THE PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY

Is anybody still home at WMMR,
"the home of rock 'n' roll?"

by Ramsay Pennypacker & Barry Gutman

April 8, 1998

April 29th marks the 30th anniversary of 93.3 FM, WMMR -- and what a hollow celebration it will be.

Today, Philly's "Home of Rock 'n' Roll" looks more like a shack that's been stripped by the repo man. Gone are Jackson Browne, Billy Joel, Steely Dan, Bonnie Raitt and countless other artists whose careers were kick-started by the station and who, in turn, gave 'MMR its uniquely progressive identity. Even Bruce Springsteen -- arguably, the musician who best defines the station's '70s and '80s glory days -- has been virtually banished.

In their place, such formerly marginal headbangers as Ozzy Osbourne, the Scorpions, Billy Squier and Def Leppard have been promoted into "heavy rotation" beside such stalwarts as Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin and Van Halen, who were once merely the harder-edged components of a balanced AOR (album-oriented rock) format.

Listeners searching for 'MMR's disenfranchised artists might find some vestige of them at WMGK (102.9 FM), which specializes in playing "Classic Hits" -- but only the classics, and only the hits. Forget about hearing favorite album tracks like Browne's "For Everyman," Joel's "The Entertainer" and Steely Dan's "Kid Charlemagne" at 'MGK. These songs have disappeared from the commercial airwaves like a "Spirit in the Night."

It's horrible to see somebody murdering something you love," sighs Jonathan Takiff, head music writer at the Philadelphia Daily News and a jock at 'MMR during the '70s.

The "somebody" to whom Takiff is referring is the Greater Philadelphia Radio Group, a subsidiary of Greater Media Radio, Inc., an East Brunswick, New Jersey-based communications conglomerate which, it is important to note, also owns WMGK and quasi-modern-rocker WXXM ("The Max"). The corporation acquired 'MMR about a year ago and almost immediately began revamping the station's sound. As a result, only a handful of artists, such as John Mellencamp and Tom Petty, are heard on both 'MMR and 'MGK.

"We felt that ['MMR] needed a little juice, a little attitude, a little energy," says Dennis Begley, whom Greater Media appointed senior vice president/general manager of its three Philly rock properties. "We had to give it a more '90s feel. That attitude is reflected on the air now.

"If you're talking to people who were [once] associated with 'MMR," Begley continues, "you're probably getting a lot of, 'Gee, it's not the way it used to be!' They're right, it's not. Things have changed and we've got to compete in 1998."

These changes -- topped off in January with the dismissal of veteran personalities "Bubba" John Stevens, Ed Sciaky and Helen Leicht, and by Matt Cord's recent departure, and the arrival of self-described "rude, lewd and tattooed" evening jock Donielle Flynn -- were effected by "music research and focus groups," says Begley.

"What we've gone with is the best bet to get 'MMR where we want it to be, which is up near the top," he says. "And we're betting pretty heavily that we picked the right way to go."

It's a hedged bet, at best. Even if 'MMR does get "near the top," it'll do so without the latter half of the 25- to 54-year-old demographic that's so appealing to advertisers. This lucrative audience would rather hear artists like Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, and Crosby, Stills and Nash, whose primary home is now WMGK. By relocating these acts, Greater Media is also obviously attempting to consolidate this desired listenership, which was formerly split between the two stations. Consolidation is as compelling a reason for the change as the research that Begley cites.

Ed Sciaky in a WMMR publicity photo

Ed Sciaky recalls a staff meeting last summer at which 'MMR program director Joe Bonadonna presented the format change. "It wasn't so much said that we were trying not to hurt 'MGK," Sciaky says, "but that 'MMR and 'MGK were going to be driving parallel but separate lanes on the highway, and that 'MMR must stick to its lane by laying off the Billy Joels and the Steely Dans and the Jackson Brownes. It was presented in terms of focusing on what our listeners wanted -- according to the research. [The research showed that] they really wanted the Led Zeppelins and Aerosmiths and Van Halens. And we had to give that to them."

Programming shifts such as this are endemic of the deregulation of the broadcasting industry, which dates back to the Reagan era. For the past decade, fewer and fewer parties have assumed ownership of more and more stations across the nation. The best example of this trend was the 1996 merger of media conglomerates Infinity Broadcasting and CBS/Westinghouse, a $4 billion deal that was set to bring WMMR, WYSP, WOGL ("Oldies 98"), KYW, WIP and WPHT under the same ownership.

As one of the conditions for the ratification of the merger, though, the Justice Department mandated that CBS divest itself of WMMR so as not to exceed a 40 percent market share of radio advertising revenue, thereby preserving fair competition. As a result, CBS traded WMMR and two Boston stations to Greater Media for a pair of stations in Los Angeles. With that move, 'MMR's fate was essentially sealed.

"One absolute result of stations being clustered under a single owner," explains another former 'MMR personality, Michael Tearson, "is that there is no longer an attempt by single stations to dominate the market by competing head-to-head, but instead, for the cluster of stations to be complementary to each other, in order to maximize the corporation's take on the advertising dollar." The tragedy is that, if 'MMR had been allowed to remain part of the CBS cluster, its AOR format would have been complementary to 'YSP's "testosterone-rock" and, therefore, more likely to have survived.

As for the fate of the exiled 'MMR-tists, non-commercial WXPN (88.5 FM) serves some of them -- such as Browne, Raitt and Van Morrison -- quite well, delving deeply into their catalogs as well as featuring their new releases. But as valuable as public radio is to these veterans, it can't possibly offer the exposure they once enjoyed on the commercial side of the dial. And others -- most notably, Billy Joel -- have no place in 'XPN's triple-A (adult album alternative) format.

I am sad for my listeners," Sciaky says. "Greater Media doesn't seem to have any reverence for the history of 'MMR and what it has meant to the audience. It's like taking a full-line department store like Sears and changing its identity, dropping the hardware and only focusing on the clothing. These things have happened successfully in American business, but I don't know if you can do it with a radio station -- especially one as special as 'MMR was."

The future of the new WMMR is far from certain. In fact, the next few months could prove crucial as, according to Dennis Begley, the spring Arbitron ratings "book" has traditionally been the station's strongest. Should the numbers -- which Begley concedes are currently "flat" -- fail to match past spring performances, it's a reasonable assumption that Greater Media will have to reevaluate the viability of 'MMR's current format. But a return to its former AOR identity is unlikely, so long as it remains a sister station of WMGK.

"[Greater Media is] trying to find a new audience," says Takiff. "In a sense, they're flushing the old station. Which makes me think they should just fold the whole operation, change the call letters and turn it into something else.

"I mean, it isn't WMMR anymore."

If you'd like to comment, pro or con, on the changes at WMMR, contact Tom Milewski, Group President of Greater Media Radio, Inc., 2 Kennedy Blvd., East Brunswick, NJ 08816.