A Couple of Quick Hits

We haven't been able to confirm it, but message board chatter suggests that Metro Networks sports anchor Ryan McNaughton is leaving Cleveland, headed for a TV job in Syracuse. McNaughton has been heard weekday afternoons doing sports news updates on Salem sportstalk WKNR/850, and has also provided updates to Metro client WING/1410 ("ESPN 1410") in the Dayton market.

We'll leave it to others to make comments about the Cleveland market's only all-sports station not actually employing drive-time sports update anchors in its own building, but McNaughton was usually well regarded. Metro's Jeff Thomas continues in the morning drive sports slot on both WKNR and WING, along with providing sports updates for Salem talker WHK/1420.

And, AllAccess reports that classical music radio has taken another hit, this time in our Nation's Capital. In a move OMW missed because it didn't happen when we were actually down there, Bonneville classical mainstay WGMS/103.5 is moving to a pair of suburban rimshots, 104.1 and 103.9. They'll be displaced on the in-market FM signal by all-news powerhouse WTOP, currently at 1500 AM, 107.7/Warrenton VA, 820/Frederick MD, and 104.3/Leesburg VA, which means they're running out of frequencies they do NOT use. Eventually, WTOP will land solely on 103.5 FM and Frederick's 820, with their other frequencies being used by a new in-depth news service partnered with the Washington Post newspaper.

OMW mentions this move for WGMS because it's happened here in the past, with the move of Cleveland classical station WCLV from full-market 95.5 FM, to the Avon-based west suburban rimshot signal of 104.9 FM.