There are two reasons why I haven't posted much in a while. One, work has been keeping me very busy. Two, I've been working on this post. I decided to do this halfway through the year instead of waiting until the year's end for one simple reason: the first annual Mid-Michigan Radio Round-Up is the second most-read page on this blog, second only to the front page. That means most people have nothing else of my opinion to go on other than my past ideas that WJIM is merely mediocre, Keith Curry has completely turned WKFR around and WSAE is failing miserably.
As I've pointed out many times before, I'm one of those mean, nasty, cold-hearted people who doesn't believe in patting everyone on the back for every little thing they do right. However, there are many things that have changed and improved on the area's radio dial that I haven't pointed out, and many people are under the impression that I either don't know about them or are simply just ignoring them so I can continue to be negative. That, of course, is not at all the case. This is the hear-all, know-all Josh C. we're talking about here!
By the way, there are a few inside references to things you probably won't understand throughout this edition, so if you come across a station you don't recognize or a station that doesn't look real, chances are it's probably a joke. Or an evil plan to conquer the Mid-Michigan radio dial, one of the two.
Also, I'm only doing FM this time around, as the only things that have changed on the AM side are the following:
There was apparently a shake up in news sources for the various Clear Channel Cincinatti AM's. As I understand it, at some point, WKRC dropped Fox News for CBS, then went back to Fox. At the corresponding times, WLW dropped ABC News and picked Fox News up from sister station WKRC when they flipped back to CBS. Then when WKRC returned to Fox News, WLW returned to ABC, and sister station WCKY picked up CBS (I'm not sure what they had previously been using). It's all really confusing, and why the change happened to begin with, no one seems to know. The interesting thing is that it all ended up back the way it was when WKRC originally picked up Fox back in 2004.
WJR has turned on IBOC, and they are now literally inaudible. The sidebands are so loud that they drown out the analogue audio. Locals have begun calling them "The Great Noise of the Great Lakes."
And then there's WKHM who have, after being caught with their pants down when the first string of severe storms rolled through this year, begun airing live weather updates when severe weather is even thinking of heading this way. Regular weather updates and newscasts, however, remain pre-recorded.
Other than that, the AM dial remains unchanged. So without further ado, let's get it started!
- 88.5 WYSA Wauseon, OH ["Yes! FM" Christian CHR]
Or at least they're supposed to be a CHR. As I pointed out in the Winter, they sound much more like a Christian hardcore rock station right now. Not exactly my favorite genre of music, but it does have it's audience, and that audience is large in northwest Ohio (and, indeed, throughout much of Ohio, as further evidenced by the presence of RadioU in the southern portions of the state).
WARNING: SLIGHTLY OFF-TOPIC RAMBLING AHEAD.
Aside from the regional popularity of the format, I think part of the reason they've turned more and more in that direction has been the fact that there's absolutely no new CHR-fitting Christian music out there right now. It's just as WAYG's station manager and music director (and frequent reader of this blog) Mike Couchman told AllAccess not too long ago: there's no excitement in the format right now.
I personally attribute that to two factors. Firstly, pop music started to fade out of the mainstream in favor of hip-hop and R&B between '02 and '04, and Christian radio was forced to follow suit because, let's face it, the Christian contemporary music industry is nothing else than an answer to the secular music industry (not that that's a bad thing, it's just the reality of the matter). Additionally, the urban sound has never been Christian music's strong suit, so stations were forced to turn elsewhere in terms of formatics. Secondly, what I like to call the "Praise Craze", otherwise not known by any specific term other than the long-winded "growth in the popularity of praise and worship music", hit around the same time, providing most Christian stations with that "elsewhere" to turn to (and I get the distinct, noxious feeling that the record labels were influencing stations to jump on that bandwagon so sales would skyrocket). Christian radio never fully recovered from either change.
RAMBLING OVER.
Aside from the discussion of formatics, Yes! FM remains one of the best Christian stations I've ever heard (yes, Mike, WAYG is on the list, too!). The production work there, done by my friend Chris Shannon, is superb (although I think the whispering Chris does in most of his voice work is starting to get a little worn out). I haven't had a chance to tune into any live broadcasts from The Mill recently, so I don't know if they've resolved the feedback (doubtful) and volume (quite possible) issues yet. I should listen in soon and give you a report. - 89.3 WJKN-FM Spring Arbor ["The Vibe" Christian CHR]
It's moving along slower than a snail, but the improvement is happening at The Vibe. The imaging is getting better (thank you Steven Hudson), the playlists are getting more cohesive (thank you Marla Sanford), and overall the station is sounding more and more professional.
There are still some major things they need to work out, though. For one, they still need a regular schedule of jocks on the air, and they need to VT the overnights. One thing they still aren't doing (and I've been told it's directly due to a mandate from cluster manager Carl Fletcher) is using music beds under DJ breaks, which confounds me. If you're trying to run a Christian CHR, you want the station to sound as high-energy as possible, and talkover beds are one of the most basic ways of doing that. The decision not to use them makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. And they still haven't seemed to catch onto the late placement of the outcues on all of the audio files. It's causing dead air in between everything. Again, they need to sound as high-energy as possible, and tightness in the playlist is key.
Getting on the topic of formatics and music again, The Vibe has one thing going for it and one thing dragging it down… and the interesting thing is that they're intertwined. The bad thing is that there is an overabundance of stale music in the library. The good thing is that the majority of it is older pop from the late 90's and early 00's, and that makes the station sound more like a CHR than anything else. - 90.5 WKAR-FM East Lansing [NPR/Classical]
Again, as with the last time, I really don't listen to the station all that much except for the weekends to hear "Car Talk", "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me", "What Do You Know" and "A Prairie Home Companion", so I really can't say much about the music or presentation. - 91.7 WUOM Ann Arbor ["Michigan Radio" NPR/Talk]
From time to time, I enjoy tuning in to listen to the BBC World Service at night or other talk programming… just because I like hearing what the left-wing point of view has to say about current issues without having to put up with all the vitriol I'd hear on, say, Air America. And yes, the right-wing perspective does get some time on public radio as well; I'm not debating that here. In any case, though, I'll echo what I said the last time around: WUOM's talent actually exhibit personality on the air, unlike the people at many, many other NPR stations across the country. Now if I can just get Mike Bradford to build me a filter that will keep WCSR from bleeding over WUOM… - 92.1 WQTX St. Johns ["Oldies 92.1" Oldies]
The station recently flipped from sports to fill in the gap left by WJIM when they flipped to Top 40. Unfortunately, the realities of radio being what they are, Mid Michigan Radio Group can really only afford to run this straight off the bird. However, if you look at my review of WVIC (one of WQTX's sister stations), you'll see I lay out a plan as to how this can be changed. - 92.1 WCSR Hillsdale ["Radio Hillsdale" Full Service/AC]
Not much has changed since I last wrote about WCSR. They're still the only local station in Hillsdale County (no, satellite-fed WBZV doesn't count). Everything you could possibly want to know about Hillsdale County's local news can be heard on WCSR.
My friend Jordo over at Michigan Radio News + Views pondered what would happen to some of his open DX frequencies if WCSR were to ever go "HD". I can assure him and everyone else that unless Mike Flynn decides to sell the station (which doesn't look to be anywhere near the horizon), there's no way on Earth, or anywhere else for that matter, that WCSR will ever go IBOC... which I'm extremely thankful for. I can just hear Mike's voice now. "Hell, I had to install that damn RDB? RDS? Whatever. I had to put that stupid thing in a few years back, and now I have to spend more money on a new transmitter, a new processor and trash six frequencies surrounding my station? Screw that!"
No, wait, that sounds more like something I'd say!
In even further good news, there's been a great improvement in the station's capability for remote broadcasts. Just a couple of months ago, WCSR installed a new generator, and while they were off the air to allow for the installation, they also installed a new MARTI antenna just below the AM antenna on the southwest side of the tower, where the previous antenna that had been there since 1964 had been located. This has greatly improved the distance from which they can broadcast in near-full-quality audio (I believe the MARTI systems only have a 12 kHz audio frequency range), making the number of locations at which they have to find a telephone line much lower. In fact, just about a month ago, Mike Flynn did a remote broadcast from Clorr's Outpost, a golf shop and driving range about ten miles away from the studios. It used to be that the MARTI would start losing coverage only three miles out. They used to have to do the Hillsdale Chrysler/Dodge remotes, just four miles away, over the phone. Even broadcasting from other municipalities as close as Jonesville was absolutely out of the question. Now I'd wager they can pick up the MARTI all the way from Litchfield if they tried. I know we used to do the remote broadcast from the Jackson County Hot Air Jubilee with our MARTI at WSAE (a distance of about six miles), and our antenna was only about 20 feet up. WCSR's is now about 180 feet up. It sounds great!
All in all, with several improvements, they still hold the title for being Hillsdale County's first and most reliable source for news and information.
- 92.5 WVKS Toledo, OH ["Kiss FM" CHR/Mainstream]
Even in the short time between now and the last Round-Up, Kiss has really gone downhill. I should point out that they were sliding downward even at the point that I wrote the previous installment, and had been for some time. However, things haven't improved a bit, and they're getting worse and worse every day.
Firstly, the playlist is stale. Sure they add new music here and there, but what they do add doesn't really fit the Toledo market, and the recurrents and golds are bogging them down even further. I mentioned J-Kwon's "Tipsy" last time. This time, you can add a whole slew of tracks to that list of overplayed older songs that I'm not going to get into here (because if you printed it, that paragraph alone would probably take about three pages).
Secondly, and I hit on this in the Winter, Andrew Z just doesn't get the job done. I made this point in a thread on the Out of State section of the Buzzboard: neither of the morning shows on Toledo's two CHR's (the other being Tower 98) are doing anything that's going to get anyone excited. There's no new material being used, there's nothing new being done formatically, and there's no sense of excitement. As I recently told someone on the RadioInsight message boards, Andrew Z's show (and this goes for Johnny D.'s as well) sounds about as exciting as foam rubber. The liners Kiss has been using for their prized new morning show end with "Toledo's talking about Andrew Z. in the Morning!" And Toledo is talking about the show… they're just talking about how badly it sucks.
Thirdly, even with a morning show that's just as lame as Andrew Z.'s, Tower has jumped up in the ratings and is about [-><-] this close to overtaking Kiss 12+. Why? A few reasons. The music is better. They have more mixshows. They've been hitting the streets hard. They've taken every advantage they possibly can to catch up with their competition. And the biggest reason of all: Kiss has let them do it.
And to top it all off, Kramer, the most original and talented CHR jock in all of Toledo, just jumped out of the market for a job at Clear Channel's CHR in New Haven, Connecticut – which I should mention that I wish him all the best on the move… it's a bigger market, it's a great point from which to jump into an even bigger market, and a location that close to The Big Apple could potentially lead to some swing duties at the #1 CHR in the country. Unfortunately, that leaves Kiss and all of Toledo without it's best jock, which means Cheap Channel Toledo is probably going to fill the slot with some no-talent nothing who hasn't worked behind the board a day in their lives, as that seems to be the amount of motivation they have in making any changes at the station.
All in all, if they don't make some serious improvements, you're going to be hearing the name "Kiss Country" in the not-too-distant future. - 92.7 WJZL Charlotte ["Lansing's Smooth Jazz 92.7" Smooth Jazz]
Another MMRG station that's satellite-fed. Again, with the economics behind what they're doing, I can understand the need for that. And again (again), see the WVIC review for how I envision MMRG rearranging things for maximum profitablility. - 92.7 WSEV-LPFM Coldwater ["Seven FM" CHR/Rhythmic]
It'll happen one of these days… - 92.9 WNDV South Bend, IN ["U93" CHR/Mainstream]
Still the best mainstream CHR in the area! Unfortunately, though, my reception of them has become less and less frequent thanks to someone's IBOC interference… I don't know if it's theirs or someone else's. It could possibly be coming from WDRQ, because the noise seems to be coming from 93.1 the strongest, and it trashes 93.3 as well. But again, I don't know. Thank God the U is streaming again. - 94.1 WVIC Jackson [Classic Hits]
Supposedly. The station has basically turned into another classic rocker (and Lord knows we need more of that format around here! Geez…). That surprises me, because I'd think Mid Michigan Radio Group would want to try to make the station sound more like an oldies station after WJIM flipped. They even advertised specifically to the former Oldies 97.5 audience after the shake-up, so you'd think they'd modify their product to cater to the audience they tried so hard to pick up. Of course, sister station WQTX is filling that void in Lansing, but for both the reasons I mentioned in my review of the station above and the fact that it's only a 3,000-watt station that only reaches the Lansing area, you would think that they'd put more oldies on their second-largest signal (their first being 50kW active rocker WJXQ; WVIC is just 2000 watts shy of the same).
The problem is basically this: the market is so full of stations of the same type that there's no wiggle room… and part of that is MMRG's own fault. There are three stations WVIC has to compete with, one of which is their own sister station. WQTX is tugging at the ratings on the oldies front, while MacDonald's WHZZ and Citadel's WMMQ are pulling on the classic rock ratings… more WMMQ than WHZZ, but 'HZZ certainly isn't helping, either.
There's a solution to this, albeit a somewhat complicated one, and it comes with the upgrade and frequency change of WJZL, which will make the station MMRG's third-largest in coverage area. First, tweak WVIC into what it should have been all along... the variety hits/"Jack" format. That will move it in place to directly compete with WHZZ, because, quite frankly, they really aren't making any inroads in taking on WMMQ (mostly because of their apparent refusal to stick with one format). Move the format, staff and name – with the WQTX calls (or something new, for that matter) – to what will soon be 4.6kW WJZL on 92.9. Move the jazz format and the WJZL calls to what's currently WQTX on 92.1. Then, move oldies to WVIC with the current live and local airstaff that's already there.
When I originally posted this, mistakenly writing up WHZZ as an MMRG station, I noted that this idea leaves WHZZ open for a new format altogether. As I mention below, the station actually belongs to MacDonald Broadcasting, so I had to change the shake-up plan around slightly. However, should one of the two variety hits stations no tbe able to take the competition, where would the format wheel stop next? Maybe hot talk? In a college town that's also the state capital, there's got to be a market for it.
But getting back to WVIC, if MMRG really wants to make it a solid station, they need to take it down the oldies route. WJIM, as an oldies station, was an extremely strong #1 both in it's target and 12+ (how many oldies stations can you think of that are #1 12+ with an easy 12 points in their market?). There's quite obviously a huge demand for the format in the area, and not just in Lansing. Having full market coverage (which means everywhere from Hillsdale to Alma, as the Buzzboard describes it) is one thing, using it wisely is another. Right now, WVIC isn't exactly doing all that it can. - 94.7 WCVM Bronson ["RadioX" Christian CHR]
A split in Calvary Chapel, the church that owns WCVM's parent network, caused a bit of a shake-up both in the church itself and in the church's broadcasting ministry. Therefore, the network and it's stations have been re-branded as RadioX. This frees up the name "The Effect" so that I can take it and use it for my own personal gain (he says with that evil grin he's famous among friends for).
Other than the name and slogan, not much has changed. The station is still a sort of rock/hip-hop hybrid, and the same problems that plagued the format before are still there. Again, that's no fault of the station itself… it's just as I said in my commentary in the WYSA review: the Christian music industry has never been a very strong producer of urban-leaning music.
All in all, I still find this to be a good station, even for a most-time satellator (they do originate local programming from time to time; mostly local school sports broadcasts and the like). - 94.9 WMMQ Lansing ["94-9 MMQ" Classic Rock]
The change to the name "94-9 MMQ" as opposed to the former "94.9 WMMQ" came about with the "Great Format Shake-Up of 2005". The station brought Rich Michaels in from the former Oldies 97.5 to do mornings, as was mentioned in the last Round-Up.
Aside from the name tweak, not much has changed. It's still a strong player in the market, and is still one of the better classic rock stations I know of. - 95.5 WKQI Detroit ["Channel 9-5-5" CHR/Rhythmic]
Yes, technically they report to Arbitron as mainstream, but let's call it what it is for the sake of my sanity.
This is my favorite CHR right now. As I've said in the past, it's the closest thing to what a modern-day WPOW should sound like (although, again, WNDV comes close). They kill in the ratings, they work their rears off maintaining their dominance in the market (and with a work ethic like that, it's no wonder they killed DRQ off), and they overall put out the best CHR product in the eastern half of the state (the title in West Michigan goes to WSNX).
I mentioned that we should call it what it is for one reason: after I posted something about the station on Radio-Info, someone (you know who you are) commented that WKQI wasn't really a rhythmic station, that it was a mainstream that played some rhythmic material. Obviously the person in question hasn't listened in the past… um… entire period WKQI has been a CHR. Tune in at any time of the day and you'll hear more rhythmic tracks than a mainstream station would even think to touch. The station is just the opposite: a rhythmic that works in a few mainstream tracks here and there. Take a look at the playlist; you'll see what I'm talking about. If you played any less rhythmic material in Detroit, you'd get killed by any newcomer that cares to come along. Ask anyone who worked at DRQ. - 95.7 WSVN-LPFM Hillsdale ["Seven FM" CHR/Rhythmic]
I can just hear the response from 80% of Hillsdale County residents now: "Why the hell are they playin' that nigra music?"
Um… because the 20% of the county that aren't in some way associated with the KKK enjoy it.
Yes, Vicki, I like my chicken spicy. - 96.7 WUFN Albion ["96.7 FLR" Christian AC]
"I thought this was Hillsdale, not Al-be-on!"
Sorry. Chicago City Limits moment there. Nothing to do with FLR other than the COL.
WUFN has somewhat picked up the slack WSAE left when the Spring Arbor station flipped formats. However, there's still quite a gap between what WSAE was and what WUFN is. That's probably a good thing, though. It leaves that hole open for UComm to fill when they realize "we screwed up big time!"
WUFN still is the best choice among Christian AC's in the area. They don't lean as far toward the "brain death" side of the scale as most other Christian AC's in the area do (WBCL, anyone?), and they certainly aren't afraid to add newer music that has elements of musical genres other Christian stations would consider, as my good high school friend John Owen once put it, "eeeee-villlllllll" (here's lookin' at you, WFUR).
All in all, the station is currently the best choice for Christian adult contemporary music in the area, and again, they remind me of my first station, WMCU in Miami. Both are great at what they do. - 97.5 WJIM-FM Lansing ["The New 97-5" CHR/Mainstream]
All I can say to start this off is… wow. This station is the kick in the pants Lansing needed.
Let me add to that that I still think they'd be better going with an even more in-your-face approach. The imaging, while definitely better now than it was when the station first launched, is still lackluster. The crew is constantly hitting the streets, and that's exactly what they need to be doing, but more needs to be done. Live club broadcasts (again, not just remotes… broadcast the party live on the radio) need to be arranged, and hopefully they're working on that… I know that's not the easiest thing to get up and running.
On the other side of the same coin, the Fourth of July broadcast was a brilliant idea! For anyone who doesn't know, the official City of Lansing fireworks show this year was choreographed to music that was played on 97-5 during the show. It was absolutely genious… a great way to not only present yourself to the public on the street, but also get everyone there to tune into your station! I don't know who all collaborated on the idea, but everyone involved gets one giant pat on the back from me (and by now everyone at Citadel of Lansing knows I don't give those out very often)!
In terms of imaging, I have a praise and a complaint about the same thing. First, the praise: I love the pop-tags. At first I had my doubts… I thought, "this is something the jocks should be doing. There's no reason they can't front-sell and back-sell properly." While I still think more stations should be front-selling and back-selling tracks to satisfy the listeners' urge to know "who does that?" and "what's that called?", the pop-tags are a sufficient answer to that problem. It took a while for me to get used to it, but it's grown on me.
Now the complaint: I love the pop-tags. Not only that, they're friggin' stuck in my head! J It's gotten to a point that when I hear a song in my mind, at the end of it, I hear a pop-tag! And we're not just talking about songs the station plays, either. This happens with every song in my "mental music library". I'll hear the fading sounds of "Get down, get down, get down, get down, get down tonight, babe…", and all of a sudden… pop! Whoosh! "K.C. and the Sunshine Band: Get Down Tonight." Am I crazy? Probably. But I find it strangely enjoyable J
As far as jocks go, things have improved drastically. Dave and Lisa D. in the morning have turned what was a music-intensive show into a morning show with a typical format… and yet entirely atypical in content. How Dave manages to hold back his ridicule throughout the good majority of the interviews he conducts is beyond me, and I can imagine he probably has to turn off the feed from his microphone into the hybrid fairly often to keep the guest from hearing him snicker! His song parodies (and the custom "remixes", such as his entire reproduction of James Blunt's "Beautiful") are mostly a great addition to the morning, and those that aren't part of that "most" are… well, hard to listen to, quite frankly, but that's what makes them fun (and I think he probably realizes that).
One thing I would point out to the morning crew if you're reading this (and yes, for those of you who want to be smart about it, people in the building do read this blog on a regular basis) is that he best advice I can give you for further improvement would be to work Lisa and Sam into the content of the show a bit more. Probably the best point of reference I can give as an example of what I'm talking about is Murphy in the Morning on WKZL in Greensboro, North Carolina. Jack Murphy is the show's lead man, but he finds ways to work co-host Josie and intern Josh into just about everything… bits, parodies, interviews and beyond. Take a listen to some of the clips on Murphy's web site to hear what I'm talking about. I'm not saying you should do more material like what Murphy does… do your own stuff. I just think that if you worked everyone into the meat and potatoes of the show a bit more, it would help both the sound and the image of the show.
"The" Anne has really grown into her show as well. She's not as high-pitched as often as she used to be, and she's done a lot of work on her presentation to the point that she's not blowing through breaks like she used to. As far as content goes, I think she's on the right track for the daypart she's in. She's firing on all cylinders when it comes to targeting the at-work audience.
Domingo still needs a bit of work. He's gotten a bit better about how often he does longer breaks, but when those breaks come around, he still drags them out longer than they should be. As I said last time, that's not the tempo at which you want to play in PM drive. People are getting off work, and as opposed to older audiences, CHR listeners want to party when they leave the office. Content is also still an issue, and I think the lack of it is probably what causes him to draw those breaks out as long as he does. Listener involvement doesn't seem to be a large part of his show, and that's probably the biggest problem. He's live and local, and he has a potential audience of over a million people. There's no reason he can't take more calls and get the listeners more involved. But in order to do that, he also needs to speed things up, because when he does take calls, he seems to drag those out as well. I hate to single one person out like this, but it seems like Domingo is the one person who has made the least amount of progress since he first went on the air.
Madison Rally, on the other hand, is starting to sound nicely polished. She's slowed her speech down a bit, and it's nice to actually be able to understand what she's saying! I can laugh about that because I used to have the same problem. ("Oh my God!" my critics are gasping, "He actually admitted one of his faults?!" Yes, I do that from time to time. Keeps me humble.) She's also worked more listeners into the show, which is great. It still bothers me, though, that "Madison's Mangled Music" is so easy to figure out, but that's a minor complaint. One thing that is also a minor complaint, but I think is a bit more of an issue than the ease with which one can win a game, is that the 9:00 countdown needs to have a more creative name. There are too many "Hot 5@9" and "Top 5@9" countdowns out there. One that I've personally always wanted to use was "The Download". It's creative and current, and unlike many of the other attempts I've heard stations try to get away from the "5@9 syndrome" (as I like to call it), it's not cheesy at all. Also with the countdown, I'd suggest asking guest DJ's to call in about an hour or so in advance so song #3 isn't the first track with a guest DJ in front of it. I've noticed Madison generally waits until 15 minutes before the countdown goes on the air to start asking people to call in, and there have been a few times when songs 4 and 5 don't have anyone other than her to introduce them. An earlier call to action would probably solve that problem.
The addition of Sean Kelley to the weekends is great… and he has proven that at least someone other than myself in Mid-Michigan knows that weekenders can have personality on the air. One of the things that I first noticed about him is that he didn't take long at all to get acclimated to the station. He sounded great pretty much right out of the gate. There's always room for improvement, and Kelley is no exception, but most of the things that I would point out about him are very minor technical details that go completely unnoticed by 99.999% of listeners. I'll say this: he's not going to be doing weekends forever. He's got a good future in store.
To sum things up, WJIM is growing into their proper role in Lansing radio very well. Did I wish at some point in time that they'd been this good before the launch? Yes. Am I over that? Absolutely. Am I thankful for a CHR that actually plays CHR music? You'd better believe it! - 98.1 WDFM Defiance, OH ["Mix 98-1" Hot AC]
I don't believe I had this station in the last Round-Up. For some reason I skipped over it… I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because I don't listen to the station too terribly often. I'm a bit more passionate about mainstream and rhythmic CHRs than anything else, and if it took me telling you so for you to figure that out at this point, you need a check-up from the neck-up.
For a Hot AC, though, as MWMetalHead pointed out on the Buzzboard, "WDFM is a neat station." They sound younger than most Hot ACs, and that's probably due to the fact that Defiance is a college town. The station also targets Fort Wayne, which probably has just as much to do with it, if not more, as The Fort has no mainstream CHRs itself.
Like I said, I don't listen to the station very often, but I do try to make it a point to tune in for "Club Mix", the station's massive Friday night mixshow, which features a ton of dance music. And we're not just talking about dance remixes of hot top 40 songs, either. The mixes feature a lot of current dance tracks. For example, I've heard Stunt's "Raindrops" (which is a fantastic song, by the way… reminds me a lot of "Insomnia" by Faithless), Cascada's "Miracle" and "Get Together" by Madonna. As no DJ is named (and there are no personalities at the station after 7:00), I'm guessing the mixes come from a service such as ZeoRadio or one of the other various sources available. What's really cool is that the mixshows aren't the only times you'll hear dance on the station. Dance currents, recurrents and golds get regular airplay throughout the day.
Two things I do have complaints about, though. One: the way the music is cut off to air a liner at the end of a mix segment sounds really unprofessional. It sounds jagged and incomplete. Two: the processing needs work, specifically distortion on the low end. I like the way it's equalized, but it sounds like they're running their AGC module behind the multiband processor as opposed to in front of it. Because of the fact that they're running the low end louder than anything else, this results in distortion any time a bass drum or low bass line kicks in after the absence of low-end sound. It could also be that they are running the AGC in front of the processor, they just have the processor's lower band running too high. Whatever the case, it should be fixed. It sounds sloppy. - 98.5 WNWN Coldwater ["Win 98-5" Country]
The only real change here is that it seems Amy has left the morning show, so they're looking for a new morning co-host. Some of us on the Buzzboard and some of my friends and I offline were wondering just how many morning show changes that makes for the station in the past few years. - 99.1 WFMK Lansing [AC]
Not much to say here, either. The station still has a more upbeat presentation than most other ACs in the area, they still have good personalities, and they maintain a good slice of the ratings pie in the market to reflect their great product. - 99.7 WMUL Jackson ["99.7 The Mullet" Classic Rock]
Made you look. - 100.3 WLKI Angola, IN ["FM 100" Full Service/AC]
This is another station I don't think I covered in the last Round-Up. This time around, I know why… it's because they're highly local to Angola and Steuben County, and I wanted to stick with stations that either focused specifically on Mid-Michigan or were available in the area from other markets in-state.
WLKI is sort of like WCSR… only WLKI sounds like a radio station. Yes, I know, that's a huge slap in the face to WCSR, but let's be honest: they're not winning any MAB's.
Let's start over without the snarkiness. J WLKI is, like WCSR, a full service station with adult contemporary music. They both offer local news and sports in a way that other stations seem to be unwilling to match, and they both have jocks that have their own style and personality on the air (something that radio seems to be killing off). Where 'LKI and 'CSR separate is on just about every other angle. Whereas WCSR repeatedly uses a jingle that was a free demo sent to them several years ago, WLKI has a full jingle package. WCSR uses a hodgepodge of TM Century production music from 1994, another music library from a company I'd otherwise never heard of (and can't currently recall the name of) that dates back to 1987 if memory serves, and Jones Radio Networks production elements that are sent to them on a regular basis. I don't know what WLKI uses, but it sounds a lot more consistent… not exactly modern, but more professional. And when it comes to presentation… let's just say there aren't any college students on WLKI.
The one and only thing I take issue with at the station is the processing, which is completely and totally flat. I'm not saying the audio is completely unchanged… it's changed quite a bit. The problem is that the processor is set to take every ounce of excitement out of the sound. There's no bass. At all. None whatsoever. I can turn my equalizer's low end all the way up and still not get anywhere near the level of bass there should be. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the highs are dull. The treble doesn't have that "sparkle" factor to it. It doesn't even have a "shiny" factor. It's just… "eh." The midrange is about the only thing that's left, and even that set of frequencies doesn't go untouched. There doesn't seem to be any low-end midrange, and what's left is so dulled down that it has practically no dynamic range. I don't know what kind of sound they're trying to achieve, but what they're airing leaves a lot to be desired. - 100.7 WITL Lansing ["Whittle 100.7" Country]
As with other stations, not much has changed at WITL. One good thing to note is that they've started advertising on TV, which is one of the things I recommended they do in order to retain their dominance in the market. I don't think WBCT or WWWW are pulling at the ratings too terribly much, but this is one good way to help make sure that they don't. - 101.7 WHZZ Lansing ["Mike FM" Variety Hits]
Mike still isn't the best variety hits station in the world, but they're improving. The return of Tim Barron to the Mid-Michigan airwaves was probably one of the wisest things MacDonald could have done with the station. Putting him in mornings at Mike, to much fanfare, was a great move and, I'm sure, brought a lot of listeners onboard.
- 102.5 WBZV Hudson ["Buzz 102.5" Classic Rock]
You know, I have to share this story. I just find it too funny to keep to myself. I was in a job interview at a local radio station (which shall remain nameless), and the person conducting the interview (who shall also remain nameless) asked me what I knew about his career. I told him I knew he was a local guy, and that I remembered hearing him on WBZV in years past. He gave me an odd look, and asked, "WBZV?" I replied, "Back when it was WMXE." "Oh, Mix," he said, not realizing the call letters had changed. The best part was what he said next: "I hear they're not much worth listening to these days."
I think I summed things up about good ol' 'BZV pretty well the last time around. The station is worthless. It serves no purpose in the community. What purpose it does serve is to make money for Friends Communications. It's strictly a transmitter on which to sell advertising in a city other than Adrian. Unfortunately, it apparently serves that purpose well.
If I could just get my hands on this station… can you say "FM Talk 102.5"? - 102.9 WWWW Ann Arbor ["W-4 Country" Country]
Still the best country station I've ever heard. - 103.3 WKFR Battle Creek ["103.3 KFR" CHR/Mainstream]
Several months after the firing of Keith Curry, the station has pretty much gone right back down the toilet again. Some updates in the sound did remain, but for the most part, it's once again a Hot AC in CHR clothing.
Some things have been changed for the better, though. For one, the night show is a true CHR night show, and it's the one time of the day that the station sounds the way it should. Ray and the rest of the "Pig Pen" as they're now called have done some great work on the show, and it sounds great. They now fill up the time that I used to spend listening to Phil Hendrie, and although nothing (as I've said before) will ever replace The Phil Hendrie Show (my God, it's like there's a void in my soul now that he's off the air!), the Pig Pen is an entertaining CHR night show, and I look forward to tuning in every night.
Another positive change was a very, very simple one, and that was using the legal ID ramp to (*gasp!*) actually allow the jocks to ramp up to the hour's first song! I never understood why they didn't use it for that purpose in the first place. The pre-produced ramps they had been using sounded stale… why use the same ones over and over again when the jocks can spontaneously do it themselves and liven things up every time? Apparently someone over there at Cumulus of Kalamazoo realized the same thing.
And finally, the one thing that I've probably harped on more than anything else has finally been fixed. Computer, please set the text size and weight to express great elation.
THE STEREO-SEPARATED ECHO IS FINALLY GONE FOR GOOD!!!
I cannot possibly explain to you in words how happy that makes me! Okay, so yeah, I was overzealous about it, but it used to drive me nuts! KFR was the only station I'd ever heard with that problem, and it was so annoying to listen to (though I tried to because I enjoy the music).
The things they still need to work on? Well, aside from the things I pointed out as being fixed here, pretty much everything else I mentioned in the last Round-Up still hasn't been dealt with. Once again, the music needs to change… but that's going to take Cumulus realizing that the way they do things (mandating playlists from corporate headquarters in Atlanta) doesn't work, and the likelihood of that happening is slim to none.
I've noticed that the processing has changed again, this time some for the better, some for the worse. They added more high end, which is good. It sounded kind of flat for a while there. However, in doing so, they also took a lot of low end out, and that was stupid. The lower frequencies have never been a strong point in KFR's processing, and lowering them even further just makes things worse. What should be noted is that they haven't touched the midrange at all, and they're still pumping a ton of lower midrange into the sound, which makes it sound muddy. I know they're trying to make it sound loud, but that's not the way to go about it. They could pull massive amounts of midrange out of the signal and use about half of the bandwidth that frees up to add more bass. That would just about even all the bands out with the perfect sound, and it would leave plenty of room to amplify the volume before the audio goes out to the transmitter, which would give them the loud sound they want. But again, this is one of the things Cumulus corporate controls. There's a better chance of me winning the lottery within the month than there is of Cumulus taking my advice. - 103.9 WLEN Adrian [Full Service/AC]
This is how Full Service should be done. I can't think of a single bad thing to say about this station. There just aren't any bad things to say about it. WCSR can learn a lesson or five million on presentation from WLEN, and WLKI could learn a thing or two about audio processing from… well, just about anyone actually, but WLEN wouldn't be a bad choice. J
By the way, I knew that my college buddy and former coworker Tanya Lightner worked at WLEN, but I didn't realize until I looked through the station's web site a couple weeks ago that she was the production director! Pretty cool! - 104.9 WWKN Marshall ["SuperRock 104-9" Classic Rock]
There's still not much to say about this station. Like I said last time, every once in a while I'll listen to Alice Cooper, but other than that, I don't spend much time tuned in. The imaging still sounds like it could use a lot more high end, I'll say that much. - 105.3 WKHM-FM Brooklyn ["K-105.3" Hot AC]
I'm officially dubbing the station a Hot AC now. They've been working their way in that direction for a while now, and it's improving the station quite a bit. I think the reason for the change is that they're feeling some pull in listenership from two places: the younger listeners from WJIM, and the older listeners from WSAE. Serving the middle ground between the two seems to me like the most logical step, and apparently Jamie McKibbin, Bruce Goldsen and the crew see things the same way.
Aside from the progress in choosing a format (which, I believe I opened the review in the last Round-Up telling them to do exactly that), there's still a lot of work to be done. The imaging still needs a massive overhaul (WSAE is handing their rears to them in that department). The jocks still need a lot of improvement… though I will say this: J-Rod has started turning his show around and making some good progress.
One thing I don't believe I mentioned last time was the K-105.3 web site. That thing needs to be completely redesigned. I've even offered to Jamie my services to create a new one, to which I believe his response was, "yeah, it sucks right now, doesn't it?" I told him I've seen worse… which I have, believe me. But it does need a major makeover. In fact, you know what would be a cool idea? Doing what WHYI in Miami has done with their web site: they registered the domain name 7miami.com, and they created a subdomain on it called y100, which blindly redirects (meaning the address in the address bar stays the same) to the site's front page. That way, you type in www.y100.7miami.com, and voila! I think www.k105.3.com would be pretty cool… although I bet 3.com is quite spoken for. - 106.1 WJXQ Jackson ["Q106" Active Rock]
Nothing has changed here. Still the best damn rock station on the planet. - 106.9 WSAE Spring Arbor ["Home.fm" Variety Hits with a Christian twist]
I'm not sure anyone has really figured out what to otherwise call this format.
Despite the odd name, the odd format, the fact that the station alienated it's massive listener base for no good reason and the fact that they came up embarrassingly short in their first Share-A-Thon since the format flip… (*deep breath*) …they're making progress. They did manage to raise at least some money during the fundraiser… just over $18,000. Nevermind that the goal was $50,000. But at least they're starting to develop a new audience.
As I pointed out in the WKHM review, WSAE is doing some good imaging work. I actually downplayed it there. Here, I'll call it what it is: outstandingly stellar. Let me put it this way: this is the best imaging I've heard on any Mid-Michigan station in the entire 11 years that I've been listening. As I pointed out in the WJKN review, my close, personal friend (why do I feel like a politician when I say that?) Steven Hudson is the production director at SAU's radio stations, and he's done and continues to do an absolutely amazing job. He won't say much about it because he doesn't like to brag – too much – but he's won several awards for his work, and he's beginning to be noticed all over the region for his skills.
It sounds like the station is returning to students as their primary staff, which I will say this about:
You realized taking the students off the air was a stupid mistake, didn't you?
I'm glad. The students are the reason WSAE even exists. Pushing them back to WJKN-FM alone was one of the worst decisions they could have made, and I was adamant about pointing that out. I'm glad they got the message.
The music still seems to clash though. I still don't like the idea of a Christian school putting out a combined product of Christian and secular music. The whole mixed message thing turns me off, and I think ultimately it turns most people off. It's like saying, "yes, we absolutely condemn smoking marijuana. By the way, don't mind that burning blunt sitting in the ashtray." - 107.7 WRKR Portage ["107-7 RKR: The Rocker" Rock]
RKR is progressively moving more and more toward being a classic rock station. Again, the more of those we have around here, the better. Excuse me while I twitch violently. I'm OD'ing on Skynard.
In the words of Austin Powers, "…And I'm spent."
EDITS: First of all, thanks to Dan Kelley for pointing these out. As I told him, my hands tend to get ahead of my mind when I type, and even when I go back and re-read things, occasionally I'll miss something. Or two. Or thirty-seven.
First of all, I originally posted that WJZL was going to become a 10,000-watt station when they move to 92.9. They are actually going to be a 4.6kW station, which is still an upgrade of 3,100 watts, and will greatly improve their coverage in the area. As I told Dan, I have no clue where that 10kW figure came from.
Secondly I said that WHZZ was owned by Mid-Michigan Radio Group. They're actually owned by MacDonald Broadcasting, which slightly changes my idea for the MMRG stations, and I've updated the original post accordingly.
