We’re not sure what to call this one, so let’s plow into it!
CATCHING UP WITH JULIE: We don’t get the Dead Trees edition of the Cleveland Plain Dealer here at OMW World Headquarters, so we only see the PD via its online presence at Cleveland.com.
While we’re quite grateful for that ability, there’s one thing the site doesn’t do – provide an easily accesssible page with all the media-related articles written by Julie Washington. Her articles on local film industry issues have an index, for some reason, but not her regular media writing.
So, we missed the one which came out Saturday.
Aside from that, the radio/TV stuff was buried under a visit with a local native who acts in a cell phone commercial, so…let’s close our eyes and pretend it’s Saturday, no?
The big news – after the cell phone thing – is the departure of WEWS/5 reporter and anchor Michelle Relerford. “NewsChannel 5” GM John Butte tells the PD that Relerford left the station to look for anchor gigs elsewhere.
Julie also catches up with something noted here a while back, the fill-in done by former Channel 5 mainstay Lorna Barrett. We saw her sitting in the weekend anchor chair just this past weekend. She’s in for anchor Tracy Carloss, who’s on maternity leave.
And Ms. Washington elicites a chuckle from former WKYC/3 morning anchor Carole Chandler, er, Sullivan. Carole left the local NBC affiliate to rejoin her husband, who was a coach for Western Michigan University.
We say “was”, of course, since husband Mike Sullivan was recently added to the assistant coaching staff of your Cleveland Browns, which brings Carole back to Cleveland, and brings us back to her chuckle at Julie Washington’s wondering about her return to the local TV airwaves.
But this time, it’ll have to fit with Mother Hours, as Carole has a new son…born just four months ago. (Congratulations, if the new mom is reading this!)
Julie also mentions else something seen here – the addition of syndicated weekend talk show “Dawson McAllister Live” to the lineup at Clear Channel’s Cleveland top 40 outlet, WAKS/96.5.
(We’re guessing the mention of the show in our comments section prompted Clear Channel’s PR folks to send out a general release about it, which we got a couple of days after those comments were put here.)
Mr. McAllister’s show is an interesting mix, and an interesting story.
It’s aired on a number of religious stations, and at some point along the way, it became a more secular offering to major top 40 outlets. It’s a staple on many of them, and still airs on the religious stations to this day in addition to the top 40 outlets…
HD OFFERINGS: Speaking of the folks at Oak Tree, they pass along word of the Cleveland market’s first format change ever – involving an HD2 subchannel.
The HD2 subchannel of the aforementioned WAKS/96.5 “Kiss FM” now airs “KiWi Radio”, which the station says is aimed at…young teens and pre-teens 11 to 15 years old. It’s a market also known as the “Tweens”.
The idea, presumably, is to get those young people involved in listening to radio. Well, we’ll let the press release say it:
KiWi fills a void in the radio landscape by focusing solely on the teen lifestyle. This unique format features today’s hit music teen songs that contemporary radio isn’t airing, such as High School Musical and Hanna Montana. The content is young teen focused and as with anything new, the channel will be refined as time moves on.
The format comes out of the Clear Channel “Format Lab” for new HD Radio formats, and if we’re reading the release correctly, was created by WAKS/WMMS programmer Bo Matthews.
The WAKS HD2 channel was, until now, airing an “underground dance” format (thanks to an alert OMW reader for that correction), and the main HD channel for 96.5 continues to air the digital version of the main “Kiss FM” feed unabated…
HELLO, STEEL CITY: Our chronicling of the recent changes at Good Karma sports WKNR/850 “ESPN 850” and WWGK/1540 “KNR2” has had a few interested readers in Pittsburgh and environs.
Among them is long-time Friend of OMW Pat Cloonan, who writes a media column for the suburban McKeesport Daily News.
This week, Pat namechecks OMW in his item about the changes, linking WKNR/WWGK owner Craig Karmazin with his father, former Infinity Radio boss and current Sirius Satellite Radio boss Mel Karmazin, and the Pittsburgh-area holdings of the company now known as CBS Radio.
But our favorite line?
Also, thanks again to OMW, WKNR afternoon drive host Kenny Roda is a long-time Steeler fan “who gets a LOT of grief about that up here.”
Heh.
We’d direct you to Pat’s column online, but it’s behind the newspaper’s subscriber wall…
HELLO, REEGE: And a regular OMW reader has a followup to the item about the retirement of WSOM/600 hosts and Youngstown radio market icons Dick Thompson and Johnny Kay.
Before Dick Thompson became a fixture in the Mahoning Valley, we’re told he was program director of World War II-era KSON/1240 in San Diego.
While there, the story goes, a persistent young would-be newsman bugged Thompson for a job. A lot.
Thompson hired the kid.
You might recognize the young man’s name: Regis Philbin…
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