Some pickups/leftovers/questions to start the week:
THERE GOES JOHN: OMW hears that Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS/5 announced on its 11 PM newscast Sunday night that sports anchor John Chandler’s last day would be – Sunday. It’s news that isn’t news to regular readers of This Space, which reported the “NewsChannel 5” sports anchor’s exit on Thursday.
(An error on our part resulted in us reporting a last date of April 26th.)
We didn’t get a chance to see it, but we’re told anchors Curtis Jackson and Tracy Carloss gave Chandler a send-off, along with weather anchor Jason Nicholas – who quipped, “John Chandler’s leaving?”
OMW hears that Mr. Chandler’s destination in Boston is New England Cable News (NECN), the massive local cable news channel co-owned by Hearst (WCVB-TV there) and Comcast, where we presume he’ll join the network’s sports anchor rotation.
And Chandler’s fiancee is apparently from the Boston area, and the pair has an upcoming wedding in the works as well.
We also caught the only on-air sportscaster remaining at WEWS after April 26th, Sue Ann Robak, make a quip Friday night – thanking her producer and an intern, if we remember right.
OK, Sue Ann – you’re the only *on-air* sportscaster staying at 3001 Euclid…
With the Cavs in the playoffs, and Robak being the only sports anchor left, “NewsChannel 5” is going to have to find at least a second fill-in sports person – and quick. With the May sweeps looming, we hear it’s going to be a tall order for WEWS to hire anyone permanent in the next couple of months.
They’d better at least get fill-in help, or Ms. Robak may have to use that producer and intern to physically hold her up, and stop her from falling over from exhaustion…
AND GOINGS…: Cleveland Plain Dealer media/radio/TV/moviemaking columnist Julie Washington has more on something else we reported in that item, the departure of WKYC/3 news director Mike McCormick.
McCormick tells Washington he was “tiring” of commuting between Cleveland and Jacksonville FL to “see his family”, and denies that he was being thrown under the bus due to lower ratings at the local NBC affiliate.
Julie tells us that McCormick will be out of the building at 13th and Lakeside “before May sweeps”, which, as we look at the calendar would be pretty much, well, very soon.
We’ll do our best not to be skeptical here, but the timing seems pretty quick to us, particularly happening just days before an important sweeps ratings period…
AND GOINGS?: We are reminded by our comments that another local media departure has gone unreported.
And that’s only because, well, we don’t know anything about it.
But it does appear that Salem contemporary Christian WFHM/95.5 Cleveland “The Fish” is no longer featuring veteran voice Dan Deely in its afternoon drive position.
The move would seem to be confirmed by the “Fish” website’s staff page, which shows Josh Booth in afternoons – and still shows Deely as host of the “Sunday Morning Celebration” from 8 AM to noon on Sunday.
But a click on the page for that Sunday show credits Salem’s Glenn Mertz – presumably also voicetracking overnights on WFHM – as the host of “Celebration”.
Meanwhile, Deely’s own page still exists on the station’s website, untouched from his time doing afternoon drive. And Josh Booth’s WFHM staff page confirms his regular presence in the “Fish” afternoon drive slot.
And to further confuse matters, we’ve heard that Dan Deely’s voice has still been heard doing production.
So, we just don’t know. We’d appreciate any information about this – please, folks, E-Mail us privately if you can. We will be discreet and tasteful…as always.
And please, keep it “nice” in the comments…
DENNY REDUX: We reported here some time ago that former Clear Channel talk WSPD/1370 Toledo afternoon drive host Denny Schaffer had “landed” with a tryout at Dickey Broadcasting sports WCNN/680 Atlanta “The Fan”, with a weekend show called “Denny Radio: Sports and More”.
While Schaffer had always made it clear that the show was a tryout, we lost track. And looking for something else recently, we found out that the show apparently didn’t continue past its first few tryouts.
Schaffer’s name and bio are no longer on the WCNN website, and his own website’s page with audio from the show has been moved into the “Past Shows” directory, with only one day’s worth of audio from January 20th available.
It’s not that the former WSPD host is completely out of the radio loop.
We missed it, but we’re told Schaffer substituted last week for Premiere nationally syndicated host Glenn Beck (weekdays 9 AM-noon, WHLO/640 Akron, WEOL/930 Elyria and others).
A letter on Schaffer’s E-Mail page from a former Toledo listener indicates that the host was heard doing Beck’s radio show last Tuesday, in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech massacre.
Anyway, as we’ll surely be asked after we post this, we don’t know what the future is for one Mr. Schaffer and a permanent radio gig…
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