UPDATE 10/6/07 10:55 AM: OMW hears from a listener in the Ashtabula area...who tells us 102.5 there is already playing oldies, but promoting the official launch of "Magic Oldies 102.5" on Monday.The station is running a promo promising "the best music of the 60's and 70's" with current WFUN/WREO news voice Kathy Davis promoting her own new show on 102.5. We don't know when Ms. Davis' show will be heard on the new "Magic Oldies", aside from sometime in the morning.We're pretty sure of the … [Read more...]
Thursday Update
Posted on October 4, 2007 · Leave a Comment
Yep, we're still around.We haven't had much to say since our last update, but we've cobbled together enough items - including some news, some revisits and some other stuff...COLLINS NAMED OPERATIONS MANAGER: A local radio veteran has increased his role at his employer's cluster.Rubber City Radio has named Chuck Collins as operations manager for the company's three Akron stations - standards WAKR/1590, country WQMX/94.9 and rock WONE/97.5.Chuck has been program director of WAKR, leading its move … [Read more...]
CBS Kills Off Two More Nearby FM Talkers
Posted on October 1, 2007 · Leave a Comment
The FM Talk Watch isn't looking good at this hour, and the carnage is not far from Ohio's borders. In fact, the stations are close enough that both can claim at least some Ohio listeners.This time, it's the death of two CBS Radio-owned FM talk stations, one which had been in the format long before the whole "Free FM" thing (think David Lee "Awful Radio Show" Roth).That's Detroit's WKRK/97.1, which did eventually adopt the "Free FM" name, but continued with a mostly local lineup until recently - … [Read more...]
BREAKING NEWS: TBS-HD Added To Time Warner Northeast Ohio
Posted on October 1, 2007 · Leave a Comment
As speculated in the item just below this one, Northeast Ohio's Time Warner Cable systems have added the HD feed of the TBS cable network, just in time for the one-game pre-National League Divisional Series baseball contest between the San Diego Padres and the Colorado Rockies.TBS-HD has made its mark on Time Warner Cable's channel 778 on the Cleveland-area system formerly owned by Adelphia.We don't know what channel numbers are used elsewhere, but we believe it is also now available on the … [Read more...]
Monday Big Update
Posted on October 1, 2007 · Leave a Comment
A lot has happened since our Friday night update, for whatever reason. So, let's try to start strong this week...FROM THE BONDS OF CLEAR CHANNEL: Two weeks ago, Tom Embrescia's Sweet Home Ashtabula, LLC took control of the now-former Clear Channel cluster in Ashtabula, a group that once only consisted of talk WFUN/970 and AC WREO/97.1.Since that era, the cluster added now-top 40 WZOO/102.5, classic rock WFXJ/107.5, and the most recent entry, country WYBL/98.3 - which means a total of five … [Read more...]
Memo To Reserve Square
Posted on September 30, 2007 · Leave a Comment
It looks like WOIO/19 "19 Action News" anchor Sharon Reed isn't proud of taking her clothes off in front of a camera, anymore.Some three years after Ms. Reed became perhaps the most infamous local TV news anchor in America for her "Body of Art" series, the anchor and her station are now making the rounds of various websites, trying to get them to remove the racy pictures.The Plain Dealer's Michael K. McIntyre quotes Sharon's immediate boss, news director Dan Salamone, in Saturday's "TipOff" … [Read more...]
A Tight Squeeze Play
Posted on September 28, 2007 · Leave a Comment
And no, we aren't talking about a play we'd like to see the Cleveland Indians pull off in the upcoming playoff run.We've let some items accumulate here, and we're going to put them in one big item to close out the week.BIG TEN NETWORK GETS, UH, CABLE PRESENCE: The folks at the Big Ten Network have a cable signing to crow about.But unfortunately for the conference-owned TV network, BTN's new signup is not Time Warner Cable, the region's largest cable provider by far.Instead, the new sports … [Read more...]
BREAKING NEWS: Ex-ESPN Host Patrick Picks Up Local Affiliate
Posted on September 26, 2007 · Leave a Comment
UPDATE 9/26/07 3:35 PM: AllAccess points out that Dan Patrick's new show, which will debut on WARF and other early affiliates on Tuesday, October 1st, will actually air live 9 AM-noon Eastern Time.Any affiliate that carries the show in Patrick's former ESPN Radio time slot (1-4 PM) will be carrying it on delay.We're curious if this "changes the game" for former affiliates of that show, who could presumably carry the show before Jim Rome. For WWGK/1540, Good Karma's "KNR2", that'd mean … [Read more...]
Indians’ Clinching Game To Be Replayed
Posted on September 24, 2007 · Leave a Comment
SportsTime Ohio is planning a replay of Sunday's game between the Cleveland Indians and the Oakland A's - the win which gave the local Major League Baseball team its shiny, new American League Central title.The game will air Tuesday starting at 5:30 PM.One reason STO cites for the replay - the Sunday game aired on WKYC/3, the Cleveland NBC affiliate which is the team's over-air home, instead of on STO.Quoting the press release:The Indians clinched the Central Division Title on Sunday and the … [Read more...]
Passings
Posted on September 23, 2007 · Leave a Comment
We note the passing of two names with history in Northeast Ohio media.REX HUMBARD DIES: As far as we know, Rex Humbard hasn't been seen on local TV for many years, and he moved to Florida years ago.But Humbard turned Northeast Ohio into the epicenter of televangelism, as one magazine noted, bringing televised evangelism "to Main Street" from its center in suburban Akron.The New York Times notes the height of his worldwide television presence:At its peak, in 1977-8, the program leased time on … [Read more...]
