John Kiesewetter

Rod Serling's 1955 comedy involving the Cincinnati Reds – broadcast only once on NBC Television – will premiere as a radio play on WVXU-FM 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 25, the evening before Opening Day.

Written during the Cold War, Serling's O'Toole From Moscow is about confusion between Russians and the Reds in which a Soviet Union embassy staffer ends up playing outfield for the Cincinnati Reds. 

Marty Brennaman says being grand marshal for the 101st Findlay Market Opening Day Parade March 26 "will be the official kick-off to my retirement."

The Hall of Fame Reds play-by-play announcer says he's been just as busy this winter as in past years, despite retiring in September after 46 seasons on radio.

It's not small ball, it's Thrall Ball!

Tommy Thrall takes over Cincinnati Reds radio play-by-play this spring from Marty Brennaman, who retired last fall after 46 seasons. Thrall will call all of the spring training games from Arizona, many of them with analyst Jeff Brantley. The Reds' spring opener is 3:05 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22, in Goodyear, Ariz.

"I sold a million records, now I gotta way to pay. Got dollars in my wallet, and the rest is in the bank… Candy ain't free, I pay with this cheese. Give me cash money candy!" --Cash Credit Candy music video

Combine the talents of an America's Got Talent ventriloquist with the University of Cincinnati's Alpaugh Family Economics Center and Madcap puppets in the WCET-TV studio and you get $martPath videos teaching financial literacy to grade school students.

If you didn't stay up after the Academy Awards for WCPO-TV's newscast, here's Tanya O'Rourke's scoop that Channel 9 was promoting all night: Producer Randall Emmett says he might shoot three more movies and possibly a TV series in Greater Cincinnati.

Play It Forward honors Bob Nave, the musician and radio DJ who died Jan. 28, with a memorial show 2-6 p.m. at The Redmoor, 3187 Linwood Ave., Mount Lookout, on Sunday, Feb. 16.

A visitation for Nave will be 1:30-3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 15, at Spring Grove Cemetery Funeral Home, 4389 Spring Grove Ave., Northside, according to his obit. There will be no funeral service.

Update 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 11: The Dayton Daily News newsroom will remain in the Cox Media Group building at 1611 S. Main St. in Dayton with WHIO-TV and WHIO-AM. But the newspaper staff will move to a different floor of the building, according to the Dayton Daily News.

Sandy Schwartz, president of Atlanta-based Cox Automotive, a division of Cox Enterprises Inc., said Monday while visiting the Dayton newspaper that there are no plans to eliminate local jobs, the paper reported.

Original post 3 p.m. Monday, Feb. 10: Family-owned Cox Enterprises is keeping Cox's three Ohio daily newspapers in the family.

Minutes before Chopper 9 reporter Dan Carroll turned in his keys and phone to WCPO-TV Thursday he was talking about returning to the airwaves.

"I have plenty of gas in the tank for another act. I'd like to have another turn on radio, or a shot at TV if the right job came along," says Carroll, a 1980 McNicholas High School graduate who has worked at WCPO-TV, WXIX-TV and WLW-AM over three decades.

Fox Sports Ohio will televise eight Cincinnati Reds spring training games from Arizona, two less than last year.

Pitchers and catchers report to Goodyear on Feb. 13, one week from today. The Reds' spring schedule opens Saturday, Feb. 22, against the Cleveland Indians on radio.

When the impeachment trial ends, Fox News Channel congressional correspondent Chad Pergram finally can get back to normal covering news on Capitol Hill.

Whatever that is.

We start with breaking news because TV stations always start with breaking news: The Channel 9 news branding is no longer on your side.

WCPO-TV has unveiled new imaging, reverting back to its call letters and huge channel number – WCPO 9 – similar to the logo used about 60 years ago. It dropped the orange and brown "9 On Your Side" slogan mentioned repeatedly by anchors and reporters, and seen on logos and news vans for nearly two decades.

Bruce Willis will return to Cincinnati for the fourth time in four-and-a-half years to star in Open Source, directed by Matt Eskandari.

The multi-talented Bob Nave, who died Tuesday at home, is hard to describe in one sentence.

I first heard him playing jazz on old WNOP-AM (740), "Radio Free Newport," broadcast from floating oil drums on the Ohio River in the 1970s.

If you were into rock music in the 1960s, you heard him playing keyboard on "Green Tambourine" with The Lemon Pipers.

NPR's From The Top listeners this fall will hear two new co-hosts, Tessa Lark and Charles Yang, who studied violin under College-Conservatory of Music instructor Kurt Sassmannshaus.

Lark and Yang are joining Peter Dugan, who has been named permanent host for the 2020-2021 season after serving as guest host the last two seasons.

I'll be honest here: I've known former Middletown Journal reporter Ted Pollard since the 1970s, where I got my start in journalism as a summer intern.

In all candor, I wasn't sure what to expect when Pollard sent me a copy of his novel, Grant's Wish. And boy, was I surprised to enjoy his story.

Marilyn Harris wants to thank the loyal listeners who tuned in to Cooking With Marilyn for nearly 33 years – until she was terminated last week in the nationwide iHeartMedia radio cuts Wednesday, Jan. 15.

She asked to do one final show last Saturday – but managers of iHeartMedia's WKRC-AM wouldn't let her say goodbye. So I will.

Update Friday, Jan. 24:  Just found this clip on YouTube of an early 1950s Paul Dixon Show with Len Goorian broadcast on the ABC network from WCPO-TV.

The show opens with "Lennie" Goorian, who died Jan. 20, as a Sid Caesar-like character doing a gag involving Dixon.  This 10-minute clip features a song pantomime -- a great example of live TV in the early 1950s, when entertainers pantomimed to popular records, an extension of the radio stations which put the first TV stations on the air.

It's a long way from Cincinnati TV sports to Fox News Channel's New York headquarters, where Bill Hemmer takes another career step by hosting his own Fox News show starting Monday, Jan. 20.

Hemmer, an Elder High School (1983) and Miami University (1987) alum, debuts Bill Hemmer Reports at 3 p.m. weekdays, taking over the hour that Shepard Smith vacated when he left Fox in October.

How did a kid from Finneytown named Jay Moriarty become the executive producer of The Jeffersons, the hit 1970s sitcom about an African American family?

And what was it like working for legendary TV creator-producer Norman Lear?