Couple Monday Items

We're ending August with a couple of quickies:

Quickie 1 - Grover In EW: And we don't mean a certain pro wrestling fan site which Your Tri-State Media Watcher is a member of.

No, we're talking about the publication known as Entertainment Weekly.

John Kiesewetter has this word (parentheticals mine):

He’s quoted in a story headlined “Mariah’s Mysterious Album Delays” on Page 15. It’s about the delay of her 12th album, “Memories of an Imperfect Angel,” pushed back from Aug. 25 to Sept. 29, and postponing her appearances on the “Today” show and at the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

EW notes that her “Obsessed” single only reached No. 11 on Billboard’s Top 100. But she has another single coming out soon, a remake of Foreigner’s 1984 “I Want To Know What Love Is.”

The story ends with this: “You’re judged on your latest single,” says Grover Collins, assistant program director at Cincinnati’s Q102 pop radio station. “All you need is one song.”

How cool is that? I have not had all that much experience with being quoted...much less by a national publication like EW.

A side note: Yours truly was actually quoted in a caption under a photo of himself at the Florence Skate Park a couple years ago. And Tri-State Media Watch had our reports cited by Media Bridges a couple months after we broke the story about WVQC-FM 95.7/Cincinnati...

Quickie 2 - WVQC Launch Update: And we certainly didn't see this segue coming, but we need to get the word out.

As yet, WVQC-FM isn't something we can hear with any regularity yet. Last time we checked, 95.7 was occupied by static and the sounds of other stations filtering in even downtown.

But they're getting ready for a huge launch event on Saturday.

Quoting an email we received:

Join us for Free Wave Riot as we celebrate Media Bridges' 20th Anniversary and raise funds for the launch of WVQC on Saturday, September 5 at the Know Theatre from 8pm to midnight.

Free Wave Riot will feature performances by some of Cincinnati's favorite bands: IsWhat?, J. Dorsey Blues Revival, Culture Queer, Fourth Letter Gang, the Tigerlillies, Losanti and more. In addition to the music, dancing, spoken word performances and video installations, we will have the best raffle in town. Here's a preview of the hot items up for grabs:

A full year membership to the Contemporary Arts Center
Tickets to the Contemporary Dance Theatre
Enjoy the Arts membership
Gift certificates to Coffee Emporium, Total Juice, Enzo's, Chez Nora and more
Media Bridges and WVQC gear

And more..

Tickets are $9.57 and are available at the door and online. It's a sliding scale, so if you don't have that much we'll take as much as you can donate at the door.

Yours truly will attend the event and will have a full recap either Sunday or next Tuesday. (Next Monday is Labor Day, so, like most of the media biz and the rest of America, we're going to take that day off.)

We're hoping they raise the cash needed to get things off the ground. Our hope is that they've got something up...we may be headed for downtown later today, so we'll check...

Ohio Society of Professional Journalists Announces Awards

John Hingsbergen sent us word that WMUB-FM 88.5/Oxford picked up 10 awards, and had several second place showings as well, when the Society of Professional Journalists Ohio chapters (Cincinnati, Cleveland and Central Ohio) announced their list of winners.

Here's the list, as sent by John:

Radio Winners
Smaller Markets
Best Consumer Reporting
FIRST: Healing Touch,” Cheri Lawson, WMUB.

Best Continuing Coverage
FIRST: “SWAT Shooting in Lima,” Staff, WIMA.
SECOND: “Windstorm Aftermath,” News Team Staff, WMUB.

Best Enterprise Reporting
FIRST: “Fast Fungi,” Tana Weingartner, WMUB.
SECOND: “Sewing for Soldiers,” Gary Scott, WMUB.

Best Feature Reporting
FIRST: “The Two Miamis: Neepwaantiiyankwi,” Tana Weingartner, WMUB.
SECOND: “Model T Party,” Gary Scott, WMUB.

Best General Assignment
FIRST: “Palin in West Chester,” Tana Weingartner, WMUB.

Best Health Care Feature Reporting
FIRST: “Threshold Choirs,” Cheri Lawson, WMUB.
SECOND: “Healing Touch,” Cheri Lawson, WMUB.

Best Medical/Health Reporting
FIRST: “Alternative Healthcare,” Cheri Lawson, WMUB.

Best Minority Issues Coverage
FIRST: “WMUB Forum: Proposition 8 Protest,” Gary Scott and John Hingsbergen, WMUB.

Best Spot News
FIRST: “Explosion at Tuttle Construction,” Doug Jenkins, WIMA.
SECOND: “Palan Announcement Reax,” Tana Weingartner and Heather Reed, WMUB.

Radio Winners
Smaller Markets Individual/Station Honors

Best Anchor
FIRST: Body of work, Larry States, WAKR-WONE-WQMX.
SECOND: Body of work, Cheri Lawson, WMUB.

Best News Operation
FIRST: Body of work, News Team, WMUB.

Best Public Affairs Program
FIRST: “WMUB Forum: Year in Review,” Gary Scott and John Hingsbergen, WMUB.

Best Reporter
FIRST: Body of work, Tana Weingartner, WMUB.
SECOND: Body of work, Gary Scott, WMUB.

The list of all winners, across all mediums, is on the Ohio SPJ website here. There are just too many to list all of them, especially broadcast...

THIS JUST IN: Insight Subscribers Losing 3 More Basic Channels

If you subscribe to Insight's basic cable service, as we do here at TSMW...this affects you.

The Enquirer reported today on NKY.com that Insight's Basic Cable subscribers will lose three more channels on September 1. That would be Tuesday.

Gone from BASIC ONLY: Oxygen (Channel 37), C-SPAN2 (Channel 12) and QVC (Channel 26).

If you've got the Digital 4.0 service, you're not affected, and those channels do remain in their original positions.

Basic customers who want to continue watching the three channels may request free equipment for a year from Insight by calling 1-877-542-5868, says the Enquirer report

Our take: Another move by Insight that will drive customers to either their digital service (or they hope so)...but, it might have the opposite effect.

We're not sure. But, we'll see if digital subscribership increases after the switchover...

The Follow Up On the Bengals Situation - CORRECTED/UPDATED 11:35 AM

We did some digging, and here's what we know and what we don't know about the affiliates around the area with regard to Thursday's not-sold-out Cincinnati Bengals/St. Louis Rams game:

We Know - Cincinnati: We do know that WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati won't of course air the game live here.

We reported yesterday that Local12 says they will air it on tape-delay at 11:35 PM, blowing out "Late Show with David Letterman" and "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson".

We Think We Know - Louisville: We don't think WMYO 58/Louisville can carry the tilt between the Bengals and Browns if they use the WKRC-TV feed.

This of course doesn't rule out them using the St. Louis Rams' feed to carry the contest...but we're betting against that.

Our best guess, and maybe if you're reading from Louisville you can help us confirm this, is that WMYO just airs the MyNetwork schedule tomorrow night in pattern.

UPDATE: And just as we get this off to press, we find this little nugget on Bengals.com:

The game will air live on WSYX-TV (Ch. 6) in Columbus and WDRB-TV (Ch. 41) in Louisville.

Except...WDRB is carrying ANOTHER game...as the Miami Dolphins take on Tampa Bay.

So, although we did not think they would do so, WMYO WILL carry the Bengals tilt.

We Know - Dayton: We know Dayton fans will still get to see the game either way.

Usually, WRGT 45/Dayton airs the game over the weekend, after WKEF 22/Dayton carries it live.

Even though most likely WKEF won't carry the live airing, WRGT still plans to carry the tape-delayed game Sunday at 12 noon according to their program schedule. (You know, the same schedule where we could not figure out where ABC 22 was bouncing regular ABC programming to?)

Oh, and from the above Bengals.com link comes word that WKEF will ALSO do tape-delay - shoving news viewers over to FOX45 for the 10 PM news. (Wonder how THAT will affect ratings?)

And, on a related note, speaking of programming schedules: If you use TitanTV...ignore it this week. We suspect that the affiliates in all three cities won't air the games live, but again, there will be tape-delayed broadcasts...and we suspect all three cities will clear regular network programming tomorrow night.

Time-Warner Reorganization Update

UPDATE #2: We're hearing the entire metro area should have the new channel lineup by 10:45 PM tonight. Just to be safe, I would recommend you watch the SD versions of the major networks tonight for your Tuesday night viewing.

And if your cable hasn't reset by morning, please email us.

UPDATE: Mike just talked to someone at TWC. They are going piece by piece across southwest Ohio with the new lineup...we're guessing it will be like a wave, moving north to south across the area. We do know Northgate should get it by 6 PM, and that would mean to anticipate most areas being switched by prime-time tonight.

We just heard from Friend of TSMW Mike Taylor regarding the new channel lineups Time Warner is launching today.

As of 3:55 PM, at his home in Colerain Township (NW Hamilton County), his cable box hadn't reset and the new lineup hadn't made its way into his home as of yet.

If you're a Time Warner customer, and your channel lineup doesn't change by late this evening, please e-mail us. We'd like to know who has the lineup, and who doesn't yet...

NFL NOT Live on Local12 Thursday Night

We've just found out that, per the NFL's 72-hour blackout rule, the Bengals' tilt with the St. Louis Rams this Thursday will NOT air live on WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati.

Instead, Local12 will pre-empt "Late Show with David Letterman" and "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" to air the game on tape-delay after the 11:00 news. Both those shows won't air in Cincinnati.

If you can pull in Dayton stations, WHIO-TV 7/Dayton will have both of those programs on at normal time...

We're working to find out how this affects affiliates in Louisville and Dayton...

FOLLOW UP: Isaac Officially Announced As Morgan's Replacement Nights on Q

We just heard that Jon Isaac (who we have just referred to by his first name thus far) is officially named as the replacement for WKRQ-FM 101.9/Cincinnati DJ Holly Morgan, thus completing the shuffle up at Bonneville Mountain between WKRQ and the country stations of WUBE-FM 105.1/Cincinnati and WYGY-FM 97.3/Ft. Thomas. We had it preliminarily one week ago from Grover Collins (who was moved to B105/Wolf Program Director duties in the wake of the firing of Travis Moon), but can now solidly confirm what he told us thanks to a post from John Kiesewetter.

Kiese reports that Isaac majored in communications at NKU, and has worked at Q102 for 2 and a half years in promotions, as well as doing fill-ins.

Morgan, of course, moved to Q102 middays 10 AM-3 PM when Collins moved to the PD slot at B/Wolf...and anybody who doesn't know Collins and Morgan are married off-air, has never been to either of their facebook pages...

A Few Things to Watch For

A couple of items to keep an eye on in the next couple weeks:

1) Labor Day is quickly approaching. That means it is time for the Cincinnati Bell/WEBN Fireworks to be broadcast on WLWT-TV 5/Cincinnati. Watch for more promos in the next two weeks...

2) Look for slight tweaks to the playlists at WUBE-FM 105.1/Cincinnati and WYGY-FM 97.3/Ft. Thomas. We hear that new PD Grover Collins does plan to keep the staff, but the playlist might be slightly different over there.

3) We think WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati is close to going HD in newscasts. We believe, but can't yet confirm, that they'll do it around Labor Day. Stay tuned, we'll be following that one...

That Big Time Warner Reorganization

Public TV leaders haven't been able to stop the train that is Tuesday's channel reorganization and lineup changes.

That lineup change happens sometime early Tuesday.

== Basic customers will lose WPTD-TV 16/Dayton and WCVN-TV 54/Covington.

== WLWT-TV 5/Cincinnati literally just addressed their part of the reorganization as we're typing this. All HD local channels will be grouped between 1003 and 1012. WLWT's 5.2 subchannel changes positions from 906 to 371, WCPO-DT2 (Weather Tracker) going to 373. Local multicast channels other than those two will move to positions between 980 and 1000.

== Gone from digital cable: All of WPTO-TV 14/Oxford's subchannels, plus one of WCET-TV 48/Cincinnati's subchannels (CET Kids). WPTO's HD feed also disappears.

== All of the digital cable is reorganized into "tiers", as explained here.

What can you do if you're a basic customer losing the WPTD and WCVN options, or a digital customer losing all of those PBS multicast channels?

Call Time Warner. Tell them that you don't want to lose those channels. If the public outcry is large enough, perhaps they'll reverse those moves.

But we think the reorganization into tiers is a good idea. Grouping the channels which are similar is something Insight already does here in Northern Kentucky, including at the Tri-State Media Watch HQ in northern or eastern Boone County...

Couple WLWT Quick Hits

Two Quick Hits on this Friday, both having to do with WLWT-TV 5/Cincinnati:

QUICK HIT 1: Congratulations to WLWT's Sandra Ali and WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati's Shawn Ley. Their baby boy, Roman Alexander Ley was born Thursday. John Kiesewetter reports that Ley emailed his co-workers that mom and baby are doing just fine.

QUICK HIT 2: WLWT has hired back John Bateman, reports Kiese in the above link.

Bateman had left Channel 5 back in May, when his contract was not renewed. He gets the call back following the unexpected departure last week of Derek Beasley, who bolted out of town to the chief meteorologist job at WPMI/15 in Mobile, Alabama. (And really, working the split shift, who could blame him?)

PROGRAMMING ALERT: Louisville NFL Flip Tonight

We've gotten word of this quite by accident.

Last week we noted schedules for WDRB-TV 41/Louisville and WMYO-TV 58/Louisville when WDRB carried the Bengals/Saints tilt and WMYO carried Indianapolis' game against the then pre-Brett Favre Minnesota Vikings, which of course bumped both MyNetworkTV and Fox programming.

Well this week, you can flip those teams.

WDRB carries the nationally televised FOX contest between Indianapolis and Philadelphia. That sends the Cincinnati Bengals' game against the New England Patriots over to...WMYO.

That, of course, prompts WMYO to bounce the MyNetwork TV movie tonight. "Nuns On The Run" will, however, air immediately following Bengals football on WMYO.

Fast forward to next week...and surprise, surprise...WMYO and WDRB face the same situation. The exact same schedule will be used next week, except the movie "Sweepers" is what gets the bounce on WMYO to 10:30 (or as soon as the Bengals/Rams tilt finishes).

However, a situation may arise next week, and we'll cover that Monday, where if the Bengals don't sell out for next Thursday's Rams/Bengals game at Paul Brown Stadium, nobody will see the WKRC-TV produced game due to NFL blackout rules...

And by the way, the FOX contest isn't affected in Dayton. WKEF 22/Dayton will carry the Bengals game there - but just like last week, we can't find accurate programming info on the ABC 22 or WRGT-TV 45/Dayton "FOX 45" websites.

JUST IN: Reds in HD This Afternoon

Sorry for the extremely short notice, but...

Fox Sports Ohio WILL air today's Reds/Giants tilt in just a few minutes (12:35 PM). It will be in HD.

Reds day games on weekdays almost never air, except for Reds/Cubs series on WGN America and of course Opening Day.

The August 29 Reds/Dodgers contest, we're told, is being carried by Fox19, and has been moved to a 4:10 PM start time from 7:10...

BREAKING NEWS: "60 Minutes" Creator Dies

We've just learned through numerous sources that the creator of CBS' "60 Minutes" newsmagazine has died.

Don Hewitt died this morning in Bridgehampton, NY at age 86 of pancreatic cancer.

We're hearing CBS is likely to do a tribute show about Hewitt...but no details have been released. More as we know it later this week...

Birthday Day Post

UPDATE 2PM: Oops. We goofed.

The Bengals played against the Saints last week. This week, it's the New England Patriots! Our bad...this is what a 5 am post gets ya sometimes!

This will pretty much clear our plate for today. Again: it's Your Tri-State Media Watcher's 24th birthday today - so we're trying to stay away from anything that's work-related. But...these two items need to be talked about:

WKRC Announces Thursday Night/Friday Morning Schedule: Another Bengals game forces WKRC-TV 12 to move their primetime schedule.

Here's the expected schedule. As announced last week, if the game runs late, adjust accordingly and plan on recording everything from 1:30 AM on until 5:00 AM...

8 PM: Bengals/New England Patriots game
11 PM: Local12 News Live at 11
11:35 PM: Late Show with David Letterman
12:35 AM: Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
1:35 AM: Big Brother 11
2:35 AM: CSI
3:35 AM: The Mentalist

WCPO Antenna Boost: The FCC approved the WCPO-TV request for a boost of their power to their digital antenna.

WCPO has boosted their power from 19 kilowatts to 28 kilowatts. That maximizes the power available to them.

We, along with the folks at WCPO, hope that solves most of the digital transition woes they experienced. They have advised that those who didn't get the station before rescan, and those who had a weak signal should see improvement. However, this article also informs viewers still having issues to call the station and leave a message.

Still yet uncertain is the solution to WKRC's issues with THEIR VHF signal. There's yet to be a request to up their power or change allocations made, or at least posted to the FCC database as of this writing...

Again: This Blog Space takes a break today to celebrate yours truly's 24th. We're back Thursday, then gone for the weekend and back for good Monday!

WLWT Hires New News Director

We just found out about this, after being out all day...

WLWT announced today that they've hired Stacy Owen as news director. She comes here from Sacramento, California's KXTV, says John Kiesewetter today. (On a related note, the old blog format [which relied on something called Pluck Persona], was replaced and the URL's are now MUCH cleaner.)

One of Owen's first priorities, of course, is to replace Derek Beasley, who announced this morning his plans to head to Mobile, Alabama to work for Newport Television station WPMI-TV.

And A Reminder: As happened today, the news could get ahead of us the rest of the week as we take time to do various birthday-related obligations. (If you didn't get the hint this morning, we'll make it obvious: Your Tri-State Media Watcher is turning 24 on Wednesday.)

If you see, or hear or read, media news happening, contact us.

The "Post-" Monday Mix

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE 9:30 AM: We just got the word on Derek Beasley's new market location. And we were off...wayyyyy off.

Try Mobile, Alabama. This per Derek's Twitter:

To all that are wondering where I am going from here: chief meteorologist job in Mobile AL. Wish me luck!

To be more specific, after piecing another clue into the puzzle, we find that the station in question is WPMI-TV 15/Mobile. The clue was posted by John Gumm on a weather message board where we here at TSMW frequent.

Gumm said Beasley is going to be working for the same company (Newport Television) that owns WKRC/12 here. Guess who owns WPMI? Yup...Newport.

And we here at Tri-State Media Watch certainly DO wish Derek the best of luck...we'll keep an eye on this still young talent!

Original item below...

___________________________________________________

A lot of "Post-"'s in today's mix of items...

WKRC-TV Post-Anna Townsend: We're watching WKRC this morning, as is our habit when we're up at the early hours.

We're still of the impression that Liz Bonis is in the seat next to longtime anchor John Lomax. (Of course, at 5 AM, anyone's vision can be slightly blurry. And as we watch, we see that whoever's sitting in that anchor chair, didn't know to look right at the camera! Ugh. Then again, we can always chalk it up to being Monday. UPDATE 5:30 AM: And we can confirm that it's Liz Bonis in that chair as we finish typing this item.)

But they've definitely moved away from Anna Townsend's four year tenure with the station, quickly. That's really not surprising there. Considering that the very first story was about Cincinnati laying off workers, they can't dwell on their own loss for long...

WLWT Post-Derek Beasley: We were as surprised as many to learn that the chief meteorologist of WLWT-TV 5/Cincinnati had decided to move to another market last week. But we were not surprised at why this move is being made... and we figured Derek had never adjusted to the split-shift schedule WLWT had him working.

It looks like Beasley will be moving west, as we reported last week. We think this move will put him closer to his family, and we'll even take a stab at where he'll land.

We think he'll move somewhere in Oklahoma or Arkansas, to be nearer to his family...and our wild stab at the map points us to Springfield, Missouri or somewhere nearby.

We wouldn't really rule out Oklahoma City, Little Rock, or any other market somewhere in the central or southern states. But Springfield seems like as good a place as either of those to us.

Beasley will announce his destination sometime this week, and we very much could be wrong. But that's our speculative guess. (Call it one of our "musings".)

One thing we CAN tell you, is that Randi Rico is handling duties at channel 5 this morning. And, traffic reporter Brandon Hamilton is off today... as Lisa Cooney handles traffic in addition to her news duties. (She's doing well but slipped up coming out of the break. We'll call it a case of the "Mondays".)

WKRQ Post-Grover Collins: And rounding out the "Post-" series, we talk about WKRQ-FM 101.9/Cincinnati "Q102".

Later today, the first of two major changes takes effect, as we reported earlier. Grover Collins slides out of the midday chair at "Q" to take the Program Director duties for WUBE-FM 105.1/Cincinnati "B105" and WYGY-FM 97.3/Ft. Thomas "97.3 The Wolf", and his wife, former "Q" evening DJ Holly Morgan slides in from 10 AM to 3 PM.

We'll be up to listen to this change. But here's a couple musings:

-- We don't expect the 10 AM-3 PM slot to do away with one of Holly's major segments. We think "Guess What's In Holly's Purse" will remain in some form during the day, and may actually gain some players.

-- We don't think the "Pick Six" is necessarily departing with Grover, either. Our guess is Holly takes this one, as well.

-- We're thinking if any segment is likely to disappear, it'll be "Ladies Only" which Holly usually did at 9 PM. But, that could also remain in an hourly form. We'll see on this one.

-- Finally, unfortunately for Your Tri-State Media Watcher (as this was one of our favorite segments), we also think the "Friday Night Free-For-All" might have seen its last airing last week. That was something Holly did Fridays 7 PM - Midnight. And we doubt that comes back. Unless it's revamped as a "Lunchtime Free-For-All Friday"? Or will it carry on into the tenure of Jon? We don't know.

We'll find out. Again: we'll be listening to Q102 as the new lineup begins to make its presence felt today.

And Finally: Barring major news this week, this could be one of only two posts we get out this week, as life and something called a "24th birthday" gets in the way of blogging.

We'll definitively blog on Thursday with the "non-breaking" stuff, and can post from our twitter should the need arise - but do not count on us delivering blogs Tuesday, Wednesday, or Friday as we take time to attend various birthday celebrations.

The good news is, this is the last time real life should get in the way for a few weeks...so look for more regular updates from This Blog Space after this week...

Update on WKRQ's Plans

We've been slightly beaten to the punch announcing this, but we know the full scale plans, whereas this Enquirer article only covered the first of our points.

I was in Newport this afternoon and spoke to WUBE-FM 105.1 "B105"/Cincinnati and WYGY-FM 97.3/Ft. Thomas' newly minted Program Director, Grover Collins.

Grover happens to be someone I consider a friend of mine, and I've been listening since my late teenage years to his midday 10 AM-3 PM program on WKRQ-FM 101.9/Cincinnati "Q102"...which comes to an end as of last week.

We now know who replaces him at that post.

The voice that replaces him is none other than the station's evening DJ (and, we might add, Grover's wife and the 9th hottest female DJ in the United States), Holly Morgan. Holly slides into the 10 AM - 3 PM slot on Monday.

One other change won't officially take effect until one week from Monday. The man we only know as "Jon" will replace Holly at the evening post of 7 PM - midnight. (The reason, Collins told us, is that Brian Douglas goes on vacation this week, and Jon is taking his place for the week. That, for this upcoming week, moves frequent fill-in Kim Carson into the 7 PM to midnight shift.)

And Grover tells us this weekend (in fact, he's on as we're writing this) won't be the last we hear of him on "Q102". He'll do some weekend shifts, as the PD job at WUBE and WYGY is strictly behind-the-scenes, and doesn't involve on air work.

So, if you liked Grover's work, keep an ear on "Q102" during weekends. He could pop up anywhere on the station...

Another WOXY.com update

We've gotten some indication of what WOXY.com plans to do broadcasting wise in early September.

All Access has the info (Warning: Caps Lock overload ahead!):

FUTURE SOUNDS Alternative WOXY.COM moves from CINCINNATI TO AUSTIN at the end of the month (NET NEWS 7/16). WOXY will rebroadcast its 20th Annual MODERN ROCK 500 COUNTDOWN from SEPTEMBER 1-7 and will resume broadcasting live in AUSTIN from its new studios on TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8th.

WOXY, however, hasn't yet indicated what it plans to do August 28 through 31. We expect that they'll go automated with music and no DJ's either live or recorded.

BREAKING NEWS: Beasley Leaves Channel 5

QUICK UPDATE: We're hearing that where he is going, is closer to his parents' home in Arkansas and is out west. That leaves plenty of markets open. Maybe Little Rock? Maybe OKC or Tulsa? Stay tuned...he's expected to announce it next week and we'll have it covered.

Original Post:

Derek Beasley has left WLWT-TV 5/Cincinnati. He apparently has found another opportunity elsewhere.

Richard Dyer tells the Enquirer: "After nearly four years with WLWT, and six years with Hearst Television, Derek Beasley has decided to move to another opportunity that you will hear about in the coming days. We thank Derek for his service to WLWT and wish him the best in his future endeavors. Derek appreciates the support he has received from Hearst Television in his career as Chief Meteorologist and thanks the Company for its faith in his abilities."

Wow. What a shocker! Sure has been an active two days...first WKRC lets Anna Townsend go, now WLWT is switching chiefs for the 7th time in 12 years...

More, as we here at TSMW know it...

Bengals Football Kicks CBS Shows to Late Night

Tomorrow night, the Cincinnati Bengals take on the New Orleans Saints at 8 PM on WKRC-TV. (Boy, it seems like WKRC has ALL of today's TSMW news.) And with that comes programming pre-emptions.

-- If you're a Neil Diamond fan, take note: "Neil Diamond: Hot August Night: NYC" will air late Friday at 2:05 AM.

-- At 3:05 AM, Friday's rerun of "Ghost Whisperer" will be shown. No word on if Friday's "Numb3rs" will air here.

-- If you're in Dayton or within range of the WHIO 7 antenna, both shows will air at the regularly scheduled time of 8 PM and 10 PM respectively.

-- Allow some extra time, just in case. You may want to set the DVR's to record everything between, say, 3 AM and 6 AM. If the game runs long, the rest of the night gets pushed back accordingly.

-- Speaking of Dayton, WKEF 22 carries this week's game live - but it's not known yet what their schedule will be.

-- WRGT 45 will air the game in Dayton as well...but theirs will be a delayed airing on Sunday from 12-3 PM.

-- And we head down to Louisville, where WDRB 41 will be airing that game. That pushes FOX programming there to Sunday 5-7 PM.

-- Ironically, WMYO 58/Louisville ALSO airs a game that night when the Indianapolis Colts take on the Minnesota Vikings. That will push WWE Smackdown to a 10:30 PM airing.

We think that covers it... if anybody finds out what WKEF 22 plans to do about the ABC schedule tomorrow, email us. Link up at top right, just below our twitter feed...

BREAKING NEWS: Townsend Out at 12!

UPDATE #3 5:20 PM: Townsend sent a message to Kiese, which states:

"I have enjoyed my time here in Cincinnati. I will miss my co-workers and all the dedicated 'GMC' viewers. We've had some good times over the past four years."

Channel 12 news director Elbert Tucker won't comment on the situation, says Kiese. But, we know what will happen starting Monday.

Liz Bonis, who was hired in 2002 to be a health reporter for Channel 12 and host the morning show on then-"Mix 94.1" WVMX-FM/Cincinnati, will do double duty, doing the GMC newscast, then reporting on health stories for later newscasts.

UPDATE #2: When Kiese wrote the original post on his blog, he mentioned that Jessica Donnellon was still listed on the "Meet the Good Morning Cincinnati Team" page. Not anymore...now the page only lists John Lomax and Bob Herzog.

We'll try and nail it down...this could be a budget move after all.

UPDATE #1: We're hearing Townsend had been scheduled to take vacation all next week. (Part of the furlough deal announced earlier this summer, maybe?) We're not sure what happened between 8 AM and 1 PM, but it had to be significant.

Original post below...

___________________________________________________________

This is literally just breaking right now...

Anna Townsend, who has been with WKRC-TV 12 since 2005, is out, reports John Kiesewetter at the Cincinnati Enquirer.

We're trying, just like Kiese, to find out what is going on...this was a sudden move. Townsend had just been on "Good Morning Cincinnati" this morning...but we're hearing that by 1 PM her bio was off the station website. We certainly don't see it anywhere on there.

It's not clear if this is a budget cut by WKRC owner Newport Television, or if it was Townsend's decision.

More, as we know it...

Wednesday Update: WOXY staying on 91.7 HD-2; Moon Out at B105

UPDATE 6:30 PM 8/13: Thanks to an alert reader, we DO have an image of WKRC-TV 12's new logo below. It isn't the best quality, but it's a good look at it from the Western Hills Press' newspaper this week. By the way, we were wrong...the 12 is in white here, not black. The other lettering and numbering is definitely in black though. Thanks to Alex for sending this in to us!

The original item is below...

_____________________________________________

As we hit midweek, unfortunately the news isn't good at one radio cluster this morning...

Moon Abruptly Leaves B105: This happened around 9:00 this morning, and was very unexpected.

Travis Moon is out as "B105" WUBE-FM 105.1/Cincinnati's program director. Stepping into the role is WKRQ-FM 101.9/Cincinnati Assistant PD Grover Collins, who also takes over programming duties at "97.3 The Wolf" WYGY-FM 97.3/Ft. Thomas.

The change is being reported by numerous sources, including All Access.

Now we're not sure what, if anything, this means for WKRQ. But we can't hear the Q102 stream right now. And 10 AM-3 PM had been Collins' normal shift on Q. We'll be on top of it...

WOXY Remains on HD: WVXU and WOXY.com will stay linked as they are now after the station moves later this year.

The Kiese blog has the details:

A Time Warner coaxial cable will connect WOXY.com's new studios in an Austin theater with a sound stage (perfect for live, in-studio performances) with WVXU-FM here, says Rich Eiswerth, president and CEO of Cincinnati Public Radio.

This is a great move by WOXY to figure out the way to maintain a presence here. Many people still don't like the idea of the move...but as reported before, this will give them access to more bands, as many didn't come through here.

WKRC-TV In HD Soon: That's how it appears, judging by the slight change in appearance for the Newport Television-owned WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati.

We were out in downtown Cincinnati yesterday as a WKRC live van drove by us at 6th and Vine. Suddenly, we noticed the logo looked different.

The slight alteration colors the logo red, with the 12 in a white square and colored either red or black. We didn't get a close look, much less a picture.

The new logo hasn't made it to air yet, however. We're watching CW Cincinnati right now (aka Local 12.2), and the logo is still red, white and yellow.

When we posed the question on our personal twitter, John Gumm saw the bat signal and replied with "HD is coming...HD is coming...".

It's been rumored since WXIX went HD last year that WKRC would be next...and their set (which debuted this year) is HD ready... could the launch happen this month? Stay tuned...

Comment Moderation to Continue UFN

Hello readers,

Our friends at OMW have tipped us to a spammer that has been going around, posting links to some sort of scam as comments on the Ohio Media Watch blog.

As a precaution, comment moderation here at Tri-State Media Watch will continue UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

I had had plans to pull the moderation tomorrow...after a couple months had passed without distasteful comments.

However, due to the spammer, we will be continuing until further notice...which will probably be several more weeks.

Thanks for your patience!

Midday Monday Blues

QUICK UPDATE 2:50 AM 8/11: We missed this little tidbit.

Remember we told you over a month ago that WXIX would be launching the FOX19 Evening News at 6? Well, we just remembered that the start date for the 6 PM version of the newscast is September 21.

As that's 5 weeks into the football season, we didn't note this...but on Fridays once the newscast launches its 6 PM half hour, FOX19 will put all of the news into that half hour, leaving 6:30 PM for the football preview program.

Mark down the date: The 1/2 hour Friday newscasts will begin September 25th, with that week's feature game of Simon Kenton versus Conner.

And we also forgot to tell you the name of the program...it is the FOX19 Friday Prep Rally...

The entire original item follows:

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

Yes, many people may be singing the Monday blues... but we're doing okay here at TSMW (minus pulling a back muscle late last week which forced an ER visit which you can read about on my other blog)... so let's kick off the week:

WAKW Names New PD: 50,000 watt Christian station WAKW has named a new Program Director, and it's someone who has actually worked fairly close to our territory.

Quoting John Kiesewetter's blog of last week:

Christian WAKW-FM (Star 93.3) has a new boss: Randy James has been hired as program director to replace Kurt Wallace, who left in April to a Christian station on the air in Indianapolis. James has worked for WVMX-FM in Cleveland, WMMX-FM in Dayton and KHMX-FM in Houston.

There is one mistake that our friends at Ohio Media Watch caught when they covered their local angle of this one (that of James' tenure in Cleveland).

WVMX has never been a Cleveland station. It was the former "Mix 94.1" here (94.1's calls are now WNNF-FM), and now those calls reside on Saga station WVMX-FM "Mix" 107.9/Delaware, Ohio.

Pillar of Fire Ministries owns WAKW-FM here, along with stations in New Jersey and Denver...

"Data" Interview on WMKV-FM: That's right...we're talking about the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" character.

Brent Spiner, who played that character on the hit show, did a recent interview with WMKV 89.3/Cincinnati about his newest album, called "Dreamland".

We for one did not know Spiner sang, nor are we really the target demographic of WMKV. But, Kiese has this one covered as well:

So when Spiner released his new "Dreamland" concept album -- best described as part radio drama, and part Broadway musical -- George Zahn and Mike Martini at WMKV-FM sent him several emails requesting an interview. After all, WMKV airs Broadway music and old radio shows. (They probably didn't tell Spiner than he's regularly been part of the station's "Tuesday Trivia" show at 4 p.m. Tuesdays, when Martini and Zahn ask listeners to identify the guy (Spiner) singing a song.)

Again: We're not really in WMKV's target demo...but we sure do remember Star Trek. This is worth listening to. The first part of the interview next airs tomorrow at 3 PM, with a repeat on Friday at 10 PM. Part two, including the entire "Dreamland" album, airs Sunday at 11 AM, next Tuesday (8/18) at 3 PM, and one week from Friday (8/21) at 10 PM.

This Just In - FOX 19 to Expand HS Football: Just got wind of this one, literally as we were typing the previous item.

WXIX-TV 19/Newport will expand their high school football coverage, says the station in this press release.

They'll blow out the 6:30 PM half hour of the FOX19 Evening News on Fridays beginning late this month, to air a high school football preview show. This effort will go through the entire football season. We do believe, and Kiese has confirmed this in a blog JUST posted, that they'll squeeze major breaking news in as well. And Steve Horstmeyer will do weather during the sports show.

We will wait to judge the sports show until it debuts and we've watched a couple of them. But this is a good move on paper by FOX19...

One Birthday All Access Missed

Our friends over at All Access missed this one when they were publishing birthdays for this weekend - but you can bet we here at Tri-State Media Watch did not.

WKRQ-FM 101.9/Cincinnati evening host Holly Morgan (yours truly's favorite local personality) had a birthday yesterday (8/8). We're not sure how old she is, and aren't about to ask... but nonetheless, wish Holly a happy birthday!

BREAKING THIS MORNING: Hal McCoy Out After Reds Season from Dayton Daily News

We get this word from the Hamilton Journal News and Dayton Daily News, from which we have an e-mail subscription that gets us the day's big stories in the morning.

And they don't get much bigger than this when it comes to...well, the Dayton Daily News.

Hal McCoy wrote last night at 6:06 PM that after 37 years, he's going to retire once the MLB's Cincinnati Reds' season ends. It's not a move he's ready for, he says.

Quoting from the above blogpost:

The newspaper told me today that it will no longer cover the Cincinnati Reds the same way it has in the past, beginning next season. And don’t blame the paper. It is the economic times and we’re all suffering. They just can’t afford the more than a quarter of a million dollars a year to send me coast-to-coast.
The Dayton Daily News has been nothing but great to me. How many companies would keep a legally blind employee and furnish that employee with a driver and/or a car service to get him to and from games? The paper did that for me and it certainly didn’t have to do it.
The DDN didn’t have to do that, but it did and I’m so forever grateful, just as I am for the 37 years they permitted me to do what I love to do so much.

Mr. McCoy has been a Reds beat writer in Dayton since about 13 years before yours truly was born.

As such, he is, like another legend that retired this year...well, legendary. His credentials speak for themselves. In 2002, he was forever enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in the writer's wing. He continued to cover the Reds, in spite of a 2003 stroke that left him legally blind, as he said in the above quote.

We ask the same question Mr. McCoy did: how many newspapers would allow a legally blind employee to continue writing? (Of course, we recognize that the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1991 could certainly come into play.) How many newspapers would offer the assistance that the Dayton Daily News has?

We could be wrong, but the answer is probably "unless the writer is well respected, not many." McCoy certainly was that...his entry into the Hall speaks for itself.

We tip our hat to Mr. McCoy...and we believe that even in the tough times, both for the Reds and in the media biz, McCoy will forever remain a Reds fan and a loyal alum of the Dayton Daily News...

Lightning Strikes Almost Every TV Tower in Town

You know how lightning always tends to strike the tallest object?

Well apparently on Tuesday, lightning did just that...and hit, seemingly, every TV station's tower AT THE SAME TIME.

Channels 5 and 12 both have either photo or video of the strikes on their towers. We haven't seen either 9 or 19's video yet.

But here, take a look at this courtesy of Local12 (we've cropped it slightly so it will fit the page, to look at it as it was posted, click here:)



We're not totally sure, but we think WLWT/5's tower is at far left, with WKRC/12's and WCPO/9's towers to the right. It looks about right to us, as this picture was taken from Mount Adams, best we can tell. That's Christ Hospital at center, we believe.

We don't know if WXIX/19's tower was hit, as it's to the west of the Western Hills Viaduct, co-located with WPTO/14's stick.

Isn't it amazing how this could happen? And ALL of these strikes hit at once!

Radio Shack To Become Just...Shack?

Indeed, that's what we've got this morning, on the heels of a major heavy rainstorm across our area of responsibility yesterday.

We give John Gorman credit for telling us about the switch via his Media Blog.

It seems, according to the entry above, Radio Shack/Shack execs think they need to re-brand because “Fewer of the company’s customers going forward will ever own a radio.”

Ouch.

Now, this prompts another of my "musings".

I don't think radio is going anywhere anytime soon. Sure, the technology of old is being replaced by the technology of new (read: HD Radio).

But in a world where we want what we want and we want it right now...even radio has its place.

Think about it. In your car, where else will you get traffic reports? You're not going to (in spite of what yours truly's own brother suggested yesterday) take a laptop with you, hook it into your cigarette lighter, and check the traffic on the road.

No, you're going to tune to local newsradio stations such as 700 WLW/Cincinnati, 840 WHAS/Louisville, 630 WLAP/Lexington, or 1100 WTAM/Cleveland to get the information. Even if you have those GPS systems which give you traffic information...I doubt there's anybody that doesn't use their radios if only to confirm what they see on those touchscreen consoles.

Until they come up with technology in which you can have your IPod plugged in and get traffic over THAT, I can't see radio going away as a medium in my lifetime...

A Couple In The Hopper

QUICK CLARIFICATION: We ASSUME they'll air all of the games on 1530. We just wonder if any locals will be among the mix...

A couple items to kick off the new week and the new month:

WCKY To Produce Game of Week: The legwork on this one had been done by our friends at All Access:

For the third consecutive year on terrestrial radio and the fourth overall, DAVID BRODY's BROADCASTER MARKETING SERVICES, GINO COMMUNICATIONS of GREENEVILLE, TN, and CLEAR CHANNEL Sports WCKY-A (HOMER 1530, THE SPORTS ANIMAL)/CINCINNATI will team to co-produce the FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) Game of the Week. An 11-game package of games featuring Division 1-AA schools including teams from 11 of the 14 FCS conferences will air this season. This year's schedule includes defending national champion RICHMOND and 13 teams which have been ranked in CSN’s Top 30 consolidated FCS ranking.

Without getting into the debate on whether division 1 should have a college football playoff, we're honestly glad that the mid-major schools get some exposure every year. We wonder if they'll air any games on WCKY 1530. We would think so...considering WCKY is indeed co-producing the package of games as noted.

WCPO Asking For Power Increase: Looks like WCPO's new antenna didn't quite alleviate the digital woes.

They're asking the FCC for a power increase, up to 28,000 watts. At the same time, the station has filed its License to Cover on its existing facility, just as a matter of principle.

John Kiesewetter at the Enquirer covered this late last week.

We also, however, want to note that the WLWT-TV 5 opens now proclaim that the station is the "Most Powerful TV Station in Cincinnati".

Last time we checked the FCC database, this claim is actually true, as they operate at 1000 kilowatts of power. Nobody else in town operates at that level...

A Personal Message From Yours Truly

Here at Tri-State Media Watch, my primary focus is on the media - but I'd be remiss if I didn't point out something that, if you go to my Personal Thoughts blog, you would already know.

Your Tri-State Media Watcher was diagnosed in 1985, at birth, with what is called Spina Bifida. That's a neural tube defect in which the spinal cord is partially exposed, and can result in paralysis, neurological troubles, and other problems. According to the Cincinnati chapter of the Spina Bifida Association, the Centers for Disease Control recently recalculated the number of people who are currently living with this defect. The latest figures are that 185,000 people have spina bifida, with almost half (90,000) of them being diagnosed with myelomeningocele (yours truly being one of that 90,000). That's up from 70,000 people thought to be diagnosed. Yes, that means the number has nearly TRIPLED.

To this end, yours truly is undertaking, over the next 2 months, a massive fundraising effort. On September 26, I'll be part of the 9th annual SBAC Walk and Roll in Harrison, Ohio at Miami Whitewater Forest. Over at my Personal Thoughts blog, you'll find a link to my donor page. Click it, then look for links that say "Support Me" to make a donation.

I normally do not post personal messages like this on here. But...with this being an important cause, I figured I needed as many avenues as possible to get the word out.

By the way, PTONKY also contains a link to my donor page for ANOTHER effort I support - the 2009 Walk to Cure Diabetes in Newport, Kentucky. This actually happens one week BEFORE the SBAC walk. If you're able to donate to this effort, too, I'll be very thankful and so will the members of my walking team, Lindsay Lou's Walking Crew (so named after a very close friend of mine from my high school days...)