WLWT-TV

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. 

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.

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.

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.

Fox News Channel has promoted Bill Hemmer to take over Shepherd Smith's 3 p.m. time slot, and to lead all breaking news coverage on the Fox News Channel.

5:40 p.m. Friday Oct. 25 update:  Low-power WKRP-TV (Channels 20 and 25) returned to the airwaves at 5:30 p.m. Friday for the first time in more than a week.

The 10 WKRP multiplex channels went dark Thursday, Oct. 17,  for the digital channel "repack" (TV frequency changes) on Oct. 18.

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.

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.

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.

On July 26, 1949, WCPO-TV debuted on Channel 7 as Cincinnati's third television station.

WCPO-TV – which was moved to Channel 9 by the federal government in 1952 – has done a wonderful job in recent weeks recalling its rich history.  And it will air a one-hour anniversary special Thursday, July 25 (7 p.m., Channel 9).

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

Longtime WKRC-TV anchor Cammy Dierking has told her bosses she's leaving the station at the end of her contract in December, multiple sources tell me.

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.

Wednesday 10:45 a.m. June 19 update:  WKRC-TV General Manager Jon Lawhead says the station wanted anchor Rob Braun "to stay, but he decided it was time to move on."  The station is starting "an immediate search – both internal and external – to find our next main evening anchor," Lawhead said.

As I reported yesterday, Braun told the newsroom Monday he was leaving WKRC-TV after 35 years when his contract expires June 28. WKRC-TV posted a story Wednesday morning with these comments from Lawhead:

Pittsburgh native Kelly Rippin, a reporter at WXIX-TV five years ago, returns to Cincinnati in June to take Lisa Cooney's chair on the weekday News 5 Today anchor desk with Colin Mayfield and meteorologist Randi Rico.

Since Cooney retired after 30 years on April 5, weekend anchor Megan Mitchell has worked weekday mornings with Mayfield.

What happened to Barak Shapiro? Where's Aly Cohen? How will WLW-TV fill Lisa Cooney's anchor job? And who are all these new TV reporters on Cincinnati newscasts?

Before May ratings' sweeps start Thursday, here's a look at the major changes and new faces on TV since last May:

Update 8:45 a.m. Thursday April 18:  Clyde Gray says he's "blown away." Carol Williams quoted a Macklemore/Kesha song. Here's what the former WCPO-TV news co-anchors told me about heading into the Greater Cincinnati Journalism Hall of Fame June 27:

Jerry Springer's new fall court show will air on WSTR-TV (Channel 64), which broadcast his daytime talk show for years.

Play ball! Fox Sports Ohio's Opening Day plans again call for the 4:10 p.m. Thursday game to be simulcast on WKRC-TV (Channel 12).

WCPO-TV, WLWT-TV, WXIX-TV and WKRC-TV will provide extensive Opening Day coverage on their morning newscasts. All four stations, plus FSO and CitiCable, will air and stream the noon parade.