Let me first start off by saying if you think 87.7 WLFM is “A local Station for Clevelanders by Clevelanders”, you are an idiot.  87.7 is owned by Venture Technologies Group out of Los Angeles California.  It is not local kids, a little thing called Google could have told you that.  Let’s look beyond that fact for a minute though and talk about The Cleveland Sound…ooops…I mean Cleveland’s Sound.  The name is stolen from a local blog I happen to enjoy called The Cleveland Sound.  It is a small independent labor of love of some great local writers and photographers and has been in circulation since 2010, long before 87.7 decided to go ahead and steal the name.  87.7 will tell you they had no idea I am sure but it makes the Marketing folks look like an idiots or a bunch of thieves.  That is yours to decide really.  I have not spoken to anyone involved in the station and could care less one way or the other what they have to say on the topic.  The Marketing Director is Kendall Embrescia and I am not sure what marketing credentials she holds.  I am not sure if she coined The Cleveland Sound…oops…I mean Cleveland’s Sound or not either.  However someone did and they pretty much stole the name directly from an existing Cleveland brand.  Clevelanders, don’t fuck other Clevelanders is my slogan.

But wait there is more.  I would personally like to call out Cool Cleveland.com for riding the coat tales of 87.7 and getting into bed with them to do more than a couple spots on the station.  I’ll call out Thomas Mulready directly too for not stepping up to the plate knowing full well The Cleveland Sound got fucked in this deal.  You even hear Mulready in his interview piece with Embrescia calling it “The Cleveland Sound” multiple times.  Apparently Mulready doesn’t give a shit about the little guys either even though he was once that little guy too.

Kids, I know how this blog deal works.  You suck a little corporate cock and you get some freebies here and there.  I don’t do that too much myself.  I tend to pay my own way to most shows, events or whatever the hell I am doing.  How can you be fair or unbiased if you are getting a free meal ticket?  The freebies I have gotten in the past I absolutely 100% up front say “I got free tickets to go to this”.  Which tells the average reader, hey by the way I am probably going to be nice here and this will be a fluff piece.  So I get Mulready’s angle here.  Free shit = we love you 87.7.  However, it doesn’t make it right at all, and honestly my beef isn’t with Cool Cleveland so much as it is with WLFM Cleveland’s Sound.  I just don’t agree with their stance on the matter.  Cool Cleveland sold out more or less to get some freebies.

As far as a station goes it is marginal at best.  You are better off to plug in your iPod and listen to that.  WLFM plays the songs you have heard so much you usually skip them when they come up on shuffle.  I listened on my drive to and from work for the better part of the last couple of weeks.  I heard nothing groundbreaking, and The Pretenders about 50 times.  We get it, you are “from Cleveland”.  It’s part of the sad illusion this corporate giant is trying to play you for idiots with.  Is it better than anything on Cleveland radio?  No, it’s the same as everything on Cleveland radio.  It is geared to adults who don’t know how to use an iPod.  It’s adult alternative or what you used to call elevator music in the 90′s.  It is homogenized crap heavy on the Seattle sound.  The DJ’s are boring and the same folks that have bounced from station to station in Cleveland because (ouch here comes the low blow) they can’t get a job in any other market.  There is nothing new here at Cleveland’s Sound, everything is rehashed including their stolen tagline.  Happy listening!