Higher Standards

This is the second in our series of navel-gazing "policy change" messages. Hopefully, it'll be the last.

In our first missive on this subject, we warned ourselves that the rumor and speculation component of this report had gotten out of hand, particularly concerning major either coming or rumored changes at two locations in one Northeast Ohio radio market.

We dedicated ourselves to pull back from a lot of the din, which we did.

However, like tasty candy sitting there, luring us to eat what we should not eat, some rumors with not much to support them made it into this blog.

From now on, we will work and strive to hold back on most, if not all, of the "this is going around town, we don't know much about it, but let's throw it up and see if anyone knows" items that cross the OMW transom. We have already taken steps to remove some of these previously posted items.

That's not to say that OMW will basically turn into a rehash of the writing of Roger Brown, Julie Washington and the like. We still have very good sources, and much of what we have reported - and has not hit the radio trade press, let alone the general press - is still as solid as the day we first reported it. We can't help if radio company timelines drag like so many shoes.

But the "We heard this guy at station A is going to market B" stuff? It's gone, unless we can get reasonable confirmation that it is actually happening. Rumors have a way of gaining volume, and it is not responsible of us to throw this stuff up - even if we're trying to hear if it's coming from anyone else.

Our sincere apologies for this.

We also welcome, and appreciate, official communication from any local radio or TV station or cluster, either on the record or off the record.

Please know that if things are happening, and we can confirm them through directly connected sources, we will continue to publish things you may or may not like. But OMW would like to become more "mainstream", and less "gossip"-related.

We still welcome "rumblings", but we won't publish random stuff we can't nail down to any degree. If you'd still like that sort of thing made public, we're sure the various local radio message boards would be a welcome home for such chatter...