Cincinnati Television

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.

Former WKRC and WMUB reporter Chad Pergram has been promoted by the Fox News Channel from Capitol Hill producer to congressional correspondent.

The Butler County native joined Fox News in 2007 from the Capitol News Connection.

Happy 86th birthday to Nick Clooney, the generous Cincinnati broadcasting icon, born on Jan. 13, 1934, in Maysville, Ky.

Clooney likes to joke that most of his life he's been known as George Clooney's father or singer Rosemary Clooney's baby brother.

Dan Carroll's "Chopper 9" helicopter reports will end in February, as WCPO-TV will rely on less expensive drones for aerial news video.

Chris Riva, Amber Jayanth and meteorologist Ashley Smith will help main anchors Tricia Macke, Rob Williams and Steve Hortsmeyer share the load when WXIX-TV premieres a 90-minute local news block 5 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 6.

Marty Brennaman and Rob Braun. Lisa Cooney and Cammy Dierking. John Popovich, Jeff Hirsh and Jeff Henderson.

2019's generational changes reshaped Cincinnati's broadcasters and media institutions for the new decade starting Jan. 1.

Update 10:15 a.m. Monday, Dec. 30: The TV network changes scheduled for today have been delayed until later in the week. 

Scripps-owned Bounce network will debut on WCPO-TV's Channel 9.5 on Wednesday, according to WCPO-TV. Bounce will vanish from WXIX-TV's Channel 19.2 at noon Wednesday, Jan. 1, when Fox 19 shuffles its digital channel lineup.

John Popovich's 40-year career as a WCPO-TV sportscaster can be summed up by the title of the Sunday night show he launched, Sports Of All Sorts.

"Popo," as everyone calls him, covered all kinds of sports, which endeared him to viewers of all ages – or at least those old enough or enterprising enough to watch the one-hour show starting  at 11:30 p.m. Sunday night.

Cammy Dierking is one of us. I don't just mean she was born in Cincinnati, and went to Sycamore High School and Miami University.  

She was different from the other Cincinnati-area born and bred folks who we like to get our news and information from: Steve Horstmeyer, Rob Braun, Tricia Macke, Kevin Robinson, Lisa Cooney, Dennis Janson, Tanya O'Rourke, Sheree Paolello, Joe Danneman, George Vogel, part of a tradition going back 60 years to Cheviot native Al Schottelkotte.

Monday, Dec. 9 update: WCPO-TV anchor Ryan Houston is heading to Pittsburgh's WPXI-TV (Channel 11), the NBC affiliate owned by Cox Media Group.

Update at 11:45 a.m. Monday, Dec. 2: Perry Schaible decided it's time to use her Northern Kentucky University law degree – and stop working weekends and holidays.

Schaible signed off as WKRC-TV's weekend morning anchor Saturday at WKRC-TV, where she had worked since 2010. She earned a law degree from NKU's Chase College of Law in 2013.

"I’ve really enjoyed my career at Local 12, but I decided it was time to move on at the end of my contract," she told me in an email Sunday.

Turns out  Rod Serling was right: There is a dimension as timeless as infinity called The Twilight Zone.

Since Serling's iconic drama anthology premiered on CBS 60 years ago today – on Oct. 2, 1959 – the show has never gone off the air.

Some over-the-air viewers of WCET-TV could lose their signals on Channel 48 the next week because the station has reduced power for "mandatory tower maintenance," says Kellie May, station spokesperson.

WCET-TV's antenna was "powered down" at noon today, Friday Sept. 6, for CET (48.1), CET Create (48.2) and CET Arts (48.3).

Order in the court! The fall TV season's biggest daytime battle will be waged by former talk show host Jerry Springer against Judge Judy Sheindlin, starting her 24th season on television.

Daytime TV viewers also will see new shows starring Kelly Clarkson and Tamron Hall replacing Steve Harvey, Pickler & Ben and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. See my list below.

Producers of a TV series, and two more feature films, are preparing to shoot here, says Kristen Schlotman, Film Cincinnati executive director.

"It's going to be a busy fall," Schlotman said in a far-ranging interview on WVXU's Cincinnati Edition Tuesday. Here's a link to the 14-minute conversation.

Thirteen was a very lucky number for Cincinnati's American Ninja Warrior finalists, as nearly half of the contestants advanced to the four-week Las Vegas finals in Monday's telecast.

And it was a historic night for the show. For the first time in 11 seasons, two women completed the course in a city finals. Only one woman had done that in the previous 10 seasons.

Flintstones! Meet The Flintstones! They're the modern Stone Age family!

From the town of Bedrock, The Flintstones are heading to MeTV at 6 p.m. weekdays starting Monday, Sept. 30 in Cincinnati on WLWT-TV Channel 5.2 and in Dayton on WHIO-TV Channel 7.2.

Why did WLWT-TV hire Seton High School graduate Alanna Martella to replace traffic reporter Vanessa Richardson after only two years?

WCPO-TV has such a rich history that it's taking several months to celebrate its 70th anniversary.