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WJOI 97fm 1987

Discussion pertaining to Detroit, Ann Arbor, Port Huron, and SW Ontario
unscopedaircheck
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Re: WJOI 97fm 1987

Post by unscopedaircheck » Tue Nov 28, 2023 10:11 pm

Did they ever live up to the name and actually give JO instruction on-air?



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MWmetalhead
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Re: WJOI 97fm 1987

Post by MWmetalhead » Tue Nov 28, 2023 10:20 pm

The all 70s format sure was a dud. 96.5 in Kalamazoo (which had been Oldies) and 98.5 in Houghton Lake briefly flipped to the format in the mid 90s.

Are there any other Michigan stations that tried the format at the time? I remember Y108 in Chicago.
Morgan Wallen is a piece of garbage.

Deleted User 16144

Re: WJOI 97fm 1987

Post by Deleted User 16144 » Tue Nov 28, 2023 10:28 pm

Not sure if New York City or Los Angeles had one. I do remember the one from Chicago.

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TC Talks
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Re: WJOI 97fm 1987

Post by TC Talks » Tue Nov 28, 2023 10:56 pm

MWmetalhead wrote:
Tue Nov 28, 2023 5:41 pm
I don't know how anyone could stand listening to that boring, sleepy stuff. :x :x :x

The death of the B/EZ format might be the best thing to have ever happened to FM radio.
If you can look at historic power ratios in BIA, you'd fall in love. Low overhead, no ego headaches, the format that sold itself.
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MWmetalhead
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Re: WJOI 97fm 1987

Post by MWmetalhead » Tue Nov 28, 2023 11:19 pm

Once in a blue moon I used to listen to WKEZ 96.1 from Holland.

I could tolerate it in small doses; stationality was nowhere nearly as bland as WJOI. WKEZ used to play quite a few instrumental remakes of mainstream hit songs as part of its music mix.

Some airchecks I heard of the old 93.1 WLTI were also unbearable. What a massive difference from the much more upbeat & appealing 95.7 WLHT in Grand Rapids. I suppose WLHT was more of an analogue to WKQI or WNIC.

I unfortunately do not remember WOOD-FM prior to its 1990-ish rebranding to EZ 105.7.
Morgan Wallen is a piece of garbage.

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Ben Zonia
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Re: WJOI 97fm 1987

Post by Ben Zonia » Tue Nov 28, 2023 11:34 pm

MWmetalhead wrote:
Tue Nov 28, 2023 11:19 pm
Once in a blue moon I used to listen to WKEZ 96.1 from Holland.

I could tolerate it in small doses; stationality was nowhere nearly as bland as WJOI. WKEZ used to play quite a few instrumental remakes of mainstream hit songs as part of its music mix.

Some airchecks I heard of the old 93.1 WLTI were also unbearable. What a massive difference from the much more upbeat & appealing 95.7 WLHT in Grand Rapids. I suppose WLHT was more of an analogue to WKQI or WNIC.

I unfortunately do not remember WOOD-FM prior to its 1990-ish rebranding to EZ 105.7.
I remember seeing bumper stickers all over Western and Southwestern Michigan that read "WOOD IS BEAUTIFUL" in the late 1960s and 1970s. You could hear it all over Michigan except close to where there were stations on 105.5 and 105.9. I remember it came in to 20 miles North of South Bend on a Sony Portable, and of course WJFM.
"I had a job for a while as an announcer at WWV but I finally quit, because I couldn't stand the hours."

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MichganMan
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Re: WJOI 97fm 1987

Post by MichganMan » Wed Nov 29, 2023 7:05 am

Beautiful Music formats were great for sleeping! TuneIn Radio online streams a Beautiful Instrumentals channel that's great for catching some Zs.

Deleted User 16144

Re: WJOI 97fm 1987

Post by Deleted User 16144 » Wed Nov 29, 2023 7:35 am

I like the New Age and Chill stations as well as Smooth Jazz. Very relaxing.

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ZenithCKLW
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Re: WJOI 97fm 1987

Post by ZenithCKLW » Wed Nov 29, 2023 8:12 am

ChrisWL1980 wrote:
Tue Nov 28, 2023 8:59 pm
MWmetalhead wrote:
Tue Nov 28, 2023 5:41 pm
I don't know how anyone could stand listening to that boring, sleepy stuff. :x :x :x

The death of the B/EZ format might be the best thing to have ever happened to FM radio.
With all due respect, I don't know how anyone can stand having their eardrums blasted by heavy metal. But we're all different.
I agree. I’m a millennial and I enjoy Beautiful Music. It’s not all I enjoy, but as I get older, I can’t have hard music rattling and pumping through my body anymore; my nerves won’t take it. I remember Joy 97. Not saying half the dial should be Beautiful Music, but an option would be nice. I listen to Beautiful Music 101 online when I want the cool down.

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Re: WJOI 97fm 1987

Post by Deleted User 16093 » Wed Nov 29, 2023 1:01 pm

I'd love to see smooth jazz make a comeback as a format in some form. I actually have a lot of smooth jazz music on my one MP3 player.

So, I'm the very last of gen X, I agree with Chris and ZenithCKLW I'd like to see a soft station as well, I mean just 1. Not bro country, Taylor swift and Maroon 5, and beyond stale classic rock/hits.

One of the last of The B/EZ stations I know of were WRSA 96.9 in I believe Huntsville Alabama, which dropped the format for AC in 2001. 105.9 in Myrtle Beach had the format into the early mid 2000s I want to say as well as having ABC's memories format on 93.5. All gone now.

Deleted User 16144

Re: WJOI 97fm 1987

Post by Deleted User 16144 » Wed Nov 29, 2023 5:43 pm

Foamy wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2023 1:01 pm
I'd love to see smooth jazz make a comeback as a format in some form. I actually have a lot of smooth jazz music on my one MP3 player.

So, I'm the very last of gen X, I agree with Chris and ZenithCKLW I'd like to see a soft station as well, I mean just 1. Not bro country, Taylor swift and Maroon 5, and beyond stale classic rock/hits.

One of the last of The B/EZ stations I know of were WRSA 96.9 in I believe Huntsville Alabama, which dropped the format for AC in 2001. 105.9 in Myrtle Beach had the format into the early mid 2000s I want to say as well as having ABC's memories format on 93.5. All gone now.
There’s an incredible amount of Smooth Jazz on the internet. One of my favorites is from www.begoodradio.com it’s an 80’s Jazz station another is www.smoothjazznetwork.com both are excellent stations.

Deleted User 16093

Re: WJOI 97fm 1987

Post by Deleted User 16093 » Wed Nov 29, 2023 6:04 pm

Caliber wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2023 5:43 pm
Foamy wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2023 1:01 pm
I'd love to see smooth jazz make a comeback as a format in some form. I actually have a lot of smooth jazz music on my one MP3 player.

So, I'm the very last of gen X, I agree with Chris and ZenithCKLW I'd like to see a soft station as well, I mean just 1. Not bro country, Taylor swift and Maroon 5, and beyond stale classic rock/hits.

One of the last of The B/EZ stations I know of were WRSA 96.9 in I believe Huntsville Alabama, which dropped the format for AC in 2001. 105.9 in Myrtle Beach had the format into the early mid 2000s I want to say as well as having ABC's memories format on 93.5. All gone now.
There’s an incredible amount of Smooth Jazz on the internet. One of my favorites is from www.begoodradio.com it’s an 80’s Jazz station another is www.smoothjazznetwork.com both are excellent stations.
I'll have to check those out.

Deleted User 16144

Re: WJOI 97fm 1987

Post by Deleted User 16144 » Wed Nov 29, 2023 6:13 pm

Foamy wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2023 6:04 pm
Caliber wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2023 5:43 pm
Foamy wrote:
Wed Nov 29, 2023 1:01 pm
I'd love to see smooth jazz make a comeback as a format in some form. I actually have a lot of smooth jazz music on my one MP3 player.

So, I'm the very last of gen X, I agree with Chris and ZenithCKLW I'd like to see a soft station as well, I mean just 1. Not bro country, Taylor swift and Maroon 5, and beyond stale classic rock/hits.

One of the last of The B/EZ stations I know of were WRSA 96.9 in I believe Huntsville Alabama, which dropped the format for AC in 2001. 105.9 in Myrtle Beach had the format into the early mid 2000s I want to say as well as having ABC's memories format on 93.5. All gone now.
There’s an incredible amount of Smooth Jazz on the internet. One of my favorites is from www.begoodradio.com it’s an 80’s Jazz station another is www.smoothjazznetwork.com both are excellent stations.
I'll have to check those out.
When you check out Begoodradio scroll down to the radio click on it and you’ll find 12 different 80’s channels. The Jazz channel in near the top left. I actually have the app and all the 80’s channels are excellent. I also enjoy the New Wave channel.

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Ben Zonia
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Re: WJOI 97fm 1987

Post by Ben Zonia » Thu Nov 30, 2023 12:03 am

ChrisWL1980 wrote:
Tue Nov 28, 2023 8:59 pm
MWmetalhead wrote:
Tue Nov 28, 2023 5:41 pm
I don't know how anyone could stand listening to that boring, sleepy stuff. :x :x :x

The death of the B/EZ format might be the best thing to have ever happened to FM radio.
With all due respect, I don't know how anyone can stand having their eardrums blasted by heavy metal. But we're all different.
Caliber wrote:
Tue Nov 28, 2023 5:57 pm
Just think that back in the 60’s Detroit had three Beautiful Music stations in a row on the FM Dial. WLDM-FM 95.5, WJR-FM 96.3 and WWJ-FM 97.1 and we can’t forget WOMC-104.3 which was WEXL-FM originally. 101 Strings doing the latest instrumental version of Beatles songs or Bert Kaempfert or even Herb Alpert. The early days of FM Radio.
There was also 560 WQTE on AM (c. 1961 to 1974), and Windsor had 88.7 CKWW-FM in the pre-CJOM days. 106.7 W4 was also originally a Beautiful Music station under Gordon McLendon's ownership prior to the switch to Solid Gold around 1970.
Before "California Radio," WJR-FM carried a syndicated CBS corporate format called "The Young Sound," which was aired by many CBS O&O stations around the country including WCBS-FM in NYC. From airchecks I've heard, The Young Sound was similar to what WKNR-FM later did with Stereo Island (a blend of instrumentals and some very soft rock).

The mid-'70s were when Detroit was REALLY a B/EZ smorgasbord... 95.5, 96.3, 97.1 and 104.3 plus AM 560 and WNIC (the former WKNR-AM/FM) having joined the fray in 1972. Not to mention the out-of-market stations one could hear in the suburbs: WGMZ, WJIM-FM, WLQR, WGER, WXEZ, etc.
I had a teacher in 1968-69 who listened to reel to reel tapes of WQTE 560 before and in between classes, given to her by another teacher. Most radios in the area could not get WQTE, because of local WKMF 1470 having an IF image on 560. Car Radios were the exception, having a 262 kHz IF. WGMZ had dropped Beautiful Music for Adult Contemporary at the time, when they were sold to Metrocom, and Bob Layne/Bob Liggett was the Program Director. A couple of years later, WGMZ was sold to Beck Ross Communications, who returned it to an automated reel to reel syndicated Beautiful Music format. The other teacher must have had access to a location or receiver that could receive WQTE. At the time, it seemed like a lot of effort to listen to Beautiful Music. But most people didn't have more than one FM radio in their homes, and usually not in their cars, so it was another option when they wanted to relax at work. If they had an outside antenna at home, they could have heard all of those FMs mentioned except WLQR and WXEZ. But few people had outside antennas then. WBCM-FM 96.1 was also Beautiful Music before it became WHNN. When WBCM-FM was 41 kW, you could get both WJR-FM 96.3 and WBCM-FM 96.1, because they were about the same strength. Receivers tuned strong local signals pretty wide then, especially with the AFC on. Nobody mentioned WHFI 94.7.
"I had a job for a while as an announcer at WWV but I finally quit, because I couldn't stand the hours."

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Marcus
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Re: WJOI 97fm 1987

Post by Marcus » Thu Nov 30, 2023 12:38 am

The old I.F. image situation. WHLS Port Huron did it to CBEF when it was on 540 where in my area (no loss for me because it was French). In Guelph, Ontario their local signal on 1460 AM must do the same thing to WGR from Buffalo. I found that portable Sony radios could ignore it because they also used an I.F. that was like what car radios used.

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