Closing Out The Week

Assorted stuff we haven't gotten around to, and the like... and a teaser or two...

THAT TEASER: OMW hears that a long-time Northeast Ohio media personality returns to the local broadcast community on Monday.

Is this the same person we hinted about in an item a while ago? Or, is it something entirely new and surprising? It certainly was for us, when we heard it.

Or maybe it's not "entirely" new?

Keep watching for details. We may update this one before Monday...

SAVING RANTS?: OMW hears that FSN Ohio's 2007 version of "Cleveland Rants" is getting swamped in the ratings by SportsTime Ohio's "All Bets Are Off With Bruce Drennan", and that a recent move to air the show at 9:30 each night - instead of as a floater after games end - may have been to try to salvage the show's fortunes.

The problem would not appear to be anything related to this season's pairing of Les Levine and Kendall "The BSK" Lewis as the show's hosts. Last year, of course, Levine and then-WKNR/850 host Neil Bender teamed up for a radio/TV simulcast, in the waning days of Salem's ownership of the local sports talk radio station.

With new ownership in Good Karma Broadcasting, the simulcast did not continue. WKNR went its own way with the "10th Inning Show", hosted this year by station veteran Greg Brinda. (And if that beer company wants us to use its name on the show, they should talk to us about paying us for it.)

And it wouldn't, from what we've heard, necessarily be attributed to excessive popularity of former Morgantown WV resident Bruce Drennan, who hasn't - as far as we know - broken into show tunes on his STO program.

Though Drennan certainly has his audience, the key factor here isn't him - but the lead-in.

On STO, that would be actual Cleveland Indians' game broadcasts, where FSN Ohio has to settle for the network's mediocre national prime-time lineup to deliver audience to Mr. Levine and Mr. Lewis.

Here at the Mighty Blog(tm), we wouldn't be surprised to see "Cleveland Rants" end sometime this year, we'd guess at the end of the Indians' playoff run. Assuming they do keep heading in that direction, of course.

But we'd expect FSN Ohio to hang onto Les Levine, in particular, who already does other work ("Browns Table") for them. And we wouldn't be surprised to see "The BSK" in some other role at FSN Ohio, though that's just a guess...

WILLIE TROUBLE: On the way to his new national show, which starts next month, Clear Channel talk WLW/700 Cincinnati early afternoon host Bill Cunningham had to stop at the Cincinnati Reds' clubhouse.

"Willie" delivered an apology to Reds player Adam Dunn, for questioning his on-field sobriety on a recent show. It was a comment prompted by Cunningham's appraisal of Dunn's play in a game the night before. Hat tip to the Cincinnati Enquirer's John Fay for the Willie quote:

"Adam Dunn looks like a monkey with a football in left field. He has to have consequences for what he does. That is again a loafing ballplayer who ... would have blew a .15 if someone gave (him) the intoxilizer last night. I say .15. The son of a gun is drunk. And he's playing baseball in left field for the Redlegs."

Fay reports that Dunn shrugged when asked if he accepted "Willie's" apology.

It doesn't appear like this one will turn out like T.J. Houshmanzadeh situation for the popular WLW host. T.J., of course, was upset with then-"Sportstalk" host Andy Furman's comments, and Furman was eventually let go by "The Big One".

After some contract/non-compete negotiations, Furman ended up in afternoon drive on Cumulus talk WFTK/96.5 "SuperTalk FM", where his program airs today.

Not only does Cunningham have a lot more clout than Furman did at the station, but the "shrug" by Dunn probably pretty much ends that.

And WLW hosts are used to apologizing for everything except what time the sun comes up, due to the controversial nature of the station, and the general leeway hosts are given to make their remarks.

Mr. Cunningham takes the reins of "Live On Sunday Night with Bill Cunningham", the show replacing Premiere Radio's Matt Drudge, on October 7th at 9 PM (in Cincinnati)/10 PM (nationally)...

BRING ME THE FLOATING HEAD OF TERRY PLUTO: About the only thing that the Cleveland Plain Dealer hasn't done is put a giant likeness of his head on a billboard near an Akron freeway, just a mile or two from the headquarters of the sports columnist's former home, the Akron Beacon Journal.

No, wait, they have.

Writes "Crain's Cleveland Business" writer John Booth in his blog:

"Big billboard, big Terry head, big circulation department phone number visible on I-77 northbound just past the downtown Akron exits"

And thanks, John, for the nice tip of your own blogging hat to this report.

It kind of reminds us, a little, of the billboard sparring cable's FOX News Channel does in Atlanta, where it takes pot-shots at Atlanta-based Cable News Network via billboards visible from CNN Center - well, without the "over-the-top" comments FNC's billboards usually carry.

And it's not yet evidence that the PD is trying to tweak Pluto's former co-workers and bosses directly.

No, to do that, they'd be sneaky, and buy ad time on the ABJ's own digital ad billboard atop its headquarters building...