Our pile of news is large this Monday, so we might as well get it posted and out of the way...
TV MADE EASY: That's the catchphrase used by Time Warner for its latest digital/HD cable channel changes, which are taking effect starting today.
We've already heard from one OMW reader in TWC's Wadsworth system, who tells us that the flip of the HD channels has already taken place there - from the 400s to the 1000s on the cable lineup. (We'll need reader help here, as we won't be able to track the changes systemwide.)
That moves not only various cable HD channels, it moves the HD feed of the local broadcast channels.
For whatever reason, TWC is sticking to its exising analog numbering system for the broadcast channels, which means - for example, as Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8 points out on its website - TWC viewers in Akron will see Fox 8 HD on cable channel 1009 (analog is on 9), and in Cleveland, it'll be on Channel 1008 (analog is on 8).
The "off channel placement" of local broadcast outlets in Akron dates back to the earliest days of Akron Cablevision, trying to avoid ghosting caused by "ingress" of the powerful over-air signals into the cable line. By the time the Cleveland area system was built in the 1980's, presumably, the company (North Coast Cable, Cablevision) was OK with on-channel placement...we presume due to better filtering technology in the newer system.
From a TWC press release on the move:
“Time Warner Cable is committed to delivering a robust offering of high definition channels to our customers,” said Vin Zachariah, Time Warner Cable Northeast Ohio/Western Pennsylvania Regional Vice President of Operations. “We now offer over 100 HD channels, and as a result, we’ve virtually outgrown the 400-block in our lineup. So, by moving them to the 1000s, we enable ourselves to continue adding HD channels and make them easier to find for our customers.”
The channel shuffle will put HD channels on the 1000-equivalent of their digital cable channels: i.e. CNN at 350 will be paired with CNN HD at 1350, and so on. But for those who are still used to tuning in the analog version of CNN on cable channel 24 (which still exists, even on digital or HD boxes), there is no such easy math.
TWC says the process will take place through the end of March.
WHILE WE'RE AT IT: We have word from an OMW reader who is a subscriber to TWC's former Adelphia system not in northeast Ohio, but central Ohio.
This page shows that mid-Ohio is also going through the HD channel realignment, and that the ex-Adelphia systems are coming along for the ride.
Like the ex-Adelphia systems in the Cleveland area, those customers are also being fed the new "Navigator" program guide this month...
FORMAT CHANGE: Like its Beacon Broadcasting sister stations in the Mahoning and Shenango Valley areas, WRTK/1540 Niles is up for sale...which we reported last week.
While it waits for a buyer, WRTK has changed format.
The daytime station was heard over the weekend running a simulcast of Beacon sister sports WANR/1570, with a legal ID calling it "Fox Sports 1540" along with WANR's "Fox Sports 1570".
Until this change, WRTK had been running a Christian contemporary format. It was initially called "Freq 1540", but dropped the handle some time after sister Christian/eclectic/talk WEXC/107.1 Greenville PA changed from "Freq 107" to "Indie 107.1".
The rest of the Beacon Empire remains unchanged.
WEXC continues with its unusual mix of Christian and secular rock music along with syndicated conservative talk (Premiere's Glenn Beck and Jason Lewis). And WLOA/1470 Farrell PA and WGRP/940 Greenville PA continue with their satellite/computer fed classic country format...
CHUCK'S BACK: We're not entirely sure if SportsTime Ohio was created as part of a Full Employment Act for Cleveland TV Sportscasters, but it's provided Chuck Galeti with a landing place.
STO will debut "Chuck's Last Call", a call-in show that will air after Cleveland Indians telecasts, on April 7th.
From an STO release:
“I’ve been in radio and television for 23 years and to finally have my own show that puts the fans first is great. I’m thrilled to be on SportsTime Ohio and the fact that they are giving me this opportunity is fantastic,” said Chuck Gateti.
Galeti, of course, was most recently a sports anchor at Raycom Media's CBS/MyNetwork TV combo WOIO/19-WUAB/43's "19 Action News", and in addition to past work for Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3, has also done radio sports talk at Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100. He started his TV career at Youngstown's WFMJ/21, the Vindicator-owned NBC affiliate.
About that "Full Employment Act" line - STO has been a landing place for many displaced over-air Cleveland TV sportscasters.
Former Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 sports anchor/reporter Sue Ann Robak is among many who have done work for STO (in addition to filling Galeti's vacancy at WOIO on a freelance basis, until the hiring of WTAM's Mark Schwab).
And former WKYC'er Mike Cairns is still in the building at 13th and Lakeside doing work for STO. He'll fill-in today on the network's "All Bets Are Off" show normally hosted by Bruce Drennan, who is jetting back with producer Gene Winters from Cleveland Indians spring training in Goodyear AZ.
(Also in outer-suburban Phoenix watching the Tribe this week: Rubber City Radio oldies/news WAKR/1590 Akron morning host Ray Horner and VP/information media/OMW reader Ed Esposito, and Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting talk WEOL/930 Elyria staffer Tim Alcorn.)
SPEAKING OF THE VINDICATOR: We got some questions from Youngstown-area readers about the commercial teases airing on WFMJ/21 during the Winter Olympics - touting a "new newspaper" for the Mahoning Valley.
Was the Vindicator about to get some (more) competition? (Remember, the Youngstown newspaper also competes in much of the Valley with the Warren Tribune-Chronicle.)
It didn't take long for some of our smarter readers to piece the story together.
For one, WFMJ is owned by the Vindicator. Would the station even accept an ad from a would-be competitor to the print side of its operation?
For another, spots during the Winter Olympics would be prohibitively expensive for a startup operation.
And for a third, the Mahoning Valley economy continues to reel, even compared to the national economic downturn. And for a fourth point, the newspaper business is cutting back, back, back, even in areas with a better economy than Youngstown. Who starts a new newspaper in 2010?
The Winter Olympics spot should have been a clue, as it costs the Vindicator nothing to "advertise" on its co-owned TV station.
Sure enough, the "new newspaper" is actually a revamped Vindicator, made possible by the purchase of a new, er, used $6.8 million press from the Los Angeles Times.
The Vindicator took the opportunity for a redesign, which the paper freely admits will result in cost savings from a smaller form factor needing less costly newsprint.
You can read all about it here on the "Visual Editors" blog...or follow this link to the Vindicator's own stories on the changes...
TOLEDO CHANGES: It looks like religious operator CSN Radio (Calvary Satellite Network) is about to take over WTOD/1560 Toledo from Cumulus.
So says a page on CSN's website, with a message dated March 4th:
88.9 FM Pemberville, OH (W205BP) and 100.7 FM Toledo, OH (W264AK) will soon be replaced with the full-power signal of WTOD Toledo, OH on 1560 AM.
Our Northwest Ohio reader who tipped us to this confirms that the 100.7 translator is indeed off the air.
But what we don't know - what will Cumulus, which got W264AK in the trade with CSN, do with the translator?
There's been all sorts of speculation in the market, mostly speculating around Cumulus using an existing station's HD2 feed to power anything from a revamped WTOD talk format to alt-rock, once heard on now-former WRWK/106.5 Delta - now a simulcast of sports WLQR/1470 as WLQR-FM.
We're here to tell you that we don't have any handle on 100.7's future, other than the fact that it has a construction permit to move to 100.9 from a more central location in Toledo...the facility is apparently far enough from the North Central Ohio town of Clyde, which boasts full-power BAS Broadcasting country WMJK/100.9 "Coast Country"...
AND FINALLY: Radio-Info.com's always excellent columnist Tom Taylor ("Taylor on Radio-Info") picked up on our story last week about the end of the "translator threat" to Media-Com talk WNIR/100.1 Kent "The Talk of Akron", by a moved-in translator permit on 100.3 in the far western Cleveland suburb of North Ridgeville that has since been dismissed.
Tom added some details in his newsletter this morning...going through sale documents that we origially did not.
According to those documents, religious translator storehouse Edgewater Broadcasting agreed to sell W262BN to Radio One (subsidiary Blue Chip Broadcasting) for $100,000. Radio One put down a $5,000 deposit, which Taylor presumes they'll want back...and we make the same presumption, based on the language in the assignment agreement.
One clarification here: In going through FCC records, it appears that W262BN retains a valid license - under Edgewater's ownership - for a Lorain-based facility. The applications dismissed as a result of WNIR's actions were for a move to a Cleveland license city, with new facilities on a Verizon Wireless cell tower in North Ridgeville. (As we pointed out before, FM translators to not need to show coverage standards for license cities.)
Whether anything happens to that original license, which as far as we know has not regularly been on the air, remains to be seen...
Showing posts with label print. Show all posts
Showing posts with label print. Show all posts
Monday, March 08, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Two Quick Hits
As earlier passed along on our Twitter feed...
EXITING CHARLOTTE: Details are scarce right now, but trade site AllAccess reports that not that terribly long after he arrived, Mike Kenney is no longer market manager of Clear Channel's Charlotte cluster.
AllAccess reports that OM Bruce Logan steps in as interim GM of the company's Queen City (North Carolina, that is) cluster.
We're following the news here, of course, because it's been just a few months since Kenney arrived in Charlotte from Northeast Ohio. He left his post as market manager of Clear Channel's Cleveland cluster in late August 2009.
We got the impression at the time that Kenney was hurried to Charlotte to "fix things up" there.
His departure from the Charlotte cluster, AllAccess says, was announced much like his predecessor's exit - in a quick E-mail this morning.
By the way, we've double-checked our own archives, which include clips from official releases out of Oak Tree, and Mike Kenney's last name is indeed spelled with two "e"'s...
STRIKE ON NOTICE: Newsroom employees of the Akron Beacon Journal authorized their union - the Akron Newspaper Guild - to strike last night, though that doesn't mean a strike is imminent...and negotiations are apparently still ongoing.
The union continues to point out that the Black Press-owned daily is "not pleading poverty" - it just wants to pay union members lower wages...saying that newsroom managers and non-union employees aren't being asked to take cuts.
A release from the union, which was helpfully sent to our mailbox by the union last night, is reprinted below:
---------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Feb. 10, 2010
AKRON NEWSPAPER GUILD TAKES STRIKE AUTHORIZATION VOTE
Contact: Stephanie Warsmith, secretary of the Akron unit, at 330-328-8566
The Akron unit of the Newspaper Guild overwhelmingly approved a strike authorization vote Wednesday evening. There was just one dissenting vote cast.
The vote gives the Guild’s bargaining committee the authority to strike if and when the committee thinks it’s necessary. The Guild recognizes the challenges facing the newspaper industry and has been open to discussing possible solutions.
``The last thing we want is a strike but we are willing to do whatever is necessary to secure a fair contract that reflects the valuable contributions of our members,’’ said Bob DeMay, the Guild’s president and an assistant photo editor at the Akron Beacon Journal.
The Guild and company have been negotiating for more than a year, with the union’s members operating under the terms of a contract that expired in July 2008.
The Beacon Journal is asking the Guild to accept concessions that would equate to a 25 to 30 percent decrease in wages and benefits, including a 16.75 percent pay cut, a pension freeze, a larger share of health care costs and a change to sick pay that would be worse than what WalMart offers.
The company’s lead negotiator told the Guild negotiating team that the newspaper isn’t pleading poverty but simply doesn’t want to continue paying at the current levels. Newsroom managers - among the highest paid employees in the newsroom -- and non-union employees elsewhere in the building, are not being asked to accept similar cuts. The newspaper also is hiring for positions outside the newsroom. The company has refused the Guild’s repeated requests to open its books.
The Guild represents about 85 reporters, copy editors, photographers, assistant editors, page designers, artists, sports statisticians, librarians and secretaries - a number slashed more than 50 percent over the past 10 years through layoffs, buyouts and attrition.
Guild members annually win state and national awards, earning the newspaper respect and recognition.
-30-
EXITING CHARLOTTE: Details are scarce right now, but trade site AllAccess reports that not that terribly long after he arrived, Mike Kenney is no longer market manager of Clear Channel's Charlotte cluster.
AllAccess reports that OM Bruce Logan steps in as interim GM of the company's Queen City (North Carolina, that is) cluster.
We're following the news here, of course, because it's been just a few months since Kenney arrived in Charlotte from Northeast Ohio. He left his post as market manager of Clear Channel's Cleveland cluster in late August 2009.
We got the impression at the time that Kenney was hurried to Charlotte to "fix things up" there.
His departure from the Charlotte cluster, AllAccess says, was announced much like his predecessor's exit - in a quick E-mail this morning.
By the way, we've double-checked our own archives, which include clips from official releases out of Oak Tree, and Mike Kenney's last name is indeed spelled with two "e"'s...
STRIKE ON NOTICE: Newsroom employees of the Akron Beacon Journal authorized their union - the Akron Newspaper Guild - to strike last night, though that doesn't mean a strike is imminent...and negotiations are apparently still ongoing.
The union continues to point out that the Black Press-owned daily is "not pleading poverty" - it just wants to pay union members lower wages...saying that newsroom managers and non-union employees aren't being asked to take cuts.
A release from the union, which was helpfully sent to our mailbox by the union last night, is reprinted below:
---------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Feb. 10, 2010
AKRON NEWSPAPER GUILD TAKES STRIKE AUTHORIZATION VOTE
Contact: Stephanie Warsmith, secretary of the Akron unit, at 330-328-8566
The Akron unit of the Newspaper Guild overwhelmingly approved a strike authorization vote Wednesday evening. There was just one dissenting vote cast.
The vote gives the Guild’s bargaining committee the authority to strike if and when the committee thinks it’s necessary. The Guild recognizes the challenges facing the newspaper industry and has been open to discussing possible solutions.
``The last thing we want is a strike but we are willing to do whatever is necessary to secure a fair contract that reflects the valuable contributions of our members,’’ said Bob DeMay, the Guild’s president and an assistant photo editor at the Akron Beacon Journal.
The Guild and company have been negotiating for more than a year, with the union’s members operating under the terms of a contract that expired in July 2008.
The Beacon Journal is asking the Guild to accept concessions that would equate to a 25 to 30 percent decrease in wages and benefits, including a 16.75 percent pay cut, a pension freeze, a larger share of health care costs and a change to sick pay that would be worse than what WalMart offers.
The company’s lead negotiator told the Guild negotiating team that the newspaper isn’t pleading poverty but simply doesn’t want to continue paying at the current levels. Newsroom managers - among the highest paid employees in the newsroom -- and non-union employees elsewhere in the building, are not being asked to accept similar cuts. The newspaper also is hiring for positions outside the newsroom. The company has refused the Guild’s repeated requests to open its books.
The Guild represents about 85 reporters, copy editors, photographers, assistant editors, page designers, artists, sports statisticians, librarians and secretaries - a number slashed more than 50 percent over the past 10 years through layoffs, buyouts and attrition.
Guild members annually win state and national awards, earning the newspaper respect and recognition.
-30-
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Cleveland Journalism Hall Of Fame 2009 Inductees
The folks at the Press Club of Cleveland were kind enough to let us know about their 2009 Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame inductees, which include several notable local TV and newspaper personalities.
The complete Press Club press release is reprinted below:
--------------
The Press Club of Cleveland Announces 2009 Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame Inductees
August 4, 2009, Cleveland, Ohio – The Press Club of Cleveland announces its 2009 Journalism Hall of Fame inductees. Three current and former reporters/anchors from WKYC-TV Channel 3 join a pair of Pulitzer Prize finalists from The Plain Dealer in the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame’s Class of 2009.
The 2009 inductees include WKYC-TV’s sports anchor Jim Donovan, managing editor Dick Russ and former investigative reporter Paul Sciria, along with two-time Pulitzer finalist for commentary Regina Brett of The Plain Dealer and former Plain Dealer photographer William Wynne. All were elected to the Hall of Fame by members of the Press Club of Cleveland.
Additionally former Cleveland Press and Plain Dealer reporter Walt Bogdanich, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner at The New York Times, and Plain Dealer editorial director Elizabeth Sullivan will also be inducted that night. Both were elected in 2008 but were unable to attend the ceremony.
The 2009 winners will be formally inducted at a dinner reception on October 28, 2009 at LaCentre in Westlake, Ohio. Call 440-899-1222 for more information or e-mail The Press Club of Cleveland at pressclubcleveland@oh.rr.com.
The 2009 inductees:
Regina Brett: Few local columnists anywhere have had the kind of impact that The Plain Dealer’s Brett has had in Cleveland. For the past two years, she has been a Pulitzer Prize finalist for commentary based on “her range of compelling columns that move the heart, challenge authority and often trigger action,” according to the Pulitzer’s board of directors. The American Bar Association and the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association both recognized her efforts in establishing open discovery in Ohio this year, honoring her with the Silver Gavel Award and the Liberty Bell Award, respectively. Additionally, in 1999, Brett won the National Headliner Award for her columns on her breast cancer. Ten years later, she won the award again for her series of columns, “The Inheritance,” about passing the gene on to her daughter. She also won the James Batten Medal in 1999 for columns championing underdogs and ordinary folks, and she was a finalist again for the medal this year. She has been named best columnist in Ohio by The Press Club of Cleveland, Ohio SPJ and the Associated Press Society of Ohio. She is a Kent State University graduate and a native of Northeast Ohio.
Jim Donovan: He came to Northeast Ohio as a weekend sports anchor in 1985 and has stayed for almost a quarter of a century to become arguably Cleveland’s most prominent voice in sports. Donovan has been the radio play-by-play announcer for the Cleveland Browns since their return to the NFL in 1999, as well as serving as sports director for WKYC-TV Channel 3. For NBC he has covered the Summer Olympics in 1992 and ’96 and World Cup soccer in 1994. He also announced NFL games for NBC before becoming the play-by-play announcer for the Browns. He calls Cleveland Indians games for Channel 3 and has hosted the PBS coverage of the All-American Soap Box Derby since 1991. Donovan received a regional Emmy for Best Sportscaster and received the same award from The Press Club of Cleveland. His 1992 report on the Cleveland Browns also won a regional Emmy. His charity work includes serving as spokesperson for the Kidney Foundation of Ohio.
Dick Russ: For more than 30 years, Russ has proven to be one of Northeast Ohio’s most versatile news broadcasters, working as reporter, anchor and now managing editor at WKYC-TV Channel 3. Colleagues say Russ’s way with words sets him apart from other broadcasters. “I’ve never met anyone in TV news who writes as well as Dick,” said Hall of Famer Tim Taylor. Russ is already a member of the Ohio Broadcasters Hall of Fame and he also received the Silver Circle Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, recognizing him for more than 25 years of exemplary service to the industry. Russ has won 10 regional Emmys for his reporting and twice has been honored by the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists as the best TV documentarian in the state. He received a Gabriel Award, the highest national honor for TV reporting on religion and also won the Religious Communicators Council’s national award. He was a reporter and noon anchor for 20 years at WJW-TV before coming to WKYC-TV in 1999. He also worked at Channel 23 in Akron.
Paul Sciria: Before “60 Minutes” or Carl Monday, Cleveland had TV investigative reporter Paul Sciria watching the streets and city hall for corruption. Channel 3 hired Sciria as its first full-time news reporter in 1957. In time, his car with his name and the station’s call letters on the side became a familiar sight around town. Sciria interviewed everyone from Bobby Kennedy to the Beatles, but ferreting out the inside scoop was his specialty. He worked at Channel 3 until 1975, and then formed his own public relations firm. In 1992, he became the founding editor of La Gazzatta, a 10,000-circulation Italian-American newspaper. He remains active with La Gazzata at age 80.
William Wynne: The latest in a long line of honor for Wynne came earlier this year when he was selected to the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame, joining such luminaries as John Glenn, Jesse Owens, Norman Vincent Peale and Dorothy Fuldheim. After a decorated military career in World War II and seven years with NASA, Wynne worked more than three decades as a Plain Dealer photographer before retiring in 1984. His biggest assignment was as part of the three-man investigation of Lima State Hospital for the Criminally Insane -- an exposé of gross mistreatment of inmates by prison guards in 1973, resulting in the conviction of more than 30 employees and former employees. Reporters Richard Widman, Theodore Whelan and photographer Wynne were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and won at least a half-dozen other awards for the series. But Wynne is probably best known as the author of “Yorkie Doodle Dandy,” a memoir, now in its third printing. Smoky, a four-pound Yorkshire terrier was found in a New Guinea foxhole in March 1944. As a hobby, Wynne trained the seven-inch tall dog by trial and error in the remote jungles to respond to over 200 commands and behaviors. Wynne was part of a team that was a finalist for the Pulitzer in the 1970s.
The 2008 Inductees:
Walt Bogdanich: The former Cleveland Press and Plain Dealer reporter won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in 2008 along with New York Times colleague Jake Hooker for their stories on toxic ingredients in medicine and other everyday products imported from China, leading to crackdowns by American and Chinese officials. It was Bogdanich’s third Pulitzer Prize. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for National Reporting for his series "Death on the Tracks," which examined the safety record of the U.S. railroad industry. He also won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for Specialized Reporting for his articles in The Wall Street Journal on substandard medical laboratories. Bogdanich has won four George Polk Awards and an Overseas Press Club Award. He became investigations editor for the Business and Finance desk of The New York Times in January 2001. He was named an assistant editor for the paper's newly expanded Investigative Desk in 2003. Before joining The Times, he was an investigative producer for "60 Minutes" on CBS and for ABC News. Previously, he worked as an investigative reporter for The Wall Street Journal in New York and Washington.
Elizabeth Sullivan: Sullivan was named editorial director of The Plain Dealer in 2009, succeeding Hall of Famer Brent Larkin, who retired. She formerly was foreign affairs columnist and an associate editor of the editorial pages and a reporter for the paper. As The Plain Dealer's European Correspondent in the 1990s, she covered the Balkan wars and the breakup of Yugoslavia. Her 1990 article predicting the end of Yugoslavia was one of the first to foresee that bloody outcome. In 1994, at the height of the Bosnian war, she was held for 72 hours by the Bosnian Serb Army. Sullivan also chronicled the post-Cold War transitions in Russia, Germany and Eastern Europe, and has reported from Israel, the West Bank, Northern Ireland, Cuba and Korea. In 1985, during a three-month journey through China on a Gannett Journalism fellowship, she was one of the early Western travelers to reach Tibet. Sullivan has circled the world twice, in opposite directions. She is conversant in Russian and Serbo-Croatian and has a traveling vocabulary for French, Spanish, Chinese and German.
About the Press Club of Cleveland
The Press Club of Cleveland is an organization for print and broadcast journalists and editors, public relations and advertising professionals, and anyone who works with them. The club serves its members by providing social and educational opportunities, promoting excellence in journalism, attracting and educating high- quality candidates to enter journalism, and maintaining a history of journalism in Cleveland, Ohio.
More information is available at www.pressclubcleveland.com or by calling 440-899-1222.
The complete Press Club press release is reprinted below:
--------------
The Press Club of Cleveland Announces 2009 Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame Inductees
August 4, 2009, Cleveland, Ohio – The Press Club of Cleveland announces its 2009 Journalism Hall of Fame inductees. Three current and former reporters/anchors from WKYC-TV Channel 3 join a pair of Pulitzer Prize finalists from The Plain Dealer in the Cleveland Journalism Hall of Fame’s Class of 2009.
The 2009 inductees include WKYC-TV’s sports anchor Jim Donovan, managing editor Dick Russ and former investigative reporter Paul Sciria, along with two-time Pulitzer finalist for commentary Regina Brett of The Plain Dealer and former Plain Dealer photographer William Wynne. All were elected to the Hall of Fame by members of the Press Club of Cleveland.
Additionally former Cleveland Press and Plain Dealer reporter Walt Bogdanich, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner at The New York Times, and Plain Dealer editorial director Elizabeth Sullivan will also be inducted that night. Both were elected in 2008 but were unable to attend the ceremony.
The 2009 winners will be formally inducted at a dinner reception on October 28, 2009 at LaCentre in Westlake, Ohio. Call 440-899-1222 for more information or e-mail The Press Club of Cleveland at pressclubcleveland@oh.rr.com.
The 2009 inductees:
Regina Brett: Few local columnists anywhere have had the kind of impact that The Plain Dealer’s Brett has had in Cleveland. For the past two years, she has been a Pulitzer Prize finalist for commentary based on “her range of compelling columns that move the heart, challenge authority and often trigger action,” according to the Pulitzer’s board of directors. The American Bar Association and the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association both recognized her efforts in establishing open discovery in Ohio this year, honoring her with the Silver Gavel Award and the Liberty Bell Award, respectively. Additionally, in 1999, Brett won the National Headliner Award for her columns on her breast cancer. Ten years later, she won the award again for her series of columns, “The Inheritance,” about passing the gene on to her daughter. She also won the James Batten Medal in 1999 for columns championing underdogs and ordinary folks, and she was a finalist again for the medal this year. She has been named best columnist in Ohio by The Press Club of Cleveland, Ohio SPJ and the Associated Press Society of Ohio. She is a Kent State University graduate and a native of Northeast Ohio.
Jim Donovan: He came to Northeast Ohio as a weekend sports anchor in 1985 and has stayed for almost a quarter of a century to become arguably Cleveland’s most prominent voice in sports. Donovan has been the radio play-by-play announcer for the Cleveland Browns since their return to the NFL in 1999, as well as serving as sports director for WKYC-TV Channel 3. For NBC he has covered the Summer Olympics in 1992 and ’96 and World Cup soccer in 1994. He also announced NFL games for NBC before becoming the play-by-play announcer for the Browns. He calls Cleveland Indians games for Channel 3 and has hosted the PBS coverage of the All-American Soap Box Derby since 1991. Donovan received a regional Emmy for Best Sportscaster and received the same award from The Press Club of Cleveland. His 1992 report on the Cleveland Browns also won a regional Emmy. His charity work includes serving as spokesperson for the Kidney Foundation of Ohio.
Dick Russ: For more than 30 years, Russ has proven to be one of Northeast Ohio’s most versatile news broadcasters, working as reporter, anchor and now managing editor at WKYC-TV Channel 3. Colleagues say Russ’s way with words sets him apart from other broadcasters. “I’ve never met anyone in TV news who writes as well as Dick,” said Hall of Famer Tim Taylor. Russ is already a member of the Ohio Broadcasters Hall of Fame and he also received the Silver Circle Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, recognizing him for more than 25 years of exemplary service to the industry. Russ has won 10 regional Emmys for his reporting and twice has been honored by the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists as the best TV documentarian in the state. He received a Gabriel Award, the highest national honor for TV reporting on religion and also won the Religious Communicators Council’s national award. He was a reporter and noon anchor for 20 years at WJW-TV before coming to WKYC-TV in 1999. He also worked at Channel 23 in Akron.
Paul Sciria: Before “60 Minutes” or Carl Monday, Cleveland had TV investigative reporter Paul Sciria watching the streets and city hall for corruption. Channel 3 hired Sciria as its first full-time news reporter in 1957. In time, his car with his name and the station’s call letters on the side became a familiar sight around town. Sciria interviewed everyone from Bobby Kennedy to the Beatles, but ferreting out the inside scoop was his specialty. He worked at Channel 3 until 1975, and then formed his own public relations firm. In 1992, he became the founding editor of La Gazzatta, a 10,000-circulation Italian-American newspaper. He remains active with La Gazzata at age 80.
William Wynne: The latest in a long line of honor for Wynne came earlier this year when he was selected to the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame, joining such luminaries as John Glenn, Jesse Owens, Norman Vincent Peale and Dorothy Fuldheim. After a decorated military career in World War II and seven years with NASA, Wynne worked more than three decades as a Plain Dealer photographer before retiring in 1984. His biggest assignment was as part of the three-man investigation of Lima State Hospital for the Criminally Insane -- an exposé of gross mistreatment of inmates by prison guards in 1973, resulting in the conviction of more than 30 employees and former employees. Reporters Richard Widman, Theodore Whelan and photographer Wynne were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and won at least a half-dozen other awards for the series. But Wynne is probably best known as the author of “Yorkie Doodle Dandy,” a memoir, now in its third printing. Smoky, a four-pound Yorkshire terrier was found in a New Guinea foxhole in March 1944. As a hobby, Wynne trained the seven-inch tall dog by trial and error in the remote jungles to respond to over 200 commands and behaviors. Wynne was part of a team that was a finalist for the Pulitzer in the 1970s.
The 2008 Inductees:
Walt Bogdanich: The former Cleveland Press and Plain Dealer reporter won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in 2008 along with New York Times colleague Jake Hooker for their stories on toxic ingredients in medicine and other everyday products imported from China, leading to crackdowns by American and Chinese officials. It was Bogdanich’s third Pulitzer Prize. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for National Reporting for his series "Death on the Tracks," which examined the safety record of the U.S. railroad industry. He also won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for Specialized Reporting for his articles in The Wall Street Journal on substandard medical laboratories. Bogdanich has won four George Polk Awards and an Overseas Press Club Award. He became investigations editor for the Business and Finance desk of The New York Times in January 2001. He was named an assistant editor for the paper's newly expanded Investigative Desk in 2003. Before joining The Times, he was an investigative producer for "60 Minutes" on CBS and for ABC News. Previously, he worked as an investigative reporter for The Wall Street Journal in New York and Washington.
Elizabeth Sullivan: Sullivan was named editorial director of The Plain Dealer in 2009, succeeding Hall of Famer Brent Larkin, who retired. She formerly was foreign affairs columnist and an associate editor of the editorial pages and a reporter for the paper. As The Plain Dealer's European Correspondent in the 1990s, she covered the Balkan wars and the breakup of Yugoslavia. Her 1990 article predicting the end of Yugoslavia was one of the first to foresee that bloody outcome. In 1994, at the height of the Bosnian war, she was held for 72 hours by the Bosnian Serb Army. Sullivan also chronicled the post-Cold War transitions in Russia, Germany and Eastern Europe, and has reported from Israel, the West Bank, Northern Ireland, Cuba and Korea. In 1985, during a three-month journey through China on a Gannett Journalism fellowship, she was one of the early Western travelers to reach Tibet. Sullivan has circled the world twice, in opposite directions. She is conversant in Russian and Serbo-Croatian and has a traveling vocabulary for French, Spanish, Chinese and German.
About the Press Club of Cleveland
The Press Club of Cleveland is an organization for print and broadcast journalists and editors, public relations and advertising professionals, and anyone who works with them. The club serves its members by providing social and educational opportunities, promoting excellence in journalism, attracting and educating high- quality candidates to enter journalism, and maintaining a history of journalism in Cleveland, Ohio.
More information is available at www.pressclubcleveland.com or by calling 440-899-1222.
Monday, August 03, 2009
A Couple With Julie
Of course, we're talking about Julie Washington, the Cleveland Plain Dealer media writer who is basically the only other person in this area writing about local media outlets...and the only one getting paid to do so.
One week ago, OMW provided extensive details about economic hard times at Cleveland's PBS/NPR combo, WVIZ/25 and WCPN/90.3, which are under the corporate umbrella of Ideastream. (Sorry, we refuse to use the lower case "i".)
The changes at Playhouse Square ended up with 9 employees being let go, which amounts to about 8 percent of the company's combined workforce. Most were not on-air employees.
The company's upper management also took a pay cut, which we also reported. The stations report that a massive reduction in state funding, and hard hits from a drop in corporate support, were to blame.
Ms. Washington ran the story last Thursday online, and Friday in print, after Ideastream issued a press release - apparently on Wednesday. Crain's Cleveland Business also ran a story based on that release Wednesday afternoon on its website.
We assume that if Julie had seen our Monday item, she'd have pursued it earlier, so she apparently isn't a regular OMW reader these days.
But in case she is, we'd like to answer a question she put forth.
UPDATED 8/3/09 2:17 PM: We actually just found the article in question, written Thursday morning by Washington, on Cleveland.com. We found it...umm...from our own Twitter feed. It's Monday, and the brain cells aren't fully functioning yet.
Julie wondered about the fate of WCPN jazz host Dan Polletta. His "Jazz from the North Coast" evening show was knocked off the WCPN schedule with the changes, with a syndicated program originating from Chicago's WFMT in its place. Quoting:
A big question mark hangs over the fate of Dan Polletta, longtime host of WCPN's "Jazz from the North Coast." The show was replaced Monday, July 27, with the syndicated "Jazz with Bob Parlocha" from the Jazz Satellite Network. The show is heard 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday.
Polletta could not be reached for comment.
Our sources at Playhouse Square tell us that Polletta is still in the building as a full-time employee, having been moved into other duties...doing things like contributing to the station's "Around Noon" show, and other on-air/announcing work.
We're told that the move involving Polletta took place a few months ago, and that WCPN music director Bobby Jackson had been moved into the "Jazz from the North Coast" time slot. It's presumed that Ideastream already was eyeing the syndicated program at that point, and knew the local show would eventually end.
As we reported earlier, Jackson is the only on-air employee apparently affected by the Ideastream layoffs, and will be able to stick around until October 2nd, the effective date of the cuts.
The second item was dropped into our mailbox by an OMW reader (maybe we should give HIM the Search Cleveland.com job!).
He found this "clarification" by Clear Channel to a story Julie Washington wrote back in May about cuts at the radio giant, and the lesser use of local voices as a result.
Please note: The original article ran in mid-May, and Clear Channel's attempts at clarification were published at the start of August.
We don't know if a special CC PR team spent two and a half months working up a response to the Julie Washington piece, or if the PD's entertainment editors didn't get a Round Tuit(tm) until now.
Clear Channel apparently very much wants you to know certain things, like the fact the company's situation isn't properly described as a "financial quagmire". (Since we have no Business Section, we'll leave that up to others to hash out.)
It "clarifies" the fact that two shows affected in this year's cuts, the now-out-the-door "Brian and Joe" show on hot AC WMVX/106.5, and talk WTAM/1100's afternoon drive talk fest with Mike Trivisonno, do not target the 18-34 audiences Julie listed in her original piece. Fair enough, they don't. Or, didn't, in the case of "Brian and Joe".
Clear Channel also notes that its local listenership was "basically flat" over the past few years in Cleveland, trying to counter the perception of "listeners turning off over-air radio" in the article.
It also notes the number of program directors at its Cleveland stations - down from 5 in 2004 to 4 in 2009, accounting for rock WMMS/100.7 program director Bo Matthews adding the programming duties at top 40 WAKS/96.5 "Kiss FM" to his plate at Oak Tree.
And it proudly notes it still employs two program directors in Akron/Canton - long-time OMW reader Keith Kennedy (hot AC WKDD/98.1), and Greg Ausham (rock WRQK/106.9-talk WHLO/640), with Kennedy serving as programming operations director for the entire cluster on Freedom Avenue...which also includes AC WHOF/101.7 and sports WARF/1350.
Finally, the Clear Channel "clarification" notes the use of the company's nationally distributed programming is limited to certain dayparts (overnights, some weekends) on four of the five Oak Tree stations - WAKS, WMMS, classic hits WMJI/105.7 and country WGAR/99.5.
The note says WMVX "Mix 106.5" doesn't use the "Premium Choice" programming, and that the company's Akron/Canton stations also don't use "PC". (Of course, nighttime host Billy Bush on WKDD is separately syndicated by a company not connected to Clear Channel.)
Neither the clarification, or Ms. Washington's original article, notes that at least some local employees at Oak Tree are actually providing some of the "Premium Choice" programming to the national feed. WGAR's Chuck Collier and WMJI's Don "Action" Jackson would be on that list...
One week ago, OMW provided extensive details about economic hard times at Cleveland's PBS/NPR combo, WVIZ/25 and WCPN/90.3, which are under the corporate umbrella of Ideastream. (Sorry, we refuse to use the lower case "i".)
The changes at Playhouse Square ended up with 9 employees being let go, which amounts to about 8 percent of the company's combined workforce. Most were not on-air employees.
The company's upper management also took a pay cut, which we also reported. The stations report that a massive reduction in state funding, and hard hits from a drop in corporate support, were to blame.
Ms. Washington ran the story last Thursday online, and Friday in print, after Ideastream issued a press release - apparently on Wednesday. Crain's Cleveland Business also ran a story based on that release Wednesday afternoon on its website.
We assume that if Julie had seen our Monday item, she'd have pursued it earlier, so she apparently isn't a regular OMW reader these days.
But in case she is, we'd like to answer a question she put forth.
UPDATED 8/3/09 2:17 PM: We actually just found the article in question, written Thursday morning by Washington, on Cleveland.com. We found it...umm...from our own Twitter feed. It's Monday, and the brain cells aren't fully functioning yet.
Julie wondered about the fate of WCPN jazz host Dan Polletta. His "Jazz from the North Coast" evening show was knocked off the WCPN schedule with the changes, with a syndicated program originating from Chicago's WFMT in its place. Quoting:
A big question mark hangs over the fate of Dan Polletta, longtime host of WCPN's "Jazz from the North Coast." The show was replaced Monday, July 27, with the syndicated "Jazz with Bob Parlocha" from the Jazz Satellite Network. The show is heard 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Monday through Thursday.
Polletta could not be reached for comment.
Our sources at Playhouse Square tell us that Polletta is still in the building as a full-time employee, having been moved into other duties...doing things like contributing to the station's "Around Noon" show, and other on-air/announcing work.
We're told that the move involving Polletta took place a few months ago, and that WCPN music director Bobby Jackson had been moved into the "Jazz from the North Coast" time slot. It's presumed that Ideastream already was eyeing the syndicated program at that point, and knew the local show would eventually end.
As we reported earlier, Jackson is the only on-air employee apparently affected by the Ideastream layoffs, and will be able to stick around until October 2nd, the effective date of the cuts.
The second item was dropped into our mailbox by an OMW reader (maybe we should give HIM the Search Cleveland.com job!).
He found this "clarification" by Clear Channel to a story Julie Washington wrote back in May about cuts at the radio giant, and the lesser use of local voices as a result.
Please note: The original article ran in mid-May, and Clear Channel's attempts at clarification were published at the start of August.
We don't know if a special CC PR team spent two and a half months working up a response to the Julie Washington piece, or if the PD's entertainment editors didn't get a Round Tuit(tm) until now.
Clear Channel apparently very much wants you to know certain things, like the fact the company's situation isn't properly described as a "financial quagmire". (Since we have no Business Section, we'll leave that up to others to hash out.)
It "clarifies" the fact that two shows affected in this year's cuts, the now-out-the-door "Brian and Joe" show on hot AC WMVX/106.5, and talk WTAM/1100's afternoon drive talk fest with Mike Trivisonno, do not target the 18-34 audiences Julie listed in her original piece. Fair enough, they don't. Or, didn't, in the case of "Brian and Joe".
Clear Channel also notes that its local listenership was "basically flat" over the past few years in Cleveland, trying to counter the perception of "listeners turning off over-air radio" in the article.
It also notes the number of program directors at its Cleveland stations - down from 5 in 2004 to 4 in 2009, accounting for rock WMMS/100.7 program director Bo Matthews adding the programming duties at top 40 WAKS/96.5 "Kiss FM" to his plate at Oak Tree.
And it proudly notes it still employs two program directors in Akron/Canton - long-time OMW reader Keith Kennedy (hot AC WKDD/98.1), and Greg Ausham (rock WRQK/106.9-talk WHLO/640), with Kennedy serving as programming operations director for the entire cluster on Freedom Avenue...which also includes AC WHOF/101.7 and sports WARF/1350.
Finally, the Clear Channel "clarification" notes the use of the company's nationally distributed programming is limited to certain dayparts (overnights, some weekends) on four of the five Oak Tree stations - WAKS, WMMS, classic hits WMJI/105.7 and country WGAR/99.5.
The note says WMVX "Mix 106.5" doesn't use the "Premium Choice" programming, and that the company's Akron/Canton stations also don't use "PC". (Of course, nighttime host Billy Bush on WKDD is separately syndicated by a company not connected to Clear Channel.)
Neither the clarification, or Ms. Washington's original article, notes that at least some local employees at Oak Tree are actually providing some of the "Premium Choice" programming to the national feed. WGAR's Chuck Collier and WMJI's Don "Action" Jackson would be on that list...
Dan Coughlin Throws Own Retirement Party
Our apologies to OMW reader Ted Lux, the Cleveland radio veteran, for hanging onto this for so long.
It's a nice "inside" story on the send-off for now-former Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8 sports reporter and anchor Dan Coughlin, a name instantly familiar to legions of Cleveland sports fans from both his days on Channel 8, but also from his long run at the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Coughlin recently accepted a WJW buyout offer, and headed into retirement with his own lively party last month...which Ted describes below...
-----------
Dan Coughlin Throws His Own Retirement Party
By Ted Lux, Special to Ohio Media Watch
It was a laugh a minute at the Beach Cliff Tavern in Rocky River on Sunday (July 19th), as Dan Coughlin arranged - and hosted - his own retirement party.
He brought the hot dogs, pasta, chicken, pizza and homemade brownies. The only thing he didn't bring were copious amounts of Miller Lite which the Tavern served up.
When it was retirement gift time, Dan's sons carried a large cardboard box to the stage almost like it were the Ark of the Covenant. It was disguised to look like a Dell computer, causing Dan to grow queasy because of his well-documented distaste for computers - versus the traditional newsroom Royal typewriter. But he flashed that well-known Irish grin when he discovered the box was laden with 12 packs of Miller Lite.
Channel 8 staffers prepared a nine-minute video of plenty of classic Coughlin outtakes, which brought down the house. Danny himself took the mic, and did his unique shtick.
Tom Bush, the man who played Jimmy Carter on Hoolihan and Big Chuck years ago, portrayed Bob Feller doing a standup tribute to Dan. Various MC's floated on and off the stage including John Telich, Lou Maglio and Gary Stromberg.
It was a Channel 8 love fest with all sorts of familiar faces there...including Dick Goddard, and some from the recent past like Tim Taylor, Loree Vick and Christy Steeves. Marty Savidge even flew in from Hotlanta. Also present was Dick Zunt, who worked the high school sports desk in the 60s at the Plain Dealer with Dan.
And the place went nuts when Mickey Flanagan walked in. Mickey isn't a household name, but was a long-time beloved assignment desk editor in the TV 8 newsroom.
And everyone there knew that just like Walter Cronkite, there will never again be the equal of Danny Coughlin on TV in Cleveland.
It's a nice "inside" story on the send-off for now-former Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8 sports reporter and anchor Dan Coughlin, a name instantly familiar to legions of Cleveland sports fans from both his days on Channel 8, but also from his long run at the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Coughlin recently accepted a WJW buyout offer, and headed into retirement with his own lively party last month...which Ted describes below...
-----------
Dan Coughlin Throws His Own Retirement Party
By Ted Lux, Special to Ohio Media Watch
It was a laugh a minute at the Beach Cliff Tavern in Rocky River on Sunday (July 19th), as Dan Coughlin arranged - and hosted - his own retirement party.
He brought the hot dogs, pasta, chicken, pizza and homemade brownies. The only thing he didn't bring were copious amounts of Miller Lite which the Tavern served up.
When it was retirement gift time, Dan's sons carried a large cardboard box to the stage almost like it were the Ark of the Covenant. It was disguised to look like a Dell computer, causing Dan to grow queasy because of his well-documented distaste for computers - versus the traditional newsroom Royal typewriter. But he flashed that well-known Irish grin when he discovered the box was laden with 12 packs of Miller Lite.
Channel 8 staffers prepared a nine-minute video of plenty of classic Coughlin outtakes, which brought down the house. Danny himself took the mic, and did his unique shtick.
Tom Bush, the man who played Jimmy Carter on Hoolihan and Big Chuck years ago, portrayed Bob Feller doing a standup tribute to Dan. Various MC's floated on and off the stage including John Telich, Lou Maglio and Gary Stromberg.
It was a Channel 8 love fest with all sorts of familiar faces there...including Dick Goddard, and some from the recent past like Tim Taylor, Loree Vick and Christy Steeves. Marty Savidge even flew in from Hotlanta. Also present was Dick Zunt, who worked the high school sports desk in the 60s at the Plain Dealer with Dan.
And the place went nuts when Mickey Flanagan walked in. Mickey isn't a household name, but was a long-time beloved assignment desk editor in the TV 8 newsroom.
And everyone there knew that just like Walter Cronkite, there will never again be the equal of Danny Coughlin on TV in Cleveland.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Friday Pileup
We've had a rough time fitting the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) into our regular week this week, so here are some of the items that have been on that back burner...
GRAPHIC CUTS: OMW hears that Scripps, owner of Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS/5, has joined the Graphics Outsourcing Parade.
It was announced by the group today that like other TV ownership groups with Cleveland market holdings - Gannett (WKYC/3) and Fox (former owner of WJW/8) - Scripps will centralize its graphics operations. Since "centralize" and "outsource" usually mean "job cuts", it's no surprise that the move will result in the loss of three jobs at 3001 Euclid by late October.
The graphics duties will fall to a centralized Scripps hub at its WFTS in Tampa. The move will also presumably result in a standardized graphic look among the Scripps stations, much like a similar move at Gannett affected WKYC's on-air look.
OMW also hears that traffic operations (commercial spot traffic, not "on the roads" traffic) will also be centralized at two hubs in Tampa and Phoenix. We don't know how many WEWS employees that'll affect, or those down in Tri-State Media Watch territory at WCPO/Cincinnati...
SPEAKING OF CINCINNATI: We do normally leave the Queen City media news to the TSMW Empire, but this one can't go without some notice.
The Cincinnati Enquirer, owned by WKYC owner Gannett, has made one of those eye-popping layoffs...with as many as 100 employees shown the door. Gannett is also shuttering the "CiNWeekly" free entertainment-oriented paper, and is replacing it online (and it appears in print) with the Metromix brand...which also used online by WKYC.
Gannett announced earlier that some 1,400 staffers would be cut in its "community publishing" (print) division.
We'll leave the heavy lifting on this to TSMW...but we couldn't go without mentioning it...
MAHONING VALLEY FLIPS: If it's July, it must be time for a small Mahoning Valley radio group to make some format and positioning changes.
Yes, we're talking about Warren-based Beacon Broadcasting, which has made those changes to two of its stations.
After the July 4th holiday weekend, Beacon flagship WANR/1570 Warren moved from classic hits to sports. 1570 has become the Youngstown-Warren market affiliate for Premiere's Fox Sports Radio.
A hat tip to Premiere's Kurt Kretzschmar, an OMW reader (!), who tells us that WANR is also airing the local "Cappy and Christian" sports talk show from 9 AM to noon, and Premiere's separately syndicated Jim Rome from noon-3.
(Of course, FSR now airs The Content Factory's Dan Patrick from 9-noon, which clears elsewhere in the market - on delay on Cumulus sports WBBW/1240 "ESPN 1240".)
Elsewhere in the Beacon Media Empire, we already tipped you to the repositioning of Christian rock WEXC/107.1 Greenville PA, the Youngstown market rimshot that has changed from "Freq 107" to "Indie 107.1".
Beacon's Gregg Allen, also an OMW reader, weighed in on our earlier item, noting that "Freq" hasn't been exclusively a Christian rocker:
Yes we do play Christian music along with Matchbox 20, Hanna Montana, the Jonas Brothers, David Burn, Peter Moon Band, and a lot of independent artists! Freq 107 has been like that for at least the last 4 years according to my GM.
Now don't get confused, we are a Faith Based Company, which means, we will do all we can to play music that will not compromise our values.
The Freq name is one that didn't really describe us very well, where Indie 107.1 nails it! With big corporate radio going mostly national, we want people to know that local radio still exists and cares about the community, and quite frankly, our listeners like our mix of music. I found it interesting that you folks didn't notice that we dropped the Freq from 1540 too, now that is a Christian station, 100%.
Gregg, since we're not actually in the Youngstown market, we pick this stuff up on occasion, like when we're driving through the area. We appreciate your clarification.
Gregg also gave us the first tip of the now-complete WANR flip to Fox Sports Radio...
GRAPHIC CUTS: OMW hears that Scripps, owner of Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS/5, has joined the Graphics Outsourcing Parade.
It was announced by the group today that like other TV ownership groups with Cleveland market holdings - Gannett (WKYC/3) and Fox (former owner of WJW/8) - Scripps will centralize its graphics operations. Since "centralize" and "outsource" usually mean "job cuts", it's no surprise that the move will result in the loss of three jobs at 3001 Euclid by late October.
The graphics duties will fall to a centralized Scripps hub at its WFTS in Tampa. The move will also presumably result in a standardized graphic look among the Scripps stations, much like a similar move at Gannett affected WKYC's on-air look.
OMW also hears that traffic operations (commercial spot traffic, not "on the roads" traffic) will also be centralized at two hubs in Tampa and Phoenix. We don't know how many WEWS employees that'll affect, or those down in Tri-State Media Watch territory at WCPO/Cincinnati...
SPEAKING OF CINCINNATI: We do normally leave the Queen City media news to the TSMW Empire, but this one can't go without some notice.
The Cincinnati Enquirer, owned by WKYC owner Gannett, has made one of those eye-popping layoffs...with as many as 100 employees shown the door. Gannett is also shuttering the "CiNWeekly" free entertainment-oriented paper, and is replacing it online (and it appears in print) with the Metromix brand...which also used online by WKYC.
Gannett announced earlier that some 1,400 staffers would be cut in its "community publishing" (print) division.
We'll leave the heavy lifting on this to TSMW...but we couldn't go without mentioning it...
MAHONING VALLEY FLIPS: If it's July, it must be time for a small Mahoning Valley radio group to make some format and positioning changes.
Yes, we're talking about Warren-based Beacon Broadcasting, which has made those changes to two of its stations.
After the July 4th holiday weekend, Beacon flagship WANR/1570 Warren moved from classic hits to sports. 1570 has become the Youngstown-Warren market affiliate for Premiere's Fox Sports Radio.
A hat tip to Premiere's Kurt Kretzschmar, an OMW reader (!), who tells us that WANR is also airing the local "Cappy and Christian" sports talk show from 9 AM to noon, and Premiere's separately syndicated Jim Rome from noon-3.
(Of course, FSR now airs The Content Factory's Dan Patrick from 9-noon, which clears elsewhere in the market - on delay on Cumulus sports WBBW/1240 "ESPN 1240".)
Elsewhere in the Beacon Media Empire, we already tipped you to the repositioning of Christian rock WEXC/107.1 Greenville PA, the Youngstown market rimshot that has changed from "Freq 107" to "Indie 107.1".
Beacon's Gregg Allen, also an OMW reader, weighed in on our earlier item, noting that "Freq" hasn't been exclusively a Christian rocker:
Yes we do play Christian music along with Matchbox 20, Hanna Montana, the Jonas Brothers, David Burn, Peter Moon Band, and a lot of independent artists! Freq 107 has been like that for at least the last 4 years according to my GM.
Now don't get confused, we are a Faith Based Company, which means, we will do all we can to play music that will not compromise our values.
The Freq name is one that didn't really describe us very well, where Indie 107.1 nails it! With big corporate radio going mostly national, we want people to know that local radio still exists and cares about the community, and quite frankly, our listeners like our mix of music. I found it interesting that you folks didn't notice that we dropped the Freq from 1540 too, now that is a Christian station, 100%.
Gregg, since we're not actually in the Youngstown market, we pick this stuff up on occasion, like when we're driving through the area. We appreciate your clarification.
Gregg also gave us the first tip of the now-complete WANR flip to Fox Sports Radio...
Monday, March 30, 2009
Monday's Delayed
We're a bit on the late side for your usual Monday morning update, as we've been spending time struggling with local Internet issues.
As we were preparing to make another trek to a Wifi hotspot, our service returned...
PD ON THE DEFENSE: In the today's troubled world of newspapers, those publications are turning to a tried, tested defense..."The rumors of our demise are greatly exaggerated".
That's pretty much it in a nutshell for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which is putting out all the stops after that now-infamous online list of "10 Troubled Newspapers", mistakenly attributed to Time Magazine due to its presence on that magazine's website.
The paper has taken a two-pronged approach in the past few days.
First, on Friday, PD editor Susan Goldberg did a live interview on Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3's 7 PM news, with anchors Eric Mansfield and Carole Sullivan. (Sullivan, of course, is packing up her house and heading to San Diego, but will co-anchor the 7 PM "Channel 3 News" with Mansfield until this coming Friday.)
WKYC Director's Cut blogger and senior director Frank Macek provides a link to the full video of the interview at his site.
And as noted on the item, Goldberg "(puts) rumors to rest the Plain Dealer would not continue publishing 7 days a week, could close down, or might move on-line only as other papers have done recently."
The second prong in the PD's approach was a column on Sunday by reader representative Ted Diadiun. As his boss did Friday on WKYC, he talked about the very important journalistic light the newspaper shed upon two vital issues in Cuyahoga County in the past week, involving the proposed Medical Mart project, and now-former Cuyahoga County sheriff Gerald McFaul...who resigned that post "for health reasons" last week under the cloud of an investigation.
Diadiun asks:
Echoing (PD publisher) Egger: Who else would have the staff, expertise or resources to do that reporting? What radio talk show host, television reporter or blogger could have given citizens that information, and made it stick?
Speaking as a blogger here..."not us". We never claimed to be investigative reporters here, though we have actually broken some minor broadcast (and even print) stories.
But aside from an occasional story broken by local TV investigative reporters, very few outlets have the resources to handle "the big stories" that need more than just surface reporting.
And in her interview with WKYC, Goldberg noted the confusion that came with the "10 Endangered Newspapers" story...as it (apparently automatically) appeared on Time Magazine's site, lending it more credibility.
For now, Plain Dealer management continues to insist that a move to limited print publication, or online only publication, is not in the cards...well, at least in the cards that the PD holds in its hands right now...
ELVIS EXPANDS HIS BUILDINGS: New York-based top 40 morning radio star Elvis Duran is going syndicated. Well, more so.
Duran's show has been added to the syndication roster of Clear Channel's Premiere Radio arm, where it will be offered coast to coast.
Of course, Clear Channel also owns Duran flagship WHTZ "Z100", the top-rated New York City powerhouse now under competitive attack by CBS Radio's new "Now FM" (WXRK/92.3). And here in Northeast Ohio, Clear Channel owns Duran's Cleveland market affiliate WAKS/96.5 "Kiss FM".
Of course, "Elvis Duran and the Morning Show" has also been heard in markets like Philadelphia and Miami, with WAKS as his most recent addition.
But it's been an internal syndication within Clear Channel, and the move to Premiere will allow Duran and his crew to expand his base nationwide on many other stations owned by all companies...
HELLO, FARGO: The North Dakota city of Fargo is basically, at last check, holding its collective breath...as the flooded Red River has risen to record levels.
Though the river reportedly crested below levels that had been expected over the weekend, it's still running quite high, and there are concerns that a coming storm could bring winds that could cause levee breaks and flooding problems.
Throughout it all, radio has shined in Fargo, with no fewer than three competitive commercial radio news/talk operations going full-tilt providing residents with vital flood related information 24 hours a day.
Along with KFGO, the former Clear Channel operation that itself is actually behind sandbags, and WDAY, the local news/talker owned by the "Forum" newspaper, there's a third AM station in Fargo that's devoting its efforts to covering the flood threat full time.
It's "The Flag", known legally to the FCC as WZFG/1100 Dilworth MN (Dilworth is an eastern Fargo suburb). The station is owned by former WDAY general manager Scott Hennen, a talk show host who has occasionally been heard subbing for national talk radio personalities.
Aside from noting the excellent job of community service provided by the three stations in a true time of crisis (we've dipped into streaming audio a few times to listen), there's one other reason we mention it here...look at that frequency occupied by "The Flag".
WZFG indeed sits on 1100, the same frequency covered in "38 states and half of Canada" by Clear Channel talk WTAM here in Cleveland.
And normally, it puts out just 440 watts of power at night, aimed away from Cleveland (and San Francisco, where religious KFAX occupies that frequency).
But taking advantage of FCC rules, WZFG has been operating with as much as its full 50,000 watts of daytime power into the overnight hours. The FCC allows stations in emergency situations to maintain daytime power levels, and the situation facing Fargo would certainly qualify.
Though the WZFG signal is obviously not making it anywhere near Northeast Ohio, we've heard that some folks to the west are now getting a mix of WFZG and WTAM via skywave propogation.
OMW hears that KFGO/790 is also operating at night with daytime power levels, which has put it on some radios far to the east.
Our hats off to all the radio (and TV) people in Fargo for their community service, and our thoughts to all of the people in North Dakota... and here's hoping that any flooding problems as the Red River goes down will be minor...
As we were preparing to make another trek to a Wifi hotspot, our service returned...
PD ON THE DEFENSE: In the today's troubled world of newspapers, those publications are turning to a tried, tested defense..."The rumors of our demise are greatly exaggerated".
That's pretty much it in a nutshell for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, which is putting out all the stops after that now-infamous online list of "10 Troubled Newspapers", mistakenly attributed to Time Magazine due to its presence on that magazine's website.
The paper has taken a two-pronged approach in the past few days.
First, on Friday, PD editor Susan Goldberg did a live interview on Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3's 7 PM news, with anchors Eric Mansfield and Carole Sullivan. (Sullivan, of course, is packing up her house and heading to San Diego, but will co-anchor the 7 PM "Channel 3 News" with Mansfield until this coming Friday.)
WKYC Director's Cut blogger and senior director Frank Macek provides a link to the full video of the interview at his site.
And as noted on the item, Goldberg "(puts) rumors to rest the Plain Dealer would not continue publishing 7 days a week, could close down, or might move on-line only as other papers have done recently."
The second prong in the PD's approach was a column on Sunday by reader representative Ted Diadiun. As his boss did Friday on WKYC, he talked about the very important journalistic light the newspaper shed upon two vital issues in Cuyahoga County in the past week, involving the proposed Medical Mart project, and now-former Cuyahoga County sheriff Gerald McFaul...who resigned that post "for health reasons" last week under the cloud of an investigation.
Diadiun asks:
Echoing (PD publisher) Egger: Who else would have the staff, expertise or resources to do that reporting? What radio talk show host, television reporter or blogger could have given citizens that information, and made it stick?
Speaking as a blogger here..."not us". We never claimed to be investigative reporters here, though we have actually broken some minor broadcast (and even print) stories.
But aside from an occasional story broken by local TV investigative reporters, very few outlets have the resources to handle "the big stories" that need more than just surface reporting.
And in her interview with WKYC, Goldberg noted the confusion that came with the "10 Endangered Newspapers" story...as it (apparently automatically) appeared on Time Magazine's site, lending it more credibility.
For now, Plain Dealer management continues to insist that a move to limited print publication, or online only publication, is not in the cards...well, at least in the cards that the PD holds in its hands right now...
ELVIS EXPANDS HIS BUILDINGS: New York-based top 40 morning radio star Elvis Duran is going syndicated. Well, more so.
Duran's show has been added to the syndication roster of Clear Channel's Premiere Radio arm, where it will be offered coast to coast.
Of course, Clear Channel also owns Duran flagship WHTZ "Z100", the top-rated New York City powerhouse now under competitive attack by CBS Radio's new "Now FM" (WXRK/92.3). And here in Northeast Ohio, Clear Channel owns Duran's Cleveland market affiliate WAKS/96.5 "Kiss FM".
Of course, "Elvis Duran and the Morning Show" has also been heard in markets like Philadelphia and Miami, with WAKS as his most recent addition.
But it's been an internal syndication within Clear Channel, and the move to Premiere will allow Duran and his crew to expand his base nationwide on many other stations owned by all companies...
HELLO, FARGO: The North Dakota city of Fargo is basically, at last check, holding its collective breath...as the flooded Red River has risen to record levels.
Though the river reportedly crested below levels that had been expected over the weekend, it's still running quite high, and there are concerns that a coming storm could bring winds that could cause levee breaks and flooding problems.
Throughout it all, radio has shined in Fargo, with no fewer than three competitive commercial radio news/talk operations going full-tilt providing residents with vital flood related information 24 hours a day.
Along with KFGO, the former Clear Channel operation that itself is actually behind sandbags, and WDAY, the local news/talker owned by the "Forum" newspaper, there's a third AM station in Fargo that's devoting its efforts to covering the flood threat full time.
It's "The Flag", known legally to the FCC as WZFG/1100 Dilworth MN (Dilworth is an eastern Fargo suburb). The station is owned by former WDAY general manager Scott Hennen, a talk show host who has occasionally been heard subbing for national talk radio personalities.
Aside from noting the excellent job of community service provided by the three stations in a true time of crisis (we've dipped into streaming audio a few times to listen), there's one other reason we mention it here...look at that frequency occupied by "The Flag".
WZFG indeed sits on 1100, the same frequency covered in "38 states and half of Canada" by Clear Channel talk WTAM here in Cleveland.
And normally, it puts out just 440 watts of power at night, aimed away from Cleveland (and San Francisco, where religious KFAX occupies that frequency).
But taking advantage of FCC rules, WZFG has been operating with as much as its full 50,000 watts of daytime power into the overnight hours. The FCC allows stations in emergency situations to maintain daytime power levels, and the situation facing Fargo would certainly qualify.
Though the WZFG signal is obviously not making it anywhere near Northeast Ohio, we've heard that some folks to the west are now getting a mix of WFZG and WTAM via skywave propogation.
OMW hears that KFGO/790 is also operating at night with daytime power levels, which has put it on some radios far to the east.
Our hats off to all the radio (and TV) people in Fargo for their community service, and our thoughts to all of the people in North Dakota... and here's hoping that any flooding problems as the Red River goes down will be minor...
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Gazette Consolidation Response
Our earlier item on the conslidation between the co-owned Medina County Gazette and the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram got a lot of response.
But we've now received a "letter to the editor" from Chronicle-Telegram managing editor Julie Wallace, and we've given her the opportunity to respond directly in a new item...
------------------
I would like to comment on the merger of the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram and the Medina Gazette.
Earlier this month, we – as in, Lorain County Printing and Publishing Co., the parent of both papers -- moved production of The Gazette to the Elyria location. That means copy editors for the news and sports side as well as production for other departments – advertising and classified – moved, too. We did not move the reporters out of Medina – that truly would have been silly. And Liz Sheaffer, the managing editor at The Gazette, still is in Medina to guide them.
We did all this with a reason that should be clear to anyone in our industry: to save money.
Given the state of our economy, and the even worse state of our industry overall, we’d be crazy to continue to operate the papers independent of one another as has been the case since the Hudnutt family bought The Gazette in 1964. We wanted to find ways to save money so we could continue to provide our readers with what they’ve become accustomed – insightful stories by award-winning sports writers, hard-hitting news stories by writers who know the area and top-notch photography. For fairly small papers, we’ve got pretty tremendous staffs, and we’re proud of them both.
We definitely don’t want either paper to go away or their independent identities, either. In fact, we want to find a way to strengthen both papers and emerge even stronger when this terrible period in our industry comes to an end.
I guess what bothers me about what has been said in some of the comments is that they imply Elyria is running the show for The Gazette. That’s not the case. The Medina professionals who moved to the Elyria locale are laying out the paper (albeit with a Chronicle designer doing or directing Page 1 layout, which admittedly looks different than it used to) and Liz Sheaffer continues to decide what stories will be written and where they’ll appear in the paper. She was making those decisions before, and she’s still making them.
Yes, an Elyria story did appear in one paper, but that was only because a family member involved in the story was from Medina County, and that happened to be the day of the switchover, which obviously created some upheaval and doesn’t constitute a normal day by anybody’s definition.
But we've now received a "letter to the editor" from Chronicle-Telegram managing editor Julie Wallace, and we've given her the opportunity to respond directly in a new item...
------------------
I would like to comment on the merger of the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram and the Medina Gazette.
Earlier this month, we – as in, Lorain County Printing and Publishing Co., the parent of both papers -- moved production of The Gazette to the Elyria location. That means copy editors for the news and sports side as well as production for other departments – advertising and classified – moved, too. We did not move the reporters out of Medina – that truly would have been silly. And Liz Sheaffer, the managing editor at The Gazette, still is in Medina to guide them.
We did all this with a reason that should be clear to anyone in our industry: to save money.
Given the state of our economy, and the even worse state of our industry overall, we’d be crazy to continue to operate the papers independent of one another as has been the case since the Hudnutt family bought The Gazette in 1964. We wanted to find ways to save money so we could continue to provide our readers with what they’ve become accustomed – insightful stories by award-winning sports writers, hard-hitting news stories by writers who know the area and top-notch photography. For fairly small papers, we’ve got pretty tremendous staffs, and we’re proud of them both.
We definitely don’t want either paper to go away or their independent identities, either. In fact, we want to find a way to strengthen both papers and emerge even stronger when this terrible period in our industry comes to an end.
I guess what bothers me about what has been said in some of the comments is that they imply Elyria is running the show for The Gazette. That’s not the case. The Medina professionals who moved to the Elyria locale are laying out the paper (albeit with a Chronicle designer doing or directing Page 1 layout, which admittedly looks different than it used to) and Liz Sheaffer continues to decide what stories will be written and where they’ll appear in the paper. She was making those decisions before, and she’s still making them.
Yes, an Elyria story did appear in one paper, but that was only because a family member involved in the story was from Medina County, and that happened to be the day of the switchover, which obviously created some upheaval and doesn’t constitute a normal day by anybody’s definition.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Tuesday's Full Basket
It's a pretty random, but important, collection of items in our basket on Tuesday morning...
OH, AND BY THE WAY, THE PD: The news of the impending end of another American newspaper had everyone buzzing Monday, including your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm).
Oh, by the way, employees of the Northeast Ohio sister paper of the Ann Arbor News took a budget hit Monday as well.
Shortly after we took ourselves out of the media news stream to attend to Real Life, the Cleveland Plain Dealer announced its own latest moves designed to save parent Advance Publications some money. Quoting the item posted by the PD's Michelle Jarboe:
The Plain Dealer will require non-union employees to take pay cuts and 10-day furloughs, in an attempt to cut costs but preserve jobs and continue to print seven days a week.
During meetings with employees Monday, Publisher and President Terrance C. Z. Egger announced that full-time, non-union employees must take 10 days of unpaid leave between April 20 and Oct. 4.
Full-time and part-time non-union employees will see their first $50,000 of pay cut by 8 percent and any additional pay reduced by 10 percent as of June 1.
The Monday article says about 370 employees will be affected by the furlough order, and 450 will be hit by the pay cuts. It also details other budget-related moves by Advance-owned papers elsewhere.
The pay cuts and furloughs mirror a trend that other big media companies have started. Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC/3 owner Gannett (a big newspaper owner) is one such company, as we've reported before.
We'll assume that at some point, the companies realize that you can't run a newspaper with a handful of people...so the only remaining choice is giving workers less money one way or the other. Or....well, you have to join the Rocky Mountain News, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and now the Ann Arbor News in basically throwing in the towel on daily newspapering.
And PD publisher Terrance Egger tells his paper that the Cleveland paper isn't headed in that direction:
Egger said The Plain Dealer is committed to protecting as many jobs as possible while curbing expenses. The company will continue to print a newspaper seven days a week, even as some other large newspapers reduce their printing schedules or switch to a Web-only product, he said.
"We want to be in it for the long haul," Egger told employees. "I don't see a way for all of us to get there without making some sacrifices."
But the short haul is looking awful for all newspapers, including the PD - which says it saw ad revenues fall "twice as much as expected" as it nears the end of 2009's first quarter.
The Plain Dealer may "want to be in it for the long haul", but is printing a newspaper seven days a week a viable model for anyone in 2009? The PD made money in 2008, Egger said, and hoped to make money in 2009...but that last piece of news makes that seem like a far off target.
We also got some comments on our "off the cuff" analysis of the Ann Arbor and Michigan situation vs. Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. One reader points out that Cleveland's most recent unemployment rate is more than Ann Arbor, which is traditionally more insulated economically due to the presence of the University of That Team Which Can't Beat Ohio State...er...Michigan.
Point well taken. It's also one reason Columbus hangs in there vs. Cleveland.
But the overall Michigan economy is awful. And those other Booth/Advance papers named are in that state's hardest hit markets - such as Flint, which has basically been falling apart economically since the 1980's.
What brought in "AnnArbor.com" as an option for Advance is likely that "college city" atmosphere...with the U of M influence making it a more connected, more intelligent city that would be a good laboratory for the Website Which Replaces Newspaper experiment...
IT'S BACK: A note in Monday's Inside Radio sent us scurrying to FCC records, and sure enough, Cleveland market top 40 outlet WAKS/96.5 "Kiss FM" is officially back in the Clear Channel fold again.
And all of this, without a single piece of equipment moving anywhere.
Of course, Clear Channel tabbed WAKS to the Aloha Station Trust in the process of its sale to two private equity firms. The sale triggered FCC local ownership guidelines, and at least technically revoked Clear Channel's grandfathered ability to operate stations like WAKS - which put the company over the ownership cap in the Cleveland market.
Ah, but since it's WAKS/*Akron*, Clear Channel was able to trigger a simple bit of shuffling that attributed 96.5, ownership limit wise, into the Akron Arbitron market. That allows the company to keep the station, and even allows it to continue operating it out of the Clear Channel Cleveland cluster on Oak Tree.
Again, without moving a single piece of equipment or changing studios...as "Kiss FM" never moved from Oak Tree, and was operated by Clear Channel even under the Aloha Trust ownership.
FCC records show the "reassignment" of WAKS to Clear Channel was approved a week ago, on March 17...
COX RADIO GOING PRIVATE: We hadn't mentioned that Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises is making a nearly $70 million bid to absorb its own Cox Radio division to make it private.
Cox, of course, was founded in Dayton, where it owns four radio stations - including the WHIO/1290-WHIO-FM/95.7 simulcast - and the Dayton Daily News...the first link in the Cox empire...
LOOKING FOR A MARKET MANAGER JOB?: We stumbled onto an ad placed in that same Monday edition of Inside Radio, with two Ohio Clear Channel clusters looking for a new leader:
Ashland/Mansfield dual market cluster - 6 FM-1 triplecast/2 AM
Lima/Marion dual market of 7FM/2 AM
Clear Channel Radio seeks experienced management professionals to assume the role of VP/Market Manager for each dual market. The ideal candidate should have previous market manager experience and a proven track record of ratings and revenue success. DOS’s and Operation Managers wanting career growth are encouraged to apply. Candidates should have a minimum of 5-7 years radio experience with a minimum of 2 years in management. College degree preferred.
We'll save her from spambots, but you can apply for this one by E-mailing one Melissa Burns at a standard Clear Channel address with a cover letter and resume. And, yes, "no phone calls, please!"...
OH, AND BY THE WAY, THE PD: The news of the impending end of another American newspaper had everyone buzzing Monday, including your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm).
Oh, by the way, employees of the Northeast Ohio sister paper of the Ann Arbor News took a budget hit Monday as well.
Shortly after we took ourselves out of the media news stream to attend to Real Life, the Cleveland Plain Dealer announced its own latest moves designed to save parent Advance Publications some money. Quoting the item posted by the PD's Michelle Jarboe:
The Plain Dealer will require non-union employees to take pay cuts and 10-day furloughs, in an attempt to cut costs but preserve jobs and continue to print seven days a week.
During meetings with employees Monday, Publisher and President Terrance C. Z. Egger announced that full-time, non-union employees must take 10 days of unpaid leave between April 20 and Oct. 4.
Full-time and part-time non-union employees will see their first $50,000 of pay cut by 8 percent and any additional pay reduced by 10 percent as of June 1.
The Monday article says about 370 employees will be affected by the furlough order, and 450 will be hit by the pay cuts. It also details other budget-related moves by Advance-owned papers elsewhere.
The pay cuts and furloughs mirror a trend that other big media companies have started. Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC/3 owner Gannett (a big newspaper owner) is one such company, as we've reported before.
We'll assume that at some point, the companies realize that you can't run a newspaper with a handful of people...so the only remaining choice is giving workers less money one way or the other. Or....well, you have to join the Rocky Mountain News, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and now the Ann Arbor News in basically throwing in the towel on daily newspapering.
And PD publisher Terrance Egger tells his paper that the Cleveland paper isn't headed in that direction:
Egger said The Plain Dealer is committed to protecting as many jobs as possible while curbing expenses. The company will continue to print a newspaper seven days a week, even as some other large newspapers reduce their printing schedules or switch to a Web-only product, he said.
"We want to be in it for the long haul," Egger told employees. "I don't see a way for all of us to get there without making some sacrifices."
But the short haul is looking awful for all newspapers, including the PD - which says it saw ad revenues fall "twice as much as expected" as it nears the end of 2009's first quarter.
The Plain Dealer may "want to be in it for the long haul", but is printing a newspaper seven days a week a viable model for anyone in 2009? The PD made money in 2008, Egger said, and hoped to make money in 2009...but that last piece of news makes that seem like a far off target.
We also got some comments on our "off the cuff" analysis of the Ann Arbor and Michigan situation vs. Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. One reader points out that Cleveland's most recent unemployment rate is more than Ann Arbor, which is traditionally more insulated economically due to the presence of the University of That Team Which Can't Beat Ohio State...er...Michigan.
Point well taken. It's also one reason Columbus hangs in there vs. Cleveland.
But the overall Michigan economy is awful. And those other Booth/Advance papers named are in that state's hardest hit markets - such as Flint, which has basically been falling apart economically since the 1980's.
What brought in "AnnArbor.com" as an option for Advance is likely that "college city" atmosphere...with the U of M influence making it a more connected, more intelligent city that would be a good laboratory for the Website Which Replaces Newspaper experiment...
IT'S BACK: A note in Monday's Inside Radio sent us scurrying to FCC records, and sure enough, Cleveland market top 40 outlet WAKS/96.5 "Kiss FM" is officially back in the Clear Channel fold again.
And all of this, without a single piece of equipment moving anywhere.
Of course, Clear Channel tabbed WAKS to the Aloha Station Trust in the process of its sale to two private equity firms. The sale triggered FCC local ownership guidelines, and at least technically revoked Clear Channel's grandfathered ability to operate stations like WAKS - which put the company over the ownership cap in the Cleveland market.
Ah, but since it's WAKS/*Akron*, Clear Channel was able to trigger a simple bit of shuffling that attributed 96.5, ownership limit wise, into the Akron Arbitron market. That allows the company to keep the station, and even allows it to continue operating it out of the Clear Channel Cleveland cluster on Oak Tree.
Again, without moving a single piece of equipment or changing studios...as "Kiss FM" never moved from Oak Tree, and was operated by Clear Channel even under the Aloha Trust ownership.
FCC records show the "reassignment" of WAKS to Clear Channel was approved a week ago, on March 17...
COX RADIO GOING PRIVATE: We hadn't mentioned that Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises is making a nearly $70 million bid to absorb its own Cox Radio division to make it private.
Cox, of course, was founded in Dayton, where it owns four radio stations - including the WHIO/1290-WHIO-FM/95.7 simulcast - and the Dayton Daily News...the first link in the Cox empire...
LOOKING FOR A MARKET MANAGER JOB?: We stumbled onto an ad placed in that same Monday edition of Inside Radio, with two Ohio Clear Channel clusters looking for a new leader:
Ashland/Mansfield dual market cluster - 6 FM-1 triplecast/2 AM
Lima/Marion dual market of 7FM/2 AM
Clear Channel Radio seeks experienced management professionals to assume the role of VP/Market Manager for each dual market. The ideal candidate should have previous market manager experience and a proven track record of ratings and revenue success. DOS’s and Operation Managers wanting career growth are encouraged to apply. Candidates should have a minimum of 5-7 years radio experience with a minimum of 2 years in management. College degree preferred.
We'll save her from spambots, but you can apply for this one by E-mailing one Melissa Burns at a standard Clear Channel address with a cover letter and resume. And, yes, "no phone calls, please!"...
Monday, March 23, 2009
There Goes Another Newspaper
It seems like these days, we're passing along word of a newspaper dying about once every two days or so.
While this one isn't local, it has Northeast Ohio ties.
Readers won't be able to pick up the Ann Arbor News from newsstands or their doorsteps in that Michigan city after July, as the 174-year-old paper will (mostly) shut down its presses.
Echoing the now-dead Dead Trees edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Ann Arbor News owner Booth Newspapers will replace the paper with "a Web-based, media company called AnnArbor.com", according to publisher Laurel Champion in a story on the paper's current website.
Starting in July, the paper's newly-reminted website will, apparently, still manage to activate the presses for Thursday and Sunday print editions of "AnnArbor.com". Presumably, you can credit the traditional advertising supplements for that.
And things aren't much better at the Ann Arbor paper's sister Booth newspapers elsewhere in Michigan, according to this from the Bay City Times:
Beginning June 1, The Times, The Saginaw News and The Flint Journal will publish intensely local editions on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, which research shows are the highest readership days for newspapers.
Booth is not announcing how many jobs will be lost. though the Ann Arbor paper's publisher notes:
Champion, who will be executive vice president of AnnArbor.com, told News employees they can apply for positions with the new company, although job losses are inevitable.
"We have an extremely talented staff at The Ann Arbor News, and they have done a tremendous job through very difficult times," Champion said in a letter to readers. "There is nothing they did or didn't do that would have sustained our seven-day print business model."
And here's your Cleveland connection.
The Michigan-based Booth chain is actually an arm of Advance Publications, which - ta da! - owns the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
And a former PD executive, ex-chief marketing officer Matt Kraner, has been announced as the president and chief executive officer of AnnArbor.com.
You might recall that Advance threatened to shut down its Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger, until it got concessions from its employees.
And the Plain Dealer ended up on a controversial "10 endangered big city papers" list that got incorrectly attributed to Time Magazine, but was actually the product of the "247WallSt.com" website.
In that list, the author predicted that the Cleveland paper would close or go online-only by the end of 2010.
With PD owner Advance converting its Ann Arbor paper to a website, does that mean anything for the local paper's future?
We'd guess it isn't necessarily connected.
The Michigan announcements today mean Advance is indeed interested in trying to form a new model without newsprint, at least in some markets...though even the best online site is probably going to have a LOT fewer resources than a full-fledged paper that's sold to readers.
But for all the concern about Northern Ohio's economy, it's nearly vibrant compared to Michigan's economy.
he Flint/Saginaw/Bay City region, in particular, has been in a fast economic free fall since the late 1980's, when Michael Moore went after former General Motors CEO Roger Smith in "Roger and Me", and the current state of the reeling auto industry is making that worse.
So, we're still not on the "PD will fold or go online only next year" bandwagon.
But with newspapers continuing to die almost daily, and a poor overall economy...Big Print is going to have to figure out how, or if, it survives...
While this one isn't local, it has Northeast Ohio ties.
Readers won't be able to pick up the Ann Arbor News from newsstands or their doorsteps in that Michigan city after July, as the 174-year-old paper will (mostly) shut down its presses.
Echoing the now-dead Dead Trees edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Ann Arbor News owner Booth Newspapers will replace the paper with "a Web-based, media company called AnnArbor.com", according to publisher Laurel Champion in a story on the paper's current website.
Starting in July, the paper's newly-reminted website will, apparently, still manage to activate the presses for Thursday and Sunday print editions of "AnnArbor.com". Presumably, you can credit the traditional advertising supplements for that.
And things aren't much better at the Ann Arbor paper's sister Booth newspapers elsewhere in Michigan, according to this from the Bay City Times:
Beginning June 1, The Times, The Saginaw News and The Flint Journal will publish intensely local editions on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, which research shows are the highest readership days for newspapers.
Booth is not announcing how many jobs will be lost. though the Ann Arbor paper's publisher notes:
Champion, who will be executive vice president of AnnArbor.com, told News employees they can apply for positions with the new company, although job losses are inevitable.
"We have an extremely talented staff at The Ann Arbor News, and they have done a tremendous job through very difficult times," Champion said in a letter to readers. "There is nothing they did or didn't do that would have sustained our seven-day print business model."
And here's your Cleveland connection.
The Michigan-based Booth chain is actually an arm of Advance Publications, which - ta da! - owns the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
And a former PD executive, ex-chief marketing officer Matt Kraner, has been announced as the president and chief executive officer of AnnArbor.com.
You might recall that Advance threatened to shut down its Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger, until it got concessions from its employees.
And the Plain Dealer ended up on a controversial "10 endangered big city papers" list that got incorrectly attributed to Time Magazine, but was actually the product of the "247WallSt.com" website.
In that list, the author predicted that the Cleveland paper would close or go online-only by the end of 2010.
With PD owner Advance converting its Ann Arbor paper to a website, does that mean anything for the local paper's future?
We'd guess it isn't necessarily connected.
The Michigan announcements today mean Advance is indeed interested in trying to form a new model without newsprint, at least in some markets...though even the best online site is probably going to have a LOT fewer resources than a full-fledged paper that's sold to readers.
But for all the concern about Northern Ohio's economy, it's nearly vibrant compared to Michigan's economy.
he Flint/Saginaw/Bay City region, in particular, has been in a fast economic free fall since the late 1980's, when Michael Moore went after former General Motors CEO Roger Smith in "Roger and Me", and the current state of the reeling auto industry is making that worse.
So, we're still not on the "PD will fold or go online only next year" bandwagon.
But with newspapers continuing to die almost daily, and a poor overall economy...Big Print is going to have to figure out how, or if, it survives...
Some Other Monday Stuff
We were going to do our usual Monday "mix" item, but the previous entry got a bit larger than we expected.
So, here's the rest of the "mix"...
NEWS HITS HOME: We've noted a few occasions where a local news organization either becomes the story, or is directly affected by it.
Among other items: recently, Raycom Media CBS affiliate WOIO/19-MyNet affiliate WUAB/43 saw a high profile killing just across the street from their main entrance at Reserve Square in downtown Cleveland, at Perk Park. The same station was literally waterlogged a few months ago, due to a fire in an apartment in that high rise that sent water down into the Reserve Square basement housing the WOIO/WUAB operations.
But this item hits a local newsroom hard, and directly in the "heart".
On a typical day, word of a fully-involved house fire in Portage County's Randolph last week would have likely seen Record-Courier reporter Marci Piltz as one of the first on the scene. But in this case, she was literally first on the scene...as a victim.
The newspaper which employed Piltz reports that she - and a friend she was visiting at the Randolph home - were killed in that Thursday fire.
Newsrooms in the world of print media, especially, are having a hard enough time dealing with layoffs, consolidations and cutbacks. But one can only imagine the kind of emotional body blow they're dealing with in Ravenna.
Or, for that matter, at the ABC News Radio headquarters in New York City, where newsman George Weber will no longer be working...because he was found stabbed to death in his Brooklyn apartment over the weekend. (ABC News' radio arm, of course, also has been morning the death of commentator Paul Harvey.)
Our condolences to Marci Piltz's friends, family and Record-Courier colleagues...
NOT YET, BUT...: We continue to get questions about the status of the planned tower which will hold the new digital antenna for Cleveland Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3, and ideastream PBS affiliate WVIZ/25.
So late Sunday afternoon, we took another run to Parma, and to the Broadview Road transmitter location in question.
And there are signs of activity, though steel is not rising into the air, yet.
Since our last visit a few weeks ago, the tower sections we saw in front of the WKYC transmitter building have been moved.
They're still lying on the ground, but some have been moved to just behind the building, and others, back at the base of the WKYC radar tower (pictured here, from the public street that runs alongside the WKYC property).
You can also see what appears to be a small blue-colored crane-like device. We do mean "small" - there's no way this thing is getting the tower fully constructed. But...it's movement.
As the weather breaks, our guess is that construction on the new WKYC/WVIZ tower will begin in earnest sometime in the next couple of weeks...with the digital transition looming on June 12th.
To that effect, WKYC Director's Cut blogger Frank Macek notes the planned early sign-off of TBN O&O WDLI/17 Canton (April 16), and notes that indeed, it'll make life easier for WKYC-DT, which will camp out on digital RF channel 17:
...this extra time will allow us to do more testing and tweaking on our new channel prior to the actual transition date, once our new tower is constructed in Parma that will house both WKYC and WVIZ.
WKYC itself, along with all the major network affiliates in the Cleveland/Akron (Canton) TV market, still plans to keep its analog signal going until June 12. But the move likely means that it would (tower construction permitting) be able to show up with a full-power digital RF 17 signal on the transition date with less difficulty...
LARS: Westwood One parted company last week with syndicated evening talk host Lars Larson, but he's already landed with a new syndicator.
Larson will be heard starting next Monday via Compass Media Networks, a new company established by a former Westwood One executive.
Among Lars' reported 150 affiliates is talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron". As with all of its syndicated programming, WNIR runs Lars Larson on delay in a weekend time slot (7-10 PM Saturday and Sunday), though he's occasionally heard live weekday evenings as the "fill-in" for local host Tom Erickson.
OMW hasn't heard if Larson will continue to be heard on WNIR.
But if the station's online schedule is to be believed, WNIR has picked up Talk Radio Network host Laura Ingraham for the weekend 10 PM-12 midnight slot formerly occupied by Westwood One's Bill O'Reilly...declining to join up with that network's replacement for the Fox News Channel host, Fred Thompson.
Oh, wait, they are carrying "Laura Ingram"! Sorry about that! Heh.
It's actually a return to WNIR for Ingraham. She occupied the 7-10 PM Westwood One time slot, and was heard in recorded form on WNIR, before she moved to Talk Radio Network's mid-morning schedule. Larson took over the Westwood One evening syndication...
So, here's the rest of the "mix"...
NEWS HITS HOME: We've noted a few occasions where a local news organization either becomes the story, or is directly affected by it.
Among other items: recently, Raycom Media CBS affiliate WOIO/19-MyNet affiliate WUAB/43 saw a high profile killing just across the street from their main entrance at Reserve Square in downtown Cleveland, at Perk Park. The same station was literally waterlogged a few months ago, due to a fire in an apartment in that high rise that sent water down into the Reserve Square basement housing the WOIO/WUAB operations.
But this item hits a local newsroom hard, and directly in the "heart".
On a typical day, word of a fully-involved house fire in Portage County's Randolph last week would have likely seen Record-Courier reporter Marci Piltz as one of the first on the scene. But in this case, she was literally first on the scene...as a victim.
The newspaper which employed Piltz reports that she - and a friend she was visiting at the Randolph home - were killed in that Thursday fire.
Newsrooms in the world of print media, especially, are having a hard enough time dealing with layoffs, consolidations and cutbacks. But one can only imagine the kind of emotional body blow they're dealing with in Ravenna.
Or, for that matter, at the ABC News Radio headquarters in New York City, where newsman George Weber will no longer be working...because he was found stabbed to death in his Brooklyn apartment over the weekend. (ABC News' radio arm, of course, also has been morning the death of commentator Paul Harvey.)
Our condolences to Marci Piltz's friends, family and Record-Courier colleagues...
NOT YET, BUT...: We continue to get questions about the status of the planned tower which will hold the new digital antenna for Cleveland Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3, and ideastream PBS affiliate WVIZ/25.
So late Sunday afternoon, we took another run to Parma, and to the Broadview Road transmitter location in question.
And there are signs of activity, though steel is not rising into the air, yet.
Since our last visit a few weeks ago, the tower sections we saw in front of the WKYC transmitter building have been moved.
They're still lying on the ground, but some have been moved to just behind the building, and others, back at the base of the WKYC radar tower (pictured here, from the public street that runs alongside the WKYC property).You can also see what appears to be a small blue-colored crane-like device. We do mean "small" - there's no way this thing is getting the tower fully constructed. But...it's movement.
As the weather breaks, our guess is that construction on the new WKYC/WVIZ tower will begin in earnest sometime in the next couple of weeks...with the digital transition looming on June 12th.
To that effect, WKYC Director's Cut blogger Frank Macek notes the planned early sign-off of TBN O&O WDLI/17 Canton (April 16), and notes that indeed, it'll make life easier for WKYC-DT, which will camp out on digital RF channel 17:
...this extra time will allow us to do more testing and tweaking on our new channel prior to the actual transition date, once our new tower is constructed in Parma that will house both WKYC and WVIZ.
WKYC itself, along with all the major network affiliates in the Cleveland/Akron (Canton) TV market, still plans to keep its analog signal going until June 12. But the move likely means that it would (tower construction permitting) be able to show up with a full-power digital RF 17 signal on the transition date with less difficulty...
LARS: Westwood One parted company last week with syndicated evening talk host Lars Larson, but he's already landed with a new syndicator.
Larson will be heard starting next Monday via Compass Media Networks, a new company established by a former Westwood One executive.
Among Lars' reported 150 affiliates is talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron". As with all of its syndicated programming, WNIR runs Lars Larson on delay in a weekend time slot (7-10 PM Saturday and Sunday), though he's occasionally heard live weekday evenings as the "fill-in" for local host Tom Erickson.
OMW hasn't heard if Larson will continue to be heard on WNIR.
But if the station's online schedule is to be believed, WNIR has picked up Talk Radio Network host Laura Ingraham for the weekend 10 PM-12 midnight slot formerly occupied by Westwood One's Bill O'Reilly...declining to join up with that network's replacement for the Fox News Channel host, Fred Thompson.
Oh, wait, they are carrying "Laura Ingram"! Sorry about that! Heh.
It's actually a return to WNIR for Ingraham. She occupied the 7-10 PM Westwood One time slot, and was heard in recorded form on WNIR, before she moved to Talk Radio Network's mid-morning schedule. Larson took over the Westwood One evening syndication...
Northeast Ohio Papers Consolidate
We actually hinted at this weeks ago, but we've finally picked up some of the details on a story that's been buzzing around the local media rumor mill like a supercharged insect.
OMW hears that two co-owned Northeast Ohio newspapers have officially merged their day-to-day operations - as the Lorain County Publishing-owned Medina County Gazette is now being operated out of the company's print mothership, the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram.
Sources tell us that the new arrangement started March 3, with "the majority of The Gazette newsroom" being required to work out of the Chronicle-Telegram's shiny new headquarters in downtown Elyria.
Left behind after 177 years publishing in Medina? We're told that "a handful of sales and classified people", five news staffers and one photographer now use the Gazette building as something of a satellite office...with the news material gathered in Medina sent via the Internet to Elyria.
The Gazette's printing operation moved to Elyria's presses some time ago - which were bought from a St. Louis newspaper.
With the layout operations moved there as well earlier this month, the Gazette looks like a near clone of the Chronicle...a change so visible it prompted this message from the Gazette's publisher on page one earlier this month:
Today, in partnership with our sister newspaper, The Chronicle, we are embarking on another journey. We are taking the best parts of both newspapers and developing a Gazette similar in design to our Lorain County partner, but distinct in what we offer the communities we cover.
There was no word on how that "journey" affected staffers.
This affects radio as well, as OMW recently reported that the papers' sister talk radio station, Elyria's WEOL/930, forced a number of full-time staffers into part-time work - even management. (Maybe if the radio folks could operate a printing press...they could get full time work with the company!)
The answer to our question will be borne out over time, we suppose: Do the Gazette's readers care that the bulk of the local newspaper's operations is now based in Elyria?
Or, indeed, with the sorry state of print journalism, financially, in 2009...are both papers endangered along with just about every other newspaper in America?
In a world where your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) can openly speculate and predict that Northeast Ohio's two largest papers will consolidate at some point (again, just a prediction!)...how much of a guarantee is there that either the Elyria or Medina papers survive past the next year or two?
OMW hears that two co-owned Northeast Ohio newspapers have officially merged their day-to-day operations - as the Lorain County Publishing-owned Medina County Gazette is now being operated out of the company's print mothership, the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram.
Sources tell us that the new arrangement started March 3, with "the majority of The Gazette newsroom" being required to work out of the Chronicle-Telegram's shiny new headquarters in downtown Elyria.
Left behind after 177 years publishing in Medina? We're told that "a handful of sales and classified people", five news staffers and one photographer now use the Gazette building as something of a satellite office...with the news material gathered in Medina sent via the Internet to Elyria.
The Gazette's printing operation moved to Elyria's presses some time ago - which were bought from a St. Louis newspaper.
With the layout operations moved there as well earlier this month, the Gazette looks like a near clone of the Chronicle...a change so visible it prompted this message from the Gazette's publisher on page one earlier this month:
Today, in partnership with our sister newspaper, The Chronicle, we are embarking on another journey. We are taking the best parts of both newspapers and developing a Gazette similar in design to our Lorain County partner, but distinct in what we offer the communities we cover.
There was no word on how that "journey" affected staffers.
This affects radio as well, as OMW recently reported that the papers' sister talk radio station, Elyria's WEOL/930, forced a number of full-time staffers into part-time work - even management. (Maybe if the radio folks could operate a printing press...they could get full time work with the company!)
The answer to our question will be borne out over time, we suppose: Do the Gazette's readers care that the bulk of the local newspaper's operations is now based in Elyria?
Or, indeed, with the sorry state of print journalism, financially, in 2009...are both papers endangered along with just about every other newspaper in America?
In a world where your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) can openly speculate and predict that Northeast Ohio's two largest papers will consolidate at some point (again, just a prediction!)...how much of a guarantee is there that either the Elyria or Medina papers survive past the next year or two?
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
From Soup To Nuts
Well, OK...from broadcast (mainly television) to print, from broadcast to cable...here's our latest midweek contribution...
REMEMBERING TOM: Your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) has been without full-fledged Internet access for much of the past 24 hours, so we had to resort to posting-by-E-mail for our item on the death of former WKYC/3 personality Tom Haley on Tuesday.
We'll confess to once being a regular viewer of WKYC's "Today in Cleveland", the folksy and friendly morning news show that used to precede NBC's "Today Show".
In a day where TV stations increasingly see morning news shows as the Last Big Profit Center, with viewership numbers actually growing (vs. the shrinking numbers seen in the traditional nighttime news wars), the fact that a show like "Today in Cleveland" could be so dominant for so long seems almost antediluvian.
"Today in Cleveland" featured Haley and long-time partner Del Donahoo (also of "Del's Folks" fame) basically chewing the fat, talking to viewers as much as they were talking to each other, or, well, delivering news and information.
The simple set was a jumble of knick-knacks and personal effects brought in by the hosts, and sent in by regular viewers.
No bright stage lights, no fancy "Weather Center" with sophisticated Doppler Radar...it was more of a home breakfast nook than a TV news set.
Even when Haley and Donahoo were in the final years of their morning get-together, your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) was still somewhat younger than the older demographic "Today in Cleveland" surely attracted.
But the show had appeal even for us...and when we were up before 7 AM, we were usually watching Tom and Del.
Elsewhere in the blogosphere, WKYC "Director's Cut" blogger Frank Macek shares video from the very last "Today in Cleveland" show from 1997, and his memories of Tom Haley, and Tim Lones at Cleveland Classic Media shares his memories as a long-time viewer.
Pictures, of course, are courtesy WKYC, and thanks to Mr. Macek's site and Mr. Lones' site for the assists...
THE WRESTLERS LOSE: The updated scorecard from Friday night's upcoming local TV sports battle: Ohio State 1, Cleveland State 1, World Wrestling Entertainment 0.5.
Thanks to our friends at CursedCleveland.com, we brought you word that Raycom Media would split first round NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament games involving teams of local interest between the company's two full-power Cleveland market signals.
The CBS-aired contests will be on CBS affiliate WOIO/19 (Ohio State) and MyNetwork TV affiliate WUAB/43 (Cleveland State).
Since the CBS coverage of the Cleveland State game starts somewhere after 9:30, WUAB will join its sister station's network NCAA coverage at that time...throwing the wrestlers to the mat, as it were. The only programming that gets ratings on MyNetwork TV, "WWE Friday Night Smackdown", will continue on without WUAB until it ends at 10 PM.
Thanks to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, we know the next step. WUAB will record the WWE show and air it later...after the game:
WWE Smackdown, the original program slotted on Channel 43 for that time period, will be preempted and will be rebroadcast immediately following conclusion of basketball on WUAB.
We're making the assumption here that WUAB will still air "Smackdown" starting at 8 PM, breaking from its live MyNetwork TV airing to go to the basketball coverage...before airing it again after the Vikings' game.
If the digital TV transition had happened back when it was supposed to air, maybe Raycom could have lit up WUAB-DT 43.2 and simulcast the wrestlers over there live, still opting to record/delay the WWE on the main channel.
But as digital TV viewers have noticed, 43.2 is now not even carrying the "This TV Cleveland" ID banner it had been carrying the past few weeks. (No, we don't know when "This TV"'s local channel will actually start programming.)
The other option would be to simulcast the WWE show on WOIO-DT 19.2 "WeatherNow", which at least has some digital TV carriage on local cable systems. We presume that "This TV" will also get clearance ("The Tube" did), but it's not up yet.
We're admittedly not fans of wrestling here at the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), so we don't know if viewers will body slam their TV when the WWE is taken away for one night in its regular time slot.
The PD item also assures fans of CBS' soap operas, facing pre-emption on WOIO Thursday and Friday, will "pick up where they left off" on Monday...
NOT CLEVELAND AGAIN: Recently, an online item about the predicted health of newspapers kicked up a lot of controversy, including here in Cleveland.
What turned out to be a list NOT from Time Magazine tabbed the Cleveland Plain Dealer as one of 10 big city papers the author believed were in danger of not surviving. The list's author - who actually writes for the Internet site "247WallSt.com", not Time - said he expected the PD to either fold or go online only by the end of 2010, citing the economy...and the Even Worse economy here in Northeast Ohio.
Uh, oh...when it comes to predicting the demise of Cleveland's only major daily newspaper, here we go again.
Tuesday's death of the Dead Trees edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer prompted USA Today's David Lieberman to write about the poor health of the newspaper industry. And this line from today's story jumped out at us:
At least one city — possibly San Francisco, Miami, Minneapolis or Cleveland — likely will soon lose its last daily newspaper, analysts say. And it "could be a lot more widespread than people have been predicting," says Mike Simonton, who tracks media debt for Fitch Ratings.
We've gone up and down Lieberman's article, both online and in USA Today's own Dead Trees edition, and we find no citation directly from an analyst about that list of cities.
It seems to be a regurgitation of the 247WallSt.com piece that got slapped with a Time Magazine logo on both that magazine's website, and on Yahoo, and doesn't seem to be linked to Mr. Simonton's quote that immediately follows.
There's just that vague phrase - "analysts say".
When that original online article came out, Plain Dealer publisher Terrence Eggar came out firing, pointing out that A) the PD actually made money in 2008, B) it expects, with various cuts and budget reductions, to do so again in 2009, and C) it has no plan to shut down the presses any time soon.
Now, it looks like Eggar will have to contend with various "Demise of Newspaper" stories picking up "Cleveland" along the way, for the sole reason that other writers will grab that list of cities... now from the USA Today piece.
Again, regular readers here know that we're not exactly optimistic about the future of newspapers in this new age of the Internet, and in this flagging economy. And we believe Mr. Simonton is most likely correct in his thought that the closures could be more widespread than even expected now.
And we once again repeat our prediction that the Plain Dealer and Black Press' Akron Beacon Journal won't survive as independent entities for that much longer...though our prediction has always been that Advance would pick up the remnants of the Beacon for a song, and merge what's left into the Plain Dealer - which already has extensive circulation in the Akron market and elsewhere in Northeast Ohio.
(That's just a prediction, not based on any facts or even rumors. It'd basically mirror what happened recently in Denver.)
But those who do this sort of reporting for a living? They need to quit pushing along rumors based on one guy's list of "endangered papers" that appear to be no more than the predictions that we're making here - which are clearly identified as such, on our part...
AWARD WINNERS: OMW gets word from Columbus that Time Warner Cable's Northeast Ohio division has picked up a number of awards in the Ohio Cable Telecommunications Association's "IMAGE Awards" competition, given out at the trade group's convention in Central Ohio last night.
From the group's site, talking the awards:
The 2009 OCTA IMAGE Awards recognize and celebrate the many contributions Ohio cable systems make to their communities, and their efforts to enhance cable's image with customers and in the areas they serve.
TWC NEO's Bill Jasso tells OMW that the local Time Warner division picked up "a record 15 OCTA Image Awards for local programming, including the top Image Award for Excellence in Local Programming."
Programs on TWC NEO's "Northeast Ohio Network" (NEON) local channel taking Gold Image Awards include "Made Here", "The High School Game of the Week", "3 Squares", and "Helping Hands."
And yes, we know we have a lot of readers interested in some of Time Warner Cable's future moves, including addition of HDTV channels and implementation of the Switched Digital Video system (in part, to free up bandwidth for new channels).
We will have a more detailed update on that very soon, within the next day or so...
REMEMBERING TOM: Your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) has been without full-fledged Internet access for much of the past 24 hours, so we had to resort to posting-by-E-mail for our item on the death of former WKYC/3 personality Tom Haley on Tuesday.We'll confess to once being a regular viewer of WKYC's "Today in Cleveland", the folksy and friendly morning news show that used to precede NBC's "Today Show".
In a day where TV stations increasingly see morning news shows as the Last Big Profit Center, with viewership numbers actually growing (vs. the shrinking numbers seen in the traditional nighttime news wars), the fact that a show like "Today in Cleveland" could be so dominant for so long seems almost antediluvian.
"Today in Cleveland" featured Haley and long-time partner Del Donahoo (also of "Del's Folks" fame) basically chewing the fat, talking to viewers as much as they were talking to each other, or, well, delivering news and information.
The simple set was a jumble of knick-knacks and personal effects brought in by the hosts, and sent in by regular viewers.No bright stage lights, no fancy "Weather Center" with sophisticated Doppler Radar...it was more of a home breakfast nook than a TV news set.
Even when Haley and Donahoo were in the final years of their morning get-together, your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) was still somewhat younger than the older demographic "Today in Cleveland" surely attracted.
But the show had appeal even for us...and when we were up before 7 AM, we were usually watching Tom and Del.
Elsewhere in the blogosphere, WKYC "Director's Cut" blogger Frank Macek shares video from the very last "Today in Cleveland" show from 1997, and his memories of Tom Haley, and Tim Lones at Cleveland Classic Media shares his memories as a long-time viewer.
Pictures, of course, are courtesy WKYC, and thanks to Mr. Macek's site and Mr. Lones' site for the assists...
THE WRESTLERS LOSE: The updated scorecard from Friday night's upcoming local TV sports battle: Ohio State 1, Cleveland State 1, World Wrestling Entertainment 0.5.
Thanks to our friends at CursedCleveland.com, we brought you word that Raycom Media would split first round NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament games involving teams of local interest between the company's two full-power Cleveland market signals.
The CBS-aired contests will be on CBS affiliate WOIO/19 (Ohio State) and MyNetwork TV affiliate WUAB/43 (Cleveland State).
Since the CBS coverage of the Cleveland State game starts somewhere after 9:30, WUAB will join its sister station's network NCAA coverage at that time...throwing the wrestlers to the mat, as it were. The only programming that gets ratings on MyNetwork TV, "WWE Friday Night Smackdown", will continue on without WUAB until it ends at 10 PM.
Thanks to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, we know the next step. WUAB will record the WWE show and air it later...after the game:
WWE Smackdown, the original program slotted on Channel 43 for that time period, will be preempted and will be rebroadcast immediately following conclusion of basketball on WUAB.
We're making the assumption here that WUAB will still air "Smackdown" starting at 8 PM, breaking from its live MyNetwork TV airing to go to the basketball coverage...before airing it again after the Vikings' game.
If the digital TV transition had happened back when it was supposed to air, maybe Raycom could have lit up WUAB-DT 43.2 and simulcast the wrestlers over there live, still opting to record/delay the WWE on the main channel.
But as digital TV viewers have noticed, 43.2 is now not even carrying the "This TV Cleveland" ID banner it had been carrying the past few weeks. (No, we don't know when "This TV"'s local channel will actually start programming.)
The other option would be to simulcast the WWE show on WOIO-DT 19.2 "WeatherNow", which at least has some digital TV carriage on local cable systems. We presume that "This TV" will also get clearance ("The Tube" did), but it's not up yet.
We're admittedly not fans of wrestling here at the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), so we don't know if viewers will body slam their TV when the WWE is taken away for one night in its regular time slot.
The PD item also assures fans of CBS' soap operas, facing pre-emption on WOIO Thursday and Friday, will "pick up where they left off" on Monday...
NOT CLEVELAND AGAIN: Recently, an online item about the predicted health of newspapers kicked up a lot of controversy, including here in Cleveland.
What turned out to be a list NOT from Time Magazine tabbed the Cleveland Plain Dealer as one of 10 big city papers the author believed were in danger of not surviving. The list's author - who actually writes for the Internet site "247WallSt.com", not Time - said he expected the PD to either fold or go online only by the end of 2010, citing the economy...and the Even Worse economy here in Northeast Ohio.
Uh, oh...when it comes to predicting the demise of Cleveland's only major daily newspaper, here we go again.
Tuesday's death of the Dead Trees edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer prompted USA Today's David Lieberman to write about the poor health of the newspaper industry. And this line from today's story jumped out at us:
At least one city — possibly San Francisco, Miami, Minneapolis or Cleveland — likely will soon lose its last daily newspaper, analysts say. And it "could be a lot more widespread than people have been predicting," says Mike Simonton, who tracks media debt for Fitch Ratings.
We've gone up and down Lieberman's article, both online and in USA Today's own Dead Trees edition, and we find no citation directly from an analyst about that list of cities.
It seems to be a regurgitation of the 247WallSt.com piece that got slapped with a Time Magazine logo on both that magazine's website, and on Yahoo, and doesn't seem to be linked to Mr. Simonton's quote that immediately follows.
There's just that vague phrase - "analysts say".
When that original online article came out, Plain Dealer publisher Terrence Eggar came out firing, pointing out that A) the PD actually made money in 2008, B) it expects, with various cuts and budget reductions, to do so again in 2009, and C) it has no plan to shut down the presses any time soon.
Now, it looks like Eggar will have to contend with various "Demise of Newspaper" stories picking up "Cleveland" along the way, for the sole reason that other writers will grab that list of cities... now from the USA Today piece.
Again, regular readers here know that we're not exactly optimistic about the future of newspapers in this new age of the Internet, and in this flagging economy. And we believe Mr. Simonton is most likely correct in his thought that the closures could be more widespread than even expected now.
And we once again repeat our prediction that the Plain Dealer and Black Press' Akron Beacon Journal won't survive as independent entities for that much longer...though our prediction has always been that Advance would pick up the remnants of the Beacon for a song, and merge what's left into the Plain Dealer - which already has extensive circulation in the Akron market and elsewhere in Northeast Ohio.
(That's just a prediction, not based on any facts or even rumors. It'd basically mirror what happened recently in Denver.)
But those who do this sort of reporting for a living? They need to quit pushing along rumors based on one guy's list of "endangered papers" that appear to be no more than the predictions that we're making here - which are clearly identified as such, on our part...
AWARD WINNERS: OMW gets word from Columbus that Time Warner Cable's Northeast Ohio division has picked up a number of awards in the Ohio Cable Telecommunications Association's "IMAGE Awards" competition, given out at the trade group's convention in Central Ohio last night.
From the group's site, talking the awards:
The 2009 OCTA IMAGE Awards recognize and celebrate the many contributions Ohio cable systems make to their communities, and their efforts to enhance cable's image with customers and in the areas they serve.
TWC NEO's Bill Jasso tells OMW that the local Time Warner division picked up "a record 15 OCTA Image Awards for local programming, including the top Image Award for Excellence in Local Programming."
Programs on TWC NEO's "Northeast Ohio Network" (NEON) local channel taking Gold Image Awards include "Made Here", "The High School Game of the Week", "3 Squares", and "Helping Hands."
And yes, we know we have a lot of readers interested in some of Time Warner Cable's future moves, including addition of HDTV channels and implementation of the Switched Digital Video system (in part, to free up bandwidth for new channels).
We will have a more detailed update on that very soon, within the next day or so...
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
From Satellite To Print
NOTE: If you already read this item shortly after it came out this morning, scroll down for some updates, which are appropriately marked...
We put our items into the OMW Blender this Tuesday, and come up with a decent mix...
THE BIG ONE MINUS XM: Now, you can only hear Clear Channel talk WLW/700 Cincinnati in your car if you're in its 50,000 watt AM signal range.
The larger-than-life original "Big One" lost its claim to once again being "The Nation's Station" (give or take the Internet) Friday afternoon at 3, as XM Satellite Radio dropped its simulcast of WLW on its channel 173.
A WLW statement appears on the station's website, explaining simply that "circumstances beyond our control" forced the end of the XM simulcast.
Another message on the site echoes the end of that statement, advising XM listeners that they can still get the WLW-originated "America's Truckin' Network" overnight show on XM channel 152.
And, of course, Cincinnati Reds games continue to air separately as part of XM's Major League Baseball deal. (We haven't checked to see if Sirius XM and MLB still have a deal, but since things have stabilized for now at the satcaster, it's probably business as usual.) Reds games were always blacked out on XM 173, and air on XM's separate MLB channels.
And WLW continues to offer its streaming audio feed via its website.
While he won't say what caused the disruption, WLW/Clear Channel Cincinnati AM operations chief Darryl Parks tells OMW:
"I knew we had a sizable audience on XM173. But, judging by the response 700WLW has received and the response our hosts and XM Satellite Radio have received, it's heart warming to know so many people enjoyed The Big One in the Midwest and across all across America. I guess we were The Nation's Station!"
"I understand truckers will be having a convoy and rally in support of The Big One on the Washington Mall in DC. I'm not sure the crowd will be as big as the one for President Obama though! Breaker, breaker good buddy."
Ah, written like a programmer who also has a Saturday midday talk show of his own, with dependable pithiness. Thank you again, Mr. Parks!
UPDATE 3/10/09 10:45 AM: Orbitcast, a website dedicated to satellite radio news, weighs in...suggesting that the move was prompted by Clear Channel itself. The company which owns WLW also programs a few other stations on XM, and its "National Lampoon Radio" has also left the lineup. Quoting Orbitcast:
It's important to note that these changes are not being made by Sirius XM Radio Inc. The satellite radio provider has no control over the Clear Channel owned bandwidth on XM, that was made clear when the courts allowed commercials to be played on their music channels. This was - without a doubt - a decision made by Clear Channel Communications.
Orbitcast believes that Clear Channel wants to add "more profitable" music channels, so they can sell more commercials.
That "Nation's Station" line, resurrected when the XM simulcast started, has roots in WLW's long and storied broadcast history...the station once put out 500,000 watts of power, and also had a shortwave outlet that eventually became one of the Voice of America's transmitter sites.
Though WLW is a Cincinnati radio station, and thus now within the realm of the folks down at Tri-State Media Watch, it's always been bigger than Southwest Ohio. We learned about this from complaints from OMW readers in Columbus, who can't get the still-powerful 700 AM signal in noisy office buildings...and who can't stream the station via WLW.com due to their own office issues...
O&A OUT: Though they continue on XM, the terrestrial radio version of morning radio's "Opie and Anthony" has come to an end.
The duo aired their last over-air show Monday on CBS Radio flagship alt-rock WXRK/92.3 New York City, as "K-Rock" abandons the format for a new top 40 format later this week.
Quoting an article by Mediaweek's Katy Bachman, just to grab a random article from one of the many trade sites:
CBS Radio announced Monday (March 9), it plans to ditch K-Rock on WXRK-FM in New York for Top 40, challenging Clear Channel Radio's Z100 (WHTZ-FM). Called "92.3 NOW FM," the Top 40 station will launch Wednesday, March 11 at 5 p.m. playing the hits that appeal to an 18-34 year-old listener.
92.3 NOW FM will be the first serious challenger to Z100, the No. 2-ranked station in the market, since it launched in 1983.
Cleveland, of course, is tied into the story in many ways.
The WXRK call letters landed here after CBS Radio ditched the alt-rock format originally after Howard Stern's departure to Sirius - flipping 92.3 in the Big Apple to "Free FM" talker WFNY. Today's 92.3/Cleveland Heights carries the WKRK call letters abandoned in a format flip in Detroit, after some time using the calls WKRI.
The New York-based O&A had a long run on Cleveland's version of 92.3, first in tape delay in afternoon drive (to accomodate locally-based "Rover's Morning Glory" in morning drive), then eventually to morning drive after Rover barked his way onto Clear Channel rock WMMS/100.7.
That didn't last as long as some thought, the Opie and Anthony clearance in morning drive on the local 92.3. Those expecting an epic battle between O&A and the now-WMMS-based Rover were quickly disappointed, as CBS Radio pulled the New York City duo and the rest of the station's air personalities for today's jockless "Radio 92.3".
OK, we know you're asking...would CBS mount a clone of "Now" (or Los Angeles-based "Amp") here in Cleveland, to do battle with Clear Channel top 40 outlet WAKS/96.5 "Kiss FM"?
We would bet against it.
For one, the company is almost exclusively paying attention to its largest markets...having already announced its intention to sell or swap out of markets like Cleveland. We don't think they expend the effort to change stations they intend to send elsewhere.
And by "change", we don't mean like the "Radio 92.3" flip, which was basically a format tweak with no air personalities.
"Now" and "Amp" will require a major effort on CBS Radio's part. You don't go aiming at heritage CHRs like the original "Kiss" (KIIS) in Los Angeles, or New York radio powerhouse WHTZ "Z100" by just throwing on pop songs.
CBS Radio is saying it'll hire air personalities for both "Now" and "Amp", and spend a lot of time paying attention to new technology that's a part of the young target listeners' lives in 2009. Will it work? Will CBS do it right? We don't know, but they're not just putting up jockless music in New York and Los Angeles.
Even if CBS Radio intended on spreading this format far and wide, and even if the company didn't want to get out of markets outside the top 10, there are other problems if you're trying to predict a "Now" or "Amp" clone in Cleveland.
Which station would you flip?
AC WDOK/102.1 "Soft Rock 102.1" and hot AC WQAL/104.1 "Q104" aren't going away. Would CBS Radio flip classic rock WNCX/98.5 or the just-reworked alt-rock WKRK/92.3? We're not figuring that to be likely, but that's just our gut feeling.
In the end, CBS' desire to focus on the Bright Lights and Big City may be the reason such a flip doesn't make it to Northeast Ohio...
DOES THE PD MAKE IT TO 2011?:
UPDATE 3/10/09 10:20 AM: An OMW reader helpfully points out a response to the "10 endangered newspapers" item from Plain Dealer publisher Terrance Egger, who calls the report "baseless"....saying the PD has "no plan" that involves shutting down the presses. Egger notes (as has been reported before) that the Cleveland newspaper actually made money in 2008.
Quoting:
Egger said that newspapers are having financial difficulties, but The Plain Dealer made money in 2008. Though it laid off a significant number of employees late last year, Egger said the paper budgeted to make money in 2009.
"Everybody's got challenges and we're going to figure them out," he said.
The PD publisher also helpfully pointed out that despite appearances, the article is not a product of Time Magazine itself:
Though this appeared on Time's Web site and with a Time logo on Yahoo!, the report was from an online-only site, 247WallSt.com.
"People put this out there and associate Time Magazine with it," Egger said, upon hearing that another source produced the report. He doubted readers would notice that distinction. "It's still the Time brand it's associated with."
Our original report is below...and yes, we were tripped up by the "Time" connection, too...the "247WallSt.com" name is only listed in small print in the byline, and a "for constant business updates" link at the bottom...
------------
We're hearing a lot of chatter about a Time Magazine article on the future of some newspapers.
You know, the one that puts the Cleveland Plain Dealer at number 10 on its list of top 10 "endangered" newspapers - as an OMW reader notes, the only one on the list in a "one newspaper town" (give or take Miami/Ft. Lauderdale).
Quoting Time's Douglas A. McIntyre:
10. The Cleveland Plain Dealer is in one of the economically weakest markets in the country. Its parent, Advance Publications, has already threatened to close its paper in Newark. Employees gave up enough in terms of concessions to keep the paper open. Advance, owned by the Newhouse family, is carrying the burden of its paper plus Condé Nast, its magazine group, which is losing advertising revenue. The Plain Dealer will be shut or go digital by the end of next year.
Here at your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), we already went on record with our own prediction some time ago, and we repeat it here.
We fully expect, based on nothing except semi-educated speculation, that the Plain Dealer and Black Press' Akron Beacon Journal will not exist as separate newspapers - possibly by the end of this year.
Our gut feeling/prediction/guess is that the Beacon will fold into the Plain Dealer, and provide a Northeast Ohio-wide news focus with perhaps a handful of Beacon staffers taking PD bylines and columns...much like what just happened in Denver, with the demise of the Rocky Mountain News.
That is "just a guess", and is based on no solid information. It just seems likely to us. We don't have a lot of faith in Black Press keeping the Beacon Journal going as a separate entity, and we have felt that way pretty much since day one.
Assuming the economy ever gets out of the current rut, even with the weaker Northeast Ohio economy, we expect the PD to hang in there. Again, assuming newspapers as a whole don't shutter like limbering dinosaurs over the next couple of years.
The article reminds us that Hearst has threatened to close the only major daily newspaper in San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle, if it can't implement massive cost cuts or find a buyer. San Francisco has the free daily tabloid Examiner, but it's not the same as the old paper Hearst used to own.
Will the continuing rounds of massive cuts at all newspapers eventually render their content meaningless? And will that mean that shutdown will basically become inevitable?
We hope not. We're still a fan of newspapers, and believe they serve a very useful purpose in our democratic system...and that despite the best efforts of broadcast outlets (those outlets cutting back as well), a lot of malfeasance will go unchecked if newspapers die off...
We put our items into the OMW Blender this Tuesday, and come up with a decent mix...
THE BIG ONE MINUS XM: Now, you can only hear Clear Channel talk WLW/700 Cincinnati in your car if you're in its 50,000 watt AM signal range.
The larger-than-life original "Big One" lost its claim to once again being "The Nation's Station" (give or take the Internet) Friday afternoon at 3, as XM Satellite Radio dropped its simulcast of WLW on its channel 173.
A WLW statement appears on the station's website, explaining simply that "circumstances beyond our control" forced the end of the XM simulcast.Another message on the site echoes the end of that statement, advising XM listeners that they can still get the WLW-originated "America's Truckin' Network" overnight show on XM channel 152.
And, of course, Cincinnati Reds games continue to air separately as part of XM's Major League Baseball deal. (We haven't checked to see if Sirius XM and MLB still have a deal, but since things have stabilized for now at the satcaster, it's probably business as usual.) Reds games were always blacked out on XM 173, and air on XM's separate MLB channels.
And WLW continues to offer its streaming audio feed via its website.
While he won't say what caused the disruption, WLW/Clear Channel Cincinnati AM operations chief Darryl Parks tells OMW:
"I knew we had a sizable audience on XM173. But, judging by the response 700WLW has received and the response our hosts and XM Satellite Radio have received, it's heart warming to know so many people enjoyed The Big One in the Midwest and across all across America. I guess we were The Nation's Station!"
"I understand truckers will be having a convoy and rally in support of The Big One on the Washington Mall in DC. I'm not sure the crowd will be as big as the one for President Obama though! Breaker, breaker good buddy."
Ah, written like a programmer who also has a Saturday midday talk show of his own, with dependable pithiness. Thank you again, Mr. Parks!
UPDATE 3/10/09 10:45 AM: Orbitcast, a website dedicated to satellite radio news, weighs in...suggesting that the move was prompted by Clear Channel itself. The company which owns WLW also programs a few other stations on XM, and its "National Lampoon Radio" has also left the lineup. Quoting Orbitcast:
It's important to note that these changes are not being made by Sirius XM Radio Inc. The satellite radio provider has no control over the Clear Channel owned bandwidth on XM, that was made clear when the courts allowed commercials to be played on their music channels. This was - without a doubt - a decision made by Clear Channel Communications.
Orbitcast believes that Clear Channel wants to add "more profitable" music channels, so they can sell more commercials.
That "Nation's Station" line, resurrected when the XM simulcast started, has roots in WLW's long and storied broadcast history...the station once put out 500,000 watts of power, and also had a shortwave outlet that eventually became one of the Voice of America's transmitter sites.
Though WLW is a Cincinnati radio station, and thus now within the realm of the folks down at Tri-State Media Watch, it's always been bigger than Southwest Ohio. We learned about this from complaints from OMW readers in Columbus, who can't get the still-powerful 700 AM signal in noisy office buildings...and who can't stream the station via WLW.com due to their own office issues...
O&A OUT: Though they continue on XM, the terrestrial radio version of morning radio's "Opie and Anthony" has come to an end.
The duo aired their last over-air show Monday on CBS Radio flagship alt-rock WXRK/92.3 New York City, as "K-Rock" abandons the format for a new top 40 format later this week.
Quoting an article by Mediaweek's Katy Bachman, just to grab a random article from one of the many trade sites:
CBS Radio announced Monday (March 9), it plans to ditch K-Rock on WXRK-FM in New York for Top 40, challenging Clear Channel Radio's Z100 (WHTZ-FM). Called "92.3 NOW FM," the Top 40 station will launch Wednesday, March 11 at 5 p.m. playing the hits that appeal to an 18-34 year-old listener.
92.3 NOW FM will be the first serious challenger to Z100, the No. 2-ranked station in the market, since it launched in 1983.
Cleveland, of course, is tied into the story in many ways.
The WXRK call letters landed here after CBS Radio ditched the alt-rock format originally after Howard Stern's departure to Sirius - flipping 92.3 in the Big Apple to "Free FM" talker WFNY. Today's 92.3/Cleveland Heights carries the WKRK call letters abandoned in a format flip in Detroit, after some time using the calls WKRI.
The New York-based O&A had a long run on Cleveland's version of 92.3, first in tape delay in afternoon drive (to accomodate locally-based "Rover's Morning Glory" in morning drive), then eventually to morning drive after Rover barked his way onto Clear Channel rock WMMS/100.7.
That didn't last as long as some thought, the Opie and Anthony clearance in morning drive on the local 92.3. Those expecting an epic battle between O&A and the now-WMMS-based Rover were quickly disappointed, as CBS Radio pulled the New York City duo and the rest of the station's air personalities for today's jockless "Radio 92.3".
OK, we know you're asking...would CBS mount a clone of "Now" (or Los Angeles-based "Amp") here in Cleveland, to do battle with Clear Channel top 40 outlet WAKS/96.5 "Kiss FM"?
We would bet against it.
For one, the company is almost exclusively paying attention to its largest markets...having already announced its intention to sell or swap out of markets like Cleveland. We don't think they expend the effort to change stations they intend to send elsewhere.
And by "change", we don't mean like the "Radio 92.3" flip, which was basically a format tweak with no air personalities.
"Now" and "Amp" will require a major effort on CBS Radio's part. You don't go aiming at heritage CHRs like the original "Kiss" (KIIS) in Los Angeles, or New York radio powerhouse WHTZ "Z100" by just throwing on pop songs.
CBS Radio is saying it'll hire air personalities for both "Now" and "Amp", and spend a lot of time paying attention to new technology that's a part of the young target listeners' lives in 2009. Will it work? Will CBS do it right? We don't know, but they're not just putting up jockless music in New York and Los Angeles.
Even if CBS Radio intended on spreading this format far and wide, and even if the company didn't want to get out of markets outside the top 10, there are other problems if you're trying to predict a "Now" or "Amp" clone in Cleveland.
Which station would you flip?
AC WDOK/102.1 "Soft Rock 102.1" and hot AC WQAL/104.1 "Q104" aren't going away. Would CBS Radio flip classic rock WNCX/98.5 or the just-reworked alt-rock WKRK/92.3? We're not figuring that to be likely, but that's just our gut feeling.
In the end, CBS' desire to focus on the Bright Lights and Big City may be the reason such a flip doesn't make it to Northeast Ohio...
DOES THE PD MAKE IT TO 2011?:
UPDATE 3/10/09 10:20 AM: An OMW reader helpfully points out a response to the "10 endangered newspapers" item from Plain Dealer publisher Terrance Egger, who calls the report "baseless"....saying the PD has "no plan" that involves shutting down the presses. Egger notes (as has been reported before) that the Cleveland newspaper actually made money in 2008.
Quoting:
Egger said that newspapers are having financial difficulties, but The Plain Dealer made money in 2008. Though it laid off a significant number of employees late last year, Egger said the paper budgeted to make money in 2009.
"Everybody's got challenges and we're going to figure them out," he said.
The PD publisher also helpfully pointed out that despite appearances, the article is not a product of Time Magazine itself:
Though this appeared on Time's Web site and with a Time logo on Yahoo!, the report was from an online-only site, 247WallSt.com.
"People put this out there and associate Time Magazine with it," Egger said, upon hearing that another source produced the report. He doubted readers would notice that distinction. "It's still the Time brand it's associated with."
Our original report is below...and yes, we were tripped up by the "Time" connection, too...the "247WallSt.com" name is only listed in small print in the byline, and a "for constant business updates" link at the bottom...
------------
We're hearing a lot of chatter about a Time Magazine article on the future of some newspapers.
You know, the one that puts the Cleveland Plain Dealer at number 10 on its list of top 10 "endangered" newspapers - as an OMW reader notes, the only one on the list in a "one newspaper town" (give or take Miami/Ft. Lauderdale).
Quoting Time's Douglas A. McIntyre:
10. The Cleveland Plain Dealer is in one of the economically weakest markets in the country. Its parent, Advance Publications, has already threatened to close its paper in Newark. Employees gave up enough in terms of concessions to keep the paper open. Advance, owned by the Newhouse family, is carrying the burden of its paper plus Condé Nast, its magazine group, which is losing advertising revenue. The Plain Dealer will be shut or go digital by the end of next year.
Here at your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), we already went on record with our own prediction some time ago, and we repeat it here.
We fully expect, based on nothing except semi-educated speculation, that the Plain Dealer and Black Press' Akron Beacon Journal will not exist as separate newspapers - possibly by the end of this year.
Our gut feeling/prediction/guess is that the Beacon will fold into the Plain Dealer, and provide a Northeast Ohio-wide news focus with perhaps a handful of Beacon staffers taking PD bylines and columns...much like what just happened in Denver, with the demise of the Rocky Mountain News.
That is "just a guess", and is based on no solid information. It just seems likely to us. We don't have a lot of faith in Black Press keeping the Beacon Journal going as a separate entity, and we have felt that way pretty much since day one.
Assuming the economy ever gets out of the current rut, even with the weaker Northeast Ohio economy, we expect the PD to hang in there. Again, assuming newspapers as a whole don't shutter like limbering dinosaurs over the next couple of years.
The article reminds us that Hearst has threatened to close the only major daily newspaper in San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle, if it can't implement massive cost cuts or find a buyer. San Francisco has the free daily tabloid Examiner, but it's not the same as the old paper Hearst used to own.
Will the continuing rounds of massive cuts at all newspapers eventually render their content meaningless? And will that mean that shutdown will basically become inevitable?
We hope not. We're still a fan of newspapers, and believe they serve a very useful purpose in our democratic system...and that despite the best efforts of broadcast outlets (those outlets cutting back as well), a lot of malfeasance will go unchecked if newspapers die off...
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Some Mixed News
Let's see where the Tuesday morning item mix takes us...unfortunately, it's mostly not good news...
CUTBACKS: The sour economy has resulted in some economic-related cutbacks on Campus Center Drive in Kent.
That's the home of Western Reserve PBS, the local public TV outlet which operates WNEO/45 Alliance and WEAO/49 Akron, which is making some financial moves to try to ensure economic stability in an economy that's forced pretty much every media outlet to make some hard choices.
Quoting a news release:
Due to the economic recession, cuts in state and federal funding and shortfalls in membership and other private support revenue, Western Reserve Public Media is enacting expense-reducing measures to ensure that its fiscal year ends in the black on June 30.
“We hope the measures we’re taking are temporary,” said Trina Cutter, president and CEO. “As we look ahead to the coming year and predictions of a furthering recession, we want to be proactive and guarantee that Western Reserve Public Media continues to serve northeast Ohio with high-quality programming and services.”
Effective March 1, 2009, Western Reserve Public Media is putting into place a 10 percent salary reduction for its full-time salaried employees and a 10 percent reduction in weekly work hours as well as a freeze on overtime for its full-time hourly employees. One employee has been laid off.
The station’s monthly program guide for members, The Alternative, has been reduced in size from 20 pages to 12 pages. The organization has also suspended production of three of its print publications — TechKnowledgy Newsletter, The Ones to Grow On and Aging Smart — through June. The organization will provide free e-newsletter versions of these three publications, available at www.WesternReservePublicMedia.org.
Western Reserve PBS hopes that its upcoming March fundraising efforts will help offset funding losses, and the pubcaster will add on-air pledge drives in April, May and June...hoping to bring in another $50,000 over the period.
Among the increase in costs...a 24 percent increase for PBS programming costs in the 2009 fiscal year, a reduction in state funding by "almost $800,000" since the year 2002...and something familiar to OMW readers, the ongoing costs of the digital TV transition.
Western Reserve PBS says it has cost about $7 million to make that transition on both WNEO/45 and WEAO/49, and notes that it's now forced to pay for another four months of analog broadcasting on WEAO due to the delayed digital TV transition date (June 12, of course).
Like pretty much all TV stations, we presume that cost to keep the 49 analog transmitter running longer was not in the Western Reserve PBS budget.
The WNEO/45 analog transmitter shut off in November, as part of an FCC-approved plan to move the station's digital signal from channel 46. But WEAO did not have to make such a move (it's staying on digital RF 50)...and no one knew last fall that the national transition would be moved into June.
Despite the overall bad state of the economy, Western Reserve PBS cites strong local support, including a "9 percent revenue increase in membership" in the past five fiscal years, a doubling of underwriting and foundation support in that same period (fiscal year 2003-2008), and a rise in local corporate and foundation support to increase local programming in the past 18 months...
DISPATCHED: To Columbus we go, and a brief look at the Print Media Watch, where some 45 staffers have been cut at the Columbus Dispatch.
The article about the layoffs says they're effective April 3rd...and you don't need to read the linked article to hear why...publisher/CEO John Wolfe, who says the Dispatch put off the cuts as long as possible, cites the usual suspects: the tanking advertising market and bad economy. (We're really, really getting tired of writing those words.)
Quoting the article:
Editor Benjamin J. Marrison said the newsroom staff reductions will hasten a restructuring of the newsroom to put a sharper focus on local news, local sports, enterprise reporting, and building a more robust online presence at Dispatch.com.
Marrison says that'll be provided by "a smaller but no less dedicated" staff. He didn't say "a smaller but overworked staff", but that goes along with it for us...
DOT-WHEN?: While we're electronically in Columbus, and talking about the economy and reading the Dispatch...
The newspaper provides a profile of the ".2 Network", the still-not-up-yet digital subchannel network being offered out of Columbus-based Guardian Entertainment Group.
Guardian, the former owner of WSFJ/51 "GTN51" Newark, now owns low-power W23BZ "GTN23"...which it got in the swap with new WSFJ owner Trinity Broadcasting.
OMW readers are familiar with ".2" ("dot-two") and its plans, but the Dispatch article reports a new intended start date for the long-delayed network:
Schilg said the network is halfway toward its penetration target, but the clock is ticking. Guardian originally set a rollout date of early December 2008 for the network. It changed that to April as the economy soured and the government delayed the mandatory switch to digital broadcasting. Now, Schilg said, October is more realistic.
But as the Dispatch piece by Mike Pramik notes, there are those competitors out there quickly gobbling up the digital subchannel space, with This TV and Retro Television Network garnering group deals. And some broadcasters, notably Columbus' own Dispatch CBS affiliate WBNS/10, are skeptical about growing new channels that could further fragment viewership.
As it turns out, Ohio and local taxpayers have a stake in this, with the Dispatch article citing a number of local and state tax breaks and grants helping Guardian mount this effort...
MORE PAUL HARVEY: As he was quite a well-respected broadcaster, tributes are still pouring in for ABC Radio Networks' Paul Harvey, who passed away Saturday morning at the age of 90.
Harvey's affiliates are airing daily retrospectives of the veteran who helmed "Paul Harvey News and Comment" since 1951. Like the weekend hour-long special offered by Harvey's network, the retrospectives are hosted by long-time Harvey fill-in Gil Gross...now a local host at Citadel's KGO in San Francisco.
Citadel owns what is still called the ABC Radio Networks, though ABC Radio News is still an arm of Disney's ABC News (though sold to radio stations through Citadel in a 10 year deal).
We put this in our update because we forgot to mention that NextMedia talk WHBC/1480 Canton was also a long-time Harvey affiliate...and in fact, WHBC also ran Harvey on its FM side (AC "Mix 94.1") until fairly recently.
Speaking of Harvey clearances on FM, OMW readers in Northwest Ohio also remind us that Paul Harvey News aired in Toledo on Cumulus country powerhouse WKKO/99.9 "K100". And we believe Harvey's original former Cleveland affiliate, WGAR/1220, brought him over to its then-new home at 99.5 FM at least for some time.
Harvey was, of course, later carried in Cleveland on Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100, until that station dropped the carriage recently...
UNCLE AL: Broadcasters and viewers in Southwest Ohio are mourning the death of "Uncle Al" Lewis, the Cincinnati market's iconic children's show host who aired for 35 years on Scripps ABC affiliate WCPO/9 (1950-1985).
Since Jeremy at Tri-State Media Watch has been around, we haven't spent a lot of time talking about the Cincinnati market, so we'll leave the details and memories of "Uncle Al" to TSMW.
But we found this Northeast Ohio tidbit in the above linked Cincinnati Enquirer article:
Lewis was born in Cleveland. After spending three years in the Army in special services entertaining troops, he returned to Cleveland and attended the Cleveland Institute of Art.
While there, he met his future wife, Wanda.
Lewis graduated with a degree in art in 1949. While in college, Lewis worked at WEWS-TV as an announcer and an artist. Being an accomplished musician, he also performed in nightclubs playing the accordion, banjo and piano.
WEWS, then as now, was a Scripps sister station to WCPO, and that's where Lewis went next and found his long-running local fame. The Enquirer notes that ABC aired "Uncle Al" for a couple of years as well.
And as far as we can tell, Al Lewis was no relation to the actor best known for playing "Grandpa Munster" on the TV sitcom. That Al Lewis died in 2006...
CUTBACKS: The sour economy has resulted in some economic-related cutbacks on Campus Center Drive in Kent.
That's the home of Western Reserve PBS, the local public TV outlet which operates WNEO/45 Alliance and WEAO/49 Akron, which is making some financial moves to try to ensure economic stability in an economy that's forced pretty much every media outlet to make some hard choices.
Quoting a news release:
Due to the economic recession, cuts in state and federal funding and shortfalls in membership and other private support revenue, Western Reserve Public Media is enacting expense-reducing measures to ensure that its fiscal year ends in the black on June 30.
“We hope the measures we’re taking are temporary,” said Trina Cutter, president and CEO. “As we look ahead to the coming year and predictions of a furthering recession, we want to be proactive and guarantee that Western Reserve Public Media continues to serve northeast Ohio with high-quality programming and services.”
Effective March 1, 2009, Western Reserve Public Media is putting into place a 10 percent salary reduction for its full-time salaried employees and a 10 percent reduction in weekly work hours as well as a freeze on overtime for its full-time hourly employees. One employee has been laid off.
The station’s monthly program guide for members, The Alternative, has been reduced in size from 20 pages to 12 pages. The organization has also suspended production of three of its print publications — TechKnowledgy Newsletter, The Ones to Grow On and Aging Smart — through June. The organization will provide free e-newsletter versions of these three publications, available at www.WesternReservePublicMedia.org.
Western Reserve PBS hopes that its upcoming March fundraising efforts will help offset funding losses, and the pubcaster will add on-air pledge drives in April, May and June...hoping to bring in another $50,000 over the period.
Among the increase in costs...a 24 percent increase for PBS programming costs in the 2009 fiscal year, a reduction in state funding by "almost $800,000" since the year 2002...and something familiar to OMW readers, the ongoing costs of the digital TV transition.
Western Reserve PBS says it has cost about $7 million to make that transition on both WNEO/45 and WEAO/49, and notes that it's now forced to pay for another four months of analog broadcasting on WEAO due to the delayed digital TV transition date (June 12, of course).
Like pretty much all TV stations, we presume that cost to keep the 49 analog transmitter running longer was not in the Western Reserve PBS budget.
The WNEO/45 analog transmitter shut off in November, as part of an FCC-approved plan to move the station's digital signal from channel 46. But WEAO did not have to make such a move (it's staying on digital RF 50)...and no one knew last fall that the national transition would be moved into June.
Despite the overall bad state of the economy, Western Reserve PBS cites strong local support, including a "9 percent revenue increase in membership" in the past five fiscal years, a doubling of underwriting and foundation support in that same period (fiscal year 2003-2008), and a rise in local corporate and foundation support to increase local programming in the past 18 months...
DISPATCHED: To Columbus we go, and a brief look at the Print Media Watch, where some 45 staffers have been cut at the Columbus Dispatch.
The article about the layoffs says they're effective April 3rd...and you don't need to read the linked article to hear why...publisher/CEO John Wolfe, who says the Dispatch put off the cuts as long as possible, cites the usual suspects: the tanking advertising market and bad economy. (We're really, really getting tired of writing those words.)
Quoting the article:
Editor Benjamin J. Marrison said the newsroom staff reductions will hasten a restructuring of the newsroom to put a sharper focus on local news, local sports, enterprise reporting, and building a more robust online presence at Dispatch.com.
Marrison says that'll be provided by "a smaller but no less dedicated" staff. He didn't say "a smaller but overworked staff", but that goes along with it for us...
DOT-WHEN?: While we're electronically in Columbus, and talking about the economy and reading the Dispatch...
The newspaper provides a profile of the ".2 Network", the still-not-up-yet digital subchannel network being offered out of Columbus-based Guardian Entertainment Group.
Guardian, the former owner of WSFJ/51 "GTN51" Newark, now owns low-power W23BZ "GTN23"...which it got in the swap with new WSFJ owner Trinity Broadcasting.
OMW readers are familiar with ".2" ("dot-two") and its plans, but the Dispatch article reports a new intended start date for the long-delayed network:
Schilg said the network is halfway toward its penetration target, but the clock is ticking. Guardian originally set a rollout date of early December 2008 for the network. It changed that to April as the economy soured and the government delayed the mandatory switch to digital broadcasting. Now, Schilg said, October is more realistic.
But as the Dispatch piece by Mike Pramik notes, there are those competitors out there quickly gobbling up the digital subchannel space, with This TV and Retro Television Network garnering group deals. And some broadcasters, notably Columbus' own Dispatch CBS affiliate WBNS/10, are skeptical about growing new channels that could further fragment viewership.
As it turns out, Ohio and local taxpayers have a stake in this, with the Dispatch article citing a number of local and state tax breaks and grants helping Guardian mount this effort...
MORE PAUL HARVEY: As he was quite a well-respected broadcaster, tributes are still pouring in for ABC Radio Networks' Paul Harvey, who passed away Saturday morning at the age of 90.
Harvey's affiliates are airing daily retrospectives of the veteran who helmed "Paul Harvey News and Comment" since 1951. Like the weekend hour-long special offered by Harvey's network, the retrospectives are hosted by long-time Harvey fill-in Gil Gross...now a local host at Citadel's KGO in San Francisco.
Citadel owns what is still called the ABC Radio Networks, though ABC Radio News is still an arm of Disney's ABC News (though sold to radio stations through Citadel in a 10 year deal).
We put this in our update because we forgot to mention that NextMedia talk WHBC/1480 Canton was also a long-time Harvey affiliate...and in fact, WHBC also ran Harvey on its FM side (AC "Mix 94.1") until fairly recently.
Speaking of Harvey clearances on FM, OMW readers in Northwest Ohio also remind us that Paul Harvey News aired in Toledo on Cumulus country powerhouse WKKO/99.9 "K100". And we believe Harvey's original former Cleveland affiliate, WGAR/1220, brought him over to its then-new home at 99.5 FM at least for some time.
Harvey was, of course, later carried in Cleveland on Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100, until that station dropped the carriage recently...
UNCLE AL: Broadcasters and viewers in Southwest Ohio are mourning the death of "Uncle Al" Lewis, the Cincinnati market's iconic children's show host who aired for 35 years on Scripps ABC affiliate WCPO/9 (1950-1985).
Since Jeremy at Tri-State Media Watch has been around, we haven't spent a lot of time talking about the Cincinnati market, so we'll leave the details and memories of "Uncle Al" to TSMW.
But we found this Northeast Ohio tidbit in the above linked Cincinnati Enquirer article:
Lewis was born in Cleveland. After spending three years in the Army in special services entertaining troops, he returned to Cleveland and attended the Cleveland Institute of Art.
While there, he met his future wife, Wanda.
Lewis graduated with a degree in art in 1949. While in college, Lewis worked at WEWS-TV as an announcer and an artist. Being an accomplished musician, he also performed in nightclubs playing the accordion, banjo and piano.
WEWS, then as now, was a Scripps sister station to WCPO, and that's where Lewis went next and found his long-running local fame. The Enquirer notes that ABC aired "Uncle Al" for a couple of years as well.
And as far as we can tell, Al Lewis was no relation to the actor best known for playing "Grandpa Munster" on the TV sitcom. That Al Lewis died in 2006...
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