He joined the station in early 1972 before its sale to Malrite, and stayed in different capacities until 2004. Boom also spent time on the Buzzard Morning Zoo and filled in during other air shifts. It's most famous for heavily plugging the MC5, The Velvets and The Dolls on one hand and science-art groups like Soft Machine and King Crimson on the other. Cleveland's Rock Station- call: (216) 578-1007 toll free: (800) 348-1007 twitter: @wmms www.wmms.com | text: 35192 |Home of Rover's Morning Glory, See more 100.7 WMMS- We love to post about Cleveland, music, sports- and funny stuff we find out on the internets. WMMS beat out large market radio stations like WNEW in New York, WMMR in Philadelphia and KROQ in Los Angeles. Kid Leo was actively involved in the campaign in bringing the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to Cleveland - which lead to the mayor Geroge Voinovich granting him a key to the city in 1990. We were very fortunate that at the right time, the people I had to report to liked what we were doing and encouraged us to keep on going.". The show is now syndicated to WKGB-FM/Binghamton, WRKK/Williamsport, and WZNE/Rochester; replays continuously on a dedicated iHeartRadio channel; is available on demand through iHeartRadio; and broadcasts over the Livestream video platform. "[33] By April 2008, the station had reverted to branding as The Buzzard but using a road sign-style logo similar to a U.S. Route shield in an allusion to the mascot. David Helton who at the time was working for American Greetings is the man responsible for giving us the iconic symbol we still use to this day. Rolling Stone named WMMS "Radio Station of the Year" nine straight years (197987) as part of its annual Readers' Poll, but a February 1988 front-page story in The Plain Dealer revealed station employees had stuffed the annual survey's ballot box for the 1987 poll to allow for the possibility of a tenth straight win the following year. In studio, WTAM sports director Mike Snyder hosts The Tip-Off Show, The Halftime Report, and The Nightcap Recap the network pregame, halftime, and postgame shows, respectively. [33][34], Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, WMMS had a stable of personalities that remained fundamentally unchanged,[26][27] attained a dominant market share in the local ratings[27][35][36][37] and posted market record-high figures "never duplicated by any other Cleveland radio station since. [147], Described by The Plain Dealer as "testosterone-fueled", the show dominates younger demographics, particularly male listeners ages 1834. Matt remains one of the most popular air personalities from WMMS fifty year history. (Photo by Gus Chain, The Plain Dealer), The affable Spero was born into rock 'n' roll. The stations involved are WMMS (FM), WTAM (AM/FM), WMJI (FM), WGAR (FM), WHLK (FM), WAKS (FM), WKAS (HD2) and WARF (AM). A major contributor to the ratings success was an airstaff that remained fundamentally unchanged for many years: personalities like Kid Leo, Jeff & Flash, Matt the Cat, Dia Stein, Denny Sanders, Murray Saul, Debbie Ullman, Betty "Crash" Korvan, Ruby Cheeks (Debra Luray), BLF Bash (Bill Freeman), TR (Tom Renzy) and the late Len "Boom" Goldberg were invaluable to the station's popularity. [117] BuzzardFest 2000 was held on June 30, 2000, at the Nautica Stage; Stone Temple Pilots, performing in Cleveland for the first time in six years, headlined the event.[118]. He briefly transformed WNWV-FM/107.3 into the adult album alternative station V 107.3. One of the first black DJs in Cleveland radio, he worked at WIXY-AM/1260, and became one of the WIXY Supermen. The change was done for many reasons: as a nod to the sudden influence Z100's format had on the Malrite group; Gorman and Sanders intention to stay with the current music trends as the album-oriented rock (AOR) format was, even then, in a state of decline; and as a means to attract a female audience. [95], Already program director at OmniAmerica station WMJI, station veteran John Gorman returned to WMMS as vice-president and director of operations in early 1994. The WMMS morning show Dick Dale & Rick hosted the event. He now runs his own music consulting business, LJT Entertainment, and is program director and an on-air host of "Underground Garage" on Sirius XM Radio. Spero would go on to become one of Cleveland's early progressive-rock DJs, working first at WNCR and then at WMMS. Dean DePiero, then mayor of Parma, criticized the song and its accompanying YouTube video: "It's pretty sick. The band clearly enjoyed performing on Nautica's stage, right next to the waterfront, with Weiland stopping at one point to point out the large boats that were passing by. Born in Belgium, but raised in Cleveland and Maple Heights, Matt the Cat Lapczynski was a radio fan from an early age. Arriving from Boston in Cleveland in September 1976, BLF was highly opinionated. Play-by-play itself is also limited to over-the-air FM; due to league restrictions, the WMMS webcast on iHeartRadio does not stream play-by-play coverage online. [38][39] Considered "a true radio legend," WMMS DJ Kid Leo was chosen for Rolling Stone's "Heavy Hundred: The High and Mighty of the Music Industry" (1980) and named "The Best Disc Jockey in the Country" in a special 1987 issue of Playboy. The show also drew national attention after holding a book burning party for Fifty Shades of Grey on July 8, 2012. Jeff and Flash were accompanied by a list of other talent over the years which made up the Buzzard Morning Zoo. Album deejay Denny Sanders was brought in from Boston and key WNCR personnel (including former WHK-FM/WMMS personalities Martin Perlich and Billy Bass, and station newcomer David Spero) were soon hired by WMMS, taking most of their audience with them. [47] Owned by Malrite Communications from 1972 to 1993, subsequent consolidation in the radio industry saw WMMS change ownership five times in seven years, and has been in iHeartMedia's portfolio (originally under the Clear Channel name) since 1999. [41][42] WMMS was also a major driving force behind the successful campaign to bring the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to Cleveland.[26][43]. The station serves as the FM flagship for both the Cleveland Cavaliers and Cleveland Guardians radio networks. She worked in radio in Los Angeles from 1973-76 at KLOS and KMET. He offered "Solid Goldbergers" and ordered us to "EN-joy". He came to the Agora armed with a new album, Darkness on the Edge of Town. WMMS (100.7 FM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio, commonly identified as "TheBuzzard". [28][29][30] Owned by iHeartMedia, and broadcasting a mix of active rock and hot talk, WMMS is currently the flagship station for Rover's Morning Glory, the FM flagship for the Cavaliers AudioVerse and Cleveland Guardians Radio Network, the Cleveland affiliate for The House of Hair with Dee Snider and the home of radio personality Alan Cox. Cleveland Magazine has also described both Rover and Cox as "talk shows with a rock-oriented sensibility". In 1966, in an effort to make the medium more commercially viable, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandated that FM stations could no longer duplicate the programming of their AM sister stations. The movie is loosely written about director, Cameron Crowes life who as a child did in fact write for Rolling Stone and spent time on tour with bands like Led Zeppelin, Eagles and Lynyrd Skynyrd. [124], Following Jacor's takeover, WMMS ran a "Death of the Buzzard" month-long stunt in October 1998. In 2009, she left KSL to become the spokesperson for the FBI Salt Lake City Division. Longtime radio newsman, Mike Olszewski worked over the years for WERE, WMMS, WNCX and WCLV. [151] In addition to the live broadcast, the show is available on demand through iHeartRadio; and can be downloaded as a podcast through iTunes. Rosenhaus hosts the network pregame show; and Hamilton hosts the network postgame show. BLF also praised musicians and was a great fan of the Texas Tornadoes and Blue Cheer. "I think it's like a young nation, the changes of the times," said John Gorman, the station's program director during its 1970s and '80s Buzzard heyday. During the 1990s, he applied the same, take-no-prisoners promotion, programming and marketing strategy as operations manager of WMJI-FM/105.7, pushing the oldies station to the top of the radio ratings. Additionally, Rover was the Midwest replacement for Howard Stern under CBS's Free FM branding concept following Stern's move to Sirius Satellite Radio in 2006, originating from Chicago's WCKG. ", "We had the right staff, the right soundtrack at the time. Past affiliates at WMMS include WAMX/Huntington, WMFS-FM/Memphis, WNDE/Indianapolis, WXEG/Dayton, WRXS/Columbus, and the now defunct Extreme Talk. He became one of the station's most popular jocks during its Buzzard heyday, and was perhaps best known as the host of the live Wednesday "Coffeebreak Concerts." The short-lived music magazine featured a diverse mix of interviews, opinion pieces, album reviews, Buzzard playlists, concert listings and photos from station events. He was 64 years old. GLAAD is calling on Clear Channel and Cleveland radio station WMMS to suspend radio personality Dominic Dieter for telling a father to essentially arrange for his daughter to be raped if he suspects she's gay. [98][101] Gorman brought back the original Buzzard design, now drawn by David Helton's successor Brian Chalmers. professional boxing referees; uf college of medicine class of 2023; kalalau valley hippies (Lapczinski is at far right in this photo along with his Buzzword crewmates in the WMMS studios) (Plain Dealer file photo), Kid Leo, whose real name is Lawrence James Travagilante, ruled the Buzzard roost at WMMS for 16 years from 1973-1988. Jeff & Flash were also credited as being major contributors in bringing the Rock Hall to Cleveland, by heavily promoting on-air a USA Today reader poll to decide which city should get it.[82]. In the '90s, it re-focused on alternative rock programming, and in later years, moved into an active rock program with popular talk programs like "Rover's Morning Glory. Heavily bootlegged, the concert further cemented the relationship between the two in fans' minds, and well into the 2000s Cleveland remains one of Springsteen's strongest bases. Here's what some of your favorite personalities from the past are up to now. "[110] Studios were moved again to a combined facility in the suburb of Independence, Ohio. Radio Home of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Mark Madden, and The Woody Show. In honor of the station's milestone birthday, we've compiled a list of some of the Buzzard's most memorable DJs and behind-scenes personalities, spanning the full 50-year history of the station. While both Rover and Alan Cox are primarily "hot talk" programs, rock music airs during regular middays, nights, overnights, weekends and online during Cavaliers and Guardians play-by-play. [44][45][46] Seven years later, members of the station's staff and management pleaded guilty to disrupting a national broadcast of The Howard Stern Show that originated via the local Stern affiliate, cross-town rival WNCX. "They did a number of formats, and I was at the right place at the right time with a lot of other people. Hughes returned briefly to WMMS in the 1990s for short stints on a new "Morning Zoo" and as an overnight DJ. In addition to Boom's deep pipes being used every hour in the Top of the hour ID's, station sweepers and commercials, he held two on-air shifts on the weekends which he coined the Boom 'till noon. (Plain Dealer file photo), Matt Lapczinski, better known as "Matt The Cat," started at WMMS-FM/100.7 in 1974, fresh out of Cleveland State University. Among the more significant moves taken by WMMS was the formatting of the morning zoo concept created by Z100's Scott Shannon onto the show Jeff & Flash (Jeff Kinzbach and Ed Ferenc) were already hosting. [94] Station management initially claimed that Alford acted alone,[93] however WMMS Promotions Director Heidi Klostermanworking under the name Heidi Kramerlater pleaded guilty to a felony charge of attempted disruption of a public service and a misdemeanor of receiving stolen property; Greg Smith, a former Klosterman colleague, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor of breaking and entering. He is now a professional photographer in Cleveland. The WMMS Mushroom Logo can be seen a few times throughout the movie - During a backstage scene at the Music Hall right before Stillwater takes the stage and when groupie Penny Lane played by Kate Hudson is dancing alone in the empty venue - you can see a banner with the Mushroom Logo and the slogan Where The Music Means Something. The call letters WMMS stand for "MetroMedia Stereo". Cleveland's Rock Station, home of Rover's Morning Glory, The Alan Cox Show, and FM Home of Cleveland Guardians Baseball. He now works as a stand-up comedian, actor and writer. (Photo courtesy Lou Santini), Saul is best known the "Get Down Man," whose Friday afternoon riffs and rants on WMMS-FM/100.7 made him a local celebrity in the 1970s. After two years, Cox left The Loop to begin his own radio show. His "BLF Bash" was an overnight mainstay at the Buzzard from 1976-1994. "[86] From 1991 to 1993, WMMS served as the FM flagship for the Cleveland Browns, sharing coverage with then-sister WHK; the late Nev Chandler served as play-by-play announcer. Candlebox headlined the 2 stage show at Blossom Music Center on May 18, 1996. The station also started to devote weekend programming to the classic rock format. Later, he worked as Senior Marketing and Sales Strategist for Telos Alliance, a local technology firm that designs and manufactures audio equipment. ', Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 19781984, List of programming syndicated by iHeartMedia, List of radio stations owned by iHeartMedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=WMMS&oldid=1137903859, Active rock radio stations in the United States, Articles with dead external links from July 2018, Articles with permanently dead external links, All articles with bare URLs for citations, Articles with bare URLs for citations from March 2022, Articles with PDF format bare URLs for citations, Articles with dead external links from February 2023, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with MusicBrainz place identifiers, Articles which contain graphical timelines, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, The Cleveland Plaza/Statler Office Tower (now, This page was last edited on 7 February 2023, at 00:47. (Plain Dealer file photo), One of Cleveland radio's most popular -- and enduring -- morning teams, Jeff Kinzbach and Ed "Flash" Ferenc were a cornerstone of WMMS-FM/100.7 during its Buzzard heyday. The trio moved to WMMS in 1971, laying the groundwork for the station's Buzzard heyday. who killed athena in the witch of portobello; what game relates to a rainbow; ventura county obituary past 3 days; sri lanka parliament election 2015 preferential votes; Photos. No Doubt performed Buzzard Fest on May 18, 1996. The debut issue of Buzzard Bone, arrived in September of 1995 and featured the brand new Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the cover story, with an article tracing the history of the museum, which had its grand opening that same month. During the 20th anniversary broadcast, Mike Olszewski, along with Jeff & Flash, spoke with Wally Bryson of the Raspberries and one of the National Guardsmen. Image of Bill Hader above wearing WMMS shirt for his upcoming HBO series called Barry. Ferenc is now the public information officer at the Cleveland Municipal Court. We had a pretty good run with it in the '70s to the mid-'80s.". Mike had been heard on a number of Cleveland radio stations over the years, putting in 40 years ol the air. of WIXY 1260. He was the station's best-known personality and instrumental in breaking artists such as Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, Pat Benatar and Mott the Hoople. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. His was the booming voice on the station's hourly IDs, music segues, sweepers, and commercials. She was among the first DJs to put the group's seven-minute opus, "Working Man," into regular rotation. Before FM took over the airwaves, before WMMS became the undisputed champ of Cleveland rock radio, WIXY 1260 AM ruled. [112] WMMS scheduled a second Green Day performance just two months later this time at Blossom Music Center and at a near-record-low cost of $5 per ticket, the station gave fans a "second chance" to see the band live. Ratings steadily increased during the time of the First Gulf War, but The Howard Stern Show was soon picked up by a then struggling WNCX. He would read some commercial copy and then "throw them in the bash bucket where they belong" and openly criticize music he didn't care for. He gave many new up and coming artists exposure and put them on the map to their road to stardom. Thousands of entries were received, but only 375 lucky listeners received two tickets to the concert. "[66][67] Although never used on the air, listeners alternately knew the callsign as an acronym for "Weed Makes Me Smile" and "Magic MushroomS," the latter referencing the somewhat controversial logo used before the Buzzard. (Plain Dealer file photo), A DJ and music director at WMMS-FM/100.7 from 1974-78. [26] Station employees went on to take director and executive-level positions in the recording industry, namely with labels RCA, Mercury, and Columbia. Brian Chalmers, Rock 'N' Roll Artist", "Film; Paul Schrader Plumbs Grassroots Rock", "iHeartMedia Cleveland To Move To New Facility As Company Begins Cloud Based Tech Rollout", "Downtown TV station group may move to the suburbs", "Cleveland Broadcast Radio Archives WMMS timeline", "Rock in Akron: The Music Of Greater Akron", "The Second WMMS Music Marathon Station TV Spot", "Recalling a couple of wacky radio guys", http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/1990s/1994/RR-1994-11-04.pdf, http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/1990s/1994/RR-1994-12-02.pdf, "Billboard/Airplay Monitor Radio Awards Bestowed", "Kevin Metheny, a.k.a. 20 Country Women We Are Celebrating During International Women's Day Mar 01, 2021. Maria Farina landed at WMMS in 1986 fresh out of Ohio University and quickly gained popularity. As WMMS celebrates the anniversary, both on-air and online, using archival audio, memorabilia and station-related artifacts to offer a cross-section of the station's diverse history and the. (Plain Dealer file photo). Nighttimes, 1968-1970. [98][106] The sale came almost immediately after passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, a time when radio companies nationwide rushed "at a fever pitch" to acquire new properties. In November 1972, WMMS was sold to Malrite Communications, a Michigan-based firm that relocated to Cleveland upon purchase. Spero is still active as an artist manager. wmms radio personalities. In the trailer for the new show the character Barry, played by Bill Hader is wearing a vintage WMMS shirt. Under Malrite ownership, WMMS would become an album-oriented rock (AOR) powerhouse, much in the same vein as its former MetroMedia progressive rock siblings. In 1973 WMMS unveiled a new logo The Mushroom. There were other really good rock stations around, but those other stations opted in to carry the live broadcast of the MMS birthday show (in 1978). Win a Monster Zero Sugar prize pack from Circle K! grand wailea pool menu; under armour ignite slides waterproof. [133] "Chris Tyler" Merluzzo, former program director for Providence's WHJY, took over for Bo Matthews as WMMS program director on February 17, 2014. Reporting news, weather, sports and bringing you daily local programming, each member of the ABC4 Utah team is dedicated to bringing balanced reporting, journalistic integrity, and honesty to Utah's news. Lonnie Gronek, then general manager of the station, claimed in The Plain Dealer article that the process had gone on "for years", however other accounts dispute Gronek's claim. "Round for round, pound for pound, there ain't no finer band around. Two of her audiobook projects were nominated for Grammy awards in the Best Spoken Word category. As WMMS-FM/100.7 program director from 1973-86, Gorman led the Buzzard troops on a campaign of conquest that transformed an unknown, FM upstart into a rock 'n' roll powerhouse. On-site, play-by-play announcer Tim Alcorn calls games alongside color analyst Jim Chones, a former Cavaliers center. He also did a nightly oldies show there from 1988-2001. Mama, come get your baby boy! [62] The WMMS-sponsored concert was a "phenomenal success"[58][63] and prompted the station to sponsor a second show that year. Win a Monster Zero Sugar prize pack from Circle K! Subscribe Now To Listen Your Favorite Songs On Demand! The eight-year radio host . Today, she is a regular DJ on oWOW Radio on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons. For the station's tenth anniversary in 1978, WMMS hosted and broadcast a live Springsteen concert at the Agora Ballroom independent of his concert tour. "[61], Under the leadership of station manager Billy Bass and program director Denny Sanders, WMMS helped break many new rock artists nationally, most notably David Bowie. WMMS (100.7 FM) - branded 100.7 WMMS: The Buzzard - is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It's a big birthday for The Buzzard. The very first logo to ever be created for WMMS was a red and white rainbow. [167] WMMS also transmits text to compatible analog receivers, such as station IDs and artist and song information, via the Radio Data System (RDS); similarly, WMMS transmits text to HD Radio receivers known as Program Service Data (PSD). It was supposed to be a colorful logo including all the rainbow colors - but at the time, the station didn't have the budget to do multiple colors so they kept it one color. By the late 1980s, most of the original staff members had departed: John Gorman and Denny Sanders left in 1986 to launch upstart station WNCX, and Columbia Records hired Kid Leo in 1988. Following the prank announcement, station management placed Maxwell on probation for 90 days. [53] The station continued to decline during the ownership transition from Malrite to Shamrock; then Shamrock sold both WMMS and WHK to OmniAmerica, a broadcasting company run by former Malrite executives Carl Hirsch and Dean Thacker, which already owned oldies station WMJI. She worked there until 1999. (Plain Dealer file photo), The legendary gravel-voiced, graveyard-shift DJ at WMMS-FM/100.7, Bill Lionel Freeman, is best known in Cleveland by his initials, "BLF." The other DJs in the photo are, from left: Doc Nemo, Vic Boc, Martin Perlich and Pat Mack. He is part of the permanent radio exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Gorman has also written a book about his days at WMMS, "The Buzzard: Inside the Glory Days of WMMS and Cleveland Rock Radio." MLB At Bat", "Play-By-Play Streaming Rights: 'The Goal Posts Are Moving. 'Pig Virus,' riles WGN Radio's Chicago fan base", http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-RandR/1990s/1997/RR-1997-02-21.pdf, "Clear Channel Wins Bidding Contest, Agrees to Buy Jacor Communications", "Clear Channel Renames Itself iHeartMedia in Nod to Digital", "At the controls: Clear Channel programmer rules radio in Cleveland", "Buzzard scam gets WMMS what it wanted: more listeners", "Arbitron: Listening Up, Fave Stations The Same", "Browns next to explore market for radio rights", "CCM+E/Cleveland Names Chris Tyler PD Of WMMS, WAKS, 99X", "Jason Carr Named PD Alt 99.1 FM and APD for WMMS/Cleveland", "Pair of Indianapolis Morning Show Changes", "93X/Memphis Flips, ESPN Sportsradio 680 Gets FM Simulcast", "iHeartRadio: Rover's Morning Glory Replay", "iHeartRadio: Rover's Morning Glory On Demand", "June 4th 2014 - Tweens Kill For Slenderman/Chef Steve Schimoler In-Studio/Racism In America", "Rover and WMMS Agree to a Contract Extension That Will Keep Him on the Air Through 2017", "Best of Cleveland 2004: Best Morning DJ", "Best of Cleveland 2005: Best Radio Morning Show", "Best of Cleveland 2006: Best Radio-Host Homecoming", "Best of Cleveland 2007: Best Radio Show", "Best of Cleveland 2009: Best Local Radio Personality", "Best of Cleveland 2014: Best Radio Personality", "Best of Cleveland 2015: Best Radio Show", "Cleveland DJ Helps Cast a Spell on LeBron", "Best of Cleveland 2011: People & Places", "Best of Cleveland 2012: People & Places", "Best of Cleveland 2013: People & Places", "Alan Cox Talk Show Rocks Cleveland on WMMS-FM", "iHeartRadio Shows & Personalities: The Alan Cox Show 24/7", "December 16, 2014 episode - Alan Renews His Contract/The Show Recaps Bad Decisions/Drunk or Kid", "Cody 'Poundcake' Brown is out and entertaining as part of popular 'Alan Cox' show on WMMS", "Aerosmith Frontman Explains New Album Delay (Audio) - June 26, 2012", "Forbes has it in for Cleveland.