NEON, Mr. Kent, And We Own No Stations

Oh, and add "Freq" to that list...a little later...

NEW NEON SITE: Time Warner Cable local programming channel "NEON" (Northeast Ohio Network) is unveiling a new website.

It's actually an upgrade for the site at twcneon.com. From a press release about the revamp:

The new NEON website has a fresh look and offers a simple way to find information about the network. Each show now has a dedicated page on the website with photos, videos and past and upcoming episode information. The schedule page provides two user-friendly views – by day or by show. A news section on the homepage delivers the most up-to-date announcements about NEON, and is archived in a “news” section.

In addition to NEON show information, visitors to TWCNEON.com will discover a wealth of information about Local On Demand (LOD), NEON’s companion, on-demand-based offering. Most shows that air on NEON are available on LOD, as well as many special programs created just for the on-demand channel. LOD is available, at no additional cost, to Time Warner Cable’s digital cable customers.

We hope TWC Northeast Ohio continues to improve the site. For one, we'd like to suggest that something of a mini-web presence be built for NEON's highest-profile local host, sports talker Les Levine ("More Sports and Les Levine").

Les' old site at leslevine.com is long gone. Maybe this provides an opportunity for Les' son Jeremy to temporarily point his father's domain name at the show page on the new NEON site.

"NEON" airs in the vast TWC Northeast Ohio footprint on cable channel 23. We're not sure if they've finally moved it to 23 in some areas that hadn't made that move yet (the old Comcast system, if we remember right).

The site also covers TWC's local programming via the "Local on Demand" digital cable service on channel 501...

"INDIE FREQ": From the Beacon Broadcasting obsession department, OMW hears that the Warren-based company's Christian rock WEXC/107.1 Greenville PA "Freq 107" is promising some changes.

We hear that "Freq" is apparently headed, after the July 4th holiday, in more of an "indie rock" direction. To show our ignorance, we didn't know that term applied in the world of Christian rock music, but it apparently does. Then again, before "Freq 107" showed up, we didn't know there was a world of Christian rock music...let alone subdivisions within the format.

"Freq" rimshots Youngstown and Warren from its transmitter just over the Pennsylvania line in Greenville. It has a sister "Freq", as Beacon CCM daytimer WRTK/1540 Niles is known as "Freq 1540".

Beacon's Gregg Allen programs and does mornings on the AM "Freq", and is an OMW reader - we helped him correct WRTK's legal ID city from Mineral Ridge to Niles, and we've never met the man. Maybe he can provide more information on this...

OUR APOLOGIES: We would like to humbly apologize for being a bit snarky about a lack of communication with OMW from the camp of syndicated classic hits radio star Tom Kent, who is a week away from airing his national weeknight 7 PM-midnight show on Clear Channel classic hits WMJI/105.7 "Majic 105.7".

In all the time we've been doing this, we've received just one communication by those associated with Mr. Kent, and none from the man himself (despite reaching out to him more than once over the years). We are ready and eager to trumpet his success, as he's developed quite an empire just down the road from us in Brecksville.

Those who know Tom Kent better than we do have gently "let us down", and told us that, well, it's not anything we did.

Simply put, it seems that Mr. Kent is not at all interested in "tooting his own horn", and prefers privacy... and letting his work behind the microphone do the talking for him.

In a business where self-promotion is like mother's milk to most people, Tom Kent isn't interested. And that's what throws us off...we're not used to that in the media business. We are apparently not the only outlet covering media, where Tom hasn't wanted to promote himself.

So, respecting his wishes, we'll let his considerable body of work do the talking for him...as the Tom Kent Radio Network takes over large and successful classic hits stations across the country from 7 PM to midnight without any help from us, or other trade/media news sites.

Though it works against our own interests here, as we love to hear from people in the business talking about their work, it's otherwise refreshing to us...

WHAT STATION DO WE OWN? There must be something in the water.

In the past day, two separate people have confused us with...well...a question about a radio station or radio program. Consider this plea from an E-mail writer sent directly to us:

I listen to your radio show everyday, I am being educated everytime I listen. Thanks so much for your construtive (sic) information.

I heard towards the end of the show that I have the opportunity to receive an employment law booklet, if you be so kind to send it to (a Cincinnati address).

We'll have to scour the OMW Empire, but at last check, it included two blogs reporting on media news...and no radio programs of any type, particularly about employment law.

And then, there's this entirely unrelated E-mail:

To Whom it may or may not concern....

Why in these perilous and uncertain times would you choose to take away our getaway to the nostalgic music that we can relax and remember the good times instead of all the horror going on around us... and with all the news programs on TV why would we choose to listen to all the propaganda on radio too...

Now I know,you could probably care less what we the listeners think about any of these changes. I can assue you that I will not be connected to this station ever again...

Well, reader, we have no problem if you won't be connected with our radio station ever again, because WE DON'T HAVE ONE.

Once again, with feeling, Ohio Media Watch is an independent blog covering Ohio media that is not connected with the operation of any radio or TV station. We don't play nostalgic music. We own no radio or TV stations. We don't even have a web audio stream of any sort!

(Somewhere out there, a confused listener to former Cincinnati country music morning show "Ken and Kitty" is about to fire up an E-mail begging for us to put them back on the air. Where, in our living room?)

We'll assume the reader in our second E-mail is a fan of the former format on Clear Channel talk WNCO/1340 Ashland...now known as "Mid-Ohio's Talk Station" after dispatching the Citadel Media "Timeless" nostalgia/soft AC satellite format a while back.

We're actually doing the reader a service, because we're pretty sure those connected to the station will read the message here.

Of course, that doesn't mean that there's even the most remote chance that WNCO's new talk format will be changed back to nostalgic music, but they'll at least read it here...