Latest news with #TheShark
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jumping off The Shark: Winners and losers in WQAM takeover of indie-rock station 104.3-FM
South Florida traffic just got even more frustrating for fans of indie rock as 104.3 The Shark has transitioned into the new FM home of 560 WQAM sports-talk radio. Station owner Audacy said the abrupt change — which came Thursday afternoon as The Shark was playing Alice In Chains' 'Man in the Box' — was in response to listener demands. The Shark, based in Miramar, was the least popular of Audacy's five music stations, ranking No. 20 among all metro-Miami radio stations in Nielsen rankings released in July. WQAM was No. 27. The new WQAM outlet, with call letters WQAM-FM subject to FCC approval, offers a simulcast of programming heard on the original 560 AM station via a stronger, 100,000-watt FM signal, a boon to local sports fans long irritated by balky AM reception. WQAM is home to Miami Heat, Florida Panthers and Miami Hurricanes games, along with sports talk (Miami Dolphins-heavy) on 'The Joe Rose Show,' 'Tobin & Leroy' and 'Hochman, Crowder & Solana.' Dolphins' radio broadcasts can be heard on iHeartRadio's BIG 105.9-FM and Fox Sports WINZ 940-AM (and WIOD 610-AM when there is a conflict with the Miami Marlins). A statement from Audacy regional president Claudia Menegus said South Florida sports fans' 'unrivaled passion' was deserving of 'a destination that matches their energy.' Michael McCullough, chief marketing officer of the Miami Heat, said the expanded FM signal 'will bring even more fans, listeners, and a younger, more diverse audience' to Heat broadcasts. The move came about three weeks before the Miami Hurricanes open their season with a nationally televised game against Notre Dame at Hard Rock Stadium on Aug. 31. The Dolphins begin their season on Sept. 7 at the Indianapolis Colts. Related Articles Where's the remote?! Channel 18 is new ABC home for 'GMA,' 'General Hospital,' Canes-Notre Dame football Five players to watch during Hurricanes' preseason camp While sports fans rejoice over a stronger radio signal for games and related banter, alternative-music lovers have lost another provider of songs by the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana and Green Day. Some may turn to BIG 105.9-FM, where music from these bands can be found in a playlist dominated by classic rock hits. Another over-the-air alternative is WKPX 88.5-FM, a noncommercial, educational radio station operated by Broward County Public Schools. It features a diverse mix of music — Pixies, Pearl Jam, Pet Shop Boys — but at 3,000 watts is difficult to get once you cross the Broward County line. An Instagram post from one fan of The Shark said: 'For many of us, it wasn't just a station — it was a rare place to listen to alternative music we couldn't find anywhere else. The lack of notice or communication has left us loyal listeners feeling blindsided and unheard.' Of course, most fans of alternative music get their fix by streaming songs on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and other sources. It remains to be seen what effect the death of South Florida's major alternative-music radio station will have on touring decisions of musicians heard on The Shark. Already geographically challenging, is the region now philosophically undesirable, too? This move comes less than a year after Audacy quietly canceled the 2024 Riptide Music Festival, the two-day, indie-music gathering it had organized since 2016 on Fort Lauderdale beach. The 2023 Riptide Music Festival that took place that December featured a strong lineup that included headliners The Black Keys and Jelly Roll, joined by Dirty Heads, Sublime with Rome, Awolnation, Silversun Pickups and others. The cancellation of Riptide 2024 came as Audacy was emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a process completed in January. No word yet from Audacy on any plans to resurrect Riptide, but it would seem even more unlikely with the demise of The Shark, which promoted Riptide heavily. Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at bcrandell@ Follow on IG: @BenCrandell. Solve the daily Crossword
Miami Herald
09-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
Where did The Shark go? Miami rock radio station following the trend
Where has The Shark jumped and what will alternative rock fans do now that the station has abruptly switched formats to sports talk? Beginning immediately, all sports programming on WQAM 560 will be simulcast on Audacy-owned sister station 104.3 FM, which switches formats from alternative rock music to sports, Miami Herald sports writer Barry Jackson reported in his Sports Buzz column on Thursday. 'It was literally a rock station when I went to lunch and sports talk radio when I got back in my truck,' a Reddit user named RonmanEarl posted Thursday. Reportedly, the switch happened after 1 p.m. Thursday, right after 104.3 The Shark broadcast Green Day's 1997 rock ballad 'Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)' and the opening moments of the 1990 oldie, 'Man in the Box' by Alice in Chains. The plug was pulled on the Seattle grunge rockers as Miami sports chatter from a WQAM simulcast took over. 104.3 FM was home to The Shark, which branded itself 'South Florida's Alternative' since signing on to the airwaves in the former WAXY-FM space in August 2015 to the thrum of Imagine Dragons' 'Radioactive.' Now, instead of rock stalwarts like Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Twenty One Pilots, listeners will hear WQAM sports talk on the FM dial expanding the reach of University of Miami and Heat games. The boom and thwack of basketball and football rather than electric guitars and the basic chord progressions of the average Green Day song. Some Shark listeners reacted with a mix of snark and snarl on social media posts on Reddit Thursday with comments ranging from 'How will I listen to the same 5 alternative songs and RHCP now? This is truly tragic' to 'I pretty much always anticipate having to travel at least to Orlando for most decent alt/indie/punk artists anyway, aside from the occasional Gramp's show.' Points to ponder. The Shark had replaced most of its local DJ and programmers with Audacy national staffers in September 2020, Radio Insight reported. 'Miami's sports fans have an unrivaled passion, and they deserve a destination that matches their energy,' Audacy Regional President Claudia Menegus told Radio Insight on Thursday about the reasons for the format switch. That energy has largely dissipated for the rock radio format nationally in recent years. Gone are the years in the late-1970s and '80s when Miami-Fort Lauderdale rock stations like WSHE, 94.9 Zeta 4 and K-102 challenged contemporary pop station Y-100 100.7 for supremacy on the FM dial. Only Y-100 remains, 52 years after it signed on by airing soft rock duo Seals & Croft's 1973 hit, 'Diamond Girl.' Even the Miami Dolphins' perfect 1972 season couldn't cut the power of rock — soft or otherwise. Fans of a certain age — read: boomers now in their 60s — recall Zeta 4 discount cards. Back in that era, the South Florida rock station at 94.9 on the FM dial played the contemporary rock hits of the day from acts like Led Zeppelin, Blondie, Eagles and Fleetwood Mac before the term 'classic rock' was coined a couple decades later to compartmentalize the music. Listeners who scored Zeta 4's card proved their loyalty to the station and could use it to get discounts at participating merchants around the Miami area. That helped shave $4 off the cost of exorbitantly expensive vinyl LPs like the then-record high $15.98 list price of Fleetwood Mac's double-LP 'Tusk' set at a long gone North Miami Beach record store named Record Shack. Who cares if many of these same Zeta listeners pulled into parking lots with rival rock station WSHE 103.5 FM's bumper stickers on their Mustangs and Fiats? The stickers boasted the Miami-Fort Lauderdale station's slogan, 'She's Only Rock 'n Roll' in red, black and gray lettering. Spin the dial and calendar to 2025 and alternative rock isn't even among the Top 10 formats on radio anymore. Country, religion, news/talk, contemporary Christian and Spanish rank as the Top 5 formats, according to Inside Radio's first quarter 2025 ratings. Classic rock (which isn't quite the same as alt rock: Think Journey more than Jane's Addiction) was No. 8. Sports was No. 9. Top 40 pop was No. 10. And mourn no more, Green Day fans. In 2025 one doesn't need a terrestrial radio station like The Shark to hear music of a favorite format. Want to relive 'American Idiot?' Just stream Green Day, RHCP, Imagine Dragons on any number of platforms like Spotify, Apple Music or Amazon Music Unlimited. Satellite radio offers alternative rock options, too. Or just dial over to 105.9 on the FM dial for Miami's Big 106, which still airs a classic hits format having moved on from the 1960s and '70s staples of yesteryear for pop and mainstream rock hits from the 1980s and 1990s.
CBS News
19-07-2025
- Sport
- CBS News
Swimmers prepped to finish journey of the Edmund Fitzgerald with 411-mile swim
The legend of the Edmund Fitzgerald is well-known on the Great Lakes. On Nov. 10, 1975, the Great Lakes freighter was lost, along with her entire crew of 29 men, in a storm on Lake Superior, 17 miles off Whitefish Point in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The Edmund Fitzgerald was supposed to finish her fateful voyage in Detroit, and this year that route will finally be crossed. Jim Dreyer is no stranger to big swims, having swum across several Great Lakes. Now, the man known as "The Shark" has organized and will join dozens of swimmers in the Edmund Fitzgerald Memorial Swim. "I want the legacy of these 29 men to live on," Dreyer said. "I was just thinking about the symbolism of all this. We are symbolizing their final journey, their final tragic journey. And I thought, 'How can we make this even more real?'" The would-be last leg of that fateful voyage, remembered through these men and women who will break the waves one stroke at a time, starting on July 26 and lasting one month. The swimmers will be carrying special cargo on their journey. "Those are iron ore pellets from the same dock in Superior, Wisconsin, that loaded the Edmund Fitzgerald for the last time," said Dreyer while Nearly 70 swimmers will embark on the 411-mile swim to Detroit. "It's a tremendous honor. And I know all the swimmers feel that way. I certainly feel that way. I mean, I'm honored and humbled, you know," Dreyer said. "The family members of the Edmund Fitzgerald crew, I've had the opportunity to interact with a number of them, and to me, it really underscores and puts a face on what we're doing and why we're doing it." Each swimmer will carry a GPS tag, allowing followers to track them on a map for every leg. A documentary is also being produced about this swim. A documentary is also being made about the memorial swim.
USA Today
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Greg Norman tells harrowing tale of emergency landing after pop; says 'not my first rodeo'
Greg Norman tells harrowing tale of emergency landing after pop; says 'not my first rodeo' Greg Norman's last few years have been turbulent as he tried to help LIV Golf get off the ground. According to a social media post from this week, however, the two-time major champion had real turbulence that could have proved catastrophic. Norman told Australian Golf Digest he was flying from Los Angeles to Florida when the windscreen of his private jet shattered mid-flight. En route back to his Palm Beach home, pilots had to perform an emergency landing after a loud bang rocked the cabin. Here's more from this story: The next move, according to The Shark? 'F–king land!' Norman laughs. Of course, laughing about such situations is something the 70-year-old can do, for this isn't the first time he's had a scare up in the clouds. 'It's certainly not my first rodeo with events like this,' adds Norman. 'The last (mid-air emergency) I had was in my plane climbing at 30,000 feet and – BANG! – we dived to about 10,000 feet and slowed down,' he recalls. 'I've had more interesting things, as much as I've flown over the years – lightning strikes, cabin fires, breaking the ceiling barrier to see the curvature of the earth, losing hydraulics after taking off from an aircraft carrier…' Norman's tenure as the CEO of LIV Golf was a tumultuous one as the 20-time PGA Tour winner and former world No. 1 butted heads with numerous organizations, made outlandish claims about the league's ascension and even had him showing up at major events with tickets from a secondary market.
News.com.au
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
‘Shattered': Greg Norman in terrifying flight emergency
Greg Norman has been involved in a terrifying flight ordeal thousands of feet above the ground. The Aussie golfing legend has shared details of a nightmare moment he heard a 'shattering' sound while he was on-board a private fight from Los Angeles to Palm Beach, Florida, on Saturday morning (AEST). The 70-year-old wrote on Instagram his chartered flight across the country had to turn back to Los Angeles. 'Inflight LAX - PBI loud pop = shattered windscreen,' he posted. 'Only the second time in 40yrs of private travel. Returned to LAX to the professionals to make sure all ok. Thanks all.' The post left his followers, including Aussie sporting figures, all sharing their relief that the two-time British Open champ was safely back on the ground. Photos shared by 'The Shark' showed the front windscreen had been smashed in with cracked glass visible around the edges of the cockpit frame. Another photo shows Norman smiling with emergency services workers. A fire truck could be seen in the background. Another photo showed Norman's view from the tarmac where multiple emergency vehicles were seen surrounding the damaged aeroplane. Norman did not mention who else was on the private flight with him. The golfer-turned businessman had been celebrating wife Kristen's birthday on Wednesday. The other serious aviation incident Norman survived was at the 2012 Omega European Masters. There were terrifying scenes when the nose landing gear on his private jet malfunctioned as he landed at Geneva Airport in Switzerland. 'We were going 60, 70, 80 knots, the wheel went 90 degrees, the nose started kangarooing and stuff in the cabin was going everywhere,' Norman said at the time. 'All the cabinets in the galley came out. The shaking was pretty violent. Nobody knew what was going on.' In typical Norman fashion, he was back on the golf course the very next day. Norman is a keen air-traveller and was previously working towards earning a helicopter piloting license with a flight instructor. According to reports of recent years, Norman is 'one of the bravest and best' helicopter pilots the instructor had ever seen. Norman has previously owned at least one luxury flight craft and was the envy of many golfers around the word when he purchased a $30 million Gulfstream jet. Norman has also previously mentioned other mid-flight scares, including having a wing get struck by lightning and an engine blowing on take-off. It seems it takes much more than a broken cockpit window to unsettle the leading golf course designer. If only he'd been this cool-headed during his final rounds at Augusta in 1986, 1987 and 1996.
