Two items about MediaCom talk WNIR/100.1 "The Talk of Akron", courtesy of our friends at the Akron Beacon Journal... MAGGIE'S WIN: Former WNIR morning drive co-host Maggie Fuller has scored a big victory with a state agency. Beacon Journal pop culture writer Rich Heldenfels reports that Fuller won an appeal of her unemployment case with the Ohio Unemployment Compensation Review Commission. The agency's Kevin Thornton said Fuller had "just cause" to quit the station September 17th, the … [Read more...]
Save Our Sound? Not Quite
Posted on December 18, 2013 · 11 Comments
The past few days, what started as a social media campaign to save the "Cleveland's Sound" alt-rock format at Murray Hill Broadcasting's WLFM-LP 87.7 made it to the station's website. Crain's Cleveland Business writer Michelle Park Lazette caught the "message from ownership" on the 87.7 website before it disappeared: “We've listened and appreciate the overwhelming passion that has been shown this past week,” it stated. “The bottom line is the advertiser passion and commitment for 87.7 … [Read more...]
OMW Is Powered By…
Posted on December 16, 2013 · Leave a Comment
We may have mentioned once or twice that in addition to Life Intervening(tm), there have been other obstacles to updating this report on a regular basis. Namely, what has been the Official OMW Computer, an aging Windows XP box that we're pretty sure is powered by steam and held together by bailing wire, string and gum. On occasion, its screen would turn blue and it would stop working. Not anymore. Thanks to a long-time OMW reader, we're outfitted with a decent laptop of much more recent … [Read more...]
Weekend Roundup
Posted on December 13, 2013 · 2 Comments
With some updates, and a brand new item... THE 20 YEAR AFFILIATION ITCH: Since about 1994, Rubber City Radio Group oldies/news WAKR/1590 Akron has carried some form of ABC News Radio...most recently, the "Entertainment" news network feed, not to mention some historic carriage of ABC and its predecessor, the NBC Blue Network, dating back to the station's early days. That's changing, and soon. Starting at the stroke of midnight Saturday night into Sunday morning, WAKR picks up CBS Radio … [Read more...]
BREAKING NEWS: 87.7 To Spanish Language In January
Posted on December 11, 2013 · 13 Comments
It looks like the question of "how long can alt-rock music stay on 87.7 'Cleveland's Sound'?" can be answered "'through 2013'." Cleveland Scene's Vince Grzegorek reports that Murray Hill Broadcasting alt-rock/AAA WLFM-LP 87.7 will be flipping to a Spanish-language format on January 1st. Employees heard about the change in a staff meeting on Tuesday. But the station is not being sold. A tweet from the "Cleveland's Sound" Twitter account clarifies that 87.7, or rather, LPTV channel 6, … [Read more...]
Stocking Full Of News
Posted on December 11, 2013 · 2 Comments
No, no Holiday Hiatus yet, as too much is going on... COLBY DC: OMW hears that Radio One Cleveland operations manager Colby Colb is headed for our Nation's Capital. Colb will take the VP/Programming post at Radio One in Washington DC, a huge promotion for the programming vet...who also helms the afternoon drive shift on hip hop WENZ/107.9 "Z107.9". (At this point, it's not clear if Colb is headed for DC for Radio One's local cluster programming gig or for the company nationwide. Radio One … [Read more...]
Rizzo On The Hot Seat
Posted on December 10, 2013 · 4 Comments
Unless you've been under a rock (not a rock format) the past day, you likely already know that local sports radio/TV personality Tony Rizzo is in trouble with the law. The plight of the Good Karma sports WKNR/850 "ESPN 850" midday host was first reported by his home TV station, Local TV-to-be-Tribune Fox affiliate WJW/8's "Fox 8 News": Longtime Cleveland sports personality and talk show host Tony Rizzo was arrested Friday night on a charge of domestic violence. According to a Medina … [Read more...]
Unloading Before The Holidays
Posted on December 4, 2013 · 5 Comments
This doesn't necessarily mean that we're going on The H Word through the end of 2013. But, a lot of items have piled up, so here we go! MORE 5 CHANGES: In TV news, the phrase "nothing is more constant than change" is certainly true. But at 3001 Euclid, the folks at Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5's "NewsChannel 5" could adopt the phrase as a motto. The station's low-rated "Good Morning Cleveland" has undergone a host of changes since this blog debuted in 2005. Now, the "NewsChannel … [Read more...]
A Quick Note…
Posted on December 3, 2013 · 2 Comments
OMW may be a bit slow for a while. Our site is hosted on the servers of our content partners, RadioInsight. That site is being swamped, as the RadioDiscussions.com site closed abruptly today. The site performance should improve soon, and our friend Lance Venta at RadioInsight is working on it. A reminder: The RadioInsight Community Cleveland Forum is now the official forum of OMW...and you can reach RadioInsight Community from the link at the right hand side of this blog. We should … [Read more...]
Ohio’s LPFM Application Invasion
Posted on November 24, 2013 · 7 Comments
OK, so it's not an invasion yet, as many of the nearly 2,800 LPFM applications that recently landed at the FCC won't breathe a bit of (electronic) air. Thanks to our new content partnership with NorthEast Radio Watch and RadioInsight, with heavy data lifting by Lance Venta, Scott Fybush, and long-time friend Garrett Wollman at The Archives @ BostonRadio.org, we have a list of 56 applicants for new LPFM stations in Ohio. We'll break out the applicants in the OMW Coverage Area (basically, … [Read more...]
