1.27.21 Bee-otch of the Day: terrestrial radio

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Name: terrestrial radio
Age: 101
Occupation: supposed entertainers and informers of the general public
Last Seen: everywhere
Bee-otched for: ratings? What ratings?
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It didn't seem all that long ago that WSNX was one of the top radio stations in Grand Rapids. 

The CHR was well-programmed and served as a near-de facto urban station. Most of the jocks were local, too, with only their midday jock being cyberjocked from Detroit. 

Today, WSNX, an iHeartRadio station, is a whole different ballgame, and the ratings prove it.

Mornings are now handled by a syndicated show from Detroit whose aging host just had heart surgery. Their afternoon jock records his shift from Los Angeles. Their night jock's based out of Boston. Their popular Sunday night mix show has been replaced with a must-carry-per-corporate syndicated show. They still have a mix show Friday and Saturday night, but it's also a syndicated program. Today, only their midday shift is local.

And now, it's having a negative effect on the once-beloved CHR.

The Grand Rapids Nielsen ratings came out recently, and the perennial top five favorite is suffering from its worst ratings at least since I started following radio ratings some twenty years ago: #9 with a 3.7.

The only good news for WSNX is that they're still the #1 hit music station in GR since Cumulus' 105.3 Hot FM is #12 with a 2.6. Then again, Hot FM is a soccer mom station in comparison to WSNX.

For those curious, the top five in GR consists of WOOD-AM/FM (election year), B93, the child molester station, WGRD and a big shocker: WVGR 104.1 at #5.

The biggest embarrassment in the ratings is definitely The Ticket 1340/106.1. Led by has-been "Huge" Bill Simonson, the station is stuck with a painfully embarrassing .1. Meanwhile, iHeart's ESPN 96.1 has 13 times the ratings The Ticket has.

Meanwhile at my old stomping grounds of northern Michigan, the reality is that we only got to see how Black Diamond's stations are doing.

Since WTCM abandoned their 93.5 signal in Boyne City to new sister WKLT, Big Country 102.9 has improved to a 6.4. Since adding Smitty for mornings, classic rocker The Bear has been on a wild uptick, moving from a 2.1 Spring 2019 to a 3.7 today. 

Sadly, The Bear's improvements comes at the expense of Rock 105/95-5. They're down from a 5.7 Spring '19 to a 4.0 today. 

Granted, I want Rock 105/95-5 to kick KLT's ass in the ratings, especially after the infamous fiasco several years ago when two now-former employees tried to derail Smitty's career. But, with owner Midwestern Broadcasting deciding to not subscribe to the book this time around - along with, once again, MacDonald Garber as well - it's hard to tell who's really winning the rock war in northern Michigan between KLT, Rock 105, The Bear and Q100 and their morning man Finster, formerly of KLT.

There's no doubt in my mind that Black Diamond is the lesser of all the evils in northern Michigan. Their bosses are industry professionals and are quite nice from what I've heard. The fact that they actually subscribe to the Nielsens show that they care about their listeners and their advertisers. If I owned a business up north, I'd probably advertise with them over the rest of the owners up north.

Now, I've always liked Midwestern's head, Ross Biederman. He's given a ton of money to local charities and he's had employees who have worked there since his father, Les, was running the show. However, Midwestern and WTCM NewsTalk 580 have that problem of airing talk shows that brainwash people. Of course, everything will change hopefully when Rush Limbaugh dies soon.

Tragically, Trish MacDonald-Garber is the worst of the "big three" evils up north. Her father was a union buster, her stations have a revolving door and most of all, she hasn't subscribed to Nielsen in ages. I've even heard it from a former jock that KHQ hasn't been doing all that well since they hired in two Detroit AC radio rejects, Robby and Rochelle to handle mornings and programming. I look at KHQ's playlist and it's bland as hell with way too many gold and recurrents, plus the fact that they've been playing an unfortunate deal of Hot AC stiffs as well. Meanwhile, Z93 seems to be more of a real CHR these days. Not only that, my jaw dropped - in a good way - a few nights ago when I saw that they played "Bulls on Parade" by Rage Against the Machine. 

I know, I'm a Grand Rapids boy now - and have been for almost 20 years now - but I know my roots. A part of me is happy that northern Michiganders now have a kickass active rock station (Rock 105/95-5 is a helluva lot better than GRD, IMHO) plus like the rest of the world, plenty of satellite and streaming to choose from. Hell, I'm happy Stern made the move to Sirius so EVERYBODY doesn't have to beg and plead soulless local stations to carry the show (though I'm not happy about how Marci Turk has wrecked many aspects of the program). 

However, the fact that the fucking Gokey family ran down all their non-KLT stations - especially 106.7 The Peak - still irks me. Because of their actions, they ended up having to shutter their company. And don't get me started on the drama regarding 101.9 WLDR. As it is, the trial's been moved to March. 

Radio is just like owning a restaurant. You serve what the people want and the people will come back. If not, the people will disappear. WSNX is dying because of a lack of localness, plus the fact that it's a station geared towards an audience that doesn't care two shits about terrestrial radio. Plus, like too many CHRs, it passed on Cardi B. and Megan Thee Stallion's #1 smash "WAP", though Harry Styles' "Watermelon Sugar" is virtually about the same thing. 

After the COVID shit is done, I wonder how radio will survive. Yes, there will be concerts and stations will be out promoting the shit out of their product. Maybe what's going on is simply a down trend and when we're done inoculating everybody, the world will improve again. But in the meantime, the world of terrestrial radio has a lot to do to win back listeners.

But when a CHR goes from Rage Against the Machine into Billie Eilish, it's a start.

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