There had been some speculation that Clear Channel Cleveland hot AC mainstay WMVX/106.5 “Mix 106.5” would change formats after the “Mixmas” Christmas music ended.
When “Mixmas” yielded to “Mix” again on the day after Christmas, many of us were taking our money away from the Format Change Betting Window.
We should have kept it there.
Starting at 10 this morning, WMVX has blown up the long-standing hot AC format, and is stunting by playing, well, everything.
No, we don’t mean a “Jack FM” style variety hits format, which was all the rage a while back.
We mean EVERYTHING.
Consider some of the artists and songs played in just in the past 45 minutes:
Merle Haggard
Destiny’s Child
“All That Jazz” (Broadway show tune)
“The Pennsylvania Polka”
We’ve heard classical and standards music. We’ve heard Chicago, Peter Gabriel and the Rolling Stones, along with Jimmy Dean. At this writing, the station is playing “America”…no, not the band, the patriotic song.
One of our readers points out that you can follow along with the WMVX music madness via the folks at Yes.com. (Polka music and patriotic songs are apparently not in the Yes.com database.)
In short, it may be easier to list what kind of music WMVX has NOT played yet, and OMW hears this trend will continue at least for the first part of this stunting period…if not all weekend.
On air liners proclaim “New year, new station…Cleveland radio changes for the better in…”, and provide a countdown to 7:30 AM Monday.
The station’s website has been wiped out, and replaced with a simple text message mirroring the on-air liners:
Cleveland radio
changes for the better on Monday at 7:30am.
…along with a link to the station’s streaming audio.
Oddly enough, the streaming audio player is still in full “Mix 106.5” mode, and even odder, it opens with a pre-roll video of Daune Robinson promoting the station’s “Daily Deal” promotion.
Odd, because OMW has confirmed that “Mix” staffers Robinson and Jay Hudson are no longer with the station. WMVX didn’t have an extensive air staff in recent years, and they are probably the only on-air staffers at Oak Tree directly attached to 106.5. As you’d expect, WMVX is also ending its carriage of “Valentine in the Morning”, the voicetracked/syndicated morning drive show provided by Los Angeles radio personality Sean Valentine.
As of yet, we have no indication what could be coming on the other side of this stunt.
But Lance Venta over at RadioInsight.com has his Net Gnomes in full gear, and reports that Clear Channel recently registered “1065TheLake.com”.
We caution, however, that radio companies are very much onto the game of snooping into domain registrations.
Even if this domain is not destined for another Clear Channel outlet at 106.5 (Lance noted earlier this month that it could have been headed for Salt Lake City, and indeed, it redirects to Clear Channel’s AC “Today 106.5” in that market), it may mean nothing other than throwing online snoops off for the few bucks cost of a domain name registration.
We will try to update both our Twitter account and this blog as we find out more…
Domain snooping is a game. I’d like to think I’ve gotten pretty good at it, but companies need to be protecting their assets. Recently Clear Channel had 1027TheWolf.com redirecting to the website of WEBN in Cincinnati. I think we all know WEBN wouldn’t be flipping right now, let alone to a moniker already used in Cincinnati. It would eventually redirect to KHGE in Fresno, which flipped to that moniker on 12/26.
Clear Channel should be trying to prevent people to figuring out their plans and curtailing any competitive edge that comes out of it. I for one hope I’m wrong more often for the sake of good radio.
I love this format!!!! I hope it does stay this way! I like the mix, and I have not yet heard a repeat song. It is like playing your ipod on shuffle but it is all the time!
For all of you that love it – I agree absolutely!
These one genre formulaic stations are driving people away from broadcast radio. If you tune to 105.7 on any weekend, you’d think Elvis and Credence only made 2 songs. But you could always count on Prince at the mid hour.
if MVX keeps this eclectic random all over the map playlist – I’m IN! Maybe because I havn;t hears Ally Oop on any station in countless years.
If they go back to single genre and pre-fabbed over voice homogenized radio – I’m back on the MP3 player.
To bad the website is lame duck – I’d love to comment directly to management.
Um, I love this…what are the chances of them keeping this wacked out format? It’s like having a schizo DJ and once you think “this is the weirdest song” there’s another one that’s even battier! Keep it up!
What the heck! I listen to 106.5 at work because I love the no repeat workday. Today, I noticed a change. Actually, the show tunes and a bad remake of a Modanna song forced me to search the internet for an explanation. I do not want 106.5 to change. I learned to like Valentine, but I may not be able to handle a total revamp. Okay, right now, they are playing Gin & Juice. Seriously?
Gin & Juice? I would KILL to hear that during my workday. We are forced to listen to W Krap Doggie Doo, as we call it. (That’s WKDD for those of you who can’t figure it out). They play the same crap again and again and over and over every day, every week, every month, every year.
However, no other station can be tuned in without static. So we’re stuck!
You’d think there was only one song by each artist.
WTAM-FM? Clear Channel is flipping more station AM talk stations to FM. Could Cleveland be next? Maybe a split signal with 1100 for a live clearance of Sean Hannity and other shows currently not heard in Cleveland?
That’s certainly possible, and a good idea to boot.
Also, sports/talk is an option, as Fox Sports Radio could easily be snagged from 1540 (since their 1st priority is ESPN).
If you make 106.5 sports, CC could possilby snag Jim Rome and the Buckeyes from WKNR (their 2 biggest non-Rizzo guns)
You do that, and WKNR dies.
They may do that just to kill KNR and really dominate the talk realm.
I enjoy this blog even though I don’t work in the media.
Why do radio stations planning a format change use bizarre playlists before making a change? Didn’t WQMX have an all ABBA day before going country? Why are they trying to run off whatever loyal listeners they had before going to a new format? I don’t understand the rationale. Can anyone explain this to me?
Thanks
Could there be something “Brewing”? Or is it something more Gen-X?
I love the randomness of the current transition period – it makes for great radio – not knowing what to expect next. It will be interesting to see what format takes over on Monday morning. I hope it’s not too “tried and true.”
I was wondering what was up when I heard “Amish Paradise” followed by “Me and Bobby McGee”,
Well, let’s see. There isn’t a “Classic Top 40” format in the area, but would they switch to that at the expense of WMJI’s ratings? They could switch to “Classic Country” but don’t think they’d do that cause it might steal listeners from WGAR. They could go as a “Gen X” format, but it appears WKDD is running that format even though they are not calling themselves a “Gen X’ station. As mentioned before, they could move WTAM talk to FM or bring in an FM sports talk format. Then that would leave them what to do with WTAM; leave it as is or flip it to another format or just try and lock up all the talk talent in the USA by getting those currently not heard in the area. Or they could leave it as what they are currently stunting with, a giant Ipod Shuffle. I actually like what they are doing with it currently, they could leave it and drop the polkas, patriotic and Broadway tunes and just continue playing a lot of different music from all across the format spectrum. I’ve listened to 106.5 more in the last two days than I have in the last five years. I just hope they don’t just add like 15 songs and go back to calling themselves “The All New Mix 106”
This is an absolutely fantastic format! I don’t want to turn the station because I can’t wait to hear what they’re gonna play next. Oh please, if management is reading, PLEASE keep this! And Yekimi – you’re wrong – KEEP THE POLKAS AND PATRIOTIC AND EVERYTHING!! Open your mind. This is too cool!
I DO NO LIKE THIS NEW FORMAT:(((((what’s going to happen to the show where they raised money for the cleveland clinic/rainbow’s children’s hospital??who needs or wants polka mixed in with rock, classical, or any other music?? THIS SUCKS!!!! I am truly disappointed….
When radio stations switch formats they generally do spmething to get everyones attention…For example..WNCX 98.5 in 1986 ran the Beatles A – Z before hitting the airwaves…The End WENZ played R E M’S “It’s The End of The World As We Know It” for 24 hours…Just while engineering tweaks the transmitters. Honestly people ..the old format was horrid..How much of the music identifier after each song could we stand anymore..
My vibes are a format to go after V107.3,,,Being right next door on the dial……….A glorious AOR format with more classic rock is coming……
I want to know what happened to my millions of listener reward points on Mix 106.5. I tried calling the station before this happened and got nowhere. I left a message and did not receive a call back. I would have used all my points on the auctions had I known that the program would vanish. Shame on you Clear Channel!
I love this new format too. I would like a dj here and there, they can be entertaining…except Valentine, I couldn’t stand his voice and the flapping of his gums, or constantly hearing about his wife and kid. And I am most thankful for not having to listen to Katy Perry and Lady GaGa again. I had to listen to the same songs I didnt like on my way to and from work every morning, because all the other stations were on commercials. I swear they were playing the same Katy Perry songs every single morning. at 4 a.m. and 8:30 a.m.
I* hate it, it is awful . MIX 106.5 was a wonderful station , first you got rid of Brian and Joe, then this, I have to find a new radio station, I am very disappointed