The folks at Arbitron will get some competition for radio ratings starting next year - and it will affect one Ohio market.
The New York Times reports that Nielsen, better known for its TV ratings, will provide radio audience measurement in 50 "small and midsize markets" starting in the third quarter of 2009, in a deal with radio group owner Cumulus, which has been seeking an Arbitron alternative for some time.
The Times also reports that in 17 of those markets, Clear Channel's radio stations will also take part in the new service.
But it took a nudge from Radio-Info.com's news headlines to bring this into focus for us:
The markets aren't being identified yet, but presumably metros like Youngstown are candidates, since both Cumulus and Clear Channel have stations there and are the dominant players.
UPDATE 12:31 PM 11/18/08: AllAccess has posted a list of the markets involved, and only Youngstown is listed in Ohio. Clear Channel and Cumulus also compete in Toledo, and in the much larger Cincinnati market, but the Arbitron-Cumulus deal only covers Youngstown.
This also gives us a chance to bring up a new development: Cincinnati has now surpassed Cleveland in Arbitron's radio market size rankings.
The Queen City is now the 28th ranked radio market in the country in the Fall 2008 rankings, thanks to over 21 thousand new residents. Cleveland slides to 29th, losing nearly the same amount of people as Cincinnati gained. Net gap between the two markets - about 86 hundred people.
The radio market size drop for Cleveland is similar to the drop in ranking for the Cleveland TV market over the past few years. Cleveland is now America's 17th largest TV market, down from the top 10 decades ago.
Remember, on the TV side, Akron and Canton are also included in the Cleveland market, where they are separate markets for radio...
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Out Of The Chute
UPDATE 11/17/08 9:50 PM: Two alert readers with the ability to pick up Youngstown market stations tell us that Clear Channel classic hits WBBG/106.1 Niles "Big 106.1" flipped to holiday tunes late last week. We've confirmed the switch by going to the station's website, and listening online.
The station is now positioning for the season as "Youngstown-Warren's Christmas Music Channel"...
-----------
...for a Monday, with some newsy and some random items. Or maybe the title should be "Down The Chimney"...
SANTA'S FIRST GIFT: With snowy weather affecting Northeast Ohio, it's an appropriate backdrop as radio stations begin boarding Santa's sleigh in delivering Christmas music to area listeners.
The first aboard this year in the region is Clear Channel AC WHOF/101.7 North Canton, which officially flipped on the holiday tunes at noon today.
A quick OMW spin through the dial shows no other entrants in the Christmas Music Sweepstakes, so we'll award First of 2008 honors to "My 101.7".
Others are coming, though...just not yet.
A traditional Cleveland market Christmas music stronghold is CBS Radio AC WDOK/102.1 "Soft Rock 102.1", which has a web countdown to the start of its 2008 holiday music - if our math skills and calendar reading skills aren't failing us, it'll be 6 AM on Wednesday, November 26th.
Another Cleveland station likely to be Decking the Halls this year would be Salem CCM WFHM/95.5 "The Fish" - so far, no signs of a flip there, yet. We'd be surprised if they didn't make the switch soon. WFHM has made an early run at Christmas music before, and its sister station in Sacramento CA has already made the flip this year.
And we suspect Rubber City Radio oldies WAKR/1590 Akron OM/PD and OMW reader Chuck Collins will bring out the holiday tunes and catchy liners at some point in the next couple of weeks...
SPEAKING OF WDOK: We passed along word last week of a schedule change at the CBS Radio Cleveland AC outlet, as WDOK's schedule moved long-time midday host Nancy Alden into afternoon drive, with weekender Desiray McCray filling middays (in addition to her weekend shifts on Saturday mornings and Sunday afternoons).
We've heard from both in market and out of market sources that there was a good reason for it, though we wouldn't consider this an official confirmation.
As major companies pare down their schedules due to budget difficulties in the tight economy (and the extra tight media economy), we hear that CBS Radio is voicetracking midday shifts at its stations around the country.
This, if true, would continue the trend by other broadcasters - at least one group, according to trade reports, is abandoning live night shifts nationwide. The reports didn't say which group, but considering recent moves dumping evening personalities in markets like Toledo and Youngstown, Cumulus would be a safe guess.
It's getting harder and harder to find broadcast owners that aren't retrenching in some way. Even Clear Channel, which hasn't announced massive layoffs in recent weeks, pared down itself in the preparation for its takeover by private equity firms recently...
AKRON NATIVE RETIRING: We saw the announcement last week that long-time Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) president Barbara Cochran announced her upcoming retirement. Cochran will step down next June after 12 years of leading the organization.
But we didn't know that Cochran is an Northeast Ohio native - from Akron, specifically.
Another significant presence in RTNDA is from Akron, of course - Rubber City Radio VP/information media and OMW reader Ed Esposito, who is the current chairman of the news broadcasters' group.
Ed tells us Cochran is a Buchtel High School graduate, and also informs us that Barbara's mother still lives in Akron.
The RTNDA's release on Cochran's retirement quotes Akron's own Mr. Esposito in his role as Chairman:
“Barbara Cochran’s leadership took RTNDA’s advocacy on behalf of electronic journalists to a new level, especially in the fight to preserve hard-fought First Amendment gains and protections,” Esposito said. “Barbara’s stand for strong ethical practices and journalistic excellence help set a standard for our industry.”
He especially noted Cochran’s success in opening the U.S. Supreme Court to the release of selected audio recordings as one of the many highlights of her association career. “RTNDA’s Board and membership owe Barbara great thanks in helping to position the association and foundation to transform as well as transition as we determine our strategies to keep those interests at the forefront in this time of great challenge and opportunity,” Esposito added.
Barbara Cochran has maintained a very high (beyond industry) profile in her work for the RTNDA, and it sounds like the Akron native will be very difficult to replace...
The station is now positioning for the season as "Youngstown-Warren's Christmas Music Channel"...
-----------
...for a Monday, with some newsy and some random items. Or maybe the title should be "Down The Chimney"...
SANTA'S FIRST GIFT: With snowy weather affecting Northeast Ohio, it's an appropriate backdrop as radio stations begin boarding Santa's sleigh in delivering Christmas music to area listeners.
The first aboard this year in the region is Clear Channel AC WHOF/101.7 North Canton, which officially flipped on the holiday tunes at noon today.
A quick OMW spin through the dial shows no other entrants in the Christmas Music Sweepstakes, so we'll award First of 2008 honors to "My 101.7".
Others are coming, though...just not yet.
A traditional Cleveland market Christmas music stronghold is CBS Radio AC WDOK/102.1 "Soft Rock 102.1", which has a web countdown to the start of its 2008 holiday music - if our math skills and calendar reading skills aren't failing us, it'll be 6 AM on Wednesday, November 26th.
Another Cleveland station likely to be Decking the Halls this year would be Salem CCM WFHM/95.5 "The Fish" - so far, no signs of a flip there, yet. We'd be surprised if they didn't make the switch soon. WFHM has made an early run at Christmas music before, and its sister station in Sacramento CA has already made the flip this year.
And we suspect Rubber City Radio oldies WAKR/1590 Akron OM/PD and OMW reader Chuck Collins will bring out the holiday tunes and catchy liners at some point in the next couple of weeks...
SPEAKING OF WDOK: We passed along word last week of a schedule change at the CBS Radio Cleveland AC outlet, as WDOK's schedule moved long-time midday host Nancy Alden into afternoon drive, with weekender Desiray McCray filling middays (in addition to her weekend shifts on Saturday mornings and Sunday afternoons).
We've heard from both in market and out of market sources that there was a good reason for it, though we wouldn't consider this an official confirmation.
As major companies pare down their schedules due to budget difficulties in the tight economy (and the extra tight media economy), we hear that CBS Radio is voicetracking midday shifts at its stations around the country.
This, if true, would continue the trend by other broadcasters - at least one group, according to trade reports, is abandoning live night shifts nationwide. The reports didn't say which group, but considering recent moves dumping evening personalities in markets like Toledo and Youngstown, Cumulus would be a safe guess.
It's getting harder and harder to find broadcast owners that aren't retrenching in some way. Even Clear Channel, which hasn't announced massive layoffs in recent weeks, pared down itself in the preparation for its takeover by private equity firms recently...
AKRON NATIVE RETIRING: We saw the announcement last week that long-time Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) president Barbara Cochran announced her upcoming retirement. Cochran will step down next June after 12 years of leading the organization.
But we didn't know that Cochran is an Northeast Ohio native - from Akron, specifically.
Another significant presence in RTNDA is from Akron, of course - Rubber City Radio VP/information media and OMW reader Ed Esposito, who is the current chairman of the news broadcasters' group.
Ed tells us Cochran is a Buchtel High School graduate, and also informs us that Barbara's mother still lives in Akron.
The RTNDA's release on Cochran's retirement quotes Akron's own Mr. Esposito in his role as Chairman:
“Barbara Cochran’s leadership took RTNDA’s advocacy on behalf of electronic journalists to a new level, especially in the fight to preserve hard-fought First Amendment gains and protections,” Esposito said. “Barbara’s stand for strong ethical practices and journalistic excellence help set a standard for our industry.”
He especially noted Cochran’s success in opening the U.S. Supreme Court to the release of selected audio recordings as one of the many highlights of her association career. “RTNDA’s Board and membership owe Barbara great thanks in helping to position the association and foundation to transform as well as transition as we determine our strategies to keep those interests at the forefront in this time of great challenge and opportunity,” Esposito added.
Barbara Cochran has maintained a very high (beyond industry) profile in her work for the RTNDA, and it sounds like the Akron native will be very difficult to replace...
Friday, November 14, 2008
Friday Grab Bag
Rounding out our week...
NO 58: With the digital side of Western Reserve PBS' WNEO/45 Alliance off the air this week in preparation for the station's early digital switchover, one of our readers noticed that the public TV outlet's Youngstown-based low-power translator is also off the air.
OMW has confirmed that the translator, known legally as W58AM and serving low-lying areas of the Mahoning Valley that may be shadowed from WNEO, is indeed off the air due to transmitter problems...and has been off the air since last weekend.
Of course, the station's engineers are a bit busy right now in Salem, making the various changes that will allow WNEO-DT, in a week's time, to upgrade its signal in the wake of the early shutoff of analog channel 45.
So, the channel 58 Youngstown repeater is on the back burner.
OMW hears from our friends on Campus Center Drive that if the analog W58AM transmitter can't be easily fixed - once they're able to get to it - Western Reserve PBS will go ahead and convert it to digital. The station has a digital construction permit that will allow it to move W58AM to DT channel 44.
For now, it's an answer we won't know until after the WNEO work is done.
We also don't know yet if Dish Network will be among the outlets providing the WNEO signal to Youngstown market customers while both the station's analog and digital signals will be off the air for about two days next week in the early conversion process.
And a reminder, again - Western Reserve PBS' WEAO/49 Akron is not affected by any of this, and will continue to pump out its existing analog and digital signals from the Copley Township transmitter site through February 17th, when the analog signal shuts off in the nationally-mandated transition to digital TV...
AN APOLOGY, OF SORTS: ...to long-time Media-Com talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron" morning co-host and sports voice Steve French.
In an earlier item about hot AC WKDD/98.1's current morning show, we noted that we hadn't remembered French as a member of the old WKDD/96.5 "Waking Crew", alongside Matt Patrick and Barbara Adams.
French wrote back to OMW, noting that he'd been on that show for "13 (expletive deleted) years". The expletive apparently convinced Gmail's spam filters that Steve was a spammer, and dumped his E-Mail into our Spam folder - which we only checked later this week, finding his missive among advertisements for body part extensions and dating services.
The expletive was the same one that got San Francisco host Charles "Karel" Bouley bounced from his weekend gig at Citadel talk powerhouse KGO...only in that case, it was on the air, albeit accidentally.
Well, Steve, we're human, and we apparently didn't listen enough to the "Waking Crew" show when you were there. Or, maybe we were concentrating on Matt and BA. Or, maybe we're just so used to you on WNIR these days, that our brain cells devoted to remembering you were filled with your long-time gig (over 12 years) at 100.1 alongside Stan Piatt, Jim Midock and Maggie Fuller.
We're only human. We're fallible.
Anyway, we mention Steve French because we were glued to the sound of his voice last night.
Around about 11 PM, we wondered if he'd still be in the press box of the Rubber Bowl at 5 AM today, instead of at the WNIR studios in Portage County, as the University of Akron Zips and the University of Buffalo Bulls were about to enter a fourth overtime period (!!!).
In case you haven't heard, Thursday's contest was the very last Zips football game scheduled for the aging Rubber Bowl, as the University of Akron will open a new on-campus football stadium sponsored by a telemarketing firm and a hospital chain that aren't paying us for the mentions.
We've always enjoyed French's work as the radio play-by-play voice of the Zips, even if we are "dumb guys". And his call of the Zips/Bulls game was worth staying up for.
Did we mention Steve French was a member of the old WKDD "Waking Crew" show cast for 13 years? Did we mention he's been a part of the WNIR morning show since 1996? Just checking...
MORE PICKUPS: A nod to Friend of OMW Chuck Matthews, who's made some more voiceover client pickups from his new base in the Sandusky area:
CHUCK MATTHEWS PRODUCTIONS signs a trio of APPALOOSA BROADCASTING stations for VO services; Classic Rock KRQU/LARAMIE, WY; Classic Hits KANT/GUERNSEY, WY; and KROW/LOVELL; WY. But that's not all! CMP also signs DESTINY COMMUNICATIONS Rock KEAU-FM/GREAT FALLS, MT for VO and imaging duties.
Re-upping with CMP are DESTINY COMMUNICATIONS KTGF-TV/GREAT FALLS, MT; WETM-TV/ELMIRA, NY; and Sports/Talk WGHB/GREENVILLE, NC .
Demos at http://chuckmatthews.voices.com; Contact CHUCK at (419) 350-6188 for rates and availability.
NO 58: With the digital side of Western Reserve PBS' WNEO/45 Alliance off the air this week in preparation for the station's early digital switchover, one of our readers noticed that the public TV outlet's Youngstown-based low-power translator is also off the air.
OMW has confirmed that the translator, known legally as W58AM and serving low-lying areas of the Mahoning Valley that may be shadowed from WNEO, is indeed off the air due to transmitter problems...and has been off the air since last weekend.
Of course, the station's engineers are a bit busy right now in Salem, making the various changes that will allow WNEO-DT, in a week's time, to upgrade its signal in the wake of the early shutoff of analog channel 45.
So, the channel 58 Youngstown repeater is on the back burner.
OMW hears from our friends on Campus Center Drive that if the analog W58AM transmitter can't be easily fixed - once they're able to get to it - Western Reserve PBS will go ahead and convert it to digital. The station has a digital construction permit that will allow it to move W58AM to DT channel 44.
For now, it's an answer we won't know until after the WNEO work is done.
We also don't know yet if Dish Network will be among the outlets providing the WNEO signal to Youngstown market customers while both the station's analog and digital signals will be off the air for about two days next week in the early conversion process.
And a reminder, again - Western Reserve PBS' WEAO/49 Akron is not affected by any of this, and will continue to pump out its existing analog and digital signals from the Copley Township transmitter site through February 17th, when the analog signal shuts off in the nationally-mandated transition to digital TV...
AN APOLOGY, OF SORTS: ...to long-time Media-Com talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron" morning co-host and sports voice Steve French.
In an earlier item about hot AC WKDD/98.1's current morning show, we noted that we hadn't remembered French as a member of the old WKDD/96.5 "Waking Crew", alongside Matt Patrick and Barbara Adams.
French wrote back to OMW, noting that he'd been on that show for "13 (expletive deleted) years". The expletive apparently convinced Gmail's spam filters that Steve was a spammer, and dumped his E-Mail into our Spam folder - which we only checked later this week, finding his missive among advertisements for body part extensions and dating services.
The expletive was the same one that got San Francisco host Charles "Karel" Bouley bounced from his weekend gig at Citadel talk powerhouse KGO...only in that case, it was on the air, albeit accidentally.
Well, Steve, we're human, and we apparently didn't listen enough to the "Waking Crew" show when you were there. Or, maybe we were concentrating on Matt and BA. Or, maybe we're just so used to you on WNIR these days, that our brain cells devoted to remembering you were filled with your long-time gig (over 12 years) at 100.1 alongside Stan Piatt, Jim Midock and Maggie Fuller.
We're only human. We're fallible.
Anyway, we mention Steve French because we were glued to the sound of his voice last night.
Around about 11 PM, we wondered if he'd still be in the press box of the Rubber Bowl at 5 AM today, instead of at the WNIR studios in Portage County, as the University of Akron Zips and the University of Buffalo Bulls were about to enter a fourth overtime period (!!!).
In case you haven't heard, Thursday's contest was the very last Zips football game scheduled for the aging Rubber Bowl, as the University of Akron will open a new on-campus football stadium sponsored by a telemarketing firm and a hospital chain that aren't paying us for the mentions.
We've always enjoyed French's work as the radio play-by-play voice of the Zips, even if we are "dumb guys". And his call of the Zips/Bulls game was worth staying up for.
Did we mention Steve French was a member of the old WKDD "Waking Crew" show cast for 13 years? Did we mention he's been a part of the WNIR morning show since 1996? Just checking...
MORE PICKUPS: A nod to Friend of OMW Chuck Matthews, who's made some more voiceover client pickups from his new base in the Sandusky area:
CHUCK MATTHEWS PRODUCTIONS signs a trio of APPALOOSA BROADCASTING stations for VO services; Classic Rock KRQU/LARAMIE, WY; Classic Hits KANT/GUERNSEY, WY; and KROW/LOVELL; WY. But that's not all! CMP also signs DESTINY COMMUNICATIONS Rock KEAU-FM/GREAT FALLS, MT for VO and imaging duties.
Re-upping with CMP are DESTINY COMMUNICATIONS KTGF-TV/GREAT FALLS, MT; WETM-TV/ELMIRA, NY; and Sports/Talk WGHB/GREENVILLE, NC .
Demos at http://chuckmatthews.voices.com; Contact CHUCK at (419) 350-6188 for rates and availability.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
BREAKING NEWS: WSTB Back
Exactly one month after it was pulled off the air, Streetsboro City Schools station WSTB/88.9 Streetsboro has returned to the airwaves.
OMW hears that WSTB went back on the air late Thursday afternoon, and a quick check of the radio confirms its return, with the regular alt-rock "AlterNation" format that airs Monday through Saturday on the station operated out of Streetsboro High School.
OMW also hears that the return of WSTB does also mean the return of the station's "Sunday Oldies Jukebox" oldies programming this Sunday..."SOJ" volunteer program director Bill Weisinger confirms that to us this Thursday evening.
And in an arrangement made earlier this week before WSTB's return, "SOJ" will also make its scheduled appearance Saturday afternoon from 4:30 to 6:30 PM on John Carroll University's WJCU/88.7 University Heights, as air personalities "Guy Z" and "Rockn' Rick" substitute on Joe Madigan's regular "Retro Radio" program.
With WSTB back on the air, and "SOJ" back there Sunday, presumably it'll be just a one-time appearance on WJCU... a Cleveland market station which doesn't actually serve most of the regular WSTB listening area in the Akron market for obvious reasons: it's on a first adjacent frequency to WSTB's 88.9.
But WJCU has one thing WSTB had to abandon a while back - streaming audio on the Internet via the station's website...which will deliver what's now a "Sunday Oldies Jukebox" Saturday special back to Internet-capable listeners in the Summit and Portage County areas...
OMW hears that WSTB went back on the air late Thursday afternoon, and a quick check of the radio confirms its return, with the regular alt-rock "AlterNation" format that airs Monday through Saturday on the station operated out of Streetsboro High School.
OMW also hears that the return of WSTB does also mean the return of the station's "Sunday Oldies Jukebox" oldies programming this Sunday..."SOJ" volunteer program director Bill Weisinger confirms that to us this Thursday evening.
And in an arrangement made earlier this week before WSTB's return, "SOJ" will also make its scheduled appearance Saturday afternoon from 4:30 to 6:30 PM on John Carroll University's WJCU/88.7 University Heights, as air personalities "Guy Z" and "Rockn' Rick" substitute on Joe Madigan's regular "Retro Radio" program.
With WSTB back on the air, and "SOJ" back there Sunday, presumably it'll be just a one-time appearance on WJCU... a Cleveland market station which doesn't actually serve most of the regular WSTB listening area in the Akron market for obvious reasons: it's on a first adjacent frequency to WSTB's 88.9.
But WJCU has one thing WSTB had to abandon a while back - streaming audio on the Internet via the station's website...which will deliver what's now a "Sunday Oldies Jukebox" Saturday special back to Internet-capable listeners in the Summit and Portage County areas...
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
CBS Radio Cleveland Changes
Some interesting changes are afoot among CBS Radio's four Cleveland stations.
The first involves AC WDOK/102.1 "Soft Rock 102.1" and hot AC WQAL/104.1 "Q104" program director Dave Popovich, as he takes on the additional role of director of programming for the entire CBS Radio cluster in Cleveland - which also puts alt-rock WKRK/92.3 "K-Rock" and classic rock WNCX/98.5 under his oversight.
There's no word at this time what this means for the existing PDs at "K-Rock" ("Nard") and WNCX (Bill Louis).
And one of our readers noticed a change on WDOK's website.
The station's schedule now lists veteran midday talent Nancy Alden in afternoon drive, with Desiray McCray listed in Alden's former midday time slot. Dan Deely is apparently now the former WDOK afternoon driver, as he's no longer shown on the schedule.
We haven't been listening to WDOK a lot, so we don't know when this schedule change took effect, or even if it has taken effect yet. We'd guess - but it's only a guess - that it happened Monday...
The first involves AC WDOK/102.1 "Soft Rock 102.1" and hot AC WQAL/104.1 "Q104" program director Dave Popovich, as he takes on the additional role of director of programming for the entire CBS Radio cluster in Cleveland - which also puts alt-rock WKRK/92.3 "K-Rock" and classic rock WNCX/98.5 under his oversight.
There's no word at this time what this means for the existing PDs at "K-Rock" ("Nard") and WNCX (Bill Louis).
And one of our readers noticed a change on WDOK's website.
The station's schedule now lists veteran midday talent Nancy Alden in afternoon drive, with Desiray McCray listed in Alden's former midday time slot. Dan Deely is apparently now the former WDOK afternoon driver, as he's no longer shown on the schedule.
We haven't been listening to WDOK a lot, so we don't know when this schedule change took effect, or even if it has taken effect yet. We'd guess - but it's only a guess - that it happened Monday...
Craig Couch Exits WLKR
Morning host and program director Craig Couch has left Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting AAA WLKR/95.3 Norwalk (and sister sports WLKR/1510 "ESPN 1510").
Unlike a number of recent radio departures, Couch tells OMW that the exit was his own idea, as he's leaving the radio business. He tells us:
All-in-all, my 10-year career (started at AM930 WEOL) has been a terrific experience. I can't say enough about the good people at WEOL, WNWV, WKFM, WLKR-FM & WLKR-AM. I am happy to call many of them friends.
That being said, this is a shrinking industry. Although I never felt my job was in immediate danger, I began to take a look at other opportunities outside of radio.
Those opportunities lead him to a new job he starts next week: as a financial advisor for Edward Jones.
Couch tells us his decision to change careers was prompted by the start of the current national economic downturn, and his desire to learn more about it. As he learned more, he started becoming interested in a career in financial planning.
He didn't tell us what happens back at WLKR, so we asked around back at his now former radio home, and it appears midday host Maggie Scott moves up to morning drive - with Couch's off-air programming duties split up among the current staffers...
Unlike a number of recent radio departures, Couch tells OMW that the exit was his own idea, as he's leaving the radio business. He tells us:
All-in-all, my 10-year career (started at AM930 WEOL) has been a terrific experience. I can't say enough about the good people at WEOL, WNWV, WKFM, WLKR-FM & WLKR-AM. I am happy to call many of them friends.
That being said, this is a shrinking industry. Although I never felt my job was in immediate danger, I began to take a look at other opportunities outside of radio.
Those opportunities lead him to a new job he starts next week: as a financial advisor for Edward Jones.
Couch tells us his decision to change careers was prompted by the start of the current national economic downturn, and his desire to learn more about it. As he learned more, he started becoming interested in a career in financial planning.
He didn't tell us what happens back at WLKR, so we asked around back at his now former radio home, and it appears midday host Maggie Scott moves up to morning drive - with Couch's off-air programming duties split up among the current staffers...
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
A Service To Our XM Subscribers
Other than one small part, this isn't connected to Ohio radio.
But we figured if the folks at Sirius XM won't do it, we'd give our readers who subscribe to XM Satellite Radio the heads up...the service's music lineup changes, drastically, tomorrow.
We won't get into the details, but we found a new leaked (PDF format) lineup here, and a leaked (PDF format) FAQ about the XM lineup changes here.
The links are from an unofficial fan site run by XM users, where users are discussing the changes here.
The FAQ says the revamped XM lineup will take effect late tonight/early Wednesday morning at 12 AM ET.
For now, it doesn't appear that the other half of Sirius XM, Sirius, will go through the same changes - though a couple of Sirius channels have moved channel positions.
The base reason for the XM changes?
You may have heard that a rather large boatload of XM Satellite Radio employees, from programmers to on-air personalities, have been laid off at the company's Washington DC headquarters. The layoff numbers are in the high double digits, from most reports.
New parent Sirius is based in New York, and it appears most of the changes are designed to merge the music channel offerings between the two services.
It doesn't necessarily mean that XM subscribers will now get the existing Sirius-based services. Some offerings are being shuffled around, and it looks like Sirius subscribers will encounter some programming changes (mostly), just not wholesale lineup changes like on the XM side.
But the apparent new goal of Sirius XM is to drastically reduce costs of providing those music channels...and it would appear that however everything lands, the music channels will be the same on both services at some point, if not starting tomorrow.
Despite the changes, XM subscribers will still have shell out extra for the "stars" of the Sirius lineup in "Best of Sirius" - Howard Stern, Martha Stewart and the like, along with sports play-by-play offerings like NFL games.
The updated lineup shows very few changes to the news/talk lineup, though XM users will get such formerly-Sirius-only offerings like National Public Radio's satellite radio channel, and World Radio Network, the 24/7 service offering English-language programming from various international radio broadcasters (Radio Netherlands, Germany's Deutsche Welle, etc.)
Unfortunately for us, Sirius' carriage of Canada's CBC Radio One - CBC's news/talk/information service - is not coming over to XM. We presume because it's tied directly to Sirius' deal with Sirius Canada, a separate entity, still, than XM Canada. If they found a way to put CBC Radio One on XM, we'd dump our Sirius equipment entirely.
And speaking of news/talk offerings, there's the small point that concerns this report.
Yes, that's Clear Channel talk WLW/700 "The Big One" still present in the XM lineup at channel 173.
We mention this because there are rumors going around that Clear Channel will pull WLW from the XM lineup later this year. Clear Channel programs a portion of the XM spectrum separately from the satellite firm.
Art Vuolo, Jr., the Michigan-based radio/video chronicler also known as "Radio's Best Friend", weighs in, in this column we found on Mike Austerman's excellent Michiguide.com:
(WLW has) been available on XM Channel 173, but not for much longer. The powers-to-be at Clear Channel, who owns "The Big One," will take it off satellite radio because they can make more money with other programming that they can sell advertising on.
We don't know where Art is picking this up from, but we would be sad to see WLW go off of XM.
The station's 50,000 watt signal mostly appears here only at night, and we like keeping track of one of the country's better news/talk outlets right here in our home state...
But we figured if the folks at Sirius XM won't do it, we'd give our readers who subscribe to XM Satellite Radio the heads up...the service's music lineup changes, drastically, tomorrow.
We won't get into the details, but we found a new leaked (PDF format) lineup here, and a leaked (PDF format) FAQ about the XM lineup changes here.
The links are from an unofficial fan site run by XM users, where users are discussing the changes here.
The FAQ says the revamped XM lineup will take effect late tonight/early Wednesday morning at 12 AM ET.
For now, it doesn't appear that the other half of Sirius XM, Sirius, will go through the same changes - though a couple of Sirius channels have moved channel positions.
The base reason for the XM changes?
You may have heard that a rather large boatload of XM Satellite Radio employees, from programmers to on-air personalities, have been laid off at the company's Washington DC headquarters. The layoff numbers are in the high double digits, from most reports.
New parent Sirius is based in New York, and it appears most of the changes are designed to merge the music channel offerings between the two services.
It doesn't necessarily mean that XM subscribers will now get the existing Sirius-based services. Some offerings are being shuffled around, and it looks like Sirius subscribers will encounter some programming changes (mostly), just not wholesale lineup changes like on the XM side.
But the apparent new goal of Sirius XM is to drastically reduce costs of providing those music channels...and it would appear that however everything lands, the music channels will be the same on both services at some point, if not starting tomorrow.
Despite the changes, XM subscribers will still have shell out extra for the "stars" of the Sirius lineup in "Best of Sirius" - Howard Stern, Martha Stewart and the like, along with sports play-by-play offerings like NFL games.
The updated lineup shows very few changes to the news/talk lineup, though XM users will get such formerly-Sirius-only offerings like National Public Radio's satellite radio channel, and World Radio Network, the 24/7 service offering English-language programming from various international radio broadcasters (Radio Netherlands, Germany's Deutsche Welle, etc.)
Unfortunately for us, Sirius' carriage of Canada's CBC Radio One - CBC's news/talk/information service - is not coming over to XM. We presume because it's tied directly to Sirius' deal with Sirius Canada, a separate entity, still, than XM Canada. If they found a way to put CBC Radio One on XM, we'd dump our Sirius equipment entirely.
And speaking of news/talk offerings, there's the small point that concerns this report.
Yes, that's Clear Channel talk WLW/700 "The Big One" still present in the XM lineup at channel 173.
We mention this because there are rumors going around that Clear Channel will pull WLW from the XM lineup later this year. Clear Channel programs a portion of the XM spectrum separately from the satellite firm.
Art Vuolo, Jr., the Michigan-based radio/video chronicler also known as "Radio's Best Friend", weighs in, in this column we found on Mike Austerman's excellent Michiguide.com:
(WLW has) been available on XM Channel 173, but not for much longer. The powers-to-be at Clear Channel, who owns "The Big One," will take it off satellite radio because they can make more money with other programming that they can sell advertising on.
We don't know where Art is picking this up from, but we would be sad to see WLW go off of XM.
The station's 50,000 watt signal mostly appears here only at night, and we like keeping track of one of the country's better news/talk outlets right here in our home state...
BREAKING NEWS: Herb Score Dies
The man whose voice carried the sounds of Cleveland Indians baseball to generations of Northeast Ohio radio listeners has passed away.
The Cleveland Indians confirm that Herb Score, who called the Indians' games on radio (and initially, on TV) from 1964 through Game 7 of the 1997 World Series, died this morning at his Rocky River home at the age of 75 after a long illness.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer has a detailed obituary for Score here.
The team expressed its condolences in a statement by team president Paul Dolan:
"Today is a sad day for the Cleveland Indians family and for Cleveland Indians fans everywhere. We have lost one of the greatest men in the history of our franchise. Generations of Indians fans owe their love of the Tribe to Herb Score, who was a powerful pitcher and legendary broadcaster. Our thoughts and prayers are with Nancy and the family."
Many Northeast Ohioans are far too young to remember Score's baseball career as a promising young left-handed pitcher with the Tribe...a career effectively cut short after Score was hit in the face by a pitch hit by (it would figure) a Yankees batter in 1957.
Though Score ended up returning to the mound, his playing career never attained the heights that many expected before the ball hit him.
Broadcasting eventually beckoned, and the rest is Cleveland Indians history.
And Score had a personal health battle after he stepped away from the Indians Radio Network microphone after that heartbreaking World Series loss in 1997. A year later, he was seriously hurt in a near-fatal car accident in New Philadelphia, which - along with a 2002 stroke - impacted his health for the remaining 10 years of his life.
As far as his broadcast career, perhaps no statement sums it up more than that of fellow iconic local sports broadcaster Joe Tait, the Voice of the Cavaliers. Quoting an article by MLB.com's Justice B. Hill:
"No one in the history of the game has seen more bad baseball than Herb Score," Tait once said.
Yeah, a lot of bad baseball. And yes, Herb occasionally forgot which stadium he was in...which basically added to his charm, style and popularity among Northeast Ohio baseball fans.
But Herb Score made it entertaining, and we were also very disappointed that he never got to call a World Championship in 34 seasons as the Indians play-by-play voice...
The Cleveland Indians confirm that Herb Score, who called the Indians' games on radio (and initially, on TV) from 1964 through Game 7 of the 1997 World Series, died this morning at his Rocky River home at the age of 75 after a long illness.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer has a detailed obituary for Score here.
The team expressed its condolences in a statement by team president Paul Dolan:
"Today is a sad day for the Cleveland Indians family and for Cleveland Indians fans everywhere. We have lost one of the greatest men in the history of our franchise. Generations of Indians fans owe their love of the Tribe to Herb Score, who was a powerful pitcher and legendary broadcaster. Our thoughts and prayers are with Nancy and the family."
Many Northeast Ohioans are far too young to remember Score's baseball career as a promising young left-handed pitcher with the Tribe...a career effectively cut short after Score was hit in the face by a pitch hit by (it would figure) a Yankees batter in 1957.
Though Score ended up returning to the mound, his playing career never attained the heights that many expected before the ball hit him.
Broadcasting eventually beckoned, and the rest is Cleveland Indians history.
And Score had a personal health battle after he stepped away from the Indians Radio Network microphone after that heartbreaking World Series loss in 1997. A year later, he was seriously hurt in a near-fatal car accident in New Philadelphia, which - along with a 2002 stroke - impacted his health for the remaining 10 years of his life.
As far as his broadcast career, perhaps no statement sums it up more than that of fellow iconic local sports broadcaster Joe Tait, the Voice of the Cavaliers. Quoting an article by MLB.com's Justice B. Hill:
"No one in the history of the game has seen more bad baseball than Herb Score," Tait once said.
Yeah, a lot of bad baseball. And yes, Herb occasionally forgot which stadium he was in...which basically added to his charm, style and popularity among Northeast Ohio baseball fans.
But Herb Score made it entertaining, and we were also very disappointed that he never got to call a World Championship in 34 seasons as the Indians play-by-play voice...
Less Than 100 Days
"100 days" is a popular measuring stick for a number of things in our modern world.
Here, we're not talking about the progress of presidential administrations. We're talking digital TV...as we're less than 100 days from the mid-February day where every full-power TV station in the country will be forced to shut down that old analog transmitter, and solely broadcast its new digital signal.
Well, give or take a few stations shutting analog down early...among them, Northeast Ohio's own WNEO/45 Alliance, the Youngstown market half of "Western Reserve PBS", set to do so in less than 10 days.
And as per usual, it's Western Reserve PBS leading the way - almost singlehandedly, it would appear - in pre-DTV conversion education.
The Kent-based PBS outlet will hold another digital TV "Open House" for viewers, like the one the station held recently at its Campus Center Drive headquarters in Kent.
This second "Open House" will be held in the Youngstown area, Thursday from 3 to 6 p.m., at the Austintown Library, 600 S. Raccoon Rd., in Austintown:
This is a great opportunity to see converter box demonstrations, ask questions about antenna issues and learn more about the converter box coupon program. Free refreshments will be served!
Of course, those converter boxes on display will NOT actually be able to pick up WNEO's own digital signal, as it will shut down temporarily - starting tomorrow - in the process of returning it to the air in a permanent form after analog channel 45 shuts off for good later this month.
But we're once again flustered by the fact that among Northeast Ohio's TV stations, only Western Reserve PBS seems to be doing anything significant to educate viewers about the coming DTV transition, just over three months from when it actually happens.
As far as we know, every other TV station in the region is solely relying upon federally-mandated public service announcements, on-screen crawls and website sections to carry the message.
At very least, broadcasters in other markets and states have coordinated soft "tests" - cutting programming off the analog signal to inform viewers that if they see the message, they (or their cable system!) aren't ready for the digital transition.
A story on the national marking of the 100 day-till-DTV transition milestone by Broadcasting and Cable's John Eggerton has this telling piece of information:
For instance, (National Association of Broadcasters head) David Rehr pointed out that 150 stations in 49 markets had conducted soft analog shut-off tests. He said that next week, TV stations in Pennsylvania would be holding a statewide analog cut-off test, which he called the largest such test to date.
Next door to Pennsylvania, we know of no such plans in Ohio, or even individual plans in any Ohio market to coordinate such tests.
We believe that state broadcasters are putting together early plans to deal with the transition itself, but even that planning seems a bit late.
Perhaps Cleveland market stations, for example, need to contact the folks at ION Television, which owns WVPX/23 Akron. ION has coordinated many of those market-wide tests, including in New York City.
Of course, here, WVPX would not be able to actually participate in such a test... as its digital signal won't even be up and running until it "flash cuts" on channel 23 on February 17th.
And the B&C article quotes another FCC commissioner with some ideas as we head towards DTV Transition Day:
Commissioner Robert McDowell put in a plug for soft analog cut-off tests, more long-form PSAs and tailoring messages to local markets.
Gee, we didn't know an FCC commissioner reads OMW!
Heh...we're kidding, of course, but that's a drumbeat we've had here for some time... with many of the messages being put out over the air, and website sections, being just simple repackaging of national spots or web presentations.
While we're taking TV stations to task here, we'll aim at the cable companies as well.
It probably runs against every fiber of their being, but cable companies would be smart to publicize their lowest-cost "lifeline" tier as a, well, lifeline to viewers worried that they won't be able to pick up local stations over the air after the transition.
Yes, we know...the marketing on the cable side is usually geared toward bundling of multiple services - digital cable, high-speed Internet, digital phone and HDTV.
But perhaps some targeted marketing could be done, to grab those who aren't about to spend $99 a month on such services, but who would gladly fork over $10 or so a month to make sure they could still get basic TV service.
We're no sales force, so we'll leave that to the cable outlets.
In summary, as we approach February 17th, local stations need to do more, and need to do it more urgently.
While we appreciate that education is indeed part of the mission of Western Reserve PBS, they should not be forced to "go it alone" on this vital issue for the local TV industry...and as far as we can see, they are, right now, in the Cleveland and Youngstown markets.
We also realize that the economy and the state of media in 2008 has put the squeeze on staffing at the local commercial stations.
But by preparing more viewers before February 17th, stations will be less swamped on that date and immediately after. If even a certain percentage of those who watch TV only via antenna are not prepared, that's still a few thousand people in Northeast Ohio...
Here, we're not talking about the progress of presidential administrations. We're talking digital TV...as we're less than 100 days from the mid-February day where every full-power TV station in the country will be forced to shut down that old analog transmitter, and solely broadcast its new digital signal.
Well, give or take a few stations shutting analog down early...among them, Northeast Ohio's own WNEO/45 Alliance, the Youngstown market half of "Western Reserve PBS", set to do so in less than 10 days.
And as per usual, it's Western Reserve PBS leading the way - almost singlehandedly, it would appear - in pre-DTV conversion education.
The Kent-based PBS outlet will hold another digital TV "Open House" for viewers, like the one the station held recently at its Campus Center Drive headquarters in Kent.
This second "Open House" will be held in the Youngstown area, Thursday from 3 to 6 p.m., at the Austintown Library, 600 S. Raccoon Rd., in Austintown:
This is a great opportunity to see converter box demonstrations, ask questions about antenna issues and learn more about the converter box coupon program. Free refreshments will be served!
Of course, those converter boxes on display will NOT actually be able to pick up WNEO's own digital signal, as it will shut down temporarily - starting tomorrow - in the process of returning it to the air in a permanent form after analog channel 45 shuts off for good later this month.
But we're once again flustered by the fact that among Northeast Ohio's TV stations, only Western Reserve PBS seems to be doing anything significant to educate viewers about the coming DTV transition, just over three months from when it actually happens.
As far as we know, every other TV station in the region is solely relying upon federally-mandated public service announcements, on-screen crawls and website sections to carry the message.
At very least, broadcasters in other markets and states have coordinated soft "tests" - cutting programming off the analog signal to inform viewers that if they see the message, they (or their cable system!) aren't ready for the digital transition.
A story on the national marking of the 100 day-till-DTV transition milestone by Broadcasting and Cable's John Eggerton has this telling piece of information:
For instance, (National Association of Broadcasters head) David Rehr pointed out that 150 stations in 49 markets had conducted soft analog shut-off tests. He said that next week, TV stations in Pennsylvania would be holding a statewide analog cut-off test, which he called the largest such test to date.
Next door to Pennsylvania, we know of no such plans in Ohio, or even individual plans in any Ohio market to coordinate such tests.
We believe that state broadcasters are putting together early plans to deal with the transition itself, but even that planning seems a bit late.
Perhaps Cleveland market stations, for example, need to contact the folks at ION Television, which owns WVPX/23 Akron. ION has coordinated many of those market-wide tests, including in New York City.
Of course, here, WVPX would not be able to actually participate in such a test... as its digital signal won't even be up and running until it "flash cuts" on channel 23 on February 17th.
And the B&C article quotes another FCC commissioner with some ideas as we head towards DTV Transition Day:
Commissioner Robert McDowell put in a plug for soft analog cut-off tests, more long-form PSAs and tailoring messages to local markets.
Gee, we didn't know an FCC commissioner reads OMW!
Heh...we're kidding, of course, but that's a drumbeat we've had here for some time... with many of the messages being put out over the air, and website sections, being just simple repackaging of national spots or web presentations.
While we're taking TV stations to task here, we'll aim at the cable companies as well.
It probably runs against every fiber of their being, but cable companies would be smart to publicize their lowest-cost "lifeline" tier as a, well, lifeline to viewers worried that they won't be able to pick up local stations over the air after the transition.
Yes, we know...the marketing on the cable side is usually geared toward bundling of multiple services - digital cable, high-speed Internet, digital phone and HDTV.
But perhaps some targeted marketing could be done, to grab those who aren't about to spend $99 a month on such services, but who would gladly fork over $10 or so a month to make sure they could still get basic TV service.
We're no sales force, so we'll leave that to the cable outlets.
In summary, as we approach February 17th, local stations need to do more, and need to do it more urgently.
While we appreciate that education is indeed part of the mission of Western Reserve PBS, they should not be forced to "go it alone" on this vital issue for the local TV industry...and as far as we can see, they are, right now, in the Cleveland and Youngstown markets.
We also realize that the economy and the state of media in 2008 has put the squeeze on staffing at the local commercial stations.
But by preparing more viewers before February 17th, stations will be less swamped on that date and immediately after. If even a certain percentage of those who watch TV only via antenna are not prepared, that's still a few thousand people in Northeast Ohio...
Monday, November 10, 2008
Vikings Bounce Ball To 1220
The Cleveland State University Vikings men's basketball team has hooked up with a new radio home in Cleveland.
The Vikings have inked a one-year deal with Salem Christian talk/teaching WHKW/1220 "The Word" to air all games live for the 2008-2009 season, according to a CSU sports news release issued last week. (Thanks to the folks at AllAccess for the hat tip, or, since we're talking about basketball, maybe the assist?)
Vikings basketball moves from last year's flagship station, Radio One gospel WJMO/1300. The "Voice of the Vikings", Al Pawlowski, also makes the move to 1220 for his fourth season doing the radio call of the games.
AllAccess notes that the weekly show with Vikings coach Gary Waters will continue to air on Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100.
The release says Vikings games will also be heard on WHKW's "The Word" sister station in the Youngstown/Warren market, WHKZ/1440 Warren.
This brings up a question we've had here before - is the deal to sell the Warren station to Pittsburgh-area radio station owner/minister Rev. Loran Mann officially dead?
We've heard from sources in the Pittsburgh region that Rev. Mann - a former Pittsburgh TV news reporter who owns WGBN/1150 New Kensington PA - was looking to "renegotiate" the purchase of WHKZ from Salem.
This little announcement would seem to indicate that the transaction is either still up in the air or dead...
The Vikings have inked a one-year deal with Salem Christian talk/teaching WHKW/1220 "The Word" to air all games live for the 2008-2009 season, according to a CSU sports news release issued last week. (Thanks to the folks at AllAccess for the hat tip, or, since we're talking about basketball, maybe the assist?)
Vikings basketball moves from last year's flagship station, Radio One gospel WJMO/1300. The "Voice of the Vikings", Al Pawlowski, also makes the move to 1220 for his fourth season doing the radio call of the games.
AllAccess notes that the weekly show with Vikings coach Gary Waters will continue to air on Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100.
The release says Vikings games will also be heard on WHKW's "The Word" sister station in the Youngstown/Warren market, WHKZ/1440 Warren.
This brings up a question we've had here before - is the deal to sell the Warren station to Pittsburgh-area radio station owner/minister Rev. Loran Mann officially dead?
We've heard from sources in the Pittsburgh region that Rev. Mann - a former Pittsburgh TV news reporter who owns WGBN/1150 New Kensington PA - was looking to "renegotiate" the purchase of WHKZ from Salem.
This little announcement would seem to indicate that the transaction is either still up in the air or dead...
Not Really Angry About It
Budget cuts have done it again in Cincinnati - split radio's "Angry Guys".
Cincinnati Enquirer radio/TV guru John Kiesewetter reports that one half of the morning drive duo, Richard Skinner, has been cut loose by Cumulus rock WFTK/96.5 "96 Rock" due to budget concerns. His partner in morning radio anger, Tom Gamble, remains - with someone who doesn't sound like an angry male, sidekick "Sister Karen".
Though Kiese reports that Skinner had just agreed to a new deal in October, and was working out the terms, he's not "angry" at all, calling Cumulus management "great people to work for":
"It's frustrating. Twice I've been part of a successful product on radio, but just the victim of circumstances. It's just an unfortunate situation in radio right now."
The earlier victimization came a few years ago, when Clear Channel sports "Homer" split the "Angry Guys" - moving Gamble to sister WLW/700 to replace the ousted Andy Furman on "SportsTalk". Then the company let Skinner go from the "Homer" morning drive show. Gamble didn't stay long with WLW, which eventually brought in Enquirer sports columnist Paul Daugherty to do "SportsTalk".
The "Angry Guys" were brought back together on the same 96.5 frequency Skinner now leaves, only under the former "SuperTalk" format. Furman, of course, had been brought on for afternoon drive at "SuperTalk", and was dumped with the format change to rock.
Furman ended up doing morning commentaries at oldies WDJO/1160 across town, though if he's still doing so, we can't find him on the "Oldies 1160" website. Maybe there's no room for Furman's pieces after WDJO picked up ABC News Radio's Paul Harvey.
And to tie it all together, 1160 was sports talk WBOB when the "Angry Guys" - two local sportswriters - first started doing radio.
And Kiese doesn't need a crystal ball to predict this:
With no more political advertising, and the economy crashing, don't be surprised to see more layoffs and cutbacks in broadcasting and all media.
Any wonder why it's getting to be a downer writing about the media?
This "beat" is starting to feel like doing the obituary section...
Cincinnati Enquirer radio/TV guru John Kiesewetter reports that one half of the morning drive duo, Richard Skinner, has been cut loose by Cumulus rock WFTK/96.5 "96 Rock" due to budget concerns. His partner in morning radio anger, Tom Gamble, remains - with someone who doesn't sound like an angry male, sidekick "Sister Karen".
Though Kiese reports that Skinner had just agreed to a new deal in October, and was working out the terms, he's not "angry" at all, calling Cumulus management "great people to work for":
"It's frustrating. Twice I've been part of a successful product on radio, but just the victim of circumstances. It's just an unfortunate situation in radio right now."
The earlier victimization came a few years ago, when Clear Channel sports "Homer" split the "Angry Guys" - moving Gamble to sister WLW/700 to replace the ousted Andy Furman on "SportsTalk". Then the company let Skinner go from the "Homer" morning drive show. Gamble didn't stay long with WLW, which eventually brought in Enquirer sports columnist Paul Daugherty to do "SportsTalk".
The "Angry Guys" were brought back together on the same 96.5 frequency Skinner now leaves, only under the former "SuperTalk" format. Furman, of course, had been brought on for afternoon drive at "SuperTalk", and was dumped with the format change to rock.
Furman ended up doing morning commentaries at oldies WDJO/1160 across town, though if he's still doing so, we can't find him on the "Oldies 1160" website. Maybe there's no room for Furman's pieces after WDJO picked up ABC News Radio's Paul Harvey.
And to tie it all together, 1160 was sports talk WBOB when the "Angry Guys" - two local sportswriters - first started doing radio.
And Kiese doesn't need a crystal ball to predict this:
With no more political advertising, and the economy crashing, don't be surprised to see more layoffs and cutbacks in broadcasting and all media.
Any wonder why it's getting to be a downer writing about the media?
This "beat" is starting to feel like doing the obituary section...
Monday Is Packed
...full of news, mostly updates to some of our previous items. But they're necessary updates...
WKDD MORNINGS: As it turns out, veteran Clear Channel Akron/Canton hot AC WKDD/98.1 morning man Matt Patrick won't be soloing it on the FM side of his broadcast life.
After being tipped by a reader who spotted the absence of Patrick co-host Angela Bellios on the station's website, OMW confirmed Friday that the station's morning show will no longer be "Matt and Angela".
But there will be a replacement for Angela.
After much nudging, we managed to get a response on this from Keith Kennedy, WKDD program director, programming operations director for the cluster and OMW reader:
We've simply decided to move the show in a different direction.
As we've heard a lot this week, change has arrived.
Matt Patrick is, and always has been, the marquee talent at WKDD, and my hope is he will continue for many years to come.
To continue Matt's legendary status and winning streak, we'll be adding a new partner with a different outlook and style. It will add a fresh new sound to the Matt Patrick Show.
By the way. the show has gone through many changes over the years, and those changes have sustained the longevity of the show, now entering its 30th year.
Among the changes - Patrick's co-host for many years was Barbara Adams ("BA"), and we'd forgotten that WNIR/100.1 morning co-host/sports director Steve French was once in the WKDD mix as well.
OMW hears that WKDD voicetracked night talent Krissy Taylor (middays on sister top 40 WAKZ/95.9 "Kiss FM" in the Clear Channel Youngstown cluster) will be the first voice heard alongside Matt Patrick in the post-Angela era of the station's morning show...and yes, she'll be live from Freedom Avenue.
We hear Ms. Taylor will be heard "for several weeks", and we don't know what happens after that...
NO, NOT THIS WEEKEND: As OMW suspected, Streetsboro schools station WSTB/88.9 did not return to the airwaves this past weekend, as predicted by school superintendent Linda Keller in an Akron Beacon Journal article last week.
The situation appears to be this: district IT personnel are the ones putting the station "back together", without the help of the young man who still appears to be very much personna-non-grata at the station's studios at Streetsboro High School...Dan Kuznicki, who served as WSTB's mostly-volunteer IT guy when the station was on the air.
Though school officials are apparently no longer dealing with the controversial photos where he was seen, they're also apparently unwilling to bring Kuznicki into the mix to return the station to its regular operation.
The volunteer program director behind the still-off-the-air "Sunday Oldies Jukebox", Bill Weisinger, is even more skeptical than we are about the return of the station which offered air time to his effort. From "SOJ's" latest update:
Some people are buying the mantra from various school officials that WSTB will be back on “in a few days.” We’ve been hearing that, in one form or another, since October 14. The reality is: When you hear the Alternation and Jukebox on 88.9 MHz, we're back on.
That line echoes what we said on Friday. We're not willing to take a guess as to WSTB's return at this point.
We once again note the looming FCC deadline, when - if the station is not back on the air - SOMEONE associated with the district and/or the station will have to file a request for Special Temporary Authority noting the station's silent status, and requesting time to return the signal to the airwaves.
(The wording on that ought to be very interesting... "we pulled off our own computers"? We guess it'll contain numerous, ominous references to the school safety "Jarod's Law"...)
Again, though the deadline is indeed coming up in the next week or so, we don't expect the FCC to "smack down" a non-commercial, educational license owned by a school district if an STA is not filed by that deadline.
But it takes the station into murky territory. The lack of a proper FCC filing is something that is usually associated with shoestring, undercapitalized operators of small AM stations, not a duly elected school board and its administration...
WNEO UPDATE: OMW hears from the nice folks at Western Reserve PBS that the timeline has changed a bit in the early shutoff of their Youngstown market outlet.
The early shutoff of the pre-transition WNEO-DT 45.1/45.2 digital signal will not take place today, as planned. Instead, it will happen Wednesday, November 12th.
Everything else in the timeline is as listed before.
WNEO's analog Channel 45 signal will remain on the air in the first week that the digital signal has to be shut off (for work to prepare it for the post-transition signal).
Analog 45 will then shut off for good on November 19th, and both signals will be off the air November 19th through November 21st. It's expected that most large cable systems (Time Warner, etc.) will continue to air the Western Reserve PBS programming, as will DirecTV.
If there's a dropoff in those two days, it'll be with small cable systems -not owned by one of the large companies - picking up the WNEO analog signal with an antenna.
On November 21st, the new digital signal for WNEO will go back on the air in its permanent state, with a better antenna placement and a better signal expected in much of the station's viewing area.
One very important note to clear up confusion: None of this early, pre-digital transition activity affects the other half of the Western Reserve PBS operation, Akron's WEAO/49. Analog 49 will continue to broadcast until February 17th of next year, and digital WEAO-DT is already in its post-transition state...which means it will continue to broadcast as it does now from now on.
We mention this because we noticed the other day that Time Warner Cable identifies the station, at least on the former Adelphia system out of Cleveland, as "WNEO". But we're pretty sure TWC in both Cleveland and Akron/Canton actually pick up the WEAO signal out of Copley Township.
For now, that analog signal looks pretty bad, at least on our end of the TWC system (ex-Adelphia). It appears to be received from the station's actual analog over-air broadcast, and at some distance.
We presume this will be fixed when TWC and other cable systems have to convert to taking the digital signal in February - center-cutting the now-mixed upconverted/HD 49.1 signal for the existing non-digital subscribers...
WUAB STATUS: When we talked about the local airing of Cleveland Browns' Thursday night NFL Network game on Raycom MyNetwork TV affiliate WUAB/43, we wondered how cable viewers in non-primary markets like Youngstown and Erie would be affected.
As it turns out, we didn't realize that WUAB is basically a thing of the past for cable viewers in the Mahoning Valley.
We already knew that the Armstrong systems in Youngstown's southern suburbs had bounced WUAB for "My YTV", the digital subchannel of WYTV-DT that serves as the Youngstown market's MyNetwork TV affiliate.
But on the Youngstown and Warren Time Warner Cable systems, "My YTV" does not get low analog channel placement, and lives only on digital cable channel 373.
Still, we don't know when it happened....but WUAB is also no longer present in the TWC lineup in the Mahoning Valley, on either analog or digital cable.
Oddly enough, WUAB sister CBS affiliate WOIO/19 is listed at analog channel 7 in Mahoning County! WOIO is the only Cleveland market station available there, according to the channel lineups at least.
We're not sure why. Maybe we have to go through the "significantly viewed" list and find WOIO there for Mahoning County, and maybe it got that status from its days as the only FOX affiliate in Northeast Ohio - long before WKBN launched WYFX-LP 62/WFXI-CA 17 "FOX 17/62", or even before WYTV picked up some FOX programming off-pattern, such as NFL games.
In the Trumbull County lineup, WUAB is also missing, despite the presence of a number of other Cleveland market stations alongside the Youngstown stations.
Up in the Erie area, WUAB appears on lineups in the suburban systems formerly owned by Adelphia, but not in the city-based system long run by Time Warner...
WKDD MORNINGS: As it turns out, veteran Clear Channel Akron/Canton hot AC WKDD/98.1 morning man Matt Patrick won't be soloing it on the FM side of his broadcast life.
After being tipped by a reader who spotted the absence of Patrick co-host Angela Bellios on the station's website, OMW confirmed Friday that the station's morning show will no longer be "Matt and Angela".
But there will be a replacement for Angela.
After much nudging, we managed to get a response on this from Keith Kennedy, WKDD program director, programming operations director for the cluster and OMW reader:
We've simply decided to move the show in a different direction.
As we've heard a lot this week, change has arrived.
Matt Patrick is, and always has been, the marquee talent at WKDD, and my hope is he will continue for many years to come.
To continue Matt's legendary status and winning streak, we'll be adding a new partner with a different outlook and style. It will add a fresh new sound to the Matt Patrick Show.
By the way. the show has gone through many changes over the years, and those changes have sustained the longevity of the show, now entering its 30th year.
Among the changes - Patrick's co-host for many years was Barbara Adams ("BA"), and we'd forgotten that WNIR/100.1 morning co-host/sports director Steve French was once in the WKDD mix as well.
OMW hears that WKDD voicetracked night talent Krissy Taylor (middays on sister top 40 WAKZ/95.9 "Kiss FM" in the Clear Channel Youngstown cluster) will be the first voice heard alongside Matt Patrick in the post-Angela era of the station's morning show...and yes, she'll be live from Freedom Avenue.
We hear Ms. Taylor will be heard "for several weeks", and we don't know what happens after that...
NO, NOT THIS WEEKEND: As OMW suspected, Streetsboro schools station WSTB/88.9 did not return to the airwaves this past weekend, as predicted by school superintendent Linda Keller in an Akron Beacon Journal article last week.
The situation appears to be this: district IT personnel are the ones putting the station "back together", without the help of the young man who still appears to be very much personna-non-grata at the station's studios at Streetsboro High School...Dan Kuznicki, who served as WSTB's mostly-volunteer IT guy when the station was on the air.
Though school officials are apparently no longer dealing with the controversial photos where he was seen, they're also apparently unwilling to bring Kuznicki into the mix to return the station to its regular operation.
The volunteer program director behind the still-off-the-air "Sunday Oldies Jukebox", Bill Weisinger, is even more skeptical than we are about the return of the station which offered air time to his effort. From "SOJ's" latest update:
Some people are buying the mantra from various school officials that WSTB will be back on “in a few days.” We’ve been hearing that, in one form or another, since October 14. The reality is: When you hear the Alternation and Jukebox on 88.9 MHz, we're back on.
That line echoes what we said on Friday. We're not willing to take a guess as to WSTB's return at this point.
We once again note the looming FCC deadline, when - if the station is not back on the air - SOMEONE associated with the district and/or the station will have to file a request for Special Temporary Authority noting the station's silent status, and requesting time to return the signal to the airwaves.
(The wording on that ought to be very interesting... "we pulled off our own computers"? We guess it'll contain numerous, ominous references to the school safety "Jarod's Law"...)
Again, though the deadline is indeed coming up in the next week or so, we don't expect the FCC to "smack down" a non-commercial, educational license owned by a school district if an STA is not filed by that deadline.
But it takes the station into murky territory. The lack of a proper FCC filing is something that is usually associated with shoestring, undercapitalized operators of small AM stations, not a duly elected school board and its administration...
WNEO UPDATE: OMW hears from the nice folks at Western Reserve PBS that the timeline has changed a bit in the early shutoff of their Youngstown market outlet.
The early shutoff of the pre-transition WNEO-DT 45.1/45.2 digital signal will not take place today, as planned. Instead, it will happen Wednesday, November 12th.
Everything else in the timeline is as listed before.
WNEO's analog Channel 45 signal will remain on the air in the first week that the digital signal has to be shut off (for work to prepare it for the post-transition signal).
Analog 45 will then shut off for good on November 19th, and both signals will be off the air November 19th through November 21st. It's expected that most large cable systems (Time Warner, etc.) will continue to air the Western Reserve PBS programming, as will DirecTV.
If there's a dropoff in those two days, it'll be with small cable systems -not owned by one of the large companies - picking up the WNEO analog signal with an antenna.
On November 21st, the new digital signal for WNEO will go back on the air in its permanent state, with a better antenna placement and a better signal expected in much of the station's viewing area.
One very important note to clear up confusion: None of this early, pre-digital transition activity affects the other half of the Western Reserve PBS operation, Akron's WEAO/49. Analog 49 will continue to broadcast until February 17th of next year, and digital WEAO-DT is already in its post-transition state...which means it will continue to broadcast as it does now from now on.
We mention this because we noticed the other day that Time Warner Cable identifies the station, at least on the former Adelphia system out of Cleveland, as "WNEO". But we're pretty sure TWC in both Cleveland and Akron/Canton actually pick up the WEAO signal out of Copley Township.
For now, that analog signal looks pretty bad, at least on our end of the TWC system (ex-Adelphia). It appears to be received from the station's actual analog over-air broadcast, and at some distance.
We presume this will be fixed when TWC and other cable systems have to convert to taking the digital signal in February - center-cutting the now-mixed upconverted/HD 49.1 signal for the existing non-digital subscribers...
WUAB STATUS: When we talked about the local airing of Cleveland Browns' Thursday night NFL Network game on Raycom MyNetwork TV affiliate WUAB/43, we wondered how cable viewers in non-primary markets like Youngstown and Erie would be affected.
As it turns out, we didn't realize that WUAB is basically a thing of the past for cable viewers in the Mahoning Valley.
We already knew that the Armstrong systems in Youngstown's southern suburbs had bounced WUAB for "My YTV", the digital subchannel of WYTV-DT that serves as the Youngstown market's MyNetwork TV affiliate.
But on the Youngstown and Warren Time Warner Cable systems, "My YTV" does not get low analog channel placement, and lives only on digital cable channel 373.
Still, we don't know when it happened....but WUAB is also no longer present in the TWC lineup in the Mahoning Valley, on either analog or digital cable.
Oddly enough, WUAB sister CBS affiliate WOIO/19 is listed at analog channel 7 in Mahoning County! WOIO is the only Cleveland market station available there, according to the channel lineups at least.
We're not sure why. Maybe we have to go through the "significantly viewed" list and find WOIO there for Mahoning County, and maybe it got that status from its days as the only FOX affiliate in Northeast Ohio - long before WKBN launched WYFX-LP 62/WFXI-CA 17 "FOX 17/62", or even before WYTV picked up some FOX programming off-pattern, such as NFL games.
In the Trumbull County lineup, WUAB is also missing, despite the presence of a number of other Cleveland market stations alongside the Youngstown stations.
Up in the Erie area, WUAB appears on lineups in the suburban systems formerly owned by Adelphia, but not in the city-based system long run by Time Warner...
Friday, November 07, 2008
End Of A Busy Week
Just some items we didn't want to leave around for the weekend...
CINCINNATI SHUFFLE: In mid-October, long time Friend of OMW Scott Fybush stumbled onto something in his role as editor of the radio industry directory web site 100000watts.com.
Scott told us that he saw a filing for a call letter swap in Cincinnati...with the WSWD call letters moving from 94.9 FM to 97.3 FM, and the WYGY call letters moving to replace them at 94.9.
We didn't think much of it, as there was no other information to support it, and the change requests were pulled shortly thereafter.
As it turns out, there was a good reason that showed up in the FCC database (if a bit early)...as the two Bonneville Cincinnati market stations have now indeed swapped places.
AllAccess confirms what OMW readers in the Cincinnati market told us today...alt rock WSWD is now "97.3 The Sound", and country WYGY is now "94.9 The Wolf".
We don't follow Cincinnati signals much from our perch up here in Northeast Ohio, but a quick look at Radio-Locator's "for entertainment only" signal maps show that even 97.3's Class C3 upgraded signal is not as good as 94.9's more central, higher-antenna Class B signal. 97.3 has another signal disadvantage - it's licensed to Fort Thomas in Northern Kentucky.
Confirming our thoughts, AllAccess notes that the move appears to have been made to give the "Wolf" flanker country format a better signal:
The move is designed to expand BONNEVILLE’s very successful Country music footprint in GREATER CINCINNATI. BONNEVILLE’s WUBE (B105) is the market's top ranked and top billing FM station.
Thanks to the AllAccess folks for that - we'd forgotten that country giant WUBE had ended up with Bonneville. Considering all the owner/frequency/format swaps in Cincinnati in the past couple of years, our confusion should be forgiven.
AllAccess reminds us that the old alt-rock WAQZ once lived on the 97.3 signal, though we're pretty sure the music mix is a little different for "The Sound" now on that same frequency.
And Bonneville Cincinnati market chief Jim Bryant rolls off to AllAccess a line we've heard before:
“We also feel quite confident that 'THE SOUND’S' passionate and loyal listeners will soon find us on our new dial position."
That reminds us of the swaps Radio One made among its two Cleveland AM stations a ways back, moving urban talk/brokered WERE from 1300 AM to 1490 AM, with the move of gospel WJMO to the stronger 1300 AM signal clearly the driving force.
Local Radio One management in Cleveland expressed confidence that WERE's talk listeners would find their way to the new, lesser signal...but not long after, Radio One moved in-house syndicated talker Al Sharpton back to 1300 amidst the gospel format.
But "The Sound" loses not only a more powerful signal. It appears to us that the station's entire weekday air staff is out of work. The exit list, according to AllAccess: morning man and creative services director "Clayton", midday host "Jimmy", afternoon driver/web editor Lisa Biello and night host "Kevin"...
REFUGE: A local broadcaster says she hopes to "offer a place of refuge until the next big gig (if there really are any out there) comes up."
Lisa Dillon is now program director of Paul Belfi's Cleveland-based Internet outlet SportsTalkNetwork.com, and hosts a 1-3 PM show entertainment news show there called "The LEWD Show". She's also linked with two other Internet outlets, MirusMusic.com and M2LiveRadio.com.
Dillon tells OMW:
All 3 stations are looking to provide air time for anyone who might want to keep their chops up while, hopefully, making a few extra bucks. We've got plenty of room!
It's really free-form radio at it's best. All you need is a good idea for a show theme.
The former WMMS/100.7 air talent says she sympathizes with those who find themselves on the radio beach, a number seemingly growing by the day:
Hey, I've been there. Getting canned sucks, especially when it's not your fault! Even if they are just looking for a place to produce an aircheck, whatever...I'll even let them vent as a guest on my show if they wish! I am willing to help anyway I can.
Reach out to Lisa via E-Mail at LisaD@SportstalkCleveland.com...
WSTB REDUX: OMW reported earlier in the week that slow, deliberate work has begun with the eventual goal of returning Streetsboro schools-owned WSTB/88.9 back to the airwaves in that Portage County city.
When we first wrote this, we hadn't seen an article on the situation in the Akron Beacon Journal on Friday, which quotes Streetsboro school superintendent Linda Keller on Wednesday:
''We are currently working with the radio station personnel to restore the station's broadcast capabilities. With everyone's assistance, we should be back on the air by this weekend.''
And station general manager Bob Long:
(Long) is now waiting for the school district to do the technical work to get the station back on the air.
''It is out of my hands,'' said the 59-year-old Long, who has been a teacher for 28 years. ''I am waiting for the district people to get everything working.''
As we write this late Friday night, getting WSTB back on the air "by this weekend" seems somewhat unlikely.
And one op-ed piece running in the Kent-Ravenna Record-Courier newspaper this week even invoked your own Mighty Blog of Fun(tm). Former WSTB student program director Matt Fredmonsky wrote:
I won't attempt to explain why Northeastern Ohio's only high-powered, student-run radio station has been shut down. Simple searches online of the Record-Courier at recordpub.com and other area media throughout Northeastern Ohio, including Rock889.com, WJW Fox 8, The Plain Dealer, the Akron Beacon Journal, Daily Kent Stater, MySpace and the blog, OhioMediaWatch.com, will reveal the facts, and the enormity, of this act.
Fredmonsky continues:
If (WSTB general manager Bob) Long and the station's volunteer engineer, Dan Kuznicki, who is at the heart of this fall's un-plugging, lose their culture of influencing success at the station, then its days of peerless freedom of expression may be in jeopardy.
These two men have dedicated countless hours to the student operators and listeners of this station. Unprecedented progress has been made at WSTB under their guidance. Without them, the station may never function as it once did.
While Long has indeed remained as general manager after the Streetsboro school board refused his submitted resignation, it does appear that Kuznicki is still outside the station...and is not currently involved in the effort by school district IT personnel to return WSTB's computer systems to their prior state.
So, for the moment, we wait...and it would appear the proof in the proverbial pudding will be whenever 88.9 manages to stop the scan on Northeast Ohio radios again.
But the station is just a few days from an important deadline. From the FCC's web site page on silent radio stations:
Notifications and Requests for Special Temporary Authority (STA). Stations that go silent should notify (FCC staffer) Ms. (Denise) Williams by letter within 10 days of ceasing operation. The letter should include a brief explanation of the reason for ceasing operation and an expected date (if possible) for the station's return to licensed operation. Short periods of discontinued operation (less than 10 days) need not be notified. Tower obstruction lighting must be maintained without interruption during all periods of silence to protect general aviation.
If the station's silent period is expected to last beyond 30 days, Special Temporary Authority is necessary (see 47 CFR 73.1635). Station licensees must submit the STA request (in triplicate) through the Office of the Secretary, FCC, and clearly explain in a cover letter that the request is for silent station authority and is therefore exempt from application filing fees. After review, the staff may grant Special Temporary Authority for a period not exceeding 180 days, but extensions may be approved upon the submission of a new STA request.
So by our reading, right now, WSTB is not in trouble for not filing a notification of its silence - but will be, if they don't do so by roughly November 14th.
The station went off the air on October 13th. As far as we know, the district hasn't filed an STA, and it doesn't show up in the online FCC database for WSTB. We don't know if a letter, as prescribed in the above, would show up online.
If the station does indeed return in the next few days, this won't be a concern.
As a practical matter, the FCC is usually pretty willing to work with stations which are silent, and are making a reasonable effort to return to the air.
We would not expect the FCC to revoke an educational license to a school district station over something like this, assuming WSTB doesn't return before November 14th.
If Streetsboro school district officials are even remotely cooperative with the FCC, we'll expect cooperation in return, and leniency in the paperwork surrounding the station's current status.
But...the ducks still should be put into a row...and a school district not following federal licensing guidelines doesn't look good, in general...
COLUMBUS NEWSWOMAN DIES: Columbus' TV community is mourning the death of a local newswoman struck down in the prime of her life by cancer.
Dispatch CBS affiliate WBNS/10 "10TV" reports the death of the station's Heather Pick at the age of 38:
Heather died after a brave and public battle with breast cancer. Heather left us in her home surrounded by her family earlier today.
Heather learned in 2004 that the disease she had beaten once in 1999 had returned. Through The James Cancer Hospital at The Ohio State University Medical Center, Heather participated in many breakthrough new treatments.
The WBNS item notes that Pick used her high profile to fuel public awareness in Central Ohio in the battle against breast cancer:
Heather was an unwavering champion for breast cancer awareness and education. In her last public appearance, Heather hosted the "Spirit Celebration with Heather Pick," raising almost $500,000 for the Columbus Cancer Clinic. To the end, Heather worked to fight the disease so others wouldn't have to endure what she went through. Her last appearance on 10TV News HD was to kick off Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
WBNS reports that Heather is survived by her husband, Joe Cygan, and their children, Julia and Jack.
Donations can be made in her memory to The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Nationwide Children's Hospital or the Stefanie Spielman Fund...
CINCINNATI SHUFFLE: In mid-October, long time Friend of OMW Scott Fybush stumbled onto something in his role as editor of the radio industry directory web site 100000watts.com.
Scott told us that he saw a filing for a call letter swap in Cincinnati...with the WSWD call letters moving from 94.9 FM to 97.3 FM, and the WYGY call letters moving to replace them at 94.9.
We didn't think much of it, as there was no other information to support it, and the change requests were pulled shortly thereafter.
As it turns out, there was a good reason that showed up in the FCC database (if a bit early)...as the two Bonneville Cincinnati market stations have now indeed swapped places.
AllAccess confirms what OMW readers in the Cincinnati market told us today...alt rock WSWD is now "97.3 The Sound", and country WYGY is now "94.9 The Wolf".
We don't follow Cincinnati signals much from our perch up here in Northeast Ohio, but a quick look at Radio-Locator's "for entertainment only" signal maps show that even 97.3's Class C3 upgraded signal is not as good as 94.9's more central, higher-antenna Class B signal. 97.3 has another signal disadvantage - it's licensed to Fort Thomas in Northern Kentucky.
Confirming our thoughts, AllAccess notes that the move appears to have been made to give the "Wolf" flanker country format a better signal:
The move is designed to expand BONNEVILLE’s very successful Country music footprint in GREATER CINCINNATI. BONNEVILLE’s WUBE (B105) is the market's top ranked and top billing FM station.
Thanks to the AllAccess folks for that - we'd forgotten that country giant WUBE had ended up with Bonneville. Considering all the owner/frequency/format swaps in Cincinnati in the past couple of years, our confusion should be forgiven.
AllAccess reminds us that the old alt-rock WAQZ once lived on the 97.3 signal, though we're pretty sure the music mix is a little different for "The Sound" now on that same frequency.
And Bonneville Cincinnati market chief Jim Bryant rolls off to AllAccess a line we've heard before:
“We also feel quite confident that 'THE SOUND’S' passionate and loyal listeners will soon find us on our new dial position."
That reminds us of the swaps Radio One made among its two Cleveland AM stations a ways back, moving urban talk/brokered WERE from 1300 AM to 1490 AM, with the move of gospel WJMO to the stronger 1300 AM signal clearly the driving force.
Local Radio One management in Cleveland expressed confidence that WERE's talk listeners would find their way to the new, lesser signal...but not long after, Radio One moved in-house syndicated talker Al Sharpton back to 1300 amidst the gospel format.
But "The Sound" loses not only a more powerful signal. It appears to us that the station's entire weekday air staff is out of work. The exit list, according to AllAccess: morning man and creative services director "Clayton", midday host "Jimmy", afternoon driver/web editor Lisa Biello and night host "Kevin"...
REFUGE: A local broadcaster says she hopes to "offer a place of refuge until the next big gig (if there really are any out there) comes up."
Lisa Dillon is now program director of Paul Belfi's Cleveland-based Internet outlet SportsTalkNetwork.com, and hosts a 1-3 PM show entertainment news show there called "The LEWD Show". She's also linked with two other Internet outlets, MirusMusic.com and M2LiveRadio.com.
Dillon tells OMW:
All 3 stations are looking to provide air time for anyone who might want to keep their chops up while, hopefully, making a few extra bucks. We've got plenty of room!
It's really free-form radio at it's best. All you need is a good idea for a show theme.
The former WMMS/100.7 air talent says she sympathizes with those who find themselves on the radio beach, a number seemingly growing by the day:
Hey, I've been there. Getting canned sucks, especially when it's not your fault! Even if they are just looking for a place to produce an aircheck, whatever...I'll even let them vent as a guest on my show if they wish! I am willing to help anyway I can.
Reach out to Lisa via E-Mail at LisaD@SportstalkCleveland.com...
WSTB REDUX: OMW reported earlier in the week that slow, deliberate work has begun with the eventual goal of returning Streetsboro schools-owned WSTB/88.9 back to the airwaves in that Portage County city.
When we first wrote this, we hadn't seen an article on the situation in the Akron Beacon Journal on Friday, which quotes Streetsboro school superintendent Linda Keller on Wednesday:
''We are currently working with the radio station personnel to restore the station's broadcast capabilities. With everyone's assistance, we should be back on the air by this weekend.''
And station general manager Bob Long:
(Long) is now waiting for the school district to do the technical work to get the station back on the air.
''It is out of my hands,'' said the 59-year-old Long, who has been a teacher for 28 years. ''I am waiting for the district people to get everything working.''
As we write this late Friday night, getting WSTB back on the air "by this weekend" seems somewhat unlikely.
And one op-ed piece running in the Kent-Ravenna Record-Courier newspaper this week even invoked your own Mighty Blog of Fun(tm). Former WSTB student program director Matt Fredmonsky wrote:
I won't attempt to explain why Northeastern Ohio's only high-powered, student-run radio station has been shut down. Simple searches online of the Record-Courier at recordpub.com and other area media throughout Northeastern Ohio, including Rock889.com, WJW Fox 8, The Plain Dealer, the Akron Beacon Journal, Daily Kent Stater, MySpace and the blog, OhioMediaWatch.com, will reveal the facts, and the enormity, of this act.
Fredmonsky continues:
If (WSTB general manager Bob) Long and the station's volunteer engineer, Dan Kuznicki, who is at the heart of this fall's un-plugging, lose their culture of influencing success at the station, then its days of peerless freedom of expression may be in jeopardy.
These two men have dedicated countless hours to the student operators and listeners of this station. Unprecedented progress has been made at WSTB under their guidance. Without them, the station may never function as it once did.
While Long has indeed remained as general manager after the Streetsboro school board refused his submitted resignation, it does appear that Kuznicki is still outside the station...and is not currently involved in the effort by school district IT personnel to return WSTB's computer systems to their prior state.
So, for the moment, we wait...and it would appear the proof in the proverbial pudding will be whenever 88.9 manages to stop the scan on Northeast Ohio radios again.
But the station is just a few days from an important deadline. From the FCC's web site page on silent radio stations:
Notifications and Requests for Special Temporary Authority (STA). Stations that go silent should notify (FCC staffer) Ms. (Denise) Williams by letter within 10 days of ceasing operation. The letter should include a brief explanation of the reason for ceasing operation and an expected date (if possible) for the station's return to licensed operation. Short periods of discontinued operation (less than 10 days) need not be notified. Tower obstruction lighting must be maintained without interruption during all periods of silence to protect general aviation.
If the station's silent period is expected to last beyond 30 days, Special Temporary Authority is necessary (see 47 CFR 73.1635). Station licensees must submit the STA request (in triplicate) through the Office of the Secretary, FCC, and clearly explain in a cover letter that the request is for silent station authority and is therefore exempt from application filing fees. After review, the staff may grant Special Temporary Authority for a period not exceeding 180 days, but extensions may be approved upon the submission of a new STA request.
So by our reading, right now, WSTB is not in trouble for not filing a notification of its silence - but will be, if they don't do so by roughly November 14th.
The station went off the air on October 13th. As far as we know, the district hasn't filed an STA, and it doesn't show up in the online FCC database for WSTB. We don't know if a letter, as prescribed in the above, would show up online.
If the station does indeed return in the next few days, this won't be a concern.
As a practical matter, the FCC is usually pretty willing to work with stations which are silent, and are making a reasonable effort to return to the air.
We would not expect the FCC to revoke an educational license to a school district station over something like this, assuming WSTB doesn't return before November 14th.
If Streetsboro school district officials are even remotely cooperative with the FCC, we'll expect cooperation in return, and leniency in the paperwork surrounding the station's current status.
But...the ducks still should be put into a row...and a school district not following federal licensing guidelines doesn't look good, in general...
COLUMBUS NEWSWOMAN DIES: Columbus' TV community is mourning the death of a local newswoman struck down in the prime of her life by cancer.
Dispatch CBS affiliate WBNS/10 "10TV" reports the death of the station's Heather Pick at the age of 38:
Heather died after a brave and public battle with breast cancer. Heather left us in her home surrounded by her family earlier today.
Heather learned in 2004 that the disease she had beaten once in 1999 had returned. Through The James Cancer Hospital at The Ohio State University Medical Center, Heather participated in many breakthrough new treatments.
The WBNS item notes that Pick used her high profile to fuel public awareness in Central Ohio in the battle against breast cancer:
Heather was an unwavering champion for breast cancer awareness and education. In her last public appearance, Heather hosted the "Spirit Celebration with Heather Pick," raising almost $500,000 for the Columbus Cancer Clinic. To the end, Heather worked to fight the disease so others wouldn't have to endure what she went through. Her last appearance on 10TV News HD was to kick off Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
WBNS reports that Heather is survived by her husband, Joe Cygan, and their children, Julia and Jack.
Donations can be made in her memory to The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Nationwide Children's Hospital or the Stefanie Spielman Fund...
BREAKING NEWS: WKDD's Angela Out
It looks like Clear Channel Akron/Canton hot AC WKDD/98.1 morning host Matt Patrick is going solo in both of his radio gigs, as "Matt and Angela" are no longer a team.
An alert OMW reader pointed out to us that Patrick's long-time co-host Angela Bellios has been removed from the station's web site, which now only lists Matt Patrick in morning drive.
OMW has confirmed out of Freedom Avenue that Angela is "no longer with the station". We don't have any further confirmation as to the nature of her exit.
Patrick, of course, just moved his other show, an issues talk show on sister talk WHLO/640 Akron, from late afternoons to the 9 AM to noon slot, replacing the moved-to-WTAM Glenn Beck. Bellios had no role on the WHLO show, only her long-time stint on the WKDD show.
More as this develops...
An alert OMW reader pointed out to us that Patrick's long-time co-host Angela Bellios has been removed from the station's web site, which now only lists Matt Patrick in morning drive.
OMW has confirmed out of Freedom Avenue that Angela is "no longer with the station". We don't have any further confirmation as to the nature of her exit.
Patrick, of course, just moved his other show, an issues talk show on sister talk WHLO/640 Akron, from late afternoons to the 9 AM to noon slot, replacing the moved-to-WTAM Glenn Beck. Bellios had no role on the WHLO show, only her long-time stint on the WKDD show.
More as this develops...
Job Wanted - OMW 2
Another local radio professional has taken advantage of our offer to put up a free "job wanted" ad.
He's a familiar name to Cleveland market FM listeners - former WNWV/107.3 "The Wave" afternoon drive host Richard Greer, who lost his long-time gig at the Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting-owned smooth jazz station in a recent station schedule shuffle.
Richard tells OMW that he's "pretty well looking anywhere in the Tri-State area, but would love to stay in Ohio." He tells us:
I have a resume/aircheck online at www.richardgreer-resume.com, and can be reached at wrg117@hotmail.com, or (440) 777-6945.
A reminder: Our offer applies to not just radio people and not just those on the air. A lot of TV folks in Northeast Ohio have been shown the door recently, and we're happy to be of service to anyone who doesn't have work in media...
He's a familiar name to Cleveland market FM listeners - former WNWV/107.3 "The Wave" afternoon drive host Richard Greer, who lost his long-time gig at the Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting-owned smooth jazz station in a recent station schedule shuffle.
Richard tells OMW that he's "pretty well looking anywhere in the Tri-State area, but would love to stay in Ohio." He tells us:
I have a resume/aircheck online at www.richardgreer-resume.com, and can be reached at wrg117@hotmail.com, or (440) 777-6945.
A reminder: Our offer applies to not just radio people and not just those on the air. A lot of TV folks in Northeast Ohio have been shown the door recently, and we're happy to be of service to anyone who doesn't have work in media...
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Small Screen Browns
There are times when the NFL's Cleveland Browns have stumbled in nationally-televised games, so much so that they may have wished the size of the picture to shrink dramatically. A recent big Monday Night Football win over the Giants excepted, of course.
No matter what the local pro football team does tonight, some will indeed watch the game on very small screens.
The Browns play the Denver Broncos tonight in the opener of the NFL Network's Thursday night series. As per usual in these cable/satellite only games, a local over-air outlet will pick up the feed in Cleveland, as Raycom Media MyNetwork TV affiliate WUAB/43 will do the honors of airing the NFL Network feed (we presume in HD) tonight.
But the game is also historic, TV-football-wise, another way. It'll be the first NFL game ever to be "phonecast".
Quoting the Wall Street Journal's Matthew Futterman:
For the first time Thursday, a National Football League game -- the Cleveland Browns vs. the Denver Broncos -- will be broadcast on Sprint mobile phones as part of the wireless company's exclusive partnership with the league. That partnership deal is valued at about $500 million over five years.
If you're a Sprint customer wondering how to get this, and what it all costs:
The planned phone-casts are part of Sprint's NFL Mobile Live package, which is available on most Sprint handsets. The package can be purchased for $15 a month, and is also included as part of Sprint's Everything plans that start at $69.99 per month.
$15 a month? Ouch!
Of course, the NFL Network's ongoing carriage problems mean tonight's game won't be available on Time Warner Cable (outside of the Cleveland rebroadcast on WUAB) and other major cable providers.
Though the game will indeed air on cable systems in the Cleveland market via the WUAB simulcast, it's an open question if those in traditional Browns secondary markets (Youngstown, Columbus) will be able to see the game if their cable system doesn't have NFL Network.
WUAB has historic carriage in much of both the Youngstown and Columbus areas, even up into Erie PA, dating back to its days as a regional "superstation". It also basically acts as the Erie market's default MyNetwork TV affiliate, as the network has no affiliate in Erie.
We don't know if the NFL Network folks will force cable systems like Time Warner to black out WUAB tonight outside of the Cleveland market, much like the CBS affiliate in Buffalo did with Canada's CTV, when LIN TV had their dispute with Time Warner.
By the way, we hadn't mentioned it yet, but that dispute is indeed over. LIN TV and Time Warner reached a deal, and the company's stations in Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and other markets are now back on TWC systems.
The NFL's rules do not allow local stations in the cable/satellite games' "secondary" home markets to air the games locally, so no Youngstown, Columbus or Erie station will directly pick up the game...
No matter what the local pro football team does tonight, some will indeed watch the game on very small screens.
The Browns play the Denver Broncos tonight in the opener of the NFL Network's Thursday night series. As per usual in these cable/satellite only games, a local over-air outlet will pick up the feed in Cleveland, as Raycom Media MyNetwork TV affiliate WUAB/43 will do the honors of airing the NFL Network feed (we presume in HD) tonight.
But the game is also historic, TV-football-wise, another way. It'll be the first NFL game ever to be "phonecast".
Quoting the Wall Street Journal's Matthew Futterman:
For the first time Thursday, a National Football League game -- the Cleveland Browns vs. the Denver Broncos -- will be broadcast on Sprint mobile phones as part of the wireless company's exclusive partnership with the league. That partnership deal is valued at about $500 million over five years.
If you're a Sprint customer wondering how to get this, and what it all costs:
The planned phone-casts are part of Sprint's NFL Mobile Live package, which is available on most Sprint handsets. The package can be purchased for $15 a month, and is also included as part of Sprint's Everything plans that start at $69.99 per month.
$15 a month? Ouch!
Of course, the NFL Network's ongoing carriage problems mean tonight's game won't be available on Time Warner Cable (outside of the Cleveland rebroadcast on WUAB) and other major cable providers.
Though the game will indeed air on cable systems in the Cleveland market via the WUAB simulcast, it's an open question if those in traditional Browns secondary markets (Youngstown, Columbus) will be able to see the game if their cable system doesn't have NFL Network.
WUAB has historic carriage in much of both the Youngstown and Columbus areas, even up into Erie PA, dating back to its days as a regional "superstation". It also basically acts as the Erie market's default MyNetwork TV affiliate, as the network has no affiliate in Erie.
We don't know if the NFL Network folks will force cable systems like Time Warner to black out WUAB tonight outside of the Cleveland market, much like the CBS affiliate in Buffalo did with Canada's CTV, when LIN TV had their dispute with Time Warner.
By the way, we hadn't mentioned it yet, but that dispute is indeed over. LIN TV and Time Warner reached a deal, and the company's stations in Columbus, Dayton, Toledo and other markets are now back on TWC systems.
The NFL's rules do not allow local stations in the cable/satellite games' "secondary" home markets to air the games locally, so no Youngstown, Columbus or Erie station will directly pick up the game...
Moving - And Jobs
A fast-growing Northeast Ohio-based radio syndicator is moving...within the area...and hiring.
Beachwood-based Envision Radio Networks announces that it's finished the move to new, larger digs at 3733 Park East Drive, Room 222. The company's using the postal address of "Cleveland, OH 44122", but they tell us that Park East Drive is still in Beachwood, among the various hotels off the Chagrin Boulevard exit of I-271 in the eastern Cleveland area suburb.
And in a move that's pretty breathtaking when all sorts of media companies are laying off, Envision is actually hiring. Quoting their press release:
Envision Radio Networks® has additional staffing needs with the new expanded location. Resumes are now being accepted for these newly created positions: Marketing assistant, sales administrator, administrative assistant, and affiliate sales. Internships are also available. Send your resume and cover letter (no MP3s) to Laura Orkin at laurao@envisionradio.com. All positions will be based in the new Cleveland headquarters. No phone calls please.
And in case you're not sure what Envision does, from the release:
Envision Radio Networks, Inc. provides content and services to more than 1,000 radio stations and reaches over 40 million listeners weekly. Envision Radio Networks® is the largest independently owned affiliate relations company in the country and supplies all types of programming and services for radio including morning show prep, short-form vignettes, live syndicated morning shows, long-form weekend programming, comedy services, remote broadcasts and event programming, off-air tools and web content, album releases and artist specials. Envision Radio Networks® is based in Cleveland, Ohio, with offices in New York City and Los Angeles.
Beachwood-based Envision Radio Networks announces that it's finished the move to new, larger digs at 3733 Park East Drive, Room 222. The company's using the postal address of "Cleveland, OH 44122", but they tell us that Park East Drive is still in Beachwood, among the various hotels off the Chagrin Boulevard exit of I-271 in the eastern Cleveland area suburb.
And in a move that's pretty breathtaking when all sorts of media companies are laying off, Envision is actually hiring. Quoting their press release:
Envision Radio Networks® has additional staffing needs with the new expanded location. Resumes are now being accepted for these newly created positions: Marketing assistant, sales administrator, administrative assistant, and affiliate sales. Internships are also available. Send your resume and cover letter (no MP3s) to Laura Orkin at laurao@envisionradio.com. All positions will be based in the new Cleveland headquarters. No phone calls please.
And in case you're not sure what Envision does, from the release:
Envision Radio Networks, Inc. provides content and services to more than 1,000 radio stations and reaches over 40 million listeners weekly. Envision Radio Networks® is the largest independently owned affiliate relations company in the country and supplies all types of programming and services for radio including morning show prep, short-form vignettes, live syndicated morning shows, long-form weekend programming, comedy services, remote broadcasts and event programming, off-air tools and web content, album releases and artist specials. Envision Radio Networks® is based in Cleveland, Ohio, with offices in New York City and Los Angeles.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Job Wanted - OMW Ad 1
As promised in our massive update about layoffs and job cuts early this week, OMW will continue to run both "Help Wanted" and "Job Wanted" advertisements as part of our regular content.
It's only fitting that our first "Job Wanted" ad comes from a long-time Friend of OMW, Chuck Matthews. Chuck's last full-time gig was at Cumulus in Toledo, where he was program director of talk WTOD/1560 "SuperTalk 1560" along with his production duties for the entire Cumulus Toledo cluster.
Since then, he's consulted Matrix talk WNWT/1520, also in Toledo, along with continuing to work on his voiceover business.
Here it is:
--------------
OMW faithful CHUCK MATTHEWS is still “beached”, seeking full or part-time in Cleveland, Sandusky, Toledo and all points in between.
Chuck's VO/Production shingle is also out, for station VO, imaging and commercial production.
Demos at chuckmatthews.voices.com and at chuckmatthewsvoice.com.
Contact Chuck via cell at: (419) 350-6188
It's only fitting that our first "Job Wanted" ad comes from a long-time Friend of OMW, Chuck Matthews. Chuck's last full-time gig was at Cumulus in Toledo, where he was program director of talk WTOD/1560 "SuperTalk 1560" along with his production duties for the entire Cumulus Toledo cluster.
Since then, he's consulted Matrix talk WNWT/1520, also in Toledo, along with continuing to work on his voiceover business.
Here it is:
--------------
OMW faithful CHUCK MATTHEWS is still “beached”, seeking full or part-time in Cleveland, Sandusky, Toledo and all points in between.
Chuck's VO/Production shingle is also out, for station VO, imaging and commercial production.
Demos at chuckmatthews.voices.com and at chuckmatthewsvoice.com.
Contact Chuck via cell at: (419) 350-6188
Midweek Visit
Just some followup and stuff floating around...
WSTB: We hinted at this in our last item, when we reminded readers that general manager Bob Long and his student crew at Streetsboro's WSTB/88.9 wouldn't be around last night to cover Portage County election returns.
OMW hears that moves are actually being made to reconstruct the Streetsboro school district-owned station and return it to the airwaves - at some point.
As we pointed out shortly after school officials had station computers removed and the station taken off the air in October, it appears putting WSTB back together again may be a process that takes some time. It's not just throwing a computer back on and plugging its input into an audio console, and there is other mostly technical work involved.
We have no estimated timeline for WSTB's return, but it appears for the first time since mid-October that the station is definitely headed back to the airwaves at some time.
OMW also hears that when the station does get back up and running, the adult-volunteer-run "Sunday Oldies Jukebox" has been assured that it will be able to return. In fact, various moves are being promised that would allow that to happen.
As near as we can determine, "SOJ" was not involved in any of the problems surrounding WSTB's exit from the airwaves, and has basically been "held hostage" by the station's current off-air status.
OMW notes that for now, it appears the Streetsboro school district will continue to be the station's licensee, despite a proposal last week by the city's council president to transfer ownership into a non-profit group...
ABOUT THAT ELECTION: Forgive us for being bleary eyed this morning, as we stayed up following local election coverage on TV and radio.
Your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) had three TVs - one in HD - tuned to both local broadcasters and cable networks, and two radios bouncing among the stations.
As far as the general coverage goes, we give kudos to everyone who pitched in locally to supplement the network TV and radio coverage.
But there were some glitches or head scratchers in there.
For one, for whatever reason, Raycom Media CBS affiliate WOIO/19 declined to join wall-to-wall network election coverage at 7 PM, unlike every other network TV affiliate in the Cleveland market.
Though we did see pretty detailed local pre-election cut-ins by the "19 Action News" newsroom, the rest of the first hour was filled by...believe it or not...the regular syndicated programming WOIO carries in the 7 PM hour, "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" with Meredith Vieria, and "Deal or No Deal" with Howie Mandel, slightly chopped up by the cut-ins.
No, we're not kidding.
That lead us to a chuckle watching the "19 Action News"' local election coverage cut-in at 7:30, where the station breathlessly noted that CBS had just called the first two states in the presidential race.
Which, of course, WOIO viewers could have seen CBS' Katie Couric actually DO earlier in the hour, shortly after 7 PM, if the station had joined the coverage live. (We weren't watching at 7 PM, but the station promoted the CBS News coverage as "starting at 8 PM", and we have no evidence they dropped in early.)
WOIO and all the Cleveland market stations had reporters stationed at the usual spots, including the Cuyahoga County elections board (important there because of the recent history of election-related problems in the county) and various candidate and party rallies. Networks seemed to allow local cut-ins once or twice an hour, just before top and bottom of the hour.
Radio-wise, it was indeed ABC News Radio and FOX News Radio with local cut-ins at stations we heard.
We heard Cleveland Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 news director Darren Toms calling into the FOX News Radio national coverage early, telling the network's listeners that there were no major problems with the election process this year in closely-watched Cuyahoga County, and in fact, there weren't even any post-election lines to speak of.
We heard Rubber City Radio oldies/news WAKR/1590 news director Ed Esposito and morning anchor Larry States leading that station's local coverage, with reporters in the field tracking post-election events, vote counting and even a power outage in the Akron neighborhood of Ellet (voting impact: none, as ballots continued to be cast).
And we heard who hosted Clear Channel talk WHLO/640 Akron's local election cut-ins...Clear Channel Akron/Canton programming operations director and hot AC WKDD/98.1 afternoon drive host Keith Kennedy was joined by WHLO news director John Amrhein and WHLO/rock WRQK/106.9 program director Greg Ausham.
(Just what Keith needed to add to his already lengthy list of titles - election night host!)
TRANSITION: As the U.S. government starts its transition from President Bush to incoming President Obama, there's also that pesky digital TV transition.
In addition to its ongoing series that has been held under the title "Tuesdays with Trina", local PBS outlet WNEO/45-WEAO/49 "Western Reserve PBS" plans another digital TV event tomorrow night.
"DTV Action Day: 100 Days Out" will be an Open House held Thursday from 3-7 PM at the station's studio facility on Campus Center Drive in Kent.
Quoting the station's website:
This is a great opportunity to see converter box demonstrations, ask questions about antenna issues and learn more about the converter box coupon program. Free refreshments will be served!
We hope you will join us to talk with staff members about the DTV transition.
We presume one of those staff members will be station president Trina Cutter, who has hosted the "Tuesdays with Trina" DTV events at just about anything resembling a library in the station's service area.
Western Reserve PBS has been far and away a leader in digital TV-related education in Northeast Ohio. But at least some of that rooted is self-preservation and necessity.
We're just five days away from the first step needed for the eventual early shutoff of the station's WNEO/45 analog signal, as Western Reserve PBS will have to take the current pre-transition WNEO-DT digital signal off the air Monday to do antenna work.
On November 19th, analog 45 goes off the air for good, and WNEO's digital signal out of Salem will be off as well, for two days, to complete the process. (Western Reserve PBS promises that many cable customers, and DirecTV customers, will still get a feed. We presume Time Warner Cable systems can easily substitute Akron-licensed WEAO/49, if they aren't using WEAO's signal already.)
Finally, on November 21st, WNEO-DT returns on its new post-transition facility.
WEAO/49 is already running its post-transition digital WEAO-DT from its transmitter facility in the Akron TV/FM "antenna farm" in Copley Township. Analog 49 will stay on the air until the digital transition date, late February 17, 2009...
WSTB: We hinted at this in our last item, when we reminded readers that general manager Bob Long and his student crew at Streetsboro's WSTB/88.9 wouldn't be around last night to cover Portage County election returns.
OMW hears that moves are actually being made to reconstruct the Streetsboro school district-owned station and return it to the airwaves - at some point.
As we pointed out shortly after school officials had station computers removed and the station taken off the air in October, it appears putting WSTB back together again may be a process that takes some time. It's not just throwing a computer back on and plugging its input into an audio console, and there is other mostly technical work involved.
We have no estimated timeline for WSTB's return, but it appears for the first time since mid-October that the station is definitely headed back to the airwaves at some time.
OMW also hears that when the station does get back up and running, the adult-volunteer-run "Sunday Oldies Jukebox" has been assured that it will be able to return. In fact, various moves are being promised that would allow that to happen.
As near as we can determine, "SOJ" was not involved in any of the problems surrounding WSTB's exit from the airwaves, and has basically been "held hostage" by the station's current off-air status.
OMW notes that for now, it appears the Streetsboro school district will continue to be the station's licensee, despite a proposal last week by the city's council president to transfer ownership into a non-profit group...
ABOUT THAT ELECTION: Forgive us for being bleary eyed this morning, as we stayed up following local election coverage on TV and radio.
Your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) had three TVs - one in HD - tuned to both local broadcasters and cable networks, and two radios bouncing among the stations.
As far as the general coverage goes, we give kudos to everyone who pitched in locally to supplement the network TV and radio coverage.
But there were some glitches or head scratchers in there.
For one, for whatever reason, Raycom Media CBS affiliate WOIO/19 declined to join wall-to-wall network election coverage at 7 PM, unlike every other network TV affiliate in the Cleveland market.
Though we did see pretty detailed local pre-election cut-ins by the "19 Action News" newsroom, the rest of the first hour was filled by...believe it or not...the regular syndicated programming WOIO carries in the 7 PM hour, "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" with Meredith Vieria, and "Deal or No Deal" with Howie Mandel, slightly chopped up by the cut-ins.
No, we're not kidding.
That lead us to a chuckle watching the "19 Action News"' local election coverage cut-in at 7:30, where the station breathlessly noted that CBS had just called the first two states in the presidential race.
Which, of course, WOIO viewers could have seen CBS' Katie Couric actually DO earlier in the hour, shortly after 7 PM, if the station had joined the coverage live. (We weren't watching at 7 PM, but the station promoted the CBS News coverage as "starting at 8 PM", and we have no evidence they dropped in early.)
WOIO and all the Cleveland market stations had reporters stationed at the usual spots, including the Cuyahoga County elections board (important there because of the recent history of election-related problems in the county) and various candidate and party rallies. Networks seemed to allow local cut-ins once or twice an hour, just before top and bottom of the hour.
Radio-wise, it was indeed ABC News Radio and FOX News Radio with local cut-ins at stations we heard.
We heard Cleveland Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 news director Darren Toms calling into the FOX News Radio national coverage early, telling the network's listeners that there were no major problems with the election process this year in closely-watched Cuyahoga County, and in fact, there weren't even any post-election lines to speak of.
We heard Rubber City Radio oldies/news WAKR/1590 news director Ed Esposito and morning anchor Larry States leading that station's local coverage, with reporters in the field tracking post-election events, vote counting and even a power outage in the Akron neighborhood of Ellet (voting impact: none, as ballots continued to be cast).
And we heard who hosted Clear Channel talk WHLO/640 Akron's local election cut-ins...Clear Channel Akron/Canton programming operations director and hot AC WKDD/98.1 afternoon drive host Keith Kennedy was joined by WHLO news director John Amrhein and WHLO/rock WRQK/106.9 program director Greg Ausham.
(Just what Keith needed to add to his already lengthy list of titles - election night host!)
TRANSITION: As the U.S. government starts its transition from President Bush to incoming President Obama, there's also that pesky digital TV transition.
In addition to its ongoing series that has been held under the title "Tuesdays with Trina", local PBS outlet WNEO/45-WEAO/49 "Western Reserve PBS" plans another digital TV event tomorrow night.
"DTV Action Day: 100 Days Out" will be an Open House held Thursday from 3-7 PM at the station's studio facility on Campus Center Drive in Kent.
Quoting the station's website:
This is a great opportunity to see converter box demonstrations, ask questions about antenna issues and learn more about the converter box coupon program. Free refreshments will be served!
We hope you will join us to talk with staff members about the DTV transition.
We presume one of those staff members will be station president Trina Cutter, who has hosted the "Tuesdays with Trina" DTV events at just about anything resembling a library in the station's service area.
Western Reserve PBS has been far and away a leader in digital TV-related education in Northeast Ohio. But at least some of that rooted is self-preservation and necessity.
We're just five days away from the first step needed for the eventual early shutoff of the station's WNEO/45 analog signal, as Western Reserve PBS will have to take the current pre-transition WNEO-DT digital signal off the air Monday to do antenna work.
On November 19th, analog 45 goes off the air for good, and WNEO's digital signal out of Salem will be off as well, for two days, to complete the process. (Western Reserve PBS promises that many cable customers, and DirecTV customers, will still get a feed. We presume Time Warner Cable systems can easily substitute Akron-licensed WEAO/49, if they aren't using WEAO's signal already.)
Finally, on November 21st, WNEO-DT returns on its new post-transition facility.
WEAO/49 is already running its post-transition digital WEAO-DT from its transmitter facility in the Akron TV/FM "antenna farm" in Copley Township. Analog 49 will stay on the air until the digital transition date, late February 17, 2009...
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Election Day
On this perhaps Biggest Ever Election Day, it's as close to the Super Bowl as local newsrooms will ever get.
Since the presidential race is the primary race of interest, the various network partners of local TV and radio stations will do the "heavy lifting", with pretty much all of the TV and radio network newsrooms showing up at around 7 PM Eastern time - with coverage available even on broadcast TV networks well past midnight.
Local news outlets won't stay on the sidelines all night, though. We've caught each of the local TV news operations touting not only their own legion of reporters and anchors (well, those who haven't been laid off or cut yet), but extensive coverage on their websites as well.
Of note in the "extra" department - Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC/3 is blowing out syndicated talk giant "Dr. Phil" for a second straight day this afternoon at 5 PM for a live and local election and news special.
On the radio side, those news/talk outlets you'd expect to be all over the election are indeed all gearing up.
We mentioned in an earlier item that Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 Cleveland's coverage starts off with FOX News Radio tonight (at 7 PM, we assume), and that newly-minted evening host Bob Frantz will follow with local coverage and reaction.
In Akron, both Rubber City Radio oldies/news WAKR/1590 and Clear Channel talk WHLO/640 are promising complete election coverage this evening - the former, with its full complement of local news staffers supplementing ABC News Radio's coverage, and the latter, with news director John Amrhein burning both ends of the clock supplementing FOX News Radio coverage.
In Canton, NextMedia talk WHBC/1480 is promising an "Election Night All-Nighter", with news/program director Pam Cook, morning news anchor Steve Luke, afternoon news anchor Geoff Mears and midday local talk host Ron Ponder among those pulling double duty starting at 6 PM during WHBC's afternoon drive Jim Albright Show.
Results will be posted online from all of the above stations, with both WAKR's AkronNewsNow.com and WHBC's site with areas already dedicated to hosting the results.
Rubber City/WAKR has also enlisted the help of the Associated Press online, not only for results, but also to provide two live election-related video streams tonight.
And we already mentioned that before he hits the air, WTAM's Frantz will hit the computer, blogging and participating in his message boards (memo to WTAM.com webmasters: Bob Frantz is no longer on the air from 9 AM to noon).
Media-Com talk WNIR/100.1 in the Akron market still hasn't debuted its long-rumored web site upgrade, but we assume night host Tom Erickson will talk around ABC News Radio election coverage as well.
Elsewhere, we'd be shocked if outlying areas like Wayne County (WQKT/104.5), Lorain County and Medina County (WEOL/930), the Mahoning Valley (WKBN/570) and Dover-New Philadelphia (WJER/1450, WTUZ/99.9) weren't covered like the proverbial glove tonight by those local radio news operations.
Every single radio and TV news operation will have a network assist, since all the major news networks have at least one reporter somewhere in Ohio for tonight's coverage.
One local radio outlet won't be doing election coverage tonight, but there's nothing it can do. In the past, Streetsboro High School station WSTB/88.9 has provided returns for Portage County listeners, with a student-staffed effort led by long-time general manager Bob Long.
Of course, if you've been paying attention here, you know WSTB has been off the air since last month. OMW is hearing that the station could return to the air in the near future, though not nearly in enough time to hit the airwaves for election coverage tonight.
More on that sub-news item in a later update...
Since the presidential race is the primary race of interest, the various network partners of local TV and radio stations will do the "heavy lifting", with pretty much all of the TV and radio network newsrooms showing up at around 7 PM Eastern time - with coverage available even on broadcast TV networks well past midnight.
Local news outlets won't stay on the sidelines all night, though. We've caught each of the local TV news operations touting not only their own legion of reporters and anchors (well, those who haven't been laid off or cut yet), but extensive coverage on their websites as well.
Of note in the "extra" department - Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC/3 is blowing out syndicated talk giant "Dr. Phil" for a second straight day this afternoon at 5 PM for a live and local election and news special.
On the radio side, those news/talk outlets you'd expect to be all over the election are indeed all gearing up.
We mentioned in an earlier item that Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 Cleveland's coverage starts off with FOX News Radio tonight (at 7 PM, we assume), and that newly-minted evening host Bob Frantz will follow with local coverage and reaction.
In Akron, both Rubber City Radio oldies/news WAKR/1590 and Clear Channel talk WHLO/640 are promising complete election coverage this evening - the former, with its full complement of local news staffers supplementing ABC News Radio's coverage, and the latter, with news director John Amrhein burning both ends of the clock supplementing FOX News Radio coverage.
In Canton, NextMedia talk WHBC/1480 is promising an "Election Night All-Nighter", with news/program director Pam Cook, morning news anchor Steve Luke, afternoon news anchor Geoff Mears and midday local talk host Ron Ponder among those pulling double duty starting at 6 PM during WHBC's afternoon drive Jim Albright Show.
Results will be posted online from all of the above stations, with both WAKR's AkronNewsNow.com and WHBC's site with areas already dedicated to hosting the results.
Rubber City/WAKR has also enlisted the help of the Associated Press online, not only for results, but also to provide two live election-related video streams tonight.
And we already mentioned that before he hits the air, WTAM's Frantz will hit the computer, blogging and participating in his message boards (memo to WTAM.com webmasters: Bob Frantz is no longer on the air from 9 AM to noon).
Media-Com talk WNIR/100.1 in the Akron market still hasn't debuted its long-rumored web site upgrade, but we assume night host Tom Erickson will talk around ABC News Radio election coverage as well.
Elsewhere, we'd be shocked if outlying areas like Wayne County (WQKT/104.5), Lorain County and Medina County (WEOL/930), the Mahoning Valley (WKBN/570) and Dover-New Philadelphia (WJER/1450, WTUZ/99.9) weren't covered like the proverbial glove tonight by those local radio news operations.
Every single radio and TV news operation will have a network assist, since all the major news networks have at least one reporter somewhere in Ohio for tonight's coverage.
One local radio outlet won't be doing election coverage tonight, but there's nothing it can do. In the past, Streetsboro High School station WSTB/88.9 has provided returns for Portage County listeners, with a student-staffed effort led by long-time general manager Bob Long.
Of course, if you've been paying attention here, you know WSTB has been off the air since last month. OMW is hearing that the station could return to the air in the near future, though not nearly in enough time to hit the airwaves for election coverage tonight.
More on that sub-news item in a later update...
Monday, November 03, 2008
Indirect Link
Here's one item with an indirect link to Ohio radio, and also, the latest entry in our "FM News/Talk/Sports Watch".
CBS Radio has launched yet another once-traditionally-AM spoken word format on FM in a mid-Atlantic market, though it replaces an existing spoken word format.
CBS' FM talker in Baltimore, WHFS/105.7 "Free FM", was blown up today in favor of a locally-programmed FM sports talk station known as "Sports Radio 105.7 The Fan".
The move brings the Charm City its FOURTH full-time sports talker, with CBS Radio sister WJFK/1300 "ESPN 1300" hanging onto a full schedule of ESPN Radio network sports talkers while 105.7 goes local.
The 1300/105.7 combo takes the WJZ(AM)/WJZ-FM calls brought over from CBS-owned sister TV station WJZ-TV/13.
CBS made a similar move in Detroit not that long ago, blowing up that city's long-running young-skewing FM talker, WKRK/97.1, for a new FM home for sports talk WXYT/1270. (Of course, the WKRK calls eventually landed here in Cleveland, on CBS sister alt-rocker "92.3 K-Rock".)
Aside from another entry in our "FM News/Talk/Sports Watch", there's a connection to Ohio radio here as well.
The now-defunct WHFS once featured a midday talk show by Baltimore radio veteran Brian Wilson, better known in this cyber neighborhood as the program director and afternoon drive host at Clear Channel talk WSPD/1370 Toledo.
Wilson visited Baltimore on occasion, but did most of his shows for the Maryland station via ISDN from the Clear Channel Toledo complex.
The change today makes his decision to move on from the station look pretty smart, as he'd likely have been jettisoned from the WHFS schedule if he stuck around. Assuming, of course, that his continued presence wouldn't have kept the station in the talk format.
But as it is now, there was only one survivor in the format change - former Baltimore police commissioner Ed Norris moves his popular afternoon drive show intact to mornings in the new "Fan" (otherwise) sports talk format.
Pittsburgh-based Mike Pintek, who picked up the noon-3 PM fill-in on WHFS (remember, Wilson's stint was characterized as a long-term fill-in), is also out with the format change...
CBS Radio has launched yet another once-traditionally-AM spoken word format on FM in a mid-Atlantic market, though it replaces an existing spoken word format.
CBS' FM talker in Baltimore, WHFS/105.7 "Free FM", was blown up today in favor of a locally-programmed FM sports talk station known as "Sports Radio 105.7 The Fan".
The move brings the Charm City its FOURTH full-time sports talker, with CBS Radio sister WJFK/1300 "ESPN 1300" hanging onto a full schedule of ESPN Radio network sports talkers while 105.7 goes local.
The 1300/105.7 combo takes the WJZ(AM)/WJZ-FM calls brought over from CBS-owned sister TV station WJZ-TV/13.
CBS made a similar move in Detroit not that long ago, blowing up that city's long-running young-skewing FM talker, WKRK/97.1, for a new FM home for sports talk WXYT/1270. (Of course, the WKRK calls eventually landed here in Cleveland, on CBS sister alt-rocker "92.3 K-Rock".)
Aside from another entry in our "FM News/Talk/Sports Watch", there's a connection to Ohio radio here as well.
The now-defunct WHFS once featured a midday talk show by Baltimore radio veteran Brian Wilson, better known in this cyber neighborhood as the program director and afternoon drive host at Clear Channel talk WSPD/1370 Toledo.
Wilson visited Baltimore on occasion, but did most of his shows for the Maryland station via ISDN from the Clear Channel Toledo complex.
The change today makes his decision to move on from the station look pretty smart, as he'd likely have been jettisoned from the WHFS schedule if he stuck around. Assuming, of course, that his continued presence wouldn't have kept the station in the talk format.
But as it is now, there was only one survivor in the format change - former Baltimore police commissioner Ed Norris moves his popular afternoon drive show intact to mornings in the new "Fan" (otherwise) sports talk format.
Pittsburgh-based Mike Pintek, who picked up the noon-3 PM fill-in on WHFS (remember, Wilson's stint was characterized as a long-term fill-in), is also out with the format change...
Another Small Radio Change
Clear Channel hot AC WKDD/98.1 has won FCC approval to change its city of license from Canton to the Akron suburb of Munroe Falls.
The change was part of a construction permit the FCC granted on October 29th - last Wednesday.
For the near term, at least, it means nothing other than a different city being heard on WKDD's legal ID.
The construction permit specifies WKDD's existing facilities - a 50,000 watt class B outlet located in Hartville. It's the same transmitter site the station built shortly after the Great Frequency Swap of 2001 - after finding out that the previous WHK-FM site near Louisville just wasn't doing the job of reaching much of the Akron market.
WKDD's studios are, and will remain, at the Clear Channel World Domination HQ/Southern Command on Freedom Avenue in Stark County's Jackson Township.
And the station is still notified as part of the Akron market.
Presumably, the change from Canton to Munroe Falls could eventually allow WKDD to nudge the 98.1 signal somewhere else (say, closer to Akron), though it doesn't change the various other considerable technical considerations that would limit any such move...among them, a powerful second-adjacent Cleveland signal in CBS Radio's WNCX/98.5, not to mention a third-adjacent signal right in Akron - Rubber City Radio's WONE/97.5.
But it at least on digital paper, "plants the flag" of WKDD back into the Akron market, some 7 years after the station's format and intellectual property moved off its long-time Akron home of 96.5 to make way for top 40 WAKS "Kiss FM"...
The change was part of a construction permit the FCC granted on October 29th - last Wednesday.For the near term, at least, it means nothing other than a different city being heard on WKDD's legal ID.
The construction permit specifies WKDD's existing facilities - a 50,000 watt class B outlet located in Hartville. It's the same transmitter site the station built shortly after the Great Frequency Swap of 2001 - after finding out that the previous WHK-FM site near Louisville just wasn't doing the job of reaching much of the Akron market.
WKDD's studios are, and will remain, at the Clear Channel World Domination HQ/Southern Command on Freedom Avenue in Stark County's Jackson Township.
And the station is still notified as part of the Akron market.
Presumably, the change from Canton to Munroe Falls could eventually allow WKDD to nudge the 98.1 signal somewhere else (say, closer to Akron), though it doesn't change the various other considerable technical considerations that would limit any such move...among them, a powerful second-adjacent Cleveland signal in CBS Radio's WNCX/98.5, not to mention a third-adjacent signal right in Akron - Rubber City Radio's WONE/97.5.But it at least on digital paper, "plants the flag" of WKDD back into the Akron market, some 7 years after the station's format and intellectual property moved off its long-time Akron home of 96.5 to make way for top 40 WAKS "Kiss FM"...
Radio Day Of Changes
UPDATE 11/3/08 12:00 PM: The just updated schedule at Clear Channel talk WHLO/640 Akron shows that it's self-syndicated money advice guru Dave Ramsey filling the 8-10 PM hole in the station's weekday schedule, starting today.
Ramsey has been heard in the area only on Melodynamic talk/religious WCER/900 Canton since being dropped from a clearance on Salem religious talk/teaching WHKW/1220 Cleveland "The Word", in a dispute between Ramsey and Salem - Salem wanted Ramsey to start paying for his clearances, Ramsey didn't want to pay.
The WCER schedule currently lists Ramsey from 2-4 PM, though we don't know if that reflects current reality, or if their carriage of the host will continue.
Ramsey is also seen at the same time (8 PM ET) on TV's FOX Business Network.
The original item is below...
-----------------
Aside from the drone of job loss news, there are many other broadcast media changes that either take effect today, or have over the past few days...
We'll start on the radio side in this first item, where Northeast Ohio's big Talk Radio Shuffle starts today.
The big change that started the three-station shuffle is the return of Premiere syndicated host Glenn Beck to the schedule of Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 Cleveland, weekdays 9 AM to noon.
That move, first reported by OMW weeks ago - which even prompted Beck himself to read the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) to his "Insider" subscribers - takes effect today at 9 AM.
Beck's original clearance on WTAM was actually from 9 AM to 11:30 AM, but the station has since cancelled ABC News Radio's Paul Harvey - who once occupied the 11:30 AM-noon slot surrounded by the station's "Midday Report" news block.
Harvey's segments - with or without him - have not returned to Cleveland radio, with Rubber City Radio oldies/news WAKR/1590 Akron proudly proclaiming itself as "Northeast Ohio's home for Paul Harvey" in the absence of a Cleveland affiliate for the iconic newsman and commentator.
The return of Beck to Cleveland's "Big One" sends the previous occupant of the late morning WTAM time slot down the schedule to nights.
But local host Bob Frantz will not premiere in his new time slot tonight. WTAM's coverage of the Cleveland Cavaliers asserts itself already this evening in Bob's first week, as the Cavaliers visit the Dallas Mavericks.
Frantz will open his new night era on election night, November 4th.
OMW heard Frantz talking about it in that evening slot Friday, with "Sportsline" fill-in and Indians beat reporter Mark Schwab.
Frantz said he'll be online blogging and posting on his message boards Tuesday night during the station's carriage of FOX News Radio's election night coverage, then will take to the airwaves afterwards locally...presumably, if previous elections are an indication, well into the night and perhaps even early morning hours.
But...what is Bob's actual regular schedule?
The newly updated PDF schedule pages on WTAM.com show that Frantz's night show will air 7-11 PM on nights without Cavaliers coverage, and after the "Cavaliers Live" network post-game call-in show from (approximately) 10:30 PM-midnight on Cavs' game nights - give or take different game start and end times.
We'll note that with an 8:30 PM start to Monday's game in the Central time zone, Frantz probably didn't want to come out of the gate for a half-hour-ish late night show on Monday.
But while both links above confirm our earlier reporting that Frantz will be doing his regular, issues-oriented show in nights, WTAM's currently posted Indians game day schedule poses another question. It shows Frantz listed - solely - as the host of "Extra Innings" post game show on game nights. Whether this actually plays out this way next April remains to be seen.
There are two other stations in this shuffle, and one will also see changes today.
WTAM sister Clear Channel talk WHLO/640 Akron host Matt Patrick moves from his 5-7 PM time slot into that same 9 AM-noon time slot starting today, replacing Beck's show.
The move keeps Patrick in the Freedom Avenue building for both of his shows, as he'll move across the hall from his perch as hot AC WKDD/98.1's morning drive host with Angela Bellios each day at 9 AM to do the WHLO talk show.
Until the time slot move, Patrick hosted the WHLO late afternoon show most days from his home studio in Hudson - lest he become so familiar with I-77 and Ohio 8 from a double commute that he could name all the exits without trying too hard.
Patrick's jump to late mornings/middays brings ABC Radio/Premiere's Sean Hannity to his full 3-hour live clearance (3-6 PM) on WHLO the day before the election, and nudges the two hour clearance of Hannity's ABC Radio stablemate and friend Mark Levin to a live clearance of 6-8 PM.
It also brings Matt Patrick into direct competition with the Akron market's biggest talk radio name by far - WNIR/100.1 midday host Howie Chizek, who airs 10 AM-3 PM on "The Talk of Akron".
And unlike when a former Chizek co-worker, the late Joe Finan, moved into a midday slot on then-liberal talk WARF/1350, Patrick is an unapologetic, straight-ahead conservative host. The competition should be very interesting...perhaps Chizek's first true competitive test in his nearly 35 years of talk radio dominance in Akron.
At this point, we still don't know what happens after 8 PM on WHLO's weekday schedule.
The third station involved in the Beck Shuffle is Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting talk WEOL/930 Elyria.
They're hanging onto the Premiere host for two more days, but the WEOL website now officially confirms our report from much earlier - a graphic posted now shows Talk Radio Networks' Laura Ingraham making the move from 6-8 PM to 9 AM-noon, starting Wednesday, "11.05.08", as hinted previously by the site.
We presume WEOL will return to filling the 6-8 PM time slot with its FOX Sports Radio clearance - on nights when it doesn't act as the Lorain County affiliate of the various Cleveland professional sports teams.
The moves would appear to make sense for all stations involved.
By all accounts, Beck was a ratings (and revenue) winner for WTAM until local management decided to try to ride the Jerry Springer Radio Train - which ran out of steam after a short run.
While some will try to couch that now-clearly-very-bad move in political terms - Beck's conservatism for Springer's liberalism - it seemed to us to be more of an opportunistic gamble. WTAM was not the first, and won't be the last, station to try to "grab onto" a "big name" like Springer...even though his worldwide fame came from his syndicated TV trash talk fest, not radio.
We've heard talk radio stations all over try to turn everyone from big name politicians to newspaper columnists into radio hosts, and 90 percent of the time, it doesn't work.
Stations, for whatever reason, seem to think that their job will be easier if you don't have to explain who a host like Jerry Springer is - despite the fact that he was absolutely miserable as a radio host (and that's being kind), and despite help from former Clear Channel Cleveland programming VP Kevin Metheny as his "talent coach".
Though WTAM tried to recover from the Springer Debacle with Frantz's local midday show - which we still think was a good move - Springer cratered WTAM's ratings in the 9 AM-noon time slot. Cratered may be too kind of a word...we hear his ratings drops on "The Big One" look like recent stock market numbers, without the upticks.
Meanwhile, the station hangs onto Frantz in the evening slot - admittedly, a time slot not as important as even middays, and with frequent sports pre-emptions. But WTAM's 50,000 watt flamethrowing signal at least gives Frantz a shot at the vaunted "38 states and half of Canada" coverage long touted by the station.
There was a time that 1100 was basically ONLY successful in that time slot, under "Sportsline" legend the late Pete Franklin. Frantz's move into nights as an issues host ends the decades-long weekday "Sportsline" franchise dating back to Franklin's days at then-WWWE "3WE", though we presume Mark Schwab and others will continue as usual with "Weekend Sportsline".
WHLO, meanwhile, gains a high-profile local radio host as midday competition to an established talk radio presence.
While even Matt Patrick is "making a transition" to doing an issues talk show, he's a talented radio veteran with a big name in the Akron market from his time at WKDD...who's had a head start at making that move in the 5-7 PM evening slot, and who continues his WKDD show.
We're also reminded of the transition successfully made by Patrick's new lead-in at WHLO, WPGB/104.7 Pittsburgh/syndicated morning drive host Jim Quinn ("The War Room with Quinn and Rose"). He was also a long-time FM music station morning host, before he successfully moved his existing show into current events waters.
Before WPGB, Quinn held forth with a popular talk show on an otherwise-rock-formatted FM station. His show is credited as a key ingredient for the upstart FM talk station, which has made life very miserable for once-dominant CBS Radio talker KDKA/1020, particularly in younger demos.
WEOL loses Beck, which the station has reportedly said has "done very well" for them, but picks up the second-ranked midday talk radio franchise with TRN's Laura Ingraham. They can thank Salem's WHK/1420, of course, as Ingraham only became available to WEOL after Salem dumped her show in a dispute with TRN...
Ramsey has been heard in the area only on Melodynamic talk/religious WCER/900 Canton since being dropped from a clearance on Salem religious talk/teaching WHKW/1220 Cleveland "The Word", in a dispute between Ramsey and Salem - Salem wanted Ramsey to start paying for his clearances, Ramsey didn't want to pay.
The WCER schedule currently lists Ramsey from 2-4 PM, though we don't know if that reflects current reality, or if their carriage of the host will continue.
Ramsey is also seen at the same time (8 PM ET) on TV's FOX Business Network.
The original item is below...
-----------------
Aside from the drone of job loss news, there are many other broadcast media changes that either take effect today, or have over the past few days...
We'll start on the radio side in this first item, where Northeast Ohio's big Talk Radio Shuffle starts today.
The big change that started the three-station shuffle is the return of Premiere syndicated host Glenn Beck to the schedule of Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 Cleveland, weekdays 9 AM to noon.That move, first reported by OMW weeks ago - which even prompted Beck himself to read the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) to his "Insider" subscribers - takes effect today at 9 AM.
Beck's original clearance on WTAM was actually from 9 AM to 11:30 AM, but the station has since cancelled ABC News Radio's Paul Harvey - who once occupied the 11:30 AM-noon slot surrounded by the station's "Midday Report" news block.
Harvey's segments - with or without him - have not returned to Cleveland radio, with Rubber City Radio oldies/news WAKR/1590 Akron proudly proclaiming itself as "Northeast Ohio's home for Paul Harvey" in the absence of a Cleveland affiliate for the iconic newsman and commentator.
The return of Beck to Cleveland's "Big One" sends the previous occupant of the late morning WTAM time slot down the schedule to nights.
But local host Bob Frantz will not premiere in his new time slot tonight. WTAM's coverage of the Cleveland Cavaliers asserts itself already this evening in Bob's first week, as the Cavaliers visit the Dallas Mavericks.Frantz will open his new night era on election night, November 4th.
OMW heard Frantz talking about it in that evening slot Friday, with "Sportsline" fill-in and Indians beat reporter Mark Schwab.
Frantz said he'll be online blogging and posting on his message boards Tuesday night during the station's carriage of FOX News Radio's election night coverage, then will take to the airwaves afterwards locally...presumably, if previous elections are an indication, well into the night and perhaps even early morning hours.
But...what is Bob's actual regular schedule?
The newly updated PDF schedule pages on WTAM.com show that Frantz's night show will air 7-11 PM on nights without Cavaliers coverage, and after the "Cavaliers Live" network post-game call-in show from (approximately) 10:30 PM-midnight on Cavs' game nights - give or take different game start and end times.
We'll note that with an 8:30 PM start to Monday's game in the Central time zone, Frantz probably didn't want to come out of the gate for a half-hour-ish late night show on Monday.
But while both links above confirm our earlier reporting that Frantz will be doing his regular, issues-oriented show in nights, WTAM's currently posted Indians game day schedule poses another question. It shows Frantz listed - solely - as the host of "Extra Innings" post game show on game nights. Whether this actually plays out this way next April remains to be seen.
There are two other stations in this shuffle, and one will also see changes today.
WTAM sister Clear Channel talk WHLO/640 Akron host Matt Patrick moves from his 5-7 PM time slot into that same 9 AM-noon time slot starting today, replacing Beck's show.The move keeps Patrick in the Freedom Avenue building for both of his shows, as he'll move across the hall from his perch as hot AC WKDD/98.1's morning drive host with Angela Bellios each day at 9 AM to do the WHLO talk show.
Until the time slot move, Patrick hosted the WHLO late afternoon show most days from his home studio in Hudson - lest he become so familiar with I-77 and Ohio 8 from a double commute that he could name all the exits without trying too hard.
Patrick's jump to late mornings/middays brings ABC Radio/Premiere's Sean Hannity to his full 3-hour live clearance (3-6 PM) on WHLO the day before the election, and nudges the two hour clearance of Hannity's ABC Radio stablemate and friend Mark Levin to a live clearance of 6-8 PM.
It also brings Matt Patrick into direct competition with the Akron market's biggest talk radio name by far - WNIR/100.1 midday host Howie Chizek, who airs 10 AM-3 PM on "The Talk of Akron".
And unlike when a former Chizek co-worker, the late Joe Finan, moved into a midday slot on then-liberal talk WARF/1350, Patrick is an unapologetic, straight-ahead conservative host. The competition should be very interesting...perhaps Chizek's first true competitive test in his nearly 35 years of talk radio dominance in Akron.
At this point, we still don't know what happens after 8 PM on WHLO's weekday schedule.
The third station involved in the Beck Shuffle is Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting talk WEOL/930 Elyria.
They're hanging onto the Premiere host for two more days, but the WEOL website now officially confirms our report from much earlier - a graphic posted now shows Talk Radio Networks' Laura Ingraham making the move from 6-8 PM to 9 AM-noon, starting Wednesday, "11.05.08", as hinted previously by the site.We presume WEOL will return to filling the 6-8 PM time slot with its FOX Sports Radio clearance - on nights when it doesn't act as the Lorain County affiliate of the various Cleveland professional sports teams.
The moves would appear to make sense for all stations involved.
By all accounts, Beck was a ratings (and revenue) winner for WTAM until local management decided to try to ride the Jerry Springer Radio Train - which ran out of steam after a short run.
While some will try to couch that now-clearly-very-bad move in political terms - Beck's conservatism for Springer's liberalism - it seemed to us to be more of an opportunistic gamble. WTAM was not the first, and won't be the last, station to try to "grab onto" a "big name" like Springer...even though his worldwide fame came from his syndicated TV trash talk fest, not radio.
We've heard talk radio stations all over try to turn everyone from big name politicians to newspaper columnists into radio hosts, and 90 percent of the time, it doesn't work.
Stations, for whatever reason, seem to think that their job will be easier if you don't have to explain who a host like Jerry Springer is - despite the fact that he was absolutely miserable as a radio host (and that's being kind), and despite help from former Clear Channel Cleveland programming VP Kevin Metheny as his "talent coach".
Though WTAM tried to recover from the Springer Debacle with Frantz's local midday show - which we still think was a good move - Springer cratered WTAM's ratings in the 9 AM-noon time slot. Cratered may be too kind of a word...we hear his ratings drops on "The Big One" look like recent stock market numbers, without the upticks.
Meanwhile, the station hangs onto Frantz in the evening slot - admittedly, a time slot not as important as even middays, and with frequent sports pre-emptions. But WTAM's 50,000 watt flamethrowing signal at least gives Frantz a shot at the vaunted "38 states and half of Canada" coverage long touted by the station.
There was a time that 1100 was basically ONLY successful in that time slot, under "Sportsline" legend the late Pete Franklin. Frantz's move into nights as an issues host ends the decades-long weekday "Sportsline" franchise dating back to Franklin's days at then-WWWE "3WE", though we presume Mark Schwab and others will continue as usual with "Weekend Sportsline".
WHLO, meanwhile, gains a high-profile local radio host as midday competition to an established talk radio presence.
While even Matt Patrick is "making a transition" to doing an issues talk show, he's a talented radio veteran with a big name in the Akron market from his time at WKDD...who's had a head start at making that move in the 5-7 PM evening slot, and who continues his WKDD show.
We're also reminded of the transition successfully made by Patrick's new lead-in at WHLO, WPGB/104.7 Pittsburgh/syndicated morning drive host Jim Quinn ("The War Room with Quinn and Rose"). He was also a long-time FM music station morning host, before he successfully moved his existing show into current events waters.
Before WPGB, Quinn held forth with a popular talk show on an otherwise-rock-formatted FM station. His show is credited as a key ingredient for the upstart FM talk station, which has made life very miserable for once-dominant CBS Radio talker KDKA/1020, particularly in younger demos.
WEOL loses Beck, which the station has reportedly said has "done very well" for them, but picks up the second-ranked midday talk radio franchise with TRN's Laura Ingraham. They can thank Salem's WHK/1420, of course, as Ingraham only became available to WEOL after Salem dumped her show in a dispute with TRN...
The Job Loss Storm
We wish we had better news for our return.
In our last full item, we talked about the continuing reports of job losses at Ohio media outlets. We had no idea that the following week would be one of the worst such weeks for local media workers...ever.
The news is so bad, and so widespread, that we abandoned plans for a single, large update covering everything we've missed in the past week. Instead, we decided to split this bad news into a large update of its own. We'll have other news not related to massive unemployment in an update a little later this morning...
13TH AND LESS: We start our run of bad news at 13th and Lakeside in Cleveland, the home of Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3.
With Gannett already signaling cuts in its newspaper division, it didn't take the proverbial rocket scientist to see that similar Cost Reduction Measures would come to the TV side of the Gannett house.
At WKYC, the latest round of cuts has come in the form of non-renewal of contracts.
We'll start with veteran reporter Obie Shelton. Cleveland Plain Dealer media columnist Julie Washington reports that Shelton exits Channel 3 after a 22-year run on November 7th....as WKYC declines to renew his contract.
But Mr. Shelton isn't the only name on the list, which could number as high as five on-air staffers.
We're hearing that reporter/anchor Lydia Esparra and reporter Bill Safos are also not getting their contracts renewed, and that two more news people at Channel 3 could be in the same boat...names we have not confirmed yet...
THIS IS NOT CBS: As Cleveland's CBS Radio cluster still sits on the sale block, OMW hears that at least four staffers move to the unemployment line.
We're told that alt-rock WXRK/92.3 "K-Rock" night host "Bull" is no longer doing his "Bull Program". We hear that production staffers Monica Gannon (WDOK/WQAL) and Tony Frazer (WXRK) are also out, along with a promotions employee.
It's an odd time even for those left at CBS Radio here.
The company is openly selling the Cleveland cluster, and other mid-market clusters. The collapse of the credit markets means just about no one can get money to make deals to buy radio stations - and only a small number of operators (like Bonneville, for example) can afford to buy stations without having to firm up bank deals.
(We're not hearing or suggesting that Bonneville specifically has any interest in the Cleveland CBS Radio cluster...we're just pointing them out as one of the very few companies that might be able to get a deal done in the current economic mess. It was reported earlier that Bonneville was one of the companies at least looking into the 50 or so for-sale CBS Radio stations in markets below the top 10.)
Until something happens, one way or the other, it's "business as usual" at CBS Radio's sub-top market clusters. But with the flagging economy and down revenues, that "as usual" includes layoffs...
Y-TOWN: The layoff route heads from CBS Radio Cleveland down the Ohio Turnpike to Youngstown, where the Cumulus cluster there has laid off a number of staffers.
AllAccess reports that the axe hit a number of veterans, including classic rock WYFM/102.9 "Y103" nighttimer Dave Messersmith, who's been around for over 20 years.
A similar "big name" loses his gig at sister country giant WQXK/105.1 "K-105", as Burton Lee will no longer be heard in his nighttime slot. Morning co-host "K-Man" is also out of work.
The moves lead AllAccess to speculate about syndicated programming taking nighttime slots at the station - and for that matter, the trade site openly wonders if live, nighttime local radio is history with at least one major national group.
And AllAccess also reports that all (yes, ALL) part-time staffers at Cumulus top 40 mainstay WHOT/101.1 "Hot 101" have been let go...
TOLEDO: And back on the Layoff Highway, virtually, to the Cumulus cluster in Toledo, which was hit hard this past week as well. There were a total of nine layoffs at Cumulus Toledo.
We'll start with alt-rock WRWK/106.5 "The Zone", which says goodbye to morning man Kevin Murphy. OMW hears that the station will become "music intensive" - a radio euphemism for "less pesky people we have to pay".
Like with other cuts, veteran air personalities took a hit in Toledo as well. Nearly 40-year Toledo radio mainstay Bill Manders is out as middayer at country WKKO/99.9 "K100". "K100" also dumps nighttime personality Craig Snyder, who's been there about 20 years.
OMW reported earlier that Toledo radio vet Buddy Carr landed in nights at oldies WRQN/93.5 in May...that landing was short lived, as Carr is also on the cut list.
Hot AC WWWM/105.5 "Star 105.5" lets two staffers loose - afternoon driver Dave Fuller, and morning producer/promotions assistant Ryan Young.
At sports talker WLQR/1470 "The Ticket", afternoon driver Matt Melzak is out.
Traffic voice Tim McMahon and WXKR/WTOD/WLQR/WRWK promotions director Tom Staudt round out the cut list.
OMW hears that some of the above named could be retained on a part-time basis, though we don't know which...
WRAP-UP: We think that's it for the recent job cuts - at least for the week we were away.
But the combination of the flagging media economy, slumping ad sales (and remember, all those political spots go away on Wednesday!), and the economic downturn in general mean these probably won't be the last job cuts.
Radio stations, particularly, seem to be paring away staffers in non-drive time dayparts or even some extra staffing in those drive-time dayparts. TV stations are reducing staff, and off-air, many people are now doing three or four (or more) jobs instead of one or two.
As we continue this horrible time for many in the media, we urge our readers to keep these people who have been cast aside in mind...both professionally and personally, to whatever degree is possible.
To that effect, OMW is once again putting out the call for those who wish to advertise their availability, or to those who wish to hire. Drop us a line, and we'll be glad to showcase either your "Job Wanted" or "Help Wanted" ad to our wide audience - OMW is pretty much a regular visitor to the computers at most media clusters in the state.
The ads will run free of charge, as with everything at OMW...and we'll help you word the ad, also free of charge.
We'll do what we can...but this current mess is much bigger than any of us...
In our last full item, we talked about the continuing reports of job losses at Ohio media outlets. We had no idea that the following week would be one of the worst such weeks for local media workers...ever.
The news is so bad, and so widespread, that we abandoned plans for a single, large update covering everything we've missed in the past week. Instead, we decided to split this bad news into a large update of its own. We'll have other news not related to massive unemployment in an update a little later this morning...
13TH AND LESS: We start our run of bad news at 13th and Lakeside in Cleveland, the home of Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3.
With Gannett already signaling cuts in its newspaper division, it didn't take the proverbial rocket scientist to see that similar Cost Reduction Measures would come to the TV side of the Gannett house.
At WKYC, the latest round of cuts has come in the form of non-renewal of contracts.
We'll start with veteran reporter Obie Shelton. Cleveland Plain Dealer media columnist Julie Washington reports that Shelton exits Channel 3 after a 22-year run on November 7th....as WKYC declines to renew his contract.
But Mr. Shelton isn't the only name on the list, which could number as high as five on-air staffers.
We're hearing that reporter/anchor Lydia Esparra and reporter Bill Safos are also not getting their contracts renewed, and that two more news people at Channel 3 could be in the same boat...names we have not confirmed yet...
THIS IS NOT CBS: As Cleveland's CBS Radio cluster still sits on the sale block, OMW hears that at least four staffers move to the unemployment line.
We're told that alt-rock WXRK/92.3 "K-Rock" night host "Bull" is no longer doing his "Bull Program". We hear that production staffers Monica Gannon (WDOK/WQAL) and Tony Frazer (WXRK) are also out, along with a promotions employee.
It's an odd time even for those left at CBS Radio here.
The company is openly selling the Cleveland cluster, and other mid-market clusters. The collapse of the credit markets means just about no one can get money to make deals to buy radio stations - and only a small number of operators (like Bonneville, for example) can afford to buy stations without having to firm up bank deals.
(We're not hearing or suggesting that Bonneville specifically has any interest in the Cleveland CBS Radio cluster...we're just pointing them out as one of the very few companies that might be able to get a deal done in the current economic mess. It was reported earlier that Bonneville was one of the companies at least looking into the 50 or so for-sale CBS Radio stations in markets below the top 10.)
Until something happens, one way or the other, it's "business as usual" at CBS Radio's sub-top market clusters. But with the flagging economy and down revenues, that "as usual" includes layoffs...
Y-TOWN: The layoff route heads from CBS Radio Cleveland down the Ohio Turnpike to Youngstown, where the Cumulus cluster there has laid off a number of staffers.
AllAccess reports that the axe hit a number of veterans, including classic rock WYFM/102.9 "Y103" nighttimer Dave Messersmith, who's been around for over 20 years.
A similar "big name" loses his gig at sister country giant WQXK/105.1 "K-105", as Burton Lee will no longer be heard in his nighttime slot. Morning co-host "K-Man" is also out of work.
The moves lead AllAccess to speculate about syndicated programming taking nighttime slots at the station - and for that matter, the trade site openly wonders if live, nighttime local radio is history with at least one major national group.
And AllAccess also reports that all (yes, ALL) part-time staffers at Cumulus top 40 mainstay WHOT/101.1 "Hot 101" have been let go...
TOLEDO: And back on the Layoff Highway, virtually, to the Cumulus cluster in Toledo, which was hit hard this past week as well. There were a total of nine layoffs at Cumulus Toledo.
We'll start with alt-rock WRWK/106.5 "The Zone", which says goodbye to morning man Kevin Murphy. OMW hears that the station will become "music intensive" - a radio euphemism for "less pesky people we have to pay".
Like with other cuts, veteran air personalities took a hit in Toledo as well. Nearly 40-year Toledo radio mainstay Bill Manders is out as middayer at country WKKO/99.9 "K100". "K100" also dumps nighttime personality Craig Snyder, who's been there about 20 years.
OMW reported earlier that Toledo radio vet Buddy Carr landed in nights at oldies WRQN/93.5 in May...that landing was short lived, as Carr is also on the cut list.
Hot AC WWWM/105.5 "Star 105.5" lets two staffers loose - afternoon driver Dave Fuller, and morning producer/promotions assistant Ryan Young.
At sports talker WLQR/1470 "The Ticket", afternoon driver Matt Melzak is out.
Traffic voice Tim McMahon and WXKR/WTOD/WLQR/WRWK promotions director Tom Staudt round out the cut list.
OMW hears that some of the above named could be retained on a part-time basis, though we don't know which...
WRAP-UP: We think that's it for the recent job cuts - at least for the week we were away.
But the combination of the flagging media economy, slumping ad sales (and remember, all those political spots go away on Wednesday!), and the economic downturn in general mean these probably won't be the last job cuts.
Radio stations, particularly, seem to be paring away staffers in non-drive time dayparts or even some extra staffing in those drive-time dayparts. TV stations are reducing staff, and off-air, many people are now doing three or four (or more) jobs instead of one or two.
As we continue this horrible time for many in the media, we urge our readers to keep these people who have been cast aside in mind...both professionally and personally, to whatever degree is possible.
To that effect, OMW is once again putting out the call for those who wish to advertise their availability, or to those who wish to hire. Drop us a line, and we'll be glad to showcase either your "Job Wanted" or "Help Wanted" ad to our wide audience - OMW is pretty much a regular visitor to the computers at most media clusters in the state.
The ads will run free of charge, as with everything at OMW...and we'll help you word the ad, also free of charge.
We'll do what we can...but this current mess is much bigger than any of us...
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