Thawing Out

We’re putting away the parka for a few days, and warming up with some news items…

CANCER: The word “cancer” is a bombshell when connected to a local media personality.

But sometimes it can be treated, and that’s what happened to Tribune Fox affiliate WJW/8 “Fox 8 News” anchor/reporter and OMW reader Mark Zinni.

A routine physical uncovered signs of what turned out to be thyroid cancer, and after talking to his doctor, Zinni opted to remove his thyroid to prevent any future problems.

Yes, to prevent future problems with the other side of the organ, not just so he could play “show and tell” with it on “Fox 8 News in the Morning” on Tuesday

If you watch the video, note that Zinni’s removed thyroid plays a co-starring role, though Wayne Dawson gives a heads up if you don’t want to get up close and personal with the removed organ of a TV anchor.

Zinni has already talked about it on his own weekend editions of “Fox 8 News in the Morning”.

It looks like the operation was a success, and Zinni will have to take medicine “for the rest of his life”, but it’s about as successful an outcome as you can get as far as cancer goes.

And yes, Zinni is a regular OMW reader. We sincerely wish him well on his recovery…

COURTRIGHT OUT: A member of a well-known radio news family is no longer airing on a station that featured her father.

OMW hears that budget cuts mean that Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 had to part with news anchor Julie Courtright, who had been airing on the same station that employed her late father, Cleveland radio news legend the late Ken Courtright.

Julie worked her way up through the news radio food chain, working at Tuscarawas Broadcasting country WTUZ/99.9 in the Dover/New Philadelphia area, then at Doug and Lorie Wilber’s country WOBL/1320 Oberlin-oldies WDLW/1380 Lorain before landing at Oak Tree.

And yes, Clear Channel is advertising for a news anchor/reporter. OMW hears that Oak Tree put up the ad before Courtright’s exit to look for a replacement for Lori Hovater…who’s been gone for some time.

We don’t do radio budgets, but we suspect the end result will be one news person who makes less than the combined salaries of Hovater and Courtright.

As for Julie, we hear that for now, she’ll work with the folks at the WIXY Online site, and she’ll be helping out with brother Alan Courtright’s Internet radio news feed service radionewsnet.com.

And she’ll be looking for her next full-time opportunity…

AM IN HD: It’s nothing new for a radio group to put its AM stations on the HD Radio sidechannels of its FM stations.

OMW hears that another local group is about to do so.

Radio One is gearing up to put the signals of gospel WJMO/1300 and talk/brokered WERE/1490 on HD sidechannels of one of its FM powerhouses, urban AC WZAK/93.1.

We hear that they’ll show up with the “Praise Cleveland” and “NewsTalk Cleveland” branding on WZAK’s HD sidechannels, and that “Praise” could also appear on an HD sidechannel of hip hop WENZ/107.9 “Z107.9”.

For those who have HD radio receivers (very soon to include your Primary Editorial Voice[tm], again), the move significantly improves the signal and reach of Radio One’s signal-challenged AMs, especially at night.

Radio One Cleveland chief engineer Gary Zocolo is presumably buried in HD encoders for the upcoming changes.

A brief note while we’re talking about the folks at Carnegie Avenue – AllAccess notes that the syndicated talk show “Redding News Review” with host Rob Redding gets a live clearance on WERE…from 5-7 p.m., with an additional time shifted hour taking it until 8 PM on 1490…

AND WHILE WE’RE TALKING HD RADIO: The stations that occupy the digital sidechannels of HD-equipped stations can often change without much notice.

An OMW reader tells us that’s what happened with Clear Channel’s WHOF/101.7-HD2 in the Canton market, which had been playing oldies music since Christmas.

Now, the reader tells us the HD2 channel of AC “My 101.7” is known as “Big Show Radio”, and is playing show tunes.

Yes, show tunes…meaning it probably shares a little of its playlist with Kenston High-owned standards outlet WKHR/91.5 Bainbridge.

Adult volunteers program the standards music there…and there’s very little overlap between the WHOF and WKHR signals…

WHILE WE’RE TALKING ABOUT FREEDOM AVENUE: Clear Channel CHR WKDD/98.1’s “Have a Heart, Do your Part” annual radiothon brought in another big haul this year.

The event brought in $633,000 for its long-time benefactor, Akron Children’s Hospital.

WKDD morning co-host/Clear Channel regional programming manager/OMW reader Keith Kennedy says it’s always nice to see the radiothon bring in big donations, “but there is nothing more gratifying than seeing a child bring in their piggybank with $15 and change.”

The Children’s Hospital radiothon has a long history in Akron.

In the mid-1970s, then-Susquehanna talk WHLO/640 was the radiothon’s home. WHLO is, of course, now a Clear Channel talk station, in the same Freedom Avenue cluster as WKDD…

87.7 TO SPORTS: No, it’s not our own “Franken FM” (87.7/TV 6) in Northeast Ohio that’s changed to sports…it’s still Spanish CHR “La Mega 87.7”, still “Latino and Proud” as an LMA of Murray Hill Broadcasting’s WLFM-LP.

But the station which originally carried the WLFM-LP calls, in Chicago, is going sports in a big way.

Venture Technologies is LMAing the station to broadcasting giant Tribune, which started sports “87.7 The Game” with a host of live and local programs this week.

(A side hat-tip to OMW content partner RadioInsight, where once again, Lance Venta spotted a host of “Game”/sports related domain registrations long before the move was announced.)

As expected, “The Game” in Chicago features market icon Jonathon Brandmeier in morning drive, with a show he has been doing on Tribune’s online “virtual FM” station “WGN.fm”. (It’ll continue to be heard there.)

He’s followed by a number of sports talk personalities, mostly from the Tribune/WGN/Chicago Tribune universe.

The new station is said to be aiming for a more entertaining “sports/lifestyle” presentation than the market’s two incumbent AM sports talkers, CBS Radio’s WSCR and ESPN Radio’s WMVP.

Unlike in Cleveland, where Murray Hill’s Tom Wilson continues to be optimistic that the FCC will give a reprieve to analog LPTV stations before a scheduled mandatory conversion to digital in September 2015, Tribune is being realistic.

Chicago media, including veteran media beat writer and OMW reader Robert Feder, note that Tribune’s contract to lease the “87.7” signal from Venture (former owner of WLFM-LP here) lasts until that deadline.

In this case, Tribune’s prevented from buying a station due to the grandfathered combination of the Chicago Tribune, CW affiliate WGN/9 and WGN/720.

Eventually, the media giant will spin off the Chicago newspaper (and its other papers) into a new company, which would allow it to pick up a full-power, real FM station.

The 87.7 LMA is there to “fill in the gap” in a process that’s taking longer than expected.

If there is an official “Plan B” regarding Cleveland’s 87.7/TV 6 audio outlet, Mr. Wilson isn’t talking about it.

There’s are other Cleveland connections here, of course.

87.7 here could well have gone sports itself, of course, as we heard that negotiations to LMA it to Good Karma sports WKNR/850 went down to the wire before falling apart. The station then launched local alt-rocker “Cleveland’s Sound” until “La Mega” took over at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Day this year.

And “The Game Chicago” operator Tribune just closed on its purchase of the aforementioned WJW, in a group deal bringing it over from Local TV Holdings…

THE ROOF CAVED IN: Well, the snow-covered roof at least partially collapsed at Hearst NBC affiliate WGAL/8 Lancaster PA…forcing the station to improvise, first from its parking lot and then from a nearby township building.

WGAL put NBC programming on cable/satellite via sister NBC stations, and used a satellite uplink at Hearst’s WPXI/11 in Pittsburgh to feed live newscasts to its website.

A new support beam installed Saturday allowed WGAL employees to return to the building, and air and produce newscasts and programming as normal.

We mention this Pennsylvania event here because at least two former Northeast Ohio media types now work at WGAL.

It’s the hometown station for former Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 “NewsChannel 5” morning meteorologist Christine Ferreira, who now handles the same duties at WGAL.

And former now-LIN TV CBS affiliate WKBN/27 staffer Julie Loeper, who started her career in news out of Kent State University at Rubber City Radio’s WAKR/1590 Akron, works as morning news producer at WGAL.

(Yes, both WKBN-TV and WAKR have a whole host of sister stations and websites, which OMW readers can probably name without our help.)

And yes, Loeper, Ferreira and their WGAL colleagues were not harmed…

CLASSY BLOOPER: Everyone makes mistakes on the air, even a veteran anchor like “NewsChannel 5″‘s Leon Bibb.

But really, most people are suppressing their inner 12 year-old, so a recent tongue twister by Mr. Bibb has gone viral.

Leon was reading a story about the difficulty of making Valentine’s Day reservations at prominent restaurants in Cleveland, when he meant to say that viewers would have trouble “getting into some of the city’s top (restaurants)”.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw6_piGRtyo&w=560&h=315]

Only on the air, well, his mouth swapped the “c” and “t” in that sentence, producing a blooper which landed him on YouTube (with over 150,000 views at this writing) and on websites internationally, including sports-oriented news/gossip site Deadspin.

Befitting a smooth broadcaster like Leon Bibb, his recovery was smooth as well.

Bibb basically moved things along with his hand, and with a very slight chuckle in his voice, he read the rest of the story perfectly…