Ohio Media Watch

AllAccess reports that Tim Roberts, the Toledo-based regional OM for Cumulus stations including the company's Youngstown cluster, will take the PD chair at Infinity country WYCD/Detroit.Among the stations under Roberts' distant oversight in Youngstown is two-market country powerhouse WQXK/105.1 Salem, much better known as "K105". Cumulus/Youngstown also includes: CHR WHOT/101.1 "Hot 101", classic rock WYFM/102.9 Sharon PA "Y103", rock WWIZ/103.9 Mercer PA "Rock 104", AC WLLF/96.7 Mercer PA "96.7 … [Read more...]

This isn't even the first time we've commented on the high commercial load on the afternoon show hosted by WTAM motormouth Mike Trivisonno...but waiting for the start of Triv's show, after "Paul Harvey's Rest of the Story" today, we noticed something.Virtually EVERYONE ON THE SHOW has a commercial endorsement/live read.Triv's list of sponsors is up to about a half-dozen now, including spots for car dealers, hardware stores, restaurants, beer makers, a gutter cover system, and more. Co-host Kim … [Read more...]

OMW spotted this today on the Akron Beacon Journal's "Beacon TV" blog:WEWS/5 is bringing back an old TV friend. And we mean "old", as many of us are too young to really remember it well. The local ABC affiliate once aired a popular weekly music program called "Upbeat". Hosted by Channel 5 veteran Don Webster (the station's long-time weatherman), the show featured all sorts of musical acts in its run from 1964 to 1971.October 29th, WEWS resurrects "Upbeat" for one night, in a benefit for … [Read more...]

Though we don't spend a lot of time dealing with the print media, OMW would feel remiss not passing this along.The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that veteran Cleveland sportswriter and editor Hal Lebovitz has died at the age of 89. Lebovitz most recently worked for the Lake County News-Herald as a weekly columnist, but was also once sports editor of the PD, and worked at the old Cleveland News. He was nationally famous for his "Ask Hal, The Referee" column in the Sporting News.In addition to … [Read more...]

An addendum to the item just below this one:AllAccess.com reports this morning that it's indeed learned of a widespread Infinity plan to launch FM talk stations in various markets, and brand them (and rebrand existing FM talk stations) as "Free FM". The first strike would reportedly be at the aforementioned KIFR/San Francisco, which is currently stunting with clips that would tend to foretell a talk format. The station has actually been rumored to become a talk station for some time now, with a … [Read more...]

OMW notes that we're now many, many weeks past a report by the folks at Radio Business Report, which reprinted the "JACK FM" rumor...and said it was imminent to be placed at one of Infinity's Cleveland market stations.Fast forward to mid-October, and, well...* WQAL/104.1 (the station most mentioned in rumors) is still hot AC "Q104".* WDOK/102.1 hasn't budged from its AC perch.* WXTM/92.3 is still pumping out the alt-rock, with "Rover" in AM drive.* And, WNCX/98.5 is still classic rock-ing, with … [Read more...]

AllAccess.com reports that Clear Channel Akron/Canton hot AC WKDD/98.1 Creative Services Director/air personality Jake Reynolds is moving on from the station.Jake, also known as Matt Haze, left the station for a short time a while back, to take a full-time position at CHR WORK/107.1 Barre VT... then returned to 'KDD for the position he's now leaving. He'd been voicetracking overnights since his return, and had also been doing traffic (the car variety) for WKDD/WHLO/WARF in afternoon drive.From … [Read more...]

An update from WTAM/1100's website:Sportscaster and morning co-host Casey Coleman was released from the Cleveland Clinic on Saturday, just in time to watch the Browns play the Ravens on Sunday from his home TV. And, of course, he heard the Browns Radio Network broadcast as an outsider for the first time, including hearing WTAM Browns beat reporter Andre Knott once again fill in for him. (Too bad that Casey had to endure that Browns loss on Sunday!)WTAM's emphasizing the positive news from … [Read more...]

OMW first approached this topic below...when we shared the news of the new Fox TV local stations chief, and reports that the network intends on spreading the Fox "look and feel" down from its popular cable network to local Fox owned and operated - "O&O" - stations. One of those stations is Cleveland's WJW "Fox 8".Now, comes this from an article by Michael Learmonth at Variety magazine:"Staff at News Corp.'s far-flung station group -- which includes Fox and UPN affiliates across the country … [Read more...]

WTAM/1100 has now devoted a prominent space on their main web page to informing listeners about the health of Casey Coleman. The veteran Cleveland radio and TV sportscaster and co-host of WTAM's "Wills and Coleman" morning drive show has been in Cleveland Clinic since last week, where he had surgery on Friday related to pancreatic cancer.Unfortunately, it doesn't look like he'll be back home as soon as expected. The latest WTAM update says Casey "had a little setback" today (Thursday), and is … [Read more...]