Thursday, May 04, 2006

Two Followup Items

INDICTED: Former WDJX/Louisville KY air personality and promotions staffer Todd Kelly Smith has been indicted by a Louisville grand jury, and arrested on a dozen theft related charges, according to Louisville TV stations WHAS/11 and WAVE/3...which report his mother was also arrested.

The charges stem from Todd's involvement in a self-created charity for victims of ALS ("Lou Gehrig's Disease"), and the indictment says he never forwarded money collected by the Todd Kelly Foundation to ALS victims. The TV stations were among many media outlets he used to spread the word about the foundation while working at WDJX.

We mention it here not because Louisville is not far from Ohio, but because earlier, Canton market CHR WZKL/92.5 Alliance ("Q92") had announced the hiring of Smith as their new promotions director. Shortly after that, we got word that the AllAccess news item for his hire here in Northeast Ohio prompted people in Louisville to contact local TV newsrooms.

We don't know what happened at the local end of things, but we understand Smith - assuming he avoids a long sentence behind bars - is probably not expected to ever work at WZKL. At this moment, the "About Q92" page on the station's website literally has no name listed next to the "Promotions Director" title. We suppose "The Guy We Thought We Hired Until We Realized He Could Be Headed For Jail" doesn't fit on the page.

Indeed, we understand that "Q92" may well not have known of Smith's legal troubles. Though we know for sure that the station does read AllAccess (it posts job listings there frequently), they apparently did not make the connection with the popular trade site's January item on Smith's problems at WDJX. And their background checking may not have even taken place - for just a cursory call to ANYONE in the Louisville radio market would likely have uncovered this widely publicized story, which has been all over local TV stations since it broke there.

Anyway, we'd be surprised if Todd made it up here. And if he ends up getting convicted on the theft charges, well, you can't really promote a Canton, Ohio radio station from behind bars in Kentucky...we assume.

RIVER MORNINGS: AllAccess reports that CCM WCVO/104.9 in the Columbus market ("104.9 The River") reshuffles morning drive, with new program director Todd Stach and WCVO morning vet Tracy Leek joining up for "The Todd and Tracy Morning Show"...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Todd Stach labored at the Fish/95.5 for a spell here in the Cleveland market before going to Columbus. Nothing really remarkable, but I figure hard work got him to where he is now, and there is not a thing wrong with that.

Anonymous said...

Please discontinue referring to
WTAM's Mike Trivosonno as a "Motormouth." He does not talk fast enough to qualify for that title.

Big Jack Armstrong is a "motormouth."

Triv is a MUSH mouth.