February 9, 20196 yr Meanwhile... 105.7-FM switches from sports talk to classic rock -- or rather, switches back to it: https://www.dispatch.com/news/20190208/1057-switches-from-sports-to-classic-rock https://www.elevenwarriors.com/columbus/2019/02/102317/1057-the-zone-columbus-sports-radio-station-becomes-classic-rock-station-1057-the-brew 105.7 FM launched its sports talk format - The Zone - in November 2016. It was designed to be an all-sports competitor to WBNS - 97.1 FM "The Fan". Among "The Zone" personalities were sports broadcaster Bruce Hooley, former Ohio State and NFL linebacker Chris Spielman and former Ohio State quarterback Stanley Jackson. But alas, The Zone did not prevail over The Fan(!). Many of 105.7's on-air personnel and reporters are getting scooped up by 610 WTVN - who is looking to incorporate more sports news into their broadcasts.
March 4, 20196 yr On 2/9/2019 at 2:41 PM, Columbo said: I hope WCBE 90.5 can survive and move forward in some capacity - NPR affiliated or not. I say "NPR affiliated or not" because Columbus has another NPR affiliate station in WOSU 89.7 FM. Although both stations have distinct programming throughout most of the day - there is some duplication in the NPR programming - with both stations broadcasting the exact same NPR program at the same time(!). The history of why Columbus has two NPR affiliated stations is somewhat interesting. WCBE (W-Columbus Board of Education) began broadcasting in 1956. Initially, the station carried only locally produced education programs. But it was the first station in Columbus to affiliate with National Public Radio and began carrying NPR programs in the 1970's. Meanwhile, WOSU-AM (820) - Columbus's oldest radio station - which dates to 1920 with an experimental license and 1922 as an official broadcast license - also became an NPR-affiliate in the 1970's, shortly after WCBE-FM. Up until recently, WCBE was the FM NPR station and WOSU-AM was the AM NPR station. WOSU also operated an 89.7 FM station since 1949, which until recently had only classical music programming. But in 2010, Ohio State announced it was buying the WWCD 101.1 FM frequency and moving WOSU-FM's longtime classical music format from 89.7 FM to WWCD's frequency at 101.1 FM. (At the same time WWCD's programming moved to a more powerful 102.5 FM frequency.) WOSU's 820-AM frequency was then sold off to St. Gabriel Radio Inc in 2011 - which moved their Catholic programming format from another AM station to 820-AM. The reason to move WOSU's NPR-affiliate from 820-AM to 89.7-FM was for the stronger 40,000-watt signal. 820-AM had only 5,000-watts during the day, which dropped to a miniscule 790 watts at night. WOSU's 40,000-watt 89.7 signal is also more powerful than WCBE's 1,000-watt 90.5-FM signal. Now, WOSU's NPR station has a strong FM signal and the resources of the Ohio State University plus the fundraising leverage of WOSU-TV behind it. While WCBE has less reach, less fundraising ability and an affiliation with Columbus City Schools and its school board that seem to have no need for a radio station. Given all that, maybe it should be no surprise that WCBE is in financial trouble. (Although, it appears that the suspended WCBE station manager should have been much more upfront about its ballooning debt to NPR!) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WCBE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WOSU_(AM) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WOSU-FM ^ My previous post about WCBE was to document the NPR-affiliate radio history in Columbus. But implicit in that post was the question "Does C-BUS need two NPR-affiliates?" Apparently I'm not the only one asking that question: Talks between WCBE, WOSU advocates last year became ‘non-starter’ By Bill Bush, The Columbus Dispatch Posted: Feb 22, 2019 at 6:39 PM The group (WBCE Ohio) that offered to relieve Columbus City Schools of $869,000 in debt secretly accumulated by its public radio station (WCBE) had quietly been in talks with former Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman, who was representing WOSU. ... Attorney Don McTigue, who created the nonprofit corporation, WCBE Ohio, which has supported the radio station and also was interested in taking over its operations, held those meetings with Coleman. McTigue also said that in late 2017 he was in discussions with former Columbus Schools Superintendent Dan Good about taking over control of WCBE, but talks broke off when Good retired in December 2017. Then, in 2018, McTigue said he met with WOSU officials in meetings that Coleman helped to facilitate. Ohio State University said it hired Coleman last year, through his law firm Ice Miller LLP, “to facilitate discussions with WCBE Ohio (McTigue’s group) on possible partnerships with WOSU,” the university’s public radio station, OSU spokesman Ben Johnson said in an email. “Nothing came of the discussions, which have ended.” McTigue confirmed that he met with Coleman and WOSU officials three times last year. The talks apparently didn’t go well. In a Nov. 14 letter to McTigue, WOSU general manager Tom Rieland said that WCBE “dropping NPR news programming and going to any type of all-music radio format is a non-starter.” As a result, he wrote, WOSU was no longer interested in “building a deep partnership with WCBE.” Rieland wrote, “You can’t help but root for the scrappy organization living on the edge. But as you know, at some point, the lack of a sustainable model will catch up to any organization.” On the same day (in 2019) that school district officials say that now-suspended WCBE general manager Dan Mushalko informed them the station owed National Public Radio $869,000 for news services because of underpayments dating to 2015 — debt which doesn’t show in any of the station’s state audits and which district officials say they knew nothing about — McTigue sent the district a letter offering to pay off the debt in return for operational control of the station. MORE: https://www.dispatch.com/news/20190222/talks-between-wcbe-wosu-advocates-last-year-became-non-starter MORE: https://www.thisweeknews.com/news/20190222/talks-between-wcbe-wosu-advocates-last-year-became-non-starter
March 5, 20196 yr 'Columbus Dispatch' continues to see daily, Sunday circulation fall By Tristan Navera – Staff Reporter, Columbus Business First Feb 28, 2019, 12:45pm EST The Columbus Dispatch continues to lose circulation in the years following its sale to Gatehouse Media. Daily circulation at the Dispatch declined last year by nearly 15 percent to 84,419, while Sunday circulation declined nearly 20 percent to 120,419, New Media Investment Group, the acquisitive firm that owns GateHouse Media, said in its annual report issued Thursday. Web traffic was flat in 2018 – The Dispatch, its magazines and affiliates have a paid and free circulation of 1.2 million in Central Ohio and its websites are averaging 10 million page views a month, the same numbers reported in 2017. Though in that time, ThisWeek Community Newspapers, its chain of 21 community publications, saw weekly distribution grow from 272,401 to 384,728. Dispatch Daily circulation was 116,442 in 2015; 107,000 in 2016; and 98,931 in 2017. Sunday circulation was 208,315 in 2015; 175,084 in 2016; and 149,610 in 2017. Still, the company says competition for print advertising is "minimal with just a weekly business journal and a few small monthly magazines," compared to "intense" competition in electronic and digital advertising. MORE: https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2019/02/28/columbus-dispatch-continues-to-see-daily-sunday.html?iana=hpmvp_colum_news_headline
May 9, 20196 yr Columbus school board uses education funds to pay off radio station WCBE’s $870,000 debt Without debate, the Columbus Board of Education decided Tuesday to use $870,000 of its general education funds to pay off a debt to National Public Radio that was secretly run up by the district’s public radio station WCBE. The transfer was approved as part of a 7-0 “consent agenda” omnibus vote that approved dozens of district initiatives. A background memo from the district’s executive director of strategic communications who oversees WCBE (90.5 FM) to Superintendent Talisa Dixon notes that “the board may be asked again to supplement the station’s budget through the general fund.” The station was thought to be self-supporting through fundraising drives, but district officials learned earlier this year that NPR, which provides WCBE its national news programming, had been accepting partial payments from (now-suspended) WCBE General Manager Dan Mushalko on what the district owed it for years — a debt that never appears on any of the station’s state-mandated financial audits. “That was the recommendation of the administration” to pay NPR out of general fund dollars, board President Gary Baker said following the vote. Asked how the board would respond to using local and state money earmarked for teaching students to pay off a debt of a radio station, Baker replied, “I am pleased that the district is able to continue to provide a valuable community service through WCBE.” MORE: https://www.dispatch.com/news/20190508/columbus-school-board-uses-education-funds-to-pay-off-radio-station-wcbes-870000-debt
May 24, 20196 yr Columbus Dispatch lays off veteran reporters, others as parent company restructures The Columbus Dispatch laid off six staffers on Thursday as parent company GateHouse Media began nationwide restructuring. In a column published Friday morning, Dispatch Editor Alan Miller said the company "lost several colleagues on Thursday to layoffs resulting from the significant pressures on the newspaper industry." He did not include the names of impacted employees or the number of jobs cut. According to sources familiar with the Dispatch newsroom, the following employees were laid off: Joe Blundo, longtime life and arts columnist; Tim Feran, longtime business reporter; Jack Torry, longtime Washington bureau reporter; Linda Deitch, longtime Dispatch librarian; Michelle Campbell, an editorial administrative assistant; and Nate Beeler, the paper's editorial cartoonist. MORE: https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2019/05/24/columbus-dispatch-lays-off-veteran-reporters.html
May 24, 20196 yr ^ Of the six laid of by the Dispatch, the biggest name is Joe Blundo - the longtime writer of the popular 'So To Speak' column. However, the 65-year-old Blundo announced via his twitter feed and an article posted on the Dispatch website, that he will continue writing his column as a freelancer for the Dispatch. Blundo said that beginning in June, "my thrice-weekly column will become a once-a-week column, appearing on Sundays". https://www.dispatch.com/entertainmentlife/20190524/joe-blundo-we-interrupt-this-column-to-bring-you-important-message
May 25, 20196 yr Saw something to that effect on Blundo's FB feed last night. Tim Ferran originally started out covering the media beat (specifically radio) back in the early 90s. But as someone wrote on Blundo's facebook wall, "Now the Dispatch is cutting the bone."
June 11, 20196 yr https://www.dispatch.com/news/20190611/wolfe-family-sells-broadcast-group-including-wbns-10tv-for-535-million WOW! The Dispatch Broadcast Group is selling all of its Columbus television and radio stations, plus a TV station it owns in Indianapolis to TEGNA Inc. (a broadcast company split off from the Gannett Company in 2015). Included in the sale are: WBNS-TV (CBS - Channel 10), founded in 1949 by the Wolfe family. The CBS affiliate is a longtime market leader among Central Ohio TV stations. WTHR-TV of Indianapolis (NBC - Channel 13), founded in 1957 by Crosley Broadcasting Corp. and purchased by The Dispatch Broadcast Group in 1975. WBNS Radio (1460 AM and 97.1 FM). The AM station was founded in 1922 and bought by the Wolfe family in 1927, who changed the call letters to WBNS. The FM station dates to 1957 and is the flagship radio station for OSU sports, Columbus Blue Jackets and the Columbus Crew. A number of things stand out with this transaction: The $535 million price is noteworthy for how much it contrasts with the $47 million sale price of The Dispatch to GateHouse Media in 2015. The sale of the broadcast group brings to an end the Wolfe family’s dominating Columbus media presence - one that stretched across more than a century and included newspapers, magazines, as well as the radio and television stations. The WBNS call sign stands for Wolfes' Banks, Newspapers and Shoes. The sale also ends the last of the locally-owned TV stations in the Columbus market. WCMH (NBC 4) is owned by Nexstar Media Group and ABC-6, FOX-28 & CW-53 are owned by Sinclair.
June 11, 20196 yr It's a shame, for sure, but the era of local media outlets has been drawing to a close for some time now. As mentioned, most television stations in Ohio, as well as around the country, are now owned by some sort of media giant. I'll miss the local flare of WBNS-TV/AM/FM.
June 11, 20196 yr I didn't like the Wolfes screwing around with local politics though. I definitely feel like they created a culture of secrecy and political apathy locally.
June 18, 20195 yr https://www.dispatch.com/news/20190611/dispatch-statehouse-reporter-jim-siegel-dies-at-46 https://www.dispatch.com/news/20190616/in-jim-siegel-we-lost-friend-ohio-lost-watchdog-but-his-family-lost-most https://www.dispatch.com/news/20190617/dispatch-reporter-jim-siegel-receives-special-honors-at-ohio-statehouse Dispatch Statehouse reporter Jim Siegel died last Tuesday at age 46. Siegel was found unresponsive at his home after working out on a treadmill on June 11. The cause of death has not been determined. Siegel's death brought an outpouring of condolences from both sides of the aisle in the Statehouse, as those he reported on and those he worked with remembered him as a fair and respected journalist. Siegel was a big bear of a guy who grew up near Youngstown playing high school football as well as college football at West Liberty University in West Virginia. He wrote for the Mansfield News Journal and then was the Statehouse reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer before joining the Columbus Dispatch as their Statehouse reporter in 2005. In addition to his Dispatch reporting, he was also a regular guest on the local public affairs programs 'Columbus on the Record' on WOSU-TV and 'All Sides with Ann Fisher' on WOSU-FM. Yesterday, he received the rare honor of a memorial service in the Ohio Statehouse atrium (see the photo below). Siegel leaves his wife, who he met in high school, and two sons, an 18-year-old who just graduated from high school and a 16-year-old who Siegel supported in Special Olympics events.
June 20, 20195 yr https://www.columbusalive.com/news/20190620/alive-wins-19-awards-goes-digital-only Columbus Alive is moving online to a digital-only publication next month. The last print issue will be July 3. Which is surprising to me because I thought it already was digital-only(!)
June 28, 20195 yr The official post-mortem from Columbus City Schools on the WCBE (90.5 FM) NPR debt scandal: Columbus schools find ex-official of radio station WCBE falsified documents to hide $870,000 debt to NPR The former head of Columbus City Schools’ public radio station falsified invoices to manipulate cash flow and hide that the station owed nearly $870,000 to NPR for years, school district officials confirmed Thursday. Dan Mushalko, general manager of WCBE (90.5 FM), had fallen behind on payments for years but didn’t tell district officials until late January. Instead, he altered invoices submitted to the district treasurer’s office, reducing the amount owed to match the funds he had available to pay NPR and other vendors, according to a report released Thursday. ... Because NPR talked directly with Mushalko as general manager about invoices and the debts, the alterations remained undetected for years. ( . . . ) Mushalko submitted his resignation Tuesday. The district won’t seek criminal charges and considers the matter finished, spokesman Scott Wortman said. The Columbus Board of Education’s audit and accountability committee reviewed the report at a Thursday afternoon meeting and agreed to make it public. ... “He did whatever he had to do to keep the illusion alive that WCBE was actually an enterprise operation,” said board President Gary Baker. “This is someone really dedicated to the mission of WCBE. I think he dug himself into a hole that he just couldn’t get out of. It’s a sad situation.” The district paid off its nearly $870,000 debt to NPR from its general fund in June. Since 2000, the station was meant to be self-sustaining through fundraising. But the report indicates that model isn’t sustainable long term and poses a risk to the district. The district estimates the annual cost to operate the station in the upcoming school year will be more than $1.6 million. Through donations, memberships and underwriting, the station brought in only about $1 million this past year MORE: https://www.dispatch.com/news/20190627/columbus-schools-find-ex-official-of-radio-station-wcbe-falsified-documents-to-hide-870000-debt-to-npr
August 5, 20195 yr GateHouse Media Buying Gannett, Bringing Most Ohio Newspapers Under One Owner The owner of the Columbus Dispatch is purchasing the owner of the Cincinnati Enquirer, in a merger of two of the country's largest newspaper companies. In Ohio, the merger would unite most of the state's local newspapers under one roof. Gannett's portfolio includes the Chillicothe Gazette, Coshocton Tribune, Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, Loudonville Times, Mansfield News-Journal, Marion Star, Newark Advocate, Port Clinton News Herald, and Zanesville Times Recorder. GateHouse's papers include the local ThisWeek papers, the Alliance Review, Ashland Times-Gazette, Canton Repository, The Daily Jeffersonian, Kent Record-Courier, Massillon Independent, Minerva News Leader, New Philadelphia Times-Reporter, Wooster Daily Record, and Akron Beacon Journal. The combined company would take the Gannett name and keep its headquarters in Gannett's current home of McLean, Virginia. MORE: https://radio.wosu.org/post/gatehouse-media-buying-gannett-bringing-most-ohio-newspapers-under-one-owner#stream/0
August 22, 20195 yr WBNS-10TV News Anchor Jerry Revish to retire in November COLUMBUS, Ohio (WBNS-10TV) – News Anchor Jerry Revish is retiring from his career in journalism, spanning more than four decades. He delivers the nightly news to Columbus viewers at 5, 6 and 11 p.m. His last day on air will be November 27, 2019. Revish shared the following with central Ohio: “I’ve had the blessing and pleasure of working for the best locally-owned television station in America. The Wolfe family set a standard of excellence and integrity since WBNS-10TV went on the air in 1949. My career in journalism has afforded me the opportunity to help write the first drafts of history for 45 years.” MORE: https://www.10tv.com/article/wbns-10tv-news-anchor-jerry-revish-retire-november-2019-aug
August 22, 20195 yr More about the Jerry Revish retirement from Columbus Business First: Longtime WBNS news anchor to retire Jerry Revish, a longtime news anchor with WBNS-10TV, will retire this year after more than 40 years in journalism. The station announced Revish's retirement Thursday. His last day on air will be Nov. 27, according to a news release. Revish's retirement comes at a time of significant change for the television station, which was long owned by the Wolfe family, also the former owners of The Columbus Dispatch. This summer, publicly traded media company Tegna agreed to buy WBNS and a handful of other broadcast properties from the Wolfes for $535 million, bringing to an end the family's longtime media empire in Central Ohio. That deal closed this month. MORE: https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2019/08/22/longtime-wbns-news-anchor-to-retire.html
August 25, 20195 yr 11 hours ago, Magyar said: So this makes Colleen Marshall the longest tenured talking head on Columbus TV? I believe so.
September 5, 20195 yr https://www.10tv.com/article/10tv-meteorologist-mike-davis-charged-child-pornography-2019-sep
September 6, 20195 yr And in what should be no surprise to anyone, 10TV fired Mike Davis today, shortly after he posted bond.
September 6, 20195 yr 3 hours ago, Gramarye said: So apparently this happened once upon a time: Columbus reddit had fun with that photo: https://www.reddit.com/r/Columbus/comments/d0hlt5/this_photo_hasnt_aged_well/
September 11, 20195 yr Channel 6 thought they should challenge Channel 10 concerning employees with bad habits. Spoiler Spoiler
October 24, 20195 yr On 6/28/2019 at 12:08 PM, Columbo said: The official post-mortem from Columbus City Schools on the WCBE (90.5 FM) NPR debt scandal: Columbus schools find ex-official of radio station WCBE falsified documents to hide $870,000 debt to NPR The former head of Columbus City Schools’ public radio station falsified invoices to manipulate cash flow and hide that the station owed nearly $870,000 to NPR for years, school district officials confirmed Thursday. Dan Mushalko, general manager of WCBE (90.5 FM), had fallen behind on payments for years but didn’t tell district officials until late January. Instead, he altered invoices submitted to the district treasurer’s office, reducing the amount owed to match the funds he had available to pay NPR and other vendors, according to a report released Thursday. ... Because NPR talked directly with Mushalko as general manager about invoices and the debts, the alterations remained undetected for years. ( . . . ) Mushalko submitted his resignation Tuesday. The district won’t seek criminal charges and considers the matter finished, spokesman Scott Wortman said. The Columbus Board of Education’s audit and accountability committee reviewed the report at a Thursday afternoon meeting and agreed to make it public. ... “He did whatever he had to do to keep the illusion alive that WCBE was actually an enterprise operation,” said board President Gary Baker. “This is someone really dedicated to the mission of WCBE. I think he dug himself into a hole that he just couldn’t get out of. It’s a sad situation.” The district paid off its nearly $870,000 debt to NPR from its general fund in June. Since 2000, the station was meant to be self-sustaining through fundraising. But the report indicates that model isn’t sustainable long term and poses a risk to the district. The district estimates the annual cost to operate the station in the upcoming school year will be more than $1.6 million. Through donations, memberships and underwriting, the station brought in only about $1 million this past year MORE: https://www.dispatch.com/news/20190627/columbus-schools-find-ex-official-of-radio-station-wcbe-falsified-documents-to-hide-870000-debt-to-npr One more post-mortem on the WCBE (90.5 FM) NPR debt scandal from the Franklin County Common Pleas Court: https://www.dispatch.com/news/20191023/former-manager-of-wcbe-radio-gets-probation-for-altering-invoices The former general manager of Columbus City Schools’ public radio station (WCBE 90.5 FM) was placed on probation Wednesday after admitting that he falsified invoices to hide the station’s debt from school district officials. Dan Mushalko, 60, pleaded guilty to one count of telecommunications fraud, a low-level felony. Judge Dan Hawkins imposed two years of probation, plus a $500 fine and court costs for Mushalko, who resigned from WCBE in June after an investigation into his efforts to conceal nearly $870,000 in debt, owed mostly to National Public Radio. Mushalko did not make a statement in court. Probation was recommended by prosecuting and defense attorneys as part of a plea agreement. “He didn’t profit from this,” Assistant Prosecutor Jeffrey Blake said. “There was no theft of this money.” The school district investigation revealed that the NPR affiliate station, which was supposed to be self-sustaining, couldn’t cover its bills. For years, Mushalko altered invoices to amounts low enough that he could pay them from the station’s reserves. He electronically submitted the false invoices to the district treasurer’s office, leading to the telecommunications fraud charge. In May, the Columbus Board of Education voted to use money from the district’s general education funds to pay off the $870,000 debt. The district plans to fund the station through the current school year, then determine whether the station is worth keeping, and if so, how it will be operated.
January 6, 20205 yr 188 full- and part-time jobs affected by this move Columbus Dispatch announces move of print production to Indianapolis The Columbus Dispatch is moving its newspaper printing and production operation from the West Side to a sister facility in Indianapolis in March. Employees were told today that while the company is moving the location where The Dispatch is printed, it will not affect the daily publication of The Dispatch. Subscribers to the print edition will continue to receive home delivery. The consolidation of production operations has become common within the newspaper industry as a way to save money and preserve local journalism. https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200106/columbus-dispatch-announces-move-of-print-production-to-indianapolis?utm_source=web_push&utm_medium=referral
January 6, 20205 yr 10 minutes ago, Clefan98 said: 188 full- and part-time jobs affected by this move Columbus Dispatch announces move of print production to Indianapolis The Columbus Dispatch is moving its newspaper printing and production operation from the West Side to a sister facility in Indianapolis in March. Employees were told today that while the company is moving the location where The Dispatch is printed, it will not affect the daily publication of The Dispatch. Subscribers to the print edition will continue to receive home delivery. The consolidation of production operations has become common within the newspaper industry as a way to save money and preserve local journalism. https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200106/columbus-dispatch-announces-move-of-print-production-to-indianapolis?utm_source=web_push&utm_medium=referral So the Cincinnati Enquirer moves its printing location to Columbus back in 2012. Then Gannett (the owner of the Enquirer) buys Gatehouse (the owner of the Dispatch) and moves their joint printing location to Indy? The market is truly magical.
February 25, 20205 yr Last Dispatch printed in Columbus rolls off presses Mark Ferenchik - Mon. Feb 24, 2020 Link: https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200224/last-dispatch-printed-in-columbus-rolls-off-presses
February 25, 20205 yr ^ That video of the printing presses reminded me of the closing scene from the 1952 movie 'Deadline USA' starring Humphrey Bogart. In that scene, Bogie is the editor of a city newspaper and is on the phone with the city's biggest gangster - who is the subject of a murder story the paper is about to publish. The gangster begins to threaten Bogie when the time to start printing arrives. Bogie queues the presses to start rolling and holds the phone up to the noisy machines. The gangster asks "what's that noise?". To which Bogie replies, "That's the press, baby" and then hangs up. Queue to the montage of the printing presses operating to the final headline:
February 25, 20205 yr 11 hours ago, NorthShore647 said: Last Dispatch printed in Columbus rolls off presses Mark Ferenchik - Mon. Feb 24, 2020 Link: https://www.dispatch.com/news/20200224/last-dispatch-printed-in-columbus-rolls-off-presses It's too bad the way things worked out for that Dispatch printing facility. It was a relatively modern facility that could have been used as a regional printing location for the new merged company. Unfortunately, in 2012, the local Dispatch owners switched all the printing presses from the standard broadsheet format to a new compact tabloid-size format. At the time, Dispatch ownership touted this as a great leap forward and predicted that other papers would soon follow in this format change. Turned out they were completely wrong. And because it would take alot of time and money to convert the Dispatch printing presses back to the industry standard broadsheet format, the Columbus facility didn't make the cut as a regional printing location in the new Gannett/Gatehouse network.
February 29, 20205 yr Columbus Dispatch cuts more jobs as Gannett reports steep revenue drop The Columbus Dispatch cut more jobs this week as Gannett Co. reported that revenue at many of its papers fell faster last year than in the previous year. The Dispatch eliminated six positions in its newsroom, according to a crowdsourced spreadsheet tracking layoffs across the company. Another reporter was cut from This Week Community News while the Chillicothe Gazette lost a content specialist. MORE: https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2020/02/28/columbus-dispatch-cuts-more-jobs-as-gannett.html
July 7, 20204 yr Columbus City Schools delays decision on WCBE radio Columbus City Schools officials said a year ago that they would decide the future of the district’s financially troubled public radio station by the end of the fiscal year. But last week, they closed the books on the 2019-20 school year — which included transferring $768,500 to pay off the station’s operating deficit — and the future of WCBE (90.5 FM) is just as uncertain as last year. Scott Varner, the district’s executive director of strategic partnerships, is leading a district committee tasked with reimagining the radio station’s future, including how it fits with the district’s educational mission. He said the group needs more time to make a well-informed recommendation. The group is seeking an outside consultant to gather more specifics about potential costs, and an appraiser to estimate the value of the station’s broadcast license. Now a decision is not likely until next spring, officials said. MORE: https://www.thisweeknews.com/news/20200706/columbus-city-schools-delays-decision-on-wcbe-radio
July 7, 20204 yr Ben Gelber is getting congratulations on his 40 years as a weatherman with NBC4. But what the people really want is that Ben Gelber parody song from 25 years ago(!)
August 6, 20204 yr This isn't the biggest media group in C-bus (it might be one of the smallest!). But it is an interesting story: Volunteer-run Columbus low-power radio station boasts diverse programming Listeners to the community radio station WCRS-LP can wake up on Saturday mornings with a bang: five hours of Latino music with DJ Supermex. Later, there’s an hour of indigenous music, followed by Danjir Radio — Somali-language programming for central Ohio’s East African community — and an hour of locally produced Arab American music. And that’s just a sampler. Every day, every hour brings something different. “One of our goals has been to represent the diversity of Columbus and to provide underrepresented voices the chance to be on the air,” WCRS station coordinator Robb Ebright said. But be careful when trying to tune in or you might miss it. WCRS, created in 2007, is a low-power station with a limited range. So while a full-power radio station might boast 50,000 watts and a 70-mile range, WCRS has about 68 watts and a range of seven miles. It is broadcast on 92.7 FM, which covers the northern suburbs around Worthington, and 98.3 FM, which covers the Grandview Heights-University area. The station is also commercial free, which allows for such a wide variety of programming. ... Any operational costs are funded mostly by donations from listeners and volunteers, as well as occasional grants. No ad revenue, however, also means that everyone who works for the station does so on a volunteer basis, including Ebright, who makes a living as a contract web designer. He estimates that WCRS has about 50 to 60 volunteers. MORE: https://www.thisweeknews.com/lifestyle/20200802/volunteer-run-columbus-low-power-radio-station-boasts-diverse-programming
August 31, 20204 yr Does anyone here have information on the former station, WINJ? I am part of a group trying to research and archive the work of Reverend Ella Flowers, owner and producer of some of the programming on WINJ. So far, we only have a few poor quality clips that have been uploaded to youtube by a third party. We know most of the timeline of the station, and we've made contact with some of the people who volunteered there, but we've gotten no further to finding any other original programming made for the network. If anyone has any relevant information or knows someone who might, please let me know. Thank you, KP
November 1, 20204 yr For me, this is incredibly sad news. I will certainly miss their presence on the local airwaves: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3627598413957212&id=327104050673348&sfnsn=mo
November 1, 20204 yr 16 hours ago, CMHOhio said: For me, this is incredibly sad news. I will certainly miss their presence on the local airwaves: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3627598413957212&id=327104050673348&sfnsn=mo https://www.nbc4i.com/news/cd-102-5-goes-off-air-beginning-november-1/ Yeah, this is definitely the ending of an era with CD 102.5 going from over-the-air to digital. Although, I'm not terribly surprised at the news. The current owner signed a terrible licensing deal for the over-the-air broadcasting rights - then had a failed fundraising attempt to cover that deal.
November 3, 20204 yr On 11/1/2020 at 2:20 PM, Columbo said: https://www.nbc4i.com/news/cd-102-5-goes-off-air-beginning-november-1/ Yeah, this is definitely the ending of an era with CD 102.5 going from over-the-air to digital. Although, I'm not terribly surprised at the news. The current owner signed a terrible licensing deal for the over-the-air broadcasting rights - then had a failed fundraising attempt to cover that deal. Truth be told, that CD 101/102.5 lasted this past decade is a minor miracle (and most likely due to the sacrifice of many).
November 19, 20204 yr Due to CD102.5 going online-only, the former 105.7 The Brew has flipped to Alt105.7 once again. In 2005, The Brew broadcasted a mix of classic rock and '80s pop. This kind of format became oversaturated in town so it flipped to sports talk for a while if I remember right. Then in the early 2010s it flipped to a watered-down version of CD102.5. I guess this wasn't doing well enough so it flipped back to The Brew while swapping out the '80s pop for Nu-Metal in order to be halfway between Q-FM 96 and The Blitz (which by this time, had flipped back to The Blitz from The Rock and cut back on Nu-Metal slightly for a while). So now The Brew is gone once again in favor of basically the same alternative format from the early 2010s. It's alternative, but clearly more researched than curated in contrast to CD102.5 -- just like it was in the past. Edited November 19, 20204 yr by GCrites80s
November 19, 20204 yr You made my head hurt. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
November 19, 20204 yr Hey at least we don't live in towns where the TV stations flip networks like in Tampa.
November 19, 20204 yr 13 hours ago, GCrites80s said: Due to CD102.5 going online-only, the former 105.7 The Brew has flipped to Alt105.7 once again. In 2005, The Brew broadcasted a mix of classic rock and '80s pop. This kind of format became oversaturated in town so it flipped to sports talk for a while if I remember right. Then in the early 2010s it flipped to a watered-down version of CD102.5. I guess this wasn't doing well enough so it flipped back to The Brew while swapping out the '80s pop for Nu-Metal in order to be halfway between Q-FM 96 and The Blitz (which by this time, had flipped back to The Blitz from The Rock and cut back on Nu-Metal slightly for a while). So now The Brew is gone once again in favor of basically the same alternative format from the early 2010s. It's alternative, but clearly more researched than curated in contrast to CD102.5 -- just like it was in the past. Could you expand upon what you mean by "more researched than curated"?
November 19, 20204 yr A lot of radio stations today rely on the study of radio-specific research to select which songs to add to the playlist, how often they are played, when to take them off and all sorts of things. Research consultancy is a big industry in radio and consists of marketing research similar to what you'd see to sell toothpaste, soap or whatever. Meanwhile, while I don't think CD102.5 totally avoids research their playlists do have a lot of songs that were clearly added by the staff themselves. Also research isn't available for local bands as far as I know. CD102.5 plays a lot of those.
November 19, 20204 yr I wonder to what extend broadcasters are buying data from Spotify and other streaming services to create playlists that algorithmically get people hooked, just like social networks do.
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