Friday, May 04, 2007

Friday Leftovers

And, closing out our weekday additions to the MBoF(tm):

WHERE WERE THEY THEN?: We hadn't checked in with the excellent "Director's Cut" blog, crafted with care by WKYC/3 senior director Frank Macek on local NBC affiliate's website, so we visited again today.

And Frank's top item is one touting a package airing at 11 PM tonight on "Channel 3 News", where reporter Chris Tye revisits the early broadcasting careers of some of the station's current staff members, with decent doses of humor.

Eric Mansfield, Akron/Canton Bureau Chief who doubles as anchor of the WKYC-produced "Akron/Canton News" on Time Warner Cable 23/15, actually talked about the story a few days ago in one of his blog entries:

"I checked through my old VHS tapes and found a 1993 WAKC (the old channel 23) liveshot on Christmas eve from the now-defunct Super K-Mart in Montrose. Mark Nolan and I were live with your basic 'last-minute X-mas shopping' story. It's hilarious to say the least. We're both in our early 20's and skinny. Our microphones are those long sticks that everyone makes fun of now. At one point, Mark picks up a stuffed animal and turns the sketch into high comedy. As Mark would later say, 'this is what happens when you let kids play with television.'"

Set your DVRs, as Mr. Macek says...

CLASSIC TUBE: Also, the WKYC senior director/blogger points out a new local media blog we've been meaning to mention.

No, it's not a clone of the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm).

"Cleveland Classic Media" is an excellent resource for information about the history of local television and media, written by OMW reader Tim Lones of Canton.

Tim's into a series right now about the beginnings of TV in the Youngstown market, with a copy of a newspaper ad in the Youngstown Vindicator...which appeared at the debut of CBS affiliate WKBN/27.

If you'd like to go back into the local media "wayback" machine, stop on by Tim's new blog...

AND ABOUT THAT AD: We've had several requests for the "Help Wanted" ad looking for a new operations manager for a group-owned radio station that we felt was obvious by the content of the ad.

The ad itself appeared in the AllAccess "Job Market" section, and was looking for a news/talk operations manager for a station that sounded a lot like a station the company in question owns here in Northeast Ohio...which has recently adopted the format.

(We're not going to reprint it here, but a commenter has added it to the original item.)

We haven't spent a lot of time dissecting it.

For one, it does appear that the station here would be the company's only such station fitting the description given in the ad - based on our knowledge. We could be wrong, so we aren't going out on a limb.

We also don't know what the advertised position would do to the current structure at this station.

We just thought it was interesting...

15 comments:

Cliff said...

Anybody who has enjoyed Tim's posts on the classic message boards will enjoy "Cleveland Classic Media".

Tim has always put a lot of thought and research in what he posts, and this is no exception.

Anonymous said...

nextmedia has about 3 or 4 news/talk stations listed on its web site. Don't know if they all have sports, in medium markets, etc.

Anonymous said...

what is going on with channel 75 and Time-Warner Cable in New Philadelphia.. Test Bars?? New Channel on the way or what???

Anonymous said...

OMW:

Thanks for the kind mention. As I said in the first blog post, While I will comment occasionally on current broadcasting topics, I in no way intend to take your place as a "news source".Also, I appreciate any cricism, ideas, etc..

Tim Lones

Anonymous said...

some local talk show was ripping on OMW last night around 2 am. They gave their "usless OMV news update" dont know who it was just caught the end.

Ohio Media Watch said...

Umm, which college station was this "ripping of OMW" on, at 2 AM?

We're pretty sure there is no such thing as "a local talk show" in the overnight hours, now pretty much anywhere in Ohio.

The last regular talk show that went as late as 1 AM in the entire state, even, was Steve "Boom Boom" Cannon's now cancelled 10 PM-1 AM show on WTVN/610 Columbus.

Oh, well, if they find us useless, at least they're reading...and using our material!

-The Management

Ohio Media Watch said...

Tim,

No problem! We enjoy your effort.

And sometimes, in the moods we get in, maybe we'd ask you to take over so we can run into the hills and abandon this thing.

Heh.

-The Management

Anonymous said...

I too would like to know what
overnight talk show ripped on
OMW. I didn't know there was
any on the air.

Mike Dane

Anonymous said...

I couldn't tell if that was Scott Newell or Leonard "Spock" Nimoy in the channel 3 piece! Great stuff.

Anonymous said...

With nostalgia being what it is are there any aircheck collectors out there willing to start a site featuring classic Cleveland airchecks (WMMS, M105, G98 era)? That was the best radio Cleveland ever had and some of the best personalities too. Maybe that would show some of the current program directors how to do it right.

I know there are national sites but one dedicated to Cleveland would be a huge hit locally because of what radio meant here in the 70s and 80s when everything else was going wrong in the city.

I find it unusual that even on those national sites there are almost no WMMS and M105 airchecks. There are G98s but they are on top 40 oriented web sites and there are many of those.

I think it could even be a subscription service. I wish I had saved my cassettes of WMMS from then.

Anonymous said...

I like listening to WHK play all those old airchecks of the 1970s.

Anonymous said...

OMW,

Can you tell us what's happening with the revolving door that is Fox 8's weekend news?

First is was Dray Clark and Suzanne Stratford anchoring the 6pm and 10pm newscasts. Now Kathleen Cochrane has been thrown into the mix. And tonight, Bill Sheil of the I-Team is anchoring with Suzanne?

What on earth is happening???

Thanks,
JD

Anonymous said...

^ Re: my comment above, Lou Maglio is anchoring with Suzanne this evening.

Usually Suzanne would just anchor the news herself when Dray wasn't in.

JD
morningshowcentral.com

Anonymous said...

Suzanne has a big nose

Anonymous said...

Oh cmon Suzanne Stratfor is hot.