From signals off to court humor on, here we are…
UPDATE: As if by magic, the moment we posted this item, WEAO/49’s over-air signal returned. Read on for news of program rescheduling to make up for the outage…
49 OFF AGAIN: Western Reserve PBS’ Akron signal is off the air again.
This time, it’s the wait for a needed part replacement that has kept WEAO/49 from area over-air tuners since an equipment failure that happened Sunday morning.
Western Reserve PBS communications coordinator and long-time OMW handler Diane Steinert says it’s hoped WEAO can return to the airwaves sometime today.
To that end, the station has put up a notice on its website, and a list of some schedule changes that will mean re-airing of some programs that were on during the outage:
WEAO Channel 49 (Akron/Canton) is currently off air for some viewers because of an equipment breakdown. Replacement parts have been ordered and we hope to be back on air on Wednesday, Oct. 22.
Because many of our viewers missed out on seeing some of our most-watched programs during the outage, we have made a few schedule changes on Western Reserve PBS (WNEO 45.1 / WEAO 49.1). In addition, we offer below information on ways to catch other programs that are in our schedule at other times or on Fusion (WNEO 45.2 / WEAO 49.2). We’re sorry that we can’t replay every program that has been missed, but we hope that you’ll be able to tune in for the following.
The schedule changes are at the link above.
Sometime Sunday, Time Warner Cable switched the station’s feed back to the WNEO/45 Alliance signal, which (like last time) is unaffected by the WEAO outage.
For those who watch the MHz Worldview mix of foreign English language newscasts and subtitled mystery shows that usually airs on WEAO/49.3, there’s a feed on the MHz website which carries the station live…
OOPS, WE FORGOT: We mentioned Cleveland broadcasters who “decamped” to Northeast Ohio’s smaller markets, but forgot one we covered extensively in recent months.
Of course, Dan Stansbury – most known for his time on WMMS/100.7 and WNCX/98.5’s “Maxwell Show” and one of the last English-language hosts on WLFM-LP/87.7 “Cleveland’s Sound” – is now doing morning drive on iHeart[/former Clear Channel] rock WRQK/106.9 Canton.
It’s certainly easy to see why stations in Akron and Canton are drawn to Cleveland personalities.
And it’s easy to see, in the changed world of radio in 2014, how stations in those smaller markets are able to afford “name” personalities who are were previously in a market the size of Cleveland.
Generally speaking, with very few exceptions, the days of the “monster contract” are over…and as those previous contracts expire, the personalities are looking at options they may not have considered the last time around.
Though, in the case of Stansbury, he was likely not at all the recipient of a “monster contract”…as a co-host/sidekick in his first two gigs, and working for a low-budget quasi-FM station before it changed languages…
FROM PUPPETS TO DOGS: Remember “The Puppet Court”?
The high profile corruption trial of former Cuyahoga County commissioner Jimmy Dimora in 2012 took place in an Akron federal courtroom, and thus, cameras and microphones weren’t allowed.
Raycom CBS affiliate WOIO/19’s “19 Action News” was actually praised by many for poking fun at this with “The Puppet Court”. Quoting our own item at the time:
When we heard that the folks at Reserve Square have been using puppets to re-enact portions of the corruption trial of former Cuyahoga County commissioner Jimmy Dimora, the item almost started writing itself.
Yes, Raycom Media’s Cleveland TV news circus, WOIO/19-WUAB/43’s “19 Action News”, had its newest act. And we’re no stranger to chronicling those acts right here in your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm).
But it’s not quite as simple as that, and “19 Action News” actually has some admirers in the journalistic community for “The Puppet’s Court”…and that’s saying something.
Fast forward to 2014, and enter John Oliver…the former “The Daily Show” correspondent and Jon Stewart sub now hitting comedy home runs of his own on HBO’s “Last Week Tonight”.
“The Verge” explains that Oliver featured an “all-animal” Supreme Court sketch:
Inspired by Keyboard Cat, the sketch — which features dogs as the nine justices, a duck as an assistant, and a pitch-perfect pecking chicken as a stenographer — is meant to mock the absurdity of the US Supreme Court’s refusal to allow its proceedings to be televised, despite permitting audio recordings. Using actual audio of the nine Supreme Court justices (from the ongoing case Holt vs. Hobbes, about whether prisons can force Muslim prisoners to trim their beards), Oliver’s crew, “spent an incredible amount of time and an almost immoral amount of resources to produce an entire Supreme Court featuring real animals with fake paws.”
It’s just as absurd in 2014 as it was when Dimora was on trial in 2012: cameras aren’t allowed, and the concession to “technology” by the Supreme Court allowing basically just audio podcasts is ridiculous.
The “Last Week Tonight” sketch can be viewed at the Verge link, and the technology news site reports that Oliver and HBO are allowing free use of a 10 minute YouTube video of raw footage, featuring the “dog justices” for not just viewers to produce online “remixes”, but for broadcasters to use in their own reporting:
Oliver said during his show that he hoped serious broadcast news organizations would use this animal recreation footage in place of the boring still illustrations that they currently use to accompany Supreme Court audio. “What happens at the Supreme Court is way too important not to pay attention to,” Oliver said during his broadcast.
Can a TV show bring change in the nation’s highest court? We’ll see…
Speak Your Mind