Alice 106.7 lives here in Detroit

Feb 11 00:51 UTC 2000

        WWWW has again become a thing of the past.  106.7fm in Detroit
 has debuted a new format:  Rockin Hits of the 80's, 90's and 70's as
 "Alice 106.7".  
        I've been tuned in for about the past hour now, and yes, it is
 high pop rocking tunes, indeed centering on the 80's.  Rock from 
 Joe Walsh.  Tunes by Billy Joel.  Rocking chart toppers from Prince
 "When Doves Fly" is on right now) and Blondie.
 
        Anybody know when the change occured?   Gone is the W4 Country.
        It is all slicked up, highly self promotional and even insulting
 like other Detroit Stations--ie, "Commercial free music coming up as
 soon as we finish playing these commercials" --Duh!
        They just might get some else's button on the radio.
 
        Would this leave "Young Country"  99.5 as the only Country music
 outlet for the Detroit market?  If it is, there is a big gap on the
 dial for that audience.  99.5fm just is not the strong, all metro
 covering signal that 106.7 has.  I wonder if we will see other changes
 on the dial, these things seem to happen in clusters.

q

response 2 of 34:

Feb 11 01:49 UTC 2000

When Doves Fly? The hell you say.

response 4 of 34:

Feb 11 02:57 UTC 2000

You can take some of our excess from up here, too.  Also, a friend of mine
from South Carolina has often complained about the preponderance of country
there, so you could probably have some of theirs as well.

response 6 of 34:

Feb 11 04:10 UTC 2000

Actually, it changed to Alice several months ago....and it's not an all
together bad format at all.....they ahve a really nice range of music.

response 8 of 34:

Feb 11 11:45 UTC 2000

W4 disappeared as a country station in early January.  For those in the
eastern Washtenaw/western Wayne County area, my favorite country station is
actually an am station that has been broadcasting country music for 30 years.
WSDS at 1480 has a magnificent playlist, and very personable DJs.  

response 10 of 34:

Feb 11 16:22 UTC 2000

I was driving home from work, listening to W4 Country, when the 
announcer (Michael J. Fox) came on, and said some light, flowery 
things.  He then played "The Dance" by Garth Brooks.  And the radio 
stopped playing music.  For the next couple of days there was a steady 
tone at 106.7, then they came out with their "80's, 90's and 70's" 
format. It's all robot music; no DJs, except in the morning during the 
week (I guess).  What a disappointment.

 I just this week found out where "Young Country" is on the dial, and so 
I'll listen to it occasionally.  There's also a country station in 
Adrian -- out of range for most people in Ann Arbor, but good for 
anywhere in Lenawee County.     

response 12 of 34:

Feb 11 19:36 UTC 2000

95.5 of country music...I love that.  =)

NPR is my savior when in the U.P.  On the Seney Stretch and a stretch of US-41
between L'Anse and Houghton, the seek will go all the way around the band (fun
to watch when bored to death on the Seney Stretch).   You can, however, find
NPR if you play with the tuner yourself.

Yes, I have a tape deck,but it's broken.  =)
(like my spacebar)

response 14 of 34:

Feb 11 23:15 UTC 2000

        Whatever happened to WiGGLe?

response 16 of 34:

Feb 13 03:18 UTC 2000

There's also Michigan Tech's public radio station, on 91.1.  Actually, I
think 91.1 is actually a translator from another frequency, but I'm not
sure.  It covers well the area between Marquette and Houghton after you lose
WNMU.  It's a Minnesota Public Radio feed, for political reasons.  (If it
were CMU Public Radio, MTU would be getting their feed from NMU, their arch
rival school.)

response 18 of 34:

Feb 13 09:10 UTC 2000

The Planet doesn't impress me at all, but I'm amused that now we've had 
a "decade change" (believe it or not, they seem to), they've begun 
playing some music with guitar amplification again.  Specifically, I 
have managed to hear Smells Like Teen Spirit and some plugged in Bush 
and Pumpkins tunes on there.  Returning to their roots?  A bit, 
perhaps.  80's music is officially flourishing, again, as a retro 
concept.  

response 20 of 34:

Feb 14 19:09 UTC 2000

The ad may be the same, but the format has changed slightly.  A couple years
before you arrived in town, The Planet moved from your basic alternative
station to one that had a slightly softer sound, targetted primarily at women.
They played a lot of contemporary alternative music, but "hard" stuff was
thrown out the window.  Now that the decade has changed, "hard" stuff is
apparently considered to be something of a flashback.  I went two or three
years without hearing a sing Nirvana or Bush song on that station.

response 22 of 34:

Feb 15 21:12 UTC 2000

All of this being primarily a reminder that what is played on the radio 
is simply bait for the advertisements.  Stations play what the majority 
listens to, with the hopes that their advertisements will also reach 
that audience.  (Most DJ's earn the bulk of their dough doing ads, as I 
understand it).

It's very different out here, where country music stations are 
plentiful-- about 3 mainstream and 2 that I call "Hispanic country," 
i.e., stations that play banda, norteno, tejano, etc.

response 24 of 34:

Feb 16 00:11 UTC 2000

What is the Planet?