Another year of TV/media down the tubes. Here’s a look back at 2024 from A to Z.
A is for the assault aftermath video that went viral this summer, resulting in Steve Raleigh’s two-month absence from WCPO-TV. Channel 9’s chief meteorologist was pulled off the air July 14, several days after an online video went viral which showed his family involved in a June 22 altercation after a minor car crash in the Montgomery Inn Boathouse parking lot which injured Doug Morrow, 79, and his wife Lois, 76, of Covington. The investigation was handed over to special prosecutor Mark Tekluve from Clermont County because the Cadillac involved was owned by Si Leis — former Hamilton County prosecutor, sheriff and judge — and driven by his grandson, Raleigh’s son. Kyle Raleigh, 34, pleaded guilty Dec. 18 to two misdemeanor assault charges, reduced from aggravated assault. The prosecutor announced in September that criminal charges were not warranted against Steve Raleigh because “there is no evidence that he violated any criminal law."
B is for a new Reds TV ballgame as Bally Sports emerged from bankruptcy in November after the Reds cut ties with the regional sports network. The Reds announced their games will be produced and distributed by Major League Baseball, which will provide new streaming opportunities with no blackouts for locally distributed games. Announcers, prices and TV outlets have not been announced.
C is for congratulations to the newly minted Hall of Famers in 2024. In an unprecedented move, the Greater Cincinnati Society of Professional Journalists inducted nine sports veterans into the Cincinnati Journalism Hall of Fame one memorable September evening: sports anchor Dennis Janson, Betsy Ross, John Popovich, George Vogel and Ken Broo; Bengals Radio Network host Wayne Box Miller; former Enquirer writers Paul Daugherty and John Fay; and WKRC-TV executive sports producer Kevin Barnett.
In November, Channel 5 inducted a second annual class to the WLWT-TV Hall of Fame: The late TV host Paul Dixon, station founder Powel Crosley Jr., producer-director Dick Murgatroyd, reporter John London and late News 5 managing editor Bill Hager.
D is for Phil Donahue, who changed the face of television by hosting a groundbreaking daytime show focusing mostly on issues — not celebrities — for 29 years. Donahue was the first talk show to go to death row (1971), show a baby's birth (1977), talk about AIDS (1982), and visit Russia's crippled Chernobyl nuclear plant (1987). Donahue, who died in August at 88, started the show on Dayton’s old WLWD-TV (Channel 2) in 1967, before moving it to Chicago and New York. Also passing in 2024 were TV hosts Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Richard Simmons, Lou Dobbs, Peter Marshall and Chuck Woolery.
E is for Evan Millward, one of three news anchors who left WCPO-TV in May after the Scripps station announced a de-emphasis on anchors and other changes. Evening anchors Millward and Jasmine Styles were replaced by five news reporters. Weekend morning anchor Kristen Swilley also quit in May because “there was no room for me to grow at the station.” Jeff Brogan, WCPO-TV vice president and general manager, also said the “Scrippscast” technology for recording newscasts in advance would be expanded from the 4 p.m. news to noon, 11 p.m. and weekend newscasts.
F is for Fox 19 firing familiar faces Julie O’Neill and Lauren Minor four weeks apart last summer. O’Neill made her return to local TV on the Jan. 22 premiere of Now in the ‘Nati, after being fired by WCPO-TV. She lasted four months. In May, O'Neill and Amber Jayanth were named co-anchors of the Fox 19 Now morning news, bumping longtime cohosts Dan Wells and Minor to smaller roles, and Andrea Finney to investigative reporter. Minor was fired in early July; O’Neill was dismissed Aug. 8; Wells rejoined the full-time anchor desk with Jayanth; and Finney left Fox 19 in the fall.
G is for Good Old Jim Scott, the beloved Cincinnati radio personality who died June 28 of complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. For 46 years, Scott’s cheerful voice woke us up while doing morning drive, first for WSAI-AM in March 1968, then on YES95, WINK94.1 and WLW-AM. He retired from radio in 2015, but didn’t slow down as he continued to assist the Salvation Army, Findlay Market Opening Day Parade and other organizations. “I’ve been lucky, John. I’ve had a great time,” he told me in 2018.
H is Steve Horstmeyer, dean of Cincinnati TV meteorologists, who announced in November that he’ll retire from WXIX-TV in March. Horstmeyer was an earth science and math teacher at Dater Junior High School when hired by WLWT-TV’s legendary meteorologist Tony Sands in 1977. He trained DJ Pat Barry to do Channel 5’s weather in 1984, and worked with Tim Hedrick at WKRC-TV (1989-2008) before being named Fox 19’s chief meteorologist.
I is for the entertainment icons from the big and small screens we lost in 2024: Bob Newhart, James Earl Jones, Lou Gossett Jr., Donald Sutherland, John Amos, Linda Lavin, Shelly Duvall, Joyce Randolph, Glynnis Johns, Dabney Coleman, Martin Mull, Richard Lewis, Chita Rivera, Shannon Doherty, Richard Moll, Ron Ely, Bill Cobbs, Joe Flaherty, Shecky Greene, Maurice Hines, David Soul and Frank Fritz.
J is for John Lomax, who died in March less than a year after retiring from WKRC-TV after 39 years. He was hired in 1983 from Knoxville by news anchor Nick Clooney, intending to stay a few years at this "steppingstone" job, but he "fell in love with the place and never really wanted to leave." Lomax anchored Good Morning Cincinnati for 32 years, until retiring in May 2023.
K is for Katie Laur, the bluegrass musician, writer and the longtime host of Music From The Hills of Home, who died in August. She was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Museum in Owensboro, Ky., in 2005, and received a 2008 Ohio Heritage Fellowship for her work in the performing arts. Among the musicians who died in 2024 were Toby Keith, James Darren, Sergio Mendes, Frankie Beverly, J.D. Souther, Tito Jackson, John Mayall, Eric Carmen, Steve Lawrence and country singer, songwriter and actor Kris Kristofferson.
L is for local news changes: Courtis Fuller, one of the city’s highest-profile Black journalists, retired from anchoring and reporting at WLWT-TV, where he was hired in 1988. Megan Mitchell returned to WLWT-TV after a year in Dallas to co-host morning newscasts with Kelly Rippin and Steve Albritton.
WKRC-TV lost local TV rights to both the Reds Opening Day simulcast, and Bengals preseason games and year-round shows (which WXIX-TV quickly snapped up to become the “Bengals flagship station”). WKRC-TV sports anchor Chris Renkel, after a year as Channel 12’s only on-air sports personality, quit when his contract was up in August. Channel 12 news reporter Yanni Tregellis was named sports anchor in October. Meanwhile, WXIX-TV’s sports staff grew after securing the Bengals deal, with Gabi Sorrentino and Regan Holgate joining Joe Danneman and Jeremy Rauch.
M is for two Cincinnati-area movies, Nutcrackers and The Bikeriders. Ben Stiller starred in Nutcrackers, Hulu’s Christmas caper movie filmed in Clinton County with brothers Homer, 12, Ulysses, 10, and 8-year-old twins Arlo and Atlas Janson, who inspired the film by director David Gordon Green. Director Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders, a bloody drama about a 1960’s Chicago motorcycle gang starring Austin Butler and Jodie Comer, roared into theaters June 20. Again Cincinnati played a huge supporting role with Lockland, Northside, Brighton, Hamilton, Middletown and Cleves delivering an authentic look for 1960s Chicagoland.
N is for the growth of nonprofit news organizations. The Oxford Free Press launched in May in Oxford, Ohio, in a news desert created after Cox’s Journal-News ended its weekly Oxford news page. “This is still a print town. I think a community newspaper is an anchor in a community,” said Richard Campbell, the Miami University professor emeritus of journalism who helped found the website and weekly paper. Two months later, the nonprofit Signal Ohio announced in July that a Signal Cincinnati website, fueled by a dozen reporters, would start in 2025, joining sister Signal news operations in Cleveland and Akron.
O is for Charles Osgood, who loved to report in rhyme on his CBS Radio Osgood Files before hosting CBS Sunday Morning for 22 years. He died in January at 91. Other notable news deaths include original NPR Morning Edition host Bob Edwards, the Louisville native who chatted with Red Barber on Fridays; sportscaster Greg Gumbel; and Robert MacNeil, co-founder of the PBS’ NewsHour.
P is for Pete Rose, the Cincinnati kid who became baseball’s all-time kit king, who died Sept. 30 at age 83. He was the 1963 National League Rookie of the Year, and 1973 Most Valuable Player, who set Major League Baseball records for most hits (4,256), games (3,562), at-bats (14,053) and most wins (1,972) over 24 seasons. After being banned from baseball in 1989 for betting on the game, he hosted a national radio sports talk show in the 1990s while earning money for signing autographs, and was a Fox Sport baseball studio analyst for two seasons.
Other media personalities we lost in 2024: WCPO-TV newsman Jay Warren; Jack Stahl, a longtime DJ (and Cincinnati police officer); Mickey Fisher, Ruth Lyons’ secretary who later headed WLWT-TV’s Ruth Lyons’ Children’s Fund; Mojo Nixon, Sirius XM host, “Elvis is Everywhere” composer and former WEBN-FM host; Pat Crowley, longtime journalist and founder of Strategic Advisors PR firm; and Tom McGreevey, whose eclectic Cincinnati career included stints as one of the first WEBN-FM DJs and playing “Mr. Patches” on the Uncle Al Show before going to Hollywood to appear on everything from Dallas and L.A. Law to The Golden Girls and The Naked Gun 2-1/2.
Q is for Quincy Jones, the teenage trumpeter turned music mogul who died in November at age 91. Jones’ fingerprints were on some of the most successful productions in the last half of the 21st century: Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album; the “We Are The World” celebrity fundraising recording; The Color Purple, The Wiz, In the Heat Of The Night, In Cold Blood, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He started his career playing trumpet in Lionel Hampton’s band, and later worked with Duke Ellington, Ray Charles and Count Basie before arranging and conducting Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me To The Moon” in 1964.
R is for Randy Michaels, the former Jacor/Clear Channel/Tribune executive who quietly returned to the Cincinnati radio scene this fall. Michaels, who got his start here programming WKRQ-FM (Q102) in the 1970s, bought WOXY-FM (97.7 FM), Oxford’s former “Future of Rock ‘n’ Roll" indie rock station, which had been broadcasting the Spanish-language “La Mega” format since 2010. Michaels’ Radioactive LLC reportedly paid $1.8 million for the station, and then restored “The Oasis” 1970’s rock format to Greater Cincinnati and Dayton airwaves under a marketing agreement with Jeff Ziesmann’s Grant County Broadcasters.
S is for Bart and Lisa Simpson, who hooked up for two touchdowns in the “Simpsonfied” animated version of the Bengals 27-20 win over the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football Dec. 9. ESPN and The Simpsons worked together to produce The Simpsons Funday Football telecast. A several minute delay allowed producers to sub Bart Simpson for Joe Burrow, and Lisa for Ja’Marr Chase, in the telecast on Disney+ and ESPN+. Homer, Marge and Maggie Simpson and the entire Simpsons gang appeared in or at the game.
T is for Thom Brennaman, who made his comeback to television after a four-year absence calling Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) football games for the CW. The former Reds TV voice, who was removed in the middle of a game in 2020 for uttering a homophobic slur, told me he “became a little too negative” on the Reds and promised to be “a more positive broadcaster, finding the good rather than picking at the bad.” Another notable comeback this year: Jon Stewart returned to host The Daily Show on Monday nights in February, and executive produce all episodes of the satirical new show.
U is for Carrie Underwood, the eight-time Grammy winner who won American Idol in 2005, returns to the show in February as a judge. She replaces Katy Perry, who exited the show after seven seasons to focus on her music career. Judges Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie and host Ryan Seacrest will be back for the Idol preview Sunday, March 2, 2025, after the Oscars telecast on ABC.
V is for those vanishing from TV: Pat Sajak, who handed over his Wheel of Fortune gig to Ryan Seacrest; CBS’ The Talk, which aired its final new show Dec. 20 after 15 seasons to make way for Beyond the Gates, a new daytime CBS soap opera created in partnership with Cincinnati’s Procter & Gamble premiering Feb. 24; Neil Cavuto, who left the Fox News Channel Dec. 19 after 28 years; Hoda Kotb, who leaves NBC’s Today show Jan. 10 (to be replaced by Craig Melvin); and Nora O’Donnell, who anchors her final CBS Evening News on Jan. 24 to become a CBS correspondent.
W is for WVXU-FM and WGUC-FM, which move into new headquarters in Evanston in the spring. The Cincinnati Public Radio stations currently broadcast from rented space in the Crosley Telecommunications Building, which houses WCET-TV, the nation’s first licensed public TV station.
X is the excitement generated about Cincinnati’s sewer system by my WVXU-FM colleagues, Becca Costello and Ella Rowen. They produced the six-part Backed Up podcast about the Metropolitan Sewer District's huge plumbing problems. Everyone at Cincinnati Public Radio was flushed with pride earlier this month when The Atlantic named Backed Up one of the 20 best podcasts of 2024.
Y is for why? When the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber or Visit Cincy, the local visitor’s bureau, talk about wanting to build a new arena near TQL Stadium and Music Hall, why do they call it the "Town Center Garage site" and not the home of WCET-TV? Because they know nobody cares about a decaying old three-story garage — and that if they called it the WCET-TV site many people might have an emotional connection to Channel 48 from the Action Auction, Antiques Roadshow, Masterpiece Theatre, Sesame Street or Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. The corner of Central Parkway and Ezzard Charles Drive has been the home for WCET-TV since 1976. Do we really want to kick Mr. Rogers out of his neighborhood?
Z is for one last “roll in zee hay” for actress Teri Garr, who invited Gene Wilder to a “roll in zee hay” wagon in Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein. Garr died in October at 79 from complications with multiple sclerosis, leaving an impressive variety of roles in Oh God!, Tootsie and Mr. Mom to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Black Stallion, Felicity and M*A*S*H.
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