Quick Hits We'll Chase Down Friday or Monday

A few items, quick-posted, that we'll look into more either tomorrow or (more likely) Monday, with the Easter weekend upon us...

Hopkins Gone At 5, Wells Leaving 19 Soon: No, this has absolutely nothing at all to do with the big switcheroo with radio posted this morning.

Michelle Hopkins will leave WLWT-TV after tonight's 11 PM news. She's been there for 10 years and has decided to "explore other opportunities", she told John Kiesewetter today. She was first hired as a morning anchor in 2000, then went on to work with the "Taking Action" and "5 For Kids" franchises, but her role has diminished recently.

Over at WXIX-TV 19/Newport, this exit isn't voluntary at all. Zach Wells' contract won't be renewed in July, according to the above link... and some of the other changes are permanent, including shrinking "Sports Wrap" on weekends to 15 minutes.

WKRP Adds NBC Universal Sports Subchannel: Yes, we'd heard they were thinking about this one for MONTHS...and something new DID light up this afternoon.

Elliott Block has added Universal Sports, as part of a larger-scale update of the OTA digital 25.1-25.5.

The new lineup still has WKRP (former/current WBQC-CA 38) on 25.1. Then Universal Sports is on 25.2, followed by Retro TV on 25.3, Jewelry TV on 25.4 and then the former WOTH-LP 25 on 25.5 with its American One programming. Currently, only the WKRP main signal is carried on Cincinnati Bell 24 and Insight Cable 198.

At this point, we wonder if either Time Warner (which doesn't have ANY of the WKRP signals), Insight or Cincinnati Bell (or anyone else) will pick up any of the channels they don't have. We sure hope so...

1160 Goes Irish: No, THIS isn't an April Fools joke, either!

WQRT-AM 1160/Florence will now pick up Notre Dame Fighting Irish football games, according to the Kiese Blog Wednesday. It'll kick off when the Fighting Irish host Purdue on Saturday, September 4th at 3:30 PM.

Our Take: Great pickup for WQRT. Clear Channel couldn't pick them up (where would they PUT them?), Bonneville and other owners didn't show any interest in blocking off 3 hour blocks on Saturday in fall for football, so 1160 gets them. Just one problem...oh yeah, that measly night signal.

Let's just hope fans can listen online if the Irish should play at night... because we imagine there'd be a lot of unhappy ND fans storming 19 Broadcast Plaza if not...