Just clearing out the inbox, mostly, as we end the week…
AND OPRAH’S REPLACEMENT IS…: Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 in Cleveland is one of many stations that have been grappling with a big question…when talk titan Oprah Winfrey leaves broadcast TV for her own cable network in 2011, what will replace her in the lineup?
Now, we know…and WEWS has stayed in the “Oprah” family in a choice with local ties.
Cleveland-born Dr. Mehmet Oz’s “Dr. Oz” show will slide from 10 AM to the all-important news-lead-in 4 PM slot in the fall of 2011, when Oprah slides over to the Oprah Winfrey Network.
Of course, “Dr. Oz” got his TV start as a frequent guest on Oprah’s show, and her production company helped launch his program.
We learned of the move in this article on TVNewsCheck.com, which also notes that WEWS’ sister ABC affiliate in Detroit, WXYZ/7, is making the same move…though in Detroit, WXYZ will take “Dr. Oz” from its current placement on NBC affiliate WDIV/4.
As far as “Dr. Oz’s” local ties are concerned, we don’t get the idea that his family stayed long in Cleveland, but long enough for him to be born here.
The only other question – will WEWS incessantly promote “Dr. Oz” with on-screen crawls throughout the station’s other programming, much like it does with “Oprah”? Stay tuned…
MANSFIELD/ASHLAND CHANGES: Clear Channel’s two talk stations in mid-Ohio have done some major lineup shuffling.
The biggest move involves afternoon drive at both WMAN/1400 Mansfield and WNCO/1340 Ashland, and affects morning drive at WMAN.
WMAN program director Rusty Cates moves from his own local afternoon show to become anchor of the morning drive program on AM 1400, joining existing players Tommy Barnes and Greg Heindel.
Taking afternoon drive on WMAN is Premiere’s Sean Hannity, a program which slides over from WNCO’s AM side. Replacing Hannity on AM 1340 is TRN talker Laura Ingraham.
WMAN goes all sports in evenings and overnights, with the local “Sports Grille with Aaron Hines” moving to the weekday 6-8 PM time slot. WMAN’s Jeff Swank, who has been heard on that show, continues hosting the station’s Saturday sports talk show.
WMAN also swaps out Westwood One’s Jim Bohannon and Premiere’s “Coast to Coast AM” for Fox Sports Radio…”Coast to Coast” and host George Noory land on WNCO instead, though we’re pretty sure they didn’t make the trip from AM 1400 to AM 1340 in a UFO.
Finally, WMAN has sent the Saturday “Marketplace” swap-shop program packing after over 30 years. No, they aren’t taking telephone bids for it…
40 YEARS?: We can’t confirm this, but a listener tells us that a Mahoning Valley radio personality is celebrating his 40th anniversary at the same station.
The reader tells us that long-time Cumulus top 40 WHOT/101.1 Youngstown “HOT 101” morning co-host A.C. McCullough started at WHOT – presumably then at 1330 AM – in June 1970.
We’d like some verification on that. We know for sure that A.C. and co-host Kelly Stevens (known for most of their long-time pairing as “A.C. and Kelly”) have been occupying the HOT 101 morning drive time slot since at least 1989…which would be 21 years in itself.
A.C.’s bio is not in place on the WHOT “Wake Up Crew” web page, where it says “Profile coming soon”…isn’t 40 years enough time to write a bio? Heh.
Anyway, 21 or 40 years at the same station, that’s still a big milestone…
COOL YOUNG INVENTORS: A Northeast Ohio student could get a $1,000 U.S. Savings Bond in a contest being voted upon via a Time Warner Cable “Local On Demand” offering.
10 area finalists are in the “Coolest Creations” contest. Voting on the youth-created inventions runs through August 31st.
TWC’s Travis Reynolds gives us the voting instructions:
To “vote with your remote,” simply tune to Local On Demand channel 411 and select VOTE WITH REMOTE and then COOLEST CREATIONS.
The 10 area finalists made the competition after being selected at an event in May at the Great Lakes Science Center…
FACEBOOKING IT: And yes, your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) now has Facebook representation.
We created the account quietly, with no announcement, and already…about a dozen folks have found us.
For the moment, the OMW account is a traditional one, and we haven’t yet figured out how to set it up as a “Fan” page. We have the page, we just can’t figure out – for example – how to use Twitterfeed to populate it with our updates. We’ve done so for the regular page.
We’ve also added the Facebook account to our desktop Twitter client, so anything we post there will go to the Facebook account as well. We think we might be able to do so with at least one mobile client.
We’re not sure what we’re going to do on the Facebook side of things, but felt we had to be there…
40 years sounds about right for A.C. I know he was with WHOT as early as March 22, 1973, because I have a “Fabulous Fifty Tunedex” from that date which features his mug alongside those of such stalwarts as Johnny Kay, Dick Thompson and Michael C. Richards. Dunno when he took over mornings, but I seem to recall that he picked up the baton from Johnny in the mid 70’s.
Actually, if you logout, then go to Facebook’s main page, you can set up a fan page. It’s on the right side beneath the form on the home page. Hope that helps – and yes, I’m thinking about doing the same thing here.
New WMAN VO is Pat Garrett.