Here are some items we'd been working on, but put on the back burner after the passing of WKYC legend Del Donahoo... NORM GONE: A long-time radio personality known for oldies music is out at SiriusXM. The departure of Cleveland's Norm N. Nite wasn't specific to him, though, as numerous reports say the satellite radio service dumped all air personalities from two channels, "50s on 5" and "90s on 9". Norm did Saturday and Sunday shows live from the Alan Freed studio at Cleveland's Rock … [Read more...]
Short Month, Long News
Posted on February 1, 2014 · 1 Comment
The year's shortest month starts out with a pretty decent list of news items... many from the past few days... SHOES TO FILL: Long-time Clear Channel Cleveland programmer Bo Matthews left behind some big shoes to fill when he departed the PD chair at rock/talk WMMS/100.7, top 40 WAKS/96.5 "Kiss FM" and station-in-a-closet alt-rock WMMS-HD2-W256BT/99.1 "99X". With Matthews now the cluster programming VP for Clear Channel's Cincinnati cluster, Oak Tree has found his replacement. He's Chris … [Read more...]
Lanigan Wraps It Up
Posted on January 25, 2014 · 3 Comments
By now, the news that Cleveland radio icon John Lanigan has decided to retire has reverberated around all of Northeast Ohio and beyond. It's not exactly a surprise. After all, Lanigan has contemplated retirement numerous times over the past few years on his Clear Channel classic hits WMJI/105.7 "Majic 105.7" morning show. But it wasn't just talk on "Lanigan and Malone" on Friday morning...the long-time local radio personality had a plan, and a date. That date is March 29th, where … [Read more...]
Controversy On Tap
Posted on January 15, 2014 · Leave a Comment
Our first two items are definitely of a controversial nature... and the first one has spread like wildfire all over Northeast Ohio media... SALES BOMBSHELL: We don't normally spend a lot of time with off-air items in local TV and radio, but this one is too...interesting. When we first heard that a lawsuit had been filed claiming salacious working conditions in a local TV station's sales department, we joked, "oh, it's probably at Reserve Square"...the home of Raycom Media duo CBS affiliate … [Read more...]
Bo Knows Cincy
Posted on January 8, 2014 · Leave a Comment
Or at least a long-time Cleveland radio programmer will get to know Ohio's Queen City at any rate. Clear Channel Cleveland program director Bo Matthews, who has had rock/talk WMMS/100.7 and top 40 WAKS/96.5 "Kiss FM" on his plate, is heading for the company's cluster in Cincinnati. Along the Ohio River, Matthews will take programming oversight of the entire Clear Channel cluster in Cincinnati. Tom Taylor, in his excellent "Tom Taylor Now" daily E-mail report today, notes that Matthews … [Read more...]
La Mega 87.7 Debuts (Includes Sound)
Posted on January 1, 2014 · 5 Comments
Cleveland's first full-market Spanish-language station made its debut on schedule on this January 1st, as Murray Hill Broadcasting's WLFM-LP 87.7 went from English-language alt-rock "87.7 Cleveland's Sound" to Spanish-language "La Mega 87.7, Latino and Proud" exactly at 12 midnight. Below is a scoped aircheck of the first few minutes of "La Mega 87.7". [soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/127369998" params="color=ff6600&auto_play=false&show_artwork=true" width="100%" … [Read more...]
Clearing Out The Year
Posted on December 26, 2013 · 2 Comments
There's a lot of media news to wrap up 2013, and not all of it is good, unfortunately... HEGAN PASSES ON: Long-time Cleveland Indians broadcaster Mike Hegan passed away Christmas Day in South Carolina. MLB.com Indians beat writer Jordan Bastian has the story: Mike Hegan spent most of his life around the Cleveland Indians. He shagged fly balls in the outfield of Cleveland Municipal Stadium as a boy, played in the ballpark as a visiting big leaguer and went on to call some of the … [Read more...]
Broadcast Park Follies
Posted on December 19, 2013 · 3 Comments
Two items about MediaCom talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron", courtesy of our friends at the Akron Beacon Journal... MAGGIE'S WIN: Former WNIR morning drive co-host Maggie Fuller has scored a big victory with a state agency. Beacon Journal pop culture writer Rich Heldenfels reports that Fuller won an appeal of her unemployment case with the Ohio Unemployment Compensation Review Commission. The agency's Kevin Thornton said Fuller had "just cause" to quit the station September 17th, the … [Read more...]
Save Our Sound? Not Quite
Posted on December 18, 2013 · 11 Comments
The past few days, what started as a social media campaign to save the "Cleveland's Sound" alt-rock format at Murray Hill Broadcasting's WLFM-LP 87.7 made it to the station's website. Crain's Cleveland Business writer Michelle Park Lazette caught the "message from ownership" on the 87.7 website before it disappeared: “We've listened and appreciate the overwhelming passion that has been shown this past week,” it stated. “The bottom line is the advertiser passion and commitment for 87.7 … [Read more...]
OMW Is Powered By…
Posted on December 16, 2013 · Leave a Comment
We may have mentioned once or twice that in addition to Life Intervening(tm), there have been other obstacles to updating this report on a regular basis. Namely, what has been the Official OMW Computer, an aging Windows XP box that we're pretty sure is powered by steam and held together by bailing wire, string and gum. On occasion, its screen would turn blue and it would stop working. Not anymore. Thanks to a long-time OMW reader, we're outfitted with a decent laptop of much more recent … [Read more...]
