KUFO (101.1) night DJ Marconi is teaming up with Tiny, his former co-host on KNRK (94.7), for a live, daily podcast on KUFO.com.

The pair were last heard together on Portland's air in 2004, when they made national headlines for laughing over the audio of American Nick Berg in Iraq, leading to their firing.

Their new show will be online-only, every weekday at 2 pm.

Hear a promo for the new show:

Elvis Duran has been herding the "morning zoo" on New York's Z100 (WHTZ) for 14 years, and he'll soon be heard on Eugene's KEHK ("Star" 102.3). The show was renamed as "Elvis Duran and the Morning Show" in 2008 for syndication, and KEHK will be its first West Coast affiliate.

Duran replaces local DJ Justin Phillips in the morning. Phillips tells OMC he'll focus on his other role as production director for the local Cumulus station cluster.

KEHK's new show launches Monday, March 15. You can listen to it here.

KEHK's press release is after the jump.

In quick response to today's moves by KPAM (860), KCMD ("Freedom" 970) is moving the planned March 29 debuts of Sean Hannity and Mark Levin up to today. The new shows push Jerry Doyle and Dennis Miller later into Freedom's evening schedule, while Rusty Humphries is the odd man out.

A before-and-after of KCMD's lineup:

See Freedom's full press release after the jump:

KPAM (860) is launching a new schedule today, and the station is eager to play up a local "radio war" between KXL (750)'s Lars Larson and their own Victoria Taft. KPAM is also adding the syndicated Michael Savage to their lineup.

The programming changes are prompted by moves by Alpha Broadcasting's KXL and KCMD ("Freedom" 970). Freedom picked Sean Hannity and Mark Levin off of KPAM's schedule after moving toward more consistently right-leaning political talk. And when KXL bumped Savage later into its evening lineup to accommodate afternoon news, the host jumped to KPAM for a better time slot.

KPAM is now moving Victoria Taft up from evenings to middays, airing from 11 am to 3 pm against KXL's Larson from Noon to 4. KPAM is calling this a "head-to-head battle." Both shows also compete with noon news and Dr. Laura on KEX (1190). Taft additionally goes up against the last hour of Rush Limbaugh.

Savage will debut from 3 to 6 pm today, live in KPAM's afternoon drive. Elsewhere in the schedule, John Gibson bumps consumer advocate Clark Howard from late mornings to late evenings, and Hugh Hewitt moves from early mornings to evenings.

In response to KPAM's new schedule, KCMD is moving Hannity and Levin's planned March 29 premieres up nearly a month to debut today. Look for that story soon on OMC. (11:05 am update: Link.)

A before-and-after of KPAM's schedule:

See KPAM's full "radio wars" press release after the jump:

From KOHD's website:

Changes to the local television landscape in Central Oregon, and the broadcast industry overall, have been significant during the last three years. In September of 2007, KOHD-TV launched local news programming poised for a major challenge against a competitor entrenched in Bend for more than thirty years. The station moved aggressively into the market with a talented team and all the tools required for success.

Unfortunately, KOHD News viewer's habits are not reflected positively in Nielson ratings. Factor in the dramatic impact of the economic conditions since The Great Depression, we now are taking the next logical step and changing our news product that better matches the current trend of how people get their news.

The result, after careful thought and review, KOHD-TV has made the decision to discontinue the station's current schedule of news programming. KOHD will air its last regularly scheduled newscast in its current form at 11 PM on March 5th. However, a news team will remain at KOHD, providing solid local coverage for the Bend market with news and weather updates - both on-air and online - throughout the day. These updates will air more frequently than the current long form shows, including reports every half hour in the morning, weather updates every hour during the day, and news updates again in the evening at 5, 6 and 7pm. At 11pm there will be a 10 minute broadcast that will give viewers all the day's local news, weather and sports.

KOHD will continue to air your favorite ABC prime time, daytime and weekend sports programming. I want to thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,
Jerry Upham
KOHD General Manager

OMC reported on these changes last night.

When the ax falls on KOHD tomorrow, the once booming city of Bend will be reduced to having only one full-time TV news station. Employees at the ABC affiliate were informed this morning that the station will become a Bend bureau for KEZI, Chambers Communications' sister station in Eugene. Bend employees will then create local packages for KEZI-produced Bend cut-ins.

Executives at KOHD and KEZI aren't yet talking, but information that we've learned, some from sources who were specifically instructed not to talk to blogs about this news, is that there will be three "one-man bands" in Bend and an anchor/producer hosting KOHD cut-ins from Eugene. We hope to have more information after laid-off employees cash their severance checks tomorrow.

KOHD launched as the United States' first HD television station to be built from the ground up in September 2007. Chambers paid an ambitious $8.5 million at auction for the station's FCC license in 2006. Their 11,000 square foot facility will now be used as KEZI's Bend bureau a facility for filing Bend stories off to Eugene for production, if not also a shrine to media industry and Bend industry hopes during the city's population boom and before the advertising recession.

KOHD cut its weekend newscasts in a major reshuffling last summer and rearranged its evening news lineup as recently as a month ago. At the station's last Christmas party, employees were told that Chambers was committed to maintaining KOHD's news operations without cuts through 2010. KOHD equipment will now be moved to Eugene, which may enable KEZI to become that market's first station to produce newscasts in HD.

The Bend TV news market is also served by NBC affiliate KTVZ, which airs morning, evening and late newscasts each weekday, as well as half-hour shows at 6 and 11 pm on weekends. The station also produces a weekday half-hour at 10 pm on Fox affiliate and sister station KFXO. CBS affiliate KBNZ simulcasts Portland sister station KOIN's newscasts with one-minute local cut-ins.

In addition to KOHD and KEZI, Eugene-based Chambers Communications also owns KDRV in Medford and its semi-satellite KDKF in Klamath Falls, as well as Chambers Productions in Eugene and Chambers Cable in Sunriver.

KOHD's last locally produced newscast will air tomorrow at 11 pm.

UPDATE (3/6, 7:03 am): In the absence of further communication from Chambers Communications, we're unsure to handle KOHD News Director Jerry Upham's email opposing the term "bureau." Since we haven't received an alternative to this word used by employees for the new relationship between KOHD and KEZI, we'll simply say that, to our understanding, KOHD will operate as a facility that three people will file stories out of. Those stories will then be sent to Eugene for production and anchoring, and will appear on KOHD as news updates. If anyone would like to help us fill in the details, please contact oregonmediagmail [dot] com. Thank you.

Good Day Oregon is once again adding a little bit "More."

"More Good Day Oregon," the show that eventually morphed into what is now Meredith Broadcasting's East Coast-based lifestyles program "Better," will return as a one-hour extension of the Good Day Oregon franchise on KPTV sister station KPDX at 9 am. As with GDO, the show will feature Pete Ferryman, Julie Grauert, Andy Carson and Tony Martinez. A memo from News Director Corey Hanson reads:

I am pleased to announce that the FOX 12 brand is expanding. On April 19th, we are adding an additional hour to Portland's Number One morning show. Good Day Oregon will run from 5-9am on KPTV and then we will push viewers to KPDX for More Good Day Oregon. More Good Day Oregon will run from 9am-10am. At the same time, we will also be adding a half-hour 11am show on KPTV. As I make this announcement, I also want to take the opportunity to say "Thank you." We could not make these moves if it weren't for the hard work, talent and dedication of this staff.

As the memo indicates, KPTV's 4:30 am newscast will be cut. OMC has also learned that KPTV's new 11 am show will be hosted by Kimberly Maus, with Stephanie Kralevich on weather duty. There's no word yet on that program's title.

Compared to January, KGW didn't get as big a bump as one might expect from the Olympics, with most shows gaining just two tenths of a ratings point or less among viewers aged 25-54. There were two big exceptions, though: the 6:30 pm newscast, which was up more than 25 percent over January, and Live @ 7, which nearly doubled its ratings. Olympics coverage began at 7:30. KGW's late news isn't listed because of its irregular air time following the games.

UPDATE (8:17 pm): We've added KGW's locally produced "Olympic Zone" at 7:30 pm to the chart. The special aired for 13 days.

  = Morning and midday news
  = Evening news
  = Late news

And I scrapped the asterisks for shows that include weekend ratings in their averages. The difference it makes isn't as significant as I first thought.

Starting today, WWeek began a five-part series on Portland radio. Admitting they don't know a lot about local radio, writer Casey Jarman says:

Seattle has KEXP, Los Angeles has KCRW—and we often sing the praises of local music, so where’s Portland’s iconic FM station?

Along with the print articles, WWeek hopes to use their music blog Local Cut as a resource and sounding board for readers.

Debuting tomorrow night, The Lounge After Hours will air weeknights, 10pm-midnight. Hosted by Brad Dolbeer, the two-hour show will feature music and interviews performed by artists in the station’s Live Performance Lounge.

“The Lounge After Hours will focus on these live acoustic versions which are literally one-of-a-kind, performed here at KINK. These performances are beloved by our listeners and over time have become a signature of what KINK is all about,” commented KINK Program Director Dennis Constantine. “Going back through the archives we’ve unearthed some real treasures, and I believe our listeners will find this an enjoyable way to unwind at the end of the day.”

The Lounge After Hours will replace Lights Out, which moves to Sunday nights at 10pm. Lights Out will continue to be available 24/7 as a streaming channel at kink.fm.