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TV, radio stations move into Cox Media Center

They join the staff of the Dayton Daily News, who’s been in the building since ’07.

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By Ben Sutherly, Staff Writer 8:21 PM Saturday, December 11, 2010

DAYTON — The head of Cox Media Group Ohio said Friday the media conglomerate’s newsgathering capabilities will be enhanced by bringing its broadcasting properties under the same roof with CMG Ohio’s flagship newspaper, the Dayton Daily News.

“If you’re interested in news, you’re going to get more of it than you’ve ever gotten before,” promised Alex Taylor, group vice president and great-grandson of Dayton Daily News founder Gov. James M. Cox. He cited the group’s Nov. 2 extensive election coverage as an example of what’s to come.

Cox’s radio stations —WHIO, WZLR and WHKO — broadcast their first live radio signals from CMG Ohio’s Media Center at 1611 S. Main St. last week. WHIO-TV (Channel 7) was slated to start broadcasting its television programming from the Media Center at 2 a.m. today.

CMG Ohio spent $15 million to build a new studio and reconfigure the Media Center to accommodate its radio and television employees, in addition to the Dayton Daily News, which moved to the former NCR building in 2007.

CMG Ohio employs 292 people in news and programming, the bulk of them at the Media Center, and 1,128 overall.

WHIO television and radio stations have been at 1414 Wilmington Ave. since 1955. CMG Ohio has not decided what it will do with that property, but it may be sold.

“We’re open to all possibilities,” Taylor said.

Channel 7 will be the first television station in the Dayton market to use a high-definition signal, said David Bennallack, the station’s news director. HD television viewers will see a crisper picture. The television studio itself will have a similar but more modern look, he said.

“What it means to viewers ... is we’ll have more resources available to bring them breaking news and weather information faster and in more detail than ever before,” Bennallack said.

The radio stations’ programming, which is heavily driven by research, remains unchanged, but is now brought to listeners with state-of-the-art equipment. That means better sound quality, said Nick Roberts, programming director for CMG’s Dayton and Louisville’s markets.

“Being over here (at the Media Center) gives us the ability to be right in the center of the top newsgathering sources in the Miami Valley,” Roberts said. “Radio’s all about being immediate. It gives us a chance to hear about things, being in the newsroom with the newspaper and television. We’ll have access to the biggest stories immediately as they break, especially when it’s weather and traffic-related.”

Viewers and listeners may keep using current phone numbers to reach television and radio news and programming staff in their new location.

Media industry observers at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University have said the merger leverages limited reporting staffs across multiple media platforms. While combining news sources could mean more thorough coverage, there’s also a risk that less competition could bring about less thorough coverage, they said.

But Taylor said CMG Ohio’s intent is to maintain each media property’s distinctive voice.

“We each have things that people turn to us for,” he said.

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