The folks at the Halle Building, and at other large-but-not-major market CBS Radio clusters, must feel like they're on a roller coaster at Cedar Point, and that coaster has taken another sharp dip. After repeatedly signaling that it wants out of sub-major markets, and wants to concentrate on the biggest markets, CBS Radio took the first big step* in that direction on Thursday. CBS will flip its significant clusters in Charlotte and Tampa to Florida-based Beasley, which in turn will bolster … [Read more...]
Major League Catchup
No, that's not something the Cleveland Indians are about to try, based on their dismal play as of late. It's something we're going to try now, after an unplanned Life Intervenes(tm) hiatus for about two weeks. (Note: We'll have a planned hiatus for personal reasons, right after the Labor Day holiday. Or, maybe we'll be more active...) Anyway, on with the show... OTHER SHOE DROPS: We already told you that now-former Ohio News Network Cleveland bureau reporter Cristin Severance had found a new … [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...]
The Other Stuff
As promised, a few hours late...let's go through the other stuff not connected (mostly) with the rebranding of CBS Radio AC (we think it still is) WDOK/102.1, now known to the world as "New 102". For now... THAT OTHER CONTRACT: The renewal of the contract of WDOK..er..."New 102"'s morning man Trapper Jack Elliot became a public item, when Elliot told the Plain Dealer's Chuck Yarborough late last week that the 2 year deal was sitting there, unsigned. When he came back to the 102.1 airwaves on … [Read more...]
Navel Gazing At One Radio Lane
Rarely has a station's own "navel gazing" about its immediate future garnered so much public attention. But that's what's been happening the past few days at One Radio Lane in Cleveland, home of CBS Radio AC WDOK/102.1 - and sister hot AC WQAL/104.1 "Q104". Since Monday, the once-reliable station has kept all of its air personalities home, and sent one, 20-plus year vet Nancy Alden, home for good. Listeners have certainly noticed the absence of Alden, and this week, of the station's morning … [Read more...]
The Elephant In The Radio Room
Long-time readers may have noticed that we've had almost nothing on one of the biggest changes about to hit Cleveland radio...changes at AAA/adult rock WNWV/107.3 "V107.3", the Elyria-licensed station that is being sold by Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting to Akron's Rubber City Radio Group, owners of oldies/news WAKR/1590, rock WONE/97.5 and country WQMX/94.9. The application to sell the station was approved by the FCC on November 28th, and closing - and a temporary move of the station to RCRG's … [Read more...]
What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?
With apologies to former "CBS Evening News" anchor Dan Rather... We've covered the upcoming launch of the new CBS Radio FM sports talker in Cleveland, which some believe could launch as soon as Monday, like the proverbial blanket. You might have noticed that most of our mentions of the new station say something like this - "92.3-or-wherever it lands". We do that for a reason. As of this writing, Sunday afternoon, we have no confirmation of which frequency CBS Radio will use as the home of … [Read more...]
That Pesky FM Sports Rumor
We've talked about it on Twitter. We've posted about it on message boards. We've vaguely hinted about it here. But with rumors once again floating around about CBS Radio converting one of its Cleveland FM stations to a sports station, is it about to happen? It may be, says Radio-Info.com columnist Tom Taylor, in this morning's Taylor on Radio-Info column. We haven't heard much, at all, from CBS Radio's operations locally. But Tom tracks down an interesting piece of information related to … [Read more...]
The Rover Post
It's been a fairly quiet week on the local media front, give or take items we've already covered, but all the off-blog activity has involved a high profile radio show. Our inbox has been peppered with questions like this one about Clear Channel rock/talk WMMS/100.7's "Rover's Morning Glory", which we'll copy verbatim from one of our readers: Rover was recently on vacation for 2 weeks, returned with a major arm injury, and subsequently, the show has been on "Best Of" for 4 to 5 weeks now. Give … [Read more...]