As we wrap up our out of town excursion, we'll wrap up some loose ends from a newsy week, particularly for our friends in Central Ohio...SPORTSY: As it turns out, there's a good reason two Columbus radio stations flipped to a sports format within hours of each other this week.The Columbus Dispatch's Tim Feran quotes RadiOhio president/GM Dave Van Stone, who says research helped lead the move of the "Fan" sports format from its long-time home on WBNS/1460 to displace hot AC "Mix 97.1" at … [Read more...]
Sports Radio Fallout
Posted on January 22, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Some changes at a national sports radio network have created quite the fallout - at least for some stations.As part of massive changes announced by Clear Channel on Tuesday, Fox Sports Radio (run by Clear Channel's Premiere syndication arm) also announced a lineup shift.Out the door at FSR: shows including mid-morning's "Out of Bounds with Craig Shemon and James Washington", the nighttime show hosted by Andrew Siciliano and Crystal Fernandez, and Ben Maller's overnight show.Locally, "Out of … [Read more...]
Clear Channel Layoffs Day 2
Posted on January 21, 2009 · Leave a Comment
OK, as much as we tried to put it off, we have to dig in and share the fallout from the massive Clear Channel restructuring - and how it affects Ohio, as news of yesterday's 9% layoff at the radio giant continues to trickle down.Or, as the trade website AllAccess headline says: "Now, 1850 People Have To Restructure Their Lives"...YOUNGSTOWN: We have some word of the cuts made Tuesday at Clear Channel's South Avenue compound in suburban Youngstown.OMW hears two on-air names let go were actually … [Read more...]
That Other Story
Posted on January 20, 2009 · Leave a Comment
With the inauguration of President Obama in the history books, the coverage and wrapup of today's events will continue into the night.Though there will be some regular entertainment programming on the broadcast TV networks - most notably the FOX powerhouse "American Idol" at 8 - there will also be network specials wrapping up the day's events.We'll also take this opportunity to note an hour-long ABC News Radio special airing on Rubber City Radio oldies WAKR/1590 Akron from 7:05 to 8 PM tonight. … [Read more...]
Closing Friday
Posted on January 16, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Many of the items below have to do with the upcoming transition to digital TV, which is currently scheduled for February 17th, 2009.But first, we've got an elephant in the middle of the room that we can't ignore...CLEAR CHANNEL RUMORS: We've touched on it before, briefly...the rumors that massive job cuts are in the works at Clear Channel clusters around the country, after an important managers' meeting in Dallas a while back.Since then, the radio rumor mill has pumped out January 20th - next … [Read more...]
Time Warner HD
Posted on January 8, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Here at OMW, it's definitely one of our most Frequently Asked Questions:When is the local Time Warner Cable operation in Northeast Ohio going to add more HD channels?OMW readers are a well-informed bunch, as a rule. They know that satellite providers have added a number of HD channels over the past year or so. They know other cable systems - even those owned by Time Warner, like the Columbus-based Mid-Ohio system - have added many more channels.(To be fair, not only is the Mid-Ohio system … [Read more...]
The Spirit Of Akr…er…Texas?
Posted on January 6, 2009 · Leave a Comment
For those of you who wonder where TV news music comes from, there are a number of people out there on the Internet who track such things.Perhaps the best such effort is "SouthernMedia's News Music Search Archive", a website which categorizes TV news and other theme music by package, location or other such search methods.It even helpfully includes audio samples of news themes, imaging campaigns and the like.One such local TV imaging campaign started as "The Spirit of Texas", which has been a … [Read more...]
Rolling Into 2009
Posted on January 5, 2009 · Leave a Comment
And here it is...with the exception of our special "Breaking News" over the weekend - more on that later - our first regular update for 2009.Since we've been mostly gone since just before Christmas, it'll be a long one...SUNDAY NEWS: With TV groups looking to save money, the latest focus is on Sunday mornings.As we hinted earlier, Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8 in Cleveland has indeed scrapped its Sunday morning edition of "FOX 8 News", which had been airing from 8 to 9 AM.We hear from our … [Read more...]
THIS JUST IN: WNIR Joins 21st Century, Streams Audio
Posted on January 2, 2009 · Leave a Comment
It's been rumored for what seems like a year, but is now reality.The new website for Media-Com Akron market talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron" is online as of this Friday afternoon, and yes, there is live streaming audio. We're listening to it right now.The station is running a banner on the updated website with this crawl: "From Cleveland to Cancun, from Los Angeles to London, from New York to New Delhi...FROM ANYWHERE TO ANYWHERE...WNIR welcomes our new global audience!"OMW hears that the … [Read more...]
WNEO’s Continuing Transition Work
Posted on December 22, 2008 · Leave a Comment
UPDATE 12/22/08 10:08 AM: OMW hears from Western Reserve PBS that Time Warner Cable is indeed now using the station's digital feed to feed the station to its analog cable subscribers.It's not known yet, however, when (or if) TWC's former Adelphia systems in the Cleveland area will add the HD version of WEAO/49.TWC systems in other parts of Northeast Ohio already carry the HD feed of Western Reserve PBS. When Time Warner took over the Adelphia systems, it added the HD feed of WEAO to the paper … [Read more...]
