As we wrap up our out of town excursion, we'll wrap up some loose ends from a newsy week, particularly for our friends in Central Ohio...SPORTSY: As it turns out, there's a good reason two Columbus radio stations flipped to a sports format within hours of each other this week.The Columbus Dispatch's Tim Feran quotes RadiOhio president/GM Dave Van Stone, who says research helped lead the move of the "Fan" sports format from its long-time home on WBNS/1460 to displace hot AC "Mix 97.1" at … [Read more...]
Keeping In Touch
Posted on January 28, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) will be heading back to Northeast Ohio by late Saturday, it appears.And those working in media will breathe a sigh of relief...no, not because they're glad to have us back in town.If you've followed the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) since we started in mid-2005, there's one particular truism. When we leave Ohio for any lengthy period of time, major changes happen in the media world. At one point, then-Cleveland Browns general manager Phil Savage actually lost his job … [Read more...]
Sports And Digital
Posted on January 27, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) is "on the road" for much of this week, and our updates will be a little more sporadic than usual.But, we did manage to put some "breaking news" up here before it happened on Monday, didn't we? And as usual, our physical exit from Ohio prompted a major change...sorry, Columbus, we should have warned you!THE SPORTS HIT THE FM FAN: And as reported here Monday, Dispatch hot AC WBNS-FM/97.1 Columbus "Mix 97.1" faded into oblivion as scheduled at 4 PM on … [Read more...]
Digital TV Date Etched In Water
Posted on January 26, 2009 · Leave a Comment
It's been kicking around Washington for the past few weeks, but it looks like Congress may indeed try to stand in front of the speeding Digital TV Express Train, wave its arms wildly and shout into the train's loud whistle - "slow down!"A number of reports late last week indicate that a key Republican U.S. Senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas (ranking member of the Senate's Commerce Committee), has ended her opposition to a move of the digital TV transition date from February 17th to June … [Read more...]
WNEO Goes Full Power
Posted on January 22, 2009 · Leave a Comment
OMW hears that Western Reserve PBS' Youngstown market outlet, WNEO/45 Alliance, has successfully raised its power to the post-transition 500KW level.As readers here already know, WNEO signed off its analog transmitter in Salem in mid-November 2008, going digital only with a 44KW authorization on its former analog channel, 45.But as station manager William O'Neill notes in a station press release, Western Reserve PBS quickly found out that 44KW was just not enough, and filed for a special … [Read more...]
An Odd Wednesday
Posted on January 22, 2009 · Leave a Comment
And considering the events of this week, "odd" may be an understatement.Yeah, we're tiring rather rapidly of listing those tossed aside from the Good Ship Radio this week. For the moment, we'll lead with something not related to job loss...THE ANALOG SHUFFLE: When local television stations figure out how they'll deal with cable systems and signal carriage, they have basically two choices.Broadcasters can either demand "retransmission consent", which means they get some consideration (monetary, … [Read more...]
Closing Friday
Posted on January 16, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Many of the items below have to do with the upcoming transition to digital TV, which is currently scheduled for February 17th, 2009.But first, we've got an elephant in the middle of the room that we can't ignore...CLEAR CHANNEL RUMORS: We've touched on it before, briefly...the rumors that massive job cuts are in the works at Clear Channel clusters around the country, after an important managers' meeting in Dallas a while back.Since then, the radio rumor mill has pumped out January 20th - next … [Read more...]
Assorted Thursday
Posted on January 15, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Welcome to our Thursday random scattering of items...we'll try to make sure none of the scatter hits our readers directly!We don't want to injure anyone...GANNETT FURLOUGH: Media giant Gannett is forcing workers to take an unpaid week off, a move the company says is meant to reduce layoffs in this troubled economic world for the media.We first saw the item in a wire story posted on Frank Macek's "Director's Cut" blog for his employer, Gannett's NBC affiliate in Cleveland, WKYC/3.But the … [Read more...]
Another Ohio Digital TV Test
Posted on January 14, 2009 · Leave a Comment
As the buzz about a move of the February 17 digital transition date grows in Washington, local TV stations are planning another "soft test" of the end of analog TV.The Ohio Association of Broadcasters has planned the next test for tomorrow. Quoting the OAB press release:More than 40 Ohio television stations representing eight media markets in the state will take part in a digital television (DTV) test on Thursday, January 15. Most stations will start the five-minute tests at 7:30 p.m., although … [Read more...]
February 17…Or Not?
Posted on January 8, 2009 · Leave a Comment
UPDATE 1/8/09 4:03 PM: As hinted below, President-elect Barack Obama is indeed urging a delay in the DTV transition date.Quoting an Associated Press article we found on the TVNewsday trade news website:In a letter to key lawmakers, transition team co-chair John Podesta warned Thursday that too many Americans who rely on analog TV sets to pick up over-the-air broadcasts won't be ready.The letter to Congress reportedly focuses on two reasons for delay: the reported problems with the government's … [Read more...]
