Wow -- what another horrendous book for the former MMRG stations!

Smooth Jazz sinks to a 2.3 in 12+.
92X sinks to a 1.4 in 12+!

The (insult to the original) Edge continues to wallow in mediocre territory with a 2.9, although that is an improvement from last book's 2.2.

Perhaps the biggest surprise, though, was the performance of Grand Rapids' B93. There must've been more diaries than usual sent to Eaton County this quarter. B93 had its strongest Lansing market performance in years with a 3.6 share in 12+.

That's right -- a Grand Rapids market station scored a higher 12+ AQH share than (count 'em) THREE of MMRG's local stations!!!

As for Citadel, all of their stations held firm with the exception of 1240 WJIM, which saw its numbers drop by two full shares. WITL is #1, WJIM-FM is #2, WFMK is #3, and WMMQ trails very closely behind at #4. Q106 trailed about a share behind at #5.

Note: the MacDonald stations were excluded from the publicly-released results. Historically, Power 96.5 seems to be in the 4.5 to 6 range and Mike-FM is usually in the 3 to 4.5 range. WILS is usually in the 1.0 to 2.0 range.

Probably only a matter of time before one of the MMRG stations recently acquired by MWC flips to Country. Wouldn't even shock me to see them do New Country on 92.9 and Classic Country on 92.1. If they wish to keep the existing formats on 94.1 and 106.1, my suggestion would be to take Q106 into even more of a classic / heritage rock position and morph 94.1 into an Active and Modenr Rock hybrid.

I don't get 92X. To me, it's basically WMMQ lite when it comes to the music. I would like to see more of a WHNN-style approach to the Classic Hits format, with a much broader focus.

Also, I don't understand the restriction of Tim Barron, a proven and well-known talent in this market, to a 6KW Class A signal. Wouldn't it make much more sense to put him on either one of their Class B 50KW FM's, either Q106 or 94.1?

Here's my idea (for what it's worth, which ain't much):

Put The Edge back on 92.1. Their primary market is East Lansing/MSU. They don't need to be on a 50KW stick halfway between Lansing and Jackson. And add some local jocks, at least for prime dayparts.

Put the Classic Hits back on 94.1, but lose the satellite service. Broaden the playlist, differentiate from WMMQ, and put Barron back on a stronger signal. Or, lose Bob & Tom on Q106 and put Barron back on mornings there.

As far as WJZL goes, I'd probably leave that one alone. It may not get the numbers, but it's probably an easy sell.

I think that going up against WITL is a serious mistake. Look at how many attempts there have been over the years:

WILS-FM (1972-74)
WQTK-AM (1981-82)
WCXK/WKLH-FM (1982-85)
WJIM-AM (1985-86)
WILS-FM (1992-95)
WVIC-FM (1995)
WBHR/WXIK-FM (1995-2001)

Unless Midwest wants to create another statistic, I would suggest not tugging on Wittle's cape.

I'm not so sure Smooth Jazz is an easy sell, and Midwest LOVES the Country format.

We likely won't see Country reappear on 94.1, though, since it would hurt Win 98.5 in its primary market of Calhoun County. So, 92.9 would be the logical spot.

WITL is nothing special these days, and if a well-funded competitor were to come along, I think there would be some collateral damage. WITL in 2010 is not the WITL of 1995.

I think a competing Country station that is "programmed to win" could do fairly well on a city-grade signal.

I've long thought removing the Classic Hits format from 94.1 in the first place was a gigantic mistake (given the timing), and a pairing of Tim Barron with Classic Hits on 94.1 would've been a great programming move. Hopefully MWC will figure that one out, unlike their extremely incompetent predecessors.



MMRG was so inexplicably lazy and lame, they decided to go with a canned satellite format instead of an internally programmed format. A station programmed for Lansing would've performed better than the piece of shit they have on there now. Hell -- we already have proof. When 94.1 featured Classic Hits and had a solid talent in morning drive (Mary Turner), the numbers were in the 4's to low 5's.

94.1 lost its way when they changed morning hosts and put Detroit market reject Joe Thomas in afternoon drive. Those shortcomings could've been easily rectified, though.

Does Barron need a strong signal to pull in numbers?

92.9 is the best stick to go country on. Its really the best signal in that whole cluster with Lansing coverage, the other three are just fringe signals and really can't compete against Citadel and MacDonald's WHZZ with building penetration.

If someone wants to make money with 92.1, it could do much better with an investment to return it to a St. John's-based outlet, rather than trying to compete or even carve a niche in Lansing with shit signal.

Q106 might need some adjustments, don't listen enough to judge. Considering the signal, its done well in Lansing over the years. 94.1....this signal has never been successful as a "Lansing" station.

Nice thought, but I think waiting for hell to freeze over would be more realistic.