Created in April 1974 as "an ironic twist on Cleveland's down-and-out reputation as a decaying Rust Belt city," the station's longtime promotional mascot has been an anthropomorphic "Buzzard" cartoon character.

[39][40] Considered "a true radio legend," WMMS DJ Kid Leo was chosen for Rolling Stone's "Heavy Hundred: The High and Mighty of the Music Industry" (1980) and named "The Best Disc Jockey in the Country" in a special 1987 issue of Playboy.

[40][41] Noted filmmakers, including Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous) and Paul Schrader (Light of Day), have called on both The Buzzard and its personnel while preparing for various rock-themed productions.

[48] Owned by Malrite Communications from 1972 to 1993, subsequent consolidation in the radio industry saw WMMS change ownership five times in seven years, and has been in iHeartMedia's portfolio (originally under the Clear Channel name) since 1999.

Album deejay Denny Sanders was brought in from Boston and key WNCR personnel (including former WHK-FM/WMMS personalities Martin Perlich and Billy Bass, and station newcomer David Spero) were soon hired by WMMS, taking most of their audience with them.

"[62] Under the leadership of station manager Billy Bass and program director Denny Sanders, WMMS helped break many new rock artists nationally, most notably David Bowie.

Based on considerably high record sales in the Cleveland market, Bowie (in his Ziggy Stardust persona alongside The Spiders from Mars) kicked off his first U.S. tour in "The Rock Capital" (a term coined by Bass).

Warren Zevon, John Mellencamp, Lou Reed, Tim Buckley, Peter Frampton, and a host of others performed on the program over the years, recordings of which are still widely available as bootlegs.

During this time, with Denny Sanders as his creative services director and Rhonda Kiefer as programming assistant, WMMS broke all Cleveland ratings and revenue records.

[73] Rather, WMMS adopted a buzzard as its mascot in April 1974 because of the then tenuous economic state of Cleveland – less than five years away from becoming the first major American city to enter into default since the Great Depression[74] – and the winged-creature's classification as a scavenger.

The Buzzard became synonymous with WMMS, Cleveland radio and the city itself, spawning a series of T-shirts so numerous that they are now impossible to catalog, many with slogans like "Where Music Means Something" and "Ruler of the Airwaves."

A major contributor to the ratings success was an airstaff that remained fundamentally unchanged for many years: personalities like Kid Leo, Jeff & Flash, Matt the Cat, Dia Stein, Denny Sanders, Murray Saul, Debbie Ullman, Betty "Crash" Korvan, Ruby Cheeks (Debra Luray), BLF Bash (Bill Freeman), TR (Tom Renzy) and the late Len "Boom" Goldberg were invaluable to the station's popularity.

WMMS during this period would play a key role in breaking several major acts in the US, including: Rush, Roxy Music, Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny, Fleetwood Mac, Meat Loaf, The Pretenders, the New York Dolls, Lou Reed, Mott the Hoople, Boston, and The Sensational Alex Harvey Band.

[80][81] WMMS was directly influenced by then and current sister station WHTZ/New York City (Z100), which rose to the top of the ratings books immediately after installing a contemporary hit radio (CHR) format.

John Gorman, Denny Sanders and Kid Leo organized the original campaign with Tunc Erim, assistant to Atlantic Records president Ahmet Ertegun.

Jeff & Flash were also credited as being major contributors in bringing the Rock Hall to Cleveland, by heavily promoting on-air a USA Today reader poll to decide which city should get it.

"[84] Negative reaction was swift and widespread;[45][46] some called the scheme a mere "lack of judgement,"[45] while a reporter for the Akron Beacon Journal compared the station's response to that of discredited former Vice-president Spiro Agnew.

[85] By the late 1980s, most of the original staff members had departed: John Gorman and Denny Sanders left in 1986 to launch upstart station WNCX, and Columbia Records hired Kid Leo in 1988.

[103] While the change in programming alienated many longtime listeners, many of whom switched to WNCX and their full-time classic rock format, WMMS boosted its ratings for the first time in years with a new, younger audience.

Buzzard-Palooza was the first of these: held in July 1994 at the Nautica Stage, the all-day concert included sets from Collective Soul, Junkhouse and Fury in the Slaughterhouse,[112] but was cut short after turning into a "rock-and-bottle-throwing melee."

[113] WMMS scheduled a second Green Day performance just two months later – this time at Blossom Music Center – and at a near-record-low cost of $5 per ticket, the station gave fans a "second chance" to see the band live.

Brian and Joe were moved to afternoons in February 1997 after a change in ownership, with shock jock Liz Wilde (Anne Whittemore) from WPLL/Miami taking their place; her firing less than a year later sparked a successful lawsuit against both the station and then-owner Nationwide Communications.

[138] Cantle later called the failure of Sean, Cristi and Hunter as "a real team effort" and compared herself unfavorably to Johnny Manziel: "too young, too overconfident and too drunk to handle the responsibility... however I have no intentions of playing Canadian football".

[140] Bo Matthews (Alex Gutierrez), who became the station's program director in early 2004, hired Ohio native Benjamin "Maxwell" Bornstein that April for a more "personality-driven" afternoon show following the departure of Tim "Slats" Guinane for WXTM.

[121] Co-hosts Duji (Susan Catanese) and Dominic Dieter each worked on Rover's Morning Glory before the move to WMMS; since then, the show has expanded to include sound engineer Chocolate Charlie (Mike Toomey), phone screener Mattitude/Flatitude (Matt Novick), Video Anthony Snitzer, Producer Dumb (Shaun Street) and former intern Jeffrey LaRocque.

Past show members at WMMS include, Ryan Hoppe, Scott Taylor (now a reporter at WJLA in Washington, D.C., Kaitlin Geosano, and Rob Garguilo.

Regular segments include "The Shizzy", a daily news update; "Tech Tuesday", where listeners pose consumer electronics questions to an industry expert; and "The Thursday Hook-Up", a call-in dating game.

The show itself rapidly covers a range of topics in a comedic format, from major current events to obscure pop culture; regular segments like "Sperm News", "Why Florida Sucks", and "Are You Smarter Than a Dumbass?"

During a June 19, 2012, interview with Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler, the show broke news of the delayed release for Music from Another Dimension!, the band's first studio album in eight years.

While both Rover and Alan Cox are primarily "hot talk" programs, rock music airs during regular middays, nights, overnights, weekends and online during Cavaliers and Guardians play-by-play.