A Second Voice

As you see below, it’s official…OMW now has a Secondary Editorial Voice(tm).

The second editor is identified in each post. Anything posted by our Secondary Editorial Voice(tm) is their own responsibility, and not necessarily connected to, approved by, or in agreement with what your Primary Editorial Voice(tm) posts here.

And no, we’re not going away. Well, the royal we, the Primary Voice, etc. We’ll stick our virtual heads back in here from time to time, and hopefully, return to “full strength” some day.

Our new guest editor allows OMW to continue posting news and (someone’s) views instead of having lengthy…well, you know…the H word.

UPDATE 9/29/10 11:57 AM: We had this post written late Friday, but for some reason, never posted it.

WGAR hires Tim Leary for mornings

Veteran Clear Channel country WGAR/99.5 announced yesterday that they have a new morning show host.

It’s Tim Leary, host of “The Morning Showgram” on Hall Communications WCTK/98.1 “Cat Country” in Providence, Rhode Island. Leary’s last day at WCTK will be October 8; he’s slated to start at WGAR on October 25.

Upon the prospect of joining WGAR, Leary told AllAccess:

“I’m absolutely humbled and honored with this opportunity to work at such a country heritage icon as WGAR. My jaw is still on the ground as the reality of this sets in … totally excited.”

Leary will need that level of excitement… he has the otherwise challenging task of succeeding 18 1/2 year veteran Jim Mantel, who was abruptly let go back in August. WGAR program director Charlie Connolly and newscaster Laurie Hovater had been acting as interim morning hosts since then.

(And as noted in an earlier article, Mantel’s former producer, “Captain Tony” McGinty, is slated to start work soon in Portland, Maine for country station WTHT/99.9‘s long-established morning show.)

WKDD’s Krissy Taylor to leave the “Keith and Krissy” show

The joys of becoming a new mother were enough to get hot AC WKDD/98.1 morning co-host Krissy Taylor to leave the morning show grind behind.

Her announcement to leave the “Keith and Krissy” show was made yesterday morning (listen to it here) and with a companion post on her bio page. And as she reiterates here, it’s not a total exit from WKDD, as she’s agreed to stick around for weekend duty:

I never thought that I would become that woman that would want to stay at home with her child/children. I always thought I would look forward to parting with them for me time. But I’m a mess and can’t think straight when I’m away from her for more than an hour. I want to enjoy every single moment of her! I’ve decided (after many discussions with my husband for the past nine weeks) to step down from mornings with Keith. But the good news is that I will still be a part of WKDD! 😀 You’ll be able to hear me on weekends.

I want to thank you all for your emails and welcoming me (as) a part of the WKDD family. It’s hard to believe how much has changed in the past two years. You have been there for me through some of the most happiest and darkest days of my life. From the loss of my father-in-law, to losing my grandmother, to the day I announced I was expecting! I will miss you all – but the void I feel right now is more intense – I miss Katie more!

Krissy also witnessed much change at WKDD during the past two years as well. She moved from evenings to become a part of the morning show with then-host Matt Patrick back in November 2008, then after Matt left in December 2009, WKDD program director/CC Akron-Canton operations director/OMW reader Keith Kennedy moved from afternoons to become her co-host.

Katherine Ann, who is Krissy and top 40 WAKS/96.5 “Kiss FM” assistant program director/music director/afternoon driver/OMW reader Kasper’s first child, was born on July 24.

WKBN’s New Evening Anchor

New Vision CBS affiliate WKBN/27 Youngstown has found a new co-anchor for Dave Sess on their 6:00PM and 11:00PM broadcasts, after Whitney Ward left the station last month to be closer to family in her native Washington (joining KEPR-TV Pasco in the process).

It’s Teresa Weakley, who comes to WKBN from Young Broadcasting-owned (and Gray Television-managed) ABC affiliate WKRN/2 Nashville, where she was that station’s live morning reporter and fill-in anchor. She formally debuted on WKBN’s 5:00 newscast on Monday, which she will also solo anchor, along with the 10:00PM news on sister station “Fox Youngstown” WYFX-LP/62 (WKBN 27.2).

WKBN is already making a big splash with Weakley’s debut, not just with her bio page, but the background image on their website also proudly shows both Sess and Weakley on opposing ends on the screen. The bio page also notes her own personal blog at teresaweakley.com.

WKBN’s new anchor team won’t be able to gel just yet; as weeknight meteorologist Don Guthrie returns back to work next week after taking this week off.

WINW Off The Air

Daytimer gospel WINW/1520 Canton wasn’t able to turn on their transmitter at all back on Friday morning, and was off the air for several days thereafter, the victim of copper thievery.

The Canton Repository’s police blotter noted that at some point between Thursday night and Friday morning, someone broke into their transmitter facility at 4100 Martindale Road, cut several tower cables and stole the copper from the transmitter building.

Naturally, “Joy 1520” was not able to broadcast throughout much of the weekend, but several OMW tipsters noted that a temporary antenna was in the process of being installed. As of this writing, no word yet if WINW resumed operations just yet.

Canton police are still investigating, and until then, one can hope the thief sees the sad irony of stealing from a gospel station…

News, Scattered and Sown

There have been so many stories that have popped up over the past week (notwithstanding the flap between Matt Patrick and the entire Michigan State Spartans fanbase for his remarks on coach Mike D’Antonio back on Monday… so much has been said that this list of articles across the country should suffice).

As OMW’s Primary Editorial Voice ™ noted late last week, a guest editor would likely be brought aboard to help out as a Secondary Editorial Voice ™. As such, this will be my first “guest post” on OMW. So, without further ado, here we go with the latest radio/TV news:

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“CAPTAIN TONY” LANDS: The former producer for country WGAR/99.5’s former morning host, Jim Mantel, now has a new gig in the Pine Tree State.

“Captain Tony” McGinty is headed to Nassau Broadcasting country WTHT/99.9 Auburn/Portland to produce the “Dave and Michelle” morning show on “99.9 The Wolf,” hosted by Dave Winsor and Michelle Taylor, respectively.

McGinty was let go along with Jim Mantel from WGAR back on August 17 after Clear Channel declined to renew Mantel’s contract… and Tony was tied into any Mantel deal with WGAR.

There’s no word yet on a start date at “99.9 The Wolf,” but they do stream online.

BREAKING – DARYL RUITER LEAVES WKNR: In what seems to be a common occurrence at WKNR/850, yet another long-time staffer at the Good Karma-owner sports talker has left the building.

Daryl Ruiter, the station’s update anchor during “Munch in the Morning” and “Mike & Mike,” Browns beat reporter, webmaster and station engineer, departed from “ESPN 850” yesterday. He confirmed that Friday was his last day on Twitter, saying that it was “sad to say goodbye after 12 wonderful years but looking forward to the opportunities the future brings.”

Ruiter had been heard off and on at WKNR since 1998, but most of that time was working at Metro Networks’ Independence facility before Good Karma hired him internally to do engineering work and produce what was then Mark “Munch” Bishop’s afternoon show. Eventually, it later evolved into doing update anchoring, Browns beat reporting, and occasional fill-in hosting on the weekends… all at the same time.

Ruiter’s departure not only leaves WKNR short of a Browns beat reporter… it comes after WKNR jettisoned update anchor Jeff Thomas, reporter Bob Karlovec, and board-op/engineer Eddie Mularz back in May. (More on the first two later on in this post.)

At this same time, a group called Digital Sports Network made the following post on their twitter account:

“DSN would like to officially welcome Daryl Ruiter to our team. Stay tuned for our broadcast lineup coming soon.”

The Digital Sports Network advertise themselves as “your source for Cleveland Sports – COMING IN TWO WEEKS! Radio Programming and Blogs Featuring Cleveland Sports! Also partnering with Cleveland.com.” For the past month or so, a companion WordPress blog and Facebook fan page have been in operation, offering Cleveland sports news and opinion. Among the staffers listed on the blog are former Metro Networks/WKNR staffer Matt Loede (who is also a sports announcer with WEOL/930 Elyria) and Tony Mazur.

As for DSN’s radio programming plans… the domain sportsradiocleveland.com has been mentioned by people supposedly close to this venture, but it is an undeveloped page, with the GoDaddy.com material still on there. But Ruiter, Loede, and Mazur would have to be a part of said plans, even as they still faces an mammoth battle against WKNR, if not just because of the terrestrial radio vs. internet radio factor.

Smart phone technology, and the future of wireless internet radio, do show promise of leveling the playing field… but it will take serious time for this effort to develop, and to make some headway into the local media scene. The addition of Ruiter into the mix is a very smart and solid move.

Q104, SOON TO BE LESS “WILDE”: For those who follow OMW’s Twitter feed, Hot AC WQAL/104.1 personality Rebecca Wilde dropped a bombshell of sorts on her Twitter page on Wednesday, September 15:

“Off to travel the world!! Last day at the Q is Oct. 29th!”

On September 22, the “Wilde and Fee” co-host officially confirmed her departure on her bio page/blog on Q104’s website. And indeed, she’s leaving WQAL on October 29 for an extended travel sabbatical… with little to no sign that she may make a reentry into radio:

“There is a whole big world out there that has been calling my name and I have finally decided it’s time to go check it out.  I will miss Cleveland like you cannot even imagine.  I have some time before my final goodbye but I want to thank you for everything…….for all the love, the success and the joy that you and this city have bestowed upon me.  I truly feel like I will be leaving a huge family and many friends behind.”

Wilde will leave the station just one month shy of her 10th anniversary over there; co-host Allan Fee celebrated his in late July. Of course, Fee originally was WQAL’s off-air program director before assuming the morning host position that Danny Czekalinski vacated in 2004… Wilde herself started in middays before succeeding Carole Chandler (Sullivan) as morning co-host in 2003.

Now the attention is directed towards who will replace Rebecca Wilde on the morning show; the smart money should have to be on current afternoon host Jen Toohey. And Rebecca, best of wishes upon your upcoming travels. Would we all be so lucky or fortunate…

PUTTING THE “NEW” IN NEWS GRAPHICS: Lest we forget the fine folks at Reserve Square, Raycom CBS affiliate WOIO/19 made a very noticeable change this past weekend.

One could make the case that, after “19 Action News” made the conversion to HD back in November 2007, they ended up with one of the ugliest graphics packages in town. So much could be said about that look, but by far, the biggest offensive was the massive “19ActionNewsHD” logo that compressed the text on the L3 graphics.

Fortunately on Monday (and no doubt coinciding with the start of CBS’ fall lineup) WOIO unveiled an updated graphics package. The on-air look is cleaner and crisper, and the bottom-of-the-screen ticker was refreshed as well. The biggest improvement was the merciful excising of the “HD” from the Action News logo.

Of course, in comparison to WOIO’s sister station (and former FOX O&O/Local TV outlet) in Birmingham, Fox affiliate WBRC/6… well, there IS no comparison…

DOWN ON THE FARM: Whiplash Radio LLC’s WRTK/1540 Niles continues to make additions to their “Farm” classic country format.

WRTK has picked up three weekend programs; first, Dial-Global’s “America’s Grand Ole Opry Weekend” on Saturday mornings from 9am-11am, “Country Music Greats with Jim Ed Brown” on Saturdays from 11am-1pm, and “Country Gold with Rowdy Yates” on Sunday mornings at 9am. But the most noteworthy addition, however, is the “Wheeling Jamboree,” which WRTK now carries on Saturdays from 1pm-3pm.

Yes, this is the very same program that originated on WWVA/1170 Wheeling for nearly 80 years, first as the “WWVA Jamboree,” and later “Jamboree USA,” before being quietly canceled on December 6, 2008 after three years worth of reruns. Since then, Clear Channel’s concert arm LiveNation spun off the program to a local non-profit, and sold off its’ longtime host venue, the Capitol Music Hall, to the Wheeling Convention Bureau. (The Capitol still hosts studio space for the entire Clear Channel Wheeling cluster.)

The Wheeling Jamboree now airs on “The Watchdawg,” WKKX/1600 Wheeling, WWVA’s all-local talk rival, and has since entered syndication, owing to WKKX’s non-existent 33 watt night signal (as opposed to WWVA’s massive 50kW signal).

Plus, as noted in this tweet from The Farm, the recent purchase of WRTK and Fox Sports affiliate WANR/1570 Warren may not be the last major move made by station owner Chris Lash. I guess we shall have to wait and see…

OTHER Y-TOWN NEWS: I was tipped off on some changes that occurred at Bernard Radio’s WASN/1500 Youngstown some months ago. Back in early January, WASN changed formats from gospel music to an urban talk format.

WASN has a local morning show hosted by “Tracey and Friends” from 7am-10am, followed by Syndication One hosts Warren Ballentine (10am-1pm) and the Rev. Al Sharpton (1pm-4pm), and Citadel host Michael Basiden (3pm-7pm), respectively. Basiden even did his show live from WASN’s studios this past Wednesday as part of his One Million Mentors tour, which had a stop in Youngstown.

The switch to urban talk also meant that a WASN mainstay, a local talk show hosted by Louie Free (which aired regardless of WASN’s past gospel and Hispanic formats), made the move to sister station WGFT/1330 Campbell, which sports a conservative talk format as “1330TALK.” Even though both stations are daytime-only, both WASN and WGFT‘s websites now feature 24-hour web streaming.

Also, there have been some rumblings that a significant station in said market could be sold in the very near future, but it’s still a very developing situation. Stay tuned…

KARLOVEC!!!: Newly minted WEOL/930 Elyria morning host Jeff Thomas isn’t the only former WKNR staffer that has seen a revival of, well… “good karma…” in Lorain County, even.

Since the start of the high school football season, former WKNR producer/host/Browns beat reporter Bob Karlovec has been the lead play-by-play man for classic country WOBL/1320 Oberlin’s HFSB broadcasts, joined alongside Darryl Maynard and sideline reporter Eric Girod.

Karlovec is hardly a stranger to Lorain County; he called games for WEOL from 1977 until 1992, and served as that station’s sports director for much of the same time. He joined WKNR upon the station’s July 1990 launch on the AM/1220 facility, and was there in numerous capacities until his dismissal on May 4, which was concurrent with Jeff Thomas’ release.

Bob’s addition also meant that former WOBL color man Jason Gibbs (who is also WKNR’s program director) was shuffled over to sister station WDLW/1380 Lorain’s broadcast crew, and is now teamed up with longtime play-by-play man Don Vincent and sideline reporter Rick Amador.

As for Jeff, he quietly returned to the field of play-by-play, serving as a fill-in sideline reporter for WEOL’s tape-delayed “Medina County Matchup” back on September 10. (Due to the big-time, big deal Elyria-Elyria Catholic game the previous night, his services were no doubt needed.)

WELL, HELLO (AGAIN) LARRY: Former Clevelander Larry Elder will be returning to the radio airwaves, on venerable Citadel talk station KABC/790 Los Angeles. The official announcement was made Wednesday afternoon during Sean Hannity’s own program.

It’s also a return to KABC for “The Sage of South Central,” where his show was once even nationally syndicated at, from 2002 until 2007 (ABC Radio replaced his show with WABC’s Mark Levin).

Back in the late 1980s, Elder hosted a public affairs show on PBS affiliate WVIZ/25 Cleveland, which eventually moved to then-Fox affiliate WOIO/19 as “The Larry Elder Show.”

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That’s it from here… have a great weekend!

The Big Hiatus

Due to circumstances beyond our control…oh, you know the drill.

We will not be able to regularly update the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) on a regular basis, at least for some time. We’re only putting this message up here so we don’t get “where are you, and why haven’t you updated?” questions, particularly when there is major media news afoot.

(For example, CBS Radio hot AC WQAL/104.1 “Q104” morning co-host Rebecca Wilde’s departure from the station next month, leaving reportedly for a travel sabbatical.)

We will continue to be able to put items on our Twitter feed, which also reprints to the right side of this blog and can be directly reached, even without any Twitter access or account of your own, at twitter.com/OhioMediaWatch. You don’t have to “do” Twitter to just read that page.

However, due to the constraints mentioned above, we may not be able to put items on Twitter in a timely fashion.

Please still continue to send us tips and media news (using About/E-mail link above, or our Twitter or Facebook accounts). Just understand that right now, we may not be able to get it on the blog.

We are also considering bringing aboard a guest editor, but that person would be clearly identified as not being your Primary Editorial Voice(tm). We are weighing the implications of bringing another Editorial Voice into the mix. Please keep watching This Space.

Thank you for your cooperation, and understanding. Yes, we’re fine…just swamped.

Dismantling The Beacon Empire

Long-time readers of your Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) have probably noticed that we have a particular obsession with a small Mahoning Valley radio group.

Since before we started in 2005, some form of Beacon Broadcasting has owned up to five radio stations along the Ohio/Pennsylvania border…a reign that’s coming to an end.

Pittsburgh-based broker Ray Rosenblum passes along word that the remaining three Beacon stations – on the PA side of the state border – are being sold to Educational Media Foundation for $225,000.

Yes, that’s EMF as in “K-Love”, and the California-based Christian contemporary satellite format is already airing on at least one of the three stations, WEXC/107.1 Greenville PA, under a network agreement with the incoming owner.

Rosenblum’s release says that unlike in Toledo, EMF won’t be hanging onto the other two AM stations it is buying, WLOA/1470 Farrell PA and WGRP/940 Greenville PA:

Mr. Rosenblum stated that contingent on FCC approval of the 3-station transaction and the closing of the sale, he will then arrange for Educational Media Foundation to re-sell WGRP in Greenville, PA and WLOA in Farrell/Sharon, PA to new buyers.

Our readers in the market note that EMF is including all three stations in its legal ID, though at very least WLOA/1470 may not be in the simulcast – as heard Saturday afternoon – for technical reasons. (We don’t know if WGRP/940 is still being fed directly from WLOA.)

The flip to K-Love reportedly happened after high school football coverage on Friday.

In Toledo, EMF – after a long-term LMA – bought both WNKL/96.9 Wauseon and WNWT/1520 Rossford/Toledo, and still operates AM 1520 with the K-Love format after displacing a secular talk format.

So, though Beacon Broadcasting still owns all 5 Mahoning Valley and Shenango Valley stations until the FCC approves two separate sales, all 5 stations are now under other control.

Earlier this month, Chris Lash’s Whiplash Communications took over Beacon’s Ohio stations, sports WANR/1570 Warren “Fox Sports 1570” and daytimer WRTK/1540 Niles, now doing classic country as “The Farm” after a brief time simulcasting WANR in the final weeks of Beacon’s ownership.

With the flip of 1470 and 940, WRTK is now alone in the classic country format in the region.

And whichever owner ends up buying WLOA and WGRP, the stations will change format one way or the other…assuming a brief period simulcasting WEXC’s “K-Love” format while EMF works to sell the AM stations.

The Beacon group sold off to other buyers after the death of leader Harold Glunt in January, and sold all 5 stations for just $275,000.

That’s about $1 million less than the advertised price for all stations…and the bundling of the two PA AM stations for later sale tells us that Glunt’s heirs basically want no part of running radio stations even for a short time.

The sale ends a long and winding radio journey that saw the stations change format frequently, airing programming ranging from secular oldies to sports, to classic country, and Christian rock and contemporary music, and adult contemporary music, with some conservative talk thrown in for good measure. (For example, the WEXC/107.1 format change means Premiere’s Glenn Beck is now without a Youngstown market outlet.)

Rosenblum’s full release is below:

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NEWS RELEASE September 10, 2010

Sale Announced Of 3 Beacon Broadcasting Radio Stations
In Greenville, PA /Youngstown, OH To EMF/KLOVE

Media Broker Ray H. Rosenblum of Pittsburgh, PA has announced that
Dennis Glunt, the Executor for the estate of the late Harold Glunt, has agreed to sell the 3 Beacon Broadcasting, Inc. radio stations in Greenville and Farrell, PA to Educational Media Foundation/KLOVE of Rocklin, CA, subject to the approval of the Federal Communications Commission [FCC]. All 3 stations are in the Youngstown, OH market. They began KLOVE programming under a network agreement on September 10th.

According to Mr. Rosenblum, WEXC(FM-107.1) and WGRP(AM-940) in Greenville, PA, as well as WLOA(AM-1470) in Farrell/Sharon, PA have been sold for a total of $225,000. The stations were recently simulcasting a sports talk format.

The CEO/President of the buyer, Educational Media Foundation, is Michael Novak.

Mr. Rosenblum stated that contingent on FCC approval of the 3-station transaction and the closing of the sale, he will then arrange for Educational Media Foundation to re-sell WGRP in Greenville, PA and WLOA in Farrell/Sharon, PA to new buyers.

In August Mr. Rosenblum announced the sale of Beacon’s 2 Ohio stations, WANR(AM-1570) in Warren/Youngstown and WRTK(AM-1540) in Niles/Youngstown for a total of $50,000 to Whiplash Radio of Waynesville, OH. That sale is now pending approval at the FCC.
Harold Glunt, the principal owner of Beacon Broadcasting, died on January 25th. The Executor of his estate is his son, Dennis Glunt.

—END—

Quick Hits

Some items we have to get online, quickly…but as it turns out, this is a full-sized update…

PREMIERES IN THE BOOKS…: We missed an update on Wednesday, so we didn’t get to remind you of the very first Regina Brett Show on WKSU/89.7-and-its-million-simulcasters. (OK, so it only seems like WKSU has a million full power repeaters and simulcasters.)

For the record, show #1 on Wednesday night at 7 PM, courtesy of a press release that came in more than enough time from WKSU’s OMW Handler, Ann VerWiebe:

Guests for the premiere are Nancy Brinker, founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure discussing her new book Promise Me, which comes out 9/14, and Sophie Sureau, Executive Director of Komen NE Ohio Affiliate. This is a personal topic for many in Northeast Ohio, including Brett who is a breast cancer survivor. The program airs in advance of the NE Ohio Race for the Cure this Saturday.

The show, inspired by the Plain Dealer columnist’s book “God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life’s Little Detours”, airs Wednesday nights at 7 on – let’s see if we can get the full power list without looking – WKSU/89.7 Kent, WKRW/89.3 Wooster, WKRJ/91.5 New Philadelphia, WKSV/89.1 Thompson and WNRK/90.7 Norwalk, along with translators in Ashland (95.7) and Boardman (107.5).

Speaking of WKSU, the public broadcaster’s FolkAlley.com will stream a live webcast of the AMA (Americana Music Association) awards. The webcast will be heard live from Nashville, thanks to the FolkAlley.com remote vehicle and three staffers (Executive Director Al Bartholet, Director of Programming Linda Fahey and Technical Specialist Dan Kuznicki) starting at 7:30 PM Thursday.

Some of the bigger names include singers like John Mellencamp, Emmylou Harris, The Avett Brothers, Rodney Crowell, Wanda Jackson, Rosanne Cash, Patty Griffin, Sam Bush, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Ryan Bingham, Corb Lund, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Joe Pug, Sarah Jarosz and Will Kimbrough.

(And yes, we copied and pasted all those names.)

It can all be heard on the HD2 channels of all those above listed full-power WKSU simulcasters, at FolkAlley.com, and in the mobile apps for both Folk Alley and WKSU for iOS and Android…

…AND PREMIERES UPCOMING: Monday, September 13th will be opening day for local talk radio personality Matt Patrick in the shadow of the Golden Dome.

Or, wherever the studios of WTRC/95.3 “NewsTalk 95.3 MNC” are in the South Bend IN area, where the former WKDD/98.1-WHLO/640 morning voice takes over the morning drive slot of the station in the “Michiana” area (“Mich”igan and Ind”iana”, shorthand for the area around South Bend).

Patrick will continue to be heard Saturdays 1-4 PM on Clear Channel talk WTAM/1100 Cleveland, and doing fill-ins for WTAM “big brother” “Big One” talker WLW/700 Cincinnati. We believe the plan is for Matt to spend Monday through Friday in South Bend, and weekends back home in Northeast Ohio (or in Cincinnati if needed).

But no, he’s not working for Clear Channel in Chicago, as far as we know.

That’s brought up thanks to an article we spotted on the Akron Beacon Journal’s Ohio.com about a rally at the Canton Civic Center, where Patrick was the emcee:

Patrick, a former morning radio host on Akron’s WKDD and now host of a Saturday show on Cleveland talk-radio station WTAM, said he sees the jobs issue ”from both sides.”

”I never thought I’d be without a job,” he told the crowd.

Patrick said he also now hosts shows in Cincinnati and Chicago for Clear Channel Communications.

Well, close.

Matt’s new employer is Federated Media, and even the signal of WTRC-FM/95.3 Niles MI doesn’t QUITE make it to Chicago, though it touches the outer Indiana suburbs of America’s third-largest market. (The AM signal of “Michiana’s News Channel”, WTRC/1340 Elkhart IN, is further to the east.)

Ah, yes, we love it when newspaper writers try to do stories involving radio personalities. At least they got the first part right…and didn’t prompt a suburban mayor to start looking into zoning issues based on a new potential city of license….

CONGRATULATIONS: …to another recipient of that great OMW Karma.

Long-time OMW reader Matt Wardlaw has been promoted at locally-based radio syndicator Envision Radio Networks.

As Envision grows, so does Matt’s career, as he’s now Director of Operations for the Beachwood-based syndication giant.

Word of advice? If you want media career advancement, read the Mighty Blog of Fun(tm) as often as we put this thing out. We’re not sure the Karma comes back to your Primary Editorial Voice(tm), but we HAVE had some good things happen as a result of this blog…

GETTING TOGETHER: For such a “small, suburban station”, Spirit Media’s WELW/1330 Willoughby has wide, varied history.

The station will celebrate that history in an all-day broadcast this Saturday, marking the 45th anniversary of the east side radio fixture.

WELW’s Ray Somich passes along the live broadcast schedule, 8 AM to 6 PM at the Patrician Party Center, on Lakeland Boulevard in Eastlake…a schedule as varied as all the different types of programming WELW has featured over the years:

· 8-9am: religious music and talk shows
· 9-10am: non-oldies (specialty) music – Big Band, Jazz, Easy Listening, Country, etc.
· 10-11am: feature show with Duke & the Doctor – national program hosts from Georgia
· 11am-2pm: polkas and nationalities
o 11am-noon (all polka personalities except Tony Petkovsek & his staff)
o Noon-1pm (49 year personality Tony Petkovsek and his staff)
o 1-2pm (all non-polka nationality hosts – Italian, Croatian, German, Irish, etc.)
· 2-3:30pm: local talk programs
· 3:30-5pm: oldies talk/music
· 5-6pm: local sports talk

Those who are a part of WELW’s history who haven’t checked in for Saturday are urged to visit WELW.com, or call the station at (440) 946-1330…

AND SPEAKING OF OMW READERS AND PROJECTS: Long-time OMW reader Matt Haze, the former Clear Channel Akron/Canton personality who ended up in New York City, thinks he has a great niche idea. And we agree.

Here’s his own description of his new “daily commentary feature”:

The Daily Haze is your daily dose of intelligent comedy in two minutes or less, guaranteed. It’s commentary by me of a topic of the day, but is also not all about me. It’s about the listener. I ask the Facebook Question of the Day at the end relating to the topic to create some real talk about it. Listeners can respond on the facebook page, facebook.com/thedailyhaze. It’s very interactive and very new media driven.

People can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, RSS or even email delivery daily.

But Matt’s niche for radio is unique, he tells OMW:

I’m making this available to radio to use. It’s hard timed at 2 minutes and has a full professional production sound and value, so it’s a great feature they can use for their online stream fill. When they want something unique and fresh to use everyday for their online listeners, this is available. I know stations struggle with what to fill with online and it can be tough to come up with content constantly. This is their answer. It’s my way to offer content to stations to help.

When there are long commercial breaks that must be covered on the stream due to licensing and royalty issues, this might work well instead of running the same 3 station promos or PSAs over and over.

Not like we’ve heard that before…this week.

We wish him the best of luck!

Lots Of Moves

Both physical and format moves dominate our item this evening…

BACK HOME AGAIN: An Akron market radio station is back in Summit County this week.

And we found out because readers as far north as the Slavic Village area of Cleveland – just south of downtown – are reporting a much stronger signal out of Clear Channel hot AC WKDD/98.1.

We hadn’t heard anything from Freedom Avenue on this long-awaited move, but sure enough, WKDD is now once again at its former transmitter site on Bellaire Lane in Cuyahoga Falls, the former Northampton Township…the station’s long-time home at 96.5 FM.

The location is the same, but we hear WKDD is actually on a new tower at the Bellaire Lane site…something we assume World Champion Tower Hunter and long-time personal and professional Friend of OMW Scott Fybush will notice the next time he’s around these parts.

There are other WKDD related changes.

Clear Channel has put the signal of sister talk WHLO/640 Akron on WKDD’s HD2 channel, displacing its “Club Phusion” music programming.

We know that because Pittsburgh-based syndicated morning man Jim Quinn (“Quinn and Rose”, middays on WHLO) has been touting both the HD2 addition to 98.1 and the signal improvement on his show, telling listeners the show could now be heard (via 98.1-HD2) “from Cleveland to Dover”.

There’s a bit of radio exaggeration there, of course. HD signal range is somewhat less than the analog signal range.

But it’s still an improvement for “the more fortunate suburbs of Cleveland”, as Quinn puts it, compared to the either the main signal at 640 AM, or the existing simulcast on Canton’s WRQK/106.9-HD2.

We heard that simulcast continuing tonight…and don’t know if Clear Channel plans to do something else on WRQK’s HD2 channel. For now, we believe it stays.

WKDD has also adopted a new slogan to go along with its station identity as “Akron’s 98-1, The New ‘KDD”…it’s now offering music labeled “trom the 90s, 2K and Today”.

The road for the WKDD move back to Bellaire Lane was paved by the station changing its city of license from Canton to the Akron suburb of Munroe Falls…

MOVING BACK HOME, TOO: And there’s a format change (first of two) with this as well.

As expected, incoming owner Chris Lash has taken over WANR/1570 Warren and sister daytimer WRTK/1540 Niles, part of his pending purchase (as “Whiplash Communications”) of the two Beacon Broadcasting outlets.

And Lash has already made one change.

Also as expected, WRTK has split off from its Fox Sports Radio simulcast of WANR, and has flipped – to classic country, as “1540 The Farm, Youngstown’s Country Legends”. The change happened with Lash’s takeover of the stations in an LMA on Wednesday morning.

“1540 The Farm” already has a website, here.

Lash tells OMW that streaming audio will be available “very soon”. Reader Tim Lones at Cleveland Classic Media tells us that the streaming is already up and running, and reminds us that Lash is heard 7-10 AM on his new station. The streaming is going well past WRTK’s daytime signoff, and we’ve heard WRTK promote its website equally with the radio station.

Lash also notes that WANR and WRTK will move into the renovated WRTK building (the former WNIO/”CD 106″ studios) in the Mineral Ridge section of Trumbull County soon – over the Labor Day weekend. (CORRECTION: WRTK is already operating from there, and of course, its transmitter has always been there.)

As noted, WANR will continue with its Fox Sports Radio sports format.

The WRTK format change shouldn’t be a surprise, given Lash’s involvement in “legendary” country music.

This site touts his “Ohio Hayride: The Buckeye State’s Only Live Country Music Radio Show”, which airs in Southwest Ohio on the Waynesville station he operates (WYNS/89.3 “Hybrid FM”), and classic country WPFB/910 Middletown.

We haven’t asked him yet, but we assume Lash will air the show in some form on his newly flipped WRTK/1540…though there are only two shows left between now and mid-October.

The WRTK flip means there are now three classic country stations in the region – the other two are WRTK’s former sister AMs under Beacon Broadcasting, WLOA/1470 Farrell PA and WGRP/940 Greenville PA, simulcasting with the format.

With a sale of those stations and AC WEXC/107.1 Greenville PA “C107.1” imminent, there’s no guarantee that “Classic Country 1470 and 940” will continue…

AND A FORMAT MOVE: OMW hears that ESPN Radio affiliate WLKR/1510 Norwalk, a daytimer owned by Elyria-Lorain Broadcasting, has flipped format.

Station officials confirm directly to OMW that WLKR’s AM side is now airing Dial Global’s “Kool Gold” classic hits format, featuring 60s and 70’s music.

Bill Forthofer, station manager for both WLKR and AAA WLKR-FM 95.3, and country WKFM/96.1 Huron, tells OMW:

“We feel this music format will appeal to more people in our local market, and will allow us to better localize our station.”

According to WLKR/1510’s Wikipedia site, for what it’s worth, it’s a return to “oldies” music for the station…which carried Westwood One’s “Oldies Channel” until 2006, after a stint carrying that same network’s “Adult Standards” format…