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Reprinted from the Daily Oakland Press
By: Mike Austerman
One of the few report cards most listeners can understand about radio stations is their ratings. This winter’s top rated station among listeners age 12 and older was news/talk WJR-AM (760), finishing well ahead of oldies WOMC-FM (104.3) and all-news WWJ-AM (950), which tied for second place. Rounding out the Top 10 most listened-to stations were adult urban WMXD-FM (92.3); smooth jazz WVMV-FM (98.7); urban WJLB-FM (97.9); rock WRIF-FM (101.1); country WYCD-FM (99.5); and rival soft rockers WNIC-FM (100.3) and WMGC-FM (105.1), with WDRQ-FM (93.1) finishing its final ratings book as a Top 40 station
in 14th place.
WRIF’s Drew & Mike continued to lead the morning race, followed closely by WWJ newshawks Roberta Jasina and Joe Donovan; WJR’s Paul W. Smith (who’s broadcasting from around Michigan this week); WOMC’s Dick Purtan; and the syndicated Tom Joyner show on WMXD.
Mark Scott, once one of Detroit’s most controversial and opinionated talk radio hosts, died Sunday of an apparent heart attack at the age of 69. Scott came to Detroit nearly 20 years ago from Dayton and was a top-rated talk host on WXYT-AM (1270) during its days as a talk station. In its heyday, his show focused heavily on the 1993 police beating of Malice Green and the resulting trials of Larry Nevers and Walter Budson, a topic that never seemed to grow old with Scott, who spoke often in their defense. A former Marine, Scott often broadcast his show while wearing military fatigues and talked about a possible government conspiracy to take away the right to bear arms. Services are at 7 p.m. tonight at the Griffin Funeral Home in Canton Township. In a sad and ironic twist, Dan Koti, the man who ran the control board for Scott’s WXYT show and was known most recently as WWJ traffic reporter Rod Holden, died just a week before Scott, at age 42.
Kudos to rocker WRIF for its extensive coverage of last week’s first Motor City Music Conference. In addition to live broadcasts, the ’Rif showcased many of the local acts that performed as part of MC2 during a three-hour special last Sunday. It’s great to see such involvement by corporate radio, but it’d be even better if these bands could somehow get consistent regular airplay on WRIF instead of playing “You Shook Me All Night Long” for the 13 millionth time.
Free money alert! Magic WMGC will be giving away up to $15,000 in mortgage payments as part of its Magic Money Makeover contest, which runs through Sunday. Visit detroitmagic.com for entry and other info.
Ready, set, bowl! WXYT afternoon hosts Doug Karsch and Art Regner will host “The Big Show for the Big Cure,” a 28-hour bowl-athon at Troy Lanes, beginning 3 p.m. May 12 and ending 7 p.m. the next day. It’ll benefit the Henry Ford Vattikuti Urology Institute. Make a donation of $12.70 and bowl as many games as you can in one hour. Also, men can get free prostate cancer screenings. In addition to all the strikes and spares, there’ll be hourly auctions, on-site games and activities, autograph sessions, band competitions and more. Visit www.wxyt.com for more info.
Set Your Dials: Host Martin Bandyke welcomes the Jimmy Chamberlin Complex after 2 p.m. today on WDET-FM (101.9). The drummer for Smashing Pumpkins and Zwan, Chamberlin will highlight his new solo project before his show tonight at St. Andrews Hall in Detroit (see Gary Graff’s “Sound Check,” Page E-3) ... host Tom Wilson explores the Charleston and Black Bottom and the changes they introduced to American dancing at 6 p.m. Sun. on WMUZ-FM (103.5).
