The coming week, local media outlets are winding down for the holiday season. You'll see and hear a lot of fill-ins starting today, but it's still early enough in December that some regulars will still be working at least part of this week.We're here, too. Due to the general flow of news, the next three weeks will likely see fewer updates, and we'll probably try to put away the keyboard in the week between Christmas and New Year's Day...but we'll try to keep in touch...TIM WHITE EXITS: Today … [Read more...]
Television Facility Changes
Posted on December 10, 2008 · Leave a Comment
This is an item about two proposed local facilities changes - one approved, one on the consideration table - and oddly enough, a very indirect link between them.First, thanks to the many tipsters who have let us know that Western Reserve PBS' Youngstown-market WNEO/45 Alliance has indeed received FCC approval of a construction permit to increase its new Channel 45 digital facility from 44KW to 500KW.The "maximization" permit was approved after WNEO and Post-Newsweek Detroit NBC affiliate WDIV/4 … [Read more...]
WAKS Isn’t Going Anywhere
Posted on December 9, 2008 · Leave a Comment
And by "isn't going anywhere", we mean "isn't being sold".In a move we first saw reported today by AllAccess, an application has been filed with the FCC to return top 40 WAKS/96.5 Akron - the Cleveland market "Kiss FM" outlet - to Clear Channel, along with a number of stations in similar situations.WAKS and the other stations had been flipped to the Aloha Station Trust, a holding company which was charged (in principle) with selling the stations to other companies so Clear Channel could comply … [Read more...]
A Mess Of Cable Changes
Posted on December 9, 2008 · Leave a Comment
Every once in a while, we dip into the legal programming notices section of Time Warner Cable's website, where the company has to disclose some upcoming changes without shouting them from the rooftops.The list currently up for TWC's Northeast Ohio service area is long, complex and detailed.But...what looks innocuous on the legal notice could well develop into a problem not many anticipated.The notice includes what most usually think is "boilerplate" language about the potential loss of carriage … [Read more...]
Radio Daze: The Documentary
Posted on December 1, 2008 · Leave a Comment
A TV documentary based on Mike Olszewski's book "Radio Daze" premieres this week."Radio Daze: Cleveland’s FM Air Wars" debuts Tuesday night at 9:30 PM on Western Reserve PBS, the local PBS affiliate combo known to mere mortals as WNEO/45 Alliance-WEAO/49 Akron.Quoting a release from our good friends over on Campus Center Drive:It presents the dramatic rise of northeast Ohio’s FM rock scene, from its early days on college and ethnic stations manned by hippie disk jockeys to a billion-dollar … [Read more...]
Friday Oddities
Posted on November 28, 2008 · Leave a Comment
OK, so we'll squeeze out one more update of odd stuff this Friday after the Thanksgiving Day holiday.There is some more economic bad news for those in local media, but we'll put that on the back burner until our Monday morning update...keeping the meaning of "Black Friday" for holiday shopping crowds for now...ION OF CHANGE: A little change could be coming to the digital signals of the ION Network's owned and operated TV stations, and the ION folks are going about proposing the changes in an … [Read more...]
Random Midweek Update
Posted on November 26, 2008 · Leave a Comment
We guess the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) is not very organized this holiday week...and this may well be our last update before the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday...CLOSING IN ON A HOME: Though it's technically a service and not a radio station, OMW has occasionally carried items about Akron's WCRS.Those aren't FCC call letters - the acronym "WCRS" stands for "Written Communications Radio Service", otherwise known as the Akron-based radio reading service for the blind. In a previous life, WCRS was … [Read more...]
Just Some Monday Stuff
Posted on November 24, 2008 · Leave a Comment
There's nothing particularly pressing, right now...we just wanted to clear the Friday deck:WNEO: We have yet to check in with the folks at Western Reserve PBS, so we're just putting this item up as a placeholder until we're able to get with them for an update on the newly-returned WNEO-DT/45 Alliance signal.But our own observations - far afield from the WNEO transmitter in Salem - saw the WNEO digital signal lighting up on and off over the weekend, but not quite locking a signal from OMW World … [Read more...]
Friday Cleanup
Posted on November 21, 2008 · Leave a Comment
UPDATE 3:15 PM 11/21/08: We added a new item below, about the debut of a new Toledo weekend radio show produced by one of our regular readers. Scroll down for the update...-------Cleaning up some items as we intend to head out the door for the weekend...WNEO'S DIGITAL: OMW hears from Western Reserve PBS that the station is still technically in testing mode today with its new digital signal for Youngstown market WNEO/45 Alliance, which lit up for the first time on Thursday evening.For now, WNEO … [Read more...]
THIS JUST IN: WKDD Turns To Billy Bush For Nights
Posted on November 20, 2008 · Leave a Comment
With Clear Channel Akron/Canton hot AC WKDD/98.1's former local evening voice now being heard alongside morning host Matt Patrick, the station has turned to a big syndicated name to take the vacated evening slot.The 7-11 PM weeknight slot once occupied by Krissy Taylor's voicetracked shift will be occupied starting Monday by Westwood One's "Billy Bush Show". Bush hosts TV's "Access Hollywood", and does his syndicated radio show from the TV show's studio.Quoting 'KDD:Billy is able to have the … [Read more...]
