Mid-week Update

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...