Overloaded Friday

Sometimes news piles up on Friday as things get “buried” heading into the weekend.  This time around, it just happened.

And a fundraising idea for your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm)?  Selling scorecards for the Columbus radio dial…

REWIND, NOT TALK:  Lance Venta and his NetGnomes at RadioInsight pointed out a domain name registration for Saga’s Columbus cluster, the registration for names that we passed along earlier this month.

Quoting the item again:

Saga Communications appears poised to flip one or two of its stations in Columbus, OH to Talk. 1035FMTalkColumbus.com and 1043FMTalkColumbus.com were both registered last week.

As it turns out, the only thing Saga was “poised” to do was fake out Lance and this very blog, and other folks who try to make predictions based on domain name registrations.

Instead, the rimshot pair of WJZA/103.5 Pickerington and WODB/104.3 Richwood are paired again this afternoon, playing 80’s classic hits music as “Rewind 103.5/104.3”.

You can listen along courtesy of this website:

rewindcolumbus.com

And the only sure thing about our earlier item?  Smooth jazz has lost another big market outlet.  Both stations once carried the format, and 103.5 held onto smooth jazz until today.

Its allegedly poor performance under the new PPM ratings measurement system has kicked the once venerable format off of stations from coast to coast.

And Saga Columbus boss Alan Goodman cites the new format’s PPM friendliness, in a statement which has now floated our way directly up I-71:

“To some, REWIND 103.5 and 104.3 will sound much like the Top 40 stations in the late ’70s and ’80s, He said, noting that “65-70% of our music will be from the ’80s … Rewind will play no ballads, only the greatest uptempo hits … Its appeal will be to 35-49 year-old women.”

Goodman also noted that the Saga Columbus cluster is also pushing aside the bird:

“Further, all of our formats will originate from COLUMBUS; no satellite delivery, no disc jockeys from anywhere USA except for those few syndicated programs at night or on the weekend.”

That’d certainly be a change from the most recent history of both 103.5 and 104.3, which were almost exclusively satellite fed.

Note that Goodman doesn’t cite local air personalities, and it’s likely that “Rewind” will go without them at least when eschewing commercials in its “three week taste test”, if not beyond…

SPEAKING OF FORMER SMOOTH JAZZ STATIONS: Cleveland’s former mainstay in the smooth jazz format, now-AAA WNWV/107.3 Elyria “V107.3”, is bringing aboard a new staffer.

AllAccess notes the arrival of former WMMS/100.7 APD/MD Brad Hanson as music director at Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting’s “V107.3”, joining a host of former ‘MMSers – including his new immediate boss, program director Ric “Rocco the Rock Dog” Bennett.   GM Lonnie Gronek and consultant John Gorman are the other ex-‘MMSers in the building in Elyria.

AllAccess reports that Hanson will also take the evening on-air shift at “V”…

SPEAKING OF CINCINNATI:  The new “Rewind 103.5/104.3” sounds familiar as a name, says Tri-State Media Watch’s Jeremy Moses, because of a “Rewind” outlet in Cincinnati.

And we’re talking about TSMW territory here only because we’re talking about the one station which transcends Southwest Ohio – Clear Channel talk WLW/700 “The Big One”.

As expected by many, including This Space(tm), WLW has officially tapped night host Scott Sloan to fill the mid-morning slot vacated by Mike McConnell, who will be occupying similar hours on Tribune talk WGN/720 Chicago starting one week from Monday.  The Cincinnati Enquirer has a brief item on Sloan’s official promotion, also noting that WLW has extended the contract of morning star Jim Scott.

As of yet, we haven’t read any word on what effect that has on “Sloanie”‘s 9-midnight slot, but no, we don’t need a “bat signal” from him to know that sister talk WTAM/1100 Cleveland weekender Matt Patrick is hoping he has a shot at it.

Long-time WLW fill-in Eric Deters would presumably be a favorite for the station’s now-vacant evening slot, but as we passed along a few weeks ago, he’s apparently not interested in a regular talk show gig…being occupied with his “lucrative” law practice.

We’d also bet heavily against the station plugging in syndicated programming…it’s just not what WLW does…

BONUS ITEM: We just remembered that we had given the word on our Twitter feed, but hadn’t put it on the main blog.

OMW hears that former Good Karma sports WKNR/850 “ESPN 850” morning sports anchor Jeff Thomas will indeed move into the soon-to-be-vacated morning drive slot on Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting talk WEOL/930 Elyria.

The opening comes as current WEOL morning drive host Les Sekely prepares to take a full-time teaching position in Westlake.

OMW hears that Jeff starts his new gig on August 23rd, and we offer him our congratulations…

Starting With Beginnings

Since we started with life ending in our last update, let’s start with life beginning…

NOT VOICETRACKING…YET: A new baby with quite a local radio “head start” entered the world over the weekend.

Katherine Ann, born Saturday morning (7 pounds, 20.5 inches), is the brand new daughter born to a couple of local Clear Channel stars… top 40 WAKS/96.5 “Kiss FM” assistant program director/music director/afternoon driver/OMW reader Kasper and his wife, hot AC WKDD/98.1 morning co-host Krissy Taylor.

With that radio background in the family, we wonder if Clear Channel has any children’s formatted stations that could use a voice soon.

Congratulations again to Kasper and Krissy! We’ve included a picture of Katherine Ann here courtesy of Kasper’s Twitter feed…

NEW PERSON: Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3 Cleveland has brought aboard another reporter, known in 2010 as an MMJ (“MultiMedia Journalist”).

Our blogging colleague Frank Macek, the WKYC senior director behind the station’s “Director’s Cut” blog, has more on Jennifer Lindgren:

She comes to WKYC from our Gannett sister station duopoly in Jacksonville, WLTV/Channel 12 & WJXX/Channel 25 – better known as First Coast News, where she has been a reporter since August 2008. Jennifer reports for their 11 p.m. broadcast and is a fill-in anchor for “Good Morning Jacksonville” on the weekends

Before that, she worked in South Carolina where she spent two years reporting for another of our Gannett stations, WLTX-TV, whose General Manager, Rich O’Dell is a former WKYC alumnist.

And being a relatively young video journalist in smaller markets, she’s already used to the future, telling Macek’s blog:

I’m one of a growing group of reporters who actually loves to shoot and edit my own stories,” she tells the Director’s Cut Blog exclusively. “It’s been a regular part of my job for five years now. I enjoy the challenge of photography!”

In the old days, “MMJing” was known as “one-man banding”…but with the flexibility of technology – large market reporters are not only shooting, but using the Internet to move news at the speed of light…er…high bandwidth.

Anyway, Lindgren is the second recent addition to the “MMJ” category at 13th and Lakeside, after the hiring of Amanda Barren. But Lindren notes she’ll be getting used to driving in the snow, something Geauga County native Barren knew well…

SPEAKING OF WKYC: …and also, the Director’s Cut blog. There are two items we missed in recent days.

The first is something we actually noticed while in Parma a week and a half ago, while on one of the usual Northeast Ohio stops by long-time friend and colleague Scott Fybush (“NorthEast Radio Watch”, “Radio Journal”, “100000watts.com” and many others).

Last time we were near the tower site of WKYC off Broadview Road, there were still two towers…the old tower that carried analog channel 3 (and digital RF channel 2), and the new home of WKYC’s digital RF channel 17 – and Ideastream PBS affiliate WVIZ/25’s RF 26 antenna. (And by “we”, we don’t mean Mr. Fybush, who only saw the dual towers in our own pictures of the site. Last time he was at the site, the new tower hadn’t started going up yet.)

Shortly after that visit, we noted here that WKYC brought down the old analog Channel 3 antenna…and now, the tower which held the old antenna is history.

Frank Macek does indeed have more on “Director’s Cut”, with the help of WKYC transmitter engineer Dave Kushman, who has his own pictures online as well…one of which we’ve taken the liberty of reprinting here.

The other piece of WKYC-related news is part of the station’s past. Macek picks up on a Cleveland Plain Dealer report of a new use for the station’s old building at 1403 E. 6th Street in downtown Cleveland.

As you might expect, the building WKYC vacated nearly 10 years ago for the “Digital Broadcast Center” won’t be home for a different TV station. It’ll be permanent office space for a law firm…

NEW MORNING SHOW: Clear Channel sports WARF/1350 Akron “Fox Sports 1350” is getting ready to add a new morning show – but they’re not dumping Fox Sports Radio to do it.

That’s because the local station will become one of the first affiliates for the Indiana-based “Zack and Jack” show, which will be offered to FSR affiliates in morning drive (Eastern) as a programming option. The network retains Stephen A. Smith for its morning drive show on the “main” FSR feed.

AllAccess reports that “Zack and Jack”, based at Clear Channel’s WNDE/1260 in Indianapolis and already heard on FSR on weekends, will start on WARF next Monday. OMW hears that start date might not be exact, but it’s coming…

NOT BIG WILLIE: …and not in our immediate coverage area, but since it involves Cincinnati talk powerhouse Clear Channel talk WLW/700 “The Big One”, and we’ve covered it before, some closure.

Tribune Broadcasting has officially announced the start of what’s now being called “The Bill Cunningham Show”, the TV talk show project which will star the WLW midday icon. And Tribune execs stopped snickering long enough to rename the show from its previous name – “Big Willie”.

The company is starting the program on Tribune’s own O&O stations, weekdays starting in September 2011 (yes, we said 2011, according to the release linked above), with “negotiations continuing with distribution partners for national syndication.”

No, we don’t know yet if Local TV’s stations – including WJW/8 “Fox 8” here – are included on that first list. Northern Kentucky-based Local TV is basically operated by Tribune. With the Tribune start now set for Fall 2011, there’s plenty of time to sort that out.

As previously noted here (a LOT), Cunningham will continue his popular weekday show on WLW…and his weekend Premiere-syndicated “Live on Sunday Night” show, which airs on a number of Clear Channel talk stations in Ohio…

NEW HIRE: A local radio syndicator has some affiliate relations help.

Beachwood-based Envision Radio Networks has hired Ethan Weiss as Director of Affiliate Relations.

Quoting a company release:

In his new role, Weiss will head the company’s sales division and maintain Affiliate Relations management responsibility for top markets while leading the rest of the affiliate team.

And he is certainly no stranger to Envision’s upper management, in particular President and CEO Danno Wolkoff. Weiss worked as a music librarian and assistant producer under Wolkoff at MJI Broadcasting:

In 1997, Weiss took a 13 year sabbatical from the radio industry to gain sales experience in a corporate environment working at Dun & Bradstreet, a Fortune 1000 company.

“Danno has been a mentor to me since I started at MJI in 1992. From the day I started working outside of radio I aspired to get the experience I would need to come back,” said Weiss of his journey that led him to work at Envision.

Before he left radio, Weiss was also a producer at Columbus’ WCOL-FM/92.3 and WTVN/610. And before he got into radio, he was a page for NBC, and an assistant talent coordinator at that network’s “Saturday Night Live”…

NEW SIGNAL: We have a lot of “new” items this time, don’t we?

This one will be a new signal along Lake Erie, as a recent FCC auction landed a new class A allocation for North Madison, at 93.7 FM.

The winning bidder was South Shore Broadcasting, a company which got a bidding discount. Tom Taylor’s “Taylor on Radio-Info” newsletter has more…

The new 93.7 in North Madison, Ohio goes to Leslie and Chris Kidner’s South Shore Broadcasting, and they’ll pay $276,250 instead of $425,000.

That’s after a 35 percent “woman-owned business” credit. Losing out in the bidding is Music Express Broadcasting, which bid a non-credit assisted $386,000.

We’ve never heard of South Shore or the Kidners, but Music Express owns Geneva country outlet WKKY/104.7.

And as we were in that area recently, we’re reminded of one side effect whenever that 93.7 signal makes it to the air – South Shore has to file a construction permit, of course, and then has the usual 3 year window to build it out.

The new station will presumably wipe out CBC Radio One’s first-adjacent CBCL/93.5 from London Ontario, which enjoys some coverage on the Ohio side of Lake Erie near that very area…

MINOR EFFECT: Believe it or not, Cumulus still owns rock WRQK/106.9 Canton, though it has long been operated by Clear Channel.

But the swap that sent “Rock 106.9” to Freedom Avenue is about to become an ownership reality.

AllAccess reports of the financial manuevering that is taking place to finally close on the complicated transaction:

In an SEC filing MONDAY, CUMULUS MEDIA informed the SEC that it has entered into a fourth amendment to its existing credit agreement with the BANK OF AMERICA, with the bank resigning as administrative agent and GE CAPITAL stepping in as the new agent.
Other changes to the credit agreement include changes to allow the closing of the swap of the company’s CANTON, OH cluster for CLEAR CHANNEL-owned stations in ANN ARBOR and BATTLE CREEK,

Of course, for those working for WRQK, or who used to work there, it’s all a technicality.

Clear Channel has been running the station since…hang on, let us go into our own archives here…January 2007.

The 3-plus year LMA means Cumulus’ name is still on the license for WRQK, at least until the above financial situation gets cleared up…

AND FINALLY: A station that’s been going through a lot of changes has one more.

AllAccess reports that Fun With Radio Columbus market alt-rock WWCD/101.1 “CD 101” is saying goodbye to marketing/promotions director Karac Ruleau, who’s been with the station for over 10 years.

AllAccess says Ruleau is heading for “new opportunities in New York”.

“CD 101” is still dealing with the death of long-time program director “Andyman” Davis in a Michigan drowning, and will eventually move to now-simulcast frequency 102.5 FM…

Life Passing

First of all, we hate to write about media-connected people passing away. It’s a very sad occasion, but one we’re tasked with having to perform every so often due to the nature of this report.

The Dover-New Philadelphia radio community is mourning the passage of a giant.

Dick Hanchette was a fixture in Tuscarawas County radio. From the website of WJER/1450:

One of the most distinctive and entertaining Voices of the Valley is gone. Long time WJER talent Dick Hanchette died over the weekend. Hanchette started working at WJER in the late 1970’s as an announcer as well as sales and was known for his many practical jokes and his quick wit. Big Daddy will be fondly remembered echoing down the halls here at WJER about “Work assignments!” and for his many collections, including his Mad Magazine memorabilia. He wrapped up his full-time duties in 2007 for health reasons. He touched so many lives with his creative genius, knowledge of the broadcast industry, and his own brand of humor. He was 60 years old.

Long-time OMW reader Steve Kelly now works at the Saga cluster in Columbus, but was a co-worker of Hanchette for many years.

Steve tells us:

“Dick Hanchette was a genius on air, and in the marketing and sales department at WJER. I am so honored to have worked with him for almost 25 years. When they made him, they broke the mold. He was one of the most creative and talented individuals I have ever been associated with. He was well respected in broadcast circles all over Northeast Ohio.”

You know the kind of person that’s instantly associated with a radio market? The kind that if you had to pick one person to represent radio in the area, you’d pick? It sounds like Dick Hanchette was just that in the Dover-New Philadelphia area.

One other note: Yes, we’re aware of a family member of one prominent Northeast Ohio media personality passing away.

We understand that the family is asking for privacy, so we won’t post any details here. But if they happen to read this…we offer our most sincere condolences…

Our Domain Returns

Thanks to a long-time Friend of OMW, the OhioMediaWatch.com domain is back. If it’s not working for you already, it will be in the next day or two…as changes take some time to propagate through the Internet.

Thank you, again.

This is as good a time for a reminder as any…if OhioMediaWatch.com stops working for you, this blog is always available at the direct WordPress URL:

ohiomediawatch.wordpress.com

Of course, if the reason you’re not able to reach OMW is because WordPress is down, that won’t work…

Making Up For It

Life for your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) has been busy, and unfortunately, the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) has been on the back burner.  Somewhat more important, crucial items have been dominating our time.

That means we haven’t gotten some items we promised we’d put up, or planned to put up…but we’ll try to make it up here somehow…

THE FILL-IN PARADE PART 1:  A former Cleveland morning radio host will get some morning radio time again this week.

Brian Fowler (ex-“Brian and Joe” co-host) will once again be filling in for CBS Radio classic rock WNCX/98.5 morning co-host Scott Miller, Monday and Tuesday of this week.

But Brian, formerly morning co-host with Joe Cronauer at Clear Channel hot AC WMVX/106.5 “Mix 106.5” until the Clear Channel budget axe fell last year, has some more news.

“Brian and Joe” will reunite in front of TV cameras, as they will host a new show on Time Warner Cable’s Northeast Ohio Network (NEON) called “This One Time…”.  It’s a 12 episode series Brian tells OMW will “highlight local stories, with a twist”.

The program will be produced through 5Front, the production company that produces local content for “NEON”…familiar programs like “More Sports and Les Levine”, “3 Squares” and the like.

Brian tells us he’s also writing comedic material for former Cleveland radio personality Scott Glazer, who is working in San Diego Sacramento (thanks to OMW Reader Chuck Matthews for the correction!) these days, in addition to his full-time work at a local advertising agency.

And like many other OMW readers, he’s also hanging out his voice talent shingle…and is “just starting” to look for radio/TV voice imaging work…

FILL-IN PARADE PART 2:  While waiting for his next opportunity at Clear Channel talk WLW/700 “The Big One” in Cincinnati, sister WTAM/1100 Cleveland weekender and fill-in Matt Patrick is getting something of a short “busman’s holiday”, if you will.

Next week, Matt heads to the beach…not the radio beach, but very nearly the literal beach in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach (Hampton Roads) VA market, where he’ll fill-in during mornings Tuesday and Wednesday at classic rock WAFX/106.9 Suffolk VA “The Fox”.

Aside from helping out a radio friend, Matt tells us that the two day gig will give the station the idea what a mix between an “adult talk/news” format and the station’s existing classic rock format would sound like.

It doesn’t sound like this would be a permanent landing spot for Mr. Patrick, who presumably is still interested in full-time work either at WLW or WTAM…the former WKDD/98.1-WHLO/640 Akron host has been getting a lot of fill-in at Oak Tree in the past couple of weeks, including stints sitting in for afternoon driver Mike Trivisonno and evening host Bob Frantz.

Oh, and on his Saturday WTAM show, Matt told a very interesting story of his personal experience with Interval Brotherhood Home founder “Father Sam”.

Rev. Samuel Ciccolini pleaded guilty Friday, according to a story by AkronNewsNow’s Tina Kaufmann, to “structuring financial transactions to evade reporting requirements and making and subscribing a false tax return.”

The story Patrick told on WTAM on Saturday is also at his blog, in an item written before the court hearing…

AND WE MISSED IT:  We unfortunately weren’t able to get something up before a big event for a locally-produced movie involving area media names, but you’ll still have a chance to catch up with it.

It is the movie “The Dead Matter”, which we wrote about in an item in April 2009.

Quoting our earlier item, in a clip from “The Dead Matter”‘s website:

A vampire relic with occult powers falls into the hands of a grief-stricken young woman who will do anything to contact her dead brother. The Dead Matter is a story-driven horror film drenched in the dark atmospheric world of Midnight Syndicate’s music.

Among the cast members: Local TV icon “Big Chuck” Schodowski (former WJW/8 personality, of course, as if you need us to explain that), radio veteran and OMW reader Mike Olszewski (who most recently has been doing news at Kent State University’s WKSU/89.7), and TV host/sports personality Al Pawlowski (SportsTime Ohio, NEON’s “3 Squares”, etc.).

The event we missed posting about was a showing in Chardon on Saturday night.  The benefit screening at Chardon’s historic Geauga Theatre was to help fund construction of a film department at Geauga Arts Center.

If you can make it to Mentor on Friday, you can still attend a “Dead Matter” event:

Cast members will be on hand for a DVD signing at the Hot Topic store in the Great Lakes Mall in Mentor on July 30th from 6:30pm-7:30pm. Scheduled to appear are FX artist David Greathouse (The Stand; Magnolia; Tales from the Crypt), Donna Williams (The Rapture), director Edward Douglas, actors Christopher Robichaud, Big Chuck Schodowski and Mike Olszewski.  Movie props and set pieces will also be on display.  Free full-sized movie posters will be given away with the purchase of the The Dead Matter DVD.

Additional screenings are listed here, should we forget in the future.

The movie’s producer is Chardon’s own Edward Douglas…

AND A QUICK QUESTION: Reprinted from a question we posed on our Twitter account, which due to the mechanics involved in posting it, did not automatically copy over to our Facebook account:

“What’s wrong with WNIR’s Howie Chizek? Heard a caller talk about an ‘injury’, Bob E said it was not ‘career ending’. Phil filling in today.”

We heard fill-ins such as Jim Isabella and Bob Earley, and afternoon news voice Phil Ferguson, in the past week.

We’d have more, but we’re literally out of time…

The Last To Know

UPDATE 11:42 AM 7/22/10: OMW has confirmed that former Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 producer Ryan Gohmann is returning to WTAM, after a stint as morning producer/assistant program director at sister talk station WFLA/970 Tampa FL.

We also hear Gohmann will indeed be assigned to the Mike Trivisonno show, though his exact role on the show will be determined later.

He’s scheduled to be back in Cleveland in mid-August…

————

We’re kinda used to being on the cutting edge of local media news here at your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm). We’re not used to being the last to know…

WEWS AND BECOMES TN ND: You might have noticed on our Twitter account that we tipped you to a job move by now-former Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 “NewsChannel 5” assistant news director Roberta Petterson.

Roberta is heading south, indeed…though not to Florida, which we’d heard was a possibility. She’ll become the new news director of Sinclair Fox affiliate WZTV/17 “Fox 17” in Nashville TN.

That information was passed along to us unattributed earlier today, and we then posted it on our Twitter feed, but we quickly found out that we’re basically the last to report that news.

Petterson’s career move had already been featured in, among other places, Rick Gevers’ excellent weekly News Directors newsletter (we saw his list just before that update).

Quoting Gevers:

WZTV, Nashville, TN…this long-standing opening has been filled as ROBERTA PETTERSON has been named ND. She’s been the Assistant ND at WEWS-TV in Cleveland (which is now searching for her replacement, as listed below) since last August. Roberta previously worked in Pittsburgh as the Assistant ND and EP at WTAE-TV and has also worked at WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh and in Tulsa. She replaces KEN SMITH who left the station last August after nine years as ND. WZTV is owned by Sinclair and is a FOX affiliate.

We had already passed along the job listing for the position at WEWS… here is the link again.

And if you’re looking for a TV news management job and you don’t already have Gevers’ site bookmarked, we’d strongly suggest doing so. It’s updated at the end of the week each week, usually Friday or Saturday…

HEADING BACK?: This item on AllAccess on Tuesday caught our attention:

ALL ACCESS hears that CLEAR CHANNEL Talk WFLA-A/TAMPA Morning Show Producer and APD RYAN GOHMANN is exiting the station for a new opportunity in another market. Could he be returning to sister Talk WTAM-A/CLEVELAND for a high profile producing gig?

The only open “high profile producing gig” we know about at WTAM is the producer’s job for afternoon drive host Mike Trivisonno’s Glorious Fest of On-Air Food (those outside the market who don’t get the reference – it’s a joke!).

We haven’t checked in with Oak Tree sources yet, but we’ll let you know if this is another trade site “rumor to reality” item…

ADMINISTRIVIA: Our use of the OhioMediaWatch.com domain is about to go away, as the domain will expire today.

We are not renewing the domain – which has always been secondary to us, anyway.

Don’t panic, however, if ohiomediawatch.com stops working soon.

Just a heads up: OMW will continue to be accessible through the direct WordPress URL:

ohiomediawatch.wordpress.com

That will not be affected by the domain registration. And if we move to another site, as we did from Blogspot, this blog will remain in place with a pointer to any new address…

More On Andyman

Rarely does even such a shocking event have such an effect on a market.

But the death of WWCD/101.1-102.5 “CD101” program director and afternoon drive host Andy “Andyman” Davis has sent shockwaves throughout the Columbus market…and beyond.

As we reported earlier, “Andyman” died while on vacation with his family in Michigan, a drowning victim.

The Columbus Dispatch has an extensive article looking into the reaction to his death…with original “CD101” general manager Gary Richards noting that Davis’ persistence eventually won him a job at the station in 1991…and the rest, says Richards, is “radio history”.

And sports reporter Michael Arace has another side of Andyman… the super hockey fan, and arena voice for the Columbus Chill minor league hockey team.

The NHL team that eventually called Columbus home, the Blue Jackets, has their own nod to Davis here, noting that he broadcast his CD101 program often from Blue Jackets games when the team came to town.

And in Arace’s Dispatch piece, former Chill public relations director Brent Maurer credits Andyman for helping bring that major league team to Central Ohio:

“People forget, though, what he meant to the NHL cause. When the first arena referendum came up, he was one of us street-corner preachers, speaking the gospel. At a time when we couldn’t even have playoff games at the Fairgrounds because the circus was booked, he imagined a time when major-league hockey could thrive – a time when you wouldn’t have to go to Cleveland to see a big concert. He was the first media personality to start building the bandwagon.”

Of course, CD101 is the Blue Jackets’ FM flagship station, a distinction that will follow them to the new frequency of 102.5.

A whole host of people are sad because “Andyman” Davis won’t be able to follow both the station and the hockey team into the new era.

Davis was known far and wide in the radio and music communities for his tireless support of the alternative rock music his station featured.

But this item wouldn’t be complete without mention of Davis’ extensive charity work. From the Dispatch article by Tim Feran and Amy Saunders:

Davis started his annual fundraiser, the Andyman-a-Thon, in 1992 as a way to give back to the community and to allow the rest of the station’s staff to spend time at home during the holiday.

Every subsequent Christmas season, he spent 48 hours on the air and received pledges to play song requests. The event, which expanded to include live rock and auctions, raised tens of thousands of dollars every year for children’s charities.

The CD101 website has word of a public remembrance of its fallen host and program director, Thursday night at 6 PM at Columbus’ LC Pavilion…it’s been moved from the associated Newport Music Hall.

And since his death, we’ve seen even Cleveland area media outlets note the passing, with the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Michael Norman weighing in with this article we found on cleveland.com:

Stories about Davis were among the most-searched news stories online Monday, according to Google’s tracking service, Google Hot Trends. It was also the top story on cleveland.com Monday, with more than 18,000 page views.

Simply put, “Andyman” wasn’t just another Columbus disk jockey, and that’s becoming clear after his death…

Columbus, Akron And Youngstown

Our news this time around comes from the above-mentioned areas, and we start off with a shock, unfortunately…

PROGRAMMER DIES: Columbus alt-rocker WWCD/101.1 Grove City “CD101” is going through a lot lately.

As reported here, the station is in the midst of a move to the more powerful 102.5/Baltimore frequency, where it’s simulcasting now…and will become “CD102.5” when The Ohio State University moves its classical music to the 101.1 frequency.

The station’s long-time programmer won’t be there to lead that charge.

In a shocking piece of news, CD101 program director and afternoon drive host John Andrew Davis, universally known by his on-air name “Andyman”, has died.

The station has turned his page on its website into a memorial statement, and explains how such a young man died so soon – he was vacationing with his family in Michigan over the weekend, and drowned.

Quoting the station’s statement:

Andyman Davis started at CD101 in June of 1991 as on on-air personality and became CD101’s Programming Director in 1998. Andyman was the voice of CD101’s afternoon drive program and was voted Columbus’ favorite DJ on numerous occasions.

Davis is survived by his wife, Molly, and their three sons Johnny, Oliver, and Sammy. The station says it’ll announce memorial service information later.

Our condolences to the staff at CD101, as they deal with a devastating loss…

SPEAKING OF CD: We first learned of the frequency change involving CD 101 thanks to the “net gnomes” at Lance Venta’s RadioInsight.com – Lance and the gang picked up domain registrations for “CD101at1025.com” and “CD1025.com” days before rumors became reality.

Someone’s at it again in Columbus.

Quoting:

Saga Communications appears poised to flip one or two of its stations in Columbus, OH to Talk. 1035FMTalkColumbus.com and 1043FMTalkColumbus.com were both registered last week.

The stations, as RadioInsight points out, are WJZA/103.5 Pickerington, which kept the smooth jazz format going after splitting off northwestern simulcaster now-WODB/104.3 Richwood, which took the WODB calls and “Big Hits” classic hits format from sister now-WVMX/107.9 formerly-Delaware/now-Westerville…when that station jumped on the hot AC format left behind by Dispatch’s WBNS-FM/97.1 (now sports “97.1 The Fan”).

Whew.

If you’re a Columbus resident who has been out of the area for a while, you’ll certainly find the FM dial confusing when you get back.

At this point, it’s not clear if any talk format – if it does happen – would air on one or both frequencies. We could make the easy assumption that Saga would not register both domains if it didn’t intend on using both frequencies, though there could well be some misdirection going on here…even with both registrations.

If 103.5 is involved, it would become the latest casualty in the smooth jazz format, which lost its long-time Cleveland home late last year – when Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting’s WNWV/107.3 Elyria dumped smooth jazz to HD2 to feature the AAA format now known as “V107.3”.

We’ll pose the question we posed on our Twitter account – what content could Saga use, if it makes this flip?

North American Broadcasting’s WTDA/103.9 Westerville had a mostly unremarkable lineup as “Talk FM”.

The station only made a brief splash when it picked up popular Premiere host Glenn Beck for its schedule…and of course, Beck’s program eventually migrated back to Clear Channel talk WTVN/610. And of course, WTDA eventually dropped the “Talk FM” format for…classic hits.

Talk wise, there’s not a lot out there that isn’t already taken by WTVN , or sister talk WYTS/1230 “Your Talk Station”(sorry, our brain was apparently stuck in time before WYTS’ flip to Fox Sports Radio, which we even covered here!)…and if it is readying such a move, Saga is likely trying to get the best of the “second tier” and “third tier” syndicated talkers.

There is indeed a lot of syndicated talk product, but there’s a fairly big dropoff after you get the “big names” out of the way…and most of those names are on WTVN.

For Saga to be even remotely competitive with the market’s 600 pound talk radio gorilla, it’ll have to do more than just throw on a random lineup of available syndicated talkers on two rimshot signals.

We assume names like Westwood One’s Dennis Miller will be in the mix, if talk is indeed coming to either or both of the Saga frequencies.

We’ll see…

KID RADIO: Radio Disney’s WWMK/1260 Cleveland is no longer the only kid-friendly station in Northeast Ohio – well, sort of, if you count HD Radio.

That’s after Akron Public Schools-owned AAA WAPS/91.3 Akron “The Summit” launched a new HD subchannel called “KIDJAM!”.

Quoting a station release:

Backed by a prestigious grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, KIDJAM! is designed for children ages 8-12. KIDJAM! entertains and empowers children through peer-to-peer motivation promoting confidence, dream building, and respect.

Tommy Bruno, general manager of WAPS explained, “Music can be a powerful tool. KIDJAM! spans five decades of music that appeals to children and adults. Between songs, kids, “KIDJAMMERS,” promote and celebrate harmony not just in music but harmony in family, friends, and life.”

The new station features not just the “kidpop” music featured on Radio Disney, according to the release…which says it’s designed so young people and their parents can “listen together”:

A typical set features Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, The Jonas Brothers, intermixed with The Beatles, The Jackson 5, Taylor Swift, Owl City, Dave Matthews Band, and Paul Simon.

The new service is now live on WAPS’ HD3 channel, and online at the station’s website.

And WAPS promises a dedicated site for “KIDJAM!” soon.

By the way, we didn’t know WAPS had an HD2 channel, as we had to move our antenna a bit to get the HD feed at all. We don’t know what they’re playing on WAPS HD2, though it sounds rock-ish to us in a brief listen…

SPEAKING OF WAPS: Linked on the “Summit” website is a June article in the Youngstown Vindicator – about the station’s recent eastward expansion, filling the off-hours at WKTL/90.7 Struthers, the school-owned station there that only programs part of its broadcast day.

With the students off for the summer, the WAPS programming is heard almost exclusively on WKTL, aside from its usual weekend ethnic programming.

Could that arrangement become permanent?

Struthers school superintendent Robert Rostan says yes. He describes to the Vindicator a similar situation which led to the closure of the school-owned station (WHHS) in the Cincinnati suburb of Hamilton recently:

“The radio program is dying out,” he said. “It’s not a big hit with teenagers anymore. The interest is not there.”

As a result, student-run programming at WKTL will cut back four hours in the fall – from a 7 PM conclusion weekdays to a 3 PM wrapup. And in the Vindicator piece, Rostan sounds like he’s already prepared for the end of student-run radio on WKTL:

Looking down the road, a full-time WAPS feed is a definite possibility, said Rostan, although he stressed that the weekend ethnic programming will continue.

The situation at adult-run WAPS is certainly somewhat different than the situation at WKTL, despite the fact that both stations are owned by their respective school districts.

WAPS is certainly promoting its Mahoning Valley connection as if it expects to be around full-time. The station has even come up with a “90.7 The Summit” logo that we’ve seen on TV – as we recall, on fellow non-comm broadcaster Western Reserve PBS (WNEO/45-WEAO/49)…

BILL UPDATE: We’re still hearing updates directly from “Uncle Bill” Weisinger, the local radio engineer and volunteer program director at WSTB/88.9 Streetsboro’s “Sunday Oldies Jukebox”.

And directly…that’s a good thing.

OMW reported earlier that Bill, a long-time reader and Friend of OMW, has been battling a cancerous tumor.

He’s now in a local care facility, and still an active reader of the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm).

Bill tells us that the recent radiation treatments he has started receiving are “a good thing”, added to his chemotherapy.

He still reads the GetWellBill.com website set up to send messages to him, and we’re sure he would appreciate your words…

Talking About Thursday

ZIPS RE-UP, EXPAND:  The University of Akron has agreed to a contract extension that’ll keep Zips football broadcasts on Clear Channel sports WARF/1350 Akron through the 2012-2013 athletic season.  And the Zips are also expanding to the north and west east (sorry, our compass got spun around for some reason!).

A new deal also puts University of Akron football broadcasts on Salem talk WHK/1420 Cleveland, and sister religious/brokered WHKZ/1440 Warren, according to a university press release:

“We’re excited to continue our longstanding partnership with 1350 AM as well as create two new relationships with 1420 AM and 1440 AM,” said Akron ISP General Manager Chad Gerrety. “These agreements will continue to give our fans in the greater Akron and Canton areas, as well as those in Cleveland, Youngstown, Warren and Western Pennsylvania, the opportunity to follow the Zips all season, while also providing our Akron ISP corporate partners additional exposure.”

The ISP Sports Network folks in North Carolina, of course, produce the Zips Sports Radio broadcasts, as well as a host of other collegiate properties (including the rival Kent State Golden Flashes, which air on Media-Com talk WNIR/100.1).

WARF is also continuing with its other Zips broadcasts, including men’s and women’s basketball, soccer and baseball games, and the “Zips Live” coaches show.

Zips athletic broadcasts have been on 1350 AM since the WSLR days, dating back to 1983 – when the station was locally owned.

Two notes here:

1) Zips football will only be heard (out of Freedom Avenue) on WARF.  Rock WRQK/106.9 Canton “Rock 106.9” will no longer be carrying the games.

2) We wonder if the inclusion of Salem’s WHKZ/1440 Warren means anything significant past the fact that the station has simulcast Cleveland games heard on WHK and religious WHKW/1220 – the latter, sometimes a function of its general simulcast of WHKW, give or take a local infomercial, preacher or Salem’s Hugh Hewitt, a Warren native.

Is Salem giving up on the long-ago-and-never-consummated sale of WHKZ to Pittsburgh-area owner Rev. Loren Mann, the former TV reporter who owns a station in that area?

The sale was approved by the FCC in May 2008, and hasn’t seen any activity since…and Salem has continued to operate WHKZ…

FILL-IN GUY: When we were talking about his other activities, we neglected to tip the hat to OMW reader Chuck Matthews for some fill-in work.

While he was busy working as RCRG’s creative director, and signing up a slew of North Carolina sports radio stations for his voiceover business, the oldies radio vet subbed for Tim Daugherty in afternoons on WAKR last week…

WHILE WE’RE TALKING ABOUT FILL-INS: Clear Channel talk WHLO/640 morning host Jim Albright has been off this week, and a very busy man has been filling in for him.

He’s Jeff Thomas, the former Metro Networks morning sports anchor long heard on Good Karma sports WKNR/850 Cleveland “ESPN 850” – heard, of course, until the station decided recently it no longer needed his services.

Since then, Jeff has filled in a couple of times on Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting talk WEOL/930 Elyria, which will need a new morning host (or program) next month when Les Sekely leaves the station and radio for a teaching job in Westlake.

We also hear Mr. Thomas has been in other local radio operations over the past few weeks, though we don’t know where his final radio destination will be…

PARTNERSHIP:  Health care news provider MedCity News is opening up another partnership.

After previous agreements with the Akron Beacon Journal, Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3 and Dispatch’s Ohio News Network, the Cleveland-based company is hooking up with Akron’s Rubber City Radio Group.

From a joint release found on RCRG’s AkronNewsNow.com:

Under the agreement, Rubber City Radio will use MedCity News content on the award-winning AkronNewsNow.com, and will also feature MedCity News content in broadcast programming. The agreement provides for MedCity News staff members to periodically appear on-air and discuss news from the medical sector of interest to the Akron audience.

The radio side, of course, involves news/oldies WAKR/1590, rock WONE/97.5 and country WQMX/94.9…

SOME CLOSURE:  A small addendum to our earlier coverage of the events at Clear Channel talk WLW/700 Cincinnati “The Big One”… pretty much the major exception to our non-coverage of the Cincinnati market these days, since it impacts a large section of the state.

We now know which time slot former WLWer Mike McConnell will occupy when he starts at Tribune talk WGN/720 Chicago on August 9th.

The station has announced:

WGN Radio today announced its new daytime lineup featuring Mike McConnell and John Williams, effective Aug. 9. McConnell will host from 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., followed by Williams from 12:30-3 p.m.

The time slot is familiar to McConnell – it’s almost identical to his long-time 9 AM-noon “Midday” slot on WLW…though Ohio listeners who want to catch McConnell via WGN’s Internet streaming will have to start at 9:30, since Chicago is on Central Time…

Assorted Midweek Stuff

Just enough to clear off our plate as we’re heading into midweek…

NEWS EXIT: OMW hears that Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5 “NewsChannel 5” assistant news director Roberta Petterson is heading south, for a new gig as news director…at a station that may be in the same state that seems to be attracting Northeast Ohio’s professional basketball players lately.

(Though it would appear that a certain “King” could have taken lessons from Zydrunas Ilgauskas with his own exit. And if you’re just learning about “Z’s” departure from us, you need to get out more…)

We don’t know exactly where Petterson, who joined WEWS after a stint in Pittsburgh, is headed…

TWO DEATHS: Two Cleveland men who made it to the world stage have died…and this may be the only place they’ll be mentioned in the same item.

This item on the Plain Dealer’s Cleveland.com may be the best remembrance of legendary comic book figure Harvey Pekar, who died Monday at the age of 70:

Hailed as the “Bard of the Banal,” Pekar became a national figure by chronicling his life and times in the acclaimed autobiographical comic book series, “American Splendor.” He portrayed himself as a rumpled, depressed, obsessive-compulsive “flunky file clerk” engaged in a constant battle with loneliness and anxiety.

The linked article features a video tribute by the PD’s Michael Heaton, who calls Pekar “the heart and soul of Cleveland”, and there’s a nice sampling of linked tributes around the web.

Most of our readers probably remembered Pekar’s turns on the old NBC version of “Late Night with David Letterman” (as we did), until – so we’re reminded – he talked a bit too much about NBC parent General Electric, and was basically disinvited from the show by Letterman. As far as we know, he never appeared on Letterman’s current CBS “Late Show”.

But he also once appeared on “Late Night” with another NBC and Cleveland icon – “Today Show” weatherman and former WKYC/3 weatherman Al Roker.

The second death, we’ll give a brief mention…as it’s all over the world news today.

New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner died early Tuesday at the age of 80.

We only mention it here because Steinbrenner is a Cleveland native who tried to buy the Cleveland Indians in the early 1970s. Rebuffed, he ended up buying the Yankees…and we all know what happened after that.

The Plain Dealer’s Cleveland.com puts up what it calls one of Steinbrenner’s “last interviews”, with PD sportswriter Bob Dolgan in 2006, here…

BIG WILLIE: We know that “Big Willie” is heading for TV, though his show’s name may change.

Raycom Fox affiliate WXIX/19 in Willie’s home base of Cincinnati is airing the pilot shows that WLW/700’s Bill Cunningham taped in Chicago this week.

But one of the shows is missing, says Cincinnati Enquirer radio/TV guru John Kiesewetter:

The fifth show taped by the Tribune Co. in Chicago last month – featuring child beauty pageant contestants and their moms – will not air. The mothers sued Cunningham and Tribune after the taping, saying they were deceived by producers.

Kiese notes that the snicker-inducing title “Big Willie” will likely change, and reviews the pilot episodes here.

Will the show make it to Cleveland? Quoting Kiese:

Tribune executives want to see ratings and research from the test markets, (Tribune executive and ex-WLWer Sean Compton) says. “Willie” will air on Tribune stations in Chicago, Indianapolis and New Orleans, but maybe not in New York and Los Angeles this month.

Tribune will look at quarter-hour ratings, to see if or when viewers tune out or back in, Cunningham said.

The early roll-out seems a bit more limited, and there’s no mention of Local TV-owned Fox affiliate WJW/8 (Local TV is basically operated by Tribune), but if things go well, Cunningham’s show could be offered to other companies by early 2011, with a launch in the fall of next year…

The arrangement with Raycom’s WXIX in Cincinnati seems local, rather than corporate, though “Big Willie” or whatever it’s called would certainly be a fit somewhere in the Reserve Square lineup…particularly on MyNetwork TV affiliate WUAB/43 “My 43″…

SPORTS VOICE: Regular OMW reader Chuck Matthews has picked up a pretty decent voiceover client.

He’s providing the station voice for Curtis Media’s “Triad Sports Network”, a new network of three stations in the Greensboro/Winston-Salem NC market – WSML/1200, WCOG/1320 and WMFR/1230.

The company cobbled the three-headed ESPN Radio-affiliated “network” together by removing WSML from its eastern simulcast of news/talk WSJS/600 Winston-Salem, flipping WMFR in High Point from a sister talker to WSJS to sports, and adding newly acquired WCOG in Greensboro to the mix.

WCOG is the North Carolina Triad’s former Radio Disney affiliate. Disney sold the station, as though it maintains large market stations like Cleveland’s WWMK/1260, it’s been selling middle and smaller market Radio Disney outlets.

Speaking of sports, Chuck also recently added another ESPN affiliate to his voiceover roster – KCMC/Texarkana – through his deal with Benztown Branding.

And of course, the Lakewood native continues in his “day job” as creative director at the Rubber City Radio cluster in Akron…