…with no connection, that we know of:
MORE OHIO MOVES: You invoke Scott Fybush, he’s bound to check in.
The NorthEast Radio Watch and 100000watts.com editor, and long-time friend, who could recite station moves and allocations off the top of his head, checks in with another Ohio FM move we forgot about…and it’s linked to the recent FCC rules changes talked about in an earlier item.
This one is Saga Broadcasting’s application to move Columbus market smooth jazz outlet WJZK/104.3 Richwood much closer to Columbus, with a new community of license of Grandview Heights.
WJZK is currently rimshotting the state capital from the northwest, from a site near Marysville – paired in the smooth jazz format with another rimshot from the east, WJZA/103.5 Pickerington.
The moves which allow this are pretty complex, and involve:
* The move of Saga’s WQEL/92.7 Bucyrus to a COL of Richwood, to replace the “lost service” caused by the WJZK move. Bucyrus needs no COL replacement facility, due to the presence of WQEL sister nostalgia outlet WBCO/1540. In a deal already announced, WQEL will also be flipped to the folks at the Bible Broadcasting Network, due to ownership concentration concerns caused by WQEL’s relocation into the Columbus market.
* The downgrading of WPAY/104.1 Portsmouth from a class C station to a class C1 station. WPAY can operate at 100,000 watts for one very specific reason, as far as we can tell – its transmitter location is on the Kentucky side of the Ohio/Kentucky line, just across the river from Portsmouth. The application drops it to 35,000 watts.
We hear there are other Ohio moves prompted by this relaxing of FCC guidelines, but so far, we haven’t heard any that affect our primary coverage area of Northeast Ohio. We’ll keep you posted…
A BUSY MAN: He moved from being morning host at then-WJER-FM/101.7 Dover-New Philadelphia to being sports director of the station which is now solely WJER(AM) 1450, with the move of its former sister station north as Clear Channel AC WHOF/101.7 North Canton.
Somewhere along the way, Bill Morgan added the Zips Sports Network to his resume, announcing University of Akron Zips women’s basketball games and hosting pre/post-game and studio shows on ZSN flagship WARF/1350 in Akron.
Now, we’re told Bill has added yet another job to his list – television voice of the indoor football team the “Canton Legends”.
(That shows you how much we don’t know. We had no idea Canton HAD an indoor football team, let alone that they’re in the American Indoor Football Association! Or, for that matter, that there is an American Indoor Football Association.)
We’re told Morgan is hosting the weekly “Inside Legends Football” program, which the team says airs Wednesdays at 7 PM on “various Stark and Tuscarawas County cable television outlets”.
But it would appear that along with local origination channels, local low-power outlet WIVM-LP/52 Canton-WIVN-LP/29 Newcomerstown is also carrying the show, as the station’s cable channel numbers are given on the team’s page about the show (Time Warner Canton digital 585, and TWC-formerly-Adelphia Tuscarawas County channel 99), and the show is on the WIVM/WIVN online schedule.
We don’t know if Bill’s calls of TV games will be seen on cable or the WIVM/WIVN combo. The team’s site promotes streaming video of games starting with a game on Friday…
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