Today brings us to our latest update on now-WJER-FM/101.7's planned move north into the Canton marketAnd it's time for pictures of the construction at the site of a new tower that will soon hold both it and Cumulus (for now) (eventually Clear Channel) (honest!) (really!) rock WRQK/106.9 on 22nd St. NW off of Whipple Ave. NW in Canton.
But this time, it wasn't your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) piling into the OMW Mobile for a drive down to Canton.
These pictures are supplied by not one, but TWO readers who happened to be near the site.
(Who'da thunk it? Maybe the 22nd and Whipple tower site construction can become a tourist attraction! People have to see SOMETHING after visiting the Pro Football Hall of Fame, no?)
Progress is moving ahead by the day. Our first reader snapped the picture above on Friday afternoon.
But by Monday afternoon, gravel had already been laid down for the road leading to what will presumably be the actual site for the tower, which could start going up soon at this rate.There still is much that needs to be done, though.
They do, of course, have to construct even a rudimentary transmitter building, move in and hook up the equipment and such, and well, put up the steel that will become the transmitting tower for WRQK/106.9, and which will hold the new antenna for (insert-call-letters-here)/101.7 North Canton.
Then, that equipment has to be tested and the like.
It would seem, to this non-engineer, a daunting task to get that all of that done between now and December 11th - particularly with winter-like weather in the forecast for the end of this week.
But progress does march on. And we stand by our earlier item that December 11 is indeed the target date for Clear Channel to take over operation of 101.7 FM, weather permitting.
To that end, another alert OMW reader pointed us to this "We're staffing a new station!" ad which appeared on the AllAccess website "Job Market"...with wording by Clear Channel Akron/Canton operations guru Keith Kennedy that the Canton/Stark County Chamber of Commerce may want to borrow:
Openings in the Hall of Fame City
The Hall of Fame City of Canton, Ohio is ready to give birth to a new radio station. Northeast Ohio is a great place to live and work. Just minutes from Akron and Cleveland, Canton provides a well rounded, family-friendly environment. The abundance of shopping, restaurants and recreational opportunities in the Canton/Stark County area, offer big-city amenities, with beautiful, rolling countryside just minutes outside of the city, and our murder rate went down this year too. We are looking for candidates in on-air positions and in programming. Selector experience is a plus, but not required. All format experience considered. Please send all materials to: 101.7fm, 7755 Freedom Ave, NW, North Canton, Ohio 44720. Attn: Keith Kennedy. Please no MP3’s. Clear Channel is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Oh, Gary Petricola hasn't heard about this, either.
(Sorry, we couldn't resist...)
34 comments:
Thanks for the Info!!!
WJER/Petricola has to be crying himself to sleep on his decision.
Yeah, but he's got a nice pile of cash to dry his tears on. We should all be so lucky...
True Story .. hand to God ..
Little chubby kid, lived in Orrville. Used to follow me around to live appearances just tormenting me. Came out to the station totally uninvited.
"What's this?"
"What's that"
"What happens if you do .."
This kid was torrential. Incessant.
I was PD. So, I thought "Hell, this kid's got radio FEVER. I'm gonna hire him." So .. I sat him down, made him read .. a thousand times .. corrected him .. a thousand times. Taught him the board, taught him the format, put him on the radio.
Somebody told me about two weeks ago that Keith Kennedy was Darryl Wallace.
I thought that was hilarious.
Somebody should ask "Keith" what radio school he went to when he was 14.
-DD
so many disgruntled former wjer employees out there with so much time on their hands! good to see, good to see.
i'd guess just about anyone could have a pile of cash to cry on if they spent half as much time actually working as they do playing monday morning quarterback with someone else's business decisions.
what is the format going to be for this station people???? why would I submit materials if it's going to be CHR and I do Country??
A good jock can do any format.
DD- Yup! I'm the same kid.
That’s not the exact story, although I was a chubby little kid (some things never change). I do recall going to ONE broadcast of a high school football game and you INVITED me to the station. I also recall that during the same broadcast Gaylan and Dan were doing play-by-play and you were a spotter. For one reason or another you horked off the Athletic Director (who was a tool anyway) and he threw you out of the press box. It was the most awesome thing I had ever seen. I knew at that moment, this is what I wanna do. I recall your exact words---“You have to learn to swear to be in this business kid”. I took that advice well.
Dave did spend HOURS and MONTHS working with me and gave me a shot reading the news on Sunday mornings. I was terrible, just plain dreadful. I started at 6am following a man in bib overalls who had, and I’m not kidding, stacks of porn he read in the middle of the overnight shift. Every week he said “I left you a little something to read there”. It was really bad 70s porn and Adam and Eve catalogues. He creeped me out.
Besides DD, Alan Lange guided me and taught me well. DD left the station and was replaced by… I think his last name was Forrest or Peppler? To this day he remains the single cheesiest human being I’ve ever met. Somewhere I have his publicity photo with an Achy Breaky T-Shirt with tassels! Oh Heavens!
I still have the tapes along with my very first paycheck I never cashed and both are equally embarrassing. As a 14 year old teenager it was both obviously memorable and forgettable.
Although I still dispute something that got me in trouble there. The SMN feed dropped out and I filled with Spots, Music Carts and PSA’s. The GM claimed he heard the same PSA 4x and that wasn’t possible! That particular PSA, (Aids Awareness) was dubbed on a cart with at least 3 other PSA’s, which meant I would have played the same PSA about 12 times in a row. I still dispute that!
Sidebar: I read in the Daily Record that Mr. Welty passed away last week. I recall him sitting with me offering advice as well. He was a very classy man.
Thank you for your life story, Keith.
Never heard of Keith Kennedy. Is he some kid just out of broadcasting school?
Hey you criticized someone on here TIME TO CLOSE THE THREAD!
My real life story....
The details of my life are quite inconsequential. My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My childhood was typical, summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds, pretty standard really.
Format? Top AC PD in Cleveland tipped me off. It's gonna be an AC.
Thanks Scott. Resume is going out now.
No disrespect to scott miller, but how would he know? I know people at CC cleveland and they don't know. Since metheny is no longer in akron they were told the format was up to localmgt. I don't think anybody has mentioned it yet, but the new RVP for Akron is Doug Montgomery from Grand Rapids. Doug is considered one of the best country pds in the country. The folks in cleve have thought that might have something to do with the new format on 1017
Keith... I have a similar story at QKT and of course with you. Although I am no longer in radio, I got my start with you at WBGC (where you were engineer and the guy who was actually "on the air at a real station")...
Dave Forest hired me and Breck taught me and tolerated me... i had the Sat night, Sun night shifts and Friday nights through football and basketball season back at the station. Folks at QKT where great!!! THey gave a kid a chance to have the greatest college job ever.
Don't believe JER is going AC for a second. This will be a Top 40 station that will blow Q92 out! Good night John Boy! Good night Donny Boy!
...''that will blow Q92 out''...
Huh?
Since when was Q92 in a position to be ''blown out''?
Its not been a compeitive force since it was flipped from its second or third AC attempt, after the ill fated Oldies switch that dropped their morning guy into WHBCs lap..
Some of you will never, ever learn..
I say make the station all christmas music all the time 365 days a year and 24 hours a day 7 days a week
With www.kisscanton.com online looks like Hot AC on the new 101.7 or is CC is going to reformat WKDD which is where you are linked to now from the kisscanton url?????
I guess in a couple of weeks we will find out!
Kevin lost his RVPP stripes/responsibilities when CC restructured their management template a few months ago. He's now pretty much "just| the OM for CC/Cleveland. (and acting PD for WMVX, WMJI and WGAR)
I'm an assistant program director/MD at another country radio station elsewhere in Ohio. It's been rumored for a few weeks that 101.7 will be Country. The labels are telling us they've now been approched for product. Our midday personality even got a call about her interest in moving to Canton for the station, and she was told, that is would be country.
From a programming standpoint, it could work. K105 no longer looks at Canton for $$. WQMX is Akron.
There are lots of shares and dollars sitting there for a Canton focused country station.
Canton Country Part 2?
Interesting..If they were to go country, They might want to lean a little more classic country..To be a bit different from the others..On the other hand, I don't know if they'd make it with 3-4 other strong country signals hitting Canton..I think Oldies is their best bet imo..
Place all of your money on country. Oldies is a dying format (with the exception of Magic). Country was mentioned as the new format months ago. If I were a betting person, I'd bet the farm on country.
....you said farm and country, hee hee, or should I say hee haw!
I've seen kisscanton.com and assumed it was a diversion. A Country format makes the most sense.
WHBC-FM is still king of the hill and its going to take more than a new 3k stick to topple them. None of the existing country stations service Canton properly. (or most of the existing Canton stations despite format for that matter)
Tim-
You seem like a good guy, but from all your posts here and elsewhere, it's evident you know bumpkis about radio programming. Classic Country? Oldies? YOU may want to hear them, but there is no large audience and selling either would be a nightmare.
ghost:
I never claimed to know a lot about radio programming. However, just in reading the boards and other sources over the last few years, I realize there isnt that much of an audience for anything in radio these days..My take is, Why is everybody so afraid to try something even slightly different?..Seems all the AC, Country, Rock and Newstalk stations are carving up small pieces of even a smaller pie as far as listeners are concerned..and most of them sound the same to me. I'll close for now at the risk of going off-topic but I appreciate the feeedback..
Rumor has it Matt Patrick is getting married for the 10th time.
What in the HELL does Matt Patrick getting married have to do with this discussion!?
The Columbus area has "Country Legends 95.5" WHOK. What's to say that wouldn't work in this area?
I've heard Dave Dial on WQKT.
I've heard Keith Kennedy on WKDD.
If Dave taught Keith everything he knows, he apparently forgot it all or met a better teacher later in life. Keith is a way better DJ.
Keith is a ham and egger
listen around akron canton radio, we're pretty lucky to have some decent personalties. markets bigger than us...not so much. i'm shocked by some of the talent in big markets, cleveland for example. there are some decent jox aound akron. tim daughtery is good. matt patrick is a better performer than a lot of big market morning shows. kennedy is good, so is steve hammond. bill hall on the summit. in canton i enjoy listening to todd fisher and tom jarrett on hbc-am. i don't like hbcs music, but enjoy listening to him. i think its because i remember him from wslr.
just my 2 cents.
jim p. from barberton
"I've heard Dave Dial on WQKT.
I've heard Keith Kennedy on WKDD.
If Dave taught Keith everything he knows, he apparently forgot it all or met a better teacher later in life. Keith is a way better DJ."
Shoot .. Darryl is an incredible radio talent. He blows me away in every sense of the word. I left radio and invented and was Editor-in-Chief of the golf magazine "On the Green" then I went out to L.A. and was General Manager of a sports network.
This is just a scam on air.
I don't even try, to be honest.
Listen to me, you'll hear it in my voice.
It's just playtime .. .goofnut stuff. Radio announcing .. the biggest scam of all time. You don't work.
And that's the way I do it.
But, that poster was entirely right. I knew Darryl was a superior radio talent the first time he opened his mouth on the air.
I'm a "media" guy.
It's all an inside joke, the whole show. I think it's hilarious they pay me to do it.
-DD
DD,
Ask Ken Nemeth if he still has my resume and audition tape I gave him about 32 years ago.
We're closing comments on this item, as it's gotten way larger than our usual limit.
-The Management
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