Now that we’ve resolved all our technical issues with the new blog, let’s stock it with some content. And yes, we have a long, long list of items coming up here.
A note: E-mail subscribers, who signed up for notification, should not have to resubmit at the new site. We are requesting that the E-mail subscriber lists be moved over.
Until then, we’ll post a link to the new content on our old WordPress.com site, so E-mail subscribers can still be notified…
HO HO HO HOLIDAY: We knew that Cleveland radio stations couldn’t sit on the sidelines as the Christmas Music Sleigh came by, and two stations got off those sidelines on Thursday.
From what we’ve heard, Clear Channel classic hits WMJI/105.7 “Majic 105.7” was first aboard the sleigh, at about noon on Thursday.
After spending over two weeks polling listeners as to when they should start playing Christmas music, the answer for CBS Radio AC WDOK/102.1 Cleveland was apparently “an hour after WMJI”, and “New 102” became “Christmas 102” at about 1 PM that same day.
From “Christmas 102″‘s response to us on Twitter:
If Santa can fit all those toys in his sack, we think the sleigh has plenty of room for all of us too, jump in friends!
With two high profile entrants in the Christmas Music Sweepstakes in Cleveland, we wonder if Salem Christian contemporary WFHM/95.5 “The Fish” will make it on number three.
UPDATE 11:02 AM 11/22/13: We’re told that WFHM is indeed promising Christmas music starting on Thanksgiving Day…
Of course, we already reported that Clear Channel’s WHOF/101.7 “My 101.7” in Canton and sister WMXY/98.9 “Mix 98.9” in Youngstown were Northeast Ohio’s first Christmas Music Stations…
NEW 102, ER, NEW CHRISTMAS 102 PM DRIVER: Speaking of “New 102″/”Christmas 102”, the station has officially named its new afternoon drive host.
He’s Jeremiah Widmer, who’s already been filling in during the time slot once occupied by Kory. Kory scooted off to Dallas for afternoon drive at CBS’ KVIL.
From a release helpfully sent to us by the folks at the Halle Building:
“Jeremiah worked his way up from part time to full time and I was pleased with his progress,” said Dave Popovich, VP Programming, CBS RADIO Cleveland, of the announcement.
The Rittman High School and University of Akron graduate won an Emmy at UA for his sketch comedy show “Akron After Hours”.
His bio says he also did comedy in Los Angeles, and performed on various high profile shows like CBS-TV’s “The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson”, NBC’s “The Tonight Show” and the syndicated “Ellen”.
His last on-air post was in Alliance, at Canton-market D.A. Peterson top 40 WDJQ/92.5 “Q92”.
And he gets a glowing endorsement from the previous “New 102” afternoon driver, Kory, who tells us on Twitter:
He is the best possible choice for the gig! #gooddude
NEW ARCHIE PLACE: He hasn’t landed back on the radio yet (or on low-power TV), but former Murray Hill Broadcasting alt-rock/AAA WLFM-LP 87.7 (TV 6) morning drive host Archie Berwick is getting his voice out there.
He announced on Twitter that he’ll do a show called “Archie’s Neighborhood”, at least one time on online radio outlet Voice It Radio:
Dec 2nd 7-9:30ish we’re baaaaaack on @VoiceItRadio #ItsLifeNotRadio
We have never heard of the Cleveland based site, so here’s part of their description:
Voice It Radio is 24hours of up to date, Sports, Community, and Entertainment talk radio, delivered to you by some of Cleveland’s finest broadcast professionals.
A visit to the site’s page shows two other former Cleveland “broadcast professionals” have apparently also joined up.
We can’t find any more info on it, but there’s a banner ad featuring the one and only Art McKoy, community activist and former Sunday night host at Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100.
He appears to be joined on “Monday Night Mind Bender” (4-9 PM) by another former radio type, ex-Radio One talk WERE/1490 morning drive host Basheer Jones.
We might listen, but the busy Voice It Radio main site with multiple moving Twitter streams locked up our relatively new computer something fierce…
NO, NOT IN CLEVELAND YET: The big news out of the big Scripps TV group is out of Cincinnati, where the company will put online content at ABC affiliate WCPO/9 behind a “paywall” next month.
From a Scripps release:
The E.W. Scripps Co. launched features to the website of its Cincinnati television station WCPO that take it beyond the traditional coverage most often seen on TV station websites and help readers more easily find its in-depth local news content.
Over the past year, WCPO.com has shored up its digital reporting staff, adding more than 30 editorial resources, including eight veteran reporters covering local crime and justice, politics, business, education and the arts.
That unprecedented investment in a television station’s digital platforms sets up WCPO.com to introduce in January the first-ever premium subscription service for a TV station’s digital content.
The release says some of the station’s online content, including breaking news, traffic and weather and newscast video, will still be free online and on the station’s mobile apps.
Since WCPO has a rather prominent sister station here in Cleveland, WEWS/5, is this coming to NewsNet5.com?
Colleen Seitz, who’s in charge at NewsNet5 and is WEWS’ Director of New Media, answered the question for us on Twitter.
We suggested there that this appeared to be only taking place at WCPO, and she responded:
exactly – no plans for it in Cleveland.
That’s not to say (and we’re not talking for Colleen or the station here) that such a move wouldn’t eventually be made here and in other Scripps markets, particularly if it’s successful in Southwest Ohio.
But as the excerpt from the press release indicates, the company has “ramped up” WCPO’s website, hiring a number of reporters to actually cover news for the site.
At 3001 Euclid, the web staff is at its normal levels, and thus, there’s no immediate need to “monetize” the site beyond the usual ads…
TRIBUNE TRIMMING: Another TV group with a prominent print presence is cutting back.
But the 700 announced layoffs at Chicago-based Tribune Company appear to be solely in its newspaper division.
Chicago media beat reporter icon Robert Feder, who we think can sometimes break media stories in his sleep, had first word of this…and talks about the announcement:
Nearly 700 layoffs hit Tribune Co. newspapers Wednesday, as CEO Peter Liguori announced a sweeping reorganization of the company’s publishing business, resulting in consolidation of advertising sales, consumer marketing, digital media and other areas.
Feder reported back in September that Ligouri ordered $100 million in cuts on the newspaper side, as Tribune prepares to spin it off as a separate company.
At the time, a Tribune spokesman called Feder’s report “grossly inaccurate”…two months later, it appears to be “quite accurate”.
Of course, Tribune has no newspapers in the OMW Coverage Area.
But we bring this up because Tribune’s TV side is buying the Local TV LLC group, which includes Fox affiliate WJW/8 here in Cleveland.
For now, this appears entirely newspaper related, so the folks on Dick Goddard Way can breathe easier, at least for now…
NEW YOUNGSTOWN STATION: Back in 2003, a flood of FM translator applications came into the FCC.
One of those applications was in Youngstown, and this week, the FCC finally granted construction permits for it and other long-dormant applications.
Our content partners at RadioInsight had first word from the FCC grants, that Clear Channel got a construction permit for 250-watt W263CL/100.5, which lists sister (brother?) classic rock WNCD/93.3 as primary.
What will eventually end up on 100.5 in Youngstown, or will it even be on that frequency?
We don’t know.
But recall the case of W262BN/100.3 Lorain, which through a series of moves, became today’s Clear Channel W256BT/99.1 Cleveland – the station simulcasting WMMS/100.7’s HD2 channel as alt-rocker “99X”.
When it started, W262BN was owned by translator storehouse Edgewater, which agreed to sell it to Radio One’s Blue Chip subsidiary.
MediaCom talk WNIR/100.1 Kent “The Talk of Akron” complained loudly, and got listeners to complain of potential interference to the FCC.
Radio One eventually gave up on 100.3/Lorain, and Edgewater sold it to Clear Channel instead.
CC moved the station to 99.7 for a nanosecond, lighting up the signal off a North Ridgeville cell phone tower just long enough to move it again…to the Parma antenna farm on 99.1.
The key here is that Clear Channel owns many of the adjacent or nearby stations in question…99.7 is first adjacent to WGAR/99.5, and 99.1 is third adjacent on the other side of WGAR.
Since the company owns WGAR, it can consent and not complain about any possibility of nominal interference.
The 100.5 translator CP in Youngstown is first adjacent, of course, to Clear Channel’s WMMS/100.7 in Cleveland… a signal that won’t get in the way much by the time it gets to Youngstown.
Still, Clear Channel engineers these things to not interfere with their own stations as much as possible.
The FCC filing for 100.5 shows a contour with directional protection towards WMMS, much like 99.1 in Cleveland has a slight null towards first adjacent WMXY/98.9 over in Youngstown.
The filing notes addressing of interference concerns towards Cumulus top 40 WHOT/101.1, which is just down the road from the proposed 100.5 site (on the tower with WNCD).
As was the case with today’s W256BT/99.1 in Cleveland, there’s no guarantee the Youngstown translator will stay on 100.5…
NEW 100.5 OR WHEREVER IT LANDS FORMAT?: And there’s no guarantee that the new Clear Channel translator in Youngstown will rebroadcast WNCD’s current HD2 channel, which listeners tell us is the company’s “24/7 Comedy” format.
There is an urban format hole in Youngstown, after Bernard Radio sold off WRBP/101.9 Hubbard to EMF Broadcasting. 101.9 is now running EMF’s CCM format “K-Love” as WYLR.
Sagittarius Broadcasting’s WHTX/1570 Warren has flipped to the national urban AC format “The Touch”, but it’s an AM with limited reach south of Niles.
In Niles itself, it’s still rumored that the Niles-licensed translator owned by the wife of Bernard Radio’s former general manager Skip Bednarczyk will pair up with a revived WGFT/1330 Campbell under a new owner with an urban format.
Helen Bednarczyk’s translator recently got a construction permit to move to 93.7, with a much stronger signal (200 watts vs. the licensed value of 2 watts). The FCC records do indeed show the CP tabbed to WGFT as its primary station.
WGFT filed for a silent STA for “ongoing technical problems” back in May, and as far as we know, it’s still off the air. The station tells the FCC it expects to return before the one year deadline for it to do so, which will be February 27th of next year.
As of yet, there’s no ownership change filing to take 1330 out of the hands of Bernard Radio, and we believe any format change would come from the rumored new owner.
But could 100.5-or-wherever-it-lands in Youngstown be destined for country?
Clear Channel already has the country format in place in Youngstown, though you need an HD Radio tuner (or iHeartRadio) to hear it…as it’s WMXY/98.9’s HD2 channel, called “Youngstown’s Commercial Free Country”.
It’d be trivial for Clear Channel to change the translator’s primary to WMXY, clearing the way for the country format to land on the analog FM dial on that currently-permitted-for-100.5 translator. (And presumably, dropping that “commercial free” part.)
Why would the company do that?
Well, presumably the hope is that the country format would shave a couple of share points off of Cumulus country giant WQXK/105.1 “K105″‘s ratings.
That could benefit Clear Channel’s talk WKBN/570, which is right behind K105 in the latest Youngstown Nielsen Audio ratings…
UPDATE 4:20 AM 11/23/13: We’re told by a reader that Clear Channel pulled the country format from WMXY/98.9-HD2 “2 or 3 weeks ago”. Since we originally posted this item, the “Youngstown’s Country” site we linked has also been pulled, yielding an error message. It was live when we posted…
*** TAKE A BREAK! Stretch your legs…we’re not done yet… ***
HOME TV SHOPPING: ION Networks O&O WVPX/23 already had two shopping subchannels…the infomercial laden “Shop” at 23.4, and the QVC “Over the Air” feed at 23.5.
Add another.
The station has begun broadcasting Home Shopping Network (HSN) on new subchannel 23.6.
We don’t have a big HDTV set, so we have no idea if all this bandwidth sucking is making the HD programs on 23.1 look bad. (We’ll try to see if any glitches show up the next time we watch “Monk” on a big HD set.)
QVC’s 23.5 feed is squeezed from the network’s 16:9 broadcast into a 4:3 window. HSN is letterboxed at 16:9 into its own 4:3 signal on 23.6…
NEW BOARDS: The audio boards at Streetsboro City Schools alt-rock/oldies WSTB/88.9 in that Portage County city are aging, and long-time WSTB station manager Bob Long wants some help getting new replacements.
The weekly Gateway News newspaper in Streetsboro reports that Long recently asked the district for $50,000 to replace three main audio boards and a smaller mixer:
“I’d like to move this project forward and get this done before we have problems with the boards,” he said. “Everything on the radio that goes on the air runs through the audio counsel.”
(Presumably, Long said “console”, and Gateway News reporter Mike Lesko’s spell check changed it to “counsel.”)
The Streetsboro school administration supports Long’s request, and is figuring out which fund would pay for the upgrades.
Long says WSTB brings in about $30,000 to $35,000 a year in fundraising, and could pay the district back about $5,000 to $10,000 a year…
QUINN AND ROSE AND GONE: Regionally syndicated morning talkers Jim Quinn and Rose Tennant disappeared from Northeast Ohio airwaves a ways back, when Clear Channel talk WHLO/640 Akron dumped them for poor ratings performance.
Now, “Quinn and Rose” have disappeared from all their stations, including flagship Clear Channel talk WPGB/104.7 in Pittsburgh. For the moment, the show dubbed “America’s Morning Show” isn’t even “Pittsburgh’s Morning Show” anymore.
OMW reader Patrick Cloonan, who writes for the Trib Total Media group of newspapers there, gave us first word.
“WPGB tried to reach new terms with Jim Quinn and Rose Tennent, but as that was unsuccessful, they will be moving on,”(Clear Channel) spokeswoman Kathryn Ferri said. “We support and thank them for the contributions they have made.”
“Quinn and Rose” were replaced in Pittsburgh by David Blomquist, otherwise known as “Bloomdaddy”. We’ve written about him before.
The station is apparently piping in “Bloomdaddy” from the show’s long-time home station, Clear Channel talk WWVA/1170 Wheeling WV. The show is also heard on the company’s WLTP/910 in the Parkersburg WV/Marietta OH market.
WHLO replaced “Quinn and Rose” with the “Wall Street Journal This Morning” show, hosted by Gordon Deal.
The former hosts are keeping their radio following updated at their “War Room” website…
CLEVELAND’S UNINTENTIONAL TV COMEDY: The funniest show on Cleveland TV has no laugh track.
Indeed, those who actually depend on the closed captioning for the station’s “Fox 8 News” couldn’t even hear such a laugh track.
We don’t know if the outsourced captioning provider for “Fox 8 News” is locked in a small room far from Cleveland and is bored, but consider these examples from a recent “Fox 8 News in the Morning”.
We’ll bet you didn’t know that a small Lorain County town known worldwide for its college was called “Overland”.
And in promoting a Fox 8 event, the closed captioning noted that the station was getting “its sole on the road”.
We bet that the hearing-impaired don’t laugh at these typos like we do (and those are just two examples of many, every day).
But we also bet that those who depend on the closed captioning have long since departed “Fox 8 News” for other area TV news broadcasts…which may not have perfect captioning, but are much closer to reality than WJW’s effort…
With regards to the radio news in Youngstown-Warren:
First Skip is still with Bernard he has relocated to Florida as he overseas the Fort Wayne and Savannah clusters and unless he has changed his mind again, he not bernard is planning on relaunching the “jamz” brand in Youngstown.
From my understanding, he plans once he retires from the company buying both WASN and WGFT from the company. At one point he was talking to both clear channel and cumulus to sell the translator but changed his mind.
Also WASN’s current studio on paper is housed at WYSU 88.5 according to the FCC database.
Though not radio TV related directly the old WRBP/WASN/WGFT is now a reciting center for the VXI call center upstairs.
As for the WHTX. it has a not perfect but listenable signal in downtown Youngstown, WYCL on the other hand has a very poor signal outside of the immediate transmitter site.
From what I heard, Phil and sugar bear (greg) are planning on pushing 1570 towards the older set and have recruited at least 2 different former WRBP sales staff members and on air personalities.
RIP WGFT:
//licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101598575&formid=910&fac_num=74164
99.1 has a null towards WMXY? Maybe to the Northwest over Lake Erie. 99.1 needs to implant a hard null towards WMXY. Ever since they signed on, 99.1 has been bleeding over WMXY and at times, completely wiping them out. The funny thing is, according to radio-locator.com, 99.1 is weaker then WMXY in my area.
There’s also a repeater in Solon/Warrensville Heights that broadcasts on 106.1. Ever since signing on, their station has wiped WBBG off my radio. I’m not sure why this repeater is on the air because it is rebroadcasting WGAR in an area that should not have a problem receiving their full power signal. I actually sent a letter to WGAR and complained. If noting is done, then I’m filing an FCC complaint. (Should also do that for 99.1).
These repeaters are getting out of hand. They are using up precious frequencies that could be used for legal unlicensed broadcasting. I use to listen to my iPod in the car on 93.7, now a station north of me is broadcasting on that frequency, causing interference and bleed-over. Now another station is planing on moving to that location in the Youngstown area.
And yes, I have noticed WJW’s buggy closed captioning. Remember it saying “I’m not Wallace” instead of Annette Lawless. Also remember it displaying a “please register this program” tag every ten lines.
Brian, it’s been a long time since we looked at the 99.1 FCC documents, but we’re pretty sure there’s a null towards Youngstown. Don’t believe it was a major null, though, just a notch in that direction.
Atmospheric conditions, especially in the summer, could play a role as well. We seem to recall that right before 99X signed on, summer conditions were carrying WFRO in Fremont well into Northeast Ohio.
They can design these things, but no one can design a station to overcome extreme atmospheric conditions.
Also, Brian…where are you? If you’re far afield from the Mahoning Valley, you may not be in 98.9 and 106.1’s protected contours.
According to the FCC’s coverage contours, I am miles away from 106.1/WBBG, but 98.9/WMXY misses me by about 1/2 a mile.
I’m about two miles away from 99.1’s contour, but their station booms in where I’m at. Maybe less hills that the signal has to travel through? 106.1/W291BV is heavily nulled in my direction and doesn’t come close to me, but when I move my antenna around, it becomes a fight between both W291BV and WBBG. W291BV’s non-directional CP comes a little bit closer to me. Still unnecessary for them to be re-transmitting WGAR in that area.
So to sum it up, I am basically outside of the protected contours and it becomes a mess of interference from two different stations. I prefer to listen to the Youngstown stations as they usually play better music then Cleveland. WBBG use to come in good, particularly during the winter months. I also remember receiving WBBG out in Broadview Heights one day on my car radio.
The 106.1 issue is interesting to me. Being the original designer of 106.1 in Niles, (1985-1988) I was checking on signal penetration into the Cleveland metro, where I am now CE for a group of stations, I discovered an odd phenomena. Apparently two or more signals are mixing and creating an intermodulation product at 106.1. I verified this with a software defined radio spectrum analyzer. I think whatever WGAR interference you get on 106.1 is the result of an intermod product. I can drive in the Parma-North Royalton area and clearly hear it….ID’d as WGAR FM. There is not translator ID verbage at all, so clearly it is an intermod product and not a planned signal, at least in that area. I have been mistaken on things in the past, but I am pretty sure on this one.
WJW isn’t the only guilty party in town: the St. Ed’s Eagles “sored” over their opponents last week (11/16) per WKYC and WOIO keeps running a Southeast Harley Davidson ad with “motorcycle” misspelled. I suppose if the check clears its all good.
I do television over the air in Akron Ohio where FOX8 has never cared to transmit ever since the transistion to digital. WOIO 19 always comes through 100% of the time since they upgraded whatever it was they needed to upgrade. Channel 3 skips a beat now and then but is usually highly reliable. But for the last several months WEWS 5 is mostly unwatchable. They supposedly were repairing/ upgrading something and it was good for about a month then got bad again. I don’t understand. All of their transmissions come out of Parma and cover 55-60 miles. Anybody have any insight on this?