Return Wednesday

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

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.

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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

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

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

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)

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 657
DISH Network: Channel 453

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

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.

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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

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.