Briefly: Fox Sports Ohio Schedule for Weekend

We just posted this on Twitter, and are just getting Around Tuit after an injury yesterday.

Fox Sports Ohio has announced the weekend play-by-play schedule, with both Cincinnati college basketball teams and the Cleveland Cavaliers and Columbus Blue Jackets conflicting. Here's the schedule along with alternate channels:

Saturday, January 3

The Cincinnati Bearcats

8p Cincinnati @ Rutgers


Cincinnati/Dayton, Ohio:

· Cincinnati Bell Fioptics: Channel 261

· Time Warner: Channel 310

· Insight: Channel 6



Columbus, Ohio:

Time Warner, Insight and WOW - check local channels


Cleveland, Ohio:

· Time Warner: Channel 310

· Cox: Channel 98


DISH Network: alternate channel TBD

Direct TV: alternate channel TBD


The Blue Jackets will be on FOX Sports Ohio.

6:30pm Blue Jackets Live pre-game show

7pm Blue Jackets v. Avalanche



Sunday, January 3

The Xavier Musketeers

5:30pm Xavier @ Wake Forest

Cincinnati/Dayton, Ohio:

· Cincinnati Bell Fioptics: Channel 261

· Time Warner: Channel 310

· Insight: Channel 6

Columbus, Ohio:

Time Warner, Insight and WOW - check local channels


Cleveland, Ohio:

· Time Warner: Channel 310

· Cox: Channel 98


DISH Network: FS Cincinnati

Direct TV: FS Cincinnati


The Cavaliers will be on FOX Sports Ohio.

5:30pm Cavaliers Live pre-game show

6:00pm Cavaliers v. Charlotte (HD)


And this will be the final calendar year update for This Space. Barring anything very serious being detected on a likely visit to the ER later today (Your Tri-State Media Watcher took a spill yesterday and may have a broken leg), we'll be back Monday.

JUST IN: Fox, Time Warner in Major Dispute

We're hearing that FOX and Time Warner Cable are in some major disputes over retransmission, and that it will affect some channels here.

(UPDATE: We first believed that WXIX-TV 19 was involved. While a) they ARE up for renewal with Time Warner here, and b) some affiliates of the network are being asked to share retransmission fees, FOX 19 isn't confirmed to be one. We've removed that part of it until we hear otherwise.)

However, we DO know of five or six channels that are LIKELY to disappear on Thursday from Time Warner systems locally. Those are:

Fuel
Fox Reality Channel
Speed Channel
Fox Soccer Channel
Fox Sports World Espanol
FX

All of those are listed, along with WXIX, here.

This is part of a larger dispute between News Corp (which owns the FOX networks) and Time Warner (as well as Bright House Networks down in Florida). News Corp is asking for $1 per subscriber for all these channels, and Time Warner wants to give News Corp less. More information is available here, here and here.

Stay tuned... this is a HUGE story (it brought us out of hiatus big time)...

End Of Year Message 2009

What a year 2009 has been in the radio and TV world in Southwest Ohio, Northern Kentucky and Eastern Indiana.

From Clear Channel cutting talent...good talent in January (and again 3 months later), to the end of analog television, to anchor returns and meteorologist departures... 2009 was not the best year in broadcasting.

But...we look to stay positive here at the Blog of Fun. It wasn't the best year...but it also wasn't the worst.

The biggest stories of 2009 were the first two in the above list. Clear Channel's cut of over 1800 people on Inauguration Day was the broadcast giant's latest effort to cut costs. It didn't totally work, as three months later they went back to slash over 600 more people... but that would prove to be the end of the mass downsizing on the broadcast side.

In print, however, it would be a whole other story, as the Enquirer would lay off over 100 people, shut down CiN Weekly (converting it into Metromix Cincinnati) and end columnist Peter Bronson's column in July.

A couple weeks after that, turmoil would reign at WLWT-TV 5. First, news director Brennan Donnellan would leave in July. Chief Meteorologist Derek Beasley would depart in August to head to Mobile and take the position at WPMI there (which is owned by Newport Television, which owns WKRC-TV here, making his former competitors there more like co-workers).

A few days after Beasley's departure, WLWT hired replacement news director Stacy Owen, who took 3 months to find the station's new Chief Meteorologist in Kevin Robinson, bringing him back home after a stint with The Weather Channel.

Analog TV was also a big story. All of the full power stations except WSTR-TV 64 shut down analog broadcasting in June (WSTR had already shut their analog transmitter off on the original February 17 date). Almost as quickly, WCPO found it had lost many viewers when the VHF signal proved to be less powerful than advertised. So that station set about first increasing power, then ultimately filing a Petition for Rulemaking to move from digital RF 10 to RF 22. (End of Year Update: at last check, WCPO still hasn't filed to make the switch - but we'd say that's coming sooner rather than later - the petition was approved 12/7.)

Radio and TV broadcasting also lost some legendary figures both nationwide and locally, from Soupy Sales (October) to Paul Harvey (February) and "Uncle" Al Lewis (March) to Michael Jackson (June) to George Michael (last Thursday).

But...like we said, we want to end this year on a positive note.

Where's the silver lining, you may wonder? It's this: that even though many good talents have come and gone, there's still great talent employed locally.

Take the good folks at WKRQ-FM 101.9 for example (and for that matter, the entire Bonneville Cincinnati cluster, which also has WREW-FM 94.9, WYGY-FM 97.3 and WUBE-FM 105.1). We saw MANY examples from Bonneville of good community service from the start of the year to its end, including "Bras Across the Bridge" (breast cancer awareness), "Camp Carr"(toy collection for Toys for Tots), and "Stuff the Bus" (filling a TANK bus with non-perishables for needy families in NKY). (Yes, we realize all the cited examples are from the final quarter of the year...but, there were too many to mention, and we can't remember all of them.)

Or use the still-to-be-launched WVQC-LP 95.7 as another example. The group of people involved with that effort through Media Bridges is an example of radio BY Cincinnati, FOR Cincinnati, featuring local bands, local-minded talk programs, and local, home-grown talent behind all of it. We're hoping to see Media Bridges and WVQC succeed in 2010.

Anyway, stations like Bonneville's holdings and WVQC still do (or they will) employ community minded people. We believe that will continue into 2010. It is people like those up at Bonneville and Media Bridges that make broadcasting great... and we see bright things for all of those involved at both...and any station that keeps its community the focus...

BREAKING: One Change In Chillicothe, Flip Coming to Indy

UPDATE: We listened in and sure enough, WNTR-FM flipped right around 12:30 PM. Lance Venta at RadioInsight pegs the new "My 107.9" as "Still Variety Hits, but it appears at first glance to be more Pop leaning than the previous Rock leaning “The Track”," which sounds about right to us. The very first song to play was Journey's "Don't Stop Believing". The intro spoke of their three core values for the new "My 107.9", which were (as cited from the station's website here):

1) We Play the Widest Variety in Indianapolis (everything from Bon Jovi to Nickelback);
2) "We Listen to You" (including three different ways to contact the station); and
3) "We play everything you want" (request line, email or twitter).

Our original posting from an hour ago follows...

------------------------------

Both of these are just outside our coverage zone, but both are worth noting.

Chillicothe: We start to the east, where RadioInsight tells us that "Ross" is now "Mix".

WSRW-FM 106.5 out of Chillicothe has become WQLX-FM, and is now going by "Today's Mix 106.5". It's running what appears to be either Hot AC or at least Top 40.

We're calling it a flip, because it looks like before today they ran a straight ahead AC format with artists like .38 Special, Bonnie Raitt, and even Shania Twain.

Indianapolis: And now we head west, across to the other side of the TSMW coverage area.

Out there, you'll recall we noted WNTR-FM 107.9/Indianapolis going from "The Track" to "The Christmas Station", with a new format set to launch after the holidays.

We noted briefly on Twitter this morning that two days post-Christmas, that the "Christmas Station" holiday-themed format was still running.

It may not be for much longer...as in half an hour more from now.

We may or may not be near the desktop at 12:28 PM, but we're hearing that the station did run a promo around 1:30 AM saying simply "12:28 PM 12/28". Or something to that effect. As we type this, it is a few minutes before noon.

Anyway, whenever WNTR DOES flip, it will apparently become "My 107.9".

We caution: The timing isn't confirmed. But it's been known for weeks that they were going to flip... and 2 days post-Christmas seems to be a day for flips around the country (stations in Cleveland [Hello, OMW!] and Tulsa are also due to flip this afternoon, with the Cleveland flip about to happen as we type).

We'll have our ears on it...

A Couple Christmas Words

We're still on hiatus, but we want to make note of two or three things...

1) We'll post our "Year End" message probably sometime December 29 or 31. (It won't be the 30th...one of our friends has a birthday party on the 30th so we'll be doing that.)

2) As we noted on our Twitter account (Linked at right), John Hingsbergen sent us a story produced by Cheri Lawson, former WMUB 88.5/Oxford staffer. Lawson now produces stories for 89.7 WNKU/Highland Heights, Kentucky. This story was featured yesterday on NPR's "Morning Edition" national broadcast, which reaches 7 million people. Check it out at this link.

3) From all of us here at Tri-State Media Watch (mostly Your Tri-State Media Watcher), MERRY CHRISTMAS! (While we're at it, our thoughts go out to our friends and colleagues in Northeastern Ohio at Ohio Media Watch...who are dealing with some personal issues.)

Quick Post: FSO Coverage Wednesday

Yes, we're on hiatus but a quick note:

Fox Sports Ohio announced their schedule for Wednesday, when they will cover a Xavier University men's basketball game against Miami (Ohio), the Columbus Blue Jackets hockey game against the Dallas Stars, AND the Cleveland Cavaliers game with the Sacramento Kings. Here's the schedule per FSO:

Xavier Musketeers

6:30pm Musketeers Live pre-game show
7:00pm Xavier v. Miami (OH)

Cincinnati/Dayton, Ohio:

• Cincinnati Bell Fioptics: Channel 261
• Time Warner: Channel 310
• Insight: Channel 6

Columbus, Ohio:

• Time Warner, Insight and WOW - check local channels

Cleveland, Ohio:

• Time Warner: Channel 310
• Cox: Channel 98

DISH Network: alternate channel TBD

Direct TV: alternate channel TBD


Columbus Blue Jackets

8pm Blue Jackets Live pre-game show

8:30pm Blue Jackets @ Stars

Columbus, Ohio:

•FOX Sports Ohio SD

Cincinnati, Ohio:

•FOX Sports Ohio SD

DISH Network: FOX Sports Cincinnati

Direct TV: FOX Sports Cincinnati


Cleveland Cavaliers

9:30pm Cavaliers Live pre-game show
10:00pm Cavaliers @ Sacramento (HD)

Cleveland, Ohio:

• FOX Sports Ohio SD & HD

Columbus, Ohio:

• FOX Sports Ohio HD
• Time Warner, Insight and WOW - check local channels

Cincinnati/Dayton, Ohio:

• FOX Sports Ohio HD
• Time Warner: Channel 310

DISH Network: FOX Sports Ohio

Direct TV: FOX Sports Ohio

A note: DISH and Direct TV haven't announced alternate channels for the XU game yet. We expect to hear about those tomorrow or Wednesday and we'll update that info via Twitter.

Also, another program premieres tomorrow with a preview of the University of Cincinnati Bearcats Sugar Bowl game against Florida.

The "Bearcats Bowl Preview Special" will premiere tomorrow at 7 PM, with the following airings after that:

12/22 9:30pm

12/26 3:30pm

12/28 9:30pm

12/29 11:00pm

12/31 10:00pm

Now, we're off for the holidays! Have a great holiday season and we'll be back 1/5/10!

NEW THIS MORNING: WLWT Re-signs Rico

We got word of this very early this morning from our source close to WLWT-TV 5/Cincinnati.

That source sent word to us this morning that the station has re-signed meteorologist Randi Rico to a three year deal to do mornings for the still struggling NBC affiliate.

Our source went on to remind us that this leaves WLWT with two meteorologists on the team that need to be moved around, ahead of Kevin Robinson's arrival on January 11th: Valerie Abati and Eric Green. And we hear Green's contract will be up soon. He was signed a few years ago to do mornings, before Channel 5 moved Derek Beasley into that shift.

So, with Rico now signed for three more years, it remains to be seen who else will make up the Channel 5 "Power of 5" weather team...

A Reminder: This Space will take its yearly Christmas break beginning tomorrow night, December 16. We won't be updating nearly as often between then and January 5th - and as we noted, we're going to try to put away the keyboard between the 24th and the 1st. Major news will get posted...such as this morning's tidbit - BUT - we're also dealing with some technical issues with the TSMW laptop, which is causing us to rely on the slower (but still functional!) TSMW desktop. So, if we don't update from tomorrow on, don't be surprised...

WCVG - Now CONFIRMED Silent

We've confirmed that WCVG-AM 1320/Covington has indeed been taken silent as of Thursday.

We're told that they're going to remain silent until a buyer or tenant is found for the Gospel station, but we note that there's still an online stream available in the meantime at WCVG's website. We were briefly able to catch that on Friday.

THIS JUST IN: WCPO, WXIX Make Shared News Agreement

We just got word that WCPO-TV 9/Cincinnati and WXIX-TV 19/Newport, KY will pool their resources to send only one camera instead of two to events like press conferences, trials, meetings and even basketball games.

We're looking to find a copy of the press release online, but it's not at either station's site. For now, we reference the Kiese Blog, which broke the story while we were taking a brief catnap.

As the agreement notes, WXIX and WCPO will still have the ability to send their own crews to some events. And it says nothing about breaking news events like fires, weather, etc., which one would assume would continue to be covered individually on each station.

The agreement, as we've seen, mirrors those done in places like Cleveland (hello, OMW), Detroit, Phoenix, and Tampa by other Scripps stations, as well as other network affiliates in Washington, Philadelphia, Dallas and Chicago.

We will wait to judge this, as we don't think it's in place even right now. But, it seems like a good move on paper by both sides, helping increase efficiency...

A Couple Weekend Items

These items will end our week, as we attempt to spend some time with significant others this weekend...

WCVG Off Air?: For all the world, it sounds like WCVG-AM 1320/Covington isn't on the air at the moment. Their nighttime directional 430 watt signal shouldn't be having any trouble reaching the TSMW HQ in Boone County from Latonia...but, there's no signal coming through on our radios at all.

We'll double check throughout the weekend...but as far as we can tell, the signal is not there.

WRRM-FM New PD: You'll recall back in October that we reported TJ Holland's move to Columbus as PD and Operations Manager of the Saga group there.

WRRM-FM now has its new PD according to posts from the Radio-Info Cincinnati board.

That station promotes its Assistant Program Director and Music Director, Chris Lynn, from what we're hearing.

Assuming this is correct, congratulations to Mr. Lynn.

Louisville News: We were, as noted, in Louisville, Kentucky Wednesday afternoon and were able to confirm one radio station that was doing Christmas tunes.

We'd heard that WVEZ-FM 106.9/St. Matthews, Kentucky had flipped back on Thanksgiving morning at 3:00 AM via another of the Radio-Info boards, this one the Kentucky state board.

Well, our trip down to the Possibility City had us in a downtown Arby's around 1 PM local time, and we were able to confirm the stunting, as WVEZ was on the store's radio. (And this was during a High Wind Warning...so somewhere in the middle of the 35 minutes we were there, there was a weather update from WAVE-TV 3/Louisville.)

Again...we're hearing WVEZ should go back to its normal format on the day after Christmas. We won't be making a second trip down to confirm that, though. So, if any of you read from Louisville, and want to let us know if this isn't the case, email us. (Link at right.)

Otherwise, we didn't catch the other two stations we previously mentioned in the area, as those are only weekend Christmas music stations. Those two are WJIE-FM 88.5/Okolona and WMJM-FM 101.3/Jeffersontown.

Two Quick Administrative Tidbits

Yes, we're burning the midnight oil, but we have two administrative announcements:

1) We noticed our twitter feed at right wasn't updating correctly. So, we've removed the feed itself. At right, you'll notice that the list of links we once noted as being local or regional blogs, is now a list of links that we here at TSMW generally use or like. Included now on the new list is the Radio-Info site, as well as a site run by a friend (Scott Fybush) of our colleagues at Ohio Media Watch (by the way, OMW is on hiatus, as they've announced - we'll be covering the adjoining areas as often as we possibly can). And, we've put the OFFICIAL twitter of This Space in that list at the top.

2) Also, we've got two upcoming things we need you, the readers, to be aware of. First, later today (it's 2:45 AM as yours truly writes this), we'll be out of town (though only about 80 miles southwest of the TSMW Headquarters in Boone County, KY - OK, we'll be in Louisville) for several hours. If you hear of any major news, sudden flips, etc., send it to us via e-mail. If it happens in Louisville, we may hear about it first and post it to our Twitter. We'll definitely be checking when we get back (we're not sure if we'll be able to do updates from Louisville, especially where we will be), post any emergency info needed (there are high wind warnings for this area, so there's a possibility of power problems), and plan a double update on Thursday for anything else.

Then, beginning late next week, it's time for the Holiday Hiatus.(Yes, we're invoking the Dreaded H-Word.) The truth of the matter is, Your Editor and Tri-State Media Watcher has two different doctor's appointments next Thursday and Friday afternoons and needs to prepare for and then go to those. And our Holiday Hiatus tends to span the last 10 business days of the year, anyway.

So, from December 17th onward, it will probably take something major happening to bring us here to update. Our daily minor updates might be non-existent between then and January 4, 2010. We're even going to attempt to put away the keyboard entirely between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day.

So, that's your administrative stuff for this next 2 weeks. Anything else, we'll grab for sure Thursday.

FSO Announces New Reds Play-By-Play

Briefly: Fox Sports Ohio sent us a press release yesterday afternoon to announce the new play-by-play man for Reds games on the cable network.

Paul Keels is a Cincinnati native and has been doing Ohio State University sports broadcasts for over 10 years. He also has extensive experience in broadcasting, with his career beginning in 1979 for WLW-AM 700 here.

Here's the press release in its entirety:

FOX Sports Ohio Announces Cincinnati Reds 2010 Play By Play Lineup
Cincinnati native and longtime broadcaster Paul Keels joins broadcast team.

CINCINNATI, OHIO – FOX Sports Ohio is excited to announce its 2010 play by play broadcast team. As previously announced, Thom Brennaman, an already experienced and distinguished Reds announcer who previously split duties with George Grande on FOX Sports Ohio, will now take on greater responsibilities and serve as the play by play voice for the majority of Reds game telecasts.

Cincinnati native and longtime broadcaster Paul Keels has been named the new play by play announcer for the remainder of the Reds schedule. Both broadcasters will team with color analysts Chris Welsh and Jeff Brantley on FOX Sports Ohio’s Reds telecasts beginning next spring.

“The decision to select the new play by play announcers for the Reds was not an easy one, as our viewers have high expectations of our broadcasts. Thom Brennaman is a first-class Reds broadcaster and we are delighted for him to take on greater responsibility,” stated Henry Ford, FOX Sports Ohio Senior Vice President and General Manager. “Paul Keels is an accomplished broadcasting professional with a deep understanding and passion for Cincinnati Reds baseball. His presence will complete an already superb broadcasting team.”

Keels brings 30 years of broadcasting experience to the booth. Fans may recognize him as the play by play voice for Ohio State football and basketball on WBNS Radio in Columbus, where he has been since 1998. While in his new role with FOX Sports Ohio and the Reds, he will maintain his current responsibilities with Ohio State.

Keels began his career with Cincinnati’s WLW Radio as a news anchor, reporter and sports talk show host in 1979. After sports reporting and broadcasting jobs in Washington D.C. and Michigan, where he called radio games for the Detroit Pistons and University of Michigan football and basketball, he returned to Cincinnati in 1989 to serve WCKY Radio as sports director and play by play voice for University of Cincinnati football and basketball for three years. Keels then joined the WHIO Radio team in Dayton, Ohio as news anchor and morning show host (1992-95) before returning to WLW Radio as sports director and play by play announcer for UC football and basketball as well as sports anchor and reporter for the Cincinnati Bengals (1995-98).

Reds Chief Operating Officer Phil Castellini said, “We’re very pleased to be able add to our television broadcast team someone of Paul’s experience and reputation. Fans in Reds country already are familiar with his talent, and he will be an outstanding addition to what we think already is a very strong broadcast team.”

In 2007, Keels was inducted into the Radio/TV Broadcasting Hall of Fame of Ohio and was the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters “Ohio Sportscaster of the Year” co-winner (alongside Reds broadcaster Marty Brennaman).

Keels additionally has extensive freelance experience including work with the Cincinnati Reds, Bengals and college football. He has also participated in various shows and videos, including Ohio State Coaches Shows, The History of Ohio State Football, Buckeye Classics TV Shows, and the Moeller High School recruiting video.

“I’m very excited to join FOX Sports Ohio as part of the Reds Broadcast team,” stated Keels. “Being a Cincinnati native, and having followed the Reds as far as back Crosley Field, it’s a thrill to be involved in working with others to bring Reds Baseball to some of the most passionate baseball fans in the country.”

Keels grew up in Silverton, the same home town of retired Reds shortstop Barry Larkin, and attended Moeller High School and Xavier University.

"Paul Keels will be a terrific addition to our Reds broadcast team," said FOX Sports Ohio Executive Producer Tom Farmer. "Paul grew up in Cincinnati, has tremendous knowledge of the game of baseball, and is passionate about the Reds. We feel very fortunate to be able to welcome him to FOX Sports Ohio."

----

Our take: A good hire by Fox Sports Ohio. Keels will be a good addition to the team, which also added Thom Brennaman last week (Brennaman will do 100 games, with Keels doing 45 more). We've heard some pieces of his work on WLW from the late 90s and he knows sports...which you just about have to here, and he is a great broadcaster. He's in the Ohio Radio and TV Broadcasting Hall of Fame and 2007 Ohio Sportscaster of the Year.

One thing we didn't catch: Louisville River Bats announcer Jim Kelch was also added last week. (We didn't make it down to Redsfest where this was apparently announced). It appears Kelch will do mainly radio for the Reds. We've never heard Kelch, so we'll reserve judgement there.

But, the Fox Sports Ohio booth gets better with these two moves on the TV side. Again, we'll reserve judgement on the radio side of things until we actually hear the team of Marty and Jim...

FSO/Insight Problem

We first reported on this Friday night when it occurred... but now, we know it was apparently not Fox Sports Ohio's fault that Xavier vs. Kent State didn't air in Northern Kentucky until nearly the entire game had passed.

FSO says in a statement on their Facebook page and also directly to the Tri-State Media Twitter:

"Hi everyone,
Insight Cable experienced a programming error and did not get the game on until 9pm. Insight admits to making the mistake and ensures us that it will not happen again."

We'll cut FSO some slack on this one. We felt we were fooled, and we said as much. We were, admittedly, a bit hot under the collar with both parties, mostly Fox Sports Ohio.

And we really hope it doesn't happen again on the Insight end, so we'll give them the benefit of the doubt for this slip.

We just want to see networks live up to what they say they'll do. Even if "what they say they'll do" is a contradiction of something ELSE they said would happen...

BREAKING NEWS: WLWT Hires Kevin Robinson as Chief Meteorologist

We just received word (via the Kiese blog here) that WLWT has hired their new Chief Meteorologist, straight from The Weather Channel in Atlanta.

Here's the WLWT press release as it came in:

CINCINNATI, OH – After 4+ years at The Weather Channel, Kevin Robinson returns to the Tri-State to join WLWT News 5 as Chief Meteorologist effective Jan 11th.

Kevin’s roots are in the Tri-State. He graduated from Princeton High School, his father works for P&G, and his family members still live in the Tri-State.

“Kevin covered every weather situation there is while forecasting at The Weather Channel, working side-by-side with the top meteorologists in the country” said WLWT President and General Manager Richard Dyer. “His forecasting experience, weather knowledge, and engaging style, along with his Tri-State connections, bring a unique combination to Cincinnati television.”

Prior to WLWT and The Weather Channel, Kevin also served as morning meteorologist at Hearst Television Inc owned WAPT in Jackson, MS.

Kevin is an active speaker in the community, from visiting schools and showing students the science behind weather forecasting, to holding town hall meetings on how to stay safe during severe weather.

Kevin graduated from Mississippi State in 2001 with a BA in Broadcast Meteorology, and carries the American Meteorological Society Seal of Approval.

Our Take: This, on paper, would seem to be a good move on WLWT's part. Hire a guy with local ties (Princeton HS and his dad works for P&G which is headquartered downtown), who knows his weather (BS at MSU plus his four years at TWC) and has the style that apparently Channel 5 was looking for.

But Robinson is coming into a new environment here. He's never been chief meteorologist...that's certainly not a dig against him. We've seen his work on TWC and he impressed us. We're only stating facts that can be gleaned from the above presser. (As noted in our administrative announcement this morning, Your Tri-State Media Watcher has been watching weather patterns around the Cincinnati area for 17 years.)

We'll just have to see what happens. We wish Mr. Robinson the best, and he'll certainly get his chance here in Cincinnati to show what he can really do...what with unpredictable patterns and all...

Twitter Feeds Going Haywire

Just a heads up... consider this an administrative heads up.

I've noticed that twitter feeds, especially new ones like at yours truly's weather blog (yes, Your Tri-State Media Watcher is a Weather Watcher, too - it's an off-media blog hobby and has been since the age of 7), aren't working correctly. Meaning, they won't display the CORRECT feed.

If this happens here at Tri-State Media Watch, please email me and let me know asap. This way, I can catch the issue and temporarily remove the offending feed.

In case that scenario becomes necessary, you'll want to get to the feed directly...so bookmark http://twitter.com/tristatemedia.

A Quick Bengals Update plus Reminder About XU/Kent State

UPDATE: We're not sure why, but...we look like idiots.

In northern Kentucky, which is where the TSMW Headquarters is located, the X game is NOT on.

We're going to find out why - you can count on that!

Stay tuned...

We've got a pair of updates and a reminder for you on this Friday.

We're putting out the "Gone Fishin'" sign for the weekend (although it is way too cold to fish in Northern Kentucky) so this will be our last update for this week.

Bengals Update: The Bengals and WXIX-TV 19/Newport, Kentucky announced just minutes before 3:00 PM that the game is sold out and will air on the Fox station.

WXIX, along with Kroger and Fifth Third Bank will team up to give away the remaining seats tomorrow, but details aren't announced yet. Those are expected to come this evening.

The game against the Detroit Lions will have a special local pregame show. As they did for the contest against the Chicago Bears back in October, Tricia Macke, Dan Carroll, and sports director Brian Giesenschlag along with sports anchor Zach Wells will host the pre-game, which will blow out Fox NFL Sunday at 11:30 AM all the way to gametime. It's planned that the show will be including pieces on the Detroit club's start in Portsmouth, Ohio and a Shayne Graham "Cribs"-style tour of the field goal kicker's home, according to the John Kiesewetter blog.

Channel 9 Bearcats Coverage: Yes, WCPO-TV 9/Cincinnati gets to cover yet another University of Cincinnati Bearcats football game. (Maybe at this point, WCPO should see if they can be the local over-air home of the team. Heh.)

And that means another pregame special, this one hosted by the WCPO sports team of Dennis Jansen and John Popovich, before the game kicks off at 12 PM. John Kiesewetter of the Enquirer has all of the details in the link.

The Bearcats face off with Pittsburgh. If Pitt wins, it claims one half of the Big East title. If Cincinnati wins, they are sole champions of that conference.

By the way, the BCS bowl selections will be made at 8 PM and televised on FOX 19, which pushes The Simpsons back to an 8:30 start time.

Reminder About FSO Alternate Channels: If you're looking to set the DVR's to record the Xavier Musketeers game against the Kent State Golden Flashes (who are in Ohio Media Watch territory), take note of the alternate channels we'll list below. Fox Sports Ohio is sending the game to these channels due to the Cleveland Cavaliers game against the Chicago Bulls.

Here's what you need to know here in Southwest Ohio (that we know of as of this writing):

Cincinnati Bell Fioptics: Channel 261

Time Warner: Channel 310 (NOT channel 99 - FSO says 310 is set as the permanent channel for overflow programming when there are conflicts.)

Insight in Northern KY: Channel 6

Dish Network and Direct TV Satellite: Fox Sports Cincinnati

If you're not on one of these providers, consult FSO's website here.

Alternate Channels Set For Xavier/Kent State - Plus WHIO Returns Over The Air

BRIEF UPDATE TO THE FSO SITUATION: We're hearing from various XU fans on the team's message board that the last couple times TWC Cincy has had the game on alternate channel locations in Cincinnati, it's been the same location in Dayton.

Also, there's a reason that the X game did NOT get channel position 99.

It's a little thing called "High School Football State Finals" that gives the bump to XU from that spot on Time Warner.

As such, the game was put on channel 310. As far as we can tell, 310 is normally vacant - so FSO can light this channel up to carry future games.

And no, there's still nothing confirmed for the much-anticipated Xavier/Miami (Ohio) showdown two days before Christmas. Stay tuned on that...

For those who may watch FSO on other cable providers around the metro, we don't know what cable provider you're using but could use the help.

If you're NOT on one of the below listed cable providers, PLEASE email us at tristatemediawatch at gmail-dot-com. (You can put the email address together...our spam box gets filled on yours truly's personal email and we don't want this one to get cluttered, too.)

We'll check it often today and tomorrow before the game, and if we know what cable provider you use, we'll give you an idea of what channel assignment you're going to have...

The original item of Tuesday follows below...

--------------------------------------------------

FSO Alternate Assignments: We just received word of the alternate channel assignments for Xavier vs. Kent State on Friday night from Fox Sports Ohio.

While the Cavaliers will be on Fox Sports Ohio, the XU/Kent State game will be on these channels in our local area with the pre-game beginning at 7 PM with the game at 7:30 PM:

-- Cincinnati Bell Fioptics: Channel 261
-- Time Warner Cable: Channel 310
-- Insight: Channel 6
-- Dish Network/Direct TV: Fox Sports Cincinnati

Notice that the Time Warner assignment has changed to channel 310.

And, if you're anywhere else in Southwest Ohio, check out the website of Fox Sports Ohio for updates - we don't have any word on assignments in Dayton.

WHIO Returns OTA: Yes, we noted this yesterday, but WHIO returned to over-the-air broadcasting early Monday - before we got our morning update out.

We're hearing they restored service around 5 yesterday morning.

There is still no HDTV broadcast from WHIO as of this writing, because they are working on replacing the equipment.

We are unaware at present if they did any repeats of the CBS Sunday shows, or are planning any.

We'll let you know when they get full HD and SD signals restored.

NEW THIS MORNING: WHIO Not Transmitting Over-Air

A hat tip to our esteemed colleagues at Ohio Media Watch for taking the lead on this story...

Seems WHIO-TV 7/Dayton is not transmitting over-the-air as of last word this morning.

Quoting an article from the Dayton Daily News:

The station first began experiencing intermittent problems at about 11 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 29, (Vice President and General Manager Harry) Delaney said. By 1:30 p.m., the station stopped transmitting a signal through regular antennas and satellite providers, Delaney said.

The kicker (no pun intended) that is upsetting a lot of OTA and satellite viewers? The problems came in the midst of the Cincinnati Bengals' 16-7 win over the Cleveland Browns. WHIO is Dayton's Bengals affiliate.

Anyway, there's no word what is causing the transmission issue, and there's also no timetable for when the station will return to the airwaves of Southwest and West-Central Ohio.

We'll update you as we know more.

And by the way, we're back to full speed this morning. Yours truly's mother is basically out of the woods for now with regard to her heart troubles, so we feel comfortable coming back to our normal update schedule.

We do extend our gratitude to all those people who kept us in mind over the last couple weeks. Things like this make you realize what is really important in life...like family and your own health...

BREAKING NEWS: Ali Leaving WLWT

A source that asked us not to identify them sent us word that Sandra Ali, who has been an anchor at WLWT 5/Cincinnati for five years, has decided to leave.

The word is that after the birth of her son recently, she's decided to focus on her family and then, when the time is right for her, move on to a new opportunity.

We certainly can understand Ali's wishes, and commend her for doing what she believes is right. After all, family should be important in ANYONE's life. (Yours truly had to learn that lesson all over again this week with his mother's health scare - which, by the way, she is home and doing very well.)

We wish Ali the best in her move to raise her new family.

As another side note, we'll be back on Monday, November 30 full strength. We should have anything that breaks on Friday, but to be honest, we're not expecting that to happen. Some media folks do take the holiday off - some, not all. (Yes, John Gumm at WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati, we're aware you are probably not off.)

Back on Hiatus UFN

Due to a developing situation with yours truly's mother, Tri-State Media Watch is now back on hiatus until further notice.

At this hour, the mother of Your Tri-State Media Watcher is in a Campbell County, KY hospital with what doctors are saying is a heart issue. We don't have many more details than that at the present time.

Our return is likely to be this Monday at the earliest, and that assumes she gets out of the hospital over the upcoming weekend.

We may not even be around to post any long form information on any breaking news, although we certainly will attempt to do so.

Keep an eye on the official twitter, located to the right of the blog or at twitter.com/tristatemedia for any news we feel needs to be posted ASAP.

Coming Back Early

We're coming back a day earlier than we announced last week, with a short update. Basically, it's all about the Christmas Music Sweepstakes, but there's one non-Christmas item to begin...

Regent Hires New Interactive Sales Director: Ben Hoffman took over the new position of Director of Interactive Sales at Regent Communications here, moving there from just up I-75 at the Clear Channel Dayton cluster, where he was Director of Sales.

He’ll work with Regent’s current VP of Technology and Digital Media Larry Downes, according to the excellent Radio-Info Newsletter last Tuesday. (You have to subscribe to read the newsletter - but it is well worth the five minutes it will take to register.)

Our congratulations to Mr. Hoffman, who has no relation that we know of to a personal friend of ours...

The Big Christmas Sweepstakes: And finally, the large elephant in the building...a lot of stations in and around TSMW-land going All Christmas.

We start in Cincinnati, where we already covered WAKW-FM 93.3/College Hill's flip before the month even BEGAN. You can now add WRRM-FM 98.5/Cincinnati to the list, which flipped their terrestrial signal last Wednesday.

Up in Dayton, still in what we consider our primary area, WLQT-FM 99.9/Kettering went to all-Christmas recently.

Let's go east on I-70 over to Columbus. Three stations there have flipped or will flip the switch soon. WLZT 93.3/Ashville, Ohio and WSNY-FM 94.7/Columbus already flipped in the last week, while WCVO-FM 104.7/Gahanna will on Thursday.

Next, down in Lexington, WLFX 106.7/Berea, WGKS 96.9/Paris and WMXL 94.5/Lexington all flipped recently. WSTV 103.7/Frankfort may flip, as well.

Heading west on I-64, Louisville stations haven't flipped, but there are three candidates for a flip, two of which will only do so on weekends. WVEZ-FM 106.9/St. Matthews goes all-Christmas from Thursday at midnight straight through to Christmas night. WJIE-FM 88.5/Okolona flips only on Black Friday and then weekends, and WMJM-FM 101.3/Jeffersontown plays Christmas music Black Friday, then on Saturdays until 7 PM.

Finally, we're heading up I-65 to Indianapolis. One station is stunting all Christmas, that being WNTR-FM 107.9/Indianapolis. That one will then change formats sometime on December 26th. They were a "Jack-like" station until they began stunting November 13.

The other station that has dropped the Christmas shoe is WYXB-FM 105.7/Indianapolis, and that is expected to go back to its normal format on December 26.

If we've missed any in any of these cities, please let us know by either email or twitter. We'll get Around Tuit (tm OMW) tomorrow or between bites of leftover turkey on Friday...

BREAKING: Steve Mann Jumps From WGRR to Rewind

We've confirmed today that Steve Mann, who has been a DJ at WGRR 103.5/Hamilton, has left there for the 2-7 PM shift at WREW 94.9/Fairfield.

Mann was announced by Rewind as the new PM drive guy today at 1:40 PM via their Twitter.

We hear that Danny Erals is doing Mann's slot on WGRR from a post on the Cincinnati Radio-Info message board.

We first read about Mann's jump through the above twitter post, however we didn't put two and two together until after seeing the message board post.

As we said before - we would come out of hiatus if something happens in local media that's worth a post. And this CERTAINLY qualifies.

By the way - Your Tri-State Media Watcher appreciates that some of This Space's readers are keeping him in thought at this time.

We're still dealing with Life As It Is, and we're hanging in there. It has, to be sure, been a trying 3 days.

But, hang in there, faithful readers...we will be back, better than ever, and maybe even before our announced date of Friday, November 27.

We'll probably draw up a post on Wednesday, November 25, just to summarize happenings before the holiday, then for sure on 11/27.

Keep us in your thoughts - and keep an eye on our Twitter feed, that'll let you know if we have something to share, or just make our return...

Clearing the Plate

Just a couple quick, and I do mean QUICK, updates, then an announcement.

Lou Dobbs' Replacement: Nothing we can solidly, 100 percent confirm this morning, but, just from what we're hearing, an update to our post from the other day on Lou Dobbs' CNN exit last Wednesday.

We're hearing that John King, currently host of CNN's "State of the Union" broadcast on Sundays, will take over the timeslot in 2010.

Until then, it looks like our earlier thoughts were wrong - Wolf Blitzer WILL continue doing "Situation Room" in an expanded, four hour slot.

It's not known what the 7 PM hour will be named after King takes over that 7 PM slot in 2010...

UK On STAR: We get word from both the Kiese Blog, and the website of WSTR-TV 64/Cincinnati.

WSTR will air three University of Kentucky Basketball games this week. The first is tonight, when UK takes on Miami University of Ohio at 7 PM.

The other two games that have been announced will be a tape delay of UK vs. Sam Houston State (10 PM Thursday night) and a live airing of UK vs. Rider University (4 PM Saturday).

Fox Sports Ohio New Policy: We don't really know why they did it, but, Fox Sports Ohio is now giving total priority to the two pro teams currently playing games. We got most of the story off the Kiese Blog - but the hat tip for the initial alert on the story goes to a reader of our colleague at Ohio Media Watch in this item.

Specifically, viewers of FSO will see ALL of the Columbus Blue Jackets' and Cleveland Cavaliers' games scheduled to air on the cable network on the main channels...even when teams like Xavier University or the University of Cincinnati are playing at the same time.

That, of course, bounces the college teams to alternate channels. And, as you can imagine, fans of both those teams are NONE too pleased.

We've got an e-mail out to FSO - and we'll let you know what we hear if anything. But...this is a segue we didn't plan...

An Announcement of an Impromptu Hiatus: We'd originally announced that we planned on fewer updates from Thursday onward. But...your local Media Watcher has decided he needs to just clear his entire schedule for a few days.

We're overloaded, stressed, and frankly, we don't want to end up like our aforementioned, very esteemed colleagues up in Northeast Ohio (who are dealing with illness at the present time).

So, our updates will be very near nil between the time this is posted, at 8 AM today, and Black Friday, to give us an extended break.

Of course, if we feel we need to, we'll update just to make sure that our return doesn't get TOO overloaded. And breaking media news will be available asap.

But...personal life needs to come first...and at this point, yours truly is near his breaking point...so, we're stepping away.

TSMW Remembers Jim Knippenberg

Sad news to report, as we noted via our twitter yesterday afternoon.

Jim Knippenberg, the Enquirer's gossip columnist for 37 years before his retirement last year, has died. He was 63 years old.

The Enquirer reports in the above link that he had been ill for several days - but it doesn't appear to be flu-related. It's not clear what illness he may have had.

Knippenberg is, as we note, best known for 37 years as the "man about town" who would, as he said in a column:

"...go to stuff – parties, benefits, restaurant openings, cast parties on opening night, hot new nightspots. All the time, just trying to keep up with who’s doing what around town. Then, I report back to readers who wanted to get to that glitzy party but had baby-sitter problems or the sniffles or too bad a day at work.

“Ideally, this yields columns full of names of interesting people doing interesting things.”

For those 37 years, if you wanted to know who was doing what and where in Cincinnati...the "Psst!" column was where you looked to figure that out.

Knippenberg could do it all. He was a copy boy from 1965 to 1968 for the paper. He left there to teach journalism for three years at Newport Central Catholic - but couldn't stay away, and in 1971 rejoined the Enquirer as a general news writer, eventually rising to his position as a columnist and editor, and the rest is history.

By the way, you can view Knippenberg's columns from 1996-2003 via this link. And here's a well done tribute by current Enquirer TV critic John Kiesewetter.

We here at TSMW extend heartfelt sympathies to his friends, family, and colleagues...

Following Up on News Broken Yesterday

We received word almost at the same time other news organizations got it...but our source was Rick Sanchez on CNN via Twitter.

Lou Dobbs, who has been at CNN through almost its entire existence, announced rather abruptly he was leaving his TV program last night.

Dobbs helped launch CNN in 1980. He hosted "Moneyline" from that time until 1999 - when he abruptly left to found SPACE.com, which he ran until 2001.

Dobbs then returned to CNN, where he became anchor and managing editor of "Moneyline News Hour", which became the program he now leaves, "Lou Dobbs Tonight". He had positioned himself as an independent, "lashing out at what he described as the deficiencies and "partisan nonsense" of both major political parties, and injecting advocacy journalism into his coverage of topics ranging from free trade to immigration," as CNN says in their coverage of the longtime anchor's departure.

There's no replacement named yet, but it must be assumed some programming will air in the 7-8 PM slot on CNN.

Dobbs, meanwhile, continues his radio show, as we noted overnight via Twitter.

That show, "The Lou Dobbs Show", airs to 160 affiliates nationwide via United Stations Radio Networks, including stations in Lexington (96.1 WLXO-FM/Stamping Ground, KY) and Dayton(we're not sure, but his site lists 2, one being 1490 WKBV-AM/Richmond, Indiana as a signal so we're guessing it's that one, on a delayed clearance. The other is not in existence). It lists FOUR stations in Columbus.

But - there's a problem with those Columbus listings...namely, 1 out of those four no longer exists in the talk incarnation under which they carried Dobbs while we're unable to find his presence on one. WVKO-AM 1230/Columbus is a Fox Sports Radio affiliate now and has been for some time. Meanwhile, we can find no evidence of his presence on WATH-AM 970/Athens. That doesn't mean he doesn't air there - we just can't find him on their schedule. WATH mostly airs oldies during the day.

That makes his lone Central Ohio affiliate WCLT-AM 1430/Newark (along with the sister FM 100.3 WCLT-FM's HD3 signal which simulcasts the AM). And considering that 1430 there operates 500 watts daytime and 48 watts at night, they need that 50kW HD3 signal.

Anyway, our point is: Dobbs leaving his TV program suddenly causes a mad scramble for CNN to fill that 7 PM hour. Who do they take?

Our guess (and uneducated at that): Campbell Brown will have her program extended to a 2 hour show, beginning tonight.

We don't see them taking Wolf Blitzer and "The Situation Room" to a 4 hour slot.

The other possibility would have Blitzer's program moved to 5-8 PM, with Sanchez's "CNN Newsroom" taking a second hour at 4PM.

We'll let you know this evening...

Another Step Toward Launch for WVQC

WVQC-LP 95.7FM/Cincinnati has taken another step toward their launch.

While they're still working on getting a signal ready for terrestrial broadcast, they've posted a schedule of programming on their website.

That schedule is jam packed full of what looks like good, local programming.

One angle we hadn't covered before because we didn't know the full details of it: WVQC, based at Media Bridges, isn't going to be alone on the 95.7 frequency.

They're sharing airtime on that spot on the dial with Holy Spirit Center (in Norwood) and the Forest Hills School District (in Anderson Township, east of downtown). WVQC gets 51 hours a week to program on 95.7 FM. That's the reason for the grey areas on the schedule. If a timeslot is greyed out on the schedule, then Media Bridges-produced programming will air on the web only.

As we said, it's a schedule full of what sounds like great, local programming. Stations like this are always a great asset to the community...

Fort Hood Memorial Coverage, Plus Advanced Warning

UPDATE: Almost as soon as we posted that WXIX was going web-only with their coverage...Dan Carroll just broke into programming for live coverage...web only is still the case for WKRC and WCPO.

As you can see to the right of our page, we've been checking everywhere for coverage of the Fort Hood memorial.

We've found it on all four TV news stations' websites - but we almost didn't see it on WCPO 9/Cincinnati's site until we looked here.

WLWT 5/Cincinnati has it both online and on TV. We're watching it on 5.1 now.

WKRC 12/Cincinnati and WXIX 19/Newport both have it on their websites only as does the aforementioned WCPO. We flipped through those 3 channels, and saw normal programming.

By the way, just some advance warning: Business on the personal side of yours truly's life is about to pick up, between a holiday and some medical things Your Tri-State Media Watcher has to do.

As a consequence, our updates may not be as frequent November 18-30. We'll get here and post breaking news ASAP - but just know that our regular updates (meaning daily/near daily) will be scarcer in that time frame...

A Couple Quick Bits

There's a couple of pieces of information we had meant to share this morning - but didn't get Around Tuit until now...

Regent Communications Not Losing As Much: This one came out of the Enquirer this morning.

We mentioned some time back about a very low stock price...NINE CENTS.

Today, it's not a whole lot better...at 43 cents a share as of this evening.

But, says the Enquirer, the tide might just be beginning to turn:

The downtown-based broadcaster said it had a net loss for the quarter of $442,000, or 1 cent a share compared to a net loss of $46.3 million, or $1.19 a share, in the third quarter of 2008. The 2008 results included a non-cash asset-impairment charge of $67.5 million.

Regent doesn't own anything in the metro - but it owns stations down in Evansville, IN and Owensboro, KY. Those are in our extended coverage zone...and they're based here...so they're also local.

FOX Sports Ohio Swaps HD, SD Games: This word came from Fox Sports Ohio itself, via their Facebook Fan Page. They're planning a ten game switcheroo of High Def and Standard Def broadcasts - one of which already occurred.

The 10/20 Columbus Blue Jackets game against the Calgary Flames aired in Standard Definition, instead of HD.

The following, quoted from the FS Ohio Facebook Notes page, is the rest of the plan for HD and SD broadcasts:

The following games will be aired in standard definition:
1/2 vs. Avalanche
1/18 vs. Blues
3/19 vs. Wild
3/28 @ Blackhawks

The following games will be aired in high definition:
12/10 @ Predators
12/12 vs. Ducks
1/7 @ Oilers
3/9 @ Ducks
3/20 @ Predators

The total number of HD Blue Jackets broadcasts won't change - with 50 games expected to be in HD.

No Blackout...Yet: We found out about this on our return to the TSMW HQ, but tweeted about it this morning.

Local12 WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati, WKYT-TV 27/Lexington and WHIO-TV 7/Dayton get another 24 hour extension on the blackout deadline for...you guessed it... the Cincinnati Bengals.

That deadline came and went this afternoon at 1 PM, but the Bengals had 3,000 tickets left to sell - and once again negotiated the extension with the NFL.

Our hope is, no more of these threatened blackouts...we're getting tired of having to say the same thing for nearly every Bengals home game...

News About Channel 9 News

We've got a couple stories in the hopper...and both are about WCPO-TV 9/Cincinnati...and no, we still don't have word about their move to RF 22...

Quinlivan Elected: As we covered its start, we feel compelled to update you on Laure Quinlivan's run for Cincinnati City Council.

Sure enough, last night Quinlivan won election to that body, coming in 8th. There were 9 seats open.

As we've said a few times before: We don't cover politics unless there's a media connection: in this case Quinlivan was an award winning I-Team reporter for Channel 9 before her contract was not renewed a couple years ago...

WCPO to do Bearcat Pregame Show: The station announced today that they'll have a pregame show before the University of Cincinnati Bearcats take on the University of Connecticut Huskies at 8 PM Saturday night.

Here's a quote from the station's story regarding the Bearcats selling out the only two home games that hadn't, well, sold out yet:

Before the teams kickoff at 8 p.m., Channel 9 will broadcast a special one-hour pregame show at 7 p.m. The show will include in-depth interviews, analysis on UC's national championship hopes, and what the nationally televised game means to the university.

John Kiesewetter reports that the show will be called “Bearcat Fever: Climb To The Top", and that Channel 9 hopes to get most, if not all, of the 7 PM hour. (They're broadcasting Ohio State's game Saturday night, too - and as soon as that ends will go straight to the pregame.) The Channel 9 sports team will report from UC's Nippert Stadium and the WCPO studios - but it's not known who will be where.

Our Take: This is a very smart move by WCPO. They're featuring this game locally, so, why not do a pre-game show?

Rhodes Takes a Break

John Kiesewetter is the first to report this...we're just picking it up...

Dusty Rhodes, Hamilton County's current auditor and part-time host at WDJO-AM 1480/Cincinnati, will be taking a break from his 5-10 AM morning show.

Rhodes did his last show for the station, which features the programming formerly at what is now WQRT-AM 1160/Florence, on Friday morning. He's been a Cincinnati radio staple for 48 years, with WSAI-AM (when it was at 1580), WLW-AM 700/Cincinnati, WDJO (the 1160 version), and WGRR-FM 103.5/Cincinnati to his credit, among others.

It's only a break for the 68 year old, who will return by the new year, according to Rodger Kay, who is OM for the Blue Ash oldies station. Rhodes says he has things he has to catch up on, and will be updating his Christmas music marathon program while he's away.

Subbing for him is Marty Thompson, who has WLW, WUBE-FM 105.1/Cincinnati, WDJO, WGRR, and other stations to his credit, and who now is programming VP for Dallas, Texas-based TKO Radio Network, and does a syndicated show out of his Miami Twp. home. That show reaches 130 affiliates 6 nights a week - but we don't know if any Cincinnati stations are among them.

Election Coverage

We're just popping in to let you all know what's going on tomorrow...and it looks like a former WMUB 88.5/Oxford staffer has some work for Election Day...all of this coming from the Enquirer and John Kiesewetter...

On the Radio: Don't expect up-to-the-minute local coverage on WNKU-FM 89.7/Highland Heights.

There aren't any elections in the Northern Kentucky area...so no coverage on Tuesday night from the NKU station.

However, that station WILL have some coverage and interviews Wednesday morning, with 'NKU News Director Craig Kopp (when did he become ND?? Someone know??) saying they'll do reports at 10 minutes before the hours of 6 AM, 7 AM and 8 AM. The first report, however, will air at 20 minutes before 6 AM. (So they're going to have to do a quick re-rack job or use something different at 5:50.) And, they'll have reports at the top and bottom of the hour as well throughout the morning hours of Wednesday.

Across the river in Ohio, meanwhile, WMUB and WVXU 91.7/Cincinnati will continue their simulcasting as usual...with a former 'MUB staffer filing reports for 'VXU.

Maryanne Zeleznik, who is ND at WVXU, says they'll have Tana Weingartner, a multiple-time award winner during her tenure at 'MUB (where our friend John Hingsbergen was Program Director), filing reports at WVXU. Reports will air at 4 minutes after 9 PM, at 9:30 PM, then at 1 minute after every hour until final results are in from the Ohio elections. We do not know about WGUC-FM 90.9/Cincinnati - but we know they use WVXU's news people 4 times a day (top of hour 6-9 AM and 5 PM). We'll check on it in the morning.

WLW-AM 700/Cincinnati will also report election results throughout the night during regular newsbreaks,

On Television: WCPO-TV 9 won't be blowing out the highly anticipated premiere of "V", ABC's new drama about "Visitors" from outer space (9 PM, 9 and WKEF-TV 22/Dayton). (We don't know what WKEF plans to do...we'd assume they'll have some coverage during prime-time.)

Meanwhile, over at WXIX-TV 19/Newport, they'll cut in "as needed". And of course, as usual...prepare for the return of the "Crawls"...all stations are planning to use them, as well as posting the results online as soon as possible.

And, the statewide Ohio News Network will have coverage as well. But, they won't blow out the Jim Tressel presser that they usually air from 8-9 PM (Time Warner digital 362 in Cincinnati). So, election coverage will take a break during that hour, resuming at 9 PM and going from there.

Looking Ahead to Halloween

We're gonna look at Halloween as a couple radio stations give you what one of them is calling "Music to Trick or Treat By"...

WKRQ-FM 101.9/Cincinnati: "Q102" will be playing two hours of a mix of classic Halloween tunes ("Monster Mash", anyone?) and other scary sounds from 6-8 PM. The station is touting itself as "Q 10-Boo" for that time period.

At 8 PM, they'll be doing a one hour special presentation, titled "The Twilight Saga: An Inside Look at 'New Moon'", about the second installment of the "Twilight" series which officially opens in theaters November 20th. It will feature, we hear, some tunes from the movie's soundtrack, along with cast interviews. Oh, and the station is giving away tickets to the Q102 Premiere of "New Moon" via their "Q102 Rewards" site and other promotions ahead of November 18th's special screening.

WGUC 90.9/Cincinnati: Here's a look at the classical station's plans via the Kiese Blog:

4-6 p.m.: Listeners will hear “Tunes from the Crypt Goes to the Movies,” featuring spine tingling film scores and classical compositions that have created some of the most chilling, thrilling, and tension-filled moments on the silver screen. This two-hour program blends better known pieces such as John Williams’ theme from Jaws, Bernard Herrmann’s suite from Psycho, and Wendy Carlos’ opening from The Shining, along with other surprising selections.

6-8 p.m.: “Tunes from the Crypt: More Musical Treats” (last aired in 2007) will offer little vampires and princesses the perfect accompaniment for gathering up all those delicious treats. Selections from the films “War of the Worlds,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” and “Lord of the Rings 3” join Tunes from the Crypt classics such as Danse Macabre from Camille Saint-Saens and This is Halloween by Danny Elfman (from Tim Burton’s The Night Before Christmas.) This two-hour fright fest will also feature music from Andrew Lloyd-Webber, John Williams, Igor Stravinsky, Giacomo Puccini, and many others, with the diabolical Mark Perzel as host.

So, there are two options for Trick-or-Treaters in the Tri-State to hear some Halloween-themed music. We personally have never heard the WGUC shows, but we'll give them a listen too at times on Saturday...

THIS JUST IN: Cavs Conflict to Bounce St. X/Moeller Game

Saturday night, the Saint Xavier Bombers face the Moeller Crusaders for the GCL South Championship at 7:30 PM on Fox Sports Ohio.

There's just one problem.

The Cleveland Cavaliers face the Charlotte Bobcats tomorrow night at 7:30...also on Fox Sports Ohio.

How have they solved this problem?

FSOhio has posted this word, also available at FoxSports.com/Ohio, on their Facebook page:

PROGRAMMING NOTE

FOX Sports Ohio announces October 31 action-packed schedule including the Cavaliers & High School Football featuring St. Xavier vs. Moeller

Saturday, October 31, 2009 is an eventful evening on FOX Sports Ohio as we are covering the Cavaliers and the St. Xavier vs. Moeller high school football game. We don’t want fans to miss any of the action. Here are programming details.

Saturday, October 31

The Cavaliers vs. Charlotte Bobcats will be on FOX Sports Ohio, starting at 7pm with Cavaliers Live.

The St. Xavier vs. Moeller High School Football Game of the Week will be on the following alternate channels starting at 7pm with FOX Sports Ohio Live.

Time Warner – 99
Insight – 6
Direct TV – FSCincinnati
Dish Network - FSCincinnati

This scenario is unlikely to repeat during the playoffs, but if it should, we'll let you know those details...

Christmas Already

No, we didn't skip Halloween and Thanksgiving.

But one radio station is already doing the Christmas tunes, 24/7, as John Kiesewetter reports and we can confirm this morning.

WAKW-FM 93.3 "Star 93"/Cincinnati is already in Christmas mode, has been since Tuesday (!!) and could be the earliest station ever to start doing Christmas tunes, according to Tom Taylor, editor of the Taylor On Radio-Info weekday trade newsletter.

Randy James, Star 93's Program Director, said, “We’re a Christian station, this is our holiday, so we want to celebrate the season as soon as possible. We want to be more competitive, and this helps that. We wanted to be the first.”

Well, they sure are...as of this writing, they're playing "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas". Wow...

Our take: They have the right idea...lots of people need the lift...so hopefully this helps. Even though, yours truly isn't ready for it...

B105 Morning Man on AFV Sunday

We get this from the Kiese Blog...

WUBE-FM 105.1/Cincinnati morning man Jason Statt will be part of "America's Funniest Home Videos" on Sunday night (7 PM, WCPO-TV 9/Cincinnati, WKEF-TV 22/Dayton and WTVQ-TV 36/Lexington). Apparently, the show will have video of Statt in a donkey costume trying to ride a miniature horse on the farm of B105 DJ Duke Hamilton in January.

Statt says they sent it in in May and heard back on Tuesday that it will air. It's not known what AFV will do with the video.

In a related note, Newport Aquarium will be featured on "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" on Sunday, too, immediately following AFV...rapper Xzibit takes a dive in the shark tank there, and people from the aquarium help with the build of a home for the Mattingly family in Daviess County, KY near Owensboro...

Catch Up Thursday Morning Update

UPDATE: We now hear that Ochocinco is scheduled to plug his latest book on Tuesday night on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" (12:35 AM, WLWT 5/Cincinnati, WDTN-TV 2/Dayton and WLEX-TV 18/Lexington). This word coming from John Kiesewetter @ the Enquirer via this post.

By the way, yours truly didn't catch Chad's appearance this morning on ESPN First Take, but our stepfather did...and said that Chad blew up at Skip Bayless in the first "1st and Ten" segment he did, over some comments the latter made.

The original item is below...

________________________________________________________

We're catching up, after being away from the TSMW HQ all day yesterday...

Ochocinco Blitzes the Media: Well...nationally, at least.

Chad Ochocinco, formerly known as Chad Johnson, is in the middle of a major one-day media blitz as we write this this morning.

He'll appear on ESPN's "First Take" and "Sportscenter" today ("First Take" on ESPN2 10-noon, "Sportscenter" at 12:50 PM on ESPN), as well as "NFL Live" (4:00 PM, ESPN). Tonight he does "The Late Show with David Letterman" (11:35 PM, WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati, WHIO-TV 7/Dayton and WKYT-TV 27/Lexington). Oh, and on Sunday he'll appear on “Sunday NFL Countdown Mayne Event” (Sunday morning), which was also taped today.

"Earl Pitts, Uhmerikan" Endorses Quinlivan: Yes, retired 700 WLW-AM/Cincinnati legend Gary Burbank's alter ego is endorsing a candidate for Cincinnati's City Council, as John Kiesewetter reported the other day.

We usually don't do politics here at the Blog Of Fun, but we mention this because of the Burbank connection. The spots are on former WCPO-TV 9/Cincinnati reporter Laure Quinlivan's campaign website.

Pitts sounds as "Pitts'ed Off" as usual in these spots...and that's all we have to say about them. We won't get into the politics.

But in Cincinnati, this could attract voters to vote for her...so we'll see.

Furman In Houston...Kinda: We hinted about this one Tuesday, but didn't get Around Tuit (TM by OMW) until this morning because we didn't have a whole lot of information.

Former 700 WLW radio host Andy Furman did do a gig for Houston, TX station 790 KBME-AM on Tuesday. But he wasn't physically IN Houston, as we first thought.

Furman told Kiese Wednesday that he did the shows from WLW's studios. Here's what else he had to say, from the Kiese Blog:

“This was an accident… Someone told me about 790… I started listening about 2 weeks ago online…Got really upset one day and called in, but the producer wouldn’t let me on. He thought I was nuts I guess… So I e-mailed the PD (Bryan) and told him I couldn’t get on. He e-mailed me back with a date to do the show… It was today (Tuesday)…I did it from WLW, 7-9 and 12-4… We had Pete Rose, Aaron Boone and Ziggy Gruber… He’s the owner of the biggest kosher deli in Texas. Kenny and Ziggys and a real character… I don’t know what the future may bring… So I’m not even going to think about it. Actually I wanted to do it to see if I still had it in me… I do…Maybe 1530 could use me from 9-12… Who knows. Just felt good to talk sports again. Thanks for your interest.”

Our take: Furman isn't likely to return to the Clear Channel/Cincinnati airwaves anytime soon. He was fired from there in '06 because of comments made about former Bengal TJ Houshmandzadeh, after the wide receiver (who is now with the Seattle Seahawks) missed what was called the "Bengals RoundTable". Houston, however, is a whole other story. We will have to see what happens...but, needless to say, this looks like it was a one shot deal...

Holland Moving Northeast

We're not talking about the country, either...

TJ Holland, formerly PD at WNNF-FM 94.1/Cincinnati and WRRM-FM 98.5/Cincinnati (until he was cut at the tail end of March), is moving up the I-71 corridor to Columbus.

He's taking over for Tony Florentino, according to our friends and esteemed colleagues at Ohio Media Watch as Operations Manager and Program Director at Saga Communications up there. Florentino's contract wasn't renewed by Saga.

The Saga group includes WVMX-FM 107.9/Westerville, WODB-FM 104.3/Richwood, OH, WSNY-FM 94.7/Columbus and WJZA-FM 103.5/Pickerington. (Oh, and if the WVMX call sign sounds familiar...those letters were formerly on 94.1 here.)

It's basically out of our main coverage area (about halfway between our territory and OMW's reach), but it is still worth noting as it involves the former Cumulus programmer finding work in these tough times...

Congratulations, TJ...

UPDATE: Abati Move Not Permanent...Just For a Few Days.

This morning, we reported on Valerie Abati being moved to the mornings, and we didn't have any word on what would happen evenings.

Now we have some updated information.

According to TV Critic John Kiesewetter at the Enquirer, WLWT News Director Stacy Owen says the move is only for a few days. Abati will go back to evenings on Thursday, in time for the crucial 4 week sweeps period to begin. Eric Green is doing evenings today through Wednesday.

The move looks to be a test for whenever WLWT hires their new chief meteorologist. Speculation suggests Abati would move permanently into mornings.

Meanwhile, we wondered where a move for Abati would leave Randi Ricco - and apparently, we have our answer on that, too. We saw Ricco doing health reporter duty during the same News 5 Today newscast, talking about the swine flu. The thinking appears to be to move her into a reporter role of some kind with Abati doing mornings, Eric Green and/or John Bateman doing weekends and a new chief meteorologist coming in to do evenings, whoever that may be.

By the way, fans of WKRC 12's Bob Herzog and Liz Bonis need not worry about their absences this morning. They're both taking a short vacation and are anticipated to return for Thursday's sweeps start.

Monday Mix

A few things to kick off your final week of October...

WLWT Moves Met to Mornings: A move that we had been looking for confirmation on, appears to be true as of this morning.

A source familiar with WLWT-TV 5/Cincinnati's continuing search for a new chief meteorologist (they did not wish to be named) told us yesterday that Valerie Abati would be moved to mornings at least for the short term.

We took time to watch News 5 this morning, and we can confirm this is TRUE. Abati is doing this morning's News 5 Today as we type this (5:00 AM).

That source also told us that the station is still trying to find its new chief, but has at least two candidates for the job. They had to start looking after Derek Beasley bolted from WLWT in August to take the chief position at WPMI-TV 15/Mobile, AL.

WCPO Using New Graphics: Yes, we noticed some significant changes to WCPO-TV 9/Cincinnati's news presentation over the weekend. We hadn't seen them before, so no, we don't know when they debuted.

Their opening graphic, along with in-newscast bugs, the scroll, and the Chyron graphics used during stories have all been changed.

The newer graphics appear to use more brown/earth tones, and they come with new music.

From our guess, these are still produced in-house, but not at WCPO.

Recall a few months back, we reported that WCPO had to drop 5 staffers, when parent Scripps Howard Broadcasting centralized graphic and ad traffic operations in Tampa (at station WFTS/8) and Phoenix (KNXV-TV 15 there).

Our thinking is that the graphics look like those used at the aforementioned Phoenix station... but we're not totally sure. Comparison sure doesn't look much different between KNXV and WCPO...

World Series to Wreak Havoc With WXIX: We've been looking for news from other corners of our domain...honest! But WXIX-TV 19/Newport seems to be making most of the news, lately...so, here we go again.

The AL Championship Series ended last night, after 6 games, the last of which had to be pushed back 1 day.

However...WXIX isn't done with baseball yet.

Enter, the World Series.

Because most of, if not every one of, the games will be played at night, that forces a move we already figured would happen...and one that actually took place last night for that aforementioned Game 6.

WXIX-DT2 19.2, aka THIS TV Cincy, will continue doing FOX 19 10:00 News broadcasts on nights when the station has baseball.

WXIX, however, will not have games on either Friday of this week, or Tuesday of next week (if a Game 5 is needed, it will happen on Monday, November 2, with Game 6 [again, if needed] scheduled for Wednesday, November 4th).

So, a few more nights of confusion for WXIX viewers...and then baseball is over.

Bengals Goofups: By the way, we didn't see any hints that WXIX is considering another "Bengals Sunday"...but if they do decide to do the same thing for the December 7th game between Detroit and Cincinnati, they might want to work on a problem with superimposition of their text Station ID - because it bothered a few fans of the team last night.

We were watching the Bengals game against the NFC North's Chicago Bears Sunday, and several times, whenever the station decided to drop in a Station ID bug on the bottom of the screen, the audio would cut out for a second, but then it would rewind - and you'd hear that second that you missed! The video was also goofed up at those times.

We weren't alone - reports from the AVS Science Forum confirm this, also.

It sounded to one forum poster like they'd sent the FOX HD feed through the encoder, not a splicer, when they went to insert the station ID.

If that's the case, that explains the momentary audio/video issue.

Seriously, WXIX...that was annoying. It needs fixed...fast. And preferably, before the World Series begins on Wednesday, and you tick off a LOT more people...

WXIX Planning Bengals Coverage This Weekend

Normally, Bengals games air on WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati, because CBS has the rights to air all AFC games...unless those games are home games against NFC teams.

The latter scenario is the case this weekend, as the Bengals battle the Chicago Bears Sunday afternoon at 4:15 PM at Paul Brown Stadium. WXIX-TV 19/Newport has the rights to the game because of FOX's contract to carry NFC games.

The game comes with some locally produced pre- and post-game shows by WXIX, as the Enquirer and John Kiesewetter report.

At 3:15 PM, WXIX will do a special 45 minute pre-game show exclusively on THIS TV Cincy (19.2 over-the-air, Insight 194 and Time-Warner 994). Anchors Tricia Macke and Dan Carroll, along with sports director Brian Giesenschlag and sports anchor Zach Wells will present stories on players and tailgaters. WXIX-TV 19.1 will be finishing the Pittsburgh/Minnesota game at that time.

After the game, WXIX will pre-empt any special coverage and/or "The OT" and jump straight into a postgame show, also hosted by Macke, Carroll, Giesenschlag and Wells. That may include postgame press conferences with QB Carson Palmer and head coach Marvin Lewis if there is time. That will end at 8 PM when NBC has exclusive rights to football.

The only other game that FOX 19 will air is on December 6, when the Detroit Lions come into town. However, that game has not sold out so far...

BREAKING NEWS THIS MORNING: Soupy Sales Dead at 83

A legendary comedian who got his start here in Cincinnati has died.

Soupy Sales (real name Milton Supman) died overnight at age 83, according to the AP.

Sales' career began in Cincinnati, where he was a radio DJ. His TV career started at WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati. He later moved on to Cleveland, then Detroit, where his career really took off with his show on WXYZ-TV/Detroit, called "Lunch Time with Soupy Sales". In 1959, that show went national on ABC, and the next year it moved to Los Angeles, then New York in 1964.

He later went on to take part in numerous game shows in the 1970s and '80s, and released an album in the late 60's titled "A Bag of Soup".

Sales will forever be remembered as one of the great comedians of his time.

Funeral arrangements are pending, and it is unclear if there will be any public memorials...

Barely Enough To Run

We've got a few items...let's start with something I was slightly involved with yesterday...

WKRC's Big Bengals Nation Giveaway Kickoff: WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati is giving away some tickets to a certain big football game in February.

Yes, we mean the Super Bowl.

The station began the giveaway yesterday, with an appearance by the station's Jen Dalton at Countertops and Cabinetry By Design in Florence on Mall Road.

Yours truly headed down there, originally with intentions of finding out more about it, certainly not planning to be on camera - and wound up involved in the 12:10 PM live shot that Dalton did announcing the giveaway on Local12 News at Noon.

If you want to register, head to any one of the four Countertops and Cabinetry By Design locations. For more info, log onto Local12.com...

While We're At 1906 Highland: The station also announced some lineup changes after Election Day.

"Local12 Newsmakers", hosted by Dan Hurley, will move to CW Cincinnati 12.2 on November 8th at 11 AM. Meanwhile "The Dish", currently seen on CW Cincinnati at 12:30 PM (new episodes Fridays, old ones Monday-Thursday) will move into that same slot on Local 12.

John Kiesewetter has the details here. The thinking is that "Dish" will be a good fit in the 11 AM slot on Sundays on the main signal.

Our take? While we agree that 11 AM Sundays is probably a good slot for a cooking show, "Newsmakers" is one of the better public affairs programs around. It might even be the best one in town. We shall see how this impacts the ratings.

WXIX Welcomes Back A Reporter: WXIX-TV 19/Newport welcomes back one of their own from a wedding and honeymoon.

Sara Celi, formerly known as Sara Gouedy, returned this week after getting married a couple weeks ago. She's had to get used to her new name - so we're giving her a pass on messing it up a couple times today.

Congratulations to Mrs. Celi and welcome back...

WOBO-FM Mourning: WOBO 88.7FM/Batavia is mourning the loss of one of their own.

John Kiesewetter of the Enquirer reported yesterday that Hank Bangert, who hosted the "Musical Moods" show(Mondays, 3-6 PM) on the Clermont County variety station, died at age 81. Hank was the father of 700 WLW-AM/Cincinnati newsman Bill Bangert.

We here at TSMW extend our heartfelt sympathies to the Bangert family...as this is a huge loss for them. We also wish to extend the same to the staff of WOBO, who lost a dear colleague and friend...

Forecast on the Weather Channel is...Movies??: Yes, that's in the cards.

The cable network more widely known for its "Local on the Eights" and "Storm Stories" will test the movie idea, according to the AP. The first movie to be shown will be "The Perfect Storm", based on the 1991 storm that happened 18 years ago.

Ironically, the movie will air on the 18th anniversary of that storm, Friday, October 30th(Insight digital 30/430, Time Warner digital 370/analog 41), but the time is still to be announced. Jen Carfagno will provide commentary on the weather-related aspects of the movie.

The connection to the Tri-State, albeit a tedious one, is that WXIX has tried airing "Storm Stories" episodes, with commentary provided by that station's chief meteorologist Steve Horstmeyer.

Our take? We're big weather nuts here at the Blog of Fun. If the Weather Channel is going to air movies, then something like this is an appropriate idea.

Talking Sports

QUICK UPDATE: We did some research, and we found this nugget from Wikipedia:

During the afternoon games, CBS and Fox may switch a market's game to a more competitive one, particularly when a contest becomes lopsided. For this to occur, one team must be ahead by at least 18 points in the second half.

That would certainly fit with the New England Patriots...which were ahead 52-0 at 6:17 PM when CBS pulled the plug nationally...

Original item below...

__________________________________________________

Yes, we're here, sort of.

As noted, our updates will be less frequent for a couple days. But, we're running this one out there, while it's still fresh in our minds...

CBS Pulls National Coverage: We didn't think the networks had flexibility to DO this for doubleheaders...

Your Tri-State Media Watcher was watching WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati, where the New England Patriots were completely decimating the Tennessee Titans.

Notice we said "were".

The game is STILL going on as we type this. But...CBS pulled the plug on the national coverage of the game - with most of the second half still to be played!

We wonder if the NFL gave them the okay to do that. It wasn't a very competitive contest...but you're gonna have some ticked off Tennessee fans in some places if that game gets competitive again.

FOX 19 News at...1:20 AM???: Yes, it happened last night.

We were up, because of being something of an insomniac. The New York Yankees were playing the L.A. Angels of Anaheim, in a game that just would...not...end.

Mercifully, the Yankees DID end it, in the 13th inning.

As 12:30 AM turned to 12:45...then 1 AM...then 1:10...we wondered if WXIX-TV 19/Newport would even attempt to mount a late news on their main channel. (By the way: WXIX is airing the 10 PM news, at its regular time, on 19.2 (aka This TV Cincinnati) when WXIX airs a late game, and the 6 PM news tomorrow because of a 4 PM start for the ALCS. It's seen on Time Warner digital channel 994 and Insight digital channel 194.)

When the postgame ended around 1:20 AM, WXIX DID have a very short (presumably recorded) newscast of about 5 minutes duration...before jumping to "Talkshow with Spike Feresten".

We think WXIX officials saw the writing on the wall when the game went past 11:30 PM...as it appeared at least the radar loop used for the short newscast was from that time.

We can't blame WXIX (or for that matter, most FOX affiates in the eastern US) if they don't air the local news in these situations. (We hear from our friends and colleagues at Ohio Media Watch that WJW-TV 8/Cleveland went straight to Feresten after postgame.)

The fact is, at 1:20 AM, there's not much market for local news...except the sports fans, or insomniacs, like Your Tri-State Media Watcher.

Of course all of that was a moot point for the West Coast...as those areas were still able to do a semi-on time late local news...

Rare Early Saturday Update

UPDATE 4:05 PM Saturday: An anonymous commenter tells us The Sound is still on the air. They apparently went down last month for about a week - but they are back now. And as for the previous "Sound" domain names, they're still inactive, but our commenter tells us that the online stream is at www.thesoundcincinnati.com

This is rare that we do an early Saturday morning update...but we need to clear the plate for a simple medical reason.

As it looks right now, the next week will likely be a week that sees Your Tri-State Media Watcher need at least some medical rest due to problems in BOTH arms (read: not using the arms so much). As a consequence, the Blog of Fun won't see as many updates this week, as it has in recent months. More on this below.

So, let's clear the plate, before we head over to the hospital sometime this weekend for the official diagnosis:

B105 Has IPhone App: Yep...you're hearing it RIGHT HERE, first (unless you happen to be a member of the B105 Facebook Group, in which case unless you come here first, you're reading it there first).

WUBE-FM 105.1/Cincinnati announced late last evening, after most everyone had gone off for the night, that they've got a brand new IPhone application. Straight from the station via their Facebook Group, in a message sent out to their members:

Attention iPhone users:

Now follow B105 through your phone by adding the B105 iPhone app exclusively at http://b105.com/iPhone.

Tell your friends!

We're pretty sure at least a couple of our readers, those fans of what once was 94.9-then 97.3-then 94.9 again "The Sound" (which we'll get to in our next item) excluded, may be fans of B105. As such, we wanted to let them know about it.

"Sound" Gone? Looks Like It: Speaking of "The Sound", it looks as if that's now totally gone.

It doesn't exist, online or otherwise, it would seem. It had been at 94.9 HD2, for those with HD Radios. Online, it was at www.973thesound.com.

Right now, and we mean now as of 6:07 AM on Saturday morning as we're writing this, that link points to a GoDaddy.com domain expiration page. Reports have the 94.9 HD2 signal discontinued on September 14th. We didn't know it - and apparently, neither did John Kiesewetter at the Enquirer. A tweet on 9/17 to us, only came to our attention a couple weeks after the fact (we had some computer troubles at the time not to mention other projects we were working on) - and when it did, we began to track it down.

It's taken us two weeks - but we know now. Sorry, Insane Elvis for taking so long to track down this one. We were fans, too when we could get the station at 94.9. At the TSMW HQ, their signal from the Star Tower (which is the location of WSTR-TV 64(RF 33)/Cincinnati, WREW-FM 94.9/Cincinnati, WRRM-FM 98.5/Cincinnati, and WGRR-FM 103.5/Cincinnati at least, along with we think one more) in North College Hill had trouble penetrating the hills of NKY when they were on 97.3 FM with their 2,550 watts of ERP.

Finally, The Quick Note: Barring any indication of major injury to my arms, The Blog Of Fun should return sometime between Thursday, October 22nd and next Saturday.

As you are aware from my personal blog, being in a wheelchair means I need both arms at full strength. And if that means I need to stop trying to type so much, I will do it.

I'll come out of hiatus with major, breaking news if it occurs (such as, I don't know, radio formats returning or changing, a mass fire sale at a local group, or something else).

I hate needing hiatuses. I really do. But, to maintain health, sometimes these are necessary...

Keep Your Tri-State Media Watcher's family and yours truly in your thoughts, as I look to figure out what's going on, and what might be next...

THIS JUST IN: No Blackout

There will be no blackout in Cincinnati, Dayton, or Lexington for this week's Bengals game against the Texans, LOCAL12 reports. From the story above:

The Bengals, Local 12 (CBS affiliate WKRC-TV in Cincinnati) and Motorola worked together to ensure the blackout would be lifted. As part of this plan, Motorola will give away 1200 tickets (600 pairs of tickets) to Bengals fans for free, starting at 11:30 am Saturday at the North Ticket Office (next to the Bengals Pro Shop) at Paul Brown Stadium. Motorola is a long-time sponsor of the Bengals and has a newly aligned partnership with Bengals WR Chad Ochocinco.

There are still tickets available. The blackout is usually lifted in these situations when tickets are available in certain areas of the stadium.

Mid-October Weekend

Let's see what we have to run this Friday...some good, it looks like, but one minor, slightly-related bad news item from the local area:

Burbank's Closes: While Gary Burbank is known in media circles for his long-running show on 700 WLW-AM/Cincinnati, he also had a restaurant at I-75 and Sharon Road in Sharonville.

That is, until now.

The Enquirer reports this morning that Burbank's Bar-B-Q has closed. Reports suggest that the owners are working on a spinoff concept to open in another locale in town.

Burbank has been reported in the past to be thinking about a 1,200 seat restaurant/concert venue, something close to what the Funny Bone Comedy Club does. It would host 35-50 national acts per year.

As we noted, it's only slightly related, as Burbank himself is the connection here to media. But we figured we'd mention it.

If memory serves us correctly, Burbank's even had a location in Florence at one time. It was just off I-75 exit 180, at US 42 and Dream Street. That site is now a Frisch's Big Boy.

Balloon Boy: It was hard to miss this story yesterday, when a balloon took off in Denver with a small child reported to be inside. The child was later found in his home, hiding in a cardboard box in the attic.

It seemed like everybody in town was covering it, even though it didn't happen here in Cincinnati (rather, it occurred just outside of Denver, Colorado).

Within minutes, everybody and their brothers knew of the story, via Twitter, including yours truly.

It just proves once again that, with Twitter, word can and does spread quickly.

Finding Out About TV Blackout: Yes, the elephant in the room.

As we type this just before 1 PM, we should be finding out soon if TV stations in Cincinnati, Dayton or Lexington will be allowed to show this weekend's home game for the Cincinnati Bengals.

The good news? They had 500 fewer tickets to sell this morning, as the Bengals announced they were giving that many tickets to military families so they could attend the Bengals' tilt with the Houston Texans. We're all for that, for sure.

The Bengals are also hosting a midfield halftime enlistment ceremony:

The Bengals previously announced a partnership with the United States Marines Corps that will bring more than 200 future Marines to Sunday's game. During a halftime ceremony, fans will have the rare opportunity to see hometown men and women enlist in the Marine Corps. The ceremony will honor those who are making the commitment. The ceremony will also include a video of active-duty Cincinnati Marines currently serving in Iraq.

Again, we'll find out later today whether the game sold out...