People

Here are some things I’ve read or heard about people while away from the computer over the weekend…

Jon Grayson – I recently learned that “Overnight America” that was heard on KDKA-AM (1020) had vanished from the airwaves. Excuse me if I’m not up all night most nights… and the last time I heard “OA” was in December (on my way to a rare early shift at the mighty KHB Radio Metroplex in the east…) not long before the show was pulled from the Westwood One syndicate. Well now, the host of the program, Jon Grayson, has left KMOX in St. Louis where the show originated. Tom Taylor confirmed that Grayson did, in fact, leave the station and is headed to KTRS for a daylight shift beginning in a few weeks. Meanwhile, if you’re not a night owl, you probably don’t know that Jim Bohannon goes from 11:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. on KDKA. The last local show on in that time slot was “The Undercover Club” hosted by Bob Logue for 16 years until his 2005 retirement. Gary Dickson carried it after Logue retired until it was taken over by a syndicated program. Logue still produces the subscription-based Undercover Club Newsletter.

Wendy Bell – Speaking of subscriptions, 11 months after her much ballyhooed firing from WTAE-TV 4, Wendy Bell is about ready to announce her new website, a spin off of her Facebook page Positively Wendy Bell. The new site’s URL has yet to be announced but we do know that Bell i charging a nominal monthly fee for the Positive news she intends to publish on the site. The Post-Gazette did a story about it last week and even though there were a lot of naysayers who commented on the PG’s Facebook post linking to the story, one might safely bet that many of the over 90,000 followers Bell herself has on Facebook, will subscribe.

John Sutton – Several years ago, as a WQED-FM volunteer, I met Pittsburgh native John Sutton who was in town and at the station as a consultant through the firm he founded. John, a regular reader of this site even then… 2003? 04? is now stepping away from his consulting firm and returning to town to be GM of WESA (90.5). Sutton began his Maryland-based consultancy in 1997 and was later joined by Sonja Lee who will continue with the firm. Although the firm consulted with the pubcasters, Sutton was a part of the commercial band for a while (DC’s WTOP and Pittsburgh’s WDVE and KQV) before he became Research Director for NPR. He was the consultant that led WESA through it’s 2011 transition from WDUQ after Duquesne University sold the license. WESA has been without a full-time GM since DeAnne Hamilton left in 2005. Meanwhile the station has also hired Craig Weber as director of finance for both WESA and WYEP (91.3).