Musical Notes

Some tips for a Christmas weekend soundtrack:
--“A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols” airs live from King’s College in Cambridge, England at 10 a.m. Saturday on WGUC-FM (repeating 7:30 p.m. Christmas).
--Dusty Rhodes hosts a nostalgic “Christmas Through the Years,” with hits from the 1930s through the 20th century, 6 p.m.-midnight Saturday on WMKV-FM (89.3). His annual “Christmas Countdown” of popular Christmas songs airs 5-10 a.m. Christmas on WLW-AM (700).
--“A Christmas Carol,” with storyteller Ashley Ramsden playing all 23 characters, airs 8 p.m. Saturday on WVXU-FM (91.7).
--Jim Scott’s annual Christmas show will be broadcast 8 p.m.-midnight Saturday on WLW-AM, after Bengals postgame programming. Bill Cunningham and Bill “Seg” Dennison’s “Christmas Spectacular” airs 10 a.m.-noon Christmas. on WLW.
--Four area high school graduates attending Belmont University in Nashville will be seen on public TV’s annual “Christmas at Belmont” holiday music special. Enrolled in Belmont’s School of Music are Hillary Bond (Colerain High School), Matthew Haussler (Oak Hills), Erin Kiley (Glen Este) and Andrea Thomas (Sycamore). “Christmas at Belmont” airs at 7 p.m. Saturday on Channel 54, and 10 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Christmas on Channel 48.
--For a cool yule, catch “Christmas Around Cincinnati.” Lee Hay plays two hours of holiday music performed by Over the Rhine, Phil DeGreg, Steve Schmidt, Ricky Nye and other area artists at 7 p.m. Christmas on WVXU-FM.
--“Christmas Jazz with OT” follows at 9 p.m. Sunday on 'VXU with Oscar Treadwell presenting holiday favorites played by jazz giants.
--“Hanukkah Musical Celebration” airs at 7 p.m. Monday on WGUC-FM, with Naomi Lewin presenting a collection of folk melodies and songs. NPR’s “Hanukkah Lights,” with Susan Stamberg and Murray Horwitz, airs at 2 p.m. Dec. 31 on WVXU-FM.

Bengals reminder
“Bengals Weekly” airs at 4:30 p.m. today on Channel 12. “Bengals Nation” airs at 7 p.m. today on Channel 12. The sold-out Bengals-Bills game at Paul Brown Stadium airs at 1 p.m. Saturday on CBS (Channels 12, 7).

Channel 12 news
Bob Herzog is leaving "Cinema 64" after 5 years to join the WKRC-TV (Channel 12) news team. He'll be part of the "Good Morning Cincinnati" show next month, and do some fill-in sports anchoring and reporting. (Ch. 12 still hasn't replaced Marshall Harris, who left in October for Fox Sports Pittsburgh.) Herzog will co-host "Cinema 64" with Jen Dalton three more times -- Saturday, Sunday and New Year's Eve.

He's a Hero

Watch CMT, and you’ll see that we have a hero among us. Vincent Harrison of Avondale is being honored this month as an “everyday hero” as part of the new “CMT One Country” campaign saluting “regular people doing selfless acts.” Harrison, 47, has coached baseball and volunteered at the Avondale Boys and Girls Club for 20 years, long after his four kids (ages 27-19) stopped hanging out there. You also can see the spot at:
http://www.cmt.com/one_country/index.jhtml

Holiday cheer
WGUC-FM (90.9) broadcasts the Cincinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble’s holiday concert at 7 p.m. today. The concert with guest guitarist Rodney Stuckey, taped earlier this month, includes “Go Tell it on the Mountain,” “Ave Maria,” “Silent Night” “All This Night,” and “Away in the Manger.”
And for a wild wake-up call Friday, don’t forget to set your clock radio to WMOJ-FM (Mojo 94.9). Funky Bootsy Collins co-hosts with Laura Powell Friday morning, and no doubt you'll hear his "Bootoff the Funky Soul Reindeer."

Kiese-watching
And if you missed “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” a few weeks ago, it repeats today (8 p.m., Ch 12).

News from “The West Wing”
Looks like we won’t know how “The West Wing” will handle the death of John Spencer – who plays VP candidate Leo McGarry – until March. The show returns with new episodes on Jan. 8, with a VP debate featuring Spencer’s character (which may be a little eerie for fans). There are five unaired episodes, which will take the series into March with interruptions in February sweeps for NBC’s Winter Olympics telecasts, the Associated Press reports.

Linzes: More Than Proud

OK, people, we need a little help here.
Tom Linz, father of “The Amazing Race” kids, says he can’t put into words how he feels about his children. Maybe you can help? At a party Tuesday night at McFadden’s downtown, where the family had watched “TAR” each week, Tom said:
“I need a bigger word than ‘proud.’ I need a bigger word. I don’t know what else to tell people. ’Cause that’s what they say to me: ‘You ought to be proud.’ And I am. Why don’t you give me another word than ‘proud?’
Any suggestions?

Linzes want Letterman
It’s no surprise that the Linz family is talking about getting an agent to sift through all the requests for public appearances, speaking engagements, etc. (Rodger Bingham did the same after being on “Survivor.”) The kids hope to get on Letterman’s show, though Dave fans know he’s no big fan of reality TV… They want Dave, but does Dave want them?

Christmas Lites?
Have you seen that Deerfield Township house with the spectacular light display on the Miller Lite commercials? Saw it last night on ESPN. You see the video of the lights set to music, then the screen goes to black and up pop the words: “Enjoy the Lites.” The Lite, I mean light, display has been dark since Dec. 6, due to traffic congestion.
The video is posted at
http://media.putfile.com/Wizards-of-Winter-Christmas-Lights

West Side Christmas
Time Warner customers in Green Township and Cheviot will be able to see West Side Christmas decorations without leaving home this weekend. Tom Buchman’s four-hour video of decorated houses (including about 30 minutes of Shillito’s old mechanical elves) will air on Green Township/Cheviot cable access Channel 8 (Channel 15 for cable-ready sets) from 7 p.m. Friday through Christmas. It also repeats New Year’s weekend.
“This is so easy to do. I surprised that nobody else does it,” Buchman says.

"Bengals Nation" on the move

“Bengals Nation” on the move
You won’t have to wait until 11:30 p.m. Saturday to see yourself on “Bengals Nation,” if you attend Channel 12’s taping 6-8 p.m. Wednesday at GameWorks at Newport on the Levee.
Because the Bengals play the Bills at 1 p.m. Saturday, “Bengals Nation” will air at 7 p.m. Friday (Ch. 12) instead of late Saturday. The “Bengals Weekly” show, produced by the Bengals, will air at 4:30 p.m. Friday, instead of Sunday morning.
The sold-out Bengals-Bills game at Paul Brown Stadium airs at 1 p.m. Saturday on CBS (Channels 12, 7).

Dusty’s Christmas
Fans of Dusty Rhodes’ annual “Christmas Countdown” radio show will hear it Christmas morning (5-10 a.m.) on WLW-AM. He’ll also host a nostalgic “Christmas Through the Years,” with hits from the 1930s through the 20th century, 6 p.m.-midnight Saturday on WMKV-FM (89.3) in Springdale.

Men of MOJO
Keith Mitchell of WMOJ-FM (Mojo 94.9) has lined up an interesting list of subs during his vacation the rest of the week. Laura Powell will co-host mornings with Ch. 9 weatherman Steve Raleigh (Wednesday), Ch. 9 consumer reporter John Matarese (Thursdasy) and Bootsy Collins (Friday). How many times will Laura let Bootsy play "Fear Da Tiger," "Big Cats" or his special Christmas track for the station, "Bootoff the Funky Soul Reindeer?"


The Simpson’s Christmas
Did you catch “The Simpsons” Sunday? They did three short original Christmas cartoons, similar to the beloved “Treehouse of Horror” Halloween specials. Have “The Simpsons” started a new holiday tradition? I hope so. The three ’toons last Sunday were brilliant, hilarious and touching. An instant classic! I wish I had taped them… and it wouldn’t surprise me if a DVD of the half-hour show was available next Christmas.

I'm bummed

Boy, I’m bummed. My favorite digital cable TV channel is history. NBC is pulling the plug on Trio (Time Warner Ch 126), which carries old 1980s NBC “Late Night with David Letterman” show. Trio also repeated short-lived shows under the banner “Brilliant but canceled.” How ironic? NBC says Trio will become a broadband service, accessible through www.Bravotv.com, on Jan. 1 – but it’s unknown what happens to Letterman reruns (which haven’t aired in several weeks). NBC dumped Trio because it dropped from 20 million subscribers to 8.8 million after DirecTV stopped offering it. Sigh.

John Spencer’s passing
I’ve got to tell you that John Spencer, “The West Wing” cast member who died Friday, was a total class act. I met him several times during his run on “L.A. Law” and “The West Wing,” and he was one of the nicest men in the world. At a Television Critics Assocation reception, he spoke with a group of us for about an hour, telling us how and why “The West Wing” was the greatest gig of his career. He was very humble and thankful, and (as he did through the years) he talked about how being a recovering alcoholic, like his character (Leo McGarry). No word yet how his passing will be handled, considering he’s the VP candidate running with Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits). Reports say the show has filmed 14 episodes, but aired only 9 – making it a problem for them to air a tribute episode right away. Not sure what they’ll do, but I can’t wait to see it. I’m sure it will be touching. The cast loved him

Hope for “Arrested Development”
Variety is reporting that ABC or Showtime could pick up “Arrested Development” (8 p.m. today, Ch 19), if Fox cancels it. Fox has only ordered 13 shows this season.

Another Channel 5 anchor change

This just in…. Despite a second-place finish at 11 p.m. in November and May sweeps, Channel 5 will shake up its anchor team again on Jan. 2. Co-anchor Dave Wagner, whose tenure dates back to 1999 (with Norma Rashid), moves to day shift, at his request. He wants to do more reporting and see his kids. He’ll continue to anchor with Sandra Ali at 6 p.m.
Sheree Paolello will anchor at 11 p.m. with Ali, as she already does at 5 and 5:30 p.m.

Kiese-watching
Hasn’t “The Amazing Race” been fun to watch this fall? The Linz kids really made Cincinnati look good. They had a grand time on the adventure, and viewers had a sweet ride too. And then they give a half-million to their parents, and split the balance with the 3 brothers who couldn’t come along? Amazing, wasn’t it?
It will be interesting to see if P&G or other local companies sign up these kids for TV commercials, endorsements, etc. I think we’ll see them a lot on TV in the next year…. Wanna suggest some endorsements the kids would be perfect for?

“Race” results
Yes, Cincinnati was CBS’ No. 1 market for “The Amazing Race” finale Tuesday. (Duh!) But the 15.9 rating here was about 27% lower than Cincinnati’s first-place ratings for CBS’ “Survivor.” “TAR” ranks No. 32 for the season, while “Survivor” still hangs in the Top 10 -- at No. 7. It’s still TV’s No. 1 reality show, despite a loss of 2 million viewers from May.

Life After Howard Stern
When Howard Stern leaves WAQZ-FM (New Rock 97.3) at 10 a.m. Friday, so will all the other DJs. In a publicity stunt to promote new branding, the station will be “put on shuffle” without any music hosts through the end of the year. The station will add more cuts by current bands, and “older alternative” music, says GM Mike Fredrick. Gone is the “New Rock” label. Station will be called “97.3 everything alternative.”
“It’s not a format change,” he says. Listeners will be asked what they want to hear.
Jocks probably return to the air on or about Tuesday, Jan. 3, when new “Rover’s Morning Glory” show from Chicago officially replaces Stern.
More about satellite radio and Stern Friday in The Enquirer and on line.

Looking into the future
No blog on Friday, taking the day off…. A couple of reminders:
--Cindy-Ann Thomas from Highland Heights appears on "The Price is Right" Friday (11 a.m., Ch 12).
--“Skeleton Stories” (10 p.m. Friday, Discovery Health) does a report on how area authorities identified the burned corpse found New Year’s Day 2003 on the Butler-Preble county line. But you may not know it… because producers disguise the case (out of respect for victim, they say). Names, location and even date changed (to Halloween!). Look for Butler County detectives or Beth Murray from the College of Mount St. Joseph.
-- Shane Woods, a U.S. Army soldier from Hamilton, plays poker against actress Estella Warren (“Planet of the Apes”) for charity on “Bodog Salutes the Troops: A Tribute To American Heroes” late Sunday/early Monday (12:30 a.m. Monday, Spike).

It's Amazing, Racing to the End

So now the $1 million question: Will the Linz kids be first to the matt and win “The Amazing Race: Family Edition?” We’ll find out tonight (9-11 p.m., Chs 12, 7). It's sure been more fun to watch having a local family go to the finale.
If they win, the Linzes appear on CBS’ “Early Show” to get their check after 8 a.m. Wednesday. If they lose, they’ll compete with the other losing family for a new GMC Yukon in a taped contest to be videostreamed at www.cbs.com after 2 a.m. Wednesday (after the West Coast prime-time telecast).

Sopranos update
Here’s the answer to the question which came while I was chatting with Gary Burbank listeners on WLW-AM Monday: New episodes of “The Sopranos” return in March.

News From Madden Nation
Mount Healthy’s Daniel Grunei continues his $100,000 quest as “Clark Kent” (in the Ben Roethlisberger jersey) in the national NFL Madden 2006 gamers tournament on “Madden Nation” today (11 & 11:30 p.m., ESPN2). He’s co-owner with Kyle Cooper of the www.maddenauthority.com website based here. That’s how EA & ESPN found him.

Victoria's replay
Did you miss it? CBS’ “Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show” repeats on sister UPN tonight (9 p.m., Ch 38).

Will His Price Be Right?

Will His Price Be Right?
“The Price Is Right” viewers can see what Oak Hills High School senior Hunter Goodson got for his 18th birthday on the show today (11 a.m., Chs 12, 7). The Delhi Township resident and his girlfriend, Caitlin Reddy of Green Township, flew to Los Angeles to appear on the CBS game show on Oct. 27, to fulfill thier lifelong dreams. Bob Barker said “Come on down!” and Goodson had a shot to win vacation trips and a new car. Cindy-Ann Thomas from Highland Heights appears on the game show Friday….

Santa on the air
The kids can spend an hour “Talking with Santa” 8 p.m. today on Time Warner public access Channel 24 in Cincinnati and most Hamilton County suburbs. Santa takes calls from girls and boys, and answers e-mail messages sent to santa@waycross.org. The show will be seen in Anderson Township, Cincinnati, Forest Park, Greenhills, Norwood, Springfield Township and the 29 Intercommunity Cable Regulatory Commission communities in suburban Hamilton, Warren and Clermont counties.

Clooney cleans up
George Clooney received multiple nominations from the Broadcast Film Critics Association for the 11th annual Critics’ Choice Awards airing Jan. 9 on WB (8 p.m., Ch 64). His “Good Night and Good Luck” earned him nominations for best picture, acting ensemble, director, writer (with Grant Heslov), and an acting nomination for David Strathairn’s portrayal of Edward R. Murrow. Clooney also was nominated for best supporting actor for “Syriana.”
See the full list at
http://www.bfca.org/nomineesWinners.asp

A musical note
A reminder if you’re downtown today: WNKU-FM DJ Mr. Rhythm Man (Elder HS art teacher Bob Beemon) plays hits from Cincinnati’s King Records label at the “1000 Tears Too Late” exhibit about Cincinnati’s R&B scene in the ’60s and ’70s at the Contemporary Arts Center 5-9 p.m. today.

Kiese-watching
With Cindy Hall from Maysville voted out of "Survivor: Guatemala" on Thursday, I was happy to see Danni win the $1 million over Stephenie Sunday night. Yeah, she ditched good pal Rafe at the last second, but Danni's best bet to win it all was going to the finals with Stephenie. It was a very entertaining season, and still the best reality show on TV (No. 7 for the year, despite the loss of about 2 million viewers since May). What did you think?

Snow it goes

Snow it goes
A flurry of notes from watching and listening to snow coverage….
So I guess the TV weather folks were right for once? Is it true that Andy Furman was ragging about inaccurate forecasts last night? It probably wasn’t the night to make that complaint….
As I flipped around the dial, I kept coming back to Channel 5 last night. Not because it’s the “official snow closing station,” but because of the superior graphics on the school closing list: The state was in yellow type right next to the school, and changes were noted with “this just in” in yellow. Very helpful….
Channel 9 and 19 listed states for each school, though Channel 9’s was to the far right of screen and harder to read. Channel 12 didn’t list states, and it should.
Did you see Channel 9’s snow blog?
http://wcpo.com/news/2005/local/12/08/snow.html
That was helpful to read before leaving downtown. So was checking the Artimis cameras. On the way home, callers giving WLW traffic reports told me that traffic was a nightmare all over….
Tell me: Who has the best snow info? What did you like or dislike?

Local TV notes
--Hunter Goodson from Delhi Township gets a shot at winning big prizes on “The Price Is Right” Monday (11 a.m., Chs 12, 7). and Cindy-Ann Thomas from Highland Heights appears next Friday….
--Discovery Health channel’s new “Skeleton Stories” premieres with a Hamilton forensics investigation today (10-11 p.m.), but that won’t be clear to most viewers. Producers changed the names and location out of respect to the victims (and in fear of law suits?). When Hamilton police detectives and College of Mount St. Joseph professor Beth Murray talk about a woman’s skull found near a lake, it’s the 1996 Hamilton murder of Tina Mott. The experts explain how the woman’s body was identified from a nearly toothless skull found by two boys while fishing at Hamilton’s Linden Lake. Next Friday “Skeleton Stories” does another Butler County story, about the burned body found on New Year’s Day 2003 near the Butler-Preble county line – but producers changed the victim’s name, location and date (to Halloween!).

Christmas in TV Land
My TV could be on all day Sunday to catch the Christmas marathon on TV Land (6 a.m.-6 a.m.). They’ve got everything from “Happy Days,” “Cheers,” “Brady Bunch,” “MacGyver” and “Night Court” to 1960s classics from “Bewitched,” “The Addams Family,” “Green Acres” and Gunsmoke.” Here’s a link to TV Land’s Sunday schedule:
www.tvland.com/schedule/index.jhtml?anyday=1&day=20051211
Merry Christmas!

Musical note
Put this on your Monday calendar: The Contemporary Arts Center goes old school 5-9 p.m. Monday with Mr. Rhythm Man (Elder HS art teacher Bob Beemon) playing hits from Cincinnati’s King Records label at the “1000 Tears Too Late” exhibit about Cincinnati’s R&B scene in the ’60s and ’70s. Don’t forget you can catch his show, “You’re On The Air With Mr. Rhythm Man” 6-9 p.m. Saturday on WNKU-FM (89.7) or www.wnku.org.
As Mr. Rhythm Man would say: Have a cool yule.

CET Changes Lineup Tonight

This just in… CET has changed its line-up tonight, as the annual December pledge campaign winds up. “Celtic Woman” has been pushed back to 9 p.m. (Ch 48) from 8 p.m., making room for “Visions of Germany: Along the Rhine” to air 7:30-9 p.m. The “Are You Being Served” Christmas special will air at 11 p.m.
Pulled from tonight’s schedule: “In The Tank” (7:30) and another repeat of “Suze Orman: For The Young, Fabulous & Broke” (10 pm).

ESPN's Good Morning
ESPN Radio popular “Mike & Mike in the Morning” show simulcast will move from ESPNEWS to ESPN2 on Jan. 2. You can also hear “Mike & Mike” (Golic & Greenberg) 6-10 a.m. on Hamilton’s WMOH-AM (1450), which surprisingly carries all the way to downtown Cincinnati in daylight hours. “Cold Pizza” will be pushed back to 10 a.m. on ESPN2….
More ESPN: NASCAR will return to ESPN and ABC in 2007 in a new eight-year deal. …

Kiese watching
This is always fun: George Clooney visits Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show” today (11:35 p.m., Chs 5, 2)…
Tonight we find out if Cindy Hall from Maysville will be among the Final 4 in the last one-hour episode of “Survivor: Guatemala” (8 p.m., Chs 12, 7). The two-hour finale and reunion show airs Sunday (8-11 p.m.).
Saw one of the worst Christmas specials last night: “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer & The Island of Misfit Toys” on ABC Family. Definitely wasn’t worth letting the kids stay up to 10:30 p.m.
What do you think he worst holiday TV special is?

White Death Is Coming!

White Death is Coming!
Yeah, I know local TV ratings jump when we get bad weather. But hyping the possibility of snow TWO DAYS IN ADVANCE??? Channel 9 was running crawls during “A Charlie Brown Christmas” at 8 p.m. Tuesday, warning viewers to tune in at 11 for the weather forecast -- about snow coming Thursday evening! Are the weather alerts out of control? Just like the Breaking News alerts? Tell me what you think…

What did he say?
Did you hear Al Roker on the “Today” show this morning? I’m told that Cincinnati was his “pick city” for the day, and then he told the national TV audience that when he comes here, he always has Skyway Chili. Yep, this is the guy who broadcast from the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in April and called it the “National Slavery Center” on NBC.
If you heard Roker's chili remark, let me know...

In it to win it?
So what do you think: Will the Linz kids from Anderson Township win $1-million on “The Amazing Race?” finale next week? I’d say they were a sure bet – but Sportsbet.com shut down action on “TAR” in September due to heavy betting all from Ohio on the Linzes to win it. I’d say it looks good for the Linzes.

Easy does it
Yes, I learned my lesson yesterday. If you bang on the key to post the blog, and nothing happens… you end up posting the same blog seven times. What can I say. It was a bad day.

A Scoop of Chili

That was quite a scoop that Keith Mitchell and Laura Powell got from Mayor Mark Mallory on the MOJO Morning Show (94.9) this morning. While giving Hizzoner a Cincinnati quiz, the talk turned to Cincinnati chili, which prompted this comment:
“I don’t like chili. My handlers tell me never to admit that.”
He’ll take a big ol’ Zips hamburger any day.

An Amazing Story Nears The End
The amazing Linz kids are one week away from possibly winning $1 million. One of the four “Amazing Race” teams will be eliminated tonight (9 p.m., Ch. 12), with three moving on to the two-hour finale next Tuesday (9-11 p.m.). It’s fun to look at what fans of the show say about the four Linz family members from Anderson Township on the Television Without Pity site:
http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/

Kiese watching
I’ve probably seen it all 39 years, and I’ll watch it again: “A Charlie Brown Christmas” airs for the 40th year tonight (8 p.m., Ch 9). I love the Vince Guaraldi jazz soundtrack and the simplicity -- which CBS executives didn’t like in the first-ever TV adaptation of Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts” characters. Producer Lee Mendelson feared he had ruined any attempt to make a TV franchise from the “Peanuts” characters… until they saw the ratings. The rest is TV history.

“Fear Factor” returns today after a six-month break. Producers promise that it won’t be as gross (8 p.m., Ch 5). Will that attract more viewers – or turn off loyal fans?

A Scoop of Chili

That was quite a scoop that Keith Mitchell and Laura Powell got from Mayor Mark Mallory on the MOJO Morning Show (94.9) this morning. While giving Hizzoner a Cincinnati quiz, the talk turned to Cincinnati chili, which prompted this comment:
“I don’t like chili. My handlers tell me never to admit that.”
He’ll take a big ol’ Zips hamburger any day.

An Amazing Story Nears The End
The amazing Linz kids are one week away from possibly winning $1 million. One of the four “Amazing Race” teams will be eliminated tonight (9 p.m., Ch. 12), with three moving on to the two-hour finale next Tuesday (9-11 p.m.). It’s fun to look at what fans of the show say about the four Linz family members from Anderson Township on the Television Without Pity site:
http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/

Kiese watching
I’ve probably seen it all 39 years, and I’ll watch it again: “A Charlie Brown Christmas” airs for the 40th year tonight (8 p.m., Ch 9). I love the Vince Guaraldi jazz soundtrack and the simplicity -- which CBS executives didn’t like in the first-ever TV adaptation of Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts” characters. Producer Lee Mendelson feared he had ruined any attempt to make a TV franchise from the “Peanuts” characters… until they saw the ratings. The rest is TV history.

“Fear Factor” returns today after a six-month break. Producers promise that it won’t be as gross (8 p.m., Ch 5). Will that attract more viewers – or turn off loyal fans?

Bengals Nation

When was the last time a Bengals game was the top story on ESPN’s Sunday night “SportsCenter?” It was sweet to see all the national media attention for the Bengals win over the Steelers. They even did a “break down” segment on the game. How often has that happened in the last 15 years???

The Big One Idol
Germantown minister J. Todd Smith, 38, was named WLW-AM’s “Big One Talk Radio Idol” Monday from on-line voting Thursday and Friday. He will host a three-hour talk show one weekend early next year, plus receive $700 and two airline tickets.

Blogging Baghdad
NBC’s Richard Engel, the only U.S. correspondent who was in Iraq before the war began, will write a daily blog from Baghad starting today. See his “Blogging Baghdad” at http://baghdadblog.msnbc.com/.

Kiese watching
Former Cincinnati resident Sarah Jessica Parker chats with Jay Leno tonight (11:35 p.m., Ch 5). George Clooney is scheduled for Thursday on Leno... TV Land begins counting down the 100 "Most Unexpected TV Moments" 10 p.m. today through Friday.

Cincinnati on the air

Did you catch all the Cincinnati references on TV last night? Mindy Hall of Walnut Hills visited her twin sister Cindy at the “Survivor: Guatemala” camp… A clip of Chad Johnson anchoring Channel 12 sports Wednesday made “ESPN Hollywood” on ESPN2… And No. 1 on David Letterman’s Top 10 List Of Messages Left On Oprah’s Answering Machine” was “It’s Nick. Hey, have you seen Jessica?”
Letterman was great last night with Oprah. I loved it. Did you?

Last wishes?
Amy Grant’s “Three Wishes” returns to Ohio tonight (9 p.m., Chs 5, 2) to hook up two young women and their band “Frog Kissers” with Grammy winner LeAnn Rimes. It looks like fans of the show may have run out of wishes – NBC quietly rescinded an order for 6 more episodes last month, and has pulled it from the January schedule. The 10th and last original episode airs next Friday, Dec. 9. Fans of the show can complain to this email address: threewishes@nbcuni.com.

The new Friday lineup on Jan. 6 will be “TV’s Most Outrageous Moments” (8 p.m.) “Dateline NBC” (9 p.m.) and “The Book of Daniel” (10). And the geniuses at NBC are moving "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" to 9-10 p.m. Thursday against TV's runaway No. 1 show, "CSI." LOL, Earl!
(The only good news is that "Scrubs" finally returns -- with 2 episodes nightly 9-10 p.m. Tuesday in the old "Earl"/"Office" slot on Jan. 3.)

Clooney to be honored

Good news for George Clooney as the 2006 movie awards begin in January. Augusta’s favorite son will receive the “Freedom Award” at the 11th annual “Critics Choice Awards” on Jan. 9 on WB (8 p.m., Ch. 64) for producing, directing and co-writing “Good Night, and Good Luck.”
The Broadcasting Film Critics Association presents the award to individuals “for illuminating our shared values of freedom, tolerance and democracy,” the WB says.
“Good Night” dramatizes CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow’s 1954 showdown with anti-communist zealot Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

WLW auditions
WLW-AM hands over the airwaves to the “Big One Talk Radio Idol” contest finalists – Suzi Blair from Fort Mitchell and J. Todd Smith from Germantown – at 2:30 p.m. today, for the final half-hour of Bill Cunningham’s show. Expect them to be grilled by Willie. Voting on www.700wlw.com ends at 5 p.m. Friday. The winner gets $700 and a one-time three-hour weekend talk host gig sometime early next year.

Fox news
Just what we were hoping for: “Prison Break” fans won’t have to wait until May! Fox says “Prison Break” will resume on March 20.
Other Fox news: “American Idol” returns Tuesday Jan. 17. The results show will expand to an hour 8-9 Wednesday. “That 70s Show” and “Stacked” move to 9 p.m. Thursdays, giving viewers a 9-10 comedy block (but it’s against top-rated “CSI”). “Killer Instinct” will be canceled after Friday’s telecast; “Reunion” ends Feb. 2.

Kiese watching
After years of begging, Oprah finally does Dave! Don’t miss her on Letterman tonight (11:35 p.m., Ch. 12).