Friday, June 12, 2009

Ashland AM To Get Talking

We actually have had this one for a while, but figured we'd put it up when it appeared on the AllAccess Net News scroll. (The fine folks at AllAccess don't have the digital TV transition in their workload, after all. Heh.)

Yes, Clear Channel standards/soft AC WNCO/1340 Ashland is changing to a talk format, featuring a lineup that does not duplicate sister news/talk WMAN/1400 Mansfield.

While WMAN carries shows like Premiere's Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Coast to Coast AM, "Mid-Ohio's Talk Station" will carry Pittsburgh-based "Quinn and Rose", Cox/Dial Global's Neal Boortz, self-syndicated financial advice guru Dave Ramsey, Premiere/Citadel afternoon driver Sean Hannity and Citadel early evening host Mark Levin.

As far as we know, WNCO's AM side will also have Ohio's first clearance of Premiere 6-9 PM (ET) host Jason Lewis, based at KTLK-FM in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

We're told WNCO will be Ohio's first affiliate for Premiere's "Jesus Christ Show", a unique Sunday morning program based at talk powerhouse KFI/640 Los Angeles and created by KFI's Neil Saveedra.

Until now, 1340 has been an affiliate of Citadel's "Timeless", the soft AC/nostalgia hybrid format that grew out of mergers with former networks like "Stardust"...which WNCO's AM side started carrying originally.

And none of this, of course, affects the other Clear Channel Ashland-based station carrying the WNCO calls, country giant WNCO-FM 101.3...

3 comments:

Nathan Obral said...

No one knows the fate yet of WNCO's longtime mid-morning host Gene Davis. His "Anything Goes" program aired daily on 1340 at 9am. That apparently has been cancelled, it this article is any indication:

http://www.times-gazette.com/news/article/4606502

Anonymous said...

Nathan-

Gene will still be along side Ron mornings/middays on WNCO-FM.

Gene is also the PD for WNCO-AM, and will continue that role.

Anything goes will continue to air in shortform segments thru the day, rather than the full 30 mins.

Gene and Ron are two guys you could sit with for hours, & talk radio. They've seen it all over the years and are excellent teachers.
Ron has a great story about the WNCO-FM RV catching fire on the way to a remote. He pulled over, called the fire department, and walked the equipment to the remote broadcast, and was on time!

Nathan Obral said...

That's good news to hear. Usually people like Gene are tossed aside with such a format change.

Somehow I always figured that there would be talk eventually on 1340... be it with this or with a format swap with WMAN. 1400 is already sports-heavy as it is on nights and weekends, so a change like this should serve both stations well.

Note too that at one point, WNCO/1340, WMVO/1300 and what was then WGLN/102.3 (now rock WFXN) all carried the same "Stardust" format! Only WMVO remains... and they are all talk from 6am to 2pm (locally from 9am to 2pm).

(Besides, WNCO 101.3/1340 are my "namesakes" - they bear my initials lol)