Supersized Update

As promised, here's our update that spans all over the map, and with updates on just about every subject area we cover. How big is it? Let's just put it this way...we're lucky Blogger doesn't charge at all, let alone by the kilobyte...

WVPX HD: Put on hold by Ion Media Networks' bankruptcy a while back, the HD upgrade at Ion's local owned-and-operated station is complete.

Over-air viewers of Akron-licensed WVPX/23 are now seeing an HD feed on 23.1, and viewers of Time Warner Cable will get the station on their HD cable boxes soon...if it has not happened already.

We can also pass along word that in the former Adelphia Cleveland-based system, those picking up clear QAM feeds can find WVPX's HD feed on RF channel 78.2.

Another oddity of the clear QAM feeds - though they do not appear on cable boxes in the Cleveland-based arm of the TWC NEO system, Western Reserve PBS' HD WEAO/49.1 and its subchannels are available to those picking up the QAM feeds, mapped to their over-air channel numbers.

WEAO's main feed is still available on analog cable channel 9 in the former Adelphia system, and WEAO/WNEO's HD feed and subchannels are on cable boxes in the "legacy" Time Warner Akron/Canton/Youngstown area systems. Time Warner lists the feed as "WNEO" even in the WEAO signal area.

Anyway, back to WVPX. We don't have a complete list of programming in HD, but it appears that prime-time off-network shows (such as "Ghost Whisperer") and at least some movies are in HD. Shortly after the launch, we saw an Ion movie in the daytime hours that was not only in HD, but using its original aspect ratio...which should make some movie buffs very happy...

YOUNGSTOWN HD/DIGITAL ACTIVITY: It seems the dust has settled, and Parkin/New Vision ABC affiliate WYTV/33 in Youngstown is now pumping out a million watts of power.

Viewers all over the Mahoning Valley and beyond report drastically improved reception from the new facility. (No, we can't get it from the OMW World Headquarters...but we also have trouble with New Vision sister CBS affiliate WKBN/27 from this far out on our modest setup. We imagine those in the far eastern suburbs of Cleveland and Akron should have a better shot at it.)

WYTV is indeed more powerful than WKBN, by a few hundred kilowatts, but the station's antenna is much lower than the WKBN antenna.

Elsewhere on Sunset Boulevard, the multi-station combo is preparing to add the Youngstown market's first HD newscasts.

It was supposed to happen back on April 19th, but viewers/OMW readers in the market, including PBRTV's Tom Lavery, tell us that newscasts on WKBN and its sister stations are still in SD.

We can't find a reference right now, but we seem to recall the update will also bring WYTV's MyNetwork TV subchannel (33.2) into the world of HD...

WIN IT FOR JOE: When will local sports radio legend Joe Tait hang up his headphones, and turn the Cleveland Cavaliers Radio Network microphone over to someone with very big shoes to fill?

We don't recall when he said it, but a recent profile of Tait in the Chicago Sun-Times -"Tait, as in great" - has this:

Tait, 72, has said that next season will be his last. If he sticks to that, the breed of working NBA broadcast greats will be down one.

We reported earlier that Tait's contract was renewed, indeed, through the end of the 2010-2011 season, thoguh even at age 72, Dan Gilbert is likely to keep the iconic Cavs broadcaster behind the microphone for basically as long as he wants.

Tait tells the Sun-Times:

''I feel old, fat and tired,'' the signature radio voice of the Cleveland Cavaliers said. ''Some days, I feel like I could go on forever. Other days, I'm not sure I'll make it past noon.''

and...

'In a year, the house will be paid off,'' said Tait, Evanston (IL)-born and a graduate of Monmouth College. ''Then all I want to worry about is taking care of Jeannie and enjoying the sunsets.''

Though he does sound like a man ready to retire after a long and illustrious career, he tells the newspaper he very much still enjoys his work...enjoyment, presumably, that will be magnified ten-fold if the Cavaliers manage to do what no Cleveland-based major professional team has done since 1964...win it all.

Win one for Tait, indeed.

By the way, tonight's Game 5 of the first round NBA playoff series against the Chicago Bulls will air on Fox Sports Ohio, and will also be simulcast on broadcast partner Raycom Media MyNetwork TV affliate WUAB/43. The WUAB broadcast of FSOhio games are also in HD, giving over-air viewers a chance to see the game in the crisper TV format.

And by the way again, we've confirmed through numerous sources part of an item we ran earlier: The Cavaliers Radio Network is indeed produced at Quicken Loans Arena, not at the facilities of flagship Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100. That means new Cavs Radio Network producer Marty "Big Daddy" Allen doesn't have to go back to Oak Tree for his new job.

We should have realized this, since the Cavs' post-game radio show gives 420-exchange phone numbers, the same exchange as used by the team and arena. WTAM uses the standard 578 exchange, an old "choke" exchange used by local broadcasters for years.

Back in the day, the 578 exchange was used so floods of radio contest and request calls didn't bring down other phone network users, though technology has rendered that problem obsolete...

WHILE WE'RE TALKING ABOUT OAK TREE: A former WTAM staffer is making quite a career change.

Former WTAM news director R.C. Bauer left the building in October 2006, taking a news management gig at sister Clear Channel talk WFLA/970 in Tampa FL.

He got a promotion to the top programming job at the successful Florida station in early 2009, after Gabe Hobbs felt the Clear Channel downsizing axe.

Bauer is leaving WFLA on his own...and to a higher "station" as it were.

Radio-Info.com columnist Tom Taylor provides us the confirmation of a tip we received late last week, in his column which landed in E-mail boxes Monday morning:

RC Bauer hears the call of the ministry and is leaving radio – and his job as Director of Information and Services and PD of talker WFLA, Tampa (970) – to become a full-time minister. RC’s departing the Clear Channel roster at the end of May to become executive pastor at the Generations Christian Church in Trinity, Florida.

Taylor notes that R.C. will remain on WFLA's local programming advisory board, and could even do some fill-in for the station once he moves to his new role as a pastor...

THE TRIBE IN THE 'BULA: That's Ashtabula, and the Indians are getting some FM air-time in that extreme Northeast Ohio community.

Media One Group features both the Indians and the team's nearby minor league affiliate, the single-A Lake County Captains, on sports WFUN/970 "ESPN 970".

Conflicts this year will push the major league club onto sister country WYBL/98.3 "The Bull", with the April Indians/WYBL schedule here.

Last Sunday was a conflict of particular note, with the Captains on WFUN, the Indians on WYBL, and the Cleveland Cavaliers on Media One's WZOO/102.5 "Oldies 102.5".

SPEAKING OF MINOR LEAGUE BALL: By the way, according to a Captains release, Spirit Media talk/brokered WELW/1330 Willoughby is resuming its role as the team's flagship outlet in 2010, with "selected games" on WFUN and WZOO.

Over in Lorain County, we neglected to inform you that the Lake Erie Crushers, the Avon-based independent minor league team, gets a partial broadcast presence this year, with Sunday afternoon home games heard on Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting talk WEOL/930 Elyria.

It's not the entire schedule, but the team had no over-air call in its initial season.

Former WOBL/1320-WDLW/1380 and Metro Networks staffer and voice of Oberlin College sports, Dave DeNatale, called the games online via SportsJuice.com. DeNatale was the afternoon sports update voice at Metro for Good Karma sports WKNR/850 "ESPN 850" in Cleveland, until the local Metro Networks operation closed its Independence facility.

For WEOL, staffers Tim Alcorn and Rob Polinsky are calling the Captains' Sunday afternoon contests...

TWC AWARDS: The local arm of Time Warner Cable picked up a lot of hardware at the Ohio Cable Television Association's annual award ceremony - for a number of programs on its Northeast Ohio Network (NEON) and associated Local On Demand (LOD) channel.

Here's the list, courtesy of a TWC release:

The 9 Awards:
Excellence in Local Programming – NEON/LOD programming
Education Outreach – Connect A Million Minds
Product Launch/Promotion – Viewer’s Choice LOD Contest
Community Outreach – Connect A Million Minds
Live Action Sports Programming – High School Football Game of the Week
Community Affairs Programming (2) – Helping Hands and Great Lakes Science Center Partnership
Entertainment Programming – Made Here
PSA/Promotional Message – Connect A Million Minds 30-second spot

The awards are called the "Image Awards", which are "established to honor OCTA members' efforts to build and enhance relationships with their customers and foster a positive image in their communities."

The local programming is part of the service's arsenal in competing against satellite and other multichannel providers like AT&T U-verse. Or as TWC VP/Communications and OMW reader Bill Jasso puts it:

“NEON and LOD are unique to Time Warner Cable, an added value only available to our customers.”

THE ZONE IS BACK: It had been speculated by many of our Toledo-area readers for some time, but Cumulus has indeed used an FM translator to bring back a format recently killed to give sports WLQR/1470 "The Ticket" an FM home.

As expected, W264AK, the former Cavalry Chapel-owned religious translator at 100.7 FM, has moved to a more centrally located facility in Toledo, and is now under Cumulus control at 100.9 FM - pumping out the "Zone" alt-rock format displaced by sports on the former WRWK-now-WLQR-FM/106.5.

Tom Taylor's Radio-Info.com column notes that the feed is coming from classic rock WXKR/94.5's HD2 channel, and that Cumulus did much the same in Atlanta for an alt-rock station there ("99X").

The Calvary Chapel folks, meantime, have completed their end of the swap with Cumulus, broadcasting the network's religious programming on 1560 AM. The station long held the WTOD call letters, but Calvary Chapel changed calls Friday to WWYC.

This page on the church's website incorrectly identifies the new station as being at 1590 AM, and incorrectly identifies the new WWYC as an FM station - though it also notes the AM station's daytime-only operation.

The station does have a construction permit for a whopping 3 watts of nighttime power, a level that might cover a few blocks around the transmitter - if the signal doesn't get clobbered by the skywave of Radio Disney's WQEW/1560 in New York City. (We're betting on the Mouse.)

As Cumulus' WTOD, the station ran a mostly syndicated talk format.

The WTOD calls are now being parked on a Cumulus station in Hartsville SC...

Melissa Mack Moving On Up

OMW can confirm that Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8 "Fox 8 News" weather anchor Melissa Mack is indeed leaving the station.

Her announcement to that effect, heard by numerous viewers on Sunday night's "Fox 8 News at 10", caused quite a stir, and an increase in E-mail traffic here at your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm).

OMW hears from insiders at South Marginal Road that it's a career move up for Melissa that's prompting her exit from Northeast Ohio. We're told that Ms. Mack is headed for "a larger market" station, but we don't know which market that is.

(We do believe, for whatever reason, that Melissa's new home market is not New York City.)

We hear Melissa Mack's last day on "Fox 8 News" is Thursday.

Melissa quickly got noticed after joining Fox 8. She'd been seen before that in Northeast Ohio, as a weather anchor for now-Parkin/New Vision ABC affiliate WYTV/33 in Youngstown...

Out Of The Box On Tuesday

Yeah, we've hung onto a lot of items, though our Twitter feed has previewed one of them...

A SUNNY EXIT, AND ENTRANCE: Word spread quickly on Friday that Saga Columbus OM/PD Tony Florentino's contract was not being renewed, and sure enough, he exited the building shortly thereafter.

As it turns out, someone was waiting to take the job at the "Columbus Radio Group" stations, including AC powerhouse WSNY/94.7 "Sunny 95"...Cincinnati radio vet T.J. Holland heads up I-71 to take the Saga Columbus gig. (The Columbus group also includes Hot AC WVMX/107.9 "Mix 107.9", classic hits WODB/104.3 "Big Hits B104.3", and smooth jazz WJZA/103.5.)

Holland spent 14 years in Cincinnati at what used to be the Susquehanna cluster, which was swallowed into Cumulus Media Partners.

Among his programming experience that'll serve him well at Saga Columbus - oversight of AC WRRM "Warm 98", and hot AC WNNF "Frequency 94.1". He'd been director of programming for the Susquehanna-turned-CMP stations in Cincinnati from 2003 through March, when he lost his gig due to budget cuts.

What about Tony Florentino, now "on the beach", gig wise in Columbus?

We haven't heard a thing linking him to anything, but a reader helpfully reminds us that, as far as we know, Clear Channel Columbus is still looking for a PD for top 40 mainstay WNCI/97.9 and AC WLZT/93.3...of course, after Michael McCoy's exit to Detroit...

NEWSPAPERS...OUCH: It's pretty much been a fact these days...newspapers are losing readership by the thousands, and the slide is nowhere close to ending...if it will ever end.

Nowhere was that more apparent than the most recent numbers from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the measuring stick officially used by publications to audit readership.

Newspaper trade bible "Editor and Publisher" weighs in:

On a comparable basis, ABC reported that for the 379 newspapers filing with the organization, average daily circulation plunged 10.6% to 30,395,652 -- one of the most severe drops in overall circulation. Sunday circulation for 562 reporting newspapers was down 7.4% to 40,012,253.

Locally, the "Top 25 Newspapers" list puts Cleveland's Plain Dealer at number 16 with a bullet - a bullet downward, as with the other papers, the PD showing a circulation drop of 11 percent weekdays (271,180 readers), and nearly 5 percent on Sunday (390,636 readers).

E&P points out that it's not just that readers are treating newsprint like it's coated in H1N1 flu... it notes that many of the papers are trimming non-core-paid distribution, and shrinking their distribution areas overall. So, if you can't find the Plain Dealer in a box in Western PA, that may be why...

NEWSPAPERS OUCH TWO: With the current state of the economy and the newspaper business, it may be no surprise to learn that another Northeast Ohio paper is plotting out salary cuts.

But the "17 percent" cut figure proposed by Akron Beacon Journal owner Black Press seems to have surprised just about everyone.

The plan first came to light courtesy of an E-mail to Beacon Journal union members, published at the Poynter Online journalism site in the popular column of Jim Romenesko:

Subject: The company isn't pleading poverty, but wants you to

Your Guild bargaining team met with the company Monday, where after 16 months the company revealed its economic proposal. The 19 issues in the proposal opened with the company re-nigging on a previous tentative agreement over severance pay and closed with a 17% pay cut. If you could think of a benefit you have now, it probably was included in the other 17 cuts.

A quick estimate by the Guild, according to figures supplied by the company, the cuts to wages and benefits combined would fall between 25 - 36 percent depending on your seniority and health care coverage.

This line, from Black Press negotiator Karen Lefton, caught the most flack:

When pushed on the issue by Guild staff representative Bruce Nelson, Lefton stated, "we are not saying we are not making a profit, we aren't pleading poverty." She went on to say that the company is not unable to pay at current levels, they just doesn't want to.

Rubber City Radio/1590 WAKR and its AkronNewsNow.com site went further, adding audio reaction from the Beacon's Stephanie Warsmith (reporter, and secretary for the Akron Newspaper Guild) and from Lefton, citing the decline in advertising revenue for the print industry...

WKBN UPGRADE: We haven't gotten official confirmation that the upgrade to New Vision CBS affiliate WKBN/27 Youngstown's signal is complete, but it would sure appear so from the OMW World Headquarters.

The Youngstown outlet is now reaching even deeper into the Cleveland market, after having moved its antenna "up top" on the station's tower. It was side-mounted before, due to the presence of analog channel 27's antenna on top.

With analog history as of last June, crews finally got up there and put the new, main, digital antenna on top. All the wiring was expected to be complete early Monday morning.

The new WKBN signal is not perfect here at the OMW World Headquarters, which is roughly 20 air miles from the Parma antenna farm. But it's the best it's ever been, and we figure with a semi-decent outdoor antenna, we'll probably get the station full-time now.

We don't expect such luck even with the planned 1000 kW upgrade to now-puny-sister station WYTV/33, Youngstown's ABC affiliate which is operated by New Vision in that deal with owner Parkin Broadcasting.

We're told that crews are headed there, next. But one thing we've learned is that "height is everything" in regards to digital TV signals, and even the upgraded WYTV antenna will not be nearly as high as WKBN's nearby facility. And height is important, if you're down in a valley, and hope to get any signal out of it.

No matter. We know the Youngstown signals are "bonuses" for those of us in the Cleveland market...

Some Clarifications and Updates

Following along with some items that have popped up in the past few days...

SABO GONE: We don't know much more, but we can confirm that Good Karma sports WKNR/850 Cleveland "ESPN 850" has parted ways with producer/sidekick/update anchor Josh Sabo. (And no, that's not just because we've heard WKNR's Tony Rizzo say those exact words about three times now.)

We're getting very little information as to why, but it appears that it has nothing to do with any on-air comments or on-air performance.

As such, we're closing the books on this item...which mostly got attention because Sabo was a producer/contributor to WKNR's highest profile local show, "The Really Big Show" with WJW/8 "Fox 8" sports anchor Rizzo. Rizzo continues with co-host Aaron Goldhammer and update anchor Jeff Thomas.

We'll echo others...and say that this would be an excellent chance to give Jeff a greater on-air role in the 9 AM-noon program.

Though Jeff Thomas is still an "embedded" employee of Metro Networks, the company shuttering its Independence facility has put Jeff in the Galleria studios along with Rizzo and company...and it'd be interesting to see how his talents could be used more...

WKBN UPDATE: If you're one of those viewers on the fringes of New Vision Youngstown CBS affiliate WKBN/27 (like, say, us), and were disappointed that moving the station's digital antenna to the top of the tower didn't allow a signal lock last night, hold on.

Station chief engineer Tom Zocolo checks in with OMW, and passes along a detailed explanation he wrote up for a local message forum: there is still some new transmission line work to be done.

WKBN has rigged up a temporary line until the factory-made new line can be created and flown in....so the station can stay on the air for the next few days. We're told that such a process is standard procedure in such antenna work.

With the work still in progress, Zocolo says that the WKBN facility has been operating at about 30 percent of its usual power, and will continue at that level until the final work is completed.

When will that be?

Checking the weather forecast - and even invoking "27 First News"' own meteorologist Don Guthrie - Zocolo says it looks like the final work will be done late Sunday night into Monday morning, from midnight to 5 AM.

Assuming all goes well, Monday morning should bring the stronger signal...though as noted before, WKBN's regular digital signal even before this move was picked up with very little difficulty by those in the core of the Mahoning Valley area.

In the explanation, WKBN's Zocolo also says sister-via-LMA WYTV/33's work is up next after WKBN's:

In this case, all of the old analog antenna and transmission line must first be removed from the tower before the new line and antenna can be installed. I have no estimate on the time frame because every bit of tower work is dependent upon the weather conditions.

Even when it’s not raining, high winds can stop work at the top of the tower. Just as an example, the crew has been on site at WKBN for a little over a month. We’ve needed about 10 good working days to get where we are right now…

Thank you, Tom, for writing all this up, and for forwarding it to us directly!

THE BSK SPEAKS: As hinted earlier, long-time Cleveland sports media personality Kendall Lewis has said his first words "on air" since suffering a stroke in recent weeks.

"The BSK"'s current job is as program director and afternoon drive host for Paul Belfi's Internet sports operation SportsTalkCleveland.com, and thus, his first post-stroke call was to STC's "Press Box Rants" show with Greg Kozarik.

You can hear Kendall's call via audio posted to this page.

To us, "The BSK" sounds like he could indeed resume his program soon, though he cautioned that he's still working on not only his voice, but other resulting problems from the stroke...

Disjointed, But Here

You may notice that we're trying out some new things, and new ways of updating the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm).

Just bear with us...as we're testing how these new methods work in practice. For the nonce, you could well see Twitter-style mini-updates in the main OMW stream for a while...like below...

HAILING COLUMBUS: OMW hears that the new Central Ohio 102.5 signal, licensed to Baltimore OH, has apparently made its move to the new facility intended on serving the Columbus market.

An OMW reader on Columbus' east side, near the suburb of Bexley, tells us he can hear what is now known as "Highway 102.5", now legally WCVZ/Baltimore:

"...before today getting 102.5 was out of question. Now I can hear 102.5...with no problems and little to no static from (their) new tower"

The move comes after the swap we detailed below. Try to follow along, as this one takes a few twists -

Back in the day, there was a three station AM/FM/TV combo in the Southeastern Ohio town of Zanesville - WHIZ/1240, WHIZ-FM/102.5 and WHIZ-TV/18.

The FM side of the WHIZ Media Group equation has been through a lot, lately.

Some time ago, WHIZ filed for a relocated signal for 102.5, moving it to the Columbus ex-urb of Baltimore... a southeast rimshot signal that would put a decently-listenable signal over much of Franklin County.

The community-minded WHIZ folks didn't want to be without an FM signal once 102.5 headed for the Big City, so they purchased WCVZ/92.7 South Zanesville from Columbus area-based Christian Voice of Central Ohio...which had been operating it as CCM "92.7 The River" as a sister station with its WCVO/104.9 Gahanna ("104.9 The River").

WHIZ Media Group then moved the locally-programmed hot AC "Z" format from 102.5 to the newly acquired 92.7 as "Z92". CVCO decamped to its new noncomm WZNP/89.3 Newark "The Promise", folding in some of the WCVZ "River" programming with the "Promise" lineup of Christian teaching/talk.

After a simulcast period, WHIZ made WCVZ/92.7 the sole home of the "Z92" hot AC format, and launched automated country music on the former "Z" frequency, 102.5, at the time still serving the Zanesville area.

That's the way it's been until today

Wednesday, WHIZ Media/Southeastern Ohio Broadcasting Systems swapped calls on its two FM stations.

Hot AC "Z92" is now WHIZ-FM, and country "Highway 102" is now WCVZ. The formats remain unchanged.

In a story aired by the TV side of the WHIZ newsroom, group owner Hank Littick talked about the changes, including the transmitter site relocation for now-WCVZ/102.5:

The new WCVZ will continue with a country music format and will serve most of the Muskingum County area, but not all,

It will open up access to hundreds of thousands of listeners west of Zanesville and all around the Columbus market. Littick says where a lot of impact will be felt is the northwest and west side of Columbus. He says starting today (Wednesday) that area will have a new radio station.

Littick says the move will also be a big win for advertisers who will have access to over 1.4 million potential listeners in the new signal area in an affordable, economical way.

As we've said before, we're not betting on "Highway 102" lasting as a Columbus market station.

We don't believe Mr. Littick and company intend to operate it long-term over there, and that the eventual plan for 102.5 is a sale to some other operator. Of course, the radio sales landscape has pretty much hit rock bottom since the filing to move 102.5 to the Columbus market.

The only active buyer of stations in markets the size of Columbus these days appears to be California-based Educational Media Foundation, which is spreading its "K-Love" satellite-fed CCM format all over this part of the country.

Just in the past few of months, EMF has put new in-market signals on the air in Pittsburgh, where it bought then-WOGI/98.3 Duquesne PA from Keymarket and flipped "Froggy 98" to K-Love ("Froggy" took the WOGI calls to 104.3 Moon Township PA, which heads up the simulcast now...K-Love moved the WPKV calls to 98.3).

In Indianapolis, EMF just took over former classic hits outlet WKLU/101.9 Brownsburg IN from owner Russ Oasis, and also flipped it to "K-Love".

We're not ready to predict that the new Columbus market 102.5 will eventually end up in EMF's hands as a K-Love outlet. But...who else is out there buying radio stations?

Perhaps Alpha Broadcasting is a player. The new Oregon-based group is headed up by Larry Wilson, the man who built Citadel before selling it off to its current owners - who then went on a spending binge right before the recession and paid a gazillion-dollars for the former ABC Radio big market stations.

Wilson's back in the game, spending just north of $50 million to restablish a presence in Portland.

It'd been thought that Alpha would concentrate on the Pacific Northwest, but there's this interesting quote from today's Taylor on Radio-Info newsletter, written by respected columnist Tom Taylor:

Wilson’s got backing from Endeavour Capital (which invested with Wilson’s Citadel back in 1996) and they’re now saying they’re interested in mid-sized markets all over the country. That broadens the scope from the earlier emphasis on the West coast.

Assuming "mid-sized" markets means places like Portland, say, Columbus...though we suspect Alpha, if it ever does find the 614 area code, would like to have more than one station. CBS Radio has already sold out of the market, so we wonder who else would be interested.

Again, this is all just speculation. We have no idea if Larry Wilson can find Columbus on a map, let alone if his Alpha group is interested in buying stations there...

A BIG PROMOTION: It's the market move of the week, as a Toledo sports TV veteran heads for the Big Time.

That's as in New York City, where ABC O&O WTVG/13 "13abc" sports anchor Rob Powers is headed as a weekend sports anchor at the network's flagship station, WABC/7.

Quoting a "13abc" story on Powers' move:

He'll be traveling back and forth working for both stations for the next few weeks before moving to WABC full time October 17.

And Powers will still be getting his paychecks from the same company, of course, as WTVG is also owned by Disney/ABC.

The story notes that Powers has been the Toledo station's sports director for eleven years, and also says he has been co-anchoring the station's 5:30 PM newscasts for the past five years.

OMW hears that Powers is from suburban Cleveland (Westlake, to be specific), and had job offer nibbles from this market in the past...

EMERGING: The folks at New Vision TV crow that they've emerged from the bankruptcy process. From a company release:

New Vision Television today emerged from its 80-day restructuring process with a solid balance sheet, significant working capital, experienced management and employees, and a proven business plan.

“New Vision’s restructuring process was extraordinarily efficient – about ten weeks from start to finish,” said Jason Elkin, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of New Vision. “Among the major TV broadcasting groups, we are the first to emerge from this court-supervised process. With the elimination of all $400 million of our historical debt, New Vision now has one of the strongest balance sheets in our sector. Being debt-free will enable us to invest in our people, our product and complementary acquisitions to drive New Vision forward, while our competitors continue to focus on daily liquidity and covenant compliance.”

Since this isn't The Financial Section, we don't really have much to say about this bit of corporate puffery.

But as a reminder, New Vision owns Youngstown market CBS affiliate WKBN/27 and sister Fox affiliate WYFX "Fox Youngstown", and operates Parkin Broadcasting ABC affiliate WYTV/33 and its sister MyNetwork TV affiliate "MyYTV"...

Seeing The Browns - Or Not

All of Northeast Ohio's television viewers got to see (endure, be tortured by) the Cleveland Browns preseason opener on Saturday, a quickly-forgettable tilt with the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field, the local broadcast via Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3 and its regional network of stations.

This coming weekend, Browns fans may not be able to see their team play the Detroit Lions - unless they're sitting in Cleveland Browns Stadium.

Yes, there is still the possibility that the local NFL franchise could see its first local TV blackout since "the new Browns" started up in 1999, as an expansion team that took the name, colors and record history of the city's storied professional football franchise.

Since 1999, the "returned" Browns have often been awful. But no matter how awful they've been, even preseason games have sold out...allowing local TV rightsholders to show home games with no problem.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer's Tony Grossi has an update on the situation today:

Through Friday, they had less than 5,000 tickets left for the exhibition home opener on Saturday against Detroit. If they are not sold by Wednesday's 72-hour blackout deadline, the game will not be shown live.

And for that matter, Grossi notes that Browns TV voices Jim Donovan and Bernie Kosar may not need to show up at all if the game is not sold out:

It's also possible the game won't be televised on a delayed basis by WKYC Channel 3. The station is reviewing its options.

(Of course, if there ends up being no TV broadcast, Donovan would presumably slide over to his usual role as the Browns Radio Network's play-by-play voice. Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 sports director Mike Snyder takes the radio reins when Donovan does TV work.)

The team blames the poor economy for the lack of preseason sales - not a difficult target when the economy really does stink nationwide, and certainly here in Northeast Ohio.

But for that matter, "stink" is an adequate description for the Browns. After a 17-0 embarrassment at the hands of the Packers on Saturday, who could blame someone for not shelling out his or her hard-earned-money to watch the Browns and Lions in person on Saturday?

The team is selling all tickets for 50% off, and has launched a heavily promoted $99 "Family Four Pack" promotion, aiming to fill those empty seats - including game tickets, food and the like. In the current situation, that price seems like it's about $99 too high.

The Browns local preseason TV network this season includes New Vision/Parkin ABC affiliate WYTV/33 Youngstown and Dispatch CBS affiliate WBNS/10 Columbus. If the games air in Toledo, Dayton or Lima, we couldn't find listings for them last night. It looks like former Toledo Browns preseason TV network affiliate - low-power MyNetwork TV affiliate WMNT-CA/48 "My 58" - has gone with the Detroit Lions' network this year.

If the Lions game isn't sold out by Wednesday, the other stations won't be showing the game live, either...or at all, apparently...

Monday Lunch

OK, so we're thinking of food as we get this late morning Monday update underway. Expect us to stop this from time to time as we raid our own kitchen...

SHE'S HERE: Imagine our surprise when OMW received a press release - directly - from Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 on its latest addition at "NewsChannel 5", assistant news director Roberta Petterson.

We got the full press treatment from WEWS, including a photo of Ms. Petterson.

Since we have the release, let's quote it:

WEWS NewsChannel 5 has named a Pittsburgh television executive as Assistant News Director. Roberta Petterson comes to WEWS from WTAE in Pittsburgh, where she also held the position of Assistant News Director. While there, she led WTAE’s newscast development, breaking news, investigative coverage and special projects.

“Roberta’s track record of success in guiding a dynamic news staff in a multiple-platform environment will enable NewsChannel 5 to continue to deliver Northeast Ohio’s leading news coverage,” said WEWS News Director Jill Manuel.

Petterson was responsible for WTAE’s coverage of last year’s Pennsylvania Primary and has played a key role in that station’s superior political coverage. Under Petterson’s leadership, WTAE’s investigative team won a Peabody and National IRE in 2008. She also won Murrow and Headliner awards for driving breaking news and big story coverage.

If this story sounds familiar to you, you're not dreaming...we broke news of this hiring over a month ago. (But we still appreciate the official release.)

Though we assume Ms. Petterson will be welcomed as a person and a new manager at 3001 Euclid, there has been some question within that building if a new assistant news director hire is a good idea in the current economic environment...in a world of hiring freezes, contract non-renewals and the like.

Our earlier item said Petterson would take her new role at WEWS on August 3rd.

As a note, WEWS parent Scripps just announced financial results that look like all the other big TV groups...according to this report from TVNewsCheck, the new name for the former TVNewsday trade site:

The E.W. Scripps Co. today reported second-quarter operating results for its television, newspaper, and licensing and syndication businesses. Revenue from the company's television stations was $61.1 million, a decrease of 24 percent from the second quarter of 2008.

You can almost predict TV revenue reports - they're all down roughly 20-30% from the same quarter in 2008...

YOUNGSTOWN TV CHANGES: As the New Vision stations in Youngstown prepare for Life After Bankruptcy, they're making some changes on the air.

New Vision-operated Parkin ABC affiliate WYTV/33 is leaving the 5 PM news game, as the company is no longer going to compete with itself at 5 for news viewers.

In what should be no surprise for a Youngstown media item, the information about this is from Andrea Wood and her Youngstown Business Journal:

As the operators of WKBN/WYFX and WYTV sail through bankruptcy reorganization with a hearing set for Sept. 10 to confirm the restructuring of $400 million in debt, local management today announced it will eliminate one newscast effective Sept. 21.

WYTV’s 5 p.m. weekday newscast will be replaced with a syndicated version of “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader,” says Dave Coy, general manager of the three TV stations. WYTV will continue to broadcast a local news program at 5:30 p.m., he notes.

There's a funny line in there, somewhere, about "Smarter Than a 5th Grader", but we'll let you come up with it in your own mind.

Since WYTV and WKBN are both operated by New Vision out of WKBN's long-time Sunset Boulevard home, it makes sense for the company not to mount two (semi-) different newscasts at the same time...as it hopes news viewers will stick with 27 at 5, and head for 33 if they're not looking for news.

Willl the move increase "27 First News"' ratings at 5 PM, as it would only have to compete with Vindicator NBC affiliate WFMJ/21 for news viewers at that half-hour? They hope so, we presume.

But along with others in that market, we wonder how long New Vision will attempt to differentiate news content between "First News" and "33 News" with different reporters...or if 27/33 will see Erie-style news simulcasting at some point.

The station does say that no jobs will be lost in the move, and says there are no expected job losses as a result of the New Vision bankruptcy filing...a Chapter 11 filng that came packaged with help from the company's lenders. Nominal WYTV owner Parkin Broadcasting - which got financial help from New Vision to buy WYTV - is in the same proverbial boat...

A BOOST: There haven't been many complaints from Cleveland over-air digital TV viewers about the 1000 kW signal from CW affiliate WBNX/55.

But the station got FCC approval for a slight upgrade back in July. (Heads up to reader Andrew for the FCC approval link, which we also missed earlier!)

The new construction permit calls for WBNX's antenna to move about 25 meters or so higher on its Parma tower, at the same 1000 kW power level.

As TV reception is as much about height as it is about power level, some WBNX viewers on the fringes of the signal could see some improvement.

But in the List of Local TV Station Reception Complaints, the local CW outlet is way below such former powerhouses as Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8, and a certain alleged CBS affiliate claiming to serve the Cleveland TV market...

AND ONE RADIO ITEM: Though it's firmly within the territory of our friends at Tri-State Media Watch, the word "Cleveland" is in there somewhere.

From John Kiesewetter's blog on the Cincinnati Enquirer's website:

Christian WAKW-FM (Star 93.3) has a new boss: Randy James has been hired as program director to replace Kurt Wallace, who left in April to a Christian station on the air in Indianapolis. James has worked for WVMX-FM in Cleveland, WMMX-FM in Dayton and KHMX-FM in Houston.

Assuming Mr. James did indeed work at "Mix 106.5" here, the call letters, of course, are WMVX, not WVMX. The latter calls, once in Cincinnati, are now on Saga's "Mix 107.9" in the Columbus market...

Midweek Potpourri

Here we go, again...as our list of items continues to grow...

C-BUS TO DETROIT: OMW hears that Clear Channel Columbus top 40 WNCI/97.9-AC WLZT/93.3 program director Michael McCoy is heading to Michigan, and not to watch the Buckeyes play the Wolverines.

McCoy is heading for a new job at Clear Channel sister top 40 outlet WKQI/95.5 "Channel 95-5" in Detroit. We hear his last day will be this Friday.

Back in Columbus, OMW hears about the temporary shuffle to fill-in for the exiting McCoy, which takes place starting Monday.

1) WBWR/105.7 "The Brew"-WRXS/106.7 "Radio 106.7" programmer Laura Lee will take over as interim program director at WNCI, in addition to her current work.
2) Country WCOL/92.3-CC Columbus cluster programmer John Crenshaw adds interim PD duties at WLZT.
3) "Daveman" will add music duties at WBWR, in addition to his role as the cluster's online content director.
4) Former WTVN/610 midday talker (and still primary fill-in host) Joel Riley adds the WBWR "Brew" morning drive shift to his current work on WTVN and WLZT.

We hear that the station's search for McCoy's replacement starts "immediately", and that the above list of changes is only in place until a new programmer is found...

WOOF, THEY'RE ON TV: Here at your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), we generally studiously avoid giving a lot of digital ink to radio or TV promotional events...unless there's some reason to write about them.

Thus, not a word was written about Clear Channel rock/talk WMMS/100.7's "Roverfest" over the weekend, though we were certainly aware of it, and it has apparently grown to some size.

The show passed along a "recap" to us earlier this week, and we'll note one item - "Roverfest" was videotaped in HDTV format, and a program about the event will air on the cable network "MavTV".

That should ring a bell or two here, as MavTV is the young male-oriented HDTV network recently added to the Time Warner Cable lineup, roughly about the time that Mark Cuban's HDNet and HDMovies were yanked.

We haven't watched much of it, but MavTV seems like it's a 24 hour version of HDNet's late night "guy" shows hosted by one Art Mann. The station's on-air logo features a silhouette of a curvy, bikini-clad woman...need we say more?

Anyway, MavTV's aiming at the same young-drooling-male-swilling-brew demographic that's home to many "Rover's Morning Glory" listeners, so it'll probably be a good fit...

SPEAKING OF PROMOTIONAL EVENTS: Scripps Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS/5 certainly has enough promotional muscle, between its on-air signal and the NewsNet5 website, to drum up votes... so we declined to mention this before the voting ended.

The station has been pushing for morning anchors Kimberly Gill and Pete Kenworthy to be granted a spot guest hosting on the syndicated talk show "Live with Regis and Kelly", as part of that show's own promotion. Of course, Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa's daily show airs on - wow, what a surprise! - WEWS.

(Well, we didn't expect WJW's Stefani Schaefer to be in the running, or WKYC's Mark Finan, or whoever does mornings on a certain CBS affiliate at Reserve Square. It's an affiliate promotional event, not a real contest.)

As such promotions go, best of luck to Kimberly and Pete, who seem well suited to take the promotional gig...

SPEAKING OF TV SIGNALS: A reader passes along a tip that Parkin Broadcasting ABC affiliate WYTV/33 Youngstown has officially received FCC approval to build its 1000 kW full-power digital TV facility.

But, can the station afford to build it out?

WYTV has lagged far behind the market's three other full-power stations in terms of power levels. Until now, WYTV-DT RF 36 has been broadcasting with a quite-less-than-impressive 50 (!) kW power level. That may be enough to get its signal to Warren, on a good day.

The new facility won't instantly turn WYTV into the market's strongest signal, we're told. It is licensed for just 177 meters above average terrain, just a bit higher up the tower than the current facility.

New Vision now-LMA sister station WKBN-DT RF 41's signal is running with just slightly less power (700 kW), but the digital antenna is much higher above average terrain - somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 meters high. We're not sure if it'll land at 384 meters or 418 meters, based on its applications.

The low-slung WYTV digital antenna may be fine within the station's market area - the immediate Mahoning Valley - but those of us in neighboring markets like Cleveland and Pittsburgh may have more difficulty trying to catch the new facility.

Well, at least receiving a digital signal over air from this market's ABC affiliate (WEWS) is not a problem for the most part...unlike the CBS and Fox affiliates.

Anyway, you'll note that we said "can the station afford to build it out?"

WYTV's ownership is now officially listed as "PBC Broadcasting of Youngstown, LLC, Debtor-in-Possession"...with Parkin Broadcasting and its entities filing for bankruptcy earlier this month...along with the filing by WKBN/WYFX LMA partner New Vision, which we already reported.

Maybe they've already budgeted for the WYTV power increase, and it'll happen as scheduled...

AND MORE: And stay tuned to your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) later today, for some more items, including the story of a retirement party for a local TV veteran in Cleveland...

Weather And Storms

And the latter part of our title, this time, isn't necessarily about thunderstorms...it's about economic storms, again. But first...

MCSHEA RETURNS: OMW hears that former Cleveland Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3 meteorologist and "Good Company" co-host Eileen McShea is about to return to local TV, but not at 13th and Lakeside.

Instead, she'll be doing weather on Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 "NewsChannel 5"'s weekend newscasts...at least for now.

The folks at 3001 Euclid are "down one" weather anchor, after the station declined to renew the contract of third forecaster Jeff Mackel at the end of last month.

OMW hears that McShea joins the "NewsChannel 5" weather team on a freelance basis "for the next few weeks".

We don't know if WEWS plans to hire a third regular, full-time meteorologist - or if the former WKYCer is up for the gig, if they are. We get the idea that the freelancing - by McShea or whoever could show up later - will be the status quo for now.

McShea left WKYC in 2008 after an apparent economic/money dispute over her co-hosting role on "Good Company", the mid-morning talk show now hosted by Fred Griffith, Andrea Vecchio and Michael Cardamone. (The Plain Dealer's Julie Washington wrote about this last October. For whatever reason, we apparently did not.)

The station has since rechristened the show "Good Company Today", to link it to the 20 hours of NBC's "Today" show and its successors before the show airs. (OK, so it's not 20 hours.)

The show features any number of lifestyle/talk segments, many of them sponsored.

McShea's long tenure at Channel 3, before that, included 12 years as a meteorologist, and some weekend news anchor work...

ANOTHER HEADED FOR 11?: We can't blame TV station employees if they avoid the financial news...and the news could be pretty bad for one station owner that has a number of Ohio stations.

As New Vision TV (WKBN/WYFX/WYTV) works with its lenders to eventually wind out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, giving the lenders control of the group, another group could be headed there.

Sinclair Broadcasting has warned that a Chapter 11 filing could be in its future.

Among the usual menu of economic problems facing any media company in 2009, Sinclair has another Big Problem - the faltering economics surrounding Cunningham Broadcasting. That's the company which allows Sinclair to operate two TV stations in markets where a straight dual-ownership isn't allowed by FCC guidelines.

In Ohio, those Cunningham stations are Columbus Fox affiliate WTTE/28 (sister to Sinclair ABC affiliate WSYX/6), and Dayton Fox affilate WRGT/45 (sister to Sinclair ABC affiliate WKEF/22). Fox affiliate WVAH/11 in the Charleston-Huntington WV market reaches parts of southern Ohio.

Broadcasting and Cable outlines the base of the Cunningham Problem:

Cunningham has until July 31 to pay off a $33.5 million debt. Should Cunningham default, Sinclair may be forced into Chapt. 11. Having Cunningham in bankruptcy could impact Sinclair to the tune of $50-$60 million, Sinclair execs said--$26 million in direct contributions for the LMAs, and the rest in annual cost savings and general synergies between the stations.

Cunningham is not that far removed from Sinclair. Family members of Sinclair CEO David Smith control the company, including Smith's mother.

("Mom? Can you hang onto some TV stations for me?")

These companies, which allow groups like Sinclair to control extra stations in lieu of ownership, are very common. Brecksville's own Mission Broadcasting serves a similar purpose for Nexstar. As we recall, Mission used to be based in a private home in Medina County's Sharon Township, according to a Beacon Journal profile of the company.

The head of Mission Broadcasting is also named David Smith, but as far as we know, he's no relation to Sinclair's CEO.

With the economy continuing to crater advertising revenue, these "other" companies are just as badly hit as their LMA partners...

LIKE A RADIO VIRGIN: Cleveland native and former then-WZJM/92.3 air personality Tim Virgin has made another big market move.

AllAccess reports that Virgin exits the PD/afternoon drive slot at Phoenix alt-rock KEDJ "The Edge" for Chicago, where he'll be the MD/afternoon driver at Emmis alt-rock WKQX "Q101" starting a week from Thursday.

It's actually a return to the Chicago station for Virgin, who worked there in the late 1990's.

In addition to his stint in Cleveland, before 92.3 adopted the "Jammin' Oldies" format, Virgin is known for his work at legendary Washington DC/Baltimore alt-rocker WHFS/99.1, and later at the 105.7 frequency that took the WHFS calls.

The latter stop at 105.7 involved hosting alt-rock music on a station that became a talk outlet, and is now sports WJZ-FM "The Fan". 99.1 is Spanish-language WLZL, and of course, 92.3 here is today's mainly automated alt-rock WKRK-FM "Radio 92.3"...oh, and the WHFS calls are now parked on a syndicated AM talk outlet in Washington...

WAMO: At the moment, this is an OMW exclusive...and the station isn't even in our coverage area. But since it is heard in the Western Pennsylvania parts of the Youngstown market, we'll share it here.

We've been following the coverage of the sale of legendary hip hop outlet WAMO/106.9 in the Pittsburgh market by Friend of OMW Pat Cloonan, who writes a media column for the McKeesport Daily News in that Pittsburgh-area community.

Cloonan noticed that there was a rescinding of the approval of the sale of WAMO and its two AM sister stations (WAMO/860 and WPGR/1510) to St. Joseph Missions, a group of local residents who plan to convert all three stations to Catholic religious programming.

There were also objections filed to the sale, one by a Pittsburgh resident decrying the upcoming loss of programming to the region's African-American community.

Well, according to the FCC database, the station sale has officially been approved (again?) by the FCC...as of today. (MCM/MCL is the corporate station ownership name for Pittsburgh's Sheridan Broadcasting, the seller.)

Cloonan noted in a story earlier today that the objection had been reclassified by the FCC as an "informal" objection, which carries about as much weight as a soaking paper towel. The FCC noted to the Pittsburgh resident that as a standing rule, it doesn't get involved in format decisions.

As far as we remember, there isn't an LMA provision in the sale to St. Joseph's, so the sale would presumably have to close before the programming changes on the three stations.

Again, WAMO's FM operation is a Pittsburgh market station. But the station's move from 105.9 in the city, to 106.7 licensed to Beaver Falls, brought its signal into a pretty decent chunk of the Youngstown market.

We'd link Pat's articles, but his newspaper places them behind a subscription wall...

New Vision Bankruptcy

The operator of nearly all commercial TV stations in the Youngstown market is now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

New Vision Television owns CBS affiliate WKBN/27 and Fox affiliate WYFX (WYFX-LP 62/WFXI-CA 17/WKBN-DT 27.2), and operates PBC (Parkin Broadcasting) owned ABC affiliate WYTV/33 and sister MyNetworkTV affiliate MyYTV (WYTV/33.2). That's every commercial station in the Mahoning Valley except for one big one, Vindicator NBC affiliate WFMJ/21, along with its sister CW affiliate "WBCB" (WFMJ/21.2).

From New Vision's latest release today:

New Vision Television announced the approval of all of its first-day motions by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

"The Court's prompt action is good news for New Vision's employees, advertisers, business partners and viewers," said Jason Elkin, New Vision's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "The Court's decision will allow us continue to operate our business as usual. The Court's quick ruling also marks a smooth entry into what we hope will be a short and consensual bankruptcy process that will restructure all of the company's debt and lead to the emergence of New Vision as a much stronger entity going forward."

The process is expected to be short because the company's lenders will basically end up owning the broadcaster themselves...though it takes money to keep the doors open:

New Vision received Court approval during its first-day hearings to keep all employee pay and benefits intact. The Court also approved New Vision's access on an interim basis to a new $28 million line of credit that will provide ample funding for the company through the remainder of the restructuring process. Next, the Court permitted New Vision to make key operational payments, including for taxes and insurance programs. Under the Court's order, sales incentives will also be funded. Finally, the Court established procedures to streamline the proceedings with the goal of speeding New Vision's emergence from bankruptcy.

How's this playing on Sunset Boulevard in Youngstown?

Well, if you want to know about the inside workings of the market's TV stations, you go to Youngstown Business Journal publisher Andrea Wood, also an OMW reader. From her article earlier today:

News travels fast inside the news business, so fast that newsroom employees of WKBN/WYFX and WYTV learned their parent company had filed bankruptcy when a reporter at competitor WFMJ called late Monday seeking comment.

New Vision Television sought protection from its creditors after the close of business July 13, and word that the Los Angeles operator of 14 TV stations had filed Chapter 11 spread quickly online and was reported by WFMJ and WKBN radio before local station managers could meet with employees Tuesday morning.

Oops! Yes, often the worst inter-office communications are in...the communications business.

There's not much more to say, locally. New Vision's local management isn't commenting, referring all questions to corporate headquarters. We imagine the folks on Sunset Boulevard, and those who moved over from WYTV's former Shady Run Road studios, are a bit shellshocked....crossing their fingers, and wondering if locusts are next.

But at least New Vision "gets" this whole new media thing! Quoting their release:

New Vision will consistently update its employees, advertisers and business partners at newvisiontv.com/restructuring.html. New Vision has also created a hotline to help answer questions about the restructuring process: 1-888-855-0777. Finally, New Vision employees and other interested parties can receive Twitter updates by following newvisiontv.

And oddly enough, New Vision PR staffer Lisa Cohen must be an OMW reader, at least via Google search, as we're getting these releases directly...

Thursday's Mixed Bag

Try as we might, we can't get our daily updates to always fit into a neat, tidy little bag...

THIS IS A TEST, OR WILL BE: Say, what are you doing on May 21st, at 7:30 AM, 12:30 PM or 7:30 PM?

If you're watching over-air analog TV that day, anywhere in the nation, you could be watching a national DTV test.

The Wall Street Journal reports this week that the FCC is working on a plan that would ask TV stations across the United States to, quoting the article, "suspend regular programming and instead show a public-service ad about the digital transition for three five-minute periods May 21 as part of an effort to make sure Americans are ready for the switch."

The "test" would be similar to regional DTV tests already conducted in various parts of the country, including two tests we saw here in Ohio in late 2008 and early this year.

Stations which have already shut off their analog signals - in Northeast Ohio, Western Reserve PBS' WNEO/Alliance, Mid-State independent WMFD/Mansfield, TBN O&O WDLI/Canton, and Multicultural Broadcasting infomercial outlet WOAC/Canton (to be sold to Tri-State Christian Television) - would not have to run the tests.

We have just one comment - if the FCC was really serious about this, they'd put one of the tests in the middle of prime time. Of course, the major networks would probably cry foul...

STACIA'S MOVE: Former Youngstown TV news anchor Stacia Erdos is coming back to the Mahoning Valley media scene...but not as a member of a local TV news operation.

Erdos is joining the staff of the Youngstown Business Journal, in a role we'll let Business Journal publisher and OMW reader Andrea Wood explain:

Erdos, who anchored the 6 and 11 p.m. weeknight newscasts on WYTV Channel 33 from 1990 to 1998, has joined The Business Journal as a video reporter/anchor and columnist. Her focus will be on local business topics and the media. She will write a regular column for the biweekly publication, and will also produce and anchor video reports that will appear on the publication’s Web site, www.business-journal.com.

“I am very excited to be back working where I live, and collaborating with the Valley’s most respected source of business information,” says Ms. Erdos. “In this progressive and impressive move, The Business Journal will leap to the forefront in delivering what matters to the Valley, offering video and interviews shot on location on its Web site.”

Erdos has been an anchor and reporter for Cox-owned Pittsburgh NBC affiliate WPXI/11, and as far as we know, she's been commuting to WPXI from the home she and her husband own in the southern Youngstown suburb of North Lima.

And it looks like your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) will see a lot of Erdos' work, as publisher Wood notes that she'll take over the business paper's "Media Scope" column on local media - from Wood herself.

As such, Erdos is sure to write (and talk) about the landscape she left behind some 10 years ago...which has changed dramatically.

Back when Erdos was a fixture at ABC affiliate WYTV/33, after all, "33 News" existed as a separate operation on Shady Run Road. Now, it's a "virtual set" in a corner of the WKBN/27 "27 First News" studios on Sunset Boulevard...

SOME NEEDLING: OMW reported earlier about some behind the scenes intrigue among Cleveland TV newsrooms regarding a recent news story...and the breaking of a Cleveland Clinic news embargo by Raycom Media's WOIO/19-WUAB/43's "19 Action News".

In the scheme of things...it's not terribly significant. Honoring a news embargo by a source like the Clinic is professional courtesy, usually extended because the Clinic is a major local institution that can be a helpful source.

The story in this case was a planned event, a news conference with the Steubenville-area woman who received a face transplant at the Clinic. We're not talking about a story of malfeasance or corruption that a news organization should uncover on its own, with or without cooperation from the institution, agency or government involved.

And nothing, really, can stop "19 Action News" from putting word of such an event on the air, even if asked by the Clinic to wait. Nothing, also, can stop the Cleveland Clinic from notifying the other three local newsrooms that they can air the story earlier than the embargo time wtih the Clinic's blessing.

But we had to chuckle at the latest Twitter update by Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8's "Fox 8 News":

-----

Tonight at 6pm, Only on Fox8, an exclusive follow up to the face transplant story. Could be weeks before 19 has this one.

-----

So far, in Twitter-land, WOIO is not taking the bait. We did see its brief note Monday mentioning the face transplant patient before the embargo was set to be lifted, and this note Tuesday from 19's Paul Joncich, apparently written after the market's other stations aired the story at 5:

-----

joncich here. the face transplant patient...a look at her life before the accident is coming up on 19 action news @ 6pm.

-----

Our only reason for updating this one?

The fact that newsrooms, now encouraged to share "behind the scenes" details with viewers on blogs, in Twitter posts, Facebook pages and the like, means that this inter-station "play" is now occasionally public as well...and fodder for your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm)...

BUT ON THE POSITIVE SIDE: OK, so it's very easy to poke fun at the folks at Reserve Square.

"Honest. Fair. Everywhere." is their current slogan, and with its brash, tabloid style, "19 Action News" basically has a target painted upon its virtual back for those who talk about local media... like us.

But let's give WOIO/WUAB its props for a big event coming up:

The "Biggest Job Fair in Ohio" will be held May 15th at the Tri-C Gymnasium located at East 30th and Community College Avenue from 10am to 4pm. There will be free parking available throughout the Tri-C campus.

Representatives from local and national companies will be on hand interviewing candidates for more than 1,000 job openings.

Early registration has over five thousand people confirmed to attend with more than ten thousand expected.

Now, WOIO/WUAB isn't the first media outlet that's conducted a job fair in Ohio...a state hard hit by the deep recession, even before much of the rest of the nation.

But this does sound like it'll be pretty big. From an article by TVNewsday's Arthur Greenwald:

Previous, smaller local job fairs have proven the importance of such amenities (feeding volunteers, porta potties and crowd control), says (Raycom Cleveland marketing director Rob) Boenau. "One suburban job fair had only 90 jobs- but thousands showed up and it was closed down by the fire marshal."

To ensure a better outcome, the station partnered early on with Cuyahoga Community College (known locally as Tri-C) and also with Cleveland State University which is also offering plenty of free parking. The station and colleges have already lined up hundreds of volunteers and begun security rehearsals with the campus police forces.

That suburban job fair, of course, was the one that caused quite a mess for commuters on Rockside Road in Independence...as the mass of job seekers at the Holiday Inn Independence flowed out of the hotel and parking lot.

CSU and Tri-C are also providing a variety of services for job seekers, including resume-building help and job seeking skills seminars.

The job fair effort has also spilled over onto WOIO/WUAB's classifieds website, ClevelandClassifieds.TV, with the station actively building up job listings there as well...

Our Friday Menu

And for those who are curious, the Thursday night menu was a pair of coney dogs from a nearby local outdoor drive-in restaurant...the business' opening a sure sign of spring in Northeast Ohio.

We can get Sonic chili dogs 12 months a year in Streetsboro, but these ones only from March through November...

NOT SO FAST, OMW: At the moment, we'd like to pull back on the back patting a bit.

In one of our Thursday items, we poured on the self-congratulation for correctly predicting the disposition of ABC Radio Networks' "Paul Harvey News" time slots, with former Republican presidential candidate/former Arkansas governor/Fox News Channel weekend host Mike Huckabee's existing "Huckabee Report" commentaries being fed down the old Paul Harvey satellite feed starting on Monday.

Notice that we said "being fed down".

That's similar language to what ABC Radio used when talking about what ended up being two week fill-in stints by KGO/San Francisco host and ABC News Radio veteran Gil Gross, and ABC News Radio Information Network anchor Doug Limerick.

So, will Huckabee's 5 minute commentaries continue to be fed down to Paul Harvey News' existing affiliate base for the long term, or is there more?

Thanks to a Friend of OMW, we got a look at the rest of what Inside Radio had to say on the topic. Some sample quotes:

A spokesman tells Inside Radio the network expects to have announcements about other personalities.

Our friends at AllAccess, who actually slipped this story "under the wire" late Wednesday night (we missed it), offer this:

With HUCKABEE's segments shorter than the standard HARVEY time slot, ABC will be offering additional short-form news features to be disclosed shortly.

That's one-third right. Huckabee's segments are all five minutes long, including commercial inventory.

The only former Harvey segment that doesn't match that time is the 15 minute "Noon Visit"...and we've speculated here that stations will probably start dropping that no matter what is offered in Mr. Harvey's place, due to the archaic nature of such a long "short form" feature.

(We noted here earlier that even ABC/Citadel itself already dumped the "Noon Visit" on two of its major market stations after Harvey's passing - to make room for full three-hour mid-morning clearances for the network's Joe Scarborough on WABC/770 New York, and for local host Frank Beckmann on Detroit's WJR/760.)

Time-wise, the five minute morning and afternoon drive editions of "The Huckabee Report" require no extra fill vs. the former Paul Harvey News time slots.

So, who are these "other people" and what role may thay play in ABC Radio's post-Paul Harvey world?

Quoting Inside Radio again:

There’s still no word on whether Paul Harvey Jr. will have a role. A network rep says, “He may have interest in returning to radio, but it’s not something he’s prepared to give an answer to today.”

Will ABC Radio's Life After Paul Harvey consist of offering Gov. Huckabee to stations in morning drive and middays, and eventually (assuming he wants to do it) offering Paul Harvey Jr.'s own "Rest of the Story" segments again? Remember, the Younger Harvey has both written and voiced that segment in recent years.

It sounds like as good a guess as any we've made. We don't see Gross or Limerick interested in a future role, and wouldn't put money on Dallas-based Ron Chapman returning to the former Harvey syndication.

BTW, with former Paul Harvey affiliates WAKR/1590 Akron and WNIO/1390 Youngstown declining to carry Huckabee starting Monday...we haven't yet heard out of the other two Northeast Ohio stations involved - WHBC/1480 Canton and WEOL/930 Elyria...

MORE COLLEGE B'BALL: With the University of Akron Zips giving a strong showing in their NCAA Men's College Basketball first round tournament game - "Insert Name of Month" "Insert Name of Excited Mental State", as we don't want to be sued by the NCAA - the spotlight was heavily on the MAC Champions on Thursday.

The game wasn't nationally televised, of course, since it's an early round contest...but OMW hears that viewers as far away as the Los Angeles market got treated to Zips vs. Zags.

Those listening to coverage via Sirius Satellite Radio were not treated to the Zips ISP Sports Network call by Akron Radio Superstar Steve French and Joe Dunn, heard locally on network flagship WARF/1350 Akron "SportsRadio 1350" and simulcaster rock WRQK/106.9 Canton "Rock 106.9". Sirius opted for Westwood One's national coverage instead.

At least one reader took us to task for our recent needling of Mr. French, who flies high over Akron radio as co-host of the popular morning show on talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron", joining Stan Piatt, Jim Midock and Maggie Fuller.

Relax...we're just having fun, and we're pretty sure Steve is having fun as well...he's a "big boy", and he can take it.

And like most Radio Stars, he loves the attention and publicity...even from a little media blog like this one...

AND MORE HOOPS: An OMW reader tells us that another CBS affiliate in Northeast Ohio is doing the NCAA Round One split with local teams on Friday night.

We hear that New Vision CBS affiliate WKBN/27 Youngstown will opt for THE Ohio State Buckeyes' first round game, and like WOIO in Cleveland, will send the Cleveland State Vikings contest over to its sister MyNetwork TV affiliate - in the Youngstown case, its Parkin Broadcasting's WYTV-DT 33.2 "My YTV".

(Any regular OMW reader - with eyes closed - can tell you here that New Vision operates Parkin's WYTV and My YTV from its studios on Sunset Blvd. in Youngstown.)

For Youngstown, it's not as big a decision as it was for Raycom Media in Cleveland...but with an Ohio team involved, the New Vision folks presumably felt it was easy to offer the game by moving it to the now-sister subchannel that's carrying heavy sports branding....

AND SPEAKING OF YOUNGSTOWN: A quick visit to the Mahoning Valley earlier this week netted us another example of how New Vision/WKBN/WYFX operates WYTV as a nominally separate entity.

This week's Big Story in the Youngstown/Warren TV market was the bankruptcy filing of health care giant Forum Health, and the two local TV newsrooms were all over it.

We watched all four commercial stations' coverage of a bankruptcy court hearing which allowed Forum Health to dip into a cash reserve to pay immediate bills, and we watched the shuffle between WKBN and now-sister station WYTV.

Both stations featured live shots from the Federal Courthouse during early evening newscasts... at 5 PM, WKBN's "27 First News" led with the live shot, and at 5:30, it was on WYTV's "33 News". Two different reporters were used, with one coming over from another story she'd already filed.

Forum Health's CEO appeared live in studio for an interview early in a "27 First News'" newscast, then hung around the building a bit to do the same on the "33 News" set.

Standard "B-roll" footage of Forum Health's facilities, such as Youngstown's Northside Medical Center and Warren's Trumbull Memorial Hospital, was mixed in with footage of Newton Falls - the same footage on both stations. At some point, we could tell you when the water tower with "Newton Falls" on it would show up before it actually did so.

Newton Falls is the location Forum Health plans to build an urgent care center, a plan that's apparently still in effect post-bankruptcy filing.

Other, less important stories were near simulcast on both WKBN and WYTV due to their placement.

But more unnerving than that was the replay of "27 First News This Morning" (5-7 AM on WKBN/27) from 7-9 AM on WYFX "Fox Youngstown"...the only difference being a superimposed "First News on Fox" time/temperature bug on the latter station.

In the You Know Your Morning Show Is Taped From Earlier Department:

* "Live Skycam" footage of downtown Youngstown in the dark...being played long after sunrise....seen via the WYFX feed.

* A promo for the upcoming "CBS Early Show", starting in "just a few minutes" if you're watching the WYFX feed at 8:55 AM. No, not unless you recorded it off of WKBN, or invested in a DeLorean with a Flux Capacitor.

The new WKBN graphics look modern - and appear to have finally assigned the "Fox 17/62" branding for the station's Fox arm to the trash heap, as everything we saw the other day said "Fox Youngstown".

And yes, with access to an HDTV tuner, we confirmed that New Vision is still running both WKBN-DT 27.1 (CBS) and WKBN-DT 27.2 (Fox) in 720p HD format, the former being downconverted from the network's 1080i feed...the latter instead of an SD 480i feed.

We saw some occasional drop-outs, though we can't be sure that should be blamed on the electronic squeezing needed to fit two HD feeds into one channel's bandwidth...or just reception anomalies...

Here's That FCC Early Analog Shutoff List

The Federal Communications Commission has indeed released a list of TV stations that have filed to terminate analog broadcasting on or before the original February 17th deadline.

Stations which have filed for an early termination of analog are listed here (PDF file) in Appendix A. The list starts with stations which have already turned off analog broadcasting, including Northern Ohio's WNEO/45 Alliance and WMFD/68 Mansfield, then the list goes to those filing for next Tuesday's original deadline.

Quoting the FCC:

Appendix A to this Public Notice contains a list of the 190 stations that have terminated or will be terminating their analog operations before February 17, 2009, and the 491 stations that notified the Commission on February 9 of their intent to terminate their analog operations on February 17, 2009.

Those 681 stations are listed in bold, red print among all other stations in Appendix B (another PDF file).

A quick check of the lists shows that our earlier reports still hold up, including the late change by Youngstown's WKBN/27 and WYTV/33 to keep analog going until June, the split filing by Sinclair in Columbus (WSYX/6 keeps analog, WTTE/28 goes all-digital), Media General not filing for early transition for WCMH/4 in that market, and other anomalies we've already pointed out.

And, here is the link for the public notice (PDF) about the list's release, which contains a stern reminder that the commission will not just let all these filings go through:

We remind stations that intend to terminate analog operations on February 17, 2009 that consistent with their public interest responsibilities and Congress’ delay of the transition to June 12 to give consumers additional time to prepare, the Commission has reserved the right to limit or reconsider the partial waiver of the Third Periodic Review Report & Order’s early termination procedures granted in the February 5 Public Notice in the event that the Commission determines that analog termination on February 17 by a station or group of stations is contrary to the public interest. In such event, the Commission will promptly notify the affected station or stations.

The FCC again brings up a situation that could cause them to swoop in:

The Commission may consider such action if, for example, it finds that all or most of the stations in a market will terminate their analog service on February 17, and that the market is one in which many viewers are unprepared for the transition or at risk if the transition proceeds.

In such case, the Commission may require affected stations to submit additional information to explain and justify how their early termination advances the public interest. Such additional information can include significant economic, technical, contractual and other business reasons that support termination on February 17, and efforts being made to protect consumers from service disruptions.

The Commission will scrutinize such information closely in light of the important interests at stake to determine whether a compelling case has been made.

That sound you hear is TV station executives in Dayton, where all stations but the TBN O&O (WKOI/43 Richmond IN) have filed to go early, digging for a phalanx of supporting evidence to meet the above.

(In this economy, and given the current state of the TV business, it's probably not going to be diffcult to find "significant economic reasons" to meet the FCC's apparent criteria. But the agency seems determined to "enforce" the new June 12th date as much as they can, and will make stations go through hoops - one week before the February 17th original deadline.)

Like all such lists, the FCC list has some inaccuracies...though we haven't found any, locally.

We're guessing that the hobbyist-compiled list shepherded by 20 year-old Virginia college student Trip Ericson will prove more accurate in the end...though for now, Trip's list is still being updated.

As we spent a lot of time in the FCC database early this morning to compile our own item covering just Ohio markets, we sympathize with Mr. Ericson, very, very much...

It's About Time, Youngstown!

Forgive our exasperation, but the analog TV shutdown status in Youngstown is finally clear.

As we reported earlier, numerous readers tell us that both New Vision CBS affiliate WKBN/27 and Parkin Broadcasting/New Vision LMA partner WYTV/33 have been telling viewers that the stations will not sign off analog 27 and 33 on February 17th as previously requested.

It's now official, as someone on Sunset Blvd. in Youngstown may have seen our earlier rant about not notifying viewers via the station's website. Now, both WKBN and WYTV have indeed made it clear on their identical DTV transition pages:

WKBN will be delaying anolog shut-off until June 12th.

WYTV will be delaying anolog shut-off until June 12th.

Of course, both pages misspell the word "analog", and go on to talk about the February 17th transition date, but you can't be perfect.

We're glad they finally got around to making this clear. We weren't cherishing the drive to Youngstown, and trying to convince the WKBN/WYTV receptionist to let us update the website.

At least one OMW reader tells us that the late change in the decision is confusing even the "27 First News" newsroom, with anchors announcing the June 12th transition date - followed immediately by a station PSA telling viewers that WKBN will shut off analog next Tuesday. Sigh.

With WFMJ's earlier-stated intentions to stay on analog 21 until June, you can officially mark Youngstown off the doubtful list. And with all three stations staying in analog past February 17th, with Western Reserve PBS' WNEO/45 already all-digital, we'll mark Youngstown off of our "Mighty Blog of Fun Post-February 17th Ohio Tour".

But we're keeping Marietta/Parkersburg, as someone reminded us to check...and sure enough, Gray NBC affiliate WTAP/15 Parkersburg is still planning to shut off analog one week from today.

It looks like our road trip route a week from Wednesday will be from the OMW World Headquarters down to Steubenville/Wheeling, maybe a side trip down to Marietta, and back up to I-70 across the state to Dayton. We'll also talk to locals who aren't in the TV business, to see if they're aware of what happened the day before...and if they were prepared...

Back To Digital TV

We return to the world of the Up In The Air Digital TV Transition on a key day.

The deadline was late last night for local TV stations to file notifications that they intend to shut down their analog signals on the original transition date of February 17, 2009 - which, looking at the calendar, is exactly one week from today.

A bill passed by Congress and awaiting President Barack Obama's expected signature (today?) moves the date to June 12.

Even if stations had already filed such notifications, new FCC rules released last Thursday required them to do so again. And since Thursday, a number of stations have backed away from those "early transition" plans, most notably Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8 "Fox 8" in Cleveland.

Though we aren't 100% sure that all applications to "go early" have been processed yet, we do have more information of note. We're told that as early as today, the FCC could release a nationwide list of stations that have filed to transition early.

We'll "hit the highlights" here, market by market, without much detail for now...

CLEVELAND/AKRON: It looks like Northeast Ohio's largest market will basically keep analog going until the new June 12th transition date - save for one very minor station.

None of the major Cleveland network affiliates have filed to transition on February 17th under the new FCC rules. Local TV's WJW did not re-file this time around, as required, which makes sense considering the station's recently announced decision to stay in analog on channel 8 until June.

The market's two public broadcasters are obviously staying on in analog. WVIZ/25 has no suitable full-power facility until that WKYC tower is completed in Parma. WEAO/49 announced (first through OMW, thank you, Campus Center Drive!) that they're staying with analog until June - despite sister station WNEO/45 being digital-only since November.

And if you want an excellent example of what a TV station SHOULD do on its website in this confusing time, check out this notice from Western Reserve PBS, linked from a graphic prominently placed on the station's main web page:

Because the government has proposed a delay of the national DTV transition date, Western Reserve PBS will convert its WEAO analog signal to digital on June 12, 2009.

Other local stations: How hard was that?

How hard is it do to something like WKYC/3 senior director Frank Macek did, on his "Director's Cut" blog, informing viewers of the station's decision to stay on analog 3 until June 12th?

That one minor station filing to go early in the Cleveland/Akron (Canton) market? Canton-licensed WOAC/67, the infomercial paradise now in a trust due to owner Multicultural Broadcasting's financial situation, has put in the required electronic paperwork to shut down analog channel 67. When you're forced to put your stations in a trust due to finances, it's hard to justify paying for four more months of analog broadcasting.

WOAC-DT has been operating for some time on digital channel 47 (67-1), and the station's programming means not many will miss analog 67 no matter what. Both facilities operate from Portage County's Brimfield Township at I-76 and Ohio 43, just across that state highway from Media-Com's WAOH-LP 29 "The Cat", and sister talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron".

One note here: The FCC database shows WJW/8's earlier request to flash cut to digital 8 early as being granted. We don't know what that means at this point, or if WJW could "hang onto that" if it later decides to switch before June...

YOUNGSTOWN: There's big news here, as it appears the Mahoning Valley's three full-power commercial stations will stay analog until the new June 12th date after all.

New Vision CBS affiliate WKBN/27 and its LMA partner, Parkin Broadcasting ABC affiliate WYTV/33, had been among the early analog shutoff filers.

The stations, according to numerous viewers who've written to OMW, have repeatedly told viewers that yes - their digital transition would go on as scheduled February 17, despite action to move the date in Washington DC.

OMW is getting late word that WKBN has just announced that it has changed its mind, and that analog 27 will continue to broadcast until June 12. We're told that announcement came on last night's 11 PM edition of "27 First News", and no surprise, we can't find it yet on the station's website.

We haven't heard about similar announcements on WYTV/33, but since the stations are joined-at-the-LMA hip, we'd be surprised if WYTV didn't follow WKBN's lead - unless nominal owner Todd Parkin feels the need to shut off the analog 33 transmitter separately to save money.

As of this writing, WKBN and WYTV have NOT filed the appropriate FCC form to transition on February 17th, so it follows with last night's announcement.

Vindicator NBC affiliate WFMJ/21 has already announced that it will keep the analog signal on until the new June transition date, so that'd be a clean sweep of the market's commercial outlets.

Of course, Western Reserve PBS Youngstown market affiliate WNEO/45 Alliance has already sent its analog transmitter to the Retired Transmitter Home, and has been all-digital since mid-November...as reported here frequently....

WHEELING/STEUBENVILLE: The Ohio Valley will go digital.

Both full-power stations serving that region - Cox NBC affiliate WTOV/9 Steubenville and West Virginia Media CBS(/ABC/Fox) affiliate WTRF/7 Wheeling WV - did file the appropriate paperwork, along with STA requests to move their digital operations to the current analog channels on February 17th.

Oddly enough, it looks like WTOV's STA request to go digital on channel 9 on the 17th has already been granted. WTRF's hasn't yet, though there is a typo in the request - it says the station wants to go digital on channel 12. That'd appear to be accidentally copied over from the application filed by West Virginia Media's sister station in Clarksburg WV, WBOY/12.

We're wondering if the "full market" early digital transition will catch scrutiny from the FCC, though as stated, WTOV's early digital channel 9 request is already in the hopper...

COLUMBUS: Media General NBC affiliate WCMH/4 was one of the stations which filed earlier to shut off analog 4 on February 17th, the original digital transition date.

As of this writing, the station has not filed the required electronic form to affirm that wish.

And Sinclair, which owns two stations in the Columbus market and was expected to flip both ABC affiliate WSYX/6 and Fox affiliate WTTE/28 to all-digital a week from today, has only filed the required electronic form for one of the two stations - WTTE.

That move actually mirrors what they've done up until now. In earlier filings, Sinclair didn't file for early digital transition for WSYX at the same time they did so for WTTE.

Dispatch CBS affiliate WBNS/10 already announced that it would stay on in analog until June, as did Ohio State University-owned PBS affiliate WOSU/34.

LIN CW affiliate WWHO/53 has filed the new early termination forms, and says it will shut off analog channel 53 on February 17th...

LIMA: The only Lima market station that needs to make a decision hasn't yet announced its call, at least online.

But Block NBC affiliate WLIO/35 has been very open in the process, with VP/chief engineer Frederick Vobbe noting on his WLIO Engineering blog Friday that the station was still considering their options after the FCC adopted those new rules on Thursday.

A check of the FCC database this morning shows that WLIO did not file the newly required February 17th transition form, though as we've noted in this item repeatedly, we don't know if all of the forms filed until the 11:59 PM deadline last night have been processed on the FCC's public database.

Engineer Vobbe has a nice roundup of what he's heard about other markets at this Monday blog entry.

About his own market:

In Lima, WLIO-35 remains the only high-power analog on the air. WTLW transitioned back on December 1st, 2008. WBGU-27 transitioned on December 31st, 2008.

Vobbe notes that since the low-power network affiliates in Lima are now owned by WLIO's parent company, they'll "likely" go digital, though no plan has been put into place yet. As low-power or Class A outlets, the stations are not affected by the full-power digital transition, and any switch will be voluntary...

TOLEDO: From the linked item by WLIO's Frederick Vobbe:

Toledo stations are going to wait till June 12th.

We already wrote that one decision was made far from Toledo, as the ABC network owns Toledo affiliate WTVG/13 "13abc", and had pledged to the FCC that it would keep all its owned-and-operated stations going in analog until June.

A check of the FCC database this morning shows no Toledo market full-power station has filed the required new form to end analog service on February 17th - again, assuming all the forms filed until late last night have been processed and put in the FCC's CDBS database, which we believe is the case.

Bowling Green State University PBS affiliate WBGU/27 is in the Toledo market (Wood County), though it also serves Lima, and as mentioned before, it has already become digital-only...

DAYTON: It appears Dayton will be an early digital market, pending FCC approval.

The FCC database this morning shows that all of Dayton's full-power commercial stations, along with ThinkTV PBS affiliate WPTD/16, have filed the new forms to transition on the original February 17th date.

Numerous earlier news reports, as recent as Monday, said the Dayton broadcasters would shut off analog as a group a week from today, and that appears to be holding.

Of course, as mentioned, the FCC says it'll give special scrutiny to situations where all stations in a market file to shut off analog broadcasts, so we'll see if Dayton comes to their attention. We also don't know what the DTV coupon redemption rates are in Dayton, another factor the FCC says it'll look into...

CINCINNATI: And just down I-71 from Dayton, it appears that Cincinnati will be mostly an analog market.

Only Sinclair MyNetwork TV affiliate WSTR/64 and ThinkTV's Cincinnati outlet, WPTO/14 Oxford, have filed the new form saying that they'll shut off their analog channels on February 17th.

The Cincinnati market's other major full-power broadcasters are, according to numerous reports, staying on in analog as a group.

But in one of those reports by Cincinnati Enquirer radio/TV guru John Kiesewetter:

Cincinnati's five other stations -- Channels 5, 9, 12, 19 and 48 -- plus Oxford's Channel 14 (operated by Ch. 16) -- will continue broadcasting both analog and digital signals into spring.

The early termination forms filed by WPTO and WPTD appear to be the "new" forms set forth by the Thursday FCC public notice, and are time stamped as being filed late Thursday afternoon. We'll see if ThinkTV keeps the analog going in Cincinnati while it shuts off analog in Dayton.

Trinity Broadcasting's WKOI/43 Richmond IN is also not filing to transition next Tuesday. We're not sure if the station is considered to be in the Cincinnati market or the Dayton market. We believe it operates as a Cincinnati station, though it can be seen in both markets...

ZANESVILLE: We weren't aware of this, but WHIZ Media Group NBC affiliate WHIZ/18 has apparently been off the air on the analog side dating back to June 25, 2008, due to an equipment failure...

IN CLOSING: Again, the FCC is expected to provide a full list of the February 17/early analog shutoff stations. We'll link it to the top of this item when we get it, or separately if it's not released sometime today.

The above list is based on our own research of the FCC's public database, with the assumption that all the pre-deadline early transition/analog shutoff findings have been processed there...