Michigan Radio & TV Buzzboard

WJR is on life support basically now, they need to just pull the plug soon before the rest of their geriatric audience dies, Butt rock 106.7 went up a little.

That .5 share that Adell's WFDF has is probably all former WJR listeners.

Last month when I made my Detroit ratings comments I had mentioned that WYCD dropped significantly by a whole per-
cent from April to May. This time they went up by .4 and now WYCD is in third place under WNIC and The Ticket. Although
I didn't want to base the fate of WYCD on one negative month it shows that some stations such as WYCD have their ups
and downs although being ranked in the top five. Audacy had four stations in the top ten with "The Ticket", WYCD, WOMC,
and WWJ. Audacy had more top ten stations this time while I-Heart had three (WNIC, WKQI, and WMXD). Beasley had
two (WCSX and WRIF) which again demonstrates they understand the Detroit area rock audience. Cumulus had only
one with WDVD although they're in a decline for the Detroit market. Nothing else in Detroit demonstrates the decline of
Cumulus in Detroit as WJR. It seems to me that a legacy AM station with lots of power such as WJR should reevaluate
their talk shows, keep the top of the hour news and full service news, and maybe instead of all talk shows they should
consider MOR personalities that play music to fill in the gaps when there isn't news, talk, sports, traffic, and weather. If
they fill in the gaps with music the MOR doesn't have to be as sleepy as their MOR music of the past. In fact I would
allow these MOR personalities to play any hits that they want from the past 100 years as long as they fill in the gaps
between the spoken word elements I just listed. I'd love it if there were MOR personalities similar to J.P. Mc Carthy and
Mark Avery on WJR today with a revival of full service MOR radio.

Greg Buben wrote: ↑Fri Jul 12, 2024 10:45 am In fact I would allow these MOR personalities to play any hits that they want from the past 100 years as long as they fill in the gaps
between the spoken word elements I just listed. I'd love it if there were MOR personalities similar to J.P. Mc Carthy and
Mark Avery on WJR today with a revival of full service MOR radio.

Music on AM. Yeah, that'll work.
Brilliant.

Silvio Dante wrote: ↑Thu Jul 11, 2024 9:59 pm That .5 share that Adell's WFDF has is probably all former WJR listeners.

I'm one of those. Habit and Inertia had me listening to 760 until I discovered 910 last fall. I have to admit I like listening to their lineup even though I'm not fully of that political stripe. I hate to say it but WJR was putting me to sleep (except Mitch) and 910 certainly doesn't do that.

To be fair, I find heavy metal music "incredibly boring." Taste is subjective. One person's bore is another person's thrill. If that makes me a snowflake, call me Suzy. (Only an MOR aficionado would get that reference.)

In all seriousness, MOR in its original form stopped being a viable format about 50-55 years ago though it took a couple of years to become completely extinct (WJR was one of the later full-service MOR stations to modernize). MOR evolved into Pop/Adult and eventually AC. If you want to do an MOR format on terrestrial radio, you're probably going to have to underwrite it yourself (a la KBRD in Washington State) and pray you can get enough listeners to donate.

WDMK also continues its slide into irrelevance. Does this station serve any purpose other than being a thorn in iHeart's side?

It's too bad AM stereo couldn't be figured out. Music in AM stereo wasn't half bad.

What I said was that a full service station could have music fill in gaps between spoken word elements as a possible
alternative to news/ talk if there isn't a worthy talk show. Again, if I were in charge I'd allow the personality the option
of filling in with music but it wouldn't be a musically intense format. It would be filler between the spoken word gaps
and commercials. I probably wouldn't call it MOR like the old WJR because if I were in charge I'd allow the personalities
to select the music to fill and the term MOR has had different interpretations as to what it is. I certainly wouldn't have
a sleepy sound of what is being played and again I'd allow the personalities the freedom to select from anything that
has been recorded since WJR started in the 1920's. I know the national companies of today wouldn't allow such freedom
but I would. I would certainly aim it toward an older demographic but not those who were listening to WJR before and
during the Great Depression and WWII. Most of the music that I would fill in with would be aimed at those who grew
up afterwards listening to AM top 40 stations CKLW, WCAR, and WKNR. You might say my idea of full service MOR is
more like full service oldies but not limited to that era. Again the music would be filler not the focus of the format
One other thing regarding WJR is that without The Detroit Tigers on WJR that really made WJR decline much more
than a rigid interpretation of what MOR was to WJR.

Willie108 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 7:49 am It's too bad AM stereo couldn't be figured out. Music in AM stereo wasn't half bad.

100% correct

Is the 1270 rating Rob Parker's venture or the last month of the betting format?

Greg Buben wrote: ↑Fri Jul 12, 2024 10:45 am It seems to me that a legacy AM station with lots of power such as WJR should reevaluate
their talk shows, keep the top of the hour news and full service news, and maybe instead of all talk shows they should consider MOR personalities that play music to fill in the gaps when there isn't news, talk, sports, traffic, and weather.

Not MOR, but why can't WJR be reborn as a news/talk/Oldies station? Talk show in the morning, Talk-heavy show in the afternoon, news at the top of each hour, and traffic & weather on the 15s. Outside of AM and PM drive they programme an Oldies format heavily focused on 60s and 70s music. The station will skew older, but it does already.

They can sell some time at the weekends, and maybe even run some specialty shows at the weekend - 40s and 50s on a Saturday morning, big band on a Saturday night, Beautiful Music on a Sunday afternoon...

WJR as it exists is dying.

lush.rimbaugh wrote: ↑Sat Jul 13, 2024 2:54 pm

Greg Buben wrote: ↑Fri Jul 12, 2024 10:45 am It seems to me that a legacy AM station with lots of power such as WJR should reevaluate
their talk shows, keep the top of the hour news and full service news, and maybe instead of all talk shows they should consider MOR personalities that play music to fill in the gaps when there isn't news, talk, sports, traffic, and weather.

Not MOR, but why can't WJR be reborn as a news/talk/Oldies station? Talk show in the morning, Talk-heavy show in the afternoon, news at the top of each hour, and traffic & weather on the 15s. Outside of AM and PM drive they programme an Oldies format heavily focused on 60s and 70s music. The station will skew older, but it does already.

They can sell some time at the weekends, and maybe even run some specialty shows at the weekend - 40s and 50s on a Saturday morning, big band on a Saturday night, Beautiful Music on a Sunday afternoon...

WJR as it exists is dying.

40s? I don't think they were even playing 40s music on oldies stations in the 1980s.

And sorry but the demographics for a MOR station in 2024 would be people in their 90s.