In which more is revealed, and new things come out... WKNR CHANGES: The Semi-Extreme Makeover of Good Karma sports WKNR/850 "ESPN 850" has some more details attached to it. For that, we thank two people...Good Karma boss Craig Karmazin, and Akron Beacon Journal sportswriter George M. Thomas for writing about Karmazin's appearance Wednesday afternoon on his station. And the lineup changes prompted by the dismissal of 21 year veteran Kenny Roda, along with Will Burge and T.J. Zuppe and the … [Read more...]
Akron/Canton News
And we don't mean the former TV newscast which aired on WVPX/23 and Time Warner Cable... DELUCA'S LANDING: When former D.A. Peterson top 40 WDJQ/92.5 Alliance "Q92" program director John Stewart took a ride down U.S. 62 and I-77 to downtown Canton to a new radio home, many expected him to "bring a friend". But it took the departure of Rik Elliott from the morning show at NextMedia hot AC WHBC-FM/94.1 "Mix 94.1" for the long-expected change to happen. Now programming "Mix" from Market South, … [Read more...]
Partial Quick Hits
Partial, we're calling it, because this brief update has a lot of items and many we missed. Look for more whenever, however we can get a Round Tuit(tm)... LAW AND ORDER, MEDIA DIVISION: No, we're not talking about the Dick Wolf series of TV procedurals (clung, clung!). It's Cleveland's Own version, with a number of media personalities getting on the wrong side of the law. Let's update what we know so far. ROVER'S BACK OVER: Clear Channel talk/rock WMMS/100.7 morning chien Shane "Rover" … [Read more...]
Of George, Nash And Other Stuff
It's a "name" theme this time around for your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm)... GEORGE OF RESERVE SQUARE: Raycom Media CBS/MyNet combo WOIO/19-WUAB/43 has a new anchor who started this week, and he's coming off a national stage. George Smith was a reporter for sports TV giant ESPN for nearly 10 years, and moves to "19 Action News" as 4:30 PM and 5:30 PM weekday anchor (with Danielle Serino) and reporter for the station's 10 PM news on "My43 The Block", and the 11 PM news on "CBS 19". Smith's "Action … [Read more...]
Press Release Theatre (Vol. 9), The Time Warner Cable SportsChannel Edition
UPDATE 12/20/12 10:07 PM: We're told that the network actually launched in August...we haven't had Time Warner Cable's digital service since before then. But TWC's own release talks about the network in terms of "will be" and "will bring", so they must see this as a post-soft launch statewide. Some wording fixed... ----- Having apparently lost or abandoned its reported bid to buy SportsTime Ohio, Time Warner Cable is going ahead full steam with its own statewide sports network...called "Time … [Read more...]
The Clear Channel Aftermath
We should be used to this by now, but you never get used to hundreds of broadcast professionals getting tossed out of their radio studios for Christmas. Or any other time, really. In what's become a very sad tradition around this time of year, broadcast giant Clear Channel Media+Entertainment+Pork Rinds looked at its staffing levels in markets across the nation and said, "oh, we can do without these people" as the year comes to a close. (And really, anymore, we're only half kidding about the … [Read more...]
Letting Some Out
This may be one of our final blog updates of 2012, though we will continue to update our social media presence with breaking media-related news. No, not actual breaking news, as some of our E-mailers (not readers) haven't figured out... CLEVELAND RADIO HISTORY INTO HISTORY: As we write this, early Sunday morning, the storied Cleveland media address "One Radio Lane" is no longer occupied by, well, any radio stations. CBS Radio's local operations in Cleveland have been split between two … [Read more...]
Mr. Stark County High School Sports Passes Away
When pretty much everyone agrees that your name is synonymous with your chosen lot in life, you're an icon. That certainly applied to Jim Johnson, who symbolized coverage of high school sports in Stark County for decades. His long-time employer, NextMedia talk WHBC/1480 Canton, reports Johnson's death. Johnson retired from WHBC in 2007 after a 29 year run covering thousands of high school and other sports events. His total career length? 43 years. Quoting WHBC's own news story on Johnson's … [Read more...]