Wednesday, May 27, 2009

WJMP Taking Off The Cleats

As it turns out, OMW hears that Media-Com Akron market sports daytimer WJMP/1520 Kent/Ravenna/Streetsboro/Parts-of-Stow/Akron-on-a-good day "Fox Sports Radio 1520" won't be changing sports radio network teams when Fox Sports Radio moves to Clear Channel sports WARF/1350 Akron "SportsRadio 1350" on June 8.

It'll be changing format leagues, as it were.

We've learned that instead of picking up the Sporting News Radio affiliation WARF is leaving behind, the "little brother" station of Media-Com's WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron" will mimic its much bigger sibling and move to talk radio....but unlike WNIR, it will depend on a lineup of syndicated talk programming.

The WJMP schedule appears set, and the bulk of it will be provided by the Talk Radio Network folks:

6-9 AM: Mancow. Chicago-based Erich "Mancow" Muller has a dual radio life, and WJMP will be picking up his Talk Radio Network-syndicated morning show.

We haven't heard his morning show, syndicated through TRN's "FM" division, but we get the idea that his act in general is more reliably conservative/political vs. his "shock jock" days. Mancow has been a regular contributor to cable TV's Fox News Channel, though we don't know if he still appears there.

Mancow also hosts a local midday show on Chicago's WLS/890...and it was on that show that the host recently underwent a highly-publicized "waterboarding" simulation.

9 AM-Noon: Laura Ingraham. Another TRN product, who used to air locally on Salem talk WHK/1420 Cleveland and Clear Channel talk WHLO/640 Akron. Salem and WHK dropped Ingraham in a contract dispute, replacing her on all of its stations with in-house product Mike Gallagher. (Who, oddly enough, runs late nights on WNIR!)

Noon-3 PM: Michael Savage (delayed from previous night). The third TRN host in a row, who also once aired on WHK and WHLO, but who was bounced from both stations - WHLO before, and WHK after - Savage got into hot water for autism-related remarks. As we reported here a while ago, Savage's show aired 7-9 PM live for a few days on WNIR as vacation fill-in for local evening host Tom Erickson.

3-6 PM: Lou Dobbs. The sole non-TRN host on WJMP's new weekday schedule. The CNN host casts himself as a fierce "independent". His radio show is syndicated by United Stations.

6-9 PM: Michael Savage (live). Is six hours of "The Savage Nation" too much for one listener? We'll find out in the summer. In the heart of winter, WJMP will sign off before Savage's live show starts, so listeners will hear him the following weekday in that above 12-3 PM time slot.

(For that matter, later sign-on times in the winter will take a chunk out of the morning drive "Mancow" time slot.)

Weekends: Aside from a Lou Dobbs replay Saturday from 8-11 AM, and carriage of Citadel veteran financial advice talker Bob Brinker live 4-7 PM Saturday and Sunday, the rest of the WJMP weekend lineup will come from the WOR Radio Network (shows about travel, pets, car repair, etc.).

As far as we know, the station will not have any local programming, which considering WNIR's schedule, makes sense. But the new WJMP lineup has ties to existing syndicated programming in off-hours on otherwise-locally programmed WNIR.

WNIR carries Laura Ingraham on delay weekend nights 10 AM-midnight, after local host Bob Earley's "Earley in the Evening" show.

And before local talker Tom Erickson launched his Saturday 4-7 PM show (and "The Advice Line" with Bob Lewis took that Sunday slot), WNIR used to run Bob Brinker's ABC Radio "MoneyTalk" show. Same show, same host, just an ownership and now-name change to Citadel Media.

We don't know when the format flip will be made at WJMP. We'd assume that it will happen June 8, when FSR and Premiere's Jim Rome go to "SportsRadio 1350", but we could be wrong...we thought they'd pick up Sporting News Radio, and they won't be...

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks OMW for the 6AM-9PM, weekday schedule for WJMP.

Any idea what the other 9 hours (9PM-6AM) of the broadcast schedule will be?

Ohio Media Watch said...

Wayne,

From 9 PM-6 AM, WJMP/1520 will feature "The Sounds of Silence", punctuated by static and occasional snippets of liberal talk provided by WWKB/Buffalo.

Heh.

Read the first line of this item again - WJMP is a daytimer...

-The Management

Anonymous said...

=====================
From 9 PM-6 AM, WJMP/1520 will feature "The Sounds of Silence", punctuated by static and occasional snippets of liberal talk provided by WWKB/Buffalo.
=====================

Oh...

So it will be much like the rest of the time for those of us who aren't listening from the Kent Wal-Mart's parking lot.

::WINK::

Anonymous said...

I am surprised that you missed this item concerning Media-Com and it's "Cleveland-Akron Televison network" with its coming programming change.

It has been reported that The Cat will be a part of RTV, the Retro Television Network.

http://www.myretrotv.com/affiliates.html#

The Cat is on the list of RTV affiliates.

Cleveland will finally be getting its RTV franchise. While this is good for the Time Warner folks in Akron, it is bad for those of us on satellite television. There are only two channels that Time Warner has that I actually miss receiving (the CAT and ONN).

Tim Lones said...
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Tim Lones said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tim Lones said...

dmking:
(Lets try this again)
Interesting you would mention that ONN and RTV, (new name for RTN apparently) are the channels you are missing on Satellite-I get both ONN and RTV (East-West Feeds) with a recently purchased Free-To-Air Satellite system (not connected with Dish or Direct TV)..I dont know if I'd go to the expense for just those 2 channels (I also have TWC)..I did read in the Beacon Journal about the CAT picking up RTV-A major station in NE Ohio should pick it up-I dont get 29/35 here in Canton on TWC..

11:05 AM

Anonymous said...

WNIR's Morning Crew has been dropping hints about some "big changes" coming to the CAT.

I wonder what the 17 viewers of "Sports Talk with Steve French" will do without their once every month or so airing of the supposedly weekly show? ::: Tongue-Firmly-In-Cheek :::

Perhaps French can move the show to WOAC where it could reunite the powerhouse lineup that included "Dining With Steve" and the "Handy Randy" show.

Anonymous said...

That's pathetic. I can't believe RTN is coming to the WORST OTA station in this market. Only this one time I would approve of a digital subchannel, so it would be broadcast in digital. Instead, it gets carried on analog, right before the DTV transition when nobody will be looking at analog TV anymore.

And I have the channel on TWC. Horrible picture, there's visible static/interference in the picture as well as wavy stripes. I wouldn't watch that channel if they paid me!

firebird said...

Does Media-Com even make money with this station? It seems to be a waste of electricity. I suppose the losses help to offset the truck loads of cash that WNIR makes!

Unknown said...

Well - that proves my theory that there is not a single progressive or liberal or Democrat in NE OH that AM talk wants to service. They are ever-so-wisely eliminating their sponsors' exposure to liberals, focusing instead entirely on programming that appeals to only dittoheads, who make up a shrinking fraction of the general public. Wish I was as smart as these programmers.