oct. 2, 1998

Cleveland rock station WMMS calling it quits

Former radio giant to change call letters, format

BY GLENN GAMBOA Beacon Journal music writer

On Nov. 1, the Buzzard will rock no more.

WMMS-FM, once one of the most influential radio stations in America and home to some of the most powerful disc jockeys in the country, will change its call letters, its mascot and its format at the end of the month, after 30 years of rock 'n' roll.

``The station's doing very poorly,'' said Greg Ausham, the station's program director. ``We kept trying to find ways to resurrect it, but we found kind of a dead end. It's very sad.''

Ausham said the choice for the new format and call letters has not been finalized, though an announcement likely will come in three weeks.

The Covington, Ky.-based Jacor Communications took control of WMMS, 100.7-FM, in August. The station's recent ratings were all the proof the new owners needed to realize the station had problems.

In its heyday in the late '70s and '80s, the station was a dominating No. 1 in the Northeast Ohio market. It regularly commanded double-digit ratings that were often double or even triple that of its closest competitor.

But in the most recent Cleveland ratings book, the station finished an anemic 10th out of 27 stations, with less than half the audience of No. 1 WZAK-FM, an urban contemporary station.

Musical tastes have changed, with the radio market becoming increasingly fragmented. And in these days of niche marketing, few stations in the country can pull off the double-digit ratings of powerhouse stations in their glory days.

Without a mass market or interest among demographic groups attractive to advertisers, station revenues suffer. And that is what has happened to WMMS.

``We didn't want to do it,'' Ausham said. ``But we did tons of market research and we found that people who used to listen to WMMS were convinced that we would never fix the station and that most of the ex-listeners don't ever want to listen again.''

That's quite a turnaround for a station that used to be the source of a great deal of civic pride in Northeast Ohio.

Fans from around the world would proudly sport the station's grinning Buzzard logo as a sign of allegiance to their hometown, as well as to the station. The logo was inspired by the regular return of the buzzards to Hinckley.

WMMS was voted the No. 1 station in the nation for nine years in the annual Rolling Stone rock poll. In 1988, however, the station was disgraced when it became clear that its employees had stuffed the ballot box to win the contest, forcing the magazine to remove that category from its poll.

It was help from WMMS and its connections in the music industry that helped bring the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to Cleveland, even after some organizers began to worry about the location.

And the station is credited with helping launch the careers of dozens of rockers, including Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp, as well as record industry bigwigs like Leo ``Kid Leo'' Travagliante, now a vice president with Columbia Records.

``That used to be the station,'' said Steve Hailer, who is president of North Akron Savings Bank, as well as a singer-songwriter and concert promoter. ``The guys around college were always wearing those Buzzard T-shirts. It was cool. The fact that it's over and done with is sad.''

But as sad as many are to see the station go, they admit they haven't listened to the station regularly in years.

``It's still programmed in my car,'' said Keith Price, an avid music fan from North Canton. ``But if I don't like the song, I don't listen to it. You hate to see a landmark fall and I wish they could figure out a way to return to their past glory, but radio isn't what it was when they were king.''

A retrospective, featuring some WMMS highlights from the past three decades, began on the station yesterday and will run throughout October, Ausham said.

``The new owners do recognize there is a heritage with this station,'' he said. ``We want to put the thing out with style.''

Was WMMS the soundtrack of your youth? Do you remember mushroom t-shirts, buzzards and the friday afternoon weekend kickoff? Then head to the guestbook and stagger down musical memory lane one more time.
(and...who was that 'skinny little boy from cleveland, ohio...' -- anyone else remember that?