Northern Michigan / UP: July 2012 Archives

Mason County Press:

The voice of the Ludington Orioles, Rod Beckman, will be heard on a new radio station this fall, WMOM FM 102.7. Rod will direct all local sports coverage and will cover play by play of Ludington boys and girls basketball, along with Joe Holmes, while Todd Hansen and Gary Castonia will cover play by play of Oriole football. "It feels great knowing that Ludington sports will continue," Rod said.

Full story: Beckman, the voice of the Orioles returns -- this time on WMOM (Tue, 7/10)

Detroit Free Press:

Here's one more thing Detroit does well: Sports talk radio. The editors at TALKERS magazine put together their first annual Heavy Hundred of Sports Talk, which ranks the top 100 sports talk radio hosts in America by importance. WXYT-FM (97.1 The Ticket) made three appearances in the top 20.

Full story: Valenti and Foster rank No. 5 on Top 100 most important sports talk radio hosts (Mon, 7/16)

More sports radio apparently coming to Northern Michigan

Northern Radio Talk combo WSRT-FM 106.7 Gaylord and WSRJ-FM 105.5 Honor/Traverse City (You FM) will reportedly be moving to an all-Sports format on August 30th, picking up the ESPN Radio affiliation in the region currently heard on Midwestern Broadcasting's WCCW AM 1310 Traverse City. WCCW announced last week it would be switching to programming from FOX Sports Radio.

Fine Tuning

• A couple of recent sign-ons in Northern Lower Michigan so far this summer: WYPV FM 106.3 Onaway has been heard testing with All-Christmas music since June and WGZR FM 89.1 has started operations with Catholic programming from owner Baraga Broadcasting. WYPV is owned by Michigan Broadcasters, LLC.

Grand Rapids Press:

The CBS affiliate in Flint and Saginaw mistakenly ran Pete Hoekstra's controversial Super Bowl commercial - attacked for claims of xenophobia in February - at least two times Tuesday morning, campaign spokesman Greg VanWoerkom said today.

Full story: TV 'station error' puts Pete Hoekstra's Super Bowl ad back on the air today (Tue, 7/17)

Crawford County Avalanche:

After two dozen years in the radio business, William Gannon has initiated the process to sign off the air. Gannon Broadcasting has agreed to sell the stations County Y100, WGRY-AM 1230 Greatest Music Ever and Decades 101.1 WQON-FM to Sheryl and Jerry Coyne, the co-owners of Blarney Stone Broadcasting Inc. Gannon, who suffered a stroke on July 25, 2011, said getting out of the business for his personal health and pursuing his other business interests were the reasons for the sale.

Full story: Gannon Broadcasting in process of selling stations (Wed, 7/11)