Friday, August 08, 2008

Capping The Week

We'll be again more sporadic in our updates for the next few days, though we will still post any "breaking news" about local media that crosses The OMW News Desk...so, keep checking!

But here's our closeout for the week:

"LOVE" IN THE EVENING: Clear Channel rocker WMMS/100.7 has added one more talk show to its roster.

It's Westwood One syndicated relationship advice show "Loveline", which 'MMS is adding to the schedule Sunday-Thursday from 10 PM to midnight.

The spicy show is a staple of the various CBS Radio "hot talk" stations across the country, and was once hosted by West Coast-based Howard Stern replacement Adam Carolla ("The Man Show"). Carolla now does the morning drive slot at KLSX/97.1 Los Angeles, and a handful of other affiliates in the Western U.S. are along for the ride.

"Loveline" mainstay Dr. Drew Pinsky is still aboard, assisted by one-named KROQ Los Angeles personality "Stryker".

A WMMS press release also crows about the Spring 2008 ratings for new morning show "Rover's Morning Glory", which we touched upon briefly here a while back, and the station's overall ratings.

The WMMS release claims Shane "Rover" French and his crew have climbed to the top of the listener pile in young demographics, "eclipsing every other station in the Cleveland market" with a large share. It also cites overall station ratings gains in certain demographics, and a second-place finish in those young demos for afternoon driver Maxwell.

(The release goes into more detail about the numbers, but as we've posted before, we're not sure how much of it we're allowed to use on this blog, per Arbitron's various guidelines and rules. The numbers echo ratings we saw earlier from non-station-connected sources.)

It also touts nominations for the station and program director Bo Matthews for Radio and Records' Rock Station of the Year and Rock Program Director of the Year honors...the awards will be announced next month in Austin, Texas...

NEW 'TVN NEWS DIRECTOR: Clear Channel talk WTVN/610 Columbus has found its new news director.

She's a veteran of the Columbus TV news wars - Lu Ann Stoia. The Columbus Dispatch reports that Stoia was an "Emmy-award winning reporter" for Dispatch CBS affiliate WBNS/10 "10TV" from 1989 to 1999.

Stoia has been communications/community relations director for the suburban New Albany school district since leaving TV. A quick Google search tells us she left there in February, after her contract wasn't renewed...

DUMM DUMM...DEE DUMM DUMM: Local Time Warner Cable subscribers will be getting an extra helping of Olympics coverage, as the 2008 Summer Olympic Games start today in Beijing, China.

(In case you haven't heard.)

In addition to the existing NBC Universal network offerings on TWC, the cable outlet is offering three new HD channels - USA HD, and two channels dedicated to basketball and soccer. The existing Universal HD will be opened up out of the HD Tier to all subscribers. (USA HD won't stick around after the Olympics, and Universal HD will go back to an HD Tier offering after the games.)

TWC says it's also providing both SD and HD "on demand" Olympic video offerings, and will link to the NBCOlympics.com online coverage from its RoadRunner online portal.

The main NBC coverage will be on local affiliate WKYC/3, and this year, it sounds like pretty much all of it will be in HD ("right down to the small, lipstick cameras", we've read).

And as such, WKYC can thank its lucky stars that WKYC-DT is carried at channel 403 on the TWC system...considering that the station is very, very difficult to receive off-air unless you have the proper outdoor antenna, or live fairly close to Parma.

That, of course, will change after the digital transition in February 2009, which we've reported here. WKYC-DT will move from noisy low-VHF channel 2 to UHF channel 17 after TBN's WDLI/17 shuts down its analog transmitter next February...

AND SPEAKING OF SPORTS: We've been corrected on our earlier list of Cleveland Browns pre-season TV network affiliates.

As it turns out this year, Toledo is out of the loop...as low-power Matrix MyNetwork TV affiliate WMNT-CA/48 "My 58" is not carrying the WKYC-produced pre-season Browns contests this year.

We do hear that WMNT's sister AM talk outlet, WNWT/1520, is carrying the games on the radio side of the Matrix house...

5 comments:

OMWFan said...

Slight correction.

"Loveline" airs from 10p-midnight Pacific Time (it's based in L.A.).

Here, it will air live from 1-3a (Eastern Time) on WMMS.

Ohio Media Watch said...

You are right about that, as far as the original production time (10 PM-nidnight PT).

The WMMS press release says it'll "air Sunday through Thursday night 10 PM to midnight" on the station.

Maybe they'll delay it from previous airings in that time slot? Does anyone know if the show gets delayed in other ET markets?

Thanks for the heads up...

-The Management

-------------------------- said...

WXTM (wkrk) had the show for a period of time up until 2004.

Most affiliates on the east coast air the show on a day delay.

I can't remember if Westwood One actually re feeds over satellite the day delay or the stations will have to catch it themselves.

As I recall wxtm did a terrible job running the show. Local spot blocks ran too long, or too short. Lots of instances where the opening was cut off by up to 5minutes. Lets see how mms does with it.

OMWFan said...

I don't think you can air the show earlier than 1am, there's a lot of spicy talk on that show.

-------------------------- said...

"Safe Harbor" is effective from 10pm to 6am.