Friday Morning Data Dump
October 11, 2013 7 Comments
Or, late Thursday night, if you prefer, as we can’t sleep…for reasons having nothing to do with OMW…
THE WNIR DRAMA: A MUST READ for anyone interested in recent WNIR events, by former local newspaper columnist Stuart Warner in one of his old newspaper haunts, the Akron Beacon Journal via Ohio.com. Retired WNIR morning man Stan Piatt opens up to Warner about how his exit from the station was handled. The details are (nearly) identical to unconfirmed rumblings we’ve heard for months now. It’s what we’d have wrote if we were able to confirm. By the way, since Stan Piatt opened up on his situation…no, the “love of his life” is not a now-former or current WNIR employee. She has no ties to Broadcast Park. The piece was posted Wednesday night on Ohio.com, but we just saw the link early this Friday morning. The Warner piece provides an E-mail address for Piatt, for those wishing to contact him directly…
FRIEND OF OMW APPLIES: Good luck to former Rubber City Radio country WQMX/94.9 staffer George McFly, as he applies for the opening at CBS Radio AC WDOK/102.1 “New 102” left by the departure of “Kory” to Dallas…
NOT FAST ENOUGH: Twitter follower @StevenArmatas: “Any update on when FOX8 will move to UHF so we can get an HD antenna signal down here in Canton?” Our response: “Everything’s on hold as FCC is closed in government shutdown. Don’t hold your breath on Fox 8 moving to UHF, tho. WJW’s app to move to UHF 31 may have been too late, as FCC seeks to repack TV stations below 31 to make room for data services.”
Ohio Media Watch 
Reminds me of what happened to Jim Blum. No farewell shows, barely a send-off party. He still feels forced out by management. AEV
Sent from my iPhone
And it’s a shame in both cases, Ann.
I have not had over-the-air access to Fox8 since the digital conversion. I had to wait a little while to get Channel 19. But I’ve reviewed the 2 hour a night Fox8 lineup and decided there was nothing of interest there for me to try to get it with a roof antenna.
I guess Kory didn’t like New 102 either… WDOK, come to your senses already, bring back the soft rock format that Cleveland has been lacking since you dumped it. Oh, by the way, New 102 ISN’T NEW ANYMORE! It became old 3 months after the re-branding. Check your calender, it is not January 2012 anymore…
WJW should have never ditched RF31 in the first place. It was fine before the transition, so what was the reason for moving the digital broadcast to 8?
And is the repacking really necessary? To my knowledge, only a few of the former 52-69 allotments are being used by wireless companies, so why sell off more TV allotments for empty unplanned data services? You thought the current TV allocations are crowed now, just think of what it would be like when we only have channels 7-31. Nothing will get approved because of interference to adjacent stations. Low power stations will disappear and stations may have to share sub-channels, which could end digital networks like Me-TV. I like technology and I work and repair computers all the time, but I don’t need to be connected to a smart phone or tablet everywhere I go. I will not be a victim for this mobile internet TV garbage either. Why in the world would you want to watch TV on a 7″ screen? I will never pay for local TV broadcasts sent through the internet to a phone/tablet. There are a lot of people out there who do not like change or can not afford to pay for TV. Part of the idea for the digital transition was to provide more channels for free. Seems like we’re taking a step backwards. What a bunch of BS.
Well written, especially about the TV repacking.
You have to realize…the current FCC is All About The Internet, and well, those pesky broadcasters will have to accept that…tho there is currently money planned to have TV stations give up bandwidth, much of that will be nabbed by the Michael Dells of the world…buying up flailing UHF stations and sitting on the allocation until cashing in and shutting the station off.
The repacking affects local stations like WEAO (RF 50), WDLI (which grabbed WEAO’s analog allocation 49), WIVM-LP (which took WDLI’s old RF 39), WQHS (RF 34), WRLM (RF 47) and Youngstown’s WKBN (RF 41) and WYTV (RF 36).
It’s voluntary…for now. But it likely means WJW’S move to RF 31 is a non-starter.
I’m not on Twitter all the time [though it seems like it]. I could see using Twitter for stuff like someone’s leaving a station, someone’s joining a station but if it’s something major, , i.e. like the WKNR/Stan Piatt kerfluffle, I’d rather read the juicy details in a longer format then Twitter can provide. But it’s your blog and you can run it anyway you see fit. Not like I can demand a refund or anything. 😛
Happy to see the more traditional posting on your blog. Some (many) things need expressed in whole sentences.