Sports And People

And let’s start with a helpful item for sports fans tonight…

BROWNS VS. GLADIATORS: No, the NFL’s Cleveland Browns won’t be tangling with the Arena Football League’s Cleveland Gladiators in downtown Cleveland tonight.

But on the radio dial, even with the Gladiators going for a league crown, the Browns obviously win that battle.

CBS Radio sports WKRK/92.3 “The Fan” is the arena football team’s flagship radio station, and has been carrying Gladiators games all season long, with Doug Plagens and “Fan” afternoon co-host Dustin Fox (“Bull and Fox”) on the call.

But tonight’s Arena Bowl XXVII (27 for mere mortals) at Quicken Loans Arena, one of three big sports events in downtown Cleveland at the same time, won’t be heard on “92.3 The Fan”.

For all their success this year, the Gladiators are definitely not at the same level as the Browns (play on the field aside). And “The Fan” is one of three flagship stations for the Browns, playing the St. Louis Rams in preseason game #3 tonight at LargePowerCompany Stadium.

Thus, the Gladiators move to an unusual combination of stations tonight – Clear Channel alt-rock W256BT/99.1 “99X” (also heard, of course, on WMMS/100.7’s HD2 channel), Salem talk WHK/1420 “The Answer”, and WHK’s still sister station in the Mahoning Valley, WHKZ/1440 Warren (otherwise a simulcaster of religious WHKW/1220 Cleveland).

Now, you ask, why can’t CBS Radio run the Gladiators on 92.3, with the Browns already on more powerful classic rocker WNCX/98.5?

OMW hears that CBS Radio’s contract with the Browns requires it to run the games on two FM stations, even in preseason. And apparently, moving the Browns to AC WDOK/102.1 “New 102”, or for that matter, to hot AC WQAL/104.1 “Q104”, wasn’t an option.

Separately, the Browns also air on their AM flagship, Good Karma sports WKNR/850 “ESPN 850”.

And how did Clear Channel get involved, running the game on “99X”?

Remember…Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert also owns the Gladiators, and Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 is the Cavaliers’ flagship.

And of course, WMMS itself, and WTAM, are busy with the third sports event in downtown Cleveland tonight…the Cleveland Indians hosting the Houston Astros at Progressive Field.

Absent from the Gladiators’ press release about tonight’s game is Dustin Fox, as the team’s analyst and “Fan” afternoon drive co-host is tied up with his duties on the Browns Radio Network.

But veteran sportscaster Kenny Roda, the former WKNR host who regularly contributes to both “The Fan” and Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 “NewsChannel 5″‘s sports department, will be sideline reporter on the Gladiators broadcast.

Roda normally fills the same role for the Dan Gilbert-owned AHL hockey Lake Erie Monsters, a team which also employs Doug Plagens for play-by-play…

BERNIE! BERNIE!: Browns legend-of-the-1980s Bernie Kosar, of course, was bumped from the team’s preseason broadcasts on Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3 this year.

CBS Sports analyst Solomon Wilcots has taken his place in the Browns preseason TV booth alongside “Voice of the Browns” Jim Donovan, WKYC’s sports director.

But Bernie has made it back to TV, though not in game coverage.

Raycom CBS affiliate WOIO/19 has added Number 19 (nice coincidence) to its local “Tailgate 19” pre-game broadcasts this season.

Bernie will work alongside “19 Action News” sports anchor Tony Zarella, and apparently, everyone who can find Reserve Square on a Sunday morning.

From a WOIO press release:

A round table of revolving talent to provide fresh perspective throughout the season will include former Browns players Bernie Kosar, Bob Golic, Hanford Dixon, and Joe Jurevicius; current Browns player Billy Winn; and radio commentators Michael Reghi and Chuck Booms. 19 Action News Sports Anchor Tony Zarrella will serve as the host.

The group will have to rotate, unless the show will take over the entire basement of Reserve Square with a set accomodating eight people.

Still, Bernie, being the most popular former Browns player by far, will probably see significant screen time on “Tailgate 19″…

GRIT AND ESCAPE: In this era of digital TV, a “new local TV channel” isn’t a big deal.

But Cleveland gained two subchannels on its TV screens this week.

We mentioned the female targeted Escape when it started testing on Univision O&O WQHS/61’s 61.4 subchannel. Escape features programming presumably targeted to women, such as Lifetime-style women-in-trouble-to-be-rescued movies.

Escape launched officially on Monday afternoon.

Escape’s male targeted counterpart is Grit, which started unloading programming like John Wayne movies on Monday as well.

Grit is seen in Cleveland on Raycom’s WUAB/43.3. Both Univision and Raycom have group deals with the pair of new subchannel networks.

At least in its early days on 43.3, Grit had a severe audio sync problem, which appears to be fixed at this writing…at least the punches seem to line up with the audio.

But WUAB has yet to populate 43.3’s onscreen program guide, so we don’t know what movie is running…

NEW WKSU ND: We mentioned this briefly when he announced his departure from his current job, but Kent State University’s WKSU/89.7-and-its-many-simulcasters have a new news director.

A release from WKSU marketing guru and (say it with us!) long-time personal and professional friend of OMW Ann VerWiebe has more on new WKSU news director Andrew Meyer:

Meyer comes to WKSU from public radio station WBGO in Newark, New Jersey, where he was assistant news director. Along with his management duties at WBGO, he also anchored afternoon newscasts, reported on local and regional stories and hosted a monthly call-in program with then-Newark Mayor Cory Booker and other newsmakers. Before he became a full-time staff member at WBGO, Meyer worked as a freelance
reporter/producer for stations in the New York City metropolitan area, such as WNYC and 1010 WINS. He was also a stringer for a number of networks, including NPR.

WBGO/88.3 (“Jazz 88”) is a jazz outlet that serves the northern New Jersey suburbs of New York City with its news coverage. It actually transmits from New York City’s 4 Times Square site.

And since we dipped into Ann’s press release, here’s a quote from her boss, WKSU GM Dan Skinner:

“I am very pleased that Andrew will be joining our staff. His wealth of experience in management and journalism will help the WKSU newsroom do its best to serve the Northeast Ohio community in a time when our region is drawing increased national attention!”

HEADED TO THE ATL: Greg Ausham, most recently program director of Clear Channel rock WRQK/106.9 and talk WHLO/640 at Clear Channel’s Akron-Canton compound on Freedom Avenue, is heading to Atlanta.

Ausham is going to Atlanta to program its the Cumulus classic rocker there, WNNX/100.5 “Rock 100.5”.

Of course, Ausham was also program director of Clear Channel rock WMMS/100.7 in the late 1990s…

AND ALSO MOVING: Another former Cleveland program director has a new role.

Dan Mason programmed Clear Channel top 40 WAKS “Kiss FM”…if we’re recalling correctly, overseeing its move from a rimshot signal at 104.9/Lorain to full-market (still Akron licensed) 96.5.

Mason is moving from Boston to Tampa.

He’s been program director of CBS Radio top 40 WODS/103.5 “AMP Radio” in Boston, and heads to the Cox Media Group cluster in Tampa to take OM duties for a trio of the company’s stations there: top 40 WPOI/101.5 “Hot 101.5”, alt-rock WSUN/97.1 “97X”, and hot talker WHPT/102.5 “The Bone”.

Mason will also be hands on PD for “Hot 101.5” (“director of branding and programming”, as Cox calls it)…