Standoff Disrupts Lorain County Broadcasters

An overnight standoff with a man who left a Lorain County mental hospital, then holed himself up in an Oberlin barn before committing suicide early this morning, was also a problem for two area radio stations.

Regular OMW reader Nathan Obral tells us that the standoff location along U.S. 20 was “within shouting distance” of two locally co-owned stations, country WOBL/1320 and oldies WDLW/1380. That meant that not only could the stations’ two morning hosts not even get into the studios to do their regular shows – Jeff Vietzen for WOBL and Rich Kelly for WDLW – but the stations’ news departments were also unable to get on the air and report on the situation. Because they weren’t facing the same problem, WEOL/930’s Colleen O’Neill and WTAM/1100’s Greg Saber were able to cover the standoff.

Local authorities also closed the nearby Lorain County Joint Vocational School.

Nathan tells us that since both WOBL and WDLW were running on automation when the standoff situation began, they at least were able to remain on the air… even if they weren’t able to “go live” until nearly 10 AM.

Report: Jim Meltzer Out at Clear Channel/Cleveland

AllAccess is reporting tonight that long-time Clear Channel Cleveland market manager and regional VP/GM Jim Meltzer has left the building. They quote Meltzer: “I had a great run and we built some really great properties.”

The trade website reports that the company’s central region senior VP/GM, Bill Gentry, is looking for Meltzer’s replacement.

Watch 19 Action News Wednesday Night – OR DIE!!!!!

OK, so it’s a standard ratings-grabbing attempt by local TV news operations, and Cleveland CBS affiliate WOIO/19 isn’t the first to do it for its “19 Action News”. But this one is especially over the top.

As videotape of various people standing at exploding, fiery gas pumps rolls, 19’s promo announcer implores you that the station will have “THE ONE THING YOU CAN DO TO SAVE YOUR LIFE”… in its report Wednesday night on “19 Action News” called “KILLER PUMPS”.

Presumably, the only way you can save yourself from catching on fire or getting killed at the gas pumps is to wait until Wednesday, and wait for the helpful folks at WOIO to give you that piece of crucial information.

Or, perhaps you can use common sense, and follow the instructions that are put up by nearly every gas pump in America. You know, stuff like don’t use electronic equipment by the pump, and more importantly, don’t build up static electricity by going back and forth between the inside of your car and the pump.

There. We saved you from having to endure the over-the-top “WATCH 19 ACTION NEWS OR DIE” hype. It’s a public service, courtesy of OMW…

A Taste of Jim Rome

Some time ago, Salem Cleveland sportstalker WKNR/850 proudly announced that they’d be running a replay of Premiere midday host Jim Rome’s show at 12 midnight each night. Some of us apparently assumed incorrectly that Rome’s show would air in its entirety, from midnight to 3 AM.

Not true, night owls.

We heard this once before, but have verified it tonight. ‘KNR’s overnight “Rome Replay” is better titled “A Taste of Rome”. The station squeezes the show into a much smaller time slot than a full 3 hour replay. The first time we heard this, Rome’s replay ended at 1:30 AM (!!), just in time to make way for…you guessed it…an infomercial.

This early Tuesday morning, WKNR played the first segment of Rome’s first hour from Monday. After a very brief commercial (promo) break, just 25 minutes later, they began the second hour replay of Monday’s show. Assuming this wasn’t a computer glitch, it sounds like they’re hurrying things along for a 1 AM infomercial.

Anyone expecting to catch the full Jim Rome show on WKNR in overnights is apparently going to be disappointed. We checked the schedule on WKNR’s sparse website, and it lists nothing after Kenny Roda’s afternoon drive show…thus reflecting the thoughts of many sports radio listeners in the market, that 850 basically shuts down after 7 PM weekdays (except for an Ohio State game or two).

It’s not like we can blame SportsTalk 850 for going after that easy overnight infomercial money…we just expected to get Romey in his entirety. But we’re likely to raise the ire of the station’s management again with this entry.

As we told them the last time they complained…if anyone attaches any credibility to our words here, it’s entirely up to them. Though they apparently feel particularly attacked by us, we’ve mentioned many times that there’s a lot we enjoy out of WKNR. (Scroll down a page or so to read just one example.) We’ll mention another right here – we think station regular Neil Bender did a very capable job filling in for Kenny Roda on the Friday after Thanksgiving, and as mentioned below, he was our final choice on the radio dial that afternoon.

If you can’t take our criticism, well, you don’t have to answer us. OMW makes its motivation quite clear, and basically, while we do our best to strive for accuracy… we’re just a blog with an opinion or two. That’s all. We do not represent OMW as the Be All and End All of Media News and Opinion in this region, and never have. Any “swagger” you think you’re reading here is entirely tongue in cheek, and always has been.

It’s the Internet, after all. Take what you read with a box of salt.

"Tim, Dick, Robin And Casey – Together Again"

A brief promo for WJW/8’s “FOX 8 News In The Morning” implies something of a one-day reunion of a former long-time station on-air team during Monday’s show…anchors Tim Taylor and Robin Swoboda, weatherman Dick Goddard and sportscaster Casey Coleman. (You can also see a graphic promoting this at FOX 8’s website.)

We’re not sure what’s up here. For one, Taylor and Goodard work together every night on FOX 8 News at 6. And Casey Coleman’s current health situation is well-known…we’ll be thrilled if he’s able to come in to the FOX 8 studios tomorrow even for a brief appearance. Or, perhaps WJW will send out a camera crew to his suburban Cleveland home. On today’s Cleveland Browns Radio Network broadcast, Jim Donovan noted briefly that Casey was “feeling well”, and WTAM’s web page updating Casey’s condition would appear to confirm that…that obstacles to some of his cancer therapy seem to be in the past for now.

Robin Swoboda, of course, recently left the morning co-host position at Salem Cleveland CCM WFHM/95.5 “The Fish” for family reasons, and it’ll be good to see her make such a visit as well.

Anyway, just a heads up from this corner…perhaps Tim Taylor’s recent retirement announcement got folks waxing nostalgic up on South Marginal Drive, and they arranged this visit…

Here A Game, There A Game…Everywhere But…

It was an interesting afternoon looking for talk radio on the Northeast Ohio radio scene this Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Almost everyone was out of their regular schedule, carrying a football or basketball game.

* WTAM/1100 afternoon motormouth Mike Trivisonno was not heard on The Big One…instead, the Cleveland Clear Channel talker carried a college football game of some sort. (We can’t remember who was playing, but we THINK it was Nebraska vs. Colorado.)

* On Akron market talker WNIR/100.1, the voice of play-by-play man Bill Needle was heard, via telephone, from South Padre Island TX, as the Kent State Golden Flashes men’s basketball team took on Rutgers.

* On Clear Channel talker WHLO/640 in Akron, we believe it was the Kent State women’s basketball team in action. (All of this is starting to run together.)

* On CC sister liberal talker WARF/1350 “Radio Free Ohio” in Akron, your Akron University women’s basketball Zips took on Cleveland State.

Would you believe who was NOT carrying any sports play-by-play on Friday?

Hang on, we’ll wait.

You guessed it, the Cleveland market’s only sports format radio station, Salem’s WKNR/850. Instead of sports action of any sort, the mighty ‘KNR featured…its regular afternoon sports talk show, with station staffer Neil Bender filling in for afternoon drive host Kenny Roda.

And oddly enough, the only OTHER sports format radio station in the region, MediaCom east suburban rimshot Fox Sports Radio affiliate WJMP/1520 Kent, was also running sports talk instead of play-by-play, with FSR’s Scott Ferrall filling in for afternoon driver Chris Myers. (We don’t expect much out of WJMP, and we don’t believe it even gets sports play-by-play overflow from sister station WNIR.)

Believe it or not, as a listener, we’ll give this nod to WKNR. Here at OMW Central, we didn’t really have a lot of interest in an out-of-market college football game, or any of the local college basketball offerings…so we ended up with Mr. Bender on our radio on Friday afternoon. We just thought it was odd that sports play-by-play was all over the dial on talk radio stations, while sports-formatted stations were doing regular sports talk…

More Indians/ONN Stuff

Plain Dealer sports/media columnist Roger Brown does some more musing today on the prospect of cable’s Ohio News Network (ONN) picking up the Indians TV deal this season.

This time, Roger speculates that ONN is hoping to ride the Indians’ success on the field to prominence on Ohio’s cable television lineups. Presumably, this would come in some parts of the state at the expense of the Cincinnati Reds, a team which we suppose Roger believes would lose long-time fans because the Reds stink and the Indians could be headed back to World Series Land.

We’ve heard of reaches before, but this one crosses a few counties.

One thing we did think about while sharing this news with a relative who has satellite TV at home…to the best of our knowledge, ONN is NOT carried by either DirecTV or Dish Network. They only carry the local over-air stations, and FSN Ohio. If ONN picks up the Tribe, they’d surely want the satellite audience in Ohio, no? We haven’t heard any rumblings that ONN is even aware of this potential problem…and the Indians 2006 season is not THAT far away.

One would also presume that the Dispatch Broadcast Group folks in Columbus – ONN’s owners, not the state of Ohio, Roger – would want more money from both satellite and cable operators to cover the reported cost of picking up the Indians broadcasts. And as more than one OMW reader noted, Time Warner…just months away from becoming Northeast Ohio’s most prominent cable operator…carries ONN on a digital channel. (119, if we remember right.)

In all, there are lots of hurdles ahead in this deal as far as potential viewers are concerned. OMW hopes the Indians are aware of that.

Indians TV Deal Reportedly Near

It’s been an on-and-off topic in the writings of Cleveland Plain Dealer sports media columnist Roger Brown, but now the Akron Beacon Journal’s Sheldon Ocker weighs in on the status of the Cleveland Indians TV contract talks.

Ocker says “word off the street” is that long-time rightsholder FSN Ohio is no longer in the running for the full-season (155 game) package, and that the bidding is between Dispatch’s Ohio News Network and local NBC affiliate WKYC/3. (Unlike Brown, Ocker doesn’t attribute ownership of ONN to the state of Ohio.) The reported rights fees could be in the neighborhood of $30 million a year, which is a pretty high amount for a market the size of Cleveland.

Ocker notes that if WKYC were to land the rights, it could ship off a number of the games to another channel, either ONN or even FSN Ohio, while airing a limited number of contests over air on Channel 3.

The Beacon Journal sportswriter says it’s believed the Indians will announce their decision soon.

If ONN does end up with any games, OMW hopes that Adelphia will either move or fix the channel. It’s at the upper end of the analog spectrum (channel 70), and is plagued with interference on all of our cable-connected sets. This could well play its way out separately anyway, as Adelphia’s local systems are likely to be absorbed into Time Warner Cable by around the start of the 2006 baseball season.

The Luckiest Guy In The World

OMW would be remiss if we didn’t pass along a link to this article by the Plain Dealer’s Michael Heaton. It’s the first in an occasional series of visits with WTAM/1100 morning co-host and sportscaster Casey Coleman, who’s got a very hard road ahead of him…battling pancreatic cancer.

And it’s only fitting that this article shows up on Thanksgiving Day. For despite being told he has about a 12 percent chance of surviving five years, Coleman still believes he’s…the luckiest guy in the world.

Here’s hoping Casey is in that 12 percent, and more.

What We’re Thankful For – Radio and TV Division

This was originally conceived as a segment called “What We Like”…to provide some positive balance to the occasionally not-so-positive points highlighted here and in other online venues. But since Thanksgiving is upon us…it’s “What We’re Thankful For”. And some local media outlets who take some constructive criticism by us will lead the list…

WOIO/19 – WUAB/43’s “19 Action News”: Perhaps the most frequent recipient of our barbs, but we don’t dislike everything at the local CBS/UPN affiliate combo. The station actually has a pretty decent, solid field reporting staff, including market veterans like Paul Orlousky and newcomers like former WKBN/27 Youngstown anchor Catherine Bosley, who’s apparently still a freelancer…but who’s deserving of a regular slot.

And though OMW feels that WOIO often pushes OVER the “sensationalism” line…OK, maybe they stomp on it…there’s something to be said for 19 staking out their position in the Cleveland market as a more lively, up-tempo newscast. We’ve always liked sports director Chuck Galeti, but our “guilty pleasure” at Reserve Square is hyperactive weather anchor Jeff Tanchak. He’s basically the TV equivalent of NoDoz, and is fun to watch. His forecasting isn’t bad either. While he’s certainly no Dick Goddard on any number of levels, he did well in a recent survey of local forecasters by the Akron Beacon Journal. And for OMW, it doesn’t hurt that the off-air “buzz” about Tanchak is very positive…no ego here.

We’re also thankful for a pretty good range of local TV weather forecasters, from the frantic Tanchak, to the still upbeat but more calm Mark Johnson on WEWS/5, to the solid Mark Nolan on WKYC/3 (and Akron/Canton’s Time Warner 23). And then there’s the dependable Mr. Goddard, WJW/8’s mainstay, who gets an entire category by himself, as he well deserves after keeping his finger on the area’s weather pulse for over 40 years.

WKNR/850: The Salem-owned Cleveland sportstalker has taken more of its share of hits from this corner, and other local media observers. But since we’re focusing on the positive, we’re thankful for long-time local sports talk host Greg Brinda, who took over the station’s midday position again after Bruce Drennan’s recent, umm, troubles. The change instantly returned the station as a destination for the OMW Mobile’s radio between 9 AM and noon.

Elsewhere on the schedule, we’re not the biggest fans of afternoon driver Kenny Roda, but he usually provides a dependable sports talk stop when we’re tired of a certain afternoon talk host up the dial. WKNR is also pretty good about the usual Indians/Cavs/Browns pre-game and post-game shows, in the typical “non-rightsholder” manner…and provides a much needed counter-viewpoint on local sports issues.

And speaking of which…

WTAM/1100: The station’s 24/7 newsroom is vital for the region. And yes, though it’s basically a “headline service”, what do you expect out of commercial news/talk radio? We’re not talking NPR here, folks, and nor should we. (Local NPR outlets like WKSU/89.7 and WCPN/90.3 more than ably fill that role, thank you very much.) There’s still a talented news crew at Oak Tree, and we’re still wondering if hard-working reporter Greg Saber is somehow hitching a ride on the station’s decommissioned traffic helicopter. Either that, or he can actually be in three places at once.

Though we have made it clear that afternoon motormouth Mike Trivisonno isn’t our favorite radio host, the afternoon show still provides some entertaining moments. And for now, one of OMW’s favorites is alongside Triv…Indians beat reporter and “Weekend Sportsline” host Mark Schwab, who’s clearly destined for bigger things.

While we’re on the topic, we’re thankful for not only our own health, but the continued recovery of WTAM morning drive co-host and long-time sports anchor Casey Coleman, and we pray for his full recovery and return as soon as he’s up to coming back on the radio.

WNIR/100.1: The Akron-market talker still pumps out a nearly full schedule of local talk, 5:30 AM-11 PM weekdays, and now from 6 AM to 7 PM on Saturday. Midday fixture Howie Chizek is the host who got us started listening to talk radio at the age of 10 (!!!), back when the station was WKNT (AM & FM).

WHLO/640 and WARF/1350: While neither station features significant local programming, we’re still glad they are there. The stations make OMW’s midday talk listening habit difficult…adding right-leaning humorist Glenn Beck (WHLO) and the talented left-leaning funny woman Stephanie Miller (WARF) to our mix in that time slot with the aforementioned Mr. Chizek, at least for two of his five hours. (It’s a constant problem in the OMW Household…everything we like is ON AT THE SAME TIME! It even goes to TV, too, where Tuesday nights at 9 PM have our TiVos and DVRs running overtime.) Beck and Chizek should be thankful that radio is not a visual medium, or they wouldn’t have a chance against Ms. Miller, but that’s another matter…as the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) is clearly controlled by a straight male.

640 and 1350 both do local sports programming of note, including both area major colleges, the AA Akron Aeros, and associated sports talk shows. And the newsroom is held down in morning drive by the capable Tom Duresky. All in all, it sure beats the former formats on both stations…mostly paid religious programming on 640, and satellite country and urban music on 1350, before its stints running ESPN and Fox Sports Radio.

As OMW is primarily obsessed with news/talk/sports radio and TV, we’ve given short shrift to some of the other good things about local media. But a quick trip into the music radio world would include folks like WMJI/105.7 morning icon John Lanigan, WMVX/106.5’s Brian and Joe, and WQAL/104.1 middayer Jen Toohey (currently in afternoon drive). Stations as a whole which get our music listening minutes are in a wide range – from Akron/Canton’s hot AC WKDD/98.1 to smooth jazz WNWV/107.3 out of Elyria. (And who said we don’t have “range”?) We’re thankful that we’re in a region with a lot of choices between three markets, and some from nearby markets. We may not be here forever, but we’ll enjoy it now, at least.

And…we’re thankful that you’re reading. Happy Thanksgiving to all!