WEBN-FM

Without several thousand people around to watch the Western & Southern/WEBN Fireworks due to the pandemic, WKRC-TV's live telecast definitely will look different on Sunday (9 p.m., Channel 12).

The show must go on! WKRC-TV will broadcast the Western & Southern/WEBN-FM fireworks 9 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 6, from an undisclosed location due to the coronavirus.

Geoffrey Nimmo, a second generation Cincinnati broadcaster who captained the WEBN-FM's airwaves in the 1970s, died Wednesday.

"In a group of really strange, talented, lunatic-fringe characters that were WEBN at that time, Geoff was the outer fringe of lunacy," says Frank "Bo" Wood, former owner and manager of the rock station founded by his father in 1967. "He was warm, creative, and absolutely nuts, in a positive way."

For a fourth consecutive year, WKRC-TV will telecast the annual Western & Southern/WEBN-FM Riverfest fireworks at 9 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 1.

Update noon Friday, March 22: Services for WGUC announcer Frank Johnson will be private. A private gathering in memory of Frank is being planned by his family and friends.

"Pistol Pete" Miller and "Jimmy the Weasel" Salzarulo, who lost their radio jobs to automation in December, have returned to the airwaves on Classic Country WNKN-FM (105.9 in Middletown, Oh.) and WNKR-FM (106.7 in Dry Ridge, Ky.).

"Man, am I happy to be back on the air," says Miller, let go by Hubbard's country "Wolf" on Dec. 4 after 22-1/2 years on WUBE-FM (B-105) and its "Wolf" sister station.

Ernie Brown, Pete Miller and Jimmy Salzurulo didn't get to say goodbye or thanks to their listeners on WYGY-FM "97.3 The Wolf" country station Tuesday.

That's what often happens in radio.

For a third consecutive year, WKRC-TV will broadcast the Western & Southern/WEBN-FM Riverfest fireworks at 9 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 2.

Did you wake up to Ken Broo hosting WLW-AM's morning show? Don't worry, things will be back to normal on WLW-AM Wednesday – at least for a while.

The eyes of broadcast engineer Clyde Haehnle always glowed like an old radio tube when he talked about the Voice of America complex on Tylersville Road or WLW-AM's unprecedented 500,000-watt transmitter under WLW's tower down the road.

Confessions from the "Remembering Radio's Rock Rivalries" panel discussion at the downtown public library Sunday:

--WEBN-FM's Jay Gilbert was the person who plastered WEBN stickers all over the WKRQ-FM van parked in Hyde Park.

--Former WLW/WEBN executive Randy Michaels didn't really think a station would change formats from rock to country when he started spreading speculation that Q102 would change from rock to country.

Even more fun! Bob "The Producer" Berry says he's attending the "Remembering Radio’s Rock Rivalries" program Sunday along with Eddie Fingers, Jay Gilbert, Mike McConnell, Pat Barry and Kevin "Doc" Wolfe. Berry worked for WKRQ-FM/WKRC-AM before joining Fingers on the WEBN-FM "Dawn Patrol."

The program is 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 28, at the main public library downtown.

Uncle Al, Gary Burbank, Skipper Ryle, Jim Scott, the Q102 Morning Zoo, Bob Shreve, Bob Braun, Ruth Lyons, WEBN's Jelly Pudding, the Cool Ghoul and "WKRP in Cincinnati" are "Living on the Air" in a wonderfully nostalgic display at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County downtown through January.

If you're heading downtown over the holidays, plan on spending an hour gazing at the Cincinnati TV and radio displays on the first and third floors at the main public library, 800 Vine Street.

D.J. Hodge has been promoted to iHeartMedia's Cincinnati market president over WLW-AM, WEBN-FM and four other stations, filling the void from the lay-off of Chuck Fredrick in May.

WKRC-TV to the rescue again! WKRC-TV executives reversed a July decision and announced Monday they will broadcast the 40th anniversary Western & Southern/WEBN-FM Riverfest fireworks live at 9 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 3.

Two weeks ago, WKRC-TV (Channel 12) general manager Jon Lawhead was emphatic in a July 26 email to me by writing: "We are NOT carrying the fireworks."

If you want to see the 40th anniversary WEBN-FM fireworks, plan on seeing them in person.

Managers of all five Cincinnati TV stations – WLWT-TV, WXIX-TV, WCPO-TV, WKRC-TV and WSTR-TV -- tell me they're not planning to broadcast the Western & Southern/WEBN-FM Riverfest fireworks live at 9:05 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 3.  

You don't know the name Jay Crawford, but he was the guy who kept some of your favorite radio stations on the air -- WEBN, WVXU, WOBO, WAIF, WMOH, WSCH, regional K-LOVE stations, and he resolved engineering emergencies for dozens of other stations.

He was, in the words of friends and coworkers, "brilliant…ingenious…. a broadcaster's dream… an engineer's engineer… pure gold…. resourceful…. the most capable and knowledgeable transmitter engineer I have ever known… (who) "could miraculously repair anything… with a homemade device that solved the 'unsolvable problem."

Great music, great memories.

Great fireworks. Great TV.

That, to me, sums up the return to TV of the WEBN-FM fireworks for the 40th annual last blast of summer, after the telecast took a year hiatus, as they say in the television business.

If you're not heading to the Ohio River banks Sunday, here are the broadcasting plans for the Western & Southern/WEBN Fireworks on WEBN-FM (102.7) and WKRC-TV (Channel 12).

WEBN-FM will celebrate its 40th annual fireworks with Rozzi’s Famous Fireworks choreographed to a "40 years of fireworks themed soundtrack" on the radio station, WEBN-FM announced in July.

The fireworks will air at 9:05 p.m. Sunday.

WKRC-TV announced Wednesday that it will broadcast the Western & Southern/WEBN Fireworks Sept. 4, returning the last blast of summer to TV after a one-year absence.

This year is special for WEBN – the 40th annual fireworks started in 1977 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the station.

Is the Our Lady of Perpetual Motion Marching Band  still marching? Forty years ago today the band led the First Annual WEBN-FM Fool's Day Parade, on what the station called March 32nd, 1976.

The annual Fool's Day Parade was my favorite day of the year for radio listening. WEBN's parody songs, fake floats, spoof commercials and real and/or fictional celebrity appearances were filled with cutting edge satire, social commentary and OMG moments.

The pictures were wonderful, because they were all in our imaginations. Truly radio at its finest.

Before we welcome 2016, let’s look back at this year in TV, movies, radio and media from A to Z.