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12 Chronicle-Telegram. Friday. September 23.1994iJ- '• *5- ?• - • -V .=: .'.• v JSteve FogartyThe Chronicle-TelegramEver twirl the dial on your car radio or stereo, or keeppiinching the seek and scan buttons?What you get is a barrage of jumbled, sounds and short bursts of blaring music that bears a resemblance to machine gun fire, or the Temptations’ classic “ Ball of Confusion.Sorting it all out can be kind of hairy, so here's a thumbnail sketch of Lorain County's radio stations, the kinds of music they play, who you might hear on the air and what else they offer listeners.SMOOTH ‘-AZZ * WNWV^ C°Utys/AM 930#4 BIOWEOL 930-AM is the granddaddy of all Lorain County radio stations, having been on the air since Oct 7,1948.Aimed primarily at the 35-and-up crowd, WEOL has long been known for its heavy emphasis on news and local sports, said program director Mike Whitmore, who is better known as the station’s longtime morning D J Mike James.% •Owned by the Lorain County Printing and Publishing Co., which also owns the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, the station’s news and sports staffs have been recognized with numerous state and area awards over the past several years.With a four-person news staff led by recently appointed news director Paul Cox, we have more news people than three-quarters of the stations in Cleveland,” Whitmore said.Typical of mostradio stations,WEOL’s 6 to 10 am. block of programming is its biggest strength.“ Morning is the strongest part of the day,” Whitmore said. “ We’re very active then, very intense with information.Hopefully, we make it fun.”Sports is another strength, with high school football and basketball getting lots of air time in the fall and winter.Qhio State football and basketball and Cleveland Indian’s, Browns and Cavaliers games round out the station’s substantial sports programming.- Station officials have tinkered with the idea of changing programming to lure more listeners from the below-35 crowd. .But if you do that, you rob Peter to pay Paul,” Whitmore said. “ Those are the people who’ve grown up with you. :We want to reach the broadest adult . audience we can.WNWV-107.3 FM has given area listeners a light jazz/pop/format since 1988. That was the year the station -shed its hard rock image and the name Z-Rock.Earlier this year, the station successfully negotiated for rights to again use the name The WAVE, which it was forced to forfeit when it dropped satellite-fed, auto- . mated music in 1990.“We'd noticed a tremendous percentage of listeners: still called us The WAVE,” said program director Steve Hibbard. Obviously it was a name that really stuck.”With a 50,000-watt signal, the station is the most pow1 erful in Lorain County, and heard throughout northern Ohio.The WAVE, with its mix of music that’s 70 percent instrumental and 30 percent vocal, is the only station in the market that offers a mix of contemporary jazz, new-age, pop, rhythm and blues, and jazz vocalists, Hibbard said.Artists range from the new-age sounds of Yanni and Dancing Fantasy to the jazz instrumentals of Kim Pensyl, the Rippingtons, saxophonist George Howard, and guitarists Peter White and Norman Brown.Frequently-heard vocalists include Patti Austin,Anita Baker, Basia and A1 Jarreau. . ••••“It’s hard to categorize because the music crosses borders. There’s elements of jazz or jazz improvisation in most of what we play,” Hibbard added.A sister station of WEOL, WNWV is also owned by the Lorain County Printing and Publishing Co.MIKE WHITMORE WEOL’s moming-drive DJ.And that is done, he said, by carrying “ as much local information as we humanly can, and keeping the music ' innocuous between that information. When you go away from.that, you have problems.»WJTB-1040 AM has put down roots and begun to builc on its primarily black audience following a rocky beginning that saw the station victimized by arson fires in tht1980s. 'The Elyria station is the first black-owned station operated in Lorain County.On the air since l984, its 5,000-watt signal broadcastsfrom dawn to dusk. Long-range plans call for the station to go to a 24-hour operation.According to program director Lewis Underwood, better known as Jay Lewis oii the air, WJTB changed it?sound dramatically a few months ago.A format heavy on gospel music gave way to a black adult contemporary format marked by jazz, rhythm and blues and reggae.“We went to more of a New York City mix” in hopes of lowering the station's listeners from an 18 to 35 age group to a 15 to 29 age group, Underwood said.One of the station’s new air personalities is Mike Cruz. Dubbed the Cruz Director on the air, he hosts a limchtime show from noon to 2 p.mSyndicated Top 40 programming airs weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon, whilejazz, and blues alternate on weekday afternoons.The station also introduces new artists and groups to. listeners ranging from A.Tribe Called Quest and Joeus Five Star to Volume 10 and Aiana.Despite its small size, the station considers itself in competition with WZAR-93, Cleveland’s well-known black music station.“That's who we’re going after,” Underwood said.i *MIKfr CRUZcwiz-fMJtrcrctt-7 ‘ rMIKE CRUZ: WJTB ’s new m44listeners in Lorain and Cuyahoga County have been robbed for the past several years” of a station playing-good mix of music for a predominantly black audience“We look at ourselves like an FM station,”Underwood said. “Our attitude is that we’re AM but sc what•■Wll UNMRWOOO has left WJTB since the time this interview.
Newspaper Details
The Chronicle Telegram
Elyria, Ohio, US
Fri, Sep 23, 1994
Page 29
Full Page
Clipped by
Nathan O.
OH, USA 29 Mar 2022
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