Items have been piling up over the Labor Day holiday weekend like cars stuck in a traffic jam to get home from a holiday trip...JIMBO AGAIN: At this rate, we ought to consider splitting off another secondary blog dedicated to former Mahoning Valley congressman/ex-con Jim Traficant.Anyone who's even remotely followed Traficant in the Youngstown area or in Washington knew that the bombastic former lawmaker couldn't stay quiet for long, after his release from a federal prison medical facility in … [Read more...]
Local And Connected
Posted on September 4, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Some of these items are local to our Northeast Ohio base, and others are only marginally connected...FRY STEPS DOWN: The long-time leader of Time Warner Cable's Northeast Ohio division is calling it a career.Beacon Journal business writer Betty Lin-Fisher reports that Steve Fry, who's been guiding the local arm of the cable company for as long as anyone can remember - the last 19 years as TWC's Northeast Ohio division president - is retiring.Fry's been working for Time Warner Cable and its … [Read more...]
Of Jimbo, Frogs and Love
Posted on September 3, 2009 · Leave a Comment
That's "Love" as in "K-Love", and "Frogs" as in amphibian radio and TV symbols...MORE JIMBO: Former Youngstown-area congressman Jim Traficant could probably scratch his nose at this point, and he'd dominate media coverage...covering which direction he scratched, and at what time, and where.In our last item, OMW visited the possibility that Traficant could wind up doing something on the air at Clear Channel talk WKBN/570 in his home market.Though we'd earlier downplayed the prospect, Clear … [Read more...]
Jim’s A Free Man, But A Radio Man?
Posted on September 2, 2009 · Leave a Comment
As noted in an earlier item, an iconic and controversial Mahoning Valley political figure is headed back to the Youngstown area."Beam him up"...the one and only James A. Traficant, former Congressman, released felon, has his post-prison life ahead of him starting today. The Youngstown Vindicator notes that he's not expected to show up at his suburban Poland home until the weekend, after a "short vacation", but today is his official date of release.His supporters in the Youngstown area have … [Read more...]
All Over The Map
Posted on August 31, 2009 · Leave a Comment
It's a typical Monday, as we let items free that need their freedom...GOING DOWN: It's no surprise to anyone who follows population figures, but the folks at Nielsen Media Research have announced that the Cleveland TV market continues to lose position in its market rankings.From the TV ratings giant's release:The Top 10 local markets, known in the industry as Designated Market Areas or DMAs, will remain the same this season, with a few rank changes in the Top 20. Moving up are Seattle, from 14 … [Read more...]
Friday Followup
Posted on August 28, 2009 · Leave a Comment
And heading into a Friday, some followups...and one more item...QUICK EXIT: Thursday morning, we reported that Clear Channel Cleveland market manager Mike Kenney was packing his bags and heading to North Carolina. It'd been officially announced, just an hour or so before our post, that Kenney would take over the market manager post at Clear Channel's Charlotte cluster.Back in Cleveland, it was "promotion from within" at Oak Tree, with Gary Mincer taking over as market manager, and George Allen … [Read more...]
Monday Lunch
Posted on August 10, 2009 · Leave a Comment
OK, so we're thinking of food as we get this late morning Monday update underway. Expect us to stop this from time to time as we raid our own kitchen...SHE'S HERE: Imagine our surprise when OMW received a press release - directly - from Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 on its latest addition at "NewsChannel 5", assistant news director Roberta Petterson.We got the full press treatment from WEWS, including a photo of Ms. Petterson.Since we have the release, let's quote it:WEWS NewsChannel 5 has … [Read more...]
New Vision Bankruptcy
Posted on July 15, 2009 · Leave a Comment
The operator of nearly all commercial TV stations in the Youngstown market is now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.New Vision Television owns CBS affiliate WKBN/27 and Fox affiliate WYFX (WYFX-LP 62/WFXI-CA 17/WKBN-DT 27.2), and operates PBC (Parkin Broadcasting) owned ABC affiliate WYTV/33 and sister MyNetworkTV affiliate MyYTV (WYTV/33.2). That's every commercial station in the Mahoning Valley except for one big one, Vindicator NBC affiliate WFMJ/21, along with its sister CW affiliate "WBCB" … [Read more...]
Monday Followup, Mid-July Edition
Posted on July 13, 2009 · Leave a Comment
For whatever reason, everything at the top of our pile this Monday morning is a followup to earlier items...except our first, and even that's the "next step" of an earlier report...THIS JUST IN: An OMW reader passes word via Trip Ericson's RabbitEars.info - TBN O&O WDLI/17-1-2-3-4-5 will get their RF channel change.This FCC decision (PDF file) means that the Canton-licensed station can move from RF channel 39 to RF channel 49.We just noticed that the decision's release date was late this … [Read more...]
Friday Pileup
Posted on July 10, 2009 · Leave a Comment
We've had a rough time fitting the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) into our regular week this week, so here are some of the items that have been on that back burner...GRAPHIC CUTS: OMW hears that Scripps, owner of Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS/5, has joined the Graphics Outsourcing Parade.It was announced by the group today that like other TV ownership groups with Cleveland market holdings - Gannett (WKYC/3) and Fox (former owner of WJW/8) - Scripps will centralize its graphics operations. Since … [Read more...]
