More on the CC Restructuring

Here's what we know about Clear Channel's restructuring, and how it affects local operations.

Again, as pointed out, Alan Cutler, C. Trent Rosencrans, and Paul Daugherty are out. At 700WLW, Lance McAlister is in at 6pm, staying until 9 when the Reds do not play a night game, and staying until pregame when they are.

At 1530 WCKY, Mo Eggers will fill in for McAlister when the Reds do not play a night game in the 3-6pm slot. Fox Sports Radio otherwise fills out the schedule.

We now, however, have a new piece of information courtesy our friends at OMW (that's Ohio Media Watch for the new readers).

CC is going to take their local news operations and consolidate into a "hub and spoke" system.

We copied and pasted this from OMW's latest item, but this is who Cincinnati's CC Newsroom will serve in the new system:

Boston
Toledo
Memphis
Nashville

You are reading correctly. Boston will no longer have its own live, local anchors delivering news updates.

For perspective, Boston is Arbitron's TENTH largest market. Cincinnati is market number 28. Memphis is number 49, Nashville a few spots above them at number 44. Toledo is number 91. These are rankings by size.

If the tenth largest market by size was ordered to basically lay off their entire news anchor staff, that's very significant! Boston likely still has a newsroom (after all, it doesn't make sense to call Cincinnati, if you're a Bostonian wanting to relay a breaking story, does it?)...but no longer are there or will there be live, local news anchors on the Boston stations.

DEVELOPING: 2ND ROUND OF CC CUTS UNDERWAY NATIONWIDE

We got this tip late yesterday afternoon but were away from the TSMW Laptop...

John Kiesewetter at the Enquirer reports that several on-air staff at Kenwood Tower were laid off yesterday. The list so far looks to include Enquirer sportswriter Paul Daugherty (SportsTalk host), C. Trent Rosecrans (1530 WCKY) and Alan Cutler (Bengals Radio Network, WLW). Several producers were also cut.

The only local host on 1530 is going to be Lance McAlister from 3-6pm. Scott Sloan, whose 9-midnight WLW show is usually pre-empted by the Reds, did postgame last night which could be permanent. When the Reds don't play night games, McAlister will slide into the 6-9pm slot on WLW, and Mo Egger will do 3-6pm on 1530. Egger lost his regular 9-noon show in the cuts.

This is 1530's schedule as it looks now (all from FOX Sports Radio unless otherwise noted) and also coming from the Kiese blog, just go to the above link, then go to the next entry:

6-9 a.m.: Steve Czaban, the Washington DC-based personality who has subbed for Jim Rome.
9 a.m.-noon: Dan Patrick, who left ESPN in 2007 to host this new show and write for Sports Illustrated. He's a 1974 Mason High School basketball standout and a University of Dayton grad.
noon-3 p.m.: Jim Rome's show syndicated by Premiere (owned by Clear Channel) stays put.
3-6 p.m.: Lance McAlister (except when Reds play a weekday afternoon game, then Mo Egger will do this slot, while McAlister does WLW 6-9pm.)
6-7 p.m.: No more Lance repeat (which would be airing opposite Lance on WLW. Duh!) Now we'll hear last hour of Fox's Chris Myers & Steve Hartman show.
7-10 p.m.: Petro & Money, aka Petros Papadakis and Matt "Money" Smith, 7-10 p.m.
10 p.m.-1 a.m.: J.T. The Brick, aka John Tournour.
1-5 a.m.: Paid informercials overnight.

Changes in Dayton

We've got this word a day or two late.

Recall a couple of months ago that Cox Publishing planned to end its dedicated Washington bureau, and then it was announced that that unit would combine with the Cox Radio and Cox Television units to form one big company.

Well, it will happen without Cox Ohio's leader helming the local side of things, as the Dayton Daily News reports:

Mike Joseph, president and chief executive of Cox Ohio Publishing (COP), has been named president and general manager of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC).

Joseph “brings a wealth of newspaper operations and management experience to the AJC,” Doug Franklin, AJC publisher and executive vice president, Cox Newspapers Inc., said in a statement this morning, April 23. “Mike will help the AJC continue streamlining and adjusting its business model to return to profitability.”

The Daily News reports that Brian Cooper, a Wright State grad, will take the reigns here, and still retain his responsibilities for Cox's North Carolina units.

Weekend Wrapup

We couldn't post this week due to blogger thinking we had cookies disabled (we don't). But, let's catch up, shall we?

TWC Announces plans for Cavs Game Tonight, and Looking at Conflicts Next Week: Before last weekend, we'd been following the Blue Jackets/Reds conflict.

Well, add the Cleveland Cavaliers (in the territory of our friends at OMW) to that conflict.

With the Cavs in the playoffs now this forces Time Warner to adjust their schedule again. The Reds will air as scheduled on Fox Sports Ohio tonight at 7pm. Meanwhile, the Cavs are bounced to ESPN locally tonight at 7pm.

This also affects the HD schedule, as tonight's game as well as next Tuesday's game, will NOT be HD as had been previously planned. FSO will add two games later this season in HD.

With the Blue Jackets out of the playoffs as of last night, there needs only be one move made per gametime conflict, as long as the Cavs remain in the hunt.

Watson Out at 9: John Kiesewetter says Bernard Watson's tenure at WCPO-TV/DT 9 quietly ended last week.

His contract was not renewed, we're told and he won't be replaced. WCPO is going with a show that is centered around Katherine Nero.

Q102 Wins NAB Award: The folks up on Bonneville Mountain must really like this news.

WKRQ-FM 101.9 has won the NAB 2009 Crystal Radio Award, which is given to stations with a commitment to public service, Kiese reported earlier this week. They were one of 10 stations out of fifty nominated for the award.

Sister Bonneville station WUBE-FM 105.1 B105 was one of the ten winners last year, and can't reapply for 3 years.

Q102 noted in its entry that they had done almost 16,000 minutes of Public Service Announcements, raised 2.5 million dollars for charities like The Susan G Komen for the Cure, Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, Kenzies Closet, American Heart Association, Special Olympics, Autism Speaks, Brighton Center, ACT, Lighthouse Youth Center, Shriners Burn Hospital and St. Joseph Orphanage, and that their staff donated over 15,000 hours to serve their communities.

Congrats to Q102 on winning this award, and we also thank them for remembering why they're in this community in the first place...to serve the public.

Welcoming Anyone Reading From the WVQC-FM Newsletter.

As we told you some time ago, TSMW was the FIRST media source in the Tri-State to break the news of WVQC-FM, launching at 95.7 in August.

Well today, we received their first newsletter.

Since Your Tri-State Media Watcher is mentioned in said newsletter, we figured it'd be a wise idea to welcome those who may come here from that fine resource.

If you have any questions, comments, or perhaps tips about local media, feel free to email me. My address is at the link to the right, under Email TSMW.

Once again, welcome to any and all new readers, and we hope TSMW becomes a new source for YOUR news about Cincinnati (and Dayton, too!) media!

Dayton Legend Retires

We heard about this one from our friends and colleagues at Ohio Media Watch.

They report this morning that local legend and current WHIO-TV anchor Jim Baldridge will retire later this year.

From WHIO-TV's website:

After a broadcasting career spanning five decades, News Center 7 Anchor Jim Baldridge will be retiring from WHIO-TV at the end of August. “I am very grateful to the people of the Miami Valley for welcoming me into their homes, and to WHIO-TV for a long and fulfilling career in one of the most respected newsrooms in the country,” says Baldridge.

Regular reader Rich Emery tells OMW:

I recall when he was a newbie at WHIO, working at that time with Don Wayne (Dayton's version of Walter Cronkite, an avuncular and completely trustworthy news source). Jim stepped into Don's shoes and carried on almost without pause.

Won't be the same down here without him!

Indeed, Mr. Baldridge is a local legend. When you're in the business for 37 years and spend all of it at one station, especially in today's world, thats a huge accomplishment.

We here at TSMW wish Mr. Baldridge all the best, and hope he enjoys his well-deserved retirement.

By the way, current 5:30/11pm anchor James Brown (no, not the music legend) will replace Baldridge at 5 and 6pm.

FOX19 Launches New Online Chat

A couple of weeks ago, you'll recall we mentioned that WLWT had used a live blog to cover a local murder trial.

Well today, we learn that FOX19 is doing, basically, the same thing - but in a longer-term idea.

The station is now running commercials, advertising "Cincinnati's First and Only Interactive News" at 10pm Monday-Friday. We can't find where these chats are hosted, but figure that it would be on the front page of the website at 10pm.

If you'd like to participate, head to FOX19.com.