Ohio Media Watch

A small item in Roger Brown's Friday Plain Dealer column caught OMW's attention.It appears local NBC affiliate WKYC/3 got the legal smackdown from the National...Football...League over use of Browns action highlights in the background of their Monday night Browns review show, "The Point After". The NFL also slapped WKYC on the wrist with a "cease and desist" order for using audio of the Browns' radio network call of game action, while it showed highlights from the game.What makes the latter all … [Read more...]

If Akron-born superstar LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers manage to bring an NBA championship to Cleveland in the next three seasons, it'll be heard on current Cavaliers flagship WTAM/1100.The team and the Clear Channel news/talker announced this week that the WTAM deal has been extended through the 2007-2008 season. The Cavaliers are also heard on a number of other Northeast Ohio stations, including Akron's WAKR/1590, Canton's WHBC/1480 and Wooster's WQKT/104.5. The Cavaliers very … [Read more...]

From the OMW Glunt Bureau: The Warren steel supply magnate is getting all of his radio ducks in a row, officially.Harold Glunt's application to transfer full control of Beacon Broadcasting, Inc. to himself has been approved and completed. Glunt also filed to purchase daytimer WRTK/1540 Niles (now complete), and WLOA/1470 Farrell PA (approved this week by the FCC), under his own name. They'll both migrate to the Beacon corporate identity shortly, which is just a formality, since he now controls … [Read more...]

We'd put up the "BREAKING NEWS" graphic, but since it doesn't move and we don't have music, you'll just have to deal with text.OMW gets the word direct from the NAB Radio Show in Philadelphia of an NAB Marconi Award win for WMJI/105.7 Cleveland morning team John Lanigan and Jimmy Malone. The Clear Channel oldies station's long-time morning show was nominated under the "Large Market Personality of the Year" category. Also nominated were personalities and shows from San Diego, Denver, … [Read more...]

OMW would like to congratulate John Crenshaw, Clear Channel country WCOL/Columbus' PD/middayer, who now gets the entire Clear Channel Columbus cluster under his programming oversight. Crenshaw takes the VP/Programming position in the wake of Steve Konrad's exit - Konrad is returning to his former radio home, Hubbard talk KSTP in Minneapolis (and sister FM talk station WFMP, which targets female listeners).Crenshaw is a veteran of Northeast Ohio radio, with stations like WNCX and WRQC in the … [Read more...]

Normally, not much farther south than Canton comes to the attention of our OMW Ears... but a recent jaunt down to Pittsburgh for dinner with some friends brought us back the long way, via I-70 and I-77 back into Northeast Ohio. Some random notes from that excursion:* The talk radio market is actually more competitive in the Wheeling WV/Ohio Valley region. Long-time leader WWVA/1170 Wheeling has a new competitor, and among those involved are former station employees. Former WWVA afternoon drive … [Read more...]

As promised, here's some of the stuff that's been rumored, reported or talked about that Hasn't Happened Yet.* Infinity hot AC WQAL/104.1 "Q104" still has an open afternoon drive slot. Monday, we heard Q104's talented midday personality Jen Toohey in early afternoon drive. It wouldn't be likely to see her move permanently, because she's too vital to the station's midday slot. (And if we were listing the best Talent Swipes of recent memory, once certainly was Infinity picking up Jen from Clear … [Read more...]

A couple of OMW footnotes:* We hear it may have indeed been financial issues that torpedoed any possible television coverage of the Cleveland Indians' big 11-0 win over the Kansas City Royals on Sunday. Part of it - a quick addition of the game to their schedule wouldn't allow Fox Sports Net Ohio to sell advertising for it, so they'd make no money off of doing it. (We're told that FSN Ohio *would* have been able to do it, because ESPN's Sunday rights generally don't extend to day games in the … [Read more...]

Clear Channel Columbus market classic rock WFJZ/105.7 "The Fox" has reportedly changed to "The Brew at 105.7" today, with the slogan "Rock With Real Variety".We're not familiar with "The Fox's" playlist, but the audio loop on the front of the station's new website seems to be somewhat more broader-based than the traditional "classic rock" format, with lots of 80's music emphasized. It could very well be a clone of "97.3 The Brew", a Milwaukee Clear Channel FM that is generally called a … [Read more...]

Short Take 1: When did WOIO/19's airwaves turn into the Sharon Reed Dating Service? OK, so we're mostly joking. But during the station's "McDonald's Browns Tonight" show late Sunday, we did indeed see the "19 Action News" anchor, in the hallways of Lambeau Field, asking Browns star rookie wide receiver Braylon Edwards if he'd "join (her) tomorrow night".Uh, yeah, on the station's "Browns Town" talk show, she meant, but we'll assume he knew that without her having to say the name of the show. The … [Read more...]