More followups and day-end stuff:
FISH SALE?: We’re having a very hard time grasping this, due to the company’s general mission, but…
An anonymous birdie tips us off that Salem’s Cleveland Christian contemporary outlet WFHM/95.5 “The Fish” is rumored to be on the sale block, for a price of about $20 million…at least if the rumblings bouncing around the market are correct.
The CCM “Fish” format is one of the company’s mainstays, along with the Christian teaching/talk format (WHKW/1220) and secular conservative talk format (WHK/1420). We have no idea why the local Salem cluster would want to let the station go, or if there’s anything else behind this rumor, so we’re just throwing it out there to see if anyone else has heard it. Other than the tip we just received, we have not heard it ourselves…
ABOUT WJER-FM: We’ve had a long discussion about it in the comments section of our original item about the construction permit for WJER-FM/101.7, tied to its new community of license of North Canton.
And we’ve pretty much nailed down what’s been talked about there – 101.7 will indeed camp out at the facility on Canton’s 22nd Street, a short drive off of Whipple Avenue just west of downtown Canton.
From satellite photos, there appear to be two towers there:
1) The tower we’ve heard called the “Mortenson tower”, the long-existing structure there. It’s called that for good reason…Mortenson Broadcasting, which still exists in Kentucky, actually still owns the tower according to the FCC’s Antenna Structure Registration database. Cumulus rock WRQK/106.9 “Rock 107” is located here.
2) A second, newer tower that we’re told is the location of Melodynamic’s WCER/900. The only problem with this scenario is that the aforementioned antenna database shows WCER still being on the “Mortenson tower”. (This could well be an error in the FCC online database.)
Cumulus has a construction permit to move WRQK to a new tower at the same site, which has a registration number but has not yet been built.
We understand that 101.7 FM will land on the current WRQK “Mortenson tower”, and presumably move with that station to the replacement tower when it is constructed.
We are starting to get in the habit of not calling 101.7 “WJER”. The call letters will certainly not move north with the station, and will stay on AM 1450 in Dover…
FOX 8’S NEW MORNING SHOW: We’ve talked about this for a long time, based on rumors in the industry and on other sites…but it’s now official. FOX is launching a new national morning show for all of its owned-and-operated stations, which includes Cleveland’s WJW/8.
The new show starts January 2007, and stars Mike Jerrick and Juliet Huddy of FOX News Channel’s “Dayside”.
However, the show is not aimed at replacing the popular local morning news shows at the company’s O&O stations, including FOX 8 News in the Morning. It’ll be an hour long program, airing at 9 AM weekdays. On WJW, Tyra Banks’ talk show is the current occupant of that slot…
QUINN AND ROSE SUB: OMW hears (from people who get up early) that WPGB/Pittsburgh-based “Quinn and Rose” have tabbed former WEWS/5 weatherman and regular WTAM/1100 fill-in host Brad Sussman to fill in for them this week.
We’re not sure how that connection happened, but we’re guessing it was Kevin Metheny to Jay Bohannon in your radio baseball scorecards. WPGB program director Bohannon was WTAM’s production director before coming to the Steel City, and of course, Metheny is Clear Channel’s regional programming VP based in Cleveland…
“The Warroom” is heard not only on WPGB, Clear Channel’s FM talker at 104.7, but also on Akron’s WHLO/640 and Wheeling’s WWVA/1170, along with channel 167 (“Talk Radio”) on XM Satellite Radio…
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