And when they say "long-rumored", AllAccess means "reported on OMW months ago".
The popular trade website reports that the swap between Cumulus and Clear Channel, involving rock WRQK/106.9 Canton locally, has been filed with the FCC. The official FCC filing for the proposed WRQK transfer can be found here.
As previously reported here on OMW (many, many times), Cumulus gets the Clear Channel clusters in Ann Arbor and Battle Creek in Michigan in exchange for sending WRQK to the Clear Channel Akron/Canton World Domination HQ/Southern Command on Freedom Avenue.
And as we've reported many times, the new tower now erected at 22nd and Whipple NW in Canton is meant to hold the antenna for WRQK, along with one for incoming Clear Channel outlet WHOF(FM) North Canton...the 101.7 signal known until yesterday as Dover's WJER-FM.
More later...
Thursday, December 28, 2006
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19 comments:
I wonder if the gang on Martindale road will still deny it to their employees?
I wonder if Clear Channel will still tell everyone at WRQK that their jobs are safe. They have been lying to everyone at Martindale for months.
And so begins the death of Rock 107. It will become a voice tracked garbage pit, like WMMS.
Clear Channel sucks.
The Death of rock 107? Have you listened to the station? Been dead a while now.
Who picks the music? Val? The Jox? its just awful. and those sweepers...oh heavens!
Some of the talent is okay...sounds as if they have no direction.
"They have been lying to everyone at Martindale for months."
Who was lying... Clear Channel or the current owners??
One now wonders if the intellectual property of Rock 107 will migrate to the 101.7 stick and something new will appear at 106.9.
Rock 107 was never a player in the Akron market which is alreay saturated with its own WONE, as well as rimshots from Cleveland and Youngstown.
Perhaps a format launched on 106.9 might have viability in both Akron AND Canton.... and my guess would be some flavor of AC. WHBC-FM is vulnerable with its low-rent all over the road sound.
®ock 107 has more personality than any other rock station in the area. Have you listened to WONE? They are a joke. Is WMMS live for more than about 4 hours a day? Who wants to listen to people out of state pretend they live in the area?
Rock 107 has a great lineup of jocks. Keith Hamilton and Fishhead have stood the test of time and proven over the years that they are perfect for the station. After years of strugging to find a good night jock, they have done so with Joe Kleon. He has done a great job over the last 2-3 years. His passion for local music has not been seen in the area for a long time. Rock 107 is a class act. They play a better variety of music than WMMS or WONE and the jocks actually sound like they are having fun. WONE sounds like they are broadcasting at a funeral home.
TK O'Grady is one of the worst jocks in the history of NE Ohio radio. The rest of the WONE lineup sucks also. Maxwell is a boring moron. WRQK is far better than any other rock station in the area.
Watch Clear Channel destroy what has a been heritage Canton station for around 30 years.
Clear Channel sucks. R.I.P Rock 107.
Which job at Clear Channel di you not get or lose?
"Who picks the music? Val? The Jox? It's just awful. And those sweepers... oh heavens"!
Hmmm, sounds like someone that "think's" they know what they're talking about and may be just a bit on the bitter side!
WRQK has talented individuals on their staff, both off air and off. WRQK has been thru ownership changes before and survived every time. WRQK has remained unique in large part to their lone identity. There is no longer an AM sister station. The staff concentrates solely on one thing, WRQK.
Their entire world is about to be turned upside down. Moving into a building with four existing stations will be a difficult transition. The attention will no longer just be on WRQK. Sellers will more than likely pick up other properties to sell. Clear Channel has bookkeepers, traffic schedulers, copywriters etc in place. Those are the positions that if I were in, I’d be the most concerned with. Since they’ve had a four month head start, for their sake I hope they have been networking and seeking gainful employment elsewhere.
On the air side of things, I’d expect voice tracking on the weekends and overnights, but I’m not so sure about the rest of the day. Bob and Tom are in mornings. Keith Hamilton is midddys, usually a highly rated daypart with rock stations. You need to be live in afternoons, so I’ll bet Fishhead is safe. One could argue that an active station like WRQK would also require a live personality at night.
You can bet CC will cut operating costs, as any buyer would, but don’t be surprised to see it come from the operating side and not the programming side.
The ONLY reason that WRQK has not been a player in the Akron market is because of their stick and transmitter. Before the current construction took place, the site looked like a dump and the tower would have certainly fallen apart.
Sales can't sell when clients can't hear your station, and why bother with boards or remotes for the same reason. WONE can be beaten in Akron very easily. They're format is terrible... Jackson Brown into The Eagles into Elton John, then followed by an active current or Metallica. They need to stay on they're side of the road.
There is no viability in changing format on 106.9. Change the format of a heritage rock station that owns Stark County, along with great strength in Holmes, Tusc. and Carroll counties??? Not to mention great listenership in Portage, Summit, Wayne and Medina counties... despite signal issues.
The Cleveland, Akron and Canton markets are already completely saturated with AC's with all kinds of different flavors. Changing the 106.9 format would not only be ignorant, but foolish as well.
Last I checked, WRQK only had one previous ownership change in the past few years - from Susquehanna over to Cumulus... and that was just last years. Last I checked, Susquehanna owned WRQK for many, many years - and as a solo operation in Canton after selling off AM/1520 in 1988.
I'd doubt that the Rock 107 format moves to 101.7. Too much confusion there in that regard. 101.7 is either going to be SAC or country... but if it goes as "Canton's Hall of Fame Rock, 101.7 WHOF," and WRQK becomes "Kiss 107FM," then I'll eat my words.
- Nathan Obral
The last good thing to grace Rock 107's airwaves was Nick Andrews.
Since then...nada. Bad small-market "classic rock everybawdy" run of the mill radio. End of story.
Nathan-
WRQK went thru 3 or 4 ownership changes in the 90's. I might be incorrect on the names, but Jim Embresha, Connisiour, and one other before Cumulus.
Anybody know if i'm right or wrong?
RQK ownership went from Embraccia, to SabreComm, Connoisseur to Cumulus in about a 7 year time frame.
Todd Downerd
former PD/WRQK
Keith Hamilton and Fishhed are perhaps the only two jocks in Canton who know who their audience is, what they want, and what it takes to entertain them, day in and day out..
Both were always worth a listen on a daily basis, and I hope their move is seemless, and they are left alone to do what it is that they do well..
I agree with ''T-K O'Gravy'' that their office staff will likely get trimmed in the first or second quarter of 2007..
What I'm waiting to see is what happens when Clear Channel starts selling rate cards with deals for ''one spot on five stations soon to be in Freedom Avenue's domain..that will force NextMedia and the Petersons to make a decision--either join forces through a sale involving their respective properties--or risk becoming an afterthought for most ad agencies and local buyers..
Face it--one buy with Clear Channel can soon get you about every demo you could want..what's the answer from Market Avenue South and Alliance--a deafening silence-or a realization that its time to fight back to survive..
Good point except Clear Channel does not sell that way.
A client..say a furniture store in Akron will have seperate reps for WKDD and WHLO. They might even be called upon by a rep for WMJI.
Hey Clear Channel! You suck! I'm one of many who are tired of you dicking around with our radio stations. Leave them the fuck alone!
Why do I have a feeling that all these anonymous people who are building up the station "WRQK" and the jocks... either work at the station or are possibly the Jocks themselves....hahahahahah who do you people think your kidding?
Does one really have to work for WRQK in order to post something of a positive nature? WRQK certainly does not merit any derogatory remarks... why all the hostility towards that station? Is it just possible that all the disparaging remarks towards WRQK come from bitter ex-employees or the usual suspects in Alliance? Is it really going to matter to you personally at the end of the day what happens with WRQK and it's employees? There's really no more need for the sour diatribe!
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