We don't have all the information yet, but we think we can take a look at the "picture" of the upcoming digital TV transition in Northeast Ohio...just two weeks before the originally scheduled mandated date for full-power TV stations to take their old analog signals dark.And yes, that phrase "originally scheduled" is becoming quite important.After fits and starts in Washington, it looks like the U.S. House of Representatives is about ready to approve a shift of the national digital transition … [Read more...]
An Ohio Public Radio Merger
Posted on January 23, 2009 · Leave a Comment
As in commercial radio, the Incredibly Awful Economy is starting to affect public radio as well.That's what ultimately prompted a big move at Oxford's Miami University, where the university's NPR affiliate - WMUB/88.5 - will lose its original programming on March 1st.Cincinnati Public Radio will operate it starting that date, and will program it as a repeater for its own NPR station, WVXU/91.7.The Middletown Journal and the Dayton Business Journal have more, as does the university itself.You … [Read more...]
Digital TV Update
Posted on January 6, 2009 · Leave a Comment
As promoted, but a little late...a bit of a Digital TV Update. As of this writing, we're about 6 weeks away from the digital TV transition on February 17th, where, by 11:59:59 PM, all full-power stations will turn off their signals.Well, almost all.We've told you about the so-called "nightlight" analog TV bill, which was approved and signed into law. It allows a certain number of stations to keep their analog TV transmitters up for 30 days after February 17, carrying information about the … [Read more...]
I-70 Shuffling
Posted on October 20, 2008 · Leave a Comment
A whole bunch of radio stations are moving along the Interstate 70 corridor in Ohio, and some are changing as a result. We'll start from the east, and move west.We already knew that Zanesville's WHIZ-FM/102.5 (hot AC "Z102") was destined to move west, with a new license city of Baltimore (Ohio, not Maryland), with a signal designed to turn it into a Columbus market station.We, and others, speculated that community-minded WHIZ would eventually acquire another Zanesville-based FM station - likely … [Read more...]
Some TV Items
Posted on October 3, 2008 · Leave a Comment
News from the TV side of the OMW ledger...with another bigger item to be added later today...THREE OHIO TV STATIONS OFF CABLE: Yet another one of those "retransmission consent" disputes has pulled three Ohio TV stations off local cable TV systems in each of their markets.The inability of LIN TV and Time Warner Cable to reach a new deal by this morning's midnight deadline has forced LIN's three Ohio stations off TWC: Dayton NBC affiliate WDTN/2, Columbus CW affiliate WWHO/53, and Toledo FOX … [Read more...]
OMW’s First Digital TV Q&A
Posted on September 26, 2008 · Leave a Comment
We went back to read our item about the early analog switchoff of Youngstown market PBS affiliate WNEO/45 Alliance, and...well, we figured some of our readers may have some questions about the digital TV transition.Late on the night of February 17, 2009, just before the clock strikes midnight into the 18th, TV transmitter facilities around America will be very busy places...as every full-power TV station in the nation shuts off its analog transmitter for good. (For the record, as far as we … [Read more...]
Followups And Other Stuff
Posted on August 7, 2008 · Leave a Comment
UPDATE 9:01 AM 8/7/08: OMW has confirmed that WJW "FOX 8 News" Columbus bureau reporter John Damschroder is a victim of the station's recent round of layoffs, as the station is closing the bureau entirely at the end of the month.We hear out of South Marginal that the bureau's existing photographer will head back to home base in Cleveland.With the WJW bureau closing, will anyone come in and take over a ready-made TV news bureau in the State Capital?We don't know if there's any interest out of … [Read more...]
We’re Back
Posted on August 4, 2008 · Leave a Comment
And this time, it wasn't just our hectic behind-the-scenes life that kept us away.Every so often, the Blogger computers automatically scan the service's blogs to make sure that automatically-posted unsolicited marketing blogs (think "canned luncheon meat by Hormel") aren't clogging up the system.Late Friday, we were told that we were "flagged" by this process, which was clearly an error. (A human-posted news-oriented blog that's been around for over three years?) That "flag" - while keeping … [Read more...]
On The Fringes
Posted on July 10, 2008 · Leave a Comment
A trio of recent items that are on the fringes of our coverage area, have some links to Ohio or are otherwise used to fill this next update:ABC FOR THE OHIO VALLEY: The Wheeling/Steubenville market is about to get what it has never, ever had - a full-time, in-market ABC affiliate station.The folks at TVNewsday report that West Virginia Media CBS affiliate WTRF/7 Wheeling will launch a new ABC affiliate for the Ohio Valley on August 1, with a digital subchannel on WTRF-DT. That'd have to be, as … [Read more...]
Friday Warmup
Posted on January 18, 2008 · Leave a Comment
Think warm as you read this item to wrap up our week.After all, the weather forecast tells us that the wind chill over the weekend in Northeast Ohio will be roughly 200 degrees below zero, give or take a hundred...DID YOU HEAR IT?: Anytime Cleveland market morning drive radio icon John Lanigan even remotely talks about his career and future, the Bat Signal appears in the sky, and OMW gets contacted by numerous readers.That's what happened earlier this week, when a caller apparently called the … [Read more...]
