Time to head to Cleveland’s electronic equivalent of Grand Central Station (Tower City?), and chart a whole bunch of Cleveland TV entrances and exits, and a small radio note…
THE NEW MELISSA: OMW hears that Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8 “Fox 8” has found a replacement for meterologist Melissa Mack…who left Cleveland with great fanfare for a new job at CBS O&O WBZ/4 in Boston.
She’s Angelica Campos, who shares a now-former employer with Raycom Media CBS/MyNetwork TV WOIO/19-WUAB-43 “19 Action News” morning forecaster Jason Handman – State College PA-based AccuWeather. (We don’t know how long Angelica had worked there, so we don’t know if they worked together.)
You can get a preview of Campos at two video pages – on the AccuWeather site, and at YouTube.
OMW hears that WJW was originally looking to hire the Michigan TV forecaster we hinted about some time ago – morning meteorologist Hally Vogel from Grand Rapids ABC affiliate WZZM/13 – but she apparently didn’t take the station up on its offer. (Oddly enough, WZZM is owned by Gannett, owner of Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC/3.)
And we heard Vogel would have been coming back home if she’d accepted the “Fox 8” job, rumblings confirmed by her WZZM bio:
It was in Cleveland where she started her career in television. Born and raised in Ohio, Hally is no stranger to Great Lakes’ weather.
Hally graduated from Kent State University with a BA in Radio/TV Production and a minor in Broadcasting.
We don’t know when Campos will start at South Marginal Road…
TWO EXITS: Two high-profile local TV names are either headed off the air, or will be soon.
The first exit is at WKYC/3 and the upcoming exit will be at Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5. The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s “Tip Off” column has both:
WKYC TV 3 veteran reporter Michael O’Mara (who also has a law degree) has left the station to join the Hennes Paynter Communications. Soon, WEWS TV 5’s chief investigator Duane Pohlman will leave television, too, for a management job in a new media journalism venture in Austin, Texas.
The PD’s Michael McIntyre notes the loss of institutional knowledge in shrinking local TV newsrooms, making him wonder “if there will be more than a handful of reporters left who can tell the difference between Parma and Parma Heights”…
AND A RADIO NOTE: We won’t rub it in…by the time you read this, you’ve likely heard that the Cleveland Cavaliers have made an early playoff exit, losing Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals to Boston by the score of 94-85.
The season’s end means that, by nearly all accounts, Cleveland Cavaliers iconic play-by-play voice Joe Tait has just one more season left to call a Cavaliers title.
And the presence, or lack thereof, of a certain Akron native on the team in 2010-2011 – and beyond – will make no difference to Tait’s retirement plans.
We can’t find the article, but Tait recently told a local reporter that next season will be his last as the Voice of the Cavaliers, “LeBron or no LeBron, championship or no championship”.
UPDATE 9:35 PM 5/14/10: We found the article and the quote…it’s from an article by the Plain Dealer’s Bill Lubinger, writing about Tait’s entry into the Basketball Hall of Fame:
Tait, who is contractually committed through the 2010-11 season, turns 73 Saturday. He has had knee, ankle and back surgeries and uses a cane. The end of a career is in sight.
“One more year,” he said. “Win, lose or draw, LeBron or no LeBron, that is it.”
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If they’re gonna “Win One for Tait” (we didn’t get T-shirts out there in time this year!), it will have to be next season.
Meanwhile, over at non-Cavaliers rightsholder Good Karma sports WKNR/850 “ESPN 850”, the audio equivalent of “throwing in the towel” up against the Cavaliers’ game on Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 was not hosted by evening host Kenny Roda, or even station owner and occasional fill-in-against-huge-competition host Craig Karmazin.
“The Best of ESPN Cleveland”, a clip show hosted by young station staffer T.J. Zuppe, aired instead. And we have the spelling correct because Mr. Zuppe started following our Twitter account a few days back.
This sort of “every sports fan in Cleveland is listening to the other station” conflict won’t happen for a while now, with the Cavaliers out of the playoffs, and any playoffs not only unlikely for the Indians or Browns, but far off…
Tait himself confirmed this before game 5 during the wtam pregame with andre knott(sp, sorry)
Didn’t hear the pre-game…but as noted here over the past few weeks, Joe’s been telling anyone who’ll listen that last year will be his last calling the Cavs.
It may have been the first time he told the radio audience, tho…