So named because most of our items today involve either Canton or Youngstown... THE STANSBURY CANTON SHOW: Veteran Northeast Ohio personality Dan Stansbury has found a new place for his radio show, and we're pretty sure the station will still be broadcasting in English next month. Stansbury has taken a ride down I-77, where "The Stansbury Show" will air weekday mornings on Clear Channel rock WRQK/106.9 Canton starting next week. He'll be joined by Matt Fantone, who was unceremoniously … [Read more...]
Ohio’s LPFM Application Invasion
OK, so it's not an invasion yet, as many of the nearly 2,800 LPFM applications that recently landed at the FCC won't breathe a bit of (electronic) air. Thanks to our new content partnership with NorthEast Radio Watch and RadioInsight, with heavy data lifting by Lance Venta, Scott Fybush, and long-time friend Garrett Wollman at The Archives @ BostonRadio.org, we have a list of 56 applicants for new LPFM stations in Ohio. We'll break out the applicants in the OMW Coverage Area (basically, … [Read more...]
Yet Another Retrans Battle, And A Bit Of Football
The latest retransmission consent battle (read: over money) has left Dish Network subscribers in the Cleveland TV market without CBS or MyNetwork TV programming...since early Thursday morning. The dispute between the nation's number two satellite TV provider and Raycom Media removed WOIO/19 and WUAB/43 from the Cleveland local channels lineup. So, since we've been down this road before, let's bring in both sides...first, the local TV stations: For months, we have been working to resolve this … [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...]
A Wide Variety Of Items
No clever theme, just a Wide Variety of Items this time around. As usual, some have already been seen on Twitter, and others are brand new...or at least, running first in this post... ALLIE'S DEPARTURE: We learned at the end of last week that Local TV LLC Fox affiliate WJW/8 "Fox 8 News" was losing another popular personality. This time, it was sports reporter/anchor Allie LaForce heading "to California", to a TV destination that was not revealed last Friday when she said her on-air goodbyes … [Read more...]
Late July Mixed Bag
In which we update some stuff, bring on new items and more... 87.7 BUILDING BLOCKS, BUT WHEN?: We're hearing some details surrounding the launch of Venture Technologies/Murray Hill Broadcasting's WLFM-LP 6/87.7, which will operate as a radio station under the name "87.7 Clevelanders Rock". First, an appearance by station operators Tom Wilson and Tom Embrescia on the soon-to-be-extinguished "Good Company Today" on NBC affiliate WKYC/3 shed at least some light on what shape the soon-to-launch … [Read more...]
We’re Back
Whew. That was a long hiatus, wasn't it? As explained in the previous items, various issues affecting your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) are not done yet. But we missed this blog, frankly. We will not "be back" on a daily basis, and life off-blog may still intervene from time to time. But, overall, we have returned. We'll start with some newer stuff, and recap some other things that happened in our absence...most of it in a "Twitter Recap" of items we've posted before on our social media … [Read more...]
Clear Channel Layoffs Post
Those watching the trade sites aren't surprised: An estimated 150 to "many hundreds" of Clear Channel employees nationwide are being told today that their services aren't necessary. This post, affecting Northeast Ohio's Clear Channel stations, will be a running list as we update it. All Access and other sites have been tracking those laid off in some other Ohio markets, like Dayton. The so-called "Reduction in Force" is affecting mainly Clear Channel's medium and smaller … [Read more...]
Passings In May
From two different parts of the outer OMW Coverage Area, two noted broadcasters have passed away recently. Since we don't know all that much about either man, we'll mostly let the information we've been provided carry the day... WALT: Known on-air in the Ashland/Mansfield/Mid-Ohio area as Walt Roberts, a veteran broadcaster in the region is no longer with us. Roberts, known away from the microphone as Walt Stampfli, was quite instrumental in management and station ownership. (His radio … [Read more...]
Four Short Items
Three from radio, and one from TV... 19 REACHES A DEAL: Those incessant "we're still negotiating with DirecTV" crawls on Raycom Media CBS affiliate WOIO/19 "CBS 19" and MyNetwork TV affiliate WUAB/43 "My 43" have changed. The message we saw last night announced that the station had come to an agreement to keep the two local affiliates on DirecTV, and thanked viewers for their support. In a Twitter update last night, we promised further details today...but we can't find them. Anywhere. The … [Read more...]