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My 96.3

Discussion pertaining to Detroit, Ann Arbor, Port Huron, and SW Ontario
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MWmetalhead
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Re: My 96.3

Post by MWmetalhead » Sun Dec 16, 2018 8:17 am

You're right, stopnswop. I don't think Disney's acquisition of ABC had occurred yet. I should've said Capital Cities / ABC (owner of WPLT at the time).



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MWmetalhead
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Re: My 96.3

Post by MWmetalhead » Sun Dec 16, 2018 8:24 am

The station at least had plenty of personality and a seemingly wider playlist in that '97 aircheck. Not bad.

By 1999, the station was boring and dreary. Ratings were around a 2.5.

It sucked every bit as bad in 2000 during the "alternative classics" phase. Playlist probably had 250 songs max. Even with 93.9 morphing to Rock AC and 105.1 becoming groovy, the ratings stayed in the toilet (they actually slipped further).



Mega Hertz
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Re: My 96.3

Post by Mega Hertz » Sun Dec 16, 2018 9:51 am

I got my first lesson in radio from Johnny in the morning. My dad took me to McDonald's for breakfast and they were there. We called him over to chat (which he happily did), and I started asking about "the biz". This was shortly after 105.1 and 102.7 flipped and I asked him why all the rock stations were changing. He likened it to restaurants since we were in one. He said "if nobody is eating at one burger joint but the other one has lines out the door, what do you think is going to happen? They're going to close down or offer something more popular. They want to get as much business as the popular place". That was the first thing I learned about radio and I never forgot it.

As for the station itself, I still enjoyed it through early to mid 1999. Around the summer is when I started to lose interest and moved over to WRIF and 89x more often. I miss that station as much as I miss WLLZ. Six stations in the market that were playing Green Day? Sign me up!


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Mega Hertz
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Location: Brighton

Re: My 96.3

Post by Mega Hertz » Sun Dec 16, 2018 10:21 am

https://youtu.be/QfJd-Fb4SzQ

Here's about where I got off the bus. This was shortly after the REM stunt and were now in full alternative classics mode.


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szmigiel
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Re: My 96.3

Post by szmigiel » Tue Dec 18, 2018 12:11 pm

I still remember The Planet fondly and was my favorite format that 96.3 had. I do remember it starting to go downhill, starting to play too much of the same thing, but I honestly can't remember when it went off the rails. I think the playlist kept getting narrowed down slowly overtime, till they were only playing a few artist as part of the alternative classics, and heavy rotation of whatever the current hits were.



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