Music to Cleveland’s Ears: The Rise of V107.3 FM

Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, I clearly recall Mrs. Greenspan, my junior high bus driver, picking up the still sleepy pre-teens from the manicured corners, retaining her sanity by keeping her old-school transistor radio tuned to XRT, 93.1FM. The morning DJ of the time, Terri Hemmert, knew how to awaken the senses by combining her passion of great music, which includes her Beatles and Bryan Ferry obsessions, with her amazing ability to select just the right combination of songs for a musically sophisticated city. Chicago, home to Larry Lujack and John Records Landecker, catered to its audience and XRT, branded as “Chicago’s Finest Rock,” earned an army of followers. Later, as Lin Brehmer took over the mornings and Terri, a strong woman in a still male-dominated industry, moved to the midday slot, the music stayed fantastic.

During the 90′s, XRT was pretty much the only station in Chicago where one could hear Bonnie Rait, Nirvana, The Cure, Depeche Mode, BB King, The Stones, Blondie, just about every female artist on Lilith Fair and nearly all the musicians on the original Lollapalooza, including founder Perry Farrell’s band Jane’s Addiction. It also put a Hawaiian band on the map: XRT supported Poi Dog Pondering, building the eclectic group of musicians into a sold-out crowd favor. On Saturday nights, Marty Lennartz started spinning hot domestic and international dance tracks from his regular gig at The Dome Room, the only acceptable portion of the fraternity laden Excalibur nightclub. With fake ID in hand, I’d witness Marty expose young and mature, but all curious, minds to fantastic techno tracks by such cutting edge artists as Moby, The Orb, Utah Saints and My Life with the Thrill Kill Cult. Even Chicago’s own Ministry, now more thrash punk than 80′s dance, had a home. To every music snob, musicologist, musicaholic, musician and music lover, XRT was our sound crack. Frankly, Madonna being the exception, (ok, my exception) if 93.1 FM didn’t play it, you didn’t need to hear it.

Growing up on this station inspired not only my decade as a girl drummer in the 80′s, but, while at DePaul, also led me to a college internship at WJMK/WJJD, working (for free) with Lendecker and Dick Biondi. Then, several years later, while at Simon Business School in Rochester, NY, inspired me to write several cases, including what happens after Napster and if satellite radio is the answer to corporate formatting, now eradicating most quality music while bringing back payola in the form of corporate sponsorship.

By the time I arrived in Cleveland in 2003, the home of rock and roll, I was excited to be living just minutes from the Rock Hall and even spent my night before the critical job interview walking the museum vs. preparing for questions. We all know our internal motivation and music and movies are mine. What I didn’t expect, moving to a city with such a rich history of music, dance hall events and the man who first coined the term “rock and roll,” DJ Alan Freed, was the complete lack of quality radio.

A few years later, as I got my new VW, it came equipped with several months of free satellite. And, as with all things shiny and new, the novelty of the micro formatting eventually wore down on me: repeating songs by Beyonce, Linkin Park or even Clapton, and every band he’s ever been in, every 24 hours, as talented as they all are, is not variety. So unless I wanted to commit to Pop or Alternative or Classic Rock, I was left to making my own mix cds, a skill I perfected making music tapes back in the 80′s. Luckily, XRT, the savior, then heard my prayers and started streaming on the Internet and all was well with the world. Lin, Terri, Marty and the rest of the DJs I grew up with comforted me daily, and, despite being corporately owned by CBS, respected listeners’ wide music palette by preserving its “college radio for grown ups” offering. XRT is not simply music: it is a lifestyle for the aware public.

Then, earlier this year, at a progressive dinner on my block, as I met more of my fantastic and very creative neighbors, someone asked me if I heard of this new station called V107.3 FM. I said, “No,” and the next day, upon this recommendation, turned it on in my car. I heard Joss Stone’s and Jeff Beck’s brilliant collaboration on their cover of “I Put a Spell on You.” I heard the trifecta of Oasis’ “Wonderwall,” remixed with Green Day’s “I Walk Alone,” with a coda of Aerosmith’s “Dream On.” I heard the famous subground “Rapture Riders,” the musically perfect “call and response” of Blondie’s “Rapture,” with the Doors’ “Riders On The Storm,” originally mastered by a German DJ, and then liked so much by Debbie Harry and Chris Stein that the band included it on its most recent Greatest Hits release. I heard a Depeche Mode b-side (anyone can play, “Personal Jesus”), Airborne Toxic Effect, vintage INXS, The Raconteurs, Led Zeppelin, the Eagles, Melissa Ethridge and Bowie. I came. I heard. I liked. And I kept listening. Setting my alarm clock to 107.3FM and giving it its own button in my VW, the station is now a staple of my day. And every person in Cleveland I know who appreciates quality music has heard me brag about it.

The brainchild of Program Director Ric “Rocco” Bennett and General Manager Lonnie Gronek, [at right in photo], V107.3 FM first went live on December 28, 2009, replacing the New Age station The Wave this dial once housed, primarily because management anticipated the struggle with the newly Arbitron-implemented PPM ratings measurement tool. According to Suzy Peters, Promotion and Marketing Director and a thirty year radio veteran in both Cleveland and L.A., “We needed to make a change at the Wave and we knew that it (PPM) was going to be a struggle. We looked at all the smooth jazz stations and they were all swimming upstream. That was the catalyst. Deciding what to make the change to we realized there was a hole in the market for “Triple A” Adult Album Alternative.” Privately owned and not subjected to the either/or formatting each major market is now force-fed to listen to thanks to advertisers’ demand for targeted demographics, V107.3 has a refreshing freedom to be itself and play whatever it wants.

When searching for other radio station inspiration, according to Peters, “There are so many. As V107.3 developed, what it truly became about was taking the best of Cleveland radio, like WIXY 1260, which was a powerhouse of a station. We’ve been blessed with amazing radio. We’re all mature adults, we’ve heard a lot of radio in our lifetime and we each bring our favorite bits to the table. (We also) asked everyone we knew marketing questions. No focus groups. It was grass roots. And we talked to anybody and everybody. That’s why the response has been so great. There are a lot of triple-As but we didn’t take from other triple-As.

Continues Peters, “V107.3 is good radio. When you hear really good radio, you know it and you get hooked on it.”

With a target demographic of 30 – 50 year olds, both male and female, the station focuses on delivering the best possible music and keeps an open door policy when deciding what makes it on the air. Bennett makes the final call and “There isn’t an hour that goes by that someone doesn’t say, ‘Have you heard of this band?’” He’s not a corporate programming person and there isn’t a music director. Bennett works on the music all day long. One of the beautiful things that we do is that we can try things. If it doesn’t work, we can move. There is the big difference between commercially owned radio and us. When we put something on the air, we look at each other. The jocks in the studio own what they say and what they do. We have ownership. It’s all about ownership.”

Given the true variety of the playlist, I asked Peters where all the music comes from, because not only does V107.3 play rare remixes, but also generously provides numerous live tracks, vintage and current, openly giving its listeners a front row experience to some of the greatest concert renditions to already favorite gems. “Between all of us who worked (in radio) forever, we have the libraries covered. We do a ton of downloading. We have people in the office, in every department, who bring in their own music. It’s a flow. We also work with John Gorman, a consultant. He brings in most of the super rare stuff.”

When I shared with Peters that it was my neighbor who first told me about V107.3 at a party, she wisely replied, “That’s what radio’s supposed to do: get you excited.”

Great music doesn’t play itself and V107.3 recruited industry professionals to fuel the fire of this mature start-up. In addition to Rocco, the station features another radio veteran, morning man Mike Gallagher. And, award-winning DJ Ravenna Miceli was on the air at the Magic here in Cleveland. According to Peters, “She’s a personality. She’s not getting a corporate directive. When she goes in, she’s in charge.”

And, despite (or because of) a lean business staff combined with the familiar voices and the unpredictable selection, the word of mouth reaction, helped by the station’s social media presence on Facebook and Twitter, has, so far, been fantastic. Says Peters, “We haven’t seen anything we’re surprised by. Seems like everyone who hears it, loves it.” As V107.3 lays the foundation, building on this momentum it is already doing reciprocal trade with Channel 19, short spots on Fox Sports and is working on a summer concert series. “Our (primary) concentration is building that station so that when you tune in, you’re getting what you want to get. We need to have the house looking good and then we’ll spend money to market it. We have to focus.”

Regarding future goals, states Peters, “Our main goal is to attract more listeners. Right now we sound the way we sound and we keep it simple. A radio station is dependent on personality. Being fluid and being able to have an idea and get it on the air, see something on your way in, we make all those things happen very quickly. The nutshell is to not lose focus on the music. The philosophy is, ‘You will build it, they will come.’ People are ready for this. When people find us, they are so excited. So we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing. We are the luckiest people in radio. Being here revives you.

“And we’re getting more involved in the community. One thing we’re doing is working with local students and hiring interns. Plus, we play the largest number of local bands in local radio, and not via a specialty show. We play (local musicians) against Neil Young. We make it a point to play local music integrated into the playlist. To me, that’s the way to play local music.”

As this radio station puts its stamp on Cleveland, 107.3 can easily brand itself as “All of the wisdom and none of the restrictions.” And, everything from its business model to its real variety should keep the conversations going. Personally, I still listen to XRT on my Mac when I work, but I begin and end my day with V107.3. This new Cleveland cultural phenomenon also keeps me company in my VW, during my adventures to find new stories in the city embracing its creative Tipping Point. And, whenever I drive down the street and notice a local school bus driver shepherding young minds, I secretly imagine she, too, has an old-school transistor radio in her bus, exposing the next generation to a life-long addiction to great music.

For additional information, visit V107.3 Cleveland.

Photo L to R: John Gorman, disc jockey Ravenna Miceli, general manager Lonnie Gronek. Photo by Thomas Mulready.

Reprinted with permission and gratitude from CoolCleveland.com

Note: All photographs by Thomas Mulready.