I live in Grand Rapids and used to live "up north" in Traverse City. BOTH towns make me appreciate Sirius to the max.
Here in Grand Rapids, we only have one (!!!) rock station that plays new rock: Regent Alternative WGRD, which is the main hub of the Free Beer and Hot Wings show. The station is #2 in the ratings. Up until a few months ago, we had two other new rock stations: Citadel Active Rocker WKLQ 107.3 and Clear Channel Alternative (both a AAA lean) Radio X 9-6-1, both stations now carrying a Sports format.
GR has three Classic Rockers: Citadel's WLAV 96.9, Clear Channel's 101.3 The Fox and Regent's 98.7 WFGR, which recently flipped from Oldies to Classic Hits. The town also has two Country stations: Citadel's Thunder 94.5 and Clear Channel's B93, which received some negative publicity for a recent concert they sponsored where the parking area just happened to be a flood plain. There's also two CHRs: Clear Channel's WSNX 104.5 - which has a Rhythmic lean - and Citadel's 105.3 Hot FM, which is quite vanilla.
There's also three ACs and quite a few Christian stations since the area's population's mostly of Dutch decent. One station, WFUR 102.9 has been owned by the same family for 60 years and has no ratings.
On the AM side, it's mostly right-leaning news-talk from Clear Channel's WOOD 1300 (Rush and Hannity) and WTKG 1230; as a matter of fact, both stations air Dave Ramsey. 1230 does air Thom Hartmann and Ed Schultz, but they also have Glenn Beck and infomercials in the morning. GR AM also has a couple of Spanish stations and WGVU 1480, the nation's first-ever NPR station playing Oldies
Up in the Traverse City area, there's no Clear Channel or Citadel; instead, the stations are owned by local owners or out-of-towners who only own the station for real estate purposes. Sadly, most of these owners could care less about how their stations sound, since advertisers are their only concern. Therefore, crap is what you get on both AM and FM.
Rock-wise, none of the stations come close to Octane. The closest is probably Alternative WJZJ 95-5 The Zone, which has a douchebag named "Cartman" (I have a personal grudge against him, long story) for mornings and Dial Global's "Alternative Now" service for the rest of the day. The station plays its share of Rage, KoRn and Tool, but mixed in with the indie and emo junk of today. The other (somewhat) new rocker in town is the recently-launched WOUF 99.3 The Wolf, which an "Everything That Rocks" station that does play some of the more-recent rock stuff, mixed in with a lot of Aerosmith, Led Zep and AC/DC. Sadly, that station's signal doesn't get much east of Traverse City.
Sadly, northern Michigan radio has a penchant towards the lowest-common denominator, ie trailer trash. There's two other rock stations up north: the severely-overrated WKLT 97.5/98.9 and Classic Rocker The Bear. KLT does play a few token new tracks from Nickelback, AC/DC and Kid Rock, but if you love crap from Journey, REO Speedwagon and Foreigner, you'll love this station. As for The Bear, they're the northern Michigan home of (barf) Bob and Tom, whose career started at WJML in Petoskey in the 1970's.
Sadly, KLT and The Bear were the only two rockers during my formidable years up north; just imagine a radio market without KoRn, Metallica and Tool! ARRRGH! The Zone started in '98, but their definition of "Modern Rock" was pretty much Lillith Fair, The Goo Goo Dolls and Barenaked Ladies for two years until they FINALLY got a clue and started playing real rock. Too bad I moved away to GR after they switched.
The TC area has three Country stations: WTCM 103.5, WLDR "Sunny Country" 101.9 and WMKC "Big Country" 102.9. WTCM is always on top of the ratings. There's also two Oldies stations: WCCW 107.5 and The Fox 94.3/92.5.
The main CHR is 106 KHQ and it has been since the top-rated WKPK 106.7 The Peak started morphing into an AC WSRT in 2000. That station received some negative attention a few years back when the PD was caught sending in false Arbitron diaries, distorting their ratings. They're still AC, but as "You FM" with no ratings. As for KHQ, they are a little bit on the conservative side. Then again, they're much better than Hot AC 92.9 The Breeze, which has 60-year-olds playing Flo Rida.
Damn are my fingers tired! Then again, now you know why I love my Sirius.
