Not Quite A Week Ending Post

...unless we take Friday off, at least in the world of your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm). Which, we might...

TOWER'S NEW MORNING SHOW: We last paid attention to the morning show at Cumulus top 40 WTWR/98.3 in the Toledo market when "Tower 98-3" sent Toledo market veteran Johny D and his crew packing.

We're not even sure what "Tower" ran in mornings since, but we know what they're running now.

An item on Wednesday's AllAccess Net News scroll tipped us that WTWR has become the latest affiliate of "Kidd Kraddick in the Morning", a syndicated show based at Clear Channel top 40 WHKS/106.1 "Kiss FM" in Dallas.

And though Kraddick's show affiliate list has a lot of Clear Channel outlets, the show has apparently left the company's syndication wing, Premiere. We haven't been able to track down who is syndicating Kraddick these days.

So, in the Toledo market, Kidd will be up against Clear Channel's own top 40 outlet, WVKS/92.5 "Kiss FM". (We wonder if putting the show on WVKS' direct format competitor would have even happened in the show's days being syndicated by Premiere.)

And if you believe the Wikipedia entry on Kraddick - hang on, we'll truck in a grain of salt the size of the new I-280 bridge - the new affiliation is almost a homecoming for Kraddick.

The article claims that Kraddick was born in nearby Napoleon, Ohio...which is southwest of Toledo.

But "Tower's" relatively anemic Class A move-in signal may be faintly audible that far away from its transmitter site, which is apparently just south of the Ohio/Michigan border - an across-the-water shot away from WTWR's city of license, Luna Pier MI. (And by the way, that's one of our favorite COLs anywhere, name-wise...)

WTWR becomes Kidd's second Ohio affiliate, after Clear Channel's WZOO/102.5 "102ZOO" in the Ashtabula market...

MSNBC'S LATEST IMUS AUDITION: The show is no longer heard in Ohio, after Clear Channel flipped liberal talk outlets WARF/1350 Akron and WTPG/1230 Columbus to other formats (sports and conservative talk, respectively).

But we suspect some Ohio listeners want to keep track of Jones Radio mid-morning syndicated host Stephanie Miller, who counted WTPG as one of her first affiliates, and who also had at least a minor following on WARF.

Next week, Steph becomes the latest radio host to fill-in on cable TV's MSNBC, during the morning drive slot vacated with the semi-involuntary departure of CBS Radio host Don Imus.

Ms. Miller and her "mooks" (voice guy Jim Ward and producer Chris Lavoie) make the trek to New York City next week, doing the 6-9 AM (ET) show live from Imus' former studios just across the river in suburban New Jersey.

She'll be in the slot Monday through Wednesday of next week, and it appears that means her radio slot will be covered by a 3 hour delay of the MSNBC show's audio (9-noon ET).

Philadelphia-based conservative host Michael Smerconish (WPHT/1210) has been doing the former Imus show this week on the cable network.

But we put this item up only for this joke: For those buried in a hole, who didn't know that Imus had been canned and find Stephanie Miller on MSNBC next week, Imus to Miller is perhaps the most drastic change in looks in the history of television...

SOME REPRESENTATION: Ohio's getting a little representation in a radio trade organization.

Rubber City Radio news director Ed Esposito (Akron's WAKR/1590-WQMX/94.9-WONE-97.5) has been tapped as chair-elect of the national Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA).

And we notice from the release that Ed sports a fancy new title - "vice president of information media". As companies like Rubber City expand on the Internet, with sites like the company's AkronNewsNow, this kind of wording will become more common.

Also named as a director-at-large by RTNDA is Brian Trauring, news director of Toledo ABC O&O WTVG/13...