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...]
Triv’s Return
Posted on August 4, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 Cleveland afternoon drive host Mike Trivisonno had a difficult task today.Just five days after he lost his wife, Linda, to cancer, Triv took to the WTAM airwaves, and admitted that he "is not good at grieving" in a subdued...but very real...show.Occasionally noting that he's not sure he's going to "stay in radio", he took calls from listeners offering condolences, or perhaps more importantly at this point, offering small diversions to get the host's mind off of the … [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...]
Dan Coughlin Throws Own Retirement Party
Posted on August 3, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Our apologies to OMW reader Ted Lux, the Cleveland radio veteran, for hanging onto this for so long.It's a nice "inside" story on the send-off for now-former Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8 sports reporter and anchor Dan Coughlin, a name instantly familiar to legions of Cleveland sports fans from both his days on Channel 8, but also from his long run at the Cleveland Plain Dealer.Coughlin recently accepted a WJW buyout offer, and headed into retirement with his own lively party last month...which … [Read more...]
All Over The Media Map
Posted on August 3, 2009 · Leave a Comment
As usually happens when we don't update for a few days, items are piling up in the OMW Warehouse. That's odd, since we didn't know we actually owned a warehouse...CHOPPER DOWN: No, that's not a literal use of the phrase, thank goodness.But in the Cleveland TV news wars, OMW hears that yet another station has decided to abandon its aerial news firepower...leaving the sighting of a TV news helicopter as a rare event in Northeast Ohio.The latest grounding is of Local TV Fox affiliate WJW/8's … [Read more...]
Triv’s Horrible Loss
Posted on July 30, 2009 · Leave a Comment
UPDATE 3:57 PM 7/30/09: From the Triv Page at WTAM.com:It is with heavy hearts that Newsradio WTAM 1100 reports the death of Mike Trivisonno's beloved wife Linda.Linda died early Thursday morning at their home. Our thoughts and prayers are with Mike and his children, Michelle, Michael and Anthony, as well as their extended families. Triv thanks the staff at University Hospital's Ireland Cancer Center for the wonderful care Linda received.Donations can be sent to the Ireland Cancer Center at … [Read more...]
Midweek Potpourri
Posted on July 28, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Here we go, again...as our list of items continues to grow...C-BUS TO DETROIT: OMW hears that Clear Channel Columbus top 40 WNCI/97.9-AC WLZT/93.3 program director Michael McCoy is heading to Michigan, and not to watch the Buckeyes play the Wolverines.McCoy is heading for a new job at Clear Channel sister top 40 outlet WKQI/95.5 "Channel 95-5" in Detroit. We hear his last day will be this Friday.Back in Columbus, OMW hears about the temporary shuffle to fill-in for the exiting McCoy, which … [Read more...]
Hoping For Good News
Posted on July 27, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Yes, your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) is the bearer of bad news again.On our Twitter account, we shamelessly begged for some good news to throw into the below mix, but there doesn't seem to be much to share.And yes, we're as tired of the drumbeat of bad economic news as you are, but here we go again...we don't make the media news, we just report it...IDEASTREAM CUTS: OMW hears that Cleveland public broadcaster Ideastream is cutting 8 percent of its full-time staff - resulting in the elimination … [Read more...]
Honest. Fair. Everywhere. Except On Twitter.
Posted on July 22, 2009 · Leave a Comment
When doing some housecleaning on our Twitter account, we noticed that we were following the Twitter accounts of pretty much all local media outlets, both broadcast and print, except for one.We attempted to add the account of WOIO/19's "19 Action News" into our PC client - the excellent "Twhirl" - and the software responded that we couldn't view the station's profile. We were also unable to add "19actionnews" to the list of accounts we were already following.It took a trip to Twitter's web … [Read more...]
Shakeups And Awards
Posted on July 21, 2009 · Leave a Comment
IMPORTANT UPDATE: - 7/22/09 7:35 AM: OMW has received some new information calling the accuracy of the first part of this report into question. We have removed that portion of the report, which cited financial-related rumblings linked to the CBS Radio cluster and its employees in Cleveland.In addition, though it appears the rest of the item is accurate, it may have taken place a little less recently than believed...a few weeks ago, as opposed to in the past few days.At OMW, we're the first to … [Read more...]
