Monday, April 06, 2009

Monday's Stack Of Other Stuff

In the wake of our report on the new WNCX morning show, here is our "stack of other stuff". But first, a "live" update on that report we posted Sunday evening...

99% THERE: As we reported, CBS Radio Cleveland classic rocker WNCX/98.5 has made a change in its morning drive show.

Former co-host Mike Oleszewski is indeed no longer a part of the "WNCX Morning Show" as of this morning, and incumbent host Scott Miller is indeed being joined by local comedian Jeff Blanchard, as we reported.

The station's website has digitally inserted Blanchard's picture, next to Miller in the previous publicity picture.

Oleszewski has been cropped out of both the show and the station's website. (That's gotta hurt. For Oleszewski, this is definitely NOT "Fun with Photoshop".)

The "1%" glitch in our report - for now, at least this morning, the new show is not adopting the name we heard it would, "The Morning Rush". It's the "'NCX Morning Show" "with Scott and Jeff". (If there is a change, it's the "'NCX" part with the now-silent W.)

We don't know if that "Morning Rush" name will come later, or if they decided to launch without a new name for the show.

Either way, it is Scott Miller and Jeff Blanchard on 98.5 this morning...

KAT STARTS: Trade sites report that Clear Channel country WGAR/99.5 Cleveland night personality Kat Jackson will take over that same time slot on sister country WMZQ in Washington DC starting tonight.

But...we're having trouble figuring out this one.

The announcement from WMZQ program director Meg Stevens, who also oversees WPOC/Baltimore and once programmed WGAR itself, "announces the arrival" of Jackson for the WMZQ 7 PM-midnight slot in Washington.

Kat isn't going away from WGAR, as she'll continue to air in the same shift on the Cleveland country station - in addition to keeping her presence on WGAR sister classic hits outlet WMJI, and on a Hartford CT station.

But we can't determine if Kat - an area native - is moving from Cleveland to Washington DC...or if she's just adding WMZQ to her voicetracking lineup...or if she's live on any of the four stations.

WGAR and WMZQ share one other on-air personality - WPOC's "Michael J.", who voicetracks (we're sure of that) WGAR's midday slot from Baltimore, and also fills WMZQ's afternoon drive slot...

THIS IS HERE: As was reported in the Plain Dealer a couple of weeks ago, and repeated here, Raycom Media MyNetwork TV affiliate WUAB/43 has indeed sprouted a new subchannel.

As long expected, the sister station of CBS affiliate WOIO/19 "Cleveland's CBS 19" is airing the "This TV" feed of classic movies and other programming provided by the MGM studio. We don't know exactly when it went up on WUAB-DT 43.2, but it was expected to start April 1st.

We stumbled onto it on our digital tuner over the weekend, when the old western "Bat Masterson" was airing. And "Masterson" is a pretty good example of what could be described as a second-tier lineup of MGM movies and shows. A reader writes:

The biggest show I saw listed for "This" week is "Throw Mama From The Train". The rest are movies I have heard little or nothing about in the past.

Of "This'" non-movie lineup, the only thing we noticed or recognized was the classic talking horse sitcom "Mr. Ed". As we noted, it'd appear to us that MGM sold off the rights to its biggest titles long before this channel was created. (If we recall, "Mr. Ed" was one of the original staples of the cable channel "TV Land", and rotated out of that channel's schedule some time ago.)

As of this writing, "This TV Cleveland" hasn't yet made it to the digital channel lineup of Time Warner Cable's massive Northeast Ohio system. Raycom was said to be negotiating with local cable operators for carriage, and we still expect that to happen at some point.

The "This TV" offering is said to be pretty flexible, as far as local stations are concerned. For one, "This" is wrapped around the schedules of the Sinclair MyNetwork TV subchannel affiliates in Columbus (WSYX-DT) and Dayton (WRGT-DT).

But for now, OMW isn't hearing that WUAB/Raycom will offer any other programming on WUAB-DT 43.2...

5 comments:

emery_r said...

Oh, come now -- just off the top of my head, there are at least THREE excellent movies on This TV's schedule for this week:

Woman in the Window (a wonderful 1944 film noir with Edward G. Robinson and Joan Bennett I'm watching right now!)

Witness for the Prosecution (a 1957 Billy Wilder gem with Charles Laughton, Marlene Dietrich and Tyrone Power)

Judgment at Nuremberg (the all-star 1962 film about the Nuremberg War Crimes trials)

I can understand if the first one is a bit obscure for most people, but really -- those other two? A "second tier" lineup? I have to disagree, although it's just my opinion!

Anonymous said...

I wonder when 43 will boost their digital signal.

They are very weak in the Akron/Tallmadge area while 19 comes in significantly stronger.

Neil Parks said...

"Morning Rush" is what WTAM calls the one-minute commentary by Rush Limbaugh that airs shortly before 7 AM.

Therefore I would be surprised if NCX were to start using it.

Trip said...

This TV also has the original Outer Limits, which is the sole reason I want that channel in my area. I am an addict!

- Trip

wd8kct said...

One of the Outer Limits last week had a young William Shatner... one of his lines was "I Promise"... as in the margarine... they also had Star Trek's "Scotty" playing a police detective without the accent... Good Stuff...