Random Pieces

Some follow to start off your week:

'QMX CONFUSION: As it turns out, Rubber City Akron country WQMX/94.9 traffic/news reporter Marcy Pappafava has not (as we wrote earlier) "moved into the co-host seat" alongside "Country Club" host Scott Wynn (pictured here).

We probably should have made clearer that such a presence may have been temporary and maybe even just incidental, but we did note that we didn't know if it was permanent...even though WQMX's own staff page listed her as "co-host".

We guess we implied too strongly that it could have been more than what it was.

We know that our report wasn't quite accurate for two reasons:

* First, no less an authority than WQMX/WAKR/WONE news director Ed Esposito calls us on it in a comment posted to the earlier item. Ed tells us that the item is "off the mark", and says we might want to check in with them.

We apologize for the reticence to do so, but frankly, OMW's not used to receptive answers from some local broadcast clusters. We do have some folks who will help us out, and Ed's a regular reader who has pointed us in the right direction in the past. We'll indeed check in with Mr. Esposito or others at the Akron Radio Center, if they're indeed willing to provide us with the right answers.

But some local broadcast clusters view us as a digital gnat that needs to be swatted far away, and wouldn't confirm to us even that their stations are broadcasting on their assigned frequencies. At least one area programmer is actively hostile to OMW, basically questioning our right to breathe air - though we hear we're in good company in that regard. Thankfully, the folks on West Market Street have usually been much nicer to us. Well, most of them.

Honestly, we really try to "get it right" here, though we do not expect confirmation or even acknowledgement of "hot unannounced tips" like the recent dropping of WMMS/100.7's local morning show for the syndicated "Bob and Tom". We repeat that local broadcast operations are encouraged to get in touch with us ("View my complete profile" link on the left for our private E-Mail) and be proactive about staff changes and the like.

Second, as we noted above, WQMX's own website's staff page, which actually LISTED Ms. Pappafava as "co-host" last week (thus, one of the reasons we ran with the item), has now returned her to the status of "news anchor". We're not sure why the station would list her as a co-host of the show, if such a possibility was not in the cards. Or maybe we're just confused about the definition of "co-host"?

Anyway, it would appear that 'QMX is still out there looking for a co-host to join Wynn, Pappafava and the Country Club gang. It'd be a great gig for whoever would be interested, if you're reading and think you'd be up for it. WQMX is a stable, powerhouse station in the Akron market. T&R's to program director Kevin Mason...

MORE MMS FOLO: When a personality or show leaves a radio station, most stations do their best impression of Stalinist Russia - removing all traces of the show or personality like they were never a part of the station in the first place, and leaving behind no explanation.

That's basically what happened on the Internet on Friday, when Clear Channel Cleveland rocker WMMS/100.7 dumped "Sean, Hunter and Cristi" from both the morning drive airwaves and the station website...the first move that tipped to us that a long-rumored change was officially in the works. The station's mornings.wmms.com subdomain got redirected to the home page.

But we're told that visitors to the WMMS website this morning were still greeted with the faces and names of the now-deposed morning drive trio in the "Now On-Air" box (pictured here, grabbed off of the WMMS server just moments ago). Oops! At least "The Buzzard" has a week to flip out that graphic with the "Bob and Tom" one.

OMW regular reader Johnny Morgan checks in to remind us that former WHTZ/100.3 "Z100" New York City personality Ross Brittain was a part of the WMMS Revolving Morning Show wheel. He tells us that Brittain dropped in for a few months during 1994 to "burn off his non-compete". He apparently fits in the WMMS timeline right before "Brian and Joe".

And a plug for Johnny - he's heard early Sunday mornings (overnight) on "Sunday Oldies Jukebox", the one-day oldies side of otherwise alt-rock WSTB/88.9 out of Streetsboro, which is also heard in a large chunk of the Akron area....