Rumor alert: Bob Frantz back to WTAM???

[nate81]

OA's been tipped off in OMW that WSPD/1370-Toledo host Bob Frantz, who cut his teeth in Cleveland on WOBL/1320-Oberlin and WTAM/1100, could be returning back to WTAM in the next few weeks. OA says that "everybody but the janitor at Oak tree" is saying this will be a given.

Of course, Bob has good reason to leave WSPD: he was unceremoniously scooted from the valuable AMD slot - in favor of Fred Lefebvre - by newly installed PD Brian Wilson (no, not the Beach Boy to an hour-long show at 6pm last fall.

If this is to be true, either two possibilities exist for Bob at The Big One:

1) He takes some capacity as a "20/20 Sports" anchor in either AMD or PMD while Casey Coleman is still on the mend. That will alleviate the duties of Schabbie, Mike Snyder and Andre Knott for the interim. And Bob still keeps his feet wet in sports: he writes bi-weekly sports columns for a San Francisco newspaper.

2) Air America's Jerry Springer gets the hook, and Bob comes into a live 9am-11:30am slot on WTAM. Bob has had more than two years background at WSPD talking issues, so it wouldn't be a strech for him to take that slot.

OA notes that the Cleveland numbers are embargoed (Roger Brown again?) so neither of us know if Jerry's still tanking badly in that slot. But it wouldn't shock ME at all if he DID. Remember that Glenn Beck had a (!@) rating in his last WTAM book, and it fell to a ($) with Jerry in.

Such a move wouldn't be unprecedented: I can think right now of Andrew Wilkow, who bumped off Glenn Beck on WGY-Albany to go live, pre-Rush. Also think of (ironically, a fellow former WSPDer) Denny Schaffer, who is live on WGST-Atlanta as the "sacrifical lamb" against the dominant Neal Boortz.

Also see the ABC/Citadel talkers (WJR, WMAL, WABC) who have gone local in the same time period. If WTAM did option #2, that would be a home run.

- Nathan Obral<P ID="signature">______________
WTAM/1100: An Abuse of Radio Power!</P>

 

[vjm]

> OA's been tipped off in OMW that WSPD/1370-Toledo host Bob
> Frantz, who cut his teeth in Cleveland on WOBL/1320-Oberlin
> and WTAM/1100, could be returning back to WTAM in the next
> few weeks. OA says that "everybody but the janitor at Oak
> tree" is saying this will be a given.
>
> Of course, Bob has good reason to leave WSPD: he was
> unceremoniously scooted from the valuable AMD slot - in
> favor of Fred Lefebvre - by newly installed PD Brian Wilson
> (no, not the Beach Boy to an hour-long show at 6pm last
> fall.
>
> If this is to be true, either two possibilities exist for
> Bob at The Big One:
>
> 1) He takes some capacity as a "20/20 Sports" anchor in
> either AMD or PMD while Casey Coleman is still on the mend.
> That will alleviate the duties of Schabbie, Mike Snyder and
> Andre Knott for the interim. And Bob still keeps his feet
> wet in sports: he writes bi-weekly sports columns for a San
> Francisco newspaper.
>
> 2) Air America's Jerry Springer gets the hook, and Bob comes
> into a live 9am-11:30am slot on WTAM. Bob has had more than
> two years background at WSPD talking issues, so it wouldn't
> be a strech for him to take that slot.
>
> OA notes that the Cleveland numbers are embargoed (Roger
> Brown again?) so neither of us know if Jerry's still tanking
> badly in that slot. But it wouldn't shock ME at all if he
> DID. Remember that Glenn Beck had a (!@) rating in his last
> WTAM book, and it fell to a ($) with Jerry in.
>
> Such a move wouldn't be unprecedented: I can think right now
> of Andrew Wilkow, who bumped off Glenn Beck on WGY-Albany to
> go live, pre-Rush. Also think of (ironically, a fellow
> former WSPDer) Denny Schaffer, who is live on WGST-Atlanta
> as the "sacrifical lamb" against the dominant Neal Boortz.
>
> Also see the ABC/Citadel talkers (WJR, WMAL, WABC) who have
> gone local in the same time period. If WTAM did option #2,
> that would be a home run.
>
> - Nathan Obral
>

My bet is that Bob Frantz will be Casey Coleman's fill-in (or--if all does not go well, God forbid--replacement) on the Bill Wills morning show.

Personally, I'd like to see Frantz do "Sportsline".

He'd be more willing to call a spade a spade as far as the teams go, unlike Kevin "The Browns/Tribe/Cavs can do no wrong" Keane.

Also, he can do general talk, so it wouldn't neccesarily have to be just a sports show.

A local late-evening talker is something this market has needed for a long time.

 

[nate]

maybe he will go on the alleged FM talk station...

 

[nate81]

> maybe he will go on the alleged FM talk station...

I doubt it. I'm not really convinced that CC is going to put an FM talker in the Cleveland market just yet (or for that matter, ever). I'd say that it's WTAM all the way for Bob.

Of course, if CC blew up WMVX, Bob could go on both stations. Hell, they over-manipulate Chuck Collier, Daune Robinson and (especially) Kat Jackson already, so why not?

- Nathan Obral

(Post number 890 - dedicated to the mighty Musicradio 89 WLS in Chicago)<P ID="signature">______________
WTAM/1100: An Abuse of Radio Power!</P><P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by Nathan Obral on 03/01/06 08:12 PM.</FONT></P>

 

[nate81]

More on the Frantz rumor-ama frow OMW...

OA, I hope you don't mind me posting your OMW comments verbatim here... ;D But I do think that all points made here are saliable.

[ http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com/2006/03/and-some-speculation-followup.html ]

* "We'd like to caution that although the rumor is indeed all over Cleveland radio, the potential move of WSPD/1370 evening host Bob Frantz to a role with WTAM is *not* a done deal at this point. We get the idea that it's somewhat likely, though, from what we're hearing. And all of our signs are still pointing towards Frantz eventually occupying the 9 AM-11:30 AM slot currently held by Air America/Premiere syndicated host Jerry Springer.

To say Springer's show hasn't really been catching on since he replaced Premiere's Glenn Beck would be, umm, charitable. Add to that the fact that Beck has become a solid performer for the Northeast Ohio stations which picked up him up from WTAM's leftovers - WHLO/640 Akron and WEOL/930 Elyria - and the move isn't looking good right now. Whether it happens now, or later, putting a local show in the WTAM midday slot would be a great face-saver down on Oak Tree.

Wither Springer, if this happens? There's absolutely no room for his live clearance on Clear Channel's Akron liberal talk WARF/1350 "Radio Free Ohio"...which is already dealing with a traffic jam between Jones' Stephanie Miller, local legend Joe Finan and AAR's Al Franken in middays. Maybe they'd slot him late nights after Randi Rhodes and/or Lionel? Or they could add his repeats on weekends, perhaps. If Springer's not exactly burning up the ratings on WTAM, there's probably no hurry to find room for him on 1350...assuming the rumored Frantz-to-WTAM-middays scenario happens.

Anyway, though the information is about as solid as we get here at OMW, it hasn't been nailed down...yet."

While not finalized, this is all starting to look elementary to me right now...

- Nathan Obral<P ID="signature">______________
WTAM/1100: An Abuse of Radio Power!</P>

 

[ajhenderson]

Re: More on the Frantz rumor-ama frow OMW...

> To say Springer's show hasn't really been catching on since
> he replaced Premiere's Glenn Beck would be, umm, charitable.
> Add to that the fact that Beck has become a solid performer
> for the Northeast Ohio stations which picked up him up from
> WTAM's leftovers - WHLO/640 Akron and WEOL/930 Elyria - and
> the move isn't looking good right now. Whether it happens
> now, or later, putting a local show in the WTAM midday slot
> would be a great face-saver down on Oak Tree.

While I'm a big fan of Glenn's, this midday slot has been the CC flavor-of-the week since CC took over and axed the last local midmorning yakker. Dr. Laura, then Glenn, now Jerry... whoever CC is throwing on all their N/Ters that particular year. As we saw when Glenn increased the aforementioned doctors' M25-54 numbers from mid-single digits to double digits, however, maybe some flavors should assume a more permanent role.