In what some trade publications are calling "Black Wednesday", CBS Radio had one of those periods of corporate indigestion...and fired some 115 people company-wide today.CBS Radio chief Joel Hollander said he could have saved money if he hadn't have wasted millions on David Lee R...er...wait, no, he actually said "reducing headcount is never easy" in a corporate memo obtained by the trade press and reported in AllAccess, Radio & Records Online and on the Reuters news wire.Hollander said the … [Read more...]

Former WAKS/96.5 "Kiss FM" program director Dan Mason has taken his first draw from his ex-station's staff.AllAccess reports that Mason has tabbed night slammer J-NIICE and imaging director Brian Mack from the Clear Channel Cleveland top 40 outlet to join him at the company's sister station in Miami - WHYI "Y100" - where Mason recently took over the programming chair.You may have noticed we said "first". It means nothing, other than us wondering if other "Kiss Cleveland" types will join Mason … [Read more...]

We've spent a lot of time the past day or so on the WKNR/ESPN rumblings...here's some of what else we missed:NARDING IT: OMW hears that it's official - "Nard" is taking the programming duties at CBS Radio Cleveland alt-rock/talk outlet WXRK/92.3 "K-Rock". With Rover in the morning, and Opie & Anthony in afternoon drive, we thought it was time to officially add the "talk" to WXRK's format description.We're reminded that Nard has been aboard at 92.3 for some five years, going back even into … [Read more...]

OMW reported earlier today that Salem sports WKNR/850 Cleveland was on the outs with the ESPN Radio Network. We have a little more clarification.As we mentioned earlier, OMW sources tell us that the folks at ESPN dropped a bombshell on WKNR on Monday...a 90-day notice to get out of the network's contract with the long-time affiliate. We hear that ESPN Radio will eventually be heard on another Cleveland market outlet, and from what we are told, that outlet will be a 24/7 affiliate of the … [Read more...]

OMW hears that Salem Cleveland sports talk WKNR/850 is losing ESPN Radio.We hear the station was given a notice by ESPN Monday. The network may air in the Cleveland market on a full-time (24/7) signal at some point in the next few months. At this point, we can guess, but don't know for sure what that station may be...or what will be the eventual disposition of ESPN programming on WKNR.We hear WKNR may have pulled some network programming, but it's still running promos for ESPN and for the … [Read more...]

First, a housekeeping note. Our updates will be less frequent and involved for about the next week or so, but we'll still be here.And no, we're not going out of town, so the usual warning about major changes may not apply. Or does it?OF HDTV: As first reported (anywhere) by OMW, DirecTV confirms in a press release what it's been doing for the past nearly two weeks...HDTV broadcasts of local regional sports networks, including Cleveland Indians games on team-owned SportsTime Ohio.The presence … [Read more...]

No, we haven't moved to the Queen City...but since we've been watching things in the Cincinnati market lately, here's the latest update on that big move among two of Clear Channel's AM stations in the market, and other notes south of our usual region:BIG SPORTS: The sports section of the Cincinnati Enquirer weighs in on the move of sports talker "Homer, The Sports Animal" to its larger cage at 1530 AM. There isn't a lot new in this article by Enquirer sports writer Jacob Dirr, though they have … [Read more...]

OMW reported in April that Cleveland market WB network affiliate WBNX/55 Akron had received its long-awaited construction permit for its digital station on channel 30, WBNX-DT.Since then, it's been a bit confusing. After we were told that a station representative said construction wouldn't be complete until "Spring 2007", others said they'd heard that the station would be up by the fall premiere of WBNX's new network, The CW.Despite numerous attempts to get an answer out of WBNX, we haven't … [Read more...]

We neglected to put this one up earlier in the week since we got so busy, so...A belated Happy Birthday to WARF/1350 Akron "Radio Free Ohio" midday host Joe Finan, who turned 80 on Thursday.That's right, 80. We missed his show on Thursday, but we'll assume there were lots of jokes about calling the fire department for all the candles on his birthday cake. Hope you had that fire extinguisher at the ready, WARF program director and Finan sidekick Jerry Mullins... … [Read more...]

Tying up our usual loose ends...WHBC NEWSMAN OUT: OMW hears, and AllAccess confirms this afternoon, that WHBC/1480 Canton veteran news anchor/reporter Alan Zarek is out after a 6 year run at the station. OMW also hears that the change leaves WHBC without news coverage on weekend afternoons.This is particularly interesting timing, since we spent some time here recently talking about rumors of a sale of NextMedia's Canton cluster.The company has been selling one cluster after another...one … [Read more...]