John Kiesewetter: Media Beat

Sister stations WKRQ-FM and WUBE-FM, and the Q102 Jeff & Jenn morning team, find out Oct. 1 if they win a prestigious Marconi Award from the National Association of Broadcasters.

Jeff Thomas, Jenn Jordan and Jennifer Fritch are nominated for Large Market Personality of the Year, while their station, WKRQ-FM is up for Large Market Station of the Year. WUBE-FM, down the hall at Hubbard’s Reading Road studios, is one of five nominees for Country Station of the year.

The only other area finalists are:

“NYPD Blue,” “Hill Street Blues,” “Newhart,” “Bewitched,” “Three’s Company,” The Commish,” “Barney Miller,” “Sanford and Son” and dozens of other old favorites air on Cincinnati’s newest TV station, low-power WOTH-TV (Channel 20).

Elliott Block has doubled his over-the-air TV offerings, with six new networks on WOTH-TV (Channel 20) to go with the six networks on low-power WKRP TV (Channel 25). WOTH-TV (his “Other” station) carries the Movies!, Antenna TV, Heroes & Icons, Decades, AMGTV and Tuff TV networks.

Here’s what you’ll see on each:

It’s just temporary, but viewers will see meteorologist Michelle Boutillette on WKRC-TV at 8 a.m. Sunday doing forecasts for the Liz Bonis-Adam Clements anchor team.

She says she’s doing some freelance fill-in work to replace Josh Knight, who left “Good Morning Cincinnati” Sunday for WJLA-TV in Washington D.C., a sister Sinclair station.

To me the TV choice tonight is clear: I’ll be watching  the “ESPYS" awards on ABC (8-11 p.m., Channel 9) to see Devon and Leah Still be honored….and tape the Lachey Brothers’ new “Lachey’s Bar” reality show premiere (10:30 p.m., A&E).

The Bengals lineman and his daughter will be presented the ESPYS' Jimmy V Perseverance Award during the live broadcast from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. ABC says Devon will be honored for “his unwavering strength, determination and devotion to his daughter, Leah, in her fight against cancer and in the face of a continuing serious personal struggle.”

Here’s how to see the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game, all the live national TV specials from Great American Ball Park, Reds features on Fox Sports Ohio, and TV appearances by Barry Larkin, Johnny Bench, Pete Rose and more baseball stars today and Tuesday.

Rose will be on “MLB Whiparound – All-Star Game at the Park” live 5-6 p.m. Monday and Tuesday on Fox Sports 1 cable from Great American Ball Park. He’ll join Joe Buck and Hall of Famer Frank Thomas on the “Fox All-Star Pregame Show” 7 p.m. Tuesday on Fox (Channel 19), before going on the field when Fox airs the “Franchise Four” and four “Greatest Living Players” during the pregame ceremony.

Here’s how to see all the baseball fun on TV:

For the first time since 1984, you might not be able to watch the WEBN-FM Riverfest fireworks on TV.

With the fireworks less than two months away, WXIX-TV (Channel 19) has ended its agreement with iHeartMedia (formerly Clear Channel) to televise the annual “last blast of summer” and provide weather to WLW-AM (700).

“We have decided not to renew the deal,” said Debbie Bush, Channel 19 vice president and general manager. She took over the station in February from Bill Lanesey, who had obtained the fireworks and weather rights in 2010. “It didn’t make financial sense for us.”

On Thursday, WLW-AM newscasts started referring to forecasts from the “700 WLW weather center” instead of the Fox 19 Stormtracker center.

20th Century Fox has bought movie rights about how Over-the-Rhine resident Jim Obergefell and  Cincinnati attorney Al Gerhardstein won the Supreme Court ruling for same-sex marriage last month.

The New York Times says the studio also obtained film rights to “21 Years to Midnight,” the book Obergefell and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Debbie Cenziper plan to write about Obergefell’s relationship with John Arthur, his partner of more than 20 years. The two married in 2013 in Maryland, where same-sex marriage was legal, when Arthur was in the final stages of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease. He died later that year.

Wyck Godfrey and Marty Bowen – both producers on the “Twilight” movies and “The Fault in our Stars” – will produce the film, according to wire reports.

For the second consecutive year, a suburban Cincinnati resident will be presented the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award for broadcasting career achievement at the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Canton.

Former Denver Broncos linebacker Tom Jackson, who has lived in Indian Hill most of his 28 years at ESPN, will receive the award August 8. Glendale resident Bob Trumpy, former NBC commentator and WLW-AM “SportsTalk” host, won the award last year for ''longtime exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football.”

All-Star Game specials, Reds retrospectives, repeats of the 1975 World Series, a two-hour Pete Rose interview and a nightly “All-Star Live” show will fill Fox Sports Ohio July 6-16.

“All-Star Live” debuts at 6 p.m. Monday on FSO, prior to the “Reds Live” pregame show. Starting Thursday, “All-Star Live” and the “Reds Live” pregame and postgame shows will be telecast from Major League Baseball’s FanFest at the Duke Energy Center downtown.

Other highlights include five “Spotlight” shows on Reds history; a replay of the 1988 All-Star Game from Riverfront Stadium; a 30-minute film about the 1970 All-Star Game at Riverfront; highlight films from the 1990, 1975  and 1976 World Series; and four entire games from the Big Red Machine’s 1975 World Series victory over the Boston Red Sox.  The details:

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred headlines the scheduled guest list for the “Mike & Mike” show national broadcasts on ESPN2 and ESPN Radio from the Moerlein Lager House next week.

On Monday and Tuesday, Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg will host All-Star Game themed shows 6-10 a.m., which will be open to the public.  The scheduled guests so far are:

July 4th isn’t the same for some of us without Erich Kunzel on PBS’ “A Capitol Fourth.” Kunzel conducted the National Symphony Orchestra July 4th and Memorial Day concerts for nearly 20 years, until his death in 2009 at age 74.

Thanks to CET, Kunzel returns to TV on July 4, with two repeats of “Erich Kunzel: A Cincinnati Legacy,” a  half-hour local special which premiered on July 4, 2010.

WLWT-TV in second place for news at 11 p.m.? WCPO-TV tied with longtime news leader WKRC-TV at 6 p.m.? Will these May household rating trends continue in July sweeps starting today?

Sure, the four week July Nielsen ratings (today through July 29) are the least important of the sweeps months. But TV managers and advertisers will be watching closely to see if our viewing habits continue the shift revealed in May.

On this date in TV Kiese History …

JULY 1, 1957 -- During her live “50-50 Club” telecast on WLWT-TV, Ruth Lyons goes outside to show  viewers new color TV cameras arriving at Crosley/Avco Broadcasting’s Channel 5, the Cincinnati TV technology leader.

Before the July ratings sweeps start tomorrow, here’s an update on the changes at TV stations since the first of the year:

WKRC-TV: The biggest news by far is that Channel 12, first in the news ratings for years, is changing news directors. Kirk Varner’s last day is Friday. I can’t remember a TV station letting the news director go  during a sweeps month.