Our Brian Wilson Update

And since we're Ohio Media Watch and not Billboard Magazine, that means an update on Clear Channel talk WSPD/1370 Toledo afternoon drive host/program director Brian Wilson, not an update on that Beach Boy.

The Baltimore Sun's "Critical Mass" blog provides a first-day update on Wilson's debut Wednesday as the mid-afternoon host (12-3 PM) on that city's CBS Radio FM talker, WFHS/105.7.

And the update, and an article in the Dead Trees edition of the Sun the day before, confirms our reporting here earlier in the week:

Although living in Toledo, where he holds down the afternoon drive-time slot on WSPD, he'll be broadcasting out of Baltimore through the end of this week. Then it's back to Toldeo, where he'll send his voice back to B'More through the wonders of ISDN transmissions.

(That typo in the second mention of the name of Northwest Ohio's largest city was from the Sun folks.)

So for now, at least, Wilson will also continue holding forth as PD and afternoon host at "NewsTalk 1370" in the Glass City, holding down six hours of talk radio for two cities from 12 noon to 6 PM weekdays.

How long will that last, 6 hours behind the microphone and other off-air duties, including preparing different broadcasts in two different cities?

We don't know. But it's at least the Brian Wilson plan for now.

WHFS has been doing talk for a few years now, starting as hot talk WXYV "Live 105.7", and later adopting the iconic WHFS call letters after programming alternative rock nights and weekends - in the style of the former WHFS/99.1, now running a Spanish-language format.

It's morphed a bit, and has a local hit on its hands with former Baltimore police boss Ed Norris. It's Norris' move from middays to the afternoon drive slot - replacing Washington DC-based "Don and Mike" as that show morphs into a new incarnation without its retiring primary host - that left that big early afternoon hole in the WHFS schedule.

(By the way, that retiring host, Don Geronimo, makes his final appearance on the show Friday. Listeners in Northeast Ohio can only catch it via the Internet these days, but the "Don and Mike Show" has had local affiliates in the past. Beacon Broadcasting now-oldies WANR/1570 Warren carried it most recently, but the show also once aired on now-Radio One Cleveland talker WERE, then at 1300, now at 1490.)

How the future of the two-city Brian Wilson Show plays out will probably depend on the success of the post-"Don and Mike" WHFS afternoons, with both Wilson and Norris as highly-recognized local personalities...