There's closure to the case of a Louisville KY radio personality, who accepted a job offer to become promotions director of Canton top 40 WZKL/92.5 "Q92" - while he was well aware that he was getting into major legal hot water in his home market.Todd Edward Smith, known on-air at Louisville's WDJX as "Todd Kelly", was sentenced Monday to seven years in prison for an elaborate charity scam.Smith was convicted of setting up a bogus charity for ALS - "Lou Gehrig's Disease" - after falsely telling … [Read more...]
BREAKING NEWS: New WRQK/WHLO PD
Posted on December 12, 2007 · Leave a Comment
OMW hears that it's official - long-time rock programmer Greg Ausham is headed for Clear Channel rock WRQK/106.9 Canton "Rock 106.9" as program director.Ausham will also fill the PD vacancy down the Freedom Avenue hall at the company's talk WHLO/640 Akron.OMW reported earlier that WRQK PD Keith Hamilton stepped down from his programming duties to concentrate on his long-running midday show. And WHLO program director Jerry Mullins left the building as well.Ausham's programming history includes a … [Read more...]
Tom Sullivan Dies
Posted on December 2, 2007 · Leave a Comment
OMW hears that long-time Northeast Ohio radio personality Tom Sullivan has passed away at the age of 53. Tom, born Tom Farrar in Canal Fulton in 1954, died Friday afternoon.From the Canton Repository's online obituary listing:Tom spent over 30 years in radio and was known by his stage name Tom Sullivan. Tom worked for WKDD, WQMX, WHBC-FM and the old M105 in Cleveland and others. "If I put a smile on your face or made you laugh at one of my stunts, then it was all worth while"Tom's last known … [Read more...]
First Northeast Ohio Christmas Flip In Canton
Posted on November 13, 2007 · Leave a Comment
OMW hears that Clear Channel AC WHOF/101.7 North Canton "My 101.7" has turned on the Christmas music switch.The holiday tunes started flowing at 9 AM, according to what we hear out of Freedom Avenue.As far as we know, that makes WHOF the first Northeast Ohio station to adopt the holiday music format, a staple of AC stations across the country. Clear Channel AC WLZT/93.3 "Lite FM" in the Columbus market has already started ringing the sleigh bells... … [Read more...]
THIS JUST IN: Former “Mix 94.1” PD Lands In Connecticut
Posted on November 7, 2007 · Leave a Comment
AllAccess reports that former NextMedia AC WHBC-FM/94.1 Canton "Mix 94.1" program director and morning host Terry Simmons has landed in a similar job back east.He takes the reins at Cumulus hot AC WDBY "Y105" in Danbury, Connecticut, where he'll also be the station's program director and morning host.The trade site says Simmons starts at Connecticut's "Y105" next Monday.After Simmons exited WHBC-FM, the "Mix" programming chair was eventually occupied by Hunter Scott, who does afternoon drive on … [Read more...]
Freedom Avenue Changes
Posted on November 2, 2007 · Leave a Comment
We have two items of note out of Clear Channel's Akron/Canton cluster.First, it's former WTAM/1100 weekend overnight news anchor Michael Kelly who takes over the morning news anchor slot at talk WHLO/640, starting Monday.Recently, Kelly has been doing news for WPGB/104.7 Pittsburgh during the regionally syndicated "Quinn and Rose" show - via the company computer network from Clear Channel Cleveland's Oak Tree facilities, so he never actually left the building after WTAM pulled local overnight … [Read more...]
A Tight Squeeze Play
Posted on September 28, 2007 · Leave a Comment
And no, we aren't talking about a play we'd like to see the Cleveland Indians pull off in the upcoming playoff run.We've let some items accumulate here, and we're going to put them in one big item to close out the week.BIG TEN NETWORK GETS, UH, CABLE PRESENCE: The folks at the Big Ten Network have a cable signing to crow about.But unfortunately for the conference-owned TV network, BTN's new signup is not Time Warner Cable, the region's largest cable provider by far.Instead, the new sports … [Read more...]
Something To Write About
Posted on August 22, 2007 · Leave a Comment
UPDATED! See below...--------We've been quiet here at the OMW ranch for a couple of days, but mostly because we haven't had much to write about. We've found enough...THIS JUST IN: An alert OMW reader tips below that Good Karma sports WKNR/850 "ESPN 850" in Cleveland has signed up to be the home of the American Hockey League's Lake Erie Monsters.Here's the blurb on ESPNCleveland.com:The Lake Erie Monsters and WKNR announced on Wednesday that ESPN 850 WKNR will be the exclusive radio home for … [Read more...]
Thursday’s Here
Posted on July 12, 2007 · Leave a Comment
And in keeping with our schedule, this may be the last update until early next week. Please keep checking, though, in case of breaking items.Or we could say something like - "At OMW, When News Breaks, We FedEx It Back And Wait For A Replacement"...THE GLORIOUS NEW SET WORLD: We scratch our heads over this one.In the two years we've been doing this - we missed our anniversary late last month! - we've seen very few topics that touch a hunger for information like the upcoming new set for FOX … [Read more...]
Post-Holiday Fill
Posted on July 5, 2007 · Leave a Comment
Some other stuff that's popped up, and we're getting around to adding on this Thursday:REPOSITORY MANAGING EDITOR TO WKSU: We actually saw the headline on one of the local news websites, about Canton Repository managing editor M.L. Schultze leaving the paper - recently purchased by GateHouse.What we didn't know is her destination.The Repository itself reports that Schultze is leaving the newspaper later this month to become news director of Kent-based NPR outlet WKSU/89.7.The article on her … [Read more...]
