WRIF, St. Patrick's Day 1992

[Mega Hertz]

https://youtu.be/oDxe3A7rx-c?si=2a9mEonx6Pf6C4Pl

Cool time capsule. Drew & Mike, Kostan, Penhallow, broadcasting live.

A few notes:

1. I did not realize Mike Clark was already on the show by early 1992.

2. Nice Wayne's World hat, Drew

3. The playlist! Jailbreak? Burning Sky? Jesus.

4. I hate white people fashion in 1992.

Video goes on with more stuff from 1992.

[Colonel Flagg]

In 1992, I am sure they were playing Winger, Bang Tango, and Firehouse as well

[Mega Hertz]

I caught Enter Sandman during Art's shift. They must have been pretty safe for day time WRIF in March, 1992.

Such an awkward time for rock radio. Middle aged boomer rock stations.

[Colonel Flagg]

I couldn't tell you the last time I heard Burning Sky. It's always Rock & Roll Fantasy, or Shooting Star.

Thank God the later Bad Company material with Brian Howe singing lead has been permanently shelved. That stuff was really weak. Howe had a little more range than the guy from 3 Doors Down, but that's hardly a passing grade.

[Mega Hertz]

I couldn't tell you the last time I heard Burning Sky. It's always Rock & Roll Fantasy, or Shooting Star.

Thank God the later Bad Company material with Brian Howe singing lead has been permanently shelved. That stuff was really weak. Howe had a little more range than the guy from 3 Doors Down, but that's hardly a passing grade.

I liked "No Smoke Without a Fire", that was a good Howe era song. But as someone that prefers Hagar to Roth, I like to see all eras get some love. Brian Howe also sang lead on an 80s Ted Nugent album (Penetrator? The name of the album escapes me. I believe it's a 1984 release).

And it's not even that they were playing Bad Company. It's that Burning Sky is really a deeper cut. Like I said, that was around the time a lot of these AOR stations were really tinkering with being classic rock. I recall Spin Doctors, Black Crowes and contemporary George Thorogood getting spins, but both them and WLLZ were really on the borderline of classic rock.

[Marcus]

1992 was the time that WCSX and WRIF were owned by two different companies. I read that WRIF almost went away in the late 1980's to become a competitor to FM 98 WJLB. Both WCSX and WLLZ were beating WRIF in the ratings in 1992. If the Drew and Mike Morning Show was not there at the time, they might have switched to Country before 99.5 WYCD did. Look at the ratings from 1992.

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archi ... 2-Fall.pdf

[Mega Hertz]

Great find! I wonder why WLLZ was the highest rated rock station in the market at that time. WRIF was definitely struggling in the early 90s. Once Podell came back in 1994, it was all but game over for other rock stations. Z-Rock was a perpetual 1.8-2.2 share station.

I'm pretty sure I saw the late Carl Coffey in this video, too.

In regards to my earlier post, it appears Mike may have been in studio on the air by early 1992, but the show was still called "Drew and Zip" and they were still playing music in the morning.

[Marcus]

I remember how it went in the 1990's. WLLZ was New Rock by June of 1995, and it lasted six months. 97-1 only played Rock for about two years and then went FM Talk until 2007. The old Z-Rock became The Bear and was Classic Rock by 1997.

By March of 1999 what used to be WKRK no longer played music on weekdays, and the days of anyone trying to compete directly with WRIF on FM were over.

[Colonel Flagg]

I remember how it went in the 1990's. WLLZ was New Rock by June of 1995, and it lasted six months. 97-1 only played Rock for about two years and then went FM Talk until 2007. The old Z-Rock became The Bear and was Classic Rock by 1997.

By March of 1999 what used to be WKRK no longer played music on weekdays, and the days of anyone trying to compete directly with WRIF on FM were over.

WKRK didn't appear on the scene until late spring 1997. Unfortunately, I was there. Too many of the Infinity suits had their hands in that unfortunate debacle. Renaming the station "97-1 Extreme Radio" did very little to help. Joel Hollander should never be allowed anywhere near anything resembling a rock station.

[Mega Hertz]

A few notes:

WLLZ was no longer a rock format at all by 1996. The kids didn't wanna hear all new rock on their dad's radio station. They had 89x.

Planet 96.3, which was a top 40/alternative station, went MOM-dern AC by 1997. It was alternative you could listen to with your mom. Sonny Colvin, Matchbox 20, Natalie Imbruglia, etc.

105.1 the edge signed on in late 1997 and was gone by early 1999.

97.1 was a rock station for about the same period of time.

102.7, initially, was a WRIF clone. They were mixing in new rock, like Sublime and Collective Soul along side Led Zeppelin. By 1998, they were a "classic rock that rocks" format, and by January 1999 were a soft R&B station.

Any rock format in Detroit was a library format after that. Nobody comes up with anything new, In part because we don't need another Seger/Poison/Journey station and what passes for mainstream rock now blows goats. Also why Nobody cares anymore.

[Deleted User 16093]

I skipped around the video a little bit. Yes, early 1990s fashion was icky.

WLLZ in its last years had an identity crisis. In the early 90s, at one point they were playing Phil Collins " Against all odds" and Chicago. Then classic rock and as a last-ditch effort Modern rock as " Todays music, todays wheels". And.... it failed.

97.1 as a rock station. I could write a book on that. Pretty much what Infinity/CBS did was just put Howard Stern on with a generic rock format, with the idea of Stern would just carry the station. I do recall a couple of the DJ's brining up what had been discussed on Stern's show that morning, it sounded canned like " make sure you mention it".

Then... the endless station liners making fun of WRIF. " Riff sucks" and one that talked about blowing WRIF's transmitter up or something, they went way too far with that. A little bit of poking or prodding is ok but after a fashion, I could only think " Ok enough of it already."

The making fun of Arthur P really did them in and got CBS in legal trouble. I quite liked Extreme radio, I thought it was neat idea but clearly it was really just a placeholder format, before they got all the talk shows in place and ready for the change to FM talk.

Z-rock was epic, maybe not as cool as some of the air checks I've heard from the late 80s but good. Just south of Monroe, where I grew up. In my 2nd story bedroom, if I turned my receiver on mono and played with VHF antenna, I had hooked into it. I could get Z-rock ok at times. Trying to recall, as time went on a couple day parts were local but, in the evening, it was feed from Texas.

The Edge, lasted 16 months abouts.

[MWmetalhead]

1992 was the time that WCSX and WRIF were owned by two different companies. I read that WRIF almost went away in the late 1980's to become a competitor to FM 98 WJLB. Both WCSX and WLLZ were beating WRIF in the ratings in 1992. If the Drew and Mike Morning Show was not there at the time, they might have switched to Country before 99.5 WYCD did. Look at the ratings from 1992.

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archi ... 2-Fall.pdf

It was the early 90s - I want to say '91 - that WRIF almost was flipped to Urban.

Regarding WKRK - the corporate morons at CBS eventually ruined WHFS, WBCN, WYSP, WXRK and other stations. Rock station launches in Buffalo, Pittsburgh, San Antonio and Sacramento all went poorly.

[Colonel Flagg]

Regarding WKRK - the corporate morons at CBS eventually ruined WHFS, WBCN, WYSP, WXRK and other stations. Rock station launches in Buffalo, Pittsburgh, San Antonio and Sacramento all went poorly.

That's an accurate assessment.

[Colonel Flagg]

A few notes:

WLLZ was no longer a rock format at all by 1996. The kids didn't wanna hear all new rock on their dad's radio station. They had 89x.

Planet 96.3, which was a top 40/alternative station, went MOM-dern AC by 1997. It was alternative you could listen to with your mom. Sonny Colvin, Matchbox 20, Natalie Imbruglia, etc.

You forgot about PD Garrett Michaels attempt at the 200 song "Alternative Classics" format on 96.3. That didn't last long either.

After that, it was another case of corporate, the GM, and the sales department meddling with whoever was running the show. Greg Ausham was PD for awhile. If you hire a real PD, for godsakes, let him do his job. Another well known PD we had simply walked out of the Fisher Building one day and never returned. Good times.

[Marcus]

WRIF had its three worst ratings in the 1990's

Fall 1991: 2.8
Summer 1992: 2.6
Summer 1993: 2.3

They did quite well from the 1970's up until about 1987. From 1995 onward they also earned high ratings most of the time. Wikipedia claims that WRIF almost gave up on Rock in the late 1980's, which might not be accurate. That's where I got that information from in the earlier post.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WRIF