More details are coming out about that planned "shared services agreement" between two Youngstown TV stations, CBS/FOX combo WKBN/27-"FOX 17/62", and ABC affiliate WYTV/33.
And according to FCC filings uncovered by the Youngstown Business Journal's Andrea Wood, it's exactly what observers thought would happen.
Wood uncovers the agreement between New Vision Television, the owners which have taken over WKBN/WYFX, and Parkin Television, which is in the process of buying WYTV.
To quote the Business Journal article:
The soon-to-be new owner of WYTV has agreed to pay the new owner of WKBN-TV $750,000 annually for producing Channel 33’s newscasts and supplying engineering, technical and back-office services – essentially every function that WYTV employees perform except the duties of senior managers and sales account executives.
Wood reports that the arrangement "hit like a dull thud" at WYTV's Shady Run Road headquarters, where management told employees of the filing late Monday.
Whatever "wiggle room" there is in the agreement that would provide any jobs for WYTV employees...is hard to find.
The agreement notes that WKBN will basically provide fully-formed newscasts for WYTV that "will have an on-air appearance" as if WYTV originated them, and notes that WYTV non-management news employees would be made available to WKBN/WYFX.
Our guess: This is the part of the agreement where the new combined news operation would be able to use popular on-air "33 News" employees in the WKBN-produced newscasts - a la WYTV's Stan Boney and the like. Whether this is the case, and if it fits into their contracts with WYTV, we don't know. As we said, it's just a guess based on the wording.
But another phrase in the filing covers the allowance of "non-exclusive" news content on WYTV, which is the key to the station airing WKBN/WYFX-produced news reports.
The agreement follows the form of many others before it, including two in nearby Erie PA, which has four stations using two newsrooms...
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query wytv. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query wytv. Sort by date Show all posts
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Thursday, August 16, 2007
We Know Who To Believe Now
In a June 29th item, we mulled over an article by the Youngstown Business Journal's Andrea Wood on the future of WYTV/33.
Back then, the company buying the Youngstown market ABC affiliate was being peppered with questions about its "Shared Services Agreement" uncovered in the FCC filing to buy WYTV - questions which led new owner Todd Parkin of Los Angeles to write a letter denying two things:
1) That Parkin Broadcasting would dismantle the existing "33 News" operation, giving control of the newsroom to the SSA partner, New Vision Television CBS/FOX combo WKBN/27-WYFX/17-62.
2) That employee seniority would be wiped out, much like it was at WKBN/WYFX as soon as NVT took over the stations.
The denials were brought after contentions from people like long-time WKBN-TV "27 First News" reporter Joe Bell, who in his role speaking for a union bargaining unit, said NVT's attorneys presented just such a scenario for the combined operations.
If you're scoring at home...game, set and match to the veteran TV reporter.
Welcome to "D-Day" at Shady Run Road.
The Business Journal's Wood reports that with Parkin Broadcasting's official takeover of WYTV today, the union representing nearly all of the Channel 33 employees - NABET - has been notified that they'll lose their jobs when WYTV goes into the shared services agreement with WKBN/WYFX/New Vision Television.
Quoting a Parkin Broadcasting memo obtained by the Business Journal:
Within the next six months, we anticipate that NVT will be handling certain activities on behalf of the station, including news production, and they will offer employment to most of our employees. Most employees who are not hired by NVT will be offered a severance plan.
The company says that other non-news operations will continue to be handled in-house, though NABET also represents some back-office staff and technicians. We'll assume the building on Shady Run Road can hold even more sales people once the news studio is wiped out, no?
Quoting the Business Journal again, directly:
Since February, when Parkin’s $15.5 million deal to buy WYTV was announced and its intention to consolidate operations with New Vision revealed, senior management led Channel 33 employees to believe the news operation would remain separate from WKBN/WYFX.
Today Dave Trabert, general manager of WYTV, explained to employees that he did not expect the consolidation to take this form, according to multiple sources.
The business newspaper also notes that the memo wipes out WYTV employees' seniority, effective with today's takeover by Parkin.
Hmm.
In the previously linked item, note that we said Todd Parkin was moved enough to write a "calm down" letter to WYTV employees - denying everything that has since become, well, fact.
What does this serve?
And for those who are still around under Parkin's employ after the jettisoning of the news department, who would appear to be mostly salespeople at this point, how can you trust an owner that does this? How do you think Dave Trabert feels, assuming he's being truthful - as quoted above - about not expecting this end result?
Quoting our own earlier item:
Our guess, and this is only a guess: Mr. Parkin makes an effort on paper to carry on the WYTV newsroom and separate operations for a while. Maybe a few months to a year.
He then comes out and says, "look, we tried, but the numbers just aren't there"...and carries out the merger of the WYTV and WKBN/WYFX newsrooms and the end of WYTV's separate news operations.
As it turns out, it didn't even take Mr. Parkin ONE DAY after taking over the station (at one minute after midnight Thursday morning) to make this kind of statement:
The changes being made to the operations at WYTV are necessary to ensure the long-term viability of the station. Once these changes are made, we will have a stronger, more efficient station.
You know, when WYTV promotes whatever its newscasts will become after WKBN/WYFX takes them over, how will they promote them?
Will they proudly note that "33 News" is "a more efficient station", with less people replaced by people you already see on two other channels? We doubt it...
Back then, the company buying the Youngstown market ABC affiliate was being peppered with questions about its "Shared Services Agreement" uncovered in the FCC filing to buy WYTV - questions which led new owner Todd Parkin of Los Angeles to write a letter denying two things:
1) That Parkin Broadcasting would dismantle the existing "33 News" operation, giving control of the newsroom to the SSA partner, New Vision Television CBS/FOX combo WKBN/27-WYFX/17-62.
2) That employee seniority would be wiped out, much like it was at WKBN/WYFX as soon as NVT took over the stations.
The denials were brought after contentions from people like long-time WKBN-TV "27 First News" reporter Joe Bell, who in his role speaking for a union bargaining unit, said NVT's attorneys presented just such a scenario for the combined operations.
If you're scoring at home...game, set and match to the veteran TV reporter.
Welcome to "D-Day" at Shady Run Road.
The Business Journal's Wood reports that with Parkin Broadcasting's official takeover of WYTV today, the union representing nearly all of the Channel 33 employees - NABET - has been notified that they'll lose their jobs when WYTV goes into the shared services agreement with WKBN/WYFX/New Vision Television.
Quoting a Parkin Broadcasting memo obtained by the Business Journal:
Within the next six months, we anticipate that NVT will be handling certain activities on behalf of the station, including news production, and they will offer employment to most of our employees. Most employees who are not hired by NVT will be offered a severance plan.
The company says that other non-news operations will continue to be handled in-house, though NABET also represents some back-office staff and technicians. We'll assume the building on Shady Run Road can hold even more sales people once the news studio is wiped out, no?
Quoting the Business Journal again, directly:
Since February, when Parkin’s $15.5 million deal to buy WYTV was announced and its intention to consolidate operations with New Vision revealed, senior management led Channel 33 employees to believe the news operation would remain separate from WKBN/WYFX.
Today Dave Trabert, general manager of WYTV, explained to employees that he did not expect the consolidation to take this form, according to multiple sources.
The business newspaper also notes that the memo wipes out WYTV employees' seniority, effective with today's takeover by Parkin.
Hmm.
In the previously linked item, note that we said Todd Parkin was moved enough to write a "calm down" letter to WYTV employees - denying everything that has since become, well, fact.
What does this serve?
And for those who are still around under Parkin's employ after the jettisoning of the news department, who would appear to be mostly salespeople at this point, how can you trust an owner that does this? How do you think Dave Trabert feels, assuming he's being truthful - as quoted above - about not expecting this end result?
Quoting our own earlier item:
Our guess, and this is only a guess: Mr. Parkin makes an effort on paper to carry on the WYTV newsroom and separate operations for a while. Maybe a few months to a year.
He then comes out and says, "look, we tried, but the numbers just aren't there"...and carries out the merger of the WYTV and WKBN/WYFX newsrooms and the end of WYTV's separate news operations.
As it turns out, it didn't even take Mr. Parkin ONE DAY after taking over the station (at one minute after midnight Thursday morning) to make this kind of statement:
The changes being made to the operations at WYTV are necessary to ensure the long-term viability of the station. Once these changes are made, we will have a stronger, more efficient station.
You know, when WYTV promotes whatever its newscasts will become after WKBN/WYFX takes them over, how will they promote them?
Will they proudly note that "33 News" is "a more efficient station", with less people replaced by people you already see on two other channels? We doubt it...
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Employee Bomb About To Drop In Youngstown
In what's no surprise to anyone not in denial, the coming days will bring news of employment status to workers at two Youngstown TV stations.
The Youngstown Business Journal reports that employees of Parkin Broadcasting ABC affiliate WYTV/33 will find out - in their pay envelopes - Friday whether they'll still have jobs after December 9th. And workers at New Vision Television CBS/FOX combo WKBN/27-WYFX/17-62 will get similar notices December 7th.
As expected, WYTV's news and on-air operations will be moved to the facilities of WKBN and "FOX 17/62" on December 10th as a part of a "shared services agreement" between the two broadcasting companies. Left behind at WYTV's long-time Shady Run Road facility, says the Business Journal's Andrea Wood, will be roughly 10 sales and management employees.
And though this story has also appeared in on the Youngstown Vindicator's website, Wood reports that WYTV anchor team Vince Bevacqua and Gina Marinelli will be out in the job upheaval. Wood reports that Angee Shaker will be the sole weekday WYTV anchor.
The link here, of course, is that agreement first uncovered in Parkin's FCC filings to buy WYTV, which gives New Vision's WKBN/WYFX the opening to produce newscasts for the ABC affiliate. But Wood also notes that New Vision itself guaranteed the 15-million dollar financing Parkin needed to buy WYTV.
One item we missed - WYTV has cancelled a large chunk of its local programming on sister digital/cable outlet "MyYTV", including the station's 10 PM newscast, and the two hour afternoon public affairs program "For The People", which was simulcast on Cumulus standards WSOM/600 Salem.
The job cuts for union employees come in two steps - those who aren't let go from WYTV with the Friday notice have a few days to decide if they're going to stay or leave. After that, the other shoe drops at WKBN/WYFX, as employees there will learn their own status December 7th.
We hate to say "we told you so", but...we (and others, like Andrea Wood) told you so.
The numbers are just what they are.
It'd have been an absolute fantasy to believe that a lightly capitalized, small company would be able to come in, buy a TV station and keep paying for a third full, separate newsroom staff in a market the size of Youngstown - a market that is literally shrinking by the day, with a very soft economy that only gets softer every year.
We feel for the WKBN/WYFX/WYTV employees. The key here is certainly "saving money", frankly, and we tried to sound that warning as early as possible.
When we talked about this before, and quipped about "life boats", we got some heat for suggesting that talent like WKBN anchor Robb Schmidt had seen the financial handwriting on the wall.
"You don't know", we were told, that Schmidt was leaving solely because he got an excellent opportunity (and that he did) in the Youngstown State University athletics department, a perfect fit for the long-time former sports anchor.
But...we feel we'd be insulting Mr. Schmidt if we didn't think he had any idea what was about to happen at his now-former station.
So, yes, he went for a nice new career opportunity.
But by the time he left WKBN/WYFX, Robb Schmidt surely had to know that much leaner times were ahead at his station. We are happy he made such a soft landing, as it were...and we hope the same for employees of both stations.
But, as expected and long predicted by this corner and others...it's not about making a better newscast for Parkin and New Vision. It's about being more "efficient", and lining up numbers on a spreadsheet that translate to less money going out of the companies' bank accounts.
We understand the economic reality here. As mentioned, the Youngstown media market is a tight place to compete, and there may not be enough money to go around for three separate local news operations.
But...we're still saddened by the news...
The Youngstown Business Journal reports that employees of Parkin Broadcasting ABC affiliate WYTV/33 will find out - in their pay envelopes - Friday whether they'll still have jobs after December 9th. And workers at New Vision Television CBS/FOX combo WKBN/27-WYFX/17-62 will get similar notices December 7th.
As expected, WYTV's news and on-air operations will be moved to the facilities of WKBN and "FOX 17/62" on December 10th as a part of a "shared services agreement" between the two broadcasting companies. Left behind at WYTV's long-time Shady Run Road facility, says the Business Journal's Andrea Wood, will be roughly 10 sales and management employees.
And though this story has also appeared in on the Youngstown Vindicator's website, Wood reports that WYTV anchor team Vince Bevacqua and Gina Marinelli will be out in the job upheaval. Wood reports that Angee Shaker will be the sole weekday WYTV anchor.
The link here, of course, is that agreement first uncovered in Parkin's FCC filings to buy WYTV, which gives New Vision's WKBN/WYFX the opening to produce newscasts for the ABC affiliate. But Wood also notes that New Vision itself guaranteed the 15-million dollar financing Parkin needed to buy WYTV.
One item we missed - WYTV has cancelled a large chunk of its local programming on sister digital/cable outlet "MyYTV", including the station's 10 PM newscast, and the two hour afternoon public affairs program "For The People", which was simulcast on Cumulus standards WSOM/600 Salem.
The job cuts for union employees come in two steps - those who aren't let go from WYTV with the Friday notice have a few days to decide if they're going to stay or leave. After that, the other shoe drops at WKBN/WYFX, as employees there will learn their own status December 7th.
We hate to say "we told you so", but...we (and others, like Andrea Wood) told you so.
The numbers are just what they are.
It'd have been an absolute fantasy to believe that a lightly capitalized, small company would be able to come in, buy a TV station and keep paying for a third full, separate newsroom staff in a market the size of Youngstown - a market that is literally shrinking by the day, with a very soft economy that only gets softer every year.
We feel for the WKBN/WYFX/WYTV employees. The key here is certainly "saving money", frankly, and we tried to sound that warning as early as possible.
When we talked about this before, and quipped about "life boats", we got some heat for suggesting that talent like WKBN anchor Robb Schmidt had seen the financial handwriting on the wall.
"You don't know", we were told, that Schmidt was leaving solely because he got an excellent opportunity (and that he did) in the Youngstown State University athletics department, a perfect fit for the long-time former sports anchor.
But...we feel we'd be insulting Mr. Schmidt if we didn't think he had any idea what was about to happen at his now-former station.
So, yes, he went for a nice new career opportunity.
But by the time he left WKBN/WYFX, Robb Schmidt surely had to know that much leaner times were ahead at his station. We are happy he made such a soft landing, as it were...and we hope the same for employees of both stations.
But, as expected and long predicted by this corner and others...it's not about making a better newscast for Parkin and New Vision. It's about being more "efficient", and lining up numbers on a spreadsheet that translate to less money going out of the companies' bank accounts.
We understand the economic reality here. As mentioned, the Youngstown media market is a tight place to compete, and there may not be enough money to go around for three separate local news operations.
But...we're still saddened by the news...
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
"My Network TV" Landing in Youngstown
UPDATE: The Business Journal reports the WYTV news conference has been cancelled, and will be rescheduled...
The "new network situation" is becoming clearer in the Youngstown market, where UPN/WB replacement The CW is already set. It looks like My Network TV will find a Mahoning Valley home as well.
The Youngstown-Warren Business Journal reports that Chelsey Broadcasting ABC affiliate WYTV/33 will announce a "second local channel" at a ribbon-cutting event tomorrow. (Thanks to an alert OMW tipster for passing this on!)
Though WYTV's news release does not officially detail the second outlet's programming, the Business Journal says it's expected to become the Youngstown market's affiliate for My Network TV, the FOX-owned mini-network developed after FOX's UPN O&O's got stiffed in the move to The CW. CW will air in Youngstown on current WB affiliate "WBCB", a digital/cable/satellite channel run by NBC affiliate WFMJ/21.
The Wednesday event is a launch for the construction of new downtown Youngstown studios for WYTV, which is going to move to a new facility to be built on East Federal Street. Historically, only WFMJ (owned by the Youngstown Vindicator) has broadcast from downtown Youngstown, with both WYTV and Piedmont CBS affiliate WKBN/27 - and now FOX affiliate WYFX/62 - staked out far from downtown. WYTV's longtime home is on Shady Run Road, south of downtown off I-680 and Midlothian Blvd.
WYTV is also expanding its early evening local news block, which will run a full 90 minutes from 5 PM to 6:30 PM starting on June 12th.
The move to add a second channel and My Network TV accomplishes two things - it means all three outlets of the original "Big Three" networks will have secondary channels with other networks...with WFMJ/21 hosting WB affiliate "WBCB" on its digital channel, and on cable and satellite, and WKBN/27 running "FOX 17/62" on a pair of LPTVers, on cable and soon-to-be satellite, and now on its own digital subchannel. It also means Youngstown will now get all the over-air networks locally.
The Business Journal article does not say how WYTV intends to deliver the second channel, but we'll assume it'll mirror WBCB (and now WYFX) with a digital subchannel and at least cable carriage.
Even if WYTV had not picked up My Network TV for a second channel, most Youngstown market cable viewers would have had no problem watching it anyway. Youngstown never had a UPN affiliate, even as a digital subchannel...and Cleveland's future My Network TV affiliate - WUAB/43 - has long filled that role on cable in the market.
What we'll have to see is if WYTV forces its hand with local cable outlets in the Youngstown market, and uses its new My Network TV channel to take over WUAB's channel slot...
The "new network situation" is becoming clearer in the Youngstown market, where UPN/WB replacement The CW is already set. It looks like My Network TV will find a Mahoning Valley home as well.
The Youngstown-Warren Business Journal reports that Chelsey Broadcasting ABC affiliate WYTV/33 will announce a "second local channel" at a ribbon-cutting event tomorrow. (Thanks to an alert OMW tipster for passing this on!)Though WYTV's news release does not officially detail the second outlet's programming, the Business Journal says it's expected to become the Youngstown market's affiliate for My Network TV, the FOX-owned mini-network developed after FOX's UPN O&O's got stiffed in the move to The CW. CW will air in Youngstown on current WB affiliate "WBCB", a digital/cable/satellite channel run by NBC affiliate WFMJ/21.
The Wednesday event is a launch for the construction of new downtown Youngstown studios for WYTV, which is going to move to a new facility to be built on East Federal Street. Historically, only WFMJ (owned by the Youngstown Vindicator) has broadcast from downtown Youngstown, with both WYTV and Piedmont CBS affiliate WKBN/27 - and now FOX affiliate WYFX/62 - staked out far from downtown. WYTV's longtime home is on Shady Run Road, south of downtown off I-680 and Midlothian Blvd.
WYTV is also expanding its early evening local news block, which will run a full 90 minutes from 5 PM to 6:30 PM starting on June 12th.
The move to add a second channel and My Network TV accomplishes two things - it means all three outlets of the original "Big Three" networks will have secondary channels with other networks...with WFMJ/21 hosting WB affiliate "WBCB" on its digital channel, and on cable and satellite, and WKBN/27 running "FOX 17/62" on a pair of LPTVers, on cable and soon-to-be satellite, and now on its own digital subchannel. It also means Youngstown will now get all the over-air networks locally.
The Business Journal article does not say how WYTV intends to deliver the second channel, but we'll assume it'll mirror WBCB (and now WYFX) with a digital subchannel and at least cable carriage.
Even if WYTV had not picked up My Network TV for a second channel, most Youngstown market cable viewers would have had no problem watching it anyway. Youngstown never had a UPN affiliate, even as a digital subchannel...and Cleveland's future My Network TV affiliate - WUAB/43 - has long filled that role on cable in the market.
What we'll have to see is if WYTV forces its hand with local cable outlets in the Youngstown market, and uses its new My Network TV channel to take over WUAB's channel slot...
Friday, June 29, 2007
And It's Friday
We'll finish off the week, and note that we're probably not going to be 'round these parts until Monday or Tuesday.
So...let's have at it...leading from the outer reaches of the OMW Empire for once...
NO MORE "SOURCE"?: A tip of the OMW hat to Radio-Insight.com's Lance Venta and his Internet domain name snooping on this one.
Lance tells us that Clear Channel scooped up the domain name 1360espn.com on Monday, and followed with two more - bengalstream.com and bearcatstream.com.
Lance also notes that while 1360espn.com currently redirects to the website for Clear Channel Cincinnati's big sports talker, WCKY/1530 "1530 Homer", some sub-pages reveal a new logo and site for "Cincinnati's ESPN 1360".
It doesn't take the proverbial, well, you know, to figure out that CC Cincinnati is apparently readying a format flip for WSAI/1360, positioning it as a second sports flanker to WCKY. The "Lineup" pulldown page, at this writing, shows the entire ESPN network lineup.
It'd be sort of the Cincinnati version of "Cleveland's AM 1540, KNR2", only without the stray FOX Sports Radio programming (and with Clear Channel ownership).
The station - not that long ago - changed from liberal talk to "1360thesource.com", an advice talk format with a web URL name that's calls itself, yes, in lower case, "my source for answers".
We guess doing advice talk on 1360 wasn't the answer Clear Channel was looking for.
This is hardly new for Clear Channel.
The company operates two sports talkers in Minneapolis - the locally-programmed KFAN/1130, and its sister, KFXN/690 "The Score", which primarily airs network programming. It also once had two sports talkers in Washington DC, before WWRC/1260 flipped from a flanker to WTEM/980 to liberal talk as "Progressive Talk 1260".
And it shows, again, the difficulty of finding programming for these second and third tier AM stations. Or in Cincinnati, fourth-tier, as CC already has WLW/700, WKRC/550 and WCKY ahead of 1360 in its Queen City AM lineup...
MORE ON WYTV/WKBN/ETC.: Just a brief followup to our earlier item about a "stall" in the sale of Chelsey Broadcasting ABC affiliate WYTV/33 Youngstown.
We now have a copy of the article, thanks to publisher Andrea Wood and the fine folks at the Youngstown Business Journal - which regularly features the best coverage of Mahoning Valley broadcast media.
(No, Ms. Wood didn't ask us to say that.)
Anyway, the article has details on numerous protestations by would-be WYTV owner Todd Parkin about how he's not going to basically dismantle the station's staff and news operation, and dismantle such things as staff seniority as New Vision Television did at CBS affiliate WKBN/27.
That sentiment, in a "calm down" letter sent to WYTV staffers, comes as a big surprise to veteran WKBN reporter Joe Bell, speaking for a station union bargaining unit. He tells the Business Journal:
What Parkin is representing in that letter is diametrically opposed to what New Vision’s attorney told us at the bargaining table. The New Vision attorney said that he envisioned that all those folks at WYTV would become New Vision employees, that they wouldn’t be working out of their [WYTV’s] building, and so forth. We don’t know who’s confused at the corporate level or if someone is misrepresenting themselves. We certainly would like an explanation.
Who do you believe here?
An unknown guy from California who had to tell the FCC about a "shared services agreement" in his application - not to mention an option for new WKBN owner New Vision to buy WYTV outright should FCC rules allow such a duopoly in the future?
Or a veteran, straight-ahead reporter with decades of good will in the Youngstown/Warren TV market?
You make the call.
Our guess, and this is only a guess: Mr. Parkin makes an effort on paper to carry on the WYTV newsroom and separate operations for a while. Maybe a few months to a year.
He then comes out and says, "look, we tried, but the numbers just aren't there"...and carries out the merger of the WYTV and WKBN/WYFX newsrooms and the end of WYTV's separate news operations.
That's just what our gut is tellling us, and isn't based on any fact. It's the "and musings" part of OMW, as advertised up at the top of our homepage...
OMW, NEWSPAPER COLUMN: We're told we've been quoted again in a Northeast Ohio newspaper.
It's the Ashtabula Star-Beacon, which apparently repeated some of our earlier stuff about the upcoming changes at Clear Channel's Ashtabula cluster - its upcoming sale to Tom Embrescia's Sweet Home Ashtabula, and specifically our item a while back about the briefly-proposed swap of WREO/97.1 and CC's WBBG/106.1 Niles.
We hope they followed to the end, where we found out shortly after we posted the item that the proposed swap was dismissed at the request of Clear Channel.
So, there may be more insight as to why, for example, the swap was pulled...but we haven't been able to find the Star Beacon's Thursday article on this on its website. We hear they're a bit slow to put items from the Dead Trees edition online.
We have no problem with newspapers quoting us. Feel free to do so, as long as you get our name right ("the blog Ohio Media Watch" is fine with us)...
So...let's have at it...leading from the outer reaches of the OMW Empire for once...
NO MORE "SOURCE"?: A tip of the OMW hat to Radio-Insight.com's Lance Venta and his Internet domain name snooping on this one.
Lance tells us that Clear Channel scooped up the domain name 1360espn.com on Monday, and followed with two more - bengalstream.com and bearcatstream.com.
Lance also notes that while 1360espn.com currently redirects to the website for Clear Channel Cincinnati's big sports talker, WCKY/1530 "1530 Homer", some sub-pages reveal a new logo and site for "Cincinnati's ESPN 1360".
It doesn't take the proverbial, well, you know, to figure out that CC Cincinnati is apparently readying a format flip for WSAI/1360, positioning it as a second sports flanker to WCKY. The "Lineup" pulldown page, at this writing, shows the entire ESPN network lineup.
It'd be sort of the Cincinnati version of "Cleveland's AM 1540, KNR2", only without the stray FOX Sports Radio programming (and with Clear Channel ownership).
The station - not that long ago - changed from liberal talk to "1360thesource.com", an advice talk format with a web URL name that's calls itself, yes, in lower case, "my source for answers".
We guess doing advice talk on 1360 wasn't the answer Clear Channel was looking for.
This is hardly new for Clear Channel.
The company operates two sports talkers in Minneapolis - the locally-programmed KFAN/1130, and its sister, KFXN/690 "The Score", which primarily airs network programming. It also once had two sports talkers in Washington DC, before WWRC/1260 flipped from a flanker to WTEM/980 to liberal talk as "Progressive Talk 1260".
And it shows, again, the difficulty of finding programming for these second and third tier AM stations. Or in Cincinnati, fourth-tier, as CC already has WLW/700, WKRC/550 and WCKY ahead of 1360 in its Queen City AM lineup...
MORE ON WYTV/WKBN/ETC.: Just a brief followup to our earlier item about a "stall" in the sale of Chelsey Broadcasting ABC affiliate WYTV/33 Youngstown.
We now have a copy of the article, thanks to publisher Andrea Wood and the fine folks at the Youngstown Business Journal - which regularly features the best coverage of Mahoning Valley broadcast media.
(No, Ms. Wood didn't ask us to say that.)
Anyway, the article has details on numerous protestations by would-be WYTV owner Todd Parkin about how he's not going to basically dismantle the station's staff and news operation, and dismantle such things as staff seniority as New Vision Television did at CBS affiliate WKBN/27.
That sentiment, in a "calm down" letter sent to WYTV staffers, comes as a big surprise to veteran WKBN reporter Joe Bell, speaking for a station union bargaining unit. He tells the Business Journal:
What Parkin is representing in that letter is diametrically opposed to what New Vision’s attorney told us at the bargaining table. The New Vision attorney said that he envisioned that all those folks at WYTV would become New Vision employees, that they wouldn’t be working out of their [WYTV’s] building, and so forth. We don’t know who’s confused at the corporate level or if someone is misrepresenting themselves. We certainly would like an explanation.
Who do you believe here?
An unknown guy from California who had to tell the FCC about a "shared services agreement" in his application - not to mention an option for new WKBN owner New Vision to buy WYTV outright should FCC rules allow such a duopoly in the future?
Or a veteran, straight-ahead reporter with decades of good will in the Youngstown/Warren TV market?
You make the call.
Our guess, and this is only a guess: Mr. Parkin makes an effort on paper to carry on the WYTV newsroom and separate operations for a while. Maybe a few months to a year.
He then comes out and says, "look, we tried, but the numbers just aren't there"...and carries out the merger of the WYTV and WKBN/WYFX newsrooms and the end of WYTV's separate news operations.
That's just what our gut is tellling us, and isn't based on any fact. It's the "and musings" part of OMW, as advertised up at the top of our homepage...
OMW, NEWSPAPER COLUMN: We're told we've been quoted again in a Northeast Ohio newspaper.
It's the Ashtabula Star-Beacon, which apparently repeated some of our earlier stuff about the upcoming changes at Clear Channel's Ashtabula cluster - its upcoming sale to Tom Embrescia's Sweet Home Ashtabula, and specifically our item a while back about the briefly-proposed swap of WREO/97.1 and CC's WBBG/106.1 Niles.
We hope they followed to the end, where we found out shortly after we posted the item that the proposed swap was dismissed at the request of Clear Channel.
So, there may be more insight as to why, for example, the swap was pulled...but we haven't been able to find the Star Beacon's Thursday article on this on its website. We hear they're a bit slow to put items from the Dead Trees edition online.
We have no problem with newspapers quoting us. Feel free to do so, as long as you get our name right ("the blog Ohio Media Watch" is fine with us)...
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
UPDATE: WYTV Makes It Official: My Network TV Subchannel, New Studio
(UPDATED 6/14/06 with new information from the Tribune-Chronicle and Business Journal)Youngstown ABC affiliate WYTV/33 has officially unveiled its much-discussed future plans, which include a new My Network TV-affiliated secondary channel - to be called "myYTV" - to debut in September. And as expected, WYTV will also mount a 10 PM newscast on the new channel, going up against the only current 10 PM newscast in the market, WYFX/62 "FOX 17/62"'s "First News at 10".
The station is also building a new satellite news studio in downtown Youngstown. The new studio is part of what is at least the second attempt to renovate the Realty Building, on the square at Federal Plaza. It'll be on the first floor of that basically abandoned building, which is scheduled to be revamped into a condominium and apartment building.
Though the condo/apartment project will take a while, WYTV hopes to have the downtown studio up and running by early September, roughly in concert with the "myYTV" debut. The station will continue to operate from its South Side location on Shady Run Road.
UPDATE: 11:42 AM 6/14/06: It appears that the downtown studio will be used as a "downtown bureau" location by WYTV - like the existing Trumbull County bureau in the Warren Tribune-Chronicle facility.
WYTV general manager Dave Trabert tells the Tribune-Chronicle: "It will be similar to what is being done in Warren, where we have a reporter broadcasting stories from a satellite studio."
Today's story in the Youngstown-Warren Business Journal has more of the same: "There WYTV reporters can edit and broadcast live stories involving City Hall and the Mahoning County Courthouse." If there's a Youngstown Vindicator story on this, we can't find it at the paper's Vindy.com website.
More of the station's planned content is known as well. In addition to the 10 PM newscast, "myYTV" will also rebroadcast WYTV's morning news block after the ABC affiliate goes to "Good Morning America", much like WFMJ's WB network sister station WBCB does with the early morning news from channel 21. In addition to the My Network TV fare, syndicated programs will include "Martha Stewart", "The Nanny", and "various game shows".
And by the way, this isn't the first time a Youngstown media outlet has announced a plan to use the very same building. In 1991, the owner of then-country/rock formatted WAXF/95.9 "WAX FM" and sister oldies WRQQ/1470 "The Rock" announced a move of his station from "a dumpy little building above a stationery store" in Hermitage PA to the top floor of the Realty Building in downtown Youngstown.
The station managed to set up sales offices there, but the grandiose studio plans were never completed. Or, for that matter, ever started. WAXF/WRQQ owner Mercury Broadcasting ran out of money, and the stations shut down in November 1991...leaving a trail of bills - and unpaid employee paychecks - behind.
We'll presume that WYTV and owner Chelsey Broadcasting will not face the same fate...
Saturday, December 08, 2007
The Other Youngstown TV Shoe Drops
The job carnage at the OTHER Youngstown TV news operation, the one absorbing Parkin ABC affiliate WYTV/33's news production starting Monday, wasn't quite as severe as the list of cuts at the station being merged into it.
But the Youngstown Vindicator reports that "about a half-dozen" workers at New Vision's WKBN/27-WYFX/17-62 were told that their services were no longer needed - mostly off-air/engineering/production types.
The two on-air staffers gone from "27 First News" include veteran reporter Joe Bell, who told the Vindicator that he was "a little bit outside (New Vision's) price range". The 15 year station vet wasn't saved by seniority rules, since those rules were suspended in a recent contract pact.
Bell, of course, was a highly visible union leader at WKBN, though he doesn't give any thought to the possibility that may have contributed to his departure.
"First News" reporter Tricia Perry is also leaving, though Bell says she voluntarily left - accepting a station buy-out offer. Considering the situation at WKBN/WYFX/WYTV, that might be the smartest move of all.
The layoffs announced last week at WYTV were much more severe - with 40 employees gone, including anchors Vince Bevacqua and Gina Marinelli.
And OMW hears that Bevacqua reluctantly gave a very brief farewell speech on "33 News"' last originally-produced newscast. In a solo shot - without Angee Shaker, who stays aboard - Bevacqua thanked viewers, and we hear he seemed to allude to the fact that Friday's program may be his last television newscast - ever.
(Maybe he'll catch up with former WKBN anchor Robb Schmidt, who made the escape to the world outside TV news to Youngstown State University's athletic department, and land somewhere at YSU.)
OMW also hears that coverage of the news merger was muted on the stations involved.
WYTV did not report the news on its own 11 PM program, and Bevacqua's newscast-ending speech didn't mention the reason for his departure, or anything else about this ongoing story.
We're told that "27 First News" touched on the story during its 10 PM "First News on FOX" on FOX 17/62, with a short voiceover ending, ironically enough, the Youngstown Business Journal-branded business segment.
Speaking of the Business Journal, it's been the place where much of the "behind the scenes" action has been documented.
On Friday, the paper's Andrea Wood detailed the moves, including the filing of a police report by Bevacqua over apparently threatening message board comments on the Youngstown Vindicator's website. The comments in question have been removed, but at least some station employees' comments are still there. (And they laughed when we started requiring logins for comments here...)
As earlier reported, the "33 News" operation is taking the weekend off, as New Vision and WKBN/WYFX readies a new studio to produce the station's newscasts starting Monday.
What will "33 News" look like Monday?
Well, the branding will continue in some form, and we're guessing that New Vision will move the current set at Shady Run Road into the new space on Sunset Boulevard.
With Vince Bevacqua and Gina Marinelli gone, Angee Shaker stays, as, apparently, does long-time sports anchor Bob Hannon and veteran weatherman Stan Boney.
As for the rest - the Business Journal's Andrea Wood sums it up:
Separate news branding and anchors will be maintained but editorial content and some reporters will appear on WYTV, WKBN and WYFX newscasts.
We'll guess here that all of the combined operation's reporters will mostly appear on all stations for the vast majority of stories, such as breaking news or hard news stories. Why send two sets of reporters to the same fire or news conference?
If WYTV does split off reporting, it'll likely be for various "special report" series the station does now.
This is all speculation, to make it clear. But though we don't have any indication this will happen, and we don't want to introduce any unneeded worry, OMW wonders how long the reasonably large combined reporting staff at WKBN/WYFX/WYTV will continue at that size.
If it all fits under the Shared Services Agreement between WYTV owner Parkin and WKBN/WYFX's New Vision, then we'll assume that question gets put off until that agreement needs renewed. Again, we hear nothing to suggest that further cuts are in the immediate offing.
But a year or two down the road, or whenever Parkin can renegotiate the contract? Who knows?
And with that, that's why we said Tricia Perry may have been smart to take the buyout, and move on...
But the Youngstown Vindicator reports that "about a half-dozen" workers at New Vision's WKBN/27-WYFX/17-62 were told that their services were no longer needed - mostly off-air/engineering/production types.
The two on-air staffers gone from "27 First News" include veteran reporter Joe Bell, who told the Vindicator that he was "a little bit outside (New Vision's) price range". The 15 year station vet wasn't saved by seniority rules, since those rules were suspended in a recent contract pact.
Bell, of course, was a highly visible union leader at WKBN, though he doesn't give any thought to the possibility that may have contributed to his departure.
"First News" reporter Tricia Perry is also leaving, though Bell says she voluntarily left - accepting a station buy-out offer. Considering the situation at WKBN/WYFX/WYTV, that might be the smartest move of all.
The layoffs announced last week at WYTV were much more severe - with 40 employees gone, including anchors Vince Bevacqua and Gina Marinelli.
And OMW hears that Bevacqua reluctantly gave a very brief farewell speech on "33 News"' last originally-produced newscast. In a solo shot - without Angee Shaker, who stays aboard - Bevacqua thanked viewers, and we hear he seemed to allude to the fact that Friday's program may be his last television newscast - ever.
(Maybe he'll catch up with former WKBN anchor Robb Schmidt, who made the escape to the world outside TV news to Youngstown State University's athletic department, and land somewhere at YSU.)
OMW also hears that coverage of the news merger was muted on the stations involved.
WYTV did not report the news on its own 11 PM program, and Bevacqua's newscast-ending speech didn't mention the reason for his departure, or anything else about this ongoing story.
We're told that "27 First News" touched on the story during its 10 PM "First News on FOX" on FOX 17/62, with a short voiceover ending, ironically enough, the Youngstown Business Journal-branded business segment.
Speaking of the Business Journal, it's been the place where much of the "behind the scenes" action has been documented.
On Friday, the paper's Andrea Wood detailed the moves, including the filing of a police report by Bevacqua over apparently threatening message board comments on the Youngstown Vindicator's website. The comments in question have been removed, but at least some station employees' comments are still there. (And they laughed when we started requiring logins for comments here...)
As earlier reported, the "33 News" operation is taking the weekend off, as New Vision and WKBN/WYFX readies a new studio to produce the station's newscasts starting Monday.
What will "33 News" look like Monday?
Well, the branding will continue in some form, and we're guessing that New Vision will move the current set at Shady Run Road into the new space on Sunset Boulevard.
With Vince Bevacqua and Gina Marinelli gone, Angee Shaker stays, as, apparently, does long-time sports anchor Bob Hannon and veteran weatherman Stan Boney.
As for the rest - the Business Journal's Andrea Wood sums it up:
Separate news branding and anchors will be maintained but editorial content and some reporters will appear on WYTV, WKBN and WYFX newscasts.
We'll guess here that all of the combined operation's reporters will mostly appear on all stations for the vast majority of stories, such as breaking news or hard news stories. Why send two sets of reporters to the same fire or news conference?
If WYTV does split off reporting, it'll likely be for various "special report" series the station does now.
This is all speculation, to make it clear. But though we don't have any indication this will happen, and we don't want to introduce any unneeded worry, OMW wonders how long the reasonably large combined reporting staff at WKBN/WYFX/WYTV will continue at that size.
If it all fits under the Shared Services Agreement between WYTV owner Parkin and WKBN/WYFX's New Vision, then we'll assume that question gets put off until that agreement needs renewed. Again, we hear nothing to suggest that further cuts are in the immediate offing.
But a year or two down the road, or whenever Parkin can renegotiate the contract? Who knows?
And with that, that's why we said Tricia Perry may have been smart to take the buyout, and move on...
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Opening September
We do have a pretty decent selection of items from across Ohio for our first update in September. Some of this we missed, some is new, and some of the items are updates of previous news items.
This is a long one, so get that scroll bar ready...
ANOTHER 33'ER EXITS: Just as we were marveling that Parkin Broadcasting ABC affiliate WYTV/33 Youngstown has kept much of its "look and feel" despite being swallowed into the New Vision/WKBN/WYFX universe, another key staffer has left.
And it's a big departure, as veteran sports director Bob Hannon puts away his sports hat to become president of the United Way of Youngstown. Hannon's on-air swan song was on Friday's 11 PM edition of the newscast still known as "33 News".
Hannon was a long-time fixture at WYTV. We don't have a length on his tenure there, but we know for sure his stint at 33 was at least two decades. He spent a large chunk of that time alongside "33 News" meteorologist Stan Boney - who now also doubles as news anchor.
Last time we looked, the WYTV newscast was still marketed and promoted separately from "27 First News", with the slogan "We Believe In This Valley".
And of course, WYTV's "MyYTV" MyNetwork TV sister channel (WYTV-DT 33.2 and on cable) is being promoted as "Your New Home For Sports", picking up many sports broadcasts that used to air on all three of the now-New Vision-operated stations.
One side effect of that new reality - we saw a Youngstown Vindicator ad for the MyYTV sports packages, which also noted that the "Player of the Week" would be featured on both "27 First News" and "First News on Fox".
And despite maintaining a separate identity and anchor team, it's almost a game to bounce back and forth between WKBN and WYTV, seeing local news packages filed by the same reporter run back to back between the stations (if you saw this report on WKBN just now, here it is again on WYTV!), or for that matter, seeing generic live shots airing live on both stations at the same time.
With all that, we wonder if New Vision will even name a new sports anchor solely for the 33 side of the house...
YET ANOTHER SPORTS FORMAT: OMW hears that locally-owned WFOB/1430 Fostoria has flipped formats, and is now running sports as a full-time ESPN Radio affiliate.
At this point, we're not altogether sure that WFOB even maintains a local morning drive show.
From what we're told, it would appear the last local morning show aired on 1430 last Friday, and we don't know what happened to the local news and other information components the station once aired (for both Fostoria and nearby Bowling Green)...if they've been folded into local breaks or such.
We tried to confirm this by dipping into WFOB's streaming audio, but we can't get it to play. If WFOB is now pretty much 24/7 ESPN Radio, the station likely had to take down the audio feed.
Outside morning drive, WFOB had been airing ABC/Citadel's "Timeless" 24/7 format, which emerged when the old "Stardust"/"Unforgettable Favorites" format was combined with the company's "Timeless Classics"/"Timeless Favorites" format. The resulting music mix could well be described as "standards/soft AC".
And that format still airs not that far away from Fostoria, now that BAS Broadcasting's WLEC/1450 Sandusky airs it...replacing the "SportsRadio Sandusky" format implemented by former owner Clear Channel...
NIGHTTIME IN ALLIANCE: The evening shift at D.A. Peterson top 40 WDJQ/92.5 "Q92" in the Canton market has now been filled by "Mo", who takes over as former nighttime personality Liz Custer exits for a job outside the area.
"Mo" lists Cumulus rock WWIZ/103.9 Mercer PA "Rock 104" (a Youngstown market rimshot) on his resume, along with a gig in Oklahoma City.
This information comes from the AllAccess folks, who also add to an earlier item we had...morning drive co-host Charlotte has also signed a contract extension to sit next to DeLuca through 2012, and aforementioned Mo has also inked a 3 year deal to stay on Smyth Avenue in Alliance.
(Someone get these people full names, and stat!)
ONE CONFIRMED DEPARTURE: Speaking of AllAccess, we noted their report that "several part-time and full-time staffers" are out at Cleveland's Radio One cluster, but we didn't have any confirmations or names here at the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm).
AA says they've confirmed one exit - Dan Zullo, who was production director for the company's urban AC WZAK/93.1 and gospel WJMO/1300.
If the name doesn't ring a bell, the AllAccess item reminds us that Zullo is perhaps better known by the air name "Tony Havana" - in a stint doing production and part-time on-air work at Clear Channel classic hits WMJI/105.7 and country WGAR/99.5.
Reach out to Dan via his voiceover business website, VoiceGalaxy...
TALK CHANGES IN TOLEDO: Matrix Media talk WNWT/1520 in the Toledo market is adding another name to its lineup of nationally syndicated talk hosts.
This time, it's Content Factory sports talker Dan Patrick who was set to debut Monday on the WNWT lineup.
Well, two hours of him. The Dan Patrick Show airs on 1520 from 5-7 PM, slicing one hour each out of shows hosted by United Stations' Lou Dobbs (now 3-5 PM) and Take On The Day's Dr. Laura Schlessinger (now 7-9 PM).
Over in this part of the state, former ESPN host Patrick airs in his live time slot, 9 AM-noon, on Clear Channel sports WARF/1350 "SportsRadio 1530" in Akron...
This is a long one, so get that scroll bar ready...
ANOTHER 33'ER EXITS: Just as we were marveling that Parkin Broadcasting ABC affiliate WYTV/33 Youngstown has kept much of its "look and feel" despite being swallowed into the New Vision/WKBN/WYFX universe, another key staffer has left.
And it's a big departure, as veteran sports director Bob Hannon puts away his sports hat to become president of the United Way of Youngstown. Hannon's on-air swan song was on Friday's 11 PM edition of the newscast still known as "33 News".
Hannon was a long-time fixture at WYTV. We don't have a length on his tenure there, but we know for sure his stint at 33 was at least two decades. He spent a large chunk of that time alongside "33 News" meteorologist Stan Boney - who now also doubles as news anchor.
Last time we looked, the WYTV newscast was still marketed and promoted separately from "27 First News", with the slogan "We Believe In This Valley".
And of course, WYTV's "MyYTV" MyNetwork TV sister channel (WYTV-DT 33.2 and on cable) is being promoted as "Your New Home For Sports", picking up many sports broadcasts that used to air on all three of the now-New Vision-operated stations.
One side effect of that new reality - we saw a Youngstown Vindicator ad for the MyYTV sports packages, which also noted that the "Player of the Week" would be featured on both "27 First News" and "First News on Fox".
And despite maintaining a separate identity and anchor team, it's almost a game to bounce back and forth between WKBN and WYTV, seeing local news packages filed by the same reporter run back to back between the stations (if you saw this report on WKBN just now, here it is again on WYTV!), or for that matter, seeing generic live shots airing live on both stations at the same time.
With all that, we wonder if New Vision will even name a new sports anchor solely for the 33 side of the house...
YET ANOTHER SPORTS FORMAT: OMW hears that locally-owned WFOB/1430 Fostoria has flipped formats, and is now running sports as a full-time ESPN Radio affiliate.
At this point, we're not altogether sure that WFOB even maintains a local morning drive show.
From what we're told, it would appear the last local morning show aired on 1430 last Friday, and we don't know what happened to the local news and other information components the station once aired (for both Fostoria and nearby Bowling Green)...if they've been folded into local breaks or such.
We tried to confirm this by dipping into WFOB's streaming audio, but we can't get it to play. If WFOB is now pretty much 24/7 ESPN Radio, the station likely had to take down the audio feed.
Outside morning drive, WFOB had been airing ABC/Citadel's "Timeless" 24/7 format, which emerged when the old "Stardust"/"Unforgettable Favorites" format was combined with the company's "Timeless Classics"/"Timeless Favorites" format. The resulting music mix could well be described as "standards/soft AC".
And that format still airs not that far away from Fostoria, now that BAS Broadcasting's WLEC/1450 Sandusky airs it...replacing the "SportsRadio Sandusky" format implemented by former owner Clear Channel...
NIGHTTIME IN ALLIANCE: The evening shift at D.A. Peterson top 40 WDJQ/92.5 "Q92" in the Canton market has now been filled by "Mo", who takes over as former nighttime personality Liz Custer exits for a job outside the area.
"Mo" lists Cumulus rock WWIZ/103.9 Mercer PA "Rock 104" (a Youngstown market rimshot) on his resume, along with a gig in Oklahoma City.
This information comes from the AllAccess folks, who also add to an earlier item we had...morning drive co-host Charlotte has also signed a contract extension to sit next to DeLuca through 2012, and aforementioned Mo has also inked a 3 year deal to stay on Smyth Avenue in Alliance.
(Someone get these people full names, and stat!)
ONE CONFIRMED DEPARTURE: Speaking of AllAccess, we noted their report that "several part-time and full-time staffers" are out at Cleveland's Radio One cluster, but we didn't have any confirmations or names here at the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm).
AA says they've confirmed one exit - Dan Zullo, who was production director for the company's urban AC WZAK/93.1 and gospel WJMO/1300.
If the name doesn't ring a bell, the AllAccess item reminds us that Zullo is perhaps better known by the air name "Tony Havana" - in a stint doing production and part-time on-air work at Clear Channel classic hits WMJI/105.7 and country WGAR/99.5.
Reach out to Dan via his voiceover business website, VoiceGalaxy...
TALK CHANGES IN TOLEDO: Matrix Media talk WNWT/1520 in the Toledo market is adding another name to its lineup of nationally syndicated talk hosts.
This time, it's Content Factory sports talker Dan Patrick who was set to debut Monday on the WNWT lineup.
Well, two hours of him. The Dan Patrick Show airs on 1520 from 5-7 PM, slicing one hour each out of shows hosted by United Stations' Lou Dobbs (now 3-5 PM) and Take On The Day's Dr. Laura Schlessinger (now 7-9 PM).
Over in this part of the state, former ESPN host Patrick airs in his live time slot, 9 AM-noon, on Clear Channel sports WARF/1350 "SportsRadio 1530" in Akron...
Monday, August 10, 2009
Monday Lunch
OK, so we're thinking of food as we get this late morning Monday update underway. Expect us to stop this from time to time as we raid our own kitchen...
SHE'S HERE: Imagine our surprise when OMW received a press release - directly - from Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 on its latest addition at "NewsChannel 5", assistant news director Roberta Petterson.
We got the full press treatment from WEWS, including a photo of Ms. Petterson.
Since we have the release, let's quote it:
WEWS NewsChannel 5 has named a Pittsburgh television executive as Assistant News Director. Roberta Petterson comes to WEWS from WTAE in Pittsburgh, where she also held the position of Assistant News Director. While there, she led WTAE’s newscast development, breaking news, investigative coverage and special projects.
“Roberta’s track record of success in guiding a dynamic news staff in a multiple-platform environment will enable NewsChannel 5 to continue to deliver Northeast Ohio’s leading news coverage,” said WEWS News Director Jill Manuel.
Petterson was responsible for WTAE’s coverage of last year’s Pennsylvania Primary and has played a key role in that station’s superior political coverage. Under Petterson’s leadership, WTAE’s investigative team won a Peabody and National IRE in 2008. She also won Murrow and Headliner awards for driving breaking news and big story coverage.
If this story sounds familiar to you, you're not dreaming...we broke news of this hiring over a month ago. (But we still appreciate the official release.)
Though we assume Ms. Petterson will be welcomed as a person and a new manager at 3001 Euclid, there has been some question within that building if a new assistant news director hire is a good idea in the current economic environment...in a world of hiring freezes, contract non-renewals and the like.
Our earlier item said Petterson would take her new role at WEWS on August 3rd.
As a note, WEWS parent Scripps just announced financial results that look like all the other big TV groups...according to this report from TVNewsCheck, the new name for the former TVNewsday trade site:
The E.W. Scripps Co. today reported second-quarter operating results for its television, newspaper, and licensing and syndication businesses. Revenue from the company's television stations was $61.1 million, a decrease of 24 percent from the second quarter of 2008.
You can almost predict TV revenue reports - they're all down roughly 20-30% from the same quarter in 2008...
YOUNGSTOWN TV CHANGES: As the New Vision stations in Youngstown prepare for Life After Bankruptcy, they're making some changes on the air.
New Vision-operated Parkin ABC affiliate WYTV/33 is leaving the 5 PM news game, as the company is no longer going to compete with itself at 5 for news viewers.
In what should be no surprise for a Youngstown media item, the information about this is from Andrea Wood and her Youngstown Business Journal:
As the operators of WKBN/WYFX and WYTV sail through bankruptcy reorganization with a hearing set for Sept. 10 to confirm the restructuring of $400 million in debt, local management today announced it will eliminate one newscast effective Sept. 21.
WYTV’s 5 p.m. weekday newscast will be replaced with a syndicated version of “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader,” says Dave Coy, general manager of the three TV stations. WYTV will continue to broadcast a local news program at 5:30 p.m., he notes.
There's a funny line in there, somewhere, about "Smarter Than a 5th Grader", but we'll let you come up with it in your own mind.
Since WYTV and WKBN are both operated by New Vision out of WKBN's long-time Sunset Boulevard home, it makes sense for the company not to mount two (semi-) different newscasts at the same time...as it hopes news viewers will stick with 27 at 5, and head for 33 if they're not looking for news.
Willl the move increase "27 First News"' ratings at 5 PM, as it would only have to compete with Vindicator NBC affiliate WFMJ/21 for news viewers at that half-hour? They hope so, we presume.
But along with others in that market, we wonder how long New Vision will attempt to differentiate news content between "First News" and "33 News" with different reporters...or if 27/33 will see Erie-style news simulcasting at some point.
The station does say that no jobs will be lost in the move, and says there are no expected job losses as a result of the New Vision bankruptcy filing...a Chapter 11 filng that came packaged with help from the company's lenders. Nominal WYTV owner Parkin Broadcasting - which got financial help from New Vision to buy WYTV - is in the same proverbial boat...
A BOOST: There haven't been many complaints from Cleveland over-air digital TV viewers about the 1000 kW signal from CW affiliate WBNX/55.
But the station got FCC approval for a slight upgrade back in July. (Heads up to reader Andrew for the FCC approval link, which we also missed earlier!)
The new construction permit calls for WBNX's antenna to move about 25 meters or so higher on its Parma tower, at the same 1000 kW power level.
As TV reception is as much about height as it is about power level, some WBNX viewers on the fringes of the signal could see some improvement.
But in the List of Local TV Station Reception Complaints, the local CW outlet is way below such former powerhouses as Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8, and a certain alleged CBS affiliate claiming to serve the Cleveland TV market...
AND ONE RADIO ITEM: Though it's firmly within the territory of our friends at Tri-State Media Watch, the word "Cleveland" is in there somewhere.
From John Kiesewetter's blog on the Cincinnati Enquirer's website:
Christian WAKW-FM (Star 93.3) has a new boss: Randy James has been hired as program director to replace Kurt Wallace, who left in April to a Christian station on the air in Indianapolis. James has worked for WVMX-FM in Cleveland, WMMX-FM in Dayton and KHMX-FM in Houston.
Assuming Mr. James did indeed work at "Mix 106.5" here, the call letters, of course, are WMVX, not WVMX. The latter calls, once in Cincinnati, are now on Saga's "Mix 107.9" in the Columbus market...
SHE'S HERE: Imagine our surprise when OMW received a press release - directly - from Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 on its latest addition at "NewsChannel 5", assistant news director Roberta Petterson.
We got the full press treatment from WEWS, including a photo of Ms. Petterson.
Since we have the release, let's quote it:
WEWS NewsChannel 5 has named a Pittsburgh television executive as Assistant News Director. Roberta Petterson comes to WEWS from WTAE in Pittsburgh, where she also held the position of Assistant News Director. While there, she led WTAE’s newscast development, breaking news, investigative coverage and special projects.“Roberta’s track record of success in guiding a dynamic news staff in a multiple-platform environment will enable NewsChannel 5 to continue to deliver Northeast Ohio’s leading news coverage,” said WEWS News Director Jill Manuel.
Petterson was responsible for WTAE’s coverage of last year’s Pennsylvania Primary and has played a key role in that station’s superior political coverage. Under Petterson’s leadership, WTAE’s investigative team won a Peabody and National IRE in 2008. She also won Murrow and Headliner awards for driving breaking news and big story coverage.
If this story sounds familiar to you, you're not dreaming...we broke news of this hiring over a month ago. (But we still appreciate the official release.)
Though we assume Ms. Petterson will be welcomed as a person and a new manager at 3001 Euclid, there has been some question within that building if a new assistant news director hire is a good idea in the current economic environment...in a world of hiring freezes, contract non-renewals and the like.
Our earlier item said Petterson would take her new role at WEWS on August 3rd.
As a note, WEWS parent Scripps just announced financial results that look like all the other big TV groups...according to this report from TVNewsCheck, the new name for the former TVNewsday trade site:
The E.W. Scripps Co. today reported second-quarter operating results for its television, newspaper, and licensing and syndication businesses. Revenue from the company's television stations was $61.1 million, a decrease of 24 percent from the second quarter of 2008.
You can almost predict TV revenue reports - they're all down roughly 20-30% from the same quarter in 2008...
YOUNGSTOWN TV CHANGES: As the New Vision stations in Youngstown prepare for Life After Bankruptcy, they're making some changes on the air.
New Vision-operated Parkin ABC affiliate WYTV/33 is leaving the 5 PM news game, as the company is no longer going to compete with itself at 5 for news viewers.
In what should be no surprise for a Youngstown media item, the information about this is from Andrea Wood and her Youngstown Business Journal:
As the operators of WKBN/WYFX and WYTV sail through bankruptcy reorganization with a hearing set for Sept. 10 to confirm the restructuring of $400 million in debt, local management today announced it will eliminate one newscast effective Sept. 21.
WYTV’s 5 p.m. weekday newscast will be replaced with a syndicated version of “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader,” says Dave Coy, general manager of the three TV stations. WYTV will continue to broadcast a local news program at 5:30 p.m., he notes.
There's a funny line in there, somewhere, about "Smarter Than a 5th Grader", but we'll let you come up with it in your own mind.
Since WYTV and WKBN are both operated by New Vision out of WKBN's long-time Sunset Boulevard home, it makes sense for the company not to mount two (semi-) different newscasts at the same time...as it hopes news viewers will stick with 27 at 5, and head for 33 if they're not looking for news.
Willl the move increase "27 First News"' ratings at 5 PM, as it would only have to compete with Vindicator NBC affiliate WFMJ/21 for news viewers at that half-hour? They hope so, we presume.
But along with others in that market, we wonder how long New Vision will attempt to differentiate news content between "First News" and "33 News" with different reporters...or if 27/33 will see Erie-style news simulcasting at some point.
The station does say that no jobs will be lost in the move, and says there are no expected job losses as a result of the New Vision bankruptcy filing...a Chapter 11 filng that came packaged with help from the company's lenders. Nominal WYTV owner Parkin Broadcasting - which got financial help from New Vision to buy WYTV - is in the same proverbial boat...
A BOOST: There haven't been many complaints from Cleveland over-air digital TV viewers about the 1000 kW signal from CW affiliate WBNX/55.
But the station got FCC approval for a slight upgrade back in July. (Heads up to reader Andrew for the FCC approval link, which we also missed earlier!)
The new construction permit calls for WBNX's antenna to move about 25 meters or so higher on its Parma tower, at the same 1000 kW power level.
As TV reception is as much about height as it is about power level, some WBNX viewers on the fringes of the signal could see some improvement.
But in the List of Local TV Station Reception Complaints, the local CW outlet is way below such former powerhouses as Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8, and a certain alleged CBS affiliate claiming to serve the Cleveland TV market...
AND ONE RADIO ITEM: Though it's firmly within the territory of our friends at Tri-State Media Watch, the word "Cleveland" is in there somewhere.
From John Kiesewetter's blog on the Cincinnati Enquirer's website:
Christian WAKW-FM (Star 93.3) has a new boss: Randy James has been hired as program director to replace Kurt Wallace, who left in April to a Christian station on the air in Indianapolis. James has worked for WVMX-FM in Cleveland, WMMX-FM in Dayton and KHMX-FM in Houston.
Assuming Mr. James did indeed work at "Mix 106.5" here, the call letters, of course, are WMVX, not WVMX. The latter calls, once in Cincinnati, are now on Saga's "Mix 107.9" in the Columbus market...
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Two More Outer Area Items
Our apologies if OMW is looking like Columbus And Youngstown Media Watch lately, but that's the bulk of what's been going on in Ohio the past two to three days.
Just as a teaser, though...early next week, we'll have a little more from a long-time Cleveland radio personality now "on the beach" - and no, we don't mean literally "on the beach" these days...
WIPING OUT A TRANSLATOR: Everyone knew that the move of Clear Channel country WMRN-FM/106.9 to the Columbus market, and the station's frequency move to 106.7/Dublin, would push a translator on that frequency off the air.
The translator has been owned by Sandyworld, Inc., one of the two organizations that filed repeated moves to try to stop the WMRN-FM move-in.
That effort being unsuccessful, and the station getting a construction permit for the move, the Sandyworld folks continued to try to derail the move as recently as a week before it actually happened.
Listeners in the Columbus market tell OMW that the Sandyworld translator did NOT go off the air when WMRN-FM's new signal lit up, causing some interference problems in the general area of the translator's existing location.
We don't know for sure, but we believe the translator gave up at some point, and signed off.
But the WMRN-FM move didn't just affect that facility.
OMW has heard from more than one reader that the new Clear Channel full-power 106.7 facility, currently stunting with TV theme songs, has wiped out another existing 106.7 translator - a 13 watt station that relays Columbus City School district outlet WCBE/90.5 in the Central Ohio city of Newark.
We've put in an inquiry to the WCBE folks, but haven't heard back yet.
But for those writing us: Basically, in FCC-land, FM translators are considered a "secondary service".
If a full-power station wins approval to set up a new or changed signal, the translator is basically required to move or shut off. Period.
And though WCBE is certainly providing a needed radio service to the Newark area, which would presumably be on the fringe of the 90.5 signal out of Columbus, when WMRN-FM got the construction permit for 106.7/Dublin, WCBE had no protection legally to prevent it from happening.
We're assuming that WCBE will seek a new frequency for the Newark translator, though a quick check of FCC records doesn't show it applying for such a frequency. (If they aren't looking to do so, maybe they should...in just the past two days, we've had two non-regular readers apparently plug the "WMRN" calls into Google and find us, just to read or complain about this issue.)
But again - that's a move/decision the Columbus school district will have to make, and they've better hurry. The aforementioned FCC check shows a boatload of translator applications pending in Newark, dating back to 2003, meaning they'll have a lot of competition for a new spot on the Newark dial...
AND NOW ON THE LIFEBOAT, THE GENERAL MANAGER: In what's really not a surprise to most observers, the general manager of Parkin ABC affiliate WYTV/33 Youngstown is himself heading out the door.
Dave Trabert had dutifully passed on the, umm, stuff that the station's new management had fed him about the future of the market's third-ranked outlet under a rather thinly developed company, amid reports and rumblings from sources such as the Youngstown Business Journal, and of course, this very blog.
The Business Journal reports this weekend that Trabert says "it's time to go home" - home being Wichita, Kansas, where he ran KAKE-TV until coming to WYTV four years ago. His family apparently still lives in Wichita, even to this day.
As for the "body count" of job losses at WYTV after Friday's ultimatum, the Business Journal's Andrea Wood reports that "about 40" of the ABC affiliate's 70 employee roster won't be staying on with the moved Channel 33 operation, including eight of the 28 newsroom staffers. She reports that engineering staffers took the hardest hit in the round of cuts.
As expected, anchors Vince Bevacqua and Gina Marinelli won't be making the move to the WKBN/WYFX facility. Marinelli used to work there, of course.
WKBN/WYFX will make a similar personnel move next Friday.
Then, WYTV will take the weekend of December 8th and 9th to make the move, with 33's newscasts going dark that weekend in favor of syndicated programming.
Wood reports that the moved WYTV newscasts will retain the station's current "look and feel", but will share "newsgathering resources" with the WKBN/WYFX newsroom, with some combination of the WYTV and WKBN/WYFX news staffers producing similar content for both operations. (Remember, the latter folks are also expected to see similar job cuts next Friday.)
Will they buy reporters 3-station microphone flags, or just go without?
And Wood also reports that Ms. Marinelli, exiting as anchor at WYTV, is apparently lobbying for an open anchor slot on the only Youngstown station not involved in all this, Vindicator NBC affiliate WFMJ/21. That move would mean that she'd be one of the few local TV personalities seen on every commercial outlet in the market...
Just as a teaser, though...early next week, we'll have a little more from a long-time Cleveland radio personality now "on the beach" - and no, we don't mean literally "on the beach" these days...
WIPING OUT A TRANSLATOR: Everyone knew that the move of Clear Channel country WMRN-FM/106.9 to the Columbus market, and the station's frequency move to 106.7/Dublin, would push a translator on that frequency off the air.
The translator has been owned by Sandyworld, Inc., one of the two organizations that filed repeated moves to try to stop the WMRN-FM move-in.
That effort being unsuccessful, and the station getting a construction permit for the move, the Sandyworld folks continued to try to derail the move as recently as a week before it actually happened.
Listeners in the Columbus market tell OMW that the Sandyworld translator did NOT go off the air when WMRN-FM's new signal lit up, causing some interference problems in the general area of the translator's existing location.
We don't know for sure, but we believe the translator gave up at some point, and signed off.
But the WMRN-FM move didn't just affect that facility.
OMW has heard from more than one reader that the new Clear Channel full-power 106.7 facility, currently stunting with TV theme songs, has wiped out another existing 106.7 translator - a 13 watt station that relays Columbus City School district outlet WCBE/90.5 in the Central Ohio city of Newark.
We've put in an inquiry to the WCBE folks, but haven't heard back yet.
But for those writing us: Basically, in FCC-land, FM translators are considered a "secondary service".
If a full-power station wins approval to set up a new or changed signal, the translator is basically required to move or shut off. Period.
And though WCBE is certainly providing a needed radio service to the Newark area, which would presumably be on the fringe of the 90.5 signal out of Columbus, when WMRN-FM got the construction permit for 106.7/Dublin, WCBE had no protection legally to prevent it from happening.
We're assuming that WCBE will seek a new frequency for the Newark translator, though a quick check of FCC records doesn't show it applying for such a frequency. (If they aren't looking to do so, maybe they should...in just the past two days, we've had two non-regular readers apparently plug the "WMRN" calls into Google and find us, just to read or complain about this issue.)
But again - that's a move/decision the Columbus school district will have to make, and they've better hurry. The aforementioned FCC check shows a boatload of translator applications pending in Newark, dating back to 2003, meaning they'll have a lot of competition for a new spot on the Newark dial...
AND NOW ON THE LIFEBOAT, THE GENERAL MANAGER: In what's really not a surprise to most observers, the general manager of Parkin ABC affiliate WYTV/33 Youngstown is himself heading out the door.
Dave Trabert had dutifully passed on the, umm, stuff that the station's new management had fed him about the future of the market's third-ranked outlet under a rather thinly developed company, amid reports and rumblings from sources such as the Youngstown Business Journal, and of course, this very blog.
The Business Journal reports this weekend that Trabert says "it's time to go home" - home being Wichita, Kansas, where he ran KAKE-TV until coming to WYTV four years ago. His family apparently still lives in Wichita, even to this day.
As for the "body count" of job losses at WYTV after Friday's ultimatum, the Business Journal's Andrea Wood reports that "about 40" of the ABC affiliate's 70 employee roster won't be staying on with the moved Channel 33 operation, including eight of the 28 newsroom staffers. She reports that engineering staffers took the hardest hit in the round of cuts.
As expected, anchors Vince Bevacqua and Gina Marinelli won't be making the move to the WKBN/WYFX facility. Marinelli used to work there, of course.
WKBN/WYFX will make a similar personnel move next Friday.
Then, WYTV will take the weekend of December 8th and 9th to make the move, with 33's newscasts going dark that weekend in favor of syndicated programming.
Wood reports that the moved WYTV newscasts will retain the station's current "look and feel", but will share "newsgathering resources" with the WKBN/WYFX newsroom, with some combination of the WYTV and WKBN/WYFX news staffers producing similar content for both operations. (Remember, the latter folks are also expected to see similar job cuts next Friday.)
Will they buy reporters 3-station microphone flags, or just go without?
And Wood also reports that Ms. Marinelli, exiting as anchor at WYTV, is apparently lobbying for an open anchor slot on the only Youngstown station not involved in all this, Vindicator NBC affiliate WFMJ/21. That move would mean that she'd be one of the few local TV personalities seen on every commercial outlet in the market...
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Midweek Potpourri
Here we go, again...as our list of items continues to grow...
C-BUS TO DETROIT: OMW hears that Clear Channel Columbus top 40 WNCI/97.9-AC WLZT/93.3 program director Michael McCoy is heading to Michigan, and not to watch the Buckeyes play the Wolverines.
McCoy is heading for a new job at Clear Channel sister top 40 outlet WKQI/95.5 "Channel 95-5" in Detroit. We hear his last day will be this Friday.
Back in Columbus, OMW hears about the temporary shuffle to fill-in for the exiting McCoy, which takes place starting Monday.
1) WBWR/105.7 "The Brew"-WRXS/106.7 "Radio 106.7" programmer Laura Lee will take over as interim program director at WNCI, in addition to her current work.
2) Country WCOL/92.3-CC Columbus cluster programmer John Crenshaw adds interim PD duties at WLZT.
3) "Daveman" will add music duties at WBWR, in addition to his role as the cluster's online content director.
4) Former WTVN/610 midday talker (and still primary fill-in host) Joel Riley adds the WBWR "Brew" morning drive shift to his current work on WTVN and WLZT.
We hear that the station's search for McCoy's replacement starts "immediately", and that the above list of changes is only in place until a new programmer is found...
WOOF, THEY'RE ON TV: Here at your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), we generally studiously avoid giving a lot of digital ink to radio or TV promotional events...unless there's some reason to write about them.
Thus, not a word was written about Clear Channel rock/talk WMMS/100.7's "Roverfest" over the weekend, though we were certainly aware of it, and it has apparently grown to some size.
The show passed along a "recap" to us earlier this week, and we'll note one item - "Roverfest" was videotaped in HDTV format, and a program about the event will air on the cable network "MavTV".
That should ring a bell or two here, as MavTV is the young male-oriented HDTV network recently added to the Time Warner Cable lineup, roughly about the time that Mark Cuban's HDNet and HDMovies were yanked.
We haven't watched much of it, but MavTV seems like it's a 24 hour version of HDNet's late night "guy" shows hosted by one Art Mann. The station's on-air logo features a silhouette of a curvy, bikini-clad woman...need we say more?
Anyway, MavTV's aiming at the same young-drooling-male-swilling-brew demographic that's home to many "Rover's Morning Glory" listeners, so it'll probably be a good fit...
SPEAKING OF PROMOTIONAL EVENTS: Scripps Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS/5 certainly has enough promotional muscle, between its on-air signal and the NewsNet5 website, to drum up votes... so we declined to mention this before the voting ended.
The station has been pushing for morning anchors Kimberly Gill and Pete Kenworthy to be granted a spot guest hosting on the syndicated talk show "Live with Regis and Kelly", as part of that show's own promotion. Of course, Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa's daily show airs on - wow, what a surprise! - WEWS.
(Well, we didn't expect WJW's Stefani Schaefer to be in the running, or WKYC's Mark Finan, or whoever does mornings on a certain CBS affiliate at Reserve Square. It's an affiliate promotional event, not a real contest.)
As such promotions go, best of luck to Kimberly and Pete, who seem well suited to take the promotional gig...
SPEAKING OF TV SIGNALS: A reader passes along a tip that Parkin Broadcasting ABC affiliate WYTV/33 Youngstown has officially received FCC approval to build its 1000 kW full-power digital TV facility.
But, can the station afford to build it out?
WYTV has lagged far behind the market's three other full-power stations in terms of power levels. Until now, WYTV-DT RF 36 has been broadcasting with a quite-less-than-impressive 50 (!) kW power level. That may be enough to get its signal to Warren, on a good day.
The new facility won't instantly turn WYTV into the market's strongest signal, we're told. It is licensed for just 177 meters above average terrain, just a bit higher up the tower than the current facility.
New Vision now-LMA sister station WKBN-DT RF 41's signal is running with just slightly less power (700 kW), but the digital antenna is much higher above average terrain - somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 meters high. We're not sure if it'll land at 384 meters or 418 meters, based on its applications.
The low-slung WYTV digital antenna may be fine within the station's market area - the immediate Mahoning Valley - but those of us in neighboring markets like Cleveland and Pittsburgh may have more difficulty trying to catch the new facility.
Well, at least receiving a digital signal over air from this market's ABC affiliate (WEWS) is not a problem for the most part...unlike the CBS and Fox affiliates.
Anyway, you'll note that we said "can the station afford to build it out?"
WYTV's ownership is now officially listed as "PBC Broadcasting of Youngstown, LLC, Debtor-in-Possession"...with Parkin Broadcasting and its entities filing for bankruptcy earlier this month...along with the filing by WKBN/WYFX LMA partner New Vision, which we already reported.
Maybe they've already budgeted for the WYTV power increase, and it'll happen as scheduled...
AND MORE: And stay tuned to your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) later today, for some more items, including the story of a retirement party for a local TV veteran in Cleveland...
C-BUS TO DETROIT: OMW hears that Clear Channel Columbus top 40 WNCI/97.9-AC WLZT/93.3 program director Michael McCoy is heading to Michigan, and not to watch the Buckeyes play the Wolverines.
McCoy is heading for a new job at Clear Channel sister top 40 outlet WKQI/95.5 "Channel 95-5" in Detroit. We hear his last day will be this Friday.
Back in Columbus, OMW hears about the temporary shuffle to fill-in for the exiting McCoy, which takes place starting Monday.
1) WBWR/105.7 "The Brew"-WRXS/106.7 "Radio 106.7" programmer Laura Lee will take over as interim program director at WNCI, in addition to her current work.
2) Country WCOL/92.3-CC Columbus cluster programmer John Crenshaw adds interim PD duties at WLZT.
3) "Daveman" will add music duties at WBWR, in addition to his role as the cluster's online content director.
4) Former WTVN/610 midday talker (and still primary fill-in host) Joel Riley adds the WBWR "Brew" morning drive shift to his current work on WTVN and WLZT.
We hear that the station's search for McCoy's replacement starts "immediately", and that the above list of changes is only in place until a new programmer is found...
WOOF, THEY'RE ON TV: Here at your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), we generally studiously avoid giving a lot of digital ink to radio or TV promotional events...unless there's some reason to write about them.
Thus, not a word was written about Clear Channel rock/talk WMMS/100.7's "Roverfest" over the weekend, though we were certainly aware of it, and it has apparently grown to some size.
The show passed along a "recap" to us earlier this week, and we'll note one item - "Roverfest" was videotaped in HDTV format, and a program about the event will air on the cable network "MavTV".
That should ring a bell or two here, as MavTV is the young male-oriented HDTV network recently added to the Time Warner Cable lineup, roughly about the time that Mark Cuban's HDNet and HDMovies were yanked.
We haven't watched much of it, but MavTV seems like it's a 24 hour version of HDNet's late night "guy" shows hosted by one Art Mann. The station's on-air logo features a silhouette of a curvy, bikini-clad woman...need we say more?
Anyway, MavTV's aiming at the same young-drooling-male-swilling-brew demographic that's home to many "Rover's Morning Glory" listeners, so it'll probably be a good fit...
SPEAKING OF PROMOTIONAL EVENTS: Scripps Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS/5 certainly has enough promotional muscle, between its on-air signal and the NewsNet5 website, to drum up votes... so we declined to mention this before the voting ended.
The station has been pushing for morning anchors Kimberly Gill and Pete Kenworthy to be granted a spot guest hosting on the syndicated talk show "Live with Regis and Kelly", as part of that show's own promotion. Of course, Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa's daily show airs on - wow, what a surprise! - WEWS.
(Well, we didn't expect WJW's Stefani Schaefer to be in the running, or WKYC's Mark Finan, or whoever does mornings on a certain CBS affiliate at Reserve Square. It's an affiliate promotional event, not a real contest.)
As such promotions go, best of luck to Kimberly and Pete, who seem well suited to take the promotional gig...
SPEAKING OF TV SIGNALS: A reader passes along a tip that Parkin Broadcasting ABC affiliate WYTV/33 Youngstown has officially received FCC approval to build its 1000 kW full-power digital TV facility.
But, can the station afford to build it out?
WYTV has lagged far behind the market's three other full-power stations in terms of power levels. Until now, WYTV-DT RF 36 has been broadcasting with a quite-less-than-impressive 50 (!) kW power level. That may be enough to get its signal to Warren, on a good day.
The new facility won't instantly turn WYTV into the market's strongest signal, we're told. It is licensed for just 177 meters above average terrain, just a bit higher up the tower than the current facility.
New Vision now-LMA sister station WKBN-DT RF 41's signal is running with just slightly less power (700 kW), but the digital antenna is much higher above average terrain - somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 meters high. We're not sure if it'll land at 384 meters or 418 meters, based on its applications.
The low-slung WYTV digital antenna may be fine within the station's market area - the immediate Mahoning Valley - but those of us in neighboring markets like Cleveland and Pittsburgh may have more difficulty trying to catch the new facility.
Well, at least receiving a digital signal over air from this market's ABC affiliate (WEWS) is not a problem for the most part...unlike the CBS and Fox affiliates.
Anyway, you'll note that we said "can the station afford to build it out?"
WYTV's ownership is now officially listed as "PBC Broadcasting of Youngstown, LLC, Debtor-in-Possession"...with Parkin Broadcasting and its entities filing for bankruptcy earlier this month...along with the filing by WKBN/WYFX LMA partner New Vision, which we already reported.
Maybe they've already budgeted for the WYTV power increase, and it'll happen as scheduled...
AND MORE: And stay tuned to your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) later today, for some more items, including the story of a retirement party for a local TV veteran in Cleveland...
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Escape From Youngstown TV
Just days after WYTV/33 news director Pat Livingston announced his move to Toledo's WNWO/24 - in the wake of pending changes at the Youngstown ABC affiliate that could decimate that station's newsroom - two other bombshells have dropped.
If CBS affiliate WKBN-TV/27 begins producting news content for WYTV in that FCC-tipped "shared services agreement" filed by new WYTV owner Parkin Broadcasting, you won't be seeing "27 First News" mainstays Robb Schmidt and Sarah Eisler on 33.
You won't even see them on WKBN or sister FOX outlet WYFX, either, because the anchors are both on their way out the door, period.
The Youngstown Business Journal's Andrea Wood reports that Schmidt announced his resignation late Wednesday, and will anchor his final newscasts on April 6th. Eisler put in her own resignation earlier, and will leave the "First News" main anchor team on March 30th.
One almost pictures the two anchors running out the door with their hair on fire.
We're talking two unusual operators here, after all.
New Vision Television, the new owners of WKBN-TV and sister FOX outlet WYFX "FOX 17/62", has owned stations in other markets, and our impression is that they didn't exactly spend money. And Parkin will not likely be running its own newsroom when it takes over WYTV.
If you're expecting a large newsroom with "the best of WKBN and WYTV" when all this is done, you're probably an optimist.
Careful...if you walk by either WKBN/WYFX or WYTV, you're likely to be hit by dozens of flying resumes and videotapes...
If CBS affiliate WKBN-TV/27 begins producting news content for WYTV in that FCC-tipped "shared services agreement" filed by new WYTV owner Parkin Broadcasting, you won't be seeing "27 First News" mainstays Robb Schmidt and Sarah Eisler on 33.
You won't even see them on WKBN or sister FOX outlet WYFX, either, because the anchors are both on their way out the door, period.
The Youngstown Business Journal's Andrea Wood reports that Schmidt announced his resignation late Wednesday, and will anchor his final newscasts on April 6th. Eisler put in her own resignation earlier, and will leave the "First News" main anchor team on March 30th.
One almost pictures the two anchors running out the door with their hair on fire.
We're talking two unusual operators here, after all.
New Vision Television, the new owners of WKBN-TV and sister FOX outlet WYFX "FOX 17/62", has owned stations in other markets, and our impression is that they didn't exactly spend money. And Parkin will not likely be running its own newsroom when it takes over WYTV.
If you're expecting a large newsroom with "the best of WKBN and WYTV" when all this is done, you're probably an optimist.
Careful...if you walk by either WKBN/WYFX or WYTV, you're likely to be hit by dozens of flying resumes and videotapes...
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
BREAKING NEWS: Channel 33 Life Boats Begin Newsroom Evacuation
And the first one out the door at Youngstown ABC affiliate WYTV/33 is...news director Pat Livingston.
OMW hears via the folks at NewsBlues that Livingston stays in the state, taking the open ND post at Barrington Broadcasting NBC affiliate WNWO/24 "NBC 24" Toledo.
Our headline, of course, refers to the fact that Livingston is exiting WYTV before he, and likely the entire station newsroom staff, will be pushed out the door.
Most market observers expect that a planned "shared services" agreement between the incoming owner of WYTV, and the new owner of CBS/FOX combo WKBN/27-WYFX "FOX 17/62", will mean the end of the separate news operation at WYTV's Shady Run Road headquarters.
WYTV has pretty much been the third-rated TV newsroom in Youngstown for as long as we can remember, even after Vindicator's WFMJ/21 supplanted "27 First News" as the most popular news operation in the market.
And though we have a limited grasp on the Toledo market, we're pretty sure WNWO is a perennial third-place newsroom behind Raycom CBS affiliate WTOL/11 and ABC O&O WTVG/13. Of course, Raycom once owned WNWO, before it had to spin the station to Barrington after the deal to acquire WTOL.
At "NBC 24", Livingston will replace Jonathan Mitchell, who moved to KHQ/Spokane...
OMW hears via the folks at NewsBlues that Livingston stays in the state, taking the open ND post at Barrington Broadcasting NBC affiliate WNWO/24 "NBC 24" Toledo.
Our headline, of course, refers to the fact that Livingston is exiting WYTV before he, and likely the entire station newsroom staff, will be pushed out the door.
Most market observers expect that a planned "shared services" agreement between the incoming owner of WYTV, and the new owner of CBS/FOX combo WKBN/27-WYFX "FOX 17/62", will mean the end of the separate news operation at WYTV's Shady Run Road headquarters.
WYTV has pretty much been the third-rated TV newsroom in Youngstown for as long as we can remember, even after Vindicator's WFMJ/21 supplanted "27 First News" as the most popular news operation in the market.
And though we have a limited grasp on the Toledo market, we're pretty sure WNWO is a perennial third-place newsroom behind Raycom CBS affiliate WTOL/11 and ABC O&O WTVG/13. Of course, Raycom once owned WNWO, before it had to spin the station to Barrington after the deal to acquire WTOL.
At "NBC 24", Livingston will replace Jonathan Mitchell, who moved to KHQ/Spokane...
Thursday, July 17, 2008
WYTV Files For Full DTV Signal
We've often wondered here why Youngstown ABC affiliate WYTV/33 seemed happy with its anemic, 50 KW licensed digital TV signal - which we believed would become the station's primary signal on February 17th of next year.
They apparently weren't happy, after all.
WYTV owner Parkin Broadcasting has filed to maximize the WYTV-DT (RF 36) signal after the digital transition to 1000 KW, which would move it from the outhouse to the penthouse signal wise.
The increase, if granted, would give WYTV the most powerful digital signal in the Youngstown television market (at least by wattage), surpassing now-sister-via-New Vision-LMA WKBN-DT's 700 KW and Vindicator's WFMJ-DT at 460 KW...
They apparently weren't happy, after all.
WYTV owner Parkin Broadcasting has filed to maximize the WYTV-DT (RF 36) signal after the digital transition to 1000 KW, which would move it from the outhouse to the penthouse signal wise.
The increase, if granted, would give WYTV the most powerful digital signal in the Youngstown television market (at least by wattage), surpassing now-sister-via-New Vision-LMA WKBN-DT's 700 KW and Vindicator's WFMJ-DT at 460 KW...
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Thursday Stuff
And unlike our last update, most of this is not related...
THIS PORTION OF OUR ITEM IS PAID PROGRAMMING: No, not really. We don't have an ad sales department here at the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm).
But Raycom Media is at it again in Cleveland.
Numerous readers let us know that the company's CBS affiliate, WOIO/19, pre-empted an hour of CBS prime-time programming Wednesday night from 8-9 PM for...paid programming. Infomercials. You know them. (We'd love to know what they actually aired.)
The paid spots bumped two episodes of the popular CBS comedy "The King of Queens" off the WOIO schedule in favor of quick cash for Reserve Square.
OK, let's come down a BIT off the high horse here.
"The King of Queens" is well into reruns for the summer. The sitcom aired its final first-run episode, if we remember right, a month or two back. The two reruns are basically summer filler on the network's own schedule.
But...at least "KoQ" would have viewers, even if people had already seen the episodes.
As we've said before, we understand the modern reality of television financing. Infomercials are basically "free money", and occupy much of the weekend late morning/early afternoon schedule on nearly all local stations.
But CBS prime time?!?
Rerun or not, the practice seems rather cheap to us. It sounds like something a company like Raycom would do.
No, wait...they have, already. Sound familiar?
Yep, sister station WUAB/43, then a UPN affiliate, did the same a year ago on a Saturday night. But 1) UPN isn't CBS (nor is MyNetwork TV, either) and B) UPN did not program Saturdays.
Now, this is not 100 percent new, and is not something only Raycom does, even in the Cleveland market.
We believe it's Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 that occasionally clears out an hour for the Billy Graham Crusade, and Channel 5 and other local stations have pre-empted generic network made-for-TV movies from time to time to burn off old show reruns ("Matlock") to get some extra cash by selling more local spots.
It just seems a little, well, more unseemly when WOIO/WUAB do it. And we don't know what got sold at 8 PM and 8:30 PM Wednesday on "Cleveland's CBS 19", but we'd assume they were rather generic infomercials. At least Rev. Graham gets viewers...
AND NOT AN INFOMERCIAL: As far as we know, at least...
We've heard radio spots and seen brief TV promos for a program that'll air this Saturday at 7 PM on Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3.
The show is called "Lake Erie: Beyond The Surface", and the brief radio commercial we heard promises an in-depth look - literally - at the lake and its eco-structure. We believe we heard it called a "series".
And what perked up our technology-loving ears?
Channel 3 is producing "Lake Erie: Beyond The Surface" in HDTV.
This would be one of the first regular non-news/non-sports local TV presentations in HD, if we remember right. We'll be tuned in, and expect to hear more from the one and only Frank Macek, WKYC senior director and author of the station's "Director's Cut" blog... link to your left!
NOT SMOOTH SAILING: If a headline on the website of the Youngstown Business Journal is to be believed, the move to sell at least one Youngstown TV station is "stalled" at the FCC.
We'll assume that's ABC affiliate WYTV/33, since the transfers of CBS affiliate WKBN/27 and sister LPTV duo WYFX-LP/62-WFXI-CA/17 have already been made to New Vision Television, the outfit that started all this.
Earlier this year, a new outfit called Parkin Television, headed by Todd Parkin of Los Angeles, filed to buy WYTV. That wasn't the controversial part.
The controversial part was part of the WYTV license transfer application, which indicated that the new licensee intended to enter a "Shared Services Agreement" with WKBN/New Vision, the ultimate presumably to utilize WKBN to produce/help produce/somehow put together news for WYTV.
We aren't a Business Journal subscriber, online or otherwise, so we'll quote the front of the website:
As License Transfer Stalls at FCC,
Stations’ Employees Ask, What’s Up?
June 27, 2007 7:14 a.m.
Commentary by Andrea Wood
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – What’s the real story?
Don’t ask the employees of WYTV or WKBN/WYFX because they know only what they’re told – and the stories they’re hearing are not the same.
Confused? So are they.
Employees of media outlets getting mixed signals from management and ownership? Why, we never...
THIS PORTION OF OUR ITEM IS PAID PROGRAMMING: No, not really. We don't have an ad sales department here at the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm).
But Raycom Media is at it again in Cleveland.
Numerous readers let us know that the company's CBS affiliate, WOIO/19, pre-empted an hour of CBS prime-time programming Wednesday night from 8-9 PM for...paid programming. Infomercials. You know them. (We'd love to know what they actually aired.)
The paid spots bumped two episodes of the popular CBS comedy "The King of Queens" off the WOIO schedule in favor of quick cash for Reserve Square.
OK, let's come down a BIT off the high horse here.
"The King of Queens" is well into reruns for the summer. The sitcom aired its final first-run episode, if we remember right, a month or two back. The two reruns are basically summer filler on the network's own schedule.
But...at least "KoQ" would have viewers, even if people had already seen the episodes.
As we've said before, we understand the modern reality of television financing. Infomercials are basically "free money", and occupy much of the weekend late morning/early afternoon schedule on nearly all local stations.
But CBS prime time?!?
Rerun or not, the practice seems rather cheap to us. It sounds like something a company like Raycom would do.
No, wait...they have, already. Sound familiar?
Yep, sister station WUAB/43, then a UPN affiliate, did the same a year ago on a Saturday night. But 1) UPN isn't CBS (nor is MyNetwork TV, either) and B) UPN did not program Saturdays.
Now, this is not 100 percent new, and is not something only Raycom does, even in the Cleveland market.
We believe it's Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 that occasionally clears out an hour for the Billy Graham Crusade, and Channel 5 and other local stations have pre-empted generic network made-for-TV movies from time to time to burn off old show reruns ("Matlock") to get some extra cash by selling more local spots.
It just seems a little, well, more unseemly when WOIO/WUAB do it. And we don't know what got sold at 8 PM and 8:30 PM Wednesday on "Cleveland's CBS 19", but we'd assume they were rather generic infomercials. At least Rev. Graham gets viewers...
AND NOT AN INFOMERCIAL: As far as we know, at least...
We've heard radio spots and seen brief TV promos for a program that'll air this Saturday at 7 PM on Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3.
The show is called "Lake Erie: Beyond The Surface", and the brief radio commercial we heard promises an in-depth look - literally - at the lake and its eco-structure. We believe we heard it called a "series".
And what perked up our technology-loving ears?
Channel 3 is producing "Lake Erie: Beyond The Surface" in HDTV.
This would be one of the first regular non-news/non-sports local TV presentations in HD, if we remember right. We'll be tuned in, and expect to hear more from the one and only Frank Macek, WKYC senior director and author of the station's "Director's Cut" blog... link to your left!
NOT SMOOTH SAILING: If a headline on the website of the Youngstown Business Journal is to be believed, the move to sell at least one Youngstown TV station is "stalled" at the FCC.
We'll assume that's ABC affiliate WYTV/33, since the transfers of CBS affiliate WKBN/27 and sister LPTV duo WYFX-LP/62-WFXI-CA/17 have already been made to New Vision Television, the outfit that started all this.
Earlier this year, a new outfit called Parkin Television, headed by Todd Parkin of Los Angeles, filed to buy WYTV. That wasn't the controversial part.
The controversial part was part of the WYTV license transfer application, which indicated that the new licensee intended to enter a "Shared Services Agreement" with WKBN/New Vision, the ultimate presumably to utilize WKBN to produce/help produce/somehow put together news for WYTV.
We aren't a Business Journal subscriber, online or otherwise, so we'll quote the front of the website:
As License Transfer Stalls at FCC,
Stations’ Employees Ask, What’s Up?
June 27, 2007 7:14 a.m.
Commentary by Andrea Wood
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – What’s the real story?
Don’t ask the employees of WYTV or WKBN/WYFX because they know only what they’re told – and the stories they’re hearing are not the same.
Confused? So are they.
Employees of media outlets getting mixed signals from management and ownership? Why, we never...
Friday, March 20, 2009
Our Friday Menu
And for those who are curious, the Thursday night menu was a pair of coney dogs from a nearby local outdoor drive-in restaurant...the business' opening a sure sign of spring in Northeast Ohio.
We can get Sonic chili dogs 12 months a year in Streetsboro, but these ones only from March through November...
NOT SO FAST, OMW: At the moment, we'd like to pull back on the back patting a bit.
In one of our Thursday items, we poured on the self-congratulation for correctly predicting the disposition of ABC Radio Networks' "Paul Harvey News" time slots, with former Republican presidential candidate/former Arkansas governor/Fox News Channel weekend host Mike Huckabee's existing "Huckabee Report" commentaries being fed down the old Paul Harvey satellite feed starting on Monday.
Notice that we said "being fed down".
That's similar language to what ABC Radio used when talking about what ended up being two week fill-in stints by KGO/San Francisco host and ABC News Radio veteran Gil Gross, and ABC News Radio Information Network anchor Doug Limerick.
So, will Huckabee's 5 minute commentaries continue to be fed down to Paul Harvey News' existing affiliate base for the long term, or is there more?
Thanks to a Friend of OMW, we got a look at the rest of what Inside Radio had to say on the topic. Some sample quotes:
A spokesman tells Inside Radio the network expects to have announcements about other personalities.
Our friends at AllAccess, who actually slipped this story "under the wire" late Wednesday night (we missed it), offer this:
With HUCKABEE's segments shorter than the standard HARVEY time slot, ABC will be offering additional short-form news features to be disclosed shortly.
That's one-third right. Huckabee's segments are all five minutes long, including commercial inventory.
The only former Harvey segment that doesn't match that time is the 15 minute "Noon Visit"...and we've speculated here that stations will probably start dropping that no matter what is offered in Mr. Harvey's place, due to the archaic nature of such a long "short form" feature.
(We noted here earlier that even ABC/Citadel itself already dumped the "Noon Visit" on two of its major market stations after Harvey's passing - to make room for full three-hour mid-morning clearances for the network's Joe Scarborough on WABC/770 New York, and for local host Frank Beckmann on Detroit's WJR/760.)
Time-wise, the five minute morning and afternoon drive editions of "The Huckabee Report" require no extra fill vs. the former Paul Harvey News time slots.
So, who are these "other people" and what role may thay play in ABC Radio's post-Paul Harvey world?
Quoting Inside Radio again:
There’s still no word on whether Paul Harvey Jr. will have a role. A network rep says, “He may have interest in returning to radio, but it’s not something he’s prepared to give an answer to today.”
Will ABC Radio's Life After Paul Harvey consist of offering Gov. Huckabee to stations in morning drive and middays, and eventually (assuming he wants to do it) offering Paul Harvey Jr.'s own "Rest of the Story" segments again? Remember, the Younger Harvey has both written and voiced that segment in recent years.
It sounds like as good a guess as any we've made. We don't see Gross or Limerick interested in a future role, and wouldn't put money on Dallas-based Ron Chapman returning to the former Harvey syndication.
BTW, with former Paul Harvey affiliates WAKR/1590 Akron and WNIO/1390 Youngstown declining to carry Huckabee starting Monday...we haven't yet heard out of the other two Northeast Ohio stations involved - WHBC/1480 Canton and WEOL/930 Elyria...
MORE COLLEGE B'BALL: With the University of Akron Zips giving a strong showing in their NCAA Men's College Basketball first round tournament game - "Insert Name of Month" "Insert Name of Excited Mental State", as we don't want to be sued by the NCAA - the spotlight was heavily on the MAC Champions on Thursday.
The game wasn't nationally televised, of course, since it's an early round contest...but OMW hears that viewers as far away as the Los Angeles market got treated to Zips vs. Zags.
Those listening to coverage via Sirius Satellite Radio were not treated to the Zips ISP Sports Network call by Akron Radio Superstar Steve French and Joe Dunn, heard locally on network flagship WARF/1350 Akron "SportsRadio 1350" and simulcaster rock WRQK/106.9 Canton "Rock 106.9". Sirius opted for Westwood One's national coverage instead.
At least one reader took us to task for our recent needling of Mr. French, who flies high over Akron radio as co-host of the popular morning show on talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron", joining Stan Piatt, Jim Midock and Maggie Fuller.
Relax...we're just having fun, and we're pretty sure Steve is having fun as well...he's a "big boy", and he can take it.
And like most Radio Stars, he loves the attention and publicity...even from a little media blog like this one...
AND MORE HOOPS: An OMW reader tells us that another CBS affiliate in Northeast Ohio is doing the NCAA Round One split with local teams on Friday night.
We hear that New Vision CBS affiliate WKBN/27 Youngstown will opt for THE Ohio State Buckeyes' first round game, and like WOIO in Cleveland, will send the Cleveland State Vikings contest over to its sister MyNetwork TV affiliate - in the Youngstown case, its Parkin Broadcasting's WYTV-DT 33.2 "My YTV".
(Any regular OMW reader - with eyes closed - can tell you here that New Vision operates Parkin's WYTV and My YTV from its studios on Sunset Blvd. in Youngstown.)
For Youngstown, it's not as big a decision as it was for Raycom Media in Cleveland...but with an Ohio team involved, the New Vision folks presumably felt it was easy to offer the game by moving it to the now-sister subchannel that's carrying heavy sports branding....
AND SPEAKING OF YOUNGSTOWN: A quick visit to the Mahoning Valley earlier this week netted us another example of how New Vision/WKBN/WYFX operates WYTV as a nominally separate entity.
This week's Big Story in the Youngstown/Warren TV market was the bankruptcy filing of health care giant Forum Health, and the two local TV newsrooms were all over it.
We watched all four commercial stations' coverage of a bankruptcy court hearing which allowed Forum Health to dip into a cash reserve to pay immediate bills, and we watched the shuffle between WKBN and now-sister station WYTV.
Both stations featured live shots from the Federal Courthouse during early evening newscasts... at 5 PM, WKBN's "27 First News" led with the live shot, and at 5:30, it was on WYTV's "33 News". Two different reporters were used, with one coming over from another story she'd already filed.
Forum Health's CEO appeared live in studio for an interview early in a "27 First News'" newscast, then hung around the building a bit to do the same on the "33 News" set.
Standard "B-roll" footage of Forum Health's facilities, such as Youngstown's Northside Medical Center and Warren's Trumbull Memorial Hospital, was mixed in with footage of Newton Falls - the same footage on both stations. At some point, we could tell you when the water tower with "Newton Falls" on it would show up before it actually did so.
Newton Falls is the location Forum Health plans to build an urgent care center, a plan that's apparently still in effect post-bankruptcy filing.
Other, less important stories were near simulcast on both WKBN and WYTV due to their placement.
But more unnerving than that was the replay of "27 First News This Morning" (5-7 AM on WKBN/27) from 7-9 AM on WYFX "Fox Youngstown"...the only difference being a superimposed "First News on Fox" time/temperature bug on the latter station.
In the You Know Your Morning Show Is Taped From Earlier Department:
* "Live Skycam" footage of downtown Youngstown in the dark...being played long after sunrise....seen via the WYFX feed.
* A promo for the upcoming "CBS Early Show", starting in "just a few minutes" if you're watching the WYFX feed at 8:55 AM. No, not unless you recorded it off of WKBN, or invested in a DeLorean with a Flux Capacitor.
The new WKBN graphics look modern - and appear to have finally assigned the "Fox 17/62" branding for the station's Fox arm to the trash heap, as everything we saw the other day said "Fox Youngstown".
And yes, with access to an HDTV tuner, we confirmed that New Vision is still running both WKBN-DT 27.1 (CBS) and WKBN-DT 27.2 (Fox) in 720p HD format, the former being downconverted from the network's 1080i feed...the latter instead of an SD 480i feed.
We saw some occasional drop-outs, though we can't be sure that should be blamed on the electronic squeezing needed to fit two HD feeds into one channel's bandwidth...or just reception anomalies...
We can get Sonic chili dogs 12 months a year in Streetsboro, but these ones only from March through November...
NOT SO FAST, OMW: At the moment, we'd like to pull back on the back patting a bit.
In one of our Thursday items, we poured on the self-congratulation for correctly predicting the disposition of ABC Radio Networks' "Paul Harvey News" time slots, with former Republican presidential candidate/former Arkansas governor/Fox News Channel weekend host Mike Huckabee's existing "Huckabee Report" commentaries being fed down the old Paul Harvey satellite feed starting on Monday.
Notice that we said "being fed down".
That's similar language to what ABC Radio used when talking about what ended up being two week fill-in stints by KGO/San Francisco host and ABC News Radio veteran Gil Gross, and ABC News Radio Information Network anchor Doug Limerick.
So, will Huckabee's 5 minute commentaries continue to be fed down to Paul Harvey News' existing affiliate base for the long term, or is there more?
Thanks to a Friend of OMW, we got a look at the rest of what Inside Radio had to say on the topic. Some sample quotes:
A spokesman tells Inside Radio the network expects to have announcements about other personalities.
Our friends at AllAccess, who actually slipped this story "under the wire" late Wednesday night (we missed it), offer this:
With HUCKABEE's segments shorter than the standard HARVEY time slot, ABC will be offering additional short-form news features to be disclosed shortly.
That's one-third right. Huckabee's segments are all five minutes long, including commercial inventory.
The only former Harvey segment that doesn't match that time is the 15 minute "Noon Visit"...and we've speculated here that stations will probably start dropping that no matter what is offered in Mr. Harvey's place, due to the archaic nature of such a long "short form" feature.
(We noted here earlier that even ABC/Citadel itself already dumped the "Noon Visit" on two of its major market stations after Harvey's passing - to make room for full three-hour mid-morning clearances for the network's Joe Scarborough on WABC/770 New York, and for local host Frank Beckmann on Detroit's WJR/760.)
Time-wise, the five minute morning and afternoon drive editions of "The Huckabee Report" require no extra fill vs. the former Paul Harvey News time slots.
So, who are these "other people" and what role may thay play in ABC Radio's post-Paul Harvey world?
Quoting Inside Radio again:
There’s still no word on whether Paul Harvey Jr. will have a role. A network rep says, “He may have interest in returning to radio, but it’s not something he’s prepared to give an answer to today.”
Will ABC Radio's Life After Paul Harvey consist of offering Gov. Huckabee to stations in morning drive and middays, and eventually (assuming he wants to do it) offering Paul Harvey Jr.'s own "Rest of the Story" segments again? Remember, the Younger Harvey has both written and voiced that segment in recent years.
It sounds like as good a guess as any we've made. We don't see Gross or Limerick interested in a future role, and wouldn't put money on Dallas-based Ron Chapman returning to the former Harvey syndication.
BTW, with former Paul Harvey affiliates WAKR/1590 Akron and WNIO/1390 Youngstown declining to carry Huckabee starting Monday...we haven't yet heard out of the other two Northeast Ohio stations involved - WHBC/1480 Canton and WEOL/930 Elyria...
MORE COLLEGE B'BALL: With the University of Akron Zips giving a strong showing in their NCAA Men's College Basketball first round tournament game - "Insert Name of Month" "Insert Name of Excited Mental State", as we don't want to be sued by the NCAA - the spotlight was heavily on the MAC Champions on Thursday.
The game wasn't nationally televised, of course, since it's an early round contest...but OMW hears that viewers as far away as the Los Angeles market got treated to Zips vs. Zags.
Those listening to coverage via Sirius Satellite Radio were not treated to the Zips ISP Sports Network call by Akron Radio Superstar Steve French and Joe Dunn, heard locally on network flagship WARF/1350 Akron "SportsRadio 1350" and simulcaster rock WRQK/106.9 Canton "Rock 106.9". Sirius opted for Westwood One's national coverage instead.
At least one reader took us to task for our recent needling of Mr. French, who flies high over Akron radio as co-host of the popular morning show on talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron", joining Stan Piatt, Jim Midock and Maggie Fuller.
Relax...we're just having fun, and we're pretty sure Steve is having fun as well...he's a "big boy", and he can take it.
And like most Radio Stars, he loves the attention and publicity...even from a little media blog like this one...
AND MORE HOOPS: An OMW reader tells us that another CBS affiliate in Northeast Ohio is doing the NCAA Round One split with local teams on Friday night.
We hear that New Vision CBS affiliate WKBN/27 Youngstown will opt for THE Ohio State Buckeyes' first round game, and like WOIO in Cleveland, will send the Cleveland State Vikings contest over to its sister MyNetwork TV affiliate - in the Youngstown case, its Parkin Broadcasting's WYTV-DT 33.2 "My YTV".
(Any regular OMW reader - with eyes closed - can tell you here that New Vision operates Parkin's WYTV and My YTV from its studios on Sunset Blvd. in Youngstown.)
For Youngstown, it's not as big a decision as it was for Raycom Media in Cleveland...but with an Ohio team involved, the New Vision folks presumably felt it was easy to offer the game by moving it to the now-sister subchannel that's carrying heavy sports branding....
AND SPEAKING OF YOUNGSTOWN: A quick visit to the Mahoning Valley earlier this week netted us another example of how New Vision/WKBN/WYFX operates WYTV as a nominally separate entity.
This week's Big Story in the Youngstown/Warren TV market was the bankruptcy filing of health care giant Forum Health, and the two local TV newsrooms were all over it.
We watched all four commercial stations' coverage of a bankruptcy court hearing which allowed Forum Health to dip into a cash reserve to pay immediate bills, and we watched the shuffle between WKBN and now-sister station WYTV.
Both stations featured live shots from the Federal Courthouse during early evening newscasts... at 5 PM, WKBN's "27 First News" led with the live shot, and at 5:30, it was on WYTV's "33 News". Two different reporters were used, with one coming over from another story she'd already filed.
Forum Health's CEO appeared live in studio for an interview early in a "27 First News'" newscast, then hung around the building a bit to do the same on the "33 News" set.
Standard "B-roll" footage of Forum Health's facilities, such as Youngstown's Northside Medical Center and Warren's Trumbull Memorial Hospital, was mixed in with footage of Newton Falls - the same footage on both stations. At some point, we could tell you when the water tower with "Newton Falls" on it would show up before it actually did so.
Newton Falls is the location Forum Health plans to build an urgent care center, a plan that's apparently still in effect post-bankruptcy filing.
Other, less important stories were near simulcast on both WKBN and WYTV due to their placement.
But more unnerving than that was the replay of "27 First News This Morning" (5-7 AM on WKBN/27) from 7-9 AM on WYFX "Fox Youngstown"...the only difference being a superimposed "First News on Fox" time/temperature bug on the latter station.
In the You Know Your Morning Show Is Taped From Earlier Department:
* "Live Skycam" footage of downtown Youngstown in the dark...being played long after sunrise....seen via the WYFX feed.
* A promo for the upcoming "CBS Early Show", starting in "just a few minutes" if you're watching the WYFX feed at 8:55 AM. No, not unless you recorded it off of WKBN, or invested in a DeLorean with a Flux Capacitor.
The new WKBN graphics look modern - and appear to have finally assigned the "Fox 17/62" branding for the station's Fox arm to the trash heap, as everything we saw the other day said "Fox Youngstown".
And yes, with access to an HDTV tuner, we confirmed that New Vision is still running both WKBN-DT 27.1 (CBS) and WKBN-DT 27.2 (Fox) in 720p HD format, the former being downconverted from the network's 1080i feed...the latter instead of an SD 480i feed.
We saw some occasional drop-outs, though we can't be sure that should be blamed on the electronic squeezing needed to fit two HD feeds into one channel's bandwidth...or just reception anomalies...
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Welcome To March
On the heels of items mentioned before, and sometimes more so...
WRQK INVADES AKRON?: Clear Channel's new rocker WRQK/106.9 Canton has surely had at least some Akron listeners over the years, even with the presence of competing Rubber City rock WONE/97.5 and the station's general focus on Canton itself in the Cumulus years - give or take throwaway Akron mentions, like in the station's legal ID.
And with the WRQK signal recently juiced back up to normal with its new tower site, we've wondered if the dual-city-aware folks at Clear Channel's Freedom Avenue compound would start adding Akron to their domain at the newly-acquired "Rock 107".
Wonder no more.
WRQK, which has redubbed itself "Rock 106.9" and changed its on-air imaging, is now much more conversant with that five letter "A word".
The first clue comes by visiting the newly-relaunched website at WRQK.com.
That address, for now, redirects to a second website: AkronCantonRocks.com.
We believe that is likely temporary, as even with the new imaging, the station is still promoting WRQK.com on the air. But it's an interesting choice of a URL, no?
Our second clue comes on the actual website itself, which proclaims at the top: "Rock 106.9 Canton and Akron's place to Rock".
No, we don't believe the Clear Channel-run WRQK is abandoning the Hall of Fame City for greater treasures up north. Even with a class B signal covering most of greater Akron, it's still basically a Canton station.
But we wouldn't be surprised if the station widened its vision north of the Akron/Canton Airport, and not just on its website. And given the dual-city operation of its new owner, it would make sense to do so.
By the way, like sister AC WHOF/101.7 "My 101.7"'s website had at launch, the new "Rock 106.9" site also has a "Listen Live" link - which is not functional at this time. One would assume that streaming will eventually come to both stations...
WHILE WE'RE IN CANTON: Electronically, that is...
There's nothing official yet, but could NextMedia oldies WHBC/1480 be about ready to hire its first regular local talk show host?
We haven't heard if anyone else has auditioned, but of course, former WHBC-FM/94.1 "Mix 94.1" afternoon host Brady Russell warmed up the talk radio pipes a while back in an unusual Sunday night shift on the AM side of the WHBC ledger.
Maybe we better listen this weekend - to hear if Brady, or anyone else, does more weekend talk that may or may not be an audition for regular work. We don't know when that regular work would be on the schedule, or how it would affect anyone else currently on the air at 1480 - or even if it would. (Feel free to attach the "speculation" tag to this post.)
While we're talking about the WHBC Stations, we can't help but be moved by all the comments about engineer Bill Glasser, who retired from his post there earlier this week. To a person, our commenters and E-Mailers have painted a picture of Glasser as a professional, a mentor and teacher.
Hope retirement treats you well, Mr. Glasser...
ANOTHER REGULAR TOPIC: We don't have much more to say about it, since we actually mentioned this weeks ago, but former WKNR/850 Cleveland host Kendall "The Big Sports Kahuna" Lewis is next up in the 9 AM-noon "Saturday Morning Sports Show" this week at the Good Karma sports station now known as "ESPN 850".
But since we're talking about 'KNR, a question. Is anyone else hearing very annoying electrical "pulsing" on the station, particularly when no audio is heard from host or caller for a couple of seconds?
Turn up the radio, and wait for a pause, and see if you hear it...we've heard it on a car radio, on every radio here in the OMW World Headquarters, and more, even within close range of the station's nighttime signal.
UPDATE 3/3/07 10:57 AM: We thought it might be a nighttime-only problem, but we just heard it this Saturday morning.
Oh, and Good Karma has officially consolidated the websites of its two sports stations, merging WKNR content into WWGK/1540's site at ESPNCleveland.com.
It's clearly a stopgap until the station's promised new site is completed "in a few months", but WKNR.com now redirects to the other site...officially killing the former Salem-run site for the station once known as "SportsTalk 850"...
MORE ON WYTV: A tip of the OMW hat to the Youngstown Business Journal's Andrea Wood, who recognizes witty writing when she reads it.
OK, so she recognizes what passes for it here, pointing out our "life boats" headline on the item directly below this one - the news that WYTV/33 news director Pat Livingston is out before the "33 News" ship sinks, heading to Toledo NBC affiliate WNWO/24 "NBC 24".
But Livingston tells the Business Journal that his move was in the works "long before" a new company named Parkin Broadcasting announced its planned takeover of the Youngstown ABC affiliate, which is set to happen later this year.
Already happening is the takeover of WKBN/27-WYFX "FOX 17/62" by New Vision Television, which took the keys of the CBS/FOX combo at midnight, March 1st.
And how's this for inspiring confidence in your future? Wood reports that the company basically told employees that if they showed up for work on March 1st, they were accepting the new company's employment terms. It's "like what we are doing or don't show up", we guess.
The Business Journal reports no changes to existing wages or benefits at WKBN/WYFX, but no seniority, either.
That plays into what will likely happen with WYTV, when Parkin takes over and likely implements a shared newsroom with WKBN/WYFX.
If this plays out like it has in other markets, expect the new operation to be mostly comprised of WKBN "27 First News" folks, with any WYTV newscasts done out of the WKBN/WYFX facilities.
But we wouldn't be surprised if New Vision takes over the contracts of at least some higher profile WYTV personalities, like the market's iconic weatherman Stan Boney.
The only problem with that?
We don't know if New Vision wants to spend money. And Stan's got to be making a decent chunk of change by this point in his lengthy career, even if it's by Youngstown market standards...
WRQK INVADES AKRON?: Clear Channel's new rocker WRQK/106.9 Canton has surely had at least some Akron listeners over the years, even with the presence of competing Rubber City rock WONE/97.5 and the station's general focus on Canton itself in the Cumulus years - give or take throwaway Akron mentions, like in the station's legal ID.
And with the WRQK signal recently juiced back up to normal with its new tower site, we've wondered if the dual-city-aware folks at Clear Channel's Freedom Avenue compound would start adding Akron to their domain at the newly-acquired "Rock 107".
Wonder no more.
WRQK, which has redubbed itself "Rock 106.9" and changed its on-air imaging, is now much more conversant with that five letter "A word".The first clue comes by visiting the newly-relaunched website at WRQK.com.
That address, for now, redirects to a second website: AkronCantonRocks.com.
We believe that is likely temporary, as even with the new imaging, the station is still promoting WRQK.com on the air. But it's an interesting choice of a URL, no?
Our second clue comes on the actual website itself, which proclaims at the top: "Rock 106.9 Canton and Akron's place to Rock".
No, we don't believe the Clear Channel-run WRQK is abandoning the Hall of Fame City for greater treasures up north. Even with a class B signal covering most of greater Akron, it's still basically a Canton station.
But we wouldn't be surprised if the station widened its vision north of the Akron/Canton Airport, and not just on its website. And given the dual-city operation of its new owner, it would make sense to do so.
By the way, like sister AC WHOF/101.7 "My 101.7"'s website had at launch, the new "Rock 106.9" site also has a "Listen Live" link - which is not functional at this time. One would assume that streaming will eventually come to both stations...
WHILE WE'RE IN CANTON: Electronically, that is...
There's nothing official yet, but could NextMedia oldies WHBC/1480 be about ready to hire its first regular local talk show host?
We haven't heard if anyone else has auditioned, but of course, former WHBC-FM/94.1 "Mix 94.1" afternoon host Brady Russell warmed up the talk radio pipes a while back in an unusual Sunday night shift on the AM side of the WHBC ledger.
Maybe we better listen this weekend - to hear if Brady, or anyone else, does more weekend talk that may or may not be an audition for regular work. We don't know when that regular work would be on the schedule, or how it would affect anyone else currently on the air at 1480 - or even if it would. (Feel free to attach the "speculation" tag to this post.)
While we're talking about the WHBC Stations, we can't help but be moved by all the comments about engineer Bill Glasser, who retired from his post there earlier this week. To a person, our commenters and E-Mailers have painted a picture of Glasser as a professional, a mentor and teacher.
Hope retirement treats you well, Mr. Glasser...
ANOTHER REGULAR TOPIC: We don't have much more to say about it, since we actually mentioned this weeks ago, but former WKNR/850 Cleveland host Kendall "The Big Sports Kahuna" Lewis is next up in the 9 AM-noon "Saturday Morning Sports Show" this week at the Good Karma sports station now known as "ESPN 850".
But since we're talking about 'KNR, a question. Is anyone else hearing very annoying electrical "pulsing" on the station, particularly when no audio is heard from host or caller for a couple of seconds?
Turn up the radio, and wait for a pause, and see if you hear it...we've heard it on a car radio, on every radio here in the OMW World Headquarters, and more, even within close range of the station's nighttime signal.
UPDATE 3/3/07 10:57 AM: We thought it might be a nighttime-only problem, but we just heard it this Saturday morning.
Oh, and Good Karma has officially consolidated the websites of its two sports stations, merging WKNR content into WWGK/1540's site at ESPNCleveland.com.
It's clearly a stopgap until the station's promised new site is completed "in a few months", but WKNR.com now redirects to the other site...officially killing the former Salem-run site for the station once known as "SportsTalk 850"...
MORE ON WYTV: A tip of the OMW hat to the Youngstown Business Journal's Andrea Wood, who recognizes witty writing when she reads it.
OK, so she recognizes what passes for it here, pointing out our "life boats" headline on the item directly below this one - the news that WYTV/33 news director Pat Livingston is out before the "33 News" ship sinks, heading to Toledo NBC affiliate WNWO/24 "NBC 24".
But Livingston tells the Business Journal that his move was in the works "long before" a new company named Parkin Broadcasting announced its planned takeover of the Youngstown ABC affiliate, which is set to happen later this year.
Already happening is the takeover of WKBN/27-WYFX "FOX 17/62" by New Vision Television, which took the keys of the CBS/FOX combo at midnight, March 1st.
And how's this for inspiring confidence in your future? Wood reports that the company basically told employees that if they showed up for work on March 1st, they were accepting the new company's employment terms. It's "like what we are doing or don't show up", we guess.
The Business Journal reports no changes to existing wages or benefits at WKBN/WYFX, but no seniority, either.
That plays into what will likely happen with WYTV, when Parkin takes over and likely implements a shared newsroom with WKBN/WYFX.
If this plays out like it has in other markets, expect the new operation to be mostly comprised of WKBN "27 First News" folks, with any WYTV newscasts done out of the WKBN/WYFX facilities.
But we wouldn't be surprised if New Vision takes over the contracts of at least some higher profile WYTV personalities, like the market's iconic weatherman Stan Boney.
The only problem with that?
We don't know if New Vision wants to spend money. And Stan's got to be making a decent chunk of change by this point in his lengthy career, even if it's by Youngstown market standards...
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
The REAL Story Behind WYTV's Acquisition
Kudos to one of the most dogged reporters in the entire Youngstown market, Andrea Wood at the Business Journal, for uncovering THIS little gem.
As it turns out, the announced sale of Chelsey Broadcasting ABC affiliate WYTV/33 in the Valley to Parkin Broadcasting has more to it than meets the eye.
Wood and The Business Journal dug into FCC records for the proposed sale, and found this gem...we'll quote the last part of it, since the FCC's all-upper case style in the online database is hurting our eyes:
PARKIN BROADCASTING OF YOUNGSTOWN, LLC AND NVT YOUNGSTOWN ALSO MAY ENTER INTO A SHARED SERVICES AGREEMENT. THE PARTIES HAVE NOT YET NEGOTIATED THE THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR AN SSA . HOWEVER, ANY SUCH SSA WILL COMPLY WITH COMMISSION RULES AND POLICIES FOR SUCH AGREEMENTS.
NVT Youngstown, as explained in the document, is the proposed licensee of Youngstown CBS affiliate WKBN/27 and FOX affiliate LPTV combo WYFX-LP/62-WFXI-CA/17 ("FOX 17/62"). It's better known to readers here as New Vision Television, the Atlanta-based company that announced it was buying WKBN and WYFX from Piedmont Television.
The "Shared Services Agreement", as Wood hints in the Business Journal, would likely involve a sole news operation between the two (three) stations. It is hard to imagine the scenario which would result in the WYTV newsroom surviving intact.
It's a story that's played out in many other markets similar to Youngstown, including nearby Erie PA, where multiple stations are operated by single companies. And the mere economics in a market like Youngstown, with a fast dwindling population, work against three entirely separate news operations.
Our favorite part of this "story behind the story"? Apparently, the folks at Parkin Television put out a press release announcing the purchase of WYTV...with the very same phone number put on the release announcing New Vision's purchase of WKBN/WYFX.
It'll be very interesting to watch how this plays out...but if we were on Shady Run Road, our tapes and resumes would be out before we could finish this sentence...
As it turns out, the announced sale of Chelsey Broadcasting ABC affiliate WYTV/33 in the Valley to Parkin Broadcasting has more to it than meets the eye.
Wood and The Business Journal dug into FCC records for the proposed sale, and found this gem...we'll quote the last part of it, since the FCC's all-upper case style in the online database is hurting our eyes:
PARKIN BROADCASTING OF YOUNGSTOWN, LLC AND NVT YOUNGSTOWN ALSO MAY ENTER INTO A SHARED SERVICES AGREEMENT. THE PARTIES HAVE NOT YET NEGOTIATED THE THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR AN SSA . HOWEVER, ANY SUCH SSA WILL COMPLY WITH COMMISSION RULES AND POLICIES FOR SUCH AGREEMENTS.
NVT Youngstown, as explained in the document, is the proposed licensee of Youngstown CBS affiliate WKBN/27 and FOX affiliate LPTV combo WYFX-LP/62-WFXI-CA/17 ("FOX 17/62"). It's better known to readers here as New Vision Television, the Atlanta-based company that announced it was buying WKBN and WYFX from Piedmont Television.
The "Shared Services Agreement", as Wood hints in the Business Journal, would likely involve a sole news operation between the two (three) stations. It is hard to imagine the scenario which would result in the WYTV newsroom surviving intact.
It's a story that's played out in many other markets similar to Youngstown, including nearby Erie PA, where multiple stations are operated by single companies. And the mere economics in a market like Youngstown, with a fast dwindling population, work against three entirely separate news operations.
Our favorite part of this "story behind the story"? Apparently, the folks at Parkin Television put out a press release announcing the purchase of WYTV...with the very same phone number put on the release announcing New Vision's purchase of WKBN/WYFX.
It'll be very interesting to watch how this plays out...but if we were on Shady Run Road, our tapes and resumes would be out before we could finish this sentence...
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
It's About Time, Youngstown!
Forgive our exasperation, but the analog TV shutdown status in Youngstown is finally clear.
As we reported earlier, numerous readers tell us that both New Vision CBS affiliate WKBN/27 and Parkin Broadcasting/New Vision LMA partner WYTV/33 have been telling viewers that the stations will not sign off analog 27 and 33 on February 17th as previously requested.
It's now official, as someone on Sunset Blvd. in Youngstown may have seen our earlier rant about not notifying viewers via the station's website. Now, both WKBN and WYTV have indeed made it clear on their identical DTV transition pages:
WKBN will be delaying anolog shut-off until June 12th.
WYTV will be delaying anolog shut-off until June 12th.
Of course, both pages misspell the word "analog", and go on to talk about the February 17th transition date, but you can't be perfect.
We're glad they finally got around to making this clear. We weren't cherishing the drive to Youngstown, and trying to convince the WKBN/WYTV receptionist to let us update the website.
At least one OMW reader tells us that the late change in the decision is confusing even the "27 First News" newsroom, with anchors announcing the June 12th transition date - followed immediately by a station PSA telling viewers that WKBN will shut off analog next Tuesday. Sigh.
With WFMJ's earlier-stated intentions to stay on analog 21 until June, you can officially mark Youngstown off the doubtful list. And with all three stations staying in analog past February 17th, with Western Reserve PBS' WNEO/45 already all-digital, we'll mark Youngstown off of our "Mighty Blog of Fun Post-February 17th Ohio Tour".
But we're keeping Marietta/Parkersburg, as someone reminded us to check...and sure enough, Gray NBC affiliate WTAP/15 Parkersburg is still planning to shut off analog one week from today.
It looks like our road trip route a week from Wednesday will be from the OMW World Headquarters down to Steubenville/Wheeling, maybe a side trip down to Marietta, and back up to I-70 across the state to Dayton. We'll also talk to locals who aren't in the TV business, to see if they're aware of what happened the day before...and if they were prepared...
As we reported earlier, numerous readers tell us that both New Vision CBS affiliate WKBN/27 and Parkin Broadcasting/New Vision LMA partner WYTV/33 have been telling viewers that the stations will not sign off analog 27 and 33 on February 17th as previously requested.
It's now official, as someone on Sunset Blvd. in Youngstown may have seen our earlier rant about not notifying viewers via the station's website. Now, both WKBN and WYTV have indeed made it clear on their identical DTV transition pages:
WKBN will be delaying anolog shut-off until June 12th.
WYTV will be delaying anolog shut-off until June 12th.
Of course, both pages misspell the word "analog", and go on to talk about the February 17th transition date, but you can't be perfect.
We're glad they finally got around to making this clear. We weren't cherishing the drive to Youngstown, and trying to convince the WKBN/WYTV receptionist to let us update the website.
At least one OMW reader tells us that the late change in the decision is confusing even the "27 First News" newsroom, with anchors announcing the June 12th transition date - followed immediately by a station PSA telling viewers that WKBN will shut off analog next Tuesday. Sigh.
With WFMJ's earlier-stated intentions to stay on analog 21 until June, you can officially mark Youngstown off the doubtful list. And with all three stations staying in analog past February 17th, with Western Reserve PBS' WNEO/45 already all-digital, we'll mark Youngstown off of our "Mighty Blog of Fun Post-February 17th Ohio Tour".
But we're keeping Marietta/Parkersburg, as someone reminded us to check...and sure enough, Gray NBC affiliate WTAP/15 Parkersburg is still planning to shut off analog one week from today.
It looks like our road trip route a week from Wednesday will be from the OMW World Headquarters down to Steubenville/Wheeling, maybe a side trip down to Marietta, and back up to I-70 across the state to Dayton. We'll also talk to locals who aren't in the TV business, to see if they're aware of what happened the day before...and if they were prepared...
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Up For Air For A Bit
We've still got the "Gone Fishin'" sign up - and that's a stretch, since your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) hasn't ever actually picked up a fishing pole.
A lot has happened, and we're just here to mention some stuff we haven't put up due to our continued absence.
For one, we mourn the passing of more broadcasters with Ohio ties who have recently passed away, like Wes Hopkins (WAKR/1590 Akron, then-KYW/1100 Cleveland) and former WHK/1420 Cleveland personality Scott Burton.
Other brief items, in no particular order:
WOOF: As reported here way back in February, one Shane "Rover" French and his crew have officially started doing morning drive on Clear Channel rock WMMS/100.7.
We only mention this to close out the item, particularly since at least some online types were not even sure our reports were accurate.
They were, very much so....right down to our (as far as we know) exclusive item that Rover was producing "Rover's Morning Glory" from a studio at the Clear Channel World Domination HQ at Oak Tree the past few weeks to be heard on his Rochester and Memphis affiliates...and, of course, later, on WMMS' HD2 signal and the station's website.
Oh, and starting now, we'll add "talk" to the 100.7 format designation, since WMMS is now a full-fledged FM talker from the start of morning drive through the end of afternoon drive...
BYE, ALISON: While we're visiting Oak Tree, a short drive from the I-77/Rockside Road interchange...OMW has independently confirmed that sister talk WTAM/1100's "Alison" has resigned from her job on the station's afternoon drive talk fest helmed by Mike Trivisonno.
In our first more-than-30-seconds visit listening to the Triv show in some time on Tuesday, we heard him mention this as well...but it being an "April Fool's" show, who knows?
Alison is a former show intern who took over the "female on-air role" on the program after long-time Triv co-host Kim Mihalik was let go for budget reasons. Kim, of course, is now a morning co-host on WNCX/98.5...
STAN'S CO-ANCHOR: It's Niki Weirich who landed as co-anchor for Parkin Youngstown ABC affiliate WYTV/33's newscasts with long-time weather anchor-turned-news anchor Stan Boney. She takes the role vacated by Angee Shaker, who was named solo anchor after WYTV moved in with New Vision Television's WKBN/27-WYFX/17-62 and has since left the station.
And that move is no surprise, as Weirich was last seen as anchor on "First News at 10" on "FOX 17/62". So a "crosstown move", as the media rags often say, was not really a physical move at all for her...
TRIBE TV MOVES IN Y-TOWN: And while we're talking about Youngstown, a reader asked us why the aforementioned WYFX didn't run Monday's Cleveland Indians opening game, which was aired on and produced by Tribe over-air TV flagship WKYC/3.
The reason is that WYTV's "MyYTV" digital MyNetworkTV affiliated subchannel is carrying those games this year...presumably a "scoot over" from WYFX due to the new cozy relationship between the two stations.
That's horrible news for Tribe fans in the Mahoning Valley. "MyYTV" A) is relegated to a high digital channel on the area's Time Warner Cable systems and B) is a digital subchannel of WYTV-DT, which has the worst digital signal in the Youngstown TV market...by far. At least "FOX 17/62" is fed on the powerful digital signal of WKBN-DT...
WE'LL TRY NOT TO SING THE JINGLE: And while we're Talking Baseball...(indiansbaseball!!)...Talking Tribe!... the new 24/7 SportsTime Ohio HD has launched.
The new Time Warner Cable digital lineups already had a place for STO HD, and it's also being fed down the former Adelphia systems' lineup at the former "HD Bonus" position of 798. By everything we've heard, the new digital migration has only been completed in the "legacy" Time Warner areas (Akron/Canton, etc.).
Now, here's hoping the changeover - whenever that happens in what TWC calls the "North/Cleveland" systems - happens soon...or there'll be an FSN Ohio HD Cavaliers game to figure out next week...
AND ANOTHER TWC ODDITY: We're told that the process of feeding the WKYC/3-produced "Akron/Canton News" at 10 PM has developed a glitch, but apparently only in the former Adelphia TWC areas in western Summit County who get the "Northeast Ohio Network" (NEON) on cable channel 15.
A reader informs us that after anchor Eric Mansfield signs off the 10 PM show, and after a couple of commercials, channel 15 goes blank for the remaining 30 minutes until 11 PM. And we mean "blank", as in a black screen with no video (or audio). We're told it's been going on for a few weeks.
We're pretty sure this is somehow related to the method used to feed "Akron/Canton News" to the Summit County-based nodes of the former Adelphia system, serving areas like Copley and Bath. For those people, the newscast preempts whatever TWC is sending out of Cleveland to the rest of the former Adelphia customers on channel 15...
A lot has happened, and we're just here to mention some stuff we haven't put up due to our continued absence.
For one, we mourn the passing of more broadcasters with Ohio ties who have recently passed away, like Wes Hopkins (WAKR/1590 Akron, then-KYW/1100 Cleveland) and former WHK/1420 Cleveland personality Scott Burton.
Other brief items, in no particular order:
WOOF: As reported here way back in February, one Shane "Rover" French and his crew have officially started doing morning drive on Clear Channel rock WMMS/100.7.
We only mention this to close out the item, particularly since at least some online types were not even sure our reports were accurate.
They were, very much so....right down to our (as far as we know) exclusive item that Rover was producing "Rover's Morning Glory" from a studio at the Clear Channel World Domination HQ at Oak Tree the past few weeks to be heard on his Rochester and Memphis affiliates...and, of course, later, on WMMS' HD2 signal and the station's website.
Oh, and starting now, we'll add "talk" to the 100.7 format designation, since WMMS is now a full-fledged FM talker from the start of morning drive through the end of afternoon drive...
BYE, ALISON: While we're visiting Oak Tree, a short drive from the I-77/Rockside Road interchange...OMW has independently confirmed that sister talk WTAM/1100's "Alison" has resigned from her job on the station's afternoon drive talk fest helmed by Mike Trivisonno.
In our first more-than-30-seconds visit listening to the Triv show in some time on Tuesday, we heard him mention this as well...but it being an "April Fool's" show, who knows?
Alison is a former show intern who took over the "female on-air role" on the program after long-time Triv co-host Kim Mihalik was let go for budget reasons. Kim, of course, is now a morning co-host on WNCX/98.5...
STAN'S CO-ANCHOR: It's Niki Weirich who landed as co-anchor for Parkin Youngstown ABC affiliate WYTV/33's newscasts with long-time weather anchor-turned-news anchor Stan Boney. She takes the role vacated by Angee Shaker, who was named solo anchor after WYTV moved in with New Vision Television's WKBN/27-WYFX/17-62 and has since left the station.
And that move is no surprise, as Weirich was last seen as anchor on "First News at 10" on "FOX 17/62". So a "crosstown move", as the media rags often say, was not really a physical move at all for her...
TRIBE TV MOVES IN Y-TOWN: And while we're talking about Youngstown, a reader asked us why the aforementioned WYFX didn't run Monday's Cleveland Indians opening game, which was aired on and produced by Tribe over-air TV flagship WKYC/3.
The reason is that WYTV's "MyYTV" digital MyNetworkTV affiliated subchannel is carrying those games this year...presumably a "scoot over" from WYFX due to the new cozy relationship between the two stations.
That's horrible news for Tribe fans in the Mahoning Valley. "MyYTV" A) is relegated to a high digital channel on the area's Time Warner Cable systems and B) is a digital subchannel of WYTV-DT, which has the worst digital signal in the Youngstown TV market...by far. At least "FOX 17/62" is fed on the powerful digital signal of WKBN-DT...
WE'LL TRY NOT TO SING THE JINGLE: And while we're Talking Baseball...(indiansbaseball!!)...Talking Tribe!... the new 24/7 SportsTime Ohio HD has launched.
The new Time Warner Cable digital lineups already had a place for STO HD, and it's also being fed down the former Adelphia systems' lineup at the former "HD Bonus" position of 798. By everything we've heard, the new digital migration has only been completed in the "legacy" Time Warner areas (Akron/Canton, etc.).
Now, here's hoping the changeover - whenever that happens in what TWC calls the "North/Cleveland" systems - happens soon...or there'll be an FSN Ohio HD Cavaliers game to figure out next week...
AND ANOTHER TWC ODDITY: We're told that the process of feeding the WKYC/3-produced "Akron/Canton News" at 10 PM has developed a glitch, but apparently only in the former Adelphia TWC areas in western Summit County who get the "Northeast Ohio Network" (NEON) on cable channel 15.
A reader informs us that after anchor Eric Mansfield signs off the 10 PM show, and after a couple of commercials, channel 15 goes blank for the remaining 30 minutes until 11 PM. And we mean "blank", as in a black screen with no video (or audio). We're told it's been going on for a few weeks.
We're pretty sure this is somehow related to the method used to feed "Akron/Canton News" to the Summit County-based nodes of the former Adelphia system, serving areas like Copley and Bath. For those people, the newscast preempts whatever TWC is sending out of Cleveland to the rest of the former Adelphia customers on channel 15...
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