I figured I might as well talk about the 92.3 change while I had a moment.  I know that many of my friends are all sorts of excited for the sports radio station to take over.  Honestly I would be happy too if I were into sports as much as they are. 

I guess I look at the change a little differently and not even because I think Cleveland needs to have  crappy music like Paramore and My Chemical Romance played along with even worse music like Audioslave and Staind.  Oh, dare I mention Sublime???  (It was not that bad, they played the hits of Bad Religion, Rise Against, and Rancid too sometimes…)

The rumors are true.  92.3 is now called The Fan.  Its Cleveland’s first sports radio station.  Rejoice!!! 

The logo looks….well…you decide:

Seriously, how many people that you know actually have HD radio?  I know I don’t know anyone who has one of those, and if they did, they never told me because it just is not anything worth mentioning about.  I honestly think that not many people are going to listen to the iPod on shuffle, I mean, HD-2 92.3.

Yes, HD-2 will still play music, list shows, and keep listeners informed, but it is not going to be the same.  I have no desire at all to even jump onto the HD station’s website and stream music.  Done.  Maybe me recall the time I bought a portable XM radio player thinking it was a good idea. 

92.3 has been around for as long as I can remember and it was always music related until now.  There was 92 RQCK, Jammin 92.3, 92.3 The Beat when I was younger, and then the more memorable 92.3 Extreme Radio, K-Rock, and of course Radio 92.3. 

I know that not everyone out there was a fan of Radio 92.3.  A lot of the music they played was not really my thing and sometimes repeated one too many times, but every once in a while they would throw a gem in there.  They took the liberty to cater to as many people as they could, and that is no easy task.  They kept the community informed on what was going on and even threw together some awesome shows.  One in particular was the impressive Kuyahoga Fest that K-Rock threw together years back at Blossom.

There were a couple people who worked for the FM station I felt owe a shout out to.  Not only were they entirely too cool to me, but they also supported this dinky little website of mine.

Nard, the man behind the curtain, really gave it his all when it came to that station.  Not just inside the studio, but also during promotions and events.  It’s tough to please one person, but he managed to keep the attention of all of the surrounding communities of Cleveland that set their dials to 92.3. 

The regular Sunday night locally focused Inner Sanctum, featuring Pat The Producer and Matt Wardlaw, just celebrated 18 years as a continual program only to have to find a new home.  Luckily WNWV 107.3 FM Cleveland was quick to pick them up and they will not even skip a beat sharing the local music scene with Cleveland every Sunday.  There’s some good news for some good people who I have had the pleasure to call friends for a few years now.  If you have not checked out Inner Sanctum yet, you should.  They play a lot of good quality tunage by some amazing local talent.

Will there be a new radio station to jump in and take over? Is the HD-2 92.3 going to stick around, or will CBS ax that too?  Does it matter really anymore?  How many people really listen to radio these days as much as they did 10 years ago?  I know I do not.

The fact of the matter is that Cleveland has lost another alternative rock station and good people have lost their jobs because of it.  Where as I did not listen to the station daily, I did have the pleasure of making friendships with many of the staff that CBS released.  Regardless of how shitty some of that music was on that radio station at times, the people I knew there were incredible and I am happy I was able to network with many of them.

Good luck to everyone from 92.3 that CBS took a giant Cleveland steamer on.  Thanks for all you have done for me (and the rest of the city for that matter) with music.  I am sure you will have no problem finding something else soon.  I have no problem if you all collaborate and decided to make a radio station that played all punk rock and Clutch.  In fact, I would totally be ok with that.

RIP Radio 92.3…