Does anyone remember the short lived experiment on 92.1 known as "The Ape 92"? I want to say this was 1989. Format was "Rock 40". Calls were changed to WGOR, supposedly for "Gorilla". Who was the brain trust behind this debacle? I wonder if any radio geeks rolled tape on "The Ape"?

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"Mares eat oats, and does eat oats, and I'll be home for christmas"

I don't know of any airchecks of it, but the word was out when it was tried and you're right, it was a debacle!

Well, there's some history here, and I hope I get it straight. Anybody please correct me if I'm wrong....

Charlie McLravy, who bought 1580 and 92.1 in 1981 and launched Country K92 (WCXK, later WKLH) on the FM side, sold the stations to Lansing Broadcasting Associates in 1985. LBA nuked the Country format and flipped to AOR as WLNZ, The Lazer (not to be confused with the current LCC station of the same calls). The AOR format lasted a little over 2 years, until LBA entered into an agreement to sell to a group of investors led by Kent Burkhart of Burkhart-Abrams fame. Burkhart relaunched it as Z92, a CHR format that featured "zero talk" (except on the morning show). When Burkhart realized he couldn't move the tower closer to Lansing, he backed out of the sale, and the station went into receivership in early 1989. Michigan National Bank took receivership of the station, and McLravy (who was a secured party in the original sale....I assume by some sort of land contract deal), was called back in to oversee the place with the option of buying it back. That's when The Ape was born. A good concept, really, but they just didn't have the juice to take on WVIC. They tried going more mainstream CHR and rebranding as Mix 92.1, and eventually abandoned that for the Smooth Jazz format. McLravy sold the station again in 1993, and that's when it became The Edge.

They originally wanted the calls WAAP for The Ape, but when Bob Goodrich got wind of it, he quickly applied for and got those calls for WVIC-AM, so 92.1 had to settle for WGOR. See how much more fun it was when we had multiple-competitors in the market?

I could be wrong on this too - but it seems like somewhere in there was a really bizarre and very short lived Christian format, and I think it was on 92.1 with the WVIC calls. Does anybody remember this?

I liked the Lazer. Preset #1 on my radio when I worked for Bob Liggett. When it became "Z-92" with the Rhythmic CHR format, Chuck Dees (the PD) had the modulation cranked up beyond legal limits to make the pea-shooter signal seem louder. And loud it was. I don't know if this is true or not, but I remember being told that co-channel WCSR Hillsdale complained. Who was PD for "The Ape" ?

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"Mares eat oats, and does eat oats, and I'll be home for christmas"

RM, I could be wrong here myself, but I believe 92.7 may have had a really brief Christian format after they swapped formats and call letters with 94.9. They simulcasted for a while, then I believe when they separated they aired Christian music. If I recall it did not last long, and 92.7 spent the next few years alternating between dead air and classical music. This would have all been done under the WVIC call letters.

I agree...I only remember 92.7 doing that, it was a satellite format from called The Word In Praise from Colorado Springs when it was owned by Bill Burton.

I think the classical was from broom closet that Larry took care of.

Then the folks from 106.1 and 94.1 took it over.

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Both Democrats and Republicans are "liberals"! The Republican ideology is classical liberalism, while the Democrats is welfare liberalism.

Is Charlie McLravy still involved in the heavy game of broadcast brokerage, finance, and consulting?

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"Mares eat oats, and does eat oats, and I'll be home for christmas"

In the late 80's Rock CHR was the flavor of the month format. Pirate Radio in LA was probably the most famous of them all. There was an ample supply of Rock 40 music in those days. GnR,, Poison, Def Leppard, Midnight Oil, Bon Jovi, etc. When that music started drying up, so did the format.

Bob Liggett couldn't own 92.7 (or at least more than 49% of it) because it would have put him over the legal ownership limit - same reason he couldn't WITL-AM, and hence, that went away when the sale of the other stations was completed. The station was spun off to a company called B&B Broadcasting, of which, I believe, Liggett had a minority interest (one of the "B"'s in B&B), and he operated the station under an LMA.

I remember the simulcast when WVIC and WMMQ swapped places. It lasted a week or two. I also remember the satellite Christian format on 92.7. One of the jocks was Jon Rivers, who hosted a syndicated show called "Power Line" in the late 70's/early 80's. Interesting program, in that it featured current secular AC music with Jon delivering Christian content between the songs. There was a similar program called "Master Control" (although I don't remember who hosted that show). Coincidentally, both of those programs aired on the original WMMQ (Q92), but I digress....

I don't think that the Christian format on 92.7 was meant to be competitive, as WLGH had since signed on and established themselves in the Lansing market (plus, they had a much better signal and live, local air talent). I think it was just a "placeholder" format. Seems to me it was less than a year before the station switched to the Classical music format, and then it was off and on until Rubber City bought the stick in the fall of 2000. They had to have it back on the air by early December, although they weren't planning to launch the intended Sports Talk format until early January, so they simulcast The Edge on 92.1 and 92.7 for a few weeks in the interim.

Don't know if Charlie is still in the radio biz. He and Greg Capogna were part of 62nd Street Broadcasting, which purchased the Regional Radio cluster in 1997. He also had a consulting contract with WUPS in the late 90's. I first worked for Charlie in 1983 at K92, later at WILS, and even later at KIX94. Helluva nice guy.