Here at your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), we don't know what it is...but media news from Toledo seems to always come in clumps. It's almost never just "one" item.
Here we are again, with word of one change that's already been made, and one move that may or may not affect the market.
We'll start with the second, with the announcement on Dave Hughes' DCRTV.com, "confirmed" by the Baltimore Sun newspaper, that veteran Baltimore market radio voice Brian Wilson would be returning to the airwaves of that city, taking the early afternoon slot (12-3 PM) at CBS Radio FM talker WHFS/105.7 starting next Wednesday, April 9th.
The opening is prompted by a number of changes, including the move of midday host (and former Baltimore police honcho) Ed Norris into afternoon drive to cover the slot occupied-until-now by the WJFK/Washington-based Westwood One-syndicated "Don & Mike Show"...which is losing its primary host to retirement, and losing WHFS as an affiliate.
This all affects OMW, of course, since Brian Wilson is currently program director/afternoon drive host at Clear Channel talk WSPD/1370 Toledo.
And though we don't have all the facts yet, it appears that sentence will continue to be accurate for the foreseeable future.
DCRTV reported that Wilson would be moving to Baltimore to take the WHFS afternoon drive shift. That report was actually refuted online by a note attributed to Clear Channel Toledo's Andy Stuart on the popular local "Glass City Jungle" blog...
There have been some inaccurate announcements on some websites stating that Brian is leaving WSPD to take a full-time job in Baltimore. In fact, he will be doing fill-in work for this Baltimore station and will remain as the PD/PM Drive host on WSPD. Any questions by other media, clients or listeners can be directed to me until Brian returns from vacation on Monday.
Glass City Jungle's Lisa Renee then stumbled onto this announcement of Wilson's WHFS gig on the Baltimore station's own website:
Brian Wilson is back in Baltimore, hon! The familiar voice you heard in the car on the way to school is working his magic from 12 PM – 3 PM on FM Talk 105.7.
Though we don't have the details yet, it appears that the WHFS gig will be done via ISDN from Toledo when Wilson is in Ohio, and his afternoon drive WSPD show will be done via ISDN from Baltimore when he is in that city.
The veteran host is no stranger to ISDN-based long-running daily talk shows, as a fill-in or otherwise.
Wilson pioneered the "ISDN-fill-in" business with his Vacation Relief, Inc. company...and while doing that fill-in work for various stations across the country, hosted then-ABC Radio talk KSFO/560 San Francisco's evening show from his home near Baltimore five days a week. This, of course, was before he got the WSPD position.
Our other Toledo item is indirectly linked to our first one.
Under the radar, under our noses and noted by almost no one, Wilson's predecessor in afternoon drive on WSPD has returned to the Toledo airwaves - and this time, not by a small-city FM rimshot.
Apparently starting this week, Denny Schaffer's "DennyRadio" program is airing on WSPD's AM sister station, sports WCWA/1230 "FOX Sports Radio 1230", from 10 AM to noon weekdays, after the local morning drive general issues show hosted (and brokered) by financial expert Troy Neff.
We haven't heard it since WCWA started airing "DennyRadio", but we're told it is basically the same show Denny's been doing from his Internet site since being involuntarily dumped in a purge of local programming by Clear Channel talk WGST/640 Atlanta. In other words, WCWA is basically the "DennyRadio" Internet show's broadcast affiliate/flagship now.
Though Denny did a brief weekend stint on an Atlanta sports station after the WGST demise, we have no indication that he's doing a sports show with "FOX Sports Radio 1230" aboard. For that matter, Neff's morning drive show is not a sports show, either.
It's a curious return to the market for Schaffer, a popular host on both WSPD and on sister top 40 outlet WVKS/92.5 "Kiss FM" for many years.
But at least it's actually in the market, unlike his voicetracked Sunday morning "DennyRadio" show on Clear Channel (for now) country WCKY-FM 103.7 "103-7 CKY" out of Tiffin, a far rimshot into Toledo.
Schaffer continues to do that show, and the live "DennyRadio" weekday show now airing on WCWA, from his home in the Atlanta area.
For now, other than the common station time slot (current/former) for the two hosts, and the common station ownership, these two items do not appear to be directly related...
Friday, April 04, 2008
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1 comment:
Denny never had a chance in Atlanta, partly because it was Neal Boortz's home base, but also because WGST never advertised the show. There were no billboards about Denny Schaffer. Clear Channel had billboards all over Atlanta and North Georgia for their radio station that catered to the illegals, but nothing for their regular stations.
Couple that with the arrival of Randall Bloomquist to WGST after Denny was hired, and it's obvious as to why Denny was gone after 1 year. Bloomquist set out to destroy the station by replacing local hosts Tom "The King" Hughes and Kim "The Kimmer" Peterson, along with Denny with cheaper, syndicated programming. True, Bloomquist does not get all the blame for WGST's demise, but he deserves the majority of it. On blogs for Atlanta radio, Randall Bloomquist has become known as the Colonel Klink of Atlanta radio.
The biggest question that always arises about Bloomquist and WGST is why does that station need a progam director when it only has 1 local show in its entire weekly schedule.
I'm sure Brian will test the waters with the Baltimore gig. If it's a success, look for Denny to return to WSPD. Just my 2 cents!!
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