Tri-State Media Watch

The Final Post From Florence

2011-01-28T11:13:00.003-05:00

As I begin to wind my efforts down, I do have a couple announcements that will be made at the conclusion.

First, let's wrap up the stuff that's been sitting around a few days...

Widmer Re-Trial Coverage: You'd practically have to be living underground to not know what's going on up north of town, in Warren County with the Ryan Widmer case.

We won't get into the legal stuff here, but will note that this is the third trial for the man accused of killing his wife up there.

What we'd like to note is that, much like the last two trials, all of the Cincinnati and Dayton area stations are going all out to cover this. We know there are live, blow-by-blow blogs on 3 of the four major affiliates in Cincinnati.

WLWT-TV 5 has brought back Travis Gettys' live blogging from the courtroom with something called Scribble, while WXIX-TV 19 appears to be going with the "Cover It Live" platform they use for their live chats. WCPO-TV 9 seems to have jumped into that platform too, with both feet. We don't see any evidence of WKRC 12 doing such a thing, but they have a reporter stationed up there now.

We're hearing national programs like Dateline are there, too.

So, if you live or work in Lebanon, expect the craziness surrounding this big case to continue...

Survivor Holding Auditions: This one's sort of late, although it's happening today.

WKRC-TV announced recently that the hit TV show "Survivor" would be holding auditions in Florence. Those auditions take place this evening, starting at 4 PM at Turfway Park. The first 200 people are guaranteed to be allowed to make an audition tape. It sounds like they're capping it around 350. That threshold might have already been reached, but you can most certainly head down there. (Turfway Park is located just off...what else....Turfway Road, near what used to be called St. Luke West Hospital, and near the old Bigg's store.)

John Kiesewetter has more on this story, including an email from someone who says they've been there since 11 PM last night. (The post was written about 8:30.)

Radio Ratings - Christmas Music CAN Help: As a general rule, we don't go into the ratings here.

But it's worth noting that Christmas music has helped stations in markets around the country, including in the home territory of our colleagues at Ohio Media Watch, where reportedly WMVX-FM 106.5 was in the top three. (They re-tooled as "106.5 The Lake" after Christmas.)

But in Cincinnati, it doesn't look like perennial Christmas music player WRRM-FM "Warm 98" 98.5 was able to take the top spot in ratings. WLW-AM 700 remained in the lead...but only just by .6 of a point!

WRRM doubled in the 3-book trend, going 4.8-6.3-9.4, just below WLW's 9.8-9.5-10.0.

It's proof that in these economic times, stations will go with what works...and this definitely worked for WRRM. (For WAKW "Star" 93.3, the other station that went all-Christmas...well it, too, doubled its ratings, but only 2.0-4.8-4.5.)

The Changes: Finally, let's finish this item out with the two major announcements.

First: Allow me to introduce you to Cindy Detro and Jerry Jicha, the couple that will take over this effort.

They are two friends of yours truly who expressed interest in taking this effort over. They're from Circleville, Ohio, which is south of Columbus and east of Cincinnati.

They also happen to be blind. (Yes, blind as in they can't see.) That doesn't mean they can't consume media just like everyone else does, and they do. They use voice technology to use computers - which is a good segue into the next change.

The official transfer will also result in a change to where this blog is hosted. Starting with Monday's posting, all future blogs will be hosted on Wordpress. We're working on that as we type this post.

The brand new, Wordpress version of TSMW will be here. We're working on getting the twitter account hooked up to that, too.

And, a note: The Blogger version will stay up for the foreseeable future. Neither myself, nor Cindy and Jerry, just not be posting to it anymore

An Official Statement

2011-01-27T09:50:00.007-05:00

UPDATE 2 3:40 AM 1/28: On some advice from Ohio Media Watch, I've taken some information out of this message.

UPDATE 5:45 PM 1/27: After receiving an offer from Friends of TSMW Cindy Detro and Jarrod Jicha, I have decided to hand the reigns over to them. They will continue the blog, and I trust they'll continue operating it as well as I have done.

More information will be posted Friday, in what will be my final farewell as the editor of this effort.

This statement was one I hoped I'd never have to make.

After 2 years, Tri-State Media Watch will be switching ownership. The blog will stay archived here on Blogger for the foreseeable future but may have to move to another platform. Some quite personal issues came up in the past 24 hours that could involve yours truly.

During the last couple of years, TSMW has tried to be a fair, honest way to get media news. We've credited other media when we've needed to. Other stories we've been able to break ourselves. I do not want the facts of what happened to in any way affect my objectivity.

My thanks goes out to all of you that read this.

BREAKING NEWS: Major Sales in Dayton AND Cincinnati

2011-01-19T14:10:00.004-05:00

All you-know-what has broken loose in the media world, with two shoes dropping within just hours.

WNKU Buying in Middletown, Portsmouth: Let's start from the lower end of the dial, where 89.7 WNKU-FM/Highland Heights will expand to a regional network beginning February 1.

That's because the AAA format station will buy WPAY-FM 104.1/Portsmouth, Ohio and WPFB-AM 910 and WPFB-FM 105.9, both licensed to Middletown, Ohio, for 6.75 million dollars. WNKU will begin to operate the two FM's on February 1.

However, it's expected that WNKU will then turn around and sell off the AM, plus its translator, W233BG 94.5/Port Union, Ohio, together to offset the purchase price of the two FM's.

This sale would solve WNKU's problems in Butler County, and give them a shot at reaching areas from Piqua, OH to Charleston, West Virginia.

Bonneville Selling Out of Cincinnati: The other shoe dropped just about 90 minutes later, and involves Bonneville Broadcasting's entire Cincinnati cluster.

They're getting out of town, selling WREW-FM 94.9/Fairfield, WYGY-FM 97.3/Fort Thomas, WKRQ-FM 101.9/Cincinnati and WUBE-FM 105.1/Cincinnati (also known as Rewind 94.9, 97.3 The Wolf, Q102 and B105) to Hubbard Broadcasting, as reported by multiple outlets including Radio-Info.com. That's part of a 505 million dollar deal that also includes Bonneville's Chicago, St. Louis and Washington, DC stations.

It's unclear just yet if that'll result in any changes to the stations, but you can bet we'll be following this closely.

Guess we can't call the building on Reading Road that the four stations are housed in "Bonneville Mountain" anymore.

"Mount Hubbard", anyone?

Headed for Spring Training and Opening Day

2011-01-17T08:00:00.001-05:00

TSMW received a press release from Kate Buddenhagen Friday afternoon (which is also posted on FSO's site here), and it confirms something that John Fay said last week.

The Cincinnati Reds TV team on Fox Sports Ohio is changing again, for the second time in the last couple years.

Paul Keels won't be returning, as FSO says he's concentrating on Ohio State University sports broadcasts. They include the usual "all the best" line associated with a departing talent. (That's not a knock on FSO - most media outlets would include such a statement when a talent departs in this manner.)

Meanwhile, a familiar name will return and call 15 FSO broadcasts. That name is Sean Casey.

Yes, Casey, who spent 7 years here as a first baseman, will be part of the team on a limited basis. Fay reported last week that he's expected to call games between Cincinnati and the Pittsburgh Pirates, along with a 3 game set April 5-7. He's been doing analysis for the MLB Network, and we presume will still do so when not part of FSO's team.

Jim Kelch will be returning this year, too, and FSO says he'll have a greater role this season on TV, but will continue to do Reds Radio.

The rest of the FSO group is unchanged, with Jeff Piecoro, Jim Day, Thom Brenneman (5 years on FSO - as available when not doing FOX TV) and Chris Welch (19 years on TV) all returning.

Oh, and FSO says fans can expect that George Grande will return to the booth for a game here or there.

We don't have the game schedule yet, but you better believe we'll post those details when we get them.

Oh, and a heads up: If you're a satellite customer, and you can find out where other Reds Spring Training games will be shown (those not aired on FSO), please do let us know. You can contact us by email at the link above...

Picking Up New Year's Leftovers

2011-01-03T11:55:00.005-05:00

A couple things going on in the broadcast world, that (mostly) affects TV, but there's a radio note in there...

Sinclair/Time Warner Update: There's at least a temporary reprieve for viewers of several Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned stations in Southwest Ohio.

Sinclair and Time Warner Cable reached an agreement late Friday to temporarily extend the previous contract until January 14th. (The above links to a story from WKEF-TV 22/Dayton and WRGT-TV 45/Dayton, two of the affected stations.)

This means that viewers of the above named stations, along with WSTR-TV 64/Cincinnati and WSYX-TV 6-WTTE-TV 28/Columbus who use Time Warner won't lose these stations.

Raycom/DirecTV Update: And an update (that isn't much of an update for our Twitter followers) for DirecTV subscribers who thought they faced the threat of losing WXIX-TV 19/Newport, along with Louisville-area subscribers faced with the loss of WAVE-TV 3 there.

As we reported Thursday, Raycom stations nationwide, including WXIX and WAVE, have been running announcements both on their websites and on their signals, stating that DirecTV carriage of the stations could end Saturday.

As of this writing, FOX19 still has an announcement on their webpage - but the tone appears to have changed, if only slightly. That statement now says that Raycom has sent a signed copy of terms to DirecTV and is awaiting their signature.

We've not heard that either station has been dropped from DirecTV. We'll put out a call on Twitter to ask - but we'll put it here, too.

If you have DirecTV and can get WXIX (in Cincinnati) or WAVE (in the Louisville area), email us at tristatemediawatch at gmail-dot-com. (We typed it this way to discourage spam.)

Amazon Back In Cincinnati: We're not talking about the rainforest down in Brazil...but rather, someone who's taking over WLW's 9-midnight shift.

He's Marc Amazon, and John Kiesewetter reports today that he's taking over that shift from Eric Deters (who signed off on Friday night to concentrate more on his other interests).

Amazon will continue selling for Dial-Global Radio Networks, which he's been doing for the last few years.

It sounds like this will commence this evening (but Kiese didn't specifically say so, though he hinted at it). WLW hasn't yet announced the move, but we anticipate some sort of announcement today.

If we find out that it will start today, or if it does start, before we can get back on here, we'll tweet it...

THIS JUST IN: Insight, Raycom Agree To 3 Year Deal (But Another Dispute May Loom For FOX 19 Viewers)

2010-12-30T16:02:00.008-05:00

UPDATE 5 PM: We're hearing that the DirecTV negotiations are NOT just with Hearst. We didn't have information on this before, but apparently WXIX-TV 19 owner Raycom also has an expiring agreement with the satellite provider this weekend. Though, according to statements from DirecTV spokespeople who spoke with The State newspaper in South Carolina, the agreement renewed automatically for the next year. FOX 19 continues to run crawls about this dispute, and has slightly modified the statement they were using on their website - this was used for the Insight dispute. At this point, we cannot confirm which side is correct, but we'll find out...

We promised we'd come back if anything broke, and it did this afternoon.

Insight Communications (which is Kentucky's largest cable service provider) and Raycom Media have come to a 3 year deal to continue retransmission of 3 Raycom stations in the state. The stations involved include WXIX-TV 19/Newport, WAVE-TV 3/Louisville and WFIE-TV 14/Evansville.

Specifics on the agreement haven't been released, but we can confirm it straight from Insight's CEO, Michael Willner's blog here.

Still out there and not yet resolved are WLWT-TV 5/Cincinnati and WLKY-TV 32/Louisville owner Hearst's agreement with DirecTV as well as WSTR-TV 64/Cincinnati, WRGT-TV 45/Dayton and WKEF-TV 22/Dayton owners Sinclair Broadcast Group's deal with Time Warner. (Multichannel News reports that those often terse Sinclair/Time Warner negotiations came to more or less a total impasse Wednesday.)

But at least with this agreement, fans of FOX shows like American Idol and House won't have to worry about not being able to see them with their Insight hook-ups...although DirecTV subscribers might just have to worry about it...

Closing the Year

2010-12-23T08:08:00.006-05:00

UPDATE 2:22 AM Christmas Eve: Local TV stations pretty much confirmed our second item of the original post Thursday afternoon... the Bengals did NOT sell out and will NOT air on WKRC-TV.

Of course, the NFL doesn't black out radio (it wouldn't likely WANT to try, anyway, as some fans do like to listen to play-by-play on the radio while at the game), so you'll still be able to hear Bengals/Chargers at 4 PM Sunday on WLW-AM 700, WCKY-AM 1530/Cincinnati and WEBN 102.7/Cincinnati, along with all other Bengals Radio Network affiliates.

As of now, and only according to the MSN TV listings, FOX 19 will have this schedule Sunday, since it has to program the 1-4 PM slot itself while other FOX affiliates carry a 1 PM game:

1-3 PM: Cadillac Man - The 1990 movie in which angry husband (Tim Robbins) catches up to a wise-guy car salesman (Robin Williams) who cons customers and women.
3-3:30 PM: Seinfeld - "The Doorman" episode from February 1995.
3:30-4:00 PM: Whacked Out Sports

The original item is below...

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After this post, TSMW will go on "Holiday Hiatus" with a planned return anytime around the New Year.

But we've got a couple things that we haven't noted, that some already have...

Furman To Mornings: This has been out there for several weeks, but we're just now getting Around Tuit (tm by OMW).

Andy Furman, who currently hosts "The Furman Factor" evenings on WQRT-AM 1160/Florence, is about to make a double move...with a timeslot change, and a slight change in location.

The show will now air mornings on WQRT, starting on the 3rd of January, from 7-9 AM, broadcasting live from the Graeter's location on Fountain Square downtown. That's just about 5 blocks east (and two blocks south) of the "Real Talk" studios at WXIX-TV 19 Broadcast Plaza on 7th Street. According to FOX19 (which is co-located with WQRT), Furman plans to allow live interaction with his listeners.

We wonder if this might backfire on Furman...as easy access to him could lead to harm being done to him. (And before anyone says anything, NO, we do NOT encourage anyone to attempt to do physical harm to anyone else.)

Bengals Probably Won't Sell Out: You've probably heard by now of the floods and bad weather down in Southern California, home to the Bengals' opponent this weekend, the San Diego Chargers. In fact, their stadium has flooded, which raised fears that the Poinsettia Bowl wouldn't go on tonight at 8 PM EST.

Since the Chargers are here this weekend, that means they're not impacted by any flooding issues. But Cincinnati fans won't see the game on WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati, since they've already punted on the game (which has already taken a bump from the prime Sunday Night Football slot).

The game won't air here, meaning WKRC-TV would have to program the time themselves. Last weekend, WKRC turned to infomercials for the whole three hours, two of which were an hour long apiece. That's not going to happen this weekend - CBS has a motocross event scheduled for the 4 PM slot for those affiliates not airing a late game.

That forces WXIX to change their plans, too. They'll only be able to air half of the Fox doubleheader, at 4:05 PM when the New York Giants (who we saw collapse SPECTACULARLY last weekend) try for redemption against the Green Bay Packers, says John Kiesewetter...

WKRC, WCPO Adding Staff: In this economic time, it's great to see stations hiring people, and that's the case at the two stations that were 1-2 in November ratings. (Remember that as a rule, we don't do ratings here.) Kiese has this here, but we'll do quick summaries of each hire.

WCPO 9/Cincinnati added reporter Syed Shabbir on November 29. Shabbir comes from Topeka, KS station KTKA-TV, where he spent 18 months. Before that he'd interned at KSHB-TV/Kansas City from May-August 2008, while working toward his degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He's young, having just graduated in 2009. (We're presuming it's a Journalism degree...Neither WCPO, nor Kiese, says anything about that.)

Meanwhile, WKRC's hire hasn't yet started (he comes in Monday). He's Dan Spehler from WRTV-TV 6/Indianapolis. He'll be on the night shift, covering breaking news during the 11 PM 35 minute newscast. (We'd presume he might also be seen at 10 PM on 12.2.) Before WRTV, Spehler had been at WDTN-TV 2/Dayton and WUPW-TV 36/Toledo, and before those had served as News Director at BGTV 24 News while at Bowling Green State University working toward HIS degree (again, we're presuming he majored in Journalism).

WKRC had been looking to add this spot since before they started their 4:30 PM news September 7, so with this move, they've expanded their news staff as they expanded their news offerings...

Two More Re-Transmission Agreements Expiring

2010-12-21T22:34:00.006-05:00

UPDATE 1:35 AM EST Christmas Eve: A quick update, as we've uncovered the following statement from Insight regarding the Raycom negotiation, via this website, www.letskeepiton.com. NOTE: Any emphasis is ours, not theirs.

"Here at Insight, our goal is to make sure you continue to receive all of the great TV programming you've come to expect from us.

"Every so often, we have to renew our contracts with programmers and broadcast companies and that is exactly what it going on right now with Raycom, the parent company of WAVE-TV in Louisville, WXIX-TV in Northern Kentucky and WFIE-TV in Evansville.

"Insight is currently negotiating with Raycom to ensure our customers get the best value for their money and we hope to reach an agreement soon.

"We negotiate hundreds of these types of deals each year and we've seen these types of tactics Raycom is employing, such as crawls running at the bottom of your TV screen, before.

"The fact is, Insight won't pull any of Raycom's stations off of our networks. Only Raycom would decide pull their channel signal from your Insight lineup.

"As a company that is has its main operations based right here and employees thousands of families in this area, Insight understands the importance of local programming. That's one reason we launched an alternative source for local weather, news and sports, called cn|2 on Insight channel 2.

"We understand that these types of tactics that Raycom is using can be disconcerting, but we are on your side, trying to negotiate a fair price with Raycom. Ultimately, these situations tend to work themselves out without any impact to customers.

"We appreciate your patience. Please check back to this site often for more updates."

Oh, and Insight CEO Michael Willner has his own post on his "Michael's Insight" blog here.

One additional note: TSMW, as a rule, doesn't spend much time on Louisville, and spends even less time on Evansville. We'd suggest subscribing to Indiana Radio Watch (which we do...Blaine, here's a free plug for you) for info on Indiana media, mainly radio (though we've seen a TV bit thrown in at times).

Now, we do not have a similar statement from DirecTV regarding the Hearst dispute that also impacts Louisville families using that service. But we do attempt to provide both sides of these issues, and that's why we've come briefly off our hiatus to update this item...

The original posting follows below.

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We've got news of two more re-transmission agreements that are about to end over the New Year's Weekend...

WXIX/Insight: Yep, we've seen the crawls, too... Insight Communications in Northern Kentucky and WXIX-TV 19/Newport owners Raycom Media are working on a new agreement, as the old one ends on New Year's Eve.

WXIX has their take on the situation on this post on their website. Try as we might, we can't find a statement from Insight anywhere on their site. We'll keep looking.

Do we think WXIX will be removed from Insight systems? We're not 100 percent sure it WON'T happen. Agreements are usually reached in the final days (and in some cases hours) of the old ones expiring.

But, it's something to take note of...as WXIX (and most likely their HD signal AND ThisTV Cincinnati) would disappear from Insight on January 1 if an agreement doesn't happen.

And for Louisville area readers: Yes, this impacts you, too...as NBC station WAVE 3/Louisville would also disappear from Insight in THAT area...

WLWT/DirecTV: Again, we're looking for information from the DirecTV perspective...but WLWT-TV 5/Cincinnati has their perspective on their website here. In this case, the owners are Hearst Television. This agreement ends January 1, and would result in removal of WLWT from THAT provider.

Again, we're not sold on the station actually disappearing off of DirecTV.

And again, for you Louisville readers: You're impacted by THIS one, too...as WLKY 32/Louisville is a Hearst Television-owned station, like WLWT-TV. WLKY has posted much the same statement as WLWT, with a few words changed, as a PDF file here...

JUST IN TO TSMW: Former WXIX VP and Engineer Dies

2010-12-21T22:20:00.003-05:00

We were just watching WXIX-TV 19/Cincinnati, and caught word of this story.

A former Vice President and engineer for FOX 19 died over the weekend. James Parker was 79 years old when he passed on December 18th (Saturday).

We don't have his full history at the station (they haven't released any information, at least in their web story), but nonetheless, they mentioned it, so we're posting the news of it.

Parker's visitation will be Friday (Christmas Eve) at 10 AM with the memorial service to follow an hour later.

By the way, you can sign the online condolence book at this link.

Oh, and we do know of the WXIX/Insight negotiations. But we'll post about that separately, shortly...along with new word of yet ANOTHER agreement that may expire soon involving WLWT-TV 5.

And yes, we'll be going on our official "Holiday Hiatus" after that...but, due to the above mentioned situations with retransmission agreements, it might be shorter than normal...

An Editorial On News Coverage

2010-12-10T13:24:00.003-05:00

DISCLAIMER: The following views are the sole views of Jeremy Moses, and are not necessarily the views of any local television station, reporter or station ownership.

There are times when we here at Tri-State Media Watch cover the human side of TV news, such as food drives, coat drives, and other things like that.

Then...there are times when we have to cover the negatives of TV news...firings, departures, and deaths.

This is a bit of both.

If you live in Cincinnati or northern Kentucky and you watch local newscasts, you know that a fire broke out in Ludlow, Kentucky last night. That's just across the river from Cincinnati, and a few minutes west of Covington. The fire took the lives of two children and their grandmother, who have since been identified. We won't reprint those names, so as to avoid causing more pain to the family.

The human side of TV news came through when WKRC-TV 12 traffic reporter Bob Herzog decided to cancel the popular "Dance Party Friday" segment for the day, saying that it just "wasn't the right time", to paraphrase his statements.

The negative? That, according to viewers, came through when reporter Angenette Levy got an interview with the father of the deceased children "just minutes", we hear, after he found out about their deaths.

I can see both sides of the latter, and commend the former. Mr. Herzog is right...doing a lighthearted segment just after news of a deadly fire doesn't look right, doesn't reflect well on any news station, and doesn't feel right to me either.

As for Ms. Levy... it might seem insensitive at first glance. But, if the father hadn't wanted to talk, he could've simply said, "No comment" or something to that effect. I suspect the reporter wouldn't have pressed the issue in this case. It's that simple.

Reporters have a human side, too. They AREN'T, despite what some people may think, trained robots sent to get the news at any cost. They're humans. They breathe, eat, sleep...and feel emotions, just like any television viewer.

I can imagine that Levy probably did NOT, in all actuality, even WANT to get those comments. If it were up to yours truly, I wouldn't want to do it. In fact, I probably would NOT have made that attempt. But I can't blame her for trying. Was it the wrong time? Yeah, probably. Could she have waited several days to get the story? Yes. It still would've had the same impact.

But again...the father wanted to talk to the station...and did so of his own free will. He's since granted interviews to the other 3 stations in town.

We have to add: This fire took place 4-5 hours before this morning's newscasts, according to news reports, happening just before 11 PM Thursday night. We don't know when Levy actually did the interview. It could have been minutes, or it could've been an hour or two. Or it could've been this morning. For all we know, Levy works early mornings - so it would've been this morning.

We don't know the family involved. But the loss of two four year old girls and their own parent has to be hitting the family hard.

As such...we do extend our sympathies and prayers to the family. And we hope that, if indeed the interview was minutes after the fire as we've heard, TV stations perhaps learn something from this...that sometimes, getting the story first will mean some backlash...

WCPO Finally Makes Move to 22 Next Week

2010-11-30T17:06:00.002-05:00

We can finally say that there's a "drop dead" date for WCPO-TV 9/Cincinnati to get off of its VHF signal, and go to UHF.

That date is next Wednesday, December 8, at 2:05 AM. (That is right at the start of "The Insider" entertainment show, for those who are insomniacs like yours truly.)

WCPO has, if you recall, been working over the last few weeks to get their signal switched from RF Channel 10 to RF Channel 22. (Your TV displays that RF number as channel 9, through the use of PSIP technology.)

Here's the WCPO release from their own website:

CINCINNATI - WCPO, Channel 9, the Tri-State’s ABC affiliate, announced today that on Wednesday, December 8 at 2:05 a.m., the station will transition to its new, 910 kilowatt (Effective Radiated Power) transmitting facility. WCPO’s signal will move from its current VHF frequency to the stronger UHF band. The new transmitter and antenna will increase WCPO’s power by 300% and allow the station to broadcast a stronger signal to all parts of the Tri-State.

According to WCPO Vice President & General Manager Bill Fee, “The investment in the new, more powerful broadcast equipment will address over-the-signal issues some viewers have experienced since the digital transition, and prepare WCPO for exciting new services such as Mobile Television. This project powerfully demonstrates WCPO’s and its parent company, Scripps Media’s belief in, and commitment to, over-the-air broadcasting in the Tri-State.”

On December 1st, the station will kick off its “Plan to Rescan” campaign to make Tri-State viewers aware of the upcoming changes, and what they need to do to receive the new, stronger signal. Because of the move to the new transmitter and antenna, viewers who watch WCPO over-the-air (with an indoor antenna such as rabbit ears or an outside rooftop antenna) will need to rescan their digital televisions and/or digital converter boxes. Viewers may rescan any time after 2:05 a.m. on December 8 to receive the improved signal. For questions, WCPO will operate The “Plan to Rescan” hotline on December 8 from 5 a.m. to 12 midnight. The number for the hotline is 513-749-9400.

People who watch WCPO on televisions with DirecTV, Dish Network or cable service will not be affected. Cable and satellite service providers will automatically place WCPO on the correct channel.

Something we need to note, as it seemed to be a point of confusion: If you normally view WKEF-TV 22/Dayton over the air, you should NOT be concerned about losing that channel. WKEF uses RF Channel 51, NOT RF 22 - your TV only displays it as 22 through that PSIP technology. Nor does it affect any of the WKEF/WRGT subchannels; again, none of them are on RF 22 as it was a vacant allocation.

Another point: You'll recall that the switch was originally set to happen on November 15. WCPO decided to delay the switch at the last minute, to prevent confusion and to not interfere with November's "sweeps" period.

That ended last week...but since WCPO opted to warn viewers in advance, it's not happening for another week...

TSMW FIRST: NBC, Fox Going Mobile In Cincinnati

2010-11-21T20:26:00.004-05:00

This news, as far as we know, has NOT yet been posted to the Kiese Blog, or anywhere on the Enquirer site, so as far as we know, it's something we're getting to before any major news operation in town.

And it involves...well, two of the major TV stations, WLWT-TV 5/Cincinnati and WXIX-TV 19/Newport.

These stations, along with 38 other NBC and FOX affiliates and O-and-O (Owned and Operated) stations, will be able to broadcast to mobile devices that contain DTV receivers by the end of next year, meaning people can watch TV from their smart phones.

TV Newscheck posted about it Friday morning here.

The thinking is that while it'll launch with no subscribers at first, mobile device manufacturers like Apple, Research in Motion and others will start including DTV receivers in their devices, which would launch Mobile TV viewing.

On paper, it seems like a nice idea. We're on the go constantly, it seems of late, and we'd kinda like to be able to watch WLWT news at 5 if we're on the way to an appointment, or the WXIX 9-10 am hour.

The downside, however: It's another potential distraction to drivers. Since yours truly doesn't drive, it wouldn't be a problem for us...but for others, it just might. Although more and more states are looking to outlaw driving while texting or calling from mobile phones, the laws will have to be re-done when this technology hits the market.

Now, we have to note: Most stations have apps for smartphones already, many of which DO include mobile video. And WXIX just launched a weather app for Android phones (with an iPhone version expected soon).

But this is different. This would be, essentially, the live TV signal, optimized for mobile phones.

That, and there's the possibility that you might need an entirely independent app to view the signal in the first place...but, that's kind of putting the cart before the horse at the moment...

Sinclair/Time Warner Flap

2010-11-19T08:10:00.000-05:00

There's a BIG elephant in the room, and as of right now - it's not looking good for Cincinnati or Dayton viewers of Time Warner Cable.

Here's what we know: Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which owns and/or operates WSTR 64/Cincinnati, WRGT 45/Dayton, WKEF 22/Dayton, WSYX 6/Columbus and WTTE 28/Columbus, is in negotiations with Time Warner Cable for their retransmission agreements, along with 28 other station agreements. These negotiations come up every so often, about roughly every 5-6 years.

As usual, the fight is about money, and how much Time Warner has to pay Sinclair. As of 3 days ago, Sinclair was, shall we say, less than optimistic. (The previous link is from MediaWeek.com.) Sinclair says they'll yank programming off of Time Warner systems in the affected areas if there's no agreement on December 31.

Hmmmm...doesn't this sound like something that's happened before? If yours truly recalls, FOX was threatening the same thing last year at this time, impacting several cable stations, against Time Warner.

It's somewhat ironic - now, several FOX stations that weren't even involved in last year's issues between News Corp and Time Warner, though they have a News Corp network affiliation, are now in danger of being yanked off air.

We're following this one CLOSELY. By the way, as of this writing, WRGT and WKEF's websites are flat inaccessible - or at least very slow. Even WSTR isn't working. We've got no idea why - but stay tuned, we're going to see if it's working later today...and then see if it has anything to do with the negotiations...

FSO Bouncing Several Balls Around

2010-11-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

There's a few balls that'll be bounced around by Fox Sports Ohio tomorrow, and so far, we can only tell you how it'll impact Southwest Ohio...with no word on Northern Kentucky just yet.

Here's what's set to happen:

Big 12 Football 12:00 PM Oklahoma State vs Kansas: Cincinnati and Dayton - FS Ohio

UC vs IPFW Basketball 1:00 PM: Cincinnati and Dayton on Time Warner 310, DirectTV 661, Dish Network 427 and AT&T U-Verse (If available in your area) 732. Dish Network, DirectTV and AT&T U-Verse are FS Cincinnati channels. Insight still not announced. We have no idea if they will use channel 99 for any analog customers who haven't switched over yet, or what they'll do for those who have switched to the digital mini-boxes.

Missouri vs. Iowa State 7:00 PM: Cincinnati: FS Ohio SD channel. Satellite providers will have it on FS Cincinnati in ALL AREAS.

Cleveland Cavaliers vs San Antonio Spurs 8:30 PM: Cincinnati on Alternate Channels listed above except satellite providers on FS Ohio (we're presuming). Again, Northern Kentucky Insight customers should probably check around the dial at 8:30 PM.

Columbus Blue Jackets vs San Jose Sharks 10:30 PM: Cincinnati on FS Ohio, except probably on FS Cincinnati on Satellite.

Check the TSMW Twitter later today or tomorrow. As soon as we find out what's set to happen on Insight, we'll let you know.

Catching Up

2010-10-27T13:37:00.003-04:00

Seems we're constantly playing catch-up - but a few things we've missed:

Time Warner Adds ESPN3.com: Something we were told would happen over the weekend, launched Monday morning to a large part of our area.

Time Warner added the web-based ESPN3.com for customers of Time-Warner Cable - regardless of who you get internet through.

Confused?

It was part of a larger deal with Disney/ABC. Unlike with Insight (where, as we understood it, you need to have Insight Broadband AND Cable), Time Warner is only requiring customers to have TW Cable service - meaning you could have Cincinnati Bell Zoomtown or something else, and you'll have access to ESPN3.com. The reverse isn't true if you have Roadrunner, but get TV over a dish.

Our Take: We have used ESPN3 before, and found it to be a good service. If you want to follow your team, and they aren't on ESPN or ESPN2 or even ESPNU, that's where you can find it most of the time.

But the drawback is you really need a good connection...and a good video card...to have a great video experience. It's simply not good enough on a dial-up connection or with a bad video card. Our old video card simply couldn't handle it even on our fast broadband.

Louisville Station Sold: We finally found out the reason that WDRD-AM 680/Newburg, KY switched from Radio Disney to ESPN Radio a few weeks ago.

It's a station sale, with Disney selling off WDRD to Chad Boeger. We don't know offhand the terms of the sale, but the LMA began early this month, says our colleague Tom Taylor at Radio-Info.

Recall that we covered the sudden shutdown of Louisville's previous ESPN Radio affiliate, WQKC-AM went dark August 2nd when Cumulus got out of the market...which is a nice segue into our next item...

WLCL Back: The other station that shut down back on August 2nd is back... but with a new owner, says Taylor.

WAY-FM Media Group has added WLCL-FM 93.9/Sellersburg to its ranks, LMA'ing it at first. But it appears they'll buy it outright.

WAY-FM already has their own WAYI-FM 105.9/Valley Station, and in fact the two stations are simulcasting, which we can confirm with folks in the area. But for how long? WAY-FM says they'll announce what will happen to WAYI later this year. We assume, though, with the new WLCL signal being full-market, they don't exactly need 105.9 anymore...

Michaels Out: By now, you know about this major elephant in the room... Randy Michaels' departure Friday from Tribune. Take your pick of any number of articles on Google, but here's two we have read:

Radio-Info Story Friday

Chicago Tribune Story

What's next for Michaels? We're speculating - but he has a couple things he could do. Perhaps he can head back to Local TV LLC, which owns 18 stations in the US, including WJW-TV 8/Cleveland in Ohio Media Watch territory. (Yes, we checked Local TV's own website.) He helped form that company, Kiese helpfully reminds us here.

Maybe, as Kiese also suggested back on October 20 here, he could start a new radio empire with some of his old friends from the Jacor days (pre-Clear Channel). It could even include the recently fired Eddie Fingers, as Kiese suggests.

We won't know until and unless we hear from the man himself. That's not likely to happen for awhile - we expect he's laying low...

An Aside: Since we invoked OMW here, a quick administrative note.

OMW now has what they call a "Secondary Editorial Voice (TM)" to go with the obviously "Primary Editorial Voice (TM)".

TSMW welcomes OMW's "Secondary Voice"... this should help OMW when the "Primary Voice" has to step away.

We kinda wish we'd done it sooner, ourselves, especially this summer...and still could at any time take reader applications to be our own second...but for now, we're not.

But that door could open in the future...it'd have to be someone we could trust...

That WCPO Digital Transition

2010-10-11T08:02:00.002-04:00

We'd been waiting for THIS one for a good, long while now...and it finally happens soon! Ironically, this word came on the heels of an email we got from Karen in Colerain Township (northwestern Hamilton County), asking about this very subject.

WCPO-TV 9/Cincinnati will finally begin the process of switching over to UHF broadcasting, going from digital TV channel 10 to DTV 22. (You'll still see it as channel 9; this is because of a process called PSIP encoding that will display the new signal as channel 9 on your TV, just as the current channel 10 signal is.)

This article from John Kiesewetter Sunday explains the details of how the transition will progress over the next six weeks or so. It all begins this week, with the installation of a temporary, side-mounted antenna from which WCPO will temporarily transmit, and a new UHF transmitter.

Following this, the most critical phase begins. That's when WCPO will install their new antenna on top of their 900 foot tower in Walnut Hills. That work begins October 25, and Over-The-Air (OTA) viewers who currently can receive WCPO without issues may temporarily lose that signal, as WCPO must reduce the power on that side-mounted antenna so that workers can safely operate atop the tower.

Once that work is done, testing is expected to commence Veterans' Day, running for four days, and on or around November 15, WCPO will turn on the new digital 22 signal for good. OTA viewers will have to rescan their TV's.

For those with Cable or Satellite service, NONE OF THE WORK will impact you. You'll still have WCPO programming. And if you're close enough to the tower in Walnut Hills, you shouldn't have problems either.

WCPO has had a construction permit for three months to make the switch from channel 10 to channel 22. They've installed the new generator and wiring needed for the new transmitter, and we'd wondered how this was coming along...until the article above fell into our laps...

Weekend Wrapup

2010-10-11T08:00:00.006-04:00

After things had been pretty quiet on the TSMW front, as far as news we normally post anyway, Thursday changed that...in one big and one small way...

Big One Cuts off its "Finger": As in Eddie Fingers, a 25 year veteran of Cincinnati radio. And yes, we're talking about what is still apparently Cincinnati's number 1 PM drive time program on WLW-AM 700/Cincinnati.

We didn't catch it happening, but John Kiesewetter has this story, saying he was let go around 1:45 PM Thursday in what appears to be a contract dispute.

Apparently, Fingers actually offered to take some cuts...not bonuses, not a raise, but a CUT. The decision came from higher up, somewhere above the local level, Kiese says.

We're pretty sure this is one of those rare situations where a personality offers to take a cut in pay or benefits, only to find themselves out of a job.

Now, it appears, WLW-AM 700's PM drive program will still be hosted by Tracy Jones, but he'll be joined by WLW-AM PD Darryl Parks...in what will unofficially become "The Tracy and Darryl Show"...

MAX Goes Espanol...For Some?: There's another chapter in the long history of the terrestrial version of the WOXY-FM call letters. (We'll give you that history in a moment.)

That station, located at 97.7 FM and licensed to Mason (yes, near Kings Island), has just been LMA'ed to TSJ News Incorporated, according to the Cincinnati Business Courier. (LMA means Local Marketing Agreement, a common industry term.) In this case, TSJ News Inc. will operate WOXY-FM, but First Broadcasting will retain ownership...well, for now. The agreement does give TSJ an option to buy WOXY eventually if they choose to.

What's unclear is the fate of current simulcast partner WAOL-FM 99.5/Ripley. We've heard different things (the station is included; it's not and will continue with the MAX FM format; it's not included but a new format will be launched for it)...all of which could be true. We'll double check the documents and get back to you, our readers.

We also don't know the status of personalities that are currently with the station, although we'd presume they'll just transition over to WAOL if it's not part of the LMA.

For now, this much we do know: WOXY will part with the Variety Hits format on November 1st.

Oh, and as for the history of WOXY? It was formerly targeted at Miami University students as WOXR-FM, then became WOXY-FM, transitioned to a Modern Rock format in 1983 which continued until it ceased to exist as a terrestrial station in 2004, leading to WOXY.com(which shut down in March - we'd forgotten that fact. Thanks to an anonymous commenter below for the fact-check.). First Broadcasting picked up the FM license shortly after WOXY's former owners left terrestrial radio, and it relaunched in 2005 as "MAX FM". (Another anonymous commenter below this item clarified that for us...while WOXY's former owners DID indeed end their version of WOXY on the frequency in May 2004, First Broadcasting picked it up the next day, according to our anonymous commenter. Thanks to them for THAT fact-check, also...we could not easily pick up WOXY back in those days, as they were still in Oxford and did not reach Northern Kentucky with a very good signal - at least that we ever could pick up.)

Oh, and there had been a third simulcast partner too...WAXZ-FM 97.7. That station is currently licensed to Salt Lick, KY, between Lexington and Ashland...and we don't know if it's still part of the simulcast. Heck, we can't even FIND the station in the FCC database - it simply doesn't exist there.

Whew...that's a LOT of history...

The NL Central Division Championship Clinching Coverage

2010-09-29T12:52:00.003-04:00

When the Cincinnati Reds clinched a trip to the post-season with their win over the Houston Astros, we started to monitor the coverage that each station had on air and online. Here, we'll give a brief recap and a preview of what Reds fans should expect coming up.

WXIX 19/Newport: FOX 19 probably stayed with the Reds coverage longer than any station in town last night following the Reds win.

We didn't catch it when they started, but the FOX affiliate was non-stop with the Reds postgame coverage all the way until 11:30, blowing out the 11:00 PM showing of "Family Guy". They also dipped into FOX Sports Ohio's live coverage early and often.

WKRC-TV 12: Channel 12 and its sister station 12.2 did some extended coverage, and it looked like they went into normal news rotation somewhat later than the other 3 11 PM newscasts...but not by much.

WLWT-TV 5: Channel 5 probably had the least coverage that we saw...which again, isn't by much.

WCPO-TV 9: Channel 9's coverage looked to us like it ended somewhere between 5's and 12's.

Of course, that says nothing about their sports segments' coverage...well 5's, 9's and 12's, anyway...as we said, 19 had the most by far, going wall-to-wall Reds for an hour and a half.

Upcoming: The Reds' divisional series games are still to be determined as to opponent, times and locations. However, TV coverage is already set, with all divisional series games to be televised on cable's TBS.

Word has come on the radio side, too. WLW-AM 700/Cincinnati will have EVERY postseason game. But other radio affiliates in the Reds Radio Network are out of luck (unless they are ESPN Radio affiliates) as ESPN Radio has all other rights to the games. And it could create a simulcast situation, also here in Cincinnati...as WCKY 1530 is, of course, an ESPN Radio affiliate.

But we do know that FSO will do post-game coverage after every game in the playoffs as long as the Reds stay in it...we got that press release this morning from Kate Buddenhagen at FSO this afternoon...and we're re-printing it below:

FOX SPORTS OHIO ANNOUNCES POSTSEASON COVERAGE OF THE CINCINNATI REDS
Network To Feature Live Postgame Coverage After Reds Playoff Games

CINCINNATI, OHIO – As THE television home of the 2010 NL Central Division Champion Cincinnati Reds, FOX Sports Ohio is excited for the Reds’ first playoff appearance since 1995. As the team pursues their mission of a World Series Championship, the network will give fans an inside look at the Reds postseason with Reds Live postgame coverage.

Reds Live will air LIVE following Reds playoff games. Each show will recap the game and preview upcoming contests as well as feature highlights, analysis, and interviews of the Reds and their opponents.

Jim Day and Chris Welsh will host the show from the FOX Sports Ohio studio with Jeff Piecoro reporting from the game site.

Fans can also visit www.FOXSportsOhio.com for news, polls, videos and more surrounding Reds postseason. During home games, Hall of Fame writer Hal McCoy will host live chats online from Great American Ball Park.

“As the proud home of the Cincinnati Reds for over 20 years, fans have come to know and trust our coverage of the team,” stated Henry Ford, Senior Vice President & General Manager, FOX Sports Ohio. “We congratulate the Reds on an outstanding season, and as they march through postseason, we’re delighted to take fans along and provide insight they can’t get anywhere else.”

So, as the Redlegs head for a possible World Series, we'll keep you updated on local coverage plans...

BREAKING NEWS: Miuccio Out At WARM

2010-09-17T14:03:00.002-04:00

We just learned this via the Cincinnati Enquirer's John Kiesewetter. And it's a big one.

WRRM-FM 98.5/Cincinnati has dumped Dean Miuccio, only a month after deciding to put the entire WARM 98 Morning Show on his shoulders. They let Randi Douglas go a month ago.

Miuccio posted this to his Facebook account this morning:

"Hi to all my friends! I want to let you know that WARM 98 just fired me. Hey if you know of an opening that fits my line of work...which is pretty much anything...."

That's it. We assume he wants them to let him know through a message.

WRRM is going with a "more music in the morning" show with a fill-in host until a new host is named, says Kiese. We'll know who the fill-in will be Monday, but we presume it'll be another WARM 98 staffer.

We don't know what prompted his firing. On the surface it would seem to be a ratings move - WRRM had lost ground since the Portable People Meter debuted a few months back. (Tom Taylor's Radio-Info reports that WRRM slid from 5.2 to 4.9 June to July, but then rebounded in August to a 5.3...for what it's worth. As you know, we don't typically talk ratings.)

Insight Going All Digital - An Update

2010-08-31T16:25:00.002-04:00

We were up early (or maybe it should be late) this morning, and were able to get more information on the upcoming transition to all-digital for Insight Cable.

It looks as if that transition is going to take place over the next couple of months, from having some TV's that are hard-wired to the wall, to having "mini-boxes" for any TV without a larger converter.

In fact, we caught an instructional video on Insight Cable channel 19. That had been C-SPAN's old channel number. (That video is now available on a newly launched website. Click here to see it.)

We had heard that the timeline for the upgrade here would be the end of the year. As far as we know, that's still active.

Stay tuned, we're going to have a lot more on this story as the upgrade date gets closer...

The 4:30 AM Birthday Follow Up

2010-08-19T13:58:00.003-04:00

As we're celebrating a birthday today, we've got a couple things to pick up.

Your Editor is 25 years old today, something that didn't seem possible for us personally 10 years ago.

With the pleasantries out of the way, it's time to focus on a suddenly VERY crowded 4:30 AM news race...

WCPO Hops Into the Fray: Yes, the only station that had NOT declared entry into what was, when we left for Missouri, a 3 horse race at 4:30 AM, did so last week.

This entry from the Kiese Blog details why WCPO-TV 9/Cincinnati decided to hop in. ABC has given affiliates permission to, if they choose, take over the 4:30-5 AM time block, and Channel 9 has decided that with WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati jumping in, they didn't want to be the odd station out.

With ABC getting out of the way at 4:30, ABC will move "America This Morning" to 4:00 AM. (We presume that in cities where affiliates choose not to take over at 4:30 AM, ABC will still give those affiliates a 4:30 AM lead-in to local news.) Katherine Nero, Larry Handley, and the entire crew of "Good Morning Tri-State" will lead an expanded news block at 4:30 AM.

WKRC Plans Updated: Across I-71 at 1906 Highland, it looks like the current "Good Morning Cincinnati" team at WKRC will also extend their working hours.

But we saw advertisements this morning touting that the newly expanded newscast will start not at 4:30 AM - but at 4:25 AM. And both traffic anchor Bob Herzog and AM meteorologist John Gumm posed questions to fans of their respective facebook pages to see what their fanbase thinks of the new move.

By the way, it also looks that Kit Andrews will continue to anchor the now-expanded 4-5 PM block, as well. (By the way, the above link also explains the disposition of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" - it jumps over to WXIX-TV 19/Newport.)

FOX 19 Expanding, Too...: But WXIX is planning to go the OPPOSITE direction, expanding later into the morning hours.

Kiese reports on this one too, saying that Frank Marzullo will be paired with a still-to-be-hired new anchor for a new 9-10 AM hour of what looks like a newscast geared to the stay-at-home parent. (Kiese said stay-at-home moms, but we know some dads stay home with their children, as well.) And it appears that another meteorologist will be hired to help 4:30-9 AM, too, while Rob Williams and Sheila Gray will have a limited presence in that new hour.

One has to wonder if FOX 19 News Director Matt Miller saw something he liked in Marzullo's recent stint as replacement anchor, and decided to give him a shot at a regular position...

Wheeling's "Big One" Off The Air

2010-08-05T19:22:00.003-04:00

This is well outside our coverage area, but we're going to note this one anyway...

At this hour, WWVA-AM 1170/Wheeling, WV is still off the air due to a tower collapse. Sometime around 4:00 PM yesterday, a line of severe thunderstorms that contained winds of upwards of 70 miles per hour tore through the St. Clairsville, Ohio area, which is where WWVA's tower array is. WTRF-TV 7/Wheeling-Steubenville has more here, where they report that the National Weather Service confirms a downburst hit that area.

Those winds somehow did the damage you see in video on the webpage of WEGW-FM 107.5/Wheeling PM Driver and CC/Wheeling OM Chad Tyson.

At this point, it's unclear exactly when WWVA will get back on the air on 1170. For the time being, regular WWVA programming is being aired on sister WBBD 1400/Wheeling, except overnights and during Pittsburgh Pirates baseball games.

We'll attempt to update you as warranted, even while off on hiatus. You can also follow friend of TSMW Cindy Detro at twitter.com/cdetro who may also have updates, and for official info straight from WWVA itself, visit twitter.com/WWVA.

Mid-week Update

2010-08-04T13:48:00.002-04:00

As we clear our plate before our (hopefully stress-free) vacation, a few notes and news pieces...

Russo Out, but is Holmes In?: We're now able to confirm what we spoke of Friday morning.

The Enquirer confirmed that Regina Russo does indeed leave FOX 19 WXIX-TV/Newport on the 21st, to take the new marketing job at the Art Museum across town. (And it literally IS across town...just on the other side of downtown from the FOX 19 studios.)

John Kiesewetter also reports that WXIX is looking at Kimberly Holmes to fill Russo's seat at 10 PM on weekends, but that she is just one candidate.

You may remember that last week we speculated that Sara Celi could be tapped...and we still think that's possible. But Holmes would also be a good choice. She did weekends in Salisbury, MD, from which she came to FOX 19.

Anyway, any speculation is just that...speculation...until we hear definite news from FOX 19.

Furman Moves Up The Dial: Also today, it's reported that Andy Furman, the host of WQRT-AM 1160/Florence's "Furman Factor" is not on this week - but yet is still on the air in Cincinnati.

Why? Well, Kiese reported this morning that Furman was asked to fill in on Fox Sports Radio for the week. He's doing 3-7 PM on WSAI-AM 1360/Cincinnati this week filling in while FSR searches for a replacement for Sean Farnham, who just quit FSR to do ESPN. Furman was scheduled for vacation from 1160 this week...but when he was asked Saturday, he jumped at the chance to do a national show.

Openly, Furman's bosses at WQRT are supportive, it seems, of him doing the national show, saying they'd miss him but "the radio station is not built around Andy".

We'll have to see, but for now, Furman says he's still scheduled to return to WQRT on Monday...

Another Reds Game Taken For National FOX TV: With the Cincinnati Reds now in a very interesting pennant race in the National League Central, FOX is cashing in with yet another national broadcast, having just done one this past Saturday night.

This time, the game will be a pivotal one in the aforementioned pennant run, as the Reds' tilt with the current NL Central leaders the St. Louis Cardinals on September 4th will now be on FOX nationwide, and NOT on Fox Sports Ohio.

FSO has decided to pick up next Wednesday's game between the two teams, instead. It'll air at 12:30 next Wednesday, August 11th with the usual "Reds Live" pregame at 12 noon. That game is a home game for Cincinnati. FSO didn't say, but we'll assume it'll be in High Definition.

We'll be on hiatus next week, but will make sure we can tweet the reminder...

Sloan Confirmed to Replace McConnell: We confirmed this item Friday night in a tweet, but some closure.

Scott Sloan does indeed move up the schedule to replace Mike McConnell, whose Chicago show debuts next Monday morning. FOX 19 had the story Friday night, before we were aware.

That, of course, still leaves a hole 9 pm to midnight...but we don't know who will air in that slot. And we can't imagine WLW going syndicated at all...it's just not them...

Columbus "Rewinds": And an item or two from markets we don't typically cover wraps up this super large update.

We were able to confirm that WODB 104.3/Richwood, Ohio and WJZA 103.5/Pickerington, Ohio paired up Friday afternoon to do 80s oldies as "Rewind 103.5/104.3".

Sound familiar?

That's because WREW 94.9/Fairfield currently does much the same thing as "Rewind 94.9".

We had thought that WODB and WJZA would somehow go talk. It fooled our cross-state colleagues at Ohio Media Watch as well as RadioInsight's Lance Venta, who had pegged the new coming format as FM talk.

But let's face it...even if Saga had wanted to do FM talk, who's out there that Saga could use for content?

Louisville No More for Cumulus: And just in to TSMW via the aforementioned RadioInsight.com, comes word that Cumulus has left the Louisville market altogether.

The move out of the market leaves WLCL-FM 93.9/Sellersburg, Indiana and WQKC-AM 1450/Jeffersonville, Indiana completely dark. At this moment, the websites http://www.classichits939.com/ and http://www.1450theticket.com/ both redirect to the Cumulus homepage.

Both signals weren't very good...WLCL was, according to RadioInsight, a Class A licensed with 2650 watts, while WQKC was 1000 watts non-directional, and both transmitters were north of Louisville.

What does this mean? At the moment, we're not sure, other than the loss of ESPN Radio from the 1450 signal, and classic hits from 93.9.

Stay tuned...this could be interesting...

A Few Catchup Items

2010-07-30T08:15:00.002-04:00

Here's just a couple items to catch up on, as we end the very busy (both personally and otherwise) month of July...

Russo To Leave FOX19??: We find this word from the Cincinnati Art Museum on the Kiese Blog this morning...even as Kiese himself takes a vacation.
Fill-in Tasha Stewart posts word from a press release sent out last weekend that Regina Russo, who has been with WXIX-TV 19/Newport, KY for the past 15 years, will (most likely) be leaving the station to take a new position with the museum in Cincinnati's Eden Park area:

Cincinnati Art Museum announces Regina Russo as new Director of Marketing and Communications

The Cincinnati Art Museum is pleased to announce that Regina Russo will be joining their staff as the new Director of Marketing and Communications. Ms. Russo comes to the Art Museum from WXIX-TV FOX19, where she worked for 15 years as a news reporter and anchor. She has over 20 years of combined experience in print, online and televised media.

Ms. Russo is an active member of the Cincinnati community serving on various boards including, STOP AIDS, Race Relations Council of Greater Cincinnati, Y.W.C.A. L.E.A.R.N. and Contemporary Dance Theatre of Cincinnati, is a member of Cincinnati Black Ambassadors and NAACP Cincinnati, and is a former member of the Queen City Women’s Club. She brings industry experience, knowledge of the community and media expertise to her new role at the Art Museum.

“We are thrilled to gain Regina as a member of the Art Museum team. Her knowledge and experience with a variety of media formats will be invaluable in furthering our mission to bring people and art together”, said Director Aaron Betsky.

Ms. Russo will report to Deputy Director of Institutional Advancement David Linnenberg and will oversee all marketing and media communications. Additionally she will serve as a representative of the Art Museum to the media and work with Director Betsky to develop opportunities to enhance its presence in the Greater Cincinnati community as well as manage all internal and external Art Museum communications. Ms. Russo will work closely with the Marketing Committee of the Art Museum’s Board of Trustees to develop and implement successful communications strategies. She is looking forward to joining the Art Museum team on September 1.

Still unclear, is who will be promoted to Russo's current position as weekend 10 pm anchor. We're pretty sure Tricia Macke and Dan Carroll may not want to work 7 days a week.

Our (purely speculative) guess as to who will be tapped: Sara Celi.

Why? We happened to see her a few weeks ago anchoring the 10 pm on a weekend, and thought she did a decent job. She does a good job in the mornings at the update desk.

We admit: This guess is far fetched. There may be other candidates that FOX 19 is looking at. But that's our guess, and unless we see something different, we're sticking with this.

"Big Willie", Yes...But Not Till '11: And yes, we mean 2011.

In a story we broke Wednesday evening, Tribune confirmed that they will indeed give 700 WLW/Cincinnati midday talker Bill Cunningham a long-term shot at daytime talk television.

But, says Tom Taylor, it won't be until Fall... Fall of 2011 that is.

Why 2011? It has to do with another Chicago-based talk show host: Oprah Winfrey.

Yep, Tribune is looking to fill the syndication hole created by Oprah's decision to end distribution of her show to local affiliates (including WCPO-TV 9/Cincinnati) and go cable-only next year.

We're not clear if, or maybe more appropriately WHO, will get the rights in Cincinnati. But we'd have to guess it's FOX 19's to lose. After all, he bumped ratings by some 38%, week to week, over "America's Funniest Home Videos" when he did his 4 day trial a couple weeks ago, according to the Nielsen ratings, beating shows like "Let's Make A Deal" and "Dr. Phil".

Anyway, our best guess says FOX 19 keeps this one. Besides, they can get some cross promotion, with Willie still on 700 WLW, which is FOX 19's radio partner...

A Note: We hope to be back to a more normal posting schedule next week...but here's a heads up for the week after.

The TSMW Headquarters will be packing up and heading out of town for a week beginning August 8th (one week from Sunday). We'll be in Branson, Missouri, spending time with family... and more likely than not will not have much if any internet access during the week.

If we hear anything pressing, we'll tweet about it from the Cricket Twitter-Phone as soon as humanly possible. But we're not making guarantees, and we're pretty sure we WON'T be doing long-form updates. Heck, we can't even guarantee cell phone service out in the Ozarks of southwest Missouri. Heh.

Nonetheless, you have the heads up on that. After that, we should be back in northern Kentucky for the rest of the year...and posting a bit more frequently...

Wrapping Up Our Hiatus

2010-07-06T14:29:00.003-04:00

As we pick up another piece or two that we missed during our hiatus to attend the Spina Bifida Association of America conference, we've also got a couple of new news items to tell you about...

Former Taft Broadcasting Reporter, Executive Dead: And we're talking about two separate people here, so it's doubly sad news for the folks involved with Taft Broadcasting back when it was its own entity in the 70s. These were reported by John Kiesewetter at the Enquirer today.

Carl J. Wagner, who was an executive for Taft/Great American, died last Monday, June 28, at age 76. He was the number 2 executive for the broadcasting group, which owned WKRC-TV/AM here. He'd retired in 1991, after spending some 17 years as its Vice President. He'd also worked with WTVN-AM/FM in Columbus and what would become WKRQ-FM 101.9 here, along with a station in Birmingham, AL.

Bill Crafton died last Friday. He had been diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis in 2008, and had written a blog called "What It's Like to be Told You're Terminally Ill". That blog (click here) hasn't been updated since last Tuesday. He was the anchor on air when the Beverly Hills Supper Club burned to the ground in 1977. He also worked for stations in South Bend, Indianapolis, and West Palm Beach, among others.

TSMW extends our condolences to both families as they deal with their losses...

Harris Back In Cincy: Steve Harris has landed back here in Cincinnati, after a stint as Senior Program Director at ESPN Radio.

He'll take over Radio One operations here, following the termination of GM Lisa Thal and regional VP Rick Porter back in May, according to our colleague Tom Taylor at Radio-Info on June 29.

Harris was the PD at WCIN-AM here 25 years ago, the Kiese Blog reported the same day.

We wonder what brought him back to the Queen City...but wish him luck...

Radio Station Launch: We go back to Friday now - and that radio station launch that happened in Cincinnati.

Yes, we're talking about WVQC-FM 95.7/Cincinnati, which kicked off live FM broadcasts at 6 PM Friday night.

"Producers", as WVQC program hosts are called by Media Bridges, rotated in and out of the studio sharing their feelings on the new FM signal broadcasting from atop the Essex Studios building in Walnut Hills. At one point around 6:45 PM, if you were within 3-5 miles of the launch or listening on the WVQC website, you may have even heard Your Editor on air for a quick sit-in. We didn't ask to be put on air, but were asked by Katie Finnigan if we wanted to say a few words, which we took the opportunity to do. (By the way, if you did hear the interview and are taking a look at us for the first time, welcome!)

I'm not sure if that interview is archived on WVQC's end (I'd guess they may have recorded it for historical purposes), but yours truly was nervous. As I tweeted, this was my first interview ever on a terrestrial radio station...in studio anyway. (Yes, I've called into radio stations in the past.)

Nonetheless, the atmosphere at the Media Bridges headquarters on Race Street in Cincinnati was very festive - as was that at Hoffner Park in Northside where a festival was being held and WVQC hosts were also broadcasting.

TSMW congratulates Media Bridges...as we noted, it was about time...

And Finally, A Personal Note: I don't do this often here, if at all, but I wish to extend my personal appreciation to Mr. Tom Taylor at Radio-Info.

I've received an email from him over the last few hours, where he addresses our prologue to Friday's post, saying that I handled my absence from This Space well.

I'd like to say this in public, as I did in private: Spina Bifida is very much a part of my life that I have made zero effort to hide. In fact, if you meet me on the street and ask the right question, I'll literally talk your ear off about it, and about how to prevent it.

In that respect, I don't ever plan to hide this portion of my life. My personal YouTube and Twitter spaces are places where I will talk about my life - very publicly. Spina Bifida is a part of that, and will be for the rest of my life.

As I said Friday: Spina Bifida has come a long way in my 25 years of life and longer. 50 years ago, it was such that a lot of children didn't live to see their 30th birthdays. Today, my generation is, at the very least, one of the first if not THE first to make it that far.

My personal hope is that the research done now continues to move forward over the next 50 years.

I hope you'll forgive the personal nature of this portion of today's post...but I felt I needed to share a little more about this...

A Couple Friday Notes

2010-07-02T15:01:00.003-04:00

We apologize for our absence over the last week or so.

As we told Tom Taylor of Radio-Info.com, we were at a Spina Bifida Association of America conference. It was their yearly mega-event, and this year it was in Cincinnati...so we went. (And how's this for advance notice: We'll be on the West Coast in June of 2011 for next year's conference.)

If you're wondering or are new to this blog: yours truly has Spina Bifida, a potentially devastating neural tube defect which has come a long way in our nearly 25 years of life.

Anyway, a few items that have been, unlike us, lounging around through these hot summer days...

Fee to Retire In December: This one comes straight from the Kiese blog...as one of Cincinnati's TV station GM's will end his tenure later this year.

Bill Fee, of WCPO-TV 9/Cincinnati, will retire on December 31st, it was announced Thursday.

Fee is 63 years old, and has been working with WCPO since 1978, when he joined the station as its community affairs director. He also spent time at WLWT-TV 5 here and at WMC-TV in Memphis, Tennessee. He became GM at WCPO in 1999.

The transition was announced six months ahead so that WCPO can hopefully have a new GM in place at the first of the new year. In the meantime, WCPO still has to get authorization to construct, then build out, channel 22 for DTV - since they lost a great deal of viewers after last year's DTV switchover.

TSMW congratulates Mr. Fee and wishes him a good retirement.

WKRC Will Air Primetime Bengals Games: A move announced by WKRC-TV 12 here will mean two games will air on the CBS affiliate here.

Those games are the two major primetime games this year: the November 8 ESPN Monday Night Football divisional showdown with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Thanksgiving Night (!) NFL Network-produced game against the New York Jets. In both cases, remember, the TV deals with the cable networks require an over-air affiliate to carry the games.

We're not sure which stations will air the games in Lexington or Dayton. (If you live in or near these two cities, you can email us and let us know if you know this.)

Oh, and if you're wondering why the Hall of Fame game isn't on WKRC: NBC (and thusly, WLWT-TV 5/Cincinnati, WDTN-TV 2/Dayton and WLEX-TV 18/Lexington) get that game as part of their package. Nor can WKRC carry the Philadelphia Eagles/Bengals game in mid-August - Fox has those rights.

WVQC-FM Launch Tonight: Finally, the elephant in the media room in Cincinnati today.

WVQC-FM 95.7/Cincinnati will launch tonight at 6:00 PM. There is a happy hour launch party of sorts happening tonight 5-7 PM at Media Bridges' headquarters on Race Street in downtown Cincy.

We're downtown now and will be at the launch - that's where we're typing this post - and we'll have coverage after the July 4th holiday weekend, on Tuesday.

We hope to be back to a full-time schedule of posts after the weekend is over - if we're not in a food or caffeine-induced coma by that point...

Done Deal: Willie To Stay at 700 WLW + WKRC-TV To Launch 2 More Newscasts

2010-06-16T08:16:00.004-04:00

Two early Wednesday morning items as we pick up more debris, both from the storms that have hit over the last five days, and the biggest story of the last two weeks...

Willie Signs: We hinted at this one yesterday - but now we can confirm that the deal is signed, sealed, and delivered at WLW.

Clear Channel-Cincinnati released a statement saying Bill Cunningham has agreed to a long term deal to remain on the city's number one talk station.

For Cunningham's part, he'd already confirmed it to John Kiesewetter Monday, as we reported.

The entire release is below...

Bill Cunningham Re-Ups with “The Big One”

Popular 700WLW Personality Affirms Commitment to Cincinnati

Cincinnati, June 15, 2010 -- 700WLW Cincinnati – “The Big One” – today announced that legendary, two-time Marconi Award winning personality Bill “Willie” Cunningham has signed a long term agreement to remain on the station – and reaffirmed his commitment to the Queen City and its radio listeners.

“We are extremely pleased that Willie will remain part of the 700WLW team for many years to come,” said Chuck Fredrick, President and Market Manager - Clear Channel Cincinnati. “The Big One is one of America's great radio stations because of its personalities and Willie and 700WLW are synonymous. Our audience expects the very best – and 700WLW works relentlessly to exceed their expectations."

Commenting on his decision, Cunningham said, “Cincinnati is my home. The first air I breathed. The first milk I drank was from Cincinnati. Others may have come as carpet baggers to loot the Queen City and then move on. Willie will remain true.”

Cunningham is host of The Big One's market leading Noon-3pm show – which has been rated #1 in Midday's for over 10 years. Twice-honored with a Marconi Award for Radio Personality of the Year, Cunningham has made numerous appearances on Fox News Channel, CNN and other television shows. Cunningham's show is also featured on iHeartRadio on "Channel Willie."

700WLW – The Big One – is a leading radio station in the “Queen City” (Cincinnati) area, broadcasting a News/Talk format that is highly popular with its local community where it is the #1 radio station with listeners 12+. 700WLW has a long and storied history that extends back to the earliest days of radio broadcasting – when the station was owned by the Crosley Radio company. 700WLW was the first United States commercial 50 KW station and the only standard broadcast station to ever broadcast at a power of 500KW – truly a “clear channel” station.

Our Take: This is good news for WLW 700. While they no longer have to worry about filling THREE slots...they still must deal with the 9-noon slot (and it's thought that Scott Sloan has the best shot at that opportunity) and the 9 PM-midnight slot (if Sloan does take the above).

Assuming Matt Patrick is in the running (Ohio Media Watch says that his guest hosting gig next Saturday is ONLY on WLW, and will NOT be on WTAM 1100/Cleveland), it looks to us like he would likely end up in the latter slot.

Either way, it is a good thing for WLW. They'd probably be fine even if Cunningham had left - let's face it, it's a heritage station and has both the pro sports teams...

WKRC Launching News at 4:30: And in this case it's not just 4:30 AM or PM - it's BOTH.

The station announced the move on their website Tuesday. The 4:30 AM/4:30 PM newscasts will begin September 6th.

The 4:30 AM news will join WXIX-TV 19/Newport and WLWT-TV 5/Cincinnati as the third such newscast in town. But WKRC will have the distinction of having Cincinnati's ONLY 4:30 PM newscast, and thusly the only station in town to go two and a half hours instead of the traditional 90 minutes starting at 5:00 PM.

Our Take: This one is not really a bad move by WKRC. Think about it. Oprah will end her nationwide syndication next year, leaving WCPO-TV 9 with a HUGE hole in their schedule. And WCPO wasn't exactly strong at 4:00 PM against WKRC (which, we remind you, swept the TV news ratings...uh, sweeps) in May.

WKRC will have plenty of ads to sell during the 4:30 PM news... and can either dump "Millionaire" off the main channel (still leaving it on the sub-channel 12.2, where it airs at 1:30 PM M-F), or possibly shift it to late nights. (There's really nowhere else they CAN put it - unless they move "Inside Edition" to late nights, instead - an unlikely move, as they count on that to lead into "Entertainment Tonight".)

The bottom line is this: WKRC really can't lose much by expanding the 4 PM news. As for expanding to 4:30 AM...it'll face some competition from both WXIX (the first in the city to have a newscast at 4:30 AM) and WLWT. But we don't expect the latter to be tough...if WKRC has any trouble with the 4:30 AM news, it'll be competing with WXIX - which beats 12.2's 10 PM news...and that could pose a problem for WKRC.

We'll have to see how everything shakes out with these new newscasts in September, and look at them more closely in November with that ratings book. But...we really don't expect a whole lot to change, except possibly the 4:30 AM news race...

Cunningham Staying, Cincy's Newest LPFM To Finally Debut, and Severe Weather Coverage

2010-06-15T07:00:00.001-04:00

As the Cincinnati area recovers from severe storms late Monday night (more on the coverage below), here's a couple cleanup items...

"Big Willie" To Stay at WLW: We got word late Monday afternoon from TSMW reader Harry Yeprem that WLW's last major midday anchor will be staying, after all.

Bill Cunningham talked to John Kiesewetter Monday, and confirmed that he's not going to Tribune's talk WGN-AM 720/Chicago to follow his former lead-in Mike McConnell.

Apparently, he was off air last week because he wouldn't commit to an extension. (We're also hearing he went to lunch with Tribune executive Sean Compton and McConnell, and was also punished for that - but, if that's true, it seems a bit of an extreme reaction. Just our opinion.)

And, we also hear that his "Big Willie" show will debut either June 28 or July 5 on 16 Tribune television stations, as well as WXIX-TV 19/Cincinnati, and run for the week. (We presume that the latter is simply Tribune's way to throw Cincinnati a bone, since they own nothing in the area.)

WVQC-LP To Finally Debut Soon: We found this on the Kiese Blog... and it looks like it's a "drop dead" date commitment.

WVQC-LP 95.7/Cincinnati will finally launch their FM signal, almost 1 year after it was supposed to happen, on July 2nd.

They got a $100,000 grant from the Ohio Valley Foundation a few months ago, and are now constructing their tower site on top of Essex Studios in Walnut Hills. From that organization's website, we found out that they're located on - what else - Essex Street between McMillan and Taft, just off Reading Road. (It's not far from Bonneville Broadcasting's Cincinnati studios at 2060 Reading.)

We're not clear on how that signal will get from Media Bridges to the tower, but some sort of STL link is needed at the distance they're going to have to cover. (No, in this case STL doesn't stand for the hated MLB team from St. Louis, Missouri - but Studio to Transmitter Link.)

You'll recall we were among the first to talk about their planned launch last August - but in today's economy, funding is not easy to come by. That grant from OVF was what they needed, and they got it.

Congratulations to Media Bridges' staff on bringing them just that much closer...

Severe Weather Coverage: And finally, for Cincinnatians at least, the major, blackish-looking elephant in the room.

By blackish, we mean the storm clouds that raked across the area late Monday night, leaving flooding, wind damage, structure fires (including the famous so-called "Touchdown Jesus" statue in Monroe in Butler County), and even a possible tornado in the Cincinnati city limits!

We were able to sample storm coverage from just about every Cincinnati TV station Monday night...and more so when a tornado warning covered the very heart of the city in a scary, nighttime scenario.

We thought that WKRC-TV 12 did a fairly decent job of covering the situation...getting out of the way when the tornado threat passed.

WLWT-TV 5's Kevin Robinson also had no-nonsense weather coverage; given that Chief Meteorologist Kevin Robinson worked for The Weather Channel before his move here, that didn't surprise us.

We can't say WCPO-TV 9's Cyndee O' Quinn did a bad job, either, really, covering for Steve Raleigh.

But...and we say this with some hesitation... WXIX-TV 19 could have done better once the tornado warning ended. Instead...well, you've heard the complaints from people before... the same information was repeated over and over again, especially when there wasn't anything new.

Granted, yes, we're fans of the shows WXIX took off the air late Monday night...and in hindsight, yes, the storms had the potential to turn tornadic again at any point after the warning was allowed to expire at 11 PM.

But... the rotation clearly had diminished, the National Weather Service didn't mention any more reports of rotation with the storms. At that point, if you've got nothing new to report, it's time to get out of the way, in our opinion. Quick cut-ins would suffice.

We realize Steve Horstmeyer is probably told to stay on the air whenever severe storms are in the metro area. So we're not pinning this on him. (Full disclosure: If you've read yours truly's personal thoughts blog, you know that Your Tri-State Media Watcher would occasionally work alongside Horstmeyer to deliver the 6:45, 7:15 and 7:45 AM news when the latter was on WKRC-TV 12 while 12 had their Fountain Square studio.)

But in the summer and especially here in the Ohio Valley, when it gets above 85 degrees with 70 degree dewpoints, thunderstorms can and do blow up and, occasionally, hold on through 11 PM. Horstmeyer knows this - he's been here for his entire life and has worked here for over 30 years. TV stations should know that when their meteorologists say to "get out of the way for now", that's when the non-stop coverage should end...

And Finally: One year ago, TSMW was tracking the launch of WQRT-AM 1160/Florence.

The station launched exactly one year ago today, branded as "Q1160" at first - but after station management discovered that "Q" had been servicemarked by crosstown WKRQ-FM 101.9, was quickly re-branded as "Real Talk 1160".

Since then, although still working with its almost-not-quite-across Hamilton County nighttime signal, WQRT has done its best to hang in there... and has even added local talk, with Andy Furman taking the PM drive slot in February 2010.

We'd like to see WQRT actually make it. Since it must protect the nighttime signals of KSL-AM 1160/Salt Lake City, KFAQ-AM 1170/Tulsa, and, closer to home, WWVA-AM 1170/Wheeling, WV, it can't exactly up the juice. And it'll always have WLW and WKRC-AM 550, along with other, out of market flamethrowers such as 840 WHAS/Louisville to contend with.

Still...the fact is, it's there...it's given a home to a host who was once thought to be headed out of the area to continue doing talk radio...and it's probably not going anywhere for a good while.

CONFIRMED: Northeast Ohio Talker Taking WLW Airwaves June 26

2010-06-14T07:00:00.002-04:00

TSMW has been looking all weekend for SOME information to confirm that an Akron-area morning show legend will be taking to Cincinnati airwaves later this month.

Nathan Obral wrote in a comment on our last item that Matt Patrick will be doing WLW's now-local slot on June 26th. (How long it'll stay local is anyone's guess.)

We're no longer looking - it's confirmed by Matt Patrick himself via a Facebook post. (We think this is where Mr. Obral got the info...)

On this post at the Matt Patrick Show Facebook Page, Patrick writes:

The "Queen City" gets to hear the "Joker" of Northeast Ohio..June 26th! We are live in Cincinnati on 700WLW beginning at noon! Mark it down!!

Patrick has a late-afternoon Saturday show on Ohio's "other" Big One, WTAM 1100/Cleveland. That show is normally heard Saturdays 1-4 PM when the Cleveland Indians don't play. (He got that slot, we presume, after previous lead-in James Traficant quit to run for Congress in the 17th District.)

Before that, Patrick had a very good career elsewhere in Ohio Media Watch territory, at WKDD 98.1/Munroe Falls, Ohio and WHLO-AM 640/Akron. In fact, towards the end of his tenure for Clear Channel Akron/Canton, Patrick was doing both shows back-to-back, sliding across to WHLO at 9AM to do that show. (Ironically, his old website for "The Matt Patrick Show on 640WHLO actually still exists here. We're not sure if it's frequently updated.

We're also not clear on whether this is an audition for Patrick, though that does seem to be the case. (WLW isn't carrying the last weeks of "The Weekend" Premiere syndicated show with now-former WLW talker Mike McConnell, remember.) It seems Scott Sloan is stepping into that role as well, for now anyway, at WLW.

Could Patrick be Cincinnati's next middayer? We suppose it's possible. We've never heard him, but again - he was not only part of WKDD, but he basically WAS WKDD for 30 years. That speaks volumes to how good he was in his role at WKDD.

The only problem is, Top 40 music and talk radio are two different things. Now, Patrick was fairly successful at WHLO, also. But...Akron/Canton is the number 76 market. Cleveland is 29th, with Cincinnati one step above that.

Now, we're not sure exactly what his WTAM show is doing, ratings wise. We're certain of this: Patrick is getting more exposure than if Traficant had stayed - whatever is in Patrick's old 4-7 PM slot isn't carried if the Indians have a Saturday night game.(No, we don't know what is in that slot... WTAM hasn't updated their website.)

Anyway: We really hope that, if nothing else, Patrick continues to do well with WTAM and his Saturday show there.

Once again, a tip of the hat to Nathan Obral for putting TSMW on the trail of this one... we sure couldn't find any info on WLW's site...

More McConnell Fallout - Premiere Dumps Former WLW Talker - Not Immediately, Though

2010-06-10T07:00:00.002-04:00

Yes, on Day Four, the fallout from Mike McConnell's departure from WLW-AM 700 here for WGN-AM 720 in Chicago continues...and this time, it involves his "Weekend" program...

Well...it is his for a few more weeks.

Tom Taylor reported early Wednesday morning that Premiere, which syndicated McConnell's Saturday talkfest from 12-3 PM on WLW and over 100 other stations, will dump the talker in just a few weeks' time. Apparently, the syndicator will return to the format they used until his arrival in 2004, with rotating guest hosts. And Taylor reports today (Thursday morning) that no, WLW will NOT be airing the final weeks of "The Weekend with Mike McConnell".

So, those of you in cities outside of Cincinnati where McConnell has aired will get to hear him for another few weeks. We're pretty sure when he left WLW, that meant his weekend syndication was gone here, too. (And, where will he even HOST the program if, and that's a huge IF, he's now persona non grata at Kenwood Tower? We're guessing he had a home studio set up, ready to go for just this situation.)

Meanwhile, we pick up with his departure, and this word in the Kiesewetter TV Blog Wednesday afternoon:

McConnell will be live in the WXIX-TV (Channel 19) studio in the 8 a.m. hour of “Fox 19 Morning News” tomorrow (Thursday) to chat with Sheila Gray. McConnell will “say goodbye to all his fans, and explain why he is leaving tomorrow. Shelia Gray called Mike, and he said he wanted to come on and do this live, since he could not on 700,” says Matt Miller, new Fox 19 news director.

Hmmmm. That alone seems interesting...given that WXIX just took over doing weather on WLW in April. WXIX is giving McConnell the opportunity that apparently wasn't given to him at WLW. By the way, TSMW heard via Twitter that that interview is tentatively scheduled for around 8:15 AM, give or take 5 minutes.

The question is, who is to blame for that decision? However, McConnell told Kiesewetter Tuesday that "I doubt it was a local decision" to pull him off air here.

So, for Cincinnati, that means his WXIX 19 appearance will be his last on Cincinnati television or radio. Outside of the area, you'll probably get to hear him for a couple more weeks, before he's officially out the door. (Excluding, of course, his new home in Chicago.)

We think that about wraps up the McConnell story for us FOR NOW. Of course, news broke Wednesday in this saga - and we're not ruling out more news coming from Day Four...but for now, that's about it.

BREAKING NEWS: The Other McConnell Shoe Drops

2010-06-08T05:12:00.005-04:00

Yesterday, we wrote about Mike McConnell's departure from 700 WLW-AM/Cincinnati, and noted that the speculation had been that he was headed for Tribune's WGN-AM 720/Chicago.

"Speculation" has now become "confirmation" for the second time in the last 18 hours.

Tom Taylor at Radio-Info writes in his Taylor on Radio-Info newsletter (and in a news post here) this very morning that he got hold of a presser from Tribune late last night, confirming that McConnell WILL be headed to the Chicago flamethrower, starting August 9th. (It, like WLW-AM here, is a 50,000 watt signal that blasts across the eastern United States easily after dark.) His new airshift hasn't been announced by Tribune as of yet.

Unclear also is something that our friends at OMW happened to mention: McConnell's syndication weekend middays and its future. The closest market we definitively have information for is Rushville in west-central Illinois...closer to Quincy. (Any Chicagoans out there...do you know if he's syndicated in the Windy City on weekends?) He very well COULD lose the entire program if Clear Channel makes that choice with Premiere being his syndicator.

We haven't gotten our hands on the official word from Tribune yet...as we're just now reading from the aforementioned Tom Taylor's newsletter ourselves this morning. When and if we do, we'll put it up here.

Chicago, as has been said, is a dream market for many talents wanting to hit the big cities... and that's certainly the case right here.

As we noted, McConnell has been with WLW since sometime in the mid-80's, around the time yours truly was born. (In fact, he joined the station IN 1985.) So he's been around as long as yours truly can remember. We can't recall a time when McConnell WASN'T on middays, let's put it that way.

Anyway, congratulations to Mr. McConnell on this next step in his career...he's a true professional in every sense of the word...here's hoping Chicago provides him with a really good platform...

BREAKING NEWS: McConnell Out At "The Big One"

2010-06-07T17:35:00.006-04:00

We'd speculated on this last week, but elected to wait before doing a longform post - and now the station itself confirms the speculation.

Mike McConnell, who has been part of the staff at 700 WLW-AM/Cincinnati first as a production director and then a midday host since roughly around when Your Tri-State Media Watcher was born in 1985, now leaves the latter position to head north to Chicago. 700 WLW confirmed the move today just before 5:00 PM in this news release (which you can also read here):

"The Big One" Turns A Page As Mike McConnell Moves North

700WLW Midday New/Talk Personality Seeks Greener Pastures in Chicago

Cincinnati, June 7, 2010 -- 700WLW Cincinnati - "The Big One" - today announced the departure of long-serving Midday News/Talk Personality Mike McConnell, who has elected to relocate to Chicago.
The move is effective immediately, and a search for a permanent replacement has been initiated.

"We'll miss Mike," said Chuck Fredrick, President and Market Manager - Clear Channel Cincinnati. "We've long known that Chicago has represented a 'dream market' for Mike - and we firmly believe everyone has the right to chase their dreams. We wish him all the best."

McConnell has served 700WLW Cincinnati since the mid 1980's, first as production director and later as a talk host. The station indicated that long term evening talk host Scott Sloan will fill in temporarily on the Midday broadcast while the search for a permanent replacement for Mr. McConnell is conducted.

The entire staff of 700WLW wants to take this opportunity to thank Mike for his years of service to The Big One and the Tri-State area. Few radio personalities are able to reach a community in a way Mike has and that will be missed. In life people start down new roads and begin new adventures all the time. We hope everyone joins us in wishing Mike all the best in this new beginning of his career.

Again, this had been speculated for over a week. We didn't post any more than a couple short tweets - because we didn't have our own sources at Kenwood Tower.

With this press release, the only thing still hanging out there from our tweets of last week is the future of Bill Cunningham, who is WLW's other daytime anchor in the Noon-3:00 PM slot. If he leaves, that's a huge hole in WLW's lineup.

As it is, we wonder if this will impact WLW's ratings. We don't expect it'll be much of one at this point, with the Reds still heard there and (for now) Cunningham still on "The Big One".

By the way: The other half of this speculation, as to McConnell's possible destination IN Chicago, is still not announced. The speculation did have McConnell heading to WGN 720 and Tribune Broadcasting - but that part is still unconfirmed, as Clear Channel obviously didn't announce that. If he IS headed to WGN radio, expect an announcement from Tribune sometime in the next month or so...

Checking our Twitter Feed

2010-05-28T18:50:00.002-04:00

As you may have noted, we had some issues with the TSMW twitterfeed account.

Whenever we posted new updates, the updates weren't getting sent through the Twitterfeed service, and out to our twitter followers.

So, we think we've narrowed it down. This post is mainly a test post. If we (and you) see the post sent through our RSS feed, then it's working. If not, then we've got more work to do to troubleshoot the issue...

Early Wednesday Update

2010-05-26T08:00:00.001-04:00

We're catching up...albeit slowly.

Life has been anything but slow for yours truly's personal life recently, and Your Tri-State Media Watcher is about to hit another busy time.

As we've said, this blog is pretty much updated when we have time to do so... which lately, doesn't seem to be much. In any case, here's a couple quick items...

Bill Cunningham Show...On TV?: You may remember that a few months ago, WXIX-TV 19/Newport aired a pilot program featuring Bill Cunningham, the midday host on 700 WLW/Cincinnati. (This was BEFORE 19 and Clear Channel signed their major radio deal earlier this year.)

Now, Cunningham is taping another new show... but only five episodes at first.

John Kiesewetter has the full details... but the gist of it is that Cunningham is taping the first show tomorrrow in Dayton, then four more episodes in Chicago June 11 and 12.

There's no word on what will happen with Cunningham's radio program on taping days...but for the June tapings, we figure he'll be off. (Clear Channel does NOT have a talk station up there, though we know Tribune has WGN-AM 720, and Citadel has WLS-AM 890 [which syndicates his Sunday evening show].)

But, alas...if you think Cunningham will end his afternoon radio talkfest if this attempt at TV succeeds...think again.

Cunningham says he's planning to continue the afternoon show - but he'll do it from Chicago on Mondays through Wednesdays when he's taping the show, while doing it here in Cincinnati Thursdays and Fridays. He'll also do the Sunday show in Chicago. (Again, he has his ready affiliate for the Sunday program at Citadel's WLS-AM.) And he's about to sign an extension - but we have no word yet that he's done so.

Storm Fallout: By now, just about everybody already is aware of the fact that severe weather and tornadoes ripped through the Cincinnati area Friday night. (Yours truly was at a Relay for Life event in Florence, shortly after storms passed through...the event, and at least one other Relay in Campbell County, had to be moved indoors.)

The storms, of course, prompted the obligatory meteorologist cut-ins, which were good for people in Adams, Brown and Highland counties where tornadoes actually touched down. Many of those viewers were pleased to get some attention for their areas during bad weather...as they're not regularly covered by Cincinnati TV stations.

But for others, all that the cut-ins meant were that much of their favorite shows were cut off...including several season or series finales.

WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati in particular took a lot of criticism on their facebook page...which was quickly followed by MORE criticism when it was announced the shows wouldn't be re-aired over-the-air.

Viewers who missed season finales of "Medium", "Ghost Whisperer", and "Miami Medical" can watch them from the CBS website. As far as we're aware, none of these are on hulu.com, but you should be able to watch FOX shows there, and NBC programs are available from NBC's website.

We don't make the programming decisions...but we'll be happy to let you sound off right here...

Radio One Shakeup

2010-05-21T11:03:00.002-04:00

We're late to the party - but as we don't really have any new information, we're not missing anything.

Yesterday, word came that Radio One had fired Regional Vice President Rick Porter and Cincinnati market GM Lisa Thal. Today's Taylor on Radio-Info Newsletter (available free at Radio-Info.com) cited John Kiesewetter as the source of the story.

Whatever happened, it was apparently so serious that Radio One's radio division president Barry Mayo had to come from Maryland to do the firings himself, and he's now running WIZF 101.1/Erlanger, WMOJ-FM 100.3/Norwood, and WDBZ-AM 1230/Cincinnati out of the Cincinnati cluster's front offices on Central Avenue downtown. But Radio One won't say anything more than that Thal and Porter are no longer with the company.

As Kiese notes, Thal and Porter both worked for Clear Channel before coming to Radio One. Thal jumped to Radio One just before they bought the "Mojo" intellectual property off of Cumulus (but not the 94.9 frequency), starting the 2006 radio shakeup here where half a dozen moves were made in a 3 month span. (This doesn't count WIZF's move one spot higher on the FM dial from 100.9 to its current 101.1, done three months before.)

We can't comment on the circumstances - as we simply don't know, and again, Radio One won't say anything. But something had to have gone badly wrong for the radio division's head honcho to come here...

THIS JUST IN: Local 12 on WKRQ-FM

2010-05-17T07:26:00.003-04:00

UPDATE 7:49 AM: We just confirmed with Mr. John Gumm that WKRC meteorologists will be heard in both AM and PM drivetime...

We had speculated on this one some time back - it's now officially happening.

WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati meteorologists will now provide (at least) morning weather updates on WKRQ-FM 101.9/Cincinnati - in fact, it's already happening, as John Gumm just posted this on his Facebook:

Really happy to be working with WKRQ starting today! Catch my forecasts on there in the morning now. Great to be working with Jeff & Jenn!

We'd speculated on this on Twitter a few weeks ago, when Brian and Laura guest-picked the music for a recent "Dance Party Friday" on the TV station's morning newscast.

Now, it looks official. We don't know if WKRC meteorologists Tim Hedrick or Michelle Boutillette will do forecasts for the aforementioned Brian and Laura yet. But we'd assume that's the case - and we'll update this post this afternoon if we catch that...

BREAKING NEWS: Insight Cable Problem

2010-05-04T09:49:00.004-04:00

UPDATE 2 10:25 AM: We now know, courtesy a report from WXIX-TV 19/Newport, that the server in question is indeed located in Louisville, at their ops center.

UPDATE: From the DSLReports.com forum linked below, we now have at least ONE report that broadband has now failed. We're not 100 percent sure this is the case elsewhere just yet. Likely, any failure with broadband ANYWHERE from here until the cable's fixed, is related to the work to FIX this problem.

We first got word through the WHAS-AM 840/Louisville Facebook page of an issue with Louisville-area cable service through Kentucky statewide cable giant Insight Communications. We then heard it was happening in Shelbyville through a fan post on that same story.

Well...it's more widespread than Louisville. In fact, it's now spread to much of Central Kentucky. This link to the DSLReports.com Insight forum is where reports are now streaming in from across the state, as more and more folks wake up and find problems.

What we know: Sometime early this morning, one of the video servers started having issues. Whether the server is in Louisville, or somewhere else in the state or even country, we do not know.

We know that the server problem has caused a multitude of issues, from analog and/or digital channels not showing up, to frozen screens. We know this firsthand because we're finding the same issues on at least one television in the TSMW headquarters. We also know that broadband and phone aren't at all affected...and we know this firsthand because our broadband and phone both work just fine right now - as they're both through Insight.

We know that, again, MUCH of Central Kentucky is impacted by this cable problem.

What we don't know is when it will be fixed.

Insight Communications' CEO Michael Willner posted, as a request on his blog, that you do NOT call your local call center. They're swamped, and they're already well aware of the issue.

We'll tweet and/or update this post, when we know that the problem is fixed. For right now, expect some channels to be missing, others to have poor video quality or even frozen pictures, and that your other Insight services are fine...it's a video server issue on Insight's end...not your cable box or hookup.

Crammed Full Tuesday Update

2010-05-04T08:00:00.004-04:00

We've got a whole LOT to cover from the busy Monday that was in the media world - so let's get right to it...

Williams Staying At WXIX: An anchor who not all that long ago was rumored to be headed for the Motor City, is staying put.

Rob Williams signed a new deal with WXIX-TV 19/Newport, which locks him in as morning co-anchor with Sheila Gray for the next three years, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer's John Kiesewetter yesterday.

Last year, in the midst of layoffs happening at other stations owned by WXIX owner Raycom, Williams was speculated by many to be headed to Detroit, Michigan for a higher profile job there. That never happened, of course, as Williams stayed in town. We now know he's staying through at least May 2013.

Of course, we think this is a great move by FOX19 to lock him in longer term. We doubt he was asking much of anything from 19... and the new Clear Channel deal signed early last month may have swayed him, as he's now doing updates for Clear Channel talk 550 WKRC-AM/Cincinnati...

Former WDJO DJ, WCPO-TV Anchor Pass On: Unfortunate news coming out of both Kentucky and Florida, as two different former local personalities passed away over the weekend.

We tweeted the news Monday afternoon about former WCPO-TV anchor Jon Esther, who died Saturday at age 72 in Owensboro, where he lived for quite some time.

The WCPO article does a fairly nice job of recapping where Esther worked.

Esther started out at WEHT-TV (then channel 50, now channel 25) in Evansville in 1962, moving on to Milwaukee's WISN-TV 12, then to WCCO-TV 4 in Minneapolis, WBBM-TV 2 in Chicago, stations in Louisville (WAVE-TV 3 according to the Kiese Blog here) and Des Moines (according to Kiese, that was WHO-TV 13), and then BACK to WEHT, before joining WCPO here in 1976 as Assistant News Editor.

Esther launched WCPO's "7 O'Clock Report" in 1979, before moving up to co-anchor the 11 PM news, the post from which he retired in 1985.

Meanwhile, down in Orlando, Florida, a former DJ for WSAI-AM here died Sunday. Dave Reinhart was 67 when he died from muscular system atrophy, which is a degenerative neurological disorder.

Kiese reports here that Reinhart worked for the old WSAI back when it was on West 8th Street in the Price Hill neighborhood. He left for awhile to work as a stockbroker, but radio was in his blood...he came back to do weekend DJ'ing work for WLW-AM 700 (back before it went talk), then became program director there in the 1980s.

Reinhart's last job in the radio business was for the Clear Channel stations down in Tampa, where he was market manager over stations such as WFLZ-FM 93.3 (don't ask how we knew that; Kiese apparently didn't) and WFLA-AM 970, before he retired in 2005.

Our condolences go out to both Reinhart's and Esther's families, as they both deal with their respective losses...

Regent No More: This will pretty much be our final reference to "Regent Communications" - as that name no longer exists for the downtown based company.

Around 10 AM today, Tom Taylor at Radio-Info reported, and the Enquirer confirmed, that Regent is now called Townsquare Media.

Along with that move comes the exit of both Chairman and CEO William Stakelin, as well as Anthony Vasconcellos, who both resigned.

Steven Price replaces Stakelin and Stuart Rosenstein now replaces Vasconcellos in management.

As Regent has gone private, and now has basically changed names, this is the last time you'll read us saying that name. From now on, if Townsquare should make news in our corner of the world, we'll refer to them as such...

Two Administrative Notes: We have two administrative notes to cover this morning, as well.

Ohio Media Watch, which if you've read us since day one you know they were the reason yours truly decided to cover southwest Ohio media, are changing blog hosts.

Effective immediately, OMW is now at ohiomediawatch.wordpress.com. We've changed the links to reflect the move, and we suggest that if you have not done so, you do the same - as after about a week or two, the old address will no longer be updated, and will remain "As Is" from there on.

It's a process similar to that which we use for Tri-State DTV Watch, which we don't update anymore, as we haven't needed to since the DTV transition happened way back in 2009. (And we doubt that domain name will be needed anytime immediately forthcoming - so for now, we keep it out there.)

The second piece of administrative news is that we've now added a new "About TSMW" page which can be accessed from the top right side of the blog. (Once you're on that page, the other link will, of course, bring you back here.)

Eventually, we'll add more to it...but for now, it's a basic description of this blog, the areas we cover regularly (or don't), and it includes the link to the aforementioned OMW, plus email and Twitter. However, the twitter feed WILL remain on the right side of the blog. This is just a way for us to put all of that information on one page.

April Quick Hits

2010-04-28T21:01:00.004-04:00

A few quick hits from the last few days...

Regent Emerges From Bankruptcy: We had been following the situation with Cincinnati based Regent Communications, which had gone into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this year. Here's the story from the Cincinnati Business Courier, as it announced its exit from Chapter 11 yesterday afternoon. The exit plan had been approved by a judge back on April 12th.

Regent now emerges as a privately held company, with Oaktree Capital Management as majority owner.

And in just breaking news: NASDAQ announced this afternoon that it will de-list common stock of the company. That may happen as soon as two weeks from tomorrow. The stock had been suspended since January 8. That was academic, as the common stock was "extinguished" by the company after the close of business Monday. The stock closed on Monday at 13 cents per share.

Former CET President Heads to Tampa: This one coming from the Kiese Blog this afternoon... as Susan Howarth exits and heads down I-75. She will become president of Tampa's WEDU-TV Channel 3 late in May.

Howarth had been WCET-TV 48/Cincinnati's president until it merged with Dayton-based Think TV, which owned WPTD 16/Dayton and WPTO 14/Oxford, in 2008. The groups, of course, are now one as Public Media Connect.

We congratulate Howarth for her dedication to public broadcasting, and wish her the best...

WLWT Re-Airing Old Programs: And by "old", we mean "Mostly Before Your Tri-State Media Watcher was Born".

The Kiese blog also had this one yesterday, when WLWT announced "Flashback Fridays". Programs from WLWT's 62 year history will air Fridays beginning this week at 11 AM, preempting Martha Stewart's daytime show.

The schedule as Kiese had it is as follows:

This Friday: “Avco Hour of Stars” from the 1974 Ohio State Fair with Braun, Dixon, Marion Spelman, Ruby Wright, Bonnie Lou, the band and many others.

May 7: “Ruth Lyons Special” (1981) and “Ruth Lyons: A Living Legend” (1983), both hosted by Bob Braun, looking at clips from her “50-50 Club” featuring Bob Hope and others, and songs by Spelman and Wright.

May 14: “WLWT Remembers Bob Braun” The 2001 special after Braun’s death with clips from his old shows featuring Lucille Ball, Bob Hope and others.

May 21: The famous “Paul Dixon Show” chicken wedding show from 1969.

Our Take: This is a great move by WLWT. Whether it will lead to future airings of past shows remains to be seen. We hope so though... and we also wonder if it'll help ratings for the noon news...

Of HD Radars and Messed Up Broadcasts

2010-04-12T12:35:00.004-04:00

We're starting this week with the wrapup on a Friday night broadcast snafu, and a newly replaced radar at a station that's done without for 15 months...

Reds HD Mess: As you may recall, Friday night, we were tweeting like crazy with our readers, along with Time Warner Cable customer representatives, as the Reds game...didn't air in HD. At least at first.

We now know for sure what happened from around 7 PM Friday night, when we first got word of the happenings from Friend of TSMW Mike Taylor, until sometime close to 9:30 PM when it was fixed for Time Warner customers here. (We don't think it was ever fixed for DirectTV.)

Apparently, the problems arose from trying to broadcast two sports in HD. The Reds game had to be put on an alternate feed, as the Cavaliers were also set to be broadcast in HD Friday night. FSO says some changes had to be made about an hour before the 7 PM first pitch - and not all cable and satellite companies got the word in time. That apparently included Time Warner and Direct TV subscribers at a minimum in our area, maybe others also. (We now know that Insight customers in Northern Kentucky had no problem getting the HD feed - what we here at the TSMW Headquarters saw was indeed High Definition.) The Standard Definition feed was never impacted - but of course, Reds fans know that FSO had promised 145 High Definition games (their entire Reds schedule).

We now hear that this isn't the first time an HD Reds game didn't air somewhere this season: in an apparent glitch on Wednesday, the Reds didn't air in High Definition on...Insight. We didn't catch this mixup, but suspect it's the same issue.

Anyway, FSO says they hope to have all of the Reds games in HD from here on out. Although they have the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Reds conflicting again Wednesday as far as HD broadcasts, they hope that's not going to be an issue.

Precision Doppler 12 HD: We had first seen pictures of the WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati radar site in Cold Spring on John Gumm's Facebook page, but didn't say anything about it because we weren't sure when a supposedly repaired PD12 Radar would launch.

Well it happened today - and it's not repaired, it's completely replaced.

We didn't get a chance to screenshot the new radar when it showed up on the noon news today. Nonetheless, Precision Doppler 12 Radar IS completely re-done, and is definitely high definition.

Gumm posted all about the new radar over the weekend on the forums of the Skyeye Weather website (which Your Editor is a member of) run by former WXIX-TV 19/Newport chief met Rich Apuzzo. This is what he wrote:

“After nearly a year of careful planning, I am pleased to announce the arrival of the most advanced TV radar in the Cincinnati area – Precision Doppler 12 HD. When Precision Doppler 12 broke down over a year ago, we first decided to just fix it. But after much discussion with our radar designer, [Weather Detection Systems](WDS) we decided to rebuild instead with the goal of being ready for severe weather season 2010. This was a much longer and costlier option and is proof of the station’s dedication to weather. We have been in the testing and calibration phase for the past week. In fact, I spent all afternoon Wednesday at the radome in Cold Spring with WDS’ chief radar engineer going through this process.

The end result is amazing. I did some test runs with the new radar this past week during the storms we had and its performance was outstanding.

Here are the major upgrades:

1.) Upgrade to an RVP8 processor- this is the same processor now used in the 88Ds. This allows for much faster scan speeds than were available with PD12. We, however, will have the option of 3 scan speeds and will switch between each as needed. Faster is not always better!

2.) Upgrade to a new transmitter with pulse compression. This has increased our peak output power by a good margin. Our radar still operates at much lower output power than Baron Services standard radars (see WCPO) by design. We use pulse compression along with a much bigger dish and much more sensitive receiver equipment in order to exceed their data quality and resolution despite the lower wattage. The design of this radar simply makes it more accurate in the display of velocity and reflectivity data.

3.) New receiver, exciter, and synthesizer components. This results in higher resolution data than before.

4.) Integration with Weather Central’s ESP:LIVE system. This gives us all the hi-res HD mapping capabilities of the ESP system and also allows for the addition of our exclusive storm tracking algorithms which were developed at the National Severe Storms Lab. It will also allow us to display up to 3 Level 2 NWS radar data streams along side of PD12 HD.

There are other enhancements we will be working on in the weeks to come, some of which we will be the first in the country to utilize.

Guys, I am like a kid with a new toy. This is awesome!”

Your Editor's take having seen the new radar: I like this new radar. Did WKRC get blasted by numerous media outlets for not having their own radar for 15 months? You bet: Two of the three competitors have run commercial spots touting their OWN radars - and blasting away at 12 for having not fixed theirs.

Was it worth it? From our point of view, absolutely. Radars can't be replaced overnight...the NWS radars in the interim served as a halfway decent replacement, and it's better to take 15 months to do something right, than just hurry to do it half-right in six months or less, and wind up needing to repair the radar again shortly thereafter.

We'll have to see how the new radar performs when there's something to track, however... tracking ground clutter isn't the best use of new doppler radar technology, after all...

Time Warner Adding New HD, Changing On Demand, and Moving GSN

2010-04-07T15:39:00.003-04:00

We get word of this from Friend of TSMW Mike Taylor.

Mike informs us that Time Warner Cable announced the addition of fifteen more HD channels today, and linked us to this post from John Kiesewetter detailing them all.

Here is how it all shakes out with the different tiers, with channel numbers in parentheses:

–Added to HD Variety Package: Hallmark HD (1113), Fuse HD (1258) and IFC HD (1280)

–Added to HD Standard Package: QVC HD (1175), HSN HD (1176)

–Added to HD Sports Package: CBS College Sports HD (1322), Tennis Channel HD (1327), NHL Network HD (1324)

–Added to HD Movie Package: Encore HD (1290)

–Added to premium services: HBO 2 HD (1604) & HBO Family HD (1606), Show TOO HD (1643), Action Max HD (1624) & More Max HD (1623), TMC HD (1662)

Also, there will be a change to On Demand services. Any home that can access On Demand programming from more than one television set will now have the ability to watch saved programs on those TV's without having to re-order.

Finally, GSN will be moved to the Variety tier from the Sports tier. This happens this Tuesday also.

To answer Mike's question, and a question that others of you might have, YES, if you have the Variety tier, you'll automatically get GSN. If you have both Sports and Variety, nothing will change. (And a correction to our email to Mike: No, channel position will NOT change. It does stay at digital 219.)

We also read from the TWC Cincinnati channel change notifications that the Speed Channel will be made available to any standard digital service customer who has a converter, and that there are future changes in the works, too, that will merge content from Action Movies on Demand, Comedy Movies on Demand & Drama Movies on Demand and eliminate those stand-alone channels - but it's not clear if either change is planned Tuesday. We assume these will, but proceed with caution. (We'll be working on it.)

That's a lot, but hopefully, it's all clear what's planned...

Quick Hits We'll Chase Down Friday or Monday

2010-04-01T19:19:00.004-04:00

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...

NEW: WXIX Gets WLW, WKRC-AM Weather

2010-04-01T07:21:00.002-04:00

We're learning this as most of you are today...and it is definitely no joke...

WXIX-TV 19/Newport has scored not one but two major coups according to John Kiesewetter in a post yesterday:

http://cincinnati.com/blogs/tv/2010/03/31/fox-19-gets-webn-fireworks-wlw-weather-deal/

The first deal is immediate: 19 is doing weather forecasts on WLW 700AM/Cincinnati and WKRC-AM 550/Cincinnati, replacing WLWT 5/Cincinnati. Again, that happened today.

The second is for fans of WEBN Fireworks every Labor Day weekend. 19 now has those rights, too... taking those from WLWT as well.

What's not clear yet is how this impacts Bonneville Broadcasting which had, until recently, used WXIX news and weather. For now, we think they'll resort to dropping morning news and delivering the NWS forecasts. (If you hear differently email us.)

All this, on a day notorious for pranks. We thought it was just that til we began to check around...

Return Wednesday

2010-03-31T08:00:00.001-04:00

UPDATE Midnight 4/1: We now hear from multiple sources that WWPW launches either tonight or Thursday as "Beat 104.3". Best guess is tonight...

This will be short and sweet... But, it IS a return post. By the way we don't exactly have our normal technology, so for this post (and at least Thursday's also), headlines won't be in bold...

Regent to Reorganize: We admittedly, hadn't kept track of what was going on with locally-based Regent Communications. But we now are aware of their Chapter 11 filing of a week or two back.

What we know is this: the company will have to spin off a couple of it's stations, according to recent reports by Tom Taylor at Radio-Info. Those are in Ft. Collins, CO and Lafayette, LA. Shareholders get $5.5 million to split and major secured creditors get 90% of the company.

It's worth noting once more: Regent doesn't own anything here. But it's locally based... which put it on our radar...

Insight Ends "Northern Kentucky Magazine": This one will be brief.

We got word yesterday that Insight Cable will be ending broadcasts of the aforementioned "Magazine" later today.

The final show will air live at 10AM on Insight Channel 2. That becomes a statewide weather and news network presumably as early as Thursday. We don't have an official date on that however. We'll let you know when we know.

Louisville "Power"?: The word is that WAYI-FM 104.3 FM, which formerly simulcast Christian Top 40 WAY-FM (whose main channel is 105.9), dropped that simulcast and that Ricky Smiley's syndicated show now claims WWPW as a Louisville affiliate. This also comes from Tom Taylor at R-I.

A word of caution: We don't have total confirmation on this yet. For now it is just rumored as far as we can tell.

But, if you're in Louisville, it's something to take note of...

Mandy's Debut: Yes, we were aware of this, too.

Mandy Connell has debuted as the replacement for Francene Cucinello at 840 WHAS-AM in Louisville.

We have not yet had a chance to hear her ourselves yet in the 9AM to noon slot.

But our current technology, the same device we're using to type this post, has wi-fi and...OK it's the recently released iPod touch and yes we got the "iHeart Radio" app. But what counts is we can get WHAS on it. (For that matter we can, wherever we get wifi, tune in nearly every station in our coverage zone, as long as they have a livestream which can be accessed via Quicktime.)

The bottom line is, while we haven't yet heard Connell on air... We will soon. It's only a matter of being up before 9AM...

THIS JUST IN: All 145 Reds Games HD on Fox Sports OH, PLUS Local 12 Reaches Broadcast Deal for XU, UK Games This week

2010-03-22T17:11:00.003-04:00

Two late breaking stories, just coming in...

All Reds Games HD: We just got this word off the Fox Sports Ohio Facebook page.

They just announced there that all 145 Cincinnati Reds baseball games they will air will be in High Definition, including Opening Day.

Also, they announced that WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati will simulcast the coverage of Opening Day, which as we write this is just about 2 weeks away, beginning at 1 PM. (We assume this means WKRC will either blow out the CBS daytime schedule or move it to their CW Cincinnati subchannel.)

Here's most of the FSO official release, which you can also view, along with the COMPLETE Reds schedule, here:

All 145 Cincinnati Reds Games in HD

ALL FOX Sports Ohio Reds telecasts to be in high definition this season

Local 12 WKRC-TV will simulcast Opening Day on Monday, April 5

CINCINNATI, OHIO – FOX Sports Ohio announced today the entire 2010 Cincinnati Reds 145-game telecast schedule will be in crystal clear high definition. Henry Ford, Senior Vice President and General Manager, FOX Sports Ohio, made the announcement.

“We’re proud and very excited that we will produce and deliver ALL 145 Reds games in High Definition this season,” stated Ford. “You can feel the fan excitement for Red’s baseball growing throughout Spring Training. Folks logging on to foxsportsohio.com are following the nuances of player development and expressing interest in daily recaps of what’s going on in Goodyear. As we head into the regular season, we are delighted to continue that momentum and heighten the fan experience with enhanced telecasts in HD.”

As previously announced, FOX Sports Ohio begins its 145-game schedule of Reds baseball with the team’s home opener on Monday, April 5 at 1pm against division rival St. Louis Cardinals at Great American Ball Park.

FOX Sports Ohio is also happy to partner with Local 12 WKRC-TV to simulcast Reds Opening Day.

Local12 Vice-President and General Manager Les Vann said, “Local 12 WKRC-TV is proud to partner with Fox Sports Ohio to bring you the Cincinnati Reds Opening Day Game! There is nothing more local than the tradition and pride of The Cincinnati Reds and the history of opening day baseball, right here on Local 12. We would like to thank Fox Sports Ohio and the Reds for this partnership.”

Coverage will begin with Reds Live pre-game show, presented by Ray St. Clair Roofing, at 12:30pm. Jim Day, Jeff Piecoro and Brian Giesenschlag will take the field to feature all the Opening Day festivities.

FOX Sports Ohio is proud to announce two new production enhancements for the 2010 season: FOX Trax and X-Mo.

FOX Trax is the newest broadcast enhancement that presents statistics about pitches in real-time. Powered by Major League Baseball’s official pitch tracking system, FOX Trax will show viewers new and compelling data elements such as break, release and end speed, spin direction and pinpoint location of the ball as it crosses the front of home plate. Combined with a pitch type classification graphic, viewers will have more insight into pitcher strategy that will make the action even more engaging and exciting.

X-MO is a high speed camera/replay device that will bring viewers incredible clarity on replays. X-MO will be able to slow an image down to 3,000 frames per second versus a normal frame of video which is 30 frames per second. Therefore, Reds fans will be able to see plays slowed down to 100 times their normal speed. Using this amazing technology, game details such as the rotation of a pitch or the splintering of a bat will now be seen in crystal clarity.

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

Our Take: This is good news for people with HDTV sets. They can watch the game in HD. And believe us, HD makes any game better.

Also, the partnership with WKRC is good for those wanting to catch Opening Day but who don't have cable or satellite to get FSO in the Cincinnati area. Opening Day is practically a city-wide holiday, no matter how bad the Reds may have done the previous season because it's a clean slate...and everybody wants to start fresh if it was not a good year...

WKRC Reaches Deal For Sweet 16: If you're following March Madness, as we have been, you know both University of Kentucky and Xavier University men's teams advanced to the Sweet 16 over the weekend. For Cincinnati area fans of both teams, this is good news.

The problem for WKRC-TV was, both games happen Thursday night. Xavier tips off at 9:37 PM, with Kentucky's game starting 20 minutes later.

The good news was that WKRC just announced this afternoon that they will be able to cover both games. UK's tilt with Cornell will be bumped to the CW Cincinnati while Xavier faces off with Kansas State on WKRC's main channel.

If you've got Time Warner Cable, UK will be on channel 20. If you've got Insight or DirectTV, channel 25 is where to go to watch Kentucky versus Cornell.

Our Take: Great work by WKRC. Both games will air locally, and fans of both teams will be happy...

Headed Into an Extended Weekend

2010-03-12T09:00:00.003-05:00

We're off for the weekend after we post this information (see why below)...

FSO Alternate Channels Announced: We missed this one for yesterday's Miami University(Ohio) basketball win over Buffalo, but we're here in time to note this new added information.

FOX Sports Ohio released the following information Thursday about the two major alternate channels we were missing yesterday.

For today's games, this is the schedule in Cincinnati, Dayton and Northern Kentucky:

FRIDAY MARCH 12

A-10 Tournament Quarterfinals

Game 1 (12 pm) & Game 2 (2:30pm)

Cincinnati: FOX Sports Ohio; Direct TV: FS Cincinnati; DISH Network: FS Cincinnati.

Game 3 – Xavier v. UD (6:30pm) & Game 4 (9pm)

Cincinnati: FOX Sports Ohio; Direct TV: FS Cincinnati; DISH Network: FS Cincinnati. **The Xavier v. UD game will NOT be televised on FOX Sports Ohio in Dayton, Ohio due to a conflicting syndication agreement with local TV, WHIO-TV.**

MAC Men’s Tournament Semifinals

Game 1 (7pm) & Game 2 (9:30pm)

Cincinnati/Dayton: Time Warner: Channel 99 & 310; Insight: Channel 422; Cincinnati Bell Fioptics: Channel 261; Direct TV: Channel 657; DISH Network: Channel 453.

As Miami(Ohio) advanced yesterday, you Miami fans out there will need to note the above alternate channels. This is due to the A10 tournament going on at the same time as the MAC Men's Semifinals. We bolded the new information that we found out yesterday.

And again, in Dayton, Xavier and University of Dayton fans need to tune their TV to WHIO-TV 7, NOT Fox Sports Ohio. WHIO has the rights to University of Dayton games, as we understand it.

Also one more reminder/note: If you're looking to see the Cavaliers take on the 76ers tonight, you need to go to FSO's HD feed. That's on Time Warner Digital 1309, Cincinnati Bell Fioptics channel 512, and (far as we know) Insight Digital 929.

A Personal Aside: Barring something major, this is the final update for this week due to family obligations as one of yours truly's three brothers' birthday is today. And we may be busy on Monday, as well handling some personal stuff.

Therefore, the next update should be Tuesday morning... barring some unforeseen circumstance.

As you are no doubt aware, we update this when we have something important to share with you. By Tuesday, we should have some idea which NCAA Tournament games will be on locally and when they'll be... so that'll likely be the focus of our next update.

If you have a media tip, you may e-mail us here. We'll get around to it as soon as humanly possible.

All Cincinnati Stations Working Together - For Good Cause

2010-03-11T06:08:00.003-05:00

Yes, we just found out about this - but in our defense, we've had a rough week.

All of the local TV stations in the Cincinnati market - including WXIX 19/Newport, WCPO 9/Cincinnati, WKRC 12/Cincinnati, WLWT 5/Cincinnati, WSTR 64/Cincinnati, and WCET 48/Cincinnati, are working together this morning to help feed hungry families area-wide.

It's appropriately being called "Cincinnati Television Together" and it benefits Freestore Foodbank, Brighton Center, and Shared Harvest Foodbank.

There is currently a phonebank ongoing as of this post (which we just heard is at the WCET studios on Central Parkway downtown), which will be open until 12 midnight tonight (Thursday). The phone number is 1-800-808-0445 (and yes, it DOES go to the phonebank, we've double checked the information being shown on TV).

You can also donate by clicking this link, OR going to your local Bigg's, Kroger or Remke Markets store, and make a donation at the register anytime today through Sunday.

We give all six stations major kudos, for remembering the community they serve and hope they'll do things like this more often as a group. After all, they all do serve ONE community...a good portion of which is suffering in this economy...

Fox Sports Ohio Covering MAC, Atlantic 10 Tournaments Plus Cavs and Blue Jackets This Weekend

2010-03-10T15:28:00.002-05:00

We got word today that Fox Sports Ohio will be covering both the Atlantic 10 and Mid-American Conference tournaments, along with Cavaliers and Blue Jackets games. These are the times and channel information as we know it at this time:

Thursday, March 11

MAC Tournament Quarterfinals
Game 1 (12pm) & Game 2 (2:30pm)

Cleveland: FOX Sports Ohio

Columbus: FOX Sports Ohio

Cincinnati/Dayton: FOX Sports Ohio
Direct TV: FS Ohio, FS Cincinnati
DISH Network: FS Ohio, FS Cincinnati

Game 3 (7pm) & Game 4 (9:30pm)

Cleveland:
· Time Warner: Channel 310
· Cox: Channel 98
Columbus: Check local channels
Cincinnati/Dayton:
· Time Warner: Channel 99 & 310
· Insight: Alternate Channel TBD
· Cincinnati Bell Fioptics: Alternate Channel TBD
Direct TV: Channel 658
DISH Network: Channel 449

Columbus Blue Jackets (HD)
Blue Jackets Live (6:30pm) & Blue Jackets v. Thrashers (7pm)

Cleveland: FOX Sports Ohio
Columbus: FOX Sports Ohio
Cincinnati/Dayton: FOX Sports Ohio
Direct TV: FS Ohio, FS Cincinnati
DISH Network: FS Ohio, FS Cincinnati

Friday, March 12

MAC Women’s Tournament Semifinals
Game 1 (12 pm) & Game 2 (2:30pm)

Cleveland: FOX Sports Ohio
Direct TV: FS Ohio
DISH Network: FS Ohio

MAC Men’s Tournament Semifinals
Game 1 (7pm) & Game 2 (9:30pm)

A-10 Tournament Quarterfinals
Game 1 (12 pm) & Game 2 (2:30pm)

Cincinnati: FOX Sports Ohio
Columbus: FOX Sports Ohio
Direct TV: FS Cincinnati
DISH Network: FS Cincinnati

Game 3 - Xavier v. UD (6:30pm) & Game 4 (9pm)

Cincinnati: FOX Sports Ohio
Direct TV: FS Cincinnati
DISH Network: FS Cincinnati
**The Xavier v. UD game will NOT be televised on FOX Sports Ohio in Dayton, Ohio due to a conflicting syndication agreement with local TV, WHIO-TV.**

Cleveland Cavaliers (HD)
Cavaliers Live (6:30pm) & Cavaliers @ Philadelphia (7pm)

Cleveland: FOX Sports Ohio
Columbus: FOX Sports Ohio
Cincinnati/Dayton: FOX Sports Ohio HD only
Direct TV: FS Ohio
DISH Network: FS Ohio

Saturday, March 13

MAC Women’s Tournament Final (1pm)

Cleveland: FOX Sports Ohio
Columbus: FOX Sports Ohio
Cincinnati/Dayton: FOX Sports Ohio
Direct TV: FS Ohio, FS Cincinnati
DISH Network: FS Ohio, FS Cincinnati

Columbus Blue Jackets (HD)
Blue Jackets Live (6:30pm) & Blue Jackets v. Blues (7pm)

Cleveland: FOX Sports Ohio
Columbus: FOX Sports Ohio
Cincinnati/Dayton: FOX Sports Ohio
Direct TV: FS Ohio, FS Cincinnati
DISH Network: FS Ohio, FS Cincinnati

Note: We do not know which channel Insight or Cincinnati Bell will use. Keep an eye on the FSOhio website for more information.

THIS JUST IN: WHAS-AM Names New Midday Host

2010-03-04T15:10:00.008-05:00

We have the official word straight from Clear Channel's Louisville HQ, courtesy of our colleague Tom Taylor at Radio-Info.com.

As we tweeted this morning, an announcement was expected around 3 PM this afternoon from 840 WHAS-AM/Louisville, naming the replacement for Francene Cucinello. Cucinello died January 15 from a heart attack and brain aneurysm, leaving the 9 AM-Noon slot open.

That's until the end of this month. Mandy Connell(seen at right, photo courtesy Clear Channel) will be the replacement.

She's coming here from Fort Myers, Florida, leaving the FOX News Radio station there, where she has done mornings for a trimulcast out of 1240 WINK-AM/Fort Myers, 1270 WNOG-AM/Naples and 92.5 WFSX-FM/Estero. (Yes, that's a city; it's south of Fort Myers.)

Here's the press release:

Louisville, KY, March 4, 2010 – NewsRadio 84WHAS (840 AM) today announced the appointment of Mandy Connell as its new 9AM-12Noon talk show host.

A 14 year radio veteran, Connell has entertained and informed audiences in several Florida cities, including Gainesville and Orlando. For the last five years, she has served Southwest Florida listeners as morning show host on 1240/1270 WINK/WNOG and 92.5 Fox News Radio in Ft. Myers/Naples.

84WHAS Operations Manager Kelly Carls had this to say: “We reviewed over 130 applications, and talked to many talented people. Mandy really stood out for her energy, enthusiasm, and dedication to giving listeners an interesting, informative, and engaging radio program. We believe she will really connect with the 84WHAS audience.”

Clear Channel Louisville Market President Bill Gentry added, “Mandy is personable, friendly, and well-read. We’re confident she will uphold the tradition of exceptional performance our listeners have come to expect.”

Commenting on her new appointment, Mandy Connell said, “To say that I am excited is a
massive understatement. Not only do I get to join a heritage radio station like 84WHAS, I get to live in Louisville, which has more amazing restaurants than I dreamed possible. I couldn’t ask for a better new home! I can’t wait to dig in, metaphorically and literally.”

Mandy Connell will join the 84WHAS program line-up during the week of March 29th. Listeners can join her on the air at 840 AM, online at www.whas.com, or using their iPhones or Blackberries with the iHeartradio app.

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

Our Take: This, on paper, seems like a good hire for WHAS. We've not heard Connell's show, since a) we're not usually awake at 5:30 AM and b) we're not based in Fort Myers. (We know it's online also, and we'll try to listen in to her current show before she leaves that station.)

We've said it before, and we'll state this again: WHAS needs to keep the 9-noon slot local. We believe that will continue but, again, since we haven't heard Connell on air, we can't say for sure. Connell seems to be a good fit, however and we look forward to being able to hear her on her new show.

One thing's for sure: At least she's not having to endure a 3 AM wakeup in Louisville...we'll have to see if she can produce the ratings in the 9 AM to noon slot that she has been in Fort Myers 5:30 AM-9 AM.

And we really hope she was kidding about not knowing who the current coach of University of Kentucky basketball is...

JUST IN: Two More Channels Moved by Insight, WCVN Now on 6

2010-03-02T15:14:00.009-05:00

UPDATE: We stand corrected: WCVN is now on Insight channel 6. The remainder of this item is unchanged...

At this rate, it may soon be easier to list what's LEFT on Insight Cable for analog subscribers...

We were flipping through channels today and found this slide on channels 18 and 19:

If you can't read it due to poor quality (our apologies, as it was taken using a cell phone camera), it says "Northern Cable has moved to channel 96. CSPAN has moved to channel 97."

Yes, that's right - that's two more channels that are basically all but gone from the basic cable. Northern Cable has provided people with NKU news and information for years...as long as we can remember. And now it's moved...no alerts or anything. We couldn't find anything that told us these channels were moving. We didn't see any crawls on these channels.

Also today marked the move of ICN6 to Insight channel 2... our original posting was incorrect about it being yesterday. As we type this, the former slot of WCVN-TV 54/Covington is now ICN2. And as for WCVN...it's on channel 6. (By the way, we now hear that Insight plans to replace the local programming now seen on ICN... uh, 6/2... with statewide weather 24/7, with live meteorologists. That per the Kiese Blog today.)

Shouldn't Insight have alerted customers of the other channel changes, also when word of the ICN move came?? Did we miss an ad in the papers or something? This seems like it was sprung on most Insight customers with no warning at all...and we don't like having things like this spring up with no warnings because it makes it hard to do our jobs.

And no, Insight, we don't see any sections on your website that list upcoming moves. Nice try... but we've looked before. Nothing. (Heck, your lineups aren't even up to date now!)

These lapses in communication really make it hard to be a media blogger sometimes...we bet not even Kiese knew of THIS change.

FOX Sports Ohio News

2010-03-01T12:31:00.002-05:00

Wow, a lot coming from the Fox Sports Ohio HQ today...one of which we saw on WXIX-TV 19/Newport's "Sports Wrap" broadcast yesterday evening.

Xavier Bounce: Another Xavier game has been bounced due to a professional basketball game conflicting.

Xavier takes on Fordham this Wednesday at 7 PM, at the same time as the Cleveland Cavaliers will be facing the New Jersey Nets.

Xavier, therefore, gets bounced to channels 99 and 310 in Cincinnati and Dayton on Time Warner, channel 291 on Cincinnati Bell Fioptics, and (according to the presser) channel 6 in Northern Kentucky on Insight Cable. (We're not sure about that last one, as Insight announced that they were moving all of ICN 6's programming to channel 2 - see our post around 8:30 AM.)

McCoy Back on the Beat: Yes, we mean Hal McCoy, formerly of the Dayton Daily News.

He'll be covering the Cincinnati Reds for FSO's website, and is already in his new role. We think he's already in Goodyear, Arizona, which of course is the site of Reds Spring Training.

McCoy left the Dayton Daily News after last season, following 37 years covering the Reds for them, but apparently his love of the game won out. We can't blame him for that... we don't think we could retire, either in this situation...

Looking for the Next Sports Blogger: FOX Sports Ohio announced in a press release today a new contest, called “Blog Sports Ohio".

They're taking entries now on FoxSportsOhio.com through next Wednesday. Contestants have to submit one game recap, one editorial and one feature story, plus complete the online entry form to enter.

For details on all of these stories, you can log on to FSO's site here.

THIS JUST IN: Regent Filing for Chapter 11

2010-03-01T12:06:00.001-05:00

We just got word that Regent Communications, based in Cincinnati, has filed for Chapter 11 reorganization this morning.

Radio-Info.com reports that shareholders of Regent stock will receive 12.8 cents for every share they own. Oaktree Capital will gain control of the company but the top management team will remain in place and day-to-day operations will continue as normal.

You'll recall we've mentioned Regent a time or two, as their stock price has been...well, at rock bottom.

So, this may help them get back to some measure of profitability...but it certainly isn't going to occur overnight...

NEW: WCVG to Great Lakes Radio

2010-03-01T09:00:00.000-05:00

TSMW received word of it Friday morning, and spent Friday afternoon tracking down the situation... and here's what's known now after I had a sit-down interview with Tim Gallagher of Great Lakes Media:

WCVG-AM 1320/Covington is being sold by Davidson Media Group. The buyers are Mr. Gallagher and Michael Fortin, who run Great Lakes Radio out of Chicago, Illinois. The sale price as posted by the FCC (WARNING: Large file and capital letters) here is $472,500. Great Lakes already owns WBGX-AM 1570 up in Chicago, and has owned stations in Detroit and Cleveland also.

No, I didn't mistype. The station is being bought for 25% of what Davidson paid for it some time back, Gallagher told me yesterday.

Gallagher heard back in December that the station was for sale, and just before Christmas came and looked at it, he told me.

Gallagher said that the plan, and indeed what's already started happening, is that they will sell airtime on the station to local churches which in turn will use that for ministering to the local community. Yes, most of that programming will be pre-recorded. The way Gallagher put it yesterday was that the churches aren't promoting the station so much as they are their local ministries...something no other station is doing for Tri-State churches. (WCKY 1530 and WLW 700 both do broadcast church programming, however none of the programming is locally based in Cincinnati.)

The bottom line, Gallagher says, is that they're filling a niche that nobody else is doing, and they intend to do it 24 hours a day.

To yours truly, the fact that they're doing all of this with a 500 watt daytime/430 watt nighttime signal is remarkable. The nighttime signal doesn't reach much of the Ohio side of the market, and even though daytime isn't much better, it DOES cover much of the city of Cincinnati. (No, Gallagher didn't tell me of any plans to upgrade...and anyway, they sit between 1230 WDBZ-AM/Cincinnati and 1360 WSAI-AM/Cincinnati...both of which use 1000 or more watts of power 24 hours a day.)

Anyway, hopefully this sale will help WCVG succeed in radio...especially today's market. After all, locally based programming is a good thing. And locally based programming that isn't being done anywhere else is a really good thing.

Special thanks to Tim Gallagher for allowing me to sit down and talk with him about what's going on with WCVG.

NEW: Insight Scrapping Local Programming on ICN6 - AFTER Moving to channel 2

2010-03-01T08:30:00.001-05:00

Insight is about to make yet more moves - and one has already hit by the time you read this.

Insight is moving ICN 6 to channel 2 effective as of Monday...in other words today. All the local programming you've seen on ICN 6 is now on channel 2. At least, for the next few weeks.

At the end of THIS month, Insight will scrap all the local programming on channel 2. This includes shows like "Northern Kentucky Magazine", "On the Record", and "Sports Page". An email from Nancy James, host of the aforementioned "Northern Kentucky Magazine", says that "some consolidation is being done and specific programming is in the works for the better of the State of Kentucky".

The entire email, which was originally posted on John Kiesewetter's blog here, follows:

Dear Friends, Sponsors and Guests of Northern Kentucky Magazine, and Faithful viewers:

There are two reasons for my email. Simply put: As we approach March 1st, “Things they are a changin’onICN6!” As you might have already heard, our location on your dial or “remote” will change effective this month. We make the move from Channel 6 to Channel 2. All the programming will switch, leaving all local programming on Channel 2.

Then effective April 1st, another change will take place. On that date, all local programming seen on Channel 2, including our show Northern Kentucky Magazine will no longer be aired there. There has been no official ‘press release’ to this effect or any official direction for us to communicate to you, other than ‘some consolidation is being done and specific programming is in the works for the better of the State of Kentucky’. But this is not a secret. The ‘word is out on the street’ and I wanted you to be just as aware.

Here is the first of my two requests: The relationship between our staff, our guests and our viewers is a very important one to me. You have been an integral part of our family and we yours. Please allow us the honor of being able to be your “voice” for your event, your gala, your new CD, your business, your cause, your news, your story, whatever, one more time. Northern Kentucky Magazine has been proud to be your voice for almost 20 years, and I would love for these last 4-½ weeks to reflect that same proud stance. So please email me ASAP with your availability and I, along with Sandy Megowen, will make every effort to accommodate your wishes.

The second request is simple: Please reply to this email with a couple of sentences that describe what this show, Northern Kentucky Magazine, has meant to you, your clients, your family, or our community. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am alone in believing that if the management of Insight were to be informed as to just how very important this show was to our community, we might be looked at differently! I don’t know what difference they might make, but I would love for YOUR voices to be heard.

I have been honored to have interviewed most of you or your clients and hope that our paths will continue to cross in the future!

With Warmest Regards, Nancy James

Our take: Channel move is an okay idea. In fact, I believe that in Louisville, similar programming is already found on channel 2. Not great, but a good idea.

However: The idea to scrap the local programming in favor of statewide programs is a BAD IDEA. ICN6, along with all the other "ICN" channels across the state, serve their local communities. There's a local focus on news among other things. Besides, KET already DOES statewide programming here, probably pretty close to what Insight is planning to do.

In short, good channel move, BAD idea to scrap local programming...

NEW: Eric Flack Heads Southwest - to Louisville

2010-02-25T11:22:00.002-05:00

We got word last night that Eric Flack, currently general assignment reporter for WLWT-TV 5/Cincinnati, will head down to Louisville in March - and back to his former station WAVE-TV 3/Louisville. This report from Louisvillemojo.com says he starts March 30.

Flack has 8 TV Emmys, along with 3 AP awards for investigative and general assignment reporting to his credit.

Before his 3 years here at WLWT, Flack worked for WAVE from 2002-2007, and there are plenty of examples of his work on the WAVE website.

The LouisvilleMojo.com story says Flack has roots in Louisville, as his mother went to Seneca High School there, and Flack mentions in a note to John Kiesewetter here that his wife is also from the area, making it an easy transition. He also says that being a full time investigative reporter was a goal of his, and this will certainly achieve that.

Congratulations, Eric, and we wish you well...

Briefly: Additional Reds Spring Training Games on TV

2010-02-24T08:04:00.003-05:00

Courtesy of TSMW reader Brian Willenbrink, we have a full slate of the Reds' Spring Training games on TV, besides those we'd already posted a few days ago, for those of you on satellite and/or who may be able to pick up these channels. Here they are:

March 6: @ Cleveland SportsTime Ohio 3:05 PM
March 10: @ Los Angeles Angels Fox Sports West 3:05 PM
March 12: @ LA Dodgers Fox Prime Ticket 3:05 PM
March 13: @ Chicago Cubs Comcast SportsNet Chicago 2:05 PM
March 14: @ Chicago White Sox Comcast SportsNet Chicago 3:05 PM
March 17: vs Cleveland SportsTime Ohio 4:05 PM
March 20: @ San Francisco Comcast SportsNet California 1 PM
March 21: vs Chicago Comcast SportsNet Chicago 3:05 PM

This is in addition to these three games already set to be picked up by Fox Sports Ohio:

Friday, March 5 Reds vs. Cleveland Indians 3:05 PM (Shared w/ SportsTime Ohio)
Thursday, March 18 Reds @ Cleveland Indians 4:05 PM (Shared w/ SportsTime Ohio)
Monday, March 22 Reds vs. Colorado Rockies 4:05 PM

Once again, thanks to Brian Willenbrink for the full list.

All of these games should be heard locally on 700 WLW if you don't have satellite. But... it is a lot better to be able to see the action as well as hear it...

One Out, One Staying In at 19 Broadcast Plaza (But Moving Up)

2010-02-23T15:45:00.004-05:00

We have a pair of stories that broke yesterday from 635 West Seventh Street. One is an exit, and one is just a move up...

McCoy Out: We start with the exit of short-time Andy Furman producer JC McCoy, fired abruptly yesterday from WQRT-AM 1160/Florence's newest (and only) local show.

John Kiesewetter picks up the story here:

McCoy tells (Kiesewetter) his bosses said it was a “corporate decision,” and they refused to give him a reason for the firing. “They said, ‘We can’t say anything.’” They were only paying him $150 a week to produce/co-host “The Furman Factor” (5-7 p.m.), plus he was doing some sales for the station too.

McCoy told Kiese that he's looking at legal options, even though Ohio law says that no reason is necessary for termination of a contract. He's already retained an attorney, and that WQRT (and probably their owners, Christian Broadcasting System Ltd. out of Flint, Michigan) will get a letter asking why he was terminated after just two weeks on air (plus another week off air).

Ackermann Moves Up the Ladder: And now for the one staying, but moving up, as WXIX-TV 19/Newport looks for a new news director... but this follows a promotion as opposed to a termination, as Kiese also reported yesterday.

Steve Ackermann has been WXIX's news director for 5 years, had been doing double duty, serving as both the local ND and a regional news manager for WXIX parent Raycom. The regional position covered, in addition to WXIX, stations in Cleveland, Toledo, Louisville, Evansville, Cape Girardeau, MO, and Jonesboro, AR.

Raycom announced his promotion to Regional News Director yesterday, which will see Ackermann continue to be based in Cincinnati and (we assume) out of 19 Broadcast Plaza. As it goes, announcing the local ND opening now will attract news managers who will be available in June, after the critical May sweeps end.

Under Ackermann, while they've seen several key talent depart (Jack Atherton, Valerie Abati, and Dan Hoard for example, the first two of which are now at WLWT-TV 5/Cincinnati), they've also gained Steve Horstmeyer and launched their 6 and 6:30 PM newscasts. It will be interesting to see who they bring in... and what the hire may mean in the future for WXIX's ratings, which are solid in the mornings and at 10 PM (but not as good at 6 or 6:30 PM)...

FOX Sports Ohio Covering Multiple College Games Wednesday

2010-02-22T20:33:00.003-05:00

A quick note to let you know what's going on (especially along and south of I-70):

Wednesday, Fox Sports Ohio has the unusual position of covering three different games, splitting Cleveland from Columbus and Cincinnati/Dayton areas.

As always, if you live in an area not listed here, go to Fox Sports Ohio's website for more information. Or tweet us (if you have twitter) or email us, and if we can find the information, we will and get back to you. (And to our Louisville/Lexington readers: We've checked the FSO site - and there's no alternate channel listed for you. We'll find out.)

MAC Basketball

7pm Buffalo @ Akron

Cleveland, Ohio: FOX Sports Ohio

Direct TV/Dish Network: FS Ohio

Xavier Muskeeters

7:30pm Musketeers Live pre-game show

8pm Xavier @ St. Louis

Columbus, Ohio: FOX Sports Ohio

Cincinnati/Dayton, Ohio: FOX Sports Ohio

Direct TV/Dish Network: FS Cincinnati

The Cincinnati Bearcats

7p Cincinnati v. DePaul

Cleveland

Cox: Channel 98

Time Warner: Channel 310

Columbus, Ohio:

Time Warner, Insight and WOW - check local channels

Cincinnati/Dayton, Ohio:

Time Warner: Channel 99 & 310

Insight: Channel 6

Cincinnati Bell Fioptics: Channel 261

Direct TV/Dish Network (all areas): Alternate Channel TBD, check the FSO Website tomorrow or Wednesday

A note: We usually wouldn't include Cleveland information as that's Ohio Media Watch territory, and we're...well, not them, plus we're based in Southwest Ohio. But in this case, since we mentioned them off the top, we felt it was prudent to give that information. (Plus, Direct TV and Dish Network will be using the FSO main feed for the Buffalo/Akron game, so we needed to include that.)

As always, thanks to Kate Buddenhagen at FSO for providing us the critical information.

NEW THIS WEEKEND: WKRC Engineer Dies of Cancer at 56

2010-02-20T16:15:00.002-05:00

We just got word of something that a lot of our Cincinnati readers may already know.

WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati engineer Don Gilbert, 56, has died following a long battle with cancer. We don't know what type - as that information hasn't been released.

From the station's website:

There are many people behind the scenes at Local 12 who keep this television station running. Our friend Don Gilbert was one of them. We lost Don Thursday night, after his long and very courageous battle with cancer.

He is survived by his wife Peggy.

Donnie, as we called him, was a veteran broadcast engineer. He worked with us here at local 12 for more than two decades. If you were in a jam, just the sight of him arriving to help made you feel better. Simply put: if it needed to be fixed, he was the man.

Many times Donnie was at our feet, literally beneath the anchor desk, while we were on the air fixing whatever critical problem needed his attention.

If your signal to your house had a glitch, Don was the man who made your picture better at home.

Donnie made TV happen and he made us better. Donnie's spirit will live on here. He will always be in our hearts.

Please take a few moments and remember Don with the tribute Brad has put together with the help of Donnie's friends.

The tribute mentioned is at the top of the story we've linked above.

We here at Tri-State Media Watch extend our condolences to Mr. Gilbert's family, friends and co-workers...

FOX Sports Ohio Releases Spring Training TV Schedule

2010-02-12T16:46:00.003-05:00

We got this one a couple days ago, but we have been running like headless chickens for a bit.

FOX Sports Ohio has released their schedule of three Cincinnati Reds Spring Training games. Two of them are shared telecasts with SportsTime Ohio, which is the television home for the Cleveland Indians in Ohio Media Watch territory.

The Reds and the Indians share a new Spring Training facility in Goodyear, Arizona starting this year. Because this is a shared facility, FSO and STO will share the two games that will pit the two teams against each other. FSO will originate the March 5th game and share it with STO, and STO will do the same for the March 18th game and share it with FSO.

The games are:

Friday, March 5 Reds vs. Cleveland Indians 3:05pm
Thursday, March 18 Reds @ Cleveland Indians 4:05pm
Monday, March 22 Reds vs. Colorado Rockies 4:05pm

More from the release below about the two shared telecasts:

During the FOX Sports Ohio telecast on March 5th, fans will get a tour of the new Reds training facilities in Goodyear. Paul Keels, the newest member of the FOX Sports Ohio Reds broadcast team, will also be introduced for the first time. The main Reds play by play announcer Thom Brennaman will call the game alongside color analyst Chris Welsh. STO’s color analyst Rick Manning will also join them in the booth during the game.

On the STO-produced March 18th Reds-Indians game, Reds color analyst Chris Welsh will join Indians broadcasters Rick Manning and Matt Underwood in the broadcast booth.

We're not clear on what role Keels will have on the first broadcasts. We're sure FSO has plans for him beyond the introduction on the 3/5 broadcast.

We're also not sure that FSO will produce "Reds Live" before either of their games. We suspect not, as there's no mention of such in the release, and we scanned it carefully.

Either way, "Reds Live" will most definitely return for the 2010 regular season.

Anyway, we just wanted to be sure we got the information out there... in case anyone was looking for it...

THIS JUST IN: Fox Sports, ESPN Swapping Affiliations

2010-02-12T15:58:00.004-05:00

ADDENDUM: We just noted Lance McAlister's blog on 700wlw.com, and he says this will be 1530's new lineup on Monday:

Mike and Mike in the Morning, 6-10am
Colin Cowherd, 10am-2pm
Scott Van Pelt, 2-3pm
Mo Egger, 3-6pm
ESPN radio, 6pm-midnight

McAlister also notes that, when the Reds season begins, he'll slide back over to 1530 to do afternoon drive there (except if the Reds are off) and continue to do "SportsTalk" and "Reds Inside Pitch" on WLW-AM 700.

By the way, we got the Fox Sports Ohio Reds TV schedule for Spring Training, and we'll cover that in a separate item...

Our original posting follows....

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

We just got word of a major affiliation swap that will happen on Monday, February 15.

ESPN Radio programming, including "Mike and Mike in the Morning", will move to WCKY-AM 1530/Cincinnati on Monday morning. That displaces Fox Sports Radio - which will be moved to WSAI-AM 1360/Cincinnati. There will be a simulcast of "Mike and Mike" on Monday 6-10 AM, then the final flip will take place.

Here's the Clear Channel release which we just obtained:

On Monday, February 15 Cincinnati sports radio brands will be realigned both on air and online. All ESPN radio programming will be moved to WCKY-AM (1530), teaming the Mike and Mike Morning Show, which features Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic, with Mo Egger and local sports talk each afternoon. With this move, Cincinnati sports fans will enjoy popular drive time programming in one place on the 50,000 watt signal of “ESPN1530” and online at espn1530.com.

Along with the move of ESPN programming to the more powerful signal, the station will also broadcast Major League Baseball games, the MLB play-offs and World Series, NBA games and play-offs. It will continue to be the Cincinnati radio home to the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville football and basketball broadcasts. ESPN1530 will also continue as the Home of the Cincinnati Bengals, carrying all Bengals’ broadcasts, pre-season, regular season and post-season.

Fox Sports Radio programming will now be heard fulltime on WSAI-AM (1360). Popular personalities, including Ohio native Dan Patrick, Jim Rome and Tony Bruno will all be heard on WSAI-AM (1360) as the station is rebranded as “Fox Sports1360.”

Online, one of the most visited websites in Cincinnati media, 1530homer.com will be rebranded as homer247.com. The new site will continue to be the go to website for all things sports and the lifestyle of a young male consumer. The very popular blogs of Lance McAlister, Mo Egger and Nick Brunker will continue on this rebranded website, along with breaking sports and lifestyle news.

“The most powerful brand in sports, ESPN, is now combined with the most popular afternoon drive sports talk show in the Cincinnati market,” said ESPN1530 program director Tony Bender. “Plus, some of the biggest events in sports will be combined in one place, on ESPN1530! New ratings research has shown the Mike and Mike Morning Show to be one of the top shows in the market each morning for male consumers. This move gives the sports’ fan access to Mike and Mike on a much more powerful signal,” concluded Bender.

The moves of the Fox Sports Radio and ESPN programming will take place beginning at 6am Monday, February 15, as the Mike and Mike Morning Show will be simulcast on both ESPN1530 and Fox Sports1360. At 10am the final switch of programming will take place.

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

Our take: This looks good for ESPN Radio, and not as good for Fox Sports Radio. ESPN 1530 looks really good lineup wise, while keeping the PM drive tandem of Lance McAlister and Mo Egger, all the Bengals games plus University of Kentucky and University of Louisville broadcasts. A good lineup in a sports town like Cincinnati.

Fox Sports 1360 gives FSR a fulltime home. But other than that, it doesn't gain much from the weaker signal. Here's hoping longtime Dan Patrick fans can find him on the new home...

Three Quick Notes

2010-02-08T20:14:00.004-05:00

UPDATE 7:45 PM 2/10/10: We got an email from Matthew Gray at WOTH-LD 25. He says they were testing new equipment and nothing is on the horizon right now...

We've got 3 separate quick notes about some stuff we've gotten via e-mail. One, the person who sent us the email already has spoken for themselves about...and two of which we're still trying to follow up on.

But, a note: We're fighting some sinus issues that are making it tough to speak (at least without snorting) - so phone calls needing to be made will probably need to wait til tomorrow morning.

WOTH Test Pattern: We received an email from Max Abel on Friday, asking us what was up with the test pattern on WOTH-LD 25/Cincinnati's 25.5 subchannel.

We do have an email to people over there at WOTH 25/WBQC 38. We'd been told months ago they were going to light up something new on one of the subchannels. We'd assume this was it... but we don't know 100 percent. Stay tuned...

WKRC Signal Issue: Another email from Katie Osborne in Delhi tells us that WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati is having some signal issues.

We're not clear about this one, either. Our suspicion (and again, because of voice issues we haven't been able to make a phone call today like we'd planned to ask) would have been that there may be some issues with the recent snows making things worse... but Osborne reports that they've had this problem since before Friday's snowstorm, so that's not it. And a new digital television and moving the antenna in the correct positioning hasn't worked, either, Katie tells us.

So, we're going to work on this one, also. One thing's for sure... any additional snow tonight through Wednesday isn't going to help...

Hingsbergen to West Virginia: Finally, a hearty Congratulations and Good Luck are in order for a Friend of TSMW.

John Hingsbergen, formerly Program Director of WMUB-FM 88.5/Oxford, begins a new position as News and Public Affairs Director at West Virginia Public Broadcasting in Charleston, WV next Monday. He sent us first word on Friday, also.

John tells us that he received the offer on January 22...ironically exactly one year to the day after Miami University announced they were shutting down local operation of WMUB and handing control over to Cincinnati Public Radio, which turned it into a repeater of 91.7 WVXU-FM/Cincinnati.

For more information on West Virginia Public Broadcasting, head here.

Congratulations, John... we wish WVPB all the best...

NEW: Rhodes Out - At Least for Now - At WDJO

2010-02-01T12:08:00.002-05:00

We have late breaking news this morning about a radio host that had been expected to make his return to the airwaves a month ago.

Dusty Rhodes, the county auditor for Hamilton County, has stepped down from the morning show of the soon to be WDJO-AM 1480/Cincinnati, reports John Kiesewetter today. Ted McAllister replaces Rhodes for the 6-10 AM shift starting today. The WDJO calls move to 1480 officially tomorrow, after Alchemy Broadcasting takes possession of the station today.

Rhodes is only stepping down for the next 10 months... during the election season. He found out over the weekend that he's got an opponent for the Auditor's seat in November in former State Rep. Tom Brinkman Jr. Equal time rules require that Rhodes would have to step down from WDJO in May anyway - but he decided to go now to give McAllister time to settle in.

There's no word if or when Rhodes would return to daily radio, but he'll still produce some special shows for syndication, including his awesome Christmas show which we got to hear this year.

Dusty, we look forward to hearing you back full time sometime soon hopefully...

NEW THIS MORNING: Insight Moving WGN, EWTN in February, Public Access Goes Digital 3/16

2010-01-29T12:12:00.003-05:00

We found out about part of this item last night while watching "WWE Superstars" on WGN America. (Yes, that's what the show is called, and yes it features...well, WWE Superstars.)

In a move we've not seen announced ANYWHERE in the local media, Insight is moving WGN America to Insight channel 5. That's right... from channel 24 to channel 5. Effective, we found out, not next Thursday as their program guide says, but apparently coming up on TUESDAY.

And another move coming next week (we assume also on Tuesday) will move Eternal Word Television Network, or EWTN, from channel 38 to channel 26.

Of course, that leaves channels 24 and 38 blank. No, Insight isn't planning to fill those two slots. And no, none of this affects the digital tier channel placement for both, as WGN stays on digital 115 and EWTN remains parked on digital 275.

Another move WAS reported this week in John Kiesewetter's blog, and involves two of the public access channels.

Specifically, Insight is taking channels 16 and 21 digital, moving them to the digital tier on March 16th. This will make room for nine more HD channels that are on the way: Fox Sports Ohio, Comedy Central, Spike, Golf, E! Entertianment, MSNBC, Hallmark, Cartoon Network and a new pay-per-view channel. We're not sure when those will be added, but we assume it'll be after March 16th. Insight plans to offer free equipment so that customers who use analog cable (about 25% of Insight customers) can continue to watch channels 16 and 21.

Our Take: Another kinda good, kinda bad move. Good in the sense that yes, this makes room for the nine HD channels. But... analog customers lose access to community access programming unless they get the upgraded equipment...

BREAKING NEWS: Furman/WQRT Deal "Done"

2010-01-22T13:12:00.002-05:00

We just received word that the deal we reported on earlier this week is "done".

John Kiesewetter of the Enquirer has just reported that Andy Furman, formerly of 700 WLW-AM/Cincinnati and WFTK-FM 96.5/Cincinnati, will return to the airwaves here starting Monday, February 8th on WQRT-AM 1160/Florence. That's the day after the Super Bowl. Furman will do 5-7 PM weeknights, as previously reported.

We checked out the schedule on WQRT, and it appears Furman would drop Dr. Laura down to a 1 hour clearance at 7 PM on weeknights, in addition to an early Sunday morning 2-5 AM clearance. We believe that's a "Best Of" program.

From what Kiese wrote, it sounds like Furman's show won't be exclusively about sports... but will mix in current events and some lifestyle issues, too.

Again, though...we come back to the issue we posted about the other day. In wintertime the show will only air for a short time. Sunset time in December is around 5:15 PM...which would provide at most a little over 15 minutes of Furman before the station's signal has to be powered down to its 900 watt nighttime authorization.

BREAKING NEWS: Air America Closing

2010-01-21T20:27:00.002-05:00

We just got word of this one.

Air America Radio, which has been in financial trouble for some time, will end its live programming and file Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Here's the statement directly from Air America, in full:

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

It is with the greatest regret, on behalf of our Board, that we must announce that Air America Media is ceasing its live programming operations as of this afternoon, and that the Company will file soon under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code to carry out an orderly winding-down of the business.

The very difficult economic environment has had a significant impact on Air America's business. This past year has seen a "perfect storm" in the media industry generally. National and local advertising revenues have fallen drastically, causing many media companies nationwide to fold or seek bankruptcy protection. From large to small, recent bankruptcies like Citadel Broadcasting and closures like that of the industry's long-time trade publication Radio and Records have signaled that these are very difficult and rapidly changing times.

Those companies that remain are facing audience fragmentation as a result of new media technologies, are often saddled with crushing debt, and have generally found it difficult to obtain operating or investment capital from traditional sources of funding. In this climate, our painstaking search for new investors has come close several times right up into this week, but ultimately fell short of success.

With radio industry ad revenues down for 10 consecutive quarters, and reportedly off 21% in 2009, signs of improvement have consisted of hoping things will be less bad. And though Internet/new media revenues are projected to grow, our expanding online efforts face the same monetization and profitability challenges in the short term confronting the Web operations of most media companies

When Air America Radio launched in April, 2004 with already-known personalities like Al Franken and then-unknown future stars like Rachel Maddow, it was the only full-time progressive voice in the mainstream broadcast media world. At a critical time in our nation's history — when dissent on issues such as the Iraq war were often denounced as "un-American" — Air America and its talented team helped millions of Americans remember the importance of compelling discussion about the most pivotal events and decisions of our generation.

Through some 100 radio outlets nationwide, Air America helped build a new sense of purpose and determination among American progressives. With this revival, the progressive movement made major gains in the 2006 mid-term elections and, more recently, in the election of President Barack Obama and a strongly Democratic Congress.

Laws have changed for the better thanks to this revival.....but all the same our company cannot escape the laws of economics. So we intend a rapid, orderly closure over the next few days. All current employees will be paid through today, January 21. A severance package will be offered tomorrow to full-time current employees with more than six months of tenure.

We will strive to assist affiliates and partners in achieving a smooth transition. Starting at 6 pm EST today, we will provide our affiliates, listeners and users a selection of encore programming until 9 pm EST on Monday, January 25, at which time Air America programming will end.

We are proud that Air America's mission lives on through the words and actions of so many former radio hosts who are active today in progressive causes and media nationwide. In the years ahead, as we look back, we should all be proud of our passionate determination to assure that our nation's progressive voice would be heard loud and clear. Through the hard work and dedication of current staff, and those who preceded you, a lasting legacy was forged which will now continue through other voices and venues.

Thank you.

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

We're working on finding out which, if any, local area stations carry any programming from Air America.

If you know of any in our coverage area of Southern Ohio, Southeast Indiana and Northern Kentucky, e-mail us.

THIS JUST IN: Furman to WQRT

2010-01-20T14:05:00.005-05:00

We just got up after a rough night on the personal front... and read Tom Taylor's Taylor on Radio-Info newsletter of this morning as is our custom.

And that's where we find breaking news this afternoon...Andy Furman will return to Cincinnati radio.

Taylor reports that WQRT-AM 1160/Florence owner John Yinger tells him it's a "done deal".

We caution: We're also reading John Kiesewetter's post this morning that says it's not quite a done deal. Kiese has been reporting, and Taylor confirms, that Furman will do 5-7 PM weekdays on the otherwise syndicated talker.

1160 suffers from needing to turn the power down at night, however, thanks to KSL-AM/ Salt Lake City, UT. (Not to mention being first-adjacent to two stations on 1170 AM (including Wheeling, WV's WWVA.) And in the winter, that could mean half or a little less than half of Furman's show would actually be heard over the air in much of the metro. At night... you can just about forget hearing the signal if you're north of the Interstate 275 loop... or anywhere west of Aurora, Indiana... unless you can get the perfect conditions to propagate the signal...

BREAKING NEWS: Changes Coming To WNKU

2010-01-19T18:35:00.003-05:00

We just received word of changes to WNKU 89.7 FM/Highland Heights.

They are advertising a move towards becoming a full time Adult Album Alternative station on February 1.

Here's part of the press release today, which you can also read here:

On February 1st, NPR’s All News Morning Edition makes way for MORNING
DRIVE, a music and news show hosted by WNKU News Director Craig Kopp.

“One of the reasons it’s such a pleasure to work at WNKU is I absolutely love the
music,” says Kopp, who is no stranger to music intensive formats having
previously worked as news director at WEBN. “To be able to get more involved
in delivering the best music in town and unique news and information is – in a
word – cool.”

To complete its move to full-time Triple A music programming, NPR’s “Fresh Air
will also be making way for more music in the evening between 5:30p and 6:30p.
“We realize this is a huge step for WNKU,” says Station Manager Chuck Miller.
“Music is what this station does best and it’s time to pull the trigger on making
WNKU a full-time music station.”

The presser goes on to note that WNKU was a pioneer in the Triple A (no, not the Automotive Association of America) format in the 1980s and 90s.

Our take: We're interested to see how it affects the people working on the news side of WNKU. People like Cheri Lawson, formerly of WMUB 88.5/Oxford, for example. We're willing to believe she'll provide stories for the new morning show.

We're pretty sure John Hingsbergen still communicates with Lawson...maybe he'll be able to tell us what will happen to her...

NEW THIS WEEKEND: Francene Cucinello Dies At 43

2010-01-17T18:17:00.003-05:00

BRIEF UPDATE 4:19 AM 1/18: We've heard that WHAS aired promos this weekend that indicate that the celebration of life service for Francene Cucinello will be aired live as it happens at 10 AM Monday on the 50,000 watt talker.

Also a quick correction: We're hearing that we might have been off on our estimation as to Cucinello's last appearance for WXIX-TV. The Enquirer and others are reporting her stint as a fill-in there ended in early 2009.

And one more note: Yes, we're quoted in Tom Taylor's "Taylor on Radio-Info" newsletter today. So, if you're reading from that link...welcome!

The rest of the original item is below...

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

We learned Friday night of the passing of a popular talk show host on the southwest edge of our coverage zone (and we tweeted it), but this is a more indepth post with a few thoughts...

Francene Cucinello, the host of the popular "Francene Show" on 840 WHAS-AM/Louisville, died on Friday afternoon around 3:15 PM Eastern Time. She was 43 years old.

The big details are located here on Fox WXIX-TV 19/Newport's website and here on the 84WHAS site. And that FOX 19 article is about where Cincinnati comes into the picture.

We weren't fully aware Friday evening, but Cucinello actually did fill in reporting and anchoring for... WXIX, in addition to her work in Louisville, usually traveling the 100 miles to Cincinnati after she did her show (and we wonder if occasionally she didn't host her show from the Clear Channel tower in Kenwood) during the week. We've seen her on air here, but never put two and two together.

Yours truly, unfortunately, didn't get to hear Francene's popular 9-noon program on his last visit a few weeks ago... and we say unfortunately because from all accounts, Cucinello did a fine job for WHAS.

Down in Louisville, we don't know what will fill the 9 AM to 12 noon time slot come Monday morning. We'd assume someone will fill at least part of the slot from the Possibility City.

We say part... because we know that a one hour public celebration of Cucinello's life is planned for Monday morning at 10 AM. It will be at the Southeast Christian Church, located at 920 Blankenbaker Road in Louisville. We wonder if WHAS-AM will cover it live, since Cucinello was primarily employed by them. And we think WXIX could send down some folks, also... we think that'd be a classy move.

Your Tri-State Media Watcher extends his condolences to Francene's family, friends and coworkers at both WXIX and WHAS...

Thoughts on Kevin Robinson's Debut

2010-01-15T16:54:00.003-05:00

We have a few thoughts about the debut of WLWT-TV 5's new chief meteorologist, Kevin Robinson, on air last night.

First off, we liked the fact that Robinson actually looks into the camera while he is talking. It made us feel like he wasn't ignoring who his true audience was...the people of Cincinnati. Our friend Mike Taylor noted this too.

Second, as we've seen on the weather channel...the man knows his weather. He was very articulate in explaining what was happening last night with the weather pattern and why temperatures warmed between the 6 PM and 11 PM news.

In fact - we have zero complaints about his performance. Our concern is with how WLWT will use him.

Basically, we're hoping they don't do the same thing they did with Derek Beasley in his last year at WLWT... putting Robinson on a split shift.

If we were channel 5 management...and we're not... we'd do whatever we had to to keep Robinson happy....

CONFIRMED: Abati To Weekends At 5

2010-01-11T17:45:00.007-05:00

UPDATE 1/13/10: We can confirm that WLWT will, indeed, retain the services of John Bateman to do weekend evenings. We didn't think WLWT wanted to have Abati work what would basically be a 43 hour shift...

We've finally been able to confirm, partially, the last piece of the Power of 5 puzzle.

As our readers are aware, Kevin Robinson starts today at WLWT-TV 5/Cincinnati. He's training on Channel 5's technology, and we'd heard he'll start no later than the end of this week.

We now know what happens to Valerie Abati, who will end her evening work when Robinson debuts.

It was announced today that Abati will make the move to do weekend mornings (a slot Eric Green actually did this past weekend, in most likely his final appearances for Channel 5 - we noted his departure Friday). That begins this weekend. (The first link above also confirms what we'd heard.)

What this means for weekend evenings isn't clear. We wonder if WLWT will retain John Bateman to do those shifts, but would assume so for now.

We also know that Randi Rico will indeed stay in mornings, doing "News 5 Today" weekday newscasts.

So, except for weekend evenings, Channel 5's weather rotation is basically filled in. We'll find out about that last piece of things this week sometime...

THIS JUST IN: Green Headed Out The WLWT Door

2010-01-08T13:37:00.002-05:00

We just received late breaking word that Eric Green is leaving WLWT-TV 5 and heading west.

Green becomes the new morning meteorologist for KOAT-TV 7 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A source which asked not to be identified tells us his last day will be January 13th (as in, Wednesday). We're not sure when Green will be allowed to work for KOAT.

Ah, but KOAT is a Hearst station...just like WLWT. So there may not be a non-compete involved here, with Green moving within the Hearst group.

Now, another piece that's falling into place still is Valerie Abati's place on the Power of 5 team. We're not sure if an official announcement has been made on that end of things yet. But we've heard a move is in the works for her. Again, we've not 100 percent confirmed it - so we won't post anything definite.

One thing that IS definite - WLWT's new chief meteorologist, Kevin Robinson, starts with WLWT on...Monday. Yes, THIS Monday. So, we're assuming he'll have some say on whether or not they'll replace Green and with who, or even re-hire John Bateman.

TSMW wishes Green the best of luck as he moves west...

Insight Adding Nine New HD Channels

2010-01-08T13:16:00.002-05:00

We've gotten word that Insight plans to add 9 new HD channels to its lineup - but we're not sure when or where in the 900 level they'll be.

These are the channels as John Kiesewetter lists them:

Fox Sports Ohio
Golf Channel
E! Entertainment
MSNBC
Hallmark
Cartoon Network
A Pay-Per-View programming channel
Spike TV
Comedy Central

Again, no word when they'll be added on - but we're hearing that this will happen before the Reds season begins.

Our Take: This is good news. Some of This Space's favorite programs are on two or three of these channels. We'd like to see Insight return one of the local weather channels to the basic side (we're still stuck turning to one of the other TV's at the TSMW World Headquarters for those), but we're not holding our breath.

WKRC-TV Digital Signal Upgraded

2010-01-06T13:02:00.002-05:00

TSMW hears that WKRC-TV 12/Cincinnati engineers have done some work to upgrade their digital signal. We're not sure what that work entailed.

Viewers should rescan to find the upgraded signal...

A Major Shakeup at WKRC-TV

2010-01-04T12:56:00.002-05:00

It seems to be a busy news day.

We briefly caught WKRC-TV 12's noon news today...and saw Kit Andrews doing the midday news which left us scratching our heads. Andrews, of course, has done evenings with Rob Braun for 19 years.

In an update just posted by John Kiesewetter, we get the answer. It's a big move.

Andrews will now be doing the noon, 4 PM, and 5:30 PM newscasts and will be paired with John Lomax at noon. (We assume Liz Bonis has been working on her health reports after 9 AM.)

Cammy Dierking, a longtime acquaintance of yours truly, will do 6 and 11 PM newscasts from now on, after doing the 10 PM CW Cincinnati newscast and evenings since 2005. (Cincinnati CW is "Local 12.2", out of the WKRC-TV Highland Avenue complex.)

And that means Dave Burchell will do the 10 PM solo.

Our take: This is a good move for Cammy, and okay for Kit. We watched Cammy on the morning show for most of the 13 years she was there (1992-2005) and found she never let the early morning wakeups get to her. Some people hold that against her (saying she was/is "too perky"). We have seen comments about her as being "not credible enough" for evenings. But we disagree with that, too... she's held her own.

However... and you knew this was coming... this move does break up the longtime duo of Rob and Kit. We'll see how viewers react over the next few months and in the February and May ratings books.

But from our standpoint, Kit has plenty of loyal fans who will make the move to watch her at noon, 4 and 5:30...

Broo Returns from Heart Attack

2010-01-04T12:25:00.002-05:00

We just found out why Ken Broo didn't make the trip down to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl for WLWT-TV 5/Cincinnati.

John Kiesewetter reports that Broo had a heart attack on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas in the hospital. He came home on December 27 from Mercy Anderson, after having 3 stents put in.

Broo was back on "Sunday SportsTalk" (noon-3 PM, WLW-AM 700) with his WLWT co-worker George Vogel (who himself had 2 stents put in in 2008) yesterday, sounding great. We don't know if he'll return to WLWT today but would presume he will. If he does, we'll give our take.

But we had the same question Kiese did... will he still eat so much red meat from the concession stands at high school games like he has for his "Ken Eats Free" segments for a couple years on WLWT? Hmmmm... we probably would take it easy if it were us.

The Return Post

2010-01-04T08:00:00.003-05:00

We've got one or two items to start your first full business week of 2010... one major followup to a story from last week, a new information piece, and one minor announcement...

Time Warner, Fox Resolve Dispute: The major cable service provider in TSMW-Land has inked a new deal with FOX parent News Corp, as of late Friday.

Details weren't announced, but channels that were affected included:

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

What it DIDN'T include, we found out Thursday evening, was WXIX-TV 19/Newport. That's a separate deal, not connected to the dispute.

In any case, this is good news for Time Warner subscribers. If you were worried about not being able to watch these channels...you need not fear now.

Bengals on NBC...Again...: ...against the Jets...again.

By virtue of the Bengals' 37-0 loss to the New York Jets Sunday night...and because the Jets locked up the 5th seed in the AFC...and because NBC has rights to both Saturday wild card games...the Bengals and Jets will replay each other Saturday afternoon at 4:30 PM (WLWT-TV 5/Cincinnati, WDTN-TV 2/Dayton, WAVE-TV 3/Louisville and WLEX-TV 18/Lexington).

NBC gained rights to the Saturday wild card games when ABC chose to not renew its deal for Monday Night Football in 2006.

Confused?

ESPN bid on Monday Night Football games (and won). CBS and FOX both renewed their deals for AFC and NFC packages respectively. What was left was Sunday Night Football (which ESPN vacated in favor of the MNF package), and NBC grabbed it.

A Minor Announcement: While we're back and off our holiday hiatus, and are planning to be back on the blog full time for the entire first quarter of 2010...this is just a minor, follow up announcement/update on the minor spill that happened last week...just in case something happens.

A hospital visit on New Year's Eve revealed that while yours truly didn't break a bone, I may have some messed up ligaments in my right knee, directly (or indirectly) caused by my fall last week. If this proves to be the case...and surgery is required...we'll try to give notice before we go for that.

As always, you're quite welcome to follow the Tri-State Media Watch Twitter page (link is at right) if we don't update here... even if we're not on hiatus. A short-fuse situation might only give us time to update Twitter as opposed to This Space.

And, if you SHOULD want updates on yours truly's personal life (and we're not sure why...it's mostly boring...), you can follow this twitter link.

Briefly: Fox Sports Ohio Schedule for Weekend

2009-12-31T08:27:00.003-05:00

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

2009-12-29T16:35:00.006-05:00

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

2009-12-29T10:23:00.002-05:00

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

2009-12-28T11:41:00.007-05:00

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

2009-12-25T07:13:00.003-05:00

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

2009-12-22T03:27:00.005-05:00

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

2009-12-15T10:30:00.004-05:00

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

2009-12-14T02:26:00.003-05:00

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

2009-12-11T14:13:00.000-05:00

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

2009-12-11T04:14:00.002-05:00

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

2009-12-09T02:32:00.003-05:00

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

2009-12-08T15:12:00.002-05:00

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

2009-12-07T12:17:00.002-05:00

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

2009-12-07T11:26:00.004-05:00

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

2009-12-07T04:20:00.004-05:00

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

2009-12-04T15:13:00.006-05:00

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

2009-12-01T15:10:00.006-05:00

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

2009-11-30T09:58:00.002-05:00

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

2009-11-25T15:17:00.003-05:00

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

2009-11-24T14:51:00.003-05:00

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

2009-11-24T08:00:00.002-05:00

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

2009-11-20T17:32:00.003-05:00

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

2009-11-16T08:00:00.002-05:00

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.