Through The Weekend

Clearing out the ol' Inbox again, with some non-connected stuff from various trade sites and our own reporting...

LATEST FM HD RADIO OUTLET: We hinted at it earlier, and now it's official - Clear Channel has lit up another Northeast Ohio station with HD Radio.

Not long after hot AC WMXY/98.9 "Mix 98.9" in Youngstown turned on the digital bits, its sister hot AC station about 40 miles to the west has also done so.

Akron/Canton hot AC WKDD/98.1 is new to the digital radio game, as of Friday morning. That brings all of Freedom Avenue's FM signals into the HD world, with Akron talk WHLO/640 and sports WARF/1350 still analog-only.

For now, WKDD is just simulcasting the analog product, but we believe they'll start up an HD-2 subchannel fairly soon.

For what it's worth, OMW hears that WMXY's previously reported "Endless Love" HD-2 subchannel went away last weekend...we don't know if it's back up. It would appear broadcasters doing the subchannels have to test this technology and nail it down.

And no, we don't know what's going to show up on WKDD-HD2 on the OMW Accurian HD Radio, or on the dozen or so other HD-equipped radios around Northeast Ohio...

DEDICATED TO THE SLEEPING MS. ROBAK: With Your Cleveland Cavaliers officially home from the NBA Finals, we'll assume that The Overworked Sue Ann Robak won't be at work at Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS/5 "NewsChannel 5" for a while. For all we know, she's sleeping two or three straight days to recover.

So, it's Still A Fill-In Anchor Andy Baskin at the NewsChannel 5 sports desk this weekend.

And Friday night, we chuckled at an "inside" line he uttered while joking with veteran WEWS anchor Ted Henry.

When Ted started to throw it to Andy for a brief sports segment before the long-form "(Insert-Car-Maker-Name-Here-Because-They-Don't-Pay-OMW) Sports Extra", he started to stumble over the toss, particularly at the "NewsChannel 5 sports...anchor" part.

Andy joked back:

"I feel like I need to introduce myself. 'Hi, I'm Andy, I've worked at every station in town over the last year. I just want to say, I feel like I've worked with you guys for the past 20 weeks."

Heh.

The "worked at every station" part probably only feels like it to Mr. Baskin, who came from NBC affiliate WKYC/3, and has also been seen on WKYC-associated SportsTime Ohio (both under WKYC's auspices and after leaving, on his own), and before that, at FOX Sports Net Ohio.

He hasn't yet worked on South Marginal Road or in the basement of Reserve Square. (Perhaps he should be thankful for that latter fact.)

And speaking of Reserve Square, we don't know how quickly Orlando-bound David Pingalore will be out of the home of "19 Action News", but we're sure we'll find out soon.

We haven't heard anything yet, but we wouldn't be surprised if Andy Baskin gets hired on full-time at NewsChannel 5. If not as sports director and primary sports anchor, at very least as the second anchor, in the role once filled by John Chandler. We'll keep our ears up for news about that, as well.

And here's some advice for the folks at 3001 Euclid. If you want to keep Andy around, don't make him guess if you want him or not. That sure didn't work for Mr. Chandler, so much so that he even expressed that thought to the newspaper...

GOODRADIOWEBSITE: A regular OMW tipster points out the new website put up for GoodRadio.TV, which is not only the domain address for the company's site, but the actual name of the company in line to buy a pretty decent chunk of Clear Channel's small market Ohio radio stations.

The company, controlled by former PAX TV/Ion Networks president Dean Goodman, lists its currently owned stations (six in Iowa), plus the incoming acquisitions under the link "Stations Under Contract".

And we're reminded that some parts of Ohio will also see the new ownership in local stations. We don't believe we've pointed out that GoodRadio has also picked up the Parkersburg WV-based Clear Channel stations, which spread over the Ohio River into the Marietta area.

And though the Clear Channel Findlay/Tiffin stations are listed, we don't see Defiance OH based hot AC WDFM/98.1 "Mix 98.1" on the acquired stations list.

We're wondering if an operator in nearby Ft. Wayne IN is looking at WDFM. (We're just wondering, we don't know of any rumors to that effect, even.)

WDFM has attempted to serve the Ft. Wayne market in the past, at least as a rimshot... complete with an on-channel booster the station had in Northeast Indiana's largest city. (We've seen the site - it's behind a strip shopping mall.)

We don't remember if the loss of that tower a ways back had anything to do with it, but in recent years, WDFM has concentrated on its hometown Western Ohio base. With a new owner, could that change? Again, only a question, not a rumor.

And back to GoodRadio(.TV LLC) for a bit.

When we first reported the possibility of the company sniffing around the small market Clear Channel stations in Ohio, we got about a half-dozen E-Mails from folks looking to contact the company for possible employment.

You can do it right from the company's website now, at this link...

AND A BRIEF NOTE ON THE END OF A LEGENDARY BROADCAST: Classical WCLV/104.9 has let us know that the run of "Adventures in Good Music with Karl Haas" is about to come to an end, with the last show scheduled for broadcast June 29th at 8 PM.

The show actually started on WJR/760 in Detroit in 1959, and moved to WCLV in 1970 - which launched a syndication effort which spread Mr. Haas' efforts worldwide to hundreds of stations and millions of listeners.

Mr. Haas passed on in February 2005, and few stations stuck around for the posthumous broadcasts of his series.

We'll have a more detailed look at Karl Haas' life, legacy and numerous awards later this month...