No, we don’t mean turkey and stuffing, we mean we’ve prepared some items for you to read on the holiday.
And we give a salute to all of Ohio’s broadcasters who have to work on Thanksgiving Day…
THAT 101.7 STL ANTENNA: Much earlier in the saga “WJER-FM Is Moving North”, your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) saw a mirage…an STL dish in a place on that Clear Channel Akron/Canton STL tower behind the company’s World Domination HQ/Southern Command on Freedom Avenue in…oh, you know the drill.
As it turned out, the dish was later confirmed to be in packing, on the ground behind the aforementioned facility.
Not anymore.
An I-77 commuter heading out of Canton towards the Akron/Canton Airport informs OMW that today, crews were mounting the STL dish upon the tower in question. We haven’t seen it yet, but we’re told it’s pointing roughly south/southwest – aiming at the location where a tower will soon rise at 22nd and Whipple in Canton. We’re also told it is lower on the tower than the other dishes, so it should be easy to spot.
There is also a second dish, the purpose of which we don’t know. If they’d need a second antenna aiming at the same place for WRQK/106.9, that’d explain that.
We’re betting that WJER operator/former owner Gary Petricola, when asked about this item, will say “I haven’t heard of any STL antennas in Stark County”.
We wonder if he’ll say that on December 11th, when a Clear Channel-operated feed is scheduled to take over his 101.7 frequency… or if, like a certain former Iraqi information minister relegated to late night TV comedic history, he’ll deny it’s even happening…
And by the way, with the move, the Clear Channel-operated 101.7 will most assuredly take new calls, leaving “WJER” behind only with AM 1450….
YES, ROBIN’S BACK: In the worst kept secret since, well, we don’t know…yes, that’s former WJW/8 mainstay Robin Swoboda coming back to the station, and to local TV, and to local media.
The local FOX O&O says Robin’s new show, “That’s Life”, will be a “highly interactive show for women” when it debuts in January.
We’re not sure of the timing, but we’ve heard it could air at 9 or 10 AM weekdays, depending on the placement of the new FOX national hour-long show with Juliet Huddy and Mike Jerrick…which will air on all of the company’s owned-and-operated stations.
An earlier OMW item on that show says it will be on at 9, so that would put Robin’s new local show on at 10 AM weekdays.
FOX 8 has put up a webpage and E-Mail for the new show, as it prepares to launch.
And please, try to make your comments original this time. Our site, our rules…and we’d consider your comments more insightful if you are female, and part of the target audience for this new program…
ODDS AND ENDS: With Cleveland outlets WDOK/102.1 and WFHM/95.5 officially on the Christmas music “sleigh ride”, some others will follow after Thanksgiving.
OMW hears that among small, local outlets doing at least some local programming, WLKR/95.3 Norwalk will be on that list. And we presume a number of stations carrying various satellite networks will automatically be moved into holiday music whenever their networks do so…
Or not, at least in local programming time.
Dix country WQKT/104.5 Wooster afternoon host Dave Dial tells OMW that his own 4-7 PM local weekday afternoon show will hold off on the Christmas music until about December 15th.
And even then, Dial says he’ll play songs “that should be sung by certain singers” even if that takes him outside the station’s country format, with folks like Dean Martin doing the crooning if called for…
SINCE WE PROMISED: We’ll give the folks at Mount Union College outlet WRMU/91.1 Alliance a plug for their coverage of the school’s powerhouse Division III college football team’s latest romp through the playoffs.
The Purple Raiders are now in round two of the D-III playoffs, playing Wheaton College at noon on Saturday. WRMU also streams the coverage at the station’s website…
BYE, BYE, RUSS: A long-time local media writer is hanging it up in Toledo.
Toledo Blade TV/radio writer and columnist Russ Lemmon has written his last column for the Northwest Ohio newspaper, as he and his wife leave town and head for new vistas in Stuart FL.
(Why, oh, why, do we not pay attention to these people who leave Ohio BEFORE winter starts, and follow them in moving to warmer climes? Oh, well, no one ever said we were that bright when it comes to that sort of thing…)
Lemmon’s final column for the Blade is a laundry list – in his eyes – of the good, bad and ugly of Toledo media that he’s covered over the years.
He calls most local media types “genuinely nice”, but aims a shot at an unnamed Toledo broadcaster “who currently works on the AM side of the radio dial”.
OMW has not heard of any possible replacement for Lemmon as far as the Blade’s radio/TV/media beat is concerned, and we wouldn’t be surprised if they just did not fill it…
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