And for those who are curious, the Thursday night menu was a pair of coney dogs from a nearby local outdoor drive-in restaurant...the business' opening a sure sign of spring in Northeast Ohio.We can get Sonic chili dogs 12 months a year in Streetsboro, but these ones only from March through November...NOT SO FAST, OMW: At the moment, we'd like to pull back on the back patting a bit.In one of our Thursday items, we poured on the self-congratulation for correctly predicting the disposition of ABC … [Read more...]
Harvey To Huckabee
Posted on March 19, 2009 · Leave a Comment
UPDATE 3/19/09 1:28 PM: Take another one off the Huckabee List.Rubber City Radio VP/Information Media and OMW reader Ed Esposito tells us that Akron's WAKR/1590 does not plan to carry "The Huckabee Report" when it starts airing Monday in the former Paul Harvey News time slots...and that the Paul Harvey Era on WAKR will come to a close after this Saturday's "News and Comment" midday airing with ABC's Gil Gross (at 12:06 PM).Ed tells us:Interesting that ABC is also suggesting other long-form … [Read more...]
Time Warner Northeast Ohio HDTV Plans
Posted on March 19, 2009 · Leave a Comment
It's consistently one of our "most asked" questions here at the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm): When will Time Warner Cable upgrade its HDTV lineup in Northeast Ohio?The answer appears to be "starting soon, over the next few months".Local TWC executive Bill Jasso has been kind enough to put a lot of the information that's already out there together, along with some new information, about channels coming to the TWC Northeast Ohio lineup.Without further ado, here's the list we have from Mr. Jasso, … [Read more...]
Thursday’s Here
Posted on March 5, 2009 · Leave a Comment
We've been in one of those writing moods...where we put everything in one daily bag. And it continues...PAUL HARVEY'S NON-REPLACEMENTS: ABC Radio Network has announced the names of the two men who will not replace Paul Harvey.We say that because conventional wisdom would tell us that the late commentator, who passed away Saturday in Arizona at the age of 90, won't actually be replaced permanently.But ABC Radio says the network's Gil Gross and Doug Limerick will provide feeds in the former Paul … [Read more...]
Some Mixed News
Posted on March 3, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Let's see where the Tuesday morning item mix takes us...unfortunately, it's mostly not good news...CUTBACKS: The sour economy has resulted in some economic-related cutbacks on Campus Center Drive in Kent.That's the home of Western Reserve PBS, the local public TV outlet which operates WNEO/45 Alliance and WEAO/49 Akron, which is making some financial moves to try to ensure economic stability in an economy that's forced pretty much every media outlet to make some hard choices.Quoting a news … [Read more...]
Monday’s Stack
Posted on March 2, 2009 · Leave a Comment
UPDATE 3/2/09 6:30 PM: We'd forgotten Paul Harvey's third regional affiliate here - NextMedia talk WHBC/1480 Canton. WHBC has a link to the Paul Harvey site, which now allows you to hear this week's daily tributes to Mr. Harvey, done by Gil Gross.Here's the rest of our original item...-----Here's our look from a Monday morning perspective...PAUL HARVEY: Tributes continue to pour in throughout the world of broadcasting, and beyond, after the death of iconic radio newsman and commentator Paul … [Read more...]
The End Of The Road
Posted on February 19, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Neither item below directly impacts this area - but some readers might be interested.THE DEATH OF "FM TALK": The young male-skewing "FM talk" format, primarily seeded by former CBS Radio morning star Howard Stern, can pretty much be pronounced dead.CBS Radio made a go of it with "Free FM", the company's post-Stern FM talk strategy.After Stern went to Sirius Satellite Radio, the CBS outlets featured a trio of regionally syndicated Stern replacements, including Cleveland's own Shane "Rover" … [Read more...]
Mixing It Up
Posted on February 12, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Yes, here at your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm), we realize that we've spent a lot of time and written a lot of items on the Now Officially Delayed Digital TV Transition.As always, we're basically driven by what's going on...and that's been the most active area that we cover. We'll try to mix it up at least a little in this item, though there's at least one DTV transition item in here, too...IT'S GOOD TO BE ALIVE...WEEEEE!: An OMW reader recently wrote:I haven't listened to Tony Rizzo lately but did … [Read more...]
More Cumulus Youngstown Fallout
Posted on February 11, 2009 · Leave a Comment
The media layoffs these days are not only frequent, and cut deep, but you seemingly can't put them in the past after reporting them.That's what's going on at Cumulus' Youngstown cluster, where we're getting word of two more on-air personalities losing their jobs in the most recent round of budget-driven layoffs.And if you're a long-time listener to Youngstown radio, they're names you'll probably recognize.OMW hears that talk WPIC/790 Sharon PA morning co-host/station manager Bob Popa and … [Read more...]
It’s About Time, Youngstown!
Posted on February 10, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Forgive our exasperation, but the analog TV shutdown status in Youngstown is finally clear.As we reported earlier, numerous readers tell us that both New Vision CBS affiliate WKBN/27 and Parkin Broadcasting/New Vision LMA partner WYTV/33 have been telling viewers that the stations will not sign off analog 27 and 33 on February 17th as previously requested.It's now official, as someone on Sunset Blvd. in Youngstown may have seen our earlier rant about not notifying viewers via the station's … [Read more...]
