Another Sign The TWC Lineup Changes Are Soon

We reported earlier about planned changes to mostly-the-digital lineup of Time Warner Cable's Northeast Ohio systems, as channels above 100 will be realigned to a near-identical lineup sometime this week.

The TWC legal notice we quoted from their website said the changes would be "on or about March 4th", which at last check, is tomorrow.

Here's another sign, courtesy of our friend Frank Macek, senior director at Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3, and an item on his "Director's Cut" blog:

ALL Time Warner systems will now carry Weather Plus on Channel 372.

This is effective March 4

Since the item was posted late last week, we'll assume the date - tomorrow - is still the target for the TWC digital realignment.

The new lineups are available in PDF format on the company's website devoted to the restructuring - twclineup.com

The lineups we've seen, for both the former Adelphia systems in suburban Cleveland and the Akron-based TWC systems, show a new entrant - the HDTV feed of local CW Network affiliate WBNX/55 Akron - sitting in the "Local HD Channels" area at 407. We have no word on if WBNX's digital/HD feed will start this week.

The lineups also indicate a separate channel for SportsTime Ohio's new HD feed, which has shared time with FSN Ohio's HD games (Cavaliers, etc.) on the former Adelphia channel 798. STO HD goes 24/7 at the start of the Indians season next month...

Big Monday Roundup

We've been compiling this one on and off over the weekend, and it's grown seemingly by the hour.

So, let's unleash the Big Monday Roundup, with 60's and 70's oldies music in the background, in honor of WZOO/102.5's flip from top 40 to oldies over the weekend...

NO FSN OHIO HD?: Since the channel is not used all that often, we didn't know about this until the appearance of George M. Thomas' "Airing It Out" column in the Akron Beacon Journal on Thursday.

But it appears FOX Sports Net Ohio has slammed the door on its HDTV broadcasts on Time Warner Cable in Northeast Ohio - only. The SD/analog version of FSN Ohio remains unaffected, and is still on the air on TWC.

This would explain why we didn't see the Columbus Blue Jackets' opening FSN HD TV game the other night, on TWC's "HD Bonus" channel 798...that Adelphia leftover which was set up to air HD broadcasts from either FSN Ohio or SportsTime Ohio.

And it'll also explain the absence of the Cleveland Cavaliers in HD later this month, if the dispute drags on.

The move, according to Mr. Thomas' column, was made by FSN Ohio as a negotiating chip. Both versions of FSN Ohio - standard and HDTV - have been carried by Time Warner Cable, with FSN's blessing - since the contract between the two expired at the start of the year.

Quoting FSN Ohio chief Steve Liverani in Mr. Thomas' column:

"It appears that Time Warner is taking the customers that are sports fans for granted. The bottom line is if they don't want to offer sports to their customers, then they should be honest about it.''

As thousands of cable subscribers cry "not again!", TWC local spokesman Bill Jasso responds:

''Giving in to prices that sports networks are charging would be a long-term problem."

Mr. Jasso has a point.

Sports networks all over, from new ones like the Big Ten Network and the NFL Network, to established networks like FSN, know their programming is popular. They want to get as much money as possible.

Meanwhile, cable operators like Time Warner realize that despite the sports networks' popularity, the money those networks command is often outsized compared to actual viewership. FSN Ohio may be one of the "high profile" sports networks that many people do watch, but even they lost the Cleveland Indians a couple of years ago.

FSN Ohio does have, of course, the TV rights to the NBA Eastern Conference Champion Cleveland Cavaliers, and that may have emboldened them to ask for more money, as was rumored even before the start of the last basketball season.

The wrench in the works is something we noted before: the FSN/TWC negotiations aren't between Steve Liverani and TWC NEO's Steven Frye. The dispute is being negotiated at the corporate level between TWC and FOX Sports Net, nationally.

Add in the fact we mentioned also - FSN owns half of the Big Ten Network, and is rumored to be linking that network with the TWC national talks over the FSN regional networks...and it could get interesting...

RUBBER CITY NEWS MOVE: There's another personnel move at the Akron Radio Center.

Rubber City Radio country WQMX/94.9 will have a new news anchor starting today, as part-timer Chris Keppler moves into a full-time gig as WQMX's morning news anchor.

The name may be familiar to regular OMW readers. Before joining Rubber City, Keppler had experience as news director of Dover/New Philadelphia's WJER, then at both AM 1450 and 101.7 FM, now solely at 1450.

(And if we have to explain THAT change to any long-time readers, you're just not paying attention! Feel free to put "WJER" into our search box above if you weren't around in late 2006...)

Meanwhile, Marcy Pappafava stays with the company. She'll fill in this week for the vacationing Larry States on WAKR/1590's "Ray Horner Show", then will transition to become the regular midday anchor on WAKR (and on WQMX/WONE if needed for breaking news and the like).

Marcy has been, behind the scenes, assignment editor for the Rubber City Radio newsroom, and will continue that role after moving to WAKR middays.

We'll assume this means that the combo move basically fills the opening left by the departure of long-time WAKR news anchor/reporter Pat Kennard a couple of months ago.

And following the long-held tradition of radio news types finding a second career in state government jobs, Ms. Kennard is now a spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Transportation's Division 4, the agency's Akron-based district...

WMRN/MARION'S COLUMBUS MOVE OK'ED: We are a day or two late on this, but yes, the FCC has officially OK'ed the move of Clear Channel's WMRN/106.9 from Marion to the Columbus suburb of - wait, let us get out a map - Dublin.

A helpful OMW reader dug up the official approval, which we're linking here.

And it's all rather simple.

"Informal" (FCC wording) objections filed by opposition group The Committee for Competitive Columbus Radio and Sandyworld, Inc. were rendered moot by one other move: the approval of WHIZ-FM/102.5's COL move from Zanesville to the Columbus market outburb/wide spot on the road of Baltimore, Ohio.

That move nudged the Columbus market up from 44 signals to 45, which allowed the FCC to clear the way for Clear Channel's fifth Columbus market FM signal per existing ownership rules.

The Sandyworld folks are the licensees of the WOSU-FM translator currently operating at 106.7 FM (legally W294AH). WMRN's move from a Marion station to one fully within the Columbus market also means a facilities change - from 106.9 in Marion to 106.7 in Dublin.

That automatically means the unprotected translator has to go off the air, per FCC rules...though it'd probably have to go anyway even if the current WMRN weren't moving down one channel.

Though a lot of the technical and studio work has already been done by Clear Channel for the incoming station, it may be at least a few months before the move is made by the current WMRN.

One reason?

The move is linked to other moves of stations licensed to Hillsboro and Chillicothe, which have to be done before the current Marion-based station moves south...

WILLIE'S DEBUT: Clear Channel talk WLW/700 Cincinnati early afternoon host Bill Cunningham made his regular national radio debut on Sunday night, hosting a show called, well, "Live On Sunday Night, It's Bill Cunningham". (We're about ready to lay odds on how long that long official title lasts, except as an outcue to spot breaks.)

The show, like his WLW weekday program, originates from Clear Channel's big cluster studios in the Kenwood area of Cincinnati.

"Willie's" opening two hours were not heard on former Matt Drudge affiliate WTAM/1100 in Cleveland, due to a lengthy postgame show for the Cleveland Indians' game 3 loss to the New York Yankees. WTAM joined in for his last hour at midnight.

The show was heard on talk WHLO/640 Akron, and we presume on other Clear Channel talkers like WKBN/570 Youngstown. We caught it on WLW itself, via its simulcast on XM Satellite Radio channel 173.

Cunningham is a long-time friend of ABC Radio syndicated host Sean Hannity, who appeared in the show's first hour. And according to Cincinnati Enquirer TV/radio guru John Kiesewetter in an item posted on his blog on Sunday, Hannity stepped in to try to ensure that "Willie" got to keep as many affiliates from Drudge's roster as possible.

Hannity works for ABC Radio Networks, and is based at flagship WABC/770 in New York City. Both are now owned by the folks at Citadel.

But Hannity's affiliate grouping and Drudge's 325-station list probably have a lot of overlap. And it's pretty safe to say that Hannity has a lot of pull with Phil Boyce, program director of the largest affiliate in both lists, New York's WABC.

In reality, Hannity probably didn't have to lift a finger or make a single phone call, or send a single E-Mail, to stem possible defections from the Drudge affiliate list.

Sunday night at 10 PM ET is like the similar time slot on Saturday, where many stations have satellite receivers permanently tuned to the Premiere radio channel that delivers "Coast to Coast AM". Premiere could air an hour of polka music on weekend nights, and it would probably take program directors about three weeks to figure out that it wasn't Art Bell or George Noory on the air.

We intend no offense towards Ian Punnett, the host who launched "Coast to Coast Live" in the 10 PM-1 AM Saturday slot displacing "Coast to Coast AM" early reruns.

But like that situation, Mr. Cunningham probably retains nearly all of Matt Drudge's 325 affiliates through inertia...without help from his ABC Radio-syndicated friend.

For "Willie", it's a good place to be...

BROWNS HAVE A TOLEDO RADIO OUTLET: We don't know how we missed this, but an OMW tipster up in Northwest Ohio tells us the Cleveland Browns Radio Network did indeed land a Toledo station after all.

It's Cornerstone Church-owned Christian contemporary AM outlet WDMN/1520 Rossford, known on the air as "Dominion 1520".

We're told that WDMN has been airing the Browns Radio Network broadcasts since the last pre-season game.

And yes, that's the same Cornerstone Church which also owns the Browns pre-season TV network outlet in the Glass City, MyNetworkTV affiliate WMNT-CA 48 (aka "My 58", for its cable position on Toledo's Buckeye Cablevision).

You could hardly find two weaker stations.

Even when Cumulus talk WTOD/1560 expressed interest in the Browns rights, and was plotting alternatives for games that went beyond the station's daytime-only broadcast hours, the station at least had a little power behind it.

WDMN/1520 is not a daytimer, but it throws out a puny 500 watt directional daytime signal, and 400 watts nighttime, from a site south of Toledo in Ottawa County. The station moved there from a two-site operation - actually a two-state two-site operation! - a ways back, when it changed its COL from Toledo to Rossford.

And we've already talked here about the low-wattage signal of Cornerstone's TV outlet, WMNT-CA 48. (By the way, we believe that station's case is STILL in court, with the former owners once again trying to wrestle control back from the Cornerstone folks.)

Cornerstone also still owns former dance outlet WNKL/96.9 Wauseon, which it is now LMAing to the folks at California's "K-Love".

Our question: We reported earlier from outposts all over the state that the Browns Radio Network had been asking for a decent chunk of change for rights fees, and that at least one Ohio station had been forced to leave the network after a long run because of that.

Did Cornerstone ante up the same kind of money that other Toledo stations owned by two major broadcast companies refused to pay? Or did they get a "fire sale price" because the games would not air otherwise? We don't know...

TRIBE SONG: And with the Cleveland Indians in the American League playoffs, we may have a candidate for a "Tribe song" for the post-season now.

No, it's not the team's own "Tribe Time" jingle, which has translated into a very, very popular T-shirt slogan. We mean the "non-team produced song" that has become a Cleveland tradition for local teams making sports playoffs.

"Mambo for the Tribe" came from Salem Cleveland CCM outlet WFHM/95.5 "The Fish", and specifically, the station's Dale Officer and Nick Kubik. It's a rework of Lou Vega's hit "Mambo Number Five".

We're told it's played on at least two other Cleveland stations not owned by Salem, though we can't verify that.

You can sample it, or purchase it, here on Officer's "HitzTheSpot" production website.

The download is priced at $1.50, which we believe is 51 cents more than the 45 RPM record of "The 12 Days Of A Cleveland Browns' Christmas" back in the early 1980's ("...on a Rutigliano Super Bowl Teammmmm...").

Or it's much less, if you account for inflation...

Controversy With Drennan

Our title, of course, is a play on the name of sportscaster Bruce Drennan's former WKNR/850 morning show, "Mornings With Drennan". Feel free to sing it out loud in the style of, say, a show tune...

Ever since regional sports network SportsTime Ohio announced that Drennan would host a daily talk show on the channel ("All Bets Are Off"), the Northeast Ohio media world can't stop buzzing about the hiring of a man who so recently walked out of a federal penitentiary, he has to get a work release exemption to even be able to leave his home and do the show.

(For the three people who haven't already heard, Drennan recently completed a five-month sentence in a West Virginia federal penitentiary for not claiming tens of thousands of dollars in gambling income on his federal taxes, and is now serving another five months on house arrest.)

Another local TV sports host, Les Levine, weighed in last week on his Time Warner Cable show "More Sports and Les Levine". He basically interrupted an in-studio interview with former Cleveland Cavaliers coach Mike Fratello to comment on the hiring...with a statement we transcribe here:

I realize that what I'm about to say is going to be scoffed at by some people who will say that I have a case of "sour grapes" because I have a television show on a network - FSN Ohio - that competes with SportsTime Ohio.

I'm all for deserving people getting a second chance, and it would be nice if some TV or radio station would give Bruce Drennan that second chance.

But not one that is owned by the Cleveland Indians.

Somebody's gotta help me out here.

According to a published report in the Plain Dealer, Drennan bet between 14 and 37 thousand dollars - a day - on baseball for several years.

Now, the Indians have hired him to do a daily sports show called "All Bets Are Off", and will have segments on the show featuring the manager, Eric Wedge.

Gambling scares baseball more than steroids scares baseball. Now, if you want to believe I have an agenda here, you can be my guest, but I do have one question: What the heck are the Indians thinking?

Les has a good point.

In the Cleveland Plain Dealer article about the hiring ("TV station gambles on host" by writer Mark Gillispie), a Major League Baseball spokesman is quoted:

Major League spokesman Richard Levin said in a telephone interview Tuesday that he had not heard about Drennan’s hiring.

“This is new to us, so we’ll have to look into it,” Levin said. He declined to comment further.

But in the Associated Press story on the Drennan hiring, found here on the website of the Times-Reporter newspaper in Dover-New Philadelphia - don't reach for that copy/paste, T-R folks, you already printed it! - gives us the impression that STO and the Indians have already run this by MLB.

Long-time Indians PR guy Bob DiBiasio tells the AP that Drennan won't be allowed in the clubhouse, but will be allowed on the field at Jacobs Field and in the press box. And then, there's this:

“We informed major league baseball of the situation and told them of our plan,” DiBiasio said. “They felt what we were doing fell in line as appropriate action.”

Either way, Mr. Levine is correct in his above statement. Baseball is VERY antsy about gambling, and even if the Indians have run this by the folks at the MLB offices, they WILL be watching Drennan closely...and the Indians, as well.

The whole thing is made even more odd by the fact that the sport Drennan admittedly betted on, and in some quantity, is baseball itself. That's something even fellow gambling addict and former Cincinnati Reds great Pete Rose didn't even admit until fairly recently.

MLB probably doesn't have much say in Drennan sitting in a SportsTime Ohio studio, and pontificating about sports from afar - even if it's the Indians' owners who own the network. They didn't hire Drennan to manage the team, or to do anything but open his mouth on TV.

It's the contact directly with players, manager Eric Wedge and others, that they'll be concerned about.

How will it go? Well, as Drennan says, people either love him or hate him. And that'll probably rule the day.

And even the show tanks, or if for whatever reason, the powers in New York force them to pull Drennan out of Jacobs Field, STO has already gained thousands upon thousands of dollars of free publicity...

UPDATE 3/27/07 1:58 PM: As per our new policy, this item is now closed for comments.

Up From The Minors

The long-time play-by-play voice of the AAA Buffalo Bisons is following a number of players for that Indians minor league team, and is moving up to the major leagues.

Bisons' radio voice Jim Rosenhaus has been named as radio pre-game host, and producer/engineer, for the Cleveland Indians Radio Network broadcasts - which originate at flagship station Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100.

The position had been advertised as an opening for some time.

OMW believes that it's a new hybrid position, and doesn't affect current Indians Radio Network staffers like WTAM Indians beat reporter Mark Schwab. Former Indians radio voice Matt Underwood, who did the network pre-game last year, is in the TV booth at SportsTime Ohio this upcoming season.

We don't know if Rosenhaus will play a role in WTAM's "Tribe Insider" pre-pre-game show, which was long hosted by sportscaster Casey Coleman...who passed away last year.

Rosenhaus tells the Buffalo News:

"If this job wasn't with the Indians, I don't know if I would have had as good a chance. No question, over the years I've developed relationships with people in their organization who came through Buffalo and helped me a lot."