Ohio Media Watch

Local listeners have noticed a regular new midday host on WMVX/106.5 "Mix 106.5" - by the name of Lori Bradley. The Clear Channel Cleveland Hot AC station is still looking for an afternoon personality, as OMW noted a while back.Lori's been saying the word "Mix" into a microphone for a long time. She worked at "Mix" stations in Austin and Houston, and has been voicetracking for the "Mix" station in Rochester, all of them owned by Clear Channel. She replaces other voices heard in middays on 106.5, … [Read more...]

While waiting for WYBL/98.3 Ashtabula to unleash its country "Bull" tomorrow...It turns out that there's yet ANOTHER possible FM station in Ashtabula's future. OMW stumbled upon this allocation from the FCC earlier this year...granting a move by long-time broadcast engineer Dana Puopolo to add a class A allocation on 96.1 FM in Ashtabula. According to our good friends at NorthEast Radio Watch, Puopolo originally tried for an allocation on 95.9 just up I-90 in Erie a couple of years ago. Unlike … [Read more...]

Cleveland CBS affiliate WOIO/19 has made a big deal about their new deal with the NFL's Cleveland Browns. Along with broadcasting the team's pre-season games, and producing other programs, 19 proudly proclaims itself "The Official Home of the Browns" on the air.Someone might want to send a note down to Reserve Square to remind them that WOIO only bought the rights to AIR the Browns, not to run the training camp in Berea.OMW hears that WOIO's staffers spent much of the first week of training camp … [Read more...]

A confirmation on our earlier report... as OMW hears the news from WFHM/95.5 Cleveland "The Fish" morning co-host Robin Swoboda.Robin tells OMW that her last day at the Salem contemporary Christian station will be August 19th. And as we indicated in the earlier report, Mrs. Swoboda-Wagner tells us that it's indeed for family reasons. Her husband, former Cleveland Browns punter Bryan Wagner, now has a teaching job which starts at 7:45, and her three children have a new school with a new starting … [Read more...]

When stations are in the throes of format changes, and are stunting, OMW can't resist.We piled into the newly-tagged OMW Mobile this afternoon and headed for Ashtabula, where we confirmed our earlier listener report of WYBL/98.3's stunting. The station abandoned its temporary oldies format, and is now running a continuous loop of country songs with the word "country" in them. (We're no country music experts at OMW, but it sounds like they're all from the same artist.)And new since our last … [Read more...]

Update on the story of new Clear Channel oldies WYBL/98.3 Ashtabula:A listener in the region tells us that they've dumped the temporary oldies format entirely, and are now stunting with such songs as "Gone Country", "Rock My World, Little Country Girl" and other songs with the word "country" in them, in a continuous loop.OMW reported earlier that WYBL was slipping country songs into the oldies format, and was hinting at a format change with "bull noises". It's expected that WYBL will adopt a … [Read more...]

At OMW World Headquarters overnight Thursday into Friday morning, we rode through some lines of heavy thunderstorms safely, and didn't lose power or have any problems once. The folks at Clear Channel Akron/Canton wish they could say the same.OMW hears that lightning directly struck the tall tower behind the CC Akron/Canton building on Freedom Avenue in North Canton, in heavy thunderstorm weather early Friday morning. It's believed the tower was struck at least twice.The damage was so severe that … [Read more...]

It's not like Clear Channel's Ashtabula cluster wants to hide its intentions with new signon WYBL/98.3.More than once here in OMW, we've pointed to market rumors and other signs that the new station, which hit the air running automated oldies with no production other than a brief legal ID, would go country as "The Bull"...a name even suggested by the "WYBL" calls.A listener in the region now tells OMW that WYBL has "now added some country into its oldies mix, and they are now running teasers … [Read more...]

You might remember Jaz McKay from his stint as a talk show host at the station then known as"3WE", today's WTAM/1100 Cleveland. He was one in a very long line of what could be called "talk radio experiments" on the station, before Jacor bought it and transformed it into today's Clear Channel-owned news/talk powerhouse.Jaz has, until recently, done evenings at Infinity talk KMJ/580 in Fresno, California. As of August 22nd, according to AllAccess, he'll be working just down California Highway 99 … [Read more...]

From the department of "One of Our Favorite Obsessions": A listener along the Ohio/PA border reports that once-silent WGRP/940 Greenville PA has returned to the air.Take a guess what format it's running! Go on, we'll wait.We'll give you a hint - what format does Beacon Broadcasting's Harold Glunt run on the AM dial? You guessed it...the "Wexy 107" oldies format once heard on WGRP sister station WEXC/107.1 in that same city. 107.1 has been Youngstown-targetting Christian rocker "Freq 107" for a … [Read more...]