Cleveland Connections

Three items with at least past connections to the Cleveland radio and TV market...

LEEANN'S DENVER EXIT: AllAccess reports that a former Cleveland radio personality is out at her Denver station, in an item posted earlier this week:

ALL ACCESS confirms that WILKS Hot AC KIMN (MIX100) middayer LEEANN SOMMERS exits

LeeAnn was heard in Northeast Ohio on Clear Channel hot AC WMVX/106.5 "Mix 106.5" from 2001 to 2005, and was previously heard on stations like WENZ/107.9 and the old "Jammin' 92.5", then-WZJM/92.3 (now CBS Radio alt-rock WXRK). Her resume (PDF) also includes entertainment reporting for Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5.

LeeAnn snagged a Northeast Ohio cell phone number with WMVX's frequency - AllAccess says she can be reached at (216) 526-1065.

She can also be reached through her own website.

And she also has a Twitter account, though we can't find any tweets going to it:

LeeAnn apparently made many friends while she was in Northeast Ohio, and we wish her the best. Would she come back to Cleveland? That, we don't know...

DOUG'S CHANGE: Doug Podell was program director of WNCX/98.5 in the early 1990s, but he's much better known for his long-stint at Greater Media Detroit rocker WCSX/94.7.

Podell is staying there, but unlike program directors who give up airshifts to concentrate on programming the station...he's doing the opposite.

AllAccess reports that Podell is stepping down as Director/Rock Programming for the Greater Media cluster in Detroit, to focus on his afternoon drive airshift on WCSX:

"After 30 years of programming some of the best rock stations in AMERICA, I have decided to shift gears and focus on what I truly love -- being on the air. After being off the air for a year and recently returning, I realized just how much I missed it and how my contributions are better suited for what's happening today."

We don't remember much about Podell's time at WNCX, now a CBS Radio-owned classic rocker.

But the Wikipedia article about WNCX credits him and owner Norman Wain with hiring rocker Michael Stanley...who is WNCX's afternoon drive personality today..

ILLINOIS HIRING: The new general manager of Eastern Illinois University's WEIU-FM/TV has a Cleveland background.

Indiana Radio Watch's Blaine Thompson passes the word of the hiring of former WVIZ/25 programmer/promotions director Jack Neal.

Neal returns to the midwest (Charleston IL) after a stint as station manager of Houston TX PBS affiliate KUHT, writes the local newspaper in the Eastern Illinois region:

“I grew up in Ohio and have worked in both Ohio and Indiana,” he said. “I’m a small-town guy, looking forward to returning to the Midwest. It’s very much like coming home for me.”

Blaine tells us that Neal's stint at the Cleveland PBS affiliate, now owned by Ideastream, lasted from 1978 to 1987.

He also worked in Syracuse NY (PBS affiliate WCNY) and in Indiana, giving Neal the rare three-media-watch hat trick between IRW, OMW and Scott Fybush's NorthEast Radio Watch...