Is this a "trickle" of changes with the Good Karma sports talk radio empire in Cleveland?
The latest comes to us courtesy of E-Mails from a bunch of OMW readers, and comments on our earlier item.
OMW readers have told us that Good Karma's WKNR/850 is advertising the start of a new Saturday midday local sports talk show hosted by...drumroll, please...WJW FOX 8 sports anchor Tony Rizzo - Saturdays 10 AM to 1 PM.
As it turns out, according to the Akron Beacon Journal's George M. Thomas, the Saturday show will be a special tied to Sunday's Super Bowl. Thomas reports that Rizzo's appearance will be one of "several guests" in a rotation hosting the Saturday show in the coming weeks...and quotes the FOX 8 sports anchor: "I've been out of radio so long I'm kind of knocking the rust off."
No word on what happens to the usual occupants of the WKNR Saturday midday slot, the group of station producers, board ops and other part-timers who've been holding down the fort for the past few months.
We also don't know if Rizzo is still in consideration for a full-time gig on 'KNR. Maybe he intends on "knocking the rust off" on a Saturday or two in the interim...to ready for a weekday slot.
In another WKNR-WWGK Cross-Pollenization Move...
We're told the morning update anchor for "Cleveland's ESPN Radio 1540", Aaron Goldhammer, was heard Thursday afternoon on Kenny Roda's WKNR show, broadcasting live from Super Bowl XLXLIEIEIO - OK, 41 for us non-Romans - in Miami. We presume Aaron was also providing reports for Good Karma's other sports stations.
And an update on that question about the Super Bowl broadcast itself.
RadioInsight's Lance Venta points us to a Westwood One website - superbowlstations.com - which clearly lists both WKNR and Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 as affiliates for Sunday's showdown between the Chicago Bears and Indianapolis Colts.
It also lists other Northeast Ohio stations, including Canton's WCER/900, Wooster's WQKT/104.5, and Youngstown's WBBW/1240.
So, it apparently is possible for two stations in the same market to carry the Super Bowl, as Lance tells us the same situation is also happening in Philadelphia (WIP/610 and WFIL/560)... and we see it's also the same in Pittsburgh, where ESPN-owned sports talk WEAE/1250 and all-news outlet KQV/1410 are both listed as carrying the game.
WKNR itself has little history with Westwood One's NFL package, but new sister station WWGK signed up and carried a Sunday afternoon Westwood One contest when the Browns were not playing on Sunday...
Friday, February 02, 2007
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4 comments:
Sirius will also have the Westwood One broadcast avaliable on its stream, and of course to radio subscribers, on Channel 124..along with game casts in about seven different languages..
If I remember right, when Rizzo started at WJW he held on at WMJI for a while. But then he gave up WMJI totally. I heard that it was basically a "us or them" ultimatum. so what's changed that he can head back to radio? If it's a one day a week gig, I can see it, if not,m aybe some changes at WJW are in the works? Just speculating.....
Don't forget that Riz's workday at that point became ridiculous, with the 6p/10p sportscasts PLUS going to WMJI from 5a-10a with Lanigan, Webster and Malone. That, from what I remember, was the public reason why he left WMJI.
- Nathan Obral
Another Good Karma/WKNR change:
The High School Sports show is being moved from 850 to 1540. Host Jim Isabella does not sound happy. He said on-air this AM that the change came "suddenly" and "surprised" him. A lot of his callers this AM are also unhappy. I think that this will really hurt his show - he gets a lot of callers from the Akron/Canton area that will not be able to hear him on the new freq. He is encouraging listeners to let Greg Karmizin know that they are unhappy.
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