CBS Radio AC WDOK/102.1 Cleveland is often the model of radio stability, so we don't usually have anything to say about them. Well, until now.
AllAccess reports that WDOK afternoon driver Chris Fox "exits". The shift will be filled, at least on an "interim" basis, by local radio veteran and WDOK part-timer Bob McKay.
OMW is reminded that McKay did afternoon drive at Clear Channel hot AC WMVX/106.5 "Mix 106.5" until about five years ago.
More as it develops...
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
T.K. O'Grady Is Recovering
We've known about this for a while, but rather unfortunately, we've been kind of swamped in the Real Life Dept.(tm) to get something up here in the past day or two.
So, we're heartened that it's good news that brings us to post this item.
OMW hears that Rubber City Radio rock WONE/97.5 Akron program director T.K. O'Grady has indeed successfully gone through his prostate cancer surgery, which took place on Monday.
We hear that O'Grady is expected home tomorrow, and is "doing fine". We also hear he'll be recuperating at home for the next six weeks or so.
Perhaps the best source of information on what T.K. is going through - comes from the same building.
Rubber City's AkronNewsNow.com has more on his surgery, including video of the WONE PD and afternoon drive on-air personality explaining the situation to his listeners.
It's part of a continuing evolution of the company's news site, which now regularly posts not just audio from the airwaves, but video.
A quick check of AkronNewsNow this afternoon shows a link to video from Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic's appearance on WAKR/1590's "Ray Horner Show" this morning.
And WAKR program director Chuck Collins, who does a lot of work on the website, is leading the way. He's put up his own YouTube section with various Rubber City-related videos, including a report on last weekend's snowstorm, and videos of sister country WQMX/94.9 personalities talking about "American Idol".
There is still a transmitter pushing out 5,000 watts on 1590 near the I-77/I-277 interchange, and will be for many years to come. But like with many other stations, casting a wider "net" is becoming more important for WAKR and its West Market Street sister stations...
So, we're heartened that it's good news that brings us to post this item.
OMW hears that Rubber City Radio rock WONE/97.5 Akron program director T.K. O'Grady has indeed successfully gone through his prostate cancer surgery, which took place on Monday.
We hear that O'Grady is expected home tomorrow, and is "doing fine". We also hear he'll be recuperating at home for the next six weeks or so.
Perhaps the best source of information on what T.K. is going through - comes from the same building.
Rubber City's AkronNewsNow.com has more on his surgery, including video of the WONE PD and afternoon drive on-air personality explaining the situation to his listeners.
It's part of a continuing evolution of the company's news site, which now regularly posts not just audio from the airwaves, but video.
A quick check of AkronNewsNow this afternoon shows a link to video from Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic's appearance on WAKR/1590's "Ray Horner Show" this morning.
And WAKR program director Chuck Collins, who does a lot of work on the website, is leading the way. He's put up his own YouTube section with various Rubber City-related videos, including a report on last weekend's snowstorm, and videos of sister country WQMX/94.9 personalities talking about "American Idol".
There is still a transmitter pushing out 5,000 watts on 1590 near the I-77/I-277 interchange, and will be for many years to come. But like with many other stations, casting a wider "net" is becoming more important for WAKR and its West Market Street sister stations...
Monday, April 09, 2007
STO Scrambles With Tribe Move
Television production can't often turn on a dime, but SportsTime Ohio is doing a lot of dime turning this week.
With baseball officials moving the Cleveland Indians series with the Los Angeles Angels to Milwaukee's Miller Park, STO says they'll air the three-game set as scheduled - scooping up a last-minute commitment on a production truck in Wisconsin, and flying staffers up to Milwaukee.
The sole casualty of the move will be STO's HDTV telecast, which won't take place since the games will not be in the already-equipped-for-HDTV confines of Jacobs Field.
STO's release says that in place of tonight's cancelled games with Seattle, the network will turn to its archives to re-air the "enhanced version" of Len Barker's perfect game.
And different, since last time this classic game aired on STO - that game's color commentator, Bruce Drennan, is now a staff member of the network...
With baseball officials moving the Cleveland Indians series with the Los Angeles Angels to Milwaukee's Miller Park, STO says they'll air the three-game set as scheduled - scooping up a last-minute commitment on a production truck in Wisconsin, and flying staffers up to Milwaukee.
The sole casualty of the move will be STO's HDTV telecast, which won't take place since the games will not be in the already-equipped-for-HDTV confines of Jacobs Field.
STO's release says that in place of tonight's cancelled games with Seattle, the network will turn to its archives to re-air the "enhanced version" of Len Barker's perfect game.
And different, since last time this classic game aired on STO - that game's color commentator, Bruce Drennan, is now a staff member of the network...
Welcome To Monday
...such as it is. And as per usual with our early week posts, we're in a mix of updates and ongoing topics...
LES ON THE RADIO: When Good Karma sports WKNR/850 started revamping its lineup, bringing in names like Tony Rizzo and Mark "Munch" Bishop, we wondered what would happen when these hosts took time off.
With a rather busy sports month or so mostly behind us, it's no surprise that Rizzo - in his "day"/night job as WJW/8's primary sports anchor - would be taking some time off from both TV and radio...and that time comes starting this week.
Another former host from WHK/1420's sports talk days in the 1990's will be sitting in for him this week.
Yes, it's FSN Ohio/Time Warner Cable host Les Levine in the 10 AM-noon slot this week on "ESPN 850 WKNR".
Levine has done WKNR fill-in since Good Karma took over the station - mostly on the still-not-permanently-filled "Saturday Morning Sports Show".
WKNR promotions director Jason Gibbs did the Saturday show this past weekend.
We say "mostly behind us" above, of course, because the Cleveland Indians have been trying to play a complete home opener since Friday evening. And with today's makeup contest also postponed due to snow, and rain expected this week, the Indians head to Milwaukee to play the Angels under the safety of retractable roof.
We would surmise that even without Tony Rizzo being hired for the 10 AM-noon slot, Levine wouldn't have been interested in permanent WKNR work - with his very busy TV schedule. But as a week-long fill-in? Sure...
WHILE WE'RE AT SPORTS: We don't know what WEWS/5 sports anchors John Chandler and Sue Ann Robak do to keep themselves alert, but we'd like to know. (Lots of coffee? Red Bull's strongest drink? People popping paper sacks in front of them to wake them up?)
As far as we've been able to determine, both of them have worked pretty much every day since the Cleveland ABC affiliate said goodbye to sports director Chris Miller - who booked to Washington DC's Comcast SportsNet a while back.
And since that day, we've had a deep run into the NCAA championship game for the OSU Buckeyes, with Chandler on-site wherever they were, and Robak mostly back at 3001 Euclid. We've had the end of Indians' spring training, and the start of the season. And of course, the Cavaliers are heading into the playoffs.
The point is, of course, that "NewsChannel 5" has been working its two-person sports department like they've had three people. We're surprised Chandler and Robak haven't collapsed on air.
And we hear WEWS is not in a hurry to hire a permanent replacement for Miller.
But we do wonder - can't Channel 5 bring in a fill-in sports anchor somehow? At very least, their very busy current sports folks can grab a wink or three...and perhaps to audition an eventual replacement for Miller.
For that matter, if they did decide to do that, they'll have to compete with CBS affiliate WOIO/19, who - as reported just below this - now has to look for a weekend sports anchor to replace one David Pingalore.
But "19 Action News" has brought in a lot of fill-in sports anchors in the past - among them, WNIR/100.1 afternoon drive host Bob Golic.
We wonder if the ex-Cleveland Browns defensive star turned Akron talk show host is going to show up again some weekend later this month or early next. (We just wonder - we haven't heard if Golic will be tapped for fill-in at all. It's just an educated guess based on his past fill-in work.)
And could one other known local name could be in that mix at "19 Action News" as well? We'll let that feline out of the paper sack later in this item...
WHILE WE'RE AT CABLE: Yes, at least in western Summit County, Time Warner Cable/WKYC's "Akron/Canton News" started airing last Monday in places like Bath, Richfield, Copley and the former Northampton Township.
Since some folks seemed confused about this the last time we mentioned it, we'll clarify it a bit.
The former Adelphia systems recently absorbed into Time Warner Cable in Summit County are not connected.
One of them serves, as mentioned, the western part of Summit County. If you go back far enough, it's the system originally built by Cablevision back in the 1980's...coming out of Cleveland, which was the company's original hub. All of this was bought by Adelphia some time ago.
The other system serves eastern/northeastern communities like Hudson and Macedonia. This system was the former Western Reserve Cablevision, which was separately absorbed into Adelphia - and has a different lineup than the western Summit County system now formerly run by Adelphia.
For that matter, it has a different lineup than Cleveland's former Adelphia systems, since it wasn't built out of Cleveland like the other system was.
The problem is simple, says TWC: The former Western Reserve system does not have a local programming channel, where the former Cablevision systems do.
Oh, the former Western Reserve system does run local programming. But from our understanding, it's mostly "spoken for" with mandated local access productions and such, and there's no room at 6:30 and 10 for the imported "Akron/Canton News".
Even on the Akron-area ex-Adelphia systems which now run the show, it's kinda awkward. Local cable origination isn't known for its exact timing and imaging, and this arrangement seems even more "odd" - so you're likely to see the last 30 seconds or so of "More Sports and Les Levine" after the newscast ends at just before 7 PM.
Oops! Well, if you want to see the last half-hour of Levine's show, you can tune in for the repeat at 11 PM on all the local TWC systems...
HELLO, GEORGE!: An OMW nod to the Thursday media column of Akron Beacon Journal sports columnist George M. Thomas.
Thomas reports on the "save" of the MLB Extra Innings package for cable - Time Warner, locally - and on that cable service's deal with ESPN, which returns ESPNU to TWC's former Adelphia systems and brings it to the "legacy" Time Warner system in Akron/Canton.
It'll also bring the HD version of ESPN2 to the Akron/Canton TWC systems - ESPN2HD has been on the Cleveland-based former Adelphia system since before the transition.
George also points out some possible hosts for the Friday edition of SportsTime Ohio's "All Bets Are Off", giving the show a sixth day on former Morgantown WV resident Bruce Drennan's day off.
Among those "mentioned" is former WKNR Indians beat reporter Ken Silverstein, current WTAM/1100 Browns beat reporter/host Andre Knott, and a co-worker of Knott's, WTAM mid-morning talk host Bob Frantz.
We put "mentioned" in quotes, as it's how Thomas presented the information - but the ABJ columnist has been plugged into this story since day one, so we wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't far from the mark.
We continue to get the idea that the Friday "All Bets Are Off" slot won't be filled by one permanent host, as we assume the network doesn't want to front anyone regularly for the show besides Drennan.
Thomas' use of the phrase "guest hosts" seems to back that up.
And continuing our item above, could Drennan end up on the WOIO/19-WUAB/43 airwaves on a part-time basis? Writer Kevin Kelley of the suburban weekly newspaper "WestLife" brings that up in a recent story about STO's newest host:
“I fully intend to incorporate my story, my case, my experiences leading up to the five months at Morgantown, and my five months at Morgantown,” said Drennan, who is also in discussions to work part time for WOIO/Action 19 News.
AND JIM'S TALK RETURN: Thanks to a friend, we did get a chance to hear NextMedia talk WHBC/1480 Canton's Jim Albright take calls and chit-chat on his new Saturday 6-10 AM show.
It's pretty much as we expected...a weekend morning easy-going chat, humor and information show. It has been a number of years since the radio veteran did talk - as long-time host of WNIR/100.1's "Dating Show" - but it didn't take him long to climb back on the bicycle, as it were.
In addition to talk of baseball game memories in the wake of the Indians' postponed home opener - back and forth with the sports anchor - Albright fearlessly took calls from people unhappy with the format change.
To those missing the oldies, Albright reminded listeners that the station played "the same 200 oldies" in those days that even an oldies aficionado like the host himself was tiring of playing. He noted that the station couldn't go part-time oldies due to music rights costs.
And Albright quickly reminded those listening and calling that the station's other elements around the songs remained as is.
Well, yes and no.
The news, sure, though there have been some cutbacks to that even in the last days of the oldies formats (most notably, weekends after Albright's show). Fred and Pam haven't moved, or changed much. The local sports folks are still there, and we imagine their role will probably grow at some point.
But folks who liked the on-air personalities around the oldies...well, they're gone - Tom Jarrett, Brice Lewis (now weekends at Clear Channel AC WHOF/101.7 "my 101.7") and the like. And at least three hours a day, one of those hosts has been replaced by a syndicated talk show.
It was still a pretty good attempt at placating upset listeners.
But there wasn't much Albright could do to help the elderly woman who missed the obituaries the station used to read in the evening. She apparently doesn't get the paper...
LES ON THE RADIO: When Good Karma sports WKNR/850 started revamping its lineup, bringing in names like Tony Rizzo and Mark "Munch" Bishop, we wondered what would happen when these hosts took time off.
With a rather busy sports month or so mostly behind us, it's no surprise that Rizzo - in his "day"/night job as WJW/8's primary sports anchor - would be taking some time off from both TV and radio...and that time comes starting this week.
Another former host from WHK/1420's sports talk days in the 1990's will be sitting in for him this week.
Yes, it's FSN Ohio/Time Warner Cable host Les Levine in the 10 AM-noon slot this week on "ESPN 850 WKNR".
Levine has done WKNR fill-in since Good Karma took over the station - mostly on the still-not-permanently-filled "Saturday Morning Sports Show".
WKNR promotions director Jason Gibbs did the Saturday show this past weekend.
We say "mostly behind us" above, of course, because the Cleveland Indians have been trying to play a complete home opener since Friday evening. And with today's makeup contest also postponed due to snow, and rain expected this week, the Indians head to Milwaukee to play the Angels under the safety of retractable roof.
We would surmise that even without Tony Rizzo being hired for the 10 AM-noon slot, Levine wouldn't have been interested in permanent WKNR work - with his very busy TV schedule. But as a week-long fill-in? Sure...
WHILE WE'RE AT SPORTS: We don't know what WEWS/5 sports anchors John Chandler and Sue Ann Robak do to keep themselves alert, but we'd like to know. (Lots of coffee? Red Bull's strongest drink? People popping paper sacks in front of them to wake them up?)
As far as we've been able to determine, both of them have worked pretty much every day since the Cleveland ABC affiliate said goodbye to sports director Chris Miller - who booked to Washington DC's Comcast SportsNet a while back.
And since that day, we've had a deep run into the NCAA championship game for the OSU Buckeyes, with Chandler on-site wherever they were, and Robak mostly back at 3001 Euclid. We've had the end of Indians' spring training, and the start of the season. And of course, the Cavaliers are heading into the playoffs.
The point is, of course, that "NewsChannel 5" has been working its two-person sports department like they've had three people. We're surprised Chandler and Robak haven't collapsed on air.
And we hear WEWS is not in a hurry to hire a permanent replacement for Miller.
But we do wonder - can't Channel 5 bring in a fill-in sports anchor somehow? At very least, their very busy current sports folks can grab a wink or three...and perhaps to audition an eventual replacement for Miller.
For that matter, if they did decide to do that, they'll have to compete with CBS affiliate WOIO/19, who - as reported just below this - now has to look for a weekend sports anchor to replace one David Pingalore.
But "19 Action News" has brought in a lot of fill-in sports anchors in the past - among them, WNIR/100.1 afternoon drive host Bob Golic.
We wonder if the ex-Cleveland Browns defensive star turned Akron talk show host is going to show up again some weekend later this month or early next. (We just wonder - we haven't heard if Golic will be tapped for fill-in at all. It's just an educated guess based on his past fill-in work.)
And could one other known local name could be in that mix at "19 Action News" as well? We'll let that feline out of the paper sack later in this item...
WHILE WE'RE AT CABLE: Yes, at least in western Summit County, Time Warner Cable/WKYC's "Akron/Canton News" started airing last Monday in places like Bath, Richfield, Copley and the former Northampton Township.
Since some folks seemed confused about this the last time we mentioned it, we'll clarify it a bit.
The former Adelphia systems recently absorbed into Time Warner Cable in Summit County are not connected.
One of them serves, as mentioned, the western part of Summit County. If you go back far enough, it's the system originally built by Cablevision back in the 1980's...coming out of Cleveland, which was the company's original hub. All of this was bought by Adelphia some time ago.
The other system serves eastern/northeastern communities like Hudson and Macedonia. This system was the former Western Reserve Cablevision, which was separately absorbed into Adelphia - and has a different lineup than the western Summit County system now formerly run by Adelphia.
For that matter, it has a different lineup than Cleveland's former Adelphia systems, since it wasn't built out of Cleveland like the other system was.
The problem is simple, says TWC: The former Western Reserve system does not have a local programming channel, where the former Cablevision systems do.
Oh, the former Western Reserve system does run local programming. But from our understanding, it's mostly "spoken for" with mandated local access productions and such, and there's no room at 6:30 and 10 for the imported "Akron/Canton News".
Even on the Akron-area ex-Adelphia systems which now run the show, it's kinda awkward. Local cable origination isn't known for its exact timing and imaging, and this arrangement seems even more "odd" - so you're likely to see the last 30 seconds or so of "More Sports and Les Levine" after the newscast ends at just before 7 PM.
Oops! Well, if you want to see the last half-hour of Levine's show, you can tune in for the repeat at 11 PM on all the local TWC systems...
HELLO, GEORGE!: An OMW nod to the Thursday media column of Akron Beacon Journal sports columnist George M. Thomas.
Thomas reports on the "save" of the MLB Extra Innings package for cable - Time Warner, locally - and on that cable service's deal with ESPN, which returns ESPNU to TWC's former Adelphia systems and brings it to the "legacy" Time Warner system in Akron/Canton.
It'll also bring the HD version of ESPN2 to the Akron/Canton TWC systems - ESPN2HD has been on the Cleveland-based former Adelphia system since before the transition.
George also points out some possible hosts for the Friday edition of SportsTime Ohio's "All Bets Are Off", giving the show a sixth day on former Morgantown WV resident Bruce Drennan's day off.
Among those "mentioned" is former WKNR Indians beat reporter Ken Silverstein, current WTAM/1100 Browns beat reporter/host Andre Knott, and a co-worker of Knott's, WTAM mid-morning talk host Bob Frantz.
We put "mentioned" in quotes, as it's how Thomas presented the information - but the ABJ columnist has been plugged into this story since day one, so we wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't far from the mark.
We continue to get the idea that the Friday "All Bets Are Off" slot won't be filled by one permanent host, as we assume the network doesn't want to front anyone regularly for the show besides Drennan.
Thomas' use of the phrase "guest hosts" seems to back that up.
And continuing our item above, could Drennan end up on the WOIO/19-WUAB/43 airwaves on a part-time basis? Writer Kevin Kelley of the suburban weekly newspaper "WestLife" brings that up in a recent story about STO's newest host:
“I fully intend to incorporate my story, my case, my experiences leading up to the five months at Morgantown, and my five months at Morgantown,” said Drennan, who is also in discussions to work part time for WOIO/Action 19 News.
AND JIM'S TALK RETURN: Thanks to a friend, we did get a chance to hear NextMedia talk WHBC/1480 Canton's Jim Albright take calls and chit-chat on his new Saturday 6-10 AM show.
It's pretty much as we expected...a weekend morning easy-going chat, humor and information show. It has been a number of years since the radio veteran did talk - as long-time host of WNIR/100.1's "Dating Show" - but it didn't take him long to climb back on the bicycle, as it were.
In addition to talk of baseball game memories in the wake of the Indians' postponed home opener - back and forth with the sports anchor - Albright fearlessly took calls from people unhappy with the format change.
To those missing the oldies, Albright reminded listeners that the station played "the same 200 oldies" in those days that even an oldies aficionado like the host himself was tiring of playing. He noted that the station couldn't go part-time oldies due to music rights costs.
And Albright quickly reminded those listening and calling that the station's other elements around the songs remained as is.
Well, yes and no.
The news, sure, though there have been some cutbacks to that even in the last days of the oldies formats (most notably, weekends after Albright's show). Fred and Pam haven't moved, or changed much. The local sports folks are still there, and we imagine their role will probably grow at some point.
But folks who liked the on-air personalities around the oldies...well, they're gone - Tom Jarrett, Brice Lewis (now weekends at Clear Channel AC WHOF/101.7 "my 101.7") and the like. And at least three hours a day, one of those hosts has been replaced by a syndicated talk show.
It was still a pretty good attempt at placating upset listeners.
But there wasn't much Albright could do to help the elderly woman who missed the obituaries the station used to read in the evening. She apparently doesn't get the paper...
Friday, April 06, 2007
BREAKING NEWS: WOIO's David Pingalore Headed To Florida
This just in, and as far as we know, exclusive to OMW - at least on the Ohio end:
WOIO/19 "19 Action News" weekend sports anchor David Pingalore is leaving the Raycom Media Cleveland CBS affiliate for Florida.
In his blog, Orlando Sentinel TV columnist Hal Boedeker writes that Pingalore is headed for Orlando, where he takes the top sports job at CBS affiliate WKMG/6.
Boedeker writes that Pingalore heads south later this month to become that station's sports director.
Up here, Pingalore is second in the "Action News" sports department to Chuck Galeti, the long-time local sports personality who has also been heard on radio (WTAM/1100, WXRK/92.3).
Pingalore came to WOIO in 2005 after working six years in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre PA market. It's actually a return to Florida for him....his first TV internship was in Tampa, and his first on-air job was in Jacksonville...
WOIO/19 "19 Action News" weekend sports anchor David Pingalore is leaving the Raycom Media Cleveland CBS affiliate for Florida.
In his blog, Orlando Sentinel TV columnist Hal Boedeker writes that Pingalore is headed for Orlando, where he takes the top sports job at CBS affiliate WKMG/6.Boedeker writes that Pingalore heads south later this month to become that station's sports director.
Up here, Pingalore is second in the "Action News" sports department to Chuck Galeti, the long-time local sports personality who has also been heard on radio (WTAM/1100, WXRK/92.3).
Pingalore came to WOIO in 2005 after working six years in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre PA market. It's actually a return to Florida for him....his first TV internship was in Tampa, and his first on-air job was in Jacksonville...
Weekend Loose Ends, April Edition
After enough snow delays to stop a baseball game four times, time to clear out the odds and ends before we hit the weekend...
ANOTHER WHBC CHANGE: OMW hears that NextMedia talk WHBC/1480 Canton, now finishing its second week as "NewsTalk 1480", is making another adjustment to its new format.
And judging from the feedback we get here, it's one that will please many of our readers.
We hear that WHBC weekend mainstay Jim Albright will premiere a Saturday morning talk/information program starting tomorrow from 6-10 AM.
The show's described to us as a "full service" show - with a combination of local and national news, sports and weather, along with talk, trivia and calls from listeners.
We'd assume that it'd be basically a Saturday, solo-hosted version of the station's "Fred and Pam" weekday morning drive show - a bit more laid-back for the weekend audience, and pretty much a staple on many news/talk outlets across America.
Albright moves up the schedule from his former Saturday afternoon oldies show.
WHBC continues to air FOX Sports Radio the rest of the weekend...
WEWS CHANGES, CURRENT AND COMING: We've had a tip or two reminding us that Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS/5 has given its 11 PM newscast a name.
No, not "NewsChannel 5", which is the name for the station's entire news operation - and also extends to non-news branding.
The name applied to the 11 PM newscast is "NewsChannel 5 Nightbeat".
As with most such "different" names, it's even being used by live reporters in the field in their so-called "lockouts".
OMW hears that WEWS crime beat reporter Joe Pagonakis will change gears sometime in the next few weeks. He'll go from covering shooters to being a "troubleshooter". (Nice turn of phrase, if we do say so ourselves.) We're told to expect the change before the end of April.
The change will not affect current consumer reporter Angie Lau, who will continue in her current role...
WBNX REDUX: We warned you, and sure enough, the new digital signal of Cleveland market CW affiliate WBNX/55 Akron has left the airwaves.
A brief check for WBNX-DT on and off today revealed no signal each time we checked in, including as we write this item on Friday night.
Again, no surprise. It's quite typical for stations to have periods of testing, adjustment and whatnot before finally going fully live. It's the same process Youngstown CBS affiliate WKBN/27 went through when it launched WKBN-DT.
When WBNX-DT was up, they were having some problems with screen dropouts, or so many have told us. The station wasn't putting up CW programming in HDTV, but we don't know if that's just something they haven't "turned on" yet.
If you do have a digital tuner and want to keep looking - WBNX's digital signal is on RF channel 30...
SPORTS CONFUSION: The "It Really Didn't Count" Cleveland Indians home opener caused a lot of scrambling on both radio and TV.
For one, it nudged the game on Indians flagship Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 right into the Cleveland Cavaliers/Washington Wizards game...the latter scheduled for 8 PM, the former originally scheduled for 4:05 PM, but delayed by snow for hours until they finally gave up and called it off.
It also nudged non-rightsholder Good Karma sports WKNR/850 "ESPN 850"'s post-game show with Greg Brinda into the late evening hours, which made it the direct lead-in for the "Wine and Gold Cavaliers Post-Game Show" with new station addition Michael Reghi.
One other WKNR note from earlier: In the radio equivalent of trying to program against the Super Bowl, Good Karma boss Craig Karmazin took the station's afternoon drive shift himself on Friday.
The co-host of his company's "The Steve and Craig Show" - which doesn't sound like it's going to be airing on sister station WWGK/1540 "KNR2" after all - took over the post-4 PM slot after station hosts Tony Rizzo, Mark "Munch" Bishop and Kenny Roda did their shows during a live block from a downtown nightclub from 10 AM to 4 PM.
We're not knocking Mr. Karmazin, at all - but we figure about the only way he'd program himself in afternoon drive time on WKNR would be with the assumption that most listeners will be elsewhere with the Indians home opener underway.
For one, Karmazin is a smart, young radio guy. He knows he's not regular afternoon drive talk material in a market the size of Cleveland, even on a station he owns. If he thought so, or if his on-air career was the driver for him, he'd have slotted "Steve and Craig" at 7 PM on WKNR.
At this point, as indicated above, we're not even sure the show he co-hosts will be heard on 1,000 watt "KNR2". The ESPNCleveland.com website has removed "Steve and Craig" from the program lineup, even on the WWGK side of things.
While we're on the subject of the Good Karma stations' website, we're reminded that AM 1540 has debuted "Thistledown Track Talk", another specialty show on the WWGK lineup. The horse racing show airs Thursday from 6-7 PM on "The KNR Deuce", as it were.
A quick check listening to the show this week has us believing that it's not just a title sponsorship, but that Thistledown actually pays for the show. That's just a guess, though.
Sports fans...remember when such shows were actually staples of the main WKNR lineup at 7 PM?
ANOTHER WHBC CHANGE: OMW hears that NextMedia talk WHBC/1480 Canton, now finishing its second week as "NewsTalk 1480", is making another adjustment to its new format.
And judging from the feedback we get here, it's one that will please many of our readers.
We hear that WHBC weekend mainstay Jim Albright will premiere a Saturday morning talk/information program starting tomorrow from 6-10 AM.
The show's described to us as a "full service" show - with a combination of local and national news, sports and weather, along with talk, trivia and calls from listeners.
We'd assume that it'd be basically a Saturday, solo-hosted version of the station's "Fred and Pam" weekday morning drive show - a bit more laid-back for the weekend audience, and pretty much a staple on many news/talk outlets across America.
Albright moves up the schedule from his former Saturday afternoon oldies show.
WHBC continues to air FOX Sports Radio the rest of the weekend...
WEWS CHANGES, CURRENT AND COMING: We've had a tip or two reminding us that Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS/5 has given its 11 PM newscast a name.
No, not "NewsChannel 5", which is the name for the station's entire news operation - and also extends to non-news branding.
The name applied to the 11 PM newscast is "NewsChannel 5 Nightbeat".
As with most such "different" names, it's even being used by live reporters in the field in their so-called "lockouts".
OMW hears that WEWS crime beat reporter Joe Pagonakis will change gears sometime in the next few weeks. He'll go from covering shooters to being a "troubleshooter". (Nice turn of phrase, if we do say so ourselves.) We're told to expect the change before the end of April.
The change will not affect current consumer reporter Angie Lau, who will continue in her current role...
WBNX REDUX: We warned you, and sure enough, the new digital signal of Cleveland market CW affiliate WBNX/55 Akron has left the airwaves.
A brief check for WBNX-DT on and off today revealed no signal each time we checked in, including as we write this item on Friday night.
Again, no surprise. It's quite typical for stations to have periods of testing, adjustment and whatnot before finally going fully live. It's the same process Youngstown CBS affiliate WKBN/27 went through when it launched WKBN-DT.
When WBNX-DT was up, they were having some problems with screen dropouts, or so many have told us. The station wasn't putting up CW programming in HDTV, but we don't know if that's just something they haven't "turned on" yet.
If you do have a digital tuner and want to keep looking - WBNX's digital signal is on RF channel 30...
SPORTS CONFUSION: The "It Really Didn't Count" Cleveland Indians home opener caused a lot of scrambling on both radio and TV.
For one, it nudged the game on Indians flagship Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 right into the Cleveland Cavaliers/Washington Wizards game...the latter scheduled for 8 PM, the former originally scheduled for 4:05 PM, but delayed by snow for hours until they finally gave up and called it off.
It also nudged non-rightsholder Good Karma sports WKNR/850 "ESPN 850"'s post-game show with Greg Brinda into the late evening hours, which made it the direct lead-in for the "Wine and Gold Cavaliers Post-Game Show" with new station addition Michael Reghi.
One other WKNR note from earlier: In the radio equivalent of trying to program against the Super Bowl, Good Karma boss Craig Karmazin took the station's afternoon drive shift himself on Friday.
The co-host of his company's "The Steve and Craig Show" - which doesn't sound like it's going to be airing on sister station WWGK/1540 "KNR2" after all - took over the post-4 PM slot after station hosts Tony Rizzo, Mark "Munch" Bishop and Kenny Roda did their shows during a live block from a downtown nightclub from 10 AM to 4 PM.
We're not knocking Mr. Karmazin, at all - but we figure about the only way he'd program himself in afternoon drive time on WKNR would be with the assumption that most listeners will be elsewhere with the Indians home opener underway.
For one, Karmazin is a smart, young radio guy. He knows he's not regular afternoon drive talk material in a market the size of Cleveland, even on a station he owns. If he thought so, or if his on-air career was the driver for him, he'd have slotted "Steve and Craig" at 7 PM on WKNR.
At this point, as indicated above, we're not even sure the show he co-hosts will be heard on 1,000 watt "KNR2". The ESPNCleveland.com website has removed "Steve and Craig" from the program lineup, even on the WWGK side of things.
While we're on the subject of the Good Karma stations' website, we're reminded that AM 1540 has debuted "Thistledown Track Talk", another specialty show on the WWGK lineup. The horse racing show airs Thursday from 6-7 PM on "The KNR Deuce", as it were.
A quick check listening to the show this week has us believing that it's not just a title sponsorship, but that Thistledown actually pays for the show. That's just a guess, though.
Sports fans...remember when such shows were actually staples of the main WKNR lineup at 7 PM?
Thursday, April 05, 2007
BREAKING NEWS: WBNX-DT Finally Up
This may be bigger news to you if you're a fan of the CW Network's prime-time lineup, and have a high-definition TV.
OMW got a tip that Winston Broadcasting CW affiliate WBNX/55 Akron has finally lit up its long-awaited digital signal.
We lit up our own HDTV set, and sure enough, it's there, apparently at a decent power level.
We imagine that like most such installations, WBNX still has to test and make adjustments to the signal. But this is the first ever sign of the WBNX-DT signal, which broadcasts on RF channel 30...
OMW got a tip that Winston Broadcasting CW affiliate WBNX/55 Akron has finally lit up its long-awaited digital signal.
We lit up our own HDTV set, and sure enough, it's there, apparently at a decent power level.
We imagine that like most such installations, WBNX still has to test and make adjustments to the signal. But this is the first ever sign of the WBNX-DT signal, which broadcasts on RF channel 30...
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
WKSU's Vincent Duffy Heads For Michigan
OMW has confirmed that WKSU/89.7 program director Vincent Duffy is leaving the Kent-based NPR outlet for a new job out of state.
Duffy will become news director of the University of Michigan's network of three NPR stations, based at the university in Ann Arbor.
"Michigan Radio" originates at WUOM/91.7 Ann Arbor, which serves southeast Michigan including nearby Detroit, and has outlets in Flint and Grand Rapids.
OMW hears that in addition to the radio work, Duffy will have a chance to do some TV work as well with the university's PBS operation, "Michigan Television"...of course, Duffy is also the host of WNEO/WEAO-45/49's weekly news roundtable show "NewsNight Akron".
Before taking over the programming reins at WKSU, Duffy was the station's news director for seven years
Over the years, "89.7" has taken on a number of new frequencies across Northeast Ohio - the latest being translators near Youngstown and in Ashland.
Duffy's last day at the local public radio outlet is May 4th...
Duffy will become news director of the University of Michigan's network of three NPR stations, based at the university in Ann Arbor.
"Michigan Radio" originates at WUOM/91.7 Ann Arbor, which serves southeast Michigan including nearby Detroit, and has outlets in Flint and Grand Rapids.OMW hears that in addition to the radio work, Duffy will have a chance to do some TV work as well with the university's PBS operation, "Michigan Television"...of course, Duffy is also the host of WNEO/WEAO-45/49's weekly news roundtable show "NewsNight Akron".
Before taking over the programming reins at WKSU, Duffy was the station's news director for seven years
Over the years, "89.7" has taken on a number of new frequencies across Northeast Ohio - the latest being translators near Youngstown and in Ashland.
Duffy's last day at the local public radio outlet is May 4th...
Midweek Update
And at nearly the exact middle of the workweek, at that...how did we manage that?
DAVE AND JIMMY KISS YOUNGSTOWN: As rumored, OMW hears it's going to happen Monday at Clear Channel Youngstown top 40 WAKZ/95.9 "Kiss FM".
Regionally syndicated morning team "Dave and Jimmy", based at Clear Channel top 40 powerhouse WNCI/97.9 Columbus, will take the open morning drive slot at the Youngstown station on Monday.
WAKZ has parted ways with Los Angeles-based Sean Valentine, whose voicetracked morning drive show is still heard on Cleveland's "Kiss FM" (WAKS/96.5) - and who was replaced recently at Cincinnati's "Kiss" with a local show...
NEWSIE LEAVING: OMW hears a local radio news veteran is leaving Northeast Ohio for a new gig in another state.
We haven't yet confirmed the news, so we'll have more details as they become available. Bulletins at once, on OMW Radio...er...on the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm)...
FM TALK WATCH TIMES TWO: It's a regular feature here at OMW - our look at the mounting numbers of talk and sports stations on the FM band.
And just down the Turnpike, Pittsburgh now has two FM talk outlets with the debut of WTZN "The Zone, The Talk Station for Men", which debuted Monday on the 93.7 frequency once occupied by legendary top 40 outlet "B94".
OMW hears the debut day was marred with anything from technical glitches to a host who wasn't legally able to go on the air for competitive reasons - former WDVE/102.5 talent Scott Paulsen. He apparently did manage to debut his show Tuesday.
The new station gives Da Burgh its second talk outlet on FM, with Clear Channel's traditional conservative talk WPGB/104.7 being the first.
We only bring this up because we'll add another prediction. Sometime before the end of 2007, at least one local operator will bring talk to the FM dial in the Cleveland market. We don't know who, we don't know when...but at this rate, we're sure it'll happen somewhere.
Akron, of course, has talk mainstay WNIR/100.1, which has been camped out doing talk on the FM band for decades...
I LOVE YA, PUBLIC ACCESS!: We will, as stated before, not review the new SportsTime Ohio show hosted by former Morgantown WV resident Bruce Drennan.
We've checked in with the show from time to time since "All Bets Are Off" debuted Sunday, and there's really not much to say - Bruce Drennan is Bruce Drennan, and he's doing the same kind of show he's done on radio for years...only with a camera pointing at him this time.
But a comment from one of our readers prompted us to watch the show for the first time the other day...and that comment is about as spot on as you can get.
Whatever money SportsTime Ohio spent on "All Bets Are Off" went directly into Bruce's pocket, because the set sure doesn't show it.
The set has a definite "public access" feel to it. It's Bruce at a small, quasi-round, strangely painted (think "fake gloss") desk, with an HD monitor behind his left shoulder constantly showing the show's logo.
But it was the "wide shot" that literally made us laugh.
The desk is small, and the wide shot shows a much larger studio with lots of blank space and the "STO" logo projected to the wall. The desk, and Bruce sitting at it, looked like it had been swallowed.
The show - like all other STO studio productions - uses the WKYC/3 studios at 13th and Lakeside. WKYC is, of course, the TV production partner which makes the network even technically possible.
But we're pretty sure the local NBC affiliate doesn't actually design the sets.
Now, we realize that a "talking head" "radio on TV" show doesn't need a LOT of glitz in the studio. But at this point, even the set for Time Warner Cable's "More Sports and Les Levine" seems better equipped...
HAVE LOTS OF HEART: With year after year of impressive fundraising numbers for Clear Channel WKDD/98.1's local "Have a Heart, Do Your Part" radiothons to benefit Akron Children's Hospital, it's no surprise the Akron/Canton hot AC station is being honored.
The award for "Station of the Year" was presented by the Children's Miracle Network folks at their annual celebration in Orlando. (CMN is the national umbrella organization for such media fundraising efforts for local children's hospital facilities.)
WKDD morning veteran Matt Patrick accepted the award Tuesday wearing an Ohio State Buckeyes jersey, apparently unaware of the sports results of the previous evening.
The folks at Freedom Avenue say the radiothons have raised over $6 million in the 8 years WKDD has been doing them. Long ago, before it was even co-owned with WKDD, now-Clear Channel talk WHLO/640 initiated the Children's Hospital Radiothon concept in Akron in the mid-1970's, in its days as a Susquehanna-owned news/talk station.
This past February, the WKDD effort raised over $858,000, a new record for the radiothon...
DAVE AND JIMMY KISS YOUNGSTOWN: As rumored, OMW hears it's going to happen Monday at Clear Channel Youngstown top 40 WAKZ/95.9 "Kiss FM".
Regionally syndicated morning team "Dave and Jimmy", based at Clear Channel top 40 powerhouse WNCI/97.9 Columbus, will take the open morning drive slot at the Youngstown station on Monday.
WAKZ has parted ways with Los Angeles-based Sean Valentine, whose voicetracked morning drive show is still heard on Cleveland's "Kiss FM" (WAKS/96.5) - and who was replaced recently at Cincinnati's "Kiss" with a local show...
NEWSIE LEAVING: OMW hears a local radio news veteran is leaving Northeast Ohio for a new gig in another state.
We haven't yet confirmed the news, so we'll have more details as they become available. Bulletins at once, on OMW Radio...er...on the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm)...
FM TALK WATCH TIMES TWO: It's a regular feature here at OMW - our look at the mounting numbers of talk and sports stations on the FM band.
And just down the Turnpike, Pittsburgh now has two FM talk outlets with the debut of WTZN "The Zone, The Talk Station for Men", which debuted Monday on the 93.7 frequency once occupied by legendary top 40 outlet "B94".
OMW hears the debut day was marred with anything from technical glitches to a host who wasn't legally able to go on the air for competitive reasons - former WDVE/102.5 talent Scott Paulsen. He apparently did manage to debut his show Tuesday.
The new station gives Da Burgh its second talk outlet on FM, with Clear Channel's traditional conservative talk WPGB/104.7 being the first.
We only bring this up because we'll add another prediction. Sometime before the end of 2007, at least one local operator will bring talk to the FM dial in the Cleveland market. We don't know who, we don't know when...but at this rate, we're sure it'll happen somewhere.
Akron, of course, has talk mainstay WNIR/100.1, which has been camped out doing talk on the FM band for decades...
I LOVE YA, PUBLIC ACCESS!: We will, as stated before, not review the new SportsTime Ohio show hosted by former Morgantown WV resident Bruce Drennan.
We've checked in with the show from time to time since "All Bets Are Off" debuted Sunday, and there's really not much to say - Bruce Drennan is Bruce Drennan, and he's doing the same kind of show he's done on radio for years...only with a camera pointing at him this time.
But a comment from one of our readers prompted us to watch the show for the first time the other day...and that comment is about as spot on as you can get.
Whatever money SportsTime Ohio spent on "All Bets Are Off" went directly into Bruce's pocket, because the set sure doesn't show it.
The set has a definite "public access" feel to it. It's Bruce at a small, quasi-round, strangely painted (think "fake gloss") desk, with an HD monitor behind his left shoulder constantly showing the show's logo.
But it was the "wide shot" that literally made us laugh.
The desk is small, and the wide shot shows a much larger studio with lots of blank space and the "STO" logo projected to the wall. The desk, and Bruce sitting at it, looked like it had been swallowed.
The show - like all other STO studio productions - uses the WKYC/3 studios at 13th and Lakeside. WKYC is, of course, the TV production partner which makes the network even technically possible.
But we're pretty sure the local NBC affiliate doesn't actually design the sets.
Now, we realize that a "talking head" "radio on TV" show doesn't need a LOT of glitz in the studio. But at this point, even the set for Time Warner Cable's "More Sports and Les Levine" seems better equipped...
HAVE LOTS OF HEART: With year after year of impressive fundraising numbers for Clear Channel WKDD/98.1's local "Have a Heart, Do Your Part" radiothons to benefit Akron Children's Hospital, it's no surprise the Akron/Canton hot AC station is being honored.
The award for "Station of the Year" was presented by the Children's Miracle Network folks at their annual celebration in Orlando. (CMN is the national umbrella organization for such media fundraising efforts for local children's hospital facilities.)
WKDD morning veteran Matt Patrick accepted the award Tuesday wearing an Ohio State Buckeyes jersey, apparently unaware of the sports results of the previous evening.
The folks at Freedom Avenue say the radiothons have raised over $6 million in the 8 years WKDD has been doing them. Long ago, before it was even co-owned with WKDD, now-Clear Channel talk WHLO/640 initiated the Children's Hospital Radiothon concept in Akron in the mid-1970's, in its days as a Susquehanna-owned news/talk station.
This past February, the WKDD effort raised over $858,000, a new record for the radiothon...
Renda Moves On To Philly
MediaWeek magazine reports that WJW/8 "FOX 8" vice president/general manager Mike Renda is leaving the Cleveland FOX O&O after some 10 years to take a similar post at the company's Philadelphia O&O, WTXF/29.
(Well, we actually heard the news first Tuesday on the WKNR/850 "ESPN 850" mid-morning show hosted by FOX 8 sports anchor Tony Rizzo, but our Round Tuits[tm] hadn't come back from the factory until today.)
Renda has held the top post at the local FOX station for some 10 years, and the company's Jack Abernethy glows about his performance:
“Under Mike's leadership, WJW enjoyed seven years as the market leader with strong ratings success. This proven record, along with his expertise in strategic planning and development, will be valuable as we continue to grow Fox 29's position in the market.”
And the sentence above shows one advantage Renda had here that he won't have in Philadelphia.
Though it was certainly an adjustment to get older-skewing CBS viewers to stick around when FOX showed up on WJW in the mid-1990's, it was an established VHF channel with an established full-fledged news operation at the time.
Though the station has added morning, midday and early evening newscasts like most FOX O&Os, WTXF is at its heart a traditional UHF "FOX station", with its news strength coming at 10 PM.
And Renda will recognize at least one former Cleveland TV news anchor when he makes the move. Former Cleveland anchor Dawn Stensland is an anchor at his new home station...
(Well, we actually heard the news first Tuesday on the WKNR/850 "ESPN 850" mid-morning show hosted by FOX 8 sports anchor Tony Rizzo, but our Round Tuits[tm] hadn't come back from the factory until today.)
Renda has held the top post at the local FOX station for some 10 years, and the company's Jack Abernethy glows about his performance:
“Under Mike's leadership, WJW enjoyed seven years as the market leader with strong ratings success. This proven record, along with his expertise in strategic planning and development, will be valuable as we continue to grow Fox 29's position in the market.”
And the sentence above shows one advantage Renda had here that he won't have in Philadelphia.
Though it was certainly an adjustment to get older-skewing CBS viewers to stick around when FOX showed up on WJW in the mid-1990's, it was an established VHF channel with an established full-fledged news operation at the time.
Though the station has added morning, midday and early evening newscasts like most FOX O&Os, WTXF is at its heart a traditional UHF "FOX station", with its news strength coming at 10 PM.
And Renda will recognize at least one former Cleveland TV news anchor when he makes the move. Former Cleveland anchor Dawn Stensland is an anchor at his new home station...
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Random Tuesday Stuff
Just going through our "to do" list, with news and comment (no, not involving Paul Harvey)...there's still more, that we'll get to later tonight...
KISSED OFF?: It looks like Clear Channel Youngstown top 40 WAKZ/95.9 "Kiss FM" is the latest CC Ohio top 40 station going a different direction in morning drive.
On the heels of sister Cincinnati "Kiss" outlet WKFS/107.1, WAKZ appears to be ending its relationship with Los Angeles-based Sean Valentine, the afternoon driver at L.A.'s original "Kiss FM" who has been voicetracking a morning drive show for other stations.
"Valentine in the Morning" has been taken off the WAKZ web page, and a new live counter touts a change coming - from the timer - Monday morning at 6 AM...complete with a series of question marks as the header to the item.
Rumblings - as of yet not even remotely confirmed - are pointing to a possible clearance for WNCI/97.9 Columbus-based syndicated morning show "Dave and Jimmy". As we said, not confirmed, as we haven't heard anything even quasi-official that it's happening. The show is carried in two other regional markets, Louisville and Lexington, in addition to its home base.
WKNR'S NEW ERA, REDUX: Long-time WKNR/850 sports talk show host Greg Brinda has been batted around the station's schedule over the years like a baseball being hit by Grady Sizemore.
In just the past 2 years, Brinda's solo-hosted mid-mornings, hosted the same slot with a co-host (Kendall Lewis), sent to do special programming and Indians post-game hosting, brought back to mid-mornings as a solo host (Bruce Drennan's troubles), bounced down to evenings, and finally, back to Indians post-game show work.
But in all that movement, he stayed on 850 - or 1220, the station's original frequency.
Not Monday.
Because Good Karma's flagship sports station was staying with regular programming during the Cleveland Indians daytime season opener with Chicago, "The Miller Lite 10th Inning Show" had to be moved...to Siberia.
OK, so that's not the city of license of the company's 1000-watt original station, daytimer WWGK/1540, now operating as a sister station to WKNR as "Cleveland's AM 1540, KNR2".
But 1540 AM was where you had to go to find Brinda doing the very first Indians postgame show for WKNR, as the 50,000 watt powerhouse aired the opening of "Munch on Sports" with new afternoon drive host Mark "Munch" Bishop, and Kenny Roda's regular show (now in evenings) - with the host live in Atlanta for the NCAA championship of men's basketball. We'll spare you the result, if you haven't seen it already.
We almost felt sorry for Brinda, who sounded like his volume was turned up to 11 (Spinal Tap reference), and got no calls that we heard.
And we're pretty sure at least a portion of the show was heard on WWGK's 21-ish watt "critical hours" pre-sunset power reduction, which means you basically had to be driving on Euclid Avenue to hear the show clearly. From our position not THAT terribly far from the station's tower, we felt like we were listening to shortwave radio, with the signals of WXEL/Waterloo IA and CHIN/Toronto trying to mix in.
We know Brinda gets his share of critics, and know some of them are probably jumping at the chance to hit our comments section.
But we'll say this - he's been a professional throughout all this. He could have easily complained of being shuffled off to the lightbulb power sister station, but he didn't. He has taken whatever role he's been assigned with little complaining, at least from what we've heard.
And though his role in WKNR's future would seem to be much smaller than his role in its past, he soldiers on.
And as we listened to Greg Brinda talking pretty much directly to us and maybe a dozen others who were tuned to 1540, we couldn't get it out of our head.
We're making a prediction here - within a year, 1540 will not be "KNR2". We find it very hard to believe that Good Karma boss Craig Karmazin won't pursue a better signal for the station now officially anointed as WKNR's sister station.
One big reason we believe this: If "KNR2" is going to act as an overflow station for 850, it can't do so at night for a large chunk of the year.
By the way, Brinda announced that the "10th Inning Show" will air regularly on AM 1540 after Indians weekday afternoon games...
WHILE WE'RE IN THE WORLD OF SPORTS: OMW hears it is official, as expected - new Clear Channel sports outlet WARF/1350 Akron "Sportsradio 1350" will join the Columbus Blue Jackets radio network.
The NHL action starts Saturday night on 1350, as the Blue Jackets tangle with Anaheim. (Mighty Ducks, right?) And our thanks to Hockey Nation for correcting us, again, on the two-word name of Ohio's only NHL team. We'll get it right one of these years.
WARF's primary sports contracts are with the Akron Aeros, who start off tonight on 1350 with an exhibition against the Cleveland Indians' other local minor league affiliate, the class A Lake County Captains, and the University of Akron Zips football and basketball teams...
AND A BRIEF STOP IN LIMA: This one is thanks to OMW reader Dan Baisden, who is program director at Maverick Media's WZOQ and WDOH in the Lima market.
WZOQ has flipped from hot AC "92 ZOO" to top 40/mainstream "Star 92.1", promising top 40 hits without rhythmic titles. The move pushes syndicated "Bob and Shari" to sister WDOH "Lite Rock 107.1", where local host Jeff Wittler slides into middays.
And Maverick's sister classic rock WUZZ/104.9 picks up the handle "104.9 The Eagle"....
KISSED OFF?: It looks like Clear Channel Youngstown top 40 WAKZ/95.9 "Kiss FM" is the latest CC Ohio top 40 station going a different direction in morning drive.
On the heels of sister Cincinnati "Kiss" outlet WKFS/107.1, WAKZ appears to be ending its relationship with Los Angeles-based Sean Valentine, the afternoon driver at L.A.'s original "Kiss FM" who has been voicetracking a morning drive show for other stations.
"Valentine in the Morning" has been taken off the WAKZ web page, and a new live counter touts a change coming - from the timer - Monday morning at 6 AM...complete with a series of question marks as the header to the item.
Rumblings - as of yet not even remotely confirmed - are pointing to a possible clearance for WNCI/97.9 Columbus-based syndicated morning show "Dave and Jimmy". As we said, not confirmed, as we haven't heard anything even quasi-official that it's happening. The show is carried in two other regional markets, Louisville and Lexington, in addition to its home base.
WKNR'S NEW ERA, REDUX: Long-time WKNR/850 sports talk show host Greg Brinda has been batted around the station's schedule over the years like a baseball being hit by Grady Sizemore.
In just the past 2 years, Brinda's solo-hosted mid-mornings, hosted the same slot with a co-host (Kendall Lewis), sent to do special programming and Indians post-game hosting, brought back to mid-mornings as a solo host (Bruce Drennan's troubles), bounced down to evenings, and finally, back to Indians post-game show work.
But in all that movement, he stayed on 850 - or 1220, the station's original frequency.
Not Monday.
Because Good Karma's flagship sports station was staying with regular programming during the Cleveland Indians daytime season opener with Chicago, "The Miller Lite 10th Inning Show" had to be moved...to Siberia.
OK, so that's not the city of license of the company's 1000-watt original station, daytimer WWGK/1540, now operating as a sister station to WKNR as "Cleveland's AM 1540, KNR2".
But 1540 AM was where you had to go to find Brinda doing the very first Indians postgame show for WKNR, as the 50,000 watt powerhouse aired the opening of "Munch on Sports" with new afternoon drive host Mark "Munch" Bishop, and Kenny Roda's regular show (now in evenings) - with the host live in Atlanta for the NCAA championship of men's basketball. We'll spare you the result, if you haven't seen it already.
We almost felt sorry for Brinda, who sounded like his volume was turned up to 11 (Spinal Tap reference), and got no calls that we heard.
And we're pretty sure at least a portion of the show was heard on WWGK's 21-ish watt "critical hours" pre-sunset power reduction, which means you basically had to be driving on Euclid Avenue to hear the show clearly. From our position not THAT terribly far from the station's tower, we felt like we were listening to shortwave radio, with the signals of WXEL/Waterloo IA and CHIN/Toronto trying to mix in.
We know Brinda gets his share of critics, and know some of them are probably jumping at the chance to hit our comments section.
But we'll say this - he's been a professional throughout all this. He could have easily complained of being shuffled off to the lightbulb power sister station, but he didn't. He has taken whatever role he's been assigned with little complaining, at least from what we've heard.
And though his role in WKNR's future would seem to be much smaller than his role in its past, he soldiers on.
And as we listened to Greg Brinda talking pretty much directly to us and maybe a dozen others who were tuned to 1540, we couldn't get it out of our head.
We're making a prediction here - within a year, 1540 will not be "KNR2". We find it very hard to believe that Good Karma boss Craig Karmazin won't pursue a better signal for the station now officially anointed as WKNR's sister station.
One big reason we believe this: If "KNR2" is going to act as an overflow station for 850, it can't do so at night for a large chunk of the year.
By the way, Brinda announced that the "10th Inning Show" will air regularly on AM 1540 after Indians weekday afternoon games...
WHILE WE'RE IN THE WORLD OF SPORTS: OMW hears it is official, as expected - new Clear Channel sports outlet WARF/1350 Akron "Sportsradio 1350" will join the Columbus Blue Jackets radio network.
The NHL action starts Saturday night on 1350, as the Blue Jackets tangle with Anaheim. (Mighty Ducks, right?) And our thanks to Hockey Nation for correcting us, again, on the two-word name of Ohio's only NHL team. We'll get it right one of these years.
WARF's primary sports contracts are with the Akron Aeros, who start off tonight on 1350 with an exhibition against the Cleveland Indians' other local minor league affiliate, the class A Lake County Captains, and the University of Akron Zips football and basketball teams...
AND A BRIEF STOP IN LIMA: This one is thanks to OMW reader Dan Baisden, who is program director at Maverick Media's WZOQ and WDOH in the Lima market.
WZOQ has flipped from hot AC "92 ZOO" to top 40/mainstream "Star 92.1", promising top 40 hits without rhythmic titles. The move pushes syndicated "Bob and Shari" to sister WDOH "Lite Rock 107.1", where local host Jeff Wittler slides into middays.
And Maverick's sister classic rock WUZZ/104.9 picks up the handle "104.9 The Eagle"....
Monday, April 02, 2007
Not WKRP in Cincinnati
As the entire editorial staff of your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) awaits the release of the "WKRP in Cincinnati" DVD later this month - even with a long list of necessary-to-make-it-affordable music substitutions - we electronically revisit the Queen City.
There's a wholebuncha stuff we have to put up that we haven't gotten to yet. And you can find details on all of the below items at Cincinnati Enquirer TV/radio guru John Kiesewetter's blog...
YES, HE'S GONE: Cincinnati radio legend Jim LaBarbara, who's been the "Music Professor" for even longer than his nearly 15 years at oldies WGRR/103.5, is indeed out at the station.
Kiesewetter reports that the axe fell due to a corporate decision at Cumulus, who wanted to return program director Keith Mitchell back to the same kind of dual on-air/programming role he performed at the old "Mojo 94.9". We had that a while back.
But we weren't sure if the Mitchell move to afternoon drive would entirely dump LaBarbara from the station, which it has indeed done.
LaBarbara tells Kiese that he "definitely wants" to stay on the air. And the blog item points out an easy guess where he may land next - at oldies WDJO/1160. Or, he could go another direction.
But...somewhere, we bet he'll be back on the air in Cincinnati...soon.
And for a station, like most in the format, trying to disassociate itself with "oldies" like it was some sort of disease - we suppose LaBarbara's exit was almost inevitable...
KEN AND KITTY AND BIG D AND BUBBA: Bonneville country WYGY/97.3 "The Wolf" wasted no time replacing local morning team "Ken and Kitty", who were let go at the end of their contract not long ago.
It's now "Big D and Bubba", delivered live via satellite to Cincinnati from their home base at Clear Channel's WSIX-FM in Nashville...and to our reckoning, perhaps the 10th "(first name/nickname) and (second name/nickname)" country/rock/etc. syndicated morning show in America. We even sometimes confuse them with "Lex and Terry", who air mostly on rock stations.
The Kiese item brings us to the apparent replacement for Los Angeles-based Sean Valentine on Clear Channel top 40 outlet WKFS/107.1 "Kiss FM" - new local team "Tim and Jeff".
Well, "local" in that they've come to Cincinnati from Arkansas, and will only be on "Kiss" as far as we know...
BIG NEWS AT THE BIG ONE: And if we lived in the market, we'd probably pay more attention to this one.
Apparently, Tom Gamble taking the old Andy Furman job as host of Clear Channel talk WLW/700 "The Big One"'s evening SportsTalk show is not permanent.
And it's by his own choice, says WLW programmer and CC/Cincy AM operations guru Darryl Parks, who tells Kiesewetter that Gamble didn't want the gig "for family reasons".
After some years of both parties kicking around the idea, the change finally got WLW together with Cincinnati Enquirer sports columnist Paul Daugherty, who takes over the 6-9 PM slot weeknights on "The Big One" starting April 10th. ("Doc", as we guess he's also called, is tied up in Augusta GA covering the Masters golf tournament for his primary employer.)
And yes, that means Daugherty isn't leaving the newspaper...he's just tacking on a side job.
And we make the assumption that the change will return Gamble to the morning drive slot at sister sports WCKY/1530 "Homer", alongside fellow "Angry Guy" Richard Skinner - who's been doing the "Sports Animal" morning show solo since Gamble went to WLW...
There's a wholebuncha stuff we have to put up that we haven't gotten to yet. And you can find details on all of the below items at Cincinnati Enquirer TV/radio guru John Kiesewetter's blog...
YES, HE'S GONE: Cincinnati radio legend Jim LaBarbara, who's been the "Music Professor" for even longer than his nearly 15 years at oldies WGRR/103.5, is indeed out at the station.
Kiesewetter reports that the axe fell due to a corporate decision at Cumulus, who wanted to return program director Keith Mitchell back to the same kind of dual on-air/programming role he performed at the old "Mojo 94.9". We had that a while back.
But we weren't sure if the Mitchell move to afternoon drive would entirely dump LaBarbara from the station, which it has indeed done.
LaBarbara tells Kiese that he "definitely wants" to stay on the air. And the blog item points out an easy guess where he may land next - at oldies WDJO/1160. Or, he could go another direction.
But...somewhere, we bet he'll be back on the air in Cincinnati...soon.
And for a station, like most in the format, trying to disassociate itself with "oldies" like it was some sort of disease - we suppose LaBarbara's exit was almost inevitable...
KEN AND KITTY AND BIG D AND BUBBA: Bonneville country WYGY/97.3 "The Wolf" wasted no time replacing local morning team "Ken and Kitty", who were let go at the end of their contract not long ago.
It's now "Big D and Bubba", delivered live via satellite to Cincinnati from their home base at Clear Channel's WSIX-FM in Nashville...and to our reckoning, perhaps the 10th "(first name/nickname) and (second name/nickname)" country/rock/etc. syndicated morning show in America. We even sometimes confuse them with "Lex and Terry", who air mostly on rock stations.
The Kiese item brings us to the apparent replacement for Los Angeles-based Sean Valentine on Clear Channel top 40 outlet WKFS/107.1 "Kiss FM" - new local team "Tim and Jeff".
Well, "local" in that they've come to Cincinnati from Arkansas, and will only be on "Kiss" as far as we know...
BIG NEWS AT THE BIG ONE: And if we lived in the market, we'd probably pay more attention to this one.
Apparently, Tom Gamble taking the old Andy Furman job as host of Clear Channel talk WLW/700 "The Big One"'s evening SportsTalk show is not permanent.
And it's by his own choice, says WLW programmer and CC/Cincy AM operations guru Darryl Parks, who tells Kiesewetter that Gamble didn't want the gig "for family reasons".
After some years of both parties kicking around the idea, the change finally got WLW together with Cincinnati Enquirer sports columnist Paul Daugherty, who takes over the 6-9 PM slot weeknights on "The Big One" starting April 10th. ("Doc", as we guess he's also called, is tied up in Augusta GA covering the Masters golf tournament for his primary employer.)
And yes, that means Daugherty isn't leaving the newspaper...he's just tacking on a side job.
And we make the assumption that the change will return Gamble to the morning drive slot at sister sports WCKY/1530 "Homer", alongside fellow "Angry Guy" Richard Skinner - who's been doing the "Sports Animal" morning show solo since Gamble went to WLW...
Back Into It
Since there's not much "new" at the moment, we'll go back and touch on updates to ongoing items...
1350 SWITCH FALLOUT: As reported and expected, Clear Channel's WARF/1350 Akron dropped the liberal talk format Friday morning for sports as "Sports Radio 1350".
It was a pretty uneventful flip. Jones Radio syndicated host Bill Press - whose current show started solely on WARF - threw out quick a "Goodbye, Akron!" just moments before the previously scheduled 8:58:50 spot break.
Then, the station slammed right into its new format, with a new "Sports Radio 1350" legal ID - voiced by the same guy who's been doing WARF's voice work as a progressive talker - right into Sporting News Radio.
And at least two OMW readers noticed that the new logo, which has been on the station's new website since Friday, shares its colors with the University of Akron Zips. 1350 is, and will continue to be, the Zips' flagship station for football and basketball.
There was a local sports news update after SNR's 9 AM report, but we didn't stick around to see if that'll be done regularly. In its previous incarnation as "FOX Sports Radio 1350", the station occasionally used drive-time updates fed down the Clear Channel WAN by WTAM/1100's sports anchors.
And in that previous stint in the sports format, 1350 also hung onto its previous calls the entire time...as WTOU. The calls, of course, come from the ABC 24/7 urban oldies format "The Touch", which ran on 1350 before it first flipped to sports.
To that end, OMW hears that there are no plans to change the "WARF" calls adopted by the station when it became "Radio Free Ohio" ("Akron Radio Free"?).
And while we're on a side topic, we're hearing rumblings that the 1350 format change may once again prompt a change at the east side rimshot daytimer AM station that seems to exist solely to react to other format changes in the market.
OMW hears that it's at least possible that Media-Com's WJMP/1520 Kent "FOX Sports Radio 1520" (aka "WNIR's Poorer Sister Station") could go - yes - back to liberal talk. We don't know at this point - if it happens - if the station will rejoin Air America Radio sunup to sundown, or if they'll be smarter and talk to Jones Radio at least about Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz.
It would appear to be at least technically possible, as WJMP now flips between FSR and Premiere's separately syndicated Jim Rome, who is not fed on the main FSR satellite channel.
Though many FSR affiliates take him, and the network does not mount original programming against Romey, the main channel airs a repeat of an earlier show in the noon-3 PM slot. FOX Sports Radio, of course, is actually a branded arm of Premiere.
Either WJMP goes back to liberal talk, or they'll mount their 50th shot at standards or oldies. But, that's just our guess. It sure beats a return to running the audio of TV sister stations WAOH-LP 29 Akron/W35AX Cleveland, otherwise known as "The Cat"...
ABOUT THAT "AKRON/CANTON NEWS" EXPANSION: It appears there's a wrench in the works regarding that much-awaited expansion of Time Warner Cable/WKYC's "Akron/Canton News" to the systems the cable company recently purchased from Adelphia.
Yes, former Adelphia subscribers in Summit County will see the newscast, finally...TWC has officially announced it.
Unfortunately, the expansion - at least for now - does not include ALL former Adelphia subscribers in the Akron area.
As it turns out, only those in the western end of the former Adelphia Summit County areas - in places like Bath, Copley, the former Northampton Township area now part of Cuyahoga Falls and the like - will get "Akron/Canton News". It'll air on local channel 15 there, which has another impact we'll explain later.
Those in the eastern part of Summit County who used to be on Adelphia - in places like Macedonia and Hudson - will not be getting the newscast.
Explains TWC spokesman Bill Jasso to OMW:
Those areas have a slew of “access channels” required by franchise, and so we do not have any channel slot for a local programming channel.
Jasso also tells OMW that time slot considerations - "Akron/Canton News" airs at 6:30 and 10 PM - mean that those now getting the newscast will also see a half-hour less of sports talk show host Les Levine's daily program. This was first necessitated when the "legacy" TWC systems in Akron/Canton picked up Les' show - and "More Sports" now has a hard break at just before 6:30 to accommodate this.
We'll assume that those not in Summit County won't be affected. And as far as we know, "More Sports" will continue to air in full during its 11 PM rebroadcast on all the systems.
ALL BETS ARE OFF: ...on the debut of the sports TV talk show of that same name by controversial host Bruce Drennan on SportsTime Ohio.
Though we are a bit curious how a man with an ankle bracelet tracking his every movement does a daily TV show, we have yet to watch "All Bets Are Off", which premiered at 7 PM Sunday night.
It's sitting right there, recorded, waiting for us.
But it's standing policy here at OMW. We don't judge a host on his/her/their first show.
We waited for months before weighing in on the amazingly awful David Lee Roth show, and still haven't said anything about its local replacement.
We dipped into a recording of Dennis Miller's Westwood One show this weekend, but didn't really hear enough of it to review it. He didn't embarrass himself like Roth did on Day One, and at least knew where to find the phone number, but it's just a first show.
We did hear Drennan's appearance on WTAM's Bob Frantz show Friday.
And we'll pass along that Drennan told Frantz that "All Bets Are Off" and other gambling references were not his idea - like the advertisement that pictures him with his back turned to the camera with the caption - "Drennan's Back - Bet On It". He said it was the idea of STO "higher ups".
So, we'll assume the logo above is not his idea, either.
For Ohioans who haven't been to Las Vegas, or haven't seen a TV show based there, it's a clear attempt to ape the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign. Or at least the sign which existed back in the days of the TV show "Vega$", with Robert Urich playing Vegas detective Dan Tanna...
1350 SWITCH FALLOUT: As reported and expected, Clear Channel's WARF/1350 Akron dropped the liberal talk format Friday morning for sports as "Sports Radio 1350".
It was a pretty uneventful flip. Jones Radio syndicated host Bill Press - whose current show started solely on WARF - threw out quick a "Goodbye, Akron!" just moments before the previously scheduled 8:58:50 spot break.
Then, the station slammed right into its new format, with a new "Sports Radio 1350" legal ID - voiced by the same guy who's been doing WARF's voice work as a progressive talker - right into Sporting News Radio.And at least two OMW readers noticed that the new logo, which has been on the station's new website since Friday, shares its colors with the University of Akron Zips. 1350 is, and will continue to be, the Zips' flagship station for football and basketball.
There was a local sports news update after SNR's 9 AM report, but we didn't stick around to see if that'll be done regularly. In its previous incarnation as "FOX Sports Radio 1350", the station occasionally used drive-time updates fed down the Clear Channel WAN by WTAM/1100's sports anchors.
And in that previous stint in the sports format, 1350 also hung onto its previous calls the entire time...as WTOU. The calls, of course, come from the ABC 24/7 urban oldies format "The Touch", which ran on 1350 before it first flipped to sports.
To that end, OMW hears that there are no plans to change the "WARF" calls adopted by the station when it became "Radio Free Ohio" ("Akron Radio Free"?).
And while we're on a side topic, we're hearing rumblings that the 1350 format change may once again prompt a change at the east side rimshot daytimer AM station that seems to exist solely to react to other format changes in the market.
OMW hears that it's at least possible that Media-Com's WJMP/1520 Kent "FOX Sports Radio 1520" (aka "WNIR's Poorer Sister Station") could go - yes - back to liberal talk. We don't know at this point - if it happens - if the station will rejoin Air America Radio sunup to sundown, or if they'll be smarter and talk to Jones Radio at least about Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz.
It would appear to be at least technically possible, as WJMP now flips between FSR and Premiere's separately syndicated Jim Rome, who is not fed on the main FSR satellite channel.
Though many FSR affiliates take him, and the network does not mount original programming against Romey, the main channel airs a repeat of an earlier show in the noon-3 PM slot. FOX Sports Radio, of course, is actually a branded arm of Premiere.
Either WJMP goes back to liberal talk, or they'll mount their 50th shot at standards or oldies. But, that's just our guess. It sure beats a return to running the audio of TV sister stations WAOH-LP 29 Akron/W35AX Cleveland, otherwise known as "The Cat"...
ABOUT THAT "AKRON/CANTON NEWS" EXPANSION: It appears there's a wrench in the works regarding that much-awaited expansion of Time Warner Cable/WKYC's "Akron/Canton News" to the systems the cable company recently purchased from Adelphia.
Yes, former Adelphia subscribers in Summit County will see the newscast, finally...TWC has officially announced it.
Unfortunately, the expansion - at least for now - does not include ALL former Adelphia subscribers in the Akron area.
As it turns out, only those in the western end of the former Adelphia Summit County areas - in places like Bath, Copley, the former Northampton Township area now part of Cuyahoga Falls and the like - will get "Akron/Canton News". It'll air on local channel 15 there, which has another impact we'll explain later.
Those in the eastern part of Summit County who used to be on Adelphia - in places like Macedonia and Hudson - will not be getting the newscast.
Explains TWC spokesman Bill Jasso to OMW:
Those areas have a slew of “access channels” required by franchise, and so we do not have any channel slot for a local programming channel.
Jasso also tells OMW that time slot considerations - "Akron/Canton News" airs at 6:30 and 10 PM - mean that those now getting the newscast will also see a half-hour less of sports talk show host Les Levine's daily program. This was first necessitated when the "legacy" TWC systems in Akron/Canton picked up Les' show - and "More Sports" now has a hard break at just before 6:30 to accommodate this.
We'll assume that those not in Summit County won't be affected. And as far as we know, "More Sports" will continue to air in full during its 11 PM rebroadcast on all the systems.
ALL BETS ARE OFF: ...on the debut of the sports TV talk show of that same name by controversial host Bruce Drennan on SportsTime Ohio.
Though we are a bit curious how a man with an ankle bracelet tracking his every movement does a daily TV show, we have yet to watch "All Bets Are Off", which premiered at 7 PM Sunday night.It's sitting right there, recorded, waiting for us.
But it's standing policy here at OMW. We don't judge a host on his/her/their first show.
We waited for months before weighing in on the amazingly awful David Lee Roth show, and still haven't said anything about its local replacement.
We dipped into a recording of Dennis Miller's Westwood One show this weekend, but didn't really hear enough of it to review it. He didn't embarrass himself like Roth did on Day One, and at least knew where to find the phone number, but it's just a first show.
We did hear Drennan's appearance on WTAM's Bob Frantz show Friday.
And we'll pass along that Drennan told Frantz that "All Bets Are Off" and other gambling references were not his idea - like the advertisement that pictures him with his back turned to the camera with the caption - "Drennan's Back - Bet On It". He said it was the idea of STO "higher ups".
So, we'll assume the logo above is not his idea, either.
For Ohioans who haven't been to Las Vegas, or haven't seen a TV show based there, it's a clear attempt to ape the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign. Or at least the sign which existed back in the days of the TV show "Vega$", with Robert Urich playing Vegas detective Dan Tanna...
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Taking A Short Breather
Just a note: This is not one of our much-ballyhooed "hiatuses", but we'll be mostly be taking the rest of the week off from the beast that has become the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm).
We're recharging the batteries, as it were. Expect us back by Monday, or before if we get bored. Just don't expect multiple daily updates until early next week.
To hold you over until then...some stuff we're clearing out of the "inbox" from this week, along with stuff from various sites. We won't go into much detail about the non-original material, some of which has been out there for a day or three...
RADIO FREE FALL: In an unusual move for a station about to change format, Clear Channel's WARF/1350 Akron has brought out some numbers - to the public - to explain the flip Friday from liberal talk to sports.
Quoting from the very same "Radio Free Ohio" page we linked earlier, now updated:
While Progessive Radio is surviving in parts of the country, it has not in Akron. In two years ratings have not improved, and revenue has declined, despite the remainder of the market seeing an increase in revenue.
Before the format switch to Progressive Talk, 1350am was an all sports station. In the Winter of 2005, (the last ratings period for the station as sports) 1350am had 17,000 weekly listeners. In the latest release of ratings, for the Fall of 06, WARF had 11,600 weekly listeners, and was on the decline.* (Source: Arbitron Fall 05 and Winter 06 Akron Metro Persons 12+ Monday-Sunday 6am - Midnight)
Now, we know you can slice and dice Arbitron numbers in any way, and the 12-plus numbers are, as anyone in the business knows, "vanity" numbers.
But the facts remain as we pointed out earlier. Simply put: even with similar (lower) ratings, sports outsells liberal talk, at least at this juncture. It "sells above its numbers".
The phrase "revenue has declined" says it all here, about why the current format at Akron's 1350 is going away Friday morning...
Y-TOWN PD SHUFFLE: Two Clear Channel Youngstown properties are getting new program directors, according to AllAccess.
And one of those new programmers is an existing one, as rock WNCD/93.3 PD Steve Granato takes over the same duties sister hot AC WMXY/98.9 "Mix 98.9".
That job is open because of a departure - sister top 40 WAKZ/95.9 "Kiss FM" PD Jerry Mac, who's been there for some time and also programmed "Mix", is headed for new duties as operations manager of the NextMedia cluster in coastal North Carolina (Wilmington, et al.).
The move has left PD openings at WNCD and WAKZ. Can one person fill both? We're just asking a question, not dropping any hints...
THE DENNIS MILLER WATCH: This one is an original, thanks to a tip by regular OMW reader Nathan Obral.
Nathan tells us that Westwood One's newly launched syndicated talker, Dennis Miller, has landed in Columbus on North American Broadcasting FM talker WTDA/103.9 "Talk FM".
And his presence on the WTDA schedule pushes aside, umm, someone who's used to being dumped for other hosts - Take On The Day syndicated advice talker Dr. Laura Schlessinger.
First, pushed off one station by Glenn Beck. Then, dumped to make way for Dennis Miller. What's next for Dr. Laura, losing a clearance to Jerry Doyle?
We're still surprised she hasn't shown up on more of Salem's conservative talk stations - though as reported here, they've hooked up with WW1 for Miller in a number of markets.
Or for that matter, on Salem's teaching/talk outlets like Cleveland's WHKW/1220 "The Word" - or to replace her lost Columbus station, WRFD/880 "The Word" in the Columbus market.
By the way, your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) has not heard one pip out of Mr. Miller's new show. Though it's only carried in Northeast Ohio on NextMedia's WHBC/1480, it's widely available online...we just haven't caught up with it yet.
We'll give the erudite comedian/host a few days or weeks to get his show together...
CINCINNATI CALLING: Keith Mitchell has been programming Cumulus oldies WGRR/103.5 in Cincinnati. We don't know how long he's been doing so, or who hired him, since that massive swap in calls, frequencies, owners and formats down in the Queen City has us all confused.
WGRR has now installed Mitchell in the afternoon drive time slot...saying the former WMOJ "Mojo 94.9" morning host was needed on the air. (And yes, that was the former "Jammin' Oldies" incarnation of Mojo, before Radio One bought the name and the calls for the incoming 100.3 FM, and then tweaked the format.)
We hear the move displaces Jim LaBarbara from afternoon drive. The name didn't ring any bells for us, but we're probably too young - he had a stint as one of the WIXY/1260 "Supermen" in Cleveland.
We don't know where LaBarbara lands - perhaps elsewhere on the WGRR schedule? He's still listed in afternoon drive on the station's website...which says he's been on the airwaves in Southwest Ohio since 1969...
We're recharging the batteries, as it were. Expect us back by Monday, or before if we get bored. Just don't expect multiple daily updates until early next week.
To hold you over until then...some stuff we're clearing out of the "inbox" from this week, along with stuff from various sites. We won't go into much detail about the non-original material, some of which has been out there for a day or three...
RADIO FREE FALL: In an unusual move for a station about to change format, Clear Channel's WARF/1350 Akron has brought out some numbers - to the public - to explain the flip Friday from liberal talk to sports.
Quoting from the very same "Radio Free Ohio" page we linked earlier, now updated:
While Progessive Radio is surviving in parts of the country, it has not in Akron. In two years ratings have not improved, and revenue has declined, despite the remainder of the market seeing an increase in revenue.
Before the format switch to Progressive Talk, 1350am was an all sports station. In the Winter of 2005, (the last ratings period for the station as sports) 1350am had 17,000 weekly listeners. In the latest release of ratings, for the Fall of 06, WARF had 11,600 weekly listeners, and was on the decline.* (Source: Arbitron Fall 05 and Winter 06 Akron Metro Persons 12+ Monday-Sunday 6am - Midnight)
Now, we know you can slice and dice Arbitron numbers in any way, and the 12-plus numbers are, as anyone in the business knows, "vanity" numbers.
But the facts remain as we pointed out earlier. Simply put: even with similar (lower) ratings, sports outsells liberal talk, at least at this juncture. It "sells above its numbers".
The phrase "revenue has declined" says it all here, about why the current format at Akron's 1350 is going away Friday morning...
Y-TOWN PD SHUFFLE: Two Clear Channel Youngstown properties are getting new program directors, according to AllAccess.
And one of those new programmers is an existing one, as rock WNCD/93.3 PD Steve Granato takes over the same duties sister hot AC WMXY/98.9 "Mix 98.9".
That job is open because of a departure - sister top 40 WAKZ/95.9 "Kiss FM" PD Jerry Mac, who's been there for some time and also programmed "Mix", is headed for new duties as operations manager of the NextMedia cluster in coastal North Carolina (Wilmington, et al.).
The move has left PD openings at WNCD and WAKZ. Can one person fill both? We're just asking a question, not dropping any hints...
THE DENNIS MILLER WATCH: This one is an original, thanks to a tip by regular OMW reader Nathan Obral.
Nathan tells us that Westwood One's newly launched syndicated talker, Dennis Miller, has landed in Columbus on North American Broadcasting FM talker WTDA/103.9 "Talk FM".
And his presence on the WTDA schedule pushes aside, umm, someone who's used to being dumped for other hosts - Take On The Day syndicated advice talker Dr. Laura Schlessinger.
First, pushed off one station by Glenn Beck. Then, dumped to make way for Dennis Miller. What's next for Dr. Laura, losing a clearance to Jerry Doyle?
We're still surprised she hasn't shown up on more of Salem's conservative talk stations - though as reported here, they've hooked up with WW1 for Miller in a number of markets.
Or for that matter, on Salem's teaching/talk outlets like Cleveland's WHKW/1220 "The Word" - or to replace her lost Columbus station, WRFD/880 "The Word" in the Columbus market.
By the way, your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) has not heard one pip out of Mr. Miller's new show. Though it's only carried in Northeast Ohio on NextMedia's WHBC/1480, it's widely available online...we just haven't caught up with it yet.
We'll give the erudite comedian/host a few days or weeks to get his show together...
CINCINNATI CALLING: Keith Mitchell has been programming Cumulus oldies WGRR/103.5 in Cincinnati. We don't know how long he's been doing so, or who hired him, since that massive swap in calls, frequencies, owners and formats down in the Queen City has us all confused.
WGRR has now installed Mitchell in the afternoon drive time slot...saying the former WMOJ "Mojo 94.9" morning host was needed on the air. (And yes, that was the former "Jammin' Oldies" incarnation of Mojo, before Radio One bought the name and the calls for the incoming 100.3 FM, and then tweaked the format.)
We hear the move displaces Jim LaBarbara from afternoon drive. The name didn't ring any bells for us, but we're probably too young - he had a stint as one of the WIXY/1260 "Supermen" in Cleveland.
We don't know where LaBarbara lands - perhaps elsewhere on the WGRR schedule? He's still listed in afternoon drive on the station's website...which says he's been on the airwaves in Southwest Ohio since 1969...
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Finally, Akron/Canton News Closure Is Near
No, we don't know if it was our incessant "coverage" of the lack of the WKYC/3-produced "Akron/Canton News" on the former Adelphia Summit County systems now owned by Time Warner Cable. But it looks like we'll finally get our wish.
"Akron/Canton News" anchor Eric Mansfield, on his DiscoverNEO blog, says Akron area residents on the former Adelphia system should be able to see his program soon:
Don't touch that dial: The official announcement is coming Friday from Time-Warner Cable but it looks like the Adelphia customers in Summit County will now be able to see Akron-Canton News as early as next week. I don't have all the details yet, but it will help our newsroom finally reach a major component of the audience. I've heard from so many viewers in Copley, Fairlawn, Hudson, and all points in between, who've been frustrated with no access to the evening news. Watch for the full details later this week.
One question we don't know the answer to yet: "Akron/Canton News" conflicts for a half-hour with TWC's "More Sports and Les Levine".
The "legacy" TWC system in Akron/Canton breaks away from Les' show at 6:30 for the newscast, though the 11 PM repeat airing is broadcast in full on TWC's Akron/Canton local programming channel 23...
"Akron/Canton News" anchor Eric Mansfield, on his DiscoverNEO blog, says Akron area residents on the former Adelphia system should be able to see his program soon:
Don't touch that dial: The official announcement is coming Friday from Time-Warner Cable but it looks like the Adelphia customers in Summit County will now be able to see Akron-Canton News as early as next week. I don't have all the details yet, but it will help our newsroom finally reach a major component of the audience. I've heard from so many viewers in Copley, Fairlawn, Hudson, and all points in between, who've been frustrated with no access to the evening news. Watch for the full details later this week.
One question we don't know the answer to yet: "Akron/Canton News" conflicts for a half-hour with TWC's "More Sports and Les Levine".
The "legacy" TWC system in Akron/Canton breaks away from Les' show at 6:30 for the newscast, though the 11 PM repeat airing is broadcast in full on TWC's Akron/Canton local programming channel 23...
Other WKNR Shoe Drops
Good Karma sports WKNR/850 Cleveland has officially announced the latest series of lineup changes.
As reported by the Cleveland Plain Dealer yesterday, WMJI/105.7-WMMS/100.7 sports director Mark "Munch" Bishop leaves Clear Channel for "ESPN 850 WKNR"'s afternoon drive post.
Afternoon drive host Kenny Roda gets bumped 3 hours, and will take the 6-9 PM slot recently occupied by former mid-morning host Greg Brinda.
Brinda loses a regular, daily show, but will now front the station's "10th Inning" Cleveland Indians postgame show.
You might remember that "10th Inning" was done by Brinda after earlier "cost cutting" moves by former owner Salem first knocked him out of 9-noon, to be replaced by now-SportsTime Ohio host Bruce Drennan...then, of course, Drennan's legal problems forced the station to replace him with - Brinda.
The other big announcement concerns the addition of former Cleveland Cavaliers TV voice Michael Reghi to the WKNR team. Reghi will become permanent host of the station's "Wine and Gold Post Game Show" covering the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Bishop, Reghi, Brinda and Good Karma boss Craig Karmazin all join current WKNR afternoon driver Kenny Roda this afternoon at three. We hear Karmazin is out buying more microphones for the sparsely equipped WKNR studio...well, we assume he is with five people in the studio this afternoon...
As reported by the Cleveland Plain Dealer yesterday, WMJI/105.7-WMMS/100.7 sports director Mark "Munch" Bishop leaves Clear Channel for "ESPN 850 WKNR"'s afternoon drive post.
Afternoon drive host Kenny Roda gets bumped 3 hours, and will take the 6-9 PM slot recently occupied by former mid-morning host Greg Brinda.
Brinda loses a regular, daily show, but will now front the station's "10th Inning" Cleveland Indians postgame show.
You might remember that "10th Inning" was done by Brinda after earlier "cost cutting" moves by former owner Salem first knocked him out of 9-noon, to be replaced by now-SportsTime Ohio host Bruce Drennan...then, of course, Drennan's legal problems forced the station to replace him with - Brinda.
The other big announcement concerns the addition of former Cleveland Cavaliers TV voice Michael Reghi to the WKNR team. Reghi will become permanent host of the station's "Wine and Gold Post Game Show" covering the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Bishop, Reghi, Brinda and Good Karma boss Craig Karmazin all join current WKNR afternoon driver Kenny Roda this afternoon at three. We hear Karmazin is out buying more microphones for the sparsely equipped WKNR studio...well, we assume he is with five people in the studio this afternoon...
Drennan On WTAM's Bob Frantz Show
OMW hears that new SportsTime Ohio host Bruce Drennan will be on WTAM's Bob Frantz show Friday at 9 AM. We hear he will answer 'all' questions, in what's billed as his first "all calls" appearance after his release from prison...
EXCLUSIVE: Liberal Talk WARF/1350 Akron Flipping To Sports
UPDATE 3/28/07 1:45 PM: "Radio Free Ohio" has confirmed the end of the liberal talk format on an item titled "The End is near", on the station's website:
The End is coming.
The end of the progressive format on 1350 is coming on Friday March 30th at 8:59am.
Watch this space for more information.
The item does not announce the new format at this time, but we're reminded that change from sports to liberal talk was also made at about the same time of day, around 9 AM.
Our original item is below...
-----------
When the rumors started filtering onto our comments, we took a drive by the Clear Channel World Domination HQ/Southern Command on Freedom Avenue, and put our ears to the windows.
And before we were shooed off by a security guard, we confirmed the rumors.
Liberal talk WARF/1350 Akron is about to dump that format, following sister stations in Cincinnati and Columbus.
Starting Friday, the station will drop the progressive talk format and the "Radio Free Ohio" moniker for sports, with the on-air positioner "SportsRadio 1350". (No word what they'll do with the WARF calls.)
And sure enough, the domain "SportsRadio1350.com" is registered to Clear Channel's online identity division, and was first registered Monday. At the moment, any website behind that URL is behind a Clear Channel password-protected firewall.
Though some of the details are still in flux, we are hearing that 1350 will carry its primary sports talk network programming from the Sporting News Radio folks.
It's basically the only choice available to them.
Clear Channel arm Premiere's FOX Sports Radio is spoken for - at the moment on both Media-Com daytimer WJMP/1520 Kent-Akron-Mars-Jupiter, and a new clearance on WHBC/1480 Canton in its talk format.
And ESPN Radio is now booming into Akron via Good Karma's WKNR/850 Cleveland.
We haven't yet heard if "SportsRadio 1350" will launch any local non-play-by-play programming to add to its existing stable of team coverage deals, like the Eastern League's Akron Aeros and the University of Akron Zips' football and basketball teams.
But we noted in This Space a few days ago that the station is already carrying the entire NCAA "March Madness" basketball tournament via Westwood One's feed...which perked up our ears earlier.
And a birdie whispering out of the back door at Freedom Avenue also tells OMW that more play-by-play will be added.
On 1350's list is not only the available Westwood One packages (we know competitor WNIR/100.1 has some of them, like NFL's Sunday and Monday Night Football packages), but the new sports station is slated to become the Akron affiliate of the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets.
The team is currently carried in the Canton market on Massillon sports outlet WTIG/990 "ESPN 990". (And we checked with their official website this time - it's "Blue Jackets" as two words. Last time, we printed "Bluejackets", and got mercilessly lashed by Ohio's hockey fans.)
Interesting twists in this format change:
* The move returns Tony Bruno to the 1350 airwaves. He had not been at FOX Sports Radio long, when the station changed to liberal talk. Since then, Bruno landed in SNR's late-morning (ET) slot. And as far as we know, Bruno was also heard on 1350 before FSR, which brings us to...
* By adding SNR, 1350 has now officially run through all three major 24/7 sports talk radio networks. The station launched sports before Clear Channel took it over as "ESPN 1350". CC kept the network for a time, then went to FOX Sports Radio, which was carried until the change to progressive talk.
The format change is no surprise to us.
While some individual hosts are still doing well, the liberal talk format as a whole reached its peak well over a year ago.
The format has basically become the "Jammin' Oldies" of the 2004-2006 time period - the experimental, "new" format used by Clear Channel and other companies to prop up second and third-tier AM stations that used to run sports, standards or oldies.
Akron isn't the only market where the libtalker has gone back to sports.
It's not that they can burn up the ratings with the format - 1350 certainly didn't in its FSR days - but you can sell sports well beyond the format's ratings.
It's a truism that has been solid wisdom since they first put a local team's play-by-play on the radio.
Add to the fact that sports is a "male magnet", and it's an easy sell for people wanting to sell products to men. It's practically the raison d'etre for the format, particularly in a day where radio stations sell to fragmented parts of the population.
Over on the liberal talk side, many of the hosts aren't commercially friendly. Even with former SNL star Al Franken headed off to run for the U.S. Senate, much of what's left of Air America Radio sounds like "preaching to the choir", and Air America is still a component of many stations in the format.
If the folks fronting liberal talk radio would only take Jones Radio's Stephanie Miller and clone her, the format may work as a whole. OK, so some of the clones would be male. Some of them would tell less fart jokes. There might be a Kim Jong-Il impression or two replaced with something else.
But overall, Ms. Miller gets what nearly every other nationally syndicated liberal talk show host does not get...it's about the entertainment, stupid.
Others are close, like Jones stablemate Ed Schultz, the "gun-toting, meat-eating lefty". But even Big Eddie veers into more activism at times.
And liberal talk hasn't been strong enough to overcome what the more-establishment conservative talkers had to endure after the 2000 election, when George W. Bush came into power and Republicans took over Congress.
The "heat" of politics hasn't been enough to draw people into the tent for the liberal talk format in recent months, with Democrats in control on Capitol Hill.
The "future of liberal talk" may lie with hosts like Stephanie Miller and Envision Radio Networks' Leslie Marshall making their way on general market talk stations. It'll be an interesting ride, as one reason the folks at Air America Radio launched 24/7 liberal talk was that they didn't believe liberal talk would fit in on conservative talk radio schedules.
Just our commentary, as it were.
In the day or so we'll keep this open for comments, please refrain from direct political attacks on groups you oppose. We'd like to keep the discussion to RADIO, and related issues...not the usual back-and-forth between left and right you see on roughly 50 million other Internet sites...
UPDATE 12:19 AM 3/29/07: This item, per our usual policy, has been closed for comments. You may continue to comment on the newly posted item, which contains more about WARF's format change...
The End is coming.
The end of the progressive format on 1350 is coming on Friday March 30th at 8:59am.
Watch this space for more information.
The item does not announce the new format at this time, but we're reminded that change from sports to liberal talk was also made at about the same time of day, around 9 AM.
Our original item is below...
-----------
When the rumors started filtering onto our comments, we took a drive by the Clear Channel World Domination HQ/Southern Command on Freedom Avenue, and put our ears to the windows.
And before we were shooed off by a security guard, we confirmed the rumors.
Liberal talk WARF/1350 Akron is about to dump that format, following sister stations in Cincinnati and Columbus.
Starting Friday, the station will drop the progressive talk format and the "Radio Free Ohio" moniker for sports, with the on-air positioner "SportsRadio 1350". (No word what they'll do with the WARF calls.)
And sure enough, the domain "SportsRadio1350.com" is registered to Clear Channel's online identity division, and was first registered Monday. At the moment, any website behind that URL is behind a Clear Channel password-protected firewall.
Though some of the details are still in flux, we are hearing that 1350 will carry its primary sports talk network programming from the Sporting News Radio folks.
It's basically the only choice available to them.
Clear Channel arm Premiere's FOX Sports Radio is spoken for - at the moment on both Media-Com daytimer WJMP/1520 Kent-Akron-Mars-Jupiter, and a new clearance on WHBC/1480 Canton in its talk format.
And ESPN Radio is now booming into Akron via Good Karma's WKNR/850 Cleveland.
We haven't yet heard if "SportsRadio 1350" will launch any local non-play-by-play programming to add to its existing stable of team coverage deals, like the Eastern League's Akron Aeros and the University of Akron Zips' football and basketball teams.
But we noted in This Space a few days ago that the station is already carrying the entire NCAA "March Madness" basketball tournament via Westwood One's feed...which perked up our ears earlier.
And a birdie whispering out of the back door at Freedom Avenue also tells OMW that more play-by-play will be added.
On 1350's list is not only the available Westwood One packages (we know competitor WNIR/100.1 has some of them, like NFL's Sunday and Monday Night Football packages), but the new sports station is slated to become the Akron affiliate of the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets.
The team is currently carried in the Canton market on Massillon sports outlet WTIG/990 "ESPN 990". (And we checked with their official website this time - it's "Blue Jackets" as two words. Last time, we printed "Bluejackets", and got mercilessly lashed by Ohio's hockey fans.)
Interesting twists in this format change:
* The move returns Tony Bruno to the 1350 airwaves. He had not been at FOX Sports Radio long, when the station changed to liberal talk. Since then, Bruno landed in SNR's late-morning (ET) slot. And as far as we know, Bruno was also heard on 1350 before FSR, which brings us to...
* By adding SNR, 1350 has now officially run through all three major 24/7 sports talk radio networks. The station launched sports before Clear Channel took it over as "ESPN 1350". CC kept the network for a time, then went to FOX Sports Radio, which was carried until the change to progressive talk.
The format change is no surprise to us.
While some individual hosts are still doing well, the liberal talk format as a whole reached its peak well over a year ago.
The format has basically become the "Jammin' Oldies" of the 2004-2006 time period - the experimental, "new" format used by Clear Channel and other companies to prop up second and third-tier AM stations that used to run sports, standards or oldies.
Akron isn't the only market where the libtalker has gone back to sports.
It's not that they can burn up the ratings with the format - 1350 certainly didn't in its FSR days - but you can sell sports well beyond the format's ratings.
It's a truism that has been solid wisdom since they first put a local team's play-by-play on the radio.
Add to the fact that sports is a "male magnet", and it's an easy sell for people wanting to sell products to men. It's practically the raison d'etre for the format, particularly in a day where radio stations sell to fragmented parts of the population.
Over on the liberal talk side, many of the hosts aren't commercially friendly. Even with former SNL star Al Franken headed off to run for the U.S. Senate, much of what's left of Air America Radio sounds like "preaching to the choir", and Air America is still a component of many stations in the format.
If the folks fronting liberal talk radio would only take Jones Radio's Stephanie Miller and clone her, the format may work as a whole. OK, so some of the clones would be male. Some of them would tell less fart jokes. There might be a Kim Jong-Il impression or two replaced with something else.
But overall, Ms. Miller gets what nearly every other nationally syndicated liberal talk show host does not get...it's about the entertainment, stupid.
Others are close, like Jones stablemate Ed Schultz, the "gun-toting, meat-eating lefty". But even Big Eddie veers into more activism at times.
And liberal talk hasn't been strong enough to overcome what the more-establishment conservative talkers had to endure after the 2000 election, when George W. Bush came into power and Republicans took over Congress.
The "heat" of politics hasn't been enough to draw people into the tent for the liberal talk format in recent months, with Democrats in control on Capitol Hill.
The "future of liberal talk" may lie with hosts like Stephanie Miller and Envision Radio Networks' Leslie Marshall making their way on general market talk stations. It'll be an interesting ride, as one reason the folks at Air America Radio launched 24/7 liberal talk was that they didn't believe liberal talk would fit in on conservative talk radio schedules.
Just our commentary, as it were.
In the day or so we'll keep this open for comments, please refrain from direct political attacks on groups you oppose. We'd like to keep the discussion to RADIO, and related issues...not the usual back-and-forth between left and right you see on roughly 50 million other Internet sites...
UPDATE 12:19 AM 3/29/07: This item, per our usual policy, has been closed for comments. You may continue to comment on the newly posted item, which contains more about WARF's format change...
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
BREAKING NEWS: Munch In, Roda Out for WKNR Afternoon Drive
The Cleveland Plain Dealer's Arts & Entertainment blog reports big changes at Good Karma sports talk WKNR/850 Cleveland.
PD columnist Mike McIntyre reports that Clear Channel WMJI/105.7-WMMS/100.7 sports director Mark "Munch" Bishop is headed for the 3-6 PM slot at "ESPN 850 WKNR", replacing Kenny Roda. McIntyre quotes unnamed sources that Roda will stay aboard at WKNR, though it is not clear what role he will take.
Bishop joins another former WMJI'er on the WKNR roster - mid-morning host Tony Rizzo. It would appear that the key to sports talk radio success in this market is doing sports for John Lanigan!
We don't know when "Munch" takes over the 3-6 PM slot. Some sources are suggesting it could be as soon as tomorrow, others say next Monday.
More as we hear more...
PD columnist Mike McIntyre reports that Clear Channel WMJI/105.7-WMMS/100.7 sports director Mark "Munch" Bishop is headed for the 3-6 PM slot at "ESPN 850 WKNR", replacing Kenny Roda. McIntyre quotes unnamed sources that Roda will stay aboard at WKNR, though it is not clear what role he will take.
Bishop joins another former WMJI'er on the WKNR roster - mid-morning host Tony Rizzo. It would appear that the key to sports talk radio success in this market is doing sports for John Lanigan!
We don't know when "Munch" takes over the 3-6 PM slot. Some sources are suggesting it could be as soon as tomorrow, others say next Monday.
More as we hear more...
Random Tuesday Fodder
NOTE TO KEN AND KITTY FANS: We appreciate your reading this article, which has apparently been linked to their website.
However, Ohio Media Watch is not connected to either the show, or to the former radio home of the show. We are an independent online media publication that owns no broadcast facilities.
If you wish to reach Ken and Kitty, please hit the BACK button on your browser and contact them directly via their website.
Thank you!
--The Management
-------------
We've got some flotsam and jetsam. Just what IS "flotsam and jetsam" anyway?
KEN AND KITTY AND OUT: AllAccess reports that after taking all the trouble to move them to a new radio home in Cincinnati, "Ken and Kitty" have departed now-Bonneville-ex-Entercom country WYGY/97.3 "The Wolf".
This item will be much longer than it should be. For one:
* Entercom got 97.3 in the first place by buying it from CBS Radio.
* Bonneville bought many Entercom stations, including 97.3.
* 97.3 used to be alt-rock WAQZ, back in the CBS Radio days.
* Susquehanna owned the original country outlet in Cincinnati with the WYGY calls.
* Cumulus bought Susquehanna
* Cumulus moved WYGY's country format and name from 96.5 to 94.9, eventually launching FM talk "SuperTalk FM 96.5".
* Entercom, the departing CBS Radio, Cumulus, the dog catcher, Citgo, Marathon, and the guy who runs the hot dog stand on Fountain Square swapped stations.
* Entercom picked up the WYGY calls and intellectual property to move it to 97.3 as young-skewing country "The Wolf" (a standard Entercom country brand).
* Throughout ALL of this, "Ken and Kitty" did the morning show on WYGY, wherever it was broadcasting, and whichever company owned it. And all of this happened within the year or so, most of it in the past few months. In fact, the picture/logo we used above was swiped off of the "96.5 The Star" website, which still exists to this day.
Where's the aspirin when you need it?
We're probably wrong about the order here, and maybe even some of the facts, but it's something close to that.
We don't hear any rumblings from Bonneville/Cincinnati, but we wonder if the young-skewing country format is long for 97.3? Blowing out your morning show, which would seem to be a successful one from here, is a sign of that sort of thing.
AllAccess quotes WYGY PD Marty Thompson as saying a "major announcement" about mornings on 97.3 is due "soon".
As for the show's part, they've posted a farewell message on KenandKitty.com:
Ken & Kitty fans, it is with a heavy heart that I have to let you know that the new company (Bonneville) that just purchased the Wolf Radio Station has decided not to make us a contract offer. :( I know that it is frustrating when radio stations make changes and don't announce it on the air, so I thought I'd post this message. We are trying to talk to other radio stations in town and I will let you know on this website as things progress!
Kitty and I want to thank all of you who have tolerated us and participated in our show the last 2 & 1/2 years here. You have made our jobs easy & so much fun stirring it up with us each morning. So again, THANK YOU!
Check back here next week for an update.
Respectfully Yours,
Ken
The AllAccess folks helpfully add that the pair is not wedded to country as a format, and will consider gigs in hot AC, top 40, rock and talk formats...
FIRST FULLTIME JOB: This item out of Toledo actually has a Northeast Ohio connection.
He's David Holmes, the Kent State University graduate who won ESPN's "Dream Job" competition, giving him a one-year job as a sports anchor on the cable network.
We didn't run into him much in our forays watching The Worldwide Leader of Sports, so we figure he spent most of his time on ESPNews.
(Or is that ESPNNews? Taking out the extra N makes it sound like a network for psychics.)
The Uniontown native has been hired by Toledo ABC O&O WTVG/13, where Toledo Blade media columnist Ron Musselman says Holmes will be a sports photographer/reporter and fill-in anchor. He replaces Hakem Dermish, who is headed for Washington DC NBC O&O WRC/4 in a similar role.
Holmes starts at WTVG on April 2nd.
Now, here's a question no one has answered for us yet. Quoting Mr. Musselman:
Holmes currently hosts an afternoon radio sports program near Canton.
Umm, IS there an "afternoon radio sports program near Canton"? What station is the Blade media writer talking about? We can't find it on a quick Google search, but maybe we're missing something...
Anyway, best of luck to Mr. Holmes.
We saw this article earlier in a Google News search, but a note on the "Director's Cut" blog by WKYC/3's Frank Macek reminded us to finally put it up. Macek says Holmes worked on the station's Cleveland Browns-related programming while an intern out of KSU...
AND WHILE WE'RE IN A TV MOOD: And speaking of another WKYC-originated blog, one of our regular complaints may be close to being answered - soon.
We don't check in with WKYC/3 Akron/Canton bureau chief and "Akron/Canton News" anchor Eric Mansfield's blog nearly as often as we should. It is truly one of the better "behind the news" reports you're ever going to get.
And Eric brought up the topic we've posted on the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) a dozen or so times - the lack of "Akron/Canton News" being offered to subscribers of the Time Warner Cable systems in Summit County formerly owned by Adelphia.
We're one of those subscribers here at OMW World Headquarters, of course, but we do get a fair amount of E-Mail asking about it.
Eric weighs in on the topic in a March 9th entry:
We're getting a good response from viewers about our return to cable channel 23 on Time Warner. The TWC folks tell me the Adelphia conversion is going very well and the folks in Northern Summit County who haven't been able to see the Akron-Canton News will have it very soon.
While "very soon" apparently isn't "March 27th", it's still good news for us.
Eric also retells the story of a technical glitch which put the "Akron/Canton News" on both Time Warner Cable 17 and its new (old) home of channel 23. Both channels displayed Mr. Mansfield's video fine, but the old channel had him overlayed upon audio of movie previews...
However, Ohio Media Watch is not connected to either the show, or to the former radio home of the show. We are an independent online media publication that owns no broadcast facilities.
If you wish to reach Ken and Kitty, please hit the BACK button on your browser and contact them directly via their website.
Thank you!
--The Management
-------------
We've got some flotsam and jetsam. Just what IS "flotsam and jetsam" anyway?
KEN AND KITTY AND OUT: AllAccess reports that after taking all the trouble to move them to a new radio home in Cincinnati, "Ken and Kitty" have departed now-Bonneville-ex-Entercom country WYGY/97.3 "The Wolf".
This item will be much longer than it should be. For one:* Entercom got 97.3 in the first place by buying it from CBS Radio.
* Bonneville bought many Entercom stations, including 97.3.
* 97.3 used to be alt-rock WAQZ, back in the CBS Radio days.
* Susquehanna owned the original country outlet in Cincinnati with the WYGY calls.
* Cumulus bought Susquehanna
* Cumulus moved WYGY's country format and name from 96.5 to 94.9, eventually launching FM talk "SuperTalk FM 96.5".
* Entercom, the departing CBS Radio, Cumulus, the dog catcher, Citgo, Marathon, and the guy who runs the hot dog stand on Fountain Square swapped stations.
* Entercom picked up the WYGY calls and intellectual property to move it to 97.3 as young-skewing country "The Wolf" (a standard Entercom country brand).
* Throughout ALL of this, "Ken and Kitty" did the morning show on WYGY, wherever it was broadcasting, and whichever company owned it. And all of this happened within the year or so, most of it in the past few months. In fact, the picture/logo we used above was swiped off of the "96.5 The Star" website, which still exists to this day.
Where's the aspirin when you need it?
We're probably wrong about the order here, and maybe even some of the facts, but it's something close to that.
We don't hear any rumblings from Bonneville/Cincinnati, but we wonder if the young-skewing country format is long for 97.3? Blowing out your morning show, which would seem to be a successful one from here, is a sign of that sort of thing.
AllAccess quotes WYGY PD Marty Thompson as saying a "major announcement" about mornings on 97.3 is due "soon".
As for the show's part, they've posted a farewell message on KenandKitty.com:
Ken & Kitty fans, it is with a heavy heart that I have to let you know that the new company (Bonneville) that just purchased the Wolf Radio Station has decided not to make us a contract offer. :( I know that it is frustrating when radio stations make changes and don't announce it on the air, so I thought I'd post this message. We are trying to talk to other radio stations in town and I will let you know on this website as things progress!
Kitty and I want to thank all of you who have tolerated us and participated in our show the last 2 & 1/2 years here. You have made our jobs easy & so much fun stirring it up with us each morning. So again, THANK YOU!
Check back here next week for an update.
Respectfully Yours,
Ken
The AllAccess folks helpfully add that the pair is not wedded to country as a format, and will consider gigs in hot AC, top 40, rock and talk formats...
FIRST FULLTIME JOB: This item out of Toledo actually has a Northeast Ohio connection.
He's David Holmes, the Kent State University graduate who won ESPN's "Dream Job" competition, giving him a one-year job as a sports anchor on the cable network.We didn't run into him much in our forays watching The Worldwide Leader of Sports, so we figure he spent most of his time on ESPNews.
(Or is that ESPNNews? Taking out the extra N makes it sound like a network for psychics.)
The Uniontown native has been hired by Toledo ABC O&O WTVG/13, where Toledo Blade media columnist Ron Musselman says Holmes will be a sports photographer/reporter and fill-in anchor. He replaces Hakem Dermish, who is headed for Washington DC NBC O&O WRC/4 in a similar role.
Holmes starts at WTVG on April 2nd.
Now, here's a question no one has answered for us yet. Quoting Mr. Musselman:
Holmes currently hosts an afternoon radio sports program near Canton.
Umm, IS there an "afternoon radio sports program near Canton"? What station is the Blade media writer talking about? We can't find it on a quick Google search, but maybe we're missing something...
Anyway, best of luck to Mr. Holmes.
We saw this article earlier in a Google News search, but a note on the "Director's Cut" blog by WKYC/3's Frank Macek reminded us to finally put it up. Macek says Holmes worked on the station's Cleveland Browns-related programming while an intern out of KSU...
AND WHILE WE'RE IN A TV MOOD: And speaking of another WKYC-originated blog, one of our regular complaints may be close to being answered - soon.
We don't check in with WKYC/3 Akron/Canton bureau chief and "Akron/Canton News" anchor Eric Mansfield's blog nearly as often as we should. It is truly one of the better "behind the news" reports you're ever going to get.
And Eric brought up the topic we've posted on the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) a dozen or so times - the lack of "Akron/Canton News" being offered to subscribers of the Time Warner Cable systems in Summit County formerly owned by Adelphia.
We're one of those subscribers here at OMW World Headquarters, of course, but we do get a fair amount of E-Mail asking about it.
Eric weighs in on the topic in a March 9th entry:
We're getting a good response from viewers about our return to cable channel 23 on Time Warner. The TWC folks tell me the Adelphia conversion is going very well and the folks in Northern Summit County who haven't been able to see the Akron-Canton News will have it very soon.
While "very soon" apparently isn't "March 27th", it's still good news for us.
Eric also retells the story of a technical glitch which put the "Akron/Canton News" on both Time Warner Cable 17 and its new (old) home of channel 23. Both channels displayed Mr. Mansfield's video fine, but the old channel had him overlayed upon audio of movie previews...
Monday, March 26, 2007
Controversy With Drennan
Our title, of course, is a play on the name of sportscaster Bruce Drennan's former WKNR/850 morning show, "Mornings With Drennan". Feel free to sing it out loud in the style of, say, a show tune...Ever since regional sports network SportsTime Ohio announced that Drennan would host a daily talk show on the channel ("All Bets Are Off"), the Northeast Ohio media world can't stop buzzing about the hiring of a man who so recently walked out of a federal penitentiary, he has to get a work release exemption to even be able to leave his home and do the show.
(For the three people who haven't already heard, Drennan recently completed a five-month sentence in a West Virginia federal penitentiary for not claiming tens of thousands of dollars in gambling income on his federal taxes, and is now serving another five months on house arrest.)
Another local TV sports host, Les Levine, weighed in last week on his Time Warner Cable show "More Sports and Les Levine". He basically interrupted an in-studio interview with former Cleveland Cavaliers coach Mike Fratello to comment on the hiring...with a statement we transcribe here:
I realize that what I'm about to say is going to be scoffed at by some people who will say that I have a case of "sour grapes" because I have a television show on a network - FSN Ohio - that competes with SportsTime Ohio.
I'm all for deserving people getting a second chance, and it would be nice if some TV or radio station would give Bruce Drennan that second chance.
But not one that is owned by the Cleveland Indians.
Somebody's gotta help me out here.
According to a published report in the Plain Dealer, Drennan bet between 14 and 37 thousand dollars - a day - on baseball for several years.
Now, the Indians have hired him to do a daily sports show called "All Bets Are Off", and will have segments on the show featuring the manager, Eric Wedge.
Gambling scares baseball more than steroids scares baseball. Now, if you want to believe I have an agenda here, you can be my guest, but I do have one question: What the heck are the Indians thinking?
Les has a good point.
In the Cleveland Plain Dealer article about the hiring ("TV station gambles on host" by writer Mark Gillispie), a Major League Baseball spokesman is quoted:
Major League spokesman Richard Levin said in a telephone interview Tuesday that he had not heard about Drennan’s hiring.
“This is new to us, so we’ll have to look into it,” Levin said. He declined to comment further.
But in the Associated Press story on the Drennan hiring, found here on the website of the Times-Reporter newspaper in Dover-New Philadelphia - don't reach for that copy/paste, T-R folks, you already printed it! - gives us the impression that STO and the Indians have already run this by MLB.
Long-time Indians PR guy Bob DiBiasio tells the AP that Drennan won't be allowed in the clubhouse, but will be allowed on the field at Jacobs Field and in the press box. And then, there's this:
“We informed major league baseball of the situation and told them of our plan,” DiBiasio said. “They felt what we were doing fell in line as appropriate action.”
Either way, Mr. Levine is correct in his above statement. Baseball is VERY antsy about gambling, and even if the Indians have run this by the folks at the MLB offices, they WILL be watching Drennan closely...and the Indians, as well.
The whole thing is made even more odd by the fact that the sport Drennan admittedly betted on, and in some quantity, is baseball itself. That's something even fellow gambling addict and former Cincinnati Reds great Pete Rose didn't even admit until fairly recently.
MLB probably doesn't have much say in Drennan sitting in a SportsTime Ohio studio, and pontificating about sports from afar - even if it's the Indians' owners who own the network. They didn't hire Drennan to manage the team, or to do anything but open his mouth on TV.
It's the contact directly with players, manager Eric Wedge and others, that they'll be concerned about.
How will it go? Well, as Drennan says, people either love him or hate him. And that'll probably rule the day.
And even the show tanks, or if for whatever reason, the powers in New York force them to pull Drennan out of Jacobs Field, STO has already gained thousands upon thousands of dollars of free publicity...
UPDATE 3/27/07 1:58 PM: As per our new policy, this item is now closed for comments.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
WHBC's Early Talk Debut
UPDATE 3/26/07 1:35 PM: As reported and expected, the WHBC talk format has launched. We'll keep the item open for comments until later tonight, as opposed to starting another item... --The Management
------------
OMW hears from numerous sources that the debut of the talk format on NextMedia's WHBC/1480 Canton will happen on Monday.
The date that had been floated out of the building for the debut was April 2nd.
But WHBC is apparently ready at the starting gate for March 26th - perhaps because they signed on the dotted line with FOX Sports Radio to fill the remaining hours of non-music programming, starting this Monday.
Monday is also the start of the much-aforementioned syndicated program hosted by Dennis Miller, who will be heard noon-3 PM on 1480. And OMW also hears that local 10 AM-noon host Ron Ponder will debut that day as well.
And in answer to one question - no, morning drive hosts Fred Chenevey and Pam Cook aren't going anywhere. Their information-based local morning show is quite typical on such a news/talk station.
We say "news/talk" because of that, and because of the continued presence of the station's local news staff...it's a very standard format move.
Anyway, if you're hoping to catch the last gasp of oldies music on WHBC, we'd assume that would be sometime late Sunday evening...
------------
OMW hears from numerous sources that the debut of the talk format on NextMedia's WHBC/1480 Canton will happen on Monday.
The date that had been floated out of the building for the debut was April 2nd.
But WHBC is apparently ready at the starting gate for March 26th - perhaps because they signed on the dotted line with FOX Sports Radio to fill the remaining hours of non-music programming, starting this Monday.
Monday is also the start of the much-aforementioned syndicated program hosted by Dennis Miller, who will be heard noon-3 PM on 1480. And OMW also hears that local 10 AM-noon host Ron Ponder will debut that day as well.
And in answer to one question - no, morning drive hosts Fred Chenevey and Pam Cook aren't going anywhere. Their information-based local morning show is quite typical on such a news/talk station.
We say "news/talk" because of that, and because of the continued presence of the station's local news staff...it's a very standard format move.
Anyway, if you're hoping to catch the last gasp of oldies music on WHBC, we'd assume that would be sometime late Sunday evening...
Friday, March 23, 2007
Where Else Does Dennis Go?
The latest entertainment industry entrant into the talk radio realm debuts his Westwood One syndicated talk show Monday.
And at launch or soon after, comedian/commentator/former football TV voice/actor/raconteur (whew!) Dennis Miller will have over 80 affiliates in his list, including some in reasonably large markets - including a clearance in his hometown of Pittsburgh, on CBS Radio's new FM talk station WRKZ/93.7.
Well, it's rocker WRKZ now. Starting April 2nd it'll be WTZN "The Zone - Pittsburgh's Man Station". (Umm, OK. Was "He Man Woman Haters Club" trademarked by someone?) We also wonder if CBS Radio's "Free FM" brand is a part of the past now, but that's another story.
Regular readers of OMW already know that Mr. Miller will be mixing his 21st and 17th century cultural references on at least one Northeast Ohio outlet, with NextMedia's WHBC/1480 Canton set to carry the show starting April 2nd (noon-3 PM) in its official start as a full-time talk outlet.
Where else will Dennis Miller air in this region?
Well, how about Salem talk WHK/1420 Cleveland? Not yet, at least.
We bring up that station because Salem's "Where Your Opinion Counts" talkers in a number of major markets have made some sort of commitment to carry the Dennis Miller radio show.
Quoting conservative power website NewsMax.com:
The former "Saturday Night Live” star’s show will run in seven of the top 10 markets, including Salem Communications stations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas and Detroit.
Many of the announced clearances are in evenings, either 6-9 PM or 9-midnight. In Seattle, the Salem talker (KKOL/1300) will run Miller from noon to 3 PM (PT, of course), and Chicago's WIND/560 has him slotted noon to 2 PM (CT).
We haven't heard any official or even rumored word about Cleveland, but WHK would be Miller's only full-market option. We believe WTAM's Mike Trivisonno would give up eating all food - on-air or off - before the Clear Channel talker would pick up a unproven Westwood One show.
We wouldn't be surprised to see him show up on the "NewsTalk 1420" lineup at some point down the road, given how Salem's conservative talk outlets usually run in lockstep across the nation. For one, they picked up TRN's Laura Ingraham show one after the other.
Where? Our guess - and it's only a guess - is that Dennis Miller would bump TRN's Michael Savage to later hours, and air 9 PM-midnight. That's what Salem's Philadelphia talker, WNTP/990 is doing.
And in Akron, where Media-Com talk WNIR/100.1 carries Westwood One's Jim Bohannon late nights, along with Bill O'Reilly and Lars Larson on weekend evenings, we would also not at all be surprised to see Miller's show end up somewhere in the non-prime lineup of "The Talk Of Akron".
Again, only a semi-educated guess...
And at launch or soon after, comedian/commentator/former football TV voice/actor/raconteur (whew!) Dennis Miller will have over 80 affiliates in his list, including some in reasonably large markets - including a clearance in his hometown of Pittsburgh, on CBS Radio's new FM talk station WRKZ/93.7.Well, it's rocker WRKZ now. Starting April 2nd it'll be WTZN "The Zone - Pittsburgh's Man Station". (Umm, OK. Was "He Man Woman Haters Club" trademarked by someone?) We also wonder if CBS Radio's "Free FM" brand is a part of the past now, but that's another story.
Regular readers of OMW already know that Mr. Miller will be mixing his 21st and 17th century cultural references on at least one Northeast Ohio outlet, with NextMedia's WHBC/1480 Canton set to carry the show starting April 2nd (noon-3 PM) in its official start as a full-time talk outlet.
Where else will Dennis Miller air in this region?
Well, how about Salem talk WHK/1420 Cleveland? Not yet, at least.
We bring up that station because Salem's "Where Your Opinion Counts" talkers in a number of major markets have made some sort of commitment to carry the Dennis Miller radio show.
Quoting conservative power website NewsMax.com:
The former "Saturday Night Live” star’s show will run in seven of the top 10 markets, including Salem Communications stations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas and Detroit.
Many of the announced clearances are in evenings, either 6-9 PM or 9-midnight. In Seattle, the Salem talker (KKOL/1300) will run Miller from noon to 3 PM (PT, of course), and Chicago's WIND/560 has him slotted noon to 2 PM (CT).
We haven't heard any official or even rumored word about Cleveland, but WHK would be Miller's only full-market option. We believe WTAM's Mike Trivisonno would give up eating all food - on-air or off - before the Clear Channel talker would pick up a unproven Westwood One show.
We wouldn't be surprised to see him show up on the "NewsTalk 1420" lineup at some point down the road, given how Salem's conservative talk outlets usually run in lockstep across the nation. For one, they picked up TRN's Laura Ingraham show one after the other.
Where? Our guess - and it's only a guess - is that Dennis Miller would bump TRN's Michael Savage to later hours, and air 9 PM-midnight. That's what Salem's Philadelphia talker, WNTP/990 is doing.
And in Akron, where Media-Com talk WNIR/100.1 carries Westwood One's Jim Bohannon late nights, along with Bill O'Reilly and Lars Larson on weekend evenings, we would also not at all be surprised to see Miller's show end up somewhere in the non-prime lineup of "The Talk Of Akron".
Again, only a semi-educated guess...
Thursday, March 22, 2007
A Few Random Items, AllAccess Style
Here are some local quickies, courtesy of AllAccess:
WHBC IS FOX: With a nod to our ongoing coverage of the move of NextMedia oldies WHBC/1480 Canton to talk, AllAccess reports another piece of that puzzle is complete.
As rumored here for a long, long time, WHBC is indeed turning to a sports network to fill its non-game-night evening hours. FOX Sports Radio will begin airing on 1480 starting next Monday, from 7 PM to midnight and "around the clock" on weekends.
We presume WHBC will keep its existing late night syndicated talk offerings, including Westwood One's "Jim Bohannon Show".
We have no idea, at this point, if this means weekend air personalities like former WNIR/100.1 talk host Jim Albright will be taken off the air. We hear Albright does full-time off-air work for the station, so he won't be unemployed as far as we know.
Anyway, the FSR move means the oldies format will be officially be history at AM 1480 - after it adds Westwood One's Dennis Miller, and the 10 AM-noon show hosted by long-time local activist and community leader Ron Ponder - both expected to happen on April 2nd.
Former WHBC-FM/94.1 "Mix 94.1" personality Brady Russell has been doing local talk for the past couple of weeks in afternoon drive. Now, if only people would stop calling him asking for movie times...
And with the changes to 1480 all but complete, we'd like to do a victory lap.
Months ago, we started telling you about these rumblings, and many were skeptical. We took a lot of heat for some items, and even removed some stuff we thought to be premature.
With the moves reported above, just about everything we've ever reported on the changes at WHBC has come true.
It took a long time, longer than we expected, but here we are. And it's a new era for the historic station. We'll just see how it "takes"...at least some of the moves are very, very risky.
It's not all "positive" for us on this. We don't like to see people A) lose their jobs or B) worry about such loss by reading about it being possible, say, in some local media blog.
But we've heard from more than one person in the know - "this never would have happened under Beaverkettle and Ray Hexamer".
If there's instability at Market South, don't blame folks talking to us, or even local management as it exists now - blame the NextMedia suits flying in from out of town. In our humble opinion, of course...
SCHWAB LEAVING: No, we don't mean WTAM/1100 afternoon sports anchor Mark Schwab, as far as we know.
We mean one John C. Schwab, who's general manager for the Metro Networks operation in Cleveland, along with heading up the company's operations in Columbus and Toledo.
AllAccess reports that he's heading back to Philadelphia, where he'll become general sales manager of CBS Radio talk WYSP/94.1 "Free FM". Schwab has extensive sales/management experience in that market, including stints with other stations in the same now-CBS Radio cluster, as well as sports and TV sales positions.
He'll be heading to the City of Brotherly Cheesesteaks on April 23rd, according to the AllAccess folks. (And we don't normally, as a rule, deal with off-air moves...but it was in the AA scroll Thursday.)
VALENTINE MOVING IN QUEEN CITY?: And almost as a throwaway for us, AllAccess reports that syndicated morning star Valentine could be headed away from Cincinnati Clear Channel top 40 WKFS/107.1 "Kiss FM" "down the dial to another non-Clear Channel station".
Hmm. We didn't know Valentine's show ever left the CC universe.
The Los Angeles-based host also airs in morning drive, of course, on the company's Northeast Ohio "Kiss FM" outlet, WAKS/96.5. We haven't heard any word of that changing...
WHBC IS FOX: With a nod to our ongoing coverage of the move of NextMedia oldies WHBC/1480 Canton to talk, AllAccess reports another piece of that puzzle is complete.
As rumored here for a long, long time, WHBC is indeed turning to a sports network to fill its non-game-night evening hours. FOX Sports Radio will begin airing on 1480 starting next Monday, from 7 PM to midnight and "around the clock" on weekends.
We presume WHBC will keep its existing late night syndicated talk offerings, including Westwood One's "Jim Bohannon Show".
We have no idea, at this point, if this means weekend air personalities like former WNIR/100.1 talk host Jim Albright will be taken off the air. We hear Albright does full-time off-air work for the station, so he won't be unemployed as far as we know.
Anyway, the FSR move means the oldies format will be officially be history at AM 1480 - after it adds Westwood One's Dennis Miller, and the 10 AM-noon show hosted by long-time local activist and community leader Ron Ponder - both expected to happen on April 2nd.
Former WHBC-FM/94.1 "Mix 94.1" personality Brady Russell has been doing local talk for the past couple of weeks in afternoon drive. Now, if only people would stop calling him asking for movie times...
And with the changes to 1480 all but complete, we'd like to do a victory lap.
Months ago, we started telling you about these rumblings, and many were skeptical. We took a lot of heat for some items, and even removed some stuff we thought to be premature.
With the moves reported above, just about everything we've ever reported on the changes at WHBC has come true.
It took a long time, longer than we expected, but here we are. And it's a new era for the historic station. We'll just see how it "takes"...at least some of the moves are very, very risky.
It's not all "positive" for us on this. We don't like to see people A) lose their jobs or B) worry about such loss by reading about it being possible, say, in some local media blog.
But we've heard from more than one person in the know - "this never would have happened under Beaverkettle and Ray Hexamer".
If there's instability at Market South, don't blame folks talking to us, or even local management as it exists now - blame the NextMedia suits flying in from out of town. In our humble opinion, of course...
SCHWAB LEAVING: No, we don't mean WTAM/1100 afternoon sports anchor Mark Schwab, as far as we know.
We mean one John C. Schwab, who's general manager for the Metro Networks operation in Cleveland, along with heading up the company's operations in Columbus and Toledo.
AllAccess reports that he's heading back to Philadelphia, where he'll become general sales manager of CBS Radio talk WYSP/94.1 "Free FM". Schwab has extensive sales/management experience in that market, including stints with other stations in the same now-CBS Radio cluster, as well as sports and TV sales positions.
He'll be heading to the City of Brotherly Cheesesteaks on April 23rd, according to the AllAccess folks. (And we don't normally, as a rule, deal with off-air moves...but it was in the AA scroll Thursday.)
VALENTINE MOVING IN QUEEN CITY?: And almost as a throwaway for us, AllAccess reports that syndicated morning star Valentine could be headed away from Cincinnati Clear Channel top 40 WKFS/107.1 "Kiss FM" "down the dial to another non-Clear Channel station".
Hmm. We didn't know Valentine's show ever left the CC universe.
The Los Angeles-based host also airs in morning drive, of course, on the company's Northeast Ohio "Kiss FM" outlet, WAKS/96.5. We haven't heard any word of that changing...
Pete Kenworthy's Landing
Earlier, OMW told you of reports out of Buffalo, where WKBW/7 morning anchor Pete Kenworthy was tabbed for a move to the Cleveland market. We just didn't know where he was headed.
We do now.
OMW hears that Kenworthy is headed for Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS/5. He'll become the Akron Bureau chief for "NewsChannel 5" when he arrives in Northeast Ohio.
Though that bureau at the Akron Beacon Journal has mostly been staffed by Jonathan Costen as a fill-in recently, Kenworthy will be the official replacement for Brad Harvey, who left WEWS for a morning anchor job in Toledo.
Kenworthy's last day in Buffalo is tomorrow...
We do now.
OMW hears that Kenworthy is headed for Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS/5. He'll become the Akron Bureau chief for "NewsChannel 5" when he arrives in Northeast Ohio.
Though that bureau at the Akron Beacon Journal has mostly been staffed by Jonathan Costen as a fill-in recently, Kenworthy will be the official replacement for Brad Harvey, who left WEWS for a morning anchor job in Toledo.
Kenworthy's last day in Buffalo is tomorrow...
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
More STO, And DirecTV
In our rush to put up the item on the new SportsTime Ohio show to be fronted by local sports personality Bruce Drennan, we didn't outline some of the other changes at the network which adopts "full-time" status on April 1.
Among them: three new shows.
Former WKYC and FSN Ohio staffer Andy Baskin's "Totally Tribe" will be on the STO schedule. As reported earlier, Baskin is producing the show from his own new production shingle, Over The Falls Productions.
Veteran local sports voice Al Pawlowski (Cleveland State Vikings radio play-by-play) joins up with former Indians player Brian Anderson for "The Tribe Report", and the network also announced a new show called "The High School Sports Insider".
Going beyond STO's press release, Akron Beacon Journal sportswriter George M. Thomas shares what seems to be a policy change for SportsTime Ohio in an article in Wednesday's newspaper.
STO chief Jim Liberatore tells Thomas that the network will start airing some minor league baseball broadcasts. They'll apparently start at the top, with the Indians' top minor league club, the AAA Buffalo Bisons, along with coverage of the AAA Columbus Clippers (an affiliate of the Washington Nationals these days, it would appear).
Future telecasts of the two immediately local minor league clubs - the double-A Akron Aeros and the single-A Lake County Captains - are also possible.
We call it a "policy change" because Liberatore downplayed the possibility of these kinds of games airing on the network when STO first started, saying the network would certainly cover the Indians' farm teams, but wasn't likely to air full games.
But you can only play repeats of "classic games", earlier live games and other shows so often for a 24/7 schedule, we guess.
Oh, and about DirecTV.
OMW stumbled upon this massive update (for 2007) of SportsTime Ohio's "411" about the satellite provider.
And the "update" is actually "no change". Again this year, the network will not be carried on DirecTV in outer areas of the Indians' TV territory. Quoting:
DirecTV has informed SportsTime Ohio that they will once again limit our coverage area. Nothing has changed since the 2006 baseball season, which had many Cleveland Indians baseball fans living without STO and our Cleveland Indians telecasts. DirecTV will only offer STO in the Cleveland, Columbus and Youngstown areas.
This means DirecTV viewers outside of Northeast Ohio or the Columbus area, but still considered in part of the Indians' territory by Major League Baseball, will again not get the team's games on STO. As in 2006, Dish Network will air STO to the entire Indians region, as will the cable systems that have signed up for the channel.
On the "411" page, STO says it's had "continuous discussions" about the stance over the past year...but apparently, with no fruit. It also helpfully gives links to Dish Network, and participating STO cable affiliates in the affected areas.
Given this voluminous page, it appears unlikely that DirecTV subscribers outside of Northeast Ohio will get STO again in 2007...nor will customers who sign up for out-of-market regional sports network packages to get companion sports programming.
And like last year, DirecTV customers in those affected areas will also be blacked out of Indians games on Major League Baseball's "Extra Innings" package...
Among them: three new shows.
Former WKYC and FSN Ohio staffer Andy Baskin's "Totally Tribe" will be on the STO schedule. As reported earlier, Baskin is producing the show from his own new production shingle, Over The Falls Productions.
Veteran local sports voice Al Pawlowski (Cleveland State Vikings radio play-by-play) joins up with former Indians player Brian Anderson for "The Tribe Report", and the network also announced a new show called "The High School Sports Insider".
Going beyond STO's press release, Akron Beacon Journal sportswriter George M. Thomas shares what seems to be a policy change for SportsTime Ohio in an article in Wednesday's newspaper.
STO chief Jim Liberatore tells Thomas that the network will start airing some minor league baseball broadcasts. They'll apparently start at the top, with the Indians' top minor league club, the AAA Buffalo Bisons, along with coverage of the AAA Columbus Clippers (an affiliate of the Washington Nationals these days, it would appear).
Future telecasts of the two immediately local minor league clubs - the double-A Akron Aeros and the single-A Lake County Captains - are also possible.
We call it a "policy change" because Liberatore downplayed the possibility of these kinds of games airing on the network when STO first started, saying the network would certainly cover the Indians' farm teams, but wasn't likely to air full games.
But you can only play repeats of "classic games", earlier live games and other shows so often for a 24/7 schedule, we guess.
Oh, and about DirecTV.
OMW stumbled upon this massive update (for 2007) of SportsTime Ohio's "411" about the satellite provider.
And the "update" is actually "no change". Again this year, the network will not be carried on DirecTV in outer areas of the Indians' TV territory. Quoting:
DirecTV has informed SportsTime Ohio that they will once again limit our coverage area. Nothing has changed since the 2006 baseball season, which had many Cleveland Indians baseball fans living without STO and our Cleveland Indians telecasts. DirecTV will only offer STO in the Cleveland, Columbus and Youngstown areas.
This means DirecTV viewers outside of Northeast Ohio or the Columbus area, but still considered in part of the Indians' territory by Major League Baseball, will again not get the team's games on STO. As in 2006, Dish Network will air STO to the entire Indians region, as will the cable systems that have signed up for the channel.
On the "411" page, STO says it's had "continuous discussions" about the stance over the past year...but apparently, with no fruit. It also helpfully gives links to Dish Network, and participating STO cable affiliates in the affected areas.
Given this voluminous page, it appears unlikely that DirecTV subscribers outside of Northeast Ohio will get STO again in 2007...nor will customers who sign up for out-of-market regional sports network packages to get companion sports programming.
And like last year, DirecTV customers in those affected areas will also be blacked out of Indians games on Major League Baseball's "Extra Innings" package...
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Drennan's New STO Show Announced
As per usual, we're away from the keyboard when news is breaking. In fact, we had to flag down a stray person with a laptop to put this one up...we'll expand it later.
To no one's surprise, cable/satellite sports network SportsTime Ohio has officially announced the hiring of long-time local sports personality Bruce Drennan, last heard doing mid-mornings on Cleveland sports talker WKNR/850, on the Internet on SportsTalkCleveland.com, and seen most recently at...well, you know.
And our first reaction when hearing the news: "They called his show WHAT???"
In an apparent effort to get the talk about his gambling problems away up front, Drennan's new daily sports talk show will be called...are you sitting down?..."All Bets Are Off".
(Thus, former Cincinnati Reds great Pete Rose will have to come up with another show name if he ever returns to sports talk radio. If you think we've got a million of 'em, drop by SportsBoy Tony's CursedCleveland.com for a much more humorous take on this announcement...)
The new Drennan show will air 5 days a week - Sundays at 7 PM, and Monday through Thursday at 3 PM - and debuts April 1st.
STO is also expanding its schedule to 24/7 with the new show and other new programming, along with repeats of games old and new, and devoting the 9 AM-noon slot for "Product Showcase" - a fancy term for infomercials...
To no one's surprise, cable/satellite sports network SportsTime Ohio has officially announced the hiring of long-time local sports personality Bruce Drennan, last heard doing mid-mornings on Cleveland sports talker WKNR/850, on the Internet on SportsTalkCleveland.com, and seen most recently at...well, you know.
And our first reaction when hearing the news: "They called his show WHAT???"
In an apparent effort to get the talk about his gambling problems away up front, Drennan's new daily sports talk show will be called...are you sitting down?..."All Bets Are Off".
(Thus, former Cincinnati Reds great Pete Rose will have to come up with another show name if he ever returns to sports talk radio. If you think we've got a million of 'em, drop by SportsBoy Tony's CursedCleveland.com for a much more humorous take on this announcement...)
The new Drennan show will air 5 days a week - Sundays at 7 PM, and Monday through Thursday at 3 PM - and debuts April 1st.
STO is also expanding its schedule to 24/7 with the new show and other new programming, along with repeats of games old and new, and devoting the 9 AM-noon slot for "Product Showcase" - a fancy term for infomercials...
Coming To A TV Newsroom Near You
A heads up we first spotted in our colleague Scott Fybush's NorthEast Radio Watch...
WKBW/7 Buffalo anchor Pete Kenworthy is leaving the market's ABC affiliate at the end of this week, and is heading to Cleveland. Kenworthy has been morning anchor and reporter for the Buffalo station.
Buffalo News media columnist Alan Pergament reports on the move in an article from Friday, and says Kenworthy's pending move to Northeast Ohio has been in the works (and known) for nearly two months...but this is the first time we've heard his name mentioned at all, let alone in connection with the Cleveland TV market.
And there may be a reason behind it, too.
Kenworthy's WKBW bio says he's a 1993 graduate of the College of Wooster. He returned to his native Philadelphia after graduation to intern at WCAU-TV, before furthering his education and his career in the Dallas market.
We don't know if Kenworthy has any other Northeast Ohio ties, but maybe he met his future wife while attending college in Wooster. It'd make sense...he got married in 1997, four years after he graduated from there.
Where is Kenworthy going as far as his new Cleveland TV home? OMW hasn't heard...yet.
Oh, though it's not really related, we thought we'd add that now-former WKYC/3 Akron Bureau reporter and "Akron/Canton News" fill-in anchor Joy Benedict has officially made her move to ABC affiliate rival WEWS/5.
We're told Benedict was seen reporting on "NewsChannel 5" on Monday evening.
Of course, we reported first some time ago - nearly two weeks ago - that Benedict was going to jump two channel positions...
WKBW/7 Buffalo anchor Pete Kenworthy is leaving the market's ABC affiliate at the end of this week, and is heading to Cleveland. Kenworthy has been morning anchor and reporter for the Buffalo station.Buffalo News media columnist Alan Pergament reports on the move in an article from Friday, and says Kenworthy's pending move to Northeast Ohio has been in the works (and known) for nearly two months...but this is the first time we've heard his name mentioned at all, let alone in connection with the Cleveland TV market.
And there may be a reason behind it, too.
Kenworthy's WKBW bio says he's a 1993 graduate of the College of Wooster. He returned to his native Philadelphia after graduation to intern at WCAU-TV, before furthering his education and his career in the Dallas market.
We don't know if Kenworthy has any other Northeast Ohio ties, but maybe he met his future wife while attending college in Wooster. It'd make sense...he got married in 1997, four years after he graduated from there.
Where is Kenworthy going as far as his new Cleveland TV home? OMW hasn't heard...yet.
Oh, though it's not really related, we thought we'd add that now-former WKYC/3 Akron Bureau reporter and "Akron/Canton News" fill-in anchor Joy Benedict has officially made her move to ABC affiliate rival WEWS/5.
We're told Benedict was seen reporting on "NewsChannel 5" on Monday evening.
Of course, we reported first some time ago - nearly two weeks ago - that Benedict was going to jump two channel positions...
WKBN To Produce WYTV News - The Details
More details are coming out about that planned "shared services agreement" between two Youngstown TV stations, CBS/FOX combo WKBN/27-"FOX 17/62", and ABC affiliate WYTV/33.
And according to FCC filings uncovered by the Youngstown Business Journal's Andrea Wood, it's exactly what observers thought would happen.
Wood uncovers the agreement between New Vision Television, the owners which have taken over WKBN/WYFX, and Parkin Television, which is in the process of buying WYTV.
To quote the Business Journal article:
The soon-to-be new owner of WYTV has agreed to pay the new owner of WKBN-TV $750,000 annually for producing Channel 33’s newscasts and supplying engineering, technical and back-office services – essentially every function that WYTV employees perform except the duties of senior managers and sales account executives.
Wood reports that the arrangement "hit like a dull thud" at WYTV's Shady Run Road headquarters, where management told employees of the filing late Monday.
Whatever "wiggle room" there is in the agreement that would provide any jobs for WYTV employees...is hard to find.
The agreement notes that WKBN will basically provide fully-formed newscasts for WYTV that "will have an on-air appearance" as if WYTV originated them, and notes that WYTV non-management news employees would be made available to WKBN/WYFX.
Our guess: This is the part of the agreement where the new combined news operation would be able to use popular on-air "33 News" employees in the WKBN-produced newscasts - a la WYTV's Stan Boney and the like. Whether this is the case, and if it fits into their contracts with WYTV, we don't know. As we said, it's just a guess based on the wording.
But another phrase in the filing covers the allowance of "non-exclusive" news content on WYTV, which is the key to the station airing WKBN/WYFX-produced news reports.
The agreement follows the form of many others before it, including two in nearby Erie PA, which has four stations using two newsrooms...
And according to FCC filings uncovered by the Youngstown Business Journal's Andrea Wood, it's exactly what observers thought would happen.
Wood uncovers the agreement between New Vision Television, the owners which have taken over WKBN/WYFX, and Parkin Television, which is in the process of buying WYTV.
To quote the Business Journal article:
The soon-to-be new owner of WYTV has agreed to pay the new owner of WKBN-TV $750,000 annually for producing Channel 33’s newscasts and supplying engineering, technical and back-office services – essentially every function that WYTV employees perform except the duties of senior managers and sales account executives.
Wood reports that the arrangement "hit like a dull thud" at WYTV's Shady Run Road headquarters, where management told employees of the filing late Monday.
Whatever "wiggle room" there is in the agreement that would provide any jobs for WYTV employees...is hard to find.
The agreement notes that WKBN will basically provide fully-formed newscasts for WYTV that "will have an on-air appearance" as if WYTV originated them, and notes that WYTV non-management news employees would be made available to WKBN/WYFX.
Our guess: This is the part of the agreement where the new combined news operation would be able to use popular on-air "33 News" employees in the WKBN-produced newscasts - a la WYTV's Stan Boney and the like. Whether this is the case, and if it fits into their contracts with WYTV, we don't know. As we said, it's just a guess based on the wording.
But another phrase in the filing covers the allowance of "non-exclusive" news content on WYTV, which is the key to the station airing WKBN/WYFX-produced news reports.
The agreement follows the form of many others before it, including two in nearby Erie PA, which has four stations using two newsrooms...
Monday, March 19, 2007
Word Is
OK, we'll have to admit that we got a chuckle out of the item in the Cleveland Plain Dealer's "TipOff" column this morning, crafted with loving care by columnist Michael K. McIntyre.
"Word is," says McIntyre borrowing a tride-and-true phrase, that ex-PD sports media columnist Roger Brown is out at Cleveland market CBS affiliate WOIO/19's "19 Action News"...apparently making his own decision to step down from the gig.
Brown E-Mailed his former employer to note that he left his role as 19's sports/gossip guy to - and we quote here - "devote my attention to other possibilities, options and opportunities".
Those opportunities may or may not include writing a weekly sports/gossip/media column for the Lorain Morning Journal and Lake County News-Herald.
Though we don't get either paper here at the OMW World Headquarters, we've only been able to find two columns written by Brown on the co-owned papers' websites - the latest on March 4th. If he's still writing the column, it certainly wouldn't appear to be a weekly one...assuming there's not a web glitch in the works causing columns not to show up online.
Brown expresses interest in doing "more TV work in the future", though we're not entirely sure where an on-air sports gossip reporter goes after leaving the most gossipy news operation in the market.
And we'll toss it to Mr. McIntyre for the perfect closing line in a piece about Roger Brown:
...we have no idea whether he has sold his house or how much it went for.
"Word is," says McIntyre borrowing a tride-and-true phrase, that ex-PD sports media columnist Roger Brown is out at Cleveland market CBS affiliate WOIO/19's "19 Action News"...apparently making his own decision to step down from the gig.
Brown E-Mailed his former employer to note that he left his role as 19's sports/gossip guy to - and we quote here - "devote my attention to other possibilities, options and opportunities".
Those opportunities may or may not include writing a weekly sports/gossip/media column for the Lorain Morning Journal and Lake County News-Herald.
Though we don't get either paper here at the OMW World Headquarters, we've only been able to find two columns written by Brown on the co-owned papers' websites - the latest on March 4th. If he's still writing the column, it certainly wouldn't appear to be a weekly one...assuming there's not a web glitch in the works causing columns not to show up online.
Brown expresses interest in doing "more TV work in the future", though we're not entirely sure where an on-air sports gossip reporter goes after leaving the most gossipy news operation in the market.
And we'll toss it to Mr. McIntyre for the perfect closing line in a piece about Roger Brown:
...we have no idea whether he has sold his house or how much it went for.
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