It’s mostly very quiet due to the July 4th holiday, but here are some random things we’re hearing or reading…
NEW 5 ND: Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS/5 has finally named a new news director.
He’s Steve Hyvonen, who comes from heading up the newsroom at WVTM/13, the NBC affiliate in Birmingham AL. In addition to other stations on his resume, Hyvonen also counts the cable TV news network MSNBC as a former employer. We’ve seen him listed as a former executive producer and senior producer for the Secaucus NJ-based cable network.
The Plain Dealer’s Julie Washington reports that Hyvonen is a Michigan native, who’s also lived in Indiana. He’ll take over the WEWS news director position on July 17th.
The opening dates back to September of last year, when news director John Butte succeeded Ric Harris as WEWS’ general manager. Butte has hung onto the news director title as well, while waiting to hire his replacement in the newsroom…
FOUR LETTER FUN: OMW hears that a guest on Air America Radio’s Al Franken Show (weekdays 1-3 PM, WARF/1350 “Radio Free Ohio”) let forth with an unexpurgated four letter obscenity recently, a word that apparently made it out to the entire network.
And that guest isn’t the only one who’s cursed recently on national radio.
FOX News Radio affiliates unwittingly aired the “F-bomb” late one night not too long ago. The network’s overnight news anchor accidentally aired a piece of pre-recorded audio (link to “Inside Cable” blog story, beware strong language!) that did not contain the voice of President Bush, but the voice of an unidentified FOX News Radio staffer using that expletive in frustration in front of a microphone he apparently did not realize was open.
Franken is among the hosts with subs this extended July 4th weekend – “Majority Report” co-host Sam Seder is not only being heard in his place, but is also being heard locally in the noon-1 PM hour as fill for WARF midday host Joe Finan.
We’d assume that Jones Radio’s Stephanie Miller Show is airing in the 11 AM-noon hour on 1350 during Finan’s vacation absence – this week, with comedienne Elayne Boosler doing fill-in for Steph. Over on Finan’s former home base – talk WNIR/100.1 – regulars Howie Chizek and Bob Golic are on the air today…
NEXTMEDIA’S NEXT: We’re hearing rumblings out of the Canton market that NextMedia is itching to make some moves there. Could they be eyeing adding a second FM to WHBC-FM/94.1? Could a possible eventual sale of 94.1’s sister station, WHBC/1480, also be in the offing? We’ll keep an eye on this for you, but this may not come down for a while…
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