Getting a Round Tuit(tm) on a mid-summer’s day..
FSR TO 92.3: OMW has confirmed that Fox Sports Radio will be used to fill the overnight hours on incoming CBS Radio sports talker WKRK/92.3 “The Fan”, when that station launches a week from Monday.
We also hear that a lineup for “92.3 The Fan” is nearly complete, and that the station’s local evening programming will last until midnight. (It had been expected to run until 10 PM.)
The use of FSR on 92.3 will likely mean the network’s end on its current Cleveland market affiliate, Good Karma sports WWGK/1540 “KNR2”. WKNR/850’s “little brother” station runs Fox Sports Radio in afternoons, evenings (until sign off on the daytimer’s signal), and on weekends.
We don’t know yet if the move will bounce Mark “Munch” Bishop from FSR’s Saturday evening slot, where he’s been filling in for the past few weeks…but we’d consider it likely, with his home station no longer being an affiliate, and a high-profile competitor taking the network soon.
We would expect Good Karma to fill the FSR hole on 1540 with the rest of the ESPN Radio schedule.
OMW hears that the FSR affiliation at “The Fan” won’t affect Northeast Ohio’s other FSR stations near Cleveland, including Clear Channel sports WARF/1350 “Fox Sports 1350” and Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting talk WEOL/930, which runs FSR evenings, nights and weekends…
CATCH 5.2: Yes, local over-air TV viewers, you can now “Catch 5.2” on your digital TV tuners.
But there’s really nothing to “catch” on the subchannel of WEWS/5 right now. It’s just a test pattern with the “WEWS – TV – 5” legend on top of color bars, with a constant test tone.
The subchannel is the soon-to-be home of the “Live Well” lifestyle/home TV network, which recently announced that WEWS and other Scripps stations would carry the network which launched on ABC owned-and-operated stations some time ago.
For a taste of the kind of programming about to come to WEWS’ 5.2, click here.
ETA for the new subchannel is sometime in early September…
NEW WNIR NEWSIE: We haven’t heard him yet, but Media-Com talk WNIR/100.1 “The Talk of Akron” has hired a new news person.
He’s Mark Richards, who brings the WNIR newsroom back to full staff. Afternoon news anchor Phil Ferguson moved to mornings when veteran morning newsman Jim Midock retired for health reasons, and Richards takes Ferguson’s old schedule.
We don’t know much about Mark Richards, but we’re told he plied the halls of West Market Street, home of Rubber City Radio Group (oldies/news WAKR/1590, rock WONE/97.5, country WQMX/94.9), sometime in the 1990s…and at least some of that time, worked with the aforementioned Phil Ferguson.
Ferguson, according to the WNIR website, takes the title of news director, with Richards as assistant news director, standard procedure in that two person news department…
Let’s not fail to mention that he (Phil Furguson) is also the news director of WJMP,Kent-Blackhorse..