Now that the Cleveland Indians have officially put their home opener in the books - a 11-6 win over the Minnesota Twins at foggy Jacobs Field - we'll put the bulk of our coverage in the books as well. We're already working on a couple of non-sports items, anyway, but until then...PART 1: WKYC/3 and SportsTime Ohio debuted the first high-definition sports telecast in Cleveland TV history, and it looked good to us. We've provided some in-game screen shots... one at field level, and an example of … [Read more...]

It's not just a sports moment, but it's a bit of local TV history...the first-ever live high-definition event broadcast (non-news) by a Cleveland market TV station.And here are a couple of screen shots from today's Indians/Twins game via WKYC/3, broadcast on WKYC-DT in HDTV. Click on the pictures to enlarge them...The game is being televised under the SportsTime Ohio banner. It's a bit of semantics, of course, because WKYC is the production partner for both broadcast and STO cable/satellite … [Read more...]

It looks like the weather will allow the Indians to get in their home opener with the Minnesota Twins late this afternoon at Jacobs Field.As noted, the event prompted something you don't hear a lot of anymore - lots of live and local radio, even blowing out popular syndicated programs. The usual radio battle between WTAM/1100 afternoon motormouth Mike Trivisonno and WKNR/850's Kenny Roda is happening a few hours early, with first pitch set for just after 3 PM today. Both men are doing live … [Read more...]

Former WKNR/850 sports talker Bruce Drennan, forced off the air due to a gambling probe, is in more trouble with the government.The Plain Dealer reports today that the Internal Revenue Service has charged the former WKNR mid-morning host with cheating on his taxes. The move comes after that agency, along with the FBI, raided his home in Strongsville in September 2004 as part of their investigation into an alleged gambling ring. The PD notes that the IRS charges do not specify illegal gambling, … [Read more...]

...and no, we don't mean "Mix 106.5" in Cleveland. At least in this update:ITEM 1: NBC owned-and-operated Columbus station WCMH/4 has found a buyer. The Media General group, which up to now has mostly focused on the southeast U.S., is buying WCMH and three other NBC O&Os in smaller markets - Raleigh, Providence and Birmingham. The reported price - about $600 million.While Media General owns a handful of stations in Kansas and Iowa, this is a big move north for them. Media General CEO … [Read more...]

UPDATE 1: We've confirmed with our own ears tonight - by that esoteric method of turning on an FM radio and listening to 104.1 - that it's indeed former WZKL/92.5 "Q92" morning co-host Tim Richards holding down a newly-opened local evening slot at CBS Cleveland hot AC WQAL "Q104". He's been on past 11 PM, which would either push Leeza Gibbons to midnight, or off the air...UPDATE 2: OK, Dan...you get your mention. AllAccess reports that former Clear Channel Sandusky promotions director Dan … [Read more...]

It's no secret to those who know a little about radio that Clear Channel Cleveland talker WTAM/1100's nickname - "The Big One" - was imported from Cincinnati's WLW/700. The original "Big One" was so named by the one and only Randy Michaels, who rose to prominence with Jacor in Cincinnati...and when Jacor picked up WTAM, the company copied the WLW nickname up here.It also copied other parts of the WLW formula for success.WTAM eventually snagged "all the balls" as the radio flagship of all three … [Read more...]

As OMW earlier suspected, the absence of the 444xx ZIP codes on SportsTime Ohio's "You Can Watch Us On DirecTV Here" list was apparently a typographical goof.The updated list, now on STO's website, includes ZIP codes 44400-44499. Among other places, this includes not only Warren and Niles, but also Newton Falls and other parts of Trumbull County. It didn't make any sense to us that Warren was not on the original list, and Youngstown was able to see STO via DirecTV.But, as far as we can tell, … [Read more...]

In some other items:* We neglected to mention it this week, but it appears Canton market CHR WZKL/92.5 Alliance ("Q92") has officially installed "Igor" into the night slammer chair. (And boy, that has to hurt, being slammed into a chair.)The station part-timer, who's also been heard on then-WXTM/92.3 up in Cleveland, also takes imaging director duties. And as far as we know, he's at least a semi-regular reader of Your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), so that gives him the OMW Karma... which certainly … [Read more...]

We're really trying not to turn this into Indians Media Watch, but it's a big couple of weeks for the local baseball team media-wise, so...let's look at Opening Day on Friday:* We mentioned this a few weeks ago, but it will indeed be WTAM/1100 morning co-host Casey Coleman throwing out the first pitch at Friday's Indians' home opener against the Minnesota Twins. Casey, who appeared better than he has in weeks at a recent event honoring him, told WJW FOX 8 at the time that he was hoping to be … [Read more...]