All Sorts of Things

So, it's a dreary, rainy mid-October day...what better day to stay inside and update the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm)?

NEW TWC HD: As expected, as earlier announced and as confirmed by OMW, Time Warner Cable's Northeast Ohio system has added 10 new HD channels for its subscribers.

The list, courtesy of a TWC press release:

Biography HD – 469
Cartoon Network HD – 459
Disney XD HD – 457
Outdoor HD – 481
Turner Classic Movies HD – 465
Fox Business News HD – 488
Style HD – 468
Headline News HD – 484
E! HD – 467
Hallmark Movie Channel HD – 461

The following HD channels have moved:

Palladia HD – 470
Universal HD – 496
Smithsonian HD – 497
MavTV HD – 498
MGM HD – 499

The company says it's now added over 30 HD channels in the Northeast Ohio footprint, with more to come through the end of the year. They've already listed some scheduled to show up November 4th (see our earlier reporting on this for more).

In addition, Hallmark Movies has been added in standard definition on channel 117.

In what may basically mean nothing to local Time Warner Cable subscribers, the Northeast Ohio system is being reconfigured into two service areas with two new VPs, says Multichannel News:

The division has been reorganized into two service areas: Metro, encompassing greater Akron and Cleveland; and Suburban, comprising the outer belt of the division, including Erie, Penn., south through Youngstown, west to Mansfield and north to Port Clinton.

We'll make an assumption not made in the trade site's article: "Metro" would certainly also include Canton along with Cleveland and Akron, since the Akron/Canton areas have been joined at the hip for decades, and TWC handles many Akron operations out of its North Canton headend. In our assumption, the new "Suburban" division would take in the former Adelphia systems in Dover/New Philadelphia, south of Canton.

The report says TWC has two new vice presidents of technical operations under new regional VP/operations Vin Zachariah: Scott Miller - overseeing the new Metro division - and Rick Whaley - overseeing the new suburban division.

Again, it may or may not mean anything to subscribers...but an eagle eyed reader pointed it out, so we're passing it along...

THE BSK IS COMING ALONG: OMW reported that long-time Cleveland sports media personality Kendall Lewis suffered a stroke in September, sidelining him from his afternoon drive duties at Paul Belfi's Internet sports talk site SportsTalkCleveland.com.

The former WKNR sports talk host has also been program director for the STC sports website, but has been spending the past few weeks recovering, medically.

The news on that front is good, STC's Belfi tells OMW that "The BSK" is doing "fantastic":

He looks great, and sounds spectacular. He set a personal date of coming back on the air on the 1st of the year, but it is looking more like he will be back with us in November - his rehab has gone that well. The rehab has been extremely aggressive, as he is determined to be back 100%, and the hard work is paying big dividends.

Belfi tells us that Kendall is expected to be released from the hospital this Friday, and is expected to call into STC "sometime next week"...and thanks everyone for their calls and E-mails...

AND MORE SPORTS: With Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 Cleveland losing sports host/Indians beat reporter Mark Schwab to the weekend sports anchor gig at Raycom Media CBS/MyNetwork TV combo WOIO/19-WUAB/43's "19 Action News", they need to replace him.

So yes, we've seen the WTAM ad for Schwab's opening. In fact, it was our first clue that he would eventually leave the station.

For those who need it, we're reprinting the ad below. Or, you could just walk down Oak Tree Boulevard wearing an Indians uniform, and shout "Ray!!!! Ray!!! HIRE ME!!!" into a bullhorn...

Newsradio WTAM 1100 offers a full time opportunity in sports as the Indians beat reporter. Additional duties include hosting sports talk shows, anchoring sportscats and maintaining sports pages on WTAM.com. Email short MP3 demo and resume to (ray - at - wtam - dot - com) or send resume and CD demo to: WTAM, Ray Davis, 6200 Oak Tree Blvd, #400, Independence, OH 44131. Clear Channel Communications is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

PHIL'S GANG IS BACK: It isn't really a local item per se, but Talk Radio Network syndicated host Phil Hendrie claims at least two affiliates in Northeast Ohio - Clear Channel talkers WHLO/640 Akron and WKBN/570 Youngstown.

The show that's been heard on those stations has been a fairly straightforward talk show, with Hendrie weighing in the issues of the day and sharing his thoughts and opinions with listeners.

For many listeners who heard Hendrie in his show's previous incarnation, syndicated by Premiere Radio, there was something missing.

You know, people like Bobbie Dooley, Ted Bell and Bud Dickman. These "far out" regular guests of Hendrie's original show existed solely in the mind of...host Phil Hendrie, who used fancy phone shuttling to give a voice to these people...and to frustrate real life callers who thought they really existed, and who argued with them on the show because their viewpoints were so ridiculous.

Well, "they're baaaaaaaack!"

What the Los Angeles-based host says is the "rebirth" of his TRN show started this week. As a promo on WKBN says, "either you get it, or it gets you!".

The general idea is that among the vast amount of very intelligent people who listen to talk radio, some might take this "hook, line and sinker", and make for very entertaining "foils" to Phil's made-up cast of characters. (The show has never made a secret of the practice...even in Phil's days with Premiere, the host would occasionally break down that proverbial "fourth wall" with listeners.)

If you've ever worked behind the scenes in talk radio, you might recognize callers who berate you because your station decided to run a college basketball game instead of the regular airing of "The Michael Savage Show"...strongly yelling that your station is endangering the Future of the Republic by preempting Mr. Savage with a mere sporting event.

It's callers like that which will ensure a steady base of Outraged Citizens, taking Bobbie Dooley to task over some wild statement she's made about society...

SPEAKING OF WKBN: We heard the Hendrie promo on WKBN earlier today, right before the last 15 minutes of a show guest hosted by former Mahoning Valley congressman/released convicted felon Jim Traficant.

Are we getting to the point where Jim Traficant doing talk radio fill-in is "routine" now?

Jimbo's first post-prison "guest host" appearance did still have a reason - regular mid-morning host/WKBN program director Dan Rivers had a travel day to a talk radio event in Washington DC.

But with speculation about Traficant's future, either politicially or in the talk radio arena, it was also certainly a chance for Clear Channel Youngstown market manager/OMW reader Bill Kelly to strike while the iron was hot...and get the ex-con/ex-congressman in the spotlight along with his talk radio station. Oh, and warm his pipes up for future radio hosting appearances.

This time, there was no hype, no publicity...Traficant was really "just filling in" for Rivers, as just another fill-in host. And unfortunately, not because of good news.

We don't know why Dan Rivers wasn't doing his show today, but the former congressman subbing for him expressed his "condolences to the Rivers family", briefly, at the end of the show. That doesn't sound good, so we pass along our own condolences to Dan and his family for whatever has happened...

Outside Our Area, But...

Occasionally, we feature items from outside the main OMW Coverage Area...but with comments relating the items to things that could happen here. This is one of those collections...

SMOOTH JAZZ LOSES ANOTHER: The ailing smooth jazz format has lost another big city outlet.

This time, it's CBS Radio's WVMV/98.7 Detroit, which stopped playing smooth jazz Friday. After a bit of weekend stunting, it's carrying one of CBS' current pet formats - top 40, under the moniker "98.7 AMP Radio".

That's the same on-air name adopted by CBS Radio's former FM talker in Los Angeles, KLSX/97.1, when it moved to top 40.

CBS also uses "Now" as a top 40 format name, at one-time Howard Stern/Opie and Anthony flagship WXRK/92.3, the station formerly known as "K-Rock". (We'll give you some time to sort out the call letter/slogan relationship with 92.3 in the Cleveland market. You may use the search box at the top of OMW for your answer quest.)

CBS' other big "pet" format is FM sports talk, which has seen great success on another CBS Detroit station, WXYT-FM/97.1 "The Fan".

Smooth jazz is in peril nationwide because it apparently doesn't fare well at all in the Portable People Meter ratings, and PPM measurement is just now getting underway in Northeast Ohio.

That's where the smooth jazz format has a long mainstay - Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting's WNWV/107.3 Elyria "The Wave", which has presumably made a boatload of money off of the upscale format in the Cleveland market over the years.

The move in Detroit, along with earlier smooth jazz shutdowns in markets like Chicago, has many wondering how long WNWV can hang on.

There are different factors here.

For one, ELB is a small, local ownership company that doesn't have a roster of pet "new" formats like CBS does. If 107.3's smooth jazz format falls out of the bottom of the PPM ratings, the folks in Elyria don't have backup plan B on a hard drive somewhere....well, aside from whatever they're doing these days on the HD2 signal of 107.3.

We tend to think "The Wave" will hang in there as long as it is able to do so, given the unique situation of its parent company. And even in the depressed advertising market, WNWV may be making more money than the company's two daily newspapers in Elyria and Medina...

NOT HERE: When the sale of three urban-targetted Pittsburgh radio stations to a Catholic broadcaster made news, it had a little impact on the southeastern edge of our coverage area.

That's because in recent years, legendary Pittsburgh market urban outlet WAMO-FM had been on a frequency that reached a decent chunk of the Pennsylvania side of the Youngstown radio market - 106.7 FM, licensed to Beaver Falls PA. Folks in Youngstown-centric suburbs like New Castle and Sharon had little trouble picking it up.

It's now silent, because new owner Saint Joseph Missions has yet to finish replacement studios to operate WAMO-FM, and its AM sisters, with Catholic-oriented programming.

With much fanfare, former WPTT/22 owner Eddie Edwards Sr. announced that he'd bought a station to help fill the void in programming aimed at Pittsburgh's African-American community.

Surely, the message board wags thought, he'd pry one of the big signal FMs from Clear Channel, Keymarket or whoever, and remount WAMO-FM's youth-oriented urban format.

Uh, not quite.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Edwards is buying Langer Broadcasting talk WPYT/660 Wilkinsburg PA, a 1400 watt daytimer with no night authorization. The P-G writes that Edwards "plans to launch a news and talk format aimed primarily at the African-American community."

So, instead of a replacement for WAMO-FM, it appears he's mounting a replacement for WAMO-AM 860, which most recently was running gospel, but has run a number of urban talk programs over the years (including one hosted by Pittsburgh's own Bev Smith).

The P-G's Adrian McCoy writes:

Mr. Edwards called the WPYT acquisition the first step in that process. He also hopes to buy an FM station that would have a classic R&B music format targeted at older listeners.

So, even with an FM station on his shopping list...it doesn't appear Edwards is trying for younger listeners looking for hip-hop music that once aired on 106.7 FM.

Of course, African-American listeners in the Youngstown market are served by stations like Bernard Radio's WRBP/101.9 Hubbard "The Beat", which we believe is also closer to an urban AC...

TOLEDO OPENING: Reprinting this opening at a Toledo Clear Channel outlet entirely from the good folks at AllAccess:

CLEAR CHANNEL Top 40/Mainstream WVKS (92-5 KISS FM)/TOLEDO is looking for its next morning show co-host for its "ANDREW Z in the Morning" show. The co-host should be highly motivated, organized, friendly and hard working, with a minimum of three years on-air experience.

Candidates must also be willing to help the producer with editing and other projects, live remotes and other duties laid out by the Program Director. Tapes and resumes to Dir./Operations BILL MICHAELS, 125 S. Superior St., TOLEDO, OH. 43604. Females strongly encouraged to apply. CLEAR CHANNEL RADIO is an equal opportunity employer.

AND HELLO, DINO!: It looks like one of our favorite OMW foils, er, readers, has landed again.

We've had a lot of good natured fun with former now-silent WATJ/1560 Chardon sports talk host and OMW reader Dino Costa, who most recently exited from his online sports talk site in Denver.

AllAccess reports that he has a new "radio home":

Veteran sports talker DINO COSTA reports that he'll be heard nationally on SIRIUS XM RADIO's MAD DOG RADIO sports channel nightly starting (Monday night).

COSTA, who most recently was part of the launch of online DENVER SPORTS RADIO and has been heard in DENVER and JACKSONVILLE, among other places, will air 8p-1a ET weeknights on the channel.

Sure enough, there's Costa on the "Mad Dog" schedule:

The Dino Costa Show
Weekdays 8 pm - 1 am ET
Get Dino's one-of-a-kind take on the action while it's happening around the country. From the opening faceoff to the final hoop, Dino keeps you on top of all the big moments while interviewing some of the top names of the night.

Colorado-based Westword, a weekly paper that's apparently had just as much fun with Dino as we have, has more. (By the way, in looking for more in a Google search, we found that one of our articles on Mr. Costa lands at the top of a Google search on his name.)

Congratulations to Dino, sincerely. It sure beats trying to aim at Cleveland sports radio listeners from a 1,000 watt directional daytime AM station out in Geauga County.

Feel free to bang any promotional drums...the ones you play so well. And if you bragged about a new 50,000 watt AM transmitter in Florida, we can only imagine how you'll brag about an entire set of satellites in the sky.

"Mad Dog" is the channel that features former WFAN/660 "The Fan" New York City afternoon drive co-host Chris "Mad Dog" Russo, who reportedly has a hand in assembling the schedule.

One name that was thought to have been on the early "Mad Dog" schedule was another sports talker with some Northeast Ohio ties - former WHLO/640 Akron evening host Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton.

The deal was never worked out with the former World Hockey Association Cleveland Crusaders play-by-play voice (we're talking the 1970's, here, and the current WTAM/1100 was WWWE "3WE"!), who eventually landed cross-satellite from "Mad Dog" doing weekends on XM's "Home Plate" major league baseball channel.

We earlier reported that "Hacksaw" was rumored to be headed back to the local airwaves in San Diego - on his former radio boss' current sports talk operation, cross-border sports outlet XEPRS/1090 "XX 1090", blasting English-language sports talk into San Diego from a transmitter in Mexico.

Just to confirm here - the rumors were true, and Lee "Hacksaw" Hamilton is once again blanketing San Diego weekday afternoons with his unique style of sports talk on that station...