In which a swirl of controversy envelopes radio and TV personalities...some of it significant, some of it not... HE'S GONE: When David Oliver became now-former chief of the Brimfield Police Department, we noted that as far as we knew, he still had his part-time job as a weekend radio host at Media-Com talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron". After all, his employment there didn't depend on being chief of a small town Portage County police force. But Oliver's unceremonious exit from that … [Read more...]
The Talk Of Brimfield
Posted on January 17, 2015 · Leave a Comment
Ordinarily, the resignation of a small town Ohio police chief embroiled in controversy would not attract worldwide attention. But we're talking about David Oliver here, "the Internet Sensation" and Facebook star...who until Friday was the chief of the Brimfield Township police department. And ordinarily, we wouldn't talk about the doings of a small town police chief, but as you probably know, Oliver has been a weekend host at Media-Com talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron"...a short drive … [Read more...]
Opening The Year
Posted on January 5, 2015 · 8 Comments
Welcome to 2015...but first, we have to clear out the backlog from the end of 2014... WKYC CHANGES: First, we turn to 13th and Lakeside, one of several busy places TV-wise as the calendar winded down the year. (We'll wind our way through all the other local TV news operations in Cleveland, as this string continues.) The job descriptions in the Spectorsky-Byrnes household have once again shifted, and Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3 station manager Micki Byrnes has taken the top job at the station … [Read more...]
John And Johnny
Posted on December 15, 2014 · 1 Comment
And about the only thing missing from our item in that department is "WKRP in Cincinnati"'s Dr. Johnny Fever. But first... UNWRAPPING DIGITAL TV: Those looking for new digital TV options have a couple of new presents on the over-air dial in the Cleveland market...and one, well, let's just say we're checking to see if pigs are flying over Portage County. That is because (as we signaled earlier) a long-time low-power analog TV stalwart has appeared on area digital TV tuners. Media-Com's … [Read more...]
Moves, Both Good And Tragic
Posted on November 12, 2014 · 1 Comment
UPDATE: A sad update to our second story...from Rover's GoFundMe site: UPDATE 11-12-2014: Unfortunately little Serena has succumbed to her injuries. She passed away this morning. Sarah and Ben remain hospitalized in serious condition. Please keep Rob and his family in your thoughts. Our original item is below... --- When life situations call for a move, changes that result can be both good...and end up in tragedy... BOURQUIN MOVES NORTH: When Digity talk WHBC/1480 Canton brought aboard … [Read more...]
Items From All Over
Posted on October 28, 2014 · 2 Comments
Our collection is from all over, but there's a Northeast Ohio connection for each one... TSJ BUYS COLUMBUS: In speculation about the fate of for-sale Radio Disney O&O WWMK/1260 Cleveland, we wondered if Cincinnati-based TSJ Media would buy the station. TSJ operates "La Mega 87.7", the Spanish-language station being leased from Tom Wilson's Murray Hill Broadcasting, and known to the FCC as LPTV outlet WLFM-LP/6, recently given a temporary and possibly permanent reprieve as a "radio station" … [Read more...]
Off And On
Posted on October 22, 2014 · Leave a Comment
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 … [Read more...]
New Starts
Posted on October 20, 2014 · 5 Comments
Some changes, and some observations... RODA TO WHBC: Veteran Cleveland sports talk radio host Kenny Roda has found a landing spot...a good ways down I-77 from his long-time radio home in Cleveland. Starting October 27th, the former afternoon drive host at Good Karma sports WKNR/850 "ESPN 850" takes over afternoon drive at Digity talk WHBC/1480 Canton, taking over the 3-7 PM slot from WHBC sports director Sam Bourquin. Bourquin remains sports director, and moves his daily on-air presence … [Read more...]
A Flood Of Items
Posted on October 14, 2014 · 4 Comments
From radio to TV, to TV passing off as radio, we're bailing out the water here... LA MEGA STAYING?: If we've said it once, we've said it a thousand times...or maybe it only SEEMS like a thousand times. We have frequently cautioned fans of first, alt-rock "87.7 Cleveland's Sound" and then, Spanish-language CHR "La Mega 87.7", not to become too attached to a radio signal at 87.7 on the FM dial. Just one example, from our item when it was announced that "La Mega" would be displacing … [Read more...]
This Is (Still) CBS
Posted on October 3, 2014 · Leave a Comment
The folks at the Halle Building, and at other large-but-not-major market CBS Radio clusters, must feel like they're on a roller coaster at Cedar Point, and that coaster has taken another sharp dip. After repeatedly signaling that it wants out of sub-major markets, and wants to concentrate on the biggest markets, CBS Radio took the first big step* in that direction on Thursday. CBS will flip its significant clusters in Charlotte and Tampa to Florida-based Beasley, which in turn will bolster … [Read more...]
