It's no surprise, as there was a plea bargain in the case, but long-time Cleveland sports radio/TV personality Bruce Drennan has been handed his sentence in his tax fraud case.WKYC/3's Obie Shelton reports it's - as expected - a five month federal prison term, and a five month term under house arrest. Drennan admitted to not reporting income on illegal baseball betting.Shelton says Drennan thanked supporters who wrote to Judge Donald Nugent, and said he only had himself to blame for the … [Read more...]

Our apologies for a delayed update...but Blogger is having indigestion this morning, and we haven't even had access to the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) for the past couple of hours!It's Monday, and that means it's time to pick out the useful pieces from Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Roger Brown's Monday Media Column...STO PROGRAMMING: Roger follows up on an item we mentioned over the weekend...the new in-house programming by the folks at SportsTime Ohio, which showed up on the station's new … [Read more...]

Late this Sunday night/early Monday morning, your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) is at the keyboard doing a Google "ego search". OK, so every once in a while...we want to know who's finding us and how, and we hadn't done it in a while. (Those who know us know we have an ego that can fit roughly in a thimble, with enough room to fit a needle and some thread.)Our early morning tip of the hat goes to Pho's Akron Pages, a comprehensive and well-written politically-oriented blog from a left-leaning … [Read more...]

Just some minor housekeeping issues...You'll notice that we've overhauled our "links" area to the left side of Ohio Media Watch. We hope we've been inclusive, but will continue to add any links we feel are vital.We'd also like to thank Charlie Profit (CABRadio.com), who has registered the domain OhioMediaWatch.com on his own and redirected it to your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm). We didn't ask him to do it, but he wanted to make sure it was out there for folks who might need it.The domain is not … [Read more...]

Today, it's Cleveland CBS affiliate WOIO/19's turn in the ongoing saga over the Cleveland Browns' desire to dump the station as its local TV rightsholder. But instead of station general manager Bill Applegate making the case, it's lawyer Jack Kluznik...a member of the firm representing WOIO in its legal dispute with the local NFL team.Kluznik tells Cleveland Plain Dealer sports/media columnist Roger Brown that the station and team have a "legal, binding contract"...saying the local Raycom Media … [Read more...]

Quite a bit more light has been shed on the dispute between the NFL's Cleveland Browns and Raycom Media's WOIO/19, the local CBS affiliate.The sunlight comes from a Tony Grossi article in this morning's Cleveland Plain Dealer, where he clears up some of the confusion about that controversial 911 call...which prompted Browns owner Randy Lerner to move to sever the team's ties with WOIO.In his first direct comments on the matter, Lerner confirmed that the 911 call incident was the sole reason he's … [Read more...]

This one's been on our back burner for a few days...SportsTime Ohio has taken the wraps off of its shiny new website, and in the process, has also given some insight on the network's upcoming programming moves.The current schedule lists non-game programming starting to populate the schedule next week. STO is planning daily coverage of the Cleveland Browns' training camp beginning on Wednesday, with an hour-long daily training camp wrapup show in late evenings...to be repeated the following day, … [Read more...]

Or as a former co-worker used to say, "a myriad of topics on the hypothetical table"...BROWNS TV FALLOUT: While WOIO/19 general manager Bill Applegate pleads with a grieving grandmother to save his station's Cleveland Browns TV rights bacon, we're wondering what happens to the team's TV broadcast team for the pre-season games...no matter which local station airs the games.We're pretty sure the Browns hire the on-air talent for the games, so that would seem to ensure that they'll ask 2005 … [Read more...]

It would appear that incoming WABQ/1540 Cleveland owner Craig Karmazin will flip the 1000 watt gospel daytimer to a full-time ESPN Radio affiliate, when the network leaves WKNR/850 in the fall.The Beacon Journal's David Lee Morgan gets the confirmation from a representative of Karmazin's Good Karma Broadcasting. Well, we think he did, at least of the ESPN affiliation. He didn't confirm the frequency, which is 1540, not 1520. (Is there a law that newspapers have to screw up radio … [Read more...]

In the ongoing saga of Raycom Media's WOIO/19 and its loss of the Browns pre-season contract, the next reported move of the local CBS affiliate is to try to talk to Randy Lerner's mother.Cleveland Plain Dealer sports/media columnist Roger Brown reports that WOIO/WUAB general manager Bill Applegate is seeking a meeting with Norma Lerner, mother of Browns owner Randy Lerner, and widow of late owner Al Lerner...in an effort to stop the loss of Browns rights.We aren't very good with business … [Read more...]