Some TV Items

News from the TV side of the OMW ledger...with another bigger item to be added later today...

THREE OHIO TV STATIONS OFF CABLE: Yet another one of those "retransmission consent" disputes has pulled three Ohio TV stations off local cable TV systems in each of their markets.

The inability of LIN TV and Time Warner Cable to reach a new deal by this morning's midnight deadline has forced LIN's three Ohio stations off TWC: Dayton NBC affiliate WDTN/2, Columbus CW affiliate WWHO/53, and Toledo FOX affiliate WUPW/36.

In all three cities, Time Warner claims it offered an extension to the deadline after negotiating right up to it late last night, but the cable company says LIN refused the extension.

As Multichannel News reports, it's the same old story...the station group is asking for money to pay for carriage, and the cable company isn't buying:

The broadcaster and cable company are at odds over the cash compensation LIN TV is seeking for carriage of its signals.

The story points to a statement by LIN TV on its Austin TX station's website, saying they don't think "a penny per day per subscriber is an unreasonable demand" for the station's programming.

More on the Ohio side of this story can be found in articles in the Dayton Business Journal, the Columbus Dispatch and this story we found on the website of Findlay radio station WFIN/1330. (If the Toledo Blade ran a story on this, we can't find it on their website.)

All three stories say the negotiations between the cable company and the stations' owner will continue...

BACK HOME: A former Cleveland TV news director is back in his old hometown.

Mike McCormick left Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3 in April 2007, then landed at then-Clear Channel (now Newport) NBC affiliate WPMI/15 in Mobile AL.

McCormick's journey back to his hometown of Jacksonville FL is now complete. The Jacksonville Business Journal reports that he's been named news director of the CBS/FOX combo in the Northern Florida city, WTEV/47 and WAWS/30.

The article quotes McCormick talking about his "long history" in the Jacksonville market. He was news director of "First Coast News", the other combined newsroom in that city - NBC affiliate WTLV/12 and ABC affiliate WJXX/25.

He left those stations to come to Cleveland, and told Cleveland Plain Dealer media columnist Julie Washington at the time of his departure from WKYC that he was "tired of commuting" to Jacksonville to see his family...