101.1 WHOT - Hot 101104.1 WQAL - Q104106.5 WMVX - Mix 106.5
WQAL (Q104) – Bill Ryan & WMVX (Mix 106.5) – Jim Harden – Cleveland – 8/7/99
Both recorded 14 years ago today, this is a sample of competing Hot AC stations in the Cleveland market at the end of the 1990’s. Q104 positioned itself as “The best hits of the 80’s, 90’s and today” while WMVX was “The Greatest Hits of the 80’s, 90’s and 70’s”. It also seems that both stations employed Sean Caldwell’s voicework in some capacity; he was the primary voice of Q104, while he appears to have been a secondary voice at Mix 106.5, as heard at 7:15 on the aircheck.
At one point, WQAL was owned by Chancellor Media Corporation, while WMVX was under the Jacor umbrella. Clear Channel acquired both companies, but ended up spinning of WQAL to CBS in order to comply with FCC ownership rules.
Podcast: Embed
Jim Harden is actually Jim Hart. He would move to WDOK later that year. He’s now at WMJI.
I should add this is a cool aircheck. I remember both stations well in that period. Ironically, WMVX (now WHLK) flipped from WLTF in 1997 after WQAL helped put a dent in the old Lite Rocker’s ratings. Both stations were in an intense AC ratings battle starting with WQAL’s switch to Q104 back in early 1991.