Cleveland rock & roll old-timers will remember WMMS’s embrace of local artist as part of its “Pride of Cleveland” campaign, which produced a 1980 compilation album featuring some of the artists who were popular in the area at the time.
Now northeast Ohio’s locally based digital radio station oWOW.radio is revisiting the concept, releasing oWOW presents NEO – The Soundtrack. One of the station’s commitments has been to program local artists, and the album features some of its most-played tracks by Cleveland-area acts: about 20% of its programming is dedicated to past and present Cleveland acts. Among others, the ten tracks feature such well-known local artists as Carlos Jones, Brent Kirby and the Alan Green Band, news artists such as Falling Stars and the Chestertons, along with Youngstown up-and-comers the Vindys (pictured), the station’s most requested act of the past year, and Akron’s Marc Lee Shannon, who plays with Michael Stanley’s Resonators.
John Gorman, the mastermind behind oWOW.radio, was also the driving force behind WMMS in its heyday.
He says, “In 1980, when I was with WMMS, I was involved in another local music compilation, Pride of Clevelandalbum with Denny Sanders, which featured the most popular artists in Northeast Ohio at the time, including American Noise, Love Affair, Alex Bevan, the Generators, Wild Horses, I-Tal, Rapscallion, Jerry Busch, and Don Kriss. Ironically, forty years later, here’s the sequel. For nostalgia lovers, he even got David Helton, who was behind WMMS’ classic look and its “buzzard” to design the cover art.
While oWOW initially announced it would be going off air at the end of October due to the pandemic, it’s been able to continue to stream is distinctive music mix, albeit without air personalities in order to tighten up the budget.
“We were on a roll until COVID-19 hit — and immediately our advertising disappeared,” Gorman tells CoolCleveland. “Our ratings were the best in 2020 — but our clients were all local businesses, retail, restaurants, events, etc. It was a struggle for four years — but our fifth, everything turned around — until COVID.”
He’s hopeful about the station’s post-pandemic situation.
“We’ve had some meetings with like-minded people. Some good, some a waste of time, but with the pandemic, it’s hard to find people willing to take a chance to invest or buy into a new entity. We really won’t know until the first quarter of the new year when Biden-Harris take the reins. That day cannot come soon enough. As long as we can stay on the air a few more months, I feel we will turn the corner. We’re doing our best to stay the course until the pandemic retreats.”
Gorman says they’re hoping to sell enough copies of the album to stay on the air while the look for new money sources and wait out the pandemic. The album is available exclusively on CD only for $10 on ebay by searching for oWOW presents NEO – The Soundtrack or going to owownowcom.wpcomstaging.com.