Two Newspaper Items

DYER'S BLINK ADS PIECE: You know, OMW misses the days when the Akron Beacon Journal had a regular local radio/TV columnist. The paper has occasionally taken a stab at it, with brief efforts by Denise Grollmus (don't get us started, we've been rather harsh on her in our past) and Dan Kadar, a part-timer out of the University of Akron's "Buchtelite" who still writes other entertainment articles.

But for our money, the last "real" local radio columnist at the Beacon was the inimitable Bob Dyer. Dyer's been doing the transportation-related "Dyer Streets" column for some time now, but he was best known in our eyes doing the local media beat.

He visits that realm again briefly with an article in today's Beacon, on Clear Channel's announced plan to air one-second advertisements. You know, the short blips that will run audio like the Intel chime, or other brief audio that's supposed to remind you of an iconic advertiser.

Dyer talks to local radio executives like Rubber City Radio sales boss Mark Biviano, and veteran broadcaster Nick Anthony, that company's operations chief.

(Forgive us if the deep, booming voice of former WHLO/640 general manager Allen Saunders still runs through our heads when Nick's name is mentioned... "And here's the man who makes that difference...Nick Anthony!" Though we remember that former WHLO night/weekend host Ron Ver[e]b used the instrumental riff from Andy Williams' "MacArthur Park" for his theme, we've lost memory of Nick's theme song during the first WHLO talk incarnation...)

Anyway, back to 2006 - so far, none of the local Clear Channel outlets are selling the so-called "blink" ads, though 5 second ads are sold. We'll assume that refers to the industry standard news/traffic/weather sponsor billboards.

Unlike some who followed him on the ABJ radio beat (ahem, we're really trying to be nice), Dyer does "get" local radio. The article's not without errors, but we're not blaming him - we're pretty sure he is aware that Clear Channel talk WTAM is on 1100 AM, not "1100 FM". And he refers to CBS Radio by its old name, Infinity. But unlike some, oh, you know, Dyer doesn't believe radio stations actually physically move to their suburban/rimshot license cities. Sorry, we couldn't resist...

DISSECTING ROGER: Quite frankly, there's not much actual news in the two most recent efforts by Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Roger Brown.

In today's official Monday Sports Media Column, Brown calls the first season effort by Indians TV network SportsTime Ohio "mediocre", running down a list of technical and production problems. For his part, STO boss Jim Liberatore gives his own network a "C-plus, B-minus", and notes that it didn't even exist earlier this year. He says the network has played it safe technically since it's still new, and has held back on some telecast wizardry.

The only "newsie" item about STO was actually in Brown's Sunday column, where he notes that non-Indians-game regular programming promised by July may not show up until August (optimistically), or perhaps until the end of the season. (Insert your own Indians poor play joke here.) This being Roger Brown, we're almost tempted to drop a note to Jim Liberatore asking him for the real scoop.

And this being Roger Brown, the sports media column is almost looking like the real estate listings. Here's your list of new sports-related homebuyers Brown lists in the past two columns: Cleveland State basketball coach Gary Waters, Browns backup quarterback Ken Dorsey and Indians shortstop Jhonny Peralta, with Browns defensive back Sean Jones on the home sellers list.

Gee, sports millionaires buy and sell homes, who'da thunk it? We hear a rumor that Cavaliers superstar LeBron James owns a multi-million dollar home in Bath Township... we presume Brown published the sale price when he purchased it.

Brown also rips WTAM/1100 sports voices Mike Trivisonno and Kevin Keane for defending the offloading of Indians stars who go elsewhere to much success - in other shocking news, there's a thunderstorm in Cleveland in mid-June - and says WKNR/850's resident Steelers fan Kenny Roda gave detractors "needless ammo" by initially downplaying the motorcycle accident involving the Pittsburgh star quarterback...