ITEM 1: That was indeed Ron “The Ghoul” Sweed we heard plucking Froggy’s magic twanger this morning on CBS Radio Cleveland classic rocker WNCX/98.5, as the station continues its search for a new morning show.
The Plain Dealer’s Julie Washington updates that search, noting the laundry list of mostly veteran local radio personalities filling in the time slot once occupied by Howard Stern, and most recently, the David Lee Flop show. Er…Roth, sorry.
When CBS Radio Cleveland decided not to pit young-skewing shock talkers Opie & Anthony against the company’s homegrown “Rover’s Morning Glory”, that opened up the floodgates. But not everyone’s hoping to take the full-time gig…some are just doing it for fun, much like the week of “Five Cleveland Mornings”, where the 6-10 AM slot became a reunion for almost anyone who’s opened up a microphone on WNCX, WMMS/100.7 and other stations like the old “M105” (the former rocker WWWM, now Clear Channel oldies WMJI/105.7).
Like “Five Cleveland Mornings”, the WNCX fill-in rotation has a definite “old WMMS” feel to it. Notable is an appearance by “Jeff and Flash”, the long-time WMMS morning team of Jeff Kinzbach and Ed “Flash” Ferenc. Former WMMS voices “Slats” – who later hopped over to WNCX CBS sister alt-rock WXRK/92.3 – and David Spero have also been aboard.
Though WNCX is reportedly also listening to out of town applicants, CBS Radio Cleveland VP Christopher Maduri’s job description for the new host/hosts would almost seem to ensure they’ll have WMMS experience. He tells Washington that WNCX “is looking for a host or morning crew that can create a show that relates to Cleveland, pulls in listeners 40 and up and fits in with the station’s classic rock feel”.
With “The Buzzard” rock radio’s golden child in Cleveland, especially for those in that 40-plus demo, we’d be shocked if a WMMS veteran or veterans were not in the WNCX morning chair. (And though we don’t know if they’re seriously trying for it, it’d be hard to beat the name recognition “Jeff and Flash” would have, especially in that demographic.)
ITEM 2: Second in our Julie Washington trifecta, as she notes the departure of Carole Sullivan, Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3’s morning news co-anchor. Sullivan, known as Carole Chandler before marrying former Browns assistant coach Mike Sullivan, is following her husband to Kalamazoo MI…where he’s an offensive line coach for Western Michigan University. She broke the news on Channel 3’s morning show on Monday…
ITEM 3: And Washington finally catches up with our item about the hiring of new news director Mike McCormick at WKYC. The Jacksonville FL TV veteran (“First Coast News”/WTLV/WJXX) starts at Channel 3 in June. Exiting VP/news Dick Moore, headed for a role as associate professor at the University of South Carolina’s school of journalism, heads south in July.
For the record, OMW gave readers a heads up on this item nearly one month ago…
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