We had an item ready to post on Tuesday, but THIS JUST IN, as the saying goes…it’s time to scrap the Digital Front Page. The other items are still here, and will follow…
ROBIN LEAVING: There’s been a lot of talk over the past few years in Cleveland about Robin Swoboda’s career moves, exits and returns.
Looks like she’s exiting again.
Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3 has announced that Swoboda, co-anchor of the station’s 7 PM newscast with sports director/anchor Jim Donovan, is heading for…parts unknown.
Robin Swoboda has decided to leave WKYC-TV. Swoboda’s last day on the 7 p.m. .news will be Friday, Feb. 28.
The item quotes WKYC president/GM Brooke Spectorsky:
“It’s exciting for her, but sad for us. Robin Swoboda has decided she’d like to do something new with her life.”
Spectorsky tells the Plain Dealer’s Mark Dawidziak that the departure date coincides with the end of Swoboda’s contract:
“Her contract is indeed up at the end of February, and there are no plans to extend it,” Spectorsky said. “We have talked to her about staying on for a while, but she chose not to. She decided it was time to move on.”
Why did the long-time local TV personality decide not to stick around at 13th and Lakeside with what she calls an “amicable departure”? She tells the PD:
“They asked me about doing others things, but they really didn’t have a platform that fit me,” Swoboda said from her home in Medina. “I tried to do the straight news-anchor thing, but I just came to the realization that it wasn’t a good fit for me. I guess I’m still trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up.”
Swoboda came to WKYC in 2011 after leaving her “Robin Swoboda Show” on now-Tribune Fox affiliate WJW/8 “Fox 8”. The show eventually morphed into today’s “New Day Cleveland” with David Moss and Natalie Herbick.
She started on local TV as an anchor, as part of that dominant “NewsCenter 8” team at WJW in the mid-1980s (back in its CBS affiliate days)…where she later returned after being out of the market awhile, first to the anchor desk, and then again for the aforementioned “Robin Swoboda Show” (which Dawidziak reminds us was initially named “That’s Life”).
Her departure from Cleveland in 1991 was triggered by the departure from now-former husband Bryan Wagner from the Cleveland Browns.
She’s also done radio, as morning co-host at Salem CCM WFHM/95.5 “The Fish”.
Swoboda tells the PD’s Dawidziak that she has some ideas of what she’d like to do:
“I’d like to do motivational speaking and commercials and maybe even a podcast. And I have good idea for a radio program that will be motivational and positive and geared for women. I’d rather make people laugh and think and feel good.”
But one thing she probably won’t do, is a fourth stint on South Marginal Road(/Dick Goddard Way), telling the PD:
“I haven’t talked to anybody at Channel 8, and, really, I think it might be a little embarrassing to go back there at this point.”
BILL’S LEAVING: One of Spectorsky’s opposite numbers, a lightning rod for controversy, is retiring.
Akron Beacon Journal/Ohio.com pop culture columnist Rich Heldenfels reports that local TV won’t have Bill Applegate to talk about anymore:
Bill Applegate, general manager of WOIO (Channel 19) and WUAB (Channel 43), has told staff he will retire in April.
After being King of Reserve Square for 13 years, Applegate says he’s heading for Florida:
In a memo to staff, Applegate said he and his wife Kathy had bought a home in Fort Myers, Fla,, about a year ago as he prepared to wind up his 45 years in broadcasting.
“My years spent at Raycom, particularly my 13 years as VP/GM of WOIO/WUAB, have been personally rewarding and the highlight of my career,” he said. “I am immensely proud of our management team at WOIO/WUAB and all of our colleagues here who have contributed to our great success. … I also want to sincerely thank the management team within Raycom for their support and guidance – it has meant a great deal to me both professionally and personally.”
Long-time OMW readers really don’t need a recap of what Heldenfels calls “19 Action News”‘ “unapologetically tabloid style”, though a quick search of his last name in our search box will provide a host of examples…most notably, the very public on-camera disrobing of former anchor Sharon (“Body……of Art”) Reed, now at KMOV in St. Louis…
NEWS, SPORTS, SUBTRACT OLDIES: Rubber City Radio’s WAKR/1590 Akron will have to remove the word “oldies” from its slogan “News! Sports! Oldies” this year.
The first step of WAKR’s non-music future started on Monday, when the venerable Akron station launched the syndicated money advice show hosted by Nashville-based Dave Ramsey.
Ramsey is now scheduled weekday afternoons from 2-7 PM, the end of the show occasionally pre-empted by sports play-by-play, talk or pre-game shows.
We reached out to Akron radio veteran Nick Anthony, Rubber City Radio’s senior vice president, and asked him why the move was made:
“WAKR has been a mix of news, sports, and music for several years.” Nick tells us. “With the addition of CBS News last year, we made a strategic decision to take the station in a spoken word direction, eliminating the music which has become parenthetic with the amount of news and sports we present.”
It’s a problem that many stations with strong news and sports operations but no other information programming have – the music between the newscasts and sports programming almost becomes something just to keep the meters moving.
But why Dave Ramsey?
Anthony says “of the available syndicated programming, Dave Ramsey was the best fit. His show is heard on over 500 stations across the US and has an excellent track record for ratings success.”
But adding Ramsey in weekday afternoons is by far not the last move WAKR plans in the spoken word direction.
Anthony tells us that the station’s local content is about to expand.
“We are currently working on another LOCAL daytime show that will premiere in a couple of weeks,” Anthony tells us. “We are excited about this new addition and will have more information in a few days.”
There’s no official word who will host the new daytime local show on WAKR, or in which time slot it will air…though if Ramsey stays in afternoon drive, and Ray Horner’s local news and information morning show continues until 10 AM, the only remaining open “daytime” time slot will be between those shows.
Ramsey’s addition to the WAKR lineup displaces “Bobbi with an I” from the weekday afternoon drive music shift, but she isn’t leaving West Market Street.
Bobbi continues hosting the station’s weekend “At Your Service” talk block, live Saturday mornings and repeated Sunday evenings.
It appears that oldies music continues, for now, in Rick Allen’s evening time slot – which airs around WAKR’s extensive schedule of sports play-by-play and talk programming…
NEW SISTER: Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3 in Cleveland has long enjoyed a sister station relationship in Buffalo, where the mega-broadcaster owns NBC affiliate WGRZ/2.
Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 is about to get a sister station of its own in Western New York.
Scripps announced this week that it is buying two stations from Granite Broadcasting, including WKBW/7, the ABC affiliate there.
Scripps is also buying Granite’s WMYD/20 Detroit, the MyNetwork TV affiliate it’ll pair in a duopoly with existing Scripps-owned ABC affiliate WXYZ/7.
TVNewsCheck has details.
(Tuesday, Granite continued its dismantling by selling a number of other stations to TV operator Quincy Newspapers.)
WKYC has made the most of its relationship with its Buffalo sister station, and vice versa…Channel 3 and WGRZ have shared crews and reporters when needed, for one.
Expect much of the same between “NewsChannel 5” and WKBW, when Scripps finalizes the deal…
CAUGHT IN BETWEEN: The broadcast group Digity, owned by veteran broadcaster Dean Goodman, has officially taken over NextMedia’s radio stations…including Canton duo talk WHBC/1480 and hot AC WHBC-FM/94.1 “Mix 94.1”.
There’s no indication that wholesale staff changes – or dismissals – are in the works at the Canton stations…at least in the near term.
But the change in ownership means one “Mix” staffer, morning sidekick Matt Fantone, is out…because of the nature of his employment at Market South.
In a rare moment of behind-the-scenes candor, the move was explained on the “Mix” Facebook page:
“As we have alluded to for a few weeks now, MIX 94.1’s parent company NextMedia was purchased last week. An early casualty of the transition is that the arm of NextMedia that Fantone worked for, NextMedia 360, was restructured on Thursday and Matt Fantone was let go. We appreciate your calls, and we feel your pain.”
Basically, it appears new WHBC owner Digity isn’t picking up NextMedia 360 in the transition, and that means Fantone’s exit.
This might be a time to pass along some news we missed before.
Mike Novak, who was known as “Ike The Night Guy” at Akron market country powerhouse WQMX/94.9, is once again Ike.
After unsuccessfully auditioning for the open morning talk co-host job at Media-Com talk WNIR/100.1 “The Talk of Akron”, “Ike” has returned as a part-time air personality at the aforementioned “Mix 94.1”.
WNIR ended up hiring Chris Fox (ex-WDOK/102.1 host) and Angela Bellios (most known for her time at WKDD/98.1, and also formerly at WHBC-FM) to pair alongside Steve French and Phil Ferguson…
So long, WAKR. I will no longer be listening which may not be a loss for you but will be a loss for your advertisers whom I did patronize.
Could WAKR be mounting an attempt to take on WNIR? Could this new local host be Maggie Fuller? John Denning is bad, but Maggie on her own would be a disaster for WAKR. The times she hosted when Stan was on vacation were horrible.
Jay Leno is available.
It actually would be funny if Jeff Kinzbach did double-duty by hosting a 10-12 show on WAKR after his WONE morning show. By all accounts, he should have taken over for Howie… not John Denning.
Unless they somehow woo away Phil Ferguson from WNIR (who hosted afternoons on WAKR during their second talk phase, 1997-1999) I don’t know who they would hire.
WNIR seems ripe for the taking right now. If WAKR or WHLO would mount a strong local line up they could add to the decline of WNIR. Just imagine if they could snag a current or former WNIR personality – radio could get interesting again in Akron.
Clear Channel will not do a thing on WHLO as they generally roll over instead of competing in a market. If WAKR beefs up their lineup and the ratings improve, look for WHLO to dump Jim Albright for Glenn Beck. If WHLO can be run out of the janitor’s closet and make money, then it will happen as that’s the Clear Channel way.
In Atlanta, after years of running heritage WGST into the ground, they gave Rush Limbaugh to Cox’s WSB and switched WGST temporarily to Spanish sports before returning it to a talk format with mostly third tier hosts, most of which aren’t Premiere products. It’s also true that Clear Channel has hired some of the most inept programmers in Atlanta.
Unless WAKR puts up some big bucks for Phil Ferguson or Steve French, no one from WNIR is going anywhere. The only bottleneck in WNIR’s lineup is Couchburner and the Kaiser is too bull headed to get rid of him.