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Carl Hirsch dies

R

rconrad

From Radio Info

Carl Hirsch, former group head at Malrite, OmniAmerica, NextMedia, has died
Hirsch suffered a heart attack Monday evening, says his longtime Cleveland associate John Gorman. Gorman calls Hirsch "the driving force in the success of WMMS Cleveland, Z100 New York, WMJI Cleveland, and other Malrite, Legacy and OmniAmerica radio properties over three decades."

Interesting back story. After Omni-America, which owned, among others, WQAL, got out of owning stations, Carl and company bought and constructed towers, including the master TV/FM tower in Miami. In 1992, they also bought WCLV's tower business and the Radio Ranch building and land. WCLV became a tenant in the building we constructed. Later, Omni sold its business to American Tower, who now owns the former WCLV property. If we still owned Radio Ranch, it would have been more difficult for WCLV to have moved to the Idea Center.
 
I think it was actually Win Communications that owned WQAL from 1985 until 1998 or '99. OmniAmerica owned WMMS, WMJI, and WHK from 1994 until 1996. Ironically, WHK became part of Salem Communications, which played a big role in WCLV's big frequency switch. July 3, 2011 will mark the tenth anniversary. Speaking of Salem, I believe WFHM has a tower at WCLV's old studios.

Back to Carl, he will be missed in the radio world. He made WMMS, WMJI, and Z100 into powerhouse stations. Without him, those stations would not be the powerhouses they became in Cleveland and New York.

Mr. Conrad, much success to you and your staff at WCLV and the new location. I believe it will serve the area well. Not to mention its at Playhouse Square and not too far from Severance Hall, in which you can just go straight down Euclid Avenue.
 
To confirm, the Fish is using what was WCLV's antenna location at the very top of the tower at Radio Ranch. Salem replaced the WCLV rig, which was configured to balloon to the west. The Fish antenna is non-directional.
WKRK also has its antenna on the old WCLV tower. There are also some 70 other communication antennas on the tower.

You are right about WQAL. Some how, in the back of my mind, I remember Carl having been associated with QAL.

Robert Conrad
WCLV
 
CleveFan is correct. OmniAmerica Cleveland at the time of the 1996 sale(s) was WMJI, WMMS, WHK. WQAL was owned by Win communications.


Barryt.
 
OmniAmerica also owned (briefly) WLLD,WHOK and WLOH-AM/Columbus. I did part-time at WLLD "Wild Country 98-9". Eventually Jim Shea would become the PD. Imaging was voiced/produced by Mitch Todd via WMJI. JR Nelson was the Production Director there and did Sunday mornings.
 
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