Michael Graham Taking WSPD/Toledo PM Drive?

RUMOR ALERT: A Radio-Info Cleveland board regular with his ears close to the Toledo rumor mill drops this little bombshell: He says he hears deposed WMAL/Washington host Michael Graham will officially take the WSPD/1370 Toledo afternoon drive position, starting tomorrow. This is still a rumor, as we have not confirmed it, but the original message was posted by someone we believe would be in a position to hear about it, even second-hand.

Graham was suspended, and later fired, from the ABC-owned DC news/talk outlet for controversial remarks. He’s been doing fill-in on a number of stations, from Clear Channel talk powerhouse KFI/Los Angeles to even WSPD itself, in a recent stint in the slot opened by the departure of Denny Schaffer to WGST/Atlanta.

And to bring this full circle, Schaffer’s new program director in Atlanta is none other than Randall Bloomquist, who was Graham’s immediate boss in Washington, and who left the station a few weeks after Graham was let go. We speculated, when Graham was doing the WSPD fill-in, that he was waiting to join Bloomquist in Atlanta. But for now, if this is true, it appears he’ll be headed for the Glass City as opposed to the Peachtree City…at least, for now.

If Graham is indeed headed for WSPD as a permanent, local host, he won’t have a popular politician on his side. Former Mayor Carty Finkbeiner, who’s running again in an attempt to unseat current mayor Jack Ford, expressed his displeasure with Graham’s fill-in stint in a Toledo Blade article a few weeks ago. For his part, Ford wasn’t all that welcoming to Graham either, saying through a spokesman – “I do not welcome anyone to this community who is divisive.”

Graham’s entrance at the Toledo news/talker would shortly follow an exit – program director Al Brady Law, a radio veteran, has left the building to program talker KTRS in St. Louis.

Odds and Ends: Starting The Week (With Pictures!)

Checking in with updates to a few past OMW items:

* There’s been a lot of rumbling about why WXTM/92.3 morning doggie Rover (hey, we’re running out of dog references, here!) decided to head to Chicago’s WCKG/105.9…as the new home base for his expanding syndicated morning show. OMW even weighed in, noting that we’d heard it was Rover’s “dream” to be on the air in his original hometown…and figured, from what we’d heard from folks who heard him talk about it at the Cleveland “TalenTrak” conference, that the decision was his, and not Infinity’s.

Well, that’s apparently not the whole story, according to Mr. Shane “Rover” French himself, who posted an “Open Letter to Cleveland Fans” on his website.

Now, OMW isn’t sure how much of this is an attempt to appease upset Cleveland-area listeners, who have been E-Mailing Rover with complaints about him “selling out” or leaving Cleveland behind as the show’s home base. But unlike a lot of these letters, Rover’s seems to lay it out with a lot of detail, including stuff we’re assuming the Infinity brass wish he hadn’t have talked about.

The upshot: Rover tells his listeners that the idea to base out of Chicago was Infinity’s, and he agreed to make the move because it meant more resources for the show, more high-profile guests and because he felt major market stations wouldn’t take the show (Rover calls it “snobbery”) syndicated out of Cleveland.

Oh, he does mention that minor point about the fact that he and everyone else on the show will make more money, though he notes that it “won’t be much more” due to the cost of living in Chicago. He also noted his family ties to the Windy City.

So, read it, and make up your own mind.

* In response to our item about sportstalker WKNR/850 Cleveland picking up the minor league Lake County Captains next season, as a second station to Captains flagship WELW/1330 Willoughby, we heard from McKeesport (PA) Daily News media columnist Pat Cloonan. Pat reminds us that Clear Channel sports WBGG/970 Pittsburgh has run games of the minor league Washington (PA) Wild Things, carrying the feed from originating station WJPA in that southwest Pennsylvania city. He also notes that the minor league hockey Wheeling Nailers (second level farm club of the Pittsburgh Penguins) have been heard on Pittsburgh radio, on ABC-owned sports WEAE/1250.

* For some odd reason, we’re obsessed with visual changes on WOIO/19’s Browns pre-game and post-game shows. But there’s visual fodder for YOU to see, this time. On the morning pre-game show, for whatever reason, the station outfitted hosts Brian Duffy, Hanford Dixon and Chuck Galeti with full headsets, complete with microphone attached…for their broadcast from an empty Cleveland Browns Stadium. (WOIO’s David Pingalore and Sharon Reed were onsite at Reliant Stadium in Houston…the station was only using Browns Stadium as a backdrop.)

Does this picture strike everyone else as funny as it struck us? Maybe the station thought it would make them look more like football coaches or something, using the headsets instead of the more standard small earpieces that are used in TV production. Maybe they thought the headsets would look like earmuffs in chilly morning weather. Maybe they ran out of small earpieces or forgot to bring them. Heh. Whatever. But it looks all the more amusing looking at the microphone on the headset, which is pushed up away from the face to look like an antenna or something…

And on the “19 Action News” Cleveland Browns Post Game All-Brown Giant Couch of Doom, here’s a picture of show co-host and WNIR afternoon drive talk host Bob Golic. Or is that legendary country star Johnny Cash sitting next to fellow ex-Browns player Hanford Dixon, give or take a few pounds and a full beard?

We’re wondering if Golic wore this all-black outfit in response to a quip by Cleveland Plain Dealer media columnist Roger Brown…about his “casual” previous attire on the show. Oh, the only piece of news out of Brown’s Monday sports media column – he mentions WKNR/850’s plans to once again air a Cavaliers’ post-game show.

Now Filling In For Jerry…Who??

(Thanks to Radio-Info poster “bierkenstock” for the heads up.)

This pretty much came out of nowhere, but Friday, syndicated liberal radio host Jerry Springer (“Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!”) tapped an unusual fill-in for his show heard on a number of Clear Channel liberal talk stations, Air America’s network, and CC Cleveland’s WTAM/1100.

And that latter affiliate is where he went for the substitute host – Kevin Metheny, better known locally for his day job as Director of Programming for CC’s Cleveland cluster. According to Jerry’s site, Metheny was slated not only to talk about breaking news (of which there was a lot, politically), but was supposed to be surveying the show’s listeners on “what is good or not” about liberal talk radio.

This appearance brings OMW to the question – has Mr. Metheny done talk radio before? A quick look at his resume shows roughly 7 years of on-air work under the name “Kevin O’Brien” (and others) early in his career, but doesn’t show what kind of on-air work he’s done.

He’s been in programming management for the bulk of his time in the business…and is best known outside of Cleveland for being Howard Stern’s program director at WNBC in New York City in the early 80’s. (And yes, he was dubbed a porcine-related name by Howard on the air and in Howard’s movie “Private Parts”, which we’re sure he’s sick of hearing by now.) As far as we know, Metheny hasn’t been on the air regularly since the late 1970’s.

His stint doing Jerry’s show reminds us of another large market radio programmer who does regular on-air work here in the Buckeye State – Darryl Parks, the programming chief at Clear Channel’s Cincinnati cluster. Parks does a regular Saturday midday talk show on the mighty WLW/700, and from what we’ve heard of it, he’s actually a very good host.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to hear the show hosted by Parks’ Cleveland counterpart, as we only found out about it this evening.

Urban Talk Network Slated to Air in Cleveland

Radio One CEO Alfred Liggins tells the Boston Globe’s Clea Simon that the company is planning to launch a new nationwide talk radio network aimed at African-Americans on many of its own AM stations across the country, and that among the markets involved at launch will be…Cleveland.

The new network’s marquee attraction will be the Rev. Al Sharpton, a former presidential candidate who’s made noises about going into talk radio before. He’s slated to host the 1-4 PM ET slot, putting him in almost direct competition with names like Premiere’s Rush Limbaugh and Air America’s Al Franken. With no further details, a new syndicated talk radio gig for Rev. Sharpton was announced earlier this year. Limbaugh noted the May story on his show, and jokingly offered to provide Rev. Sharpton with radio training.

The Radio One-operated network – which will also be offered to other non-company owned stations – will program 10 AM to 7 PM ET, and will leave morning drive open to local stations. There could be at least one reason for that – Radio One is launching the new urban talk network with Reach Media, which produces and syndicates urban morning radio superstar Tom Joyner’s show. It’s much like Fox Sports Radio not producing live programming from noon to 3 PM ET, to make way for stations to carry Premiere’s Jim Rome.

Sharpton will be followed in afternoon drive by Doug and Ryan Stewart out of Atlanta, better known to ESPN2 viewers as “Two Live Stews”. Their local radio program currently runs on Atlanta sports talker WQXI/790 “The Zone”. The fledging network is still seeking a midday host (10 AM-1 PM ET) before it launches sometime in early 2006.

It doesn’t take the proverbial rocket scientist to point out that Radio One’s WERE/1300, currently running brokered talk and other paid programs, is likely to be the destination for this effort in Cleveland…though the company does also program gospel-formatted WJMO/1490 on the AM band, in addition to its two FMs in the market – WZAK/93.1 and WENZ/107.9.

WKNR/850 To Air Lake County Captains in 2006

It’s not often that a major market sports station becomes the second affiliate for radio broadcasts of a Single-A minor league baseball team, but it’s just happened in Cleveland.

The Lake County Captains have announced that Salem sportstalker WKNR/850 Cleveland will broadcast 120 games of the popular Eastlake-based minor league team in the 2006 season. It will not be the flagship station. That honor goes to Willoughby’s WELW/1330, which has broadcast the team since it began play in Lake County. WELW will continue to air all 140 of the team’s games, will originate the coverage, and play-by-play announcer David Wilson will be in his fourth season as the team’s radio voice. The Captains are the Indians’ “high-level A” affiliate.

OMW’s generally thought that more play-by-play is better for a sports station, and WKNR hasn’t had many “lakefront” (so to speak) PBP contracts. By far, WKNR’s biggest contract is as the Cleveland home of Ohio State sports, and it also carries Cleveland State games. While we’re generally a fan of minor league baseball (including Akron’s own Aeros), we’re not sure how it looks for a top 30 market sports station to “follow along” as an affiliate of a Single-A team, whose broadcasts are produced by a tiny suburban AM that can barely be heard outside Lake County at night. But…we will be listening, and we’re sure WELW does a fine job on the broadcasts.

One thing in WKNR’s favor – it’s at least better than infomercials or paid quasi-sports related programming in the evening hours and on weekends.

Rover’s Chicago Dream

Like some others, OMW speculated that the move of WXTM/92.3 Cleveland morning dog Rover to Chicago – to mount his new syndication in place of Howard Stern in some markets – was prompted by Infinity wanting to base him in one of the top 3 markets in the country.

Well, as it turns out, not so much.

A number of observers in the business report that it’s Shane “Rover” French’s dream to go on the air from his original hometown market. Mr. French, 30, was born in the Chicago area, and lived there as a youngster. French reportedly told crowds at the recent Conclave “TalenTrak” convention in Cleveland that he’d basically move heaven and earth to be on the air in Chicago. He’s never been on there, despite the fact he’s worked in larger markets than Cleveland.

Well, that earth and heaven may have already been moving at the time, as we’ve known for some time that Rover was in the “Stern replacements” mix, certainly before this recent conference on the North Coast. In fact, WXTM’s morning doberman was the very FIRST name mentioned officially by Infinity, when he was signed to his new multi-year deal with the local station now formerly known as “Xtreme Radio”. The announcement hinted – correctly, as it turned out – that Rover would replace Stern on stations in Midwestern markets.

So, we apologize for believing that Infinity couldn’t possibly want Rover in Cleveland, syndicating out to Chicago instead of syndicating IN to Chicago from the hinterlands…

(Oh, and Rover, if you’re reading this – if you don’t like being called a “doberman”, feel free to let us know which breed you’d like to be. Use the “View my complete profile” link at the left to E-Mail OMW. We’re running out of dog puns, frankly!)

Chicago Media Weighs In On Rover

When 30 year-old Shane French – nom du chien “Rover” – takes over for Howard Stern in a half-dozen markets in early January, Chicago will be by far his largest market. So, it’s no surprise that the Chicago media is focusing on his ascension to the Windy City, where he’ll relocate after a successful run at Cleveland’s WXTM/92.3 (which will still carry “Rover’s Morning Glory” as an affiliate).

The Chicago Tribune’s Phil Rosenthal talks to Rover, and gets a bead on his feelings…and describes his show. One notable quote: “Clearly, in Rover, the city is not getting a candidate to become the next host of public television’s ‘Chicago Tonight.’ Instead it’s a guy who once staged a hoax in which he pretended a cat had been tethered to a helium balloon and let loose aloft.”

The article notes that Mr. French was born in the Chicagoland area, and spent his earliest years in the Chicago suburbs before being moved by his family out west. His sidekick, “Duji”, has spent time on Chicago airwaves, as a co-host for veteran Chi-town personality Kevin Matthews.

But, though it’s a homecoming for Rover, it’s not a radio homecoming, as he’s never been on in that market. Rover’s most notable stint before coming to Cleveland was doing nights at a Denver rock station called “The Peak”…the gig that first brought him to the attention of those watching radio nationally.

The Tribune article also quotes Infinity’s Joel Hollander, who repeats his belief that Rover will skew younger than Stern. And Hollander talked up Rover’s ratings on WXTM, saying he’s a “strong #2” to Stern on WNCX/98.5.

It’ll be interesting to see if he can overtake one of Stern’s other replacements in the only market where they’ll compete head-to-head…as David Lee Roth will air in Stern’s current slot on WNCX.

Meanwhile, media beat writer dean Robert Feder is far less kind to Rover in his column in the Chicago Sun-Times, ripping Infinity management for passing over a host of known Chicago radio/media quantities in the time they had to come up for a replacement for Stern on WCKG:

“So what did they do in all that time? They bungled Mancow Muller, alienated Jonathon Brandmeier, overlooked Mike North, rejected Eddie & Jobo, disregarded Bob Sirott, stiffed Garry Meier, ignored Steve Cochran and lost Kevin Matthews.

Instead of all those options — or any others worthy of Chicago — they decided to go with some dog from Cleveland named Rover.”

Ouch. That’s a bite!

FOX 8 News at 10…er…2:30 AM?

We’ve finally encountered circumstances which would force local FOX O&O WJW/8 Cleveland to entirely cancel its 10 PM newscast.

Last night’s “longest ever” World Series game lasted some 5 hours and 41 minutes, before the Chicago White Sox finally beat the Houston Astros in the 14th inning. We were without sleep last night in the OMW World Headquarters in northwest suburban Akron, so we were watching the game late into the night. And as 1 AM gave way to 1:30, and then 2 AM, we pondered if WJW would actually try mounting even a half-hour news show in the middle of the night. At some point, we started wondering if they’d call in the “FOX 8 News in the Morning” staff a couple of hours early!

But alas, there’s not a lot of money to be made off of running a newscast that regularly runs in prime-time, at 2:30 AM. FOX 8 mercifully gave Bill, Stacey, Dick and Tony the rest of the night off, and didn’t force them to make continuing jokes about “oh, we mean later TODAY”… and a “Seinfeld” rerun immediately followed the World Series post-game.

How To Take Three Stations Off The Air In One Easy Step

OMW hasn’t had a lot of fun in the World of Glunt recently, so let’s go back there, shall we?

For new readers, that means we’ll be talking about that Youngstown/Warren market cluster known as Beacon Broadcasting, owned by Warren steel supply magnate Harold Glunt. Among the operations in Glunt Land: WANR/1570 Warren, WRTK/1540 Niles, WLOA/1470 Farrell PA, WGRP/940 Greenville PA, and WEXC/107.1 Greenville PA – the latter targetting Youngstown as Christian rocker “Freq 107”.

We hear that Beacon sales manager Michael “Angel” Arch – former majority owner of the company until this year, selling his interest to Glunt – just can’t resist “playing radio”. OMW hears that WANR/1570’s “family friendly” oldies programming suddenly left the air one recent Sunday afternoon, on a shift manned by Mr. Arch. In its place on AM 1570? An unidentified webcast from “Live365.com”, apparently pulled up on the WANR automation computer because Arch wanted to listen to it in the studio.

But that’s not all! (As the late night TV pitchman would say…)

The act of switching the main WANR automation computer around to hear a webcast for personal, off-air reasons also ended up taking simulcast station WLOA/1470 *completely* off the air. The WANR automation computer directly feeds the WLOA transmitter via an Internet feed, as OMW suspected some time back. From our best guess, the move would have also taken WGRP/940 – the third station in the “family friendly oldies” simulcast – off the air, as it seems to feed directly off of WLOA.

This means when Mr. Arch decided he needed to hear some tunes which were not airing on the station which actually EMPLOYS him…he changed programming on one station, and took two other stations completely dark, for the better part of a Sunday afternoon. Given that we’ve heard “Michael Angel” strain to attach religious meanings to secular oldies tunes on Sunday afternoons in the past, he may well have done a public service.

Some advice to Mr. Arch from OMW – next time you feel the need to listen to something else, bring along an MP3 player or a CD. Or, we’re guessing that you’ll likely have PLENTY of time to listen to other audio, at home…

Oh, OMW also hears that Mr. Glunt may indeed be considering “kicking the tires” at troubled stations WGFT/1330 Campbell and WRBP/101.9 Hubbard, both in the Youngstown market. The stations are owned by Stop 26 Riverbend Productions, which was recently told by a bankruptcy court to get in shape financially or sell those stations, as well as WASN/1500 Youngstown and two stations in the Columbus market.

If Beacon bought 1330, it could easily sell off recent acquisition WRTK/1540 in that market, which as far as we know has yet to change formats from urban contemporary. 1330 is a far better signal, and is not a daytimer like Niles-based WRTK. And 101.9 would make a nice full-market replacement for Greenville PA rimshot WEXC/107.1, as a new home for “Freq”. We’ll be watching…

The Cleveland "Free FM"/Stern Departure Fallout – Big Rover News

(UPDATED – 2:35 PM ET)

There’s been a lot of speculation on what happens after Howard Stern leaves over-air radio, and now we have an official answer from Infinity itself…and at least in part, it involves a local morning star here in Northeast Ohio.

A week after basically denying rumors it was flipping a number of FM stations to younger-skewing talk, the company is doing exactly that.

And the Stern plans are as expected, with regional replacements including former Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth, comedian/TV/”Loveline” late night radio host Adam Carolla and…as originally announced months ago, Cleveland’s own “Rover”, who holds forth at alt-rock WXTM/92.3 and is currently syndicated to two other stations.

Under the plans announced today by Infinity, “Rover” (er, Shane French when he’s not barking into a microphone) will stay on WXTM…but will physically move to Infinity talker WCKG/105.9 in Chicago, which is one of Infinity’s FM talk stations now being rebranded as “Free FM”. He’ll add not only WCKG to his list, but will also be heard on WKRK/Detroit, WAQZ/Cincinnati, WZNE/Rochester and WMFS/Memphis.

But…Cleveland’s morning radio dog (soon to be Chicago’s) will also be competing here with the New York-based Roth, who will slide into the Stern morning slot on WNCX/98.5. Roth will also be heard on Stern’s big market east coast affiliates in Boston, Philadelphia and a couple of other markets, including the current Stern affiliate in Pittsburgh. (Roth won’t get Washington DC or Baltimore, which will air WJFK/Washington’s “Junkies” in morning drive.)

We’ve read and re-read the announcement, and it appears Cleveland is the only market which will see two of the Stern Replacements going head to head – Rover and Roth.

The Infinity news, which we first spotted thanks to our friend Perry Michael Simon’s item on AllAccess.com, is also found in this company press release. It indicates that WNCX will keep its current classic rock format after Roth’s show, and there is NO indication that WXTM will drop its alt-rock format after Rover. In an Infinity press conference call monitored by AllAccess, company brass indicated that adding him to WKRK/Detroit – instead of Roth – was a “last minute decision” aimed at giving Rover a shot at some larger markets. They noted that Rover skews younger in the ratings, which they were looking for at some stations, and that he’s “definitely less edgy” than Stern.

We’ll have to echo one thought already expressed by some others – it’s sad that Infinity feels the need to move Rover out of Cleveland to front his new syndication in the Windy City. We suppose it makes sense, because Roth is in NYC and Carolla is in Los Angeles, but Mr. French’s show built up its following here.

And Infinity needs only to look at its own Westwood One-syndicated afternoon drive show in Washington DC, hosted by WJFK’s Don Geronimo and Mike O’Meara, to see how bad moving a show to a larger market can torpedo momentum. The show adopted New York City as a second home, after being syndicated to WNEW/102.7 in that market.

Here’s hoping Rover doesn’t imitate that move – which saw the veteran DC radio team basically try to plant themselves in the nostrils of the Big Apple, while basically shunning the audience which built their empire in the Nation’s Capital. We’ll see…