Welcome to our Thursday random scattering of items...we'll try to make sure none of the scatter hits our readers directly!We don't want to injure anyone...GANNETT FURLOUGH: Media giant Gannett is forcing workers to take an unpaid week off, a move the company says is meant to reduce layoffs in this troubled economic world for the media.We first saw the item in a wire story posted on Frank Macek's "Director's Cut" blog for his employer, Gannett's NBC affiliate in Cleveland, WKYC/3.But the … [Read more...]
A “Freq-y” Catch Up
Posted on January 13, 2009 · Leave a Comment
One of Beacon Broadcasting's 5 stations on the Ohio/Pennsylvania border is extending one of the company's brands.We mentioned changes at the company's WRTK/1540 Niles, which had been running gospel as the local affiliate for the 24/7 satellite format "Rejoice - Musical Soul Food" before launching into Christmas music over the holidays. But we never updated the station's status.WRTK has launched a Christian contemporary music format - using the "Freq 1540" moniker it adopted with the Christmas … [Read more...]
February 17…Or Not?
Posted on January 8, 2009 · Leave a Comment
UPDATE 1/8/09 4:03 PM: As hinted below, President-elect Barack Obama is indeed urging a delay in the DTV transition date.Quoting an Associated Press article we found on the TVNewsday trade news website:In a letter to key lawmakers, transition team co-chair John Podesta warned Thursday that too many Americans who rely on analog TV sets to pick up over-the-air broadcasts won't be ready.The letter to Congress reportedly focuses on two reasons for delay: the reported problems with the government's … [Read more...]
Digital TV Update
Posted on January 6, 2009 · Leave a Comment
As promoted, but a little late...a bit of a Digital TV Update. As of this writing, we're about 6 weeks away from the digital TV transition on February 17th, where, by 11:59:59 PM, all full-power stations will turn off their signals.Well, almost all.We've told you about the so-called "nightlight" analog TV bill, which was approved and signed into law. It allows a certain number of stations to keep their analog TV transmitters up for 30 days after February 17, carrying information about the … [Read more...]
WNEO’s Continuing Transition Work
Posted on December 22, 2008 · Leave a Comment
UPDATE 12/22/08 10:08 AM: OMW hears from Western Reserve PBS that Time Warner Cable is indeed now using the station's digital feed to feed the station to its analog cable subscribers.It's not known yet, however, when (or if) TWC's former Adelphia systems in the Cleveland area will add the HD version of WEAO/49.TWC systems in other parts of Northeast Ohio already carry the HD feed of Western Reserve PBS. When Time Warner took over the Adelphia systems, it added the HD feed of WEAO to the paper … [Read more...]
Update On WNEO Power Increase
Posted on December 11, 2008 · Leave a Comment
As we reported earlier, Western Reserve PBS now has a construction permit to increase power at its Youngstown-market station, WNEO/45, from 44KW to 500KW. WNEO signed off its analog signal on channel 45 last month, and lit up the 44KW digital facility on 45 shortly thereafter.We have a tentative answer about when Western Reserve PBS will be able to "up the juice" on the new digital channel 45, which serves mostly the Youngstown/Warren area and parts of eastern Stark and Portage Counties from … [Read more...]
Wrapping Up December’s First Week
Posted on December 5, 2008 · Leave a Comment
UPDATE 10:29 PM 12/5/08: Umm, oops.Our apologies to Akron Beacon Journal popular culture writer and OMW reader Rich Heldenfels, for posting this item without yet reading his detailed story on the WKYC changes in Friday's paper.Rich's item even contains some of the information we listed as "not confirmed 100%" below, including the weekend anchor moves involving Jeff Maynor and Kim Wheeler. We guess "not confirmed" meant "we hadn't read the Beacon yet" in this case.Since we're pretty sure Rich … [Read more...]
Waiting For Shoes To Drop
Posted on December 4, 2008 · Leave a Comment
This is an item filled with mostly some random items, much of the content from outside the immediate Cleveland/Akron/Canton area.But as they say, "stay tuned".The rumblings surrounding pending major moves at one local TV news operation are very loud...so loud you could probably hear them while standing on, oh, just to pick a street totally out of random, Lakeside Avenue in downtown Cleveland.What we're hearing will probably surprise you, and not just because of any names involved, or for that … [Read more...]
Radio Daze: The Documentary
Posted on December 1, 2008 · Leave a Comment
A TV documentary based on Mike Olszewski's book "Radio Daze" premieres this week."Radio Daze: Cleveland’s FM Air Wars" debuts Tuesday night at 9:30 PM on Western Reserve PBS, the local PBS affiliate combo known to mere mortals as WNEO/45 Alliance-WEAO/49 Akron.Quoting a release from our good friends over on Campus Center Drive:It presents the dramatic rise of northeast Ohio’s FM rock scene, from its early days on college and ethnic stations manned by hippie disk jockeys to a billion-dollar … [Read more...]
Friday Oddities
Posted on November 28, 2008 · Leave a Comment
OK, so we'll squeeze out one more update of odd stuff this Friday after the Thanksgiving Day holiday.There is some more economic bad news for those in local media, but we'll put that on the back burner until our Monday morning update...keeping the meaning of "Black Friday" for holiday shopping crowds for now...ION OF CHANGE: A little change could be coming to the digital signals of the ION Network's owned and operated TV stations, and the ION folks are going about proposing the changes in an … [Read more...]
