A Few Catchup Items

Here's just a couple items to catch up on, as we end the very busy (both personally and otherwise) month of July...

Russo To Leave FOX19??: We find this word from the Cincinnati Art Museum on the Kiese Blog this morning...even as Kiese himself takes a vacation.
Fill-in Tasha Stewart posts word from a press release sent out last weekend that Regina Russo, who has been with WXIX-TV 19/Newport, KY for the past 15 years, will (most likely) be leaving the station to take a new position with the museum in Cincinnati's Eden Park area:

Cincinnati Art Museum announces Regina Russo as new Director of Marketing and Communications

The Cincinnati Art Museum is pleased to announce that Regina Russo will be joining their staff as the new Director of Marketing and Communications. Ms. Russo comes to the Art Museum from WXIX-TV FOX19, where she worked for 15 years as a news reporter and anchor. She has over 20 years of combined experience in print, online and televised media.

Ms. Russo is an active member of the Cincinnati community serving on various boards including, STOP AIDS, Race Relations Council of Greater Cincinnati, Y.W.C.A. L.E.A.R.N. and Contemporary Dance Theatre of Cincinnati, is a member of Cincinnati Black Ambassadors and NAACP Cincinnati, and is a former member of the Queen City Women’s Club. She brings industry experience, knowledge of the community and media expertise to her new role at the Art Museum.

“We are thrilled to gain Regina as a member of the Art Museum team. Her knowledge and experience with a variety of media formats will be invaluable in furthering our mission to bring people and art together”, said Director Aaron Betsky.

Ms. Russo will report to Deputy Director of Institutional Advancement David Linnenberg and will oversee all marketing and media communications. Additionally she will serve as a representative of the Art Museum to the media and work with Director Betsky to develop opportunities to enhance its presence in the Greater Cincinnati community as well as manage all internal and external Art Museum communications. Ms. Russo will work closely with the Marketing Committee of the Art Museum’s Board of Trustees to develop and implement successful communications strategies. She is looking forward to joining the Art Museum team on September 1.

Still unclear, is who will be promoted to Russo's current position as weekend 10 pm anchor. We're pretty sure Tricia Macke and Dan Carroll may not want to work 7 days a week.

Our (purely speculative) guess as to who will be tapped: Sara Celi.

Why? We happened to see her a few weeks ago anchoring the 10 pm on a weekend, and thought she did a decent job. She does a good job in the mornings at the update desk.

We admit: This guess is far fetched. There may be other candidates that FOX 19 is looking at. But that's our guess, and unless we see something different, we're sticking with this.

"Big Willie", Yes...But Not Till '11: And yes, we mean 2011.

In a story we broke Wednesday evening, Tribune confirmed that they will indeed give 700 WLW/Cincinnati midday talker Bill Cunningham a long-term shot at daytime talk television.

But, says Tom Taylor, it won't be until Fall... Fall of 2011 that is.

Why 2011? It has to do with another Chicago-based talk show host: Oprah Winfrey.

Yep, Tribune is looking to fill the syndication hole created by Oprah's decision to end distribution of her show to local affiliates (including WCPO-TV 9/Cincinnati) and go cable-only next year.

We're not clear if, or maybe more appropriately WHO, will get the rights in Cincinnati. But we'd have to guess it's FOX 19's to lose. After all, he bumped ratings by some 38%, week to week, over "America's Funniest Home Videos" when he did his 4 day trial a couple weeks ago, according to the Nielsen ratings, beating shows like "Let's Make A Deal" and "Dr. Phil".

Anyway, our best guess says FOX 19 keeps this one. Besides, they can get some cross promotion, with Willie still on 700 WLW, which is FOX 19's radio partner...

A Note: We hope to be back to a more normal posting schedule next week...but here's a heads up for the week after.

The TSMW Headquarters will be packing up and heading out of town for a week beginning August 8th (one week from Sunday). We'll be in Branson, Missouri, spending time with family... and more likely than not will not have much if any internet access during the week.

If we hear anything pressing, we'll tweet about it from the Cricket Twitter-Phone as soon as humanly possible. But we're not making guarantees, and we're pretty sure we WON'T be doing long-form updates. Heck, we can't even guarantee cell phone service out in the Ozarks of southwest Missouri. Heh.

Nonetheless, you have the heads up on that. After that, we should be back in northern Kentucky for the rest of the year...and posting a bit more frequently...

Wrapping Up Our Hiatus

As we pick up another piece or two that we missed during our hiatus to attend the Spina Bifida Association of America conference, we've also got a couple of new news items to tell you about...

Former Taft Broadcasting Reporter, Executive Dead: And we're talking about two separate people here, so it's doubly sad news for the folks involved with Taft Broadcasting back when it was its own entity in the 70s. These were reported by John Kiesewetter at the Enquirer today.

Carl J. Wagner, who was an executive for Taft/Great American, died last Monday, June 28, at age 76. He was the number 2 executive for the broadcasting group, which owned WKRC-TV/AM here. He'd retired in 1991, after spending some 17 years as its Vice President. He'd also worked with WTVN-AM/FM in Columbus and what would become WKRQ-FM 101.9 here, along with a station in Birmingham, AL.

Bill Crafton died last Friday. He had been diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis in 2008, and had written a blog called "What It's Like to be Told You're Terminally Ill". That blog (click here) hasn't been updated since last Tuesday. He was the anchor on air when the Beverly Hills Supper Club burned to the ground in 1977. He also worked for stations in South Bend, Indianapolis, and West Palm Beach, among others.

TSMW extends our condolences to both families as they deal with their losses...

Harris Back In Cincy: Steve Harris has landed back here in Cincinnati, after a stint as Senior Program Director at ESPN Radio.

He'll take over Radio One operations here, following the termination of GM Lisa Thal and regional VP Rick Porter back in May, according to our colleague Tom Taylor at Radio-Info on June 29.

Harris was the PD at WCIN-AM here 25 years ago, the Kiese Blog reported the same day.

We wonder what brought him back to the Queen City...but wish him luck...

Radio Station Launch: We go back to Friday now - and that radio station launch that happened in Cincinnati.

Yes, we're talking about WVQC-FM 95.7/Cincinnati, which kicked off live FM broadcasts at 6 PM Friday night.

"Producers", as WVQC program hosts are called by Media Bridges, rotated in and out of the studio sharing their feelings on the new FM signal broadcasting from atop the Essex Studios building in Walnut Hills. At one point around 6:45 PM, if you were within 3-5 miles of the launch or listening on the WVQC website, you may have even heard Your Editor on air for a quick sit-in. We didn't ask to be put on air, but were asked by Katie Finnigan if we wanted to say a few words, which we took the opportunity to do. (By the way, if you did hear the interview and are taking a look at us for the first time, welcome!)

I'm not sure if that interview is archived on WVQC's end (I'd guess they may have recorded it for historical purposes), but yours truly was nervous. As I tweeted, this was my first interview ever on a terrestrial radio station...in studio anyway. (Yes, I've called into radio stations in the past.)

Nonetheless, the atmosphere at the Media Bridges headquarters on Race Street in Cincinnati was very festive - as was that at Hoffner Park in Northside where a festival was being held and WVQC hosts were also broadcasting.

TSMW congratulates Media Bridges...as we noted, it was about time...

And Finally, A Personal Note: I don't do this often here, if at all, but I wish to extend my personal appreciation to Mr. Tom Taylor at Radio-Info.

I've received an email from him over the last few hours, where he addresses our prologue to Friday's post, saying that I handled my absence from This Space well.

I'd like to say this in public, as I did in private: Spina Bifida is very much a part of my life that I have made zero effort to hide. In fact, if you meet me on the street and ask the right question, I'll literally talk your ear off about it, and about how to prevent it.

In that respect, I don't ever plan to hide this portion of my life. My personal YouTube and Twitter spaces are places where I will talk about my life - very publicly. Spina Bifida is a part of that, and will be for the rest of my life.

As I said Friday: Spina Bifida has come a long way in my 25 years of life and longer. 50 years ago, it was such that a lot of children didn't live to see their 30th birthdays. Today, my generation is, at the very least, one of the first if not THE first to make it that far.

My personal hope is that the research done now continues to move forward over the next 50 years.

I hope you'll forgive the personal nature of this portion of today's post...but I felt I needed to share a little more about this...

A Couple Friday Notes

We apologize for our absence over the last week or so.

As we told Tom Taylor of Radio-Info.com, we were at a Spina Bifida Association of America conference. It was their yearly mega-event, and this year it was in Cincinnati...so we went. (And how's this for advance notice: We'll be on the West Coast in June of 2011 for next year's conference.)

If you're wondering or are new to this blog: yours truly has Spina Bifida, a potentially devastating neural tube defect which has come a long way in our nearly 25 years of life.

Anyway, a few items that have been, unlike us, lounging around through these hot summer days...

Fee to Retire In December: This one comes straight from the Kiese blog...as one of Cincinnati's TV station GM's will end his tenure later this year.

Bill Fee, of WCPO-TV 9/Cincinnati, will retire on December 31st, it was announced Thursday.

Fee is 63 years old, and has been working with WCPO since 1978, when he joined the station as its community affairs director. He also spent time at WLWT-TV 5 here and at WMC-TV in Memphis, Tennessee. He became GM at WCPO in 1999.

The transition was announced six months ahead so that WCPO can hopefully have a new GM in place at the first of the new year. In the meantime, WCPO still has to get authorization to construct, then build out, channel 22 for DTV - since they lost a great deal of viewers after last year's DTV switchover.

TSMW congratulates Mr. Fee and wishes him a good retirement.

WKRC Will Air Primetime Bengals Games: A move announced by WKRC-TV 12 here will mean two games will air on the CBS affiliate here.

Those games are the two major primetime games this year: the November 8 ESPN Monday Night Football divisional showdown with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Thanksgiving Night (!) NFL Network-produced game against the New York Jets. In both cases, remember, the TV deals with the cable networks require an over-air affiliate to carry the games.

We're not sure which stations will air the games in Lexington or Dayton. (If you live in or near these two cities, you can email us and let us know if you know this.)

Oh, and if you're wondering why the Hall of Fame game isn't on WKRC: NBC (and thusly, WLWT-TV 5/Cincinnati, WDTN-TV 2/Dayton and WLEX-TV 18/Lexington) get that game as part of their package. Nor can WKRC carry the Philadelphia Eagles/Bengals game in mid-August - Fox has those rights.

WVQC-FM Launch Tonight: Finally, the elephant in the media room in Cincinnati today.

WVQC-FM 95.7/Cincinnati will launch tonight at 6:00 PM. There is a happy hour launch party of sorts happening tonight 5-7 PM at Media Bridges' headquarters on Race Street in downtown Cincy.

We're downtown now and will be at the launch - that's where we're typing this post - and we'll have coverage after the July 4th holiday weekend, on Tuesday.

We hope to be back to a full-time schedule of posts after the weekend is over - if we're not in a food or caffeine-induced coma by that point...

Done Deal: Willie To Stay at 700 WLW + WKRC-TV To Launch 2 More Newscasts

Two early Wednesday morning items as we pick up more debris, both from the storms that have hit over the last five days, and the biggest story of the last two weeks...

Willie Signs: We hinted at this one yesterday - but now we can confirm that the deal is signed, sealed, and delivered at WLW.

Clear Channel-Cincinnati released a statement saying Bill Cunningham has agreed to a long term deal to remain on the city's number one talk station.

For Cunningham's part, he'd already confirmed it to John Kiesewetter Monday, as we reported.

The entire release is below...

Bill Cunningham Re-Ups with “The Big One”

Popular 700WLW Personality Affirms Commitment to Cincinnati

Cincinnati, June 15, 2010 -- 700WLW Cincinnati – “The Big One” – today announced that legendary, two-time Marconi Award winning personality Bill “Willie” Cunningham has signed a long term agreement to remain on the station – and reaffirmed his commitment to the Queen City and its radio listeners.

“We are extremely pleased that Willie will remain part of the 700WLW team for many years to come,” said Chuck Fredrick, President and Market Manager - Clear Channel Cincinnati. “The Big One is one of America's great radio stations because of its personalities and Willie and 700WLW are synonymous. Our audience expects the very best – and 700WLW works relentlessly to exceed their expectations."

Commenting on his decision, Cunningham said, “Cincinnati is my home. The first air I breathed. The first milk I drank was from Cincinnati. Others may have come as carpet baggers to loot the Queen City and then move on. Willie will remain true.”

Cunningham is host of The Big One's market leading Noon-3pm show – which has been rated #1 in Midday's for over 10 years. Twice-honored with a Marconi Award for Radio Personality of the Year, Cunningham has made numerous appearances on Fox News Channel, CNN and other television shows. Cunningham's show is also featured on iHeartRadio on "Channel Willie."

700WLW – The Big One – is a leading radio station in the “Queen City” (Cincinnati) area, broadcasting a News/Talk format that is highly popular with its local community where it is the #1 radio station with listeners 12+. 700WLW has a long and storied history that extends back to the earliest days of radio broadcasting – when the station was owned by the Crosley Radio company. 700WLW was the first United States commercial 50 KW station and the only standard broadcast station to ever broadcast at a power of 500KW – truly a “clear channel” station.

Our Take: This is good news for WLW 700. While they no longer have to worry about filling THREE slots...they still must deal with the 9-noon slot (and it's thought that Scott Sloan has the best shot at that opportunity) and the 9 PM-midnight slot (if Sloan does take the above).

Assuming Matt Patrick is in the running (Ohio Media Watch says that his guest hosting gig next Saturday is ONLY on WLW, and will NOT be on WTAM 1100/Cleveland), it looks to us like he would likely end up in the latter slot.

Either way, it is a good thing for WLW. They'd probably be fine even if Cunningham had left - let's face it, it's a heritage station and has both the pro sports teams...

WKRC Launching News at 4:30: And in this case it's not just 4:30 AM or PM - it's BOTH.

The station announced the move on their website Tuesday. The 4:30 AM/4:30 PM newscasts will begin September 6th.

The 4:30 AM news will join WXIX-TV 19/Newport and WLWT-TV 5/Cincinnati as the third such newscast in town. But WKRC will have the distinction of having Cincinnati's ONLY 4:30 PM newscast, and thusly the only station in town to go two and a half hours instead of the traditional 90 minutes starting at 5:00 PM.

Our Take: This one is not really a bad move by WKRC. Think about it. Oprah will end her nationwide syndication next year, leaving WCPO-TV 9 with a HUGE hole in their schedule. And WCPO wasn't exactly strong at 4:00 PM against WKRC (which, we remind you, swept the TV news ratings...uh, sweeps) in May.

WKRC will have plenty of ads to sell during the 4:30 PM news... and can either dump "Millionaire" off the main channel (still leaving it on the sub-channel 12.2, where it airs at 1:30 PM M-F), or possibly shift it to late nights. (There's really nowhere else they CAN put it - unless they move "Inside Edition" to late nights, instead - an unlikely move, as they count on that to lead into "Entertainment Tonight".)

The bottom line is this: WKRC really can't lose much by expanding the 4 PM news. As for expanding to 4:30 AM...it'll face some competition from both WXIX (the first in the city to have a newscast at 4:30 AM) and WLWT. But we don't expect the latter to be tough...if WKRC has any trouble with the 4:30 AM news, it'll be competing with WXIX - which beats 12.2's 10 PM news...and that could pose a problem for WKRC.

We'll have to see how everything shakes out with these new newscasts in September, and look at them more closely in November with that ratings book. But...we really don't expect a whole lot to change, except possibly the 4:30 AM news race...

Cunningham Staying, Cincy's Newest LPFM To Finally Debut, and Severe Weather Coverage

As the Cincinnati area recovers from severe storms late Monday night (more on the coverage below), here's a couple cleanup items...

"Big Willie" To Stay at WLW: We got word late Monday afternoon from TSMW reader Harry Yeprem that WLW's last major midday anchor will be staying, after all.

Bill Cunningham talked to John Kiesewetter Monday, and confirmed that he's not going to Tribune's talk WGN-AM 720/Chicago to follow his former lead-in Mike McConnell.

Apparently, he was off air last week because he wouldn't commit to an extension. (We're also hearing he went to lunch with Tribune executive Sean Compton and McConnell, and was also punished for that - but, if that's true, it seems a bit of an extreme reaction. Just our opinion.)

And, we also hear that his "Big Willie" show will debut either June 28 or July 5 on 16 Tribune television stations, as well as WXIX-TV 19/Cincinnati, and run for the week. (We presume that the latter is simply Tribune's way to throw Cincinnati a bone, since they own nothing in the area.)

WVQC-LP To Finally Debut Soon: We found this on the Kiese Blog... and it looks like it's a "drop dead" date commitment.

WVQC-LP 95.7/Cincinnati will finally launch their FM signal, almost 1 year after it was supposed to happen, on July 2nd.

They got a $100,000 grant from the Ohio Valley Foundation a few months ago, and are now constructing their tower site on top of Essex Studios in Walnut Hills. From that organization's website, we found out that they're located on - what else - Essex Street between McMillan and Taft, just off Reading Road. (It's not far from Bonneville Broadcasting's Cincinnati studios at 2060 Reading.)

We're not clear on how that signal will get from Media Bridges to the tower, but some sort of STL link is needed at the distance they're going to have to cover. (No, in this case STL doesn't stand for the hated MLB team from St. Louis, Missouri - but Studio to Transmitter Link.)

You'll recall we were among the first to talk about their planned launch last August - but in today's economy, funding is not easy to come by. That grant from OVF was what they needed, and they got it.

Congratulations to Media Bridges' staff on bringing them just that much closer...

Severe Weather Coverage: And finally, for Cincinnatians at least, the major, blackish-looking elephant in the room.

By blackish, we mean the storm clouds that raked across the area late Monday night, leaving flooding, wind damage, structure fires (including the famous so-called "Touchdown Jesus" statue in Monroe in Butler County), and even a possible tornado in the Cincinnati city limits!

We were able to sample storm coverage from just about every Cincinnati TV station Monday night...and more so when a tornado warning covered the very heart of the city in a scary, nighttime scenario.

We thought that WKRC-TV 12 did a fairly decent job of covering the situation...getting out of the way when the tornado threat passed.

WLWT-TV 5's Kevin Robinson also had no-nonsense weather coverage; given that Chief Meteorologist Kevin Robinson worked for The Weather Channel before his move here, that didn't surprise us.

We can't say WCPO-TV 9's Cyndee O' Quinn did a bad job, either, really, covering for Steve Raleigh.

But...and we say this with some hesitation... WXIX-TV 19 could have done better once the tornado warning ended. Instead...well, you've heard the complaints from people before... the same information was repeated over and over again, especially when there wasn't anything new.

Granted, yes, we're fans of the shows WXIX took off the air late Monday night...and in hindsight, yes, the storms had the potential to turn tornadic again at any point after the warning was allowed to expire at 11 PM.

But... the rotation clearly had diminished, the National Weather Service didn't mention any more reports of rotation with the storms. At that point, if you've got nothing new to report, it's time to get out of the way, in our opinion. Quick cut-ins would suffice.

We realize Steve Horstmeyer is probably told to stay on the air whenever severe storms are in the metro area. So we're not pinning this on him. (Full disclosure: If you've read yours truly's personal thoughts blog, you know that Your Tri-State Media Watcher would occasionally work alongside Horstmeyer to deliver the 6:45, 7:15 and 7:45 AM news when the latter was on WKRC-TV 12 while 12 had their Fountain Square studio.)

But in the summer and especially here in the Ohio Valley, when it gets above 85 degrees with 70 degree dewpoints, thunderstorms can and do blow up and, occasionally, hold on through 11 PM. Horstmeyer knows this - he's been here for his entire life and has worked here for over 30 years. TV stations should know that when their meteorologists say to "get out of the way for now", that's when the non-stop coverage should end...

And Finally: One year ago, TSMW was tracking the launch of WQRT-AM 1160/Florence.

The station launched exactly one year ago today, branded as "Q1160" at first - but after station management discovered that "Q" had been servicemarked by crosstown WKRQ-FM 101.9, was quickly re-branded as "Real Talk 1160".

Since then, although still working with its almost-not-quite-across Hamilton County nighttime signal, WQRT has done its best to hang in there... and has even added local talk, with Andy Furman taking the PM drive slot in February 2010.

We'd like to see WQRT actually make it. Since it must protect the nighttime signals of KSL-AM 1160/Salt Lake City, KFAQ-AM 1170/Tulsa, and, closer to home, WWVA-AM 1170/Wheeling, WV, it can't exactly up the juice. And it'll always have WLW and WKRC-AM 550, along with other, out of market flamethrowers such as 840 WHAS/Louisville to contend with.

Still...the fact is, it's there...it's given a home to a host who was once thought to be headed out of the area to continue doing talk radio...and it's probably not going anywhere for a good while.

CONFIRMED: Northeast Ohio Talker Taking WLW Airwaves June 26

TSMW has been looking all weekend for SOME information to confirm that an Akron-area morning show legend will be taking to Cincinnati airwaves later this month.

Nathan Obral wrote in a comment on our last item that Matt Patrick will be doing WLW's now-local slot on June 26th. (How long it'll stay local is anyone's guess.)

We're no longer looking - it's confirmed by Matt Patrick himself via a Facebook post. (We think this is where Mr. Obral got the info...)

On this post at the Matt Patrick Show Facebook Page, Patrick writes:

The "Queen City" gets to hear the "Joker" of Northeast Ohio..June 26th! We are live in Cincinnati on 700WLW beginning at noon! Mark it down!!

Patrick has a late-afternoon Saturday show on Ohio's "other" Big One, WTAM 1100/Cleveland. That show is normally heard Saturdays 1-4 PM when the Cleveland Indians don't play. (He got that slot, we presume, after previous lead-in James Traficant quit to run for Congress in the 17th District.)

Before that, Patrick had a very good career elsewhere in Ohio Media Watch territory, at WKDD 98.1/Munroe Falls, Ohio and WHLO-AM 640/Akron. In fact, towards the end of his tenure for Clear Channel Akron/Canton, Patrick was doing both shows back-to-back, sliding across to WHLO at 9AM to do that show. (Ironically, his old website for "The Matt Patrick Show on 640WHLO actually still exists here. We're not sure if it's frequently updated.

We're also not clear on whether this is an audition for Patrick, though that does seem to be the case. (WLW isn't carrying the last weeks of "The Weekend" Premiere syndicated show with now-former WLW talker Mike McConnell, remember.) It seems Scott Sloan is stepping into that role as well, for now anyway, at WLW.

Could Patrick be Cincinnati's next middayer? We suppose it's possible. We've never heard him, but again - he was not only part of WKDD, but he basically WAS WKDD for 30 years. That speaks volumes to how good he was in his role at WKDD.

The only problem is, Top 40 music and talk radio are two different things. Now, Patrick was fairly successful at WHLO, also. But...Akron/Canton is the number 76 market. Cleveland is 29th, with Cincinnati one step above that.

Now, we're not sure exactly what his WTAM show is doing, ratings wise. We're certain of this: Patrick is getting more exposure than if Traficant had stayed - whatever is in Patrick's old 4-7 PM slot isn't carried if the Indians have a Saturday night game.(No, we don't know what is in that slot... WTAM hasn't updated their website.)

Anyway: We really hope that, if nothing else, Patrick continues to do well with WTAM and his Saturday show there.

Once again, a tip of the hat to Nathan Obral for putting TSMW on the trail of this one... we sure couldn't find any info on WLW's site...

More McConnell Fallout - Premiere Dumps Former WLW Talker - Not Immediately, Though

Yes, on Day Four, the fallout from Mike McConnell's departure from WLW-AM 700 here for WGN-AM 720 in Chicago continues...and this time, it involves his "Weekend" program...

Well...it is his for a few more weeks.

Tom Taylor reported early Wednesday morning that Premiere, which syndicated McConnell's Saturday talkfest from 12-3 PM on WLW and over 100 other stations, will dump the talker in just a few weeks' time. Apparently, the syndicator will return to the format they used until his arrival in 2004, with rotating guest hosts. And Taylor reports today (Thursday morning) that no, WLW will NOT be airing the final weeks of "The Weekend with Mike McConnell".

So, those of you in cities outside of Cincinnati where McConnell has aired will get to hear him for another few weeks. We're pretty sure when he left WLW, that meant his weekend syndication was gone here, too. (And, where will he even HOST the program if, and that's a huge IF, he's now persona non grata at Kenwood Tower? We're guessing he had a home studio set up, ready to go for just this situation.)

Meanwhile, we pick up with his departure, and this word in the Kiesewetter TV Blog Wednesday afternoon:

McConnell will be live in the WXIX-TV (Channel 19) studio in the 8 a.m. hour of “Fox 19 Morning News” tomorrow (Thursday) to chat with Sheila Gray. McConnell will “say goodbye to all his fans, and explain why he is leaving tomorrow. Shelia Gray called Mike, and he said he wanted to come on and do this live, since he could not on 700,” says Matt Miller, new Fox 19 news director.

Hmmmm. That alone seems interesting...given that WXIX just took over doing weather on WLW in April. WXIX is giving McConnell the opportunity that apparently wasn't given to him at WLW. By the way, TSMW heard via Twitter that that interview is tentatively scheduled for around 8:15 AM, give or take 5 minutes.

The question is, who is to blame for that decision? However, McConnell told Kiesewetter Tuesday that "I doubt it was a local decision" to pull him off air here.

So, for Cincinnati, that means his WXIX 19 appearance will be his last on Cincinnati television or radio. Outside of the area, you'll probably get to hear him for a couple more weeks, before he's officially out the door. (Excluding, of course, his new home in Chicago.)

We think that about wraps up the McConnell story for us FOR NOW. Of course, news broke Wednesday in this saga - and we're not ruling out more news coming from Day Four...but for now, that's about it.