Mostly followup to stuff posted below this item, with some new items as well…
“RIK AND SARAH” NOW CORE OF WHBC-FM MORNINGS: For at least some time, WHBC-FM/94.1’s Madison Woods actually hosted morning drive solo at “Mix 94.1”, NextMedia’s Canton AC outlet.
When Rik Elliot showed up, the two teamed up. And now, “Maddie” is out of mornings.
A memo from the station flew out of Market Street South and somehow made the trip up I-77 to us. It says “Mix” is “building” the morning show around Rik and Sarah.
It shows us how long we haven’t been paying much attention to that building – we didn’t even know there was a Sarah!
That would be one Ms. Sarah Kay, who is listed on her WHBC-FM web bio as “Morning Show Producer/Weekends”. We assume that description will change sometime soon.
Ms. Woods hasn’t flown the “Mix” coop entirely, according to the station memo, which says she’ll continue as an “on-air contributor” to 94.1, and that they’re looking forward to “creating new on-air opportunities” for her.
We’ll assume that doesn’t mean she’ll swap and take Sarah’s weekend shifts…
“Mix 94.1” has also hired a new promotions/marketing manager, Gina Bannevich. The station says she joins NextMedia Canton from a stint at the county Convention and Visitors Bureau…
“WILLIE” NATIONWIDE: OK, for a moment, let’s do an impression of the man WLW/700 Cincinnati early afternoon host Bill Cunningham will replace on Premiere Radio’s syndicated Sunday night show in October…
WORLD EXCLUSIVE!!! MUST CREDIT OMW!!!
Heh. That felt good! We didn’t get any credit anywhere for an item we’ve had up since, well, late Friday, but we’re not that concerned…as it basically fell into our laps just a couple of hours after other sites had shut down updating for the weekend.
Anyway, Cincinnati Enquirer TV/radio guru John Kiesewetter does what we have not done yet – Kiese got some choice quotes from the WLW star himself, who presumably won’t be wearing a fedora when he takes Matt Drudge’s time slot:
“This is a confirmation of 24 years of work,” says Cunningham, 59, an attorney who has hosted talk since 1983 on WLW-AM. “I feel it’s a compliment to this market. Premiere could have chosen any talk show host not heard nationally, and they chose me.”
We’re not sure Mr. Cunningham wears “humble” well as far as his on-air persona goes, but we’re sure he’s sincere about that statement.
Kiese notes that Cunningham’s live show will run on WLW from 9 PM-midnight, and Premiere will feed it live 10 PM-midnight, then refeed the first hour that will air live only on Cunningham’s flagship station from midnight to 1 AM.
Anyway, either way, the “Willie” repeats go away on “The Big One”.
And as we speculated, the new show doesn’t affect his current local early afternoon program (12:25-3 PM weekdays), which will continue to air only on WLW.
Tossing THAT away would be a suicidal programming move that isn’t in Daryl Parks’ playbook, as far as we know.
A connection here is one Sean Compton, who Kiese notes is not only a Clear Channel programming vice president – he knows Cunningham well from his days at WLW. And Mr. Compton is, apparently, the son of former overnight trucking show icon Dale “The Truckin’ Bozo” Sommers…
AND MORE WLW-RELATED SYNDICATION NEWS: WLW’s Mike McConnell, whose weekday show IS now syndicated, gets some new competition soon in his original national time slot.
AllAccess reports that Clear Channel talk KOGO/600 San Diego afternoon driver Roger Hedgecock is launching a new noon-3 PM (Eastern) Saturday syndicated show, with an eye on eventually syndicating his afternoon drive (PT) local show on KOGO.
That Saturday noon-3 PM slot is the live slot for McConnell’s original national show, “The Weekend”, a show which one existed as a vehicle for Clear Channel to air various local hosts from around the company. McConnell took over “Weekend” by himself, and it was then offered in syndication to non-Clear Channel stations.
It airs on many stations live, but others, like local Clear Channel talkers WHLO/640 Akron, WKBN/570 Youngstown and WTAM/1100 Cleveland, either bounce it around the schedule due to sports. As far as we know, WTAM doesn’t air “Weekend” at all these days.
Hedgecock, the former San Diego mayor who blossomed into a local talk radio star, is no stranger to the national airwaves. He’s the most regular substitute for Rush Limbaugh, for one. (For that matter, the aforementioned Mr. Cunningham has also done Rush subbing.)
His show is being offered by the folks at Syndicated Solutions, as we assume Premiere didn’t want to launch a second show in the McConnell “Weekend” slot…
OH, THAT BILL APPLEGATE: Though he was apparently puzzled by the interest, WOIO/19-WUAB/43 general manager Bill Applegate got the full profile treatment over the Labor Day holiday weekend in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
There’s far too much in the main article, or even its sidebars, for us to cover here. The Bill Lubinger piece does note that Applegate’s on-air editorials on “19 Action News” are actually a corporate mandate by owner Raycom Media, which wants its local managers to have on-air presence.
Another interesting quote:
He shook a quiet station awake in a demanding, volatile management style that doesn’t always play well. A longtime employee who would only speak anonymously for fear of reprisals said morale is awful because of Applegate’s bullying, the stress of adding newscasts while cutting staff, and the station’s controversial approach.
“He’s everything that’s wrong with television news,” the employee said. “He has single-handedly helped lower the bar in this market as far as quality, integrity.”
Hey, how did Bill Lubinger get into our E-Mail inbox? Heh.
On the other side is this glowing quote from new “Action News” investigative reporter Carl Monday, just in from a library in Bere….er…from 13th and Lakeside:
“I think 19 shook up the market,” said Carl Monday, who recently left WKYC Channel 3 for WOIO. “All you have to do is sneak a camera into their newsrooms at 4 o’clock. They’re all watching Channel 19 to see what they missed that day.”
The folks at Raycom are apparently happy that 19/43 are making more money, though a number of its newscasts are still, umm, ratings challenged.
We’ll help in that definition: Ratings challenged means “19 Action News” broadcasts that don’t have the CBS prime-time lineup as a lead in…
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