With some updates, and a brand new item... THE 20 YEAR AFFILIATION ITCH: Since about 1994, Rubber City Radio Group oldies/news WAKR/1590 Akron has carried some form of ABC News Radio...most recently, the "Entertainment" news network feed, not to mention some historic carriage of ABC and its predecessor, the NBC Blue Network, dating back to the station's early days. That's changing, and soon. Starting at the stroke of midnight Saturday night into Sunday morning, WAKR picks up CBS Radio … [Read more...]
BREAKING NEWS: 87.7 To Spanish Language In January
Posted on December 11, 2013 · 13 Comments
It looks like the question of "how long can alt-rock music stay on 87.7 'Cleveland's Sound'?" can be answered "'through 2013'." Cleveland Scene's Vince Grzegorek reports that Murray Hill Broadcasting alt-rock/AAA WLFM-LP 87.7 will be flipping to a Spanish-language format on January 1st. Employees heard about the change in a staff meeting on Tuesday. But the station is not being sold. A tweet from the "Cleveland's Sound" Twitter account clarifies that 87.7, or rather, LPTV channel 6, … [Read more...]
Stocking Full Of News
Posted on December 11, 2013 · 2 Comments
No, no Holiday Hiatus yet, as too much is going on... COLBY DC: OMW hears that Radio One Cleveland operations manager Colby Colb is headed for our Nation's Capital. Colb will take the VP/Programming post at Radio One in Washington DC, a huge promotion for the programming vet...who also helms the afternoon drive shift on hip hop WENZ/107.9 "Z107.9". (At this point, it's not clear if Colb is headed for DC for Radio One's local cluster programming gig or for the company nationwide. Radio One … [Read more...]
Rizzo On The Hot Seat
Posted on December 10, 2013 · 4 Comments
Unless you've been under a rock (not a rock format) the past day, you likely already know that local sports radio/TV personality Tony Rizzo is in trouble with the law. The plight of the Good Karma sports WKNR/850 "ESPN 850" midday host was first reported by his home TV station, Local TV-to-be-Tribune Fox affiliate WJW/8's "Fox 8 News": Longtime Cleveland sports personality and talk show host Tony Rizzo was arrested Friday night on a charge of domestic violence. According to a Medina … [Read more...]
Unloading Before The Holidays
Posted on December 4, 2013 · 5 Comments
This doesn't necessarily mean that we're going on The H Word through the end of 2013. But, a lot of items have piled up, so here we go! MORE 5 CHANGES: In TV news, the phrase "nothing is more constant than change" is certainly true. But at 3001 Euclid, the folks at Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5's "NewsChannel 5" could adopt the phrase as a motto. The station's low-rated "Good Morning Cleveland" has undergone a host of changes since this blog debuted in 2005. Now, the "NewsChannel … [Read more...]
A Busy First Post
Posted on November 22, 2013 · 9 Comments
Now that we've resolved all our technical issues with the new blog, let's stock it with some content. And yes, we have a long, long list of items coming up here. A note: E-mail subscribers, who signed up for notification, should not have to resubmit at the new site. We are requesting that the E-mail subscriber lists be moved over. Until then, we'll post a link to the new content on our old WordPress.com site, so E-mail subscribers can still be notified... HO HO HO HOLIDAY: We knew that … [Read more...]
Press Release Theatre (Vol. 11), The November Edition
Posted on November 15, 2013 · Leave a Comment
Some stuff from our inbox, to tide you over until the next update. And as is tradition with Press Release Theatre, long-time (say it with us!) personal and professional Friend of OMW Ann VerWiebe from Kent State University public outlet WKSU/89.7-and-its-many-simulcasters opens things up for us. (She honestly pays no extra for the placement...) ----- VIVIAN GOODMAN REPORTS ON THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA FROM COLOGNE, LINZ AND VIENNA From Nov. 18 through 22, WKSU Reporter/Producer … [Read more...]
It’s On The Way
Posted on November 13, 2013 · 4 Comments
Ohio Media Watch, The Next Generation is coming soon. We hope the transition won't be too jarring for you. The core of this effort will remain as it is now, and the new site hopefully won't cause many complaints. Again, it isn't a retreat to social media like we tried in the recent past...if anything, it'll be an expansion. In the meantime, there's more media news to cover and talk about... ROVER'S AFTERNOON COURT DATE:The case against Clear Channel rock/talk WMMS/100.7 and syndicated … [Read more...]
A Compact Stack
Posted on November 8, 2013 · 7 Comments
Sometimes, media news items happen in clusters of three or four, and that makes this blog much easier to write... NEW CLEVELAND SOUND: The on-air deck is being shuffled at Murray Hill Broadcasting alt-rock/AAA WLFM-LP/87.7 "Cleveland's Sound", and the sound you won't hear anymore is from the station's original morning host. Yes, we were scratching our collective heads when the new station, dropped onto the FM dial as a result of the audio of analog TV channel 6, announced a novice as host in … [Read more...]
Changes Are Coming, But First…
Posted on November 4, 2013 · Leave a Comment
One reason we've been almost "hiatus scarce" in recent days has been technical. But that's about to change, and other changes will come to the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) as a result. No, don't worry...we aren't planning on forwarding the website to our social media presence again. But as an early hint: you might want to start accessing the blog via our dedicated domain name... NEW BEAT: Long-time local radio sports reporter Matt Loede was part of the launch staff at CBS Radio sports WKRK/92.3 "The … [Read more...]
