We have a lot going on this start of the week, so we might as well go on.
Please note: our publishing schedule will still be quite sporadic, and there are days we may not be able to be here. We'll try to keep our Twitter feed going whenever possible...
THE 3001 EUCLID SHUFFLE: If this is February 8th, it must be time for the 3001 Euclid Anchor Shuffle.
More than any station in the Cleveland TV market, Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 keeps rotating its anchors in and out, trying new combinations, or generally "seeing what works".
The station has its first permanent anchor schedule since long-time anchor Ted Henry left the building nearly 9 months ago, and here it is:
Noon: Leon Bibb (solo)
5 PM/Live on Five: Danita Harris and Lee Jordan
6 PM: Leon Bibb and Lee Jordan
11 PM: Danita Harris (solo)
"Good Morning Cleveland" - with anchors Pete Kenworthy and Kimberly Gill - is unaffected.
At most stations, there's at least a "main anchor team" doing either 5 and 11 PM, or 6 and 11 PM, or all three newscasts. WEWS appears to want to mix it up.
With the 11 PM anchor slot solo, Danita Harris becomes the second African-American female solo anchor in the market...with Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3's Romona Robinson the first, of course...
INCOMING?: OMW hears that Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8 "Fox 8" is looking to fill the opening left behind when popular Melissa Mack headed for Boston, and a gig at CBS O&O WBZ/4.
A Northeast Ohio native, who currently toils in the Grand Rapids MI market, was spotted at South Marginal auditioning for the role over the weekend. (We'll assume she, or whichever weathercaster WJW hires, will take her place as a part of "Fox 8 News in the Morning", and cover similar duties.)
Stay tuned...
FIRST UP: ...to occupy the vacated Clear Channel talk WKBN/570 Youngstown morning drive chair this week is Mike Romigh.
Yes, that's the long-time former host at CBS Radio news/talk KDKA/1020 Pittsburgh, where now-former WKBN morning drive host Robert Mangino has landed in the evening slot.
Since leaving "KD", a quick Google search tells us that Romigh has been working for a Beaver County PA congressman, and for an economic development group based in the suburban Pittsburgh county.
OMW hears that Romigh is among those who are "up for the job", and no final decision has been made...and we don't know who will be heard in the WKBN morning slot after him...
PIONEER PASSES: There's actually a long history of Spanish-language radio in the Cleveland market, though only two non-commercial rimshot stations (Painesville's WHWN/88.3 and out-past-Lorain's WNZN/89.1) broadcast in the language full time. A number of local educational and non-commercial stations, and even commercial stations, have had such programs on weekends.
A pioneer in Latino-focused broadcasting in Cleveland has passed away.
The Plain Dealer's Cleveland.com carries the obituary for Daniel "Junior" Vargas, who died last month at the age of 71:
Junior was Cleveland's finest voice of Latino Radio on WZAK & WCSB for over 40 years. Your music will play forever!
An OMW reader tells us that Mario Ivan Benavides succeded "Junior", and that he now broadcasts "Latino International" on WCSB...
NYLA FOUND: OMW hears out of South Marginal that an apparently well-liked former presence on WJW's "Fox 8 News in the Morning" has a broadcast home.
After some time out of the media light, "Nyla" is now heard on Radio One talk/brokered WERE/1490 Cleveland Heights "NewsTalk 1490" Sunday evenings from 6-10 PM, on a program the station's schedule calls "Healing The Hurt Gospel With Miss Nyla And Daniel".
(The schedule actually has the show running until 2 AM Monday mornings, which we presume is a repeat of the live 6-10 PM airing.)
We hear that Nyla still gets E-mails at South Marginal, wondering what happened to her, so there you go...
Monday, February 08, 2010
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Talking Mostly About The Valley
More random, unconnected (mostly), but important items...mostly concerning the Mahoning Valley this time around...
WKBN OPENING: Clear Channel talk WKBN/570 Youngstown is officially advertising its morning drive opening.
The time slot became open when long-time morning drive host Robert Mangino accepted the evening host job at CBS Radio news/talk KDKA/1020 Pittsburgh.
As a public service to our readers, we're reprinting the ad here:
A rare opportunity now exists and brings with it a chance to join Clear Channel's NEWSRADIO 570 WKBN in Youngstown Ohio.
We are looking for an experienced Talk Show host who is listener, as well as advertiser friendly.
Ideally, our candidate will have knowledge, not only of current events, but the special things that make up the landscape of Northeastern Ohio and Western Pa.
Ytown is a great place to live, work, and a great place to raise a family.
Resumes and work samples ( please no gigantic files) should be sent to;
youngstownjobs (at) clearchannel (dot) com
or
HR Director
Clear Channel Radio and Digital
7461 South Avenue
Youngstown , Ohio 44512
Clear Channel is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All who feel they are qualified are encouraged to apply.
Deadline for application is close of business February 15th, 2010.
The Mahoning Valley is indeed unique, and your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) has had some time in the market, so we know it pretty well. It ought to be interesting what kind of replacement WKBN finds for Mr. Mangino...
JIMBO: While we're talking about the Valley, former congressman-turned-now-ex-con Jim Traficant continues to make noises about running for Congress again.
As we noted earlier, Traficant, who now hosts the early Saturday afternoon shift on Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 Cleveland, has an "early out" clause in his WTAM deal in case he does attempt a return to Washington.
Jimbo's most recent noise came in his first post-prison appearance in Akron. The Akron area is (partly) in the restructured version of the old 17th Congressional District Traficant served for so long.
The Akron Beacon Journal's Stephanie Warsmith reports that Traficant told the crowd at a Libertarian Party candidate's fundraiser at Akron's Tangier restaurant that he "will run" for Congress:
Traficant is focusing on the 6th and the 17th districts and must chose one by the Feb. 18 filing deadline for the May primary, unless he chooses to run as an independent. Charlie Wilson represents the 6th District, while Tim Ryan has the 17th, Traficant's former district, which has been reconfigured and includes parts of Summit and Portage counties. Wilson and Ryan both are Democrats.
Enjoy Traficant as a talk radio host (assuming you do enjoy him) while you can. This man sounds like he's headed for a Congressional race, one way or the other, and he'll have to exit WTAM as soon as he officially announces his candidacy.
If he isn't running, well, his home market Clear Channel talk station has an opening we posted above...
SPEAKING OF WKBN: A listener notes that Talk Radio Network's Phil Hendrie is out at the Youngstown talker, replaced by the syndicated John Batchelor program.
(We don't know who syndicates Batchelor these days...at one point, he was an ABC Radio/Citadel offering, but we believe flagship Citadel talk WABC/770 New York City is handling things directly now. The show's site contains no clue as to its syndicator.)
Our reader wants to know why...and speculated that either Hendrie cost too much, or said something he shouldn't have.
We don't have any answers from South Avenue on this.
But we told our reader that syndicated program changes on local radio stations are usually more mundane than intriguing, and usually don't involve money issues - most syndicated talk radio programs are free, offered on a "barter" basis (i.e. the station gets the show in exchange for airing the show's national commercials). There are exceptions: for example, Premiere midday talk titan Rush Limbaugh.
We don't know the status of either Mr. Hendrie or Mr. Batchelor's programs, but we suspect they are both typical "barter" shows...and we are pretty sure nothing Hendrie said got him bounced off WKBN...
ONE NON-VALLEY ITEM: A couple of OMW readers noticed that the full-time "Worship Channel" feed has disappeared off of Cleveland market ION Network O&O WVPX/23 Akron's over-air feed, where it aired on subchannel 23.4.
The story behind the exit is told by the Worship Network folks themselves, on their website, in the January 2010 newsletter section:
Due to changes in our contractual relationship with ION, The Worship Network will no longer be available on the ION digital multi-cast platform effective midnight January 31, 2010. In the short-term, this will also affect our channel on Verizon FiOS.
The network is supposedly seen at least part-time in parts of the Cleveland market on low-power WCDN/53, which is now putting out a digital signal on RF channel 7...
WKBN OPENING: Clear Channel talk WKBN/570 Youngstown is officially advertising its morning drive opening.
The time slot became open when long-time morning drive host Robert Mangino accepted the evening host job at CBS Radio news/talk KDKA/1020 Pittsburgh.
As a public service to our readers, we're reprinting the ad here:
A rare opportunity now exists and brings with it a chance to join Clear Channel's NEWSRADIO 570 WKBN in Youngstown Ohio.
We are looking for an experienced Talk Show host who is listener, as well as advertiser friendly.
Ideally, our candidate will have knowledge, not only of current events, but the special things that make up the landscape of Northeastern Ohio and Western Pa.
Ytown is a great place to live, work, and a great place to raise a family.
Resumes and work samples ( please no gigantic files) should be sent to;
youngstownjobs (at) clearchannel (dot) com
or
HR Director
Clear Channel Radio and Digital
7461 South Avenue
Youngstown , Ohio 44512
Clear Channel is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All who feel they are qualified are encouraged to apply.
Deadline for application is close of business February 15th, 2010.
The Mahoning Valley is indeed unique, and your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) has had some time in the market, so we know it pretty well. It ought to be interesting what kind of replacement WKBN finds for Mr. Mangino...
JIMBO: While we're talking about the Valley, former congressman-turned-now-ex-con Jim Traficant continues to make noises about running for Congress again.
As we noted earlier, Traficant, who now hosts the early Saturday afternoon shift on Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 Cleveland, has an "early out" clause in his WTAM deal in case he does attempt a return to Washington.
Jimbo's most recent noise came in his first post-prison appearance in Akron. The Akron area is (partly) in the restructured version of the old 17th Congressional District Traficant served for so long.
The Akron Beacon Journal's Stephanie Warsmith reports that Traficant told the crowd at a Libertarian Party candidate's fundraiser at Akron's Tangier restaurant that he "will run" for Congress:
Traficant is focusing on the 6th and the 17th districts and must chose one by the Feb. 18 filing deadline for the May primary, unless he chooses to run as an independent. Charlie Wilson represents the 6th District, while Tim Ryan has the 17th, Traficant's former district, which has been reconfigured and includes parts of Summit and Portage counties. Wilson and Ryan both are Democrats.
Enjoy Traficant as a talk radio host (assuming you do enjoy him) while you can. This man sounds like he's headed for a Congressional race, one way or the other, and he'll have to exit WTAM as soon as he officially announces his candidacy.
If he isn't running, well, his home market Clear Channel talk station has an opening we posted above...
SPEAKING OF WKBN: A listener notes that Talk Radio Network's Phil Hendrie is out at the Youngstown talker, replaced by the syndicated John Batchelor program.
(We don't know who syndicates Batchelor these days...at one point, he was an ABC Radio/Citadel offering, but we believe flagship Citadel talk WABC/770 New York City is handling things directly now. The show's site contains no clue as to its syndicator.)
Our reader wants to know why...and speculated that either Hendrie cost too much, or said something he shouldn't have.
We don't have any answers from South Avenue on this.
But we told our reader that syndicated program changes on local radio stations are usually more mundane than intriguing, and usually don't involve money issues - most syndicated talk radio programs are free, offered on a "barter" basis (i.e. the station gets the show in exchange for airing the show's national commercials). There are exceptions: for example, Premiere midday talk titan Rush Limbaugh.
We don't know the status of either Mr. Hendrie or Mr. Batchelor's programs, but we suspect they are both typical "barter" shows...and we are pretty sure nothing Hendrie said got him bounced off WKBN...
ONE NON-VALLEY ITEM: A couple of OMW readers noticed that the full-time "Worship Channel" feed has disappeared off of Cleveland market ION Network O&O WVPX/23 Akron's over-air feed, where it aired on subchannel 23.4.
The story behind the exit is told by the Worship Network folks themselves, on their website, in the January 2010 newsletter section:
Due to changes in our contractual relationship with ION, The Worship Network will no longer be available on the ION digital multi-cast platform effective midnight January 31, 2010. In the short-term, this will also affect our channel on Verizon FiOS.
The network is supposedly seen at least part-time in parts of the Cleveland market on low-power WCDN/53, which is now putting out a digital signal on RF channel 7...
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Tuesday Night Clear Out
UPDATE 2/3/10 9:15 AM: Duji is back on "Rover's Morning Glory", as the show talks about working through a "very difficult" personal dispute between Duji and Rover, who used to date. That's all for us on this topic.
For those looking for the "gory details", "19 Action News" has more...
-----------
Clearing out not only our Twitter feed, but some other stuff...some interesting, some frustrating...
WHERE'S DUJI?: No, we haven't seen the face of Clear Channel rock/talk WMMS/100.7 "Rover's Morning Glory" cast member Duji on any milk cartons in Northeast Ohio, but some are looking for her there.
The sudden absence of Duji's name, picture or staff listing on the show's in-house "Rover Radio" site led a virtual flood of E-mails into our inbox this weekend into early this week.
We've been trying to find out why - and if it means anything or not. So far, we haven't heard any word from inside Oak Tree...even among our usual sources in the building.
There seems to be considerable sentiment among Rover fans, who have been following our Twitter account in large numbers over the past day or so, that this could be some sort of "publicity stunt".
That, we don't know.
What we do know is that Shane "Rover" French complained of illness on his Friday show, and that "RMG" has been in repeats this week so far. Duji's voice has been heard on the repeats, but as a show-listening relative pointed out, it's hard to air repeat programming that is "Duji-free", due to her role on the show.
Oh, and WMMS has posted an ad for an "off-air producer" for the show, though we have no idea how long that ad has run, or if it has anything to do with Duji's (off-air) work on the show.
Duji's absence from the "RMG" site has merited a mention on the radio trade site AllAccess, but they don't seem to know any more than we do.
If there's anything to report on this, stay tuned...but we'll stop tracking the "could it be?" moves until then...
JOY'S EXIT: OMW hears that Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 is not renewing the contract of "NewsChannel 5" reporter Joy Benedict, who has been heavily promoted as a consumer reporter for the station.
We hear Joy's last day at WEWS will be in March...and we don't know who will take the consumer reporting beat from her...
GOING JUST A BIT FAR: We really, really try to be fair with the folks at Reserve Square, home of Raycom Media's WOIO/19 and WUAB/43, and "19 Action News".
When they do something we like - one of the most recent examples is the hiring of former Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 voice Mark Schwab to handle weekend sports anchoring - we mention it here.
But then, they do something like this.
OMW hears that "Action News"' on-air needling of competitor WEWS/5's "Power of Five" radar is likely to reach a new level, and it's due to one of those incidents the folks at Reserve Square do so well.
We hear from our sources at WEWS that an "Action News" reporter paid a visit to 3001 Euclid the other day, ostensibly for a friendly visit with "NewsChannel 5" chief meteorologist Mark Johnson.
We're told (by the WEWS sources) that Johnson instead got a full-court press...an on-camera interrogation on the "Power of 5" radar, including questions about its location(s).
For the record, the 5 radars are not owned by WEWS, but the data comes from National Weather Service locations. Really, like anyone thought "NewsChannel 5" owns radars in places like Wilmington OH and Fort Wayne IN...
WOIO has made quite a point in promos about the superiority of its live radar, which comes from a station-owned facility along I-71 in Brunswick. Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3 has the other in-house TV radar in Cleveland, which can be seen behind its studios at 13th and Lakeside.
This kind of incident when it comes to competitors is in the DNA of WOIO. "19 Action News" has a long history of being the Cleveland market's Stalker Station.
Just to cite two examples from memory:
* "Action News" treated an incident involving staff of Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8 as if it were vital to national security, leading with the story with partially-hidden-behind-the-truck live shots near the South Marginal Road studios of its competitor.
* And who can forget when WOIO camped out on the Medina doorstep of WJW weather icon Dick Goddard, upon learning of allegations against someone else in his house? (The personable weatherman was actually the victim in the case.)
This may be the first such thing involving WEWS..."Action News" generally seems to have it in for "Fox 8"...but watch out, "Channel 3 News", as you may be next...
PAT'S MOVING ON: We don't cover the print media all that much here in your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), but we've covered the moves of Akron Beacon Journal sportswriter Pat McManamon before.
And...as hinted in his Sunday column, he's leaving the Beacon again for new horizons.
According to the Cleveland Scene sports blog, McManamon is heading for the Internet, as a writer for AOL's Fanhouse site. Quoting McManamon from the Scene blog:
"It wasn't easy to leave a place that has been so good to me, and a job that was so much fun. But AOL Fanhouse is growing, aggressive and has a national audience. And I can write about the same teams and sports. It just seemed like the right move at the right time."
Yes, that means the now-former ABJ sportswriter will cover the Browns, Indians and Cavaliers for the site, which is apparently chock full of former newspaper sportswriters. Maybe there is life after newsprint after all, at least for those covering sports.
Pat heads off into the ABJ sunset in a blog post here, which also has his E-mail contact address for those who want to wish him well:
The decision was not an easy one because the Akron Beacon Journal has been a good place to work these past 11 years. The daily newspaper means a lot to me, as does being part of a local community. The Beacon Journal was gracious in providing both. I am fortunate and blessed, and grateful to the Beacon for the many opportunities.
Though McManamon says he's been at the Beacon for 11 years, we seem to remember a brief break when he took a job writing for the Browns' in-house website...
For those looking for the "gory details", "19 Action News" has more...
-----------
Clearing out not only our Twitter feed, but some other stuff...some interesting, some frustrating...
WHERE'S DUJI?: No, we haven't seen the face of Clear Channel rock/talk WMMS/100.7 "Rover's Morning Glory" cast member Duji on any milk cartons in Northeast Ohio, but some are looking for her there.
The sudden absence of Duji's name, picture or staff listing on the show's in-house "Rover Radio" site led a virtual flood of E-mails into our inbox this weekend into early this week.
We've been trying to find out why - and if it means anything or not. So far, we haven't heard any word from inside Oak Tree...even among our usual sources in the building.
There seems to be considerable sentiment among Rover fans, who have been following our Twitter account in large numbers over the past day or so, that this could be some sort of "publicity stunt".
That, we don't know.
What we do know is that Shane "Rover" French complained of illness on his Friday show, and that "RMG" has been in repeats this week so far. Duji's voice has been heard on the repeats, but as a show-listening relative pointed out, it's hard to air repeat programming that is "Duji-free", due to her role on the show.
Oh, and WMMS has posted an ad for an "off-air producer" for the show, though we have no idea how long that ad has run, or if it has anything to do with Duji's (off-air) work on the show.
Duji's absence from the "RMG" site has merited a mention on the radio trade site AllAccess, but they don't seem to know any more than we do.
If there's anything to report on this, stay tuned...but we'll stop tracking the "could it be?" moves until then...
JOY'S EXIT: OMW hears that Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 is not renewing the contract of "NewsChannel 5" reporter Joy Benedict, who has been heavily promoted as a consumer reporter for the station.
We hear Joy's last day at WEWS will be in March...and we don't know who will take the consumer reporting beat from her...
GOING JUST A BIT FAR: We really, really try to be fair with the folks at Reserve Square, home of Raycom Media's WOIO/19 and WUAB/43, and "19 Action News".
When they do something we like - one of the most recent examples is the hiring of former Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 voice Mark Schwab to handle weekend sports anchoring - we mention it here.
But then, they do something like this.
OMW hears that "Action News"' on-air needling of competitor WEWS/5's "Power of Five" radar is likely to reach a new level, and it's due to one of those incidents the folks at Reserve Square do so well.
We hear from our sources at WEWS that an "Action News" reporter paid a visit to 3001 Euclid the other day, ostensibly for a friendly visit with "NewsChannel 5" chief meteorologist Mark Johnson.
We're told (by the WEWS sources) that Johnson instead got a full-court press...an on-camera interrogation on the "Power of 5" radar, including questions about its location(s).
For the record, the 5 radars are not owned by WEWS, but the data comes from National Weather Service locations. Really, like anyone thought "NewsChannel 5" owns radars in places like Wilmington OH and Fort Wayne IN...
WOIO has made quite a point in promos about the superiority of its live radar, which comes from a station-owned facility along I-71 in Brunswick. Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3 has the other in-house TV radar in Cleveland, which can be seen behind its studios at 13th and Lakeside.
This kind of incident when it comes to competitors is in the DNA of WOIO. "19 Action News" has a long history of being the Cleveland market's Stalker Station.
Just to cite two examples from memory:
* "Action News" treated an incident involving staff of Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8 as if it were vital to national security, leading with the story with partially-hidden-behind-the-truck live shots near the South Marginal Road studios of its competitor.
* And who can forget when WOIO camped out on the Medina doorstep of WJW weather icon Dick Goddard, upon learning of allegations against someone else in his house? (The personable weatherman was actually the victim in the case.)
This may be the first such thing involving WEWS..."Action News" generally seems to have it in for "Fox 8"...but watch out, "Channel 3 News", as you may be next...
PAT'S MOVING ON: We don't cover the print media all that much here in your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), but we've covered the moves of Akron Beacon Journal sportswriter Pat McManamon before.
And...as hinted in his Sunday column, he's leaving the Beacon again for new horizons.
According to the Cleveland Scene sports blog, McManamon is heading for the Internet, as a writer for AOL's Fanhouse site. Quoting McManamon from the Scene blog:
"It wasn't easy to leave a place that has been so good to me, and a job that was so much fun. But AOL Fanhouse is growing, aggressive and has a national audience. And I can write about the same teams and sports. It just seemed like the right move at the right time."
Yes, that means the now-former ABJ sportswriter will cover the Browns, Indians and Cavaliers for the site, which is apparently chock full of former newspaper sportswriters. Maybe there is life after newsprint after all, at least for those covering sports.
Pat heads off into the ABJ sunset in a blog post here, which also has his E-mail contact address for those who want to wish him well:
The decision was not an easy one because the Akron Beacon Journal has been a good place to work these past 11 years. The daily newspaper means a lot to me, as does being part of a local community. The Beacon Journal was gracious in providing both. I am fortunate and blessed, and grateful to the Beacon for the many opportunities.
Though McManamon says he's been at the Beacon for 11 years, we seem to remember a brief break when he took a job writing for the Browns' in-house website...
Friday, January 29, 2010
The Twitter Followup
In the current State of OMW, it'll be much more convenient to update via our Twitter feed, which is also seen to the left of this report.
As it turns out, this time around, there's a lot to recap over the past few days...so let's tackle the items in reverse chronological order...
MANGINO TO KDKA: Clear Channel talk WKBN/570 Youngstown morning drive host Robert Mangino is heading down the Ohio and Pennsylvania Turnpikes. He'll take the open 6-10 PM talk slot at CBS Radio news/talk KDKA/1020 Pittsburgh.
The Youngstown Business Journal has more.
That evening time slot used to be occupied by KDKA's Mike Pintek ("Pintek Tonight"), but Pintek was recently named the station's 12 noon-3 PM host.
That midday time slot became vacant in the worst possible way, as veteran host Fred Honsburger passed away.
Mangino started in talk radio as host at what used to be a Clear Channel sister station to WKBN - now-Forever talk WKST in New Castle PA, not that terribly far from Pittsburgh.
There's no word yet on what WKBN plans to do in morning drive...but if Clear Channel Youngstown market manager and OMW reader Bill Kelly is reading, we'd be happy to hear from him...
BACK TO NE OHIO: Word came rather quickly that NextMedia hot AC WHBC-FM 94.1 Canton "Mix 94.1" program director and afternoon host Jerry Mac was no longer in that position, but word came even faster about his replacement.
And what do you know...it's someone who can find the Pro Football Hall of Fame without help.
"Mix's" new PD is inbound from Saginaw MI's WGER (a NextMedia sister to WHBC-FM), but he's familiar to Northeast Ohio radio listeners and readers of the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) - former CBS Radio hot AC WQAL/104.1 Cleveland "Q104" assistant program director/PM driver Brian "Fig" Figula will start on-air in Canton on Monday.
"Fig" will, according to AllAccess, will continue his duties programming the Saginaw station...from Canton...
A SHANLEY PASSES: The last name "Shanley" is certainly known in Northeast Ohio...the late Gib Shanley was a local sportscaster - at Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 and the long-time radio voice of the Cleveland Browns.
Shanley's son Greg later built quite a career for himself, as a news director and talk show host for Iowa' Public Radio. Greg Shanley died Tuesday night.
The Waterloo (IA) Courier has more:
Pat Blank, his longtime station co-worker, said the on-air host and producer once told her he had thought about doing sports broadcasting like his father, Gib, the voice of the National Football League's Cleveland Browns for 24 years. But Shanley told Blank he got bored waiting for something exciting to happen and realized his passion was in news.
The newspaper reports that the younger Shanley had worked at the Iowa public radio network since 1987. The station's website schedule lists him as the host of the midday talk program "Talk of Iowa":
Host Greg Shanley brings a range of experts to the microphone to discuss the the things that make Iowa unique, offer practical advice on home improvement or insightful analysis of politics.
The main Iowa Public Radio site has a tribute graphic to Greg Shanley:
Over the 23 years we've known Greg, we've admired his curiosity about the world, as well as his ability to speak knowledgeably about anything from politics to horticulture. We'll all miss his engaging conversation, his love of Iowa, and his award-winning Double Burgers.
Greg Shanley died at the age of 49...
REALITY EXPERIMENT: Not on our Twitter list, and really, only worth a small mention.
Clear Channel rock/talk WMMS/100.7 Cleveland has added a new cast member to its afternoon drive "Alan Cox Show".
It's not like we have anything against 22 year-old Erika Lauren personally.
But she's the latest reality TV personality to waltz into a radio studio and take up a chair. Ms. Lauren is a cast member of MTV's "The Real World: Washington, DC", which may or may not be running its current season right now. (We long ago forgot where to find MTV on the cable dial.)
We have this old-fashioned notion that reality TV stars are not really radio hosts by background, trade or skill, but we'll give her a chance.
And long-time readers know we don't entirely hate the reality TV genre. The new season of CBS' "The Amazing Race" is almost underway, and we still hope some Pittsburgh radio station gives a show to Matt Kennedy Gould.
Ms. Lauren joins host Alan Cox and co-host Chad Zumock on the WMMS afternoon show, at least as long as the experiment lasts...
SOCIAL MEDIA: It's fitting that we used our Twitter account to give first word of another new job title for an Oak Tree denizen.
Clear Channel has named WMMS/WAKS "Kiss FM" program director Bo Matthews as its Director of Social Media.
Bo will be responsible for Twitter, Facebook and other online social media presence for the entire Clear Channel Cleveland cluster.
It's kind of a natural evolution. Matthews has already been busy using the various social media outlets to promote his stations, and to interact with WMMS and "Kiss" listeners...
As it turns out, this time around, there's a lot to recap over the past few days...so let's tackle the items in reverse chronological order...
MANGINO TO KDKA: Clear Channel talk WKBN/570 Youngstown morning drive host Robert Mangino is heading down the Ohio and Pennsylvania Turnpikes. He'll take the open 6-10 PM talk slot at CBS Radio news/talk KDKA/1020 Pittsburgh.
The Youngstown Business Journal has more.
That evening time slot used to be occupied by KDKA's Mike Pintek ("Pintek Tonight"), but Pintek was recently named the station's 12 noon-3 PM host.
That midday time slot became vacant in the worst possible way, as veteran host Fred Honsburger passed away.
Mangino started in talk radio as host at what used to be a Clear Channel sister station to WKBN - now-Forever talk WKST in New Castle PA, not that terribly far from Pittsburgh.
There's no word yet on what WKBN plans to do in morning drive...but if Clear Channel Youngstown market manager and OMW reader Bill Kelly is reading, we'd be happy to hear from him...
BACK TO NE OHIO: Word came rather quickly that NextMedia hot AC WHBC-FM 94.1 Canton "Mix 94.1" program director and afternoon host Jerry Mac was no longer in that position, but word came even faster about his replacement.
And what do you know...it's someone who can find the Pro Football Hall of Fame without help.
"Mix's" new PD is inbound from Saginaw MI's WGER (a NextMedia sister to WHBC-FM), but he's familiar to Northeast Ohio radio listeners and readers of the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) - former CBS Radio hot AC WQAL/104.1 Cleveland "Q104" assistant program director/PM driver Brian "Fig" Figula will start on-air in Canton on Monday.
"Fig" will, according to AllAccess, will continue his duties programming the Saginaw station...from Canton...
A SHANLEY PASSES: The last name "Shanley" is certainly known in Northeast Ohio...the late Gib Shanley was a local sportscaster - at Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 and the long-time radio voice of the Cleveland Browns.
Shanley's son Greg later built quite a career for himself, as a news director and talk show host for Iowa' Public Radio. Greg Shanley died Tuesday night.
The Waterloo (IA) Courier has more:
Pat Blank, his longtime station co-worker, said the on-air host and producer once told her he had thought about doing sports broadcasting like his father, Gib, the voice of the National Football League's Cleveland Browns for 24 years. But Shanley told Blank he got bored waiting for something exciting to happen and realized his passion was in news.
The newspaper reports that the younger Shanley had worked at the Iowa public radio network since 1987. The station's website schedule lists him as the host of the midday talk program "Talk of Iowa":
Host Greg Shanley brings a range of experts to the microphone to discuss the the things that make Iowa unique, offer practical advice on home improvement or insightful analysis of politics.
The main Iowa Public Radio site has a tribute graphic to Greg Shanley:
Over the 23 years we've known Greg, we've admired his curiosity about the world, as well as his ability to speak knowledgeably about anything from politics to horticulture. We'll all miss his engaging conversation, his love of Iowa, and his award-winning Double Burgers.
Greg Shanley died at the age of 49...
REALITY EXPERIMENT: Not on our Twitter list, and really, only worth a small mention.
Clear Channel rock/talk WMMS/100.7 Cleveland has added a new cast member to its afternoon drive "Alan Cox Show".
It's not like we have anything against 22 year-old Erika Lauren personally.
But she's the latest reality TV personality to waltz into a radio studio and take up a chair. Ms. Lauren is a cast member of MTV's "The Real World: Washington, DC", which may or may not be running its current season right now. (We long ago forgot where to find MTV on the cable dial.)
We have this old-fashioned notion that reality TV stars are not really radio hosts by background, trade or skill, but we'll give her a chance.
And long-time readers know we don't entirely hate the reality TV genre. The new season of CBS' "The Amazing Race" is almost underway, and we still hope some Pittsburgh radio station gives a show to Matt Kennedy Gould.
Ms. Lauren joins host Alan Cox and co-host Chad Zumock on the WMMS afternoon show, at least as long as the experiment lasts...
SOCIAL MEDIA: It's fitting that we used our Twitter account to give first word of another new job title for an Oak Tree denizen.
Clear Channel has named WMMS/WAKS "Kiss FM" program director Bo Matthews as its Director of Social Media.
Bo will be responsible for Twitter, Facebook and other online social media presence for the entire Clear Channel Cleveland cluster.
It's kind of a natural evolution. Matthews has already been busy using the various social media outlets to promote his stations, and to interact with WMMS and "Kiss" listeners...
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
A Quick Followup
Some follow-up, mostly, and some other stuff...
BEACON FOLLOWUP: Some additional information about our weekend story on the death of Beacon Broadcasting owner Harold Glunt, who passed away last week at the age of 75.
Beacon's Gregg Allen, not a stranger to the Mighty Blog, shared some of his thoughts in the comment section of the original item...noting Mr. Glunt's passage with "great sadness":
To most at the Beacon family, Mr. Glunt was much more than an owner and a boss, he was a friend and a second father. He was always quick with a smile, a prayer, and even a joke to make you smile.
As for the future of the five Mahoning and Shenango Valley stations under Glunt's ownership, after his death, Allen writes:
It was his wish for the radio stations to continue after his death, and that is EXACTLY what we are going to do.
Some of this may be beyond the staff's control, however.
OMW hears there have been talks with a potential ownership group that wants to buy at least one of the stations, Christian/eclectic/rock/talk WEXC/107.1 Greenville PA "Indie 107.1". The talks apparently took place, initially, while Harold Glunt was still alive.
Whether this group wishes to resume the talks - with Glunt's surviving family members - hasn't yet been determined, and it's not known if these potential investors would be interested in the four AMs in the Beacon chain now that Harold Glunt has passed on.
We also don't have a firm handle on the group itself, or its financial backing....or if Glunt's heirs have any desire to continue operating his radio stations.
So, with all that uncertainty, it appears the five stations will continue operating as they have...at least in the short term.
Allen notes that "Indie 107.1" is sending two party busloads of listeners to a Christian CHR concert, "Winter Jam 2010", this Friday...and is dedicating their sponsorship of the event to their late owner...
AIRLESS AMERICA: Unless you were under a media rock this past week, you're aware that as of this writing, liberal talk network Air America has gone dark.
The network announced that it was filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and ending all programming. Air America ended live programming last week, and offered up repeats for remaining affiliates until Monday night. Unlike previous bankruptcy filings, this one was a total liquidation.
This would have been a much bigger story in OMW a few years ago.
But...we're scratching our heads trying to figure out if there are any stations still running liberal talk programming in the state.
We believe tiny WAIS/770 Nelsonville (near Athens) was running Ed Schultz, but Ed is not - and has never been - part of Air America.
Neither has Stephanie Miller, who like Schultz is syndicated by the Dial Global folks. Both Miller and Schultz once counted at least some popularity, within the format, at Clear Channel liberal talkers in Columbus and Akron, and Schultz also ran on the company's liberal talk station in Cincinnati. All of the stations have long since changed format to conservative talk or sports.
We think there may still be a liberal talker owned by Clear Channel in the Portsmouth/Ironton area, but it may have flipped to sports while we weren't looking.
And of the stations listed, we're not sure any were still carrying Air America programming. In its final days, the "trailblazing" network of liberal talk was but a footnote...
SPEAKING OF EX-AIR AMERICANS: Jerry, Jerry, Jerry...could he be getting back into political talk?
No, not on the radio, but in Jerry Springer's more natural medium, television.
The Cincinnati Enquirer's John Kiesewetter has recently passed along word of a new pilot project involving the former Cincinnati mayor, trash TV talker, and former Air America host...with an interesting partner - a former co-worker of Jerry's at Clear Channel Cincinnati:
Score Round One for Jerry Springer. That’s my take on the “Jerry & Bill Show,” the pilot for a weekly debate show starring Springer and 700 WLW-AM’s Bill Cunningham that aired Sunday night (Jan. 10th) on WXIX-TV (Ch 19).
Though the pilot aired locally in Cincinnati on Raycom-owned "Fox 19", Kiesewetter noted that cable/satellite channel WGN America also aired the pilot, which was apparently developed for Tribune owned stations...by...oh, wait, this is too easy to guess...Tribune executives Randy Michaels and Sean Compton, both former Clear Channel (and WLW!) employees.
We'll have to see how far "Jerry & Bill", and Jerry and Bill, go in the format in the future. Jerry wasn't really a good radio host (we're being kind), so it may provide a measure on how he'll hold up in his "home medium" when people aren't throwing chairs around...
BEACON FOLLOWUP: Some additional information about our weekend story on the death of Beacon Broadcasting owner Harold Glunt, who passed away last week at the age of 75.
Beacon's Gregg Allen, not a stranger to the Mighty Blog, shared some of his thoughts in the comment section of the original item...noting Mr. Glunt's passage with "great sadness":
To most at the Beacon family, Mr. Glunt was much more than an owner and a boss, he was a friend and a second father. He was always quick with a smile, a prayer, and even a joke to make you smile.
As for the future of the five Mahoning and Shenango Valley stations under Glunt's ownership, after his death, Allen writes:
It was his wish for the radio stations to continue after his death, and that is EXACTLY what we are going to do.
Some of this may be beyond the staff's control, however.
OMW hears there have been talks with a potential ownership group that wants to buy at least one of the stations, Christian/eclectic/rock/talk WEXC/107.1 Greenville PA "Indie 107.1". The talks apparently took place, initially, while Harold Glunt was still alive.
Whether this group wishes to resume the talks - with Glunt's surviving family members - hasn't yet been determined, and it's not known if these potential investors would be interested in the four AMs in the Beacon chain now that Harold Glunt has passed on.
We also don't have a firm handle on the group itself, or its financial backing....or if Glunt's heirs have any desire to continue operating his radio stations.
So, with all that uncertainty, it appears the five stations will continue operating as they have...at least in the short term.
Allen notes that "Indie 107.1" is sending two party busloads of listeners to a Christian CHR concert, "Winter Jam 2010", this Friday...and is dedicating their sponsorship of the event to their late owner...
AIRLESS AMERICA: Unless you were under a media rock this past week, you're aware that as of this writing, liberal talk network Air America has gone dark.
The network announced that it was filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and ending all programming. Air America ended live programming last week, and offered up repeats for remaining affiliates until Monday night. Unlike previous bankruptcy filings, this one was a total liquidation.
This would have been a much bigger story in OMW a few years ago.
But...we're scratching our heads trying to figure out if there are any stations still running liberal talk programming in the state.
We believe tiny WAIS/770 Nelsonville (near Athens) was running Ed Schultz, but Ed is not - and has never been - part of Air America.
Neither has Stephanie Miller, who like Schultz is syndicated by the Dial Global folks. Both Miller and Schultz once counted at least some popularity, within the format, at Clear Channel liberal talkers in Columbus and Akron, and Schultz also ran on the company's liberal talk station in Cincinnati. All of the stations have long since changed format to conservative talk or sports.
We think there may still be a liberal talker owned by Clear Channel in the Portsmouth/Ironton area, but it may have flipped to sports while we weren't looking.
And of the stations listed, we're not sure any were still carrying Air America programming. In its final days, the "trailblazing" network of liberal talk was but a footnote...
SPEAKING OF EX-AIR AMERICANS: Jerry, Jerry, Jerry...could he be getting back into political talk?
No, not on the radio, but in Jerry Springer's more natural medium, television.
The Cincinnati Enquirer's John Kiesewetter has recently passed along word of a new pilot project involving the former Cincinnati mayor, trash TV talker, and former Air America host...with an interesting partner - a former co-worker of Jerry's at Clear Channel Cincinnati:
Score Round One for Jerry Springer. That’s my take on the “Jerry & Bill Show,” the pilot for a weekly debate show starring Springer and 700 WLW-AM’s Bill Cunningham that aired Sunday night (Jan. 10th) on WXIX-TV (Ch 19).
Though the pilot aired locally in Cincinnati on Raycom-owned "Fox 19", Kiesewetter noted that cable/satellite channel WGN America also aired the pilot, which was apparently developed for Tribune owned stations...by...oh, wait, this is too easy to guess...Tribune executives Randy Michaels and Sean Compton, both former Clear Channel (and WLW!) employees.
We'll have to see how far "Jerry & Bill", and Jerry and Bill, go in the format in the future. Jerry wasn't really a good radio host (we're being kind), so it may provide a measure on how he'll hold up in his "home medium" when people aren't throwing chairs around...
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Beacon Owner Dies
The man who has owned a small Mahoning Valley radio group often written about here in OMW has died.
An obituary notes the death of Beacon Broadcasting owner Harold Glunt earlier this week:
NILES – Harold F. Glunt, 75, died of cancer on Thursday evening, Jan. 21, 2010, at his home.
(snip)
He semi-retired from Glunt Industries in 2001 and purchased Beacon Broadcasting in Warren to focus on Christian Broadcasting in the area.
Glunt Industries was the steel supply company Glunt started in 1966. (The photo and obituary are courtesy of Holeton-Yuhasz Funeral Home in Niles, which is handling arrangments.)
We don't have definitive information about the future of Glunt's Beacon Broadcasting stations in the Youngstown market - sports WANR/1570 "Fox Sports 1570" Warren, Christian contemporary WRTK/1540 "Freq 1540" Niles, classic country combo WLOA/1470 Farrell PA and WGRP/940 Greenville PA, and the sole FM in the group, Christian/eclectic rocker/talk WEXC/107.1 "Indie 107.1" Greenville PA...though there has been interest in that latter station, before Glunt's passing...
An obituary notes the death of Beacon Broadcasting owner Harold Glunt earlier this week:NILES – Harold F. Glunt, 75, died of cancer on Thursday evening, Jan. 21, 2010, at his home.
(snip)
He semi-retired from Glunt Industries in 2001 and purchased Beacon Broadcasting in Warren to focus on Christian Broadcasting in the area.
Glunt Industries was the steel supply company Glunt started in 1966. (The photo and obituary are courtesy of Holeton-Yuhasz Funeral Home in Niles, which is handling arrangments.)
We don't have definitive information about the future of Glunt's Beacon Broadcasting stations in the Youngstown market - sports WANR/1570 "Fox Sports 1570" Warren, Christian contemporary WRTK/1540 "Freq 1540" Niles, classic country combo WLOA/1470 Farrell PA and WGRP/940 Greenville PA, and the sole FM in the group, Christian/eclectic rocker/talk WEXC/107.1 "Indie 107.1" Greenville PA...though there has been interest in that latter station, before Glunt's passing...
Thursday, January 21, 2010
TWC Answers
Courtesy of Time Warner Cable, here are some answers for readers wondering about the Mentor-area conversion allowing more HD channels. And some more lineup changes are in the works systemwide in TWC's massive Northeast Ohio system.
First, in regards to Mentor's conversion, TWC's Travis Reynolds tells OMW:
The first "box swap" phase of the box exchange actually concludes today, followed by 6 other phases every 7 days. The final phase is scheduled Feb. 23. Each phase impacts approximately 1,200 customers in certain areas of Mentor. And by "box swap" "concludes" I mean the day the Motorola and General Instrument boxes in those areas will no longer work. If your area has gone through the "shutdown" you will begin receiving the new HDs.
Also, if anyone emails that their box has been shut down, and they live in that area and have a MOTO or GI box, they can visit our Sales and Service Center in Mentor or Concord to exchange it. We'll even give them a coupon book good for 6 Movies on Demand.
Here's the short answer. Everyone in the greater Mentor area will have all the HD channels by Feb. 23.
The lineup change, we first caught on a segment of TWC's "Ask Time Warner" (NEON channel 23), and is reflected on the company's TWCGuide.com site:
Our HD offering has grown so robust, we're moving the HD channels to the 1000 block and grouping them by category. With your new theme-based HD lineup coming in March, finding what you want to watch in HD will be faster and easier than ever.
*To find your favorite broadcaster in HD, you'll just add a "1" to the Basic Cable channel number
*To find your favorite Digital Cable channel in HD, you'll just add a "1" to the Digital Channel number, or go to Channel 1001 and start surfing.
More exciting changes coming in March
*All your Free On Demand favorites are moving to the "Free 400s". This includes Primetime On Demand with your favorite primetime shows and Kids on Demand with kids favorites such as Nickelodeon and PBS Kids Sprout. Local on Demand, your source for free local high school football, travel and news On Demand, moves to channel 411.
*Movies on Demand moving to the 500s gives you instant access to hundreds of hit movies now on our leading-edge platform.
The site (and the "Ask Time Warner" segment) says Cleveland-area customers are also going to get the Navigator program guide software for their cable boxes...
First, in regards to Mentor's conversion, TWC's Travis Reynolds tells OMW:
The first "box swap" phase of the box exchange actually concludes today, followed by 6 other phases every 7 days. The final phase is scheduled Feb. 23. Each phase impacts approximately 1,200 customers in certain areas of Mentor. And by "box swap" "concludes" I mean the day the Motorola and General Instrument boxes in those areas will no longer work. If your area has gone through the "shutdown" you will begin receiving the new HDs.
Also, if anyone emails that their box has been shut down, and they live in that area and have a MOTO or GI box, they can visit our Sales and Service Center in Mentor or Concord to exchange it. We'll even give them a coupon book good for 6 Movies on Demand.
Here's the short answer. Everyone in the greater Mentor area will have all the HD channels by Feb. 23.
The lineup change, we first caught on a segment of TWC's "Ask Time Warner" (NEON channel 23), and is reflected on the company's TWCGuide.com site:
Our HD offering has grown so robust, we're moving the HD channels to the 1000 block and grouping them by category. With your new theme-based HD lineup coming in March, finding what you want to watch in HD will be faster and easier than ever.
*To find your favorite broadcaster in HD, you'll just add a "1" to the Basic Cable channel number
*To find your favorite Digital Cable channel in HD, you'll just add a "1" to the Digital Channel number, or go to Channel 1001 and start surfing.
More exciting changes coming in March
*All your Free On Demand favorites are moving to the "Free 400s". This includes Primetime On Demand with your favorite primetime shows and Kids on Demand with kids favorites such as Nickelodeon and PBS Kids Sprout. Local on Demand, your source for free local high school football, travel and news On Demand, moves to channel 411.
*Movies on Demand moving to the 500s gives you instant access to hundreds of hit movies now on our leading-edge platform.
The site (and the "Ask Time Warner" segment) says Cleveland-area customers are also going to get the Navigator program guide software for their cable boxes...
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
THIS JUST IN: WOIO Channel 24
NOTE: To clear up any confusion, this is an ADDITIONAL translator fill-in channel for WOIO. The current operation on RF channel 10 will stay on the air, unless they find another permanent home for it...
---------
Thanks to a reader tip, we now know what Raycom Media CBS affiliate WOIO/19 wants to do (at least temporarily) to fix its reception problems, particularly in the Akron area.
The station has applied to the FCC for a digital replacement translator on RF channel 24, an 11 kW facility which would be located at the Akron facility which houses ION Media O&O WVPX/23 and a number of area radio outlets.
We don't have much time to go into detail, so dig into it yourself at the station's technical exhibit on the FCC website...
THIS JUST IN: Chris Miller Exits
AllAccess reports today that Clear Channel hot AC WMVX/106.5 and country WGAR/99.5 program director Chris Miller is out at Oak Tree.
Clear Channel Cleveland operations manager Keith Abrams tells the trade site that he's looking for Miller's replacement...
Clear Channel Cleveland operations manager Keith Abrams tells the trade site that he's looking for Miller's replacement...
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Boom and Booming
We'd heard the rumblings...that Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting's new AAA format on WNWV/107.3 Elyria had to drop its name due to trademark issues.
Sure enough, though the station occasionally tries to cleverly use the word "Boom", its official on-air name has reverted to a simple "107.3 Cleveland"...without the explosive word directly attached.
Wbat happened?
Blame another broadcaster competing with 107.3 in Cleveland, but in another market.
Tom Taylor's always excellent "Taylor on Radio-Info" newsletter on Monday had his take:
Seems CBS is employing “Boom FM” in Seattle on the HD-2 channel of classic hits “Jack FM” KJAQ (96.5). It may be used for CBS stations in other markets, too.
Of course, WNWV itself had been running the AAA/eclectic format on its own HD2 channel until late December...using that name, as far as we know.
But a large company like CBS is a lot more nimble when it comes to trademark use and registration. And we're reminded that despite getting the trademark through acquisition of another company, Clear Channel was successfully able to assert the "Kiss FM" service mark even with its newer top 40 outlets mounted long after.
Taylor hasn't confirmed the story of why "Boom!" is no longer, but did find the CBS outlets. (Toronto's new "Boom" classic hits format is apparently not affected due to its presence in Canada.)
And whatever the reason, 107.3 is still pumping out its new format...
BOOMING FORMAT: That's the other part of our subject header this time around.
We've made something of a hobby tracking the rise of FM spoken word formats, including the booming sports format on the FM dial...and it's about to happen really close to Ohio.
As rumored, as expected, CBS Radio is mounting an FM sports talk outlet in Pittsburgh. Rumor leaked out last week, and made it to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. From FMQB.com:
CBS Radio in Pittsburgh has announced that on Monday, February 15, the company will debut Sports Radio "93.7 The Fan," carrying the call letters KDKA-FM. As originally reported last Friday, January 15, the move converts CHR WBZW(B94) to 93.7 The Fan.
CBS Radio SVP & Pittsburgh Market Manager Michael Young exclusively told FMQB, "We’re building this radio station with the sole focus and mantra of providing all sports all the time to the Pittsburgh fans, billing ourselves as the voice of the fans of Pittsburgh."
The CHR format will merge with existing hot AC WZPT/100.7 "Star 100.7".
We bring this up here for two reasons.
CBS Radio has a four station cluster in the Cleveland market, of course - alt-rock WKRK/92.3, classic rock WNCX/98.5, AC WDOK/102.1 and hot AC WQAL/104.1 "Q104".
It also has a brand new market manager, as we reported earlier...Steve Carver.
Is "The Fan" coming to Cleveland?
Well, let's line up the case against it.
For one, Cleveland is one of the smaller markets CBS presumably is still interested in selling. Then again, Pittsburgh is presumably on that list as well.
But Pittsburgh has one thing in its CBS Radio cluster that Cleveland does not - a big, big news/talk station (the legendary KDKA/1020). Even when CBS was first talking about exiting smaller markets, there were rumors that they would hang onto KDKA Radio for one reason - synergy with its TV holdings in Pittsburgh (KDKA-TV/2 and sister CW affiliate WNPA/19).
CBS has no news/talk stations in Northeast Ohio, of course, and no TV holdings. CBS affiliate WOIO/19 is owned by Raycom Media, and CW affiliate WBNX/55 is locally owned.
But...with the coming FM sports format in Western Pennsylvania, you know we had to weigh in one way or the other...
Sure enough, though the station occasionally tries to cleverly use the word "Boom", its official on-air name has reverted to a simple "107.3 Cleveland"...without the explosive word directly attached.
Wbat happened?
Blame another broadcaster competing with 107.3 in Cleveland, but in another market.
Tom Taylor's always excellent "Taylor on Radio-Info" newsletter on Monday had his take:
Seems CBS is employing “Boom FM” in Seattle on the HD-2 channel of classic hits “Jack FM” KJAQ (96.5). It may be used for CBS stations in other markets, too.
Of course, WNWV itself had been running the AAA/eclectic format on its own HD2 channel until late December...using that name, as far as we know.
But a large company like CBS is a lot more nimble when it comes to trademark use and registration. And we're reminded that despite getting the trademark through acquisition of another company, Clear Channel was successfully able to assert the "Kiss FM" service mark even with its newer top 40 outlets mounted long after.
Taylor hasn't confirmed the story of why "Boom!" is no longer, but did find the CBS outlets. (Toronto's new "Boom" classic hits format is apparently not affected due to its presence in Canada.)
And whatever the reason, 107.3 is still pumping out its new format...
BOOMING FORMAT: That's the other part of our subject header this time around.
We've made something of a hobby tracking the rise of FM spoken word formats, including the booming sports format on the FM dial...and it's about to happen really close to Ohio.
As rumored, as expected, CBS Radio is mounting an FM sports talk outlet in Pittsburgh. Rumor leaked out last week, and made it to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. From FMQB.com:
CBS Radio in Pittsburgh has announced that on Monday, February 15, the company will debut Sports Radio "93.7 The Fan," carrying the call letters KDKA-FM. As originally reported last Friday, January 15, the move converts CHR WBZW(B94) to 93.7 The Fan.
CBS Radio SVP & Pittsburgh Market Manager Michael Young exclusively told FMQB, "We’re building this radio station with the sole focus and mantra of providing all sports all the time to the Pittsburgh fans, billing ourselves as the voice of the fans of Pittsburgh."
The CHR format will merge with existing hot AC WZPT/100.7 "Star 100.7".
We bring this up here for two reasons.
CBS Radio has a four station cluster in the Cleveland market, of course - alt-rock WKRK/92.3, classic rock WNCX/98.5, AC WDOK/102.1 and hot AC WQAL/104.1 "Q104".
It also has a brand new market manager, as we reported earlier...Steve Carver.
Is "The Fan" coming to Cleveland?
Well, let's line up the case against it.
For one, Cleveland is one of the smaller markets CBS presumably is still interested in selling. Then again, Pittsburgh is presumably on that list as well.
But Pittsburgh has one thing in its CBS Radio cluster that Cleveland does not - a big, big news/talk station (the legendary KDKA/1020). Even when CBS was first talking about exiting smaller markets, there were rumors that they would hang onto KDKA Radio for one reason - synergy with its TV holdings in Pittsburgh (KDKA-TV/2 and sister CW affiliate WNPA/19).
CBS has no news/talk stations in Northeast Ohio, of course, and no TV holdings. CBS affiliate WOIO/19 is owned by Raycom Media, and CW affiliate WBNX/55 is locally owned.
But...with the coming FM sports format in Western Pennsylvania, you know we had to weigh in one way or the other...
Monday, January 11, 2010
Out Of The Chute
A lot of items on our plate, from all over the map, physically and topic-wise...let's have at it.
"SUMMIT" EXPANDS TO MAHONING: Akron Public Schools AAA outlet WAPS/91.3 "The Summit" is indeed, as noted in our previous item, being heard in the Mahoning Valley.
An OMW listener in WAPS' signal range reported hearing a mention of a simulcast on WKTL/90.7 Struthers, the school district owned station which puts a decent signal into most of the Valley. A Valley listener confirmed the simulcast from the Youngstown-area end.
And now, we know details.
WAPS program director Bill Gruber tells OMW about the arrangement between the Akron station and the Struthers station:
WKTL 90.7 in Struthers/Youngstown has begun carrying WAPS 91.3 The Summit’s programming during the hours and days WKTL previously would be off-the-air.
Local WKTL student-related content, and weekend nationality programs, remain on-air.
Gruber calls it "a very logical and relatively simple" cooperation between two Northeast Ohio community public radio station - allowing the WKTL student and community program to continue as is, but allowing Mahoning Valley listeners to catch the "Summit" programming when 90.7 would otherwise be silent.
Says Gruber: "This allows WKTL to operate as a 24 hour, full-time radio station for the first time ever, with a regional Akron/Canton/Youngstown focus, without the need to turn to satellite or syndicated programming."
Gruber says WAPS has already gotten E-mails from Youngstown-area listeners thankful for their new radio option...
SPEAKING OF SIMULCASTS: A format change for a North Central Ohio station has yet to be noted by this corner.
Clear Channel classic hits/oldies WSWR/100.1 Shelby, part of the company's extensive Ashland/Mansfield cluster, has become "My 100.1".
But unlike the company's Canton market WHOF/101.7 North Canton ("My 101.7"), the WSWR format has moved towards a classic rock direction. Previously, the station had run Citadel's classic hits format ("Classic Hits Radio", also known as ABC's "Oldies Radio" and ABC/SMN's "Pure Gold", one of about a half-dozen Northern Ohio stations once doing so).
And despite the frequency in the moniker, WSWR's "My 100.1" is actually a simulcast. An OMW listener reported hearing it also on WXXR/98.3 Fredericktown, which has long been part of the "Fox" rock format trimulcast. "Fox" is now down to WFXN/102.3 Galion and WXXF/107.7 Loudonville. (We haven't compared playlists to differentiate "Fox" and "My". We get the idea that "My" is a softer classic rock station than "Fox".)
Sure enough, long-time Friend and Colleague of OMW Scott Fybush at NorthEast Radio Watch confirmed and taped the legal ID for "My 100.1" on one of his recent trips through OMW Land...with WXXR on the ID and in the simulcast...
MORE GANG BACK TOGETHER: The former Clear Channel/Jacor mass gathering under Randy Michaels at Tribune has grown by one.
Former Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 imaging director Chris Duffy has become the latest to join Tribune, taking similar duties at the company's sole radio station, WGN/720 Chicago.
Of course, any regular reader won't have to search to remember that former Clear Channel Cleveland programming VP Kevin Metheny was Duffy's ultimate programming boss at WTAM, and is now programming WGN...let alone have to search for Tribune CEO Randy Michaels' background running Clear Channel and Jacor's radio operations...
AND SPEAKING OF WTAM: We haven't asked yet, but it sounds like former WKDD/WHLO'er Matt Patrick will be back in the Saturday afternoon (4-7 PM) time slot on WTAM next week, after former Congressman-turned-con Jim Traficant's high profile show.
That's putting it mildly - high profile - as Jimbo's debut Saturday attracted a flotilla of TV cameras (and a bunch of his relatives, apparently).
Patrick's 3 hour show got no outside attention other than from the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), but a decent number of his Akron/Canton area listeners got into the phone lines Saturday, saying they were happy he was "back on the air".
That may have been a bit confusing to Cleveland-area listeners who didn't know him from his 30 year-plus run on WKDD or his local issues talk show on WHLO, both of which ended in mid-December.
Patrick didn't explain his radio past just down I-77 from Oak Tree, though he did mention it when prompted by callers.
He assured his new audience that despite spending his radio career "20 miles south of here", he was a native Clevelander, born and raised on the East Side (either Shaker Heights or East Cleveland, we believe he said)...
"SUMMIT" EXPANDS TO MAHONING: Akron Public Schools AAA outlet WAPS/91.3 "The Summit" is indeed, as noted in our previous item, being heard in the Mahoning Valley.
An OMW listener in WAPS' signal range reported hearing a mention of a simulcast on WKTL/90.7 Struthers, the school district owned station which puts a decent signal into most of the Valley. A Valley listener confirmed the simulcast from the Youngstown-area end.
And now, we know details.
WAPS program director Bill Gruber tells OMW about the arrangement between the Akron station and the Struthers station:
WKTL 90.7 in Struthers/Youngstown has begun carrying WAPS 91.3 The Summit’s programming during the hours and days WKTL previously would be off-the-air.
Local WKTL student-related content, and weekend nationality programs, remain on-air.
Gruber calls it "a very logical and relatively simple" cooperation between two Northeast Ohio community public radio station - allowing the WKTL student and community program to continue as is, but allowing Mahoning Valley listeners to catch the "Summit" programming when 90.7 would otherwise be silent.
Says Gruber: "This allows WKTL to operate as a 24 hour, full-time radio station for the first time ever, with a regional Akron/Canton/Youngstown focus, without the need to turn to satellite or syndicated programming."
Gruber says WAPS has already gotten E-mails from Youngstown-area listeners thankful for their new radio option...
SPEAKING OF SIMULCASTS: A format change for a North Central Ohio station has yet to be noted by this corner.
Clear Channel classic hits/oldies WSWR/100.1 Shelby, part of the company's extensive Ashland/Mansfield cluster, has become "My 100.1".
But unlike the company's Canton market WHOF/101.7 North Canton ("My 101.7"), the WSWR format has moved towards a classic rock direction. Previously, the station had run Citadel's classic hits format ("Classic Hits Radio", also known as ABC's "Oldies Radio" and ABC/SMN's "Pure Gold", one of about a half-dozen Northern Ohio stations once doing so).
And despite the frequency in the moniker, WSWR's "My 100.1" is actually a simulcast. An OMW listener reported hearing it also on WXXR/98.3 Fredericktown, which has long been part of the "Fox" rock format trimulcast. "Fox" is now down to WFXN/102.3 Galion and WXXF/107.7 Loudonville. (We haven't compared playlists to differentiate "Fox" and "My". We get the idea that "My" is a softer classic rock station than "Fox".)
Sure enough, long-time Friend and Colleague of OMW Scott Fybush at NorthEast Radio Watch confirmed and taped the legal ID for "My 100.1" on one of his recent trips through OMW Land...with WXXR on the ID and in the simulcast...
MORE GANG BACK TOGETHER: The former Clear Channel/Jacor mass gathering under Randy Michaels at Tribune has grown by one.
Former Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 imaging director Chris Duffy has become the latest to join Tribune, taking similar duties at the company's sole radio station, WGN/720 Chicago.
Of course, any regular reader won't have to search to remember that former Clear Channel Cleveland programming VP Kevin Metheny was Duffy's ultimate programming boss at WTAM, and is now programming WGN...let alone have to search for Tribune CEO Randy Michaels' background running Clear Channel and Jacor's radio operations...
AND SPEAKING OF WTAM: We haven't asked yet, but it sounds like former WKDD/WHLO'er Matt Patrick will be back in the Saturday afternoon (4-7 PM) time slot on WTAM next week, after former Congressman-turned-con Jim Traficant's high profile show.
That's putting it mildly - high profile - as Jimbo's debut Saturday attracted a flotilla of TV cameras (and a bunch of his relatives, apparently).
Patrick's 3 hour show got no outside attention other than from the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), but a decent number of his Akron/Canton area listeners got into the phone lines Saturday, saying they were happy he was "back on the air".
That may have been a bit confusing to Cleveland-area listeners who didn't know him from his 30 year-plus run on WKDD or his local issues talk show on WHLO, both of which ended in mid-December.
Patrick didn't explain his radio past just down I-77 from Oak Tree, though he did mention it when prompted by callers.
He assured his new audience that despite spending his radio career "20 miles south of here", he was a native Clevelander, born and raised on the East Side (either Shaker Heights or East Cleveland, we believe he said)...
Friday, January 08, 2010
Snow Day
UPDATE 1/8/10 1:45 PM: The upcoming Jim Traficant radio show on Clear Channel Cleveland talk WTAM/1100 is "only the beginning", says the former Congressman's new management representation in an article in the Youngstown Vindicator this week. A choice quote:
Traficant signed a three-month contract with WTAM with a clause that lets him out of the deal if he decides to run for Congress, said Dennis Malloy, his director of communications. Feb. 18 is the filing deadline to run in the May 4 primary.
The WTAM program is “the first step in the puzzle for a syndicated radio show,” Malloy said.
So far, there appear to be no details about a potential syndication for the new Traficant show, though we wouldn't be shocked if the former Congressman's hometown WKBN/570 would also air the WTAM show. Traficant's vision (and ego) is clearly hoping for more than that, though... if he doesn't decide to run for Congress again...
----------
There's a lot to clean up off the "roadways" of Ohio media news here...and unlike in the "real world", none of it involves snow...
JIMBO RADIO AND....: We were one of the first outlets to pass along speculation about a radio career in the future of former Mahoning Valley congressman-turned-con Jim Traficant. As it turns out, we were thinking small.
Traficant did turn to the radio after he got out of prison. He made his first radio appearance as a free man on a weekend outdoors show on Clear Channel talk WKBN/570 Youngstown, and later did a couple of fill-in shifts sitting in for WKBN's Dan Rivers.
But he also did a couple of fiil-in shifts on WKBN's "big brother" talker in Cleveland, WTAM/1100...and as it turns out, that's where he lands.
WTAM announced this week that "The Jim Traficant Show" will become a regular part of its weekend lineup, with Jimbo's debut set for this Saturday. The show's time slot is set for 1-4 PM Saturdays. (No word what happens in the spring, when Major League Baseball's Cleveland Indians become the regular occupant of that time slot most weeks.)
Quoting a WTAM release:
“It’s exciting to be on the air on WTAM. I’ve got much to say on many of the issues facing both Ohio and America today,” Traficant exudes, “and look forward to sharing my perspective and experiences on the biggest news station in Northeast Ohio!”
The release quotes WTAM program director Ray Davis, saying "listeners relate to his common sense approach to politics and life in general." Davis says Traficant is "quite a personality" (now, there's an understatement!), and says he is "all about giving people a second chance in life".
A second chance after a 7 year prison term which ended last fall, of course, a fact duly noted in the WTAM release.
And yes, we will be listening...
JIMBO'S FOLLOW: What has not been announced anywhere, as far as we know, is that Traficant's show will be followed, at least this Saturday, by another local call-in show.
OMW hears that former Clear Channel Akron/Canton hot AC WKDD/98.1 morning drive host Matt Patrick gets a "try out" on WTAM, and will be heard this Saturday 4-7 PM...immediately following the debut of Traficant.
The Patrick show Saturday on WTAM is considered an "audition", and there's no word of if the ex-WKDD veteran will be heard past this Saturday.
Matt Patrick is no stranger to conservative, issues talk radio, of course. When he exited WKDD in December, Patrick also exited his 9 AM-noon talk show on WKDD sister talk WHLO/640 Akron...and had hoped to retain the show despite the end of his "main job" on WKDD.
WHLO filled Patrick's old time slot this month by moving WPGB/Pittsburgh-based morning drive syndicated show "Quinn and Rose" into a delayed clearance in the 9 AM-noon slot. Morning drive was filled with "The WHLO Morning Show", a news-information show hosted by Akron and Canton radio veteran Jim Albright...
TOLEDO TV: OMW hears that Toledo Fox affiliate WUPW/36 "Fox Toledo" is making some early news changes.
The LIN TV owned station is shuttering the 4 PM early newscast of "Fox Toledo News", and is instead mounting a new half-hour long news program at 6:30.
The station's flagship 10 PM newscast is unaffected...
SUMMIT EXPANSION?: An OMW reader informs us that Akron Public Schools AAA WAPS/91.3 Akron "The Summit" has apparently picked up another signal.
"The Summit' is, according to our reader, announcing its availablity on a new Youngstown market signal...WKTL/90.7 Struthers.
That is the Struthers school district-owned station, and we don't know the details of the arrangement. We haven't been able to verify the simulcast as of yet, either...
Traficant signed a three-month contract with WTAM with a clause that lets him out of the deal if he decides to run for Congress, said Dennis Malloy, his director of communications. Feb. 18 is the filing deadline to run in the May 4 primary.
The WTAM program is “the first step in the puzzle for a syndicated radio show,” Malloy said.
So far, there appear to be no details about a potential syndication for the new Traficant show, though we wouldn't be shocked if the former Congressman's hometown WKBN/570 would also air the WTAM show. Traficant's vision (and ego) is clearly hoping for more than that, though... if he doesn't decide to run for Congress again...
----------
There's a lot to clean up off the "roadways" of Ohio media news here...and unlike in the "real world", none of it involves snow...
JIMBO RADIO AND....: We were one of the first outlets to pass along speculation about a radio career in the future of former Mahoning Valley congressman-turned-con Jim Traficant. As it turns out, we were thinking small.
Traficant did turn to the radio after he got out of prison. He made his first radio appearance as a free man on a weekend outdoors show on Clear Channel talk WKBN/570 Youngstown, and later did a couple of fill-in shifts sitting in for WKBN's Dan Rivers.
But he also did a couple of fiil-in shifts on WKBN's "big brother" talker in Cleveland, WTAM/1100...and as it turns out, that's where he lands.
WTAM announced this week that "The Jim Traficant Show" will become a regular part of its weekend lineup, with Jimbo's debut set for this Saturday. The show's time slot is set for 1-4 PM Saturdays. (No word what happens in the spring, when Major League Baseball's Cleveland Indians become the regular occupant of that time slot most weeks.)
Quoting a WTAM release:
“It’s exciting to be on the air on WTAM. I’ve got much to say on many of the issues facing both Ohio and America today,” Traficant exudes, “and look forward to sharing my perspective and experiences on the biggest news station in Northeast Ohio!”
The release quotes WTAM program director Ray Davis, saying "listeners relate to his common sense approach to politics and life in general." Davis says Traficant is "quite a personality" (now, there's an understatement!), and says he is "all about giving people a second chance in life".
A second chance after a 7 year prison term which ended last fall, of course, a fact duly noted in the WTAM release.
And yes, we will be listening...
JIMBO'S FOLLOW: What has not been announced anywhere, as far as we know, is that Traficant's show will be followed, at least this Saturday, by another local call-in show.
OMW hears that former Clear Channel Akron/Canton hot AC WKDD/98.1 morning drive host Matt Patrick gets a "try out" on WTAM, and will be heard this Saturday 4-7 PM...immediately following the debut of Traficant.
The Patrick show Saturday on WTAM is considered an "audition", and there's no word of if the ex-WKDD veteran will be heard past this Saturday.
Matt Patrick is no stranger to conservative, issues talk radio, of course. When he exited WKDD in December, Patrick also exited his 9 AM-noon talk show on WKDD sister talk WHLO/640 Akron...and had hoped to retain the show despite the end of his "main job" on WKDD.
WHLO filled Patrick's old time slot this month by moving WPGB/Pittsburgh-based morning drive syndicated show "Quinn and Rose" into a delayed clearance in the 9 AM-noon slot. Morning drive was filled with "The WHLO Morning Show", a news-information show hosted by Akron and Canton radio veteran Jim Albright...
TOLEDO TV: OMW hears that Toledo Fox affiliate WUPW/36 "Fox Toledo" is making some early news changes.
The LIN TV owned station is shuttering the 4 PM early newscast of "Fox Toledo News", and is instead mounting a new half-hour long news program at 6:30.
The station's flagship 10 PM newscast is unaffected...
SUMMIT EXPANSION?: An OMW reader informs us that Akron Public Schools AAA WAPS/91.3 Akron "The Summit" has apparently picked up another signal.
"The Summit' is, according to our reader, announcing its availablity on a new Youngstown market signal...WKTL/90.7 Struthers.
That is the Struthers school district-owned station, and we don't know the details of the arrangement. We haven't been able to verify the simulcast as of yet, either...
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Another Grab Bag
Here's a bit of OMW Tradition for you in this changing time...a midweek grab bag post:
CBS RADIO CLEVELAND'S NEW BOSS: The Cleveland CBS Radio cluster officially has its new market manager, to replace the unceremoniously-dumped Chris Maduri.
A copy of the memo announcing the new market chief happened to float its way to the OMW World Headquarters:
I am thrilled to announce that Steve Carver has been appointed SVP/Market Manager for CBS Radio in Cleveland.
Steve is a terrific manager and broadcaster with nearly 30 years of local market leadership experience in radio, television, on line and newspaper.
Steve is a proven winner and we’re ecstatic to welcome him back to CBS where he began his career.
For the past 11 years, Steve has worked for The Tribune Company where he was Publisher, President and CEO of The Hartford Courant newspaper (2006-2009); General Manager of WATL-TV in Atlanta (2003-2006) and General Manager of WGN Radio in Chicago (1998-2003). During his years in TV, Steve continued to oversee radio as well.
Prior to joining Tribune, Steve was a veteran CBS guy where he served as VP and General Manager of WBBM in Chicago (1993-1998); Vice President & General Manager of WOGL FM/AM in Philadelphia (1989-1993) and also served as GSM, LSM, NSM and an AE at WCBS in New York. He also was a rep for then owned CBS Radio Spot Sales.
Frankly, Steve has done it all and is widely known as an outstanding manager with a track record of success.
Dan, Anton and I are thrilled to welcome Steve back to CBS Radio.
He officially starts today.
I would also like to thank Tom Herschel for his strong leadership during this transition. Thanks to Tom and all your efforts, we are coming out of the gate strong for January and we expect great things from CBS Radio Cleveland in 2010.
Judging from his long track record at Tribune, Carver likely clashed with the wave of former Jacor and Clear Channel executives brought aboard by Tribune chief Randy Michaels, the suburban Cincinnati-based former radio chief at Clear Channel...
CHICAGO THING: A former Northeast Ohio radio personality has become something of a minor media personality in Chicago in recent days, but not due to her on-air work or radio talent.
We've spent a lot of time thinking about this, and we've decided not to summarize the situation or name the personality.
The situation made the newspapers, and admittedly, it - what has been reported as happening - doesn't look good for the former local radio type.
But at this point, it's become a more heat-than-light-fest powered by blogs and whatnot. It's not the kind of story we like to shed light upon, in general. And the incident in question took place in Chicago, and the radio personality no longer works in this region. (It's not the first time we've not noted a similar story for that reason - lack of relevance to the area.)
We're only putting this up here because more than one reader has called our attention to it, and we're sure to get more requests or E-mails in the coming days...
CBS RADIO CLEVELAND'S NEW BOSS: The Cleveland CBS Radio cluster officially has its new market manager, to replace the unceremoniously-dumped Chris Maduri.
A copy of the memo announcing the new market chief happened to float its way to the OMW World Headquarters:
I am thrilled to announce that Steve Carver has been appointed SVP/Market Manager for CBS Radio in Cleveland.
Steve is a terrific manager and broadcaster with nearly 30 years of local market leadership experience in radio, television, on line and newspaper.
Steve is a proven winner and we’re ecstatic to welcome him back to CBS where he began his career.
For the past 11 years, Steve has worked for The Tribune Company where he was Publisher, President and CEO of The Hartford Courant newspaper (2006-2009); General Manager of WATL-TV in Atlanta (2003-2006) and General Manager of WGN Radio in Chicago (1998-2003). During his years in TV, Steve continued to oversee radio as well.
Prior to joining Tribune, Steve was a veteran CBS guy where he served as VP and General Manager of WBBM in Chicago (1993-1998); Vice President & General Manager of WOGL FM/AM in Philadelphia (1989-1993) and also served as GSM, LSM, NSM and an AE at WCBS in New York. He also was a rep for then owned CBS Radio Spot Sales.
Frankly, Steve has done it all and is widely known as an outstanding manager with a track record of success.
Dan, Anton and I are thrilled to welcome Steve back to CBS Radio.
He officially starts today.
I would also like to thank Tom Herschel for his strong leadership during this transition. Thanks to Tom and all your efforts, we are coming out of the gate strong for January and we expect great things from CBS Radio Cleveland in 2010.
Judging from his long track record at Tribune, Carver likely clashed with the wave of former Jacor and Clear Channel executives brought aboard by Tribune chief Randy Michaels, the suburban Cincinnati-based former radio chief at Clear Channel...
CHICAGO THING: A former Northeast Ohio radio personality has become something of a minor media personality in Chicago in recent days, but not due to her on-air work or radio talent.
We've spent a lot of time thinking about this, and we've decided not to summarize the situation or name the personality.
The situation made the newspapers, and admittedly, it - what has been reported as happening - doesn't look good for the former local radio type.
But at this point, it's become a more heat-than-light-fest powered by blogs and whatnot. It's not the kind of story we like to shed light upon, in general. And the incident in question took place in Chicago, and the radio personality no longer works in this region. (It's not the first time we've not noted a similar story for that reason - lack of relevance to the area.)
We're only putting this up here because more than one reader has called our attention to it, and we're sure to get more requests or E-mails in the coming days...
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Welcome to 2010
Yes, your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) (and your Primary Editorial Voice[tm]) have made it into 2010.
It was close, and touch-and-go for a while, but here we are.
This is just a placeholder announcement. Due to circumstances beyond our control, our ability to update this report will vary widely over the next few weeks.
We'll try to keep track of the "big stuff" and major changes, as soon as we can.
But the updates will be sporadic for some time to come. We'll try to keep a regular presence here.
One sad note: a local sports radio personality has passed away.
Though he had an extensive background covering high school sports, Fred Mourey was also host of the nationally syndicated (Sports Byline USA Network) "Joe Average Poker Show".
An obituary published recently reports that Mourey passed away December 12 at the age of 57, from complications from the disease ALS.
Our thanks to local ALS Association executive director - and veteran media personality - Brad Sussman for the heads up...
It was close, and touch-and-go for a while, but here we are.
This is just a placeholder announcement. Due to circumstances beyond our control, our ability to update this report will vary widely over the next few weeks.
We'll try to keep track of the "big stuff" and major changes, as soon as we can.
But the updates will be sporadic for some time to come. We'll try to keep a regular presence here.
One sad note: a local sports radio personality has passed away.
Though he had an extensive background covering high school sports, Fred Mourey was also host of the nationally syndicated (Sports Byline USA Network) "Joe Average Poker Show".
An obituary published recently reports that Mourey passed away December 12 at the age of 57, from complications from the disease ALS.
Our thanks to local ALS Association executive director - and veteran media personality - Brad Sussman for the heads up...
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
The Catchup Post
The altered state of reality here at the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) means that, well, we missed some stuff...some that affects the coming year.
So, here's at least some of What We Missed, and other updates, with a year-end message still to come...
FREEDOM AVENUE CHANGES: There have been so many changes at Clear Channel's Akron/Canton cluster on Freedom Avenue that we wouldn't be surprised if you'd mistake it for a bus or train station, as opposed to a radio station cluster.
First, as long advertised, 30-plus year Akron market veteran host Matt Patrick left his perch in mornings at hot AC WKDD/98.1...a station he'd anchored since it was on 96.5 (now Clear Channel sister top 40 WAKS "Kiss FM"). He also left his 9 AM-noon talk show on sister talk WHLO/640.
Slipping in upon Patrick's departure from the WKDD morning drive show was, as many expected, WKDD program director/CC Akron-Canton operations director/now former afternoon drive air personality/OMW reader Keith Kennedy, and there's no truth to the rumor that WKDD will take the moniker "Keith FM". Kennedy now hosts morning drive with Patrick's most recent co-host, Krissy Taylor.
Taking afternoon drive on the WKDD schedule is station mainstay Jon Marochino. (More on him later.)
Taking Patrick's WHLO time slot is a delayed version of Pittsburgh-based syndicated morning show "Quinn and Rose", which has aired live in morning drive on WHLO until now.
Taking the WHLO morning drive slot? Akron and Canton radio veteran Jim Albright. From a station release on the new show, which airs starting January 4th:
Akron/Canton news, traffic, sports and weather will be the primary focus on the new show, presented in a fast paced, modern format. Listeners will hear all the information in a tight ten minute package, which is about the length of the average commute in Akron/Canton. “Our Goal is to give you everything you need in 10 minutes or less” said Albright.
Albright will be joined by the station's morning news anchor, John Amrhein.
Quoting him:
“WHLO is a heritage set of call letters, and I’m thrilled to be able to say them on the air very soon” said Albright. “The Akron/Canton has been my home my entire life and I can’t imagine being anywhere else” he added. “This will be my last job in radio! They will have to pry me from the studio equipment in 30 years”.
Albright was most recently afternoon drive host at NextMedia talk WHBC/1480 in Canton, but gained his local fame as the host of the long-running "Dating Show" on Media-Com talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron" in the Akron market...a local radio staple in the 70's, 80's and 90's. Budget cuts ended his run at WHBC, in a time slot now occupied by station veteran Sam Bourquin.
Back to Jon Marochino, who's a key player in Freedom Avenue's third move.
He'll host "The Jon Marochino Show", a weekday, 3-6 PM local sports talk show on sports WARF/1350 Akron "Fox Sports 1350". Quoting another station release:
Listeners will be able to express their thoughts on teams such as the Zips, Kent St., Aeros, Cavs, Browns, Indians, and Buckeyes. The program will also devote time to coverage of High School Sports.
“For the first time, listeners in Akron won’t have to tune to a station in Cleveland for their daily dose of Northeast Ohio sports” said Marochino. “We are two guys who scream and yell at the TV when our teams aren’t playing well, we’re not clubhouse or locker room reporters, we’re fans who happen to have a radio show” Marochino added.
The "two guys" refers to Marochino and sports update anchor Todd Fisher. As with Albright's new WHLO show, the new WARF afternoon drive local show starts January 4th.
And yes, Marochino is listed as the afternoon drive replacement on WKDD for now-morning driver Keith Kennedy.
We'll assume the Magic of Voicetracking(tm) will allow that, and that Marochino won't be doing both shows simultaneously...a la an old "Saturday Night Live" skit with Dan Aykroyd doing both AM and FM shows at the same time...
BOOM: A week earlier than expected, and as reported here below, Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting debuted its new "Boom!" AAA format on WNWV/107.3 Elyria...nudging the 20-year plus "Wave" smooth jazz format to WNWV's HD2 signal (and an Internet stream).
(By the way, the station has been called both "107.3 Boom!" and "Boom! 107.3" by ELB, so we don't know which it is.)
The opening music set at noon Monday, thanks to Lance Venta's RadioInsight:
Thievery Corporation – Radio Retaliation
Bruce Springsteen – Radio Nowhere
Coldplay – Clocks
Sarah McLachlan – Possession
Train – Hey Soul Sister
COLUMBUS STUFF: Columbus FM talker WTDA/103.9 is no longer "Talk FM". It dropped a lineup of mostly syndicated second-tier talkers and a local morning show to become "Classic Hits 103.9", using a Dial Global satellite-delivered format.
The move to music on WTDA means Clear Channel sports WYTS/1230 "Fox Sports 1230" is able to pick up the midday program hosted by Dan Patrick, who normally airs on the FSR feed....but WTDA had his Columbus market rights due to an earlier agreement to carry him in the Content Factory syndication deal.
Though Patrick is off this holiday week, WYTS is already carrying his program.
The Columbus station, and other FSR affiliates including Akron's WARF, are also carrying the network's new morning drive program with former ESPN Radio host Stephen A. Smith. Smith replaces Steve Czaban, who was shown the door at FSR a while back...
CURRENCY: Thursday is a big day for Cleveland radio.
Arbitron's Portable People Meter ratings results become "currency" with tomorrow's report. Local stations have already had "pre-currency" numbers, and changes have already happened - Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting cited the new ratings system in its decision to send "The Wave" packing on 107.3. (The jury's out on whether the new AAA format is any more "PPM friendly" than the long-time smooth jazz format.)
Regular OMW readers know we don't spend a lot of time with ratings for various reasons, not the least of which is that they can be sliced, diced and interpreted many different ways. But we'll try to get something up here about the first PPM "currency" book in Cleveland after the first of the year.
And if the numbers prompt any format or personality changes, we'll definitely cover that...
So, here's at least some of What We Missed, and other updates, with a year-end message still to come...
FREEDOM AVENUE CHANGES: There have been so many changes at Clear Channel's Akron/Canton cluster on Freedom Avenue that we wouldn't be surprised if you'd mistake it for a bus or train station, as opposed to a radio station cluster.
First, as long advertised, 30-plus year Akron market veteran host Matt Patrick left his perch in mornings at hot AC WKDD/98.1...a station he'd anchored since it was on 96.5 (now Clear Channel sister top 40 WAKS "Kiss FM"). He also left his 9 AM-noon talk show on sister talk WHLO/640.
Slipping in upon Patrick's departure from the WKDD morning drive show was, as many expected, WKDD program director/CC Akron-Canton operations director/now former afternoon drive air personality/OMW reader Keith Kennedy, and there's no truth to the rumor that WKDD will take the moniker "Keith FM". Kennedy now hosts morning drive with Patrick's most recent co-host, Krissy Taylor.
Taking afternoon drive on the WKDD schedule is station mainstay Jon Marochino. (More on him later.)
Taking Patrick's WHLO time slot is a delayed version of Pittsburgh-based syndicated morning show "Quinn and Rose", which has aired live in morning drive on WHLO until now.
Taking the WHLO morning drive slot? Akron and Canton radio veteran Jim Albright. From a station release on the new show, which airs starting January 4th:
Akron/Canton news, traffic, sports and weather will be the primary focus on the new show, presented in a fast paced, modern format. Listeners will hear all the information in a tight ten minute package, which is about the length of the average commute in Akron/Canton. “Our Goal is to give you everything you need in 10 minutes or less” said Albright.
Albright will be joined by the station's morning news anchor, John Amrhein.
Quoting him:
“WHLO is a heritage set of call letters, and I’m thrilled to be able to say them on the air very soon” said Albright. “The Akron/Canton has been my home my entire life and I can’t imagine being anywhere else” he added. “This will be my last job in radio! They will have to pry me from the studio equipment in 30 years”.
Albright was most recently afternoon drive host at NextMedia talk WHBC/1480 in Canton, but gained his local fame as the host of the long-running "Dating Show" on Media-Com talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron" in the Akron market...a local radio staple in the 70's, 80's and 90's. Budget cuts ended his run at WHBC, in a time slot now occupied by station veteran Sam Bourquin.
Back to Jon Marochino, who's a key player in Freedom Avenue's third move.
He'll host "The Jon Marochino Show", a weekday, 3-6 PM local sports talk show on sports WARF/1350 Akron "Fox Sports 1350". Quoting another station release:
Listeners will be able to express their thoughts on teams such as the Zips, Kent St., Aeros, Cavs, Browns, Indians, and Buckeyes. The program will also devote time to coverage of High School Sports.
“For the first time, listeners in Akron won’t have to tune to a station in Cleveland for their daily dose of Northeast Ohio sports” said Marochino. “We are two guys who scream and yell at the TV when our teams aren’t playing well, we’re not clubhouse or locker room reporters, we’re fans who happen to have a radio show” Marochino added.
The "two guys" refers to Marochino and sports update anchor Todd Fisher. As with Albright's new WHLO show, the new WARF afternoon drive local show starts January 4th.
And yes, Marochino is listed as the afternoon drive replacement on WKDD for now-morning driver Keith Kennedy.
We'll assume the Magic of Voicetracking(tm) will allow that, and that Marochino won't be doing both shows simultaneously...a la an old "Saturday Night Live" skit with Dan Aykroyd doing both AM and FM shows at the same time...
BOOM: A week earlier than expected, and as reported here below, Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting debuted its new "Boom!" AAA format on WNWV/107.3 Elyria...nudging the 20-year plus "Wave" smooth jazz format to WNWV's HD2 signal (and an Internet stream).
(By the way, the station has been called both "107.3 Boom!" and "Boom! 107.3" by ELB, so we don't know which it is.)
The opening music set at noon Monday, thanks to Lance Venta's RadioInsight:
Thievery Corporation – Radio Retaliation
Bruce Springsteen – Radio Nowhere
Coldplay – Clocks
Sarah McLachlan – Possession
Train – Hey Soul Sister
COLUMBUS STUFF: Columbus FM talker WTDA/103.9 is no longer "Talk FM". It dropped a lineup of mostly syndicated second-tier talkers and a local morning show to become "Classic Hits 103.9", using a Dial Global satellite-delivered format.
The move to music on WTDA means Clear Channel sports WYTS/1230 "Fox Sports 1230" is able to pick up the midday program hosted by Dan Patrick, who normally airs on the FSR feed....but WTDA had his Columbus market rights due to an earlier agreement to carry him in the Content Factory syndication deal.
Though Patrick is off this holiday week, WYTS is already carrying his program.
The Columbus station, and other FSR affiliates including Akron's WARF, are also carrying the network's new morning drive program with former ESPN Radio host Stephen A. Smith. Smith replaces Steve Czaban, who was shown the door at FSR a while back...
CURRENCY: Thursday is a big day for Cleveland radio.
Arbitron's Portable People Meter ratings results become "currency" with tomorrow's report. Local stations have already had "pre-currency" numbers, and changes have already happened - Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting cited the new ratings system in its decision to send "The Wave" packing on 107.3. (The jury's out on whether the new AAA format is any more "PPM friendly" than the long-time smooth jazz format.)
Regular OMW readers know we don't spend a lot of time with ratings for various reasons, not the least of which is that they can be sliced, diced and interpreted many different ways. But we'll try to get something up here about the first PPM "currency" book in Cleveland after the first of the year.
And if the numbers prompt any format or personality changes, we'll definitely cover that...
Monday, December 28, 2009
Boom To Explode At Noon
WNWV/107.3, destined for AAA "Boom", is stunting with clock ticking noises this morning.
OMW hears that "107.3 Boom!" debuts today at 12 Noon...
OMW hears that "107.3 Boom!" debuts today at 12 Noon...
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Wave About To Stop Waving
UPDATE 12/24/09 10:10 AM: Cleveland Plain Dealer media writer Julie Washington has more on the pending format change, including confirmation that Ric Bennett is the new program director.
Both articles also note that the station will indeed be known on-air as "107.3 Boom!". (With the exclamation mark, we presume...)
UPDATE 12/23/09 11:57 AM: An alert OMW reader pointed us to this article on the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram's website today, confirming the WNWV format change. The paper is co-owned with the radio station.
We don't know if the article appeared in the C-T's print edition today...
-------------
We're still on indefinite hiatus, but since this is a pending format change in the Cleveland market, we'll put a note up here about it.
As noted on our Twitter account, there are strong and loud rumblings around the market that Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting smooth jazz WNWV/107.3 Elyria "The Wave" is about to stop waving...in that format...after some 21 years.
OMW hears what everyone else in Northeast Ohio radio has apparently heard...that WNWV will end the smooth jazz/new adult contemporary format soon, and take on a new adult alternative rock format ("AAA"), with some classic rock mixed in.
In fact, we're told that you can already hear the coming WNWV format on its HD2 subchannel right now.
And you can also hear that HD2-soon-to-be-main format, we're told by more than one reader, at the site 1073cleveland.com.
We're told that the new format is expected to launch on January 4th. We don't know if it'll take the "Boom" moniker shown on the above linked site, or if the music mix will change when it comes to the "main stage" at 107.3.
The venerable smooth jazz format, like in other such moves, will end up on the WNWV HD2 channel, switching places with the new AAA/rock format.
As has been posted elsewhere, on message boards, in Tom Taylor's daily Taylor on Radio-Info newsletter and the like, we hear tbat "Rocco the Rock Dog" (aka Ric Bennett, ex-WMMS/100.7, WENZ/107.9 and WONE/97.5) is on board as program director for the new WNWV format.
Right now, the AAA format in Northeast Ohio is available on only one station, Akron Public Schools-owned non-comm WAPS/91.3 "The Summit", and we can tell you that the folks on Steiner Avenue are already aware of the coming commercial competition.
Now, we're still on hiatus. We'll add an administrivia post later explaining the near-term future of your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm)...
Both articles also note that the station will indeed be known on-air as "107.3 Boom!". (With the exclamation mark, we presume...)
UPDATE 12/23/09 11:57 AM: An alert OMW reader pointed us to this article on the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram's website today, confirming the WNWV format change. The paper is co-owned with the radio station.
We don't know if the article appeared in the C-T's print edition today...
-------------
We're still on indefinite hiatus, but since this is a pending format change in the Cleveland market, we'll put a note up here about it.
As noted on our Twitter account, there are strong and loud rumblings around the market that Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting smooth jazz WNWV/107.3 Elyria "The Wave" is about to stop waving...in that format...after some 21 years.
OMW hears what everyone else in Northeast Ohio radio has apparently heard...that WNWV will end the smooth jazz/new adult contemporary format soon, and take on a new adult alternative rock format ("AAA"), with some classic rock mixed in.
In fact, we're told that you can already hear the coming WNWV format on its HD2 subchannel right now.
And you can also hear that HD2-soon-to-be-main format, we're told by more than one reader, at the site 1073cleveland.com.
We're told that the new format is expected to launch on January 4th. We don't know if it'll take the "Boom" moniker shown on the above linked site, or if the music mix will change when it comes to the "main stage" at 107.3.
The venerable smooth jazz format, like in other such moves, will end up on the WNWV HD2 channel, switching places with the new AAA/rock format.
As has been posted elsewhere, on message boards, in Tom Taylor's daily Taylor on Radio-Info newsletter and the like, we hear tbat "Rocco the Rock Dog" (aka Ric Bennett, ex-WMMS/100.7, WENZ/107.9 and WONE/97.5) is on board as program director for the new WNWV format.
Right now, the AAA format in Northeast Ohio is available on only one station, Akron Public Schools-owned non-comm WAPS/91.3 "The Summit", and we can tell you that the folks on Steiner Avenue are already aware of the coming commercial competition.
Now, we're still on hiatus. We'll add an administrivia post later explaining the near-term future of your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm)...
Monday, December 07, 2009
The Dreaded H-Word
Officially: OMW will be on hiatus until further notice. We have no idea when we may return, and we may be gone the rest of the year.
Don't worry about your Primary Editorial Voice(tm)....we're fine, and will be back and raring to drive the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) at some point.
But unlike most of our World Famous Hiatuses, it will take something pretty big to put an update here in the next while. And as last we checked, Dick Goddard and Joe Tait aren't going to call it a career any time soon. (Yes, that's the level.)
For example, we are hearing, but have not confirmed, of a very high-level off-air departure at one of Cleveland's major radio clusters. We won't be following that, but when you see the news on the AllAccess Net News scroll tomorrow...yes, that's the one.
Please keep in touch. We'll still have access to your E-mail, and still be "watching" the media scene in Northeast Ohio. Big news might hit our Twitter account, which is mirrored on the left hand side of this scroll.
But don't "expect" anything in the coming weeks, as far as regular updating or following media news stories. We're coming into the holidays, and would be away at times, anyway.
We'll be back, and better than ever, soon. Take care of yourselves and your families...
Don't worry about your Primary Editorial Voice(tm)....we're fine, and will be back and raring to drive the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) at some point.
But unlike most of our World Famous Hiatuses, it will take something pretty big to put an update here in the next while. And as last we checked, Dick Goddard and Joe Tait aren't going to call it a career any time soon. (Yes, that's the level.)
For example, we are hearing, but have not confirmed, of a very high-level off-air departure at one of Cleveland's major radio clusters. We won't be following that, but when you see the news on the AllAccess Net News scroll tomorrow...yes, that's the one.
Please keep in touch. We'll still have access to your E-mail, and still be "watching" the media scene in Northeast Ohio. Big news might hit our Twitter account, which is mirrored on the left hand side of this scroll.
But don't "expect" anything in the coming weeks, as far as regular updating or following media news stories. We're coming into the holidays, and would be away at times, anyway.
We'll be back, and better than ever, soon. Take care of yourselves and your families...
Friday, December 04, 2009
Browns And Scripps
This is our final update for this hectic week - OK, so it's been hectic only for us, but we hope you understand. Sometimes, life is somewhat more important than assuring that a blog on local media news is regularly updated.
The good news? Even battling connectivity problems in a temporary situation away from the OMW World Headquarters, we can still manage to update our Twitter account. We've already had some of these updates there, and please keep watching in case we can't get back to the Mighty Blog either due to technical or personal concerns.
And as always, our Twitter feed should automatically be mirrored to the left hand column on the main blog...
BROWNS TV "SAVED" AGAIN: The NFL's Cleveland Browns haven't had a TV blackout since "returning" to the NFL in 1999. That no-blackout streak won't be broken this weekend.
Despite "a few thousand" tickets remaining unsold for the 1-10 Browns' tilt with the San Diego Chargers on Sunday, the team announced Friday that the game would air in Cleveland on Raycom CBS affiliate WOIO/19.
From a Browns press release:
As a result of combined efforts by the Cleveland Browns, WOIO-TV (CBS 19) and several local establishments, the Chargers-Browns game this Sunday at Cleveland Browns Stadium will be televised locally. The game, which kicks off at 4:05 p.m., will air on WOIO-TV in the Cleveland area.
The Browns will be distributing tickets to the Cleveland Food Bank, the United Way, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, as well as other local organizations. Additionally, local establishments and WOIO will reward patrons with ticket giveaways while supplies last. The local establishments are offering limited numbers of tickets to customers. For more details on these special offers, fans can visit the following the locations:
We won't copy over the sponsor list, but you can find it at the link above. It's a laundry list mainly of local sports bars, which presumably hope you watch the game - now televised - there as well...
A better solution towards ensuring prevention of blackouts would be for the Browns to produce a better product on the field, but that's just crazy talk, we realize. Even with the horrible economy (locally and nationally), a winning Browns team would pack the place.
For now, it's what has become a familiar refrain...with a "few thousand" tickets left, the local TV affiliate gets together with businesses and the team to "look good" - by saving the game from an almost sure TV blackout...and helping charities at the holidays at the same time...
SCRIPPS PART 1: We knew this was coming, but didn't have the ability to tell you due to our current situation.
As long expected, graphics on Scripps' WEWS/5 "NewsChannel 5" have changed...to standardize the local ABC affiliate's graphics with other stations in the chain.
But as we reported earlier, it wasn't just a desire to streamline the look..."NewsChannel 5"'s graphics package is now actually produced at a centralized Scripps facility at the company's outlet in Tampa, WFTS.
)We'd love to put a screenshot of "NewsChannel 5's" new look up here, but our temporary situation precludes us from doing so...)
SCRIPPS PART 2: On further analysis, this probably doesn't note a trend that would come to Cleveland, but heads up.
WEWS' sister station in West Palm Beach FL, NBC affiliate WPTV/5, is dumping its sports department entirely...and farming out coverage of sports to personalities from Good Karma sports WEFL/760 "ESPN 760"...of course, the Good Karma sister (brother?) station of Cleveland's WKNR/850 "ESPN 850" and WWGK/1540 "KNR2".
From a joint press release put out by the stations:
Starting January 1, 2010, ESPN 760 will provide extensive sports coverage to WPTV's NewsChannel 5, including local sports features at 6 p.m. and a nightly sports wrap-up at 11 p.m. ESPN 760 will produce "Braman 5 Sports Live," the 15-minute sports show seen every Sunday after WPTV's 11 p.m. newscast.
Evan Cohen, ESPN 760's popular sports talk show host, will anchor "Braman 5 Sports Live" and lead the on-air effort weeknights for WPTV. Former Florida Atlantic University defensive lineman and current ESPN 760 host/reporter, Jason Pugh, will anchor the sports segments on Fridays and the weekends. ESPN 760 producer/reporter Herb Uzzi will serve as producer/reporter for the sportscasts on WPTV, and Cohen and Pugh will provide insights and commentary on www.wptv.com.
WPTV officials insist that it's not a cost-cutting move, in a time where "cost-cutting move" is about as easy to type as anything. From MediaDailyNews:
Steve Wasserman, general manager at E.W. Scripps-owned WPTV, said it is not a cost-cutting move but aimed at accessing more resources. The radio station has more talent on hand and stronger connections with local sports teams and personalities, he said.
Wasserman said the deal, with an undisclosed financial arrangement, will cost his station more than the salaries and work done by the two departed sportscasters. WPTV also has the highest ratings in the market, so the move is not made out of desperation.
The Palm Beach Post reports that the deal was primarily driven by WPTV's desire to bring Cohen - "ESPN 760's" biggest name - aboard as more than just an occasional contributor.
Here in Cleveland, of course, the situation is a LITTLE different.
There is an informal relationship between Good Karma's WKNR and Scripps' WEWS. "ESPN 850" personalities Aaron Goldhammer and Jason Gibbs have been regular contributors to Channel 5's high school football coverage...often using what looks for all the world like a Skype video chat connection from the WKNR studios at the Galleria.
("NewsChannel 5 in high definition, except when we have to have a cheap video line to another building a few blocks away!")
But the highest-profile name at the Galleria is mid-morning host Tony Rizzo, who has a very solid "day" job as the primary sports anchor at one of WEWS' competitors, Local TV Fox affililate WJW/8. That alone would seem to preclude WKNR mirroring the Florida agreement here with WEWS....
The good news? Even battling connectivity problems in a temporary situation away from the OMW World Headquarters, we can still manage to update our Twitter account. We've already had some of these updates there, and please keep watching in case we can't get back to the Mighty Blog either due to technical or personal concerns.
And as always, our Twitter feed should automatically be mirrored to the left hand column on the main blog...
BROWNS TV "SAVED" AGAIN: The NFL's Cleveland Browns haven't had a TV blackout since "returning" to the NFL in 1999. That no-blackout streak won't be broken this weekend.
Despite "a few thousand" tickets remaining unsold for the 1-10 Browns' tilt with the San Diego Chargers on Sunday, the team announced Friday that the game would air in Cleveland on Raycom CBS affiliate WOIO/19.
From a Browns press release:
As a result of combined efforts by the Cleveland Browns, WOIO-TV (CBS 19) and several local establishments, the Chargers-Browns game this Sunday at Cleveland Browns Stadium will be televised locally. The game, which kicks off at 4:05 p.m., will air on WOIO-TV in the Cleveland area.
The Browns will be distributing tickets to the Cleveland Food Bank, the United Way, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, as well as other local organizations. Additionally, local establishments and WOIO will reward patrons with ticket giveaways while supplies last. The local establishments are offering limited numbers of tickets to customers. For more details on these special offers, fans can visit the following the locations:
We won't copy over the sponsor list, but you can find it at the link above. It's a laundry list mainly of local sports bars, which presumably hope you watch the game - now televised - there as well...
A better solution towards ensuring prevention of blackouts would be for the Browns to produce a better product on the field, but that's just crazy talk, we realize. Even with the horrible economy (locally and nationally), a winning Browns team would pack the place.
For now, it's what has become a familiar refrain...with a "few thousand" tickets left, the local TV affiliate gets together with businesses and the team to "look good" - by saving the game from an almost sure TV blackout...and helping charities at the holidays at the same time...
SCRIPPS PART 1: We knew this was coming, but didn't have the ability to tell you due to our current situation.
As long expected, graphics on Scripps' WEWS/5 "NewsChannel 5" have changed...to standardize the local ABC affiliate's graphics with other stations in the chain.
But as we reported earlier, it wasn't just a desire to streamline the look..."NewsChannel 5"'s graphics package is now actually produced at a centralized Scripps facility at the company's outlet in Tampa, WFTS.
)We'd love to put a screenshot of "NewsChannel 5's" new look up here, but our temporary situation precludes us from doing so...)
SCRIPPS PART 2: On further analysis, this probably doesn't note a trend that would come to Cleveland, but heads up.
WEWS' sister station in West Palm Beach FL, NBC affiliate WPTV/5, is dumping its sports department entirely...and farming out coverage of sports to personalities from Good Karma sports WEFL/760 "ESPN 760"...of course, the Good Karma sister (brother?) station of Cleveland's WKNR/850 "ESPN 850" and WWGK/1540 "KNR2".
From a joint press release put out by the stations:
Starting January 1, 2010, ESPN 760 will provide extensive sports coverage to WPTV's NewsChannel 5, including local sports features at 6 p.m. and a nightly sports wrap-up at 11 p.m. ESPN 760 will produce "Braman 5 Sports Live," the 15-minute sports show seen every Sunday after WPTV's 11 p.m. newscast.
Evan Cohen, ESPN 760's popular sports talk show host, will anchor "Braman 5 Sports Live" and lead the on-air effort weeknights for WPTV. Former Florida Atlantic University defensive lineman and current ESPN 760 host/reporter, Jason Pugh, will anchor the sports segments on Fridays and the weekends. ESPN 760 producer/reporter Herb Uzzi will serve as producer/reporter for the sportscasts on WPTV, and Cohen and Pugh will provide insights and commentary on www.wptv.com.
WPTV officials insist that it's not a cost-cutting move, in a time where "cost-cutting move" is about as easy to type as anything. From MediaDailyNews:
Steve Wasserman, general manager at E.W. Scripps-owned WPTV, said it is not a cost-cutting move but aimed at accessing more resources. The radio station has more talent on hand and stronger connections with local sports teams and personalities, he said.
Wasserman said the deal, with an undisclosed financial arrangement, will cost his station more than the salaries and work done by the two departed sportscasters. WPTV also has the highest ratings in the market, so the move is not made out of desperation.
The Palm Beach Post reports that the deal was primarily driven by WPTV's desire to bring Cohen - "ESPN 760's" biggest name - aboard as more than just an occasional contributor.
Here in Cleveland, of course, the situation is a LITTLE different.
There is an informal relationship between Good Karma's WKNR and Scripps' WEWS. "ESPN 850" personalities Aaron Goldhammer and Jason Gibbs have been regular contributors to Channel 5's high school football coverage...often using what looks for all the world like a Skype video chat connection from the WKNR studios at the Galleria.
("NewsChannel 5 in high definition, except when we have to have a cheap video line to another building a few blocks away!")
But the highest-profile name at the Galleria is mid-morning host Tony Rizzo, who has a very solid "day" job as the primary sports anchor at one of WEWS' competitors, Local TV Fox affililate WJW/8. That alone would seem to preclude WKNR mirroring the Florida agreement here with WEWS....
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Quick Update: There She Goes, Here We Are
We're around, though still attending to vital, off-blog business for a while. We've got a couple of items kicking around for a more general update by Friday morning, more than likely.
In case you missed our Twitter update on the status of now-former Local TV Cleveland Fox affiliate WJW/8 morning/weekend meterologist Melissa Mack:
WJW's Melissa Mack to CBS O&O WBZ/4 Boston as weekend meteorologist and environmental reporter starting 1/2010
The primary reporting on this came from the blog Boston TV News, where Michael Page first started tracking down news of Melissa Mack's new Boston TV home. Page got confirmation from a WBZ-TV official.
Quoting Page's update:
WBZ has now confirmed that Melissa is headed for their airwaves early in January 2010. Station spokeswoman Ro Dooley-Webster tells me, “WBZ-TV has hired a new Weekend Morning Meteorologist. Melissa Mack will be joining the station on January 4, 2010. In addition to her weekend duties, Melissa will be reporting on environmental issues and filling in during the week.”
This means Melissa will take the place of current weekend morning meteorologist Sarah Wroblewski and will report on issues much like Mish did before her departure from the station earlier this year.
The move is not just a move up in market size for Melissa, from Cleveland (#18) to Boston (#7), for a relatively similar job.
As noted in our tweet above, WBZ-TV is not just a CBS affiliate...it's a CBS O&O.
If Melissa Mack has any thought in the future of "going network", a top-10 market station owned by the network would be a decent place to be.
And of course, until fairly recently, WJW itself was owned by its network, Fox...though the spotlight is much brighter in a market the size of Boston...
In case you missed our Twitter update on the status of now-former Local TV Cleveland Fox affiliate WJW/8 morning/weekend meterologist Melissa Mack:
WJW's Melissa Mack to CBS O&O WBZ/4 Boston as weekend meteorologist and environmental reporter starting 1/2010
The primary reporting on this came from the blog Boston TV News, where Michael Page first started tracking down news of Melissa Mack's new Boston TV home. Page got confirmation from a WBZ-TV official.
Quoting Page's update:
WBZ has now confirmed that Melissa is headed for their airwaves early in January 2010. Station spokeswoman Ro Dooley-Webster tells me, “WBZ-TV has hired a new Weekend Morning Meteorologist. Melissa Mack will be joining the station on January 4, 2010. In addition to her weekend duties, Melissa will be reporting on environmental issues and filling in during the week.”
This means Melissa will take the place of current weekend morning meteorologist Sarah Wroblewski and will report on issues much like Mish did before her departure from the station earlier this year.
The move is not just a move up in market size for Melissa, from Cleveland (#18) to Boston (#7), for a relatively similar job.
As noted in our tweet above, WBZ-TV is not just a CBS affiliate...it's a CBS O&O.
If Melissa Mack has any thought in the future of "going network", a top-10 market station owned by the network would be a decent place to be.
And of course, until fairly recently, WJW itself was owned by its network, Fox...though the spotlight is much brighter in a market the size of Boston...
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