Three small bites’ worth of news items, all of ’em courtesy of our friends over at AllAccess…
SEACREST VIRUS INVADES COLUMBUS: The rumors that filtered into our inbox out of Columbus have become reality, as Premiere syndicated host Ryan Seacrest must have compromising pictures of someone in Columbus.
Oh, OK, so Ryan’s not really our favorite host – but we’re not in his target demo.
AllAccess reports that Seacrest’s syndicated midday show joins the weekday lineup on Clear Channel top 40 WNCI/97.9 starting at noon, filling the time slot between current middayer Joe Boxer (who moves to 10 AM-noon), and afternoon driver Chris Davis…
THE ELECTRONIC ROOSTER: Even some listeners in urban areas like Cleveland, Akron and Canton have probably at least stumbled onto the electronic rooster call that signaled the start of farm radio programming at Columbus-based ABN, the network originally founded by iconic farm broadcaster the late Ed Johnson.
After being sold to Clear Channel, ABN is now back on its own again, and AllAccess and other trade sites report that it’s headed for new digs.
ABN will join up with Ohio State University’s WOSU/820-WOSU-FM/89.7, using studios left behind by WOSU Public Media at the university’s Fawcett Center. The WOSU stations are apparently still in the building, but using newly-constructed digital facilities there.
The ABN folks say they’re looking forward to interaction with OSU students, and the university says it looks forward to that – and to working with the ABN folks to “strengthen agriculture” in Ohio.
ABN’s website shows most of its affiliates ring Northeast Ohio, though it does claim coverage on NextMedia talk WHBC/1480 Canton and MediaOne sports WFUN/970 Ashtabula (we’re guessing that may have gone away with the station’s flip to “ESPN 970”).
But ABN has long been carried, back to the Ed Johnson days, on Dix country/sports WQKT/104.5 Wooster, with its powerful 52,000 watt signal that reaches into parts of the Cleveland market…
ON THE LOOSE: AllAccess notes that former then-Salem sports WKNR/850-talk WHK/1420 Cleveland program director Michael Luczak is out on the job hunt again, after “time off to take care of back problems that required surgery”.
Luczak tells the trade site that he’s back in good health, and “available to work anywhere there’s the right PD or OM position”.
Before his time at Salem, Luczak also programmed rock WMMS/100.7 (now owned by Clear Channel) and then-rhythmic oldies WZJM/92.3 “Jammin’ 92.3” (now CBS Radio alt-rock WKRK “K-Rock”). And of course, WKNR is now owned by Good Karma Broadcasting…
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