We just wanted to dispel the rumor that we’ve moved to another state, and are doing this blog remotely, while you thought we were still in Ohio.
Heh! We couldn’t resist…
BATH TOWNSHIP, OHIO…HELLO!: Read that in the voice of CNN’s Larry King, as the veteran talk show host dropped in at the Bath Township mansion of Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James this week – to conduct an interview with the soon-to-be free agent to air on Friday’s edition of “Larry King Live” (9 PM Eastern, last we checked).
The King Meets The King was a huge story on local TV and radio this week, as both sports and news operations let out pieces of the interview offered up as a preview by CNN (“Cleveland has the edge to bring LeBron back”, etc.).
And yes, King asked King James for his location in suburban Akron, “just a few miles away” from James’ very modest upbringings in local housing projects.
You can read a transcript of the interview, or watch a clip from it, here.
Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that King’s show is “struggling”, with its “lowest monthly viewer total in nearly 20 years” – an average of 653,000 viewers each night.
The show that King James is putting on? It is drawing more viewers, presumably, if you count the near saturation coverage the LeBron Free Agent Sweepstakes is getting on the various networks of ESPN.
And then, there’s “LeBron Watch”.
It’s a regular sports radio feature, but it isn’t heard on Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 (the Cavaliers “mothership”), or even on Good Karma sports WKNR/850 “ESPN 850”. Or for that matter, the sports radio station in LeBron’s hometown of Akron, Clear Channel sports WARF/1350 “Fox Sports 1350”. All three stations cover LeBron-related items on a daily basis.
Nope, it’s on ESPN O&O WEPN/1050 “1050 ESPN” in New York City. You know, home of the Knicks and the nearby New Jersey Nets, teams which both hope that the Big Apple wins the LeBron Sweepstakes.
Though they’d cover LeBron either way if he went to New York City, WEPN is the Knicks’ flagship station. The Nets are on crosstown CBS Radio sports WFAN/660 “SportsRadio 66”.
AllAccess reports that “1050 ESPN” launched “LeBron Watch” on May 14th with a three-hour special, promising daily updates on LeBron “and other free agents on the market”…
DETROIT VOICE: Speaking of sports, Thursday afternoon, we heard new WKNR afternoon update anchor Rob Pascoe read a story about the now-infamous “blown call near perfect game”, where a Detroit Tigers pitcher was robbed of baseball’s highest achievement in a game against the Cleveland Indians Wednesday night.
We thought – “Hmm, who is this guy, and is he doing these updates from Detroit?”
It turns out that he (apparently) is much closer to Comerica Park than he is to Progressive Field.
A quick Google search led us to Pascoe’s page on the website of CBS Radio all-newser WWJ/950 in Detroit, which places all but a year of his media career in Michigan:
Following his stint at (sports talk station) WDFN, Pascoe landed at WWJ News Radio 950 in March 2009. He considers it an “honor” to be working with the entire staff at WWJ.
Of course, the apparent fact that Pascoe is in Detroit is no surprise to OMW readers.
We spent a lot of time reporting on the end of Metro Networks’ local presence in the Cleveland market, which turned out to lead to a handful of Metro staffers “embedded” at the company’s Cleveland market affiliates, including now-former morning sports update anchor Jeff Thomas at WKNR.
(And no, we don’t have any update on Jeff’s post-WKNR path, but we’d appreciate hearing any news about it – if one of our readers does know!)
At the time the closure of Metro’s offices/studios in the Independence Media Gulch took place, the sports station was not taking any updates from Detroit (Metro’s new hub covering Ohio markets), but apparently, that plan has now taken hold.
Pascoe’s good…a professional, smooth, major market talent that led us to wonder about his presence in the much larger market of Detroit.
But he sounded a little “detached” to us…referring to local sports teams too often as simply “Cleveland”, like he was a national anchor with no connection to the teams.
Unlike a certain Northwest Ohio newspaper and its apparent obsession with the physical location of local radio talk show hosts, this is mostly just cleanup of an old item for us.
After all, we’re not about to send a photographer up I-75 to Detroit…
PROMOTION: OMW gives a Tip of the Hat to Sally Spitz, the long-time local radio/TV personality and sales executive, for her recent promotion.
Spitz is now “Co-Manager, Local Sales” for Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting AAA WNWV/107.3 “V107.3”.
She shares the title of sales manager with national sales manager Lynn Walko, and OMW hears the opening came due to Wayne Meyers heading into management at the Playhouse Square complex of public broadcaster Ideastream (PBS affiliate WVIZ/25 and NPR affiliate WCPN/90.3).
Of course, Sally is also seen weekdays on Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5’s “Spotlight 5”, a sponsored segment seen at the end of “NewsChannel 5 at Noon”.
Congratulations to Sally!
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