Filling the WNCX Morning Hole

It's been nearly two months since CBS Radio Cleveland classic rocker WNCX/98.5 has been freed of the Shackles of Diamond Dave...when the station was finally able to take over its own morning drive slot with the end of CBS' failed David Lee Roth experiment.

Since then, the WNCX morning slot has seen a wide variety of local fill-ins and auditioners. Aside from the presence of a veritable truckload of former WMMS, WNCX and M105 personalities in various configurations, the station has also tried "theme weeks" - like a week of all female personalities a while back.

(We'd dub it "Women of Rock", but we're not sure if that moniker would cover former WTAM/1100 afternoon co-host and newly minted WDOK/102.1 weekender Kim Mihalik, who took the last day of that week...)

We don't have a bead on who's a front runner for this position, though we're pretty confident the new show will have at least one or two components with WMMS on their resume. The city's iconic rock station and its past personalities are still "top of mind" among many in the current WNCX audience.

Then, there could be a curveball. Could WNCX scrap the whole thing and go with another syndicated morning drive talk show aimed at rock stations? No, not CBS Radio's Opie and Anthony, who are already airing on sister alt-rocker WXRK/92.3 in afternoon drive. O&A don't move period, primarily because the company is not willing to toss them at WXRK's Shane "Rover" French.

We're talking about a curious possibility we wondered about earlier in this discussion - Premiere's syndicated "Bob and Tom Show".

If WNCX were a Clear Channel station, the Indianapolis-based duo would be almost a no brainer. "Bob and Tom" does very well in rust belt markets...it's pretty much their base. It's certainly compatible with the rest of the station.

And Cleveland is the only market of any size in Ohio where the show is not heard. The pair has had no Akron market affiliate since WONE/97.5 dropped the show long ago, but they can be heard easily in Akron on Cumulus rocker WRQK/106.9 out of Canton.

But A) we don't know if "Bob and Tom" air on any CBS Radio stations and B) the window to try to recover a classic rock audience used to talk in morning drive may have died with David Lee Roth and the 2 month hiatus after his departure.

And there would also appear to still be a need to protect Rover on 92.3 by not airing a talk-heavy comedic morning show up against him. If they're not planning on mounting a local show in morning drive, WNCX is sure going to a lot of trouble to make it look like they're going to do so.

A little voice just whispered into our ear, though, reminding us that we've been seeing rumors of changes on the horizon at Clear Channel's Oak Tree World Domination HQ for the past week or two now, and it would appear the smoke is coming from rocker WMMS/100.7.

Could the "T" we see in the WMMS Tea Leaves stand for "Tom" (as in "Bob and..."), and not "Triv"?

Just a hunch. For those keeping track, this entire item is clearly in our "semi-educated speculation" file, and we wouldn't advise driving to Atlantic City to bet on this one...