Stocking Full Of News

No, no Holiday Hiatus yet, as too much is going on…

COLBY DC: OMW hears that Radio One Cleveland operations manager Colby Colb is headed for our Nation’s Capital.

Colb will take the VP/Programming post at Radio One in Washington DC, a huge promotion for the programming vet…who also helms the afternoon drive shift on hip hop WENZ/107.9 “Z107.9”. (At this point, it’s not clear if Colb is headed for DC for Radio One’s local cluster programming gig or for the company nationwide. Radio One is based in suburban DC. We’re double checking.)

There are other changes behind the scenes at Radio One’s Carnegie Avenue facility, as well.

OMW hears that the company’s Cleveland VP/GM, Jeff Wilson, is being promoted to regional oversight of five Midwest markets. He’ll still be based in Cleveland.

We hear that Radio One Columbus VP/GM Eddie Harrell Jr. is heading to Cleveland for day-to-day oversight of urban AC powerhouse WZAK/93.1, Z107.9, gospel WJMO/1300 “Praise 1300” and talk/brokered WERE/1490 “NewsTalk 1490”.

Colb’s exit means Radio One’s Cleveland cluster is looking not only for a new operations manager, but a replacement for him on the air at Z107.9…

CHANGES AT 13TH AND LAKESIDE: Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3 took Chris Tye off the morning news co-anchor desk, and he’s been a reporter ever since.

Tye is returning to anchoring at 13th and Lakeside.

Frank Macek reports in his Director’s Cut blog that Tye will become Lynna Lai’s weekend evening co-anchor.

Though there haven’t QUITE been as many changes on the WKYC weekday morning show as there have been across town, there have been some.

Tye originally moved from the 7 PM edition of “Channel 3 News” to replace Mark Nolan, the former WKYC meteorologist who eventually left for the world of radio for middays at Clear Channel classic hits WMJI/105.7 “Majic 105.7”, where he’s also been morning star John Lanigan’s regular fill-in.

(Whether that sets Nolan up for mornings after Lanigan’s long-anticipated retirement, whenever that happens, we can’t tell you.)

After Tye returned to solely reporting, former WKYC staffer John Anderson returned to Cleveland to co-anchor “Channel 3 News Today”. In his new weekend co-anchor post, as is standard, Tye will report from the field three days a week.

Tye joins Lai, meteorologist Bruce Kalinowski and sports anchor Dave Chudowsky on the weekend evening editions of “Channel 3 News” in early January.

Elsewhere at WKYC, our blogging friend Macek’s item reports on a number of off-air moves, including the hiring of former Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 producer Julie Flynn as executive producer of the 11 p.m. edition of “Channel 3 News”.

And well-off-air, Dave Pincura takes the position of business manager.

In a topic we don’t generally address, Macek also crows about ratings success for “Channel 3 News” at 6 and 11 in the recently completed November sweeps.

Since the ratings can be sliced, diced, pureed and otherwise promoted by individual stations, we generally let them do so on their own…

AND ALSO: WKYC is shuffling some syndicated programming, bringing a double play of game show “Family Feud” with Cleveland’s Steve Harvey to the 3-4 PM time slot.

The talk show “Bethanny” will continue airing twelve hours later in what has been its repeat time slot, in the wee hours of the night.

Online TV listings show the change will be made on next Monday.

The move gives Harvey fans a two hour block weekday afternoons, though they’ll have to change the channel.

Harvey, who graduated from Glenville High School and started his comedy career at Cleveland’s Hilarities, also does a talk show that airs weekday afternoons at 2 PM on Local TV-to-be-Tribune Fox affiliate WJW/8 “Fox 8″…

AND SPEAKING OF FOX 8: The station’s former sports anchor and Sunday night show host did not return to his radio perch on Tuesday, as he promised on Monday.

But with half the Internet (including us) speculating on the absence of Good Karma sports WKNR/850 “ESPN 850” “The Really Big Show” host Tony Rizzo yesterday, we can report that Rizzo is back on the radio this Wednesday morning, doing his normal show with co-host Aaron Goldhammer.

There are any number of reasons that Rizzo could be off in the coming weeks, including holiday vacation and, well, tending to his legal problems…as reported below, Rizzo was arrested Friday evening by Medina police on domestic violence charges.

As we also reported, his attorney filed a not guilty plea in Medina Municipal Court on his behalf…

TURN OFF THE WATER: A nice home in Twinsburg is, for now, still owned by the estate of iconic late talk show host Howie Chizek, who died last year after a 38 year run at MediaCom talk WNIR/100.1 “The Talk of Akron”.

We bet Howie would have tended to the water in his house properly, if he were leaving the house for an extended period of time.

But according to the Beacon Journal’s Ed Meyer, an “apparent oversight caused extensive damage” to Chizek’s home earlier this year.

Meyer reports probate court testimony that the home “was not properly winterized” after the talk show host died in June 2012, causing water lines to freeze and later burst – causing $118,000 in damage, due to flooding and mold, according to the testimony.

Those who drove by Chizek’s home when he was alive probably saw very little, but those who drove by this past May saw, according to Howie’s brother Larry Chizek, water “gushing out the front doors”.

The ABJ’s Meyer reports that Cleveland attorney Charles M. Morgan responded to questioning at the hearing, telling a magistrate:

“As far as winterizing, I went over and I thought I had turned off the water. Obviously I probably turned it the wrong way. I thought I had turned it off.”

Oops.

Meyer reports that Morgan said he “peeked inside” the home before the waters rushed out, but didn’t walk through it.

The Howie Chizek Home Flood could result in Morgan being removed as the executor of Chizek’s estate…which is now valued at some $1.6 million overall.

Meyer reports that the “bulk” of that estate, including the Twinsburg home, was left by the radio host to 28 year-old Eric Sylvester, a former athlete at Cleveland’s St. Ignatius High School…