A little Pre-Friday Fun

We found out, via the facebook page of Q102's Holly Morgan, that she's been named one of the country's 50 hottest women of radio, according to Popcrunch.com. Women from Indianapolis, Columbus and Cleveland also made the cut. Morgan ranks at number 9!

Click here to see the top ten, or here to get to the front page of the list!

Congratulations to Holly and the other 49 who made this list!

And no, we realize this isn't exactly news...but it's a little fun, news-type bit that relates back to local media (plus, Your Tri-State Media Watcher is definitely a straight male)! So, enjoy!

Some FOX19 Quick Hits

A couple quick items, all relating to FOX19:

ThisTV: As we reported, the station's second digital subchannel is being carried by Time Warner Cable, on channel 920. That carriage is one of two major cable deals, the other being with Insight to air ThisTV Cincy on digital channel 194.

FOX19 Morning News Rewind: Connected to ThisTV, is this item we saw while up early this morning.

FOX19 will use ThisTV to carry 1 hour of the station's morning newscast from 9-10am. That's already started, and again, we saw the promo for this right as the morning newscast ended on FOX19.

FOX19 News Right Now...Starting Monday?: And finally, the station will start carrying very quick (maybe 60 to 90 second long) news updates every hour at the top of the hour from 10am to at least 4pm. That will begin on Monday, March 9th. (This move was also promoted this morning.) The station has already done quick, 45 second weather updates at the top of every hour during the daytime.

We wonder how 5, 9, and 12 will react to FOX19's move to broadcast both a later version of the morning news, and 60 second updates every hour...

New Station Beginning on 8/1/09

UPDATE 5PM: The kind folks at WVQC were good enough to give us the myspace and facebook links. Those are here for Facebook and here for Myspace users! Thanks WVQC and we'll be keeping tabs on you guys for sure!

As most everyone who's read this blog knows by now, we have our very own twitter presence (twitter.com/tristatemedia for those wondering). Earlier this week, someone from a new radio station started following us on there.

The station, which carries a license to the calls WVQC-LP and is currently calling themselves Radio Free Queen City, will begin broadcasting at 95.7FM on August 1, sharing time on the frequency with Forest Hills School District (in Anderson Twp) and Holy Spirit Center. Their website/blog is at http://wvqc.wildapricot.org/news. Their twitter page is twitter.com/WVQC. As soon as we locate their myspace/facebook pages, we will have those links put in this post, too.

Getting this quick hit in...

We forgot about this happening because Life Intervened (tm by OMW), plus the sad news regarding both Paul Harvey and Al Lewis, but it became official at 12 midnight Saturday night.

WMUB-FM 88.5/Oxford signed off as a Miami University-produced station, en route to becoming a repeater of WVXU-FM 91.7 full-time.

I'm told by Rich Emery (no mistake with the name this time, Rich!) that the station's PD, John Hingsbergen (who does read this blog) did the honors with the signoff of the station, thanking the listeners for their loyalty. (PERSONAL NOTE: Mr. Hingsbergen is a class act, who once stopped by my Personal Thoughts/Observations blog to comment on a personal decision I made after the first of this year. I can't think of anybody better to do the sign-off of WMUB than him. By the way, if you'd like to read some thoughts from him, we're planning to link his blog later today assuming he plans to keep one up.) Unfortunately, I a) am not within range to get WMUB over the air, even as a repeater of WVXU, and b) had, as noted above, forgotten in the midst of the craziness that is Life As Your Tri-State Media Watcher Knows It (tm) to get on the web and find an online stream.

BREAKING TONIGHT: Beloved Local Icon "Uncle Al" dead at 84

CORRECTION 8:15AM 3/2: Ummm, oops.

We misspoke as far as the date of his funeral. It's SATURDAY, not Friday.

We'll correct the information in the original item:

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We just received word at 10:00pm that "Uncle Al" Lewis, a beloved children's TV show host in Cincinnati for over 35 years, has died.

Lewis, 84, entertained Tri-State area kids and parents from 1950 to 1985 on WCPO-TV 9. The station's website says that Lewis started the show as a call-in, where viewers could request songs for Lewis to play on his accordion. The show quickly became popular with children across the Tri-State, and was eventually christened "The Uncle Al Show".

Here's WCPO's report. Also here's a report from WLWT-TV 5, and here's one from WKRC-TV 12.

Lewis' wife, Wanda, survives her husband. Wanda Lewis became part of the show in 1956, and was dubbed "Captain Windy".

A statement issued by WCPO-TV reads: "Wanda Lewis wants the community to know how happy she and Al were to be a part of children's lives for 35 years."

In lieu of flowers, the Lewis family has asked for donations to be made to Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Services will be held in Hillsboro, Ohio on Saturday, March 7.

We at Tri-State Media Watch extend our heartfelt condolences to the Lewis family in this difficult time.

A Few Musings About Paul Harvey

This is where the opinion part of blogging comes into play, is moments like these.

Your Tri-State Media Watcher was on the way to Taco Bell in Florence, Kentucky this evening, and as I went along, I thought about Paul Harvey's death yesterday. (see previous post below)

These thoughts took me back all the way into elementary school at Collins Elementary (part of the Boone County, KY school district), when Paul used to do his "Rest of the Story" commentaries in the afternoons if I recall correctly. This would be between 1992 and 1996.

I remember that the last thing I heard on the bus' radio every day was, "And now you know...the rest of the story. I'm Paul Harvey...Good day!"

After 1996, I couldn't listen to him because my bus route no longer had me coming home in time to hear that segment, nor for that matter did I get up early enough when it moved to weekday mornings. (I always woke up at 6:30, and his commentaries aired at 6:25am.)

Back in 2004, I re-discovered "The Rest of the Story" and began to listen to it mornings while getting ready for college. Then, when I became too sick to continue my schooling in 2006, I started listening to his "News and Comments" radio commentary at 12:05pm weekdays.

Tonight, I sit here, wondering if Paul Harvey's commentaries touched the millions of others who listened to them, the way they did me.

And now you know, as Paul would say...the rest of the story.

For Tri-State Media Watch, this is Jeremy Moses. Good night!

BREAKING TONIGHT: Paul Harvey Passes Away.

We have just learned courtesy of our friends at OMW that Paul Harvey has passed away. He was age 90.

ABC News has an extensive story on Harvey here.

ABC Radio Networks, which syndicated Harvey's "News and Comments" and "The Rest of the Story" radio programs, has done an extensive tribute to Harvey tonight, which will re-air at 12 noon tomorrow. That will be heard on Harvey's Cincinnati affiliate, 700 WLW-AM, along with his other affiliate stations.

ABC Radio Networks has turned his page on the site into a page containing statements from the network's president, Jim Robinson, his son Paul Harvey, Jr. and former President George W. Bush.

Stay tuned for more on this story...