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.