Welcome To Tri-State Media Watch!

Hello everyone, and welcome to the first Tri-State Media Watch blog. I will tell you a little about myself, and give you a few tidbits of information about some phrases I will use frequently throughout this blog.

I am a 23 year old internet radio disc jockey from Florence, Kentucky. I am squarely in the Cincinnati, Ohio radio and TV markets. I do listen to a bunch of the stations around here, such as 101.9 WKRQ-FM (Q102), WYGY-FM 97.3 (97.3 The Sound, more on that in a moment), 700 WLW-AM, and others.

Frequently Used Phrases: Here's a few things you'll need to know when perusing this blog:

Kenwood Tower: The Clear Channel Cincinnati Radio headquarters, in the Kenwood, Ohio area of Cincinnati, just off Montgomery Road.
Bonneville Mountain: The HQ of Bonneville Broadcasting's Cincinnati cluster, on Reading Road on Mount Auburn, just north of Downtown Cincinnati.
Cumulus Central: HQ of Cumulus Media, on Central Avenue downtown.
OMW: Ohio Media Watch, which inspired me to write specifically about the Cincinnati area. Thanks guys - you can catch them at ohiomedia.blogspot.com :)

A couple news items to begin the new TSMW Blog-O-Fun:

Skinner Out Again: Cumulus announced it had let Richard Skinner, formerly of the Two Angry Guys Morning Show on rock station 96.5 WFTK-FM, go on 11/7 (Friday) after that show's airing. He had just signed a new contract in October, and was surprised but not, well, angry about the decision, according to John Kiesewetter of the Cincinnati Enquirer. TSMW wishes Mr. Skinner the best of luck in the future. (NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: I was not in town, I thought the change had taken place today. It was not, see next entry for details)

WSWD/WYGY Frequency Swap: I mentioned a moment ago about the fact I listen to 97.3 The Sound, which is WYGY-FM. Well that wasn't always its location before Friday.

WYGY and WSWD-FM 94.9FM (former location of The Sound) swapped frequencies Friday morning, while yours truly was on his way to Louisville, Kentucky. WSWD is now 94.9 The Wolf (formerly located on 97.3). The Wolf is a country station, sister to WUBE-FM 105.1 (B105). All are owned by Bonneville, together with WKRQ-FM. (Hat Tip: OMW for alerting yours truly to the switch, as I did not have a radio handy and was traveling with the MP3 player at the time)

One problem for faithful 94.9 The Sound listeners, especially in Northern Kentucky: The new frequency only has 6,000 watts of power, whereas 94.9 had 50,000 watts. That means that at BEST, the signal might reach down into parts of Florence. But when yours truly checked on the signal last night about 3am, it was staticky at best and at worst, downright unlistenable.

We've heard that apparently, Bonneville made the move to protect B105, in case any eventual new owner of 94.1 or 92.5 decides to flip either to country. We aren't sure whether the latter will happen, but it's a smart move made by the folks over at Bonneville Mountain.

And, just to bring things full circle, 97.3 WAS WAQZ-FM, which played...ready for this...Alternative Rock! So, after about 2 years or so, 97.3 is again an Alternative Rock station.
That's all for the first edition. Keep it locked, and when new media news breaks, I'll cover it here at the Blog-O-Fun!