, WCUZ.
The reason for 101.3 flipping to classic rock was because Clear Channel wanted an outlet for Bob and Tom in Grand Rapids. The station also had other west Michigan rock radio legends over time, like Aris Hampers, the late Allison Harte, Andy O'Relly and Mark "The Head" Feurie. At times, they even adjusted their format to accommodate disenfranchised KLQ listeners like me to no avail. Eventually, Bob and Tom were even dropped.
In 2013, The Fox was shot down and replaced with... another failed rock format. The station was now "101.3 The Brew", a name chosen because Grand Rapids was named "Beer City, USA" by the now-defunct Examiner.com. Over the next seven years, The Brew was a total abortion with one failed format tweak after another. Sometimes, they played a lot of 90s and 00s hard rock and sometimes, it was a mix of that with 1970s and 80s butt rock. In other words, if you loved both Linkin Park and Styx, it was your station. At one time, the station was part of Clear Channel - now iHeartMedia's - "Man Up!" promotion, a tagline they slapped on their testosterone-induced rockers. Later on, the station added the Rover's Morning Glory program from sister WMMS in Cleveland. Despite all the changes, The Brew never saw a two share in the ratings.
Granted, the flip to oldies from the rock format of the day is a brilliant move for 101.3. However, how advertisers and listeners will react is one's guess. After all, I did hear The Contours' 58-year-old "Do You Love Me?" on Saturday night. Let's remember that oldies died not once, but twice commercially in the 2000s in west Michigan. In 2004, Oldies 107.3 WODJ begat to WKLQ's move to that frequency while KLQ's old position flipped to country as "Thunder 94.5". WFGR - then a ho-hum classical station whose call letters stood for "We're For Grand Rapids" - flipped to oldies, using ABC's "Oldies Radio" format. Despite doing well in the ratings, WFGR dropped most of their 50s and 60s music and flipped to classic hits in 2009. Soon after, WGVU became America's first NPR member station to flip to oldies.
Now, here's a good question: who's next to flip? Oddly enough, both The River and Thunder - now at 107.3 - are at 1.3. It took 20 fucking years for Clear Channel/iHeart to realize that they don't do rock radio right, especially in Grand Rapids.
Another question is, is that what format SHOULD be tried in this market? Alternative has been tried and failed. Magic 104.9 does OK with urban, though their signal sucks outside of GR. The area has another adult R&B thanks to 102.5 The Ride, though it also suffers from a shitty signal (I noticed they're in mono, too).
I can go on, but the issue is that with more people going digital thanks to Pandora, Spotify, SiriusXM and so on, maybe it was a good move on iHeartMedia's part to go oldies on 101.3. Considering that the 1970s ended 40 years ago, you don't see a lot of the elderly knowing what the hell a Bluetooth is. Hell, my 65-year-old mother has Bluetooth and an aux cord on her car stereo, plus a newer phone. But since she has a short drive to work, I don't necessarily see her plugging away at Pandora to listen to her favorite songs (FTR, her radio's tuned to 98.7 WFGR).
At the end of the day, yes, another Repuke is dead and we've gained an oldies station. But, the media here still sucks royally. Then again, this is what happens when Rethugs own your city. The media will call them champions for making the city prosper. Yet, they won't talk about how some people in Grand Rapids can't afford to live in a real house. Hell, I've been renting for 18 years and thanks to the far-right bullshit I've had to face during this time, I might not ever be able to have a place of my own. Nearly 40 years of mostly Rethugs running our country will do that to you.
So, here you go, Boomers. At least you had some rememberable music to listen to while you voted for Reagan.
--
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!
No comments:
Post a Comment