WJML-AM Balancing Act

After years of enduring the divisive blare of conservative and far-right views on commercial talk radio, Northern Michigan is finally getting a powerful new station that will air liberal viewpoints as well.
Broadcaster Rick Stone is bringing his even-handed format to the Grand Traverse area from Petoskey. With a 50,000-watt signal, listeners will get a more diverse mix of viewpoints loud and clear on WJML-AM-1210 in Traverse City and AM-1110 in Petoskey.
Stone, 59, is as personable and even-handed as the new format he’s introducing. When asked what his own favorite programs are, he pauses and reflects with a twinkle in his eye: “I have fun listening to all of them,” he says, “and laughing at how I can hear the same issue with multiple viewpoints on different shows.”
Stone is bringing that dynamic to AM talk radio with a spectrum of programming that ranges from liberal commentator Ed Schultz (3-6 p.m.) to “equal opportunity offender” Neal Boortz (10 a.m. - 1 p.m.) to ultra-conservative Michael Savage (6-9 p.m.).
Leading off each day will be “The BIG Show” from 6-10 a.m., with Michael Patrick Shiels of the Michigan Talk Radio Network. Shiels was named “Talk Radio Personality of the Year” in Michigan last year, and his Lansing-based show includes interviews with notable state officials and legislators, as well as celebs and sports personalities. He’ll get an assist on the local news from JML News Director Scott Roberts, with reports on the hour.
Rounding out WJML’s lineup are:
• conservative humorist/commentator Glenn Beck from 1-3 p.m.
• liberal firebrand Ed Schultz from 3-6 p.m.
• a mix of progressive Air America programing, with Lionel, Randi Rhodes and Thom Hartmann from 10 p.m. - 1 a.m.

READY FOR A CHANGE
Has Stone gotten a good reaction from his new format in Traverse City?
“Absolutely,” he says. “Maybe even better than expected. I think Traverse City is ready for broader-based talk radio. We’ll definitely be offering more alternative viewpoints.”
The new format has been a shake-up for the Petoskey/Gaylord/Straits region too, where until recently, Stone had separate stations: AM 110 aired all-conservative views, while AM 750 was all-liberal. When he acquired WJML AM (which was a country station), Stone consolidated the stations with the new mix-and-match approach. Since then, phones have been ringing at his Petoskey office from listeners, who are presumably either delighted or disappointed with the new mix.
In any case, it’s clear that Stone loves radio and has the spirit of an innovator, dating back to his teen years.
“It’s all ancient history now, but I got my start on the University of Michigan student radio station,” he recalls. “Then I went to work for Motorola in Chicago for seven years until I could save enough money to buy a radio station of my own.”
Early on, Stone and his wife Barbara were attracted to Northern Michigan. He used to spend family vacations on Mullett Lake, and took note of the fact that there was little (if any) local radio broadcasting in the area during the ‘60s. “I remember thinking, what a great place to start a station.”

BUILDING A DREAM
Wasn’t Northern Michigan a rather sparse market for radio back then?
“When you’re a teenager, you don’t think about things like that,” Stone says with a laugh.
Did he want to be a DJ as a kid?
“No, I’ve always been involved in the business end of radio. I studied electrical engineering at U-M and got an MBA in business from Northwestern University.
“We didn’t have any money to start out at all,” he adds, “but we bought a little FM station in Cinncinati called WOXY. We sold our house to buy the station. When you look back, you say ‘wow!’, but sometimes you have to be a risk-taker. When you have a dream, things work out; you struggle but you take that opportunity.”
In 1981, the Stones acquired WMKC in St. Ignace. “In those days there were very few stations in the area,” he recalls. “Then from 1981 to ‘88, there must have been 20 or 25 new stations that popped up all at once. Everybody got the vision at the same time to come to Northern Michigan.”
Stone Communications went on to launch WAIR 92.5, which was “built from scratch.” Then, WJML-1110 was acquired in 1992. “We started out offering CNN Headline News and then, as more talk programming became available, we added shows. We kept adding programs until WJML got full, and then added AM 750 will all-liberal programming.”
Stone recently sold AM 750, making the swap to the high-powered WJML, which has been broadcasting old school country music for the past five years. With a signal of 50,000 watts, it reaches a radius of 300 miles, from just north of Grand Rapids, all the way into Ontario above the Soo.
“WJML is a very old station,” Stone says. “It was born in 1947 and licensed to Saginaw, originally. Some Detroit broadcasters moved it to Traverse City because they wanted to expand the power of their station in Detroit.”

NEW HORIZONS
Stone notes that liberal programming is relatively new to talk radio.
“It’s just in the last five years that liberal radio has developed,” he says. “It’s a wonderful development in the sense that it has expanded the talk radio listening market. A lot of people don’t want to listen to someone like Mike Savage all the time, so now they can hear alternatives such as Air America.”
Although there are now a number of liberal talk radio stations in the country, conservative stations have been slow to diversify their formats.
“A few stations here and there have added Ed Schultz’s show. He’s starting to call himself ‘mainstream talk,’” Stone says. “I believe it’s a smart way to go. Our listening audience is very intelligent and wants to have both sides of the issues presented.
“I prefer not to categorize our shows,” he adds. “I’d prefer that listeners simply hear one program after another. Most of the shows we have on feature independent thinkers and people will get well-rounded viewpoints by listening throughout the day.”
But can liberals and conservatives get along on the same AM dial? Find out for yourself at 1210-AM Traverse City and 1110-AM Petoskey, or worldwide on
www.wjml.com. View On Our Website