Satellite provider DirecTV has lit up HDTV versions of local channels in the Columbus market, along with adding the service in seven other cities...including nearby Pittsburgh.DirecTV subscribers wishing to add the channels will have to add new HD equipment, as the local channels use a new standard (MPEG4) that is not supported by the existing HD equipment. Existing HD equipment does allow subscribers to bring in the HD locals via an over-air antenna.Wither Cleveland? OMW keeps hearing from a … [Read more...]

UPDATE: 5:30 PM 4/20/06 - An Associated Press article on this quotes two unnamed sources "with knowledge of the deal", and says there will be an "official announcement" next week, assuming all the I's get dotted and T's get crossed. It says that CBS Radio's WNCX/98.5 - David Lee Roth's local outlet - will be among the stations airing Opie & Anthony.Well, we take that back - the Akron Beacon Journal's local edit of the AP story says it'll be "WCNX" carrying the show. Arrgh. Don't get us … [Read more...]

Local digital TV watchers are abuzz with the first sign of Youngstown CBS affiliate WKBN/27's digital signal.We're assuming that they are testing the signal right now, so it's likely go to in and out until they are finished. But even here at the OMW World Headquarters in northwest Akron, we're able to pull in WKBN-DT, with both subchannels active - 27-1 (HD/digital version of WKBN), and 27-2 (SD/digital version of WKBN's FOX 17/62, otherwise known as WYFX). This would seem to indicate to us … [Read more...]

If you're one of those diehard Cleveland Indians fans out in Erie, Toledo or other areas a ways from Jacobs Field, and you're hoping for DirecTV to turn on SportsTime Ohio so you can watch the games...don't hold your breath.STO's Jim Liberatore tells OMW today that he's heard back from the largest satellite provider, and they're NOT going to turn on the "outer zones" away from Cleveland, but still in the Indians TV footprint. Liberatore says DirecTV tells STO they've had "surprisingly little … [Read more...]

AllAccess reports that Cumulus talk WTOD/1560 "SuperTalk 1560" has signed up for the rights to University of Michigan Wolverines football games in a three-year deal.We don't know the history of Wolverines football on Toledo's radio airwaves - maybe WTOD program director (and OMW reader) Chuck Matthews can give us background. But the team's 2005 radio affiliate list doesn't have a Toledo affiliate. Or, for that matter, even one elsewhere on the nearby Michigan side of the Michigan/Ohio line. … [Read more...]

We're not going to say we called it, but sure enough, one of our predictions has happened again.Broadcasting & Cable magazine reports that Clear Channel CBS affiliate WKRC/12 will pick up the new CW Network and place it on one of its digital subchannels. It's a part of a group deal between CW and three Clear Channel television stations...the other two are in Salt Lake City and Little Rock AR.Since the moment that Sinclair WB affiliate WSTR/64 joined a number of its sister stations in … [Read more...]

STO AND DIRECTV MEET: We've been hearing a rumor that the folks at SportsTime Ohio and DirecTV sat down on Tuesday to try to hammer out the "outer market" situation with the satellite service and viewers outside the immediate Cleveland/Akron/Canton and Columbus markets, who haven't gotten Cleveland Indians games since DirecTV agreed to carry STO.STO's Jim Liberatore confirmed the meeting to us this morning, and tells OMW that DirecTV is "supposed to decide this week" about opening up the games … [Read more...]

Over four days after the FCC approved WJER-FM's move from Dover to North Canton, and after OMW reported the move in this item, the newspaper readers of the Dover/New Philadelphia area have finally learned of the action.What's that ABC News motto? We'll modify it a bit - "More New Philadelphia newspaper reporters get their news about local radio from Ohio Media Watch than from any other source". Heh.There's not much new ground broken in the Wednesday story by Times-Reporter business editor Lee … [Read more...]

In the past couple of days:* Canton market CHR WZKL/92.5 Alliance ("Q92") picks up a new promotions director. He's Todd Kelly Smith, who comes to the station from Radio One's CHR station in Louisville KY, WDJX. The opening's created by the move of Charlotte DiFranco to an on-air post with morning slammer DeLuca. (OK, maybe no one says "morning slammer", but he used to be a "night slammer" in radio parlance...)* Clear Channel talk WTVN/610 Columbus producer B.J. Patton becomes the station's … [Read more...]

LIN TV Columbus market UPN affiliate WWHO/53 has finally decided to go with the CW Network when UPN and The WB shut down this fall. WWHO also runs WB programming out of pattern, making it basically the only choice for the new network in Columbus.WWHO joins three other LIN-owned stations in going with CW. We suspect it took this long because LIN was an early complainer about CW's model of charging local stations for the affiliation - a practice called "reverse compensation" in the TV … [Read more...]