Friday, February 22, 2008

A Rover Update

More news this afternoon out of Camp Rover, soon to be based at Clear Channel's Oak Tree World Domination HQ in suburban Cleveland.

OMW hears that while former WKRK/92.3 "K-Rock" morning chien Shane "Rover" French and his gang won't be heard on "Rover's Morning Glory's" new home, rock WMMS/100.7, until April 1st... Rover and his minions will start doing live shows again on Monday.

Sources tell us that from Monday until the show's Cleveland return, "RMG" will be heard live on the syndicated affiliates that have still carried the program...in Rochester NY and in Memphis TN.

Listeners report that both stations have continued to carry the program, in "best of mode", all week.

We hear from a mole in Independence that the syndicated-only version of the show will be produced at Oak Tree. That would explain the sudden work we reported earlier, with Clear Channel engineers modifying the WMMS studios for Rover and his crew.

Until "RMG" returns via WMMS in April, Cleveland area fans and listeners will be presumably able to hear the show on the stream of Memphis affiliate WMFS "93 X", a former CBS Radio outlet purchased by Entercom in 2006.

Though, given the traffic seen by both Rover's own website and right here at OMW, the WMFS folks may be swamped with online listening traffic starting next week.

Rover's other syndicated affiliate, Rochester's WZNE/94.1, is also a former CBS Radio outlet. And like WMFS, it's currently owned by Entercom...though it's destined to be spun off to some other company.

OMW also hears out of Oak Tree that back in Cleveland, it's been confirmed - current WMMS...er...100.7 morning show "Bob and Tom" will slide down the schedule into middays on April 1st, when Rover Takes Over morning drive...

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hmm... Rover, B&T, Maxwell... heck, you could add Dennis Miller and Phil Hendrie and have a male focused talk station, similar in style to that great CBS radio success known as Free-FM.

If I'm CBS and WKRK (or whatever 92.3 calls are now), I'm going to set up a massive music marathon the weekend before April 1 (92.3 hours of commercial free music), tweaking the format to include some of the better active rock acts and newer classic rock and metal/hair band mainstays. Meanwhile, boost O&A advertising up until April 1st and have them go head to head.

Newer rock fans in Cleveland are going to be disillusioned with much more talk being placed on 100.7, and if the trend continues, it may be hot talk 24/7 on 100.7 FM.

Tony Mazur said...

I agree with Todd above.

I've been hearing talk of one of Clear Channel's Cleveland stations flipping to a hot talk format. I'm not sure if that's true, but it would make sense for them to flip WMVX "Mix 106.5". They station's garbage in the first place, and the term "redundant" comes to mind.

I understand that WMMS is actively trying to reinvent themselves, but for all the wrong reasons. First they drop the Buzzard, and now the call letters. I also understand that the mascot and call letters were a different time, but they should know their roots.

My biggest problem with 'MMS (and much of local radio) is that it's being run by non-Clevelanders. They don't understand what WMMS once was, nor do they really care. I highly suggest you check out "100.7" if you're a fan of non-stop Ozzy and Disturbed.

As Todd mentioned above, K-Rock needs to realize the near future. I've talked with enough people that are so over Rover, and O&A could be the solution. While 'MMS is all-talk until afternoon drive, many people will switch over to K-Rock to get their rock n roll fix ("that means 'Big Hair Wednesday' is no more! No!!!" yuck).

K-Rock has a month leg up on WMMS. Sky's the limit for WKRK.

Scott said...

I haven't listened to local radio in ages (XM), but I never cared for Rover when I did. He's light years better than that Maxwell on WMMS, but still nothing special.