Since we’ve been away, some reminders of things that are “still out there”, but not completed yet…
WKNR CHANGES: Though we’ve been “away”, OMW has tried to get more information on whatever changes could be coming to Good Karma Broadcasting sports WKNR/850 Cleveland.
And the situation is eerily quiet.
So quiet, we’re beginning to wonder.
Is this “the calm before the storm”, with Good Karma boss Craig Karmazin getting ready to make a major overhaul? Or is it as we suggested earlier – that there are no major lineup changes in place, and there’s nothing to talk about?
We’ve said this before, and we’ll say it again – we’d be shocked if WJW “FOX 8” sports anchor Tony Rizzo wasn’t in the WKNR mix with a regular, daily presence…either hosting on his own, or paired up with another host. We just don’t know when it’s going to happen.
We also don’t know when Karmazin and company will obliterate all of the imaging still voiced by former WKNR program director Michael Luczak.
And perhaps Karmazin has been busy elsewhere. One of his FM stations in Madison WI recently flipped from a hip hop format to rock.
One WKNR change we believe is new happened last night.
Afternoon drive host Kenny Roda extended his “Happy Hour” show until 7:30 PM, to match the start time for the Cleveland State Vikings basketball pre-game show.
We know Roda has hosted in the 7-8 PM hour for things like the weekly Buckeyes-themed show, but we believe this “no brainer” half-hour extension hasn’t been done before. We seem to recall that the station usually has run network programming (once ESPN, now FOX Sports Radio) in such situations before, when there’s no local show at 7 and a play-by-play event was at 7:30…though, as always, We Could Be Wrong(tm).
And too often in the past, the formerly Salem-owned sports talker has acted like there’s a giant wall between programming “before 7” and “after 7″…
WHOF MORNING SHOW: OMW hears that there will indeed be a local morning show at new Clear Channel Canton market AC outlet WHOF/101.7 “My 101.7”.
And as a teaser, we’re told that whatever it is, two names will NOT be involved: former WHBC-FM/94.1 morning host/program director Terry Simmons, and syndicated Premiere morning star/comedienne Whoopi Goldberg.
For what it’s worth, WKTU/103.5 New York City-based Whoopi has generally been placed on Clear Channel’s rhythmic AC stations, and probably would be out of place on a straight-ahead AC outlet like WHOF. And with the station baring its fangs at “Mix 94.1”, we doubt they’d go syndicated in morning drive anyway.
But that said, they’ll be doing it without Simmons, the WHBC-FM mainstay recently let go by NextMedia. We’re told the new morning show host will be a surprise to most…
CLEVELAND’S OWN: Our brief item on the latest affiliate loss by Shane “Rover” French’s WXRK/92.3-based morning show “Rover’s Morning Glory” has prompted a lot of speculation.
“Rover” only remains syndicated on two outlets outside of Cleveland – in Rochester NY and Memphis TN. Those are both CBS Radio-owned stations that are headed for other owners, as a result of the company’s divestiture of its smaller market stations.
(We were also corrected in our earlier item – Rover did appear on one other non-CBS Radio-owned outlet besides recent affiliate loss KPNT in St. Louis…a small Cape Cod MA outlet which dropped him in May.)
After all of the affiliate losses, Rover has become sort of the Cleveland version of Washington DC’s “Don and Mike”, based at CBS Radio hot talker WJFK-FM/106.7 in that market… a local show that just happens to have a handful (or less) affiliates. But unlike “D&M”, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Memphis and Rochester exit the Rover Kennel soon, due to the ownership issues.
We don’t spend much time with “K-Rock’s” morning doggie, but the last time we checked in, the show sounded like a local Cleveland program, with talk about Browns players and the like.
But despite the speculation, we don’t see Rover leaving “K-Rock” anytime soon. He still does very, very well in the proper demos in the Cleveland ratings.
While we’re electronically visiting “K-Rock”, we hear that former WMMS/100.7 morning co-host Cristi Cantle is now doing weekend shifts on the CBS alt-rock outlet.
With former co-host Hunter Scott now programming the aforementioned NextMedia Canton AC outlet, WHBC-FM/94.1, we lost track of the third member of WMMS’ last local morning drive show. For that matter, we’d have to search our own archives to be reminded of his name…
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