Thought 1: Plain Dealer sports media columnist Roger Brown weighs in with an "very optimistic" outlook from SportsTime Ohio chief Jim Liberatore, regarding the Indians-owned channel signing up satellite providers DirecTV and Dish Network before the first pitch of the regular season.Liberatore tells Brown he feels "pretty confident" that the deals can be worked out before STO's first regular season game on April 4th.We'd write it off as talk, but what you don't read in the Plain Dealer is what … [Read more...]

We'd mentioned it in passing in another item, but it appears Clear Channel Cleveland rock WMMS/100.7 afternoon driver Maxwell has picked up a regular Saturday evening talk show on sister talk WTAM/1100.Tonight's program is our first encounter with the show. We won't review it here, but will just say that right now, Maxwell is talking about...um...how long people wear the same underwear.You just can't make stuff like that up. Trust us, we aren't. Apparently, it's a topic he brought up on his … [Read more...]

When it was announced that SportsTime Ohio's Indians telecasts would air on Time Warner Cable's channel 23, we wondered how that would affect the "Akron/Canton News" newscasts produced for TWC by WKYC/3...which also air on the channel.As it turns out, they'll mean the newscasts will move on some nights to TWC's channel 17, which is listed in TWC's Akron/Canton lineup as the "Digital Preview Channel".WKYC has put up a list of those conflicting nights in a story on its website. On dates not … [Read more...]

As expected, when SportsTime Ohio starts covering Cleveland Indians games in HDTV, the high-definition broadcasts will be seen on Adelphia channel 798, the "HD Bonus" channel.SportsTime Ohio's site has been updated to show that STO's HD Indians games will indeed be shown on Adelphia 798, the "HD Bonus" channel that recently started showing FSN Ohio's Cleveland Cavaliers' games in HD. Quoting the result of selecting the Adelphia system in the drop down menu:"HD CHANNEL 798 - Ashtabula, Greater … [Read more...]

Random rumblings from outside the edges of the usual OMW Coverage Area:* We hear noise out of Dayton that Radio One sports talk WING "ESPN Radio 1410" may not be long for its sports format. In addition to rumors of the departure of the station's program director, there is also a nagging rumor that the station will flip to Radio One's own urban talk format, currently heard on sister station WERE/1300 Cleveland. It's not like we're surprised, though... we expected such a move when the national … [Read more...]

We can't find any radio/TV column in this morning's Plain Dealer - at least in the online version. TV/radio columnist Julie Washington and sports media columnist Roger Brown were off writing about other things.But occasionally, columnist Chuck Yarborough makes brief mentions of items concerning local radio and TV.In today's Yarborough missive, he lists his prediction of the early demise of CBS Radio syndicated morning host David Lee Roth as a "wrong", saying the host - heard locally on … [Read more...]

Veteran Cleveland radio/TV sportscaster Casey Coleman, who's been on medical leave from his morning drive post at Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 due to a battle with pancreatic cancer, may be coming back fairly soon.Coleman was honored last night by induction into the Cleveland Association of Broadcasters' Hall of Fame. He attended the ceremony, and told WJW FOX 8 that he was hoping to be back behind the WTAM microphones "by around the end of June or the first of July". It's the very first … [Read more...]

Several alert readers pointed us to word that Dish Network has started uplinking the SportsTime Ohio feed behind the scenes, but is not yet offering it to subscribers.The move is pointed out on this unofficial Dish Network Channel Chart, where folks who have access to diagnostic equipment track the pre-launch moves of Dish Network's channels. To wit:"Sports Time Ohio, new home to the Cleveland Indians is now listed on channel 431 on tp 24 at 110°. This location is generally used by part-time … [Read more...]

Some visitors earlier this evening may notice that we tried out a new Blogspot template for OMW for a while.We got one response, unfavorable, and we're tending to agree...it just wasn't working. One problem in our eyes - with very few items to each side, the text of the blog itself had margins that were far too narrow.For the nonce, then, we're back to the old design. We've done some tinkering, and we think we're back to the way we used to be.One side effect of all the tinkering...if you're … [Read more...]

WFMJ/21 Youngstown's web site says meteorologist Mark Koontz has been released from the hospital today, and is recovering at home and "feels good".We're still piecing together what happened to Koontz - the Youngstown Vindicator article on his health problems is now hidden behind a subscriber wall, and frankly, the Vindicator is generally not worth reading even for free. But it does appear that Koontz did suffer an apparent stroke during a recent newscast.WFMJ says there's no word yet on when … [Read more...]