Top of the midweek to you...and here's what's on the agenda for today so far...INCOMING?: Some of our readers noticed this, and so did we.AllAccess notes that a former Ft. Myers FL morning show team is on a "seven city audition tour", and that Cleveland is one of the stops for the team known as "Damage and Gravy" (???).The pair used to be on the "Morning Mess" show on Beasley classic rock WRXK/96.1 "K-Rock" in the western Florida city, and the AllAccess item says they've also auditioned for a … [Read more...]
Assorted Tuesday Stuff
Posted on June 5, 2007 · Leave a Comment
Today's usual collection has four odd items with no relation to each other...WBNX-HD'ING IT: It's official - Winston Broadcasting Cleveland market CW affiliate WBNX/55 Akron is no longer making a secret of its new digital signal, which it started testing two months ago.After literally months of saying "we expect to be on cable in October", the local home of "Gilmore Veronica Girls WWE Smallville Smackdown on Mars" (we think that's actually a show) is now promoting its new digital signal on its … [Read more...]
Welcome To Cavaliers Media Watch
Posted on June 4, 2007 · Leave a Comment
So, there's this basketball game on Thursday...In case you've been under the proverbial rock since Saturday night, you know the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers have made it into the NBA Finals.They'll play San Antonio starting on Thursday night for a shot at giving Northeast Ohio its first major pro sports championship since roughly 1864.(OK, it's 1964, but to much of the area, it feels 100 years longer.)We suspect, at press time this Monday morning, that San Antonio will become roughly a second home … [Read more...]
Two Semi-Related Items
Posted on June 3, 2007 · Leave a Comment
These two brief items are related only by the fact that they have been brought to our attention by Tom Lavery, the Shenango Valley contributor to our western Pennsylvania colleagues at PBRTV. As a result of his location, he's exposed to the Youngstown/Warren TV and radio markets...WNEO/WEAO HD: Lavery passes on word from elsewhere on the Internet that Northeast Ohio PBS affiliate WNEO/45 Alliance-WEAO/49 Akron is about to return to transmitting PBS programming in HDTV format.Those who have … [Read more...]
A Busy Weekend
Posted on June 1, 2007 · Leave a Comment
It'll be a busy weekend not for us here at OMW World Headquarters, but for some local radio folks...CAVS SATURDAY: Your Cleveland Cavaliers are, at this writing late Friday, on the cusp of Something Big...an NBA Finals appearance that the local franchise has never made since entering the league in 1970 or so.And the local sports media atmosphere is starting to resemble the mid-1990s, when the Cleveland Indians made it into two World Series...in 1995 and 1997, if you're new to town and don't … [Read more...]
Legendary Local Sports Voice Retires
Posted on June 1, 2007 · Leave a Comment
When you've been doing something for a long, long time, and are good at it, that's when labels like "legendary" get applied to you and your work.Thus, we haul out the word this morning, as today is the last day for veteran Canton radio sports director Jim Johnson, who's retiring from NextMedia news/talk WHBC/1480.Johnson was born in Coshocton, and started his radio career back in 1964 in Miamisburg, Ohio. After stints in Indiana, and at Uhrichsville's WBTC/1540 and Akron's WCUE/1150, he spent … [Read more...]
New Landings
Posted on May 31, 2007 · Leave a Comment
Our title this Thursday is appropriate, at least, for the first two items:A NEW KLEON: WRQK/106.9 nighttime personality Joe Kleon exited the Canton rock station shortly after Clear Channel took over the station's operations from Cumulus.AllAccess reports that Kleon has landed at crosstown D.A. Peterson top 40 WZKL/92.5 "Q92" and sister soft AC WDPN/1310 Alliance as that station's new promotions manager.Yes, that's the same job once given to a Louisville KY radio guy now better known in his home … [Read more...]
An Early Midweek
Posted on May 30, 2007 · Leave a Comment
Thanks to the Memorial Day holiday and a relatively slow local media news pace, this is our first update of the week...THE CAT HAS LANDED: Those who remember the old top 40 format on Cleveland's "Power 108" - known today as Radio One urban WENZ/107.9 "Z107.9" - might remember Cat Thomas.Thomas was PD at then-WPHR, and was originally heard in nights. Though he was apparently nudged into morning drive at one point, most people who remember the station at all remember John "Records" … [Read more...]
Packaging Up The Week
Posted on May 25, 2007 · Leave a Comment
This update will hopefully clear out the ol' inbox for the weekend.We're not going on an official "hiatus" over the holiday weekend, and will update anything major (format changes, major personnel changes at local TV and radio outlets and the like). But since it will be a holiday weekend, we don't expect much...WJW MOVES COMING: We have no idea why, but we get at least a handful of E-Mails out of nowhere every single week asking us when FOX O&O WJW/8 "FOX 8" Cleveland will adopt the … [Read more...]
No Longer “Free”
Posted on May 24, 2007 · Leave a Comment
A format flip in New York City may have minor, or future, effects on Cleveland.CBS Radio talk WFNY/92.3 "Free FM" in the Big Apple has dumped the talk format. AllAccess reports that later today, the station will return to its old "K-Rock" slogan and rock format, focusing on 90's rock and "some currents and 80's titles".At least for now, morning drive team Opie & Anthony - normally shared with XM Satellite Radio - remain in the new "92.3 K-Rock" lineup...staying in mornings on the otherwise … [Read more...]
