Supersized Update

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tait tells the Sun-Times:

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

and...

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

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

Win one for Tait, indeed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ohio's Mobile TV Future

A host of TV station owner groups are banding together to create a much broader future for mobile digital television, and nearly all groups in the Cleveland market are involved.

From the first article about the joint venture of 12 ownership groups, courtesy of TVNewsCheck's Harry Jessell:

The groups: Belo Corp., Cox Media Group, E.W. Scripps Co., Fox, Gannett Broadcasting, Hearst Television Inc., Ion Television, Media General Inc., Meredith Corp., NBC, Post-Newsweek Stations Inc. and Raycom Media.

In the Cleveland market alone, that covers Gannett (WKYC/3-NBC), Scripps (WEWS/5-ABC), Raycom (WOIO/19-CBS and WUAB/43-MyNet), and ION (WVPX/23).

Fox affiliate WJW/8 is no longer owned by its network, having been sold to Local TV LLC. It's one of two commercial stations in the market not on the list - the other is locally-owned Winston Broadcasting CW affiliate WBNX/55. (Oh, and Univision's WQHS/61...but we don't speak Spanish.)

Groups like Cox and Media General are in other Ohio markets - Cox has CBS affiliate WHIO/7 Dayton and Media General has NBC affiliate WCMH/4 Columbus (formerly owned by NBC itself).

Today, again thanks to Mr. Jessell and TVNewsCheck, we know that the joint venture aims to do more than provide mobile-friendly signals of local broadcast outlets:

The 12 major TV station groups that announced plans on Tuesday to form a joint venture to pursue the mobile DTV business envision a national service of at least 10 mobile channels and possibly many more.
'
And what kind of channels?

...NBC and Fox have agreed to make their programming available to the joint venture. That programming includes broadcast network programming through their affiliates as well as cable networks.

NBC's collection of cable networks includes Bravo, USA Network, Syfy, MSNBC and CNBC. Fox has the Fox News Channel and FX among others.

To us, it sounds like the old USDigital service retrofitted for 2010.

USDigital offered a lower-cost, smaller collection of cable TV channels using unused DTV spectrum. The service used a special converter (available at Wal-Mart). We never saw it in Ohio, because it didn't ever leave one or two test markets. We're not sure it even got out of Salt Lake City UT.

This venture is different, technologically, because it's riding on mobile DTV spectrum. ATSC M/H (mobile/handheld) is still being tested, and provides something current over-air DTV does not - a stream that can be easily displayed on the move, in a car, or in your hand.

The bandwidth, of course, isn't enough to support HDTV. But as we know from early experience, trying to catch a DTV signal from a moving car is currently pretty much impossible. Receiver technology has also improved dramatically since when USDigital was around, not even accounting for the mobile part.

This service won't bring cable networks to free broadcast, as far as we can tell. It sounds like a pay service much as described above. There is also talk of a "print" component, whatever that means.

We're presuming that the stations will still offer the mobile-friendly versions of their broadcast signals for free, but we can't confirm that from what we've read. We're also wondering if Fox, a participant offering the broadcast programming to the venture, will offer locally-programmed non-owned affiliates like WJW.

We could be wrong on any of this, and welcome corrections...

THIS JUST IN: WOIO Channel 24

NOTE: To clear up any confusion, this is an ADDITIONAL translator fill-in channel for WOIO. The current operation on RF channel 10 will stay on the air, unless they find another permanent home for it...

---------

Thanks to a reader tip, we now know what Raycom Media CBS affiliate WOIO/19 wants to do (at least temporarily) to fix its reception problems, particularly in the Akron area.

The station has applied to the FCC for a digital replacement translator on RF channel 24, an 11 kW facility which would be located at the Akron facility which houses ION Media O&O WVPX/23 and a number of area radio outlets.

We don't have much time to go into detail, so dig into it yourself at the station's technical exhibit on the FCC website...

Friday Closure

Unless another major local Northeast Ohio media personality decides to step down, this will close out the week for your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm).

Your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) is groggy, and most of our earlier activity via our Twitter account was before we found both caffeine and our first meal of the day...hopefully, this will be more coherent, after we've met both requirements.

And it's not all followup to that big Thursday evening news...

SPEAKING OF WHICH: The Other Shoe in the Matt Patrick's Future Sweepstakes dropped this morning on Clear Channel talk outlet WHLO/640 Akron, where the 30-plus year host from hot AC WKDD/98.1 also hosts a separate, mid-morning local talk show.

The folks at Freedom Avenue weren't saying much Thursday about the future of that program, except to note that Patrick would have a separate announcement for his WHLO listeners today at 9:06 AM. And boy, did he.

Unlike on the WKDD website, where there's now a section with both audio and text from Patrick's 7:45 announcement that he's stepping down, there's not much on the WHLO site about the long-time personality's exit from the talk radio side of his work.

But indeed, Matt Patrick will leave Freedom Avenue entirely in mid-December. His last WHLO show will be December 17th, one day before what's sure to be a Big Deal - his last show after 30-plus years on WKDD the following morning.

And, well, Matt doesn't sound all that happy that he's leaving both gigs.

After "making (his) decision" not to return to the WKDD morning drive post, Patrick told his WHLO listeners this morning that he'd hoped that Clear Channel would make him an offer regarding staying on the air in his 9 AM-noon talk show slot on WHLO. Such an offer, he says, never came.

So, he clarified again that he's "not retiring" - wording he also used on WKDD, but which did not make it to the prepared statement on his exit - and Patrick told his WHLO listeners that he'd return "somehow, somewhere" after his December 18th exit...presumably after some family time and regrouping.

(The "somehow, somewhere" line is interesting. The competitive landscape ahead of Matt Patrick is rather intimidating if he hopes that means a return to radio in the Akron market. We'll dissect the options, if there are any, in a separate post in the next few days.)

Why is Matt Patrick walking away from the Clear Channel microphones?

Well, regular OMW readers might recall that the folks at Freedom Avenue advertised for a future WKDD morning drive opening - effective January 2010 - back in April, on the AllAccess trade website.

We picked up on that, and Matt Patrick himself picked up on our item, responding that his contract was indeed up at the end of the year...and that the advertisement basically dragged the negotiations into the open.

It doesn't take much to figure out the rest.

Clear Channel, like many of the financially-strapped mega-broadcasters in 2009, is likely trying to shed itself of expensive contracts, or get that high-paid talent to take deep pay cuts, particularly in markets the size of Akron(/Canton).

We have no insight into how much the company pays Matt Patrick, but it's not a stretch to imagine that they approached his contract talks with cuts in mind...and that the two parties couldn't get their numbers close enough to forge a new deal.

That's the economic reality of radio in 2009...high-paid, veteran local personalities are almost "dead men walking" until their next contract renewal negotiations.

So, between now and then, Matt Patrick will play out the string on both WKDD and WHLO, with a likely heavily-hyped "last show" on 98.1 on December 18th, a day after he hangs up the talk radio hat over on WHLO...

ANOTHER PROGRAMMING ANNOUNCEMENT: For once, the promise of a "major programming announcement" on Good Karma sports WKNR/850 Cleveland "ESPN 850" was not something about a charity golf tournament.

The station announced during Friday's "Really Big Show" that sports director Mark "Munch" Bishop will mount a new, local sports talk show from 5-6 AM weekdays, starting Monday, called "Munch in the Morning".

That time slot is not a typo.

Bishop, of course, was originally hired by WKNR to host the 3-6 PM afternoon drive slot now occupied by former Cavaliers TV play-by-play voice Michael Reghi...and now, he'll be hosting a one-hour early morning lead-in to ESPN Radio's "Mike and Mike" show.

And yes, we also noticed that "RBS" leader Tony Rizzo brought in "program director Jason Gibbs" to make the announcement. Not "assistant program director", the title Gibbs took over from RBS executive producer/sidekick Aaron Goldhammer.

It's the first time the Good Karma-owned sports outlet has actually had someone with the title of "program director". Programming-related management wasn't even in the consideration before Goldhammer took the APD title, and boss Keith Williams is a sales-oriented general manager.

It's no stretch to guess that Good Karma boss Craig Karmazin generally has more programming input into his station than any of his employees...

DIGITALLY YOURS IN YOUNGSTOWN: Over-air viewers of Western Reserve PBS in the immediate Youngstown area now have their options back.

The folks on Campus Center Drive have announced that W44CR, the low-power digital translator aimed at low-lying areas of the Mahoning Valley, is on the air. It replaces W58AM, the long-time analog translator for WNEO/45 in Youngstown which long broadcast on Channel 58. At least one OMW reader tells us he's picked up the new signal already.

The new facility is located at the same location - the WFMJ/21 tower just south of downtown Youngstown. It's necessary because many viewers in the immediate Youngstown area are unable to pick up the WNEO signal due to terrain issues between the Valley and Salem, where the 45 facilities are located...

AND SPEAKING OF WESTERN RESERVE PBS: One of the Kent-based public TV outlet's most popular local programs is "NewsNight Akron", the weekly news roundtable show featuring Akron-area journalists...hosted by WKYC/3 anchor Eric Mansfield.

"NNA" is moving to a new time slot...just a bit later than its current perch at 9 PM on Fridays, to a new regular time slot of 9:30 PM on the same night.

We'll electronically bring in a regular "NNA" panelist - Rubber City Radio-WAKR/1590 VP/information media and OMW reader Ed Esposito - to explain...in one of his "Letters from the Editor" on AkronNewsNow.com:

We'll still be yipping and yapping about news and community events in our hometown but we'll be doing so a bit later to make room for a hip new program about the local economy. I know -- the words hip and economy really don't belong together -- but this fresh approach to money mattes in our region adds a new element to programming aimed at showcasing just what makes northeast Ohio tick, and the kinds of things we should think about to help make northeast Ohio improve.

The move is scheduled to take place next Friday, November 6th...so if you're a "NewsNight Akron" junkie, it'll still be on at 9 PM tonight.

Or, you could be like us....we pick up the show off of two TiVo recordings, at the early time slot and a 5 AM Saturday repeat.

The linked article by Ed Esposito primarily focuses on one of our earlier items, the impending departure of WKDD morning drive icon Matt Patrick. It's worth a read for that reason, as well...

Out Of The Box On Tuesday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Newspaper trade bible "Editor and Publisher" weighs in:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Digital TV Activities

Suddenly, the over-air digital TV scene is as nearly as active in Northeast Ohio as it was in the days before the analog TV shutoff, back on June 12th...

A 19 UPGRADE: OMW hears, third-hand, that Raycom Media Cleveland CBS affiliate WOIO/19 has completed an interim digital signal upgrade.

We're told that last Wednesday, WOIO's engineers nearly tripled the power coming out of the station's transmission system - with a power level of 9.5 kW. WOIO's digital signal has been pumping out just 3.5 kW since it first signed on. The FCC granted the temporary signal upgrade late last month.

Though even the 9.5 kW signal is modest for high VHF broadcasting - remember, many other VHF stations nationwide are asking for many times that, and WOIO continues to use interference-plagued RF channel 10 - the move returned "Cleveland's CBS 19" to full-time over-air reception on our best digital TV over-air setup here at OMW World Headquarters, about 20 miles as the Digital Crow flies from the Parma antenna farm.

We're told by an OMW reader in New London OH, a small outpost between Ashland and Norwalk on the western fringe of the Cleveland TV market, that the new signal gives him at least a chance at catching WOIO on a regular basis. Of course, that far away, our reader isn't using a modest indoor antenna aimed out a second floor window like we use here.

Again, note the word "interim" in regards to the 9.5 kW WOIO signal. It'll help the station reach some more viewers, particularly in the immediate Cleveland-Akron area, but it's not the long term plan.

OMW hears that Raycom does hope to eventually camp out WOIO on a UHF digital RF channel.

For various reasons, explained here on OMW by RabbitEars.info's Trip Ericson a few weeks ago, WOIO can't "just go back" to RF channel 19. The station seems resigned to how long the process may take.

Though some other Raycom stations (and others) have already made some similar changes, Alabama-based Raycom is a group that mostly has stations south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Nearly all the other Raycom outlets don't have to deal with something WOIO has to consider - Canadian allocations.

While getting its Cleveland market CBS affiliate off of RF channel 10 - occupied by pesky lil'...er... big Canadian outlet CFPL/10 - is presumably a priority for the engineering folks at Reserve Square, other new allocations have to consider Canada as well.

And the Canadians have a habit of hanging onto unused allocations, or those no longer used, and "notifying" them to the U.S., so U.S. stations won't camp out there in the future.

For the nonce, let us know if you've been getting an improved WOIO/19 over-air signal since about Wednesday night...

AND ANOTHER UPGRADE: A CBS affiliate that Cleveland market over-air viewers often seek out as an alternative station is making its final digital moves.

New Vision's WKBN/27 Youngstown is preparing to "top mount" its digital TV antenna this week, according to this story on the "27 First News" website:

At about 8am Wednesday, the antenna used to broadcast WKBN-TV and FOX Youngstown will be turned off for about 12 hours.

A crew is going to remove the 4,000 lb. analog antenna from the top of the tower, lower it to the ground, and mount the digital antenna in its place. The work, if all goes as planned, will take about 12 hours.

WKBN/WYFX helpfully remind viewers that while the antennas are being moved, over-air viewers will lose the station's signal for about 12 hours. The station has fiber connections to Time Warner Cable and Armstrong Cable, so those viewers will continue to be able to watch during the antenna moves.

The station hints that viewers in places on the edge of the signal, like perhaps the OMW World Headquarters, could see improvements:

Until now, the digital antenna has been on a side mount several hundred feet below the top of the tower. The additional height should improve the digital signal, probably to be noticed only by those viewers in fringe areas.

For the nonce, WKBN's digital signal is the most powerful in the Youngstown market, even from that "side mount" location. Moving the antenna up could well help the signal get further out of the Mahoning Valley...very few people in the Valley have any trouble picking up WKBN-TV.

OMW readers know that New Vision has been, recently, transmitting WYFX's "Fox Youngstown" signal in HD format via WKBN subchannel 27.2. This will probably give some fringe area viewers (again, maybe folks in part of the Cleveland market) an alternative should they have problems receiving another "VHF Nightmare" station, Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8 in Cleveland.

And last time we were in the Valley, with a digital TV tuner, New Vision was still pumping out "Fox Youngstown" from its original over-air home, LPTV outlet WYFX-LP/62 Youngstown. (And we presume, though we couldn't get it from our location, sister WFXI-CA/17 Mercer PA.)

Those who don't have Time Warner or Armstrong cable, but an analog TV tuner, would presumably have those signals as an alternative to the off-air Fox Youngstown signal via digital WKBN-TV during the 12 hour work window on Wednesday...

AND ANOTHER UPGRADE: Back in Cleveland, Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 is notifying viewers of its own antenna work.

WEWS has never been one of the Cleveland market's Digital Problem Children. It operated at 870 kW, 285 meters above average terrain for many years before the digital TV transition in June, and eventually will offer a 1000 kW signal from an antenna 310 meters above average terrain.

Until that final signal goes on, the station found a lower spot on a nearby tower, and is operating at a paltry, anemic, puny signal level of 843 kW, 191 meters above average terrain. It's a wonder you can pick up the station outside Parma!

Of course, that last paragraph is an attempt at Digital TV Humor. We bet very few have noticed a lower signal out of WEWS's temporary facility, especially in the core of the Cleveland-Akron TV market.

FCC rules require WEWS to notify viewers who may have difficulty picking up the temporary signal, so the station has done so both on the air and by posting a link to this FCC map of the signal on the station's website.

The map shows a comparison between the now-gone WEWS/5 analog signal, and the STA for the temporary digital signal. The orange and red symbols represent viewer loss in places like Mansfield and Ashtabula, though the new 1000 kW higher antenna would presumably fix much of that.

The new facility, with both increased power and height, could also gain WEWS some more over-air viewers on the fringe of the Cleveland market, or even in parts of the Youngstown market.

Those who have cable or satellite have been reading the above, and wondering how it affects you.

Well, if you're an NFL football fan, being able to pick up WKBN's digital signal in the Cleveland market could give you more game options, as WKBN (CBS) and WYFX (Fox) don't always carry the same games that Cleveland's WOIO (CBS) and WJW (Fox) carry.

It won't help you avoid any potential Cleveland Browns home blackouts, since the Youngstown market has always been included in the NFL's "blackout zone" for the Browns (the Youngstown signals land well within the 75 mile blackout radius), but perhaps you'll get more variety in other games...

AND FINALLY: In this busy digital TV item, a note that a new signal has popped up for a few Cleveland market viewers.

It's the market's first low-power digital TV station - Daystar's WCDN-LD 53.1/53.2, which is the replacement for now-former analog LPTVer WCDN-LP/53.

Yes, Daystar is a prominent religious TV operator that has a mixed collection of full-power and low-power TV "O&O's". It even squeezed itself onto the subchannel of a public TV station in Orange County CA (KOCE) after its controversial bid to buy the station fell through.

OMW hears that in addition to its own Daystar religious programming on 53.1, WCDN-LD is also offering the Home Shopping Network feed on 53.2 - programming we believe is also carried on analog LPTVer WXOX-LP/65. (Maybe the Daystar folks got an idea from what they had to do at KOCE, and are leasing out 53.2 to WXOX?)

Though WCDN-LD is well-situated on the WBNX-TV tower in Parma - 338 meters above average terrain - it is still a low-power station, putting just 300 watts into the air in its digital form, which lives on RF channel 7.

Thus, it's no surprise to us that we haven't been able to receive its signal some 20 miles out from the Parma antenna farm.

Some may be wondering how WCDN-LD is able to squeeze onto new digital RF channel 7, when Local TV Fox affiliate WJW is on RF channel 8. We're told you can do that, as long as the two signals are basically coming from the same area.

WJW's facility, of course, is not far away in Parma...and back when WJW-DT was using RF channel 31, it sat comfortably next to WBNX-DT's RF channel 30 facility...

The Weekend Cleanup Post

As usually happens when we go "on hiatus" here at your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), media news happens. It's an indisputable Law of OMW...if we push away the keyboard, the flood comes in, and that's already the case this time around.

So, though we're still trying to "stay away", let's briefly expand on the two items that we've popped onto our Twitter feed.

And again, you don't even have to access our page directly...they show up over there to the left of the main scroll here. Just keep watching that area, even if we're not "back" for a while...

SCHWABBIE TO 19: As reported in the earlier tweet, Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 Indians beat reporter/sports talk host Mark Schwab is leaving Oak Tree, heading for a new and fulfilling life in the basement of Reserve Square.

OK, so we poke a lot of fun at Cleveland's alleged CBS affiliate - poking that they apparently can't take in good humor, given actions like blocking us from following their Twitter feed.

But Raycom's WOIO/19-WUAB/43 and its "19 Action News" made a very good hire here...bringing on the WTAM veteran to take over the open weekend sports anchor job, a full-time role that includes sports reporting during the week.

And though we have a lot of fun with some of their more outrageous stunts or actions, or the fact you can't pick up their over-air signal in much of Cleveland and Akron without major antenna help, we also feel we really do try to be fair (first? everywhere?) with the folks at Reserve Square when they do things that they should be lauded for.

Long-time OMW readers know that we've always liked Mark Schwab's work. We've always considered him to be one of the more underutilized players in Cleveland sports media, and thought he was ready for a "prime time" role long ago.

Moving from 1100 to 19/43, Mark will bring both professionalism and personality to the "19 Action News" weekend sports desk.

Yes, the CBS/MyNet combo's newscasts sometimes resemble a three ring circus, or an out of control carnival. But the sports department is "the toy department of life", and some pizazz and personality goes a long way.

(No, not Charlie Minn-style pizazz. That's just clowning.)

Of course, Mark Schwab technically replaces another now-former Reserve Square type with ties to Mark's soon-to-be-former radio station...and Chuck Galeti has continued to fill in on WTAM, for afternoon drive host Mike Trivisonno, after leaving "Action News".

As for the fate of recent "Action News" weekend sports fill-in Sue Ann Robak, we stumbled upon this - buried in a recent Plain Dealer feature article on dozens of people looking for work in Greater Cleveland:

Update September 2009: Working freelance

Robak is freelancing at WOIO Channel 19. "It's a lot harder than I thought to find work in television. I'm grateful to Channel 19 for the freelance opportunity I have now. I had contemplated changing careers and going back to school to pursue teaching, but I decided to stick it out longer in search of full-time TV work because this is what I love to do."

We wonder if Sue Ann is going to continue to search for full-time TV work, or if she'll pursue a career change. We also presume she could continue to do freelance work for SportsTime Ohio...or offer her services to continue to fill-in at Reserve Square for sports director Tony Zarella or for Schwab...

TWC WORRIES: Those actively looking for new HDTV offerings on Northeast Ohio's Time Warner Cable system don't just turn here looking for news.

They watch - like a hawk - the legal "Programming Notices" page which appears on the company's website.

Recently, Time Warner Cable changed the format of this page, so it now directly reproduces the legal notices filed for each newspaper in the TWC NEO service area.

And these notices were recently updated to remove a list of HDTV channels we reported would be added to the company's local systems on (/or after) October 15th and November 4th.

Panic visited the land! "They're turning back on their promise!", people shouted, jumping to conclusions like it was an event in the upcoming Vancouver Olympics.

And yes, they shouted that to the OMW Mailbox. We can only imagine what the Time Warner customer service reps heard.

So, we checked in with sources at Time Warner Cable's Northeast Ohio offices, and we're here to tell you - straight out of the book/radio series/movie "Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy" - "Don't panic!" (Oh, and carry a towel.) (The towel is optional.)

Our sources at Northeast Ohio's cable TV giant tell us that they are still "on target" for the previously listed channels to appear October 15th (/or after) and November 4th (/or after).

Copying from our previous entries, to put the list in one convenient place:

(On or after October 15th)

The following channels will be added to standard HD: Cartoon HD, TCM HD, HLN HD, E! HD;

The following channels will be added to HD for customers with the Digital Basic Tier: Biography HD, Disney SX HD, Outdoor HD, Fox Business News HD, Style HD, Hallmark Movies HD

The following changes are planned on or after November 4, 2009:

The Weather Channel HD will be added to standard HD.

The following channels will be added to HD with carriage level varying by area: WE HD and TV One HD.

The following channels will be added to HD for customers with the Digital Basic Tier: Planet Green HD, IFC HD and Fuse HD.

The following channels will be added to HD for customers with the Digital Sports Tier: NHL Network HD, Tennis Channel HD and CBS College Sports HD.

These HD channel additions have MOSTLY been "on time" in recent months, give or take a couple of delays of a few days to a few weeks...so that's why the "/or after" above.

But we're told viewers shouldn't worry...and that the absence of the previously listed channels on the new legal notices doesn't mean they are not coming....

Time Warner Northeast Ohio "Starts Over"

No, our subject header isn't meant to imply that Northeast Ohio's cable TV giant is tearing out the cable and rewiring.

The local Time Warner systems are getting ready to mount "Start Over", a new feature for digital cable users that lets them join already started programs "in progress", returning to the beginning of the show they caught in the middle.

From a TWC press release:

Start Over is enabled by a software upgrade to the existing video on demand (VOD) platform and to the installed base of digital set top boxes. The Start Over system instantaneously captures live television programming for immediate, on demand viewing.

When tuning to a Start Over-enabled show in progress, customers are alerted to the feature through an on-screen prompt. By pressing “Select” on the remote control, the program is immediately restarted from the beginning. Commercials will appear in the same sequence of the show as in the initial telecast. Start Over-enabled programs can be restarted within the shows’ telecast window.

Since it's based on TWC's own "On Demand" servers, "Start Over" doesn't require anything more than a standard digital cable box...with no DVR, or advance planning needed.

The TWC release says "Start Over" will be implemented in the Northeast Ohio area over the next few days, starting next week:

Start Over will roll-out to customers in phases October 6 – 16. By Oct. 16, all eligible customers will have the service.

At start, "Start Over" will only be enabled on a list of 19 networks, mostly popular cable channels, with new channels being "added frequently". Not all shows on the networks in question will be enabled for "Start Over".

Your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) saw TWC's "Start Over" implementation many months ago, at the NorthEast Radio Watch World Headquarters in Rochester NY...one of the earliest markets to get the service.

In Rochester, we noted that it was enabled for local news on the NBC affiliate in the market, so we presume that'll eventually happen here in Northeast Ohio as well.

The complete list of initial "Start Over" channels is in the press release, which we are reprinting in full below...

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

For Immediate Release:
October 1, 2009

Time Warner Cable Launches “Start Over”
Allows Customers to Restart Television Programs and Movies Already in Progress with the Touch of a Button


Akron, OH (OCTOBER 2009) – Time Warner Cable today announced the launch of Start Over, the company’s Enhanced TV feature that gives customers the ability to restart a program in progress without any pre-planning or in-home recording devices. Start Over, an exclusive product only available from Time Warner Cable, is being offered free to digital cable customers.

Start Over is enabled by a software upgrade to the existing video on demand (VOD) platform and to the installed base of digital set top boxes. The Start Over system instantaneously captures live television programming for immediate, on demand viewing. When tuning to a Start Over-enabled show in progress, customers are alerted to the feature through an on-screen prompt. By pressing “Select” on the remote control, the program is immediately restarted from the beginning. Commercials will appear in the same sequence of the show as in the initial telecast. Start Over-enabled programs can be restarted within the shows’ telecast window.

“Start Over delivers to our digital cable subscribers a new level of control over their television and makes it even easier to watch what they want when they want without any pre-planning,” said Vin Zachariah, Regional Vice President of Operations, Time Warner Cable Northeast Ohio. “Start Over builds on Time Warner Cable’s long history of technological firsts that provides consumers with the power to take control of their television viewing. We are very excited to be bringing this convenience to our customers.”

For the initial launch, Start Over is enabled on 19 networks:
A&E
Biography Channel
Comedy Central
Disney Channel
Food Network
FX
HGTV
History Channel
History International
MTV
National Geographic
Nick
Nicktoons
Nick Jr.
Spike
TBS
TNT
TV Land
VH1

New channels will be added frequently.

Start Over will roll-out to customers in phases October 6 – 16. By Oct. 16, all eligible customers will have the service.

Some shows on Start Over-enabled channels may not be available with this feature. In this situation, the Start Over prompt will not appear on the screen.

Time Warner Cable's Start Over was named the winner of the 2007 Emmy Award for Outstanding Innovation and Achievement in Advanced Media Technology for Best Use of on Demand Technology over Private (Closed) Networks. Time Warner Cable, Big Band Networks, Concurrent Computer Corp., Harmonic Inc., and Scientific Atlanta shared the win for their partnership on this network-based time shifting application.

Si, V-me

No, you're not imagining it if you're an over-air digital TV viewer...the folks at Kent-based public TV outlet Western Reserve PBS have grown another digital subchannel. For now, at least.

Now airing on WEAO/49.4 Akron (and we assume WNEO/45.4 Alliance) is "V-me", a Spanish-language channel. We'll let the "V-me" folks explain it in English:

V-me (pronounced veh-meh), is the first national Spanish-language television network presented by public television stations. V-me, a 24-hour digital broadcast service carried on basic digital cable in major markets across the country and nationally via satellite, represents a new network and media community for US Latinos.

V-me (from the Spanish veme, meaning see me) entertains, educates and inspires families in Spanish with a youthful, contemporary mix of original productions, exclusive premieres and acquisitions, and popular public television programs specially adapted for American Latinos.

Our friends at Western Reserve PBS tell us that the actual debut of "V-me" is scheduled for mid-October.

We assume that its presence now is an early preview/test...much like the pubcaster did before it added MHz Worldview to 45.3/49.3...

Still Have DTV Problems? Talk To The AP

If you're still struggling trying to pick up Northeast Ohio's two VHF-based digital TV outlets - Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8 and/or Raycom Media CBS affiliate WOIO/19 - an Associated Press writer would like to hear from you.

The AP's Peter Svensson says you can E-mail him with your experiences at this address:

psvensson-at-ap.org

That's been slightly munged to try to battle the evil spammers, of course.

He's hoping to hear from you before noon Friday, so please feel free to send him a note as soon as you see this.

Thanks!

A Flood of Tuesday Items

Items have been piling up over the Labor Day holiday weekend like cars stuck in a traffic jam to get home from a holiday trip...

JIMBO AGAIN: At this rate, we ought to consider splitting off another secondary blog dedicated to former Mahoning Valley congressman/ex-con Jim Traficant.

Anyone who's even remotely followed Traficant in the Youngstown area or in Washington knew that the bombastic former lawmaker couldn't stay quiet for long, after his release from a federal prison medical facility in Minnesota last week.

But his first media appearance was a surprise to even us.

Did Traficant take to one of the Sunday TV talk shows to "resurface" after becoming a free man? Nope.

Did he choose the program of Fox News Channel host Greta Van Susteren, an old TV friend who talked to Traficant frequently before he was sent to prison on bribery and racketeering charges? Not yet. He will do so this Friday.

Fox News/Citadel/Premiere host Sean Hannity has talked to Traficant in the past. Did the ex-congressman appear on Hannity's TV or radio shows? Nope.

Perhaps his first words would be with Clear Channel talk WKBN/570 hosts Dan Rivers, Ron Verb or Robert Mangino? Close, but not quite.

Traficant broke his post-prison-release silence on WKBN, alright, the station where many think he'll be a future host.

But his Saturday morning phone call was not to the station's big names. It was to Dennis Malloy, a long-time friend and host of WKBN's Saturday morning "Outdoor Icon" outdoors-themed talk show.

Where...the former congressman talked a lot about turkey hunting. It's that activity which forged his friendship with Malloy, who still supports Traficant today. The former lawmaker noted that due to his legal situation, he's not allowed to carry guns to hunt these days.

The Youngstown Vindicator and Warren Tribune-Chronicle have more on the impromptu call.

And wasting no time, WKBN itself has audio from the call on its website. (Warning: Embedded Clear Channel audio player ahead.)

As we said, Traficant mainly talked hunting with Malloy. He talked very little about radio, though he did have good words for WKBN's Rivers and Verb, and said he was going to "do some turkey hunting without a gun"...the "turkeys" presumably being his detractors, and the weapon of choice a powerful one - Traficant's own mouth.

If the ex-con-ex-congressman is readying to move into radio as a talk show host, he isn't saying so in public...yet. But we at least expect to hear him as an in-studio guest on one or more WKBN shows in the near term.

Many of Traficant's diehard supporters aren't talking about a future radio talk show for their man...but want him to run again for his old seat in Congress, occupied for some time now by one-time former Traficant staffer Tim Ryan.

The polarizing personality continues to draw jeers from those against him, who insist that the Valley has "moved on", and want him to spend a quiet retirement out of the spotlight.

That feeling, shared by much of Official Youngstown, is expressed rather well by Friend of OMW Andrea Wood of the Youngstown Business Journal, in a column posted to her publication's site this morning.

Jim Traficant and the spotlight are more natural partners than peanut butter and jelly. As if anyone doubted, Traficant made a fiery appearance at a "Welcome Home" event Sunday afternoon. How could he resist showing up at a banquet hall where 1,200 people paid $20 to show their support for him?

The WKBN/570 news page has more:

He slammed the FBI and IRS, saying the government had to cheat to convict him. He says he's getting "right back into it", indicating he'll have an announcement on the Greta Van Susteren show on Fox News Channel Friday night.

Whatever the former congressman does, be it either talk radio or politics, the phrase "shy and retiring" doesn't seem to be a likely description of his future behavior.. .

WAKR CHANGES: Rubber City Radio oldies/news WAKR/1590 Akron is adding a little more "news" to that format description.

Starting today, the station's "Ray Horner Morning Show" spreads out to a new time slot - 6 to 10 AM weekday mornings.

The morning news and information program will use the expanded 9 AM hour primarily for more long-form interviews and discussion in a less "compacted" space, with more time due to less service elements (i.e. no traffic, etc.).

Today's extra hour started off with a full hour interview with former Stark County congressman Ralph Regula, who weighed in on any number of current "hot button" topics in Washington and in his former district - such as health care, education and alternative energy.

The move of Horner's show to 6-10 AM means WAKR has made some other adjustments on each side of the morning schedule.

With the show's start moving from 5:30 AM, the station now airs the full hour of the Westwood One-syndicated news magazine "America in the Morning" with Jim Bohannon from 5 to 6 AM, with local news updates still in place. (This reminds us, oddly enough, that Bohannon's late night talk show on Westwood One airs over on Media-Com talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron", 11 PM-1 AM weeknights.)

At the other end of Horner's new schedule, WAKR program director/Rubber City operations manager/OMW reader Chuck Collins' midday oldies show now starts at 10 AM.

Elsewhere on West Market, the station returns the Monday night hour-long sports talk show "Three and Out" with former Browns player Frank Stams...which airs at 6 PM during the football season.

WAKR is also airing more programming from the Ohio State University's radio network, as the Buckeyes are in full swing for football season.

That includes a live broadcast of the network's "Jim Tressel Show" Thursdays at 12:05 PM, and some carriage of the Monday night "Buckeye Roundtable" show - depending on Indians baseball coverage, and the aforementioned "Three and Out" show...

ON THE HD3 SIDE: At the OMW World Headquarters (tm), we now have our second HD Radio, thanks to the generosity of others.

This loaner unit from a Friend of OMW is one of the hard-to-find Insignia portable units, which are supposed to be available at Best Buy locations...but have been out of stock for at least a month or two.

The radio is priced at just under $50.

We'll save a review of the Insignia HD portable radio for later. But it's allowed us, while on the road, to check out what area stations are doing on their HD2 and HD3 subchannels.

And it uncovered a recent arrangement we did not know existed.

When tuning into the digital signal of Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting smooth jazz outlet WNWV/107.3 Elyria, we found something odd on WNWV-HD3...programming from Kent State University-owned outlet WKSU/89.7, in specific, WKSU's own HD3 subchannel dedicated solely to classical music.

We were so thrown by the pickup, we thought it was a digital fluke/anomaly caused by the radio. But no, it's for real...from WKSU's HD Radio FAQ:

Additionally, WKSU Classical can also be heard at 107.3 on WNWV-HD 3 in Elyria.

We don't know the details of the arrangement, or why WKSU felt the need to expand its classical music wings to the HD3 channel of a commercial station.

We haven't been able to do an "A/B" test. The Accurian HD Radio unit we got on sale a couple of years ago is currently out of commission - our problem, not the radio's problem. But it would appear the WKSU-HD3 and WNWV-HD3 feeds are not 100 percent in sync. We don't know how the folks in Kent are feeding Elyria.

While doing our dial scans recently, we noticed that WNWV has also changed its HD2 in-house feed, which used to feature traditional jazz. The new format is an eclectic mix of music we're still trying to describe, though there's some AAA rock in there...

SPEAKING OF WKSU, "NOT MUCH": Fans of public radio weekend host Michael Feldman will be able to catch up with him. and his show, in Northeast Ohio next weekend.

The host of "Whad'Ya Know" is bringing his show to Wooster, in an appearance sponsored by the folks at WKSU, on Saturday, September 12th:

On Saturday, Sept. 12 Michael Feldman brings the "Whad’Ya Know?" to Wooster for a live broadcast from the intimate McGaw Chapel on the campus of the College of Wooster. This show will bring all of the spontaneous fun of a taping in Madison to Northeast Ohio with a regional twist.

The $40 tickets are only available through WKSU, and can be ordered at the page linked above.

"Whad'Ya Know" is based at Wisconsin Public Radio in that state's capital of Madison, but makes frequent trips around the country for live events.

This isn't the first time Feldman has done the show from Northeast Ohio..."WYK" did a broadcast from Canton's Palace Theatre not that long ago, and has also made Cleveland-area stops.

And fans of "WYK" know that our heading wasn't a dismissive statement towards either the show or local affiliate WKSU.

"Not much" is the show's stock comedic answer to the question its name raises, and the show's official website is located at, you guessed it, "NotMuch.com"...

GUEST COLUMN: Cleveland Digital TV

Long-time OMW reader Trip Ericson (RabbitEars) gives us his take on the local digital TV situation, including potential channel availability should one of the Cleveland market stations wish to make a channel move...particularly the alleged CBS affiliate currently stuck on RF digital channel 10...

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

Hello, all!

I'm Trip Ericson, the lunatic behind the website RabbitEars.Info, and I've penned this special guest feature on Ohio Media Watch to try to address some of the questions about WOIO and where they could move assuming they wanted to jump ship from channel 10.

This entire article will be written with the assumption that channel 31 is reserved for WJW, even though in reality, it's not. If WOIO was to take channel 31, then this article would apply to WJW just as well. Channel 31 is an open channel by all standards, and would solve the problem for one, but not both, of the VHF broadcasters in the market.

The big problem with all of this is that the FCC's interference rules are rather vicious. In the analog world, there were hard distance limits. If you were x miles away, your station fit. If you were x-1 miles away, your station did not fit. Very simple to understand and very logical.

In digital, the FCC requires a Longley-Rice interference study. The FCC rule is that your allotment cannot create more than 0.5% new interference to any one station. That is to say, you can cause 0.49% interference to station A, and 0.49% interference to station B, and still be within the rules.

The software to run these studies is made available on the FCC website but only runs on a specific computer system. Any other software to perform these studies costs many thousands of dollars, putting it out of the reach of many. I have a friend with access to some software to run these analyses, and had hoped to have him run some studies on WOIO for me, but as press time approaches, he has not been online since I decided to write this article.

Cleveland being where it is, so close to the Canadians, also makes this complicated. To start with, let's look at the Cleveland-area vacant allotments according to Canada:

Cleveland:
03 1024' 9 kW ND
05 1027' 9 kW ND
25 994' 67 kW ND
31 (Ignored)

Akron:
N/A

Canton:
39 958' 200 kW ND

Shaker Heights:
19 1151' 151 kW ND

Lorain:
43 1105' 170 kW ND

A few of these can be tossed out right away. 3 and 5, obviously, would be worse than 10 is now, and thus are removed from the list. 43 is useless due to proximity to WGGN-42, which would almost certainly be way, WAY above 0.5% interference. A signal on 25 would be crippled by KDKA in Pittsburgh and thus unable to adequately cover the area. So this leaves us with channels 19 and 39.

Now, these are just channels that the Canadians have already negotiated with the United States; there's nothing preventing more channels from being negotiated. Let's pull in some other channels to run through that might look good at first glance:

14, 18, 21, 27, 44, 51

Most of these can be tossed out right away:

14 and 18: These two look very clean, until you read through FCC regulations and learn they are reserved for "land mobile." That is, they're used for two-way communication in Pittsburgh among public safety and other licensees. There's a hard spacing rule of 155 miles that Cleveland simply does not meet.

21 and 44: Adjacent channel issues to WFMJ and WNEO aside, which would probably toss these two out right away, spacing to WMYD and WWJ in Detroit probably would do it too. I would not expect either of these allotments to work out.

19 and 51: These frequencies, though promising, have adjacent channel problems. 19 would likely fail with regard to WFMJ-20, and 51 would certainly fail with respect to WEAO-50. Thus, these channels are not under consideration.

At this point, we now see that what started out as a pretty interesting list of channels under consideration, is now narrowed down to two possibilities: Channels 27 or 39. Let's analyze them.

Channel 27: On the adjacent channels, we find WVIZ-26 and WUAB-28, both of which are co-located and thus would not cause any issues. This leaves us with co-channel concerns. WBGU on 27 is probably far enough away that a minor directional null would safely protect it, though this should be checked with an interference study. The big problem is CKCO-DT-3 in Sarnia, which is allotted 994' 810 kW. Even with a WKYC-style directional pattern, I'm not sure that the Canadians would be willing to accept a channel 27 in Cleveland.

Channel 39: This one is more promising than channel 27. The adjacent channels are more than 100 miles away, which means that interference to them should be minimal. There's a Class A at 92 miles that could be an issue, but an interference study would be needed to determine how much of a problem it would be. WADL is both directional away from Cleveland, and on a short tower, and I suspect would not be a problem. Plus, channel 39 already existed as an allotment for WDLI, so the chances of it working are good. My question would be just how much power they could run on 39. It's possible that it wouldn't be enough to satisfy them.

Now, I was staring at it for a while, and I came up with another possibility that might actually be superior to either channel 27 or 39, but I'm not sure how much of a problem it will cause.

Channel 33 caught my eye because it was clean except for a single Canadian station at 76 miles. CICO-TV-59 (analog 59/digital 33) is only allotted 492' 4 kW ND (that's not a typo) on channel 33. I don't know a lot about Canadian allotments, but unless I missed something, it looks like the currently unbuilt CICO-TV-59 digital signal could be moved from channel 33 to channel 20. This would actually reduce interference that it would receive from adjacent channels.

Relocating CICO-TV-59 would then open up channel 33 for use in Cleveland. The only concern would be to CICO-TV-32 in Windsor, allotted 703' 350 kW ND. A slight directional pattern might protect it if it's even an issue. I wonder what the Canadians would say to this proposal, given that the vacant but agreed upon channel 31 allotment is also adjacent to it. Perhaps WOIO could trade the current channel 19 analog antenna to CICO-TV-59 to use on channel 20 digital, assuming it's usable for that.

It seems perfectly logical. I suppose that's why it would never happen.

Ultimately, after all that study and analysis, the most certain answer I can give is "I don't know."

Without the ability to run an interference study, channel 39 looks the best, but that's no guarantee that it works in a satisfactory manner. I would suspect that if WOIO wanted to get off of channel 10 bad enough and they were not in the Canadian border zone, they could make it work regardless, but the Canadians are an unknown.

Finally, I'd like to direct readers to a project I've been working on. I have been teaching myself PHP through coding a project for RabbitEars. I put it in public beta last week and it's currently called the "DX Tool." I plan to change that name, as it's misleading in that it's not just for DXers.

I would like to ask readers of Ohio Media Watch who use over the air to consider trying out the DX Tool. By doing this, the DX Tool allows for the inversion of the reception reports to form a coverage map based on real world reports.

Sign up and submit reception reports for your local stations and maybe we can fill in this map with data showing just how bad reception is for WOIO, plus reception issues for WJW or maybe other stations as well can be shown on their own respective maps.

Thank you to Ohio Media Watch for giving me the opportunity to write this essay. Continue the great work!

Some Answers

One thing we've learned here in the over four years we've been doing OMW - unanswered questions eventually get answered...

CHUCK'S OUT: Like, for example, the question many of our readers had a few weeks ago - where is Chuck Galeti?

We got a flood, well, a minor trickle, of E-mail when people started seeing former WEWS/5 "NewsChannel 5" sports anchor/reporter Sue Ann Robak doing the sports segments on the Cleveland market's alleged CBS affiliate's weekend newscasts...instead of Galeti.

Fast forward to this first day of September, and the Plain Dealer's Julie Washington fills in some of the blanks about Galeti's departure from the station known legally to the FCC as WOIO(TV) Shaker Heights:

The longtime sports broadcaster left sister stations WOIO Channel 19 and WUAB Channel 43 in mid-August.

Galeti, who was Channel 19's weekend sports anchor, said after 20 years of covering sports in Cleveland and Youngstown, he'd had enough of waiting outside locker rooms for players to give him a quote.

OMW readers with a good memory will recall that this isn't the first time Galeti has uttered such words about the world of sports. He said similar when he was doing some news anchoring work...not long after the father of now-former Cleveland Browns player Kellen Winslow II ("K2") gave him a hard time.

Galeti apparently has no immediate place to go, even if this was his decision...though he's presumably still first on the list to fill in for Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 afternoon drive host Mike Trivisonno, as he recently did when Triv's wife Linda passed away.

He tells Washington: "I'll have some opportunities down the road", though he doesn't say what kind of opportunities those may be, or if they're in television, radio, or another field....or in the Cleveland market.

As for Sue Ann Robak, station news director Dan Salamone tells Washington that she is indeed, as we speculated, a "temporary fill-in" while the station searches for Galeti's replacement.

Robak is well liked in the market, and if she doesn't have her own "opportunities down the road" elsewhere, she'd be a good choice to take the job if she wants it on a permanent basis. (We cringe at the prospect of another Charlie Minn, the clowning fill-in sportscaster who once appeared on the station looking like he'd just walked off a comedy show.)

As for Galeti, there's no indication - from here or anywhere - that any of the problems well-documented in his history have resurfaced. Quoting Washington:

Channel 19 rescued Galeti from possible career oblivion after a 2003 car accident and subsequent time in jail and drug and alcohol rehabilitation.

The sportscaster, says the PD, signed a contract extension just last month...but decided to move on...

CBS RADIO CUTS, AND AN EXIT: A ways back, we reported rumblings going around the CBS Radio Cleveland operation...and reported sketchy word of a "mandatory 30 percent pay cut" at the local cluster.

Our item prompted "paycheck panic" among workers there, who double-checked pay stubs just to make sure there wasn't a big cut they hadn't seen yet.

The situation is somewhat clearer, at least if you read the reporting of local media consultant and former WMMS/100.7 program director John Gorman.

Keep in mind...we haven't independently confirmed this item posted last week on Gorman's Media Blog:

I’m not sure if this goes for other markets but in Cleveland CBS Radio recently imposed a 30 percent pay cut for selected employees in a take it or leave deal.

I never would've known about it if it weren't for some local agency people that tipped me off - and asked me for my take on it. This was a well kept secret. For a day or two. When will they learn? This is the Naked City. Secrets don't stay that way for long. I should've known something was up when one of their former account executives posted his resume on every media site around town, including mine.

From what Gorman is saying, it sounds like the "selected employees" losing 30 percent of their salaries were in sales and marketing, which would explain why others were not seeing what we had reported.

And it tracks with what we're hearing from a reliable source today: that Monday, hot AC WQAL/104.1 "Q104" general sales manager Rona Greenwald submitted her resignation...

19 FIX?: One of our readers, a New London OH man, has been copying us on E-mail he's been sending to two local TV stations, WJW/8, WOIO/19, along with various FCC employees.

Our reader has the same complaint that many over-air viewers have in the Cleveland market - he has difficulty picking up those two stations in the post-digital world, and he wants to know what the stations are doing about it. (It should be noted that New London is between Ashland and Norwalk, on the western fringe of the Cleveland market - though problems with both signals have been reported well within the urban core of the market.)

He copied us on a lengthy response he received from one technical employee of the aforementioned WOIO, which has a lot of very interesting information about the station's future plans.

To condense it into a nutshell, the station employee says they are indeed working on boosting power using the existing transmitter to somewhere in the 6,000 watt to 8,000 watt range (it's currently 3.5 kW) - as a temporary measure that could take place in the next two weeks or so.

But it's the first we've heard of an apparent long-term solution - if you believe the employee's information, Raycom Media hopes to eventually land WOIO's digital signal on a "high-powered" facility on the UHF band...they're apparently waiting "for the FCC" to figure out where the new allocation could be, according to that response received by our reader.

Hmm, we seem to recall WOIO used to be on...CHANNEL 19! We're pretty sure that's on the UHF band.

But it's possible that post-transition moves elsewhere have eliminated the station's return to its historic analog channel. That, we don't know. (Our experts at that sort of thing are more than welcome to chime in here, along with suggesting a possible UHF opening for WOIO.)

We do know that the station, according to the employee's response, is well aware of the problems posed by cross-border/cross-Lake Erie station CFPL/10 London ONT, and notes that even a broader power increase won't help it much against that station. (The response also cites something we have heard before - an apparent harmonic problem in the Akron area caused by the FM radio signal of Rubber City Radio rock WONE/97.5 interfering with the RF channel 10 TV signal.)

Thus, the apparent eventual desire to move to UHF, and abandon RF channel 10 entirely. The letter received by our reader blames the FCC for the allocation, saying it "never should have been granted" based on the CFPL issues.

We'd love to print the entire response. But the folks at Reserve Square pretty much treat us like we're pond scum that needs to be scraped from the bottom of their shoes. We won't print it in full unless the original author gives us the OK.

Despite the fact that the station has blocked us from its Twitter updates, and has otherwise demonstrated that it doesn't take our good-natured pokes well, we'd like the truth to come out here...if WOIO is indeed planning to eventually abandon the problem-plagued RF channel 10, and build a facility that puts out a signal people can actually pick up over the air, we'd like to hear about it officially.

At some point later this week, we'll revisit some information we've heard about the other local VHF-based digital TV signal that has some problems reaching viewers, Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8 "Fox 8"...

Very Random Tuesday

Clearing out our inbox on a Tuesday makes for a very, very random collection of items...

DIGITAL TRANSLATORS: Unique among major Cleveland market TV stations, Ideastream PBS affiliate WVIZ/25 has maintained low-power translators in locations on the edge of the market for years.

OMW reader Trip Ericson (proprietor of TV information site RabbitEars) gives us the heads up that the pubcaster intends on converting these small transmitters to digital format.

W63CT is licensed to Eastlake, but the 34 kW analog translator seems aimed at the I-90 corridor between Mentor and Geneva, approximately. The low-power digital application would put the station on RF channel 38, and put out 11 kW of power that could extend the station's range from Euclid to Ashtabula. (Digital TV being what it is, your mileage may vary.)

The application is classified as a "displacement" application. Channel 63 is outside the broadcast TV core (channels 2-51).

Channel 38 was the channel originally sought by Image Video's WIVM-LP/Canton for its new digital home, but as OMW reported earlier, the Canton LPTV outlet quickly re-filed for channel 39 based on TBN O&O WDLI-DT/Canton's impending move to channel 49.

Well, at least they didn't try to use channel 37, like one LPTV applicant recently did in Louisiana. (Bonus points if you know why even asking to locate to channel 37 is a non-starter!)

Displacement is also the reason that WVIZ has filed for a new digital home for W64AK/Conneaut, which resides on out-of-core channel 64, on channel 44.

And assuming it ever gets built, the 5 kW application would vastly extend the station's service area. The current W64AK facility is licensed for just 145 watts, and would seem to serve just a small chunk of Ashtabula County near Edgewood.

Notice that we said "assuming it ever gets built".

We have no idea if these two LP digital outlets will be built in the near future, and assuming WVIZ gets the appropriate construction permits, the folks at Playhouse Square would have the usual three years to build them out. And if they ever intend on making the conversion, Ideastream has to "get in line" to get the allocation.

But despite WVIZ's new, powerful main digital signal on RF 26 out of Parma, we know some viewers to the northeast would welcome a chance to pick up the station over-air...

TAKING A BREAK: Gannett Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC/3 anchor Eric Mansfield will be taking a one week break this week from his "other job", as moderator of the Western Reserve PBS news roundtable show "NewsNight Akron"...which airs Friday nights at 9 PM on the pubcaster's WNEO/45 Alliance-WEAO/49 Akron.

Eric and his panel, which is comprised of local broadcast and print journalists from Akron media outlets, kick around the Issues of the Week for Akron area viewers.

And that includes talking about upcoming local elections, which is the reason Eric will hand off hosting duties this week to a regular panelist, Rubber City Radio VP/information media and OMW reader Ed Esposito.

Eric, also an OMW reader, tells us that one of Friday's topics will be the crowded field of candidates (14!) running for the Akron School Board, and as such:

My wife, Lisa, is a candidate, so I certainly don't want to be in a position of conflict of interest.

Eric says he'll probably step aside as "NewsNight Akron"'s host at least one more time "and possibly several more times" between now and the election...to allow discussion of the school board race without the husband of one of the candidates in the studio.

He tells us:

There are no strings attached. The panel can talk for as long or as little about the topic as they see fit .. but in all fairness, I needed to get out of the way since this topic is so important for the voters.

It's a potential conflict of interest issue he's not likely to face in his "day job", as reporter and 7 PM co-anchor at WKYC.

Though Mansfield still covers some Akron stories as a Channel 3 reporter, the station now longer regularly staffs the Akron/Canton Bureau on Main and Market - next to the space where "NewsNight Akron" is now taped.

Mansfield and other WKYC reporters presumably still use the facility to process stories covered in the area.

But with "Akron/Canton News" now long off the air (or off Time Warner Cable's "NEON" local programming channel, to be accurate)...the depth of coverage of Akron issues is not nearly what it was from the Channel 3 newsroom.

And as such, it's likely that WKYC won't run many stories, if any, on the Akron school board race Mansfield's wife, Lisa, is in...and they can easily task another reporter with covering the race if needed...

MAC TIME: Fox Sports Ohio is touting its coverage of Mid-American Conference college football....with the annual "MAC Gridiron Preview" show now unleashed.

Quoting a FSOhio press release:

This one-hour special features previews from the players and coaches of the MAC’s 13 teams, “off-the-gridiron” stories behind various players as well as special interviews with the new head coaches at Miami, Bowling Green, Toledo, Eastern Michigan, and Ball State. The show also provides insight on the future of the conference with its new commissioner, Dr. Jon Steinbrecher.

Hosted by veteran broadcaster and MAC alumni Jeff Phelps, this year's show takes viewers to the MAC media day and offers a “you are there” point of view. With the show produced by another MAC alumni, Ron Glasenapp, this marks the seventh consecutive year FOX Sports Ohio has provided viewers with an in-depth preseason look at the upcoming MAC season.

The show bowed in Monday at 8 PM. But this being cable/satellite, it'll air again a number of times in the next few days:

Tuesday, August 25 at 11 p.m.
Thursday, August 27 at 10 p.m.
Saturday, August 29 at 2 p.m.
Saturday, August 29 at 7 p.m.
Sunday, August 30 at 4 p.m.
Monday, August 31 at 1 p.m.

The Cleveland-based conference has members all over the Great Lakes region, including the University of Akron and Kent State University in Northeast Ohio...

AND SPEAKING OF SPORTS: Lake Erie College in Painesville fielded a football team for the first time last year, and that opening season actually got some radio coverage.

As we noted last September, locally-owned Willoughby outlet Spirit Media talk/variety WELW/1330 carried the "Storm" football team's first season, with veteran local sportscaster Kendall Lewis on play by play.

The "Storm" is about to get a bigger platform.

The college has hooked up with Media One Group's sports WFUN/970 Ashtabula as its radio home in football season number two, with help from sister AC WREO/97.1 "Star 97.1", according to a press release that landed in the OMW mailbox:

Beginning Sept. 5, ESPN 970 will broadcast nine Storm games live, while sister station WREO Star 97.1 FM will carry the Sept. 26 game at Adrian College. In addition, all 11 games will be streamed live online at www.espn970wfun.com.

The agreement announced today (Aug. 24) with Media One Group, which owns and operates ESPN 970 and Star 97, will provide Northeast Ohio’s only NCAA Division II program with a coverage area that reaches from eastern Cuyahoga County into Western Pennsylvania.

Most of that coverage area is attributed to "Star 97.1", though WFUN's 5,000 watt daytime signal out of Ashtabula isn't bad at all into Painesville, where Lake Erie College is based.

As for the broadcast team:

Local sports radio veteran Craig Deas and former WJET-TV sports director Scott Wludyga will handle the play-by-play duties for Storm broadcasts this season. The play-by-play voice and Director of Community & Media Relations for the Lake County Captains minor league baseball team, Deas has broadcast sports in Northeast Ohio since 1987. Last season he handled radio duties for Lake Erie men’s and women’s basketball broadcasts.

The Captains, of course, are now heard on WREO "Star 97.1", flagship of a two-station network that includes original Captains flagship WELW...

19 Asks For More Juice

...and no, we don't mean in the vending machines in the basement of Reserve Square.

Raycom Media's alleged Cleveland market CBS affiliate, known legally to the FCC as WOIO(TV) Shaker Heights, is requesting an immediate power increase for its digital TV facility on RF channel 10.

WOIO is asking to increase power from 3.5 kW to 9.5 kW on its existing antenna system.

The station recently received approval to mount a new, higher antenna that would put out 10.3 kW of power. The special temporary authority request would use the lower antenna WOIO's digital facility is using now, until the 10.3 kW permit is built out and ready to take to the airwaves.

It'll be interesting to see if this actually returns the station to many local digital converter boxes and tuners that have lost it in the past. Like, for example, all three digital tuners here at OMW World Headquarters, just 20 air miles from Parma.

Thanks to OMW reader Trip Ericson, proprietor of the excellent RabbitEars.info TV information site, for the heads up...

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...