That Confusing ABC/FOX Shuffle, Part Five

Continuing in our quest to keep track of what network radio newscasts are being run at various Northeast Ohio radio stations:

* It turns out that OMW was mistaken, and a well-informed source at the Akron Radio Center tells us that WAKR/1590 Akron runs the ABC Entertainment hourly news feed. As we noted to the source, it's difficult to tell the difference between the ABC Entertainment, Direction, and other feeds that aren't the Information network. The primary difference between the non-Info network casts is length and the top-of-cast sounder.

* A listener has already heard Clear Channel talker WHLO/640 Akron running the FOX News Radio hourly news product, as of tonight. OMW will verify this, but not before going to sleep. :)

* If they haven't made the switch from ABC Information already, we presume it'll be the ABC Direction news feed that will air on Clear Channel liberal talker WARF/1350 Akron in the next while. (See above about WAKR's Entertainment feed.)

* We did hear Clear Channel talker WTAM/1100 Cleveland's new Fox News Radio-based ID/top of the hour news sounder. We're still getting used to it. It's not bad, considering, but OMW loved the "boom-boom-BOOM" of the old ABC-based sounder.

* Still undetermined - when ABC Information Network will start on MediaCom Akron market talker WNIR/100.1 Kent. We'll pull something out of the air, and guess it'll be before August 8th. We'll make the logical assumption that the ABC-I product will also grace the 1000 watt directional daytime signal of WNIR sister station WJMP/1520 Kent(/Akron/Cleveland/Mars/Jupiter), now the area's Fox Sports Radio affiliate.

* Could CBS Radio News try selling their product to WAKR/1590? They could, but WAKR is a long-time Paul Harvey affiliate. ABC may be willing to let WTAM/1100 let go of the ABC-I designation (and inventory) to save Harvey's clearance on a 50,000 watt top-30 market flamethrower, but likely wouldn't be as flexible for an Akron market station.