Last Call for Happy Hour - Kenny's Show Hits the Road

Oh the vagaries of post-Salem sports talk radio in Cleveland. According to a report on Cleveland.com, WKNR personality Kenny Roda is out as the station's longtime afternoon drive sports talker. And his surprising replacement...

Sports radio stalwart Mark "Munch" Bishop is bolting Clear Channel Communications - and his gigs as sports director on WMJI and WMMS - for a job at sports-talk station WKNR. The voice of sports on WMMS and WMJI's popular Lanigan & Malone morning show is set to take over the afternoon-drive shift, 3-6 p.m., on WKNR.

Now, we were never the biggest fans of the Pittsburgh native's style, but ironically, his show was THE Cleveland sports talk show that had the pulse of the Cleveland fan. He didn't necessarily have the most entertaining afternoon all sports talk show in town, or the worst. Actually, he had the only one - and for many years. Which is the point. The Cleveland sports scene certainly needed and deserved a fresh voice. Roda and the recently reassigned Greg Brinda had the monopoly on the local airways for far too long, with no major ratings jump since Art Modell gave Clevelanders a reason to listen.

As for Munch, he's certainly capable of injecting some new life into WKNR. Anyone familiar with his Buckeye gameday shows on WTVN in Columbus certainly know what's he's capable of. He's a bare bones type of sports talker, who knows the players and coaches inside and out. The guy also might be able to roll off every high school mascot in the state of Ohio, which is actually kind of creepy, but different. And given the recent history of the same Tim Couch/Akili Smith-type sports talk in this town, different is good.

Many "insiders" at WKNR have already suggested to CursedCleveland.com that Roda will now anchor the post-game show, where his candor and "hotty" talk will be far better received (And maybe he won't stay so tight lipped about his son Cameron's amateur sports career, which many listeners have been clamoring to hear).