Midday Monday Blues

QUICK UPDATE 2:50 AM 8/11: We missed this little tidbit.

Remember we told you over a month ago that WXIX would be launching the FOX19 Evening News at 6? Well, we just remembered that the start date for the 6 PM version of the newscast is September 21.

As that's 5 weeks into the football season, we didn't note this...but on Fridays once the newscast launches its 6 PM half hour, FOX19 will put all of the news into that half hour, leaving 6:30 PM for the football preview program.

Mark down the date: The 1/2 hour Friday newscasts will begin September 25th, with that week's feature game of Simon Kenton versus Conner.

And we also forgot to tell you the name of the program...it is the FOX19 Friday Prep Rally...

The entire original item follows:

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Yes, many people may be singing the Monday blues... but we're doing okay here at TSMW (minus pulling a back muscle late last week which forced an ER visit which you can read about on my other blog)... so let's kick off the week:

WAKW Names New PD: 50,000 watt Christian station WAKW has named a new Program Director, and it's someone who has actually worked fairly close to our territory.

Quoting John Kiesewetter's blog of last week:

Christian WAKW-FM (Star 93.3) has a new boss: Randy James has been hired as program director to replace Kurt Wallace, who left in April to a Christian station on the air in Indianapolis. James has worked for WVMX-FM in Cleveland, WMMX-FM in Dayton and KHMX-FM in Houston.

There is one mistake that our friends at Ohio Media Watch caught when they covered their local angle of this one (that of James' tenure in Cleveland).

WVMX has never been a Cleveland station. It was the former "Mix 94.1" here (94.1's calls are now WNNF-FM), and now those calls reside on Saga station WVMX-FM "Mix" 107.9/Delaware, Ohio.

Pillar of Fire Ministries owns WAKW-FM here, along with stations in New Jersey and Denver...

"Data" Interview on WMKV-FM: That's right...we're talking about the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" character.

Brent Spiner, who played that character on the hit show, did a recent interview with WMKV 89.3/Cincinnati about his newest album, called "Dreamland".

We for one did not know Spiner sang, nor are we really the target demographic of WMKV. But, Kiese has this one covered as well:

So when Spiner released his new "Dreamland" concept album -- best described as part radio drama, and part Broadway musical -- George Zahn and Mike Martini at WMKV-FM sent him several emails requesting an interview. After all, WMKV airs Broadway music and old radio shows. (They probably didn't tell Spiner than he's regularly been part of the station's "Tuesday Trivia" show at 4 p.m. Tuesdays, when Martini and Zahn ask listeners to identify the guy (Spiner) singing a song.)

Again: We're not really in WMKV's target demo...but we sure do remember Star Trek. This is worth listening to. The first part of the interview next airs tomorrow at 3 PM, with a repeat on Friday at 10 PM. Part two, including the entire "Dreamland" album, airs Sunday at 11 AM, next Tuesday (8/18) at 3 PM, and one week from Friday (8/21) at 10 PM.

This Just In - FOX 19 to Expand HS Football: Just got wind of this one, literally as we were typing the previous item.

WXIX-TV 19/Newport will expand their high school football coverage, says the station in this press release.

They'll blow out the 6:30 PM half hour of the FOX19 Evening News on Fridays beginning late this month, to air a high school football preview show. This effort will go through the entire football season. We do believe, and Kiese has confirmed this in a blog JUST posted, that they'll squeeze major breaking news in as well. And Steve Horstmeyer will do weather during the sports show.

We will wait to judge the sports show until it debuts and we've watched a couple of them. But this is a good move on paper by FOX19...

One Birthday All Access Missed

Our friends over at All Access missed this one when they were publishing birthdays for this weekend - but you can bet we here at Tri-State Media Watch did not.

WKRQ-FM 101.9/Cincinnati evening host Holly Morgan (yours truly's favorite local personality) had a birthday yesterday (8/8). We're not sure how old she is, and aren't about to ask... but nonetheless, wish Holly a happy birthday!

BREAKING THIS MORNING: Hal McCoy Out After Reds Season from Dayton Daily News

We get this word from the Hamilton Journal News and Dayton Daily News, from which we have an e-mail subscription that gets us the day's big stories in the morning.

And they don't get much bigger than this when it comes to...well, the Dayton Daily News.

Hal McCoy wrote last night at 6:06 PM that after 37 years, he's going to retire once the MLB's Cincinnati Reds' season ends. It's not a move he's ready for, he says.

Quoting from the above blogpost:

The newspaper told me today that it will no longer cover the Cincinnati Reds the same way it has in the past, beginning next season. And don’t blame the paper. It is the economic times and we’re all suffering. They just can’t afford the more than a quarter of a million dollars a year to send me coast-to-coast.
The Dayton Daily News has been nothing but great to me. How many companies would keep a legally blind employee and furnish that employee with a driver and/or a car service to get him to and from games? The paper did that for me and it certainly didn’t have to do it.
The DDN didn’t have to do that, but it did and I’m so forever grateful, just as I am for the 37 years they permitted me to do what I love to do so much.

Mr. McCoy has been a Reds beat writer in Dayton since about 13 years before yours truly was born.

As such, he is, like another legend that retired this year...well, legendary. His credentials speak for themselves. In 2002, he was forever enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in the writer's wing. He continued to cover the Reds, in spite of a 2003 stroke that left him legally blind, as he said in the above quote.

We ask the same question Mr. McCoy did: how many newspapers would allow a legally blind employee to continue writing? (Of course, we recognize that the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1991 could certainly come into play.) How many newspapers would offer the assistance that the Dayton Daily News has?

We could be wrong, but the answer is probably "unless the writer is well respected, not many." McCoy certainly was that...his entry into the Hall speaks for itself.

We tip our hat to Mr. McCoy...and we believe that even in the tough times, both for the Reds and in the media biz, McCoy will forever remain a Reds fan and a loyal alum of the Dayton Daily News...

Lightning Strikes Almost Every TV Tower in Town

You know how lightning always tends to strike the tallest object?

Well apparently on Tuesday, lightning did just that...and hit, seemingly, every TV station's tower AT THE SAME TIME.

Channels 5 and 12 both have either photo or video of the strikes on their towers. We haven't seen either 9 or 19's video yet.

But here, take a look at this courtesy of Local12 (we've cropped it slightly so it will fit the page, to look at it as it was posted, click here:)



We're not totally sure, but we think WLWT/5's tower is at far left, with WKRC/12's and WCPO/9's towers to the right. It looks about right to us, as this picture was taken from Mount Adams, best we can tell. That's Christ Hospital at center, we believe.

We don't know if WXIX/19's tower was hit, as it's to the west of the Western Hills Viaduct, co-located with WPTO/14's stick.

Isn't it amazing how this could happen? And ALL of these strikes hit at once!

Radio Shack To Become Just...Shack?

Indeed, that's what we've got this morning, on the heels of a major heavy rainstorm across our area of responsibility yesterday.

We give John Gorman credit for telling us about the switch via his Media Blog.

It seems, according to the entry above, Radio Shack/Shack execs think they need to re-brand because “Fewer of the company’s customers going forward will ever own a radio.”

Ouch.

Now, this prompts another of my "musings".

I don't think radio is going anywhere anytime soon. Sure, the technology of old is being replaced by the technology of new (read: HD Radio).

But in a world where we want what we want and we want it right now...even radio has its place.

Think about it. In your car, where else will you get traffic reports? You're not going to (in spite of what yours truly's own brother suggested yesterday) take a laptop with you, hook it into your cigarette lighter, and check the traffic on the road.

No, you're going to tune to local newsradio stations such as 700 WLW/Cincinnati, 840 WHAS/Louisville, 630 WLAP/Lexington, or 1100 WTAM/Cleveland to get the information. Even if you have those GPS systems which give you traffic information...I doubt there's anybody that doesn't use their radios if only to confirm what they see on those touchscreen consoles.

Until they come up with technology in which you can have your IPod plugged in and get traffic over THAT, I can't see radio going away as a medium in my lifetime...

A Couple In The Hopper

QUICK CLARIFICATION: We ASSUME they'll air all of the games on 1530. We just wonder if any locals will be among the mix...

A couple items to kick off the new week and the new month:

WCKY To Produce Game of Week: The legwork on this one had been done by our friends at All Access:

For the third consecutive year on terrestrial radio and the fourth overall, DAVID BRODY's BROADCASTER MARKETING SERVICES, GINO COMMUNICATIONS of GREENEVILLE, TN, and CLEAR CHANNEL Sports WCKY-A (HOMER 1530, THE SPORTS ANIMAL)/CINCINNATI will team to co-produce the FCS (Football Championship Subdivision) Game of the Week. An 11-game package of games featuring Division 1-AA schools including teams from 11 of the 14 FCS conferences will air this season. This year's schedule includes defending national champion RICHMOND and 13 teams which have been ranked in CSN’s Top 30 consolidated FCS ranking.

Without getting into the debate on whether division 1 should have a college football playoff, we're honestly glad that the mid-major schools get some exposure every year. We wonder if they'll air any games on WCKY 1530. We would think so...considering WCKY is indeed co-producing the package of games as noted.

WCPO Asking For Power Increase: Looks like WCPO's new antenna didn't quite alleviate the digital woes.

They're asking the FCC for a power increase, up to 28,000 watts. At the same time, the station has filed its License to Cover on its existing facility, just as a matter of principle.

John Kiesewetter at the Enquirer covered this late last week.

We also, however, want to note that the WLWT-TV 5 opens now proclaim that the station is the "Most Powerful TV Station in Cincinnati".

Last time we checked the FCC database, this claim is actually true, as they operate at 1000 kilowatts of power. Nobody else in town operates at that level...

A Personal Message From Yours Truly

Here at Tri-State Media Watch, my primary focus is on the media - but I'd be remiss if I didn't point out something that, if you go to my Personal Thoughts blog, you would already know.

Your Tri-State Media Watcher was diagnosed in 1985, at birth, with what is called Spina Bifida. That's a neural tube defect in which the spinal cord is partially exposed, and can result in paralysis, neurological troubles, and other problems. According to the Cincinnati chapter of the Spina Bifida Association, the Centers for Disease Control recently recalculated the number of people who are currently living with this defect. The latest figures are that 185,000 people have spina bifida, with almost half (90,000) of them being diagnosed with myelomeningocele (yours truly being one of that 90,000). That's up from 70,000 people thought to be diagnosed. Yes, that means the number has nearly TRIPLED.

To this end, yours truly is undertaking, over the next 2 months, a massive fundraising effort. On September 26, I'll be part of the 9th annual SBAC Walk and Roll in Harrison, Ohio at Miami Whitewater Forest. Over at my Personal Thoughts blog, you'll find a link to my donor page. Click it, then look for links that say "Support Me" to make a donation.

I normally do not post personal messages like this on here. But...with this being an important cause, I figured I needed as many avenues as possible to get the word out.

By the way, PTONKY also contains a link to my donor page for ANOTHER effort I support - the 2009 Walk to Cure Diabetes in Newport, Kentucky. This actually happens one week BEFORE the SBAC walk. If you're able to donate to this effort, too, I'll be very thankful and so will the members of my walking team, Lindsay Lou's Walking Crew (so named after a very close friend of mine from my high school days...)