At last check, Glenn Beck was still syndicated by Premiere, right?AllAccess reports that another big market Clear Channel Ohio talker has removed Beck from its schedule. It's the company's second talker in Cincinnati, WKRC/550, that's replacing Beck with FOX News Radio midday host Tony Snow in the 9 AM-noon slot. The Cincinnati Post's Rick Bird has details in a Tuesday article.We didn't know this, but apparently Snow has ties to the Queen City. He was born in the small Kentucky town of Berea, … [Read more...]

A regular OMW reader E-Mailed us to ask about the status of several job openings we've posted over the past few months, and we wish we had more solid answers.One answer we do appear to have is about the situation at CBS Radio Cleveland hot AC WQAL/104.1 ("Q104"), where former afternoon drive host Brian "Fig" Figula left some time back for a PD gig in his hometown of Flint MI. A quick glance at the Q104 website shows that the station appears to have decided on keeping former midday host Jen … [Read more...]

It's sometime soon, but we're still not sure when the new African-American-oriented talk format will start in WERE/1300 Cleveland...though it's likely to be soon.The Radio One brokered talker was reportedly scheduled to flip to the new mainly networked format next Monday, January 16, according to station officials quoted last month by Plain Dealer media columnist Julie Washington. But we haven't heard any news or rumblings about that date actually happening.For one, Radio One hasn't announced … [Read more...]

The rumors have been swirling for a while, and it's now confirmed...NBC Universal is selling four affiliates in its smallest markets, including WCMH/4 in Columbus. (Report from the Columbus Business Journal.)The network is getting out of Columbus and three other markets (Raleigh NC, Providence RI, Birmingham AL) to concentrate on larger markets with a strong Hispanic presence...the company owns the Telemundo Spanish-language network. Industry rumors seem to focus on The New York Times Company … [Read more...]

If you've been on a tropical island the past two days, you may not have known that former CBS/Infinity morning man Howard Stern made his "off-air" debut Monday on Sirius Satellite Radio.Plain Dealer pop culture writer John Petkovic was listening Monday, and checks in with his review of "The King of All Media"'s satellite radio debut. Though we heard the opening show as well, the most we've heard of Stern in his entire radio career, we won't spend a lot of time on what happened on a show that is … [Read more...]

With little fanfare, OMW noted a recent move of Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC/3...to basically move its late morning talk show "Studio 3" a little earlier, and rechristen it "Good Company" (10-11 AM weekdays). We hadn't really seen the show, and haven't seen it yet, until today.But we felt something should be made clear. "Good Company" exists on the schedule not solely because WKYC thought the show, with personable Cleveland TV veteran Fred Griffith and two other hosts, would appeal to an … [Read more...]

OMW spotted this one in the column of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sports media columnist Bob Smizik, put online late tonight for Tuesday's paper.Smizik reports that FOX Sports Net Pittsburgh will carry a schedule of Cleveland Cavaliers games the rest of this season, with the feed coming from Cavaliers TV outlet FOX Sports Net Ohio. (Scroll down to the end of the article for the relevant news.) Smizik says that FSN Pittsburgh will pick up 12 Cavs games from its Ohio sister network starting on … [Read more...]

In a story which apparently was not run on the Cleveland Plain Dealer's cleveland.com, but was spotted in the paper by eagle eyed OMW tipster Nathan Obral, another piece of Cleveland's former alt-rock mainstay is landing on the market's current alt-rock station.The PD reports that the CBS Radio station now known as WXRK/92.3 will revive a show called "Inner Sanctum" starting next week, when it re-launches as "92.3 K-Rock". The program used to air on the station once known as "The End", … [Read more...]

Just a couple of items we're picking out of the usual Monday sports media column by the Plain Dealer's Roger Brown:* Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS/5 is putting its "Sports Saturday" late night show on hiatus until the fall. Brown reports that the last airing will be January 21st. He says that among other reasons, "NewsChannel 5" sports staffers will apparently be concentrating on local programming around the Cleveland Cavaliers' 5 national TV appearances on ABC.OMW's response: Channel 5 had a … [Read more...]

Since OMW's not a regular visitor to the website of Rubber City Radio standards WAKR/1590 Akron, we missed this until tonight. But it looks like the local station, which proudly proclaims itself as the Akron market's "News Authority", is dipping its toes into the waters of 21st Century technology.WAKR set up an experimental podcast section on the news audio page of its site at WAKR.net. The page, as we view it tonight, has the usual audio links from some recent stories...as downloadable MP3 … [Read more...]