As reported earlier, the upcoming CW Network has firmed its situation here in Cleveland, locking up Winston Broadcasting's WBNX/55 to make the move from The WB to The CW. Though it hasn't been announced yet, UPN affiliate WWHO/53 in the Columbus market is pretty much the only place The CW can land in that market, since there is no primary WB affiliate there. (WWHO carries WB programming as a secondary affilate, out of pattern.)The situation would now be theoretically be clear in Cincinnati, as … [Read more...]

* AllAccess reports that Clear Channel Akron/Canton hot AC WKDD/98.1 picks up Krissy Taylor for night voicetracking duties. Taylor's "day job" is as midday personality at sister Clear Channel Youngstown CHR WAKZ/95.9 "Kiss FM". She replaces the departed Liz Murphy.* Cleveland Plain Dealer local radio/TV columnist Julie Washington checks in with the WBNX to CW Network/WUAB Not story in her Friday column. And like the PD's Mark Dawidziak and the Beacon Journal's R.D. Heldenfels before her, she … [Read more...]

Radio & Records Online has this item in today's "Street Talk":"Ted-Less In Ohio? We hear rumblings that North American's Adult Hits WTDA (Ted-FM)/Columbus, OH may soon dump the format in favor of Talk — stay tuned."Odd.It's odd to us, because FM talk format rumblings are usually associated with major companies like CBS or Clear Channel. What would North American Broadcasting run? … [Read more...]

There are radio rumblings that the one-week vacation by CBS Radio syndicated star David Lee Roth could become a permanent vacation.In the wake of absolutely anemic first-trend ratings for "Diamond Dave" at his CBS flagship, where he replaced long-time #1 host Howard Stern after Stern's departure for satellite radio, and Roth being off for a week just two months into his show, tongues are wagging about his future.A lot of that could be speculation, but AllAccess jumps into the breach with this … [Read more...]

Anyone hoping to follow conventional wisdom (er, "CW") in the race to sign up affiliates for the new CW Network and FOX's "My Network TV" is getting dizzy about now.Just a day after WBNX/55 became the Cleveland market's outlet for The CW starting this fall, the expected outlet for that new network in Cincinnati turned left instead of right. Sinclair's WSTR/64 (WB) will instead line up with the My Network TV folks, along with 16 other Sinclair stations in other markets.Assuming that there won't … [Read more...]

The Beacon Journal's R.D. Heldenfels weighs in on local WB affiliate WBNX/55 snagging The CW affiliation for the Cleveland market.As expected, WBNX chief Lou Spangler is thrilled. He cites three key factors in his station being able to get CW instead of Raycom's WUAB/43... strong ratings, lack of program preemption and an ongoing relationship with his network.While Raycom certainly has a history with CBS and UPN, Spangler's got a point. If you're looking for a strong engine that will basically … [Read more...]

OMW hears it's official: Matt Spatz, program director/morning driver at Cumulus Youngstown market rocker "Rock 104" (WWIZ/103.9 Mercer PA), is headed south for a new PD gig in Roanoke VA.Matt is taking over the programming reins of Clear Channel rock WROV/96.3, the Roanoke/Lynchburg market's dominant rock station ("The Rock of Virginia"). He takes the opening left by Aaron Roberts, who transferred to program Clear Channel Toledo rocker WIOT/104.7. We guess the Ohio/Virginia Radio Trade is now … [Read more...]

This just in from various trade publications:Winston Broadcasting's WBNX/55 Akron, the Cleveland market's current WB Network affiliate, is one of five stations signing a long-term affiliation agreement with the new "CW Network".The list of The CW's first affiliates outside of the CBS owned-and-operated UPN stations and the Tribune WB stations also includes stations in Orlando, Charlotte, Louisville KY and South Bend IN.And it appears there's a pattern here...many of the stations, like WBNX, are … [Read more...]

Your vast OMW editorial staff has to lay off the cold medicine, as we missed this in this morning's Beacon Journal.The paper reports that Wadsworth Cable, the city-owned system in the Medina County suburb, has agreed to a three year deal with SportsTime Ohio to carry the new Cleveland Indians-owned cable channel, financial terms not disclosed. The STO content - including pre-game and post-game shows and other programming - will air on cable channel 77.The Wadsworth-owned 3,600 subscriber system … [Read more...]

Followup to our last two items, and some other stuff:* Clear Channel's Cincinnati news/talk powerhouse WLW/700 has indeed landed on XM Satellite Radio. The audio quality is not nearly as bad as we'd expected, but it's not the "FM-ish" more open audio sound that's been heard on other XM talk channels. Someone compared it to "AM HD", and we'd say that's pretty close. We'd say it's somewhere between regular AM and digital HD/IBOC. It's not bad, and not difficult to our ears at any rate.The … [Read more...]