President-elect Donald Trump will likely visit the Los Angeles area this week to view the wildfire damage, he said on Saturday. The trip is expected to be his first outside the nation’s capital after being inaugurated Monday, according to The LA Times.
“I will be, probably, at the end of the week. I was going to go, actually yesterday, but I thought it would be better if I went as president,” Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker in a phone interview. “It’s a little bit more appropriate, I suspect.”
At least 27 people have died and more than 12,000 structures have been destroyed during the catastrophic fires in Pacific Palisades, Altadena and surrounding communities. Asked whether he would sign disaster relief for the region after being inaugurated, Trump said his response will be conditioned to demand policy changes in California.
“We’re going to be [looking] at it from a lot of standpoints,” he said. “We’re going to be demanding that the water be released from the north into the lower parts of California.”
NEW: President Trump says he will visit California on Friday and reiterates his commitment to the people there after the devastating wildfires: "Together, we will rebuild Los Angeles better, more beautiful than ever before." pic.twitter.com/qu4bjh3I1z
Across many facets of society—in sports, entertainment, the classroom and the workplace—there are signs that MAGA isn’t just retaking the White House. It is gaining a firmer foothold in the broader culture.
Instead of taking a knee to call for social justice, NFL players are doing the “Trump dance” in the end zone at football games. Mainstream entertainers, among them the country singer Carrie Underwood and the rapper Snoop Dogg, agreed to perform at events celebrating Donald Trump’s inauguration, something music stars largely shunned eight years ago.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a new generation of Trump-friendly comedians and wellness influencers is populating YouTube and other social media, while a snippet of audio featuring Barron and Melania Trump has become one of the hottest online memes, with celebrities such as Paris Hilton and brands including Frontier Airlines using it in their TikTok and Instagram posts.
Americans who once hid their support for Trump now wear it on their sleeves, or their hats. Trevor Traina, a tech entrepreneur and former ambassador in the first Trump administration who lives in San Francisco, said he felt the shift when he co-hosted a June fundraiser for Trump in the ritzy, liberal neighborhood of Pacific Heights.
Instead of the expected protests, Traina said, the event drew “more than 100 people in red MAGA hats walking around Pacific Heights. And, you know, in my life, we’ve never seen anything like that. Republicans in San Francisco used to walk around with Groucho Marx glasses and scarves over their heads, you know, scurrying in the shadows.”
To be sure, a number of values associated with liberals have become more popular in recent years. Same-sex marriage is widely accepted, though not universally, and more than half of states have liberalized marijuana laws. After the Supreme Court ended a constitutional right to abortion, Wall Street Journal-NORC polling found support for abortion access was at one of the highest levels on record since NORC began tracking the issue in the 1970s.
Yet, Gallup found an uptick in Americans calling themselves socially conservative, with the share reaching a 10-year high. Some 38% identified as conservative, and 29% as liberal.
Many political analysts have said Americans are becoming more open to conservative ideas because of fatigue with a “cancel culture’’ that some found stifling and overly sensitive to gender and racial identity. The rise of social media is another important factor. By appearing on YouTube, Instagram or other platforms, content creators avoid the gatekeepers of legacy media and can build like-minded audiences.
Trump’s personal popularity has had an effect. The meandering nature of his speeches was welcomed by many supporters as a feature, not a flaw, in his campaign appearances. His joyfully awkward dance moves were widely copied.
Gallup conducted a survey on what Americans think the Trump administration will accomplish over the next four years. It found that nearly seven in ten respondents (68 percent) said that the incoming administration will control immigration. Respondents were least likely to say that Trump would be able to heal political divisions in the country (33 percent said his administration would be able to).
Around six in ten respondents thought that Trump will reduce unemployment, keep the country safe from terrorism and improve the economy. Just over half (54 percent) think he will cut U.S. taxes and (51 percent) reduce the crime rate. Meanwhile, only around a third (35 percent) of respondents said that the Trump administration will be able to improve the quality of the environment. A majority of respondents also said he will not be able to improve race relations, improve education, substantially reduce the federal budget deficit, improve conditions for minorities and the poor or reduce the prices of groceries and other items.
As this chart shows, a similar set of questions was asked to U.S. voters in 2016 about their expectations the first time Trump was in office. Between the two survey waves, the biggest change was in response to the question of whether the government would keep the nation out of war (17 p.p. increase). While the population answered far more favorably this time round, only just over half of respondents (55 percent) consider this to be the case now. The biggest drop in optimism was over whether Trump would be able to improve the healthcare system. Where 52 percent of respondents had thought he could in 2016, only 40 percent thought the same in 2024 (-12 p.p.).
President-elect Donald J. Trump is bringing a significant number of former Fox News personnel into his second administration. Nineteen former Fox News hosts, commentators, on-air medical experts, producers, and other personnel are set to occupy roles in his cabinet and staff.
The NY Times reports the number is unprecedented, as no single media organization has ever exported so many alumni to a president's day-one cabinet and staff.
Trump's relationship with Fox News has been complex, with the network being both a powerful booster and a frequent target of his ire. Now, Fox News correspondents will be reporting on an administration populated by many of their former colleagues.
Pete Hegseth
Jay Wallace, the president and executive editor of Fox News Media, stated that the network's coverage of the Trump administration will be "business as usual". However, there may be some changes in the style of reporting, particularly for correspondents like Peter Doocy, who may adopt a less adversarial approach due to Trump's relative openness with the media.
Other network news leaders have flown to Florida to meet with Mr. Trump’s transition team, although not all scored a face-to-face with Mr. Trump. Debra OConnell, the Disney executive who oversees ABC News, dined in December with Susie Wiles, the incoming White House chief of staff.
Other news networks have had ties to a sitting president. Jon Meacham was still a MSNBC contributor when he began writing speeches for Mr. Biden. (MSNBC promptly ended Mr. Meacham’s contract.) The current White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, was previously an MSNBC pundit. MSNBC also hired Jen Psaki and Symone D. Sanders — the former chief spokeswomen for President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris — after they left the Biden administration.
President-elect Donald Trump rode to TikTok’s rescue on Sunday, working on the eve of his new presidency to try to undo a ban effort that he helped initiate during his first term.
The Wall Street Journal reports the popular social-media app started restoring service on Sunday for its 170 million U.S. users just over 14 hours after halting it in response to a bipartisan national-security law requiring TikTok to shed its Chinese ownership or shut down in the U.S.
The restoration of service came after Trump, who as been indicating for weeks that he wanted to help the app, said Sunday he would issue an executive order on Monday to reinstate the service in the U.S. and that he wants the country to have an ownership position in the app.
“Welcome back!” read a message the TikTok app showed users Sunday. “As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!” The company separately said Trump had provided the assurance needed for TikTok and its partners to restore service. It said TikTok would work with the incoming president on a long-term solution to the law’s requirements.
The weekend’s frenetic moves capped a yearslong saga that has seen a complete change in the president-elect’s position. While legal challenges could still complicate Trump’s plan, his move sets him up to potentially play the hero to the Chinese-owned app that he once said is a national-security threat—as well as to its wealthy U.S. investors, its largely young base of users, and the millions of American businesses and social-media entrepreneurs who use TikTok to connect with customers and fans.
Shou Chew
Even before the weekend, Trump planned to have TikTok Chief Executive Shou Chew at his inauguration on Monday, along with U.S. tech luminaries including Mark Zuckerberg, whose Meta Platforms owns TikTok rival Instagram.
The law, signed by President Biden in April after passing with strong Republican support in Congress, required divestment of Chinese ownership in TikTok because of concerns that China’s government could use the app to surveil or propagandize American users. The law took effect Sunday after TikTok failed to present any such deal for consideration, and after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected its claims that the law is unconstitutional.
The Biden White House had offered repeated public assurances that it wouldn’t take any action to enforce the law on his last day in office. But TikTok said those weren’t sufficient to ensure legal protection, including for partners such as Oracle, which hosts TikTok’s American service in its data centers.
“I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark!” Trump wrote in a post Sunday morning on his own platform, Truth Social. He said his executive order would pave the way for a deal that he said would protect national security.
TikTok’s decision to shut the app down for barely 12 hours – only to restore access to the China-owned app on Sunday after President-elect Donald Trump chimed in – appeared to be a PR stunt meant to stoke a public outcry, policy experts told The NY Post.
“TikTok’s early shutdown either came down to corporate incompetence or a deliberate PR stunt to encourage a manufactured sense of panic,” said Joel Thayer, a DC-based tech lawyer and president of the Digital Progress Institute. “Given it’s waffling, I’m assuming it’s the latter.”
The popular video-sharing app pulled the plug for all US users late Saturday night but began restoring service Sunday afternoon after Trump vowed to “save” TikTok through an executive order Monday that would delay enforcement of the divestiture law requiring parent company ByteDance to sell its stake.
The company thanked Trump “for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties.”
However, the Biden administration had already said it would not enforce the law, and Trump previously signaled ahead of the shutdown that he was against the ban and would “most likely” issue the executive order.
The company’s leadership has acted as “an unsympathetic and disingenuous broker” in its dealings with Congress and the public over the last several years, Thayer said.
“The truth is that, even before Congress enacted the law, the US has told TikTok how to fix its blatant national security concerns for over 5 years and the company did nothing,” he added. “Now, after it attempted to bring bogus First Amendment claims to delay the law’s enforcement and on the eve of its ban, it wants a pity party.”
Radio host Charlamagne tha God and Comedian Andrew Schulz pushed back on a number of Democratic narratives on their podcast "Brilliant Idiots" on Saturday.
Charlamagne and Schulz opened the show with a debate on who deserved credit for securing the cease-fire agreement between Hamas and Israel, President-elect Donald Trump or President Joe Biden. The radio host challenged an assertion made by his friend, Chris Morrow, that Biden was the person responsible for securing the cease-fire agreement.
"Until smart Democrats like Chris start having honest conversations about the party, and what they do, nothing is going to change," Charlamagne said. Referencing Trump's "hell to pay" message to Hamas on releasing the Israeli hostages before his inauguration on Jan. 20, Charlamagne said, "From the time Trump said that, that's when conversations started to speed up. And I mean Israeli TV is saying the same thing."
Charlamagne expressed his disillusionment with Democrats after seeing viral videos of former President Barack Obama and Trump talking with one another at former President Jimmy Carter's funeral last week.
"I'm sure everybody saw the, the video of Barack Obama and Donald Trump being all chummy, chummy, Barack Obama showing his teeth. Here's the reason I don't like that," Charlamagne said, adding, "I've been alive 46 years. I have never heard people refer to a political opponent, or liken them to Hitler. Never said, never heard them, never heard them be called a fascist."
Schulz then jumped in and asked, "But why are they all hanging out and chumming it up with Hitler? I don't get it."
"That's my point," said Charlamagne, adding, "my point is, if you're going to have that rhetoric, keep that same energy."
Charlamagne continued to rip into Obama for being friendly with Trump, saying, "You said this man was a threat to democracy. Right? You said these things. You're the last real leader of the Democratic Party. You tell me if that's good political optics, why should I, like I said, I said this last week, why should I believe anything that comes out of Democrats' mouths?"
Norah O’Donnell’s final night anchoring the CBS Evening News is now January 23, 2025, CBS confirmed Friday.
O’Donnell, who announced in July that she was exiting the role, was to have had her final show January 24, but because of CBS Sports’ coverage of the PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open that day, the CBS Evening News will be a West Coast-only edition.
The network shifted the date by a day so O’Donnell’s final show can be a full, national broadcast.
As previously announced, John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois are taking over as lead anchors beginning January 27 as the CBS Evening News returns to New York as its home base after five years Washington, D.C.
Ahead of the premiere of the revamped “CBS Evening News,” the network has released a promo that illustrates the power of its storytelling while also giving a glimpse into the show’s new look. The spot showcases various CBS News correspondents’ work reporting from the field, with an emphasis on conversation, connection and the “human side of the headline.”
These themes are woven in thanks to a voiceover that poses open-ended questions such as “What happens when you experience the story?” that are stacked so that the answer, at least according to the promo, is that “you get the all new ‘CBS Evening News’.”
Allen Media Group's new local weather initiative with The Weather Channel is causing uncertainty for meteorologists at 27 local TV news stations. The initiative, set to roll out in 2025, aims to enhance weather coverage with "additional visual storytelling capabilities".
The plan involves meteorologists at The Weather Channel in Atlanta producing content for local stations across the country, led by Carl Parker.
Severe weather will remain a priority, and the new format is expected to improve reporting capabilities, especially in high-stakes weather situations. However, the company has not detailed how this change will affect local meteorologists1. Some meteorologists, like Amber Kulick and Josh Franson, have already expressed concerns about their job security.
Local meteorologists play a crucial role in providing life-saving weather information and other critical updates, such as wildfire perimeters and evacuations. The community connection they offer is invaluable, and there are concerns about losing this critical service.
Allen Media Group acquired The Weather Channel in 2018. The new initiative is part of the broadcast industry's efforts to engage audiences amid declining viewership due to cord-cutting and the rise of streaming platforms.
The group, which owns TV stations in 21 markets across the country, said Saturday it is rolling out a new format for weather coverage that will have "additional visual storytelling capabilities" across its stations in 2025.
The move comes as the broadcast industry, particularly television, seeks new ways to engage audiences as it navigates waning viewership amid cord cutting and the rise of streaming platforms.
Allen Media Group took ownership of The Weather Channel in 2018.
Kantar Media, a leading data and insights company specializing in media measurement, has changed ownership in a high-stakes acquisition valued at $1 billion. The deal underscores the growing significance of accurate media measurement in an era where digital platforms and traditional media converge, creating a labyrinth of data streams that need to be meticulously analyzed.
Kantar Media has long been a crucial player in the media measurement industry. With a robust portfolio of services that includes audience measurement, advertising intelligence, and consumer insights, the company provides essential data to media companies, advertisers, and agencies, enabling them to make informed decisions. The company’s reputation for accuracy and innovation has made it a trusted partner in the media ecosystem.
The acquisition of Kantar Media has been orchestrated by H.I.G Capital, a consortium of private equity firms and strategic investors. This group recognizes the strategic value of media measurement and aims to leverage Kantar Media’s capabilities to expand their influence in the media and advertising sectors. The deal is expected to bring fresh capital and resources to Kantar Media, enabling it to enhance its technological infrastructure and expand its service offerings.
Kantar Media will now be 100% owned by H.I.G. The companies expect the deal to close later this year.
The acquisition of Kantar Media is poised to have significant implications for the media measurement industry. With new ownership, the company is expected to accelerate its innovation efforts, leveraging the latest technologies to enhance its measurement capabilities. This shift will likely lead to more accurate and actionable insights for clients, helping them navigate the complexities of the modern media landscape.
The $1 billion acquisition of Kantar Media marks a turning point in the media measurement industry. As the importance and complexity of measurement continue to grow, Kantar Media’s new ownership is poised to drive innovation and enhance the company’s capabilities. The future of media measurement will be shaped by technological advancements, evolving consumer behaviors, and the ongoing pursuit of accuracy and insight. With these changes, the industry is set to enter a new era of precision and effectiveness.
For Bob Perkins, making music was making magic. “That’s what a musician does, to me. When he or she stands up and takes a solo,” he said in 2020. “And it’s all coming out and improvised from the mind to the hand.”
There’s another kind of magic too — the kind woven by a warm voice, a lifetime’s worth of knowledge, and an irresistible passion for jazz. That was BP with the GM.
Perkins died in the early hours of Sunday at Jefferson Abington Hospital, where he had been hospitalized for the last two weeks. He was 91, and lived in Wyncote, PA.
His wife, Dr. Sheila K. Perkins, confirmed his death to WRTI.
Born in Philadelphia, Perkin began his broadcasting career in Detroit in 1964, before moving back to his hometown five years later to work for WDAS. He quickly became a regular on the city’s airwaves.
“One of the things that I thought was somewhat unique about his radio program back then was he never presented it as a jazz program,” saxophonist Larry McKenna, who first heard Perkins on WHYY in the late ‘80s, once told WRTI. (McKenna died in 2023, at 86.) “He played a lot of jazz, but he also mixed in people who were just his favorites.” As McKenna recalled, Perkins would play Doris Day or Dick Haymes alongside the likes of Miles Davis and Stan Getz.
His move to WRTI in 1997 introduced him to a new audience. “Bob Perkins always seemed like one of those voices that was omnipresent,” says bassist Christian McBride. “He carried a lot of history and he was a legacy unto himself, so he could play things and share things with the audience from a vantage point that most DJs don’t have.”
➦In 1896...legendary entertainer George Burns (right) was born Nathan Birnbaum in New York City. After a lengthy apprenticeship in vaudeville, in 1932 George & wife Gracie became a long running hit in radio, films & then TV with The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show [“Say goodnight, Gracie.”] On Gracie’s retirement he returned to a solo act, winning an Oscar with The Sunshine Boys, followed by another hit film Oh, God! He died Mar 9, 1996 at age 100.
➦In 1920...A US Patent was for a magnetic amplifier was granted to Ernst Alexanderson. Magnetic amplifiers were important as modulation and control amplifiers in the early development of voice transmission by radio. Also, the ability to control large currents with small control power made magnetic amplifiers useful for control of lighting circuits, for stage lighting and for advertising signs. Saturable reactor amplifiers were used for control of power to industrial furnaces. Magnetic amplifiers are still used in some arc welders. Alexanderson also designed the Alexanderson alternator, an early longwave radio transmitter, one of the first devices which could transmit modulated audio (sound) over radio waves.
He had been employed at General Electric for only a short time when GE received an order from Canadian-born professor and researcher Reginald Fessenden, then working for the US Weather Bureau, for a specialized alternator with much higher frequency than others in existence at that time, for use as a radio transmitter.
Ernst Alexanderson
Fessenden had been working on the problem of transmitting sound by radio waves, and had concluded that a new type of radio transmitter was needed, a continuous wave transmitter. Designing a machine that would rotate fast enough to produce radio waves proved a formidable challenge. Alexanderson's family were convinced the huge spinning rotors would fly apart and kill him, and he set up a sandbagged bunker from which to test them.
In the summer of 1906 Mr. Alexanderson's first effort, a 50 kHz alternator, was installed in Fessenden's radio station in Brant Rock, Massachusetts. By fall its output had been improved to 500 watts and 75 kHz. On Christmas Eve, 1906, Fessenden made an experimental broadcast of Christmas music, including him playing the violin, that was heard by Navy ships and shore stations down the East Coast as far as Arlington. This is considered the first AM radio entertainment broadcast.
Alexanderson and G.E. continued improving his machine, and the Alexanderson alternator became widely used in high power very low frequency commercial and Naval wireless stations to transmit radiotelegraphy traffic at intercontinental distances, until by the 1930s it was replaced by vacuum tube transmitters.
Alexanderson was also instrumental in the development of television. The first television broadcast in the United States was to his GE Plot home at 1132 Adams Rd, Schenectady, NY, in 1927. In 1928, WRGB then W2XB was started as world's first television station. It broadcast from the General Electric facility in Schenectady, NY. It was popularly known as "WGY Television".
Over his lifetime, Mr. Alexanderson received 345 US patents, the last filed in 1968 at age 89. The inventor and engineer remained active to an advanced age, working as a consultant to GE and RCA in the 1950s. He died in 1975 and was buried at Vale Cemetery in Schenectady, New York.
➦In 1933...."The Lone Ranger" He first appeared in 1933 in a radio show conceived either by WXYZ (Detroit) radio station owner George W. Trendle and by Fran Striker, the show's writer.
The radio series proved to be a hit and spawned a series of books (largely written by Striker), an equally popular television show that ran from 1949 to 1957, comic books, and several movies. The title character was played on the radio show by George Seaton, Earle Graser, and Brace Beemer.
Clayton Moore portrayed the Lone Ranger on television, although during a contract dispute, Moore was replaced temporarily by John Hart, who wore a different style of mask. On the radio, Tonto was played by, among others, John Todd and Roland Parker; and in the television series, by Jay Silverheels, who was a Mohawk from the Six Nations Indian Reserve in Ontario, Canada.
➦In 1954... the National Negro Network was formed. Some 40 radio stations were charter members of America's first black-owned radio network founded by W. Leonard Evans, Jr. The network featured a variety of different programming, including a popular soap opera The Story of Ruby Valentine, which was based on CBS's We Love and Learn and As the Twig is Bent, and starred Juanita Hall, Ruby Dee and Terry Carter. The serial was sponsored by, among others, Philip Morris and Pet Milk. Other short-lived series included The Life of Anna Lewis with Hilda Simms, and It's A Mystery Man with Cab Calloway.
Some shows were produced by Calloway and Ethel Waters. Other fare included broadcasts of symphony concerts from black colleges, and programs hosted by black DJs at affiliate stations.
The network drew up plans for several more series, but—with the TV era exploding—fell apart within a year due to inadequate capital.
Peter Tripp
➦In 1959...Peter Tripp’s “Stay Awake Marathon” started. Tripp was a Top-40 countdown radio personality from the mid-1950s, whose career peaked with his 1959 record breaking 201 hour wakeathon (working on the radio non-stop without sleep to benefit the March of Dimes). For much of the stunt, he sat in a glass booth in Times Square. After a few days he began to hallucinate, and for the last 66 hours the observing scientists and doctors gave him drugs to help him stay awake. He was broadcasting for WMGM 1050 AM in New York City at the time. Tripp suffered psychologically, after the stunt, he began to think he was an imposter of himself, and kept that thought for some time.
His career soon suffered a massive downturn when he was involved in the payola scandal of 1960. Like several other disc jockeys (including Alan Freed) he had been playing particular records in return for gifts from record companies. Indicted only weeks after his stunt, it emerged that he had accepted $36,050 in bribes. Despite his claim that he "never took a dime from anyone", he was found guilty on a charge of commercial bribery, receiving a $500 fine and a six-month suspended sentence.
Even his wake-athon record did not endure for long. Other DJs had quickly attempted to beat it (such publicity stunts being common in radio broadcasting at the time) and Dave Hunter, in Jacksonville, Florida, soon claimed success (225 hours). Six years after Tripp's record, it was smashed by high school student Randy Gardner, who lasted 11 days.
After leaving WMGM, Tripp was unable to re-establish himself in the world of radio, drifting from KYA in San Francisco to KGFJ in Los Angeles and finally WOHO in Toledo, Ohio, before quitting the medium in 1967. Returning to L.A., he had more success working in physical fitness sales and marketing. He diversified into freelance motivational speaking, writing and stockbroking before settling into a Palm Springs, California retirement.
Overall he had spent twenty years in broadcasting: he began with WEXL in Royal Oak, Michigan, in 1947 then on to Kansas City, Missouri in 1953 where he worked for KUDL (where he adopted the nickname "The Bald Kid In The Third Row", apparently a description made by a parent upon spotting him among many rows of new-borns in a hospital shortly after his birth) and then WHB (restyling himself as "The Curly-headed Kid In The Third Row"; he was not, in reality, bald) where he pioneered the Top-40 format. It was in 1955 that he landed his ill-fated job with WMGM in New York, presenting "Your Hits of the Week".
Tripp died at the age of 73 following a stroke, leaving two sons and two daughters. His four marriages all ended in divorce.
➦In 1964...the first album by The Beatles was released by the Capitol label. The LP, “Meet the Beatles”, became a huge success and was #1 on the charts within a month. The British Invasion had begun.
➦In 1965...Alan Freed, the “Father of Rock ‘n’ Roll”, died in Palm Springs, Calif., of cirrhosis of the liver at age 43. Freed was one of the first radio disc jockeys to program black music, or race music, as it was termed, for white audiences. In the 1950s, Freed, called “Moon Doggy” at WJW Radio in Cleveland, coined the phrase, “rock ‘n’ roll,” before moving to WABC in New York.
