Premiere Radio comedy talker Phil Hendrie is retiring from his syndicated radio show on June 23rd, reportedly to concentrate on his acting career.AllAccess quotes Hendrie in a Premiere press release: "I have taken my show as far as I can in the present climate of terrestrial radio. I’ve been doing these characters for 16 years and believe it’s time for me to take them from behind the microphone and present them in front of the camera."(UPDATE: MediaWeek has now posted a story about Hendrie's … [Read more...]

OMW Warning: Massive Speculation Ahead.Word's filtering into our in-box this morning that former Clear Channel radio honcho Randy Michaels is about to land control of a New York City station - in specific, the Big Apple flagship of liberal talk network Air America Radio.If you believe the news, so far only from Radio Business Report, Michaels has struck a deal with Inner City Broadcasting to convert WLIB/1190 there to a mainly locally-programmed liberal talk station.That would, as the rumors go, … [Read more...]

We're hungry, for some reason...MORE SNOW: No, that's not the late April Ohio weather forecast, it's another item about the departure of FOX News Radio host Tony Snow for the White House spokesman's job. This time, we now know what the network will replace him with, starting Thursday.It'll be "Brian And The Judge", which is not a bad 70's sitcom. No, it's a show hosted by two FOX News Channel regulars, Brian Kilmeade ("FOX and Friends" co-host) and regular FNC commentator Judge Andrew … [Read more...]

Since our title is a baseball reference, maybe we can do better than the Indians have done in the past week or so - with a list of items mostly cleaning up from previous entries...THEY'RE BAAACK: It hasn't aired in Cleveland as of this writing, but CBS Radio has officially debuted the new over-air version of the "Opie and Anthony Show"...which will run in just under two hours locally on WXRK/92.3 "K-Rock".The only thing we were wondering about - how will the pair sanitize its over-air … [Read more...]

Just hours from now, the infamous radio talk show hosts who got taken off the air for a controversial listener visit to a church...will be back on radio airwaves owned by the very same company that yanked them.But unlike in six other markets, where the comparison is pretty easy to make - Opie and Anthony riding in like the cavalry from XM Satellite Radio to save CBS Radio from sub-1.0 ratings out of former Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth - it's different here.In Northeast Ohio, Roth's former … [Read more...]

Clear Channel has officially announced the HD2 formats that will air on its latest HD Radio stations, and that includes its five Cleveland market outlets.Here's the list locally:WAKS-FM - CHR/Pop - All New HitsWGAR-FM - Country - Classic CountryWMJI-FM - Oldies - 50's and 60's OldiesWMMS-FM - Rock - Classic AlternativeWMVX-FM - Hot AC - Adult Alternative (AAA)Not a lot of surprise there, really. "Kiss FM" puts up a "new hits" station. WGAR and WMJI go … [Read more...]

Rarely do so few words say so much.This afternoon on WTAM/1100:"I'm Mike Trivisonno for '19 Action News'."It's the best match since peanut butter and chocolate became Reese's Peanut Butter Cups... … [Read more...]

The below items are just idle speculation on the part of your OMW Primary Editorial Voice, and have no fact or even rumor supporting them. They are NOT to be reprinted either as fact or even rumor. They're just our thoughts.But...could it happen?HD SIMULCAST?: OMW notes today that among the parade of new HD2 feeds for various radio stations, Cox Broadcasting will simulcast dominant talker WSB/750 Atlanta on the HD2 subchannel of one its Atlanta FM stations. (In case you care, it's classic … [Read more...]

Other media sources have finally gotten a Round Tuit (an item available on eBay, we believe), and are following up on what you've already read here:TUIT 1: The Cleveland Plain Dealer's Michael Heaton finally clears up the confusion for that newspaper's readers, and notes that CBS Radio's returning bad boy hot talkers Opie and Anthony will indeed be airing on WXRK/92.3 "K-Rock", and not on now-former David Lee Roth/Howard Stern home WNCX/98.5.Of course, you know an article about radio in a … [Read more...]

Some random, maybe unrelated items:RANDOM ITEM 1: We've certainly been following the saga of DirecTV and SportsTime Ohio, the Indians' new cable/satellite channel. OMW reported last week that the satellite service has given the thumbs down to adding STO for those outside greater Cleveland...saying the response was "surprisingly little" from those blacked out by the company's "only in Zone 1/2" policy.A regular reader of OMW, "Moohead Radio"'s Marc Steenbarger, is not buying that. The Internet … [Read more...]