In late 2009, Elyria-based WNVW 107.3 FM abandoned its rapidly fading “Wave” format — “smooth” jazz & soft R&B — in favor of something a little more contemporary and upbeat. It became V 107.3, which featured a “Triple A” format— a mix of contemporary and classic rock, with artists like Steely Dan and John Fogerty getting airtime alongside newer acts like the Black Keys, Snow Patrol, and Clevelander Kate Voegele.
But after two years in which the uneven, mismanaged and under-resourced V107.3 failed to catch fire, the station will return to the world of smooth contemporary sounds. Dave Koz, Yanni, and Lionel Richie fans can rejoice when they wake up from their naps. For most Northeast Ohioans, the station might as well be going off the air, as “smooth” anything has bled followers across the country. Only about two dozen stations nationally still feature this soporific format.
The change is occurring following the sale of the station, now owned Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting Company, part of the media company that also owns the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram. It announced in October that it would be selling the station to Rubber City Radio Group Inc., another small independent media company out of Akron (They own classic rocker WONE, country station WQMX, and news/sports AM WAKR).
At first, that sounded like good news. Rock fans were hopeful the company might beef up the station’s resources and upgrade its management. Instead it’s pulling the plug. All of V 107.3’s personnel will be out of work effective December 16; they have been ordered not to discuss their severance or the station’s format change. Rubber City Radio group hasn’t made any official announcement. But when a commenter asked about the format change earlier this week on the station’s Facebook page, the page was taken down. — Anastasia Pantsios
This article appears in Dec 7-13, 2011.
Good thing I’ve got my radio tuned to WRUW, and especially after this news, DEFINITELY not moving my dial now. Just sad and lame.
It’s official…
Terrestrial radio officially dead in Cleveland!!!
Good thing Pandora is free….
You suck Cleveland radio crapslingers….
Subscribe to Sirius. You can find any genre of music you want, and even have it alert you when your favorite artists are on somewhere across the dial. Terrestrial radio has been shit since the late 90s.
Well this is certainly bad news. have been listening to them since they came on and really enjoy the music they play and the personnel. Sad Day for Radio..
Methinks that this is “smooth AC” which is largely devoid of most instrumental tracks. That’s what several smooth jazz stations migrated to in the first place. Smooth AC actually has done decently in Miami and San Diego.
Couple that with WNWV’s poor ratings performances over their entire lifespan as “V” and it’s not hard to see why Rubber City is doing this.
Damn. I just cancelled Sirius-XM because I had something I wanted to listen to more.
I am going to miss Rocco and Ravenna.
Actually, I look forward to the change. I liked The Wave very much and think they’re making a great decision. Though I will have to point out, they must diversify the playlist, play less watered-down vocals and snooze music. Make sure to include artists such as: Boney James, Acoustic Alchemy, Jesse Cook, Brian Culbertson, Euge Groove, Norman Brown, Paul Hardcastle, Ronny Jordan, etc…
The biased moron who wrote this article evidently knows nothing about good smooth jazz (Yanni and Lionel Ritchie are NOT smooth jazz). Again, the new station should stay away from the cookie-cutter AC garbage and go for a truly unique sound.
Yeah!!!! I am glad the smooth Jazz free station is coming back. I’m paying for Sirius and I’m not really impress. I enjoy the smooth jazz style even though its seems to be dying out on free radio.
W.T.F.?
It was nice to have the option of REGULAR FUCKING RADIO. Do they think we want to hear talk or some goody two shoes dj play zeppelin til blood comes out of our ears?
Kenny G jazz? Really? Is this punishment for another losing browns season?
Obviously they know we buy auxiliary jacks to plug our smart phones into our cars.
Nice to see Rubber City Radio putting people out of work less than two weeks before Christmas. They are no better than the assholes at Clear Channel.
I was in the music industry for years.
I am a Cleveland based boy and and
proud of it. Was happy to hear a new
and kick ass playlist. I had pride again
in radio here. Was telling colleagues
all over US and more that there is some
hope. Now that is done, over. Rubber
City Radio shut down a station that was
at least playing and breaking Grammy
Artists before all the other stations
jumped on the band wagon. Not all
of Akron music industry sucks,
Black Keys…who by the way were in
rotation at V107 before anyone(but
college stations)…back to the lower
left of the dial from the far right.
That does it. Getting Sirius. Before CORPORATE radio came along, Cleveland radio was some of the greatest in the country (Long live WMMS and its predecessors all the way back to Alan Freed and his many cohorts who MADE Rock & Roll by giving it its first airplay right here in Cleveland). Now it’s just sad, sad, sad losers just like our sports teams. One of many reasons why Cleveland was named the most miserable city in the US by some publication recently. Cleveland radio — both AM and FM — suck pond water BIG TIME.
Anastasia Pantsios is NOT — as one commentor here called her, “some moron.” She is a nationally and internationally recognized music critic with a resume that kicks *ss. Just cuz “willj88” thinks smooth jazz is wonderful, doesn’t mean that 99% of critics label it for what it is: crap. You’re part of the 1% on this one, willj88. You’ll NEVER see a “smooth jazz” artists leading the race at the Grammies, that’s fo’ sho’. You’re the “biased moron,” willj88.”
I’d like to make a point of making sure people see what’s going on in commercial radio. It’s a shame that V107’s Triple A format couldn’t keep afloat, but on the other hand, there are other stations in Cleveland, and one’s who do Triple A format well, like WJCU. If you are a loyal listener, then you know what I mean. But the facts are that at WJCU, there are NO commercials, MORE live voices, specific to CLEVELAND, and has a Triple A format that runs from 6AM-6PM Monday thru Friday with a killer variation of old, new, local, national…everything! And WJCU has been here…for over FORTY YEARS. So, I guess my point is, just because it’s a noncommercial station, doesn’t mean you can’t find what you like on it. Don’t forget about the noncomms because obviously our commercial stations like V107 and 92.3 can’t give us the quality and consistency that we look for in a radio station.
BOTH formats should have a home in a market the size of Cleveland. Since I’m out of town I haven’t heard V107.3, however, anything John Gorman put on-the-air must be world class. As for Smooth Jazz, the format’s nationwide obituary may have been a knee-jerk domino reaction. Last time I saw numbers, Arbitron, PPM – even non-commercial 91.5 had a decent audience with an Adult Standards format. Smooth Jazz would probably do better. Especially a Smooth Jazz format that wasn’t watered down with every crossover containing a sax. Try KSBR online in Cali.
that leaves college stations for this 52 yr old. 107.3 was a breath of fresh air. now it stinks! buzzard, schmuzzard. and 98.5, Michael Stanley. really. really? please.
How about that radio station that does all the debates? About all these wild ideas floating around..They say they are going to debate anything, by anyone and anywhere. They will be another game show too, I guess. On the internet and sometimes live. It is debate but not the unruly and uncivilized debates which are often reduced to name calling and stuff like that which we call debate today.
When you see that you can run a much more entertaining and educational debate sport than the crap you get from politics today, these girls went for it. They have their rules and they are that all debate folks are to refrain from anger and attack thoughts. Ego directed thoughts are unauthorized in the type of debates these ladys have.
I kind of like what Wild Bob Hagen has to say about stuff in Columbus, but the far right is even gettin a hold of guys like that. I mean the republican party smelled blood after the congress take-over and has not stopped playing the dominance shuffel. Being an anthropologist the behavior which the two party system is doing great harm to a great nation is called dominance struggle made up of ninety percent ego. In the dominance struggle both male primate (groups) seek dominance by mounting the other in a gesture of power and control. Primates and other animals never actually …invade..male on male struggles, although they sure put on a hell of a show. As we climb the primate ladder of dominance it is the humans which are far more artistic with their dominance struggles, and more descreet with their mounting escapades, however in the ego’s need to exhibit the dominace in other ways the males generally demand other things less personal…like say telling the dominatd male that he would be out of grace unless he agreed with every idiotic thing the dominant male can think of. We used to say to guys like that smart assed remarks because if you had IP and creativity and sales and installations and everything but big bucks, they needed you. With customer information salesmen used to have a little bit of power with the rulers of giant money and egos, but now you can’t say shit to the big buck mafia of new…this new lawyer and MBA and bean-counting breed which we educated. We manufactured hundreds of thousands of lawyers and MBA’s and business and accounting people…so these type cohootsed and always did, but now they got the lawyers and MBA’s in leadership roles and the are not doing a very good job. They are conserrvative. fearful little greed freaks worried that if they juiced someone with creativity and out of the box thinking, they might put people to work in a decent way.
Giant corporations have established a permanent dominant mounting position over all down the ladder from the top—the billion dollar and above cartels. Control freaks to the max and think of little else than money…pretty much the same way the mafia would have scientists and other egg-heads available for exploitation, so do they have the same power in the big money clubs of today. The good thing for wise–asses like me is that the big money does not use muscel today like it used to. Today, if anyone is going to fuck you up good it is going to be the fbi and cia or maybe even the fucking tea party will get into the concrete-shoe business..who the fuck knows in today’s crazy-assed world.
So all of us working folks are nothing but another cow to milk for a decade or two and rotate them out for new and more recently educated money minded folks created by the cookie-cutter law and business schools by often right wing kissin moneys ass closed-minded bottom line conservatives..ball-less pawns of the billion dollar clubs.
Do we want a country locked in litigation with men who do not communicate with each other…don’t work with each other..just play their power hand with the leverage and power and money calling the shots. Voting for the money behind their vote and we the people sucking hind tit. You keep making more lawyers and business degrees and bean counting types, you will not have anyone thinking about anything other than money..
I’ll tell you what happened to the baby-booms. They got split in two by civil rights and viet nam; sudent and soldier. Nixon started playing hard ball like Hoover had. You could not trust the president; the enlisted man did not like the officers; the south still did not think civil rights was really part of being an american. The real american surfaced from the right, judging everyone in rapid fire, happy that the Kennedys got their due and MLK too. Spitten the same poison as we hear today accross the land of the free.
So here I am on a Saturday night eating soup and crackers at the computer. The cable was cut-off a couple of months ago so we are just watching with rabbit ears wrapped in tin foil. Sometimes…most of the time the TV starts to break apart in seemingly random pixcel and multi-pixceled squares of frozen people and stopped lips..fragmented might be the word. The illusion will just not hold, like the center sometimes doesn’t.
In the fifties it was static black and white on an old picture tube which became more fuzzy every month…for years. You had a guy they called a TV repair man, and he would come to your house and replace tubes and shake his mellon with the bad news of the bill. The old man would check his beer inventory before paying the full eight or ten dollars. Bear in mind the picture tube would be senseless to replace because it cost almost as much as a new TV. Only if you had one of those fancy-assed counsel TVs would you even consider replacing a picture tube. I guess in todays world it would be like the mother board and maybe more…It was where the little guys actually appeared and spoke…’It’s Howdy Doody Time, kids’
Commercial radio in Cleveland fucking sucks. Thank God we have some of the best college radio in the US. WMMS? White-trash constipation “post-grunge” rock…no thanks. WNCX…the same old fucking 40 songs by Foreigner and Night Ranger and Journey…yuck..no thanks.
I don’t understand why they are not annoucing the format change? I love V107.3 and don’t want them to go away, but why the secrecy about the change?
Condom City Radio Group and Nick Anthony should wise up..Don’t prematurely end a good thing…Hmm! Condom and prematurely in the same statement….This corporate takeover of Cleveland radio is what radio was like during the Cold War in the former Soviet Union. You get what you get is what it is called………..You greedy bastards….
Smooth AC hits the air January 4th. Until then, it’s holiday music starting Monday!
I am so bummed out about this change. I have loved this station since it has been on the air. The assortment of music has been great and I really enjoyed the DJ’s. I keep listening to see if they are going to say anything about the change of format and have not heard a thing. Very Strange.
HUZZAH…this is the best Christmas present non-headbanger “first wave” boomers have gotten in years. We’ve been getting kicked to the curb for ages because advertisers have been kissing the butts of Gen X-Y-Z whatever and their penchant for NOISE. They think Boomers are all rich and retired and own everything they need…and no longer buy anything, and that only youngsters spend. Not so.
There’s little to no “real” jazz on the radio in this town anymore, Majic 105.7 sucks, and when WRMR became right-wing talk, the “American Songbook” was reduced to bored high-school students spinning old records on Radio Free Bainbridge (WKHR-FM 91.5)
Smooth jazz isn’t jazz, and it isn’t all that smooth, but at last I will have something other than classical and NPR to listen to in the car. If it’s a dying genre, why does internet radio still play it? Pandora has it, Jazzradio has it, Boomer Radio has it…and now Cleveland has it! Too bad, lovers of garbage and noise! Boomers win…you lose.
I’ve met Anastasia Pantsios, and I’ve been reading her slop for two decades. She may have a stellar track record, and she may know a little about a lot, and a lot about little, including about music, but “most Northeast Ohioans” over fifty are not gonna be agreeing with her on this one. Sorry, kiddo. You blew it.
Chuckles the Clown
I thought last week I heard Ravenna say something about ‘selling’ and ‘disappointed’ but I didn’t catch the whole thing. I came into work this morning and my radio was playing something I wasn’t expecting to hear. I double checked the dial and I was indeed still on 107.3 as it has been for a year. I finally called and was told that the station was sold and went back to Jazz! I am very disappointed since 107.3 was the only station I found that didn’t bore me to death at work and at home. I am very sorry this format of radio has been silenced. I would strongly suggest you try this again. I told everyone I new about this station and how much I loved it. Again I am very sad that I have to go back to ‘button pushing’ to find music that I am not so tired of hearing I turn off the radio. I also really enjoyed the personalities talking about local events and business
wow – my ears don’t know wtf is going on….so once again the corporate bungholes have concluded that the WAVE is the format to lead with? C’mon…..the first decent radio station in CLE in at least a decade, and it’s gone like a ship in the night.
I’ll head back to the college stations or to Sirius.
Merry Christmas Rocko and Ravenna! I’d like to say you’ll land on your feet…but probably not in this poor excuse of a town.
Well, I used to listen to the old WNWV back in the smooth jazz days and enjoyed the station. Then I got really tired of it and quit. I then heard that 107.3 turned into V107.3 and was very pleasantly surprised and loved it immediately. It reminded me of the old 107.9, WENZ which was great till it turned into garbage. I really liked V107.3 and have been very faithfully listening. Now I find that Smooth Jazz is back under the guize of AC which may be very scarry! Radio in Cleveland used to be really, really good. I remember being @ OSU and having MMS via cable. It was great! Santa, All I want for Xmas is a decent radio station in Cleveburg. Please ;-( [Oh, and a job would be nice] Time to check out WJCU, 88.7.
This is really disappointing. I can think of at least five other stations around here that could change to “elevator music” and no one would miss them. Why change a *good* station to something worse? Gosh, can’t wait to hear Stairway to Heaven on an oboe.
What a loss. I had just discovered this station only months ago. I don’t think they advertised themselves well enough. It was a wonderful station: Maybe as good or better than WMMS was back in the 70’s. It’s back to WLKR, I guess. What other alternatives are there west of Cleveland now?
Dear Chuckles and you other boney (james) head misfit boomers. I’m probably older than any of you and don’t know anyone over 50 that misses the Wave nor cares if it returns. V107.3 was as close to 70’s cleve radio as it can get and now that it’s gone….those who missed the jazz will continue to play their CD’s in their Buick or Lexus and those that fret the demise of Ravenna and company will now start playing their CD’s in their Corvettes and Mustangs. Raspberries (not the group!) to ya.
I found V107.3 by accident almost 2 years ago, and have loved it & suggested it to friends ever since. I was introduced to Ray laMontaigne, Brandi Carlisle, Mayer Hawthorne, One Eskimo and was still comforted by Van Morrisson, Todd Rundgren, The Temptations and Steely Dan. Hearing Ravenna in the late mornings at work and Rocco during drive time made me appreciate Cleveland radio again, and in fact bought products from Stanek windows and considered other sponsors because of it.
Thanks to Rocco, Brad, Ravenna and M
ike for opening my ears to new things that WILL stick with me, even if my station didn’t. Thanks to those posting here to point me towards WJCU, I’m heading there now to check it out.
Peace…
Wow, what a disappointment. I enjoyed listening to the wide variety of music on the “V” and loved being exposed to the music of new and lesser-known bands that they routinely played. It was definitely different than any station on Cleveland radio. After adding 107.3 to my presets in the car and at home when the format changed, I’ll be changing them back to something else. To those of you who can actually stay awake while listening to this same-old tired “Smooth Jazz” music, why don’t you just find yourself the nearest elevator–it’s the same thing and it’s commercial-free!
Question for Daryl…where were you in ’62?
So Buick and Lexus equals old and Corvette and Mustang equals young? WTF?
Your car is a key to how old you are? Then what does VW or Toyota or Saturn say?
Daryl, when you call boomers “misfits” and have to play the age card…you are down to stems and seeds.
Chuckles
i feel like i just lost some of my best friends.people you could talk to and request a song.who is going to play that format.this is why these bands don’t stop in this town.rock n roll capitol of the world my ass!!!!!!!!!!!!
i feel like i just lost some of my best friends.i have xm ,but i’m really going to miss the staff and format.this is why these bands don’t stop in this town(been to columbus twice to see decemberists)rock n roll capitol of the world my ass.
I just went on the waves facebook page to make my complaint. They responded that the old format was losing money. I suggest everyone flood the facebook page with your complaints!
Just got home from a week in Mexico and wondered why they were playing such awful music on V107. Now I know. How sad. I do love wruw and wjcu, but wjcu doesn’t come in very well on the west side. Now what?
I just re-set my button. I really liked V107.3 and listened to it exclusively – now I am back to 97.5 (when it comes in) and station surfing. It is very disappointing. I am holding onto the hope it comes back – it was the best radio station in Cleveland, and I have no doubt it had a huge following.
I Love Rocco and Ravenna…This station was the BEST in Cleveland the only genuine full of heart and soul station we had left…everything is so corporate now it was so nice to have a station that was free of “the man”…Unfortunately, the man strikes again in Cleveland. What a huge loss for our city….
I didn’t care for the new format….glad they are returning to smooth jazz…I like it, and don’t give care to those who don’t
Take comfort, Cleveland. Even in the entertainment capital of the world (Los Angeles), radio sucks mightily. We have a bazillion salsa/ranchero stations, an old rock station (KLOS), a once-great-but-now-a-shadow-of-itself station like ‘MMS (KROQ) and a boring moldy oldies station like WMJI (K-EARTH). And then Ryan Seacrest’s station, KISS, which only 12 year olds listen to. And there is probably a slumber-inducing jazz station, too, but I don’t know where it is and don’t care. I count myself lucky to have experienced the glory days of Cleveland radio in the 70s and 80s. WMMS and M105 had the best jocks and the best music–we will never see that again on terrestrial radio. Thank God for the internet.
WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU MAN?!?
I thought they were just playing christmas music because it was christmas, but it’s still playing! I heard songs on V 107.3 that I hadn’t heard in years and loved it! No wonder everyone is migrating to Iheartradio and Pandora.
All good things must DIE .
That V107.3 had even gone through a format change two years ago was news to me because that number was of the list for so long. It was upon seeing sponsorship for The Decemberists last summer that they were even under consideration. So now after 92.3 has gone sport yak and 107.3 has gone back to yawnning its a Sirius Subscrption in my stcking.
I find it extreemly sad that a city which was touted as “the home of rock and roll” does not have ONE….not ONE single decent music station.
We can get Clearchannel rants or Infinity/CBS ( don’t know what its called now) ineptness but really, how about some freaking music not recorded three decades ago?
Is there any way that we can talk Case into going commercial with WRUW and boosting their signal say, another 50,000 watts?
Its a sad state of affairs and makes me wish I were still commuting to Pittburgh. Who are the nimrods in Cleveland who don’t think a playlist like WYEP would work here, or even The LOft on Sirius. What the hell happened to this city’s music supply?
The radio is better in Freaking Toledo or Youngstown.
So glad there are others out there that agree with the dismal state of good radio here in the “Home of Rock n Roll”. Here’s to WBWC The Sting and WJCU. Good luck Cleveland!!!
I have been listening to V 107.3 since they started the new format in December of 2009. Loved it and shared/bragged about it to all of my friends accross the country. The format was awesome and refreshing. When out of town guests would visit and they stumbled upon that station themselves they’d comment on how cool it was and how there wasn’t any stations like it anywhere else in the country. The way the station mixed up the playlist and played some of the different songs that are seldom/never played on other stations made it rise above the rest of the stations that our Rock N Roll capitol had to offer. I travel a lot for my job and didn’t realize they just went back to the Smooooth Jazz format until yesterday. That was a sad day. I want to know what old suit made this decision. If money is the issue, I will lead the charge to take up a collection and fundraisers to bring back V107.3 to the format that we all miss already. I have been in Cleveland my whole life and I’ve always been proud of it’s music scene and progressive radio stations. Not any more. I’ll be listening to the college stations even more now because they don’t have to bow to corporate suits who don’t have a clue on what people want. I’ll bet Rocco and Ravenna would rather slit their wrists than DJ the new format. I’m going to miss them and the rest of the gang. I hope they rise up somewhere else with the same format they had and kick Rubber City Radio Group off radio. RCRG seems to be in the wrong business anyhow. Disappointed Dan in Valley City, OH.
I am still confused on why Rubber City went to a format as putrid as the Wave? V107.3 was a refreshing alternative to the run of the mill voice tracked national crap that all the other FM stations have converted to…formats that molest the intelligence and creative passion that we Clevelander’s have. Again, my heart goes out to Ravenna and Rocco and the voices that kept our interest and our hopes alive in this nuclear winter of FM radio. AM still has some fun things happening. On smaller scales but none the less… fun!
All I want is a radio station in this Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame city that plays a wide variety of new and interesting music. Smooth Jazz?? What a disappointment. COME ON CLEVELAND – Smooth Jazz?! Really?
I can’t believe they changed formats …..i guess it’s back to 98.5, 97.5 for more Bad Co. and ZZ Top…lord knows we don’t hear that enough ….. ugh
Just keep giving people more reasons to hate Cleveland. I drive through Cleveland every week and looked forward to V107.3. I take two weeks off and come back to Jazz. WTF? Clearly a city not worthy of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Jazz. WTF?
Fact for RCR – V107.3 introduced artists that prompted this 56 year old to go and buy the music. Some of my new favorite bands. Hadn’t had that happen in years. They made hits, like back in the old days of radio. The station was a breath of fresh air.
RCR = Buzz kill.
I have listened to the ‘new’ dentist office selection playlist for the last hour on the Wave. It will be the last time my computer or car streams this station’s content.
I don’t listen to the radio, I’ll be honest. CD’s or my iPod keep me busy when I need something to listen to commercial free. I didn’t even know 107.3 changed way back when either. Next you’re going to try and tell me that 107.9 The End is no longer on the airwaves, lol. …..What? They’re off the air too??? CRAZY.
IHEART RADIO IS THE WAY TOO GO!
THE SONG YOU PLAYED THE OTHER DAY DONT KNOW IS NLAST NAME FIRST NAME IS MICHAEL SINGER WITH A LADY SINGER?
The Wave and smooth jazz fucking rules and all of you can suck a cock.