Cleveland area may be getting another liberal talk radio station [View All]

[LTR]

Many hints point to Clear Channel-owned WTOU-AM (1350) ditching Fox Sports and going with an all-liberal talk format.

Democracy Radio's website lists the station as an affiliate for Ed Schultz. And Lionel's website also lists WTOU among it's affiliates. Fox Sports Radio, which is owned and syndicated in collaboration with Clear Channel-owned Premiere Networks, no longer lists WTOU on it's roster of stations.

The new WTOU would be different than most CC liberal talkers, in that they would likely not use Air America on any part of the schedule. That's because lower powered daytimer WJMP in nearby Kent is the market's AAR affiliate. This would make the station similar to KRPT in the San Antonio market, a CC liberal talker that airs all non-AAR hosts, such as Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller, Lionel and Alan Colmes.

There could be a deal to take AAR away from WJMP, or take some of AAR's nighttime programming, but who knows?

Of course, we'll have to wait and see what happens by Monday or Tuesday, when all of this should happen.

http://ltradio.blogspot.com/2005/05/is-clevelandakron-market-getting.html

Here's the word, according to the Times:

To the average listener, Radio Free Ohio has all the earmarks of pirate radio. For weeks, it sounded as if amateurs had been bleeding their voices into the broadcasts of stations in Akron, Ohio, owned by Clear Channel, the corporate radio giant. At the Web site www.radiofreeohio.com, there was a manifesto about "corporate-controlled music playlists" that took potshots at several local Clear Channel stations. But there was no information about who had posted the screed, or what exactly Radio Free Ohio was.

But last week it came out that Radio Free Ohio was not a prank on Clear Channel but in fact a prank by Clear Channel. Tomorrow, an AM station the company owns in Akron will switch formats from sports talk to progressive talk, and Clear Channel would very much like anyone suspicious of corporate media to tune in.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/30/business/media/30clear.html?