As it turns out, all those rumors about Good Karma sports WKNR/850 Cleveland “ESPN 850” midday host Tony Rizzo being heard in the afternoon were true.
But…not in late afternoon, as expected in a Facebook status update by Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 afternoon drive host Mike Trivisonno and/or his staff.
As OMW tipped minutes before a “big announcement” on WKNR, Rizzo’s “Really Big Show” is not moving…it’s expanding.
Starting Monday, Rizzo, Aaron Goldhammer, Chris “Negative Ned” Fedor and the gang will host 9 AM-1 PM on “ESPN 850”.
Wait, you ask…isn’t Premiere’s Jim Rome, a station mainstay, on from noon to 1 PM on WKNR?
Not anymore, as the station announced that Rome’s first hour, much like ESPN Radio show “Mike & Mike”‘s last hour, will be banished to Radio Siberia…sister station WWGK/1540 “KNR2” (the last two hours of Rome will continue to be heard on 850).
Hope you liked the first hour of Rome, Bay Village, Avon and Lorain County…you’ll now have to struggle to hear it on Clear Channel sports WDFN/1130 in Detroit.
Listeners closer to Akron will be able to pick up “The Jungle”‘s first hour on Clear Channel sports WARF/1350 Akron “Fox Sports 1350”, which is already heavily promoting that fact.
WARF aims a pretty nice little northern lobe towards much of the Cleveland area, and acted as a defacto country station when Cleveland had no such outlet, back in the days of the late Jaybird Drennan on the old WSLR “Whistler”.
Also announced Friday: Station utility player Mark “Munch” Bishop adds a daily live, local show on “KNR2” from 7-9 AM. We assume he’s keeping “Munch in the Morning” on 850 from 5-6 AM.
The station has announced that owner Craig Karmazin will host a special “Ask The Owner” program, 3-4 PM Tuesday on WKNR, to talk about the changes. We sincerely hope he brings a flak jacket to the Galleria.
Here’s the bottom line, as we see it:
* Karmazin gets an extra hour, 12 noon-1 PM, to sell local spots. This will overcome, somewhat, his own announcement that the station will air 2 fewer minutes of spots each hour. (OMW hears that such a move, a reduced spot load, could be temporary.) Again, in commercial radio, it’s All About The Revenue.
* WKNR gains that at a very big cost. Jim Rome’s status on the station is pretty much iconic.
Romey has come to Cleveland numerous times, and has frequently expressed his pleasure at Cleveland being one of his first big market affiliates.
“C-town” enjoys a special status in “The Jungle”…not any more…and Rizzo himself noted on the air that his fill-in opportunities on Rome’s show have likely come to an end.
And Karmazin also noted on-air that Rome is “not happy” with the decision, and that Premiere is “not happy”, though they’ll deal with it.
When we first heard of what would happen, just 10 minutes before it was unveiled on the air, we almost discounted the information…why in the world would WKNR mess with Rome, who at last check, does very well for the station?
* A big winner in this is the aforementioned WARF, the Akron sports station which carries Rome’s full 3 hour live show.
Like sister talk WHLO/640 when it picked up Premiere’s Glenn Beck – when Cleveland’s WTAM dropped Beck for Jerry Springer – expect a Cleveland ratings bump for WARF…and certainly an Akron bump, as it picks up Akron area listeners used to hearing Rome on WKNR at noon.
And it may be a bigger bump than WHLO got…WARF is the best Akron AM signal in the Cleveland market. It’s by far not a “perfect” replacement for WKNR in the entire market, but close-in western and southern Cleveland suburbs can likely get WARF much clearer than they can get WWGK.
WWGK has a 3,000 watt construction permit that is still valid until later this year (August).
We haven’t checked on this in a while, but last we heard, the WWGK move to the WKNR site in North Royalton was still being negotiated with local officials who initially voted down the proposal. We haven’t heard anything on the topic in some time.
Even with that new site, whenever it happens, the WWGK signal will be no match for WKNR’s 50 kW daytime output, and people in Lake County will still be straining to hear Jim Rome’s first hour either way.
We’ll have to see how this all plays out, but it was sure an interesting announcement…one way or the other.
We’ve been buried in this, and don’t yet have time to deal with an unrelated piece of news: Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8 “Fox 8” in Cleveland, Rizzo’s former employer and former sister station to 850 AM, has applied to reallocate digital RF channel 31, presumably signaling a move back to its pre-transition digital home.
Very little information is available on this potential move, which you can see in its early stages on the FCC website.
And thanks to Trip Ericson at RabbitEars.info for the heads up.
Oh, and Clear Channel variety hits “106.5 The Lake” has ditched its old call letters – “Mix 106.5″‘s WMVX – for the call letters WHLK.
No, as far as we know, “HLK” doesn’t stand for “Hulk”, as long-time personal and professional Friend of OMW Scott Fybush (“NorthEast Radio Watch“) joked…
GREAT…an extra hour of Aaron Goldhammer?! No!!! I guess we get the good (Rizzo) with the bad (Buckeye slamming, nerdy, out of towner Aaron). Ouch! For me, 1540AM needs to be streamed anywhere beyond the shadow of the Terminal Tower.
WKNR has just made one of the larger mistakes I’ve witnessed in broadcast radio. I’m a professional radio listener, not in the business, but a lover of radio. I’ve listened to Rome starting when he was in California and all the years afterward. However, I don’t consider myself one of the active clones, to old for that. Rome has been nothing but supportive of the Cleveland market for years, and as you mentioned, had Rizzo and his crew sit in for him on several occasions. They did well.
As Rizzo implied, those days are over now.
I’m in a good spot geographically speaking and can get 1350 clear as a belll in Hinckley. Most of the programs on KNR are almost unlistenable and the notion that local programming trumps all is highly overrated. When your pro teams are all doing great, maybe so, but we all know how miserable the pro sports teams here are doing and their prospects for the future are dim to put it kindly. Oh, and what local colleges bring in the listeners? Or is it the magical pull of listening to minor league hockey?
I’m curious to see what Rome will do. Seems like a guy that takes care of his friends and punishes his enemies. And 1350 will leverage this to hilt if they’re smart about this opportunity.
That’s all for now, but geeeeeez………………………….
Didn’t proof this so I hope there’s no typos that make me look as stupid as my dog thinks I am..
I’m also very curious as to how Premiere Radio handles this. I bet neither they nor Rome knew of this move until it was made yesterday morning.
Do they terminate the contract outright when it runs out? Honestly, they should. I personally wouldn’t deal with someone that pulled a move as bad as this. (But where would it land? Would 1350 become the de facto Rome affiliate for Cleveland? Or does it land on WMMS, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere… where his show would fit with the “rock/talk” format nicely…)
Oh, and Kevin Metheny called. He wanted to thank Craig K. and company for making his “Jerry Springer for Glenn Beck on WTAM” farce look good in retrospect.
Good gawd, what an awful decision! What are they thinking? I downloaded the new Rome banner that went up on WARF website literally as the announcement was being made-think he’s a little pissed? And now we have an extra hour of Hammer and Ned?! Well, by we I mean the people stuck listening to the last hour of that show-I’ll be listening to 1350. Man, what kinda moron is running that place?!
Is the transmitting tower construction permit in question the same one that 100.1 FM WNIR was complaining about, fearing that they would lose their lucrative Western end of their broadcasting range as a result? If so, this might end up in the courts.
Nope, Lawrence, not at all connected. You’re thinking of the W262BN application to go on a cell phone tower in North Ridgeville on 100.3. This doesn’t involve AM or WKNR or WWGK at all.
I have noticed for awhile now that some days I will be in columbus and wknr comes in crystal clear but I can be in bedford or northfield at night or early evening and can barely get reception. Do they do something to their signal or transmitter that greatly reduces their reach at night ??
WKNR operates with 50,000 watts of power during the day, and just 4,700 watts at night.
The night signal is even more directional than the daytime signal – WKNR needs to protect, among others, stations in Denver CO and Altoona PA on the same frequency. At night, that protection becomes more crucial because “skywave” carries AM radio signals long distances in the dark.
So, that’s the problem. Other stations, like Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100, are “clear channel” stations (that’s their status, not a reference to the company which owns it), and do not need to make their signal directional at night to protect other stations.
Appreciate the explanation. I thought KNR was located in Broadview Heights and that’s why I was wondering why the signal strength was so weak at night in the aforementioned cities.
WKNR appears to have simultaneously stabbed Rome in the back and shot itself in the foot — or worse.
Reminds me of the executive who sent his CEO a three-page memo with an apology stating that he would have made it a one-page memo but he was in a hurry.
Why not make more succinct posts with a link for those who are interested in reading a more verbose, detailed version?
Charles, I’ve been thinking about your post (and here comes a more verbose one, sorry):
It’s what we do here. It says in the header “news and musings”. This blog is not a public service, and we make no money off of it. Your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) does this for his own amusement, and if we’re too wordy for you, we’re sorry. I’ll be happy to refund any money you paid to us directly to read this blog.
If there’s a demand for shorter posts, or quicker updates, I’ll consider it. Maybe I’ll put up a separate Twitter account (OMWUpdate?) without the chatter. Or maybe I’ll just walk away from this thing entirely, and let someone else do a better, more succinct job.
Fair enough. I guess what was really bothering me when I posted my comment about the verbosity of the OMW articles is that so much column space is devoted to some stories while others are totally ignored.
I know that Youngstown is a relatively small market of no interest to most of OMW’s following, but there were two significant departures of on-air personalities in recent weeks that received no mention whatsoever, namely, Cindy Matthews (WFMJ) and Jennifer Jefcoat (WYTV). Not to mention the addition of Teresa Weakley, moving to WKBN from WKRN in Nashville last September.
In the past, personnel shakeups in Youngstown have been reported, and I’m sure there are a number of readers who would have liked to know more about these moves (or at least seen mention of them), but it seems as if Youngstown has fallen off OMW’s radar.
Great another hour of horrid Cleveland talk radio. Do we really nead to hear more about the Cavs dismal season, or the Indians? Maybe we can talk moore about The Lake Erie Monsters. Gimme a break! Rizzo is the worst talk guy in Clevelandm bad move knr, you guys just screwed the one national sports talk guy that had C-towns backm you guys suck!