Iconic country music radio personality "Jaybird" Drennan passed away Sunday afternoon at the age of 78. AkronNewsNow, the news website operated by Rubber City Radio (owner of country WQMX/94.9) has more here.Jaybird collapsed in front of a local store last week, and was in a coma until his passing.For decades, Jaybird Drennan was synonymous with country music radio in Akron, if not most of Northeast Ohio.His signature "Howdy, Partner" graced the airwaves for 27 years on Akron country outlet … [Read more...]

Just some random followup, or other new items:CP APPROVED: It's a formality, of course, but the construction permit for WJER-FM/101.7's move to North Canton has been approved. According to the FCC online database, the agency gave its official stamp of approval on the application on Friday.We assumed that the timing would be such, since Clear Channel will be actually lighting up the station sometime after the current operator abandons programming 101.7 on December 26th. The construction … [Read more...]

Back in the day, when dinosaurs roamed the e....no, wait...when new Cleveland sports talk radio station WKNR/1220 started making its mark in Northeast Ohio, your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) checked in more than once as a listener with Peter Brown, the station's controversial afternoon drive host.Fast forward to 2006, and Peter Brown checks in with OMW.In a missive directly to Your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), Mr. Brown tells us that he's "flattered" that his name is being mentioned as part of the mix … [Read more...]

Well, we don't know for sure if Glenn Beck "loves" Akron, but the Premiere syndicated mid-morning talk host has made Akron a stop on one of his tours again. At very least, he knows how to get to the former Rubber Capital of the World.Beck's annual Christmas tour descends upon Akron's E.J. Thomas Hall tomorrow night...it would appear tickets are still available (here).But Beck is also going have another public appearance in the area.As he usually does when he goes on tour, Glenn is going to tape … [Read more...]

Just some stuff, and some previews:HARVE'S BACK: This item could also be titled "Northeast Ohio: Now and Again".NextMedia has announced that Harve Alan takes over as company VP of programming, replacing Steve Davis. Alan comes aboard from research firm Mercury Radio Research.We read this item yesterday in the various radio trade publications, and we were having trouble remembering why Harve Alan's name sounded familiar.As it turns out, we're reminded that among various larger market … [Read more...]

Fire up those word processors at the Times-Reporter again, as OMW is about to weigh in again on the last days of Dover-based WJER-FM/101.7, soon to move to a Canton transmitter location and off the airwaves of Tuscarawas County...As we hinted below, WJER operator Gary Petricola has officially announced on his own station the disposition of FM 101.7, and his impending re-purchase of AM 1450 - which has moved from hint to rumor to fact here on OMW for months.From the station's news section on … [Read more...]

Not like we didn't see this coming.Clear Channel talk WSAI/1360 in Cincinnati is dropping the liberal talk format that has been "home base" for ex-Queen City mayor and TV anchor (and trash TV host) Jerry Springer, according to Cincinnati Enquirer TV/radio guru John Kiesewetter.Starting Monday, the station will be known, both on-air and online, as "1360TheSource.com". It'll keep talking, but with advice and consumer shows instead of liberal politics, with Jones Radio's Clark Howard playing a key … [Read more...]

...and for no particular reason than it's time for an update:WJER ANNOUNCEMENT?: We haven't verified it, so we won't run all of it, but an anonymous comment to one of our earlier items says WJER/Dover-New Philadelphia operator Gary Petricola has announced - on air, officially, on his own station - the impending departure of the FM 101.7 signal later this month, and his impending (re-)purchase of WJER(AM) 1450 with other investors, which will remain in Dover.None of the above is any surprise to … [Read more...]

And something that isn't connected to the sale of a certain sports radio outlet:OMW had been hearing rumblings of cuts last Friday at the now-former CBS Radio outlets in Columbus, which were taken over by Wilks Broadcasting that day.Unfortunately, those rumblings turned out to be true at the stations, country WHOK/95.5 "K95", rock WLVQ/96.3 "QFM96" and alt-rock WAZU/107.1 "The Big Wazoo".AllAccess reports that cluster operations manager Dave Cooper is out, along with WHOK news director Kim … [Read more...]

Yes, this one's so big that we need a second followup.HELLO, GALLERIA: Yes, in answer to numerous off-blog questions, we're aware that Good Karma Broadcasting intends to consolidate the operations of WKNR/850 and WWGK/1540 into new studios at the Galleria at Erieview.That's the upscale shopping center/office complex on East 9th Street, or a short shuttle from Cleveland Browns Stadium and not that much farther from Jacobs Field and Quicken Loans Arena.It's sure a lot closer to all of Cleveland's … [Read more...]