In 1995 he was the PA voice introducing acts for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Grand Opening concert at Municipal Stadium. He can still be heard on the radio, too. (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. Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Detroit, St. Louis they ran another stations birthday party. She introduced Rush when they got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in June 2010. "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. [53] [107][108][109][110], During this time, WMMS held a series of sold-out rock festivals that featured many of the new up-and-coming artists receiving station airplay. [148][149] All other air talent heard on WMMS is provided via iHeartMedia's "Premium Choice" voice-tracking service. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band!" His radio career began in 1973 with Cleveland on100.7WMMS. 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. WMMS is known for breaking artists like Bruce Springsteen, Rush, Fleetwood Mac and David Bowie, and for its Coffee Break Concerts that featured live performances by many of the top acts of the days, including Springsteen, U2, Cyndi Lauper and Warren Zevon. The WMMS Coffee Break Concert was a weekly music-interview show broadcast live from the station's studio, and later with an audience at the Agora Ballroom. In 1973 WMMS unveiled a new logo The Mushroom. [148][146][152][153][154][155], A devoted fan of heavy metal, Cox considers himself more of a comedian than a disc jockey. The music structure also was modified at this time as artists such as Michael Jackson, Madonna and Prince soon found airplay on WMMS. [60] Sounds described the station programming at this time as "totally off-the-wall in its choice of records, playing anything it liked. He gave many new up and coming artists exposure and put them on the map to their road to stardom. 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. WMMS's studios are located at the Six Six Eight Building in downtown Cleveland's Gateway District;[48][49] the station transmitter resides in neighboring Seven Hills. Goldfinger, The Refreshments, Triple Fast Action and others played the second stage at the top of the hill. [85] Four different program directors, including Rich Piombino and Michael Luczak, came and went with varying levels of success. [51] Like most early FM stations, WHK-FM mostly simulcast the Top 40 programming of its AM sister station. 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. With content being supplied by journalists and WMMS personnel, it was the perfect companion to what WMMS was doing on air at the time with a focus on the new bands and artists of the alternative music era. 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. She left in 1989 to work for Top 40 station WPHR-FM/107. Morning Show, Promotions Director KGGI. (Billy Bass is at far left in the photo, kickin' it with the WHK crew, circa 1968. Since 1998, he's hosted "America's Workforce" a one-hour program sponsored by labor unions on WERE-AM/1490. This feature ran at the exact moment of the KSU shootings twenty years later. Win tickets to see Adam Sandler at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Win tickets to see Weezer at Blossom Music Center, Win tickets to see Disturbed at Blossom Music Center. It really was an awesome time.' Nighttimes, 1968-1970. [141] Maxwell was known for having feuds with other radio personalities during the show's time at WMMS, including Rover of Rover's Morning Glory and fellow WTAM afternoon host Mike Trivisonno; by 2009, Maxwell had become the number one afternoon program in several key demographics. Today, she is an assistant professor of communication at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass. Bruce held on to the innocence and the romance. "Discover Financial Services (DFS.N), a provider . Amy Murphy (formerly Hasten) The Voices of WIXY 1260. Play-by-play announcers Tom Hamilton and Jim Rosenhaus call games on-site. For the Bath, Maine, radio station which identified as WMMS from 1957 to 1964, see, "This radio station is known for breaking the rules, changing the game, and being successful. Hughes returned briefly to WMMS in the 1990s for short stints on a new "Morning Zoo" and as an overnight DJ. For STP vocalist Scott Weiland, who spent time as a kid living in Bainbridge Township and attending grade school in Chagrin Falls, the concert was a homecoming experience and he referenced his time growing up in Northeast Ohio during his conversations with the crowd that evening. [129][130] Radio & Records twice named WMMS "Rock Station of the Year: Markets 1-25" (200506) as part of the now defunct publication's annual Industry Achievement Awards. [26] Station employees went on to take director and executive-level positions in the recording industry, namely with labels RCA, Mercury, and Columbia. His father, Herman, created Cleveland's legendary "Upbeat," an "American Bandstand"-style TV musical variety show which aired from 1964-71 and featured live performances of many of the great rock and pop acts of the era, from Simon and Garfunkel to Otis Redding. See Tenille Arts' Bedazzled Guitar Oct 07, 2020. Quiet Riot played 11 songs. [87] Unable to service its growing debt, Malrite chose to leave radio and sold off all its remaining properties in 1993:[37] WMMS went to Shamrock Broadcasting, the Roy Disney broadcasting firm. They worked together on four different stations in the Cleveland/Akron area over the years: WONE-FM/97.5, WENZ-FM/107.9, WMMS-FM/100.7 and WMVX-FM/106.5. 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. The flick which takes place in the 70s tells the story of a teenage boy who writes for Rolling Stone with the main focus being the rock band Stillwater. 1," released in 1999. [145] WMMS itself also airs The Rover Rewind, a weekly recap show on Saturday mornings. From 1978 on, Belkin Productions conditioned its funding of the Free Clinic on the nondisclosure of the number of Clinic staff on duty at the concerts, the nature of conditions treated and the number of patients treated.[79][80]. Cleveland's Rock Station, home of Rover's Morning Glory, The Alan Cox Show, and FM Home of Cleveland Guardians Baseball. Night on-air personality on The X. "[27][36] WMMS played a key role in breaking several major acts in the U.S., including David Bowie, Rush, and Bruce Springsteen. 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. It was in use in 1971 but was discontinued after the band the Rolling Stones issued a cease and desist order against MetroMedia for it resemblance to their logo. [160], WMMS's program lineup currently features Rover's Mornings Glory in morning drive, Dan Stansbury middays, The Alan Cox Show in afternoon drive and Corey Rotic evenings. 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. (Plain Dealer file photo). Contrary to what many believe, the choice of the second Malrite logo had nothing to do with Buzzard Day, the annual "folksy event" held in Hinckley Township, Ohio. He is part of the permanent radio exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She remained with the station until 1995. [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). Goldberg is at right in the photo above, with Jeff Kinzbach in the WMMS studio. She worked there until 1999. [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. [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. Most station imaging is produced out-of-market by national voice talents "David Lee" Olejniczak, Malcolm Ryker,[166] Rena-Marie Villano, and former WMMS creative services director Miles Hlivko; additional voice-over audio is produced on-site by WMMS imaging director Billy Black. 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. Needless to say, for health reasons, this contest changed the way promotions were done going forward at WMMS. WMMS was directly influenced by then and current sister station WHTZ/New York (Z100), which rose to the top of the ratings books immediately after installing a contemporary hit radio (CHR) format. [120] Finally, The Bob & Tom Show aired in the time slot from 2006 until April 2008. (Additional reporting by cleveland.com staff. In 2009, she left KSL to become the spokesperson for the FBI Salt Lake City Division. Monday, October 01, 2018. 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. Matt remains one of the most popular air personalities from WMMS' fifty year history. Students were protesting the bombing of Cambodia by the United States Armed Forces. The new logo depicted the sex, drugs and rock and roll image that the owner was looking for. [51] On July 31, 1947, W8XUB began broadcasting at 100.7MHz. [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 2015, he founded oWOW, a thriving Cleveland-based internet radio. [123] WMMS veteran John Gorman has remained a vocal critic of iHeartMedia, once remarking on the company's former Cleveland executive, Kevin Metheny (dubbed "Pig Virus" by Howard Stern during their time at WNBC): "He had a volatile time here. 26 Celebrities & Their Moms May 06, 2022. [90] Stern had arrived on the Cleveland airwaves less than two years earlier, and in that time took his syndicated program on rival WNCX from an Arbitron ranking of thirteen to number one. Throughout the 1970s and '80s, the station played home to some of Cleveland's most recognizable personalities: Matt the Cat, Denny Sanders, Murray Saul, Betty "Crash" Korvan, Ruby Cheeks, BLF. [103] Despite signs of success, the stations were sold again in 1996: WMMS went to Nationwide Communications,[105] while WHK went to Salem Communications. Late Friday we received an email from Cleveland radio legend John Gorman, the former longtime PD of the equally legendary WMMS, who shared the sad news of the passing of former longtime WMMS late-night personality Betty Korvan, who died at the age of 67. The first buzzard which has penned the name The Wrath of the Buzzard can be seen sitting atop a mushroom paying homage to the former logo along with the competitors call letters WGCL and WIXY grasped in its beak. "Born to Run" was the essence of everything I loved about rock 'n' roll. (Halper is at center in the photo above, with members of Rush and WMMS staffers. [96] Gorman changed the WMMS format to alternative rock,[97] playing new acts like Nirvana, The Offspring, and Nine Inch Nails, on October 27. 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. The Buzzard became synonymous with WMMS, Cleveland radio and the city itself, spawning a series of T-shirts so numerous that they are now impossible to catalog, many with slogans like "Where Music Means Something" and "Ruler of the Airwaves.". The Alan Cox Show: 1/20/23 | 100.7 WMMS | The Alan Cox Show Sanders also booked the acts for WMMS' fame "Coffeebreak Concerts." "[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. DJ additions included station engineer Ric Bennett as "Rocco the Rock Dog,"[86] Scooter (WMMS music director Brad Hanson), former WRQC nighttime Personality and later WNCX Afternoon Drive and Production Director, Tom "Jack" Daniels (who returned to the Cleveland airwaves after a successful stint as Program Director of WLEV, Allentown, PA), Lisa Dillon[86] and station veteran Matt the Cat,[86] (who returned to the midday slot in 1990 after a two-year absence.) The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. Today, he is the principal and chief content officer of WOW Media, LLC -- the parent company of oWOW. Regular segments include "The Shizzy", a daily news update; "Tech Tuesday", where listeners pose consumer electronics questions to an industry expert; and "The Thursday Hook-Up", a call-in dating game. WMMS beat out large market radio stations like WNEW in New York, WMMR in Philadelphia and KROQ in Los Angeles. Kid Leo Interviews Van Halen April 20, 1980. He was also a member of "The Buzzard Morning Zoo" in the mid-1980s. 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. [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. One day a co-worker overheard him ranting in the halls of the radio station and got the idea to feature him on the air with a salute to the weekend. Kinzbach and Ferenc had already been a morning team with sidekicks since 1976, seven years prior to adopting the "morning zoo" label, so the basic structure was already in place. His "BLF Bash" was an overnight mainstay at the Buzzard from 1976-1994. Steve and Tom would always come up to the station and hang out with me. [34], Loveline, Westwood One's nationally syndicated call-in show hosted by Dr. Drew, aired weeknights from August 2008 through June 2010. 'MMS listener favorites like Green Day, Letters to Cleo, Everclear, Better Than Ezra, Alice in Chains, Garbage and Silverchair were just a few of the bands featured in Buzzard Bone. [163] The station hosts two additional HD Radio subchannels: WMMS-HD2 is the Cleveland affiliate for the Black Information Network, [136][164], WMMS airs regular traffic and weather updates via the Total Traffic and Weather Network and former sister station WOIO (TV channel 19),[165] and the station satisfies U.S. Federal Communications Commission-mandated public affairs programming on Sunday mornings with the City Club of Cleveland's Friday Forum. Candlebox headlined the 2 stage show at Blossom Music Center on May 18, 1996. Pittsburgh Radio Personalities Recently retired from WDVE, longtime DJ Sean McDowell isn't sitting still. Bryan Adams Agora photo credit: Janet Macoska, Sammy Hagar Odeon photo credit: Daune Raz. No. [98][101] Gorman brought back the original Buzzard design, now drawn by David Helton's successor Brian Chalmers. [147], Described by The Plain Dealer as "testosterone-fueled", the show dominates younger demographics, particularly male listeners ages 1834. WMMS did remote interviews at KSU all morning which included an interview from 1972 presidential candidate, Senator George McGovern, KSU student and gunshot survivor, Dean Kahler, other May 4th wounded who survived, Governor Dick Celeste, current students and others. 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. [120], Co-hosts Duji (Susan Catanese) and Dominic Dieter each worked on Rover's Morning Glory before the move to WMMS; since then, the show has expanded to include sound engineer Chocolate Charlie (Mike Toomey), phone screener Mattitude/Flatitude (Matt Novick), Video Anthony Snitzer, Producer Dumb (Shaun Street) and former intern Jeffrey LaRocque. Rio created the. Matt Harris served in the interim until WMMS hired Dick Dale (Bert Morris) from WPLA/Jacksonville. Cleveland's Rock Station, home of Rover's Morning Glory, The Alan Cox Show, and FM Home of Cleveland Guardians Baseball. Past show members at WMMS include, Ryan Hoppe, Scott Taylor (now a reporter at WJLA in Washington, DC, Kaitlin Geosano, and Rob Garguilo. [47][93] Stern continued on with the program over a phone line as engineers worked to quickly patch together the severed broadcast wire. We never learned what Mr. Leonard looked like, he never discussed it on the air. Hes heard introducing Bruce Springsteens fabled WMMS tenth anniversary show at the Cleveland Agora which is thought to have been the most bootlegged radio concert ever before its official release. Among his books: "Radio Daze: Stories from the Front in Cleveland's FM Air Wars." [128] WMMS again served as the FM flagship to the Cleveland Browns Radio Network from 2002 to 2012, with Jim Donovan and Doug Dieken as announcers. The contest titled the White Trash Wedding prize included everything needed to make a wedding day special limo, wedding dress, tuxedo rental, flowers, cake and the ceremony which took place at Mickeys Diamond Mens Club in the Flats. As a kid he was part of a sophisticated bootleg radio station in his neighborhooduntil the FCC shut it down. The concert series continued on well into the 1990s and early 2000s, albeit much less frequently.[64][65]. Denny left WMMS to start another local station, but returned for a long stay at WMJI. Yes, the station had lost its way for a bit, but MMS was the standard. It was the first time Stone Temple Pilots performed in Cleveland in six years. He briefly worked mid-days at the end of his career, but soon retired. Gorman returned to the Buzzard for a second brief run from 1994-96, but has spent most of the past 20 years as a radio consultant. Stern's ratings exploded and this along with a growing urgency from management not to compete with or mention Stern on the air led to a sudden and steep ratings decline for The Buzzard Morning Zoo. Today, she is a regular DJ on oWOW Radio on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons. Share this Story: UPDATE: Erika Lauren announced on Twitter Dec. 7 that she would not return to the Alan Cox Show in 2020. On March 30, 1946,[50] radio station WHK owned at that time by United Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of Forest City Publishing, itself the parent company of The Plain Dealer launched an experimental FM station under the callsign W8XUB at 107.1 megahertz (MHz). 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.
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