OMW hears that long-time Clear Channel Akron/Canton market manager Dan Lankford has left the building at Freedom Avenue, bound for a new job in Pennsylvania.Lankford is heading for a new job as market manager of Clear Channel's Harrisburg/Allentown PA stations. And by heading, we mean he's expected to start today.At Freedom Avenue, Lankford has been in charge of five stations - hot AC WKDD/98.1, rock WRQK/106.9, AC WHOF/101.7, talk WHLO/640 and sports WARF/1350.In addition to those stations, … [Read more...]
All Sorts Of Followup
Posted on August 6, 2009 · Leave a Comment
It's Followup Thursday, where we provide new information (and speculation!) on items featured here earlier this week...WITHER 100.3 LORAIN?: After getting word that Radio One is buying translator W262BN/100.3 Lorain for $100,000, we had to learn more.The first thing we had to do is verify that Edgewater Broadcasting had the translator on the air (it's been licensed since 2007), and if Edgewater was using it to rebroadcast Akron Public Schools AAA non-comm outlet WAPS/91.3 "The Summit" out of … [Read more...]
Exits, Upgrades and Changes
Posted on August 5, 2009 · Leave a Comment
It's a rather odd combination for our first Wednesday update, a mix of personnel changes, facility changes and other signal news...KIM JOHNSON EXITS: Trade sites have widely reported the exit of cluster programmer Kim Johnson from Radio One's Cleveland cluster.As far as we know, Johnson was directly responsible for programming the company's two powerhouse FMs - urban AC WZAK/93.1 and hip hop WENZ/107.9, both regular fixtures near the top of the Cleveland ratings.Radio One also operates gospel … [Read more...]
A Couple With Julie
Posted on August 3, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Of course, we're talking about Julie Washington, the Cleveland Plain Dealer media writer who is basically the only other person in this area writing about local media outlets...and the only one getting paid to do so.One week ago, OMW provided extensive details about economic hard times at Cleveland's PBS/NPR combo, WVIZ/25 and WCPN/90.3, which are under the corporate umbrella of Ideastream. (Sorry, we refuse to use the lower case "i".)The changes at Playhouse Square ended up with 9 employees … [Read more...]
Monday Followup, Mid-July Edition
Posted on July 13, 2009 · Leave a Comment
For whatever reason, everything at the top of our pile this Monday morning is a followup to earlier items...except our first, and even that's the "next step" of an earlier report...THIS JUST IN: An OMW reader passes word via Trip Ericson's RabbitEars.info - TBN O&O WDLI/17-1-2-3-4-5 will get their RF channel change.This FCC decision (PDF file) means that the Canton-licensed station can move from RF channel 39 to RF channel 49.We just noticed that the decision's release date was late this … [Read more...]
NEON, Mr. Kent, And We Own No Stations
Posted on July 1, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Oh, and add "Freq" to that list...a little later...NEW NEON SITE: Time Warner Cable local programming channel "NEON" (Northeast Ohio Network) is unveiling a new website.It's actually an upgrade for the site at twcneon.com. From a press release about the revamp:The new NEON website has a fresh look and offers a simple way to find information about the network. Each show now has a dedicated page on the website with photos, videos and past and upcoming episode information. The schedule page … [Read more...]
WOAC Flips
Posted on June 25, 2009 · Leave a Comment
UPDATE 6/25/09 2:23 PM: A reader comment on this item led us to our digital tuner, and indeed, the WOAC call letters and channel 67 identification are both history.PSIP information now displays the Canton-licensed station as "47-1, WRLM-DT". We did not have to rescan our Zenith converter box to get the new information.The onscreen legal ID automatically inserted under the WOAC days appears to be in flux...it may well say "WRLM", but the last time we saw it, the call letters went above the top … [Read more...]
We Know And We Don’t Know
Posted on June 25, 2009 · Leave a Comment
UPDATE 6/25/09 2:21 PM: Our report of the buyouts accepted by WJW/8 "Fox 8" veterans Belinda Prinz and Dan Coughlin has been confirmed/separately reported by Cleveland Plain Dealer media columnist Julie Washington...---------There is a lot of information floating around, most of it related to broadcast television in Northeast Ohio.And we "know" most of it, though some of it is still speculation based on information that's out there...WE KNOW - TV: OMW hears that two veteran local TV names are … [Read more...]
Quick Hits For A Monday
Posted on June 22, 2009 · Leave a Comment
We're still "on hiatus", as it were, but we want to bring out some items we don't want to get moldy.OK, maybe this wasn't as "quick" as we thought...TV CHANGE: Cleveland Classic Media's Tim Lones gives us a heads up on the future of WOAC/67 Canton, the infomercial outlet being sold out of the bankruptcy case of Multicultural Broadcasting's TV division.And there is no future - for either the WOAC call letters, or, apparently, the old channel number 67.Incoming owner Tri-State Christian Television … [Read more...]
ODTV: Two Days Out
Posted on June 10, 2009 · Leave a Comment
This report comes to you just two days before all full-power analog...oh, you know the drill by now. And like one of our OMW updates, it's a multi-parter...look for the bold subheadings...And coming later today, a list of all the Ohio stations we have shutoff times for on Friday.Read the rest of this article on our Ohio Digital TV blog... … [Read more...]
