Some other stuff not related to impending changes in Good Karma Land…well, mostly not related…
MILLER REPLACEMENT TIME: WEWS/5 sports director Chris Miller is now under a week away from his departure from the Cleveland ABC affiliate, bound for Washington DC’s Comcast SportsNet regional sports channel. His last day is February 28th.
We hear that Miller and CSN’s Tony Burke (an ex-WEWSer) go back a long time, and that the presence of the offer from DC didn’t result in a counter offer from the folks at NewsChannel 5, though the popular sports anchor and his Cleveland station had been talking contract.
And though we hear John Chandler is also talking contract with WEWS, it’s not a foregone conclusion that he’ll move up to replace Miller after his exit. In fact, it seems that at least some folks believe Channel 5 will look outside the building for Chris’ replacement…
XM/SIRIUS MERGER: By request from a very nice OMW reader…
OK, so we don’t really “play requests” here, and don’t have much to say about it, but you’d have to be under a rock to not know that satellite radio services XM and Sirius are hoping to merge.
We say “hoping”, as despite the announcement, it would appear the regulatory hurdles are rather high. Approval, unlike most FCC approvals (and FTC, etc.), would not seem to be anywhere near automatic for any number of reasons.
There is a tiny Northeast Ohio angle here.
Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin is the father of Good Karma’s Craig Karmazin (WKNR/WWGK), who is a bit busy these days with his own facilities in Cleveland. OK, so there’s a small WKNR-related item here…
Karmazin the Elder would retain his CEO title in a merged XM/Sirius, whatever it’s called. We believe that gives him the upper hand in this so-called “merger of equals”…
KASPER ACTION: We spent a lot of time on this the last time it happened, but don’t have much to say this time about two Cleveland radio names getting some attention.
The name of WAKS/96.5 “Kiss FM” afternoon drive host/APD Kasper has once again shown up in the “Action” section of the popular trade website AllAccess. Twice…once Friday, and once Monday.
Not to be outdone, “Kiss” programmer Bo Matthews, who also is still in his original role programming sister Clear Channel rock outlet WMMS/100.7, appeared in that same list on Tuesday.
“Action” is – presumably – a list of people who might be “up to something” in the near future, news which is usually related to some sort of move or job change.
No, we don’t know what, if anything, it means.
The last time, Kasper’s name was being attached by the rumor mill to every possible opening at every possible major market top 40 outlet in America. Or, at least it seemed that way to us.
As it turned out, the Friendly Afternoon Driver and OMW reader decided to stick around Northeast Ohio – not upsetting the Radio Talent Balance in this region.
We “haven’t heard anything”. We’re just reminding you that names can, and do, appear in that section of AllAccess even if nothing eventually happens…and if we DO hear anything, we’ll let you know…
FILE IT IN THE “DELAY” FILE: And speaking of “Action”, OMW is hearing that Cleveland’s “19 Action News” may not round out the Local HDTV News Lineup in Cleveland as soon as the end of this month.
Oh, the engineers at Raycom Media CBS affiliate WOIO/19 are still working on it – diligently, we’re told. We just have heard that the “end of February” target date may be too optimistic for the folks at Reserve Square to become Cleveland’s fourth HD newsroom, after WJW/8, WKYC/3 and WEWS/5.
One problem: They’ll have to perfect broadcasting in color, first.
Yes, we’re just kidding…honest!
Or maybe they’re waiting for CBS to return that 5.1 audio equipment, so they can put each “19 Action News” anchor on a different speaker.
Yes, we’re kidding…again…
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