RIP 89X

[stopnswop2]

From my understanding, Doug flipped because Cumulus wanted an outlet for Nash, and it was literally their only option.

I'm still a little pissed about losing Doug FM. However, the playlist got extremely stale toward the end; the same burnt-to-a-crisp songs every day, just shuffled in a different order. Not really "playing everything", is it?

I loved Doug. Was my number 1 preset in my car. I didn't really listen much to it at the end of its life though. From like 2010 to 2012 I pretty much only listened to Amp Radio and 106.7 The Beat, and then only switching back to it in mid 2013, and it all was fresh to me. I didn't even realize the format switched when they were doing that country Christmas thing, lol. I was pretty mad in January tho

[48125er]

I wonder if this will make 96.7 AC like Blackburn's 100.5 up in Sault Ste Marie or before they went hot AC around 2008 or so when it was Cheer-FM.

[blizzard]

Country? ....hard pass...
89X = W4 of 2020

[stopnswop2]

And our "Bad Timing" award goes to ENTERCOM!! who flipped the switch to ALT 98.7 during Kim Adams' show..

Apparently they fired her right then and there.
As well as Chad and Kristi.. who literally moved here from like Florida a year and a half ago just for this job.

I'm going to go ahead and assume Sandy Kovach was fired too.
But I think they already fired Ian Richards and Renee Vitale months ago.

So Entercom is becoming ifart now? Firing all local talent and putting in national stations.
It can't be a local playlist. They literally flipped the station on the fly, with no plan.
I mean, at least they have a playlist. When they flipped to the Breeze they were playing like 20 songs on repeat and then started using my playlist I made on this board for them, lmao. I remember waking up one morning and looking through the playlist history and seeing the songs I wrote being played almost in the exact order I wrote them.
And tbh, if they kept that list, the ratings would have been better.

[scifi and horror]

I was hoping they would flip to Synthwave/Electrowave/Vaporwave/LoFi with a little bit of ElectroSwing mixed in.

[KeenerGold]

Northern Macomb County. Radio hillbilly hell.

88.7 CIMX
93.1 WDRQ
95.9 CJWF
99.5 WYCD
107.1 WSAQ
630 CFCO
1070 CHOK

[TomSanders]

Wrong again. More 94 was the rehashed "CKLW" and Oldies/Classic Hits. Eventually, they dropped More 94, and the jocks just called it "CK". Tom Shannon, and Dave Prince were there.
[/quote]

More 94 was CKMR in the early 90s. Mark Eliot had a theme show on Sunday nights called "From The Archives" that was great. Then 93.9 became CKLW-FM and tried to re-create the classic Big 8 sound. They had 20-20 news and Grant Hudson, and Christmas Wishes w the Drake Xmas jingle.

[BKRPDM]

Between More 94 and the recreation of the Big 8 Sound (1992-ish); and certainly before Arrow and the Jeff Zippy Crowe days there was “I-94” in early 1991, which was an early classic soul format.

[TomSanders]

I sampled Virgin Radio, after hearing / reading about the Virgin station in Toronto. It isn't speaking to me. Not much on either band does speak to me anymore. When you reach a certain age, you can't win. If you like new music, you sound out of step with the times, like your grandmother back in the day admitting she liked the Beatles. If you don't, well, you're just OLD and out of step with the times.

Foe country, there is also CHOK in Sarnia but their 103.9 barely reaches Richmond (Macomb Co), And WSAQ 107.1 Port Huron but you must have a Bridge Card to listen

[Deleted User 4520]

The format change to country would have been better if similar to DUKE FM. New country is trash.

[audiophile]

Between More 94 and the recreation of the Big 8 Sound (1992-ish); and certainly before Arrow and the Jeff Zippy Crowe days there was “I-94” in early 1991, which was an early classic soul format.

It 93.9 was country in the early 1980's. I thought it was More 94, but I need to think about the moniker some more. It was CKLW-FM.

[Captain Rock]

The Country format on CKLW-FM was called “FM Nine Four”.

[KeenerGold]

Between More 94 and the recreation of the Big 8 Sound (1992-ish); and certainly before Arrow and the Jeff Zippy Crowe days there was “I-94” in early 1991, which was an early classic soul format.

It 93.9 was country in the early 1980's. I thought it was More 94, but I need to think about the moniker some more. It was CKLW-FM.

CKLW-FM was country in the 1970's until 1981-1982-ish, when the station changed to big band/standards and changed calls to CKJY-FM.

This page documents most of the changes, but leaves out the short-lived I-94

https://www.broadcasting-history.ca/lis ... io/cidr-fm

[RingtailedFox]

I think we can all agree that November 19, 2020 is "The Day the Music Died" in Detroit, with how two semi-successful formats (98.7 The Breeze and 93.9 The River) and a down-but-resurgent heritage format (89X) were all killed very unceremoniously.

In time, I can see this having similar importance to the Detroit/Windsor broadcasting area as the date "December 11, 1994" (when FOX dumped its popular affiliate, WKBD 50, and bought the long-time CBS affiliate, WJBK TV 2).

Could 89X have survived longer if it had a better program director? I honestly doubt it, even with its somewhat-improving ratings from 2018 to 2020, since Alternative Rock itself has been on a decline since the mid-2000s (going into whiney emo rock and fake metal, as others have said here)... at BEST it could have muddled along with a 1 to a 1.5 share in the hopes of the format becoming popular again in a few years. HOWEVER... if it decided to start playing deep cuts and relying more on harder-sounding indie bands.... *maybe*. Any way you cut it, the future didn't look too bright, as sad as that sounds.

93.9 The River was outperforming 89X in Windsor on a fairly regular basis, but it would need to tweak itself to survive for the long term, for similar reasons to 89X's struggles. Adult Album Alternative and Alternative Rock have converged since 2010, and it would take a lot of work to keep the format going without either being out-competed by the likes of 96.3 WDVD or cannibalize ratings of 89X (and for 89X to begin leeching away listeners from 93.9 in return) for much longer (if 89X were to also try to hold out).

98.7 The Breeze absolutely would have survived the long-term (meaning the next five years), since, at least to me, it was somewhat reminiscent of the 90s and early 2000s "Soft Rock Favourites" era of 100.3 WNIC, and I loved it... and judging by this board, I wasn't' the only one. I thought that was a niche that was open and well-served by the format since WNIC began going more upbeat, 96.7 CHYR being a poorly-programmed hot AC and Channel 95.5 doing.. whatever it is they were doing.... but I guess Entercom wanted to go for an even smaller, less-popular niche.

[Mega Hertz]

There was nothing wrong with the Breeze. I'm gonna get torn a new asshole for this statement, but...

I would have blown out 99.5

Why? Well, you'd have the only Soft AC and only Alt station in town. Why compete with country? Every spin of the dial, no matter where you are, there's another country station, and now the new kid on the block with 88.7 (I gagged as I typed 'country' and 88.7), you can't push a button and not get country. Is it smart? A good idea? Probably not. But I'd rather have the only pizza and Chinese joint on the street than just another McDonald's, with another new McDonald's to compete with.

Idk. Whatever. Blast away.