We hinted at this earlier, but we're still in "sporadic/as we can" mode when it comes to updating this report. We'll continue to be on that schedule until further notice, but we apologize for being away since late last week.
Some quick hits to hold you over...
OVERNIGHT CHANGES: If you're up in the middle of the night, you'll have one less spot on the radio dial to hear George Noory, host of Premiere Radio's ubitquous overnight show "Coast to Coast AM".
Clear Channel talk WHLO/640 Akron has removed itself from that rather lengthy list of affiliates, and is now running Talk Radio Networks' new late-night show hosted by Phil Hendrie.
Yes, the same one. But in this incarnation, Hendrie is not doing the "fake call setup" routine - where he'd bring on a "guest" that was a comedic character done entirely by him in a character voice.
The new Hendrie show sounds like (from the description) that it'll be more of a standard issue show for conservative talk stations, give or take a voice or two still coming out of the fertile vocal cords of Mr. Hendrie.
WHLO airs Hendrie from 2-6 AM, on a slight delay from his live feed (we believe that's 1-4 AM ET). His previous program only ever aired in Northeast Ohio on Clear Channel sister talker WKBN/570 Youngstown.
In case you miss Noory's show on WHLO, just flip the dial over to 50,000 watt Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 Cleveland, or one of approximately a dozen other spots on the nighttime AM band that carry the show, and reach Northeast Ohio at night...
OH, AND WHILE WE'RE IN UFO LAND: We saw word that the inventor of "Coast to Coast AM", Art Bell, is...umm...retiring. Again.
Bell has been doing weekend editions of the show, and has already once retired from THAT gig, and twice from the main weekday show. So, we think this makes it Art Bell's Fourth Retirement from "Coast to Coast" in some form.
Bell notes that he wants to spend more time with his wife and family...
THIS...IS CNN IN CANTON: CNN's TV news operation has spent a lot of time in the Canton area recently, due to the highly-publicized Jessie Davis disappearance-turned-murder case.
CNN Radio now has a home in the Hall of Fame City, as Melodynamic talk/religious WCER/900 Canton has now picked up the network. It replaces USA Radio on the station.
CNN Radio is also heard on various other local radio outposts, including Dix country WQKT/104.5-oldies WKVX/960 Wooster, due to it being carried by the former Westwood One (now Dial-Global) 24/7 satellite music channels. And ABC 24/7 formats carry that network's news as well...
AND SPEAKING OF ABC FORMATS: An effortless segue into a confirmation of a rumor we'd heard a while back.
BAS Broadcasting classic rock WOHF/92.1 Bellevue OH (near Sandusky) has flipped formats to oldies, keeping the name "92-1 The Wolf".
The station is now running ABC's "Pure Gold" 24/7 oldies format (known on-air as "Oldies Radio"), though it's positioning as "Classic Rock and Roll".
From an article in the Norwalk Reflector newspaper:
The new 92.1 The Wolf is a mass-appeal station directed right at the 35- to 64-year-old Baby Boomers and is the only format of its kind in the "quint counties" (Sandusky, Ottawa, Erie, Huron and Seneca) served by the station.
BAS runs ABC's "Hits and Favorites" AC format on two other stations, in Fremont and Mount Vernon, both bearing the "Eagle" banner.
ABC Radio Networks' 24/7 formats, along with all ABC Radio operations except ESPN Radio and Radio Disney, are now under the Citadel umbrella. ABC News Radio is produced for Citadel by ABC's news division...
DINGED: We're not sure where we spotted this a while back, but we did.
Gannett's WKYC/3 Cleveland has been dinged by the FCC for a Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL) of $10,000, for "failing to publicize the existence and location of its Children’s Television Programming Reports". Apparently, the local NBC affiliate didn't run those little brief announcements you see in children's programming, telling people to come on down to the station and read the reports.
It's not the first time a local station has been under the FCC's scrutiny for children's programming-related incidents.
We seem to recall that Winston Broadcasting CW affiliate WBNX/55 Akron has pointed out repeatedly its efforts to overcome problems in this area, including accidental airing of commercial product programming in so-called "E/I" shows it is provided by syndicators...
17 comments:
Phil actually had more of a liberal viewpoint on most issues in the past, but was a solid supporter of the president after 9/11. I am quite intreged to see how much his views have changed in his new show... and odd enough that he's syndicated by the same people who bring you Savage, Laura Ingraham, and network founder Roy Masters.
Trivia: Phil he nearly ended up on WTAM way back when. Ray Davis and Kevin Methany (as a fill-in for Triv in 2001) admitted that they nearly replaced C2C (after Art Bell's second retirement, with replacement Mike Segael) with Hendrie. And Methany gave glowing praise to Hendrie on the air.
I'm glad he did, because the shows I have listened to, pre-retirement, were phenomenal. With any luck, he'll bring back the "theatre of the mind" that makes it such a treat to listen to. Not to mention a good late-night counter to C2C.
- Nathan Obral
Phil is doing the "fake Setups" again. Heard a few last night and his podcasts on his website are phenomenal.
92.1 FM in Bellevue switching to ABC's Pure Gold format is interesting considering that former neighboring town rival WNCG FM in Clyde's format was ABC's Pure Gold during the 90's.
the WHLO move makes sense....
you can get noory on wtam AND wkbn...
Art Bell is retiring for 3 months again till he needs another paycheck zzzzzz
Podcasts are the only way anyone living more than a few miles from WHLO's transmitter will be able to hear Phil Hendrie. What are they? 500 watts at night? In the Susquehanna days, at only 1000 watts, I could hear rockin' WHLO all around Cleveland, even had it on the buttons. Then, at some point, I heard they "boosted" power to 5kw or so during the day, lower at night, and since then I can't pick them up at all. What happened?
Sounds like "Ike" may be back to being Ike the night guy on WQMX. No sign of JR on their website anymore.
Mid-days are open at WQMX, its on All Access
September 1, 1988 .. as Program Director at the old WWWT, I changed the call letters and the format (in Wayne County .. really popular move there, Dial) .. from Christian to Rock and Roll ...
That Rock and Roll was ABC's "Oldies Radio".
The station retains the call letters and format to this day.
DD
.. or WWST in some languages ..
Which went on the air September 1 of 1947 with those call letters.
(what do you want, it's the Fourth of July and I have to do an air shift ..)
Coast To Coast - The best show on radio.
"I heard they "boosted" power to 5kw or so during the day, lower at night, and since then I can't pick them up at all. What happened?"
I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure that back when WHLO was 1kw they were either non-directional during the day or had a broader pattern to the north. Of course back in those days, they were a "limited" operation, like a daytimer but pegged to local sunset in Los Angeles. That meant they could stay on until midnight in the summer and even when local daytimers had to sign off at 5:15pm, WHLO could stay on until 8:15.
"92.1 FM in Bellevue switching to ABC's Pure Gold format.."
It' ironic that everyone had the Oldies format all but dead and buried. CBS is flipping their stations in San Francisco and New York back to oldies after experimenting with "Jack." Guess someone figured out that instead of dropping dead at age 55, baby boomers actually started buying more stuff... like vacations, Lexuses, and boatloads of home improvments. Duh!!!!
WQMX needs to just go off the air that station is terrible.
Is this the last remaining post open to comment?
"WQMX needs to just go off the air that station is terrible."
Guess all radio stations that are consistently rated #1 or #2 in their market should go dark.
Yes, each night Phil is bringing more and more comedy. I was a huge fan of the original show and the new one has been great so far.
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