Southern Maryland FM radio has undergone plastic surgery and a new spirit and face have emerged – and he goes by the name Moondog Michaels.

97-7 The Rocket FM is Southern Maryland’s newest rock station, as listeners of former Oldies 97-7 might have noticed.

“There will be no more Neil Diamond,” Moondog declared in an interview with The Bay Net.

Somar Communications, of Mechanicsville, picked up Moondog recently to give their Southern Maryland stations a shot in the arm, and that’s what they got.

“What will you hear?” Moondog asks.

“Rage Against the Machine, Butthole Surfers, whatever … There’s no corporate VP telling me to play these 5 songs every week,” Moondog said of Somar’s independence from the corporate mega-conglomerates that own most FM stations.

“It’s live radio, like in the old days, before the Clear Channels and the Infinity(s),” Moondog said. “Like it should be, real radio … It just is the most rocking alternative station you’ve ever heard in your life.”

Moondog comes to the area from San Francisco. He’s been in the business for 15 years

“I never got that kind of positive response from listeners like that I got this morning,” he said on the day his morning show debuted last week. “I was hitting the call button so many times my finger was bleeding.”

Michaels is Director of Programming for 97.7 and Star 98.3, which also underwent some changes. In fact the changes started there.

The old 98.3 morning team left the station, which was billed as a classic rock station, but played more obscure 70s and 80s hits.

Morning hosts Boomer and Dawn have been brought in from Florida, and the station will focus on hits from the last four decades.

“They’re a really nice couple from the Panhandle,” Moondog said.

In the past, 98.3 listeners called 9-11 because the station lineup was so bad one weekend.

VART.com Virginia Northern Neck News and Info reports WSMD 98.3 filed to change formats to mainstream adult contemporary in April.

The last time the station changed formats in the late 1990s the station marked the event by broadcasting the song “Macarena” repeatedly for nearly an entire weekend, reports VART.com, causing Southern Maryland residents to call emergency 9-11 in fear that someone was murdered or had a heart attack at the station.

No changes are planned for country station WKIK 102.9, but Sonar may use one of their AM stations to broadcast the Oldies now missing from the dial in Southern Maryland.

 

In his 15 years, Moondog has been bouncing around the country, lastly working for a CBS affiliate in a highly competitive market of the San Francisco Bay area.

“I’ve turned my self into a radio vagabond,” he said.

Now Michaels has a lifetime contract.

“All worked out, I co