Why Don't They Take Out A Billboard?

We missed it, but an OMW tipster tells us the subject of WTAM afternoon motormouth Mike Trivisonno in mornings came up AGAIN on his Monday afternoon show.

Like Friday, when a caller told Triv about a "research" call asking if he'd listen to the WTAM afternoon driver in mornings, another caller brought up a similar call on Monday's Triv show.

Friday, we heard Triv tell his caller that "you're about the 12th person to tell me about a call like this". We're told the number is apparenly up to "about 30" in Triv's repetoire, and he continues to claim he doesn't know anything about this research effort which is apparently calling folks all over Cleveland. On Friday, he gave a message to his bosses if they wanted him to move to mornings...spelling it out "d-o-u-b-l-e p-a-y".

Really, if WTAM wants to prepare listeners for Triv moving to morning drive, they could take out a billboard at this point. The effort is THAT obvious.

Now, what does it all mean?

* What are the chances that Triv would move to mornings on his own station, displacing or moving "Wills and Coleman"? Not likely. (And we presume in this unlikely event, the recovering Casey Coleman would stay in mornings, anyway. By the way, we were heartened to hear Casey helping out WTAM Browns beat reporter Andre Knott on the second day of the station's draft coverage on Sunday. Not only did he sound good, he provided much needed perspective and help to the station's post-draft show.)

A news/talk station like WTAM needs the Wheel of Service Elements that the W&C show provides in morning drive. Triv has problems hitting time posts for his own show's news, traffic and weather elements on a regular basis...and there's no way they'd let him unleash that on morning drive. Such a move would change the very nature of WTAM as a news/talk station.

We also hear "Wills and Coleman" do quite well in morning drive as it is, so there's no ratings pressure to move Triv, anyway.

* We've often reported rumors here, unsupported and unconfirmed, that both CBS Radio and Clear Channel have kicked around flipping an FM station to talk.

For CBS' part, they are already halfway there with the addition of Opie and Anthony to WXRK/92.3 "K-Rock" in afternoon drive, with hot talker Rover in morning drive. But if Clear Channel moved Triv to morning drive on one of its FMs, how would they be able to do so without causing problems for WMJI/105.7 morning drive icon John Lanigan and co-host Jimmy Malone?

(As we re-read this item, we feel the need to add that it IS entirely possible, if Triv moved to morning drive on one of Clear Channel's FM stations, that the rest of the station may or may not change format. It's quite possible to keep the post-morning drive music format with a morning talk show.)

No matter what the eventual result, it sounds to us like WTAM is trying to pave the way towards moving Mike Trivisonno to morning. The "I've gotten 30 calls" bit sounds like just a bit short of an actual promo, to us. A respected Friend of OMW notes that he believes it's quite possible Triv wouldn't know that they were doing research calls about his radio future, but Triv talking about this over two days sounds like it's a plant, to us.

There is the outside shot that CBS Radio is behind the calls, and you know, oddly enough, the WNCX/98.5 morning drive shift - on a station with a long history of "hot talk" in morning drive - IS open.

We'll see, though, how it pans out...