Alt Rock “99X” For Cleveland Translator?

UPDATE 5/23/12 12:02 PM: As expected, alt-rock “99X” has launched on the 99.1 translator known legally now as W256BT (due to the move from 99.7 to 99.1).

Debut song: “Gold on the Ceiling” by Akron’s Black Keys.

UPDATE 5/23/12 11:15 AM: There’s word out of Oak Tree that this may launch on 99.1 FM as soon as 12 noon today.

We noticed what we think is a dead carrier on 99.1 a little earlier, replacing a distant, scratchy pickup of what we believe was BAS Broadcasting’s WFRO/99.1 “Eagle 99.1” Fremont. The (for-now) OMW World Headquarters is on the fringe of the 99.1 air signal…

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It looks like it might be alternative rock, not talk, for that Clear Channel Cleveland FM translator we’ve been tracking ever since it was licensed to Lorain.

Clear Channel has launched a website – 99XCleveland.com – and an iHeartRadio feed of what’s currently being heard on the HD2 sidechannel of rock/talk WMMS/100.7. (It’s the Premium Choice “Alt Project” feed with WMMS HD2 liners and no mentions of “99X”, yet.)

The website promises you can listen to “99X” on the aforementioned 99.1 FM, the 250 watt translator mounted on the tower of classic hits WMJI/105.7 in the Parma antenna farm, and calls the station “Cleveland’s New Rock Alternative”.

As of this writing, W259BI/99.1 doesn’t appear to be on the air, though Clear Channel filed Monday for a license to cover its construction permit.

Long-time readers know that when we are wrong, we nearly put up a billboard telling everyone.

Yes, we’ve been speculating that 99.1 would end up as an FM repeater of talk WTAM/1100.

We did make it clear, however, that our thoughts were educated guesses based upon Clear Channel’s moves in other markets in similar situations.

The company attached FM translators to powerful AM news/talkers in Portland OR (50 kW KEX/1190) and Miami (5 kW low-band WIOD/610) among others, in markets where it had no flagging full-power FMs to spare.

In other markets, like Sacramento (50 kW KFBK/1530) and Albany (50 kW WGY/810), Clear Channel sacrificed full-power FMs for the AM news/talk simulcast.

Add to that that, off the top of our head, at least, we can only name one Clear Channel HD-fed FM translator used to mount a new music format – “103.1 The Vulcan” in Birmingham AL – and the circumstantial evidence was very much in favor of a talk simulcast on Cleveland’s 99.1. (Even the Birmingham effort took over – for a time – an AM that was the long-time home of talk WERC, which itself moved to a full-power FM frequency.)

Note that we carefully pointed out each time that we’d heard exactly nothing about the fate of 99.1, format-wise, out of Oak Tree. We haven’t yet heard anything about “99X”, either.

But…we’re not ready to close the books on this one, yet.

Clear Channel has, after all, pulled a “fake” on us before.

Remember when Dover-New Philadelphia’s WJER-FM/101.7 was in the process of moving north to Canton, and someone at Freedom Avenue messed with our heads by creating a full-fledged country format website claiming to be for “101.7 The Bull”?

The station, of course, is today’s AC WHOF/101.7 “My 101.7”, and aside for perhaps a crossover tune or two, not a note of country music ever aired on that frequency.

OK, so this is a bit more elaborate, complete with the iHeartRadio feed and public website.

Maybe we’re just gunshy…