Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Early Tuesday Grab Bag

Some scattered items, the first two from long-time OMW reader/tipster Nathan Obral:

WWVA CHANGES: Nate tips us off to the addition of TRN's Michael Savage to the lineup at Clear Channel talk WWVA/1170 Wheeling WV.

The station carries two hours of Savage from 6 PM-8 PM, which clips local afternoon drive show "The Drive Home with Steve Novotney" down to 3-6 PM. It's actually the second TRN placement on the weeknight WWVA schedule, as the network's "Advice Line with Roy Masters" airs as part of the 8 PM-1 AM paid religious programming block...

Nate also notes that WWVA is no longer running a long-time programming staple - the repeat of the Saturday night "Jamboree USA". After "Jamboree" ends on WWVA, locally-programmed "Net Biz Radio" now follows from 9-11 PM on Saturday nights...

COURTRIGHT ON THE MOVE: An OMW reader asked us recently about the current whereabouts of Cleveland radio news veteran Ken Courtright.

We responded that Courtright and his family had settled in the Dover/New Philadelphia area in retirement, where his daughter had already gotten into the "family business".

After working at WTUZ/99.9 Uhrichsville-New Philadelphia as a news person, Julie Courtright moved to WEOL/930 in Elyria. Mr. Obral tells us that she's recently joined the crosstown combo of WOBL/1320 - WDLW/1380 as a news anchor/reporter...

WRQK IN NEWS, THIS TIME NOT DUE TO SALE: We're getting several reports that Cumulus rock WRQK/106.9 "Rock 107" Canton is much harder to hear than normal, especially outside of Canton.

We hear unconfirmed reports that it's due to some sort of transmitter problem that's taken hold since over the weekend.

We can't confirm that staff from Clear Channel tripped over a cord when they left after Friday's visit.

(Umm, that's a joke, folks!)

We do know that WRQK - under whichever ownership - will have to replace the aging tower which now holds the 106.9 stick off Whipple Avenue on 22nd Street, but we're pretty sure that work hasn't begun yet. It wasn't even in the process of being prepared when we drove by the facility a couple of weeks or so ago.

When that work is completed, the new tower will also - eventually - hold the antenna for the incoming 101.7/North Canton signal, the facility known for now as WJER-FM...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's no joke. This is just part of CC's "less Is More" campaign.

Anonymous said...

Well - I don't know any details - but I can confirm that there was an engineer or two at the WRQK transmitter building Monday.

Anonymous said...

Just a note on WWVA and Jamboree USA. They stopped having the live show at Capital Music Hall earlier this year. From what I understand, what they are running on Saturday nights now are reruns of older shows, and not new ones. The replay they took off was a replay of a replay.

Anonymous said...

Courtright is a class act. I worked with him several years ago and it was a learning experience. He has the greatest old school announcer voice.
Best to the Courtrights.

Cliff said...

I remember Ken Courtright when he was the newsman for "Big Jack" Armstrong on WKYC/1100. Big Jack would always needle him before the newscasts, such as refering to him as Ken Courtwrong. Made for entertaining radio.