BREAKING NEWS: WOIO's HD on DirecTV

OMW hears that all of the "Big Four" network affiliates are now available in high-definition to Cleveland market DirecTV subscribers using the HD "Local-into-Local" service offered by the satellite service.

We hear that Raycom Media CBS affiliate WOIO/19's HD feed started showing up for local DirecTV HD LIL subscribers today. WKYC/3 (NBC), WEWS/5 (ABC) and WJW/8 (FOX) were already on the bird when local HD service launched some time ago.

We have no word if that means sister MyNetworkTV outlet WUAB/43's HD feed will follow on DirecTV. We also don't know if WB-to-be-CW affiliate WBNX/55 will also show up on the bird in HD. DirecTV doesn't seem to be in a hurry to add stations beyond ABC/CBS/FOX/NBC to the HD locals...

Loose Ends Midweek

A couple of follow-ups...

ZOO CHANGES: AllAccess picks up on our earlier item about the flip to top 40 by Clear Channel Ashtabula hot AC WZOO/102.5 last week.

AA gets the word directly from the head ZOO-master - WZOO OM Dennis O'Brien - who tells the trade site that the station does indeed keep morning drive syndicated star Kidd Kraddick, along with midday host Melody. But afternoons now belong to Paul "Big Dog" Guglielmo, who comes over from sister country WYBL/98.3 "The Bull" and also takes the role of assistant program director for ZOO.

Former ZOO afternoon driver Jeremy James lands at another spot in the CC Ashtabula cluster, in afternoons at AC WREO/97.1 "Star 97.1".

For what it's worth, AA describes WZOO's now-former format as "adult Top 40", which we're not altogether sure is much different from hot AC...

SPORTS SPREADING: This is very much rumor right now, but since we're not going to name the station or location, we'll just put a tease out here.

OMW hears rumblings that one Northern Ohio AM station may be dumping its music format for sports. (No, it's not in Canton, we'll say that much.)

The move, if it happens, would follow Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting's WLKR/1510 Norwalk, which flipped from oldies to ESPN Radio sports last week...

ESPN Cleveland - Coming Soon?

In the item about the FCC approving the sale of WABQ/1540 Cleveland to "ESPN Milwaukee" owner Good Karma Broadcasting, we mentioned that Good Karma could take over as soon as later this month, and likely for sure by October 1st.

It looks like Good Karma's Craig Karmazin is already thinking about a website.

Credit eagle-eyed long-time OMW tipster Nathan Obral for this one - the new website under the domain "ESPNCleveland.com" is up and running - with just one line of test text:

Welcome to the espncleveland.com test page!

That's it. No graphics, nothing else...in fact, there's not even any other visible HTML coding underneath that single line of text that's holding down the domain for now.

OMW dug into WHOIS registration information for the domain, which is hidden by the "Domains by Proxy" service. However, look at this:

Name Server: NS2.MEDIANEXT.COM
Name Server: NS1.MEDIANEXT.COM

And look at the name server information for Good Karma's ESPNMilwaukee.com:

Name Server: NS2.MEDIANEXT.COM
Name Server: NS1.MEDIANEXT.COM

It's not like Karmazin's plans for WABQ and potential nighttime hours on Radio One's WERE/1300 are secret. But this would seem to confirm that the ESPNCleveland.com domain name is indeed "official" - and that "ESPN Cleveland" would be the new station's branding, though that really wasn't any secret, either...

Wednesday "Gig List"

Some other stuff that wouldn't fit elsewhere, mostly involving new work...but not all:

STERLING GIG: Former Clear Channel talk WTVN/610 Columbus evening host Sterling gets a new full-time gig. Starting today, he picks up the noon-2 PM (CT) weekday time slot on Hubbard talk KSTP/1500 Minneapolis, which was hosted until Tuesday by Ron Rosenbaum and Mark O'Connell.

In the radio definition of "Minnesota Nice", the station allowed Rosenbaum and O'Connell to actually say goodbye on Tuesday...an audio segment you can still hear on their page on the KSTP website.

After leaving WTVN, Sterling has done frequent fill-in on Clear Channel talk sister WLW/700 Cincinnati "The Big One". And if you didn't know and had "Schiessler" in the "What Is Sterling's Last Name?" pool, collect your winnings...

DIRK GIG: While we're bouncing up and down I-71 between Clear Channel's Cincinnati and Columbus talk stations, we'll make a stop back at WTVN... where weekend talker Dirk Thompson ("RadioDeli", 4-7 PM Saturdays, noon-3 Sundays) picks up some fill-in work at yet another Clear Channel Ohio talker.

Dirk tells us that he'll be on WSPD/1370 Toledo from September 8th through September 18th, filling in during afternoon drive for WSPD program director Brian Wilson.

He describes his "RadioDeli" show to us:

"...recapping the week's current events, news, politics and talk topics from an independent/libertarian point of view, with a 'wry' sense of humor thrown in."

That would seem to make him a perfect fill-in for the often libertarian-leaning Wilson...

JOEL GIG: WAKS/96.5's newest voice, "Java Joel" Murphy, has officially taken the rains of the Cleveland Clear Channel top 40's night slot.

Unlike his previous time in the slot on "96-5 Kiss FM", Murphy is live and local from the Clear Channel World Domination HQ in Independence. The stint comes after what was mostly his absence from big market radio, aside from some Chicago fill-ins and a voicetracking stint at a Montreal top 40 rimshot not far from his upstate New York birthplace...

KING GIG: AllAccess reports that Cumulus Cincinnati country outlet WYGY/96.5 "96.5 The Star" has inked a new programmer. WYCT/Pensacola FL program director Kevin King is headed for Cincinnati later this month...

AND NO GIG: Salem sports talk WKNR/850 Cleveland is now, as far as we can determine, about to officially become the company's only sports radio station.

That's because Salem is selling the other one, WZNZ/1460 "ESPN 1460" Jacksonville FL. AllAccess reports that WZNZ and sister conservative talk WJGR/1320 "The Patriot" are going to Chesapeake-Portsmouth Broadcasting, a company with familial ties to Salem...for just south of $2 million.

But Chesapeake-Portsmouth - despite being owned by the wife of Salem's Stuart Epperson - generally has run religious formats in its short time operating stations. It recently flipped a hot talk AM station and its sister in the region it's named for (Norfolk/Virginia Beach/Portsmouth VA) to a Christian format.

And Stuart Epperson himself runs a few religious stations in North Carolina, separate from his work with Salem, under the "Truth Radio" banner.

So, no matter what the ties between Nancy Epperson and her husband's company, we'd expect "ESPN 1460" to change format at some point...

My YTV's Debut

We weren't close enough to Youngstown to catch the video, but we heard the audio simulcast of WYTV/33's sister station and its signature program - "My YTV"'s afternoon talk show "For the People" - on Cumulus standards WSOM/600 Salem.

Aside from a few first-day glitches, the show in general sounded to us a lot like a radio simulcast of a public affairs show.

Well, maybe not as dry as most Sunday morning shows aired by radio and TV stations, but the show does seem to have a high-minded interest in fueling the brains of viewers and listeners. (We'll see how that goes over.)

The show also gives WYTV a chance to heavily promote on radio not only its new MyNetworkTV digital/cable sister station, but its own 5 PM newscast. WYTV anchor Vince Bevacqua co-hosts "For the People", and we heard a typical "here's what we're working on for 33 News at 5" promo for that newscast during the show's simulcast on WSOM.

The rest of the "My YTV" programming day, aside from the MNT programming, the talk show, a 10 PM edition of "33 News" and a sports show after that, seems to consist mainly of very old "classic TV" shows like "I Love Lucy" and "Happy Days" and repeats of the local programming. Oh, Martha Stewart and new talker Greg Behrendt are in there as well, along with a couple of recent sitcom repeats.

And though the new station has managed low channel number placement on Valley cable systems owned by Comcast (3) and Armstrong (13), a peek at the programming schedule shows that dominant provider Time Warner Cable will air it on...cable channel 534, up near the HDTV simulcasts, and we believe right next to WYTV's own HDTV simulcast at 533.

It reminds us of TWC's channel placement of Canton independent LPTVer WIVM-LP/52...585...

WVXU/Cincinnati Selling Off Last Three Simulcasters

When Cincinnati Public Radio picked up WVXU/91.7 to add to its classical WGUC/90.9, the pubcaster also inherited a bunch of far-flung simulcast outlets...as close as Chillicothe OH, and as far off as northern lower Michigan...known as the "XStar Radio Network".

The Cincinnati station is now selling off the final three simulcasters still under its control.

In a $1 million deal (FCC PDF), Christian Voice of Central Ohio gets WVXC/89.3 Chillicothe, WVXW/89.5 West Union OH and WVXR/89.3 Richmond IN. Christian Voice of Central Ohio is better known as the owner of Columbus market CCM outlet WCVO/104.9 Gahanna ("104.9 The River") and its sister station, WCVZ/92.7 South Zanesville ("92.7 The River").

The move completely disassembles the "XStar" network. WVXU/Cincinnati Public Radio sold off the distant stations in Michigan to mainly commercial broadcasters.

And while neither report makes mention of this sale, both the Cincinnati Post's Rick Bird and the Cincinnati Enquirer's John Kiesewetter take a look at the year anniversary of the change at WVXU, where the dominant local pubcaster took over the quirky station once run by Xavier University and turned it into an NPR news/talk outlet.

The WVXU folks are pronouncing the combination a "success" a year later...

BREAKING NEWS: WABQ Sale Approved

Just up on the FCC's Daily Digest today: the sale of Cleveland gospel daytimer WABQ/1540 to Good Karma Broadcasting has been officially approved by the FCC.

OMW sources wearing large cheesehead foam hats tell us that the transfer from D&E Communications to the company owned by Craig Karmazin could take place as soon as September 15th, but is expected to happen no later than October 1st.

If you're looking at the calendar for timing, our first report on Salem sports talk WKNR/850 losing ESPN Radio was July 11th, where we reported that a 90 day notice had been given to WKNR by the network on the previous day.

That would put the earliest possible date for ESPN Radio on WABQ somewhere in the second week of October, just days after Karmazin is expected to take control. We don't know if this early timing for the station's expected launch as a sports outlet is in the works or not, or if Good Karma has nailed down the rumored nighttime LMA/broker of 7 PM-6 AM on Radio One talk WERE/1300 yet.

We assume that ESPN would not like to be off in Cleveland for long, but don't have confirmation of the back end of this just yet.

In a semi-related item, since WKNR has been shopping for a replacement for ESPN Radio, Sporting News Radio and its sister publication is being sold to American City Business Journals, the business and sports newspaper arm of Advance/Newhouse...which owns business-oriented newspapers in Columbus and Cincinnati.

That's right, the network will, at least as part of the sale, be a sister entity to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

But we have no idea if Advance/Newhouse is even interested in hanging onto the radio network. Trade publications report that the company is not buying SNR's owned-and-operated radio stations in markets like New York and Los Angeles, which Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures will sell separately...

MyUnmitigatedDisaster?

Tonight is the official launch of MyNetworkTV, otherwise known as WeLostOurNetworkTV. (OK, so maybe it's otherwise known as that only to us.)

Some of the MyNetwork stations aired previews of the upcoming lineup of daily serials, including "Desire" and "Fashion House", last night. Local MNT outlet WUAB/43 in Cleveland, according to the station's schedule, stuck with whatever UPN aired on Monday.

What should you expect when the two "prime time daily soaps" show up on "My 43"? Not much, from what we've heard.

The BEST opinions we've read place the MyNetworkTV shows in the "pretty people, guilty pleasure" category. The worst, from some who've seen some of the early episodes, involve such phrases as "sub-cable access production values" and "ham-handed poor scripts with machismo", noting that the translated Latin American scripts being used fit poorly with U.S. sensibilities.

We'll leave the reviewing of the actual shows to capable folks like R.D. Heldenfels in the Akron Beacon Journal, or the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Mark Dawidziak.

But it appears from everything we heard that MyNetworkTV - no spacing, please, much like an Internet URL... say, NewsCorp sister "MySpace.com" - looks and feels like something network executives hastily pulled from the syndication market when they found out that they were losing their existing network to another.

And that's how it affects MyNetwork affiliates like WUAB, Cincinnati's WSTR/64, and lesser lights like Toledo LPTVer WNGT-LP/48, and digital TV subchannel/cable channels in Columbus (WSYX/6's DT signal), Dayton (WRGT-DT) and Youngstown (WYTV-DT's "My YTV").

(Lima will get MNT via a delayed broadcast on FOX affiliate WOHL-LP/25. OMW also sees that WYTV will air the MNT programming on the main ABC affiliated channel at noon and 4 PM weekdays, at least the next week or two until new syndicated talk programming arrives.)

Simply put, a better programming option for those losing UPN or WB may have been filling the two hour prime-time block with strong syndicated programming, or even local news. Some newly independent stations have had success stripping syndicated talk shows like "Dr. Phil" into the prime-time hours.

But...in 2006, local TV is all about the identity.

You can't call your station "Oprah 5" or "Dr. Phil 3". At times, we think both Cleveland stations have thought about it, though.

A local TV station's identity, especially for affiliates of newer networks like FOX, WB, UPN, CW and MyNetworkTV, is tied very closely to its network.

And even in large markets, ABC/CBS/NBC affiliates often use their network's branding...particularly in top markets where the network owns the station. WJW/8 here has both...typical FOX branding, and it's owned by the network.

Thus, WUAB flipped "UPN 43" to "My 43" weeks ago on the air, even though the actual programming doesn't show up until tonight. (We do note that WUAB was a latecomer to the "UPN 43" name, once calling itself "43 The Block". We repeat what we said earlier. "The Block" of what?)

Over on State Road in Cuyahoga Falls, WBNX/55 has phased in its "WBNX/the CW" branding, which is nearly complete. CW premieres on Monday, September 18th, with new programming starting two days later.

By the way, for those looking for outgoing UPN mainstay "WWE Friday Night Smackdown" on WUAB, TV listings show it will air - at least this coming week - Saturday night/Sunday morning at 1 AM on Channel 43. The show moves to the CW on Friday, September 22nd in prime-time on WBNX.

Despite all this, there are some who believe that MyNetworkTV may have a better shot at ratings. After all, it wouldn't be the first time that trashy TV with no redeeming social value would attract viewers in America.

And though CW has mostly existing shows with a track record on WB or UPN, neither network has exactly rocketed out of the over-air TV basement, though executives hope a combination of the two could become a solid fifth network after "The Big Four".

It'll be fun to watch...

Labor Day Weekend Drop In

Just a couple of items this time around:

ROVER'S CLEVELAND GLORY: We weren't sure of the timing, but it sounds like WXRK/92.3 "K-Rock" morning doggie Shane "Rover" French has returned to his home kennel at the CBS Radio Cleveland alt-rocker.

We haven't done a lot of solid listening to "Rover's Morning Glory", but we stumbled upon the show the other morning...hearing Rover ride herd over a "Dieter" stunt in downtown Cleveland, and then mentioning that they took time recently for moving.

In addition to "K-Rock", Rover and the gang are still heard on the rest of the show's syndication empire, including CBS Radio "Free FM" talker WKRK/97.1 Detroit...the show's largest market after its departure from Chicago...

RONNIE'S GIG: Some OMW readers pointed out that one of Ronnie Duncan's first duties after being hired for regular work at local WB-to-CW affiliate WBNX/55 would be as a co-host on the Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon.

Duncan co-hosts the telethon's local segments along with WBNX program director Annie Keith and another interesting name, Clear Channel Cleveland regular Daune Robinson.

We're told now that Duncan has done the telethon in the past, so we guess we don't watch it enough to remember that from the past couple of years.

Duncan was hired by the Cleveland market's incoming CW affiliate a while back to do sports-related work. He continues as host of Radio One talk WERE/1300's local morning drive show. For more on Duncan, check out Roger Brown's next column in the Plain Dealer...

Ashtabula Format Change

OMW hears that Clear Channel Ashtabula hot AC WZOO/102.5 "102 ZOO" has flipped to a top 40 format.

We don't know exactly when it happened, but we believe it was within the past week or so. The 102 ZOO website is now headed "Your Hit Music Station", and WZOO keeps its name and call letters.

The station put up an online "survey", and that page now reads:

We have received tons of e-mails from you about changing the sound of 102 ZOO. So after begging and crying to management, paying off our creditors, checking with our attorneys, again checking with our attorneys, and finally checking with our attorneys....we have made the change!

However we still want to hear from you! What is your take on the New 102 ZOO?

We're unaware of any staff changes as a result of the format change.

"102 ZOO" has been running Dallas-based syndicated morning host Kidd Kraddick for some time now, and we didn't know WZOO's lineup before this week beyond that.

Oh, and we chuckled at the invitation on the 102 ZOO website to "Work at the ZOO". We thought all radio stations were zoos...

Higher Standards

This is the second in our series of navel-gazing "policy change" messages. Hopefully, it'll be the last.

In our first missive on this subject, we warned ourselves that the rumor and speculation component of this report had gotten out of hand, particularly concerning major either coming or rumored changes at two locations in one Northeast Ohio radio market.

We dedicated ourselves to pull back from a lot of the din, which we did.

However, like tasty candy sitting there, luring us to eat what we should not eat, some rumors with not much to support them made it into this blog.

From now on, we will work and strive to hold back on most, if not all, of the "this is going around town, we don't know much about it, but let's throw it up and see if anyone knows" items that cross the OMW transom. We have already taken steps to remove some of these previously posted items.

That's not to say that OMW will basically turn into a rehash of the writing of Roger Brown, Julie Washington and the like. We still have very good sources, and much of what we have reported - and has not hit the radio trade press, let alone the general press - is still as solid as the day we first reported it. We can't help if radio company timelines drag like so many shoes.

But the "We heard this guy at station A is going to market B" stuff? It's gone, unless we can get reasonable confirmation that it is actually happening. Rumors have a way of gaining volume, and it is not responsible of us to throw this stuff up - even if we're trying to hear if it's coming from anyone else.

Our sincere apologies for this.

We also welcome, and appreciate, official communication from any local radio or TV station or cluster, either on the record or off the record.

Please know that if things are happening, and we can confirm them through directly connected sources, we will continue to publish things you may or may not like. But OMW would like to become more "mainstream", and less "gossip"-related.

We still welcome "rumblings", but we won't publish random stuff we can't nail down to any degree. If you'd still like that sort of thing made public, we're sure the various local radio message boards would be a welcome home for such chatter...

UPDATE: Time Warner Cable Delays NFL Network Dump

Just when it seemed pretty bad between the folks at Time Warner Cable and the NFL Network, some daylight may be breaking.

Multichannel News reports that TWC is delaying the "deadline" to drop the NFL Network until at least September 15th.

Time Warner had been expected - as recently as earlier this week - to start taking the NFL Network off of the systems it got from Adelphia and Comcast, including its Northeast Ohio systems outside the original TWC footprint in Akron/Canton/Youngstown and such.

But the Multichannel News report says the two sides are apparently talking now, and enough is happening to convince TWC to hold off on that drop...

A New Voice in the Blogosphere

We're quite honored to be named as the inspiration for a new local voice making its way onto what's called "The Blogosphere".

A gentleman from Rittman named Cliff Feightner, better known to local radio message board regulars as "74WIXYGrad", has started his own blog called "WIXY's Gone Bananas".

It's more of a general look into Cliff's thoughts and life, but we appreciate the fact that he names your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) as the inspiration for the blog. Though Cliff is not "in the business" - his username refers to his long-ago time at the old WIXY School of Broadcast Technique - he has a smart perspective on his favorite radio formats as a listener.

The din of "listener feedback" is sometimes enough to drive people in the business nuts. People ask impossible things out of their stations, and sometimes make requests and comments that leave us shaking our heads. As such, those of us who've been in radio often tend to discount listener input.

Radio stations would do well to listen to more of the smart feedback coming from people like Cliff.

Welcome to the blogosphere, "WIXY's Gone Bananas!"...

A Format Flip, and a Format End

Two changes, and only one involving an actual transmitter:

NORWALK SPORTS: OMW actually got a tip about this last night, and it's now been confirmed by a reader in the region. Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting oldies WLKR/1510 Norwalk has flipped from that format to sports, using ESPN Radio.

The daytime sister of AC WLKR/95.3 and country WKFM/96.1 Huron had been using the Dial-Global (ex-Westwood One) oldies format, making it the second loss in Northern Ohio for one of the company's satellite formats in the past few days. As reported below, D-G's Adult Standards format is no longer heard at all on Akron's WAKR/1590.

Fans of the D-G oldies format should, at last check, be able to hear it if they're within range of local affiliate WKVX/960 out of Wooster. The two stations don't really have much listenable overlap, though, as WKVX is kind of staticky by the time it gets up to Norwalk.

There would appear to be only one problem with the new "ESPN 1510". As a sports station, it won't be able to sell live Friday night high school football games...as it's a daytimer with no night authorization. But maybe it'll be able to do local games that are on Saturday afternoons...

A DELAYED FORMAT DEATH: Much was made of the end of over-air broadcasting by iconic alt-rocker WOXY/97.7 Oxford, the Cincinnati market outlet made famous by the mention of its slogan in the movie "Rain Man".

The station's owners funded their retirement - and rightfully so, in our eyes - by selling 97.7 to First Broadcasting, which operates it today as part of the adult hits trimulcast "MAX FM".

(By the way, thanks to long-time Friend of OMW Scott Fybush for earlier pointing out the continued presence of the third station in that trio, co-channel WAXZ/97.7 Georgetown OH. We believe at some point, that station will be moved somewhat away from Cincinnati to allow WOXY to nudge into a new COL at the Cincinnati suburb of Mason, but we don't believe it's happened yet.)

Anyway, when "97X" exited 97.7 in Oxford, it landed with much fanfare as an Internet-based operation. At least some of the reasoning behind WOXY.com was to capitalize on its worldwide fan base and reputation.

A fan base and reputation apparently don't pay the bills, as the WOXY.com staffers report the webcast will go dark on September 15th...barring any unforeseen infusion of massive amounts of money. (You know it's an alt-rock station when the announcement of its end starts: "This sucks.")

The WOXY folks started charging for subscriptions a while back, but the money just wasn't there to keep it afloat...

Wrapping Up the Week

Just a warning ahead...as soon as we figure out how to word it, we feel another policy change note happening sometime this weekend. Consider it another bout of conscience by your ever vigilant Primary Editorial Voice(tm)...

In other stuff:

1590 WAKR-LOCAL: We've noticed that Rubber City Radio's newly-localized standards/news WAKR/1590 Akron has apparently completely severed itself from the Dial-Global (ex-Westwood One) Adult Standards bird.

At this early morning hour Friday night into Saturday, we're hearing what we presume to be locally-delivered music from a hard drive somewhere on West Market Street, with nary a sign of the usual satellite air personalities.

To that end, we've been pointed at the WAKR web page by regular OMW reader/tipster Nathan Obral, where the station has posted its new local air personality schedule.

In addition to new mid-morning voice Chuck Collins, station vet Bob Allen and WONE morning driver Tim Daugherty, WAKR's schedule lists local voice Debbie Golden in the 7 PM-midnight slot - which, of course, is give or take various sports events.

Like at very least Daugherty's clock-burning hours, we assume Ms. Golden is voicetracked. And just now, well after 1 AM, we heard what we believe is her voice, recorded, walking into a song after a Weather Channel forecast.

We've also noticed (as has Nathan) that the station has officially moved its local newscasts to top of the hour, displacing ABC News Radio, during weekday daytime hours...and added a bottom of the hour local newscast as well during those hours.

And WAKR appears to have beefed up its news staff. On the station's page listing that staff, we spot at least five people we've never seen there before, or heard on the air.

It's a bold move for 1590.

We've said many times before that your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) is a regular news/talk/sports listener. While we're still kind of young for the standards format, we typically forget about WAKR when it comes to local news...because the station's programming outside of local news and sports was not at all appealing to us.

We hope this is just the first step in an effort to "localize" WAKR. We know some have grumbled about the fact that at least part of the WAKR air personality lineup is not "live".

But it allows the station to have local people talking on the air, and it gives them control over the music mix. We've commented before here about how schizophrenic the satellite-delivered "standards" formats are...these days, they're "AOR". Not "Album Oriented Rock", but "All Over the Road"...often sounding like a mix of big band and soft AC.

We're sure Mr. Collins and company at WAKR will have a handle on that...along with occasional automation glitches leading to dead air in the late night hours...

WRQK-LP: OK, so there's no call sign change for Cumulus rock WRQK/106.9 "Rock 107" in Canton, as the low power the station is putting out is still temporary.

OMW hasn't heard much about this, but we're working under the assumption that major transmitter problems have made "Rock 107" a difficult catch outside of the immediate Canton area. We can't believe this will continue for much longer, but in our experience, sometimes such repairs do take time - mostly in waiting for parts.

And though we're not really in a mood to talk about it right now, just a note - at least as of this writing, WRQK is still being operated by Cumulus...more in our later note this weekend...

Thursday Grab Bag

Back to our potpourri:

NO LAST MINUTE SCORE EXPECTED: Those hoping for a last-minute settlement between Time Warner Cable and the NFL Network, keeping that network on the systems once owned by Adelphia and Comcast, are about to lose hope.

Broadcasting and Cable reports that it's not looking good for a long-term deal between TWC and the NFL Network. The cable operator says the parties still talking, but says "nothing conclusive" has come of those talks. And if you ask the NFL's owned-and-operated network, they say talks have actually broken off entirely.

So, unless there's a major change, it appears ex-Adelphia and ex-Comcast types now under the Time Warner umbrella will once again lose NFL Network as soon as Sunday, though TWC officials say the removal may be staggered to provide a buffer for the FCC mandated 30-day notice about the end of carriage.

And B&C makes the same point we did, about Time Warner basically having the upper hand for now:

The NFL Network carries every preseason game, but does not have a regular season game until Thanksgiving (Nov. 23, Denver vs. Kansas City), so, while the FCC acted quickly to restore the preseason games in August and try to nudge a market solution, after the regular season starts Sept. 7, there would arguably be less government impetus to push the parties until November, and Time Warner is free to pull it.

NEW TV NEWS WEBSITE: Vindicator NBC affiliate WFMJ/21 has become the latest local TV news operation in the Youngstown market to revamp its website.

WFMJ.com is now known as "21 News Now", and features not only breaking news and newscast video, but a web-only "21 News Nowcast". We checked last night, and that video file was updated at about 9 PM.

Channel 21 has had news video on its website in the past, but the video was usually delivered by very small, low-bandwidth RealVideo files. The new video is designed for high speed Internet connections and is somewhat clearer.

OMW hears that WFMJ sister station WBCB "The Valley's WB", soon to become the Youngstown market's CW affiliate, will also get a new website soon...

URBAN TALK DROP: It's not here, but nearby...as Pittsburgh's WAMO/860 drops the Radio One-provided Syndication One urban talk lineup after just 6 months to return to an R&B/classic soul format.

That move, along with rumors that Radio One's own WILD/1090 Boston is for sale - its FM sister was sold to Entercom recently, and WILD has itself dropped the company's talk lineup for gospel music - is prompting some to wonder how much time Rev. Al Sharpton and company have on the national talk radio landscape.

The two situations aren't really related.

For one, WAMO is actually owned by Radio One rival Sheridan Broadcasting, the Pittsburgh-based urban radio outfit. It was a surprise to see Sheridan sign up with the format in the first place.

As for Boston, it appears Radio One is actually exiting markets where it does not have a reasonably sized cluster built up.

That is not a problem in Cleveland, where the company owns four stations - WERE/1300 and WJMO/1490 on the AM side, and WZAK/93.1 and WENZ/107.9 on the FM side.

For now, it wouldn't appear changes are afoot at the company's local Syndication One affiliate, WERE...aside from the rumors that incoming WABQ/1540 owner Craig Karmazin will broker 7 PM-6 AM on 1300 for his ESPN Radio sports talk format...

Cavs Announce New FSN Deal - WUAB Not Entirely Shut Out

The Cleveland Cavaliers have announced the expected new deal with FOX Sports Net Ohio, but what wasn't expected was the continued involvement of Raycom Media UPN/MyNetworkTV affiliate WUAB/43.

The team says the "multi-year deal" calls for 70 games a year on FSN Ohio, and five of those games will also be simulcast on WUAB. Playoff games not airing on ABC nationally will be aired on both outlets.

That's certainly a significant drop in Channel 43's coverage, and it won't even be the exclusive outlet for its five games. But the TV/sports rumor mill had long said that the Cavaliers would go entirely with FSN Ohio...and end over-air broadcast presence entirely.

Cavaliers' president Len Komoroski says though the team is expanding its relationship with FSN Ohio, "at the same time, even though a very high percentage of the market now has cable or satellite, it was important to us to have a meaningful number of games still available via an over the air format, including playoff games."

Whether fans consider five games a year plus some playoff games "meaningful" is open to question. But it's five more than the "zero" expected while talks continued over the past few weeks and months.

The new deal picks up with the upcoming 2006-2007 Cavaliers season.

Cleveland Plain Dealer sports media columnist Roger Brown reports something that wasn't mentioned in the press release - the announcing team of Fred McLeod (inbound from Detroit Pistons TV duties), and incumbent analysts Scott Williams and Austin Carr. We suppose the heat over the firing of Michael Reghi has not yet died down enough for the team to include McLeod's name in the announcement.

As for the analyst side of things - with there no longer being an even split between FSN Ohio and WUAB, Brown reports that Williams and Carr will do their own split of duties...with Williams heard on 40 telecasts a year, and Carr on 30...

Air America's Turbulent Times

The biggest brand name in liberal talk radio, Air America, is going through some times that could even charitably be described as "rough".

The most visible evidence of the network's problems involve the actual on-air schedule.

Wednesday afternoon, about 30 minutes before he was scheduled to fill-in for AAR afternoon drive host Randi Rhodes, Atlanta-based late night host Mike Malloy was told his services would no longer be required by the network.

Malloy, on his own website, says the move was explained as a "financial decision", just days after he believed he was staying on under a new contract:

MIKE MALLOY FIRED BY AIR AMERICA RADIO

There will be no Mike Malloy program on Air America Radio as we have been terminated as of 8/30/06.

We are as shocked as you are, especially since as recently as last Tuesday we were told we had the go-ahead to announce our return to NY airwaves and that our contract was "on the way."

We are told its a financial decision.

More details to follow as we hear them ourselves.

Malloy's own 10 PM-1 AM ET show is being covered this week by Detroit-based Peter Werbe, the long-running weekend talk show host at Greater Media Detroit rocker WRIF/101.1.

Malloy's situation is by far not the network's only scheduling change.

As OMW has reported, AAR evening host Sam Seder has been announcing his move to the mid-morning network slot currently occupied by (partially) Cincinnati-based host Jerry Springer.

We also hear that Seder and Springer may actually co-exist in that time slot, with "Springer on the Radio" moving to a syndicated effort decoupled from the turnkey AAR feed...offered to whatever stations still want to carry it.

That'd make the Springer radio show AAR's second "syndicated" show, after Thom Hartmann's 12-3 PM ET program, but we have to wonder if Springer's program is just being sent out to die at the expiration of his contract with Clear Channel.

OMW has heard rumblings that Randi Rhodes' afternoon drive show - delayed to evenings on all three Clear Channel Ohio liberal talk outlets - will be clipped from four hours to three, and that morning host Rachel Maddow will move into a two hour 6-8 PM weekday slot.

One reason this makes sense is that Maddow loses New York City starting tomorrow. New AAR flagship WWRL/1600 will not carry AAR's morning drive programming, keeping an existing local morning show with Sam Greenfield and Armstrong Williams.

Rumblings from the rumor mill suggest that syndicated hosts "The Young Turks" will slide into the AAR morning slot.

How this affects Ohio's three progressive talk stations - if at all - is hard to say. Of the three stations, Springer is only heard on home base WSAI/1360 in Cincinnati. If AAR is hanging onto him as a syndicated show, he'll likely stay there until the end of his contract with Clear Channel.

All three stations carry Rhodes' afternoon drive show delayed into evenings, and WTPG/1230 Columbus has long carried only one hour of that program. The only effect to stations like Akron's WARF/1350 "Radio Free Ohio" is that there will physically be one less hour of Randi's show to run on delay.

WTPG and WSAI do carry "Air America Mornings" with Maddow and Mark Riley, which sounds like it's ending. We wonder if either station will consider picking up Jones Radio's Bill Press, who is heard locally on the station which started his current show, WARF.

And none of the three Ohio Clear Channel liberal talkers carries Mike Malloy's late night show live, or even delayed, on weekdays. Malloy's "best of" Saturday late night broadcast has been heard, and we assume the local stations will carry whatever AAR feeds in that slot - or run "best of" segments from other shows already on the schedule...

Q92 Digging Out of Hole Over Controversial Bit

Canton market top 40 WZKL/92.5 "Q92" is apparently saying "uncle" after strong reaction to a bit by evening personality "Igor".

The Canton Repository reports that the Alliance-based station has officially apologized for a regular bit called "Name that Tune with Mongoloid Mike". The Repository's Melissa Griffy Seeton reports that the contest "invited people to sing a song as if they have mental retardation and listeners tried to guess the song to win a prize." The Akron Beacon Journal's Mary Kay Quinn also has a story in today's paper.

According to the Repository, Igor's first response was - among other things - to blame people outside the Q92 listening area for stirring up the pot.

But it quickly became clear that much of the negative response was from hundreds of Stark County residents, as members of the local Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities board mobilized to flood the station with complaints over the past few days.

As a result, MRDD officials got an official apology call from Q92 general manager Don Peterson III, a statement of apology by programmer John Stewart, and a pledge from Igor to kill the segment.

In an on-air statement Wednesday, Igor noted that it wasn't his "intention to hurt anybody" with the bit:

“I try to do an entertaining show every night and didn’t realize that maybe some people would take offense to this. ... It’s been pointed out to me that this isn’t a proper forum for such behavior, so, and actually I do know where you’re coming from. I have a cousin who has Down syndrome, so I can relate to those who’ve made complaints about it.”

And the station has posted its apology on the Q92 website (warning, CAPS LOCK ahead):

TODAY'S HIT MUSIC Q92 WOULD LIKE TO FORMALLY APOLOGIZE FOR ANY HARM THE ON-AIR STAFF HAS CAUSED BY AIRING A SHORT BIT CALLED "MONGALOID MIKE". IT WAS NOT OUR INTENT TO OFFEND ANYONE, BUT TO MERELY ENTERTAIN AS WE TRY TO DO 24 HOURS A DAY 7 DAYS A WEEK. IT HAS BEEN POINTED OUT TO US THAT THIS IS NOT THE PROPER FORUM FOR SUCH BEHAIVOR AND WE SINCERELY APOLOGIZE. THIS BIT WILL NO LONGER BE ON Q92, AND WE'LL TAKE THE FEELINGS OF OTHER INTO CONSIDERATION, BEFORE AIRING OUR COMEDY IN THE FUTURE.

Your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) is fortunate, in that we have no family members who are so affected.

But one of our best friends in this world is the adoptive mother of a developmentally disabled 16 year-old boy. We've spent a lot of time with her and with her son, and over that time, we also became somewhat sensitive to stuff like this. Maybe we're "too sensitive"...we don't know. We're sure that some will consider this incident "political correctness run amok". Knowing this woman and her son, it's hard for us to laugh about this.

We don't really know Igor. We suspect he's a reader of OMW, and everything we've heard about him tells us he seems to be a "good guy". We hope he takes this all to heart...

Some Canton Thoughts

A LOW-POWER FULL-POWER FM: Your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) toured around in the OMW Mobile(tm) on a drive from Portage County, into Tallmadge and then Cuyahoga Falls, with the sole purpose of checking out the currently low-power signal of Cumulus rock WRQK/106.9 Canton, otherwise known as "Rock 107".

Low-power's the word for it, alright.

Let's put it this way - WRQK includes not only Canton and Massillon in their legal ID, but also Akron and Alliance. No one in either city is listening to this reduced signal.

In parts of the drive above, "Rock 107" was fighting it out signal-wise with Jones Radio's syndicated evening show hosted by Lia Knight...which we'd assume was coming from Clear Channel's "Buckeye Country" in Marion, WMRN/106.9. Neither signal was listenable for any period of time.

We don't know much about what happened, but OMW does hear the station has been operating only on its exciter for at least part of the past few days. We previously reported folks working on the WRQK transmitter, which is located at 22nd Street near Whipple Avenue in Canton - co-located with the studio and transmitter facility for religious/talk WCER/900.

All of this comes just days before Clear Channel is scheduled to take over WRQK's operations, in an LMA that - at last report - was set to begin on Friday.

MORE OLDIES: While we're electronically in Canton, just one note about a topic which consumed a lot of energy here - rumored changes at NextMedia oldies WHBC/1480 in the Hall of Fame City.

About the only thing we're hearing lately is that the Canton outlet may actually be expanding its oldies library, at the behest of local staff wanting to open up the playlist.

We hear that NextMedia corporate programming types are still trying to figure out what might be demographically desirable for the Canton station's long-term future.

And for that matter, we're not getting any word that any of this is imminent, or even definite...so, enjoy it now!