For a second straight day, we're focusing squarely on Sault Michigan and the Eastern U.P. for today's post, which fills in some blanks for a major upcoming concert event and looks at a regional radio station that some readers may not be aware of, so here's what you should know!
Here are some clarifications for the lineup of next Thursday's battle of the bands at Lake Superior State University's Arts Centre! First up, you may recall in our initial coverage that I held off on talking about hard rock band Sonic Dayze pending a proper write-up, but as it turns out, they're actually from Traverse City, which may explain why I'd never heard of them! A band travelling out of market to compete in a non-local battle of the bands is not a foreign concept, as Tarnished competed at two battles downstate earlier this year, inclding the Rock Recovery one in Alpena that fellow local hard rockers Double Jack (now Exit 808) played at. However, non-local bands coming here is more of a novelty as the Soo goes, and it'll be interesting to see how Sonic Dayze go over next Thursday, especially if the battle is fan voted again! They've been active since at least February, and multiple live videos can be seen on their Facebook page.
While based out of Traverse City, Sonic Dayze's new guitarist Jeremy "Wylde Child" Gates was born and raised in the Soo, so they're not completely devoid of local ties. I'm not familiar with Jeremy beyond Sonic Dayze media, but they have a good handle on grunge covers and have some deceivingly diverse originals and instrumentation, so don't bypass Sonic Dayze next Thursday at the battle! Regarding the local bands, we can confirm a little more on the debuting Small Town Society, as per personal Facebook postings from band members. Former Stoned Ape Evolution guitarist Melvin Willis will be joined in this group by singer/guitarist Holly Sibbald, bassist Chris Bennett (no word on if he's bringing his stand-up bass), and drummer Daniel Jackson. Still a lot of unknowns on this band, but it'll be interesting to hear how the Small Town Society do next week! Finally, we can confirm that I was 50% right on who's joining Molly Escherich in her band!
This is per a comment reply on our Facebook page when first plugging the battle of the bands yesterday, so thanks to Molly for the kind words! Her comment is ambiguous as to whether she meant that Nathan & Cayd are 50% of "The Other Guys" or if only 50% of those two (as in, only one of them) will be in the band next week, but the full lineup will reportedly be unveiled next week before the battle occurs. I'm still unsure of who Unsure are, but stay tuned in case we get more updates on the second annual LSSU battle of the bands in the coming week!
Let's close this post by acknowledging a new-ish and local-ish rock radio station on the FM dial! Readers who live/travel often in the central Upper Peninsula may be familiar with the McMillan-based radio station (WMJT) once known as Eagle Radio 96.7, which was owned by Darby Advertising from 2006 until 2018. That year, veteran local radio personality Tim Ellis bought their sister station WUPN (95.1 FM) in Paradise, and has since rebranded it as Bridge FM while maintaining its classic hits format, but WMJT 96.7 was sold at the same time to Travis Sumbera, who ran it initially as a hot adult contemporary station named 96.7 Flash FM, named for his dog. Starting in 2022, Flash FM started branding itself on social media as "Luce County's Rock", and fully filed to change their format to a rock station earlier this year. If you've wanted a local alternative to Rock 101 since The Bear left the E.U.P. in 2010, is Flash FM what you've been hoping for?
Maybe if you're located in western Chippewa County or Prince Township, Ontario, but from Sault Ste. Marie, I can't pull it on FM using normal equipment. A couple of stations technically based out of Newberry in Luce County (most notably Oldies 93) pick up here, but WMJT is not as powerful and is 15 minutes west of Newberry, and I recall not having luck in pulling WMJT here back when The Eagle was only on 96.7. If you try to scan 96.7 in Sault Ste. Marie now, you will likely instead pick up Kalkaska rock station KLT, which simulcasts at WRGZ 96.7 out of Rogers City for the Alpena market. When tuning into 96.7, I thought I had picked up Flash FM until I heard KLT bumpers, which was mildly surprising given that KLT's Boyne City affiliate (93.5 FM) picks up better here from past experience. Without travelling west, you'll likely need higher end equipment and/or a large directional antenna to pick up WMJT, especially given that WRGZ is nearby.
Barring that, you can always hear the live-stream on 96.7 Flash FM's mobile application and/or on Live365 (when it's on air), and it's interesting to hear their rock rotation along with sometimes familiar but mostly unique commercials! When I tuned into Flash FM, I heard songs by Matchbox Twenty, Chevelle, Europe ("Superstitious", believe it or not), The White Stripes, and Modest Mouse, among others, but I'll let you decide how their rotation compares to Rock 101, KLT, or any other stations. Flash FM truly is meant to serve the central U.P. but it's great to see another rock radio option up here, and hopefully Travis continues finding success with WMJT! See above for more details on 96.7 FM in McMillan, and stay tuned for more news and notes soon! Thanks everyone!
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