Filling the WNCX Morning Hole

It's been nearly two months since CBS Radio Cleveland classic rocker WNCX/98.5 has been freed of the Shackles of Diamond Dave...when the station was finally able to take over its own morning drive slot with the end of CBS' failed David Lee Roth experiment.

Since then, the WNCX morning slot has seen a wide variety of local fill-ins and auditioners. Aside from the presence of a veritable truckload of former WMMS, WNCX and M105 personalities in various configurations, the station has also tried "theme weeks" - like a week of all female personalities a while back.

(We'd dub it "Women of Rock", but we're not sure if that moniker would cover former WTAM/1100 afternoon co-host and newly minted WDOK/102.1 weekender Kim Mihalik, who took the last day of that week...)

We don't have a bead on who's a front runner for this position, though we're pretty confident the new show will have at least one or two components with WMMS on their resume. The city's iconic rock station and its past personalities are still "top of mind" among many in the current WNCX audience.

Then, there could be a curveball. Could WNCX scrap the whole thing and go with another syndicated morning drive talk show aimed at rock stations? No, not CBS Radio's Opie and Anthony, who are already airing on sister alt-rocker WXRK/92.3 in afternoon drive. O&A don't move period, primarily because the company is not willing to toss them at WXRK's Shane "Rover" French.

We're talking about a curious possibility we wondered about earlier in this discussion - Premiere's syndicated "Bob and Tom Show".

If WNCX were a Clear Channel station, the Indianapolis-based duo would be almost a no brainer. "Bob and Tom" does very well in rust belt markets...it's pretty much their base. It's certainly compatible with the rest of the station.

And Cleveland is the only market of any size in Ohio where the show is not heard. The pair has had no Akron market affiliate since WONE/97.5 dropped the show long ago, but they can be heard easily in Akron on Cumulus rocker WRQK/106.9 out of Canton.

But A) we don't know if "Bob and Tom" air on any CBS Radio stations and B) the window to try to recover a classic rock audience used to talk in morning drive may have died with David Lee Roth and the 2 month hiatus after his departure.

And there would also appear to still be a need to protect Rover on 92.3 by not airing a talk-heavy comedic morning show up against him. If they're not planning on mounting a local show in morning drive, WNCX is sure going to a lot of trouble to make it look like they're going to do so.

A little voice just whispered into our ear, though, reminding us that we've been seeing rumors of changes on the horizon at Clear Channel's Oak Tree World Domination HQ for the past week or two now, and it would appear the smoke is coming from rocker WMMS/100.7.

Could the "T" we see in the WMMS Tea Leaves stand for "Tom" (as in "Bob and..."), and not "Triv"?

Just a hunch. For those keeping track, this entire item is clearly in our "semi-educated speculation" file, and we wouldn't advise driving to Atlantic City to bet on this one...

WQMX Morning Changes

We'd heard that Rubber City Radio Akron country powerhouse WQMX/94.9 was looking for a new co-host for morning host Scott Wynn. Then we saw the ad posted Tuesday on AllAccess - quoted below in part:

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WQMX Morning Show Co-Host/News Anchor
This person will be part of the music, information and fun in the morning on Akron’s top-rated WQMX Country Club Morning Show. Must have top-of-mind awareness, ability to present news and information in a pleasant and professional manner and a passion for entertaining daily radio programming.

-------------

Though we don't know if it's permanent or not, OMW hears that traffic/news reporter Marcy Pappafava has moved into the co-host's chair.

Indeed, even the WQMX web site now lists her with that title. Those who don't listen to much country music are more likely to know Marcy from her Akron traffic reports on WEWS/5's "Good Morning Cleveland".

In the unlikely event that 'QMX is still looking for someone else for the job, the ad calls for T&Rs to WQMX PD Kevin Mason...at the usual address at the Akron Radio Center, 1795 W. Market St., Akron, OH 44313...

OMW's Optical Illusion

As it turns out, there really is NOT an STL antenna pointing south on the Clear Channel Akron/Canton tower behind the company's Freedom Avenue compound in Jackson Township. But...that doesn't mean we were wrong about the antenna.

While driving north on I-77 yesterday, we spotted what we believed to be a new STL antenna on that tower, pointing in the general direction of the highway (aiming south). But a second examination reveals it was an optical illusion to our OMW eyes - caused by the backside of a north-facing STL antenna (aimed at the Cuyahoga Falls site of WARF/1350) being visible through the tower, and appearing to us - at 55 MPH - as an actual southbound antenna...when none is there.

But...the Mystery of the STL Antenna has been solved.

In an attempt to clear this up, we took another drive behind the Freedom Avenue building, otherwise known as negotiating I-77 northbound once again. And we can thank the setting sun in the west for very brightly illuminating...you guessed it, a round STL antenna, this one still in shipping material sitting on the ground, directly behind the Clear Channel complex. And this time, it was NOT an optical illusion! We only saw it for a couple of seconds due to the highway driving, but it is most assuredly there.

So, the antenna is there - it's just not up yet. And unless Clear Channel's Akron/Canton complex has yet ANOTHER radio station moving in, it would presumably have to be for WJER-FM's new tower site...wherever that is...

Triv and Akron

It was the first time we'd listened to WTAM afternoon motormouth Mike Trivisonno in a while. This evening, bouncing off the announcement of an upcoming event with Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James at Akron's Tangier, Triv spent much of the 6 PM hour concerned that he wasn't getting proper credit for his listeners in Akron.

Huh?

Triv lined up phone call after phone call from listeners who said they were in Akron, and barked out that those listeners should "call Arbitron", presumably to overcome the lack of measurement. He said "I could be number one-and-one-AND-one" if the Akron listeners were properly counted.

Again, we say - huh?

Unless the radio ratings business has changed dramatically since we last saw a ratings report close up, we're quite sure Arbitron "properly counts" listeners to WTAM in the Akron market. The station is usually somewhere in the top 10 in Akron (12-plus), and occasionally in the top 5.

What Triv may ranting about is this - Akron listeners do not count in the CLEVELAND Arbitron ratings.

Presumably, Triv's performance bonuses and whatnot trigger off of only the Cleveland book, and not other nearby markets. That's something the talker should bring up with his WTAM bosses, not Arbitron.

There are situations where smaller, nearby markets are included in the larger market's book. San Jose CA is one of those - it is a separate market "embedded" in, and included in, the San Francisco book. Long Island NY is another such market with nearby New York City. But it's highly unlikely Arbitron or any other ratings service will do the same with Akron and Cleveland, despite the fact that the two cities (and Canton) share the same TV market.

It's kind of a waste of Triv's breath to complain about this, frankly...

Q92/Canton Names New Promotions Director

AllAccess reports that Canton market top 40 WZKL/92.5 "Q92" has found its new promotions director.

He's Josh Miely, recently of hot AC WCEM/106.3 "The Heat" in Cambridge MD. AllAccess lists him as that station's production director and assistant sales manager, but we found a page also listing him as the midday on-air personality. At a station that small, people often have roughly five job titles...

That cursory Google search we did revealed no news articles about a "fake charity" scandal, so we'll assume that Q92 did a little more background checking this time around. If you're a regular OMW reader, you'll remember that the station's first hire for the promotions director job was, at the time of hiring, implicated in such a scandal...

The Heated Political Talk of Akron

It's not like Media-Com Akron market talker WNIR/100.1 has not provoked public officials before.

But Summit County executive James McCarthy was apparently rankled by evening host Tom Erickson's discussion of a controversial job appointment...so much so that he picked up the phone and called Erickson's show Tuesday night to defend the hiring of county animal control director Christine Congrove.

We haven't followed this closely, but the hiring of the 23 year-old former secretary at the dog pound - who just conveniently happens to be the daughter of a county council member - seems quite a good fit for talk radio. Talk radio hosts who cover local government drool over stuff like this.

The Beacon Journal thought it so notable that they ran what is nearly an plug on Ohio.com for Erickson's show tonight, where the WNIR host replayed the "sometimes heated" 40 minute long McCarthy call "in segments". The newspaper has been covering the questions surrounding Congrove's hiring for weeks, which could explain their interest in the call to the radio station...

UPDATE: 6/15/06 1:10 PM - The Beacon Journal's Thursday article on this has some choice quotes from the radio interview, which came as a result of McCarthy's unsolicited call to the WNIR talk lines.

And one other small detail we didn't know - Erickson's daughter is local "animal rights advocate" Heather Nagel, who's been a vocal critic of the Congrove hire. In fact, McCarthy's interview apparently ended by accident, when Erickson attempted to conference Nagel with McCarthy...

Putting Together the WJER-FM Mystery

As regular OMW readers know, we've been diligently tracking the upcoming move of WJER-FM 101.7 in Dover/New Philadelphia, which has been owned by Clear Channel for some time in preparation for a nudge north into the Canton market.

Earlier this week, we reported the move of WJER veteran Steve Kelly to afternoon drive on Columbus AC WSNY/94.7 "Sunny 94.5". And now, some more pieces of the puzzle are starting to come together, and we're even finding out some things by accident.

FIRST PIECE: On a drive up I-77 north from Belden Village Mall, we couldn't help but notice a crane out back of the Clear Channel World Domination HQ (Southern Command) on Freedom Avenue, roughly by the station's tall STL antenna tower. We were driving too fast to make out what was going on behind the building, so we ran by there earlier this evening.

(EDITED 6/15/06 7:50 PM: We have cleared up this part of the earlier item here, in this update above. To save space, we have removed our long, convoluted explanation about why a south-facing STL antenna that isn't there yet would be pointing south. See the above update for the real story.)

SECOND PIECE: We checked in with a regular OMW source in the Tuscarawas Valley, who tells us that advertisers being sold high school football packages from WJER this fall are being told that they will be only be able to advertise on AM 1450 this season.

THIRD PIECE: Clear Channel Akron/Canton has put up what appears to be an all-encompassing Help Wanted ad - spotted in the AllAccess "Job Market" section. To us, it sounds like they're, well, trying to staff an entire radio station:

------------

Clear Channel Radio of Akron/Canton is currently accepting resumes from dynamic individuals for future growth. These are not immediate openings. Positions include: on air talent both full and part time, off air part time board operators, part time street team members, news anchors/reporters, promotions and marketing managers/directors, Commercial production and station imaging directors, and sales account representatives.
Please send materials to: Clear Channel Radio, 7755 Freedom Avenue, NW. North Canton, Ohio 44720. Attention: HR Director. No emails or phone calls please.
Clear Channel Radio Akron/Canton is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

------------

We could be wrong about this, and it could just be one of those "catch-all" ads radio stations occasionally put out, but...we're guessing the WJER relocation is involved.

We continue to check the FCC's website, and have not seen any application from Clear Channel for a construction permit for the new 101.7/North Canton facilities.

But one is likely soon, as there is about a month remaining for the company to file - the window for the filing, after the approval of a North Canton community of license, was 90 days. While Clear Channel can't begin to build out the new WJER-FM facility itself until a construction permit is approved, they can certainly make preparations back at the studio complex.

Adding together the above activity, it appears likely to us that by somewhere early in the high school football season, WJER-FM will be aiming itself at its new Canton (and for that matter, Akron) audience, and AM 1450 may not be making the trip north with 101.7.

At this point, we don't know if former owner Gary Petricola will buy back WJER's AM side, but even if he didn't, it sounds like he could continue to run it even under the existing reverse LMA with Clear Channel...while WJER-FM heads north under that company's direction. We've said about a dozen times now that we don't see Freedom Avenue having much interest in a small AM with a signal that can't even reach Canton.

We're keeping an eye on this, and hope to have more details soon...

UPDATE: WYTV Makes It Official: My Network TV Subchannel, New Studio

(UPDATED 6/14/06 with new information from the Tribune-Chronicle and Business Journal)

Youngstown ABC affiliate WYTV/33 has officially unveiled its much-discussed future plans, which include a new My Network TV-affiliated secondary channel - to be called "myYTV" - to debut in September. And as expected, WYTV will also mount a 10 PM newscast on the new channel, going up against the only current 10 PM newscast in the market, WYFX/62 "FOX 17/62"'s "First News at 10".

The station is also building a new satellite news studio in downtown Youngstown. The new studio is part of what is at least the second attempt to renovate the Realty Building, on the square at Federal Plaza. It'll be on the first floor of that basically abandoned building, which is scheduled to be revamped into a condominium and apartment building.

Though the condo/apartment project will take a while, WYTV hopes to have the downtown studio up and running by early September, roughly in concert with the "myYTV" debut. The station will continue to operate from its South Side location on Shady Run Road.

UPDATE: 11:42 AM 6/14/06: It appears that the downtown studio will be used as a "downtown bureau" location by WYTV - like the existing Trumbull County bureau in the Warren Tribune-Chronicle facility.

WYTV general manager Dave Trabert tells the Tribune-Chronicle: "It will be similar to what is being done in Warren, where we have a reporter broadcasting stories from a satellite studio."

Today's story in the Youngstown-Warren Business Journal has more of the same: "There WYTV reporters can edit and broadcast live stories involving City Hall and the Mahoning County Courthouse." If there's a Youngstown Vindicator story on this, we can't find it at the paper's Vindy.com website.

More of the station's planned content is known as well. In addition to the 10 PM newscast, "myYTV" will also rebroadcast WYTV's morning news block after the ABC affiliate goes to "Good Morning America", much like WFMJ's WB network sister station WBCB does with the early morning news from channel 21. In addition to the My Network TV fare, syndicated programs will include "Martha Stewart", "The Nanny", and "various game shows".

And by the way, this isn't the first time a Youngstown media outlet has announced a plan to use the very same building. In 1991, the owner of then-country/rock formatted WAXF/95.9 "WAX FM" and sister oldies WRQQ/1470 "The Rock" announced a move of his station from "a dumpy little building above a stationery store" in Hermitage PA to the top floor of the Realty Building in downtown Youngstown.

The station managed to set up sales offices there, but the grandiose studio plans were never completed. Or, for that matter, ever started. WAXF/WRQQ owner Mercury Broadcasting ran out of money, and the stations shut down in November 1991...leaving a trail of bills - and unpaid employee paychecks - behind.

We'll presume that WYTV and owner Chelsey Broadcasting will not face the same fate...

Our Return Entrance

Whew!

OMW may have been on hiatus, but things just don't stop happening in the world of radio and TV while we leave the keyboard. We'll catch up with a few short items first, then have some more later:

CASEY'S RETURN: We did get a chance to catch WTAM/1100 sportscaster Casey Coleman doing some play-by-play on a recent SportsTime Ohio afternoon Indians game, and we were thrilled.

We also note that Casey's told Browns Radio Network play-by-play voice and WKYC/3 sports director Jim Donovan that he hopes to return to the sidelines for Browns radio broadcasts this fall. We hope that's medically possible for him...and wouldn't it be interesting if the Browns started winning football games with Casey working on the sidelines? OK, so we're asking too much...but we can dream.

By the way, don't forget the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network's "5th Annual Cleveland Walk For Hope", Saturday, June 24th at 8:30 AM. Details are on WTAM's Wills and Coleman page...

LEAVING 'JER: Long-time WJER/101.7 Dover-New Philadelphia personality Steve Kelly has left the in-limbo station, and takes the afternoon slot at AC WSNY/94.7 "Sunny 95" in Columbus.

OMW has received a couple of inquiries about this - wondering if Kelly's departure from WJER means that the FM station's move up to North Canton is going to happen sooner rather than later. We see no evidence of that at this time...for one, A) WJER-FM's construction permit application for the move has not yet hit the FCC database, and B) Clear Channel will likely not make any moves until the 101.7 signal is no longer based in Tuscarawas County (or is very soon to move). But we could be wrong...

IT'S A GAS STATION, MAN: As OMW expected, the noise out of Clear Channel talk WTVN/610 Columbus was not about the takeover of another radio station, but about a promotion at a gas station. So much for the rampant speculation of the final move of a Marion Clear Channel station to a 106.7 allocation in the Columbus market...

CW'ING IT: Cincinnati CBS-TV affiliate WKRC/12 has launched a web page for its upcoming CW Network digital TV affiliate. It's asking WB and UPN fans to contact local cable systems and satellite operators to urge them to carry the station on an "analog channel on the basic tier". Meanwhile, on the My Network TV side, we haven't yet heard an official announcement from Youngstown ABC affiliate WYTV/33 on its expected addition of a digital subchannel for that new network...

NEW TRIBE OUTLET: We don't know how we missed it, but a Buffalo market station has picked up the Cleveland Indians' over-air TV games originated from Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC/3. It's WNGS/67 Springville NY, a suburban Buffalo independent station running Equity TV's "RetroTV" feed of classic TV shows. WNGS is now operated by Granite's ABC affiliate in the market, WKBW/7. It's the former UPN affiliate in the Buffalo market...

WHK TRIBUTE SITE: Thanks to long-time OMW reader Johnny Morgan for the tip on this one - a true treasure for anyone interested in Cleveland top 40 radio history. WHKColorChannel14.com is chock full of memories of WHK/1420's days as a popular music stations, including so many sound clips we lost track. OMW highly recommends a visit.

It's the second such tribute site to a Cleveland AM music giant of the past - WIXY1260.com is also out there, and is also excellent for those who remember the days when big music hits were heard on the AM dial. WHK, of course, is today's Salem-run news/talk station, and WIXY eventually ended up as local Radio Disney outlet WWMK...

MUSIC CITY PROMOTION: And a tip of the hat to a long-time (and we mean long-time) Friend of OMW on his new job. Cumulus Youngstown staff engineer Gary Zocolo has scooted off to Nashville, where he's been promoted to a new position as chief engineer for the Cumulus stations in the Music City. Congratulations!

"Gary Z" goes way back with your Primary Editorial Voice...he's one of two human beings on the planet who have voiced an "hour opener" for us. The other is veteran WWSW/94.5 Pittsburgh morning host and imaging voice legend Jim Merkel...

More later. Thanks for hanging in there in our absence!

OMW's Return

Ohio Media Watch will return from hiatus on Tuesday, June 13th. Thank you for your patience!

-OMW Staff

Going Away (Updated)

Ohio Media Watch is on hiatus, for now.

We appreciate the E-Mails, calls and other support received after we first posted this message earlier today.

This update is just to let you know that yes, we're OK, and there's nothing untoward going on in the life of your Primary Editoral Voice(tm) or any members of the Vast OMW Editorial Staff. We just have to attend to some things away from the MBoF(tm).

(Note to the humor impaired: Please go find someone to help you with our running jokes.)

We don't know how long our hiatus will last, though it's at very least likely to run through early next week. Keep checking here for our announced return.

In the meantime, if we receive word of any major breaking local radio news, we'll immediately pass it along to our good friend Perry Michael Simon at AllAccess. If you haven't signed up for AllAccess by now, you should! It is free, and chock full of radio news.

And thank you again for reading OMW.

Casey at the Microphone

WTAM/1100 sportscaster Casey Coleman will get to call televised baseball this week.

Plain Dealer sports media columnist Roger Brown reports that Casey will call play-by-play of "a few innings" of the Indians' contest against the Oakland A's on Thursday. The noon game will air on Tribe TV outlet SportsTime Ohio...and we believe STO usually repeats their early games later that evening, as well...

Today's Your Birthday

...if your name happens to be Kevin Metheny, Clear Channel's regional programming VP based out of the Clear Channel World Domination HQ on Oak Tree Blvd. in Independence...

Two Julie Washington Items

From the keyboard of Plain Dealer radio/TV columnist Julie Washington, two items:

* Washington notes that both local public radio outlets are hosting premiere parties for the movie version of public radio staple "A Prairie Home Companion".

Kent State University's WKSU/89.7 holds their party at Shaker Square Cinemas in Shaker Heights, while ideaStream's WCPN/90.3 shows up at the AMC Richmond Town Square 20 in Richmond Heights.

The placement of WKSU's event in the Cleveland area is what we assume is just the latest salvo in the local public radio battle.

You can show up at both parties if you like - WKSU's is Thursday night at 7:30, and WCPN will hold its gala on Friday night at 7:25. Admission for both is $15, which includes popcorn and soft drinks, among other things.

Advantage here goes to WKSU. Their "early premiere" party beats WCPN out of the gate by a day, and they seem to be promoting it more. We can't even find a mention of the WCPN event on the station's own website!

* And if you're a game show enthusiast, listen up - the syndicated "Wheel of Fortune" heads to Cleveland June 16 and 17 to try to find contestants. The show will set up at Cuyahoga Community College's eastern campus in Highland Hills, and will take applications and possibly run would-be Wheel spinners through a quick five-minute version of the game on portable equipment.

The best and the brightest could be called back for closed auditions later this summer. But don't come to Highland Hills looking for Pat or Vanna...local affiliate WEWS/5 says they're not coming to town...

Two Tuesday Updates

Updating two of our earlier items:

KIM'S IN: CBS Radio AC WDOK/102.1 program director - and OMW reader - Scott Miller checks in to make it official...former WTAM/1100 afternoon co-host Kim Mihalik is indeed aboard at "Soft Rock 102.1", taking the Saturday 10 AM-2 PM shift.

Miller tells us that Kim has filled in for morning co-host Robin Benzle, alongside market veteran Trapper Jack. We don't know much about him, but that had to have been a, umm, different experience than Kim's previous co-hosting duties on the other station.

Miller laments to OMW that 'DOK doesn't get much attention - "nobody notices what we do here", he says. In this case, we remind him it's a Good Thing. WDOK's mentions here in OMW usually are followed with words like "ratings and revenue powerhouse" and "dominant station". When whispers of potential format changes are heard, one of the first responses is usually that WDOK is a solid station that management would be insane to mess with.

There's very little turnover at 102.1, because there doesn't need to be. And we welcome Scott or any local programmer's word of changes, new shows or new hires...our E-Mail address is under the "View my complete profile" link over at the left. (We'll have to fix that wording one day...it came with the template.)

CAROLLA UPDATE: We mentioned it in our below speculation about the future of "Rover's Morning Glory" as a syndicated program - the rumors of CBS Radio giving Howard Stern west coast replacement Adam Carolla a short leash. (Hey, Rover's the dog here!)

CBS fires back to Inside Radio today, telling the trade website it "strongly supports" the KLSX/97.1 Los Angeles-based syndicated host, and "strongly denies" the rumors Carolla is on the way out if things don't shape up.

Well, OK. Didn't CBS Radio say good things about David Lee Roth before his show careened into the nearest wall and exploded? And honestly, is a radio company spokesperson going to come out and go "yeah, you got us, Carolla's ratings really suck, and he's gotta get his act together or we're firing him!"

We haven't seen any CBS suit respond to bad news about Rover, though they may just not have been asked. Chicago Sun-Times media beat writer Robert Feder has been on the Rover case for months.

We still believe Rover has a chance of pulling it out in the Windy City, though we would not say those chances are very large. His problem on WCKG/105.9 there is not the same problem Carolla's dealing with in Los Angeles. In Chicago, Stern was not the number one morning man. He did fairly well in the ratings, but he wasn't dominant like he was in Los Angeles or New York.

Rover's biggest problem in Chicago is that he's an interloper. An outsider. Chicago is a very unique market, which takes to its own personalities even more so than we do here in Northeast Ohio. And despite Rover actually being born in a Chicago suburb, Shane French's family didn't stick around long enough to be considered natives in the eyes of local radio listeners.

You don't really even have to be a native to get that Chicago cred, actually. Kevin Matthews came in from Grand Rapids MI and became a popular local personality, though it took him time. (Matthews eventually scooted back to his Michigan home town.)

But a high-profile FM morning show is not the place to gain your Chicago stripes, particularly if you're under immediate pressure to build ratings by replacing a national radio icon.

If Rover came in and started doing nights somewhere, or built his way up within Chicago, it would have been a different story. Chicago is not immune to the charms of "shock jocks" (Hello, Erich "Mancow" Muller!) But they're not born overnight, and it's an open question whether CBS Radio is ready to hang in there with the formerly-Cleveland-based radio doggie...

If You're Rover, Do You Worry Yet?

It seems that almost every move that CBS Radio makes these days, local wags are wondering if it spells doom for the effort to syndicate former WXRK/92.3-based morning chien Shane "Rover" French across much of the Midwest and beyond.

Consider these problems:

PROBLEM 1: CBS Radio, just this week, planted New York-based Opie & Anthony on new stations in Columbus, Detroit, Rochester and Washington DC. Three of those four markets directly impact Rover's syndication.

In Columbus and Rochester, O&A get dropped into PM drive, with Rover airing morning drive on the FM stations in those two markets (WAZU/107.1 and WZNE/94.1, respectively).

In Detroit, O&A get an AM drive clearance on, of all things, an AM sports station! Rover's on former Stern affiliate talk WKRK/97.1 "Free FM".

How does this line up? For one, it could be guessed that CBS is holding O&A "in waiting" on all three stations, getting ready to displace Rover in morning drive.

We're not reading too much into that in Columbus, in particular, where O&A's afternoon drive placement mirrors their time slot on those stations in 2002 - much like here in Cleveland. But in Detroit - without an afternoon drive hole to put them on WXRK (a popular local show airs there - "Deminski and Doyle"), WXYT/1270 officials felt the need to blow up a local morning drive sports talk show for the XM/CBS pair.

There, it wouldn't be difficult to move O&A from 1270 AM to 97.1 FM in morning drive.

PROBLEM 2: Many of Rover's CBS Radio syndicated markets are on the list of markets the company wants to sell off. That includes not only Columbus and Rochester, but Memphis and Cincinnati. In fact, Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit are the only CBS Radio markets he's on that are not being sold by CBS. (Emmis' WPNT/105.7 St. Louis airs him as well.) And on that list, he's only pretty much assured of good ratings out of...Cleveland, on WXRK.

A new, non-CBS owner may not be as patient with Rover and his ratings. (We haven't heard yet how he's doing on the Emmis St. Louis station known as "The Point".)

PROBLEM 3: There are rumblings out of Los Angeles that CBS Radio is losing patience with the third major Howard Stern replacement, Adam Carolla. The former "Loveline" host is getting basically awful ratings in his home market, and the numbers we've seen bandied about from Rover in Chicago are not any better.

Industry scuttlebutt - reaching Inside Radio's website earlier this week - is that CBS is giving Carolla's show another month or two to hit its stride. We wouldn't find it difficult to believe that Rover is getting the same feedback, at least in Chicago.

Like in the other markets, the rumor is that O&A would be considered as a replacement... in Los Angeles, presumably on the "Howard Stern" plan of a live airing at 3 AM PT, followed by an immediate "as live" repeat at 6 AM PT.

If Rover happens to read OMW, and wants some confidence, we advise him to look at his WXRK numbers even after the switch, which we're told look really good. If nothing else, Cleveland would apparently welcome him back with open radio listener arms.

But most importantly to Mr. French - NONE of this has actually happened yet...aside from O&A's placement on the Rover stations listed above...

WNIR's Newest Voice

The newest voice on Media-Com Akron market talker WNIR/100.1 is not a regular denizen of Broadcast Park.

The voice is none other than ABC TV "World News Tonight" anchor Charlie Gibson, who is officially following a tradition started by his predecessor, the late Peter Jennings. Gibson, starting today, is opening up the 5 PM (Eastern time) newscast for the ABC Information radio network on weekdays. WNIR is the Akron market's Information network affiliate.

The use of the 5 PM (ET) newscast as a platform for a radio network's TV anchor is not limited to ABC. We don't know if Bob Schieffer still does it, but Dan Rather opened the 5 PM CBS Radio News cast for some time...we're assuming it started as a response to Jennings doing so on ABC. (We'd check for Mr. Schieffer, but we have to twist our best radio and endure static to catch the nominal Akron market CBS Radio News affiliate, WNIR sister station WJMP/1520 Kent-Akron-Cleveland-Mars-Jupiter.)

And listeners to the top-of-the-hour FOX News Radio casts on Clear Channel talk WHLO/640 Akron hear FOX News Channel anchor Shepard Smith at 5 PM local time, doing that network's own version of the "Promote Your Anchor Newscast"...

Not The Casey Coleman Update We Were Hoping For

Very, very, very sad news in the local broadcasting community.

Akron Beacon Journal sportswriter Terry Pluto and Cleveland Plain Dealer "Tip-Off" columnist Michael K. McIntyre deliver that bad news today - WTAM/1100 sportscaster and morning co-host Casey Coleman's health has taken a drastic turn for the worse. And when you're already battling pancreatic cancer, those words are not what you want to hear.

Coleman's doctors have found four new inoperable tumors in his liver. And the local radio veteran, rather matter-of-factly, reveals that those doctors are now giving him about six months to live.

Coleman says he "already considers himself a survivor", noting he's already hung in there nine months after his cancer diagnosis.

And in the newspaper interviews, he's trying to be optimistic, and even humorous while staring death directly in the face. "So they tell me six months now -- hey, why not nine months or a year? Who's to say?", he tells Pluto. "The good news is that I don't have to have that hernia operation I scheduled," McIntyre says he's joking with friends.

Coleman had been planning a return to the WTAM airwaves a week from today, and was hoping the doctor visit would clear the way for that. Unfortunately, our attention now turns to praying for good health, and that Casey continues to break through the "expected" bad news as long as possible.

Though the news has him thinking of what seems to be inevitable, he tells Pluto he's not quite ready to go...yet. "I like living too much," he tells the Beacon Journal writer...and Casey, we like you living, too much, as well. Hang in there...and prove the experts wrong...

Kim Resurfaces

A regular OMW tipster tells us that former Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 Cleveland afternoon co-host Kim Mihalik was heard over the weekend - Saturday morning - on CBS Radio AC WDOK/102.1. We're told she did pretty well, considering that to the best of our knowledge, Kim's never done music radio before.

Mihalik joined WTAM afternoon motormouth Mike Trivisonno a few years ago by winning a station contest. She had no previous radio experience before that. We don't know if the WDOK appearance was an audition or a fill-in...the station's website schedule lists Desiray McCray in the Saturday morning time slot.

WTAM let her go in early November of last year, reportedly due to budget concerns. The station later hired Triv intern "Alison" to basically fill Mihalik's former role on the program...

We're Talking Baseball

We've got a couple of loose ends - that just so happen to be baseball/media related - this early Monday...

HAMMY AND TRIV: A small item in Plain Dealer columnist Roger Brown's Sunday column (heeeee's baaaaaaaack!) caught our attention. Brown says WTAM/1100 afternoon motormouth Mike Trivisonno "ripped" Cleveland Indians radio voice Tom Hamilton for being "too complimentary" towards former Indians star Jim Thome...when the White Sox were in town to play the Tribe.

The ever classy Hamilton's response? (No, it wasn't "Roger, why are you wasting column inches on this?") "While you would like to please everyone, unfortunately, that’s not possible."

Good for Hamilton - for not getting dragged into yet another "controversy" designed to give Triv more publicity. Bad for Roger Brown, and we guess by extension, for us - for getting dragged into talking about it. As Triv is Cleveland's loudest radio mouth, it's hard for us not to talk about him.

By the way, while we were looking for an unrelated item, we stumbled onto this USA TODAY article from last summer, ranking Hamilton, Matt Underwood and Mike Hegan the 5th best American League radio announcing team. We also stumbled onto praise from people in other cities, including Chicago Cubs fans wishing that Hamilton would get hired by their team.

An odd fact - your Primary Editorial Voice did not like Tom Hamilton at all, when he first joined the Indians radio team alongside veteran Herb Score. It wasn't the comparison to Score...we just weren't used to Hamilton or his voice.

Now, some 16 years later, he's one of the best radio play-by-play guys in the major leagues...in both USA TODAY's opinion and our own. Underwood and Hegan are reliable and capable, but it's Hamilton who adds the "zing" to the Tribe broadcasts...

JUUUST A LITTLE ODD: Here's an item with a very slight connection to Cleveland.

The sleuthing website The Smoking Gun has unearthed a restraining order sought by Milwaukee Brewers long-time radio play-by-play announcer Bob Uecker. He says a suburban Chicago woman has been stalking him, sending him packages at home, showing up at his hotel pool, and other such things that Major League Baseball doesn't usually consider part of the "fan experience".

As just about anyone in radio or TV will tell you, there can be rather unhinged people listening to you. Many think you're speaking directly to them on the radio. Some believe that they're secretly married to you.

Others, like one oddball listener of one of our former stations, send strange packages aimed at getting the romantic attention of the broadcaster...though we're not sure how musty pot holders and old doilies sent to one of our female hosts would be considered "romantic", even in the mind of an older married male listener.

So, we're not surprised "Ueck" is the object of such unwanted attention, and we wouldn't be surprised if Cleveland's own Tom Hamilton has to deflect some of this from time to time.

The Cleveland connection? Of course, Uecker played Cleveland Indians radio announcer Harry Doyle in the "Major League" series of movies...

WTVN's "Station" Takeover Hits The Web

When making the round of websites of Ohio's Clear Channel news/talk stations tonight, we ran into this on the site of Columbus' WTVN/610:

We touched on this in an earlier item.

And despite the usual speculation ranging from completion of the move-in of WMRN/106.9 from Marion to 106.7 in Columbus, to the purchase of one of the Columbus CBS Radio stations which are up for sale...we're still not hearing anything that leads us to believe that the "station" will be anything but a place to sell cheap unleaded gasoline for a couple or three hours...

What Hasn't Happened Yet

Over time here at OMW, we throw out so many items of rumor, speculation and other unverified rumblings that they pile up...and we occasionally have to go through them and update them. This is one of those times.

NO TRIV MOVE YET: At your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), we spent a lot of time recently trying to dissect on-air messages coming out of the motormouth of WTAM/1100 afternoon driver Mike Trivisonno. Is he moving to mornings? Is he going to be on another local Clear Channel station, perhaps legendary rocker WMMS/100.7?

While it was seemingly clear that Triv wanted to put that message out there - why else would he spend parts of two shows talking about marketing calls listeners supposedly have gotten, asking them if they'd listen to Triv in mornings? - we haven't heard literally anything since.

Maybe he's holding out for free breakfast service in morning drive? Who knows.

We remind folks that we never confirmed these rumors, and that they were (and are) speculation at least partially based on Triv's own ramblings...and some semi-educated guesses on the state of the Cleveland market. For now, Triv still holds forth weekdays from 3 to approximately 6:30 PM on WTAM, and we haven't heard anything recently that says he's changing time slots.

We recently mentioned rumblings of "a change" being widely talked about at the Clear Channel World Domination HQ on Oak Tree, but we haven't been able to connect these dots to Triv or anyone else...for now...

FM TALK IN CLEVELAND: We've passed along these rumors, but have mostly been downplaying them in recent months. To wit: supposedly either CBS Radio or Clear Channel has a plan to flip an FM station to talk on at least the back burner, and it may or may not happen depending on competitive concerns.

Too many folks have connected this nagging rumor with the one above. We remind folks that if Triv does indeed jump from his comfortable afternoon drive perch on WTAM to mornings at, say, WMMS, it would not necessarily portend a shift to FM talk for the long-time rocker. (Remember the LAST time they tinkered with 'MMS?) 100.7 could easily stay with its rock format after morning drive.

Indeed, there's a camp that says The Buzzard would be better off NOT flipping to FM talk or sports talk, since competing CBS Radio WXRK/92.3 "K-Rock" has added Opie and Anthony's all-talk show for afternoon drive, to complement former in-house talk morning show "Rover's Morning Glory". If you're looking for an FM talker in Cleveland, "K-Rock" is already halfway there.

And who knows if that'll continue even more? Rock formats have been suffering nationwide for the past couple of years. Legendary rockers or alt-rockers in some other markets (i.e. Houston, Washington DC) have been converted to Spanish-language stations.

When it comes to rock's national radio decline, Cleveland likely gets an exemption, along with other Midwest "rust belt" markets like Milwaukee. But if O&A prove successful for WXRK, it wouldn't be a stretch to see it slowly nudge into a "Free FM" talker with a midday talk show at some point. We don't see any evidence that it's happening, but the station could easily do that and still run alt-rock on nights and weekends.

To us, this is separate from what we see as an eventuality somewhat down the road - the move of traditional AM news/talkers to the FM band. Though stations are certainly doing that in other markets, it'll still take time before it becomes somewhat more common.

KISS PD-LESS: Clear Channel Cleveland market top 40 outlet WAKS/96.5 "Kiss FM" is without a permanent programmer, as PD Dan Mason has decamped to his new role as programmer at Miami top 40 giant WHYI "Y100".

We haven't heard any rumblings about who might replace Mason on a permanent basis. That lack of buzz leads us to believe that current interim PD Kasper, "Kiss'" long-time APD/MD/afternoon drive star, has the inside track to strip the "interim" off his new title.

It'd certainly make sense to us. Oak Tree seems happy with the performance Mason turned in, converting a class A Lorain-licensed rimshot into a powerful, full-market signal with a larger-than-life footprint. (Those who wondered long ago what Akron-licensed 96.5 would do if marketed as a Cleveland signal - now, we know. But a nudge up into the Brecksville area of the Cleveland tower farm helped a little as well.)

By all accounts, Kasper was right alongside Mason in much of "Kiss"' successful run. Our feeling - that anyone coming in to try to get his job will have to convince CC Cleveland that they'd do better than Kasper.

Kasper is, of course, a longtime OMW reader, so he has that "OMW Jungle Karma" (we're sorry, Jim Rome, we couldn't resist!). But since getting the interim PD nod, we haven't heard pip one out of him...he's probably too busy, of course, and would probably be modest about much of the above. But it's what we're hearing out of others, as well...they also tell us that Kasper would appear to have the inside track...

NO JACK: Not one Cleveland CBS Radio FM outlet has even sniffed at the "JACK FM" variety hits format, let alone adopted it. This, despite a couple of items in Radio Business Report a few months ago that it was imminent locally.

The talk seems rather quaint as we sit here in June 2006. CBS has had some success with "JACK", most notably in Los Angeles...where the "JACK" outlet is - last we checked - one of the market's highest-rated music stations. But the results have not been as shiny in markets like New York or Chicago, and we repeat what we've always said - why in the world would the company blow up a signal for this in the Cleveland market, with a quartet of successful FM stations?

Despite still having a "director of JACK programming", CBS seems to have slowed down that speeding train, and as far as we know, hasn't made a flip to that format since the New York/Chicago moves. Is "JACK" today's "Jammin' Oldies"?

(Disclosure: We happen to know some of the folks responsible for not only the origination of "JACK", but also a new push to revamp the old "Jammin' Oldies" format. We think they're talented as heck. The vagaries of the format's performance on over-air radio, and its execution by major broadcasters, are another matter.)

NEW SPORTS BLOOD: We also haven't heard anything of rumors first discussed in Roger Brown's sports media column in the Plain Dealer - a move by radio group owner Craig Karmazin to buy a sports talk radio station in the Cleveland market, either existing Salem sports WKNR/850, or a purchase and format conversion of Radio Disney's Cleveland outlet, WWMK/1260. Karmazin owns Milwaukee's "ESPN 1510 Days, 1290 Nights" (WAUK/1510 Waukesha WI, with an LMA of nights at WMCS/1290 Milwaukee), and also an FM sports outlet in nearby Madison WI.

Pardon us, while we bring out the Official OMW Grain of Salt, which is always nearby when we discuss items in "Brown's Town".

We find it significant that the item only surfaced once in Brown's column. Usually, he hits such rumors frequently...remember when he wrote at least four items about former Cleveland radio execs looking to buy WKNR from Salem? One of those execs, Walt Tiburski, is now comfortably in Florida...as top manager of a Renda Broadcasting cluster there.

We'll file this one in the "if we hear anything more, maybe we'll be less skeptical" column...

O&A Virally Spread Back To Columbus

It's been rumored for a while, but it's now official - CBS Radio/XM syndicated morning team Opie & Anthony are coming back to their second Ohio market.

And like in Cleveland on alt-rock WXRK/92.3, O&A airing on CBS Radio Columbus market rocker WAZU/107.1 "The Big Wazoo" is a return to a former affiliate, and even a return to its former time slot.

AllAccess reports that starting Monday, WAZU will pick up the show for a 3-6 PM delayed airing. The CBS version of the Opie & Anthony show airs live weekdays from 6-9 AM out of flagship WFNY/92.3 New York City.

The O&A gang also adds CBS Radio affiliates in Detroit (morning drive on sports WXYT/1270) and Rochester (another afternoon airing - 2-5 PM - on alt-rock WZNE/94.1 "The Zone @ 94.1") on Monday, with Washington DC FM talker WJFK/106.7 "Free FM" joining up for a midday clearance later this month.

WAZU, like its Cleveland sister station, airs WCKG/Chicago-based "Rover's Morning Glory" with Shane "Rover" French and company...a show which, of course, used to be based at 92.3 here. Rochester's WZNE is also a "Rover" affiliate, which prompts the afternoon airing there for O&A.

Oddly enough, two of the new O&A affiliates will eventually be out of the CBS Radio family. Columbus and Rochester are both on the CBS "we're selling smaller market clusters" list...

How Far The Mighty Have Fallen

UPDATE: A Helpful OMW Reader tells us that DLR will also be at Cleveland's House of Blues on August 20th, as a part of his summer concert schedule at what appears to be mainly smaller venues. The Cleveland event was apparently even announced on Roth's former home station in the market, WNCX/98.5! ("You hated him on the radio, now come hear him sing instead of talk!", we wonder?)

-------------

When we started 2006, former Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth was on a worldwide stage... as the anointed replacement for morning radio icon Howard Stern on seven of Stern's outlets, including Stern's New York flagship and Cleveland's WNCX/98.5.

You all know how that turned out. CBS Radio was so desperate to replace Roth that they turned to once-shunned Opie & Anthony to replace him.

But, Roth's voice will be heard somewhere in Northeast Ohio next month...just not on the radio. It turns out those rumblings that "Diamond Dave" wanted to get back on the concert circuit were not just rumors.

The Youngstown Vindicator reports that Roth will headline a July 3rd concert at Niles' Eastwood Field. That venue is better known as the home of minor league baseball's Mahoning Valley Scrappers - the Cleveland Indians' New York-Penn League affiliate in the region. Roth will follow an "unannounced special guest" with a 9:30 performance that night. (We'll assume that it's not the Van Halen reunion Roth keeps talking about as being "inevitable".)

Promoter Tony Rubino tells Warren Tribune-Chronicle entertainment writer Andy Gray that "(Roth) is a friend of mine, and he said he'’s going to put on a show you'’re not going to forget about." Uh huh. We believe you, Tony.

Neither article mentions Roth's disastrous run at morning drive radio.

It'll cost you just south of $30 - and the gas to get to Niles - if you really want to hear DLR in concert...

Thursday Grab Bag

Some random items to head into June:

ITEM 1: Chicago Sun-Times media beat writer Robert Feder reports that the Chicago-based producer of syndicated CBS Radio morning show "Rover's Morning Glory" has left the show. Feder says about the departure of market veteran Joe Bartosch from the program headed up by Shane "Rover" French: "It can't be a good sign when a failing morning show loses one of its few connections to its home market."

Regular readers of OMW know that Feder, considered the dean of radio/TV newspaper columnists, has been sniffing at Rover since day one...at least some of that due to Rover's importation from here in Cleveland.

Whether you could call the show "failing" is up to your interpretation of Chicago market ratings, but it's been a tough early 6 months for Rover and company at WCKG/105.9 there...while Rover is still, from what we're told, holding down excellent numbers at former home base WXRK/92.3 here in Northeast Ohio.

ITEM 2: Outside our usual coverage area, but we'll mention it...Cox talker WHIO/1290 Dayton has added a couple of news anchors, according to AllAccess. Sean Copeland joins for afternoon news duties from a Tulsa station...he's also been syndicated, as news anchor for St. Louis-based "Steve and DC". Wendi Williams joins up for news co-anchor duties...she's a former staffer at news/talk WPAY/1400 Portsmouth, down in far southern Ohio.

ITEM 3: Right here in the area...a regular Akron-to-Cleveland commuter sends us this picture of a huge billboard for Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100. This is a conversion of, if we remember right, the old Goodyear sign which gave time and temperature to commuters going southbound on I-77, near the I-480 interchange. While that local landmark featured flashing lights in pattern...this one's just a straight billboard.

Our OMW reader got out of the car and got this picture along Rt. 21, not far from the sign above the Cloverleaf Lanes bowling alley. We're assuming this is the largest billboard in the area...perhaps only dwarfed by that LeBron James "Witness" billboard on that building near Quicken Loans Arena downtown.

ITEM 4: And speaking of LeBron...did you know "LBJ" was the program director of a trio of urban formatted stations in New Orleans? No, the Cleveland Cavaliers superstar is not dabbling in radio.

This "LeBron" - featured in an AllAccess "10 Questions" interview, is not LeBron James...he's LeBron Joseph, who is also morning co-host at one of those Citadel stations, KMEZ/102.9 "Old School 102.9".

We're curious - is this the only LeBron in radio? It's a very unusual name.

We're just giving a heads up in case he ever decides to move to Cleveland...

Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting Manager Retiring

After over 20 years with Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting, president/general manager Gary Kneisley is stepping down from the top management post at the company, at the end of the year.

Radio & Records Online reports that former Metro Networks regional manager Lonnie Gronek will take over as GM of the chain which includes Cleveland-targeted smooth jazz outlet WNWV/107.3 Elyria ("The Wave"), news/talk WEOL/930 Elyria, AC/oldies combo WLKR/95.3 - WLKR/1510 Norwalk, and country WKFM/96.1 "K96" Huron.

Gronek is best known for a long stint with Malrite Broadcasting, including roles as GM at legendary Cleveland rocker WMMS/100.7 (now a Clear Channel station) and general sales manager of another legendary station, New York top 40 outlet WHTZ "Z100" (also, by the way, now in Clear Channel's arsenal).

ELBC veteran Tim Kelly, who's been cluster manager of the company's Norwalk-based outlets (WLKR and "K96"), and program director of "K96", takes over the chainwide job of operations director.

Though Kneisley is officially retiring at the end of the year, both Gronek and Kelly are reportedly set to take over their roles on July 1st...

Hearing From Central and Southeast Ohio

Two notes from readers south of the usual OMW coverage area...

* An OMW reader tells us that Clear Channel talk WTVN/610 Columbus is running promos that they are "about to take over another station". While it very well could be hinting of something as bold as adding an FM simulcast to 610, it also could be alluding to a promotion temporarily taking over...a gas station, to offer lower gas prices in a promotional stunt.

We have no inside information on this, but our proverbial $20 at the OMW Betting Window would probably go to the gas promotion at this point - as such wording has been used by stations in the past. But we will be keeping our eye on it, just in case...

* Kyle McPeck's "The King of Zanesville" blog weighs in on something that's been in progress for a while now - the planned COL move of that city's WHIZ-FM/102.5 to Baltimore OH...making it a Columbus market station.

Kyle has details on the construction permit application for the new WHIZ-FM facilities on his blog. WHIZ will leave behind WHIZ/1240 and WHIZ-TV/18, the NBC affiliate in that small one-station TV market.

Kyle wonders why WHIZ hasn't come clean on this move...well, stations tend not to do that, particularly in a small, tightly-controlled media market like Zanesville. We're guessing that they worry about losing those FM advertising dollars before the move is actually completed.

While we were looking at the WHIZ details, we once again checked records for WJER-FM/101.7 Dover. A construction permit application for the newly-approved COL of North Canton has yet to show up in the FCC's online database. There's no hurry there - Clear Channel still has a month and a half or so to file it, and then three years to build it out...

Joe Finan's Next High-Tech Advance

If you thought the idea of WARF/1350 "Radio Free Ohio" midday host Joe Finan blogging was odd...here's the next step.

The Clear Channel Akron liberal talker's show is now available in podcast form at the station's website. Like other podcasts - including the recently established feed for sister WTAM/1100 afternoon motormouth Mike Trivisonno - you can either download manually, or put the "XML" URL into your podcast catcher (iTunes, etc.) to download the show automatically.

Fortunately for Finan, who first came to radio prominence in the days of scratchy transistor radios and 45 RPM records, producer/sidekick/WARF program director Jerry Mullins is likely doing the actual computer work...

DirecTV HD Locals in Cleveland - Possible Date

If you're a DirecTV subscriber waiting for the satellite service to offer HDTV local channels in the Cleveland market, you might want to get out your calendar for June.

OMW hears that Cleveland market DirecTV subscribers are getting an HD locals launch date from the company's customer service representatives - June 28th.

For DirecTV subscribers to get the new HD locals, they'll have to get new MPEG4-capable equipment from the satellite company.

At launch, the HD locals will almost surely be limited to the "Big Four" networks - the digital sides of WKYC/3 (NBC), WEWS/5 (ABC), WJW/8 (FOX) and WOIO/19 (CBS). DirecTV has yet to add other HD network affiliates in other markets, and even of those "other networks", only WUAB/43 (UPN) is available in HD format in the Cleveland market. WBNX/55 (WB) is still constructing its own digital operation...

"My Network TV" Landing in Youngstown

UPDATE: The Business Journal reports the WYTV news conference has been cancelled, and will be rescheduled...

The "new network situation" is becoming clearer in the Youngstown market, where UPN/WB replacement The CW is already set. It looks like My Network TV will find a Mahoning Valley home as well.

The Youngstown-Warren Business Journal reports that Chelsey Broadcasting ABC affiliate WYTV/33 will announce a "second local channel" at a ribbon-cutting event tomorrow. (Thanks to an alert OMW tipster for passing this on!)

Though WYTV's news release does not officially detail the second outlet's programming, the Business Journal says it's expected to become the Youngstown market's affiliate for My Network TV, the FOX-owned mini-network developed after FOX's UPN O&O's got stiffed in the move to The CW. CW will air in Youngstown on current WB affiliate "WBCB", a digital/cable/satellite channel run by NBC affiliate WFMJ/21.

The Wednesday event is a launch for the construction of new downtown Youngstown studios for WYTV, which is going to move to a new facility to be built on East Federal Street. Historically, only WFMJ (owned by the Youngstown Vindicator) has broadcast from downtown Youngstown, with both WYTV and Piedmont CBS affiliate WKBN/27 - and now FOX affiliate WYFX/62 - staked out far from downtown. WYTV's longtime home is on Shady Run Road, south of downtown off I-680 and Midlothian Blvd.

WYTV is also expanding its early evening local news block, which will run a full 90 minutes from 5 PM to 6:30 PM starting on June 12th.

The move to add a second channel and My Network TV accomplishes two things - it means all three outlets of the original "Big Three" networks will have secondary channels with other networks...with WFMJ/21 hosting WB affiliate "WBCB" on its digital channel, and on cable and satellite, and WKBN/27 running "FOX 17/62" on a pair of LPTVers, on cable and soon-to-be satellite, and now on its own digital subchannel. It also means Youngstown will now get all the over-air networks locally.

The Business Journal article does not say how WYTV intends to deliver the second channel, but we'll assume it'll mirror WBCB (and now WYFX) with a digital subchannel and at least cable carriage.

Even if WYTV had not picked up My Network TV for a second channel, most Youngstown market cable viewers would have had no problem watching it anyway. Youngstown never had a UPN affiliate, even as a digital subchannel...and Cleveland's future My Network TV affiliate - WUAB/43 - has long filled that role on cable in the market.

What we'll have to see is if WYTV forces its hand with local cable outlets in the Youngstown market, and uses its new My Network TV channel to take over WUAB's channel slot...

WKYC Weekday Morning Replacement

Oh, we almost forgot this one, even though we caught the tail end of it being announced on last night's "Channel 3 News at 11" on Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC/3:

Weekend anchor Kim Wheeler is "moving on up" to weekday mornings. She'll replace Carole Sullivan, who recently announced her departure from the station and from Northeast Ohio. Sullivan will follow her football coach husband to Kalamazoo MI, where he works for Western Michigan University...

Two (Hot) Weekend Items

That's hot, as in the temperature...as it's currently 82 degrees at the OMW World Headquarters in northwest Akron. The items are actually rather mild...

HOT WEEKEND ITEM 1: Air America syndicated midday host Jerry Springer returned to the Northeast Ohio airwaves early this evening - apparently by accident. While running some errands around town, we heard the former WTAM/1100 Cleveland mid-morning time slot occupant on Akron liberal talker WARF/1350 "Radio Free Ohio".

We say "by accident" because "Springer on the Radio" has never been scheduled - or as far as we know, even heard - on WARF, even in weekend replays.

The station's weekend schedule currently lists repeats of WYD/Jones weekday host Stephanie Miller in the 5-8 PM Sunday time slot. It also appears that schedule is flexible, because "Radio Free Ohio" started airing an infomercial after the ABC newscast at 7 PM - and after about 7 minutes of dead air preceding ABC.

Springer's program repeats for an hour on the Air America national schedule in the Sunday 6-7 PM ET time slot where he was heard on WARF tonight...so the 1350 automation computer apparently got confused and dumped into the live Air America satellite feed, complete with non-matching spot breaks and different cue tones.

The airing tonight is still a far cry from Springer's former weekday morning time slot on WTAM, which he lost earlier this year to local talker Bob Frantz...

HOT WEEKEND ITEM 2: A discussion with some online friends earlier in the week got us in the mood to make the drive over to Warren...to devour three chili-cheese hot dogs at the city's iconic Hot Dog Shoppe. (Your Primary Editorial Voice was a regular visitor to that establishment in the early 1990's.)

While we were in the Mahoning Valley, we did a cursory check of some stations with a questionable status. So far, the bankruptcy-induced ownership/management changes at the Stop 26 Riverbend stations have not made it to the air.

WRBP/101.9 Hubbard was running what sounded to us like ABC's "The Touch" urban AC 24/7 format...we don't know if that's any different than what they've done in the past on weekends, but the station is still calling itself "102 Jams".

The Stop 26 AM stations were running their usual formats - WGFT/1330 Campbell with gospel, and WASN/1500 Youngstown with Spanish-language music. We did not hear an English legal ID on the latter, but did hear a liner out of nowhere in English, saying 1500 was "the station playing your kind of music".

The stations must not be looking at impending loss of transmitter site lease, which prompted the bankruptcy receiver's appointed management to shutter Stop 26's WVKO/1580 Columbus a while back. The manager is operating the stations as ownership transitions from the bankrupt Stop 26 to Bernard Radio, the radio operating company of investment firm D.B. Zwirn - the largest creditor on Stop 26's list...

Cincinnati Radio/TV Station Combo Reunites - In A Way

Long before Hearst Argyle owned Cincinnati NBC affiliate WLWT/5, and before Clear Channel ended up with talk WLW/700, both stations were co-owned in the Crosley era.

The ownership situation is not changing, but the stations are now teaming up for a news and weather sharing partnership...which isn't really even the most interesting part of this story.

As Cincinnati Post radio/TV columnist Rick Bird notes, the new WLW/WLWT partnership - which puts the TV station's weather forecasters on WLW - means WLW is dumping CBS affiliate WKRC/12 in that role.

You know...the only TV station in the market owned by WLW owner Clear Channel.

We're scratching our head here...trying to remember when a corporate behemoth allowed such a move. In fact, we've even heard WLW midday mainstay Mike McConnell grumble on the air that corporate policy - presumably out of San Antonio - restricted him to mentioning only Channel 12 when it came to even talking about local TV news!

Not anymore...the hook is now with WLWT/5...as the agreement, according to Bird, covers not only weather...but news sharing, "personalities and marketing". We're wondering if McConnell will get now clipped for talking about Channel 12...

WKRC/12 will still, according to Cincinnati Enquirer radio/TV columnist John Kiesewetter, provide weather forecasts for all the other Clear Channel radio outlets in the market. The deal only covers WLW.

For "The Big One"'s part, program director Darryl Parks correctly notes that the company's local clusters do have autonomy to make such decisions. And we've seen first-hand evidence of such in other Clear Channel markets. But you have to wonder...would many other Clear Channel news/talk stations be able to dump local TV sharing agreements with company-owned stations?

In CC's home market, San Antonio, the company recently changed the name of its TV station to WOAI-TV...to match WOAI/1200, the "flagship" CC news/talker which started the entire chain back in the day, and even gave Clear Channel its name.

Up in our friend Scott Fybush's home market of Rochester NY, the company did the same with its TV outlet (then WOKR), changing the name to WHAM-TV to match news/talk WHAM/1180. And a similar move was made just down the New York State Thruway in Syracuse, where Clear Channel's former WIXT-TV was rechristened WSYR-TV, to match news/talk WSYR/570.

In all three markets, the moves coincided with heavy cross-promotion.

So we say - "only in Cincinnati". That Mr. Parks and company were able to do this is not a huge surprise. The Cincinnati Clear Channel cluster has always enjoyed such autonomy, dating back to the days when Randy Michaels was running the CC national radio office out of nearby Covington.

And WLW itself has almost always been handled with a "hands off" policy out of San Antonio. Parks, as the Cincinnati cluster's AM operations manager, has been able to exert a strong hand, even when the station has been embroiled in controversy. In effect, he's been able to handle things locally.

The fact that this policy continues, long after Randy Michaels left Clear Channel, is attributed to one thing and one thing only in our minds - money.

We've noted here before that WLW is the ratings and revenue monster in the Cincinnati market. It is by far the most profitable radio station in Cincinnati, lapping even sister FM rocker WEBN/102.7 by some margin. Basically, when you're the cash cow and one of the most profitable radio stations in the entire chain, Clear Channel doesn't mess with you out of San Antonio...let alone upper management in Cincinnati.

Clear Channel is not without its "corporate mandates", certainly. They do exist, and have been well documented in other situations. But if a local cluster or station shows a long track record of success, they CAN talk the company out of such mandates if it makes sense locally...as this proves...

Julie's Update

The item about CBS Radio's Opie & Anthony, which we noted below from the Plain Dealer's Entertainment Blog, has now appeared in print in Julie Washington's Saturday radio column.

Julie also lists local award winners in the Ohio Associated Press Broadcasters Awards - including a slew of awards for ABC affiliate WEWS/5, and for Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 on the radio side. TV-wise, the "Best Regularly Scheduled News" first place award goes to WOIO/19, with WKYC/3 in second place. (They DO watch these newscasts, right?) Radio-wise, NPR outlet WKSU/89.7 Kent also picks up a trio of awards.

Ms. Washington also picks up on the move of former Clear Channel Cleveland regional VP Jim Meltzer, who started his new gig as VP/GM of CBS Radio's Pittsburgh cluster this past Monday...and on the 30th anniversary of radio icon Paul Harvey's "Rest of the Story" program. It airs locally on WTAM, talk WEOL/930 Elyria and standards WAKR/1590 Akron, among many other stations we're sure we're missing.

While we're on the subject of Paul Harvey, we're reminded that ABC News Radio's Memorial Day tribute special should be airing this weekend...hosted by Harvey Replacement in Waiting Fred Thompson. We haven't heard if any local stations are planning to carry the special...

We'll Help Them With Their Help Wanted Ad

Look at what we saw in the AllAccess "Job Market" section recently:

"WZKL & WDPN in Canton Ohio, needs a Promotions Director yesterday!! We’re looking for a creative, go-getter with a positive attitude."

Here's what they CAN'T say:

"...who is not currently facing prison time for running a fake charity!"

The slot, of course, was once temporarily filled by former Louisville KY promotions director and radio personality Todd Kelly Smith, who was recently arrested on fraud charges in connection with the operation of his self-titled "Todd Kelly Foundation" ALS charity in that market. We're guessing the Q92 folks will do some more background checking this time.

Here's the full ad:

------------

WZKL & WDPN in Canton Ohio, needs a Promotions Director yesterday!! We’re looking for a creative, go-getter with a positive attitude. Must have to be considered include but are not limited to:

*Proficient in Word and Excel
*Knowledge of website management including HTML
*Flexible Hours
*Create and execute promotions, contests, concerts and events on and off the air.
*Oversee and manage Assistant Promotions Director
* Daily prize sheets for on-air talent and prize fulfillment
*Station Vehicle management
*Excellent public relation skills and listener management
*Manage winner database, e-mail database
*Recruitment and retention of interns
*Writing and enforcing rules in compliance with station policies and regulations.

This position reports directly to the General Manager and works closely with the Program Director and Sales Manager in creating elements for revenue opportunities. Interersted candidates should send cover letter and resume to Don Peterson at dapeteiii (at) AOL (dot) com or snail mail him at:

Don Peterson III
393 Smyth Ave NE
Alliance, OH 44601
330-450-9250

Rumblings

There's not much to it yet...

But we hear changes could be afoot somewhere within the Clear Channel World Domination HQ on Oak Tree. Could those "Triv to WMMS mornings" rumors from a couple of weeks ago finally be gaining steam, or is it something else? Is it time for the OMW Technical Staff to set up a recording or two on 100.7?

Julie Talks With O&A

Plain Dealer radio/TV writer Julie Washington checks in - via phone from New York - with newly-reinstalled CBS Radio bad boy talkers Opie & Anthony...with an item that appears in today's PD Entertainment Blog, and will presumably make print Friday or Saturday.

There's not really much new in the item, which spends most of its time recapping recent events and the events which got the pair fired from then-Infinity back in 2002.

It does have comments from Gregg "Opie" Hughes and Anthony Cumia about the show's return to its old afternoon drive time slot on its former Cleveland affiliate, now known as alt-rock WXRK/92.3 "K-Rock".

In case you've been under a rock, the pair's return places them in morning drive in every market except Cleveland, filling the slot once owned by Howard Stern in six other cities. For its part in that time slot, CBS Radio classic rocker and former Stern affiliate WNCX/98.5 is still scouring the country for anyone who may once have even cleaned the floors at WMMS/100.7.

Anthony offers the show's former ratings success on then-"Xtreme Radio" WXTM, telling Washington "it works well in either day part", morning or afternoon drive. Opie adds that the pair is "excited" to be back on in Cleveland...

Randy Part Deux

So, it's good to know we're not alone in our speculation.

When OMW first published the list of markets where CBS Radio is aiming to exit, Cincinnati stuck out like that proverbial sore thumb to us. Oh, Columbus as well, but especially Cincinnati.

We had a thought: Wouldn't THAT be an interesting return to major market radio for one Randy Michaels?

Mr. Michaels, of course, is the long-time former head of Clear Channel's radio division, going back to the "make some noise" days at Jacor. He's usually credited with building Clear Channel's current Cincinnati cluster into a monster, and in particular the "monster" known as the original "Big One", talk WLW/700. Though started by someone else, and funded by a wealthy investor (one Sam Zell), Jacor as a whole was largely Randy's creation.

Though a native of the Buffalo area, he ran Clear Channel's radio division out of suburban Cincinnati (Covington KY), and the Queen City is considered his hometown.

After leaving Clear Channel, Michaels has slowly been building suburban Cincinnati-based RadioActive LLC, by bidding on various FM auction licenses in cities much smaller than Cincinnati. Is RadioActive about to get a lot more "Active" in the major markets, by buying one or more clusters from CBS? Maybe as many as all 10 markets CBS is putting up for sale?

Randy getting "back in the game" is being hinted by at least a couple of trade publications. We don't have any "inside" information to back up that speculation, but if Randy's looking to get back into it, this would be a decent opportunity.

He's also been getting into the programming game, with his "Product 1st (P1)" owning the rights to Jones Radio-syndicated liberal talker Ed Schultz. And he'd been rumored to be involved in a possible takeover of the LMA of New York City liberal talker WLIB/1190, Air America's flagship station.

Randy's diverse, though...and buying the Cincinnati CBS cluster, in specific, would more likely provide him with the opportunity to use the company's big FM stations to compete head on with similar Clear Channel stations. Mr. Michaels was a significant player at now-CBS Radio's WKRQ "Q102", before he scooted across to Jacor, with the company's former Cincinnati cluster now owned by Clear Channel. Needless to say, he knows both groups pretty well...first hand.

Randy Michaels often gets a bad rap in this business, particularly for his implementation of Clear Channel directives like widespread voicetracking while he ran the radio division there.

But from what we know and have heard of him, he's actually a firm believer in the content and programming side of radio. With his own money, and without San Antonio handing down its philosophy, this might be a whole new ballgame...

Maxwell To Nights At WNCI/Columbus - No, Not THAT Maxwell

What are the odds that two large market Ohio Clear Channel music stations would feature air personalities with the single name "Maxwell"?

Apparently, even money.

AllAccess reports that the artist we'll call "Maxwell #2" has landed in the open night slot at CC top 40 WNCI/97.9 Columbus. He's inbound from Lafayette LA, where he's been APD/MD/nights at Citadel top 40 KSMB. He's also done morning drive in New Orleans. AllAccess says he'll pick up MD duties at WNCI at some point down the road.

Our original Clear Channel Ohio "Maxwell" is, of course, afternoon driver at the company's rock WMMS/100.7 in Cleveland, who's dabbled in doing weekend talk at sister talk WTAM/1100.

In a business where air names get copied, duplicated or just happen by coincidence, it's not a huge surprise, even though both "Maxwells" will be working for the same company within about 120 miles of each other.

So, here you go...OMW now presents Maxwell vs. Maxwell:

At left, the WMMS afternoon driver...










And at right, the new WNCI night guy...

We're reminded that there are at least two or three Danny Wrights running around radio, and not just the Cleveland radio veteran ("G98", WGAR/99.5) who now handles Jones Radio's syndicated country overnight show "Wright All Night" out of his new home area in Seattle. In fact, one of the other Dannys has experience in other Ohio markets.

But the long-time Cleveland voice is still the original Danny Wright to us, and not just because he's a regular reader of Your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm)...though that helps...

Our 58 Update

That's 58, as in what you get when you add "3" to "55" for this update:

WKYC HD: We've noticed, in watching Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC/3's new HDTV newscasts, that not everything is "there" yet for the debut week. This morning, meteorologist Hollie Strano apologized for not having her usual morning quiz graphics, saying "not everything's been converted yet" to HD. While she said that, we couldn't help but notice a flat screen monitor just above her head...which appeared to still be wrapped in plastic. The things you notice...

We also noticed that so far, none of the station's stories originating from the Akron/Canton Bureau have either widescreen or HD video. We'll assume the WKYC outpost at Main and Market has yet to be retrofitted with such equipment. The twice-nightly newscast produced there for Time Warner Cable is obviously not in HD, unless there are plans afoot that we don't know about.

We'll assume, though, in the general scheme of things, that WKYC will also add HD equipment in Akron...and even if the live HD transmission paths are probably still a ways off, they could still send live video to Cleveland in 16x9 SD...

WBNX SCHEDULE CHANGES: It's been tipped by contributors to our item below about WB affiliate-to-become-CW affiliate WBNX/55, but we've now found the confirmation.

According to this graphic found on the WBNX website, the station plans to air syndicated reruns of the hit show "Friends" in the weeknight 10 PM slot starting on June 11th. (We've edited the graphic down for space, to the top and bottom parts.)

That time slot is very significant...currently, it's occupied by "The Ninety and Nine Club", a religious talk show hosted by none other than WBNX owner Rev. Ernest Angley. We don't have any word on where Rev. Angley's show will move in the schedule.

UPDATE: We're told that Angley told viewers of his show that it would still air in its morning time slot - 9 AM - when we're told he sometimes does the show live. WBNX also apparently plans, if what we're being told is correct, to add an additional subchannel to the upcoming WBNX-DT, alongside digital/HD programming for the main channel. No matter what WBNX does as far as programming this subchannel, it'd probably provide an opportunity for Angley to get an evening time slot for his show on the new second outlet.

He's moved "Ninety and Nine Club" on his own station once before. The show's name refers to its old time slot of 9 PM weeknights, a placement Angley abandoned when he agreed to affiliate WBNX with the then-new WB network...

CBS Radio to Exit Two Ohio Markets

CBS Radio has been making noises about selling its smaller-market stations for something close to a year now, but the company has finally nailed down which markets it expects to exit.

The company says it intends to sell all of its stations in 10 markets, including the company's entire clusters in Columbus and Cincinnati. That'd leave only Cleveland in the CBS Radio portfolio in Ohio. (You can read the whole story at Radio & Records Online.) Other soon-to-be-former CBS Radio markets include Austin, Buffalo, Fresno, Greensboro, Kansas City, Memphis, Rochester, and San Antonio.

It's interesting that CBS is keeping some clusters that are in slightly smaller markets than some of those being divested. For example, while they jettison Columbus and Cincinnati, CBS suits are hanging onto markets like Las Vegas. Analysts speculate that expected market growth in sunbelt areas like Las Vegas and Orlando are driving CBS to keep those clusters.

The move comes as no surprise to CBS Radio Columbus VP/GM Valerie Brooks...who tells R&R that she'd expected the stations could have been sold at any time since the company picked them up from Jacor in 1998. Brooks tells R&R she's not worried about new ownership, calling the cluster's stations "fabulous stations with great sellers and air talent".

CBS Radio owns country WHOK, alt-rock WAZU and classic rock WLVQ in Ohio's capital city, and country WUBE, oldies WGRR, hot AC WKRQ and alt-rock WAQZ in Cincinnati. Staying with the company will be the Cleveland cluster of AC WDOK, hot AC WQAL, alt-rock WXRK and classic rock WNCX...

WKYC Flips The Local News HD Switch

As expected, Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC/3 did indeed start broadcasting local newscasts in high definition today...beginning with the 6 PM edition of "Channel 3 News".

The station did a slight revamp of their existing set, adding bright, colorful parts like the sign that now says "WKYC NEWS HD" at the top, and what may be an upgraded video screen in the middle of the main set. The weather area also got a makeover, with new "WeatherPlus" graphics.

WKYC appears to have the capability to shoot HD video in the field, as at least one story in the 6 PM newscast featured that video. But another story, a later breaking news piece that was bumped to the top of the show, was in SD. We couldn't tell for sure, but it appeared the live shot parts of both stories were in 16x9 widescreen SD. Perhaps, for now, WKYC's reporters can come in and edit pieces in HDTV in-house, but can't yet transmit that video from the field.

Weather segments featured the HD camera on forecaster Mark Nolan, and the graphics behind him were in SD with "HD" sidebars. Non-HD field video, from network sources and whatever was shot locally in SD, did not have the sidebars.

The move makes WKYC the second HDTV news operation in the Cleveland market, as WJW "FOX 8" has been using HD cameras in its South Marginal Road studios for months. WJW's field news pieces are still shot in SD...