Nothing much more to say on this but to get it up here:Salem CCM WFHM/95.5 "The Fish" program director Sue Wilson is a little bit country.Or, she will be, when she takes a new job as program director at Rubber City Radio country WQMX/94.9 in the Akron market.AllAccess reports that her last day at The Fish is November 24th. She'll take the programming chair vacated by Kevin Mason, who left the Akron country powerhouse for a Nashville record company gig... … [Read more...]

Still picking up little pieces of news and follow-up...and we really should recharge this portable sweeper...MORE STARS: OMW reported a while back that Northeast Ohio's representative in the national Clear Channel/Jones/Center for American Progress-sponsored "Progressive Talk Star" contest, Mike Lampers, made the final round of eight contestants for a chance at a syndicated talk show.He's now in the final four, according to a station press release.Lampers will once again hit the national … [Read more...]

Just following up on some stuff from earlier:ELECTION POST-OP: We didn't realize, when we wrote our earlier item on local election coverage, that the Cleveland Cavaliers would get in the way.No, literally, as the local NBA team's game with the Atlanta Hawks forced a number of stations that would normally have had election coverage as early as 8 PM to start much later, after 10 PM in many cases.That affected not only Cavaliers "mothership" WTAM/1100, but Akron's WAKR/1590 and other Cavs radio … [Read more...]

Today is, of course, Election Day...with just about every news media outlet planning some sort of coverage.You probably already know that all four major local TV news operations in Cleveland, and all three in Youngstown, plan full coverage tonight.You would presumably know to find the results, for example, on stations like Clear Channel's news/talk outlets (WTAM/1100 Cleveland, WHLO/640 and sister WARF/1350 Akron, and WKBN/570 Youngstown), or on traditionally news-minded stations like Rubber … [Read more...]

As promised, back home again, electronically at least...SUSSMAN SIGHTING?: We haven't seen it ourselves, but a reader tips us that former WEWS/5 meteorologist Brad Sussman has been seen on the airwaves of WJW "FOX 8" recently. As in, last night, and this evening, as a fill-in weather forecaster.Sussman hasn't been with the Cleveland ABC affiliate for some time now, and has been spending his time in the local media doing occasional talk fill-in at Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100.He's also had an … [Read more...]

No, we never left Northeast Ohio, but we're getting a lot of ribbing about the Cincinnati and Southwest Ohio focus of our items in the past few days. Patience, please.As noted by us and by others, the Queen City has been a very, very active market. It's not often that four major radio stations in a large market completely change from top to bottom inside of two weeks. We've been following it from our local perch, with help from OMW readers and listeners in the market.We suspect that if we were … [Read more...]

Starting off the week with some followup, and some new questions:CINCINNATI CONTINUES: We have more on the state's most active radio market lately, with some words from OMW readers with ears near radios that can pick up stations in Cincinnati and environs.We're told that country WYGY/94.9 "The Star" aired frequent announcements over the weekend trying to move listeners over to new sister station WUBE/105.1 "B105".They tell listeners that "B105" is a "family-friendly" station, and also mention … [Read more...]

Some items, some we've been sitting on:MORE CLEAR CHANNEL STUFF: We're hearing some nationwide rumors that are filtering down into Ohio, about the future of Clear Channel.In specific, it appears the world's worst kept secret is that the radio giant is rumored to be spinning off its research subsidiary, Cincinnati-based Critical Mass Media. The company's association with Clear Channel actually dates back to the Jacor days - Jacor, of course, was eventually swallowed (gulp!) by Clear … [Read more...]

And no, it's not food themed...because we just had a snack:LIVING ON THE AIR IN CINCINNATI: No, we haven't become based in Southwest Ohio...it just seems like the Cincinnati market has become as topsy-turvy as one of those cup rides at the local carnival.As far as OMW knows from our perch up here in Northeast Ohio, Cumulus WYGY-er-WPRV-er-whatever/96.5 hasn't officially flipped to an FM talk format yet.But we hear that the station's already shut off the stereo pilot light in anticipation. And … [Read more...]

News once again happens geographically, as most of these items are from south of Northeast Ohio:FURMAN OUT: The radio game of Big News Musical Chairs hasn't yet stopped in Cincinnati, and there's more news still...with word from Cincinnati Enquirer TV/radio guru John Kiesewetter that WLW/700's Andy Furman has been fired.This didn't just come out of nowhere.Furman has been absent from the airwaves of the Clear Channel talk powerhouse since earlier this month, after getting into hot water over … [Read more...]