To "clear the Air"

[XAnchor]

In regard to previous posts on the historical formatic demise of WMJI and the diverse radio product of Cleveland radio,CMatthews writes; "I believe a perceptual was done in '99 or '00. WMJI was perceived as the "news station" over WTAM. MJI had 3 reporters. WTAM a gaggle of over 15. Not to soon after Carmen went to WTAM. MJI's "news dept" consisted of Chip and Laurie."

Wrong.

As a student of Cleveland radio since 1964, and as a part of a book I am writing,let me set the record straight on one of the more bizarre stories at World Domination Headquarters. Clear Channel, upon doing extensive market research and perceps, was stunned to find out that the Cleveland radio news and information image belonged to (God forbid) a country music station - 99.5 WGAR. MJI scored a close second and TAM (WWWE)was a distant third. With AM dominating-giants like WLW and WTVN, this really was a sore spot with Clear Channel!

To add insult to WTAM's injury, in January of 2001, The Plain Dealer did a huge front page spread on winter weather information on Cleveland radio and it featured WGAR-FM Morning Anchor Ed Richards on the front page of the The Plain Dealer and identified 'GAR as the leading station for winter weather and school closings information in Cleveland.

The article on GAR, Richards, and the country station's stellar national news image INFURIATED Clear Channel's M&M boys who, a little more than a month later, gutted GAR's news department by firing Richards (the architect of 'GAR's news image over the years) and eliminating newscasts outside morning drive.
To replace him, they later brought in Laurie Hovater who Richards mentored and groomed for Clear Channel. They also moved long-time WGAR news anchor Ken Robinson to TAM.

Why Clear Channel never put Richards on TAM is lost on a lot of us who were shocked by this seemingly bone-headed move. Instead, TAM kept guys with less talent and market experience like R.C. Bauer and Darren Thoms.  

Then you had the similar travesty with Denny Sanders at MJI, the PD at the number one rated station in Cleveland. He and Richards were canned within mere minutes of one another. Today, Sanders is working for Telos and Richards, inducted in the Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2003, is in Corporate Communications at Medical Mutual.

Just another one of those stories of two guys who contributed a lot to Cleveland radio and, undeservedly, got the royal shaft. One of the chapters of the book will deal with how Cleveland television embraces its talent treasures and how Cleveland radio "eats" them.

[freddyp]

>
> Why Clear Channel never put Richards on TAM is lost on a lot
> of us who were shocked by this seemingly bone-headed move.
> Instead, TAM kept guys with less talent and market
> experience like R.C. Bauer and Darren Thoms. [sic]
>

It's totally inappropriate to say that Bauer and Toms aren't talented.  They've been the voice of Cleveland radio news spanning two decades now.

I can't quite understand the hostility towards AM radio in Cleveland; perhaps it stems from Clevelanders benefitting from early FM stations here in town.

[nate81]

> In regard to previous posts on the historical formatic
> demise of WMJI and the diverse radio product of Cleveland
> radio,CMatthews writes; "I believe a perceptual was done in
> '99 or '00. WMJI was perceived as the "news station" over
> WTAM. MJI had 3 reporters. WTAM a gaggle of over 15. Not to
> soon after Carmen went to WTAM. MJI's "news dept" consisted
> of Chip and Laurie."
>
> Wrong.
>
> As a student of Cleveland radio since 1964, and as a part of
> a book I am writing,let me set the record straight on one of
> the more bizarre stories at World Domination Headquarters.
> Clear Channel, upon doing extensive market research and
> perceps, was stunned to find out that the Cleveland radio
> news and information image belonged to (God forbid) a
> country music station - 99.5 WGAR. MJI scored a close second
> and TAM (WWWE)was a distant third. With AM dominating-giants
> like WLW and WTVN, this really was a sore spot with Clear
> Channel!
 
One real reason for this, which was overlooked:

WGAR was originally on 1220 AM, now WHKW. In the late 80's, WGAR's country format was simulcast on 99.5 and 1220 before Nationwide sold off 1220 to Douglas/Cablevision (where it became, obviously, WKNR). WGAR's programming, with the news department, transferred to 99.5.

In the 70's and 80's, WWWE had a nightmare of formats (for a 50kW signal, at least) before settling on news/talk in 1985. And still, Pete Franklin's Sportsline (and later on, Gary Dee) was the only thing "3WE" could truly claim as noteworthy. In contrast, WLW and WTVN, had stable ownership and formats.

I'd even say that, when WERE mattered, their local news department of Jim McIntrye (now at WDOK), Craig Adams (now at WEOL), Jim Callahan (last I checked, at Metro) and Tom Moore (now at WTAM) had a higher identity than WWWE's!

Wonder why Secret scrapped the WWWE calls in 1996?

> To add insult to WTAM's injury, in January of 2001, The
> Plain Dealer did a huge front page spread on winter weather
> information on Cleveland radio and it featured WGAR-FM
> Morning Anchor Ed Richards on the front page of the The
> Plain Dealer and identified 'GAR as the leading station for
> winter weather and school closings information in Cleveland.

I remember that article. I bet WTAM still does.

- Nathan Obral

[Xnewsie]

Not to get too far off track, but I wonder about the listener perception of "news radio" in my old home market of Youngstown. As far as back as I can recall, WKBN/570 has been *the* station for radio news in the market, though that probably has more to do with my parents' longtime preference for 570 on the kitchen radio during breakfast.

It's important to note that, until the early/mid-1990s, KBN had competition for news in the form of WBBW/1240 and the late lamented WFMJ/1390 (now WNIO). Seeing as how WBBW was the station that more or less brought talk radio to the market and had a legitimate news operation for years with the likes of the late Dan Ryan and Don Ferguson, I wonder if a similar situation to that in Cleveland ever developed in the market? Or...was the crowded news field just more common in most markets in the era prior to consolidation?  

Then again, I know WKBN was around for a good two decades before WBBW even signed on the air and several years before 1390, so I may be totally off here. Can a radio geek with more wisdom advise this whippersnapper? :-)  



     

Edited by Xnewsie on 01/03/06 07:54 PM.

[XAnchor]

"Back in the day", the 1960's- thru the mid to late 70's, WHOT AM 1330 was THE
station that 570 WKBN, 1390 WFMJ, 1240/WBBW and all three Youngstown TV stations monitored religiously for breaking news! I know, because I worked at couple of these stations and we used to tape HOT 1330 all the time.

Bill Clark, John Dunn, Art Jordan, Al DeJulio, and Ed Richards (mentioned in a previous WGAR post) ruled. Mark Dailey is also an alumni of the WHOT news department. He made the quantum leap from WHOT to CKLW, Windsor and part of Byron McGregor's 20-20 news team in 1972 only four months out of Ursuline High School. Richards went onto lead 1220/WGAR in the 70's and 80's, where he was John Lanigan's news guy.

Yes. Competition in the Youngstown-Warren-Sharon Market was fierce. Race riots and mafia-wars provided a constant flow of breaking news, but HOT was always on top of things with the rest of the stations an hour or more behind.
The deal with HOT was that it was a Top-40 station, almost out of the Gordon McClendon mold, and lots of moms and dads loved the news but couldn't handle the music. Like some things ever change?

Not only was competition fierce and FUN to listen to, but it was VERY healthy. Something VERY unheard of these days for the radio information product.

[HHH]

> In regard to previous posts on the historical formatic
> demise of WMJI and the diverse radio product of Cleveland
> radio,CMatthews writes; "I believe a perceptual was done in
> '99 or '00. WMJI was perceived as the "news station" over
> WTAM. MJI had 3 reporters. WTAM a gaggle of over 15. Not to
> soon after Carmen went to WTAM. MJI's "news dept" consisted
> of Chip and Laurie."
>
> Wrong.
>
> As a student of Cleveland radio since 1964, and as a part of
> a book I am writing,let me set the record straight on one of
> the more bizarre stories at World Domination Headquarters.
> Clear Channel, upon doing extensive market research and
> perceps, was stunned to find out that the Cleveland radio
> news and information image belonged to (God forbid) a
> country music station - 99.5 WGAR. MJI scored a close second
> and TAM (WWWE)was a distant third. With AM dominating-giants
> like WLW and WTVN, this really was a sore spot with Clear
> Channel!

I don't know the whole story like some who worked there, but I was tight with some MJI people back then, and it is true that WMJI rated above WTAM in news perceptuals in Cleveland at the time, and I am not surprised that WGAR was up there, too....maybe even #1.  Both WGAR and WMJI had the best radio newscasts and service in town in the 1990s.  I remember hearing about a big fight at WMJI when Clear Channel started gutting their news department, and that Ed at WGAR was furious, too, when they started gutting WGAR news at the same time.    

>
> To add insult to WTAM's injury, in January of 2001, The
> Plain Dealer did a huge front page spread on winter weather
> information on Cleveland radio and it featured WGAR-FM
> Morning Anchor Ed Richards on the front page of the The
> Plain Dealer and identified 'GAR as the leading station for
> winter weather and school closings information in Cleveland.
>
>
> The article on GAR, Richards, and the country station's
> stellar national news image INFURIATED Clear Channel's M&M
> boys who, a little more than a month later, gutted GAR's
> news department by firing Richards (the architect of 'GAR's
> news image over the years) and eliminating newscasts outside
> morning drive.
> To replace him, they later brought in Laurie Hovater who
> Richards mentored and groomed for Clear Channel. They also
> moved long-time WGAR news anchor Ken Robinson to TAM.
>
> Why Clear Channel never put Richards on TAM is lost on a lot
> of us who were shocked by this seemingly bone-headed move.
> Instead, TAM kept guys with less talent and market
> experience like R.C. Bauer and Darren Thoms.

Probably because Ed conducted himself as a newsman, instead of a tabloid
hack who cuts down reports to dumbed-down quick-reads. "In depth, team-coverage"?  Two voices each reading ten seconds is all show and no substance.
   
>
> Then you had the similar travesty with Denny Sanders at MJI,
> the PD at the number one rated station in Cleveland. He and
> Richards were canned within mere minutes of one another.

So was Scott Howitt, the generally #1 afternoon personality in town and later Danny Wright, who also hit #1 quite often.  Gotta make WTAM look good by lowering the bar...so much easier and cheaper than actually building up WTAM.

 
> Today, Sanders is working for Telos and Richards, inducted
> in the Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2003, is in Corporate
> Communications at Medical Mutual.

Sanders is General Manager of Telos Systems and was also inducted into the Broadcasters' Hall Of Fame and got the Cleveland Association of Broadcasters Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 while PD at WMJI.  I was there, and, although many WMJI jocks, salespeople and engineering staff attended, not a single Clear Channel manager bothered to show up.  Their table was completely empty in one of the most insulting things that I have ever seen.  I remember Sanders looked at the table from the podium and said "well, it looks like there were more layoffs at Clear Channel today".
 
>
> Just another one of those stories of two guys who
> contributed a lot to Cleveland radio and, undeservedly, got
> the royal shaft. One of the chapters of the book will deal
> with how Cleveland television embraces its talent treasures
> and how Cleveland radio "eats" them.

Edited by HHH on 01/03/06 10:43 PM.

[Xnewsie]

> "Back in the day", the 1960's- thru the mid to late 70's,
> WHOT AM 1330 was THE
> station that 570 WKBN, 1390 WFMJ, 1240/WBBW and all three
> Youngstown TV stations monitored religiously for breaking
> news!

Wow. I knew that 1330 had a presence in the news arena, but I never knew it was held in such high regard! I briefly handled news at 1330...albeit in one of its mediocre post-WHOT incarnations. How the mighty have fallen, eh? :-(

> Bill Clark, John Dunn, Art Jordan, Al DeJulio, and Ed
> Richards (mentioned in a previous WGAR post) ruled.

Art Jordan...that name rings a bell. Didn't he work for WFMJ-TV until relatively recently? I seem to recall that name from 21's newscasts. As for Al DeJulio, I have an unscoped aircheck of HOT from late '71 featuring some of his newscasts.

[OldAkronite]

> Art Jordan...that name rings a bell. Didn't he work for
> WFMJ-TV until relatively recently? I seem to recall that
> name from 21's newscasts. As for Al DeJulio, I have an
> unscoped aircheck of HOT from late '71 featuring some of his
> newscasts.

I am pretty sure Art Jordan was at WFMJ-TV 21 as recently as when I was kicking around the market, in the early 90's.  I believe he may have been news director at the time.  21's ND now is Mona Alexander, a former WKBN/27 anchor.

As far as WHOT and news goes...they were pumping out pretty decent news product even on the FM side back then (about 15 years ago).  By that time, 1330 had split from 101.1.  "HOT FM" had a pretty extensive newscast for a top 40 station in 1989/90.

-OA
 

______________
Ohio Media Watch - http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com

[cmatthews]

> In regard to previous posts on the historical formatic
> demise of WMJI and the diverse radio product of Cleveland
> radio,CMatthews writes; "I believe a perceptual was done in
> '99 or '00. WMJI was perceived as the "news station" over
> WTAM. MJI had 3 reporters. WTAM a gaggle of over 15. Not to
> soon after Carmen went to WTAM. MJI's "news dept" consisted
> of Chip and Laurie."
>
> Wrong.
>
> As a student of Cleveland radio since 1964, and as a part of
> a book I am writing,let me set the record straight on one of
> the more bizarre stories at World Domination Headquarters.
> Clear Channel, upon doing extensive market research and
> perceps, was stunned to find out that the Cleveland radio
> news and information image belonged to (God forbid) a
> country music station - 99.5 WGAR. MJI scored a close second
> and TAM (WWWE)was a distant third. With AM dominating-giants
> like WLW and WTVN, this really was a sore spot with Clear
> Channel!
>


Actually, I'm not wrong. As You (and I) stated, WMJI scored above WTAM. I never said WMJI scored above WGAR. So I am correct. I should know, I worked there during that time period (94-00).

______________
Chuck Matthews Voiceovers
chuck@killerimaging.com

http://voices.planetcharley.com
http://chuckmatthews1.voice123.com

[cmatthews]

> >
> > Why Clear Channel never put Richards on TAM is lost on a
> lot
> > of us who were shocked by this seemingly bone-headed move.
>
> > Instead, TAM kept guys with less talent and market
> > experience like R.C. Bauer and Darren Thoms. [sic]
> >
>
> It's totally inappropriate to say that Bauer and Toms aren't
> talented.  They've been the voice of Cleveland radio news
> spanning two decades now.
>
> I can't quite understand the hostility towards AM radio in
> Cleveland; perhaps it stems from Clevelanders benefitting
> from early FM stations here in town.
>

R.C. was hired, originally doing news at WMJI, in '98-99, before moving over to WTAM. Chip "trained" R.C.

I don't believe R.C. was in the market before WMJI/WTAM.

______________
Chuck Matthews Voiceovers
chuck@killerimaging.com

http://voices.planetcharley.com
http://chuckmatthews1.voice123.com