As rumored earlier here on OMW, Euclid's Chuck Booms has officially landed with a regular shift at his old home - the Fox Sports Radio network.FSR's brand new schedule, released just Monday, lists him as the host of "Fox NFL GameTime Rewind" on Sunday nights from 11 PM to 2 AM. It's hardly a prime-time gig...but it gets him regular on-air exposure SOMEWHERE, at any rate.Booms is best known in radio for his stint as FSR afternoon drive co-host with partner Kevin Kiley ("Kiley and Booms"). As … [Read more...]

Despite having a deal with DirecTV, only about 275 to 300 thousand of the service's subscribers in the Cleveland Indians viewing area will actually be able to see the Tribe on SportsTime Ohio...according to an article by Paul Hoynes in today's Plain Dealer. The article quotes STO chief Jim Liberatore as saying the deal brings STO into 2.6 million cable and satellite homes in the market.We've unraveled more of the quirky deal that STO reached yesterday with DirecTV, and we still don't get the … [Read more...]

As expected, SportsTime Ohio has announced the final major piece to its TV puzzle, with the addition of DirecTV to its affiliate roster. STO will show up, also as expected and as hinted here since last Friday, on DirecTV channel 657. The release says DirecTV will be on board for tomorrow's STO regular season opener with the Chicago White Sox.But for some DirecTV viewers outside the immediate area (and outside the Columbus region), there's a hitch. The release linked above says the channel … [Read more...]

ANOTHER STO ITEM OR FOUR: Yes, there's still more on SportsTime Ohio's regular season debut on Tuesday night, and the behind the scenes negotiations to get it carriage.It took THREE Plain Dealer writers - not counting sports media columnist Roger Brown - to produce a Q&A about STO's first season in this morning's paper. TV writer Mark Dawidziak, tech writer Henry Gomez and sportswriter Bob Roberts contribute to this screed. A couple of points:* As of this writing, at about 1 PM on Monday, … [Read more...]

Most of this is old hat if you're a regular reader of OMW, but Northeast Ohio's two largest newspapers have weighed in on the progress of new Cleveland Indians' television network SportsTime Ohio on Opening Day.The Plain Dealer's Roger Brown does it twice, in both a separate basic "recap" article, and in his regular Sunday column. That column contains one news nugget - STO's Jim Liberatore tells Brown that DirecTV will likely sign up with the network "by Monday". That is what we predicted here … [Read more...]

Three things:Thing 1: We happened to catch a brief liner during WTAM/1100 programming this afternoon... something to the effect of - "Triv Quits! Details Monday at 8:15..." - or close to that, at any rate.No, we're pretty sure afternoon motormouth Mike Trivisonno is not leaving his perch at WTAM. We're guessing he's quitting something other than the radio business. Perhaps he'll stop eating while broadcasting? Now, THAT would be an effort! Heh. Anyway, we're not hearing anything from the … [Read more...]

The Massive OMW Editorial Staff had a meeting this afternoon...and decided not to play any "April Fool's Day" jokes here on your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm).We're still new at this, and our background - mostly in straight-ahead radio news - led us to decide that pranking people wouldn't be a good idea, even on a day where most people expect odd news stories that just don't sound right. For example, our colleague Dave Hughes over at DCRTV.com spun a tale of FOX's Rupert Murdoch buying ABC's WMAL/630 … [Read more...]

STO-ING IT: OMW is getting confirmation from numerous readers that DirecTV channel 657 is showing future SportsTime Ohio programming. (Unfortunately, our in-family confirmation will have to wait until our Indians fan-relative gets home from the hardware store.)So far, there's no word of that official deal, but STO boss Jim Liberatore tells the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Paul Hoynes that he's "optimistic" about reaching a deal with the nation's largest satellite provider before the first regular … [Read more...]

This one's only at the unconfirmed rumor stage right now, but read along with this thread on an Indians fan board - where folks are reporting SportsTime Ohio listings on DirecTV channel 657:STO AVAILABLE ON DIRECTV 4/4 (message thread on www.scout.com)At least one of the users on that board says he was told by a customer service representative that DirecTV would carry the Indians' new network by the April 4th opening regular season broadcast, though others got the usual conflicting stories from … [Read more...]

We got word tonight from an excited Dish Network subscriber... and confirmed on the website of WKYC/3...the satellite TV provider has agreed to carry SportsTime Ohio.The deal makes STO - as expected - available on Dish channel 431, to subscribers who carry at least the service's "America's Top 60 Plus" package. (We're told the "Plus" part includes access to regional sports networks.)The final big piece of the puzzle is still out there - DirecTV. We're actually surprised the Dish deal got done … [Read more...]