WMMS 100.7

WMMS (100.7 FM, "The Buzzard") is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, United States, serving Greater Cleveland and much of Northeast Ohio. Owned by iHeartMedia, WMMS features a mix of active rock and hot talk with Rover's Morning Glory and Alan Cox, is the FM flagship for the Cavaliers AudioVerse and the Cleveland Guardians Radio Network, and also carries The House of Hair with Dee Snider.

WMMS's studios are located at the Six Six Eight Building in downtown Cleveland's Gateway District; the transmitter is sited in Seven Hills. This station has been widely regarded throughout its history as one of the most influential rock outlets in American radio. Signing on in 1946 as the FM adjunct to WHK, the first radio station in Ohio, it was also the first commercial FM station in Cleveland. The WMMS call sign was affixed in 1968 under Metromedia ownership ("Metromedia Stereo") and was adopted after the station switched to a progressive rock format. Unlike Metromedia's other entries into FM rock radio, WMMS dropped it the following year due to low ratings and revenue, and went with automated music, but reinstated a rock format by 1970. Metromedia sold WHK and WMMS in 1972 to Malrite Communications, which intended to flip WMMS to a more conservative music format but reversed course after significant community protests. John Gorman was hired in 1973 as program director, a title he held until 1986. Under Gorman's leadership, WMMS had a stable of personalities that remained fundamentally unchanged—in particular morning hosts Jeff Kinzbach and Ed "Flash" Ferenc, afternoon host Kid Leo and evening host Denny Sanders—and attained a dominant market share in local ratings. Debuting in April 1974, WMMS's promotional mascot has been an anthropomorphic "Buzzard" cartoon character, initially as a tongue-in-cheek reference to Cleveland's Rust Belt stigma and later becoming one of the most recognizable symbols in the city. WMMS played a key role in breaking several major acts in the United States, including David Bowie, Rush, and Bruce Springsteen, the latter's rise attributed heavily to Leo's support. Springsteen's 1978 concert at the Agora Ballroom celebrating WMMS' 10th anniversary was critically acclaimed, regionally syndicated and heavily bootlegged. Station employees went on to take director and executive-level positions in the recording industry, namely with labels RCA, Mercury, and Columbia. Noted filmmakers, including Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous) and Paul Schrader (Light of Day), have called on WMMS personnel for assistance. WMMS was a major driving force behind the successful campaign to bring the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to Cleveland. The station competed aggressively against WWWM for listeners in the 1970s, and then with WGCL in the 1980s. By 1983, WMMS began playing increasing amounts of contemporary hit radio songs alongside the standard rock playlist in what was dubbed "Rock Forty". Facing a deteriorating environment with upper management, Gorman, Sanders and nine other staffers jointly resigned on August 1986 to flip WGCL to WNCX. Rolling Stone named WMMS its "Best Radio Station" for a large market from 1979 to 1988 as part of their annual Readers' Poll, but the station admitted to stuffing the ballot box following a February 1988 front-page story in The Plain Dealer that drew local and national criticism. Amid subsequent years of management and airstaff turnover, the station's ratings, and those of Kinzbach and Ferenc, began to decline significantly in 1992 following WNCX's addition of The Howard Stern Show. Facing significant debt issues, Malrite sold their radio division to Shamrock Broadcasting, who promptly resold WHK and WMMS to former Malrite executive and WMJI owner Carl Hirsch. Hirsch's April 1994 takeover induced the departure of Kinzbach and Ferenc but returned Gorman to the program director role alongside a relaunch as "Buzzard Radio: The Next Generation", eventually adopting an alternative rock focus. The following month, a WMMS engineer severed a transmission line during a live remote broadcast of Stern's show intended as a mock "funeral" for the Buzzard; several staffers pled guilty in court to the federal offense, and WMMS's license faced scrutiny. Hirsch sold WMMS and WMJI to WGAR-FM owner Nationwide Communications in 1996, resulting in Gorman's second departure. WMMS was refocused to an active rock presentation with shock jock Liz Wilde, who sued the station after being fired over low ratings. Nationwide sold its radio division to Jacor the following year; after the sale closed, WMMS underwent a month-long "retirement" of the Buzzard publicity stunt implying a format switch that was cancelled at the last minute. Clear Channel (now iHeartMedia) bought Jacor in 1999. WMMS became notorious between 1994 and 2008 for an inability to find a successful morning show, a problem that was ultimately resolved with the addition of Rover. The station also began emphasizing talk in the afternoons, first with Maxwell from 2004 to 2009, and with Alan Cox from 2010 onward. Co-flagship of the Cleveland Browns Radio Network from 1991 to 1993 and again from 2001 to 2012, WMMS has been co-flagship of the Guardians since 2012 and the Cavaliers since 2014. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WMMS broadcasts over three HD Radio channels and is available online via iHeartRadio. WMMS-HD2 is relayed over translator W256BT (99.1 FM) and has a sports format as "Sports Radio 99.1". WMMS-HD3, relayed over translator W266CJ (101.1 FM), is the Cleveland affiliate for the Black Information Network.