No, not the iconic 1970's sitcom with Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton, which airs weeknights on Antenna TV (Tribune's WJW/8.2 locally)... FIRST FAMILY OF LOCAL TV: A shuffling at Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3 brings top management of the station officially into the same family. WKYC's long-time top advertising and promotions executive has been promoted, according to our friend and blogging colleague Frank Macek at his "WKYC Director's Cut" blog: “I am pleased to announce the … [Read more...]
The Shamrock Update
Posted on March 17, 2014 · Leave a Comment
Yes, it's St. Patrick's Day as we write this, and we have a rather long parade of items to share... MANUEL OUT AT 5: The long tenure of Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 "NewsChannel 5" news director Jill Manuel has ended rather abruptly. In what's not really a surprise to anyone who's even driven by 3001 Euclid, Manuel's departure was announced late last week. From one of those management memos that took the prevailing winds to the doorstep of the OMW World Headquarters: Jill has informed me she … [Read more...]
The Five Item Pileup
Posted on February 27, 2014 · 6 Comments
You walk away from a blog, and items start to pile up like cars on snow and ice covered roadways. Ah, but a sign of spring is here... STO OFF DISH: It's snowy and wind chills are in the negative numbers on this February day in Ohio, but it was 73 degrees in Goodyear AZ, where the Cleveland Indians played their second Spring Training warmup contest this afternoon against the Cincinnati Reds. Viewers all over the Indians TV territory could get a mental break from winter and watch that … [Read more...]
The Jasen/Jasons Have It
Posted on February 24, 2014 · 4 Comments
And as it would happen, two of our newsmakers this Monday have the same first name, albeit with slightly different spellings... JASEN RADIO: The local talk show tipped in an earlier item at Rubber City Radio talk WAKR/1590 Akron will be hosted by an existing station staffer. As we post this, "The Jasen Sokol Show" is making its debut on WAKR, with a time slot of 10 AM to 2 PM weekdays. The show bridges the news/talk/information gap on 1590 AM, airing between the morning drive news block … [Read more...]
Thawing Out
Posted on February 19, 2014 · 2 Comments
We're putting away the parka for a few days, and warming up with some news items... CANCER: The word "cancer" is a bombshell when connected to a local media personality. But sometimes it can be treated, and that's what happened to Tribune Fox affiliate WJW/8 "Fox 8 News" anchor/reporter and OMW reader Mark Zinni. A routine physical uncovered signs of what turned out to be thyroid cancer, and after talking to his doctor, Zinni opted to remove his thyroid to prevent any future problems. Yes, … [Read more...]
Del Donahoo Passes
Posted on February 5, 2014 · Leave a Comment
Viewers of Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3 in Cleveland knew him, for generations, for "Del's Folks" - his series of personal stories of many Northeast Ohioans. Del Donahoo passed away last night at the age of 90. Like many other even older media personalities, Del had a Facebook account...presumably updated by the same person who posted this on Wednesday: It's with great sadness that we report Del Donahoo passed away yesterday evening, February 4, 2014. He was a television icon here in … [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...]
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...]
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...]
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...]
