OMW hears that Clear Channel Cincinnati sports "Homer, The Sports Animal" did indeed make its move to 1530 AM today.We've also heard that the station is indeed, as OMW suspected, simulcasting on both its new home of WCKY/1530, and its old home of WSAI/1360, today. The simulcast started at just after 6 this morning, when "Homer" introduced itself and its airstaff to 1530 AM's listeners...and noted that "soon, you'll be able to hear 'The Revolution of Talk Radio,' Jerry Springer and Ed Schultz on … [Read more...]

Apparently having mined most of what there is to mine from the city's rock radio history, with many former WMMS and "M105" personalities contributing to help fill the open morning slot at WNCX/98.5, the CBS Radio Cleveland classic rocker is turning to top 40 radio history tomorrow...and a part of its own history, before classic rock hit the 98.5 airwaves.Swiped off of a message on a local radio message board, purporting to be from the station:For fans of the old WGCL, tomorrow (7/7/06) will be … [Read more...]

OMW gets regular E-Mails from people at local media operations, but at least one or twice, we can't reply to some of those messages.If you're looking for an off-blog reply, please use a personal E-Mail account. If you don't have one, it's very easy to get one...we use Google's Gmail, which is very robust, very flexible and most importantly, absolutely free.We won't reply to your mail if you send it from a station-based or newsroom-based E-Mail address... we'll assume you don't want everyone at … [Read more...]

Both stations involved in Clear Channel Cincinnati's AM swap have started promoting the change, both on the air and online.First, "Homer, The Sports Animal" checks in, with this website banner telling listeners to tune in Friday to hear the new "1530 Homer".OMW also heard a fill-in for afternoon drive host Lance McAllister this afternoon promoting the switch, and noting that Lance's personal blog is moving to lance1530homer.com - an address which is already working as of today.Listeners have … [Read more...]

And even a fact or two thrown in:CANTON ACTION: Our small item a couple of days ago - talking about rumors of changes at NextMedia's Canton duo of WHBC/1480 and WHBC-FM/94.1 - has prompted a large chunk of the Canton radio community to weigh in...both here on the blog and privately.We're reminded of rumors we've heard from outside Northeast Ohio...that NextMedia is in a selling mode, from cluster to cluster.How does this all fit with what we've heard about the WHBC combo?We noted that we'd … [Read more...]

Regular OMW readers have been following our series on upcoming possible changes to Cleveland FOX O&O WJW "FOX 8"... mostly changes in style and form, along with an upcoming change to their website.Courtesy of Washington DC sister station WTTG "FOX 5", here's more of a preview.WTTG has already launched its new FOX-corporate-template site, MyFOXDC.com. One thing it offers that WJW's current site does not - a flash player for news video. When WJW launches MyFOXCleveland.com, it'll become the … [Read more...]

It's mostly very quiet due to the July 4th holiday, but here are some random things we're hearing or reading...NEW 5 ND: Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS/5 has finally named a new news director.He's Steve Hyvonen, who comes from heading up the newsroom at WVTM/13, the NBC affiliate in Birmingham AL. In addition to other stations on his resume, Hyvonen also counts the cable TV news network MSNBC as a former employer. We've seen him listed as a former executive producer and senior producer for the … [Read more...]

Following up on our earlier post about DirecTV offering local RSNs (regional sports networks) in HD...we have a time and a number for you if you're looking for the Cleveland Indians in HD on DirecTV.The time? Tuesday night at 7:00 PM, when the Tribe takes on the New York Yankees on SportsTime Ohio.The number? 96. As in channel 96 on DirecTV, if you already have the HDTV LIL (local-into-local) service for Cleveland.We found the Indians/Yankees game for Tuesday night in the DirecTV local program … [Read more...]

Just a couple of unrelated items...LAURA'S RESURGENCE: After being dumped by a boatload of Clear Channel talk stations over the past 4-plus years, it looks like advice talker Dr. Laura Schlessinger is enjoying a bit of a resurgence.The controversial host - her program now owned by her own "Take on the Day Productions" - has been showing up on some bigger market signals owned by Salem.The most recent... a move in Dallas, where she now shows up on Salem Christian teaching/talk KWRD/100.7 Highland … [Read more...]

For you sports radio diehards in Kent, Ravenna and parts of the Akron area who've missed it -Media-Com sports WJMP/1520 Kent "Fox Sports Radio 1520" is back on the air this afternoon. The station went off the air a couple of days ago, reportedly due to a lightning strike to its transmitter... … [Read more...]