Monday, July 31, 2006

Loose Ends

A couple or three things to follow up on:

NO MUDD, YET: A quick check of our regular morning drive recording of WNCX/98.5 reveals what sounds like a jock-less morning show today on the CBS Radio Cleveland classic rocker.

But the station is now promoting the start of the new morning show "later this week", which would seem to fit what we've been hearing about the show OMW reported will be fronted by the former WWWM/"M105" personality once known as "The Mudd".

A helpful message board type pointed us to his "440Satisfaction" entry, which reveals that "Mudd" is better known radio-name-wise as Wynn Richards. If the name rings a bell for you where "Mudd" does not, it's because he also counts WGAR/1220 on his local radio resume.

And Richards/Mudd was also heard on then-WWWE/1100 "3WE" under an entirely different name, "Tony Manero"...when he was in the "Mudd" on then-3WE sister station M105.

That shows you our AM radio background, as we do remember the name Wynn Richards from those days in the early 80's...we probably heard him on WGAR at some point in 1981. We don't remember Tony Manero, though...or for that matter, Wynn's stint as "The Mudd" on M105.

Wynn left radio in 2000 after a stint at a Fresno station, and went into the cell phone industry. He tells the 440 folks that he was (at the time of his entry) a "communications specialist" for then-AT&T Wireless.

The morning show composition around Wynn/"Mudd" is still not known. We are hearing some very interesting names, including some already in the CBS Radio Cleveland compound and doing work on other stations...

FINDING JIM MUELLER: Another message board regular reminds us that former Browns Radio Network analyst Jim Mueller was hired in 1999 to do public address announcing for Browns home games at Cleveland Browns Stadium.

We found this Akron Beacon Journal article from that year (seen in Google's cache only) that mentions Mueller's intonation at the team's first game returning to Cleveland. We can't find anything that tells us how long that job lasted, or if he's still doing it today.

UPDATE: An OMW reader tells us that Mueller did the Browns PA gig for that one year, 1999. As we reported, he's been quite busy doing PA work for major auto racing venues since.

OMW reported last week word from a suburban newspaper's Browns beat writer that Mueller is expected to be the team's TV play-by-play man for pre-season games this year.

A commenter to our earlier item reminds us that Mueller was the long-time voice of the Mullinax auto dealerships, and says he now does the same work for Pat O'Brien Chevrolet - complete with the folksy theme music he once used on the Mullinax ads!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jim Mueller did the PA work at Cleveland Browns Stadium in 1999. Then in 2000 he was replaced by then Cavs PA announcer Jeff Shrieve (sp?) who has done the job ever since.

Shrieve was replaced as the Cavaliers PA announcer this past season by Ronnie Duncan, although word is Duncan will not be retained by the organization for next season.

Anonymous said...

I believe that Mueller is also the voice for a Florida auto dealership. Can't recall who it is...I did the radio spots, thru a Raleigh NC agency, for this dealer for a few months. Mueller did the tv.

The Creative Director at the Raleigh agency is an Akron native. He used Mueller recalling his NE OH vo work

cm

Anonymous said...

The dealership in Florida is Mullinax. Jim also does the vo and on camera work for Pat O'Brien Chevrolet in Cleveland produced by Fraser Video Productions.