NARDING IT: OMW hears that it's official - "Nard" is taking the programming duties at CBS Radio Cleveland alt-rock/talk outlet WXRK/92.3 "K-Rock". With Rover in the morning, and Opie & Anthony in afternoon drive, we thought it was time to officially add the "talk" to WXRK's format description.We're reminded that Nard has been aboard at 92.3 for some five years, going back even into the station's days in the "Jammin' Oldies" format. Remember "Jammin' Oldies", kids? Nard does.
By the way, "K-Rock's" website is advertising a future market visit from those afternoon shock talk hosts...and provides listeners with a way to sign up to get notification of the date for a local visit from "Opie and Anthony's Traveling Virus". No, we just write these things, we don't come up with names...
WE REACH INTO BOARD ROOMS: OMW hears that your very own Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) was even mentioned at an "all staff" meeting at Canton's WHBC/1480 - WHBC-FM/94.1, the NextMedia combo that has shown up here in rumors for the past few days.
And we've gotta give it to A) whoever asked about the sale rumors we've reported (we don't know who it was...they are not even a source for us), and B) to WHBC management for even attempting to answer the question.
We're told that station GM Rich Bossler said "we're as much for sale today as we were the day Ted Boyd sold us to NextMedia in 2000"...but admitted that if NextMedia corporate had designs on selling either or both of the WHBC stations, the company probably would not tell even him.
The station blames the dismissal of news anchor/reporter Alan Zarek and engineer/IT guy Dan Mamone on long-time mandated budget cuts from NextMedia corporate...cuts that have been held off until now. This is consistent with what we've heard in recent days from other sources.
Once again, though these sale/resale rumors are pretty strong in the Canton market - we're surprised we haven't heard from every single person who works in that city, but it's not far off - we have no concrete information that it's happening. Still, when you take the national move by NextMedia to reduce its size by selling off other clusters, it sure makes sense that some sort of move would be made eventually in Canton...
MANCOW MOVE: It doesn't directly affect Northeast Ohio. Yet.
But long-time WKQX/101.1 "Q101" Chicago morning man Erich "Mancow" Muller is officially leaving the Emmis Broadcasting alt-rock station. His last show on his current radio home in the Windy City is July 14th. The show will continue to be broadcast for affiliates of "TRN-FM", and Mancow says he is actively seeking a new flagship in Chicago.We seem to remember reports out of that city - sometime last year - that Mancow was supposedly negotiating with CBS Radio to replace Howard Stern on the company's FM talker there, WCKG/105.9. If we're remembering right, those talks fell apart. (We're not altogether sure we remember correctly, but it seems to ring our memory bells.)
We're not about to suggest that Mancow would be an automatic replacement for former Cleveland-based morning doggie Shane "Rover" French in Chicago - where he's currently based as the man who DID take over for Stern on WCKG - but...we could see just how patient CBS Radio is with Rover...
3 comments:
Other fallout from the "budget cuts" that are happening at WHBC include fully automating Mix 94.1 overnights when it used to be manned and cutting loose one part-timer.
Also it's rumored that "management" blamed 9/11 as part of the reason that cutbacks needed to be made. No mention of the falling ratings or ridiculously high sales rates, however.
Speaking of 9/11, did anyone else notice on that day that Mix 94.1 was perhaps the only station in Northeast Ohio--and maybe on of the few in the country--that did not switch to network news..I remember ''Kayleigh Kriss'' saying something about ''I know there was a national tragedy, but we're going to keep on going with ''70's Super Highway''..amazing..Please, WKDD, knock these people over the head..as a group, its richly deserved..
If you will allow me to help you out with the 9/11 comment made above, oh brave "anonymous" (since I was there at the time): believe me-NO ONE at Mix 94.1 was glib about what happened that day; it was decided, and as difficult as it was to be on the air I think rightly so, to continue with music to provide a respite from the sensory overload that was September 11th, 2001. You wanted/needed news on the event? You couldn't escape it and you knew where you could get it. You want a break to regroup and regain your sanity for even just a few minutes? We provided it.
If you ever, EVER paid attention to anything I ever said on the air, you'd know that that day was taken as about as seriously as you could take it on-air, but thanks for the uninformed, biased, unprofessional, and unintelligent post anyway. It took NOTHING to go wall-to-wall news; it took a lot of intestinal fortitude and composure to present a normal shift in light of such an event, and I'll go toe-to-toe with anyone concerning the events of that day and what we did.
See what happens when you give just anyone a keyboard and access to the internet?
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