Tag Archives: Goodbye

“Ohio I’m leaving, Ohio I’m gone …”

Never thought I would actually be able to sing the following Avett Brothers lyrics and have them actually hold true to my heart:

“Cleveland, I ain’t never felt nothing so strong
Been believing the words to my songs
Ohio I’m leaving, Ohio I’m gone”

For those of you who may not have heard yet, I have taken a job promotion within my company and will be relocating from Cleveland to Las Cruces, New Mexico, within the next 3 weeks.  This decision was the most difficult thing I have ever made in my life and it just killed me to come to a decision with such little time.

I weighed all the pros and the cons over and over and realized that I needed this adventure even if it meant leaving everything I love behind.  I feel terrible about moving on, but I do not want to not go on with life and one day wonder  “what if”.  I want to just take that huge risk and see what happens and say that I did it.

For 35 years, Cleveland and Akron have been my life.  Raised in a suburb in the middle of both cities, I was privileged enough to meet a ton of people who I have the pleasure of calling friend.  From the days of sitting curbside at a Dunkin Donuts to the warm nights in the Coventry courtyard, I really was lucky to be surrounded by such cool and remarkable people.  I loved going to the Metros daily and will never forget the times I had at “The Office”.  I could not have had a better childhood.

Throughout the years, we all grew up, some  of us took our own journeys and risks, but I stayed put and called Cleveland and Akron home.  To be honest, I was so ok with that.  I am Cleveland blood, this is my town.

As I continued growing up, I met more people and became involved in the ever important Cleveland / Akron music scene, not as a band performer, but as someone who fully appreciated it.  I loved my involvement with everything I did and cherished all of the memories that were created on a nightly basis.  I am so lucky to say that I had that.

Without going into too much detail, I will just say this: The Cleveland/Akron music scene rules right now and is it better than ever was.  I am so sad to leave it all behind, but you all know you I will be doing all I can to stick around, even if I need to do it via the Internet.  No way in hell am I going to not keep updated, some of these local bands are too important to not continue to keep tabs on.

The people…my friends.  Cleveland and Akron are full of the greatest people I will ever meet.  I know you will all welcome me back with open arms if and when I make it back on Ohio soil.  Trust me on this, I will be thinking about Ohio on a daily basis for the rest of my life.  Thank you to everyone out there who I have met for being so damn cool.

Obviously I am going to miss the locally owned shops and restaurants.  I just hit up Square Records last night and know nothing like that store will exist where I am moving to.  Music Saves and Blue Arrow, I seriously am going to miss the shit out of as well as the greatest comfort food on Earth, Melt.  Pizza will never even compare to Luigi’s.  I drool at the thought of one of their salads right now…  There are so many other places I can talk about, but I am getting sad just thinking about it.  I just hope I can score some Great Lakes beers out in the desert.

Sure, there will be plenty of new places for me to experience in my move to a new city, but it will not be the same.  Anyone from Cleveland and Akron who reads this knows exactly what I am talking about.  Cleveland and Akron are not that bad and I question why so many people hate it and say they are stuck in it.  I’m glad I was born and raised here.

Do I even dare get into Cleveland sports???  I will miss that so much and you can bet your ass I will remain a fan of Cleveland teams until the day I die.  That is a promise.  Browns for life.

I really should wrap this thing up.  Before I finish though, I just wanted to take a moment to thank each and every one of you out there who has spoken to me one way or another, shared a beer or a smile, rocked out along with, or just stopped here on this blog to see what was on my mind.  Without you all, I know I would not be the man I am today, and this site would not be going on 4 years.  Being surrounded in so many amazing people just adds fuel to my amazing life.

Special love to my greatest friends ever who rock out in bands like The Facials, Worship This!, Signals Midwest, Beat Kids, Harvey Pekar, Annabel, All Dinosaurs, Sidekicks, and of course Narcoleptics X5 (RIP).  These bands that I surrounded me around with are full of some of the most amazing people I will ever know in my life and I will miss the shit out of all of you.

Props to places like It’s A Kling Thing House, Dag House, Now That’s Class, Grog Shop, Agora (I hope you make a sweet come back), Odeon (you too), and all the other places I have seen a show at.

AddictedToVinyl.com, aka Matt, and his amazing new fiancé Annie (congrats!!!!), thank you for everything you have ever done for me.  The same love goes to all the good people who used to slave away at 92.3 including Patt The Producer and Nard.

I plan on continuing my blog, that is for sure, but it will never be the same.  I will be sure to try and visit and who knows, maybe one day I will plant my feet back in northeastern Ohio.  Only time can tell.

I leave June 8th and hope I get to see many of you before I pack up and drive cross county.  I know Las Cruces will be good to me, but nothing like the cities I grew up in.

I am scared as hell but excited to see what happens in the next chapter of my life.  Thank you people of Cleveland for all you have done for me.  I can not help but say “Cleveland Rocks” and mean it with all of my heart.  Akron, you rule too.

CBS Radio Kicks Cleveland’s Music Lovers In The Pants By Yanking Radio 92.3 From FM Radio

I figured I might as well talk about the 92.3 change while I had a moment.  I know that many of my friends are all sorts of excited for the sports radio station to take over.  Honestly I would be happy too if I were into sports as much as they are. 

I guess I look at the change a little differently and not even because I think Cleveland needs to have  crappy music like Paramore and My Chemical Romance played along with even worse music like Audioslave and Staind.  Oh, dare I mention Sublime???  (It was not that bad, they played the hits of Bad Religion, Rise Against, and Rancid too sometimes…)

The rumors are true.  92.3 is now called The Fan.  Its Cleveland’s first sports radio station.  Rejoice!!! 

The logo looks….well…you decide:

Seriously, how many people that you know actually have HD radio?  I know I don’t know anyone who has one of those, and if they did, they never told me because it just is not anything worth mentioning about.  I honestly think that not many people are going to listen to the iPod on shuffle, I mean, HD-2 92.3.

Yes, HD-2 will still play music, list shows, and keep listeners informed, but it is not going to be the same.  I have no desire at all to even jump onto the HD station’s website and stream music.  Done.  Maybe me recall the time I bought a portable XM radio player thinking it was a good idea. 

92.3 has been around for as long as I can remember and it was always music related until now.  There was 92 RQCK, Jammin 92.3, 92.3 The Beat when I was younger, and then the more memorable 92.3 Extreme Radio, K-Rock, and of course Radio 92.3. 

I know that not everyone out there was a fan of Radio 92.3.  A lot of the music they played was not really my thing and sometimes repeated one too many times, but every once in a while they would throw a gem in there.  They took the liberty to cater to as many people as they could, and that is no easy task.  They kept the community informed on what was going on and even threw together some awesome shows.  One in particular was the impressive Kuyahoga Fest that K-Rock threw together years back at Blossom.

There were a couple people who worked for the FM station I felt owe a shout out to.  Not only were they entirely too cool to me, but they also supported this dinky little website of mine.

Nard, the man behind the curtain, really gave it his all when it came to that station.  Not just inside the studio, but also during promotions and events.  It’s tough to please one person, but he managed to keep the attention of all of the surrounding communities of Cleveland that set their dials to 92.3. 

The regular Sunday night locally focused Inner Sanctum, featuring Pat The Producer and Matt Wardlaw, just celebrated 18 years as a continual program only to have to find a new home.  Luckily WNWV 107.3 FM Cleveland was quick to pick them up and they will not even skip a beat sharing the local music scene with Cleveland every Sunday.  There’s some good news for some good people who I have had the pleasure to call friends for a few years now.  If you have not checked out Inner Sanctum yet, you should.  They play a lot of good quality tunage by some amazing local talent.

Will there be a new radio station to jump in and take over? Is the HD-2 92.3 going to stick around, or will CBS ax that too?  Does it matter really anymore?  How many people really listen to radio these days as much as they did 10 years ago?  I know I do not.

The fact of the matter is that Cleveland has lost another alternative rock station and good people have lost their jobs because of it.  Where as I did not listen to the station daily, I did have the pleasure of making friendships with many of the staff that CBS released.  Regardless of how shitty some of that music was on that radio station at times, the people I knew there were incredible and I am happy I was able to network with many of them.

Good luck to everyone from 92.3 that CBS took a giant Cleveland steamer on.  Thanks for all you have done for me (and the rest of the city for that matter) with music.  I am sure you will have no problem finding something else soon.  I have no problem if you all collaborate and decided to make a radio station that played all punk rock and Clutch.  In fact, I would totally be ok with that.

RIP Radio 92.3…