Odd Items Update

There have been some news items from areas outside Northeast Ohio in the past few days, and we've either been on hiatus, or busy with items closer to our base to cover markets like Columbus, Toledo and Youngstown.

That's most of this item, though we'll start with Cleveland...

TROUBLED TALKERS: Late December was a bad time for talk radio hosts getting into hot water.

But it wasn't something that came from the mouth of Clear Channel Cleveland talk WTAM/1100 Sunday night host Art McKoy that got him into trouble last month.

On Christmas Eve, McKoy was arrested and charged with drug-related charges - East Cleveland police contend he was present in his Euclid Avenue barbershop when someone sold heroin to a police informant.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that McKoy pleaded not guilty last week to charges of permitting drug abuse in his business, and posted bail.

McKoy's lawyer, Robert Davis, said afterwards that the activist and radio host will "vigorously fight" the charges against him. Quoting the Plain Dealer:

"Art has always stood up and spoke out against this kind of stuff. He's embarrassed. He's somewhat ticked off."

McKoy is an oft-quoted community activist who runs the "Black on Black Crime" group out of his barbershop - and uses the name for his Sunday night WTAM show.

We didn't hear if McKoy returned to the airwaves last Sunday, but the WTAM website still has his program listed...

ANOTHER HOST PROBLEM: We promised to put aside the case of now-former Toledo radio talk host and commentator Troy Neff, who was injured in a road rage-related fight last month - then proceeded to lose his brokered radio show, his TV commentary gig, and his column in the "Toledo Free Press" weekly newspaper.

But during our hiatus, Neff was also charged - with first-degree misdemeanor assault, reports the Toledo Blade - in the fight in the parking lot of his suburban Toledo financial planning business...for his role in the scuffle with a Tenneesee man who was first charged with stabbing the ex-WCWA/1230 brokered morning drive host.

Police in Perrysburg Township call Neff "a willing participant" in the fight.

Neff had been expecting the charges coming his way, and hired a defense lawyer to fight his case.

There's no word if Neff has found a new radio home - brokering time on one of Toledo's other AM talk radio stations, either WTOD/1560 or WNWT/1520, we'd guess - but his legal problems expanding could mean that will be delayed further into the new year.

Neff's website calls him "The B1 Bomber of Morning Radio", maybe not the best wording considering his legal issues, not to mention his lack of, well, a show.

And quoting the Blade article:

Mr. Neff said he believes his radio show was canceled because he did not support the Take Back Toledo campaign and allowed local politicians an outlet to speak on his show.

For those not conversant in the crazy world of Toledo politics: "Take Back Toledo" is a recall campaign aimed at controversal mayor Carty Finkbeiner, who appeared on Neff's show back when he had a show.

Finkbeiner is an unwelcome guest across the hall from WCWA, at big brother talker WSPD/1370, due to a long-running dispute between Hizzoner and the station.

One of the principals in the recall campaign is Andy Stuart, market manager of (let's see if you can guess here) Clear Channel Toledo, which owns both stations.

Can we get the last 5 minutes of our life back?

A SPORTS LEGEND: The so-called "Dean of Central Ohio sports" has passed away.

NBC affiliate WCMH/4 Columbus reports that its former sportscaster Jimmy Crum died Monday at the age of 80 of apparent natural causes.

Since we didn't have much exposure to a man who clearly made his mark on sports and Columbus, we'll grab a quick quote from the station's website story:

The voice of Buckeye basketball during the glory years of the 1960s, and the voice of the Cincinnati Bengals, Jimmy was friend to coaching legends Woody Hayes and Bobby Knight, but first and foremost, he was a friend to Central Ohio children with disabilities.

Jimmy’s legacy reaches far beyond the football fields or basketball courts and he will long be remembered for his impact on the charitable organizations that were dear to his heart.

The story says Crum joined up with WCMH just after it hit the airwaves in 1949 (!!), and retired in 1994...

COLUMBUS 1: A Columbus market FM station is welcoming a new morning voice this week.

Christian Voice of Central Ohio CCM outlet WCVO/104.9 "The River" brings in Stacy McKay, who is most known to Central Ohio listeners from her 13 years at Saga AC WSNY/94.7 "Sunny 95".

The usual quotes, first from "River" program director Todd Stach:

“This is a great opportunity for 104.9 the River to connect Stacy McKay back with area listeners. We’re honored, privileged and excited to be a part of this. Mornings with Stacy McKay will be about sharing real-life together with the audience.”

Ms. McKay joins in:

"I am looking forward to sharing my mornings with all my friends in Central Ohio as part of the great team at The River, and my daughter is looking forward to getting me out of the house for a while!"

No word on what Stacy McKay gets for being a broadcaster that actually *gains* a job, instead of losing one...

COLUMBUS 2: It's almost a moot point now, but we did get word of the new lineup at Clear Channel talk WYTS/1230...we just missed it at first, then we went on hiatus.

After losing self-syndicated financial advice talker Dave Ramsey and TRN evening host Michael Savage to North American Broadcasting talk WTDA/103.9 "Talk FM", and Westwood One's Bill O'Reilly leaving radio, WYTS reloaded with this new afternoon and early evening lineup:

3 PM-6 PM: Lou Dobbs
6 PM-7 PM: Clark Howard
7 PM-10 PM: Neal Boortz

We had already speculated if WYTS would tap Dobbs instead of sticking with Westwood One for new replacement host Fred Thompson - and indeed, the station chose the United Stations/CNN talker instead of the former Senator, presidential candidate and regular on NBC's "Law & Order".

(Still no word on a radio deal for any other failed 2008 Republican presidential candidate, but we'll let you know. For that matter, we don't know if any local stations have picked up ABC News Radio's "Huckabee Report" short-form commentaries by former candidate Mike Huckabee.)

Consumer crusader Clark Howard and libertarian (small "l") talker Neal Boortz are both out of Dial Global (formerly Jones) syndication, both based at Cox Atlanta talk powerhouse WSB/750. Mr. Howard also recently picked up a weekend TV show on "HLN", which we think is now the current name of the channel formerly known as CNN Headline News...

OMW WORLDWIDE: Yes, we have an ego, if a small one.

We get a kick out of being quoted in local newspapers. We know that hosts on Akron talker WNIR occasionally mention us, and know we're read in local media clusters and groups all over Ohio, particularly in Northeast Ohio.

Now, OMW has gone global as far as mentions are concerned.

An Alert OMW Reader tells us that your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) got a brief mention on the internationally-broadcast "World of Radio", a half-hour radio news program about various forms of shortwave and domestic radio and media hosted by Oklahoma's Glenn Hauser.

Glenn - who's been doing the program for decades - gave a brief mention to our story on the end of the liberal talk format, and the start of St. Gabriel Catholic Radio, on Columbus outlet WVKO/1580.

Mr. Hauser didn't know that as a teenager, your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) listened to his program on an old "Soundesign" AM/FM/SW radio...the same radio which earlier first brought in the old WKNT-FM 100.1 and Howie Chizek's then-new midday talk show on the Kent station.

"World of Radio" airs on a number of different shortwave stations, a handful of broadcasters, and like everything else, its audio can be found on the Internet at this page.

Scroll down to WOR episode 1441, December 31st, 2008, and that's where we were mentioned...again, briefly. It'll take you longer to download it (even on a fast connection) than to hear the very short mention.

And if you'd like to listen to his show via radio, be it shortwave, Internet, satellite radio or whatever, Glenn helpfully provides a list of stations and outlets carrying "World of Radio".

We're reminded by the list that one of those outlets, the World Radio Network out of London, is carried on the SAP audio channel of Lima NBC affiliate WLIO/35...