Back in May, Cleveland airwaves were graced with the launch of 99.1, a “new” rock station that sounded a lot like the old rock stations. You want Nickelback? We got your Nickelback.
It plays the usual rotation of radio rock, from the Black Keys to Pearl Jam to Smashing Pumpkins. Yawn. Toss it in with the forgettable and indistinguishable options spread over the rest of the dial.
Longtime radio vet Tom Wilson will be adding yet another rock option to your dial, 87.7 FM, come late July, and, at least in some ways, it promises to be different. How so?
Crain’s Cleveland with the details:
Mr. Wilson says the station will work to sound Cleveland. He has planned a rock and entertainment talk format driven by a team of about a dozen people who will take to the streets of Cleveland and put Clevelanders on the air. (What kind of rock is still up in the air, and yes, he’s open to involving local artists.)
“We just see a need in the market,” Mr. Wilson said. “Radio has become so homogenized and corporate throughout the country that the localism has vanished. What we’re doing is bringing that back.”
The goal is to hire local personalities and immerse them at rib cook-offs, county fairs and the like, Mr. Wilson said. He’s in talks with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame about promotions, too.
“We just can’t play music because anybody can go anywhere to pick up music,” he said. “Our whole thrust will be music and entertaining talk. Pandora (Internet radio) and Sirius (satellite radio) don’t blend those two together, and they’re certainly not local.
“We want to be a station that everybody talks about at Starbucks in the morning because of our programming — because it’s different, it’s entertaining and it’s fun,” he added.
Um, who talks about radio stations at Starbucks?
This article appears in Jun 20-26, 2012.
Yeah…Minimal talk and dig DEEP into music that made Cleveland and the surrounding communities the reason we have the rock hall…No freaken lip service either…
dare them to bring back AOR…DOUBLE DOG DARE~!
I don’t go to Starbucks, but I talk about WCPN programming all day, in many places 🙂
There used to be a great rock station that did this even before WMMS FM hit the airwaves – it was called WNCR FM and it really had a lot of depth!
I excited at the prospect !! Hope it pans out the way he claims
Good luck. You’re going to need it. In general, and from my estimation, people who listen to rock are more technologically savvy, if you will. Essentially, they find other ways to listen to rock music and/or other types of music, rather than use terrestrial radio. The fact of the matter is that the days of radio that we are familiar with are dying. Streaming, podcasts, auxillary ports in cars, etc. are becoming the new normal. This is a valiant attempt at trying to drive interest in FM Radio, but will no doubt fail before it gets off the ground.
Wishing him luck–God knows, anything different in the vast land of radio suckage would be welcome. He is right, nothing is local anymore and that alone should make people happy.
The new Nickleback station not only sucks ass, but doesn’t even come in as good as Akron stations…how is this a CLE station again? For the town that rock built, we’re a complete embarrassment, because we don’t stay cutting edge. What this guy says is great, but will he end up playing “Give Me Three Steps” and talking to people at 4H meetings? Or will this station actually be playing MODERN and cutting edge rock n’ roll?