page_title: WMMS
section_title: Progressive rock (1968–73)
hierarchical_section_title: WMMS / History / Progressive rock (1968–73)
caption_attribution_description: English: Print ad for Jefferson Airplane concert
context_page_description: WMMS – branded 100.7 WMMS: The Buzzard – is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland and much of surrounding Northeast Ohio. Widely regarded as one of the most influential rock stations in America throughout its history, the station has also drawn controversy for unusually aggressive tactics both on and off the air.
  Owned by iHeartMedia, Inc., and broadcasting a mix of active rock and hot talk, WMMS serves as the flagship station for Rover's Morning Glory, the Cleveland affiliate for The House of Hair with Dee Snider, and the home of radio personality Alan Cox. The station also serves as the FM flagship for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Cleveland Indians radio networks. Besides a standard analog transmission, WMMS broadcasts over three HD Radio channels, and is available online via iHeartRadio. The WMMS-HD2 digital subchannel – which relays its signal over a low-power FM translator – airs an all-news format, while WMMS-HD3 airs an alternative rock format.
  The WMMS studios are located at the former Centerior Energy building in the Cleveland suburb of Independence, while the station transmitter resides in neighboring Seven Hills.
context_section_description: MetroMedia found major success with progressive rock at KMET/Los Angeles, KSAN/San Francisco, WMMR/Philadelphia and WNEW-FM/New York, but low ratings and revenue in Cleveland led the company to drop the format at WMMS by May 1969.  The station first turned to adult contemporary, then Top 40, big band and finally the Drake-Chenault automated Hit Parade '69.
  WMMS reverted to progressive rock on September 11, 1970.  Following a legal dispute with a competing station owner over non-compete clauses in their contracts, former WIXY personalities Dick "the Wilde Childe" Kemp and Lou "King" Kirby were signed by MetroMedia.  The station briefly battled with WNCR of Nationwide Communications, itself filling the void created by the brief absence of WMMS on the rock scene.  Key WNCR personnel (including former WHK-FM/WMMS personalities Martin Perlich and Billy Bass, and station newcomer David Spero) were soon hired by WMMS, taking most of their audience with them.  During this time, WMMS used slogans derived from its call sign: first as "Music Means Satisfaction", and later as the place "Where Music Means Something". Sounds described the station programming at this time as "totally off-the-wall in its choice of records, playing anything it liked. It's most famous for heavily plugging the MC5, the Velvets and the Dolls on one hand and science-art groups like Soft Machine and King Crimson on the other."
  Under the leadership of station manager Billy Bass and program director Denny Sanders (who came to WMMS from Boston in 1971), WMMS helped break many new rock artists nationally, most notably David Bowie.  Based on considerably high record sales in the Cleveland market, Bowie (in his Ziggy Stardust persona alongside The Spiders from Mars) kicked off his first U.S. tour in "The Rock Capital" (a term coined by Bass).  The WMMS-sponsored concert was a "phenomenal success" and prompted the station to sponsor a second show that year.  This second show sold out immediately, and was held at the city's largest venue: Cleveland Public Hall.
  In November 1972, WMMS was sold to Malrite Communications, a Michigan-based firm that relocated to Cleveland upon purchase.  Under Malrite ownership, WMMS would become an album-oriented rock (AOR) powerhouse, much in the same vein as its former MetroMedia progressive rock siblings.
caption: November 1968 print ad for Jefferson Airplane concert
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