Wednesday's Radio And TV Openness

We've got a couple of corrections in the hopper.

But first, some FM radio on-air changes... at least one of which has been actually been discussed openly with listeners. Now, there's a change...

FISH MOVES: When a radio station is forced to consolidate its staffing and lineup - usually leaving at least one person out of work - management isn't exactly forthcoming about the moves.

Leaving personalities often leave with what gets called a "Soviet-style purge" from station websites and promotional material...the material scrubbed with mentions of the former station employee like he or she was never there.

So, we've got to hand it to Salem Cleveland general manager Mark Jaycox.

Salem's CCM outlet, WFHM/95.5 "The Fish", has done some schedule shuffling. And instead of having to pull teeth to get information about it, all we have to do is go to a station web page and start copying and pasting from Jaycox's own letter:

To remain competitive and to continue to broadcast the same great music our audience has come to enjoy for the past 8 years, Our company: Salem Communications has required some minor adjustments to several of their Fish stations, with reference to certain shifts and air talent.

Jaycox's letter goes on to note that Mark Rein moves into afternoon drive, where, "we are excited to see what Mark’s fun and entertaining style of talk will do in this important time slot."

Rein's move to 3-7 PM displaces now-former afternoon driver Kristine Lane, who Jaycox notes will - again quoting Jaycox's letter - "remain part of our family in a new marketing role."

And as for middays?

Our beloved Gina Hart, unfortunately will be moving into a consultant role with Salem in the short term, as we automate the mid day period, from 10am to 3pm.

That "consultant role" and "in the short term" wording (not to mention "unfortunately") doesn't sound good for Ms. Hart. But in the 2009 world of radio, an automated midday shift is nearly ubiquitous.

So, there's your upshot.

We can't remember a last time that a radio station manager has admitted to listeners that a daypart was automated. Well, aside from the joking use of "Otto Mation" on some stations' schedules. We also can't remember the last time a local manager indicated in public that changes were basically forced upon the local cluster by corporate decisions.

Len Howser and Brooke Taylor remain as morning drive co-hosts on "The Fish", Cleveland version...

TOLEDO CHANGES: Here's an exit at Cumulus Toledo that apparently is not another layoff budget cut. Well, directly, anyway.

Quoting AllAccess on Tuesday afternoon:

CUMULUS Alternative WRWK (106.5 THE ZONE)/TOLEDO APD/MD/middayer CAROLYN STONE has decided to exit to raise her two daughters. She had been off-air on maternity leave since the beginning of the year. CAROLYN spent four years with THE ZONE.

WRWK PD DAN MCCLINTOCK is looking to fill a future on-air position. Send resume and mp3 to dan.mcclintock (at) cumulus.com.

We had a tip on this earlier, but AllAccess got up the item before we had a chance to try to confirm it.

OMW hears that Stone is probably doing just fine without a paying radio job, as far as being able to exit on her own and to raise her family...

PRICETAG FOR 67: Even non-rated, rimshot infomercial outlets have their price.

Several OMW readers pointed out that the digital paperwork for the sale of WOAC/67 Canton to Illinois-based Radiant Life Ministries has hit the FCC website, and if you guessed the religious broadcaster is paying $7 million for the station...congratulations!

Radiant Life Ministries is an arm of the Tri-State Christian Television empire, as we noted in our earlier item. TCT owns, among other stations, WNYB/24 Jamestown NY, just down I-86 from Erie PA...in the southern end of the Buffalo NY market.

For those of you wishing that WOAC would somehow be bought by someone who would turn it into a secular independent station, here's another dose of reality.

"Cleveland Classic Media's" Tim Lones signed up for TCT's E-newsletter after our first item on the WOAC sale, and Tim tells us that the TCT folks are already touting their latest incoming station.

Since the graphic is a bit big, we'll type the message from TCT owners Garth and Tina Coonce here, in part:

TCT Television Network is very pleased to announce that TCT has just signed an agreement to purchase a major market television station in the Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Ohio market.

Channel 47 is a powerful one mega-watt digital signal that covers the entire Northeast section with 1.7 million households of Ohio.

Tim points out to us that they do refer to WOAC by its digital channel RF number, 47.

They don't mention that even with its digital facility in Portage County's Brimfield Township, across Ohio 43 at I-76 from the tower holding WNIR/100.1 and its sister low-power/Class A TV station WAOH-LP/29, WOAC is still not as easy to catch as far north as Cleveland compared to the market's other full-power stations out of the Parma antenna farm. But we digress.

We don't know the "channel 47" reference means that they'll abandon the former analog channel number, 67, which is now being sent via PSIP (as usually expected) as 67-1 on WOAC's now sole signal, its digital one. Analog 67 was shut off in February, of course...

ERRATA: It's not major stuff, but we thought we'd correct ourselves again.

In our most recent item about Akron market talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron" picking up Talk Radio Network's Michael Savage for "network fill-in" - taking three hours of the time slot normally occupied by the station's Tom Erickson - we got off onto a tangent about TRN and its "hard sell" to affiliates.

We neglected to remember that Rusty Humphries is not the only TRN program on Savage's former Akron market home, Clear Channel talk WHLO/640.

We'd forgotten that former Premiere syndicated host Phil Hendrie's latest show is now syndicated by TRN. The Los Angeles-based Hendrie airs late nights on WHLO, from 2-5 AM.

And Rusty Humphries airs before him from 11 PM-2 AM, not at 9 PM as we advised in the other item. It's self-syndicated financial advice guru Dave Ramsey in that earlier evening slot on WHLO.

We'll flog ourselves with a printed WHLO schedule to make up for it. (And even THAT schedule isn't right Tuesday-Friday, unless the station has taken to playing one hour of Phil Hendrie at the same time as "Wall Street Journal This Morning" at 5 AM.)

That's not all.

OMW reader "Wayne in Akron", an avid listener to WNIR, points out that we incorrectly attributed one comment to him in our followup item.

It was another reader ("king-of-kings") who made the comment about Mike Gallagher, not Wayne. Wayne did correctly inform us that WNIR evening host Tom Erickson would return on Wednesday night, not this past Monday.

Here, take the last dose of our Mea Culpa, Wayne...and thank you for paying attention to "The Talk of Akron" and pointing out stuff we miss...we really do appreciate it!

The Playoff Push-Off

For the first time in its history, Fox Sports Ohio is facing the need to juggle not one, but two playoff games involving its teams...in the same night, tonight.

Both teams, oddly enough, are in first round playoff series with Detroit...as the NBA Cleveland Cavaliers face the Detroit Pistons for the second game of their series, and new NHL playoff entrants the Columbus Blue Jackets tangle with the Detroit Red Wings in the third game of their series.

As a public service to sports fans, here is information on TV carriage for both games.

The Blue Jackets' website lists where their game will air on FS Ohio tonight here, with HDTV coverage mainly in Central Ohio.

Up here in Northeast Ohio, the Blue Jackets play second fiddle to the Cavaliers, with no HD cable or satellite carriage of the NHL game aside from DirecTV's "sports pack" subscribers.

We do know, though, that Time Warner Cable's Northeast Ohio system has a dedicated second HD sports channel (437) that the name in the program guide would suggest was meant for such overflow ("FSNBJ").

Other than that, the Blue Jackets game on the TWC NEO system would be in SD only on digital channel 310, with the Cavaliers occupying analog 30, digital 309 and HD 436.

We can't find a similar list for the Cavaliers/Pistons contest tonight, but we presume those in Columbus and south will get the FS Ohio coverage of the game on the usual overflow channel. We think TWC uses analog 24, a local programming channel, for that.

But it looks like tonight's game will air nationally on the widely carried TNT cable/satellite channel, which even has some HD carriage on Time Warner...so Cavs fans outside Cleveland will have to do very little scrambling...

Tuesday's Normal

An interesting mix this morning, including a couple of updates to radio items we've had recently...

HORROR TURN: Like when most radio people end up involuntarily headed for unemployment, it seemed like former CBS Radio Cleveland classic rock WNCX/98.5 morning co-host Mike Oleszewski disappeared like a character in a horror movie.

As it turns out, that's exactly what he'll be this summer.

An alert OMW reader points out that "Mike O" will be in the cast of the horror movie "The Dead Matter", which is set for release in August.

The movie's IMDB cast list has Oleszewski as "TV News Anchor #2", and contains a couple of other Cleveland media names...including long-time WJW/8 personality "Big Chuck" Schodowski, and sports reporter/anchor Al Pawlowski (SportsTime Ohio, WKYC/3, etc.). That's no accident, as we'll see in a bit.

The main website for "The Dead Matter" has a little more on the plot:

A vampire relic with occult powers falls into the hands of a grief-stricken young woman who will do anything to contact her dead brother. The Dead Matter is a story-driven horror film drenched in the dark atmospheric world of Midnight Syndicate's music.

Unlike our reader's suggestion, the local cast members of "The Dead Matter" aren't "going Hollywood" literally...they didn't even leave Northeast Ohio for this project, which is now in post-production.

The locally-filmed movie is the brainchild of local musician and producer Edward Douglas, who owns the movie's production company Midnight Syndicate, and is based in Geauga County's Chardon.

Douglas' Midnight Syndicate became known for creating Halloween-style horror movie and video game scores, and that got him into movie production, according to a 2006 article by Abby Cymerman in "Smart Business Cleveland":

Networking with his new movie industry connections and having access to a larger budget, Douglas soon will be directing and producing a horror-suspense thriller, “The Dead Matter.” It’s a remake of a movie he directed and scored after he graduated from college, and, still fighting the system, he plans to film in Northeast Ohio with local talent.

We wish everyone involved in the project well.

We know nothing about horror movies, but it seems this one is attracting quite a bit of attention from the "horror industry press", as it were. It's also attracted at least one "name" cast member...Andrew Divoff, who played Mikhail Bakunin on the ABC mega-hit "Lost".

And this "Press" link on the movie's site includes a number of those articles, and Douglas' appearances on..."The WNCX Morning Show" while Oleszewski was a co-host.

A trailer from the movie is posted on the main "The Dead Matter" site linked above.

There must be something about that WNCX show and performing. Later, we'll have details on another former "WNCX Morning Show" cast member who's involved in a theatre project...

ERRATA: For whatever reason, when we posted the item about talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron" airing TRN's Michael Savage as a network fill-in for local evening host Tom Erickson, we thought we'd heard that Erickson would return from his Florida family wedding trip on Monday night.

He didn't, and Savage once again aired in the 7-10 PM portion of his regular weeknight time slot on Monday.

OMW reader and WNIR fan "Wayne in Akron" corrects our earlier item, and says Erickson will be back on the air at Broadcast Park starting Wednesday night.

Which still leaves our unanswered question: Will the controversial Michael Savage join the syndicated late night/weekend network schedule at "The Talk of Akron"?

To say that Savage syndicator Talk Radio Network plays hardball in trying to clear all of its shows may be like saying "water is wet".

Though TRN's big name shows have long disappeared from WNIR's Akron market talk competitor, Clear Channel talk WHLO/640, the company's Rusty Humphries remains.

Without TRN's rumored sales tactics ("we'll give you the show you want, only if you carry these other shows you may not want"), Humphries may not have an affiliate base, period. No, we're not fans.

But somehow, in the process of once selling Laura Ingraham and Michael Savage to WHLO back in those days, Humphries ended up on the WHLO schedule...and is still there, even after the Clear Channel talker dispatched both better known hosts off that schedule. Well, a talk station has to air something at 9 PM weeknights, we guess.

Wayne, our reader who seems to know more about WNIR than some actually working there, suggests that the overnight clearance of Salem's Mike Gallagher is actually popular with regular listeners.

And he notes that Gallagher's program even gets some attention on the WNIR morning drive funfest with Stan Piatt, Akron Radio Superstar/Icon Steve French, Jim Midock and Maggie Fuller. (Well, so do other WNIR hosts like Erickson, but...define "attention" to us.)

But we suggested that TRN may try to push Savage there, because Gallagher's show now gets a live Northeast Ohio clearance on Salem's own talker, WHK/1420 Cleveland. (Of course. TRN really wants Savage cleared live 6-9 PM, which is not happening on local talk stalwart WNIR, period.)

And if the station wants to continue using Savage as "network fill-in" for Erickson, TRN will probably want WNIR to "find a home" for the show somewhere on the schedule, even late weekend nights/overnights.

And, of course, clear Savage's commercial spots in his live time slot...during the last hour of afternoon driver Bob Golic's show, and the first two hours of Erickson's evening show.

We'll see if anything develops...

TV LOGO: For whatever reason, OMW readers are fascinated with local TV stations' positioning, sets and logos.

We got a flurry of questions when Local TV-then-FOX O&O WJW/8 was in the process of revamping its news set and their on-air look to the FOX O&O standard. Our readers searched out signs of the new set and look, and peppered us with questions about it.

Now, some of our readers are noting a slight change at Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5. From a comment by one reader:

I noticed that WEWS has a new on air look for the news. The ugly old "News Channel 5" bug is gone and it has been replaced by a bug that resembles an ABC7 O&O bug(except ours says ABC5). As far as I can tell, they're still calling it "News Channel 5" (unfortunately) when talking about the news shows.

Sure enough, a "circle 5/ABC" bug has made its way to the regular WEWS on-air look, as the station continues to deemphasize the "NewsChannel 5" branding for pretty much everything except the news itself.

At one point, the entire station, including its entertainment programming, fell under the "NewsChannel 5" moniker. (i.e. "Catch an all-new 'Lost', tonight at 9 on NewsChannel 5!")

But while watching for this, we caught audio in a promo for the station's full prime-time lineup, where the female voice-over announcer called the station "Channel 5 ABC". (Note the logo and the voice-over person using that same order, and it's not "ABC5"...it's much closer to what ABC O&O WTVG/13 Toledo brands as "13abc".)

We've also noticed the station pulling the WEWS call letters out of mothballs. There was a time you wouldn't know Channel 5 was WEWS unless you squinted at the legal ID text.

What does this mean in the scheme of things? Not much, but people seem to notice...

No Connection Monday

It's pretty much All Quiet on the Media Front, with not much to pick up for this Monday update. But we wanted to let our readers know that we're around...somehow...

SAVAGE VISIT: When talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron" evening host Tom Erickson goes on vacation, the Akron market station will plug in one of its syndicated offerings...most of them usually consigned to regular late night/weekend clearances due to the full-time local talk schedule on WNIR.

Until Westwood One dropped his show, Lars Larson's evening program filled this role for the station. It was an easy move, since Larson's national show airs weeknights 7-10 PM live.

(WNIR carries the first hour of Westwood One's Jim Bohannon at 10 PM as a part of the Erickson "fill-in" rotation....before joining "Jimbo" as usual, live after 11 PM.)

But Westwood One no longer carries "The Lars Larson Show", and WNIR has not followed Larson's move to new syndicator Compass Media Networks. Larson's former weekend clearance on WNIR will be covered by local host Bob Earley starting next Saturday.

With WNIR's Erickson taking part in a family wedding in Florida, what played on WNIR on Thursday and Friday nights last week?

It's a show with some history in the market...the program hosted by controversial Talk Radio Network evening host Michael Savage, who once aired on Clear Channel crosstown talk WHLO/640, and also was heard on Salem talk WHK/1420 in Cleveland.

WHLO dropped Savage before the San Francisco-based host made his latest round of controversial remarks regarding autism. It now airs Citadel Media evening host Mark Levin, who has become a reliable option for stations weary of Savage's...uh...unstable antics.

WHK rather pointedly dropped Savage after the autism flap, with Salem Cleveland general manager Mark Jaycox calling him a "knucklehead" and moving quickly to replace him. Levin also gained a clearance there.

We don't know if Savage will somehow land in the regular WNIR schedule as one of the regular stable of late night/weekend syndicated hosts. And as noted, the station has now carved out 6 hours of local programming in that rotation with Earley's new show.

For the moment, there's no indication that the Savage appearance was anything more than TRN hoping to sell WNIR on carrying the show regularly.

WNIR recently started carrying TRN mid-morning host Laura Ingraham (please note spelling, Broadcast Park) in late weekend evenings, where her show will air after Earley's program. The station also carries TRN's Tammy Bruce and Jerry Doyle late into Saturday nights.

We hear the syndicator does a "hard sell" trying to get clearances for its other shows...which would probably explain why former Savage and Ingraham affiliate WHLO airs TRN's Rusty Humphries in late evenings weekdays.

We heard the station's board op, Friday night, note that at least some WNIR listeners had called in and liked what they heard. We'd assume that others weren't as happy.

And as far as we know, Tom Erickson is back in his regular chair at the Talk of Brady Lak...er...Akron tonight from 7-11 PM.

There's no indication to us that the station would pick up Savage or any other syndicated show except as weekend or late-night fill...so perhaps if TRN manages to sell WNIR on "The Savage Nation", it'd air late nights in a slot currently filled by Salem's Mike Gallagher. That would make sense to us, since Gallagher now gets a live, mid-morning clearance on the company's WHK...

AN ICON LEAVES THE TUBE: The era of iconic, high-paid local TV news anchors is definitely coming to a close...and it's happening in Dayton.

Since Dayton is a fringe market for us - basically shared, in part, with our colleague Jeremy Moses' Tri-State Media Watch out of the Cincinnati area - we don't pay a lot of attention to it.

But our readers in the area tell us that the retirement of Cox CBS affiliate WHIO/7 anchor Jim Baldridge is a Big Deal down there.

From the station website:

After a broadcasting career spanning five decades, News Center 7 Anchor Jim Baldridge will be retiring from WHIO-TV at the end of August. “I am very grateful to the people of the Miami Valley for welcoming me into their homes, and to WHIO-TV for a long and fulfilling career in one of the most respected newsrooms in the country,” says Baldridge.

During his 37 years at WHIO-TV, Baldridge has traveled throughout the Miami Valley, across the country and around the world, to bring stories home to Channel 7 viewers.

One of our regular readers in Southwest Ohio is Rich Emery, who's been helping us track the digital TV conversion in other parts of Ohio from his base in Hamilton(!). He tells us:

I recall when he was a newbie at WHIO, working at that time with Don Wayne (Dayton's version of Walter Cronkite, an avuncular and completely trustworthy news source). Jim stepped into Don's shoes and carried on almost without pause.

Won't be the same down here without him!

Though Lima native Baldridge has been with WHIO-TV for 37 years, and would presumably be a natural candidate to call it a career, his retirement still a symbol of the changing world of TV news.

Oh, he'll be replaced, unlike WKYC/3's Tim White in Cleveland...who wasn't there for 37 years, but wasn't replaced when the station and anchor couldn't come to terms on a new contract last year.

Quoting the WHIO-TV story again:

News Center 7 Anchor James Brown will be assuming the anchor responsibilities for the 5pm and 6pm newscasts along with his current duties anchoring News Center 7 at 5:30pm with Cheryl McHenry and 11pm with Letitia Perry. Brown, who was born in Wilmington and lived in Lebanon, has been with WHIO-TV for the past seven years.

“We’ve very fortunate to have a strong journalist like James ready to continue the tradition of Jim and the other great news anchors here at News Center 7,” says WHIO-TV News Director David Bennallack.

"Strong journalist" or no, will WHIO-TV be dealing with replacing HIM in another 30 years or so?

Even though Cox is still considered a relatively old-line, traditional media company, we're wondering what the role of a "television news anchor" will be in the mid-21st Century, or if the entire concept will seem as dated as black and white TV...

Analog Shutdown Wave, Second Group

One Northeast Ohio TV station has shut off its analog transmitter, and a handful of others have followed, on the first day that non-educational stations were allowed to do so before the new June 12th digital TV switch deadline.

More on this from our new Ohio Digital TV sub-blog:

ODTV: Analog Shutdown Wave, Second Group

WOAC Sold To Religious Operator

Canton-licensed infomerical outlet WOAC/67 is being sold to a new owner.

TV Business Report and TVNewsday both report that WOAC is being sold by the trustee for broadcaster Arthur Liu's Multicultural Television Broadcasting to religious operator Radiant Life Ministries. The deal hasn't yet hit the FCC database, and no price is yet being reported by broker Kalil and Company, which represented the seller.

Quoting TVBR:

The seller is trustee Lee Shubert on behalf of MTB Cleveland Operator. MTB refers to Multicultural Television Broadcasting. Multicultural picked up the station in a deal in which it acquired several E.W. Scripps Shop at Home television stations, but ran into difficulty keeping the group in the black.

It's no surprise that a group named Radiant Life Ministries will mount a religious format on WOAC, but what is Radiant Life Ministries?

It turns out to be an arm of mainly regional religious TV operator TCT (originally "Tri-State Christian Television"). TCT is run out of Marion IL by Garth and Tina Coonce, and their "About us" page says the operation began with a Cincinnati-based station...though we don't know which station.

The operation enjoys nationwide clearance via both DirecTV and Dish Network.

TCT/Radiant Life owns Jamestown NY religious outlet WNYB/26, on the southern edge of the Buffalo market - just down I-86 from Erie PA. The Coonces are also on-air as hosts of their network's "TCT Today".

WOAC's facilities, at this point, are all-digital...with the shutdown of analog channel 67 on February 17. (Just as an aside, Trinity Broadcasting O&O WDLI/17, the other full-power Canton-licensed station, plans to shut down analog 17 late tonight.)

Thanks to a Friend of OMW for delivering us this nugget!

Returns And Changes

Some assorted stuff in our Thursday update...

PUBLIC EYE RETURN: When long-time CBS Radio AC WDOK/102.1 morning co-host Robin Benzle found herself not waking up Cleveland with Trapper Jack on the station's popular morning show, she lamented that it'd be difficult to find her way back onto the air...as stations seemed to be interested in female hosts who were - as she put it to Plain Dealer media columnist Julie Washington - "giggle queens".

There's no such worry about the Internet, where Benzle has made a return to "the public eye", as she puts it to us.

Benzle tells OMW that her new website focuses on two topics her former WDOK listeners know are dear to her heart - food and travel:

"Each Friday, a new Chow Time cooking video is posted, as well as periodical travel videos. There is a new travel series on my recent trip to Ecuador. There are hundreds of my recipes on the site, travel articles and an online store. New age - new media."

The site even contains a pitch to join Benzle, her husband Eric, and Cleveland Zoo director Steve Taylor and his wife Sarah, on a Kenyan safari trip in late August into early September.

Of course, back at One Radio Lane, Benzle was eventually replaced by Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3 programmer Terry Moir, who continues in that role at 13th and Lakeside...

THAT CLEAR CHANNEL ANNOUNCEMENT: Well, at least they tried to put a better spin on it.

Perhaps smarting from the reaction to its "Inauguration Day Massacre", where some 1,800 Clear Channel employees were shown the door nationwide on January 20th, the radio giant tries to make lemonade out of Ryan Seacrest-brand lemons.

The company unveiled a broad look at new local programming strategies, along with a multi-pronged upgrade of its community service commitments, on Wednesday.

Though we don't have a LOT to say that hasn't already been said by wiser folks at various radio trade sites, we've picked up some interesting points that could affect local Clear Channel operations here and elsewhere.

Here, read along with us from the press release:

Clear Channel Radio today announced a multi-point plan to raise the bar for radio programming across all day parts and platforms, including online and mobile. The plan includes the launch of new programming and makes programming and on-air talent that’s proven to be most popular with audiences, available more broadly to local program directors in all markets for all day parts.

That last line is the key here, in our opinion.

And this, from Clear Channel Radio CEO John Hogan, after acknowledging the "particularly difficult economy" that makes it difficult for "some local stations" to develop programming:

Local Clear Channel Radio program directors will have total choice and flexibility in choosing the Premium Choice programming elements. They can elect large portions, single pieces, or none of the offered programming. All of the Premium Choice elements were determined in full consultation with the company’s most experienced and trusted programming and operations managers.

Hogan says that Clear Channel top 40, hot AC and other similar format stations will now have the flexibility and choice to run Ryan Seacrest's "On Air" in any daypart...and that its urban format stations will have the same flexibility with the morning show hosted by former Clevelander Steve Harvey.

WAIT! We're just kidding with that last paragraph. Honest! Well, we think we are. Hogan did not say that. But he did cite Seacrest's success, and that of Harvey:

Over the past two years, the company has rigorously evaluated all of the programming at every station across every day part. Based on tests of the programming elements, audience growth and ratings have grown dramatically.

* On Air with Ryan Seacrest increased audience share in San Francisco by some 86% within three months of beginning its broadcast there; and the show increased audience share in Denver by some 46% in the same timeframe.
* Similarly, Steve Harvey has improved ratings in all 10 markets into which he’s expanded.

While indeed it's fun to poke a little at Seacrest, a successful broadcaster who is pretty much the Poster Child for Bland Programming, we think we've uncovered something here.

Quoting the release:

Clear Channel’s performance analysis tools evaluate a wide range of variables connected to a broadcast program and/or specific on-air talent and identifies properties with significant potential to succeed in other markets. The company believes it is the most sophisticated tool of its type in broadcasting. The performance analysis tool and the Premium Choice program will combine to build the careers of lesser-known talent that consistently outperform their peers.

Ah, but those "peformance analysis tools" appear to be built around the new PPM ratings system:

Content and talent are selected for the program based on the evaluation of new PPM-based audience-measurement reports and data produced by Clear Channel Radio’s proprietary talent performance tool.

Unless we missed something, Arbitron's "Personal People Meter" hasn't yet made it to a single Ohio radio market, and we haven't seen any announcement that the devices will show up in Cleveland, Columbus or Cincinnati any time soon.

They will, eventually, but the kinks are still being worked out of PPM...particularly on the legal side, where various groups and states have weighed in hoping to slow it down or stop it. Or, perhaps, extract legal settlements...as has already been done in New York.

The result is that "building careers for lesser-known talent", as Clear Channel suggests, may not be happening as quickly for hosts in non-PPM markets...at least as part of the use of this Clear Channel "talent performance tool".

If local hosts are brought into regional or national syndication outside of PPM markets, it'll be done the old fashioned way...based on the performance analysis Clear Channel has implemented outside PPM markets.

But it sounds to us like the company is concentrating on bringing local hosts in large markets into other large markets, and then down to, uh, the sticks.

Like, say, a certain Mr. Seacrest.

How does all this affect local program directors, who will presumably still exist in the Clear Channel world - for now, at least?

The company takes pains to say the local PDs will have "a choice", and won't have the "Premium Choice" programming thrust upon them:

Local Clear Channel Radio program directors will have total choice and flexibility in choosing the Premium Choice programming elements. They can elect large portions, single pieces, or none of the offered programming.

Ah, but the current financial realities may well mean that local programmers will basically have no choice but to choose large amounts from the Premium Choice menu, with maybe a small smattering of Local Morning Show pieces added in. "Here, here's a great list of quality programming at a low price - you really can't afford much else." That's just our take.

And we remind readers that this programming release says the company is aiming to "improve program quality for all dayparts"...and makes it clear that the "Premium Choice" offerings are what the company considers to be an improvement in quality.

And as a result, though 1,800 employees aren't being handed their walking papers this week, the moves will certainly result in eventual job loss for local Clear Channel clusters...

LOCAL SERVICE: Together with this release, Clear Channel outlined a multi-point plan aimed at upgrading local community service.

From another company press release:

Clear Channel Radio today announced an impressive new level of commitment to local community affairs that will define a new, higher ‘minimum level of service’ for all markets. The commitment spans five areas: charitable partnerships, public-service announcements (PSAs), local public-affairs programming, local advisory boards, and 24/7 access to station management for local officials.

Though Clear Channel insists that the "local public-affairs programming" won't just be an expanded version of the traditional Sunday morning public affairs show, it's worth noting that considering the above, there'll probably be less of an opportunity for public service the old-fashioned way - by a local host or personality sitting in a local studio most of the day, talking directly to listeners.

(And the aforementioned Ryan Seacrest isn't really doing local remotes out in the community. Even in Los Angeles, really...)

Like pretty much all radio operations, Clear Channel stations run extensive flights of public service announcements, and always have.

This grand promise to extend those announcements may have one driving force Clear Channel's John Hogan doesn't talk about - the reduction in sales of spot inventory, due to the economic recession, certainly leaves a lot more available on-air time to run those PSAs.

We'll be watching Clear Channel's promise for "extended engagement" with community groups, and "local advisory boards" to help the company's stations meet public service needs...and localize public service messages.

And presumably, the "24/7 access" to local management is meant to answer frequent company critics, particularly over that infamous situation of the Minot ND toxic train derailment - when local public safety agencies complained that they couldn't just call up the local radio station and get the word out.

We've gone on at length about that here, but in brief: there were many issues in that situation, and we don't place the onus on Clear Channel for the Minot Situation nearly as much as some others do.

For one, the local officials seemed clueless about the use of existing emergency broadcast procedures, and for another, the potential over-air listenership of all Minot radio stations in the middle of the night is less than the number of people reading this blog right now.

Instead of lamenting that they couldn't "just call up the station" or reach the apparent single employee in the building who wasn't seeing the incoming phone call, local officials in Minot would have been better served activating sirens in the affected area - either fixed, or via their own police and fire vehicles.

Commercial broadcast receivers don't activate an alarm when an EAS alert is issued, and weather radios are few and far between in homes. If every Clear Channel-owned station in Minot had gone live with disaster coverage in the early morning hours, many would have slept right through it.

(This isn't to say they shouldn't have done so...they should have, in some form. But that the reality is that those who are not awake - can't listen to the radio, though those awake could have presumably awoken others.)

Anyway, we suggested at the time that officials in Minot and other areas, and local radio operators, would be well served by ensuring that public safety agencies had 24/7 phone/pager contact with managers at the stations - and that appears to be one prong of this Clear Channel plan.

We always applaud an increased commitment to link radio stations and their communities, so we're not going to throw brickbats at Clear Channel for this announcement.

And despite the criticism it gets, the company is no stranger to local public service or community commitment. Just within the scope of our coverage area, a high-profile Clear Channel hot AC outlet (WKDD/98.1 in the Akron/Canton area) raises large amounts of money for a local children's hospital each and every year.

But with a move towards imposing more media "localism" gaining steam in Washington, this could certainly be seen as a preemptive strike by the company...

DAVE AND JIMMY TWO: Presumably, WNCI/97.9 Columbus-based morning team "Dave & Jimmy" would be one example of a local show that parent Clear Channel will continue to grow in syndication.

For the moment, though, OMW hears that "Dave & Jimmy" are about to lose their second affiliate in two weeks.

As we reported, the show was recently dispatched from sister Clear Channel top 40 WDKF/94.5 "Channel 94-5" just down I-70 in Dayton, with the station now encouraging listeners via its website to "embrace a change" in morning drive.

We are not, for the moment, reporting details on the second affiliate loss. For one, we're listening to the web streaming audio of the affected station - and "Dave & Jimmy" are still airing there.

But we will say that the affiliate in question is NOT in Ohio...

Dino Costa And Us

So, it turns out Google's search capabilities are working fine...and sports talk radio host Dino Costa ("DenverSportsRadio.com") has found us after a few gentle pokes at him over the years.

Costa, who was heard by at least a few people in his brief stint on the short-lived local sports talk format on now-silent WATJ/1560 "SportsRadio 1560" out of Chardon, took the time to write back in the comments section to Tuesday's item.

And we took the opportunity to write back, with a comment we are pulling up here into a separate item (with a couple of typo corrections below). It quotes much of Costa's original comment. And we forgot to mention the involvement of other former WKNR types like Kendall Lewis with the STC operation...

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

Welcome to OMW Sports Radio! And, now it's time to take a call...Dino in Denver, Colorado, you're on OMW Sports Radio!

"Uh, based upon what I see, this feels, looks, and sounds NOTHING like that of the former failed amateur web based Cleveland thingie - to lump us in with that former endeavor is extremely unfair - not to mention biased on your behalf."

Thanks for joining us, Dino. You might want to check out the URL SportsTalkCleveland.com, as, hey, look, IT IS STILL IN BUSINESS! We suspect Mr. Belfi may have a problem with your contention that STC a "failed former amateur-based Cleveland web thingie".

And the lineup comparison was quite accurate.

STC has brought on a number of "name" hosts over the past few years. Veteran Cleveland sportscaster Bruce Drennan was even program director of the STC operation - before serving his 5 month prison sentence. Drennan, of course, is now host of "All Bets Are Off" on SportsTime Ohio.

Since you were here for basically 10 minutes on a station that had trouble reaching the near eastern Cleveland suburb of Mayfield Heights, you might not remember Bruce. SportsTime Ohio is the new RSN owned by the Dolan Family (Cleveland Indians owners).

As for your operation, the mix seems similar to STC - known sports media names mixed in with "fans" and some amateurs.

If you consider that an insult, it wasn't our intent...it was just a comparison that seemed valid to us. If we recall your latest press release, you proudly noted hiring a pair of guys with no radio experience you heard arguing sports in a bar.

Nothing wrong with that. After all, the current highly-rated occupant of WTAM/1100's afternoon drive slot got started as an amateur caller to Pete Franklin's show known as "Mr. Know-It-All".

"But we appreciate you watching us and keeping tabs, promoting the website as you have done."

You know, we admire your promotional skills.

"When you get back to me with your company, your new or established enterprise, your success's that may be documented and confirmed, please let me know."

Since Your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) is not identified here, on purpose, all we have to show in public is the success of Ohio Media Watch itself.

Since OMW was established in 2005, this report has grown to a regular, non-duplicated audience of around 1,500 to 2,000 readers a day.

A quick look at our Twitter account shows nearly 250 "followers", people who have taken the time and trouble to actually receive our Twitter updates. We'd consider that roughly the equivalent of talk radio callers, and for a limited topic blog that only focuses on one state, we'd consider that pretty good.

If you'll look at our follower list, you'll see a whole host of local media personalities, off-air workers and the names of many major media outlets.

If you're looking for a direct comparison regarding sports radio, we're not doing that.

If you're looking to break out the "you can't match our success, you're just graffiti online" - you're no Steve French.

And oddly enough, both of you seem to care enough about what we write here, to respond. If someone scrawls about you on a wall on the side of a grocery store, do you take out a marker and respond?

"If anything, one would think that you would applaud the efforts being made by those taking part in this project."

You're a bit oversensitive there, Dino. We're not trashing DenverSportsRadio.com or your involvement in starting it and running it. It's actually rather interesting to us.

Sure...your talent for over-the-top self promotion is amusing to us. But we didn't say your new site is going to stink.

"As for your claims of self-promotion, again, evidence confirming your claims would go a long way toward bolstering your credibility."

Go back and put your name into our search box up top, and you'll see our previous history talking about you.

You're in sports radio, Dino. Did we say self-promotion was wrong?

Heck, it's part and parcel of the business!

You put yourself out there like no one else, and that's not meant to be an insult.

"Credibility? You have a 'blog', the highest form of Internet graffiti available."

And you have a "sports radio website". We're both on the Internet. At this point, we have a larger readership (see above) than you have an audience, only because you haven't started yet.

Other than that, we're not "playing on the same field". OMW doesn't talk about sports, aside from covering sports media outlets and personalities like yourself.

"Thank you again for the publicity - and let us also note I responded to you on this matter, after you mentioned us, not the other way around."

When we've written about you, we haven't done so with expectation that you'd find or read the wording. We don't really care. We didn't write for you as an audience.

"Cleveland radio sucks by the way - just like the majority of Denver based radio."

You act like we'd fully disagree with that statement.

"We're trying to do something about it - how bout' you?"

We're not a sports talk radio operation. This is a blog. If listeners, or even industry observers like OMW, want to "do something about" bad radio, we can stop listening.

"Next time, do some homework, ask some questions, check your facts, get up off of your ass and make some inquiries -- and and try not to present your theories and or conjecture as fact...when it is clearly not the case."

Take a look up at the top, Dino. It says "news and musings". These are musings. This is a blog. This is not even a column in a local newspaper. Considering the lack of coverage of media by the declining print industry, we kind of fill a similar role...but we're not a newspaper column.

Your biggest problem here appears to be that we compared to your new venture to an operation you thought was no longer in business.

You haven't been here in Northeast Ohio in some time, so we'll forgive the ignorance there. We don't expect you to track the market or that particular operation.

We aren't even saying that DenverSportsRadio.com will eventually directly resemble whatever state Mr. Belfi's operation is still in. And from here, it would appear that he is doing pretty well. He certainly has sponsors, for one.

For all we know, DenverSportsRadio.com will be so incredibly successful that it'll draw thousands of listeners away from Denver's well-established sports radio operations and hosts.

We do, sincerely, wish you well. More listening options are good. You obviously have talent, and a listener base.

Sure, we'll poke fun at your promotional acumen...but we aren't attacking what you're doing, and we'll check in when you start up next week.

Oh, and by the way, we continue to poke fun at the WATJ operation.

We don't blame what happened there on you, or on any perceived "rejection" of your time on the station.

1560's problems were far beyond anything you had any part in. It was a tiny, daytime rimshot station. It had absolutely no chance at garnering an audience of any size, save for in small parts of Geauga County.

We no more blame you for that than we blame Les Levine, whose "cup of coffee" on WATJ lasted roughly a week or so. The entire attempt at local sports talk programming lasted what, a month or two?

You both got "drawn into" this operation, and did what you could, and you both moved on.

Les Levine is now the host of Time Warner Cable's popular "More Sports and Les Levine", which airs weekdays on TWC cable channel 23 ("NEON").

You ended up doing both sports and talk radio in Jacksonville, and are now a sports media personality in Denver...a good sized market.

-The Management

Tuesday's Mixed Bag

This time, we promise we're not going to inadvertently insert ourselves into contract negotiations...

DAVE AND JIMMY MINUS DAYTON: We don't spend a lot of time watching the Dayton radio market these days, particularly with the attention now paid to Southwest Ohio by Jeremy Moses' Tri-State Media Watch out of Cincinnati.

But this one affects Columbus, one of our secondary markets.

Radio-Info.com columnist Tom Taylor picks up word that Clear Channel Dayton top 40 outlet WDKF/94.5 is apparently moving forward without syndicated morning team "Dave & Jimmy", based out of Columbus sister station WNCI/97.9.

(With WNCI's powerhouse signal, we imagine at least some Dayton market listeners will able to pick them up directly on the Dave & Jimmy Mothership.)

Sure enough, a brief digital walk to the "Channel 945" website shows the station telling listeners to "Embrace the change in Morning Drive", and asking them to text "change" to the messaging short code 62582 for more details. And, presumably, that enables WDKF to text message listeners with more station promotion in the future.

There's no word as to what "change" listeners to WDKF may be asked to "embrace", or if it'll be Change They Can Believe In.

In addition to WNCI, "Dave & Jimmy" are also heard up here in Northeast Ohio, on Clear Channel top 40 sister station WAKZ/95.9 "Kiss FM" in the Youngstown market...and the pair has affiliates in Lima, Louisville and Lexington KY, and Albany NY, among other cities...

FROM PRISON TO TALK: Well, he certainly isn't the first former political type to go from serving prison time to talk radio.

We're talking about former southeast Ohio congressman Bob Ney, who has started a new career as a talk radio host not that far from his former district.

Ney started Monday as the 1-3 PM host at Monroe Communications talk WVLY/1370 Moundsville WV, near Wheeling.

In case you need a refresher as to why Ney is just coming out of prison, here's a refresher courtesy of an article on the website of Steubenville NBC affiliate WTOV/9:

Ney pleaded guilty to a felony bribery charge and was linked to the Jack Abramoff scandal in 2006. Ney was sentenced to 30 months in prison but was released after 17 months.

Wheeling CBS/ABC/Fox affiliate WTRF/7 chimes in, with a quote from Howard Monroe, WVLY morning host and station owner:

"The buzz? It's been quite frankly surprising. I expected a lot of negative feedback. Let's face it, the man was the poster child for corruption. While I've gotten some of that it's no where near the amount I expected. So, we'll get the show going and see what happens when the calls start coming in." Monroe told 7News.

Ney became a free man after being released from prison in August. (And it's not often that a boss calls his new employee a "poster child for corruption"!)

Again, as we noted, Ney would hardly be the first former political type to turn to talk radio not long after his release from prison. That distinction would likely go to former White House figure G. Gordon Liddy, who became a very successful syndicated talk show host after landing in the lineup of Washington DC talk superstation WJFK/106.7.

(WJFK is still in the format, and Liddy is long gone from that station...his syndication effort continues, with a much smaller affiliate base than in the WJFK-based days, and with a different syndicator than Westwood One.)

As for Ney's new radio home, it's a rimshot into Wheeling from the south, and pretty much the third-ranked talk station in that crowded field (WWVA/1170 and WKKX/1600 are number one and two).

WVLY's listenable, static-free signal basically does not reach the bulk of the former congressman's Southeast Ohio district, though we note from the station's website that it's offering Ney to other stations. For now, Monroe's own morning show is only on one other station, a small Fairmont WV talk outlet...

OH, DINO: We once had a hobby here...tracking the moves of bombastic former local sports radio host Dino Costa.

You could almost put an asterisk next to "local" there.

Costa was in the Cleveland market for roughly a cup of coffee on a short-lived sports talk station that barely reached out of Geauga County - the now-silent daytimer WATJ/1560 Chardon ("SportsRadio 1560"). In its brief attempt at local sports talk, the tiny rimshot outlet also had Time Warner Cable host Les Levine ("More Sports and Les Levine") on board.

WATJ went dark after station owner Music Express decided to concentrate on its main station, country WKKY/104.7 Geneva.

After WATJ, Costa headed for places like Jacksonville FL, where he was noted for posting breathless help wanted ads for a talk station which got pulled out from under him by ownership. ("Our 50,000 watt transmitter just arrived!!")

But for the bulk of his career, Dino Costa has been a sports talk radio host with a flair for self-promotion, usually on second-tier and third-tier stations. WATJ would probably have been "fourth-tier" or "fifth-tier" by those standards.

Costa landed in Denver, where he held forth on something called the "Radio Colorado Network" - until that operation flipped to a business radio format under new owners. He started in the market on Crawford sports talk KLZ/560 "ESPN 560".

Dino's back, and he's promoting again.

He's launching Internet sports outlet "DenverSportsRadio.com" next week, and at least if you believe his self-publicity, the station has actually picked up some known hosts...and some new names. (Of course, Costa himself will host a show. You think you could keep him away from a microphone on an outlet he runs?)

From here, it looks like Costa is basically duplicating Cleveland's own SportsTalkCleveland.com (aka SportsTalkNetwork.com), Paul Belfi's long-time online sports "talk station".

We don't know if Costa is even aware of the Cleveland operation, though. And "STC" started out as the Internet arm of then-Salem sports talk WKNR/850 before striking out on its own. Costa's new site has no connection to a radio outlet.

But some of the same elements are there, including a promise to do various remotes, and a similar mix of known and unknown hosts.

"DenverSportsRadio.com" is set to launch on April 20. If you'd like to hear Costa talking about the future online sports station, the website features audio of him...

That WKDD AllAccess Ad

UPDATE 4/13/09 10:55 PM: WKDD program director Keith Kennedy has a statement on the below item, which we're reprinting here:

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Obviously, Matt is the fabric of WKDD and my hope is he’ll continue to host mornings on WKDD for a very long time to come. You can’t think of WKDD without thinking of Matt. The re-invention of WKDD mornings in recent months with the addition of Krissy Taylor has brought new life into WKDD, and we’re thrilled with the results. Matt is and continues to be the star of WKDD mornings. We’d love to have him on ‘KDD mornings for another 30+ years. On the air, Matt has hinted at retirement, and I hope he’s kidding. When he feels he is ready for a change, we’ll need to be ready, thus the ad.
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And as for the WKDD morning personality himself, Matt Patrick offers this response to OMW:

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My contract expires the end of the year. WKDD and I are having spirited discussions on my future. I was under the impression these were private. Seems we've moved into the public arena.

I appreciate Mr. Kennedy's kind response in OhioMediaWatch, to his ALL ACCESS ad. It's quite frankly....nonsense..but I guess it makes for fun reading!

I am being guided by my legal team, and beyond this I will have no further comment until such time as WKDD and I come to some kind of agreement on my contract.
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The original item is below:

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We hadn't yet checked out the AllAccess Job Openings scroll for Monday, when a couple of readers pointed out the job ad we're reprinting below:

Morning Show Market #74

In just a few short weeks Conan O’Brian has a tough assignment. Like Jay Leno before him, Conan is replacing a legend. Could you do what Conan and Jay have done?

At the end of this year WKDD/Akron will be losing our legend. After almost 35 years in morning drive on the same station, our host is moving onto his next radio chapter in talk radio. Do you have what it takes to replace him?

WKDD-FM is looking for an entertaining personality to anchor morning drive. We are an Adult CHR, entertaining women every morning in their late 20’s – early 40’s. We host family friendly events year round, and our product is the same on the air.

This is not an immediate opening, but we are looking for qualified applicants to possibly begin on January 4, 2010. (This is radio and as you know, things could always change. For example he could stay another 35 years.)

Send all materials including ratings history to WKDD-FM, 7755 Freedom Ave NW, North Canton, Ohio 44720. Attention: Keith Kennedy. Please no calls. Clear Channel Radio is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

It is no secret that the aforementioned Akron "radio legend", WKDD/98.1 morning icon Matt Patrick, has talked on the air about retiring from his wakeup duties on the hot AC station.

We hear it happened again on the station's April Fools' Day morning show...though since he's talked about it before among other jests, we don't know if the talk was "for real" or not.

(For more from the "I'm Gonna Talk About Hanging It Up Department", check out Clear Channel classic hits WMJI/105.7 morning fixture John Lanigan...particularly around contract time.)

As noted in the ad, WKDD's Patrick has his shoes firmly in another wing of radio, as mid-morning host at sister talk station WHLO/640 ("his next radio chapter in talk radio"). It's assumed that when he does eventually step down from the WKDD morning show, Patrick will continue hosting his AM talk show.

That's all we know at this point. We'll pass along any other details as we hear them...

Picking Back Up

Our apologies for the lengthy absence...aside from the Christmas-to-New Year's break we usually take, or an occasional planned hiatus, we're not usually gone that long.

But one of our regular phrases here is "Life Intervenes". (If someone uses that for a book or movie title, we want a cut!)

So, remember that if we don't update often enough for you...feel free to ask for a pro-rated adjustment to your subscription...

WVIZ'S PLANS: Ever since the earlier news that the new WKYC/3 antenna tower was finally rising into the air, we've had one question.

We'll assume that the Gannett Cleveland NBC affiliate will wait until the national digital transition date of June 12th to light up the station's new digital facility on RF channel 17, even assuming the tower is completed well before then...and given that Trinity Broadcasting O&O WDLI/17 plans to shut off its analog signal later this week.

Assuming all continues as planned, WKYC will have a few weeks before June 12 to test the new RF 17 signal - with WDLI's analog signal out of the Canton suburb of Louisville gone after Thursday, its planned shutoff date.

But wither WVIZ/25, the other future occupant of this tower rising at Broadview Road?

We have some news about that.

The ideastream PBS affiliate has filed its latest digital transition report, which takes into account the fact that the tower it will occupy is actually being constructed now. Quoting, complete with the capital letters found in FCC filings online:

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AS EXPLAINED IN IDEASTREAM'S REQUEST FOR ALTERNATIVE BUILDOUT, WVIZ'S FINAL AUTHORIZED DTV FACILITY IS TO BE LOCATED ON A NEW TOWER TO BE SHARED WITH STATION WKYC-DT. THE CONSTRUCTION OF THAT TOWER HAD BEEN UNEXPECTEDLY DELAYED (SEE, STA REQUEST OF WKYC-TV, INC., FCC FILE NO. BDSTA-20081201AWR AND MONTHLY FCC FORM 387 UPDATES FILED BY WKYC-TV, INC.). WHILE COMPLETION OF A FINAL FACILITY TO MEET A FEBRUARY 17, 2009 DEADLINE WAS NOT POSSIBLE, IDEASTREAM UNDERSTANDS FROM WKYC-TV, INC. THAT THE NEW TOWER WILL BE COMPLETED WELL IN ADVANCE OF THE NEW JUNE 12, 2009 DEADLINE.
-----

And the filing has specific information about when a new antenna will be added...assuming construction continues unabated:

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THE ANTENNA WAS ORDERED FROM DIELECTRIC COMMUNICATIONS ON JUNE 24TH, 2008. IT HAS BEEN MANUFACTURED, AND IDEASTREAM WILL REQUEST DELIVERY BASED ON RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE TOWER CREW. THE TOWER IS CURRENTLY BEING CONSTRUCTED, AND THE PREDICTION IS THAT THE ANTENNA WILL BE MOUNTED IN MID-MAY (WEATHER PERMITTING). ALL OTHER EQUIPMENT IS ON SITE.
-----

We don't know if WVIZ plans to light up the new digital facility shortly after the antenna is mounted, or if it'll wait until June 12.

The Cleveland PBS outlet has filed for an extension of the current 10kW STA facility from an antenna mounted on WKYC's auxiliary tower.

But the station notes in both filings that with the expected completion of the new WKYC/WVIZ digital tower, it's abandoning a third STA request that would have used 10kW from the side of the current WKYC analog 3 tower.

Thank you to one of our curious readers for the picture taken Sunday afternoon, showing guy wires now holding the under construction tower, and for the link to the WVIZ transition update filing.

(At this rate, the WKYC/WVIZ site will become the 2009 Radio/TV Tourist version of the WHOF/101.7 facility in Canton!)

This item will be reprinted in full on our new Ohio Digital TV blog...

SPEAKING OF HDTV: With Time Warner Cable's massive Northeast Ohio wing steadily adding HD channels each month, we've stumbled upon a list of channels that'll be added in late May.

We already knew that HD versions of Bravo, CNBC, TLC, Animal Planet, ABC Family, ESPN News, and MLB Network are scheduled to light up in the TWC NEO system around April 29th.

Here's the latest list we found thanks to a reader:

HD Channels Available On or Around 5/26/09

Golf 439 Standard HD
National Geo 453 Must have Digital Basic Tier
Science 451 Channel carriage level may vary per area
FX 478 Standard HD
Fox News 485 Standard HD
CNN 483 Standard HD

We haven't run these by our contacts at Time Warner yet, but we're pretty sure the list is accurate...

FANTASY LAND, AM DIVISION: OMW has confirmed through numerous sources that the "Class B Cleveland AM" facility advertised for sale with a Georgia-based broker is indeed Radio Advantage One gospel WABQ/1460 Painesville.

But our "Fantasy Land" comment in the header refers to the asking price.

OMW hears that WABQ owner Dale Edwards is looking to get anywhere from $1.5 million to $1.75 million for the Lake County station.

No, that's not a typo. The station is listing for just south of $2 million!

Consider a few facts.

The deep recession and poor economic conditions have shut off a large amount of bank lending, to do things such as, oh, we don't know, buy for sale radio stations.

Along with real estate prices, the prices of radio stations have dropped so precipitously that CBS Radio took under $20 million to get three large market FM stations - in Denver - off of their hands.

CBS and other operators have taken to swapping stations with other big companies, instead of selling them outright, because of this.

With these conditions still in play, who has a million-and-a-half, even, to buy a modest, outer suburban station that pretty much serves only one county well?

In other news, we're putting OMW on the market - asking price, $1 million. Mr. Edwards is about as likely to get $1.75 million for his station. And considering that WABQ's gospel format is not at all matched with its Lake County listening base, we may have more daily readers than WABQ has daily listeners.

That brings us to our other fact.

Under his D&E Communications subsidiary, Edwards sold the original home of WABQ, 1540 AM in Cleveland, to Good Karma Broadcasting's Craig Karmazin for...$2 million a few years ago.

Or, just $250,000 more than the asking price for the current incarnation of WABQ...now in the suburbs.

While 1460 has one advantage over what's now WWGK/1540 "KNR2" - full-time operation - that's basically worthless. 1460's 500 watt night authorization doesn't reach very far into Cuyahoga County...so outside of the heart of the station's signal area in Lake County, it's no more audible than daytime-only WWGK.

Speaking of WWGK, we'll have a bit of an update later this week...

Assorted Wednesday Stuff

With the snow melting, we're gonna get this out of the way, head outside and pretend it's early April again.

We may have missed some stuff...but you get the Primary Editorial Voice(tm) output you pay for...

AND THE CLASS B WINNER IS: In an item just below this, we noted an online notice from a station broker offering up a class B Cleveland AM signal for sale, complete with a "new transmitter".

We then went through a list of Cleveland-based AM class Bs, and picked 'em off pretty much one by one, and then brought up advice from long-time friend and colleague Scott Fybush (NorthEast Radio Watch)...that station brokers often list stations under wide metropolitan definitions - basically, it would appear, the TV market ADI ("Area of Dominant Influence").

Simply put, a "Cleveland" AM signal could be anywhere from Sandusky to Ashtabula, or from Mansfield to Alliance. and still count by that definition.

How about Painesville?

A couple of OMW readers with a handle on such things believe that the station in question is WABQ/1460 Painesville, the Radio Advantage One/D&E Communications-owned gospel outlet.

D&E's Dale Edwards moved the WABQ calls and gospel format from Cleveland-licensed 1540 to the Painesville facility after Good Karma Broadcasting bought what's now sports WWGK "KNR2", companion to big brother station WKNR/850 "ESPN 850".

Of course, when Good Karma's Craig Karmazin bought then-WABQ, he had not yet purchased WKNR. Plug "WABQ" into our search box up at the top left for that long-running story, chronicled in painstaking detail right here on your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm).

1460 is not a bad facility at all for Lake County. But we suspect if Dale Edwards was hoping to use it as a replacement for 1540 in Cleveland's near-eastern areas, he quickly became disappointed.

You can pick up 1460 on the radio at the 1540 site at 80th and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, but have to endure a lot of static. The signal isn't much better as close in as the suburb of Euclid, but obviously gets better as you head east on I-90 or Ohio 2.

Of course, 1460 has one advantage over 1540 - you can't hear Cleveland's 1540 anywhere at night.

We have not confirmed that WABQ is the station in the listing we offered earlier, but it sounds like a likely candidate...

ONE TANK BLOG MEMORIES: Retired WJW/8 "Fox 8" veteran Neil Zurcher has continued to chronicle his famous "One Tank Trips" online, but now he's added another very interesting new blog to his collection.

"Northeast Ohio TV Memories" started last month, and is already full of pictures from Zurcher's days at South Marginal (and before) - a span that kept him busy for over 40 years, and turned "One Tank Trips" into a local institution - and prompted three popular books.

Neil writes about his new online presence:

-----

This site is dedicated to memories of Northeast Ohio Television.

It is mostly photos and memories of the people who were on both sides of the camera and the television set. We invite old friends and colleagues to submit pictures and other ephemera from the start in 1947 all the way up until today.

My name is Neil Zurcher, I spent 42 years associated with WJW-TV and some of our opening batch of photos are from my personal collection. I hope that my friends from Fox 8, the other stations in town, WEWS, WKYC, WOIO, WVIZ, WUAB, WAKR and any others I may have forgotten will also help build this site by submitting their personal photos as well as memories.

-----

By the way, we almost feel like putting an asterisk next to "Fox 8", both in our own writing and in Neil's opening. The vast majority of the time Mr. Zurcher spent at South Marginal (and the downtown building which preceded it), WJW was Cleveland's CBS affiliate.

On your way to check out "Northeast Ohio TV Memories", check in with our blogging colleague Tim Lones at "Cleveland Classic Media"...Tim has checked in today with his own item about Neil Zurcher's new blog.

And as such, though we've known about this since the weekend, we apologize for waiting to shed light on "Northeast Ohio TV Memories". As Tim wrote, we're also thrilled that such a respected veteran of local TV has embarked on a project to share more of the history of the medium in this region.

And like Tim, we'll add a link to the blog on our list as well...

SONIC BOOM: And like a similar item a few months ago, this one is only for the stomach.

OMW reader and WNIR listener "Wayne in Akron" reminds us that an eating place known for attracting local radio and TV types has opened up a second Northeast Ohio location.

Since we provided a mini play-by-play of the first week of the new Sonic Drive-In location in Streetsboro a ways back, it's only fair that we note the second location...which opened up a month or two ago in Stark County's Jackson Township.

It's at the corner of Fulton Drive and Wales Avenue NW, which admittedly is a bit of a drive from the I-77 interchange at Belden Village Mall.

But if you find yourself hankering for a chili cheese foot long hot dog, tater tots, limeade or any of the chain's once-exotic-to-Northeast Ohio treats, and you're south instead of north of Akron, you'll probably find your way there instead of Streetsboro.

Hmm. We gotta go...

News, Snow and Trouble

UPDATE 4/7/09 2:10 PM: Thanks to WNIR listener and OMW reader "Wayne in Akron", here's your answer to the "when it starts" question for the Akron talk station's new weekend show with Bob Earley:

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WNIR's new weekend "Earley In The Evening" show begins on Saturday, April 25th according to the station's website scroll and the commercial that has aired a few time.

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When we checked the website earlier, the scroll wasn't working for us, and Earley hasn't been added to the "24/7 Program Guide" schedule yet...and we haven't been listening to the station itself today.

Our original update is below...

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This was going to be a "trouble" update, but some other news got in the way.

So, let's brush snow off the back window of the OMW Mobile, and then shovel out some items...

EARLEY NIGHT: OMW heard a rumor about this over the weekend, and it's been confirmed. Akron market talker WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron" is extending its local programming schedule.

Frequent station fill-in host Bob Earley is finally getting his wish, and will have a regular weekend time slot on the station.

"Earley in the Evening" will air Saturday and Sunday evenings from 7-10 PM, one of the few time slots the station doesn't already program with local talk. The new show follows Tom Erickson's 4-7 PM Saturday show, and "The Advice Line" with Bob Lewis on Sundays.

We don't know when Earley's new show will start, but we hear it was officially announced on the station's morning show...and we heard Erickson talking a bit about it on Monday night.

It appears WNIR will NOT follow former Westwood One syndicated host Lars Larson - who previously was heard on WNIR from 7-10 PM weekends - to his new syndication with Compass Media Networks.

Last weekend, we heard TRN's Laura Ingraham in the early weekend evening time slot - she's on the WNIR schedule in the 10 PM-midnight Saturday/Sunday time slot once occupied by Westwood One's Bill O'Reilly, and we presume that's where she'll be heard after Earley starts his local show.

Of course, nearly all of WNIR's syndicated programming is aired on delay in nighttime hours.

Earley is the station's regular fill-in host, taking the place of weekday hosts Howie Chizek and Bob Golic when they're on vacation.

And in "real life", he's the man responsible for the long-running yearly music concert series "Rockin' on the River". Friday evenings at Cuyahoga Falls' Falls River Square. This year's series opens up on May 22, which means there's plenty of time for the snow currently covering Falls River Square to melt...

TROUBLE PART ONE: The future of three Youngstown market radio stations and two Columbus market stations is very much "up in the air" following some financial difficulty for the stations' owner.

We're talking about Bernard Radio's trio in the Mahoning Valley - urban AC WRBP/101.9, talk WGFT/1330 and brokered/gospel WASN/1500 - and in Columbus, religious WVKO/1580 and Spanish-language WVKO-FM/103.1.

An OMW reader passes along this tidbit from Inside Radio, bouncing off of an article in the Wall Street Journal about Bernard Radio principal Daniel Zwirn:

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Wall Street wiz kid’s woes are good news for some radio owners. They’re likely celebrating the news that controversial hedge fund manager Daniel Zwirn is reportedly within days of turning over his holdings. The Wall Street Journal says a deal has been reached that would transfer some of Zwirn’s assets to new management. Several investment firms looked at taking over his portfolio, but the paper says many dropped out of bidding when it became clear Zwirn was attempting to find a new role.

Zwirn is a brash, 37-year-old high-flying portfolio manager who’s been under SEC investigation. Federal regulators have put a freeze on withdrawals from the $3 billion fund — which had been worth $5.5 billion before they started their review. Investors complained their cash funded his lavish lifestyle

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Inside Radio says it's "unclear" what impact the above would have on the five Ohio stations, which Zwirn picked up out of the bankruptcy proceedings for former owner Stop 26 Riverbend.

Stop 26, with attorney Percy Squire as majority owner, owed the largest chunk of its debt to Zwirn's fund. And like Florida-based Tama Broadcasting, Squire complained loudly about the process that ended up with Zwirn's Bernard Radio taking over the stations.

In Youngstown, Bernard Radio directly operates its three stations. It has a mainstream talk format with various syndicated conservative hosts on WGFT/1330, at least some local hosts on urban WRBP/101.9, and a combination of locally-programmed and satellite gospel, some Spanish language programming, and brokered English-language talk host Louie Free on WASN/1500.

In Columbus, Bernard Radio's two stations are operated by other parties. WVKO/1580 went from liberal talk to Catholic religion late last year after being LMA'ed by St. Gabriel Catholic Radio, and another group operates the Spanish-language format on WVKO-FM/103.1.

We've always maintained that Bernard Radio is not in the long-term ownership business, no matter what Mr. Zwirn's financial situation is at this time...

SHOPPING AROUND: Speaking of radio station ownership, an OMW reader passes along this "station for sale" listing he saw online:

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New Listing!
Cleveland, OH - Class B - AM Station
Willing to work on terms for a portion of the sale! New Transmitter. For more information,
contact Beth Griffin via email or call 770-831-8924.

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No, we don't know which station this is.

Class B stations licensed to Cleveland include: Good Karma sports WKNR/850, Salem Christian talk/teaching WHKW/1220, Radio Disney's WWMK/1260, Radio One gospel WJMO/1300 and Salem talk WHK/1420.

We'd immediately rule out two on that list.

We're pretty sure Craig Karmazin has no intention of selling WKNR, and we're pretty sure Disney/ABC does not intend to part with the market's Radio Disney station, WWMK.

Salem has sold off some stations lately, though we don't know if they're itching - again - to sell WHK, which has shuttled in and out of their local portfolio since 2001. The company's recent sale strategy seems to be to exit underperforming markets entirely (see: Milwaukee), and we don't think they're leaving Cleveland.

But, who knows?

That leaves Radio One's gospel WJMO/1300 in our list, and we're only not ruling that out because Radio One's overall financial status has been pretty rocky as of late.

But, as long-time friend and colleague Scott Fybush at NorthEast Radio Watch accurately points out to us, for station brokers, a listing for "Cleveland" could cover stations far afield anywhere in Northeast Ohio.

The station in question could be anywhere in the region. It's a lot like syndicated radio shows and their affiliate lists, which claim small market stations dozens of miles away as "Cleveland" affiliates...

TROUBLE PART TWO: It's the trouble one former Toledo market brokered radio host got into last year, after an encounter in what was initially described as a "road rage" incident, which ended up in him being stabbed.

The Toledo Blade has the roundup on ex-WCWA/1230 host Troy Neff's part of the case:

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Mr. Neff, 40, of Curtice, was convicted of disorderly conduct with persistence. The charge was reduced from a first-degree misdemeanor assault charge.

Judge S. Dwight Osterud sentenced Mr. Neff to 30 days in jail suspended, two years probation, and ordered him to take anger management classes.

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The Tennessee man who stabbed Neff in the incident is reportedly working on a plea bargain with prosecutors, after being charged with felonious assault and charges of tampering with evidence.

Neff's attorney tells the Blade that though the retirement planner and former brokered talk host "may not have reacted to the situation in the most mature way possible", he was still a victim.

What Troy Neff isn't, now, is a radio talk show host, brokered or otherwise.

He spent a reported $40,000 to broker the morning drive time slot at Clear Channel sports WCWA/1230, where he held forth as an issues-oriented host....not the only such non-sports show on "Fox Sports Radio 1230", as the station is still simulcasting former Toledo host Denny Schaffer's Internet-based show "DennyRadio".

And checking the WCWA online schedule, it now lists the "Mike Scott Jazz Show" weekdays in Neff's former morning drive time slot. We'll assume that's another brokered time situation due to the nature of the show.

After Troy Neff got into a dispute with Clear Channel and management at sister WSPD/1370, and sent what he admitted to be a profane E-mail to WSPD program director Brian Wilson, Clear Channel sent Neff and his money away. Yes, in a deep recession. Yes, when radio management would basically shake down grandmothers for spare change.

After Clear Channel parted ways with Neff, so did ABC O&O WTVG/13, which dumped him from the roster of commentators on the station's "Conklin and Company" public affairs show.

He also lost his column in the weekly Toledo Free Press newspaper, over other, unrelated issues.

There's only one part of this story left...if Neff manages to mount a return to the Toledo radio airwaves by opening up his checkbook.

He's about to lose one possible option to carry a new brokered show, as Matrix/Cornerstone talk WNWT/1520 is likely to dump its talk format at any time... as the broadcast arm of the Cornerstone Church is selling WNWT, and sister K-Love affiliate WNKL/96.9 Wauseon, to K-Love parent Educational Media Foundation in California.

The sale was approved March 27, according to FCC records, though final consummation is still pending. WNWT will be converted to non-commercial status under EMF's ownership, and that alone would spell the end for the commercial talk format now on the station.

If Mr. Neff wants to "ride again" on AM talk radio in Toledo, his only other option would appear to be to buy time on Cumulus talk WTOD/1560 "SuperTalk 1560"...

Monday's Stack Of Other Stuff

In the wake of our report on the new WNCX morning show, here is our "stack of other stuff". But first, a "live" update on that report we posted Sunday evening...

99% THERE: As we reported, CBS Radio Cleveland classic rocker WNCX/98.5 has made a change in its morning drive show.

Former co-host Mike Oleszewski is indeed no longer a part of the "WNCX Morning Show" as of this morning, and incumbent host Scott Miller is indeed being joined by local comedian Jeff Blanchard, as we reported.

The station's website has digitally inserted Blanchard's picture, next to Miller in the previous publicity picture.

Oleszewski has been cropped out of both the show and the station's website. (That's gotta hurt. For Oleszewski, this is definitely NOT "Fun with Photoshop".)

The "1%" glitch in our report - for now, at least this morning, the new show is not adopting the name we heard it would, "The Morning Rush". It's the "'NCX Morning Show" "with Scott and Jeff". (If there is a change, it's the "'NCX" part with the now-silent W.)

We don't know if that "Morning Rush" name will come later, or if they decided to launch without a new name for the show.

Either way, it is Scott Miller and Jeff Blanchard on 98.5 this morning...

KAT STARTS: Trade sites report that Clear Channel country WGAR/99.5 Cleveland night personality Kat Jackson will take over that same time slot on sister country WMZQ in Washington DC starting tonight.

But...we're having trouble figuring out this one.

The announcement from WMZQ program director Meg Stevens, who also oversees WPOC/Baltimore and once programmed WGAR itself, "announces the arrival" of Jackson for the WMZQ 7 PM-midnight slot in Washington.

Kat isn't going away from WGAR, as she'll continue to air in the same shift on the Cleveland country station - in addition to keeping her presence on WGAR sister classic hits outlet WMJI, and on a Hartford CT station.

But we can't determine if Kat - an area native - is moving from Cleveland to Washington DC...or if she's just adding WMZQ to her voicetracking lineup...or if she's live on any of the four stations.

WGAR and WMZQ share one other on-air personality - WPOC's "Michael J.", who voicetracks (we're sure of that) WGAR's midday slot from Baltimore, and also fills WMZQ's afternoon drive slot...

THIS IS HERE: As was reported in the Plain Dealer a couple of weeks ago, and repeated here, Raycom Media MyNetwork TV affiliate WUAB/43 has indeed sprouted a new subchannel.

As long expected, the sister station of CBS affiliate WOIO/19 "Cleveland's CBS 19" is airing the "This TV" feed of classic movies and other programming provided by the MGM studio. We don't know exactly when it went up on WUAB-DT 43.2, but it was expected to start April 1st.

We stumbled onto it on our digital tuner over the weekend, when the old western "Bat Masterson" was airing. And "Masterson" is a pretty good example of what could be described as a second-tier lineup of MGM movies and shows. A reader writes:

The biggest show I saw listed for "This" week is "Throw Mama From The Train". The rest are movies I have heard little or nothing about in the past.

Of "This'" non-movie lineup, the only thing we noticed or recognized was the classic talking horse sitcom "Mr. Ed". As we noted, it'd appear to us that MGM sold off the rights to its biggest titles long before this channel was created. (If we recall, "Mr. Ed" was one of the original staples of the cable channel "TV Land", and rotated out of that channel's schedule some time ago.)

As of this writing, "This TV Cleveland" hasn't yet made it to the digital channel lineup of Time Warner Cable's massive Northeast Ohio system. Raycom was said to be negotiating with local cable operators for carriage, and we still expect that to happen at some point.

The "This TV" offering is said to be pretty flexible, as far as local stations are concerned. For one, "This" is wrapped around the schedules of the Sinclair MyNetwork TV subchannel affiliates in Columbus (WSYX-DT) and Dayton (WRGT-DT).

But for now, OMW isn't hearing that WUAB/Raycom will offer any other programming on WUAB-DT 43.2...

That Cleveland Morning Show Change

We apologize for holding this for an extra day or so, but...we have a lot more information about the item we hinted about on our Twitter feed late Friday.

OMW hears from reliable sources that Cleveland CBS Radio classic rock WNCX/98.5 morning drive co-host Mike Oleszewski is no longer with the station...exiting the building after Friday's show.

In place of "The WNCX Morning Show", we're told, will be a new show called "The Morning Rush", where incumbent morning host Scott Miller will be joined by a voice familiar to WNCX listeners...local comedian Jeff Blanchard. As far as we know, the new "Morning Rush" show will start on Monday.

Blanchard has made regular appearances on the previous "WNCX Morning Show", and participated in the station's "Classic Cleveland Comic" contest earlier this year.

Those who haven't tuned into WNCX, or who haven't visited a comedy club, may still recognize Blanchard's voice...or even his face, seen to the left courtesy of his Facebook page.

Blanchard has played the "Cleveland Guy" Average-Cleveland-Joe-Six-Pack character in televised promos for Raycom Media CBS affiliate WOIO/19's "19 Action News".

You know, the guy who tells viewers that "Action News" anchor Denise Dufala is "easy on the eyes, if you know what I mean".

As Blanchard and Miller move onto the new WNCX morning show era, the exit of Oleszewski means the original local post-Howard Stern era morning show team on the station has now fully unraveled...with the previous exits of the other members of the "Mud, Mihalik and Mike" show - Wynn "Mud" Richards (ex-M105 personality) and Kim Mihalik (former WTAM afternoon drive co-host).

Of course, WNCX, like many CBS Radio owned former Stern affiliates, was saddled with the So Awful We Can't Describe It David Lee Roth Morning Drive Radio Experiment...until 98.5 went local in morning drive before Roth's show swallowed the Cleveland classic rocker whole.

Scott Miller, the former program director of sister AC WDOK/102.1, stepped in to lead the WNCX show after "Mud's" exit, and will stay on with Blanchard as the show transforms into "Morning Rush"...

It's April 2nd

We've turned the calendar to April 2nd, which means you may actually be able to believe what you hear or read again.

We'll have an April Fools' Day aftermath item later in this scroll...but more important information comes first...

NEWSCHANNEL 5 CHANGES: It's not quite the talent upheaval that Cleveland Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 "NewsChannel 5" has been known for in the past couple of years or so...but the station is doing some more on-air shuffling in the next week or so.

OMW hears that "NC5"'s Alicia Booth will become dedicated to full-time health reporting, which means she won't be seen anchoring "NewsChannel 5 at Noon" anymore.

Sources at 3001 Euclid tell us that Lee Jordan will remain as a noon show anchor, and will be joined by "Good Morning Cleveland" co-anchors Kimberly Gill and Pete Kenworthy.

No, "NC5" isn't expanding the set for a three-person team...Gill and Kenworthy will apparently switch off with the noon co-anchor duties, with Gill joining Lee Jordan some days, and Kenworthy joining Jordan on other days.

We don't know if that's "set" on the schedule or not, or if it depends on who has a story, or perhaps errands to run, in late morning...

NEW BLOG: It's just starting, but OMW has a new sister (brother?) blog.

As hinted earlier, we've started the Ohio Digital TV Blog - we presume we'll call it "ODTV" for short. The ODTV blog will provide all the detailed information on the digital TV transition you've come to expect from OMW, but in a separate entity.

Not only does this allow us to go off into digital TV land in great detail...it also allows us to move the minutae off the main blog. We realize not everyone is interested in such detail here.

We'll post links to new items here as needed, newswise, but the "DTV meat" will be "over there" from now on...

LIRPA SLOOF PART 1: Borrowing the header from the name of PBRTV.com's once-a-year "staff writer"...

It is indeed April 2nd, and that means that Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 is indeed back to being...uh, WTAM.

The station kept its April Fools' Day joke - a wholesale conversion to 1100's former "3WE" branding - going all day.

Even afternoon driver Mike Trivisonno, who was clearly not a willing participant, mostly let the prank go unabated on his 3-7 PM show...with an occasional stumble on the station name when going to callers ("what am I supposed to say here...uh...3WE, you're in the air!") before finally just settling on the usual "WTAM 1100".

And aside from telling a caller jokingly asking about the 3WE branding "it's amazing what people fall for", Triv didn't call attention to the gag.

But a willing participant in the day-long joke? Premiere's Glenn Beck, who recorded liners welcoming listeners to "Radio 1100, 3WE"...

LIRPA SLOOF 2: Elsewhere in April Fools' land, it was the second year in a row for WKYC/3 7 PM co-anchor Eric Mansfield pranking on his "Have I Got News For You" blog.

After "breaking news" online about a new aquarium coming to Akron last year, this time around, it was a Big Bang at the University of Akron's new (insert name of telemarketing company) Stadium. Quoting Eric's original post:

The announcement is coming early next week, but I've learned that rock legends Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin will christen Akron's new football stadium with back-to-back concerts on Sept. 11th and 12th. The two icons of Rock are making Akron the second stop on their "Better off Dead" tour .. which looks to be a blockbuster in the world of music.

Eric's 2009 joke went multimedia, with Clear Channel hot AC WKDD/98.1 morning drive host Matt Patrick taking part in the merriment as well.

But no, the "two icons of Rock" won't be performing before the University of Akron Zips first take the field at their new stadium. Check the calendar...

Eric has a follow up here:

As most of you figured out quickly, my blog post about the big Clapton/Zeppelin concert is an April Fool's joke.

There's no concert at the new U of A stadium ... and as far as I know, Led Zeppelin and Clapton won't be passing through any time soon.

Still .. it was a fun few hours as Matt Patrick and Krissi Taylor picked up on my prank and had some fun with the WKDD morning drive. Their listeners (most anyway) saw through the April Fool's prank right away.

The "Big Concert" story never made it to air on WKYC, of course. Mansfield tried to keep it, as intended, only on his personal blog.

But that personal blog has a feed which gets scraped by the station's Twitter account, and...oops, there it went out to the world with a Channel 3 logo attached! (Eric says he leapt into action when he learned that it appeared there, and pulled the link. At least he didn't add anything about changing the time of a Saturday yoga class.)

Meanwhile, former WKYCer, friend of Eric Mansfield, and OMW reader Chris Hyser points out some of those dangers in his own blog:

You see, those social media sites are ALSO "official" ways to distribute the news. In fact, my friend uses both to solicit both story ideas, and to "tease" folks to that evening's newscasts.

Today, some of his Facebook "friends" have already posted responses that indicate they believe his joke is a REAL story that my former colleague is breaking.

This is really, really dangerous to me.

Lesson learned, we would assume, assuming Eric does another one in 2010. The importance of "new media" has grown between April 1, 2008 and April 1, 2009, and that trend is only likely to continue.

Eric is a good guy and a solid journalist, and didn't expect the prank to get swept up off his blog. But even so, that blog does feature his in-depth takes on actual news stories, like the Akron pizza shop robbery item that's up now...

LIRPA SLOOF 3: One of our readers asked if we'd heard anything about yet another delay in the digital TV transition...but this is an item we won't put up on the new blog.

He pointed to this item on PBRTV:

Just when you thought that the transition to digital TV would finally take place by June 12th, you might want to sit down. According to sources in Washington, both leaders in the U.S. House and Senate are looking at ways to delay the DTV transition AGAIN until December 25th. Yes folks, December 25th is Christmas believe it or not.

Aside from the April 1st date on PBRTV contributor and OMW reader Tom Lavery's item, take a look at the last line:

Thanks to PBRTV reader Josh Kiddenya for this breaking news update.

Yep, Josh Kiddenya.

And Tom even had us going for a minute...

Check The Calendar

It's not even noon, and already, we've received about a half-dozen E-mails asking if Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 Cleveland is planning any programming changes after re-adopting its former "3WE" identity today.

We don't blame you for being thrown for a temporary loop.

We haven't asked anyone at Oak Tree about it, because it would very much appear to be an April Fools' Day prank by Cleveland's "Big One".

WTAM has not only been playing 3WE jingles, its newscasters continue to refer to the station as "NewsRadio 1100 3WE"

And the station's prank even made it to its website, where a 3WE logo now sits.

(The site itself continues to sit at WTAM.com - don't bother trying "3WE.com" or "WWWE.com", as they are standard domain parking/advertising collection pages not connected with the station.)

The Temporary 3WE is not the only station looking at the calendar and saying "Oh, it's April 1st!".

Down in Canton, OMW hears that the morning shows at NextMedia talk WHBC/1480 and AC WHBC-FM/94.1 "Mix 94.1" swapped places this morning, with "Fred and Pam" on the FM dial, and "Kathy and Rik" on the AM side.

The move has unnerved some long-time 1480 listeners...we've heard a number of complaint calls on midday host Ron Ponder's show, including one from a woman who is still fuming that she missed the "6 AM news and weather" on the AM station because "those unprofessional people" from the FM were on 1480 instead.

(We'll take a guess that the older woman is not exactly in WHBC-FM's target demographic.)

Ponder's listeners were also rattled by hearing the opening music of syndicated midday host Dennis Miller at the start of Ponder's mid-morning time slot. And no, they weren't happy. And we'll assume that the fact Ponder is answering his own phones, without a screener, isn't an April Fools' Day joke.

The folks on Market South may want to tread carefully with this April Fools' Day thing.

With AM 1480 being subject to a whole host of changes that have thrown curves at listeners in the past couple of years, it's probably best that afternoon drive host Sam Bourquin stay away from the April 1st pranks today.

After all, Bourquin himself occupies the afternoon drive slot because of what was definitely not an April Fools' Joke - the budget-related dismissal of previous host Jim Albright.

In the Akron market, a listener tells us that talk WHLO/640 mid-morning host Matt Patrick told listeners that he's retiring at the end of the year. (Isn't that a repeat April Fools' Joke for him? Oh, we remember...it was around the time that sister station WARF/1350 became a liberal talk station.)

Feel free to add word of other April Fools' Day pranks, either as comments here, or via E-mail...