The All Ones Update

That’s because today is November 1, 2011, otherwise known as “11/1/11”. Some TV changes are up first, with radio not far behind…

WHERE’S AMANDA? WHERE’S AJ?: The big movement among local TV newsrooms this week involves weekend weather forecasters.

First, we’ll start with brand new forecaster Amanda Jahn, who moved to Cleveland from Phoenix to join OMW reader Mark Zinni on the recently launched weekend morning editions of Local TV LLC Fox affiliate WJW/8’s “Fox 8 News”. You might recall the YouTube video we featured here a while back.

Maybe Jahn saw the long-range winter weather forecasts when she got to Dick Goddard Way, and high-tailed it back to Phoenix.

That’s because just a few weeks after her Cleveland TV debut, Amanda Jahn is now the former weekend morning weather anchor at “Fox 8 News”.

OMW hears that it was a mutual agreement between the station and Jahn that it “wasn’t working out”, and so, Amanda gets out of Cleveland before the first snowflake falls. (And no, we have no idea if Cleveland’s winter weather played any part in her end of the decision.)

Who takes the slot alongside Mark Zinni starting this weekend?

A hint: He’s been doing his old job at another Cleveland TV station on a freelance basis for months, after his departure was publicly announced earlier this year.

Yes, it’s now-former Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3 forecaster AJ Colby making his return to “Fox 8 News”.

Colby was filling in for, well, himself at 13th and Lakeside, for such a long period that we got plenty of “Why is AJ still there?” E-mails…many hoping that WKYC had changed its mind.

The folks at Channel 3 News will bring on Colby’s replacement, though we don’t have that person’s name yet.

We did catch new WKYC MMJ (reporter for us old school types) Stephanie Coueginoux on air the other day, and yes, we had to copy that name from online. And OMW hears that reporter Darrielle Snipes is no longer with Channel 3 News.

The station also has a new iPhone app, and there’s no word on whether an Android app will follow (hint! hint!)…

NEW 5 WEEKEND FORECASTER: Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 has been on something of a hiring spree as of late, and a new weather forecaster is also about to appear at 3001 Euclid.

And the hiring is an addition to the staff, not a replacement.

From a memo by news director Jill Manuel:

Trent Magill has signed on to be our 4th Meteorologist & Multimedia Journalist. Trent comes from Midland Texas KMID.

He has an impressive pedigree: having graduated from University of Missouri, Columbia. He has the Certified Broadcast Meteorology Seal of Approval from the American Meteorological Society. This Missouri native specializes in severe weather and was an integral part of the school’s Severe Storm Chase Team and was primarily responsible forecasting where the storms were likely to form.

Trent will be featured prominently on our new weekend morning show. He is also very excited about expanding his skills into the new media as well.

YES, YOU READ THAT RIGHT: The memo about Magill mentions NewsChannel 5’s “new weekend morning show”, and yes, the station is about to become the third local station doing weekend morning newscasts…and the second to return news to that time slot, as WKYC/3’s “Channel 3 News” never left weekend mornings.

OMW hears that the weekend morning edition of “NewsChannel 5” will air only on Saturdays, at least for now. Both WKYC and WJW air their weekend morning casts on both Saturdays and Sundays.

There’s no word at this time who will fill the news anchor role(s?) on the new show.

When will the Saturday morning “NewsChannel 5” newscast start?

Well, Magill is scheduled to show up at 3001 Euclid on December 5th, and our best guess is that he may do some holiday vacation fill-in…with the usual state of newsrooms around the holiday, we’d expect the Saturday show to begin sometime shortly after the first of the year.

And a quick note: new WEWS traffic and transportation reporter Alicia Roberts has begun her work at the station. Former “Good Morning Cleveland” traffic anchor Patty Harken had her last day on Euclid Avenue on October 21st…

SLATS TO WNCX: It’s time to let one of the worst kept Cleveland radio secrets out for some air.

OMW hears that former Cleveland radio personality Tim Slats will return to the market soon, and take the open morning drive slot at CBS Radio classic rock WNCX/98.5.

The time slot became open, of course, when the company set “The Maxwell Show” adrift.

We’ve known about this so long, we’ve had an item sitting backstage for weeks written by our Secondary Editorial Voice(tm)…who revisits Slats’ history in the Cleveland market:

(Slats was) the former afternoon host on Clear Channel rock WMMS/100.7 from 1998 until 2004 (when, oddly enough, he was replaced with the aforementioned Maxwell). Later on, Slats held like duties on then-“Xtreme Radio” WXTM/92.3, leaving the station as it was preparing to flip to WXRK “K-Rock.”

Tim has been on the golf course in Florida – literally, working at one, that is.

But he returned to radio in Orlando on Cox rocker WHTQ/96.5 “96 Rock” – actually a return to the frequency for him.

“96 Rock” went away this past August, when the 96.5 frequency became the FM simulcast of long-time Cox talker WDBO/580…it’s now WDBO-FM.

As “The Maxwell Show” – fans might want to check its Facebook presence, recently returned from CBS Radio control.

From the postings there, it sounds like they plan some sort of Internet-based show when the show’s CBS Radio contract expires (reportedly in March)…

AND THAT MEANS NO DANNY: One of the odder rumors bouncing around the Cleveland market recently also involved the WNCX morning drive slot.

Morning radio veteran Danny Bonaduce – yes, the grown up “Danny Partridge” from the 1970’s sitcom “The Partridge Family” – was displaced from his slot on CBS Radio rock WYSP/94.1 Philadelphia…when sports talker WIP/610 made the move to FM.

Industry buzz had CBS Radio trying to find a new home for Danny, and yes, at the time, the WNCX morning slot was open.

Now that we know that WNCX has gone a Non-Danny Direction for morning drive, his landing spot has been made official, according to numerous trade reports: Seattle classic rocker KZOK/102.5, where he’ll be paired in morning drive with a cast member from his old Philadelphia show.

So, if you’ve got a burning need for a Danny Bonaduce fix in Cleveland, you’ll have to turn to Antenna TV on WJW/8.2…which airs “The Partridge Family” each day…

HUNTING AND FISHING: Local TV viewers may have run into the “Hunting and Fishing Show” in the past on Media-Com low-power TV combo WAOH-LP/29 Akron – W35AX/Cleveland, now the Cleveland market’s northernmost RTV affiliates.

OMW hears that the show has returned to the stations, hosted by long-time host Steve Jones. A release provided by someone associated with the show has the rest of the story:

Jones was forced to abandon the popular outdoors related program in 2003 after being diagnosed with lymphoma cancer.

Now cancer free, Jones is joined on the live call-in format program with award winning outdoor columnist Jack Kiser of the Record Courier Newspapers. Kiser hosted the “Buckeye Angler” television program which aired on PBS affiliate 45/49 in 2005-06, and the program was awarded the Best TV Show in 2010 by the Outdoor Writers of Ohio at their annual banquet and awards ceremony.

AND A QUICK NEWSPAPER NOTE: OMW doesn’t cover much when it comes to the newspaper industry – we’re mostly broadcast-related.

But there is a bit of a broadcast hook to this one.

The suburban Akron weekly newspaper “The Suburbanite” has tapped a veteran journalist as its new editor.

She’s Kymberli Hagelberg, who is familiar to print readers from a decade at the Akron Beacon Journal, and to online readers as the Fairlawn-Bath editor of the AOL/Huffington Post “Patch.com” network of local news websites.

But we’d forgotten that Hagelberg has broadcast news history as well – according to The Suburbanite article on her hiring:

Hagelberg worked as a radio reporter and producer for WCPN, the public radio station in Cleveland. She was the station’s main political reporter during the 2008 presidential campaign.

The Suburbanite, owned by Canton Repository parent GateHouse Media, serves southern Summit County and parts of northern Stark County, with a separate edition for Stark County’s Jackson Township…