Clearing Off The Virtual Desk

Here’s just a collection of stuff once again topping our virtual desk. We’ve been meaning to clean this thing off…though there are still a couple of items we’ll have to take off later…

20 QUESTIONS: OK, so they’re 10 questions each to two people, but both are Northeast Ohio radio types.

The popular trade site “AllAccess” spotlights two local radio types in its weekly “10 Questions” section.

One is Clear Channel Akron market hot AC WKDD/98.1 former morning man and former talk WHLO/640 midday host Matt Patrick, who is featured in the “10Q” “On The Beach” section.

Like others who have been featured in the section in the past – including at least some OMW readers – Patrick uses the “On The Beach” platform to pitch his resume for a full-time gig somewhere, complete with a website showcasing his work.

Of course, Matt Patrick is not 100% “On The Beach”…you could say he has a shop on the beach selling items to tourists, as a weekend and fill-in host for Clear Channel Cleveland talker WTAM/1100.

But whatever WTAM is paying him for the weekend talk slot, it clearly isn’t a full-time job, even given the market size differences – and of course, Patrick’s 30 year gig as a top-rated morning drive host in the Akron market grew his paycheck over the years.

The other local radio type in “10 Questions” this week is also in the Akron market…Akron Public Schools AAA WAPS/91.3 “The Summit” program director Bill Gruber.

And interestingly enough for us, Gruber is asked a question about reacting to commercial competition for his non-commercial station – and doesn’t even indirectly mention the Elephant In The Competition Room, Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting AAA WNWV/107.3 Elyria “V107.3”.

In specific:

4. What kind of tactics do you use to effectively compete with commercial radio?
We use the same competitive programmatic and promotional tactics they utilize so well, without the burden of commercial-clutter and corporate mandates breathing down your neck.

“Corporate mandates” doesn’t even remotely describe locally-owned “V107.3”, which also positions itself against that big-company-owned competition.

But Gruber describes the station’s music mix as “melodic and tempo-driven, the perfect blend of familiar and new”, which highlights the fact that WAPS and WNWV are offering two very different flavors of the “AAA” format.

Gruber also details the station’s recently-started simulcast arrangement with WKTL/90.7 Struthers in the Youngstown market – putting “The Summit” format on the high school station in hours where it is not locally programmed.

He mentions that WAPS approached the Struthers district, and provided the various equipment to control and automate the station when it is not being run out of Struthers. He also says the station has expanded public affairs commitments to the Youngstown area.

And he says his favorite format outside his own would be called “Smart Talk”, with a hodgepodge of both public and commercial talk offerings found all over the radio band. We might not list the exact same hosts on our list, but Gruber’s imaginary station concept would claim Your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) as a P1…

DAVE CHECKS IN: We’ve done some tracking of the career of Dave DeNatale, the former Metro Networks afternoon sports update anchor once heard on Good Karma sports WKNR/850 “ESPN 850” in Cleveland.

We brought word when Dave was hired to do play-by-play for minor league baseball’s Lake Erie Crushers in their first season in Avon, heard on the Internet via the site SportsJuice.com.

And we noted that this season, the team is mounting broadcasts of Sunday home games on Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting talk WEOL/930 Elyria, with WEOL’s Tim Alcorn and Rob Polinsky on the call.

What happened to Dave?

DeNatale checks in with the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), telling us that in addition to the WEOL broadcasts, the team is continuing its Internet broadcasts – but with a new voice:

The team parted ways with me in April and have brought in Tim Calderwood, who was the Frontier League’s Broadcaster of the Year in 2009 for Traverse City. I consider Tim a friend and I think he’ll do a first-rate job.

Dave says he doesn’t know why the Crushers parted ways with him.

After the Crushers’ first season, DeNatale joined Bowling Green State University’s Falcon Sports Network as studio host and network producer for BGSU football and basketball games (he’s a BGSU alum). Dave also continued to call Oberlin College football and basketball games when there were no BGSU conflicts.

As for now? Dave, like some other broadcasters recently, has been recovering from heart-related problems:

I’m currently under the weather dealing with complications from atrial fibrulation, a coronary disease. However, I am planning on beating this and being back on the air very soon. Somewhere.

We hope so. From everything we’ve heard, Dave is one of local media’s “Nice Guys”, and is talented as well. An excerpt from a letter he sent to Crushers fans via E-mail:

When I took this job, I had zero professional baseball play by play experience on my resume. In fact, I think I had done about five baseball games period!

But you all embraced me very quickly and allowed me to bring the excitement of Lake Erie Crushers baseball to your computer every single night. 2009 was the best summer of my life, and that’s not just because the team went on to win the championship.

It’s because I looked forward to coming to work every single night. I loved being associated with such a great team and a great organization. And I loved the relationships I made along the way.

Although I won’t be the voice of the Crushers anymore, no one can take away the memories of last summer or the friendships that resulted because of it.

CABLE CHANNEL WOES: Some major cable/satellite channels are facing a big problem this weekend – their satellite homes could face major interference.

It’s all explained in this item we found on Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3’s “Director’s Cut” blog by Friend of OMW Frank Macek, written by Channel 3’s Dave Summers:

Last month Intelsat lost control of its communications satellite called “Galaxy 15”. Since then it has been floating eastward and this weekend or next, it is expected to drift into the orbit of another communications satellite. That could interfere with cable programing across the U.S.

Cable networks that could be affected are MTV, Discovery Communications, Comcast Network groups, and A&E Television.

Presumably, that includes MTV sister channels like VH1 and Comedy Central, the Golf Channel (owned by Comcast), and the sister networks to A&E.

But Northeast Ohio cable viewers shouldn’t see those channels go away, according to Summers.

Both Time Warner Cable and Cox Cable say they have contingency plans, plans a Cox executive says they “don’t anticipate” needing to use. (We’ll presume both DirecTV and Dish Network also have such plans, which we’re guessing include temporary transponders on other satellites…)