A combination of Other Stuff and Life Intervening, along with some Unscheduled Turbulence, has kept us away from the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) for longer than we'd expected.
Not all of that has gone away, but for now, we're back...
THE ALL HD CAVALIERS: It wasn't that long ago that viewers hoping to see HDTV broadcasts of local sports teams had to sift through a small list of selected games.
And the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers were showing as few as 7 games in HD format via Fox Sports Ohio as recently as a couple of years ago.
Not anymore.
The RSN (that's TV speak for "Regional Sports Network") unveiled its new schedule of TV games for the Only Cleveland Team That Can Aim For A Championship Without Invoking Gales of Laughter, and every single locally-telecast Cavaliers game will be in HD this season. (We'll presume all the national games will be in HD as well.)
Quoting an FSOhio release recently received here at OMW World Headquarters:
FOX Sports Ohio announced today the 2009-10 Cavaliers telecast schedule including 70 regular season games all in high definition.
FOX Sports Ohio will telecast 34 home games and 36 games from the road during the season. The network’s Emmy-award-winning coverage of the Cavs will begin Wednesday, October 28 at 7pm when the Cavs visit Toronto to take on the Raptors.
Nothing else changes at FSOhio this year. Fred McLeod, Austin Carr and sideline reporter Jeff Phelps are back, and the network continues its usual pre-game and post-game coverage.
What's being called "a select number" of games will once again be simulcast over-air by Raycom MyNetwork TV affiliate WUAB/43. That "select number" has been somewhere in the single digits as of late.
Of course, FSOhio and the Cavaliers are late to the "all HD games" party, with SportsTime Ohio pumping out all of its Indians games in HD the past couple of years...154 of them each year.
The difference?
The Indians are a few days away from packing up the clubhouse, with no shot at a World Series title...and the Cavaliers are expected, rather strongly, to contend for Cleveland's first major pro sports championship since 1964...
PROMOTION: A long-time OMW reader will be officially be even busier than he has been, which, if you're Clear Channel Akron/Canton programming operations director Keith Kennedy, is saying something.
Since now-former market manager Dan Lankford added the company's Ashland/Mansfield cluster to his oversight, Kennedy has helped out with issues related to programming and operations at the Mid-Ohio stations.
New market manager Bill Clark wasted very little time in making it official: Keith Kennedy has been promoted to regional operations director over both the Akron/Canton and Ashland/Mansfield market clusters, giving him oversight of all programming and operations issues not only at Freedom Avenue, but at...wait, let's get out the map and see what road CC's Ashland/Mansfield cluster is on...U.S. 42.
Keith continues, of course, as hands-on program director at hot AC WKDD/98.1 Munroe Falls/Akron/almost-back-on-Bellaire Lane, as afternoon on-air personality on WKDD, and with his six or seven other jobs.
The new duties in Ashland/Mansfield bring a number of stations under his watch, including talk WMAN/1400 Mansfield, talk WNCO/1340 Ashland, country WNCO-FM/101.3 Ashland, top 40 WYHT/105.3 "Y105" Mansfield, the "Fox" rock simulcast based at WFXN/102.3 Galion (-WXXR/98.3 Fredericktown-WXXF/107.7 Loudonville), and classic hits WSWR/100.1 "Cruisin' 100" Shelby.
Whew. Add those logos to the stations out of Akron/Canton - talk WHLO/640 Akron, sports WARF/1350 Akron, the aforementioned WKDD, AC WHOF/101.7 North Canton and rock WRQK/106.9 Canton - and Keith's business card would be pretty big, or the logos really tiny, if they were all on the card...
A JIMBO SURPRISE: Making our run through the local late TV newscasts on Friday, we found out that a frequent OMW Target made a guest talk radio appearance on Friday.
It took WKYC/3's Romona Robinson to tell us, after the fact, that former Mahoning Valley congressman/released convicted felon Jim Traficant filled in for Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 Cleveland afternoon drive host Mike Trivisonno on Friday. (Really, to our sources at Oak Tree...a siren, a bat signal over the building, anything! Tell us when Jimbo's in the building!)
It was Traficant's first WTAM sub-host appearance since getting out of a federal medical prison in Minnesota. Of course, he's subbed there in the past, and filled in for sister Clear Channel talk WKBN/570's Dan Rivers not long after becoming a free man.
We got a chuckle or two out of Traficant's comments about soon-to-be-former East Cleveland mayor Eric Brewer, who was embroiled in a controversy over photos purporting to show the mayor in...women's lingerie.
That controversy was blown sky high by a report from Channel 3 News investigative reporter Tom Meyer, by the way, prompting the mayor to walk the "I'm not confirming this is me, but it was wrong to put these out!" line while excoriating Meyer and WKYC in a press conference.
Traficant joked that he was probably the last person who should be calling out a politician on his photographic appearance, given that he "uses a weed whacker to do (his) hair" (well, maybe his toupee).
And we say "soon-to-be-former East Cleveland mayor", since Brewer was overwhelmingly defeated in Tuesday's primary election.
Youngstown's Business Journal notes that Traficant was on the show of an old TV friend on Tuesday night, Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity. Quoting:
“It sounds like you’re a kook,” he said in response to Traficant’s assertions that Israel “controls much of our foreign policy.” Attempting to pin him down, Hannity called Traficant’s claims “conspiratorial nut-job stuff.”
It's quite a different response compared to past appearances on the show...
STREAMING PHONE AUDIO: It's one problem we wish would be solved - radio stations and groups are starting to recognize the viability of streaming audio to mobile devices.
But often, they turn to solutions that require a certain brand of smartphone...most notably, Apple's iPhone, and occasionally, the Blackberry platform. As cool as it is, the iPhone is not even an option for those who do not wish to become subscribers of AT&T, which would definitely include us here at the OMW World Headquarters.
That's why we like a solution being offered up by a Northeast Ohio college station.
Mount Union College's WRMU/91.1 Alliance has hooked up with the folks at AudioNow for it. Quoting a press release:
Mobile phone listeners can now listen live simply calling 330.445.7900 . No smart phones, downloads, or data plans are required. Any cell phone will work.
Now, we recognize some of the advantages of taking to the various smartphone platforms. But when you're just trying to push audio out there, this is a pretty simple solution - and we'll assume that WRMU's potential streaming audience is small enough not to max out outgoing phone lines. This sort of solution would never work for a mass appeal station like, say, a WTAM.
But as we recall, WRMU proudly broadcasts the football games of one of America's most successful small college programs, the Mount Union Purple Raiders...which would easily be the station's most popular programming...
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Friday, September 25, 2009
CVNP Gets The TV Treatment
One of Northeast Ohio's most vital natural resources is getting the full TV treatment in a new documentary premiering this weekend on Western Reserve PBS (WNEO/45 Alliance - WEAO/49 Akron)...called "Generations: Cuyahoga Valley National Park".
A description of the show from its website:
Discover the story of Ohio’s only national park when Western Reserve PBS presents its new one-hour documentary, Generations: Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Generations tells the story of the park’s natural wonders and the people whose lives have crossed its many paths. High definition cameras capture the beauty of the park — its crooked river, layers of ledges, waterfalls and centuries-old forests.
The one-hour program premieres Sunday at 8 PM, with a repeat at 11 PM, on the local public TV outlet, then repeats on this schedule through the following week: Tuesday, Sept. 29, at 2 p.m.; Wednesday, Sept. 30, at 10 p.m.; Thursday, Oct. 1, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, Oct. 4, at 9 p.m.
From a Western Reserve PBS press release:
Generations is the first full-length broadcast documentary about 34-year-old Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It showcases the park’s 33,000 acres through a variety of methods, including archival video footage, recent interviews, oral histories and memorabilia provided by park visitors.
Integral to the production are the stories provided by more than 40 people who answered the station’s invitation to share their park memories and experiences. Anecdotes about valley farming, weekend hikes and wedding proposals enrich the concept of generations in the production, according to (Western Reserve Public Media production manager Duilio) Mariola.
Community members and business leaders also talk about the difficulties experienced during the park’s formative years as a new National Park Service entity.
"Generations" will combine the archival footage with video culled from hours of newly-shot high-definition video.
Producer/director Mariola is the producer of Western Reserve PBS' weekly news roundtable show "NewsNight Akron", and regular NNA panelist Jody Miller is listed as a researcher and interviewer for "Generations".
Narration and interviewing is done by veteran Cleveland radio voice and OMW reader Mike Olszewski, who recently won a local Emmy award for his "Radio Daze" documentary - also aired by Western Reserve PBS.
Under the overall umbrella of Western Reserve Public Media, there's an interactive Web site along with the documentary, which will also allow free on-demand viewing of the program after October 1st. From the release:
The site also features background video on demand, including full-length interviews, oral histories, videography and photography. There are options for people to post their own video and photos, plus downloadable podcasts that will direct people to great places to visit within CVNP.
"Generations" will combine the archival footage with video culled from hours of newly-shot high-definition video.
It's meant as a local companion to Ken Burns' national six-part PBS documentary series "The National Parks: America’s Best Idea", which also airs on Western Reserve PBS over the coming week.
There are also a number of educational components to "Generations"...which are detailed in the Western Reserve PBS press release reprinted in full below...
--------------
New Western Reserve Public Media Production Tells Cuyahoga Valley National Park’s Story
Premiere on Western Reserve PBS to accompany national premiere of The National Parks: America’s Best Idea
Through high-definition video and the voices of people from all walks of life, Western Reserve Public Media presents its new one-hour documentary that tells the story of Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Generations: Cuyahoga Valley National Park will premiere on Western Reserve PBS on Sunday, Sept. 27, at 8 p.m. and again at 11 p.m. It is a companion production to Ken Burns’ six-part documentary series The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. Additional airdates for Generations are Tuesday, Sept. 29, at 2 p.m.; Wednesday, Sept. 30, at 10 p.m.; Thursday, Oct. 1, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, Oct. 4, at 9 p.m.
“We knew that chances were good that Ken Burns would focus on the iconic national parks, so we chose to focus on the Cuyahoga Valley story ourselves,” said Duilio Mariola, Western Reserve Public Media production manager. “Over the course of this past year, we shot more than 50 hours of high-definition footage so that we could accurately represent the park during every season.” He added that the concept of “generations” applies to all aspects of CVNP. “Obviously, it is a story of people who have benefited from the park’s resources, but we also acknowledge the evolution of the park’s geology and the generations of animals that have called the valley home.”
Generations is the first full-length broadcast documentary about 34-year-old Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It showcases the park’s 33,000 acres through a variety of methods, including archival video footage, recent interviews, oral histories and memorabilia provided by park visitors.
Integral to the production are the stories provided by more than 40 people who answered the station’s invitation to share their park memories and experiences. Anecdotes about valley farming, weekend hikes and wedding proposals enrich the concept of generations in the production, according to Mariola. Community members and business leaders also talk about the difficulties experienced during the park’s formative years as a new National Park Service entity.
Funding for Generations: Cuyahoga Valley National Park is provided by The Cleveland Foundation, FirstEnergy Foundation, George and Susan Klein and Family, The Harry K. Fox and Emma R. Fox Charitable Foundation, The Herbert W. Hoover Foundation, The John P. Murphy Foundation, National Park Service, NEOEA, PPG Industries Foundation and The S. Livingston Mather Charitable Trust. Additional support is provided by The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.
Local underwriting for Ken Burns’ The National Parks: America’s Best Idea is provided by Appalachian Outfitters, Benjamin Rose Institute, Cuyahoga Valley National Park Association and Old Trail School. It will premiere on Western Reserve PBS following Generations at 9 p.m. The series will continue from Monday to Wednesday, Sept. 28 to Sept. 30, at 8 p.m.; Thursday, Oct. 1, at 9 p.m.; and Friday, Oct. 2, at 8 p.m.
Western Reserve Public Media has also produced an interactive Web site for Generations at www.generationscvnp.org, where the entire Generations program will be available for free viewing on demand after Oct. 1. The site also features background video on demand, including full-length interviews, oral histories, videography and photography. There are options for people to post their own video and photos, plus downloadable podcasts that will direct people to great places to visit within CVNP.
Educational resources on the Web site include an interdisciplinary teacher guide for middle school classrooms with a theme of “preserve and protect.” It offers lessons in mathematics, language arts, science, social studies and art. Additional features include a board game, a virtual tour of the park and podcasts created for the project. Western Reserve Educational Services will present professional development workshops this fall to help educators integrate the multimedia materials into their lesson plans. For more information, call Ria Mastromatteo at 1-800-554-4549.
Serving on the educational resources team were project leader Ria Mastromatteo, education content producer with Western Reserve Public Media; Cathy Adler, language arts teacher, Brown Middle School, Ravenna; Amy Franks, visual art teacher, Bath Elementary; Darren Saylor, science teacher, North Olmsted Middle School; Melanie Stuthhard, social studies teacher, Revere Middle School; and Arrye Rosser, interpretive and education specialist, Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
A description of the show from its website:
Discover the story of Ohio’s only national park when Western Reserve PBS presents its new one-hour documentary, Generations: Cuyahoga Valley National Park.Generations tells the story of the park’s natural wonders and the people whose lives have crossed its many paths. High definition cameras capture the beauty of the park — its crooked river, layers of ledges, waterfalls and centuries-old forests.
The one-hour program premieres Sunday at 8 PM, with a repeat at 11 PM, on the local public TV outlet, then repeats on this schedule through the following week: Tuesday, Sept. 29, at 2 p.m.; Wednesday, Sept. 30, at 10 p.m.; Thursday, Oct. 1, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, Oct. 4, at 9 p.m.
From a Western Reserve PBS press release:
Generations is the first full-length broadcast documentary about 34-year-old Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It showcases the park’s 33,000 acres through a variety of methods, including archival video footage, recent interviews, oral histories and memorabilia provided by park visitors.
Integral to the production are the stories provided by more than 40 people who answered the station’s invitation to share their park memories and experiences. Anecdotes about valley farming, weekend hikes and wedding proposals enrich the concept of generations in the production, according to (Western Reserve Public Media production manager Duilio) Mariola.
Community members and business leaders also talk about the difficulties experienced during the park’s formative years as a new National Park Service entity.
"Generations" will combine the archival footage with video culled from hours of newly-shot high-definition video.
Producer/director Mariola is the producer of Western Reserve PBS' weekly news roundtable show "NewsNight Akron", and regular NNA panelist Jody Miller is listed as a researcher and interviewer for "Generations".
Narration and interviewing is done by veteran Cleveland radio voice and OMW reader Mike Olszewski, who recently won a local Emmy award for his "Radio Daze" documentary - also aired by Western Reserve PBS.
Under the overall umbrella of Western Reserve Public Media, there's an interactive Web site along with the documentary, which will also allow free on-demand viewing of the program after October 1st. From the release:
The site also features background video on demand, including full-length interviews, oral histories, videography and photography. There are options for people to post their own video and photos, plus downloadable podcasts that will direct people to great places to visit within CVNP.
"Generations" will combine the archival footage with video culled from hours of newly-shot high-definition video.
It's meant as a local companion to Ken Burns' national six-part PBS documentary series "The National Parks: America’s Best Idea", which also airs on Western Reserve PBS over the coming week.
There are also a number of educational components to "Generations"...which are detailed in the Western Reserve PBS press release reprinted in full below...
--------------
New Western Reserve Public Media Production Tells Cuyahoga Valley National Park’s Story
Premiere on Western Reserve PBS to accompany national premiere of The National Parks: America’s Best Idea
Through high-definition video and the voices of people from all walks of life, Western Reserve Public Media presents its new one-hour documentary that tells the story of Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Generations: Cuyahoga Valley National Park will premiere on Western Reserve PBS on Sunday, Sept. 27, at 8 p.m. and again at 11 p.m. It is a companion production to Ken Burns’ six-part documentary series The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. Additional airdates for Generations are Tuesday, Sept. 29, at 2 p.m.; Wednesday, Sept. 30, at 10 p.m.; Thursday, Oct. 1, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, Oct. 4, at 9 p.m.
“We knew that chances were good that Ken Burns would focus on the iconic national parks, so we chose to focus on the Cuyahoga Valley story ourselves,” said Duilio Mariola, Western Reserve Public Media production manager. “Over the course of this past year, we shot more than 50 hours of high-definition footage so that we could accurately represent the park during every season.” He added that the concept of “generations” applies to all aspects of CVNP. “Obviously, it is a story of people who have benefited from the park’s resources, but we also acknowledge the evolution of the park’s geology and the generations of animals that have called the valley home.”
Generations is the first full-length broadcast documentary about 34-year-old Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It showcases the park’s 33,000 acres through a variety of methods, including archival video footage, recent interviews, oral histories and memorabilia provided by park visitors.
Integral to the production are the stories provided by more than 40 people who answered the station’s invitation to share their park memories and experiences. Anecdotes about valley farming, weekend hikes and wedding proposals enrich the concept of generations in the production, according to Mariola. Community members and business leaders also talk about the difficulties experienced during the park’s formative years as a new National Park Service entity.
Funding for Generations: Cuyahoga Valley National Park is provided by The Cleveland Foundation, FirstEnergy Foundation, George and Susan Klein and Family, The Harry K. Fox and Emma R. Fox Charitable Foundation, The Herbert W. Hoover Foundation, The John P. Murphy Foundation, National Park Service, NEOEA, PPG Industries Foundation and The S. Livingston Mather Charitable Trust. Additional support is provided by The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.
Local underwriting for Ken Burns’ The National Parks: America’s Best Idea is provided by Appalachian Outfitters, Benjamin Rose Institute, Cuyahoga Valley National Park Association and Old Trail School. It will premiere on Western Reserve PBS following Generations at 9 p.m. The series will continue from Monday to Wednesday, Sept. 28 to Sept. 30, at 8 p.m.; Thursday, Oct. 1, at 9 p.m.; and Friday, Oct. 2, at 8 p.m.
Western Reserve Public Media has also produced an interactive Web site for Generations at www.generationscvnp.org, where the entire Generations program will be available for free viewing on demand after Oct. 1. The site also features background video on demand, including full-length interviews, oral histories, videography and photography. There are options for people to post their own video and photos, plus downloadable podcasts that will direct people to great places to visit within CVNP.
Educational resources on the Web site include an interdisciplinary teacher guide for middle school classrooms with a theme of “preserve and protect.” It offers lessons in mathematics, language arts, science, social studies and art. Additional features include a board game, a virtual tour of the park and podcasts created for the project. Western Reserve Educational Services will present professional development workshops this fall to help educators integrate the multimedia materials into their lesson plans. For more information, call Ria Mastromatteo at 1-800-554-4549.
Serving on the educational resources team were project leader Ria Mastromatteo, education content producer with Western Reserve Public Media; Cathy Adler, language arts teacher, Brown Middle School, Ravenna; Amy Franks, visual art teacher, Bath Elementary; Darren Saylor, science teacher, North Olmsted Middle School; Melanie Stuthhard, social studies teacher, Revere Middle School; and Arrye Rosser, interpretive and education specialist, Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Grab A Snack, It's A Big Stack
When we "come back" from a hiatus, even if it's only a brief one lasting just a couple of days, we find out what anyone coming back from vacation learns. The work continues to pile up, and doesn't go away because you're not minding the inbox.
So, with that in mind...here we go....
"THE BSK" RECOVERING: Our sincere, best wishes for a speedy recovery for a long-time Cleveland sports media personality.
OMW hears that Kendall Lewis, the former WKNR sports talker also known as "The Big Sports Kahuna" or "The BSK", reportedly suffered a stroke a few days ago.
Recently, Lewis has been program director at Paul Belfi's Internet sports talk outlet SportsTalkCleveland.com, hosting the 4-6 PM show "The BSK on STC", and Belfi tells OMW:
I spoke with Kendall several times since then, and he is preparing for aggressive rehab...and is in good spirits.
We're looking forward to having him back on staff ASAP.
Again, our most sincere wishes and prayers for Lewis' full recovery...and we'll keep you up to date on his progress and return...
SPEAKING OF 'KNR: OMW hears there are some off-air moves afoot at Good Karma sports WKNR/850 "ESPN 850".
Without much further explanation, we hear that 'KNR has moved promotions director Jason Gibbs into the role of assistant program director.
The station's Aaron Goldhammer, who has held the APD title until now, continues as producer/sidekick on 'KNR's "Really Big Show" with Tony Rizzo, and as host of the station's "Friday Night Hysteria" high school football wraparound show.
We'll also assume he'll continue to host various weekend shows as the sports play-by-play schedule and pre/post-game schedule permits...
SPEAKING OF RIZZO AND CREW: As far as we know, the "Really Big Show" one-day takeover of Premiere syndicated sports radio icon Jim Rome's national show is still set for tomorrow from noon to 3 PM.
WKNR still lists the substitution on its updated program schedule, with station veterans Greg Brinda and Kenny Roda teaming up in the "RBS" late-morning 9-noon slot locally on WKNR itself....freeing up Rizzo, Goldhammer and Josh Sabo for the national fill-in.
An OMW reader reminded us that Romey has a full-power local affiliate now in Akron - Clear Channel sports WARF/1350 "Fox Sports 1350". We're trying to wrap our heads around that station airing a three hour quasi-commercial for the highest profile local show on its only major in-format competitor in Northeast Ohio...
TWC HD CHANNELS: It looks like Northeast Ohio's Time Warner Cable operation is turning the HDTV channel spigot back to "on".
Though we have few details beyond what's appeared on the TWC legal "Programming Notices" page, here's the list of channels that page promises "on or after October 15th":
The following channels will be added to standard HD: Cartoon HD, TCM HD, HLN HD, E! HD;
The following channels will be added to HD for customers with the Digital Basic Tier: Biography HD, Disney SX HD, Outdoor HD, Fox Business News HD, Style HD, Hallmark Movies HD
That's all give or take local availability...for example, in the former Comcast areas. Subscribers in the Elyria-based former Comcast system are in the long process of swapping out equipment, planned by area, and won't get any of these channels until their "swap" has been completed.
OMW does hear that for whatever reason, former Comcasters on the other side of Greater Cleveland may have better luck...we're told that 15 HDTV channels have been added there, with more to come.
We're told the ex-Comcast subscribers in the Mentor area have a lineup fairly close to the rest of the Time Warner Cable Northeast Ohio empire, without the addition - yet - of SDV or "Switched Digital Video"...the electronic magic that has fueled HD channel additions in the rest of the region. No, we don't know how.
We also hear that TWC has quietly added the HD feed of Tri-State Christian Television's WRLM/47 Canton (the former WOAC/67) to its "legacy" systems in the Akron/Canton area - on cable channel 413. It's the same feed which appears over-air on WRLM's 47.2 subchannel.
WRLM HD does not appear in the former Adelphia/Cleveland-based TWC lineup, but for whatever reason, has been added to the former Comcast system in Elyria. WRLM does appear in SD in all the areas covered by FCC "must carry" guidelines...
SPEAKING OF TWC SPORTS: The local cable company's "Northeast Ohio Nework" (NEON) programming channel will carry coverage of this weekend's Seventh Annual Road Runner Marathon through Akron.
The marathon takes place starting at 7 AM this Saturday. It won't be aired live, but will appear on "NEON" (cable channel 23) at the following replay times:
Wednesday, September 30, and October 7, 7 p.m.
Thursday, October 1 and 8, 7 p.m.
Saturday, October 3 and 10, 1 p.m.
Sunday, October 4 and 11, 8 p.m.
TWC also notes that the RRM will be available on the company's "Local on Demand" channel, on channel 1 or 501 depending on which part of the TWC NEO universe serves you.
Of course, you'd be able to tell by the name alone that Time Warner has been a long-time sponsor of the race bearing the name of its high speed Internet service.
We also hear that Rubber City Radio news/oldies WAKR/1590 Akron will have live reports from the marathon course, with veteran sports anchor Joe Jastrzemski, during its regular news and on-air programming on Saturday - starting at 7 AM...
SPEAKING OF TWC MUSIC: The cabler also tells us that the locally produced "Random Acts of Music", a staple on NEON, starts its sixth season this fall.
The show, created and produced by Canton's Henry J. Konczak, features independent musicians from Northeast Ohio and beyond, and has a new contest this year...says a TWC release:
This season, artists have the chance to enter a songwriting contest. The winner will star in their own music video, provided by Henry J. Productions, with a private video release party at the 356th Fighter Group Restaurant in North Canton.
Other prizes include recording studio time and an acoustic guitar provided by Darrell Wiles of Canton Music Center.
More details are at the NEON website, the on-demand home for NEON on channel 501, or on the Random Acts of Music site...
EXIT TO NEWSPAPER: OMW hears that former Envision Radio Networks VP/general manager Tim Kelly has left the world of broadcasting - for the world of print. Well, we think it'll be print.
Kelly joins Sandusky Midwest Newspapers as vice-president of sales. He says his new role will be to "direct all sales development at the northern Ohio and Michigan media companies"...we assume including newspapers like the Sandusky Register, the chain's flagship paper.
Before joining Envision, the Beachwood-based syndicated radio firm, Kelly had worked in various management capacities at Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting.
Before leaving that company, Kelly was operations director, and market manager for ELB's Sandusky-area properties - country WKFM/96.1 Huron "K96", AAA WLKR/95.3 Norwalk, and sports WLKR-AM/1510 "ESPN 1510" Norwalk.
Sandusky Newspapers, by the way, is no stranger to radio, assuming it's the same firm which just hired Kelly. The locally-based company has long held stations in markets like Seattle and Phoenix. From the announcement, it doesn't sound (for now) as if Kelly is heading in that direction.
We don't believe Sandusky Newspapers has any electronic media operations in Northern Ohio, though we believe they actually still own low-power TV outlet W41AP/41 Sandusky, which now serves as an informational outlet for the Sandusky City Schools...
RADO AND CORNHOLE FUNDRAISING: Yes, we were correct when we stated earlier that charity cornhole fundraising tournaments were keeping a former Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 producer/host busy these days.
Former WTAM afternoon drive producer/sports talk host Paul Rado is announcing one of those tournaments coming up, in a note which somehow made it into our inbox:
Garfield Heights residents will hold a memorial cornhole tournament three nights this weekend... honoring US Army SPC Brad Davis, who was killed in Iraq on April 22, 2009.
The proceeds of the tournament benefit the USO of Northern Ohio.
A flyer for the tournament says it will be held "this weekend, September 25th, 26th, & 27th behind the Maple Leaf Intermediate School located at 5764 Turney Road in Garfield Heights. The events will be held under the lights of the softball field behind the school."
More information can be found at the USO of Cleveland's website...
So, with that in mind...here we go....
"THE BSK" RECOVERING: Our sincere, best wishes for a speedy recovery for a long-time Cleveland sports media personality.
OMW hears that Kendall Lewis, the former WKNR sports talker also known as "The Big Sports Kahuna" or "The BSK", reportedly suffered a stroke a few days ago.
Recently, Lewis has been program director at Paul Belfi's Internet sports talk outlet SportsTalkCleveland.com, hosting the 4-6 PM show "The BSK on STC", and Belfi tells OMW:
I spoke with Kendall several times since then, and he is preparing for aggressive rehab...and is in good spirits.
We're looking forward to having him back on staff ASAP.
Again, our most sincere wishes and prayers for Lewis' full recovery...and we'll keep you up to date on his progress and return...
SPEAKING OF 'KNR: OMW hears there are some off-air moves afoot at Good Karma sports WKNR/850 "ESPN 850".
Without much further explanation, we hear that 'KNR has moved promotions director Jason Gibbs into the role of assistant program director.
The station's Aaron Goldhammer, who has held the APD title until now, continues as producer/sidekick on 'KNR's "Really Big Show" with Tony Rizzo, and as host of the station's "Friday Night Hysteria" high school football wraparound show.
We'll also assume he'll continue to host various weekend shows as the sports play-by-play schedule and pre/post-game schedule permits...
SPEAKING OF RIZZO AND CREW: As far as we know, the "Really Big Show" one-day takeover of Premiere syndicated sports radio icon Jim Rome's national show is still set for tomorrow from noon to 3 PM.
WKNR still lists the substitution on its updated program schedule, with station veterans Greg Brinda and Kenny Roda teaming up in the "RBS" late-morning 9-noon slot locally on WKNR itself....freeing up Rizzo, Goldhammer and Josh Sabo for the national fill-in.
An OMW reader reminded us that Romey has a full-power local affiliate now in Akron - Clear Channel sports WARF/1350 "Fox Sports 1350". We're trying to wrap our heads around that station airing a three hour quasi-commercial for the highest profile local show on its only major in-format competitor in Northeast Ohio...
TWC HD CHANNELS: It looks like Northeast Ohio's Time Warner Cable operation is turning the HDTV channel spigot back to "on".
Though we have few details beyond what's appeared on the TWC legal "Programming Notices" page, here's the list of channels that page promises "on or after October 15th":
The following channels will be added to standard HD: Cartoon HD, TCM HD, HLN HD, E! HD;
The following channels will be added to HD for customers with the Digital Basic Tier: Biography HD, Disney SX HD, Outdoor HD, Fox Business News HD, Style HD, Hallmark Movies HD
That's all give or take local availability...for example, in the former Comcast areas. Subscribers in the Elyria-based former Comcast system are in the long process of swapping out equipment, planned by area, and won't get any of these channels until their "swap" has been completed.
OMW does hear that for whatever reason, former Comcasters on the other side of Greater Cleveland may have better luck...we're told that 15 HDTV channels have been added there, with more to come.
We're told the ex-Comcast subscribers in the Mentor area have a lineup fairly close to the rest of the Time Warner Cable Northeast Ohio empire, without the addition - yet - of SDV or "Switched Digital Video"...the electronic magic that has fueled HD channel additions in the rest of the region. No, we don't know how.
We also hear that TWC has quietly added the HD feed of Tri-State Christian Television's WRLM/47 Canton (the former WOAC/67) to its "legacy" systems in the Akron/Canton area - on cable channel 413. It's the same feed which appears over-air on WRLM's 47.2 subchannel.
WRLM HD does not appear in the former Adelphia/Cleveland-based TWC lineup, but for whatever reason, has been added to the former Comcast system in Elyria. WRLM does appear in SD in all the areas covered by FCC "must carry" guidelines...
SPEAKING OF TWC SPORTS: The local cable company's "Northeast Ohio Nework" (NEON) programming channel will carry coverage of this weekend's Seventh Annual Road Runner Marathon through Akron.
The marathon takes place starting at 7 AM this Saturday. It won't be aired live, but will appear on "NEON" (cable channel 23) at the following replay times:
Wednesday, September 30, and October 7, 7 p.m.
Thursday, October 1 and 8, 7 p.m.
Saturday, October 3 and 10, 1 p.m.
Sunday, October 4 and 11, 8 p.m.
TWC also notes that the RRM will be available on the company's "Local on Demand" channel, on channel 1 or 501 depending on which part of the TWC NEO universe serves you.
Of course, you'd be able to tell by the name alone that Time Warner has been a long-time sponsor of the race bearing the name of its high speed Internet service.
We also hear that Rubber City Radio news/oldies WAKR/1590 Akron will have live reports from the marathon course, with veteran sports anchor Joe Jastrzemski, during its regular news and on-air programming on Saturday - starting at 7 AM...
SPEAKING OF TWC MUSIC: The cabler also tells us that the locally produced "Random Acts of Music", a staple on NEON, starts its sixth season this fall.
The show, created and produced by Canton's Henry J. Konczak, features independent musicians from Northeast Ohio and beyond, and has a new contest this year...says a TWC release:
This season, artists have the chance to enter a songwriting contest. The winner will star in their own music video, provided by Henry J. Productions, with a private video release party at the 356th Fighter Group Restaurant in North Canton.
Other prizes include recording studio time and an acoustic guitar provided by Darrell Wiles of Canton Music Center.
More details are at the NEON website, the on-demand home for NEON on channel 501, or on the Random Acts of Music site...
EXIT TO NEWSPAPER: OMW hears that former Envision Radio Networks VP/general manager Tim Kelly has left the world of broadcasting - for the world of print. Well, we think it'll be print.
Kelly joins Sandusky Midwest Newspapers as vice-president of sales. He says his new role will be to "direct all sales development at the northern Ohio and Michigan media companies"...we assume including newspapers like the Sandusky Register, the chain's flagship paper.
Before joining Envision, the Beachwood-based syndicated radio firm, Kelly had worked in various management capacities at Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting.
Before leaving that company, Kelly was operations director, and market manager for ELB's Sandusky-area properties - country WKFM/96.1 Huron "K96", AAA WLKR/95.3 Norwalk, and sports WLKR-AM/1510 "ESPN 1510" Norwalk.
Sandusky Newspapers, by the way, is no stranger to radio, assuming it's the same firm which just hired Kelly. The locally-based company has long held stations in markets like Seattle and Phoenix. From the announcement, it doesn't sound (for now) as if Kelly is heading in that direction.
We don't believe Sandusky Newspapers has any electronic media operations in Northern Ohio, though we believe they actually still own low-power TV outlet W41AP/41 Sandusky, which now serves as an informational outlet for the Sandusky City Schools...
RADO AND CORNHOLE FUNDRAISING: Yes, we were correct when we stated earlier that charity cornhole fundraising tournaments were keeping a former Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 producer/host busy these days.
Former WTAM afternoon drive producer/sports talk host Paul Rado is announcing one of those tournaments coming up, in a note which somehow made it into our inbox:
Garfield Heights residents will hold a memorial cornhole tournament three nights this weekend... honoring US Army SPC Brad Davis, who was killed in Iraq on April 22, 2009.
The proceeds of the tournament benefit the USO of Northern Ohio.
A flyer for the tournament says it will be held "this weekend, September 25th, 26th, & 27th behind the Maple Leaf Intermediate School located at 5764 Turney Road in Garfield Heights. The events will be held under the lights of the softball field behind the school."
More information can be found at the USO of Cleveland's website...
Monday, September 21, 2009
Mini Hiatus
Yes, we have some items to put up, but not enough time with a busy schedule.
Thus, OMW will be on a hiatus at least until Tuesday, and maybe a day or two more. Hang in there!
Thus, OMW will be on a hiatus at least until Tuesday, and maybe a day or two more. Hang in there!
Friday, September 18, 2009
Si, V-me
No, you're not imagining it if you're an over-air digital TV viewer...the folks at Kent-based public TV outlet Western Reserve PBS have grown another digital subchannel. For now, at least.
Now airing on WEAO/49.4 Akron (and we assume WNEO/45.4 Alliance) is "V-me", a Spanish-language channel. We'll let the "V-me" folks explain it in English:
V-me (pronounced veh-meh), is the first national Spanish-language television network presented by public television stations. V-me, a 24-hour digital broadcast service carried on basic digital cable in major markets across the country and nationally via satellite, represents a new network and media community for US Latinos.
V-me (from the Spanish veme, meaning see me) entertains, educates and inspires families in Spanish with a youthful, contemporary mix of original productions, exclusive premieres and acquisitions, and popular public television programs specially adapted for American Latinos.
Our friends at Western Reserve PBS tell us that the actual debut of "V-me" is scheduled for mid-October.
We assume that its presence now is an early preview/test...much like the pubcaster did before it added MHz Worldview to 45.3/49.3...
Now airing on WEAO/49.4 Akron (and we assume WNEO/45.4 Alliance) is "V-me", a Spanish-language channel. We'll let the "V-me" folks explain it in English:
V-me (pronounced veh-meh), is the first national Spanish-language television network presented by public television stations. V-me, a 24-hour digital broadcast service carried on basic digital cable in major markets across the country and nationally via satellite, represents a new network and media community for US Latinos.
V-me (from the Spanish veme, meaning see me) entertains, educates and inspires families in Spanish with a youthful, contemporary mix of original productions, exclusive premieres and acquisitions, and popular public television programs specially adapted for American Latinos.
Our friends at Western Reserve PBS tell us that the actual debut of "V-me" is scheduled for mid-October.
We assume that its presence now is an early preview/test...much like the pubcaster did before it added MHz Worldview to 45.3/49.3...
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Still Have DTV Problems? Talk To The AP
If you're still struggling trying to pick up Northeast Ohio's two VHF-based digital TV outlets - Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8 and/or Raycom Media CBS affiliate WOIO/19 - an Associated Press writer would like to hear from you.
The AP's Peter Svensson says you can E-mail him with your experiences at this address:
psvensson-at-ap.org
That's been slightly munged to try to battle the evil spammers, of course.
He's hoping to hear from you before noon Friday, so please feel free to send him a note as soon as you see this.
Thanks!
The AP's Peter Svensson says you can E-mail him with your experiences at this address:
psvensson-at-ap.org
That's been slightly munged to try to battle the evil spammers, of course.
He's hoping to hear from you before noon Friday, so please feel free to send him a note as soon as you see this.
Thanks!
Emmy Fallout
Earlier on OMW, we dutifully posted a link to the list of this year's local Emmy Awards winners, with little comment - aside from a brief mention of the win for "Best Nostalgia Program" involving local radio personality and OMW reader Mike Olszewski ("Radio Daze").
That's our normal procedure with awards lists.
We don't go through the list, tab "winners and losers", make any further comment about the stations or groups involved, etc. Awards are very subjective, and we usually don't insert comments about who won, who lost or who should have won or lost.
But we should go a little further here.
For one, though we mentioned the presence of Indiana stations - the Lower Great Lakes NATAS chapter goes all the way to Indianapolis - we didn't note how broad their presence was on the list this year.
And aside from "Radio Daze's" Harvard 131 Films, we didn't note anything else about independent producers not directly associated with local TV stations.
That's where producer/director Mark Wade Stone of Storytellers Media Group comes in.
Quoting his blog, where he's not upset with us, but with the local newspaper:
In (Julie Washington's) Plain Dealer report on the event she emphasized the nostalgic nature of the chapter’s 40th anniversary. But, typical of the PeeDee, they missed the actual lede: smaller market Indianapolis arrived here yesterday to crush, in merciless fashion, the larger market Cleveland stations in virtually every category.
Not sure if ‘creamed’ or ’slaughtered’ are better words, so I’ll stick with ‘crushed.’ Either way it wasn’t pretty.
Mark's group won two Emmys in the recent competition, and this may be the first time anyone who didn't sort through the list - or who wasn't there at this past weekend's event - has heard of it.
Quoting Mark's blog again:
And, as is also typical of Cleveland’s paper of record, the story focused on only the commercial and public stations. Our own ensemble – Storytellers Media Group – garnered two Emmys: one for best Arts/Entertainment Program (Doris O’Donnell’s Cleveland – Rosie the Reporter), and another for Music Composition by the inimitable Carl Michel (which the presenters pronounced as “Mitchell.” Feh.) But this rather exemplary performance by a small company like Storytellers is deemed unworthy of mention.
Of the large media outlets logrolled in the article, WOIO earned no more than we did, while Fox Sports Ohio and our ol’ alma mater station, WVIZ, earned only half (and that one by my former cutter and all ’round buddy, Nancy Tatulinski). WKYC, a Cleveland flagship station if there ever was one, earned a mere four awards to our two. The article failed to mention the truckloads of awards schlepped home to Indy and other points west.
As we did privately with Mark, we'll defend Ms. Washington a little, here.
Her main beat in regards to local media puts her mostly in the realm of local TV stations. It's pretty easy - when your regular work mostly involves the big over-air commercial and public stations - to focus upon those stations. She talks about local film production, but not necessarily connected to over-air media.
It's the same problem we have here, though we're not the largest newspaper of record in Northeast Ohio. We spend most of our time covering the broadcast media (very, very occasionally we foray into print), and that's our chosen beat - and has been since August 2005.
We spent time talking about "Radio Daze" for a number of reasons. First, its subject is core to what we talk about here - radio, in particular, the heady days of Cleveland FM radio competition. Second, book author and documentary writer/producer Mike Olszewski is a long-time local radio personality - and a regular reader here.
But we salute the "Storytellers" Emmy wins, and others by independent producers...and think SOMEONE should at least mention them.
And Mark (a regular OMW reader himself, by the way) makes a very good point about what we called the "Indiana Invasion".
Cleveland is a much larger TV market than Indianapolis, even with its recent fall to 18th place. Are they producing "better TV" over there, or is it just a side effect of the process?
We only note that when local stations do earn Emmy Awards, they relentlessly promote them both on air and off air, so the stations at very least consider the awards somewhat important to crow about.
Here are links to awards publicity by NBC affiliate WKYC/3, courtesy of our blogging counterpart Frank Macek's Director's Cut blog, and by ABC affiliate WEWS/5.
The WKYC list includes three awards won by SportsTime Ohio, which is operated out of the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center at 13th and Lakeside. The WEWS list includes awards by the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists.
We'll link to any other lists provided by stations or production companies, if we find them.
Here at your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), we salute ALL the winners, from everywhere...
That's our normal procedure with awards lists.
We don't go through the list, tab "winners and losers", make any further comment about the stations or groups involved, etc. Awards are very subjective, and we usually don't insert comments about who won, who lost or who should have won or lost.
But we should go a little further here.
For one, though we mentioned the presence of Indiana stations - the Lower Great Lakes NATAS chapter goes all the way to Indianapolis - we didn't note how broad their presence was on the list this year.
And aside from "Radio Daze's" Harvard 131 Films, we didn't note anything else about independent producers not directly associated with local TV stations.
That's where producer/director Mark Wade Stone of Storytellers Media Group comes in.
Quoting his blog, where he's not upset with us, but with the local newspaper:
In (Julie Washington's) Plain Dealer report on the event she emphasized the nostalgic nature of the chapter’s 40th anniversary. But, typical of the PeeDee, they missed the actual lede: smaller market Indianapolis arrived here yesterday to crush, in merciless fashion, the larger market Cleveland stations in virtually every category.
Not sure if ‘creamed’ or ’slaughtered’ are better words, so I’ll stick with ‘crushed.’ Either way it wasn’t pretty.
Mark's group won two Emmys in the recent competition, and this may be the first time anyone who didn't sort through the list - or who wasn't there at this past weekend's event - has heard of it.
Quoting Mark's blog again:
And, as is also typical of Cleveland’s paper of record, the story focused on only the commercial and public stations. Our own ensemble – Storytellers Media Group – garnered two Emmys: one for best Arts/Entertainment Program (Doris O’Donnell’s Cleveland – Rosie the Reporter), and another for Music Composition by the inimitable Carl Michel (which the presenters pronounced as “Mitchell.” Feh.) But this rather exemplary performance by a small company like Storytellers is deemed unworthy of mention.
Of the large media outlets logrolled in the article, WOIO earned no more than we did, while Fox Sports Ohio and our ol’ alma mater station, WVIZ, earned only half (and that one by my former cutter and all ’round buddy, Nancy Tatulinski). WKYC, a Cleveland flagship station if there ever was one, earned a mere four awards to our two. The article failed to mention the truckloads of awards schlepped home to Indy and other points west.
As we did privately with Mark, we'll defend Ms. Washington a little, here.
Her main beat in regards to local media puts her mostly in the realm of local TV stations. It's pretty easy - when your regular work mostly involves the big over-air commercial and public stations - to focus upon those stations. She talks about local film production, but not necessarily connected to over-air media.
It's the same problem we have here, though we're not the largest newspaper of record in Northeast Ohio. We spend most of our time covering the broadcast media (very, very occasionally we foray into print), and that's our chosen beat - and has been since August 2005.
We spent time talking about "Radio Daze" for a number of reasons. First, its subject is core to what we talk about here - radio, in particular, the heady days of Cleveland FM radio competition. Second, book author and documentary writer/producer Mike Olszewski is a long-time local radio personality - and a regular reader here.
But we salute the "Storytellers" Emmy wins, and others by independent producers...and think SOMEONE should at least mention them.
And Mark (a regular OMW reader himself, by the way) makes a very good point about what we called the "Indiana Invasion".
Cleveland is a much larger TV market than Indianapolis, even with its recent fall to 18th place. Are they producing "better TV" over there, or is it just a side effect of the process?
We only note that when local stations do earn Emmy Awards, they relentlessly promote them both on air and off air, so the stations at very least consider the awards somewhat important to crow about.
Here are links to awards publicity by NBC affiliate WKYC/3, courtesy of our blogging counterpart Frank Macek's Director's Cut blog, and by ABC affiliate WEWS/5.
The WKYC list includes three awards won by SportsTime Ohio, which is operated out of the WKYC Digital Broadcast Center at 13th and Lakeside. The WEWS list includes awards by the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists.
We'll link to any other lists provided by stations or production companies, if we find them.
Here at your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), we salute ALL the winners, from everywhere...
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Two Assorted Items
We've just been hanging onto these for a while...
ACCIDENTAL, BUT GOOD, EXPOSURE: We spent part of Tuesday evening catching the Monday return of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart", faithfully recorded by our TiVo.
We didn't know until we went into the recording that Jon's guest for his first show back from a three week vacation was Akron's own mega sports superstar, the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers' own LeBron James.
LeBron's been on with Stewart before, but something caught our eye in his second "Daily Show" appearance...the show showed the cover of his new book, "Shooting Stars". Look at the cover image on Amazon, and you'll see what we saw:
Yep, that's a banner for Clear Channel talk WHLO/640 Akron, taken at the championship game site pictured. And we'll assume just to the left, that's the edge of a banner for Dix country/sports WQKT/104.5 "SportsCountry" Wooster.
We haven't met the man, but we'll assume the man in the blue shirt is long-time local high school radio play-by-play voice Rudy Piekarski.
WHLO/CC Akron/Canton operations director/OMW reader Keith Kennedy tells us that the banner was Rudy's. (We presume any station-made banner would have the official WHLO logo on it.)
All of this, on bookshelves everywhere, and on the popular "Daily Show with Jon Stewart" on Monday night...though viewers and readers could be forgiven for calling the station "WHL"...
DAZED: An OMW reader passes along a link to a Cleveland Scene post about "Radio Daze: Cleveland's FM Air Wars", the book-turned-TV-documentary which just won a local Emmy award for "Best Nostalgia Program". An hour-long version of the documentary aired on Western Reserve PBS (WNEO/45 Alliance-WEAO/49 Akron).
The "Scene" blog post ("When AOR Ruled The Earth" by Frank Lewis) also has more about producers Tom Cummings and Dave Rogant:
“Historically, from a Cleveland perspective, I think [Radio Daze] is important,” says Tom Cummings, whose Harvard 131 Films company produced the program. “It’s a document of Cleveland’s history and the city’s place in music history.”
It also details the relationship between Cummings, Rogant, and long-time Cleveland media personality/OMW reader Mike Olszewski, who wrote the original book...and talks about how "Radio Daze"'s video version came together.
And it notes that a 2 1/2 hour long version of "Radio Daze" is now available online on DVD ($20), at "RadioDazeMovie.com".
But one note from the article:
"The documentary didn’t air in Cleveland," writes Scene's Frank Lewis.
Well, sort of...yes, it did not air on Ideastream PBS affiliate WVIZ/25.
But the signal of Western Reserve PBS' WEAO/49, broadcasting from a tower off Cleveland-Massillon Road in Copley Township not far from the massive Montrose shopping area, reaches a pretty decent chunk of the Cleveland market.
Not all of it, by far, but enough to garner "must carry" cable coverage that puts the Kent-based public TV outlet on all the local cable systems, not to mention satellite TV "local-into-local" carriage in the entire Cleveland TV market....
CHUCK PLUG: We like to give free plugs for positive radio/TV news, particularly for Friends of OMW like Chuck Matthews.
We've been remiss in listing some of the new voiceover and imaging clients Matthews has piled up in the past month or so, so we asked him for a list:
WREO/Ashtabula
KGSO/Wichita KS "Sports Radio 1410 ESPN"
KAPC/Salt Lake City UT (formerly KNRS-AM) - just imaging
WDOX/Raleigh NC
WCTN/Potomac-Cabin John MD-Washington DC (standards)
And in his "day job" as production director for Rubber City Radio in Akron, Chuck's also heard frequently voicing both spots and on-air station production - including for the company's oldies/news WAKR/1590. In one recent drive, we heard Chuck's voice on both WREO "Star 97.1" and WAKR within a 2 minute time period, bouncing back and forth between the FM dial and AM dial.
Chuck tells us that he's hoping to add imaging for an in-market station or two in DC, soon.
Many of his new pickups are due to his relationship with Benztown Branding, which offers voiceover and imaging services to stations for barter. Check out Chuck's own site here for more.
Best of luck to Mr. Matthews, and here's hoping the OMW Reader Karma continues to work well!
ACCIDENTAL, BUT GOOD, EXPOSURE: We spent part of Tuesday evening catching the Monday return of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart", faithfully recorded by our TiVo.
We didn't know until we went into the recording that Jon's guest for his first show back from a three week vacation was Akron's own mega sports superstar, the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers' own LeBron James.
LeBron's been on with Stewart before, but something caught our eye in his second "Daily Show" appearance...the show showed the cover of his new book, "Shooting Stars". Look at the cover image on Amazon, and you'll see what we saw:
Yep, that's a banner for Clear Channel talk WHLO/640 Akron, taken at the championship game site pictured. And we'll assume just to the left, that's the edge of a banner for Dix country/sports WQKT/104.5 "SportsCountry" Wooster.We haven't met the man, but we'll assume the man in the blue shirt is long-time local high school radio play-by-play voice Rudy Piekarski.
WHLO/CC Akron/Canton operations director/OMW reader Keith Kennedy tells us that the banner was Rudy's. (We presume any station-made banner would have the official WHLO logo on it.)
All of this, on bookshelves everywhere, and on the popular "Daily Show with Jon Stewart" on Monday night...though viewers and readers could be forgiven for calling the station "WHL"...
DAZED: An OMW reader passes along a link to a Cleveland Scene post about "Radio Daze: Cleveland's FM Air Wars", the book-turned-TV-documentary which just won a local Emmy award for "Best Nostalgia Program". An hour-long version of the documentary aired on Western Reserve PBS (WNEO/45 Alliance-WEAO/49 Akron).
The "Scene" blog post ("When AOR Ruled The Earth" by Frank Lewis) also has more about producers Tom Cummings and Dave Rogant:
“Historically, from a Cleveland perspective, I think [Radio Daze] is important,” says Tom Cummings, whose Harvard 131 Films company produced the program. “It’s a document of Cleveland’s history and the city’s place in music history.”
It also details the relationship between Cummings, Rogant, and long-time Cleveland media personality/OMW reader Mike Olszewski, who wrote the original book...and talks about how "Radio Daze"'s video version came together.
And it notes that a 2 1/2 hour long version of "Radio Daze" is now available online on DVD ($20), at "RadioDazeMovie.com".
But one note from the article:
"The documentary didn’t air in Cleveland," writes Scene's Frank Lewis.
Well, sort of...yes, it did not air on Ideastream PBS affiliate WVIZ/25.
But the signal of Western Reserve PBS' WEAO/49, broadcasting from a tower off Cleveland-Massillon Road in Copley Township not far from the massive Montrose shopping area, reaches a pretty decent chunk of the Cleveland market.
Not all of it, by far, but enough to garner "must carry" cable coverage that puts the Kent-based public TV outlet on all the local cable systems, not to mention satellite TV "local-into-local" carriage in the entire Cleveland TV market....
CHUCK PLUG: We like to give free plugs for positive radio/TV news, particularly for Friends of OMW like Chuck Matthews.
We've been remiss in listing some of the new voiceover and imaging clients Matthews has piled up in the past month or so, so we asked him for a list:
WREO/Ashtabula
KGSO/Wichita KS "Sports Radio 1410 ESPN"
KAPC/Salt Lake City UT (formerly KNRS-AM) - just imaging
WDOX/Raleigh NC
WCTN/Potomac-Cabin John MD-Washington DC (standards)
And in his "day job" as production director for Rubber City Radio in Akron, Chuck's also heard frequently voicing both spots and on-air station production - including for the company's oldies/news WAKR/1590. In one recent drive, we heard Chuck's voice on both WREO "Star 97.1" and WAKR within a 2 minute time period, bouncing back and forth between the FM dial and AM dial.
Chuck tells us that he's hoping to add imaging for an in-market station or two in DC, soon.
Many of his new pickups are due to his relationship with Benztown Branding, which offers voiceover and imaging services to stations for barter. Check out Chuck's own site here for more.
Best of luck to Mr. Matthews, and here's hoping the OMW Reader Karma continues to work well!
Brian And Joe Back - Sort Of - And So's Marty
Some local radio veterans now on "the beach" are plotting their next move.
Local morning drive radio mainstays Brian Fowler and Joe Cronauer were unceremoniously dumped from their long-time spot on Clear Channel Cleveland hot AC WMVX/106.5 "Mix 106.5" in late April, part of a nationwide job purge by the San Antonio-based radio giant.
The duo had to ride out a Clear Channel non-compete, which expired September 1st.
"Brian and Joe" aren't back on the radio just yet, but they've found a microphone. And they aren't the only victims of the April Clear Channel job massacre to do so.
"The Brian and Joe Show" has launched in podcast form on the pair's new website, conveniently called BrianAndJoeShow.com, which also has blogs, pictures from the duo's long career, and information about personal appearances.
Don't expect a full 4 hour radio-like show, of course. The "showcast" segments are just a few minutes long, but enough to keep the voices of the former "Mix" morning team in your head while they're looking for their next opportunity.
Quoting the site:
We’ve been working together in radio for 21 years and back at the end of April – we were told “see ya!” Due to legal mumbo jumbo we weren’t allowed to do any radio or broadcast for the last four months. Now we’re finally allowed to do our thing again! Are we going to show up on radio? Time will tell – but we can’t wait any longer to do our show for you,
In the opening "showcast", Brian and Joe make it clear that they are hoping to return to radio, somehow, though they're obviously aware of the economic conditions facing the business both here and elsewhere.
Those conditions are somewhat muted compared to even the spring of 2008, when former WXTM/92.3 "Xtreme Radio" morning man Shane "Rover" French was able to bounce over to Clear Channel's WMMS/100.7 in a lucrative new deal.
"Rover's Morning Glory" landed on WMMS on April Fools' Day 2008 - just 13 months before "Brian and Joe" became WMVX's former morning show.
Then...the worldwide economy collapsed.
(Since then, of course, WMVX imported Los Angeles-based Sean Valentine - formerly heard on sister top 40 WAKS/96.5 "Kiss FM" - for its morning drive slot. Oh, and WXTM became jock-free WKRK "Radio 92.3".)
We'll be watching to see if "Brian and Joe" find a microphone with a radio transmitter attached to it, somehow. For now, they've managed to get some big name sponsors for their website (like Cleveland banking giant KeyBank, which has them doing an appearance this weekend at one branch). Bringing sponsor money with you is not exactly a bad thing, of course.
The "showcast" is being produced at the downtown Cleveland studio of Broadcast Media Ideas, the agency run by former Cleveland TV veteran Michael Settoni. BMI is headquartered at the Galleria in downtown Cleveland, a short elevator ride from the studios of Good Karma sports WKNR/850 "ESPN 850" in that same complex.
We'll also be watching the radio fate of another former Clear Channel employee let loose by the company in the April job bloodbath, who's also launched his online radio presence.
Former talk WTAM/1100 afternoon drive producer Marty "Big Daddy" Allen is now doing regular live Internet radio broadcasts at his own website.
The current schedule for the live Internet version of "The Marty Allen Show" is listed as Monday-Wednesday and Fridays at 9 PM (Eastern, of course). It looks like Marty is using the services of popular live video streamer UStream.
Based on some of Marty's previously recorded efforts, it's probably not a "G-rated" show...with no FCC guidelines on the Internet and the late evening time slot.
Allen has made no secret of his desire to "strike out on his own" after a long stint as a studio producer/on-air sidekick for WTAM afternoon driver Mike Trivisonno.
We wish him well, but he also faces the same hurdles as "Brian and Joe" - it's not exactly a seller's market when it comes to radio personalities in 2009, even those with recognized names and local broadcast history.
As always, we're rooting for people to overcome the current radio environment, land in new gigs, and prosper.
As of yet, we've heard nothing about the media plans of the other WTAM afternoon drive producer let go in the April Clear Channel purge - Paul Rado. We believe he's been promoting game tournaments for charity in the Cleveland area, and Trivisonno even mentioned that in response to a caller recently.
And that's a hint to displaced Northeast Ohio radio personalities doing new ventures, no matter what.
We're more than happy to give you the publicity and the links.
While much of OMW's readership lies within local media operations, we're also the first place many regular listeners reach when looking for their favorite now-former personalities.
Back in April, we reported extensively about both "Brian and Joe" and Marty Allen's departures from Oak Tree. Those posts get indexed by Google (which owns Blogger, by the way, our blogging platform), and if people do a search for "where is (personality)", it often brings them right to OMW.
Thus, we get E-mail from folks asking us "Whatever happened to Brian and Joe?", "Where's Marty Allen now", etc.
(We believe we still get an E-mail every couple of months asking about the whereabouts of now-split-up now-out-of-Cincinnati country morning radio team "Ken and Kitty".)
We had to find out about both of these new Internet ventures through third parties.
So, add us to your list...it'll help you...
Local morning drive radio mainstays Brian Fowler and Joe Cronauer were unceremoniously dumped from their long-time spot on Clear Channel Cleveland hot AC WMVX/106.5 "Mix 106.5" in late April, part of a nationwide job purge by the San Antonio-based radio giant.
The duo had to ride out a Clear Channel non-compete, which expired September 1st.
"Brian and Joe" aren't back on the radio just yet, but they've found a microphone. And they aren't the only victims of the April Clear Channel job massacre to do so.
"The Brian and Joe Show" has launched in podcast form on the pair's new website, conveniently called BrianAndJoeShow.com, which also has blogs, pictures from the duo's long career, and information about personal appearances.Don't expect a full 4 hour radio-like show, of course. The "showcast" segments are just a few minutes long, but enough to keep the voices of the former "Mix" morning team in your head while they're looking for their next opportunity.
Quoting the site:
We’ve been working together in radio for 21 years and back at the end of April – we were told “see ya!” Due to legal mumbo jumbo we weren’t allowed to do any radio or broadcast for the last four months. Now we’re finally allowed to do our thing again! Are we going to show up on radio? Time will tell – but we can’t wait any longer to do our show for you,
In the opening "showcast", Brian and Joe make it clear that they are hoping to return to radio, somehow, though they're obviously aware of the economic conditions facing the business both here and elsewhere.
Those conditions are somewhat muted compared to even the spring of 2008, when former WXTM/92.3 "Xtreme Radio" morning man Shane "Rover" French was able to bounce over to Clear Channel's WMMS/100.7 in a lucrative new deal.
"Rover's Morning Glory" landed on WMMS on April Fools' Day 2008 - just 13 months before "Brian and Joe" became WMVX's former morning show.
Then...the worldwide economy collapsed.
(Since then, of course, WMVX imported Los Angeles-based Sean Valentine - formerly heard on sister top 40 WAKS/96.5 "Kiss FM" - for its morning drive slot. Oh, and WXTM became jock-free WKRK "Radio 92.3".)
We'll be watching to see if "Brian and Joe" find a microphone with a radio transmitter attached to it, somehow. For now, they've managed to get some big name sponsors for their website (like Cleveland banking giant KeyBank, which has them doing an appearance this weekend at one branch). Bringing sponsor money with you is not exactly a bad thing, of course.
The "showcast" is being produced at the downtown Cleveland studio of Broadcast Media Ideas, the agency run by former Cleveland TV veteran Michael Settoni. BMI is headquartered at the Galleria in downtown Cleveland, a short elevator ride from the studios of Good Karma sports WKNR/850 "ESPN 850" in that same complex.
We'll also be watching the radio fate of another former Clear Channel employee let loose by the company in the April job bloodbath, who's also launched his online radio presence.
Former talk WTAM/1100 afternoon drive producer Marty "Big Daddy" Allen is now doing regular live Internet radio broadcasts at his own website.
The current schedule for the live Internet version of "The Marty Allen Show" is listed as Monday-Wednesday and Fridays at 9 PM (Eastern, of course). It looks like Marty is using the services of popular live video streamer UStream.Based on some of Marty's previously recorded efforts, it's probably not a "G-rated" show...with no FCC guidelines on the Internet and the late evening time slot.
Allen has made no secret of his desire to "strike out on his own" after a long stint as a studio producer/on-air sidekick for WTAM afternoon driver Mike Trivisonno.
We wish him well, but he also faces the same hurdles as "Brian and Joe" - it's not exactly a seller's market when it comes to radio personalities in 2009, even those with recognized names and local broadcast history.
As always, we're rooting for people to overcome the current radio environment, land in new gigs, and prosper.
As of yet, we've heard nothing about the media plans of the other WTAM afternoon drive producer let go in the April Clear Channel purge - Paul Rado. We believe he's been promoting game tournaments for charity in the Cleveland area, and Trivisonno even mentioned that in response to a caller recently.
And that's a hint to displaced Northeast Ohio radio personalities doing new ventures, no matter what.
We're more than happy to give you the publicity and the links.
While much of OMW's readership lies within local media operations, we're also the first place many regular listeners reach when looking for their favorite now-former personalities.
Back in April, we reported extensively about both "Brian and Joe" and Marty Allen's departures from Oak Tree. Those posts get indexed by Google (which owns Blogger, by the way, our blogging platform), and if people do a search for "where is (personality)", it often brings them right to OMW.
Thus, we get E-mail from folks asking us "Whatever happened to Brian and Joe?", "Where's Marty Allen now", etc.
(We believe we still get an E-mail every couple of months asking about the whereabouts of now-split-up now-out-of-Cincinnati country morning radio team "Ken and Kitty".)
We had to find out about both of these new Internet ventures through third parties.
So, add us to your list...it'll help you...
An Unusual Auction Fundraiser
One of the more, well, odd efforts to raise money for a worthy cause is going on this morning on Media-Com talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron".
If you'll forgive us, we're a little, uh, behind in posting this...but without further cheeky comment:
---------------------
Second Annual WNIR 100.1FM Auction
Benefit for Golden Treasures Golden Retriever Rescue
We are auctioning off advertising space on the back of our running shorts in our Akron Marathon 5-person Relay team
The Akron Marathon date? September 26th, 2009
Wednesday September 16th on WNIR 100.1 FM
listen online at WNIR.com
How to win your ad on our rear-ends?
Call 330-673-2323 and place your bid
If you win, make check payable to Golden Treasures Golden Retriever Rescue. Mail to:
WNIR 100.1 FM c/o Maggie
PO BOX 2170
Akron Ohio 44309
7:00-7:30 Keeley McNamara of the Stark YMCA
7:30-8:00 Jenn Abate of Kent State ROTC
8:00-8:30 Cecilia Robart, wife of the Mayor of Cuyahoga Falls
8:30-9:00 Eric Ludwig, WNIR producer
9:00-9:30 Maggie Fuller, WNIR morning show co-host
If you'll forgive us, we're a little, uh, behind in posting this...but without further cheeky comment:
---------------------
Second Annual WNIR 100.1FM Auction
Benefit for Golden Treasures Golden Retriever Rescue
We are auctioning off advertising space on the back of our running shorts in our Akron Marathon 5-person Relay team
The Akron Marathon date? September 26th, 2009
Wednesday September 16th on WNIR 100.1 FM
listen online at WNIR.com
How to win your ad on our rear-ends?
Call 330-673-2323 and place your bid
If you win, make check payable to Golden Treasures Golden Retriever Rescue. Mail to:
WNIR 100.1 FM c/o Maggie
PO BOX 2170
Akron Ohio 44309
7:00-7:30 Keeley McNamara of the Stark YMCA
7:30-8:00 Jenn Abate of Kent State ROTC
8:00-8:30 Cecilia Robart, wife of the Mayor of Cuyahoga Falls
8:30-9:00 Eric Ludwig, WNIR producer
9:00-9:30 Maggie Fuller, WNIR morning show co-host
Monday, September 14, 2009
Out of the Monday Chute
There's a lot going on, and not just a convicted felon/former congressman doing a radio show at 10 this morning on South Avenue...
RIZZO ON ROME? NOT YET: There's been a change of plans in Premiere syndicated sports talk radio host Jim Rome's "Jungle", and the planned fill-in by Good Karma Cleveland sports talker WKNR/850 "ESPN 850" mid-morning host Tony Rizzo later this morning has been postponed - for a few days.
The "Really Big Show" crew of Rizzo, WKNR assistant program director Aaron Goldhammer and show staffer Josh Sabo had been scheduled to substitute hosts on the popular nationally syndicated program from noon to 3 PM today.
But one of our Alert Readers points out this tweet over the weekend from the Twitter account of Rome staffer Jason Stewart:
Jim is in on Monday now. Look for one of the USC guys to join us.
We sent out the OMW Bat Signal to Goldhammer, who now reports that the Rome fill-in is still in the works, but not yet:
Jim's travel plans changed and we are now filling in on September 24th. The show will air at its regular time (today).
That also means WKNR's duo of Greg Brinda and Kenny Roda won't need to fill for Rizzo and company locally this morning at 9 AM, though we presume they'll do so on the revised date of the 24th...
19's F-BOMB: Yes, we heard it.
When you mix overzealous and over-intoxicated football fans at a parking lot tailgate party with a live camera from the local CBS affiliate, you're almost asking for what happened to the folks at Reserve Square on Sunday morning, during the station's "Tailgate 19" pre-football broadcast.
While meteorologist Jeff Tanchak was attempting to give the day's weather forecast for the Cleveland Browns/Minnesota Vikings contest to be held at Cleveland Browns Stadium, one of the over-amped fans surrounding him at the Cleveland Municipal Parking Lot ("Muni Lot") couldn't help but shout that he was feeling "(bleeping)" fine.
The "F-bomb" (without our bleep) made it clearly to the airwaves, momentarily flustering Tanchak...but only for a bit, as he moved on as a broadcast professional, not making too much of the language that could well cause the station trouble with federal regulators.
We don't know what the FCC's current policy is on so-called "fleeting expletives". Not all that long ago, such language by rock stars and movie stars on TV awards shows got TV networks into major hot water.
As much as we poke fun at the Reserve Square folks, we feel a little sorry for them. It's no fun to have someone drop something like this upon you, without warning.
And at least this time around, the "edgy" content was not supplied on purpose by station employees, promoted to the heavens, prompting a nationwide debate on just how many items of clothing an attractive female anchor should wear in front of her own station's cameras.
(Sorry, Sharon, we couldn't resist.)
But if there is FCC trouble to come out of this "fleeting expletive", assuming the feds still watch out for such things, WOIO bears at least some responsibility for just BEING THERE at the fan-filled Muni Lot, with no apparent broadcast delay to catch stuff like this.
We're surprised some of these Muni Lot denizens, who start camping out - and drinking - early in the morning, haven't dropped nasty language in front of live TV microphones before.
Though on FCC issues...maybe WOIO can argue that its over-air digital RF channel 10 (19.1) signal is so anemic, it is basically the local equivalent of a cable/satellite channel...
MORE ON JIMBO: As we noted up top, later this morning, former Mahoning Valley congressman and recently released federal prisoner Jim Traficant makes a guest host appearance on Clear Channel talk WKBN/570 Youngstown's "Dan Rivers Show" today...10 AM to noon.
There's actually a radio reason for the fill-in, aside from putting Traficant's voice back on the radio to warm up for a potential regular talk radio stint, and garnering significant Traficant-related media attention for WKBN.
Rivers won't be in the studio with Traficant today. On-air promos say he's doing his show live from Washington DC Tuesday and Wednesday for an immigration-related national talk radio event ("50 hosts from 50 states", says the promo). Today is a "travel day" for Rivers, who is also WKBN's program director and CC Youngstown's operations director.
One other clarification: Since Jim Traficant ruled the roost as the congressional representative for the entire Mahoning Valley, things have changed in and around Youngstown...congressional seat-wise.
The 17th congressional district in Ohio, which used to fit the Mahoning Valley like a glove, now stretches west into parts of the Akron area, including all of Portage County and eastern chunks of Summit County. Since the Youngstown TV market still dominates the 17th - Akron not having its own TV market - former Traficant aide Tim Ryan slid into that seat with little difficulty.
Southern parts of the Youngstown media market, including southern Mahoning County and Columbiana County, got added to a newly-expanded 6th district from southeast Ohio, where the current incumbent is Charlie Wilson.
If we understand the rules right, if he decides to run, Traficant can choose either district for his try... or for that matter, he can run in any Ohio congressional district, no matter where he resides in the state. (Ohio law apparently prohibits him for running for state office, but federal law won't prohibit him from running for Congress again.)
We assume he'd run in his natural media base in one of these two Mahoning Valley-linked districts, and if he does run, even semi-regular hosting appearances on WKBN before he announces - and as a "newsmaker" guest after an annoucement - would help him to some degree...
LOCAL EMMYS: Briefly, here's the link to a list of local Emmy Awards winners from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Lower Great Lakes Chapter's presentation over the weekend.
If you don't recognize some of the call letters, remember that the local chapter's presence stretches all the way to Indianapolis, home of stations like WTHR, WISH and WFYI...in some cases competing directly with Cleveland market stations for awards.
And yes, "Radio Daze: Cleveland's FM Air Wars", produced by Harvard 131 Films and aired by Kent-based public TV outlet Western Reserve PBS (WNEO/45 Alliance-WEAO/49 Akron), won for Best Nostalgia Program.
It was based on the book by OMW reader Mike Olszewski, credited as writer/producer on the TV program, who tells us:
The real kudos go to (producers) Tom (Cummings) and Dave (Rogant). The story was good, but the presentation really sold it.
THE EXTENDED AKRON ZIPS ISP SPORTS NETWORK: One of our readers points out that for about 20 minutes before college football kickoff on Saturday, the Akron Zips ISP Sports Network accidentally gained a station...and the Kent State Golden Flashes ISP Sports Network lost its only station.
We're told that from about 1 PM to 1:20 PM on Saturday, the Akron Zips' pre-game show feed was also airing on Media-Com talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron", with Akron Sports Radio Icon/Superstar/Occasional OMW Reader Steve French being heard on the station which employs him (separately) as morning sports anchor.
That, of course, would also mean that for the first 20 minutes, the pre-game show for the Kent State contest with Boston College was being heard by...only the people in the radio booth, and at ISP headquarters in Winston-Salem NC, as the one-station "Kent State ISP Sports Network" consists only of WNIR.
Things were apparently fixed 20 minutes later. Both games kicked off later, at 2 PM.
We turned to OMW reader Keith Kennedy, operations director for Zips flagship Clear Channel sports WARF/1350 "Fox Sports 1350" Akron, and FM flagship WRQK/106.9 "Rock 106.9" Canton, for a bit of a "behind the scenes" technical explanation:
Each of ISP's affiliate stations are assigned a unique hotline number to the studios in Winston-Salem, and we've been able to correct any issues within a matter of seconds by calling the master control room.
ISP runs a top notch operation, and (they) are responsive to tech issues. We always test connections with ISP 60 minutes prior to airtime...that's just what responsible and smart broadcasters do.
Make no mistake, Zips Football airs only on WRQK 106.9fm and Fox Sports 1350 WARF.
It's an interesting glitch, considering that "The Voice of the Zips" Steve French is well familiar to WNIR listeners due to his "day job" on the station's own morning drive show.
Kennedy tells us that the ISP networks feed a specifically-voiced 30 minute pre-broadcast off-air countdown for affiliates, making it quite clear which game is being sent down the satellite even before the broadcast starts. He says there would be "no reason" for whomever was running the board at WNIR to air the Akron network pre-game show for 20 minutes, on a day that the Zips were proudly unveiling their shiny, new on-campus stadium.
North Carolina-based ISP does all of the actual tech production for both the Akron and Kent State networks, along with dozens of other college sports radio networks across the country...
RIZZO ON ROME? NOT YET: There's been a change of plans in Premiere syndicated sports talk radio host Jim Rome's "Jungle", and the planned fill-in by Good Karma Cleveland sports talker WKNR/850 "ESPN 850" mid-morning host Tony Rizzo later this morning has been postponed - for a few days.
The "Really Big Show" crew of Rizzo, WKNR assistant program director Aaron Goldhammer and show staffer Josh Sabo had been scheduled to substitute hosts on the popular nationally syndicated program from noon to 3 PM today.
But one of our Alert Readers points out this tweet over the weekend from the Twitter account of Rome staffer Jason Stewart:
Jim is in on Monday now. Look for one of the USC guys to join us.
We sent out the OMW Bat Signal to Goldhammer, who now reports that the Rome fill-in is still in the works, but not yet:
Jim's travel plans changed and we are now filling in on September 24th. The show will air at its regular time (today).
That also means WKNR's duo of Greg Brinda and Kenny Roda won't need to fill for Rizzo and company locally this morning at 9 AM, though we presume they'll do so on the revised date of the 24th...
19's F-BOMB: Yes, we heard it.
When you mix overzealous and over-intoxicated football fans at a parking lot tailgate party with a live camera from the local CBS affiliate, you're almost asking for what happened to the folks at Reserve Square on Sunday morning, during the station's "Tailgate 19" pre-football broadcast.
While meteorologist Jeff Tanchak was attempting to give the day's weather forecast for the Cleveland Browns/Minnesota Vikings contest to be held at Cleveland Browns Stadium, one of the over-amped fans surrounding him at the Cleveland Municipal Parking Lot ("Muni Lot") couldn't help but shout that he was feeling "(bleeping)" fine.
The "F-bomb" (without our bleep) made it clearly to the airwaves, momentarily flustering Tanchak...but only for a bit, as he moved on as a broadcast professional, not making too much of the language that could well cause the station trouble with federal regulators.
We don't know what the FCC's current policy is on so-called "fleeting expletives". Not all that long ago, such language by rock stars and movie stars on TV awards shows got TV networks into major hot water.
As much as we poke fun at the Reserve Square folks, we feel a little sorry for them. It's no fun to have someone drop something like this upon you, without warning.
And at least this time around, the "edgy" content was not supplied on purpose by station employees, promoted to the heavens, prompting a nationwide debate on just how many items of clothing an attractive female anchor should wear in front of her own station's cameras.
(Sorry, Sharon, we couldn't resist.)
But if there is FCC trouble to come out of this "fleeting expletive", assuming the feds still watch out for such things, WOIO bears at least some responsibility for just BEING THERE at the fan-filled Muni Lot, with no apparent broadcast delay to catch stuff like this.
We're surprised some of these Muni Lot denizens, who start camping out - and drinking - early in the morning, haven't dropped nasty language in front of live TV microphones before.
Though on FCC issues...maybe WOIO can argue that its over-air digital RF channel 10 (19.1) signal is so anemic, it is basically the local equivalent of a cable/satellite channel...
MORE ON JIMBO: As we noted up top, later this morning, former Mahoning Valley congressman and recently released federal prisoner Jim Traficant makes a guest host appearance on Clear Channel talk WKBN/570 Youngstown's "Dan Rivers Show" today...10 AM to noon.
There's actually a radio reason for the fill-in, aside from putting Traficant's voice back on the radio to warm up for a potential regular talk radio stint, and garnering significant Traficant-related media attention for WKBN.
Rivers won't be in the studio with Traficant today. On-air promos say he's doing his show live from Washington DC Tuesday and Wednesday for an immigration-related national talk radio event ("50 hosts from 50 states", says the promo). Today is a "travel day" for Rivers, who is also WKBN's program director and CC Youngstown's operations director.
One other clarification: Since Jim Traficant ruled the roost as the congressional representative for the entire Mahoning Valley, things have changed in and around Youngstown...congressional seat-wise.
The 17th congressional district in Ohio, which used to fit the Mahoning Valley like a glove, now stretches west into parts of the Akron area, including all of Portage County and eastern chunks of Summit County. Since the Youngstown TV market still dominates the 17th - Akron not having its own TV market - former Traficant aide Tim Ryan slid into that seat with little difficulty.
Southern parts of the Youngstown media market, including southern Mahoning County and Columbiana County, got added to a newly-expanded 6th district from southeast Ohio, where the current incumbent is Charlie Wilson.
If we understand the rules right, if he decides to run, Traficant can choose either district for his try... or for that matter, he can run in any Ohio congressional district, no matter where he resides in the state. (Ohio law apparently prohibits him for running for state office, but federal law won't prohibit him from running for Congress again.)
We assume he'd run in his natural media base in one of these two Mahoning Valley-linked districts, and if he does run, even semi-regular hosting appearances on WKBN before he announces - and as a "newsmaker" guest after an annoucement - would help him to some degree...
LOCAL EMMYS: Briefly, here's the link to a list of local Emmy Awards winners from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Lower Great Lakes Chapter's presentation over the weekend.
If you don't recognize some of the call letters, remember that the local chapter's presence stretches all the way to Indianapolis, home of stations like WTHR, WISH and WFYI...in some cases competing directly with Cleveland market stations for awards.
And yes, "Radio Daze: Cleveland's FM Air Wars", produced by Harvard 131 Films and aired by Kent-based public TV outlet Western Reserve PBS (WNEO/45 Alliance-WEAO/49 Akron), won for Best Nostalgia Program.
It was based on the book by OMW reader Mike Olszewski, credited as writer/producer on the TV program, who tells us:
The real kudos go to (producers) Tom (Cummings) and Dave (Rogant). The story was good, but the presentation really sold it.
THE EXTENDED AKRON ZIPS ISP SPORTS NETWORK: One of our readers points out that for about 20 minutes before college football kickoff on Saturday, the Akron Zips ISP Sports Network accidentally gained a station...and the Kent State Golden Flashes ISP Sports Network lost its only station.
We're told that from about 1 PM to 1:20 PM on Saturday, the Akron Zips' pre-game show feed was also airing on Media-Com talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron", with Akron Sports Radio Icon/Superstar/Occasional OMW Reader Steve French being heard on the station which employs him (separately) as morning sports anchor.
That, of course, would also mean that for the first 20 minutes, the pre-game show for the Kent State contest with Boston College was being heard by...only the people in the radio booth, and at ISP headquarters in Winston-Salem NC, as the one-station "Kent State ISP Sports Network" consists only of WNIR.
Things were apparently fixed 20 minutes later. Both games kicked off later, at 2 PM.
We turned to OMW reader Keith Kennedy, operations director for Zips flagship Clear Channel sports WARF/1350 "Fox Sports 1350" Akron, and FM flagship WRQK/106.9 "Rock 106.9" Canton, for a bit of a "behind the scenes" technical explanation:
Each of ISP's affiliate stations are assigned a unique hotline number to the studios in Winston-Salem, and we've been able to correct any issues within a matter of seconds by calling the master control room.
ISP runs a top notch operation, and (they) are responsive to tech issues. We always test connections with ISP 60 minutes prior to airtime...that's just what responsible and smart broadcasters do.
Make no mistake, Zips Football airs only on WRQK 106.9fm and Fox Sports 1350 WARF.
It's an interesting glitch, considering that "The Voice of the Zips" Steve French is well familiar to WNIR listeners due to his "day job" on the station's own morning drive show.
Kennedy tells us that the ISP networks feed a specifically-voiced 30 minute pre-broadcast off-air countdown for affiliates, making it quite clear which game is being sent down the satellite even before the broadcast starts. He says there would be "no reason" for whomever was running the board at WNIR to air the Akron network pre-game show for 20 minutes, on a day that the Zips were proudly unveiling their shiny, new on-campus stadium.
North Carolina-based ISP does all of the actual tech production for both the Akron and Kent State networks, along with dozens of other college sports radio networks across the country...
Friday, September 11, 2009
The Week That Won't End
Local media news keeps coming out this week. We believe a boisterous former Northeast Ohio congressman is first in line...
JIMBO RADIO: As just about anyone who can pronounce the name "Jim Traficant" expected, the former Mahoning Valley congressman is about to open up the microphone as a host on Youngstown's biggest talk station.
But for now, at least, Traficant - fresh off a federal prison stint - won't be hosting his OWN show on Clear Channel talk WKBN/570.
Tbe Youngstown Business Journal and Youngstown Vindicator report that on Monday, the former lawmaker will "guest host" the 10 AM-noon show normally occupied by WKBN program director/CC Youngstown operations director Dan Rivers.
Andrea Wood's Business Journal was first to report this on Thursday afternoon, after the station had apparently promoted it "frequently" on-air. (We caught a small chunk of 'KBN afternoon driver Ron Verb on Thursday, but didn't hear it mentioned in about 10 minutes of listening.) Andrea also gave us first word yesterday. The Business Journal talked to Rivers:
"He's hosted the show a number of times in the past. He's pretty capable," Rivers said.
The Vindicator writes, also noting the ex-con/ex-congressman's talk radio hosting experience:
Traficant will also be back in the radio talk show host chair from 10 a.m. to noon Monday on WKBN, 570 AM.
Traficant is filling in for Dan Rivers, who is also the station’s operations manager and will be in Washington, D.C., early next week.
Rivers said he contacted Traficant requesting he fill in, and the former congressman agreed.
While under indictment, Traficant hosted the station’s morning show from May 29 to June 1, 2001. He was also a guest host on WKBN in late December 2000.
Our take? Traficant loves a stage, and isn't content to sit in the second chair when another host asks him questions. He wants to talk, and he considers (our guess) the WKBN microphone the closest thing he has to directly addressing the Mahoning Valley unfiltered for two hours.
(Our apologies if we'd listed Rivers' time slot as 9-noon before. We'd forgotten that morning drive host Robert Mangino's show ends at 10.)
But will Monday's fill-in lead to a regular on-air gig? (Yes, we can hear CC Youngstown market manager and OMW reader Bill Kelly - "stay tuned!")
From the Vindicator article, which recounts Traficant's Thursday evening appearance on Fox News Channel's "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren":
Ex-U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. told Fox News host Greta Van Susteren that his chances of running for Congress again are “50-50.”
“I have a lot of people who are encouraging me to run because there are a lot of disenfranchised people here,” Traficant said in an interview recorded Wednesday that aired on Thursday’s “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” on Fox News.
Traficant said that his old district is “fractured” and that he needed to find out if he was a viable candidate who could gain the support needed to return to Washington, D.C.
He also has the Tim Ryan Problem, should Traficant decide to run.
The current incumbent Valley congressman has made it a point of making sure people know, says the Business Journal's Andrea Wood, that he's the "man in charge now", with frequent appearances next to national power brokers. (And it doesn't hurt Ryan that he'll likely be alongside President Obama at the president's reported visit to the GM Lordstown plant next week.)
To us, it sounds like Traficant will look into a return to politics first, and perhaps fall back into talk radio if he decides not to run again. Or, continue to dabble in talk radio while the decision is being made.
There is a certain diehard sector in the Youngstown area that would vote for Traficant if he harmed baby seals live on stage. If we remember right, he got something on the order of 15 percent of the vote running for his old seat after he went behind bars.
But this exchange with Van Susteren, reprinted in the Vindicator article, may indicate problems with his broader appeal these days...at least in a future run for office:
The embattled former congressman spoke extensively on the relationship between the U.S. and Israel.
He said that the U.S. is furthering the “expansionist policy” of Israel in the Middle East.
“I believe Israel has a powerful stranglehold on the American government,” Traficant said. “They own the Congress.”
When asked by Van Susteren if he was an anti-Semite, Traficant said he was not, adding, “What I am is an American."
The Business Journal's Wood tells us that such talk may be a problem for Traficant not just at the ballot box:
"WKBN Radio will try to milk Traficant all it can, but will advertisers want to sponsor his rants? Some will; lots will not."
Jim Traficant doesn't need the money, so it won't be financial issues driving him to do a radio talk show if he doesn't run for Congress. He has his Congressional pension, which has driven some to say that ex-felon former congress members should be stripped of that pension. And he has other retirement money.
But if he doesn't run for office, Jim Traficant's ego may well nudge him towards South Avenue...
THE REALLY, REALLY BIG SHOW: Not content to stay local, Good Karma sports WKNR/850 "ESPN 850"'s "Really Big Show with Tony Rizzo" will inflict itself not just on Northeast Ohio, but upon the nation on Monday.
OK, so we're kidding about the "inflict" part. Maybe.
But WKNR assistant program director/"RBS" producer/sidekick Aaron Goldhammer passes along word that the show's normal audience will get a LOT bigger than Cleveland on Monday. Well, for one day, at least:
On September 14th, in the aftermath of one of the biggest football weekends in Cleveland's sports history, “The Really Big Show” will take over “The Jungle.” Tony Rizzo, Aaron Goldhammer, and Josh Sabo will fill in for Jim Rome on his nationally syndicated radio show from noon-3pm, live from Cleveland on ESPN 850 WKNR.
Rizzo's appearance in “The Jungle” marks only the third time in show history that a local affiliate host has subbed for Rome.
We already noted here the love expressed by the Premiere syndicated host for his Cleveland affiliate, which has aired the program for 12 years straight and was one of "The Jungle"'s first large market affiliates in a big sports town.
Back on the WKNR airwaves, station veterans Greg Brinda and Kenny Roda will hold down the regular "Really Big Show" 9 AM-noon time slot on Monday...
EMMY TOMORROW: The 40th annual area Emmy Awards take place Saturday evening at the InterContinental Hotel on Carnegie Avenue in Cleveland.
The 40th anniversary event will bring a number of big local media names to the stage as presenters. Among them: Del Donahoo, Neil Zurcher, Fred Griffith, Virgil Dominic, Martin Savidge and Chuck Schodowski.
One nominee is a TV show we've written about before: "Radio Daze: Cleveland's FM Air Wars", which aired on Western Reserve PBS (WNEO/45-WEAO/49) and was written by long-time Cleveland air personality Mike Oleszewski - based on his book of the same name.
We're told you can still snag tickets this Friday - $80 per person. You can get them by logging onto the NATAS Lower Great Lakes web site (www.nataslgl.org) or by calling the chapter office at (440) 546-3669...
JIMBO RADIO: As just about anyone who can pronounce the name "Jim Traficant" expected, the former Mahoning Valley congressman is about to open up the microphone as a host on Youngstown's biggest talk station.
But for now, at least, Traficant - fresh off a federal prison stint - won't be hosting his OWN show on Clear Channel talk WKBN/570.
Tbe Youngstown Business Journal and Youngstown Vindicator report that on Monday, the former lawmaker will "guest host" the 10 AM-noon show normally occupied by WKBN program director/CC Youngstown operations director Dan Rivers.
Andrea Wood's Business Journal was first to report this on Thursday afternoon, after the station had apparently promoted it "frequently" on-air. (We caught a small chunk of 'KBN afternoon driver Ron Verb on Thursday, but didn't hear it mentioned in about 10 minutes of listening.) Andrea also gave us first word yesterday. The Business Journal talked to Rivers:
"He's hosted the show a number of times in the past. He's pretty capable," Rivers said.
The Vindicator writes, also noting the ex-con/ex-congressman's talk radio hosting experience:
Traficant will also be back in the radio talk show host chair from 10 a.m. to noon Monday on WKBN, 570 AM.
Traficant is filling in for Dan Rivers, who is also the station’s operations manager and will be in Washington, D.C., early next week.
Rivers said he contacted Traficant requesting he fill in, and the former congressman agreed.
While under indictment, Traficant hosted the station’s morning show from May 29 to June 1, 2001. He was also a guest host on WKBN in late December 2000.
Our take? Traficant loves a stage, and isn't content to sit in the second chair when another host asks him questions. He wants to talk, and he considers (our guess) the WKBN microphone the closest thing he has to directly addressing the Mahoning Valley unfiltered for two hours.
(Our apologies if we'd listed Rivers' time slot as 9-noon before. We'd forgotten that morning drive host Robert Mangino's show ends at 10.)
But will Monday's fill-in lead to a regular on-air gig? (Yes, we can hear CC Youngstown market manager and OMW reader Bill Kelly - "stay tuned!")
From the Vindicator article, which recounts Traficant's Thursday evening appearance on Fox News Channel's "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren":
Ex-U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. told Fox News host Greta Van Susteren that his chances of running for Congress again are “50-50.”
“I have a lot of people who are encouraging me to run because there are a lot of disenfranchised people here,” Traficant said in an interview recorded Wednesday that aired on Thursday’s “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” on Fox News.
Traficant said that his old district is “fractured” and that he needed to find out if he was a viable candidate who could gain the support needed to return to Washington, D.C.
He also has the Tim Ryan Problem, should Traficant decide to run.
The current incumbent Valley congressman has made it a point of making sure people know, says the Business Journal's Andrea Wood, that he's the "man in charge now", with frequent appearances next to national power brokers. (And it doesn't hurt Ryan that he'll likely be alongside President Obama at the president's reported visit to the GM Lordstown plant next week.)
To us, it sounds like Traficant will look into a return to politics first, and perhaps fall back into talk radio if he decides not to run again. Or, continue to dabble in talk radio while the decision is being made.
There is a certain diehard sector in the Youngstown area that would vote for Traficant if he harmed baby seals live on stage. If we remember right, he got something on the order of 15 percent of the vote running for his old seat after he went behind bars.
But this exchange with Van Susteren, reprinted in the Vindicator article, may indicate problems with his broader appeal these days...at least in a future run for office:
The embattled former congressman spoke extensively on the relationship between the U.S. and Israel.
He said that the U.S. is furthering the “expansionist policy” of Israel in the Middle East.
“I believe Israel has a powerful stranglehold on the American government,” Traficant said. “They own the Congress.”
When asked by Van Susteren if he was an anti-Semite, Traficant said he was not, adding, “What I am is an American."
The Business Journal's Wood tells us that such talk may be a problem for Traficant not just at the ballot box:
"WKBN Radio will try to milk Traficant all it can, but will advertisers want to sponsor his rants? Some will; lots will not."
Jim Traficant doesn't need the money, so it won't be financial issues driving him to do a radio talk show if he doesn't run for Congress. He has his Congressional pension, which has driven some to say that ex-felon former congress members should be stripped of that pension. And he has other retirement money.
But if he doesn't run for office, Jim Traficant's ego may well nudge him towards South Avenue...
THE REALLY, REALLY BIG SHOW: Not content to stay local, Good Karma sports WKNR/850 "ESPN 850"'s "Really Big Show with Tony Rizzo" will inflict itself not just on Northeast Ohio, but upon the nation on Monday.
OK, so we're kidding about the "inflict" part. Maybe.
But WKNR assistant program director/"RBS" producer/sidekick Aaron Goldhammer passes along word that the show's normal audience will get a LOT bigger than Cleveland on Monday. Well, for one day, at least:
On September 14th, in the aftermath of one of the biggest football weekends in Cleveland's sports history, “The Really Big Show” will take over “The Jungle.” Tony Rizzo, Aaron Goldhammer, and Josh Sabo will fill in for Jim Rome on his nationally syndicated radio show from noon-3pm, live from Cleveland on ESPN 850 WKNR.
Rizzo's appearance in “The Jungle” marks only the third time in show history that a local affiliate host has subbed for Rome.
We already noted here the love expressed by the Premiere syndicated host for his Cleveland affiliate, which has aired the program for 12 years straight and was one of "The Jungle"'s first large market affiliates in a big sports town.
Back on the WKNR airwaves, station veterans Greg Brinda and Kenny Roda will hold down the regular "Really Big Show" 9 AM-noon time slot on Monday...
EMMY TOMORROW: The 40th annual area Emmy Awards take place Saturday evening at the InterContinental Hotel on Carnegie Avenue in Cleveland.
The 40th anniversary event will bring a number of big local media names to the stage as presenters. Among them: Del Donahoo, Neil Zurcher, Fred Griffith, Virgil Dominic, Martin Savidge and Chuck Schodowski.
One nominee is a TV show we've written about before: "Radio Daze: Cleveland's FM Air Wars", which aired on Western Reserve PBS (WNEO/45-WEAO/49) and was written by long-time Cleveland air personality Mike Oleszewski - based on his book of the same name.
We're told you can still snag tickets this Friday - $80 per person. You can get them by logging onto the NATAS Lower Great Lakes web site (www.nataslgl.org) or by calling the chapter office at (440) 546-3669...
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Thursday's Stack
Here's how Thursday is stacking up so far...
RADIO ONE NAMES CLEVELAND OM: Cleveland's Radio One cluster has named its replacement for former operations manager/program director Kim Johnson.
A Radio One E-mail news release obtained by OMW makes the announcement:
Colby Colb will return to Radio One. Colby will act as OM for all Radio One Cleveland stations, and PD for WENZ and WZAK, starting in October. Colby previously worked as an on-air personality and Program Director at Radio One Philadelphia's 100.3 The Beat.
And there are the appropriate "welcome aboard" quotes, first from Radio One senior VP/programming Jay Stevens:
"I welcome Colby back to the Radio One family and am confident he will energize and take our Cleveland cluster to new heights and help the Cavs win a championship."
(We're pretty sure Colby won't be moonlighting next to LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal this fall, but that's just a guess.)
And from Radio One Cleveland VP/GM Chris Forgy:
"We are delighted to have Colby Colb join the Cleveland team. Colby's vast experience in programming, promotions, interactive as well as his leadership skills make him a perfect fit for our cluster. Colby is a radio rat and that's a good thing. Our properties are already #1 in the market and we are looking forward to having Colby be an integral part of not only being number one, but also being THE BEST!"
Here at the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), we like that "radio rat" line...
IT'S BIGGER: In a move announced some time ago, Good Karma sports WKNR/850 "ESPN 850"'s mid-morning show is now three hours long.
WKNR host/WJW "Fox 8" sports anchor Tony Rizzo and his "Really Big Show" crew now occupy three hours of WKNR's radio real estate - 9 AM-noon - in a move that took effect on Tuesday.
And our speculation from earlier was confirmed - the fourth hour of ESPN Radio's "Mike and Mike in the Morning" does indeed move to WKNR sister station WWGK/1540 "KNR2", 9-10 AM weekdays. (Of course, the first three hours are still on WKNR.)
The change on 1540 appears to have knocked syndicated host Dan Patrick off of the station's schedule. Patrick was basically an "accidental" addition to the WWGK schedule when Fox Sports Radio added his Content Factory show to its national schedule.
1540 had not carried the show in its syndicated incarnation, and had been carrying FSR's "Out of Bounds" in that one hour time slot. The station continues to carry FSR's "The Drive" with Chris Myers in afternoon drive, and the Steve Czaban in morning drive, along with other programming from the network.
WWGK continues with ESPN Radio in middays after the new "Mike and Mike" hour, airing "The Herd with Colin Cowherd" and "The Scott Van Pelt Show". We suspect the presence of former ESPN host Patrick next to other network shows made the Worldwide Leader a bit uncomfortable, but we also suspect the greater issue is keeping some sort of clearance for hour 4 of "Mike and Mike".
Back at the Good Karma Cleveland mothership at the Galleria, a quote from the release announcing the expansion:
When asked for his reaction, Rizzo was surprisingly bitter. “Working an extra hour is enough,” Rizz said. “Just leave me alone.”
Note to WKNR assistant program director/"Really Big Show" producer-sidekick Aaron Goldhammer, who was nice enough to pass this along - show schtick generally falls flat in print.
A thought crossed our minds...
As Rizzo expands his schedule an hour north, to 9 AM, his television employer has expanded its morning show south, into the same hour.
Is there a "synergy" possibility there? Could WJW put a camera in the WKNR studio, and somehow squeeze some more face time out of its weekday sports anchor by airing segments with him on "Fox 8 News in the Morning" - doing some cross-promotion for both stations?
It's just a thought/quasi-suggestion on our part. We have no indication that anyone is thinking about it, other than your Primary Editorial Voice(tm). We don't know if any of the involved parties want to do it...but it's an interesting idea...
MORE TALK: OMW was first to report, thanks to alert readers, that a Youngstown area FM music station added a syndicated conservative talk radio show to its schedule.
But the addition of Premiere's Glenn Beck to the schedule of Beacon Media Group Christian/eclectic rock WEXC/107.1 "Indie 107.1" is just the first such change for the Greenville PA-licensed Youngstown market rimshot.
OMW hears that "Indie 107.1" is getting set to add another Premiere syndicated talk host to its schedule.
That host is Minnesota-based Jason Lewis, who airs live 6-9 PM on a program recently taken national by the company out of Clear Channel talk KTLK-FM/100.3 in the Minneapolis/St. Paul market. Lewis was also a frequent substitute for Premiere's biggest talk radio gun, Rush Limbaugh.
OMW hears that "Indie" will air Lewis' show on a three hour delay, from 9 PM to midnight, as soon as all the technical (automation) issues are worked out.
Premiere is the radio syndication arm of broadcasting giant Clear Channel, which, of course, owns talk WKBN/570. But WKBN does not air Glenn Beck - it goes with a local midday show by program director Dan Rivers in a time slot formerly occupied by late, iconic host Dan Ryan.
Lewis' program is new, and has not been added to the WKBN schedule at all.
Thus, WEXC was able to grab Youngstown market rights for both shows.
Now, why is a young-skewing Christian/mix rocker adding AM-style talk radio to its schedule? That, we don't know. We've put out the question to "Indie"'s program director/morning host, and we'll share his answer when we get it...
RADIO ONE NAMES CLEVELAND OM: Cleveland's Radio One cluster has named its replacement for former operations manager/program director Kim Johnson.
A Radio One E-mail news release obtained by OMW makes the announcement:
Colby Colb will return to Radio One. Colby will act as OM for all Radio One Cleveland stations, and PD for WENZ and WZAK, starting in October. Colby previously worked as an on-air personality and Program Director at Radio One Philadelphia's 100.3 The Beat. And there are the appropriate "welcome aboard" quotes, first from Radio One senior VP/programming Jay Stevens:
"I welcome Colby back to the Radio One family and am confident he will energize and take our Cleveland cluster to new heights and help the Cavs win a championship."
(We're pretty sure Colby won't be moonlighting next to LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal this fall, but that's just a guess.)
And from Radio One Cleveland VP/GM Chris Forgy:
"We are delighted to have Colby Colb join the Cleveland team. Colby's vast experience in programming, promotions, interactive as well as his leadership skills make him a perfect fit for our cluster. Colby is a radio rat and that's a good thing. Our properties are already #1 in the market and we are looking forward to having Colby be an integral part of not only being number one, but also being THE BEST!"
Here at the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), we like that "radio rat" line...
IT'S BIGGER: In a move announced some time ago, Good Karma sports WKNR/850 "ESPN 850"'s mid-morning show is now three hours long.
WKNR host/WJW "Fox 8" sports anchor Tony Rizzo and his "Really Big Show" crew now occupy three hours of WKNR's radio real estate - 9 AM-noon - in a move that took effect on Tuesday.
And our speculation from earlier was confirmed - the fourth hour of ESPN Radio's "Mike and Mike in the Morning" does indeed move to WKNR sister station WWGK/1540 "KNR2", 9-10 AM weekdays. (Of course, the first three hours are still on WKNR.)
The change on 1540 appears to have knocked syndicated host Dan Patrick off of the station's schedule. Patrick was basically an "accidental" addition to the WWGK schedule when Fox Sports Radio added his Content Factory show to its national schedule.
1540 had not carried the show in its syndicated incarnation, and had been carrying FSR's "Out of Bounds" in that one hour time slot. The station continues to carry FSR's "The Drive" with Chris Myers in afternoon drive, and the Steve Czaban in morning drive, along with other programming from the network.
WWGK continues with ESPN Radio in middays after the new "Mike and Mike" hour, airing "The Herd with Colin Cowherd" and "The Scott Van Pelt Show". We suspect the presence of former ESPN host Patrick next to other network shows made the Worldwide Leader a bit uncomfortable, but we also suspect the greater issue is keeping some sort of clearance for hour 4 of "Mike and Mike".
Back at the Good Karma Cleveland mothership at the Galleria, a quote from the release announcing the expansion:
When asked for his reaction, Rizzo was surprisingly bitter. “Working an extra hour is enough,” Rizz said. “Just leave me alone.”
Note to WKNR assistant program director/"Really Big Show" producer-sidekick Aaron Goldhammer, who was nice enough to pass this along - show schtick generally falls flat in print.
A thought crossed our minds...
As Rizzo expands his schedule an hour north, to 9 AM, his television employer has expanded its morning show south, into the same hour.
Is there a "synergy" possibility there? Could WJW put a camera in the WKNR studio, and somehow squeeze some more face time out of its weekday sports anchor by airing segments with him on "Fox 8 News in the Morning" - doing some cross-promotion for both stations?
It's just a thought/quasi-suggestion on our part. We have no indication that anyone is thinking about it, other than your Primary Editorial Voice(tm). We don't know if any of the involved parties want to do it...but it's an interesting idea...
MORE TALK: OMW was first to report, thanks to alert readers, that a Youngstown area FM music station added a syndicated conservative talk radio show to its schedule.
But the addition of Premiere's Glenn Beck to the schedule of Beacon Media Group Christian/eclectic rock WEXC/107.1 "Indie 107.1" is just the first such change for the Greenville PA-licensed Youngstown market rimshot.
OMW hears that "Indie 107.1" is getting set to add another Premiere syndicated talk host to its schedule.
That host is Minnesota-based Jason Lewis, who airs live 6-9 PM on a program recently taken national by the company out of Clear Channel talk KTLK-FM/100.3 in the Minneapolis/St. Paul market. Lewis was also a frequent substitute for Premiere's biggest talk radio gun, Rush Limbaugh.
OMW hears that "Indie" will air Lewis' show on a three hour delay, from 9 PM to midnight, as soon as all the technical (automation) issues are worked out.
Premiere is the radio syndication arm of broadcasting giant Clear Channel, which, of course, owns talk WKBN/570. But WKBN does not air Glenn Beck - it goes with a local midday show by program director Dan Rivers in a time slot formerly occupied by late, iconic host Dan Ryan.
Lewis' program is new, and has not been added to the WKBN schedule at all.
Thus, WEXC was able to grab Youngstown market rights for both shows.
Now, why is a young-skewing Christian/mix rocker adding AM-style talk radio to its schedule? That, we don't know. We've put out the question to "Indie"'s program director/morning host, and we'll share his answer when we get it...
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Ex-Cleveland GM Leaving Norfolk
We got word that a former Cleveland television general manager has left his current gig in Virginia.
But we didn't remember what Bill Scaffide did here until we did a quick Google search on his name, and found this YouTube video from WKYC:
Yes, that's then-WKYC general manager Bill Scaffide circa 1994, urging viewers to call the WKYC Talkback line with their comments, input and suggestions about Channel 3 News.
More Google searching tells us that Scaffide was earlier general manager of WUAB/43, and was replaced there by long-time local broadcasting executive Brooke Spectorsky. (Anyone who keeps better track of such history can let us know if we got any of this wrong.)
Anyway, Scaffide has been general manager of Norfolk market MyNetwork TV affiliate WTVZ/33.
The Virginia-Pilot newspaper reports that in an "amicable" split with the TV station, Scaffide has already headed south, geographically:
Scaffide planned to leave Saturday for West Palm Beach, Fla., where he bought a house last year. "I'm done with the 9-to-5, five-days-a-week," he said, but he may consider consulting work. "My first official duty is to buy a golf cart next week."
Our WKYC "Director's Cut" blog colleague Frank Macek notes Scaffide's move here, and has more videos featuring Scaffide here. Quoting Frank:
Bill was proud of making that station profitable during his 3 year tenure. We have lots of memories of Bill doing the same thing at WKYC and Multimedia when deep staff cuts were made after the station was acquired by NBC.
Ouch...so much for that "we're building our station around you" slogan heard on the video.
It was an interesting time for Cleveland TV in the mid-1990s. Not that much later from the airing of this promo, the TV network landscape shook.
Storer sold long-time CBS affiliate WJW/8 to Gillette, which sold WJW and the other ex-Storer stations to New World Communications. That triggered a national deal between New World and upstart Fox Broadcasting, which flipped WJW to a Fox affiliation...and the network itself ended up owning WJW until very recently.
Up until that point, WJW had been the long-time news powerhouse in Cleveland, and "NewsCenter 8" was the news standard locally.
Though WJW actually beefed up its news presence after changing from CBS to Fox, the latter network had no national news tradition...and viewers started sampling WKYC, and perennial second-place ABC affiliate WEWS/5's news offerings.
Eventually, WKYC would actually start winning newscast ratings...but at the time this video aired, before the WJW CBS-to-Fox switch, WKYC was very much an also-ran in news ratings in Cleveland, mired deep in third place...
But we didn't remember what Bill Scaffide did here until we did a quick Google search on his name, and found this YouTube video from WKYC:
Yes, that's then-WKYC general manager Bill Scaffide circa 1994, urging viewers to call the WKYC Talkback line with their comments, input and suggestions about Channel 3 News.
More Google searching tells us that Scaffide was earlier general manager of WUAB/43, and was replaced there by long-time local broadcasting executive Brooke Spectorsky. (Anyone who keeps better track of such history can let us know if we got any of this wrong.)
Anyway, Scaffide has been general manager of Norfolk market MyNetwork TV affiliate WTVZ/33.
The Virginia-Pilot newspaper reports that in an "amicable" split with the TV station, Scaffide has already headed south, geographically:
Scaffide planned to leave Saturday for West Palm Beach, Fla., where he bought a house last year. "I'm done with the 9-to-5, five-days-a-week," he said, but he may consider consulting work. "My first official duty is to buy a golf cart next week."
Our WKYC "Director's Cut" blog colleague Frank Macek notes Scaffide's move here, and has more videos featuring Scaffide here. Quoting Frank:
Bill was proud of making that station profitable during his 3 year tenure. We have lots of memories of Bill doing the same thing at WKYC and Multimedia when deep staff cuts were made after the station was acquired by NBC.
Ouch...so much for that "we're building our station around you" slogan heard on the video.
It was an interesting time for Cleveland TV in the mid-1990s. Not that much later from the airing of this promo, the TV network landscape shook.
Storer sold long-time CBS affiliate WJW/8 to Gillette, which sold WJW and the other ex-Storer stations to New World Communications. That triggered a national deal between New World and upstart Fox Broadcasting, which flipped WJW to a Fox affiliation...and the network itself ended up owning WJW until very recently.
Up until that point, WJW had been the long-time news powerhouse in Cleveland, and "NewsCenter 8" was the news standard locally.
Though WJW actually beefed up its news presence after changing from CBS to Fox, the latter network had no national news tradition...and viewers started sampling WKYC, and perennial second-place ABC affiliate WEWS/5's news offerings.
Eventually, WKYC would actually start winning newscast ratings...but at the time this video aired, before the WJW CBS-to-Fox switch, WKYC was very much an also-ran in news ratings in Cleveland, mired deep in third place...
Quick Midweek Notes
Just a couple of things...
SDV/HD?: One of our regular readers brings word that Time Warner Cable subscribers in the Mentor area could be getting some of the company's newer HD offerings that have been missing in the former Comcast areas.
We're told that at least one subscriber in the Mentor area reports getting the channels that would require TWC's Switched Digital Video (SDV) technology, which has enabled a broader HD channel expansion in both the "legacy" TWC areas (Akron/Canton/Youngstown/etc.), and in the former Adelphia area in Greater Cleveland.
But there's been more of a technical roadblock in the former Comcast areas, and one big hurdle has been the Motorola boxes used by Comcast before TWC took over the systems in the Mentor and Elyria areas.
The box situation was so important, Time Warner went into motion recently to get Elyria-area subscribers to swap out the Motorola boxes for Scientific Atlanta equipment, which is used in the rest of the TWC Northeast Ohio empire.
The box exchange program is running out of Elyria through November, but hadn't been announced for ex-Comcasters in Mentor. Our reader tells us that the Mentor-area customer, posting to a popular Internet forum on home theatre, has a Scientific Atlanta box.
We'll try to fill in the story with our sources at TWC, and update accordingly when we have more details...
IN AND OUT: And two items from our friends at Rubber City Radio's Akron Radio Center on West Market Street.
Congratulations to veteran WAKR/1590 news anchor Larry States for earning yet another award. The Ohio chapters of the Society for Professional Journalists have named States "Best Anchor" for 2009.
Larry can put that award up with the dozens of honors he's received over his long career, including another "Best Anchor" award recently by the Ohio Associated Press Broadcasters.
It's fitting for a man long recognized as Akron's leading radio news anchor, who many also remember from his television work on the old WAKC-TV/23.
As Rubber City has been doing online video news for some time now via its AkronNewsNow.com, it's been a kick to see Larry occasionally "back in front of the camera" again, albeit on the Internet vs. a full-power local TV station. (Considering that Channel 23 is now ION Network O&O WVPX/23, there may be more viewers online these days, anyway.)
In an unrelated item from West Market Street, OMW hears that WAKR will NOT air the local football/sports talk program "Three and Out with Frank Stams" this year, after all. We hear it had been planned for 2009, which we reported earlier, but is now no longer on the station's schedule.
The ex-Cleveland Browns player continues in his role elsewhere on local radio - as color commentator on radio coverage of University of Akron Zips football.
Stams teams up with Akron Radio Icon/Superstar play-by-play voice Steve French on the Zips ISP Sports Network broadcasts on Clear Channel sports WARF/1350 Akron "SportsRadio 1350" and Clear Channel rock WRQK/106.9 Canton "Rock 106.9"...
SDV/HD?: One of our regular readers brings word that Time Warner Cable subscribers in the Mentor area could be getting some of the company's newer HD offerings that have been missing in the former Comcast areas.
We're told that at least one subscriber in the Mentor area reports getting the channels that would require TWC's Switched Digital Video (SDV) technology, which has enabled a broader HD channel expansion in both the "legacy" TWC areas (Akron/Canton/Youngstown/etc.), and in the former Adelphia area in Greater Cleveland.
But there's been more of a technical roadblock in the former Comcast areas, and one big hurdle has been the Motorola boxes used by Comcast before TWC took over the systems in the Mentor and Elyria areas.
The box situation was so important, Time Warner went into motion recently to get Elyria-area subscribers to swap out the Motorola boxes for Scientific Atlanta equipment, which is used in the rest of the TWC Northeast Ohio empire.
The box exchange program is running out of Elyria through November, but hadn't been announced for ex-Comcasters in Mentor. Our reader tells us that the Mentor-area customer, posting to a popular Internet forum on home theatre, has a Scientific Atlanta box.
We'll try to fill in the story with our sources at TWC, and update accordingly when we have more details...
IN AND OUT: And two items from our friends at Rubber City Radio's Akron Radio Center on West Market Street.
Congratulations to veteran WAKR/1590 news anchor Larry States for earning yet another award. The Ohio chapters of the Society for Professional Journalists have named States "Best Anchor" for 2009.
Larry can put that award up with the dozens of honors he's received over his long career, including another "Best Anchor" award recently by the Ohio Associated Press Broadcasters.
It's fitting for a man long recognized as Akron's leading radio news anchor, who many also remember from his television work on the old WAKC-TV/23.
As Rubber City has been doing online video news for some time now via its AkronNewsNow.com, it's been a kick to see Larry occasionally "back in front of the camera" again, albeit on the Internet vs. a full-power local TV station. (Considering that Channel 23 is now ION Network O&O WVPX/23, there may be more viewers online these days, anyway.)
In an unrelated item from West Market Street, OMW hears that WAKR will NOT air the local football/sports talk program "Three and Out with Frank Stams" this year, after all. We hear it had been planned for 2009, which we reported earlier, but is now no longer on the station's schedule.
The ex-Cleveland Browns player continues in his role elsewhere on local radio - as color commentator on radio coverage of University of Akron Zips football.
Stams teams up with Akron Radio Icon/Superstar play-by-play voice Steve French on the Zips ISP Sports Network broadcasts on Clear Channel sports WARF/1350 Akron "SportsRadio 1350" and Clear Channel rock WRQK/106.9 Canton "Rock 106.9"...
Monday, September 07, 2009
A Flood of Tuesday Items
Items have been piling up over the Labor Day holiday weekend like cars stuck in a traffic jam to get home from a holiday trip...
JIMBO AGAIN: At this rate, we ought to consider splitting off another secondary blog dedicated to former Mahoning Valley congressman/ex-con Jim Traficant.
Anyone who's even remotely followed Traficant in the Youngstown area or in Washington knew that the bombastic former lawmaker couldn't stay quiet for long, after his release from a federal prison medical facility in Minnesota last week.
But his first media appearance was a surprise to even us.
Did Traficant take to one of the Sunday TV talk shows to "resurface" after becoming a free man? Nope.
Did he choose the program of Fox News Channel host Greta Van Susteren, an old TV friend who talked to Traficant frequently before he was sent to prison on bribery and racketeering charges? Not yet. He will do so this Friday.
Fox News/Citadel/Premiere host Sean Hannity has talked to Traficant in the past. Did the ex-congressman appear on Hannity's TV or radio shows? Nope.
Perhaps his first words would be with Clear Channel talk WKBN/570 hosts Dan Rivers, Ron Verb or Robert Mangino? Close, but not quite.
Traficant broke his post-prison-release silence on WKBN, alright, the station where many think he'll be a future host.
But his Saturday morning phone call was not to the station's big names. It was to Dennis Malloy, a long-time friend and host of WKBN's Saturday morning "Outdoor Icon" outdoors-themed talk show.
Where...the former congressman talked a lot about turkey hunting. It's that activity which forged his friendship with Malloy, who still supports Traficant today. The former lawmaker noted that due to his legal situation, he's not allowed to carry guns to hunt these days.
The Youngstown Vindicator and Warren Tribune-Chronicle have more on the impromptu call.
And wasting no time, WKBN itself has audio from the call on its website. (Warning: Embedded Clear Channel audio player ahead.)
As we said, Traficant mainly talked hunting with Malloy. He talked very little about radio, though he did have good words for WKBN's Rivers and Verb, and said he was going to "do some turkey hunting without a gun"...the "turkeys" presumably being his detractors, and the weapon of choice a powerful one - Traficant's own mouth.
If the ex-con-ex-congressman is readying to move into radio as a talk show host, he isn't saying so in public...yet. But we at least expect to hear him as an in-studio guest on one or more WKBN shows in the near term.
Many of Traficant's diehard supporters aren't talking about a future radio talk show for their man...but want him to run again for his old seat in Congress, occupied for some time now by one-time former Traficant staffer Tim Ryan.
The polarizing personality continues to draw jeers from those against him, who insist that the Valley has "moved on", and want him to spend a quiet retirement out of the spotlight.
That feeling, shared by much of Official Youngstown, is expressed rather well by Friend of OMW Andrea Wood of the Youngstown Business Journal, in a column posted to her publication's site this morning.
Jim Traficant and the spotlight are more natural partners than peanut butter and jelly. As if anyone doubted, Traficant made a fiery appearance at a "Welcome Home" event Sunday afternoon. How could he resist showing up at a banquet hall where 1,200 people paid $20 to show their support for him?
The WKBN/570 news page has more:
He slammed the FBI and IRS, saying the government had to cheat to convict him. He says he's getting "right back into it", indicating he'll have an announcement on the Greta Van Susteren show on Fox News Channel Friday night.
Whatever the former congressman does, be it either talk radio or politics, the phrase "shy and retiring" doesn't seem to be a likely description of his future behavior.. .
WAKR CHANGES: Rubber City Radio oldies/news WAKR/1590 Akron is adding a little more "news" to that format description.
Starting today, the station's "Ray Horner Morning Show" spreads out to a new time slot - 6 to 10 AM weekday mornings.
The morning news and information program will use the expanded 9 AM hour primarily for more long-form interviews and discussion in a less "compacted" space, with more time due to less service elements (i.e. no traffic, etc.).
Today's extra hour started off with a full hour interview with former Stark County congressman Ralph Regula, who weighed in on any number of current "hot button" topics in Washington and in his former district - such as health care, education and alternative energy.
The move of Horner's show to 6-10 AM means WAKR has made some other adjustments on each side of the morning schedule.
With the show's start moving from 5:30 AM, the station now airs the full hour of the Westwood One-syndicated news magazine "America in the Morning" with Jim Bohannon from 5 to 6 AM, with local news updates still in place. (This reminds us, oddly enough, that Bohannon's late night talk show on Westwood One airs over on Media-Com talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron", 11 PM-1 AM weeknights.)
At the other end of Horner's new schedule, WAKR program director/Rubber City operations manager/OMW reader Chuck Collins' midday oldies show now starts at 10 AM.
Elsewhere on West Market, the station returns the Monday night hour-long sports talk show "Three and Out" with former Browns player Frank Stams...which airs at 6 PM during the football season.
WAKR is also airing more programming from the Ohio State University's radio network, as the Buckeyes are in full swing for football season.
That includes a live broadcast of the network's "Jim Tressel Show" Thursdays at 12:05 PM, and some carriage of the Monday night "Buckeye Roundtable" show - depending on Indians baseball coverage, and the aforementioned "Three and Out" show...
ON THE HD3 SIDE: At the OMW World Headquarters (tm), we now have our second HD Radio, thanks to the generosity of others.
This loaner unit from a Friend of OMW is one of the hard-to-find Insignia portable units, which are supposed to be available at Best Buy locations...but have been out of stock for at least a month or two.
The radio is priced at just under $50.
We'll save a review of the Insignia HD portable radio for later. But it's allowed us, while on the road, to check out what area stations are doing on their HD2 and HD3 subchannels.
And it uncovered a recent arrangement we did not know existed.
When tuning into the digital signal of Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting smooth jazz outlet WNWV/107.3 Elyria, we found something odd on WNWV-HD3...programming from Kent State University-owned outlet WKSU/89.7, in specific, WKSU's own HD3 subchannel dedicated solely to classical music.
We were so thrown by the pickup, we thought it was a digital fluke/anomaly caused by the radio. But no, it's for real...from WKSU's HD Radio FAQ:
Additionally, WKSU Classical can also be heard at 107.3 on WNWV-HD 3 in Elyria.
We don't know the details of the arrangement, or why WKSU felt the need to expand its classical music wings to the HD3 channel of a commercial station.
We haven't been able to do an "A/B" test. The Accurian HD Radio unit we got on sale a couple of years ago is currently out of commission - our problem, not the radio's problem. But it would appear the WKSU-HD3 and WNWV-HD3 feeds are not 100 percent in sync. We don't know how the folks in Kent are feeding Elyria.
While doing our dial scans recently, we noticed that WNWV has also changed its HD2 in-house feed, which used to feature traditional jazz. The new format is an eclectic mix of music we're still trying to describe, though there's some AAA rock in there...
SPEAKING OF WKSU, "NOT MUCH": Fans of public radio weekend host Michael Feldman will be able to catch up with him. and his show, in Northeast Ohio next weekend.
The host of "Whad'Ya Know" is bringing his show to Wooster, in an appearance sponsored by the folks at WKSU, on Saturday, September 12th:
On Saturday, Sept. 12 Michael Feldman brings the "Whad’Ya Know?" to Wooster for a live broadcast from the intimate McGaw Chapel on the campus of the College of Wooster. This show will bring all of the spontaneous fun of a taping in Madison to Northeast Ohio with a regional twist.
The $40 tickets are only available through WKSU, and can be ordered at the page linked above.
"Whad'Ya Know" is based at Wisconsin Public Radio in that state's capital of Madison, but makes frequent trips around the country for live events.
This isn't the first time Feldman has done the show from Northeast Ohio..."WYK" did a broadcast from Canton's Palace Theatre not that long ago, and has also made Cleveland-area stops.
And fans of "WYK" know that our heading wasn't a dismissive statement towards either the show or local affiliate WKSU.
"Not much" is the show's stock comedic answer to the question its name raises, and the show's official website is located at, you guessed it, "NotMuch.com"...
JIMBO AGAIN: At this rate, we ought to consider splitting off another secondary blog dedicated to former Mahoning Valley congressman/ex-con Jim Traficant.
Anyone who's even remotely followed Traficant in the Youngstown area or in Washington knew that the bombastic former lawmaker couldn't stay quiet for long, after his release from a federal prison medical facility in Minnesota last week.
But his first media appearance was a surprise to even us.
Did Traficant take to one of the Sunday TV talk shows to "resurface" after becoming a free man? Nope.
Did he choose the program of Fox News Channel host Greta Van Susteren, an old TV friend who talked to Traficant frequently before he was sent to prison on bribery and racketeering charges? Not yet. He will do so this Friday.
Fox News/Citadel/Premiere host Sean Hannity has talked to Traficant in the past. Did the ex-congressman appear on Hannity's TV or radio shows? Nope.
Perhaps his first words would be with Clear Channel talk WKBN/570 hosts Dan Rivers, Ron Verb or Robert Mangino? Close, but not quite.
Traficant broke his post-prison-release silence on WKBN, alright, the station where many think he'll be a future host.
But his Saturday morning phone call was not to the station's big names. It was to Dennis Malloy, a long-time friend and host of WKBN's Saturday morning "Outdoor Icon" outdoors-themed talk show.
Where...the former congressman talked a lot about turkey hunting. It's that activity which forged his friendship with Malloy, who still supports Traficant today. The former lawmaker noted that due to his legal situation, he's not allowed to carry guns to hunt these days.
The Youngstown Vindicator and Warren Tribune-Chronicle have more on the impromptu call.
And wasting no time, WKBN itself has audio from the call on its website. (Warning: Embedded Clear Channel audio player ahead.)
As we said, Traficant mainly talked hunting with Malloy. He talked very little about radio, though he did have good words for WKBN's Rivers and Verb, and said he was going to "do some turkey hunting without a gun"...the "turkeys" presumably being his detractors, and the weapon of choice a powerful one - Traficant's own mouth.
If the ex-con-ex-congressman is readying to move into radio as a talk show host, he isn't saying so in public...yet. But we at least expect to hear him as an in-studio guest on one or more WKBN shows in the near term.
Many of Traficant's diehard supporters aren't talking about a future radio talk show for their man...but want him to run again for his old seat in Congress, occupied for some time now by one-time former Traficant staffer Tim Ryan.
The polarizing personality continues to draw jeers from those against him, who insist that the Valley has "moved on", and want him to spend a quiet retirement out of the spotlight.
That feeling, shared by much of Official Youngstown, is expressed rather well by Friend of OMW Andrea Wood of the Youngstown Business Journal, in a column posted to her publication's site this morning.
Jim Traficant and the spotlight are more natural partners than peanut butter and jelly. As if anyone doubted, Traficant made a fiery appearance at a "Welcome Home" event Sunday afternoon. How could he resist showing up at a banquet hall where 1,200 people paid $20 to show their support for him?
The WKBN/570 news page has more:
He slammed the FBI and IRS, saying the government had to cheat to convict him. He says he's getting "right back into it", indicating he'll have an announcement on the Greta Van Susteren show on Fox News Channel Friday night.
Whatever the former congressman does, be it either talk radio or politics, the phrase "shy and retiring" doesn't seem to be a likely description of his future behavior.. .
WAKR CHANGES: Rubber City Radio oldies/news WAKR/1590 Akron is adding a little more "news" to that format description.
Starting today, the station's "Ray Horner Morning Show" spreads out to a new time slot - 6 to 10 AM weekday mornings.
The morning news and information program will use the expanded 9 AM hour primarily for more long-form interviews and discussion in a less "compacted" space, with more time due to less service elements (i.e. no traffic, etc.).
Today's extra hour started off with a full hour interview with former Stark County congressman Ralph Regula, who weighed in on any number of current "hot button" topics in Washington and in his former district - such as health care, education and alternative energy.
The move of Horner's show to 6-10 AM means WAKR has made some other adjustments on each side of the morning schedule.
With the show's start moving from 5:30 AM, the station now airs the full hour of the Westwood One-syndicated news magazine "America in the Morning" with Jim Bohannon from 5 to 6 AM, with local news updates still in place. (This reminds us, oddly enough, that Bohannon's late night talk show on Westwood One airs over on Media-Com talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron", 11 PM-1 AM weeknights.)
At the other end of Horner's new schedule, WAKR program director/Rubber City operations manager/OMW reader Chuck Collins' midday oldies show now starts at 10 AM.
Elsewhere on West Market, the station returns the Monday night hour-long sports talk show "Three and Out" with former Browns player Frank Stams...which airs at 6 PM during the football season.
WAKR is also airing more programming from the Ohio State University's radio network, as the Buckeyes are in full swing for football season.
That includes a live broadcast of the network's "Jim Tressel Show" Thursdays at 12:05 PM, and some carriage of the Monday night "Buckeye Roundtable" show - depending on Indians baseball coverage, and the aforementioned "Three and Out" show...
ON THE HD3 SIDE: At the OMW World Headquarters (tm), we now have our second HD Radio, thanks to the generosity of others.
This loaner unit from a Friend of OMW is one of the hard-to-find Insignia portable units, which are supposed to be available at Best Buy locations...but have been out of stock for at least a month or two.
The radio is priced at just under $50.
We'll save a review of the Insignia HD portable radio for later. But it's allowed us, while on the road, to check out what area stations are doing on their HD2 and HD3 subchannels.
And it uncovered a recent arrangement we did not know existed.
When tuning into the digital signal of Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting smooth jazz outlet WNWV/107.3 Elyria, we found something odd on WNWV-HD3...programming from Kent State University-owned outlet WKSU/89.7, in specific, WKSU's own HD3 subchannel dedicated solely to classical music.
We were so thrown by the pickup, we thought it was a digital fluke/anomaly caused by the radio. But no, it's for real...from WKSU's HD Radio FAQ:
Additionally, WKSU Classical can also be heard at 107.3 on WNWV-HD 3 in Elyria.
We don't know the details of the arrangement, or why WKSU felt the need to expand its classical music wings to the HD3 channel of a commercial station.
We haven't been able to do an "A/B" test. The Accurian HD Radio unit we got on sale a couple of years ago is currently out of commission - our problem, not the radio's problem. But it would appear the WKSU-HD3 and WNWV-HD3 feeds are not 100 percent in sync. We don't know how the folks in Kent are feeding Elyria.
While doing our dial scans recently, we noticed that WNWV has also changed its HD2 in-house feed, which used to feature traditional jazz. The new format is an eclectic mix of music we're still trying to describe, though there's some AAA rock in there...
SPEAKING OF WKSU, "NOT MUCH": Fans of public radio weekend host Michael Feldman will be able to catch up with him. and his show, in Northeast Ohio next weekend.
The host of "Whad'Ya Know" is bringing his show to Wooster, in an appearance sponsored by the folks at WKSU, on Saturday, September 12th:
On Saturday, Sept. 12 Michael Feldman brings the "Whad’Ya Know?" to Wooster for a live broadcast from the intimate McGaw Chapel on the campus of the College of Wooster. This show will bring all of the spontaneous fun of a taping in Madison to Northeast Ohio with a regional twist.
The $40 tickets are only available through WKSU, and can be ordered at the page linked above.
"Whad'Ya Know" is based at Wisconsin Public Radio in that state's capital of Madison, but makes frequent trips around the country for live events.
This isn't the first time Feldman has done the show from Northeast Ohio..."WYK" did a broadcast from Canton's Palace Theatre not that long ago, and has also made Cleveland-area stops.
And fans of "WYK" know that our heading wasn't a dismissive statement towards either the show or local affiliate WKSU.
"Not much" is the show's stock comedic answer to the question its name raises, and the show's official website is located at, you guessed it, "NotMuch.com"...
GUEST COLUMN: Cleveland Digital TV
Long-time OMW reader Trip Ericson (RabbitEars) gives us his take on the local digital TV situation, including potential channel availability should one of the Cleveland market stations wish to make a channel move...particularly the alleged CBS affiliate currently stuck on RF digital channel 10...
-----------------
Hello, all!
I'm Trip Ericson, the lunatic behind the website RabbitEars.Info, and I've penned this special guest feature on Ohio Media Watch to try to address some of the questions about WOIO and where they could move assuming they wanted to jump ship from channel 10.
This entire article will be written with the assumption that channel 31 is reserved for WJW, even though in reality, it's not. If WOIO was to take channel 31, then this article would apply to WJW just as well. Channel 31 is an open channel by all standards, and would solve the problem for one, but not both, of the VHF broadcasters in the market.
The big problem with all of this is that the FCC's interference rules are rather vicious. In the analog world, there were hard distance limits. If you were x miles away, your station fit. If you were x-1 miles away, your station did not fit. Very simple to understand and very logical.
In digital, the FCC requires a Longley-Rice interference study. The FCC rule is that your allotment cannot create more than 0.5% new interference to any one station. That is to say, you can cause 0.49% interference to station A, and 0.49% interference to station B, and still be within the rules.
The software to run these studies is made available on the FCC website but only runs on a specific computer system. Any other software to perform these studies costs many thousands of dollars, putting it out of the reach of many. I have a friend with access to some software to run these analyses, and had hoped to have him run some studies on WOIO for me, but as press time approaches, he has not been online since I decided to write this article.
Cleveland being where it is, so close to the Canadians, also makes this complicated. To start with, let's look at the Cleveland-area vacant allotments according to Canada:
Cleveland:
03 1024' 9 kW ND
05 1027' 9 kW ND
25 994' 67 kW ND
31 (Ignored)
Akron:
N/A
Canton:
39 958' 200 kW ND
Shaker Heights:
19 1151' 151 kW ND
Lorain:
43 1105' 170 kW ND
A few of these can be tossed out right away. 3 and 5, obviously, would be worse than 10 is now, and thus are removed from the list. 43 is useless due to proximity to WGGN-42, which would almost certainly be way, WAY above 0.5% interference. A signal on 25 would be crippled by KDKA in Pittsburgh and thus unable to adequately cover the area. So this leaves us with channels 19 and 39.
Now, these are just channels that the Canadians have already negotiated with the United States; there's nothing preventing more channels from being negotiated. Let's pull in some other channels to run through that might look good at first glance:
14, 18, 21, 27, 44, 51
Most of these can be tossed out right away:
14 and 18: These two look very clean, until you read through FCC regulations and learn they are reserved for "land mobile." That is, they're used for two-way communication in Pittsburgh among public safety and other licensees. There's a hard spacing rule of 155 miles that Cleveland simply does not meet.
21 and 44: Adjacent channel issues to WFMJ and WNEO aside, which would probably toss these two out right away, spacing to WMYD and WWJ in Detroit probably would do it too. I would not expect either of these allotments to work out.
19 and 51: These frequencies, though promising, have adjacent channel problems. 19 would likely fail with regard to WFMJ-20, and 51 would certainly fail with respect to WEAO-50. Thus, these channels are not under consideration.
At this point, we now see that what started out as a pretty interesting list of channels under consideration, is now narrowed down to two possibilities: Channels 27 or 39. Let's analyze them.
Channel 27: On the adjacent channels, we find WVIZ-26 and WUAB-28, both of which are co-located and thus would not cause any issues. This leaves us with co-channel concerns. WBGU on 27 is probably far enough away that a minor directional null would safely protect it, though this should be checked with an interference study. The big problem is CKCO-DT-3 in Sarnia, which is allotted 994' 810 kW. Even with a WKYC-style directional pattern, I'm not sure that the Canadians would be willing to accept a channel 27 in Cleveland.
Channel 39: This one is more promising than channel 27. The adjacent channels are more than 100 miles away, which means that interference to them should be minimal. There's a Class A at 92 miles that could be an issue, but an interference study would be needed to determine how much of a problem it would be. WADL is both directional away from Cleveland, and on a short tower, and I suspect would not be a problem. Plus, channel 39 already existed as an allotment for WDLI, so the chances of it working are good. My question would be just how much power they could run on 39. It's possible that it wouldn't be enough to satisfy them.
Now, I was staring at it for a while, and I came up with another possibility that might actually be superior to either channel 27 or 39, but I'm not sure how much of a problem it will cause.
Channel 33 caught my eye because it was clean except for a single Canadian station at 76 miles. CICO-TV-59 (analog 59/digital 33) is only allotted 492' 4 kW ND (that's not a typo) on channel 33. I don't know a lot about Canadian allotments, but unless I missed something, it looks like the currently unbuilt CICO-TV-59 digital signal could be moved from channel 33 to channel 20. This would actually reduce interference that it would receive from adjacent channels.
Relocating CICO-TV-59 would then open up channel 33 for use in Cleveland. The only concern would be to CICO-TV-32 in Windsor, allotted 703' 350 kW ND. A slight directional pattern might protect it if it's even an issue. I wonder what the Canadians would say to this proposal, given that the vacant but agreed upon channel 31 allotment is also adjacent to it. Perhaps WOIO could trade the current channel 19 analog antenna to CICO-TV-59 to use on channel 20 digital, assuming it's usable for that.
It seems perfectly logical. I suppose that's why it would never happen.
Ultimately, after all that study and analysis, the most certain answer I can give is "I don't know."
Without the ability to run an interference study, channel 39 looks the best, but that's no guarantee that it works in a satisfactory manner. I would suspect that if WOIO wanted to get off of channel 10 bad enough and they were not in the Canadian border zone, they could make it work regardless, but the Canadians are an unknown.
Finally, I'd like to direct readers to a project I've been working on. I have been teaching myself PHP through coding a project for RabbitEars. I put it in public beta last week and it's currently called the "DX Tool." I plan to change that name, as it's misleading in that it's not just for DXers.
I would like to ask readers of Ohio Media Watch who use over the air to consider trying out the DX Tool. By doing this, the DX Tool allows for the inversion of the reception reports to form a coverage map based on real world reports.
Sign up and submit reception reports for your local stations and maybe we can fill in this map with data showing just how bad reception is for WOIO, plus reception issues for WJW or maybe other stations as well can be shown on their own respective maps.
Thank you to Ohio Media Watch for giving me the opportunity to write this essay. Continue the great work!
-----------------
Hello, all!
I'm Trip Ericson, the lunatic behind the website RabbitEars.Info, and I've penned this special guest feature on Ohio Media Watch to try to address some of the questions about WOIO and where they could move assuming they wanted to jump ship from channel 10.
This entire article will be written with the assumption that channel 31 is reserved for WJW, even though in reality, it's not. If WOIO was to take channel 31, then this article would apply to WJW just as well. Channel 31 is an open channel by all standards, and would solve the problem for one, but not both, of the VHF broadcasters in the market.
The big problem with all of this is that the FCC's interference rules are rather vicious. In the analog world, there were hard distance limits. If you were x miles away, your station fit. If you were x-1 miles away, your station did not fit. Very simple to understand and very logical.
In digital, the FCC requires a Longley-Rice interference study. The FCC rule is that your allotment cannot create more than 0.5% new interference to any one station. That is to say, you can cause 0.49% interference to station A, and 0.49% interference to station B, and still be within the rules.
The software to run these studies is made available on the FCC website but only runs on a specific computer system. Any other software to perform these studies costs many thousands of dollars, putting it out of the reach of many. I have a friend with access to some software to run these analyses, and had hoped to have him run some studies on WOIO for me, but as press time approaches, he has not been online since I decided to write this article.
Cleveland being where it is, so close to the Canadians, also makes this complicated. To start with, let's look at the Cleveland-area vacant allotments according to Canada:
Cleveland:
03 1024' 9 kW ND
05 1027' 9 kW ND
25 994' 67 kW ND
31 (Ignored)
Akron:
N/A
Canton:
39 958' 200 kW ND
Shaker Heights:
19 1151' 151 kW ND
Lorain:
43 1105' 170 kW ND
A few of these can be tossed out right away. 3 and 5, obviously, would be worse than 10 is now, and thus are removed from the list. 43 is useless due to proximity to WGGN-42, which would almost certainly be way, WAY above 0.5% interference. A signal on 25 would be crippled by KDKA in Pittsburgh and thus unable to adequately cover the area. So this leaves us with channels 19 and 39.
Now, these are just channels that the Canadians have already negotiated with the United States; there's nothing preventing more channels from being negotiated. Let's pull in some other channels to run through that might look good at first glance:
14, 18, 21, 27, 44, 51
Most of these can be tossed out right away:
14 and 18: These two look very clean, until you read through FCC regulations and learn they are reserved for "land mobile." That is, they're used for two-way communication in Pittsburgh among public safety and other licensees. There's a hard spacing rule of 155 miles that Cleveland simply does not meet.
21 and 44: Adjacent channel issues to WFMJ and WNEO aside, which would probably toss these two out right away, spacing to WMYD and WWJ in Detroit probably would do it too. I would not expect either of these allotments to work out.
19 and 51: These frequencies, though promising, have adjacent channel problems. 19 would likely fail with regard to WFMJ-20, and 51 would certainly fail with respect to WEAO-50. Thus, these channels are not under consideration.
At this point, we now see that what started out as a pretty interesting list of channels under consideration, is now narrowed down to two possibilities: Channels 27 or 39. Let's analyze them.
Channel 27: On the adjacent channels, we find WVIZ-26 and WUAB-28, both of which are co-located and thus would not cause any issues. This leaves us with co-channel concerns. WBGU on 27 is probably far enough away that a minor directional null would safely protect it, though this should be checked with an interference study. The big problem is CKCO-DT-3 in Sarnia, which is allotted 994' 810 kW. Even with a WKYC-style directional pattern, I'm not sure that the Canadians would be willing to accept a channel 27 in Cleveland.
Channel 39: This one is more promising than channel 27. The adjacent channels are more than 100 miles away, which means that interference to them should be minimal. There's a Class A at 92 miles that could be an issue, but an interference study would be needed to determine how much of a problem it would be. WADL is both directional away from Cleveland, and on a short tower, and I suspect would not be a problem. Plus, channel 39 already existed as an allotment for WDLI, so the chances of it working are good. My question would be just how much power they could run on 39. It's possible that it wouldn't be enough to satisfy them.
Now, I was staring at it for a while, and I came up with another possibility that might actually be superior to either channel 27 or 39, but I'm not sure how much of a problem it will cause.
Channel 33 caught my eye because it was clean except for a single Canadian station at 76 miles. CICO-TV-59 (analog 59/digital 33) is only allotted 492' 4 kW ND (that's not a typo) on channel 33. I don't know a lot about Canadian allotments, but unless I missed something, it looks like the currently unbuilt CICO-TV-59 digital signal could be moved from channel 33 to channel 20. This would actually reduce interference that it would receive from adjacent channels.
Relocating CICO-TV-59 would then open up channel 33 for use in Cleveland. The only concern would be to CICO-TV-32 in Windsor, allotted 703' 350 kW ND. A slight directional pattern might protect it if it's even an issue. I wonder what the Canadians would say to this proposal, given that the vacant but agreed upon channel 31 allotment is also adjacent to it. Perhaps WOIO could trade the current channel 19 analog antenna to CICO-TV-59 to use on channel 20 digital, assuming it's usable for that.
It seems perfectly logical. I suppose that's why it would never happen.
Ultimately, after all that study and analysis, the most certain answer I can give is "I don't know."
Without the ability to run an interference study, channel 39 looks the best, but that's no guarantee that it works in a satisfactory manner. I would suspect that if WOIO wanted to get off of channel 10 bad enough and they were not in the Canadian border zone, they could make it work regardless, but the Canadians are an unknown.
Finally, I'd like to direct readers to a project I've been working on. I have been teaching myself PHP through coding a project for RabbitEars. I put it in public beta last week and it's currently called the "DX Tool." I plan to change that name, as it's misleading in that it's not just for DXers.
I would like to ask readers of Ohio Media Watch who use over the air to consider trying out the DX Tool. By doing this, the DX Tool allows for the inversion of the reception reports to form a coverage map based on real world reports.
Sign up and submit reception reports for your local stations and maybe we can fill in this map with data showing just how bad reception is for WOIO, plus reception issues for WJW or maybe other stations as well can be shown on their own respective maps.
Thank you to Ohio Media Watch for giving me the opportunity to write this essay. Continue the great work!
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