UPDATE 3/31/09 7:25 PM: We have properly attributed the last item in this scroll to long-time Cleveland radio voice Ted Lux. Thanks, Ted! We're proud to call you a Friend of OMW...-------------------It's pretty quiet on the radio/TV front in our home base area of Northeast Ohio, but there are plenty of items from Central Ohio. And...maybe one or two with a Cleveland-area link.As per usual, we'll mark the sub-items with a bold-print headline, so you can quickly scroll past the stuff you don't … [Read more...]
THIS JUST IN: News Sharing Virus Hits Columbus
Posted on March 11, 2009 · Leave a Comment
First Cleveland, now Columbus.The TVNewsday and TVB/Television Broadcast trade websites report that Columbus is now the second Ohio TV market where two different newsrooms will "pool" news footage of events such as press conferences or other planned events.The players in Central Ohio dipping into the News Sharing Pool? Media General NBC affiliate WCMH/4, and Sinclair ABC affiliate WSYX/6-Fox affiliate WTTE/28.Quoting TVNewsday's report:The stations' assignment desks have built a back channel to … [Read more...]
Around The Corner And Around The State
Posted on March 4, 2009 · Leave a Comment
It's yet another mixed bag for midweek...SOMEONE CALL THE MEDIA!: This time, he didn't use any profanity, so we got the note without it falling into the OMW "Spam" folder first.Media-Com talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron" morning sports voice/co-host Steve French felt the need to let us know:Your favorite whipping boy, WNIR, is still the runaway #1 in the latest monthly ratings (see Radio and Records).Also, WNIR today announces no layoffs.Some other breaking items into the OMW newsroom: Water … [Read more...]
Some Mixed News
Posted on March 3, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Let's see where the Tuesday morning item mix takes us...unfortunately, it's mostly not good news...CUTBACKS: The sour economy has resulted in some economic-related cutbacks on Campus Center Drive in Kent.That's the home of Western Reserve PBS, the local public TV outlet which operates WNEO/45 Alliance and WEAO/49 Akron, which is making some financial moves to try to ensure economic stability in an economy that's forced pretty much every media outlet to make some hard choices.Quoting a news … [Read more...]
Enough To Run
Posted on February 24, 2009 · Leave a Comment
We're a day late, and hopefully not a dollar short...but to be honest, aside from issues like the news video sharing plan among Cleveland TV newsrooms, not much has been going on.We do have some items this Tuesday morning, though...SPORTS SHUFFLE: Clear Channel sports WARF/1350 and Media-Com sports WJMP/1520 in the Akron market* have shuffled networks and formats quite a few times before, and OMW hears it's in the works again...at least network-wise.It won't be happening right away, but we're … [Read more...]
Random Week Exit
Posted on February 20, 2009 · Leave a Comment
We're closing out our weekend with a random grab bag...and for once, we have media related news on the positive side...MOVING UP: Long-time OMW reader Steve Kelly is moving up in the ranks at Saga's Columbus cluster.After a shuffle among Saga's four radio stations in Ohio's capital city, AllAccess reports that the afternoon driver at AC WSNY/94.7 "Sunny 95" adds programming duties at the newly-moved classic hits WODB/104.3 "Big Hits B104-3".The trade site also reports that the middayer at … [Read more...]
The End Of The Road
Posted on February 19, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Neither item below directly impacts this area - but some readers might be interested.THE DEATH OF "FM TALK": The young male-skewing "FM talk" format, primarily seeded by former CBS Radio morning star Howard Stern, can pretty much be pronounced dead.CBS Radio made a go of it with "Free FM", the company's post-Stern FM talk strategy.After Stern went to Sirius Satellite Radio, the CBS outlets featured a trio of regionally syndicated Stern replacements, including Cleveland's own Shane "Rover" … [Read more...]
The Week That Will Be
Posted on February 16, 2009 · Leave a Comment
So, we're back for our usual Monday morning go-around.Like last week, news about the now-mostly-moved digital TV transition will be hard to avoid this week - at least through the first part of this week, at any rate.For now, we'll start on the radio...with a digital TV update to follow later this morning...PAUL HARVEY...GOODBYE: Clear Channel talk WTVN/610 Columbus is the latest station to part ways with the news commentary nominally hosted by veteran broadcaster Paul Harvey.Echoing earlier … [Read more...]
Back To Digital TV
Posted on February 10, 2009 · Leave a Comment
We return to the world of the Up In The Air Digital TV Transition on a key day.The deadline was late last night for local TV stations to file notifications that they intend to shut down their analog signals on the original transition date of February 17, 2009 - which, looking at the calendar, is exactly one week from today.A bill passed by Congress and awaiting President Barack Obama's expected signature (today?) moves the date to June 12.Even if stations had already filed such notifications, … [Read more...]
Digital TV Date Frustration, Part Two
Posted on February 8, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Here's the promised second update in our "When Will Ohio Stations Dump Analog?" series, covering markets outside Cleveland/Akron. This one is also getting too big, so we'll cover the remaining markets in Southern Ohio and Southwest Ohio later.Just as we cautioned Saturday, remember that stations will have to re-file their intentions to hold to the original February 17th digital transition date. The FCC will accept those filings through the end of Monday (just before midnight Tuesday).From what … [Read more...]
