Not WKRP in Cincinnati

As the entire editorial staff of your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) awaits the release of the "WKRP in Cincinnati" DVD later this month - even with a long list of necessary-to-make-it-affordable music substitutions - we electronically revisit the Queen City.

There's a wholebuncha stuff we have to put up that we haven't gotten to yet. And you can find details on all of the below items at Cincinnati Enquirer TV/radio guru John Kiesewetter's blog...

YES, HE'S GONE: Cincinnati radio legend Jim LaBarbara, who's been the "Music Professor" for even longer than his nearly 15 years at oldies WGRR/103.5, is indeed out at the station.

Kiesewetter reports that the axe fell due to a corporate decision at Cumulus, who wanted to return program director Keith Mitchell back to the same kind of dual on-air/programming role he performed at the old "Mojo 94.9". We had that a while back.

But we weren't sure if the Mitchell move to afternoon drive would entirely dump LaBarbara from the station, which it has indeed done.

LaBarbara tells Kiese that he "definitely wants" to stay on the air. And the blog item points out an easy guess where he may land next - at oldies WDJO/1160. Or, he could go another direction.

But...somewhere, we bet he'll be back on the air in Cincinnati...soon.

And for a station, like most in the format, trying to disassociate itself with "oldies" like it was some sort of disease - we suppose LaBarbara's exit was almost inevitable...

KEN AND KITTY AND BIG D AND BUBBA: Bonneville country WYGY/97.3 "The Wolf" wasted no time replacing local morning team "Ken and Kitty", who were let go at the end of their contract not long ago.

It's now "Big D and Bubba", delivered live via satellite to Cincinnati from their home base at Clear Channel's WSIX-FM in Nashville...and to our reckoning, perhaps the 10th "(first name/nickname) and (second name/nickname)" country/rock/etc. syndicated morning show in America. We even sometimes confuse them with "Lex and Terry", who air mostly on rock stations.

The Kiese item brings us to the apparent replacement for Los Angeles-based Sean Valentine on Clear Channel top 40 outlet WKFS/107.1 "Kiss FM" - new local team "Tim and Jeff".

Well, "local" in that they've come to Cincinnati from Arkansas, and will only be on "Kiss" as far as we know...

BIG NEWS AT THE BIG ONE: And if we lived in the market, we'd probably pay more attention to this one.

Apparently, Tom Gamble taking the old Andy Furman job as host of Clear Channel talk WLW/700 "The Big One"'s evening SportsTalk show is not permanent.

And it's by his own choice, says WLW programmer and CC/Cincy AM operations guru Darryl Parks, who tells Kiesewetter that Gamble didn't want the gig "for family reasons".

After some years of both parties kicking around the idea, the change finally got WLW together with Cincinnati Enquirer sports columnist Paul Daugherty, who takes over the 6-9 PM slot weeknights on "The Big One" starting April 10th. ("Doc", as we guess he's also called, is tied up in Augusta GA covering the Masters golf tournament for his primary employer.)

And yes, that means Daugherty isn't leaving the newspaper...he's just tacking on a side job.

And we make the assumption that the change will return Gamble to the morning drive slot at sister sports WCKY/1530 "Homer", alongside fellow "Angry Guy" Richard Skinner - who's been doing the "Sports Animal" morning show solo since Gamble went to WLW...