89X returns?

[MWmetalhead]

Yes. WDRQ definitely, 89X to a degree, V98.7, and here's one that might surprise some folks coming from me - WNIC.

WJLB was more R&B than hip-hop leaning back then. That would soon change.

WRIF beginning at 7PM weeknights was damn good actually. The station had a far different sound at night than during the daytime.

[MegaHertz]

Planet 96.3 during its modern AC days and its (self proclaimed) classic alternative phase was a very boring radio station, in my opinion.

Anyone remember 93.9 The River's "Smooth Rock" era? That was one truly awful radio station. Boring liner card reading jocks, a bad mix of WCSX, WNIC and original River songs, frequent interruptions of the music for local news headlines, and weirdly muddy processing that sounded like it was meant for an Oldies station.

Detroit's FM music stations were collectively shittier in the year 2000 than today. That's uncommon, because in most places, FM music radio was probably better back then versus now.

CIDR was horribly programmed, WCSX avoided all hard edged classic rock and wouldn't even play AC/DC or most Led Zep songs (that finally began to change in 2001 or 2002), WKQI was a watered down wannabe CHR, WPLT burnt a bunch of very boring new wave and post grunge singles to a crisp, WYCD sounded like shit and was inferior to WITL, WBCT and WKKO (99.5 did improve programming wise beginning in 2001), WRIF played too much "uncool" 70s and 80s rock during the daytime, WOMC played hokey 50s and 60s songs, The Groove played the same 150 classic soul songs on a loop, WDTJ played violent sounding hip-hop "music" for gangbangers, Alice 106.7 was a gimmicky novelty station, and WGPR sounded like it was using equipment held together with bubble gum and duct tape and competed with CIDR for worst processing known to man honors.

Were there any good music stations during that time period?

I listed a couple, it depends on what your tastes were. I think WDRQ was miles above anything else in the marker. It was a TRUE top 40. DRQ from 1999-2001 was a great station. The music mix was top notch. WJLB had a great CHUrban thing happening still, but other than that, it was slim pickins around here. Idk, I guess WKQI had a good Hot AC thing going on, too.

[CurlyHoward]

Planet 96.3 during its modern AC days and its (self proclaimed) classic alternative phase was a very boring radio station, in my opinion.

Anyone remember 93.9 The River's "Smooth Rock" era? That was one truly awful radio station. Boring liner card reading jocks, a bad mix of WCSX, WNIC and original River songs, frequent interruptions of the music for local news headlines, and weirdly muddy processing that sounded like it was meant for an Oldies station.

Detroit's FM music stations were collectively shittier in the year 2000 than today. That's uncommon, because in most places, FM music radio was probably better back then versus now.

CIDR was horribly programmed, WCSX avoided all hard edged classic rock and wouldn't even play AC/DC or most Led Zep songs (that finally began to change in 2001 or 2002), WKQI was a watered down wannabe CHR, WPLT burnt a bunch of very boring new wave and post grunge singles to a crisp, WYCD sounded like shit and was inferior to WITL, WBCT and WKKO (99.5 did improve programming wise beginning in 2001), WRIF played too much "uncool" 70s and 80s rock during the daytime, WOMC played hokey 50s and 60s songs, The Groove played the same 150 classic soul songs on a loop, WDTJ played violent sounding hip-hop "music" for gangbangers, Alice 106.7 was a gimmicky novelty station, and WGPR sounded like it was using equipment held together with bubble gum and duct tape and competed with CIDR for worst processing known to man honors.

Were there any good music stations during that time period?

In Chicago where I lived then we had WRCX Rock 103.5 which was a great active rock station especially in 1997-8 its last two years, along with Q101 which was one of America's great alternative stations if a little light for my taste. But when Mancow jumped from the latter to the former in the summer of '98, proto-Clear Channel made the horrible decision to pipe in Bob & Tom in mornings. They drew flies as their podunk show always has in any large market besides Indy their home base, and in November '98 Rock 103.5 was flipped to Jammin' Oldies. Then it became Kiss FM a few years later.

After that we were left with Q101 which gradually enshittified with late 90's-early 2000s hard rock, the Loop which only played the very safest new rock like 3 Doors Down amid tired ass Bad Company and whatnot, and from 2001 the Drive which now plays AC/DC but in its beginning was a completely soft Carole King/Dan Fogelberg classic hits station.

[edj]

WIOT was less stale. There’s that.

[CurlyHoward]

WIOT was less stale. There’s that.

By 2005 when I moved to Toledo only barely, and mostly only because they had Grizzly at night playing "High Voltage" metal at midnight. During the day it'd be Steve Miller, Humble Pie and CCR along with Toledo's beloved 80s butt rock shit. Was it different in the 90s?

[MWmetalhead]

WIOT in the year 2000 was programmed much like Houston's very lame 101 KLOL from a music standpoint. Also, WIOT and Dayton's WTUE were near clones of one another.

Median song age was certainly younger back then versus today, but WIOT usually didn't add songs into rotation until near or after the point popular singles moved into recurrent rotation at Active Rock.

The backbone of the gold library consisted of 70's & 80's staple singles by Van Halen, AC/DC, Tom Petty, Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Kiss, etc.

Recent song titles from artists such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Days of the New, Metallica, Green Day, Creed, Bush and Offspring were part of the playlist. They avoided Korn, Limp Bizkit, RATM, Marilyn Manson, Tool and Disturbed, if I remember correctly. They also steered clear of Blink 182, Sugar Ray, etc.

I also remember a lot of song repetition and minimal turnover in the library titles played over the airwaves. It was a boring, predictable radio station from a music standpoint, much like today. My guess is during normal programming, the station at most might've played 350 unique song titles over the course of a full month.

Unlike WRIF, there was minimal dayparting at WIOT. The same safe music mix played during the workday was pretty much the same music mix played on the station at night.

Just like now, WIOT aired Bob & Tom in mornings. Susan Gates was middays, I think. Don Davis handled afternoons. Troy MIchaels handled evenings.

The station at various times has flipped back and forth between Chris Corley and B.C. for V/O duties. In the era I'm describing, I believe they used Chris Corley (who was also heard on Ann Arbor's WIQB).

So, in summary, WIOT was lame, Ann Arbor's WIQB was lame (and had abysmal air talent who did little more than read liner cards), WRIF was lame prior to 7PM, and 89X liked to include pop songs from Avril Lavigne and No Doubt in its mix during workdays. What really pissed me off is I was only 10 miles outside of easy listening range of Lansing's Q106, which was an outstanding station at the time.

Streaming audio was already a thing, but listening to an unprocessed 20 kbps .mp3 stream over dial-up internet wasn't exactly an enthralling experience.

Ghetto gangbanger station 105.9 Jamz made reception of Q106 impossible in most of Ann Arbor. The weird thing is WDTJ (the current day WDMK) had a much stronger signal than WDRQ in Ann Arbor, even though they both broadcast from the same tower, and even though WDTJ was supposed to have a shallow null in that direction.

[radioandtventhusiast]

WIOT in the year 2000 was programmed much like Houston's very lame 101 KLOL from a music standpoint. Also, WIOT and Dayton's WTUE were near clones of one another.

Median song age was certainly younger back then versus today, but WIOT usually didn't add songs into rotation until near or after the point popular singles moved into recurrent rotation at Active Rock.

The backbone of the gold library consisted of 70's & 80's staple singles by Van Halen, AC/DC, Tom Petty, Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Kiss, etc.

Recent song titles from artists such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Days of the New, Metallica, Green Day, Creed, Bush and Offspring were part of the playlist. They avoided Korn, Limp Bizkit, RATM, Marilyn Manson, Tool and Disturbed, if I remember correctly. They also steered clear of Blink 182, Sugar Ray, etc.

I also remember a lot of song repetition and minimal turnover in the library titles played over the airwaves. It was a boring, predictable radio station from a music standpoint, much like today. My guess is during normal programming, the station at most might've played 350 unique song titles over the course of a full month.

Unlike WRIF, there was minimal dayparting at WIOT. The same safe music mix played during the workday was pretty much the same music mix played on the station at night.

Just like now, WIOT aired Bob & Tom in mornings. Susan Gates was middays, I think. Don Davis handled afternoons. Troy MIchaels handled evenings.

The station at various times has flipped back and forth between Chris Corley and B.C. for V/O duties. In the era I'm describing, I believe they used Chris Corley (who was also heard on Ann Arbor's WIQB).

So, in summary, WIOT was lame, Ann Arbor's WIQB was lame (and had abysmal air talent who did little more than read liner cards), WRIF was lame prior to 7PM, and 89X liked to include pop songs from Avril Lavigne and No Doubt in its mix during workdays. What really pissed me off is I was only 10 miles outside of easy listening range of Lansing's Q106, which was an outstanding station at the time.

Streaming audio was already a thing, but listening to an unprocessed 20 kbps .mp3 stream over dial-up internet wasn't exactly an enthralling experience.

Ghetto gangbanger station 105.9 Jamz made reception of Q106 impossible in most of Ann Arbor. The weird thing is WDTJ (the current day WDMK) had a much stronger signal than WDRQ in Ann Arbor, even though they both broadcast from the same tower, and even though WDTJ was supposed to have a shallow null in that direction.

I was too young to listen to WIOT in 2000, but from looking at old lineups on the internet, Grizzly was the overnight host. Don Davis left around 2001, and Troy took the afternoon slot and Griz moved up to evenings.

If Chris Corley was the station V/O in 2000, that likely means he stayed as the V/O until his death in 2019. I remember him being the voice in the mid-2000s.

[MWmetalhead]

I was too young to listen to WIOT in 2000, but from looking at old lineups on the internet, Grizzly was the overnight host. Don Davis left around 2001, and Troy took the afternoon slot and Griz moved up to evenings.

That sounds right to me, but I do not know for certain.

If Chris Corley was the station V/O in 2000, that likely means he stayed as the V/O until his death in 2019. I remember him being the voice in the mid-2000s.

I want to say there was a period in between where B.C. did at least some of the voiceover work for WIOT, but I could be mistaken.

[radioandtventhusiast]

I was too young to listen to WIOT in 2000, but from looking at old lineups on the internet, Grizzly was the overnight host. Don Davis left around 2001, and Troy took the afternoon slot and Griz moved up to evenings.

That sounds right to me, but I do not know for certain.

If Chris Corley was the station V/O in 2000, that likely means he stayed as the V/O until his death in 2019. I remember him being the voice in the mid-2000s.

I want to say there was a period in between where B.C. did at least some of the voiceover work for WIOT, but I could be mistaken.

I noticed around 2012, they had an imaging liner that seemed like it was from 10 years back that said "104.7 WIOT, Toledo's original Rock'n Roll Station". I noticed in a 2001 Wayback machine, their slogan was the same one I mentioned. The liner didn't use Corley, so I'm wondering if it's a B.C. one.

[SuperBad]

New rock alt

[MWmetalhead]

A noteworthy increase in 90s and early 00s spins today versus normal on 89X.

We'll see if this sticks.

[MotorCityRadioFreak]

I would like to see them play the new previously unreleased tracks from Depeche Mode, but I am probably hoping for too much. Life 2.0 is great.

[ecsuser]

I would like to see them play the new previously unreleased tracks from Depeche Mode, but I am probably hoping for too much. Life 2.0 is great.

Where is the LIKE button?

[Billjonesmich]

Do people still listen?

[MegaHertz]

88.7 here at the tip of Genesee County (Linden) has some preacher whining and crying about being a victimized Christian. I miss when it used to reach out this way.