On The Way In, And On The Way Out

Incoming and outgoing news tops our agenda today, in people, shows and channels…

MOVING UP AT DICK GODDARD WAY: Sales wins the day when it comes to replacing former Tribune Fox affiliate WJW/8 “Fox 8” VP/general manager Greg Easterly.

The station has tabbed one of two strong internal candidates to replace Easterly, who moved to Chicago to run new Tribune sister station (and Tribune TV flagship) WGN/9.

He’s Paul Perozeni, who’s been VP/general sales manager for WJW for 13 years, and has worked at South Marginal/Dick Goddard Way since 1999.

The appointment was important enough for Tribune brass to send us the announcement directly from Tribune Tower:

During his tenure as VP/GSM, Perozeni was responsible for the sales management and revenue for the station and its digital properties. Under his leadership, WJW increased market share, maximized the development of new business and consistently exceeded revenue goals.

“Paul is truly one of ‘Cleveland’s Own’ and he, as much as anyone, has a deep appreciation for and awareness of the legacy, tradition and commitment of WJW to the city of Cleveland and all of Northeast Ohio,” said (Tribune COO Lynda) King. “He is the perfect choice to lead WJW Fox 8 for years to come.”

To say Perozeni is one of “Cleveland’s Own” is an understatement. The Tribune release notes that he got his local media start “as a newsbreak announcer and board engineer at WCLV-FM in Cleveland.”

Perozeni graduated from the University of Akron (oddly enough, the location of today’s Akron bureau for his station) and holds a master’s degree from John Carroll University.

Quotable from the new WJW boss in the Tribune press release:

“It’s truly a privilege, honor and blessing to have been selected to lead one of the most respected stations in the country,” says Perozeni. “Having grown up watching FOX 8 and being a part of the station these past 15 years, I couldn’t be more thrilled to help shape our future—I’m looking forward to getting started.”

NOT LIVING WELL ANYMORE: Of the subchannels on Cleveland TV stations, most of the attention has been paid to channels like classic TV storehouses Antenna TV (WJW/8.2) and Me-TV (WOIO/19.2).

You don’t hear much about the Live Well Network, which broadcasts on Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS’ 5.2 subchannel.

Soon, you won’t be hearing anything about the lifestyle/home subchannel.

Broadcasting & Cable reports that the ABC-owned effort is going away early next year:

ABC will discontinue its homegrown digi-net Live Well Network in mid-January. Focused on food, fashion and travel, Live Well was viewed as an example of what broadcasters could pull off in the multicast space, with original programming and partner stations both within the ABC owned group and outside of it. But the numbers were not working for ABC.

B&C’s Michael Malone reports that ABC wants to expand local news on its owned-and-operated stations.

But as of yet, there’s no word on what the Scripps stations, including WEWS and Cincinnati’s WCPO/9, could put in place of “Live Well”…

ONLINE TV: More and more, local TV stations are using the Internet as a “second screen”.

Locally, WEWS started the trend with “Dawgs on the Run”, a weekly online TV show during the Cleveland Browns’ season.

Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3 has officially entered the online TV realm, with regular weeknight weather reports that won’t air on the main 3.1 channel (NBC primetime), or even on WKYC’s dedicated weather channel at 3.2.

From a station tweet Monday night:

Starting tonight, Betsy Kling will have a special WEB ONLY 9 p.m. weathercast every weeknight on http://t.co/374Ff1axLU & our news app.

— WKYC Weather (@wkycweather) June 10, 2014

That one part is important: the update will “air” on WKYC’s apps for smartphones and tablets.

The battleground in online video has grown in recent times. As far as we know, all four Cleveland TV newsrooms are able to push live video to phones or tablets. (We note that WJW/8 “Fox 8 News'” recent online revamp has made watching its online product much easier on our own Official OMW Smartphone.)

With all this change, wither the traditional TV newscast? You know, that thing they pump out of those big transmitters and towers, and more importantly, to cable and satellite viewers?

The online component is, in 2014, a necessary supplement to “keep up with the Joneses” in TV news.

But we can’t help but wonder: as time goes on, will it seem even more quaint to sit in front of a TV set at an appointed time (6 PM, 11 PM, etc.) to see what the local news team does live in a studio?

That question seems even more important as younger demos (with little experience watching local TV news live on a TV) age into more news-friendly age groups…

92.3 THE FAN…BE A HOST!: Contests to win minor hosting gigs are certainly not new to sports radio, particularly to the CBS Radio stable of sports talk stations.

Now, it’s coming to CBS Radio’s Cleveland sports talker.

If talking sports in the studio with WKRK/92.3 “The Fan” personalities, and getting paid for it, is something you’ve always wanted to do, you will be at the Hard Rock Rocksino’s “Club Velvet” in Northfield from 11 AM to 4 PM on Saturday, June 28th.

“The Fan Phenom” contest will, according to the contest website, offer a co-hosting gig for a one-hour weekly show during football season.

“The Fan’s” Anthony Lima will host a live broadcast of the event from 11 AM to 2 PM that day.

As we noted, contests to find hosts are nothing new to sports radio, and even within the CBS stations.

“Fan” afternoon driver Adam “The Bull” Gerstenhaber (“Bull and Fox”) has seen it firsthand, as his former home station WFAN/660 (New York City’s original “Fan”) has actually hired contest winners as regular hosts.

The most recent winner-turned-host is WFAN’s John Jastremski, who was actually an intern for the big New York sports talker before winning its contest.

As far as we know, he’s no relation to long-time Northeast Ohio news/sportscaster Joe Jasztremski, now at Digity talk WHBC/1480 Canton…