Friday, January 19, 2007

Clearing Out The Inbox

Here's what should be our final regular update for a while. We'll wax philosophical on it in a final entry sometime over the weekend.

During our "hiatus", as mentioned, we'll continue to update major "breaking media news" items, mainly in our primary coverage area of Northeast Ohio.

More details on that to come, but...for now...

CLEVELAND RADIO VET: Walt Tiburski, a name certainly familiar to anyone with a history with Cleveland radio, is retiring.

AllAccess reports he's stepping down from his job as market manager of Renda Broadcasting's Ft. Myers FL cluster, where he's worked for the past two years.

But those reading this blog will remember his long-time stint in Cleveland radio...particularly as the general manager of iconic rock station WMMS/100.7.

Best wishes to you, Mr. Tiburski, from all of us at OMW...

JOHNY D OUT: We actually knew about this Thursday, but it's now public thanks to new Toledo Blade media columnist Ron Musselman in Friday's newspaper. (Sorry, as we prepare to dial back, we've been slower...)

Musselman notes that "two key players" are out at Cumulus top 40 WTWR/98.3 "Tower 98-3"'s morning show.

Umm, yeah, maybe the including the host they named the show after?

Yep, that's right, "Johny D" (we would love to know where the extra "N" went) is no longer doing morning drive at "Tower". Producer Jeremy Baumhower, a former staffer at Clear Channel talk WSPD/1370, is also out.

Cumulus market manager Chris Taylor sings the familiar management refrain about such changes - they wanted to "move in a different direction". Yes, away from the guy who's been hosting since September 2005...that's a move in a different direction, no?

Various combinations of music and part-time talent will fill the gap until whenever Tower figures out what's next.

OMW hears that it's been rather interesting behind the scenes at Cumulus Toledo and at Tower in specific...and that "Johny D and the Morning Crew" wasn't exactly burning up the ratings.

It looks like Johny D didn't catch on like was hoped. He joined the station after a 10-year stint with Clear Channel's top 40 competitor to WTWR, WVKS/92.5 "Kiss 92.5".

And AllAccess notes that midday personality Crystal Harris follows Johny D out the door at Tower....

AND WHILE WE'RE IN TOLEDO: Electronically, at least, we'll note that former WSPD/1370 afternoon driver Denny Schaffer has landed in Atlanta, at least with a regular weekend gig.

Schaffer's "Denny Radio" is now heard Saturday mornings on Dickey sports WCNN/680 "The Fan" under the modified title "Denny Radio: Sports and More". The show debuted on January 6th, according to the station's website.

The former WSPDer was bounced a while back from his mid-morning gig at Clear Channel talk WGST/640 in the Peachtree City...along with pretty much nearly everything resembling a local talk show...

EMMY STUFF: This one passed on directly from the folks at the Lower Great Lakes chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS), otherwise known as the Emmy people...

The deadline for the local Emmy Awards is quickly approaching. Saturday, February 3 is the deadline, and there are a few changes to the process this year. All entries must be on DVD, with the DVD minus R format recommended. No VHS entries will be accepted, only DVD. The entry cost has been reduced to $70 for members. Plus a new category was added this year for interactive media. Entry forms and complete information are here.

The "Lower Great Lakes" chapter covers a wide territory from its base in Cleveland, from Erie PA to Bloomington IN and just about every TV market in between...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Enjoy your hiatus but hurry back.
You know we'll miss you.

Mike Dane

Anonymous said...

oa--omw should be among the nominees for an emmy.keep up the good work, enjoy your rest. david5258

Anonymous said...

The Blade column was wrong.
Johny and his crew were fired from Kiss-FM in August 2005. Mid month.
They were on Tower about 3 or 4 weeks later.
Clear Channel waived the non-compete.

firebird said...

Can't quite figure out how Denny Schaffer can show up on another Atlanta station as he still has 2 years left on a 3 year contract, and I'm sure he would not void it for a temporary weekend gig.

Both Tom "The King" Hughes and Kim "The Kimmer" Peterson, who were also let go at the same time are still under contract and are prohibited from being on the air.

The Kimmer was going to do a podcast with former WGST hosts Pete "Snake" Davis and Wayne "No Offense" Kitchins, but Clear Channel quashed those plans.

Ohio Media Watch said...

Well, we're not making it up, as Denny himself talks about it on his own website:

http://dennyradio.com/sportsandmore.htm

It sounds, from the way it's presented, that it's a week-to-week thing.

We can't get the WCNN live stream going this morning, but in the opening of last week's show, Denny called it an "audition".

You can download that show from his website.

We don't know how he's able to do this re: his contract with WGST/Clear Channel, but he's doing it.

Perhaps his contract allows "fill-ins", such as filling in for Premiere's Glenn Beck, or the January 3rd one he did for Clear Channel talk KTLK/100.3 in Minneapolis, though WCNN/680 is owned by Dickey...

Anonymous said...

Denny already has some name recognition in the Minneapolis market from his days as a Screaming Teen Idol on WLOL...I wonder if the fill-in on KTLK-FM might become permanent.

Anonymous said...

Since I can't do this on the post above...Enjoy that week or two off guys/girls (whoever's running this thing). From Wyoming, I say thanks for allowing me to keep up with everything that is happening in my home state, and hometown.

I think, that with everything, when you allow free speach, you open things up to ignorance. But I think the majority of us enjoy being able to comment and read about our friend back home.

So I hope that you will continue to allow people to express their opinions, however, blocking the smut that sometimes shows up would be great. maybe a "bad word" filter would help, or making people show their real identities would definately help!

Anonymous said...

I remember listening to Johnny D and Lee Anne Sommers on Jammin 92 back when I was in jr. high and high school. I'm not sure what type of ratings the show got but I always enjoyed it.