Entercom today announced the recognition of WUSY U.S. 101 FM morning show host Ken Hicks by the Georgia State Senate for his career in radio and community service. Hicks, honored with “A Resolution of Recognition,” is co-host of the award-winning morning show “Ken and Daniel” in Chattanooga.
“In his nearly 35 years with U.S. 101, Ken has raised millions of dollars for charities, assisted in relief efforts for dozens of disasters and has served and continues to serve the Chattanooga and North Georgia community with his whole heart,” said Nichole Hartman, Senior Vice President and Market Manager, Entercom Chattanooga. “Ken epitomizes the distinct group of people deserving of this honor and I am proud that he is a part of our team.”
“I am so grateful to have been recognized with such a prestigious honor,” said Hicks. “The Chattanooga and North Georgia community is my home and I am fortunate to have the opportunity to give back. Thank you to the Georgia State Senate for this incredible distinction and to my team at Entercom Chattanooga for the support.”
Georgia State Senator Jeff Mullis read aloud “A Resolution of Recognition” honoring Hicks’ more than three-decade long radio career and community service efforts. Hicks joined U.S. 101 in 1984 and will celebrate his 35th anniversary with the station on April 1.
Hicks was joined on the floor of the senate by his wife Linda; his sons Aaron, Grant, Zane and Justin; his show co-host Daniel Wyatt; Nichole Hartman; and Justin Cole, Senior Vice President of Programming, Entercom Chattanooga.
Listeners can tune in to U.S. 101 (WUSY-FM) in Chattanooga on air, as well as nationwide on the RADIO.COM app and website. Fans can also connect with the station on social media via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
You will find more infographics at Statista By Felix Richter, Statista
Even though the rise of smartphones and streaming services has changed the way people listen to music radically, there is still one place where the good old radio still reigns supreme: the automobile. According to Edison Research, 52 percent of American drivers listen to the radio most often while in the car, while only 15 percent prefer to listen to music they own (be it physically or digitally) and 12 percent listen to online audio, e.g. using a streaming service or online radio.
With in-car entertainment systems that connect to smartphones via Apple CarPlay or Android Auto more and more common in modern cars, it can be expected that music streaming will eventually conquer the road as well, but radio will probably always play a major role as a popular roadside companion.
Unearthed audio of Tucker Carlson’s comments on a range of sensitive topics have prompted advertisers to drop the Fox News host’s show.
While this is not the first advertiser boycott he’s faced, a new Morning Consult analysis shows the uproar could pose problems for Carlson: Fifty-five percent of U.S. adults — and a 42 percent plurality of Republicans — say they’re less likely to watch “Tucker Carlson Tonight” after hearing some of his remarks.
Carlson originally made the comments on the “Bubba the Love Sponge” radio show between 2006 and 2011, but they were dug up and republished by longtime Fox critic Media Matters for America on Sunday and Monday.
The March 12-15 survey, which featured Media Matters’ videos excerpting some of those comments, elicited strong views among respondents.
Nearly half (48 percent) of the general public said they’d be “much less likely” to watch Carlson’s show after hearing the excerpts, including a 33 percent plurality of Republicans.
Respondents in the survey — who were asked to react to Carlson’s comments in real time as they watched the videos — found some of his remarks more objectionable than others.
Negative views were strongest during Carlson’s statements in 2009 concerning Warren Jeffs, former president of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, who was at the time seeking an appeal of his conviction on two counts of first-degree felony rape as an accomplice.
While nearly every demographic group in the survey was more likely than not to be turned off by Carlson’s comments, there were exceptions.
For example, 34 percent of Republican men said they’d be more likely to watch Carlson’s show after viewing the videos, compared with 31 percent who said they’d be less likely. And people who strongly approved of President Donald Trump’s job performance or viewed the president very favorably were split almost evenly on how the video impacted their likelihood of tuning into “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
But among all Republicans, fewer see Carlson in a positive light these days: Thirty-five percent of this group viewed the host favorably in the new poll, compared with 42 percent in a November survey. Among all adults, his favorability rating dropped 9 percentage points, from 29 percent to 20 percent, over the same period.
Fox News pulled Saturday’s episode of conservative commentator Jeanine Pirro’s program after publicly admonishing her for on-air comments she made last week about a Muslim congresswoman’s hijab, according to The L-A Times.
“Justice With Judge Jeanine” — which airs Saturdays at 6 p.m. Pacific and is typically the most watched cable news program on the night — was replaced with a repeat airing of the documentary series “Scandalous: The Trial of William Kennedy Smith,” according to the Fox News schedule.
A representative for Fox News did not comment on Pirro’s status or the reason for the programming change. But the switch appears to be related to Pirro’s March 9 comment about Rep. Ilhan Omar ( D-Minn.), who wears a hijab, a traditional head covering worn by Muslim women.
“Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to the United States Constitution?” Pirro said in the scripted opening of her March 9 program that dealt with Omar, a popular target of conservative pundits since she entered Congress.
Omar, an immigrant from Somalia, has stirred public outrage over tweets she’s made regarding U.S. support of Israel that were interpreted as anti-Semitic.
Fox News, which typically stands by its hosts when they make controversial statements, issued a public rebuke of Pirro over the comments about Omar.
At least four advertisers — personal finance company NerdWallet, online marketplace Letgo and drugmakers Allergan and NovoNordisk — have said they have suspended their sponsorship of Pirro’s program because of her remarks about Omar.
Fox News is already dealing with advertiser avoidance in two of its nightly prime-time programs, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and “The Ingraham Angle.”
According to The NYTimes, Fox News declined to say whether Pirro had been formally suspended. “We are not commenting on internal scheduling matters,” the network said in a statement on Saturday evening.
Bring back @JudgeJeanine Pirro. The Radical Left Democrats, working closely with their beloved partner, the Fake News Media, is using every trick in the book to SILENCE a majority of our Country. They have all out campaigns against @FoxNews hosts who are doing too well. Fox .....
A former prosecutor known for fiery monologues, Pirro is one of the most fervent on-air champions of President Trump, an old friend from her days in New York political circles who often urges his Twitter followers to tune in to her show.
With Chisholm Trail Broadcasting’s two newest stations, KHRK 97.7 The Hawk and KWOF 106.3 The Wolf, Enid can boast of being home to its own classic rock and true country stations, according to enidnews.com.
Chisholm Trail Broadcasting General Manager Sandy Daniels said the new stations hit airwaves in December.
KHRK The Hawk, 97.7, features artists such as Journey, Led Zepplin, Tom Petty, Eagles, Foreigner, Boston, AC/DC, Billy Idol and Pink Floyd, just to name a few.
KWOF The Wolf, 106.3, features artists such as Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Vince Gill, Alan Jackson, Martina McBride, Tim McGraw, Clay Walker, Diamond Rio, Alabama and Johnny Cash.
Daniels said the staff at Chisholm Trail Broadcast brainstormed to come up with the station names. If it didn’t impress the staff it wasn’t going to make the cut. She said the reaction the past few months has been “great.”
“The response had been very positive,” she said. “We’re thrilled at how people are reacting to both of them.”
Daniels said she still is working on getting the word out about the new stations, but both already have significant fan bases. She said several fitness centers have been playing the Hawk.
She said the stations are still growing.
“We’re in the process of hiring on-air (talent) for the Wolf, and we’re in search of a good morning show,” she said. “I don’t want to rush because we want it to be good.”
Listeners may recognize the voice on The Hawk during their afternoon commute. Eagle Marketing Director Frank Baker has returned to the radio as host from 3 to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.
“We’re lucky to get Frank on board because that’s what I think of when I think about radio,” Daniels said. She said she used to listen to Baker on the radio when she first came to Enid.
Most major news outlets declined to publish video from the suspect in Friday's mass shooting at two mosques in New Zealand, while a handful of British tabloids and sites published edited clips before later removing them.
New Zealand Police had requested that media outlets refrain from publishing any of the shooter's materials, including a 17-minute video live-streamed online during the attack that quickly spread on social media.
The Hill reports platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Reddit all worked to remove the video, though they faced difficulty in implementing a blanket ban and the footage kept reappearing and disappearing online.
The Daily Mail, a popular publication in the United Kingdom, initially posted a story on the shooting that showed an edited version of the terrorist’s video in which he could be seen approaching one of the mosques with his weapon drawn.
Another story featured a PDF file of the accused gunman's entire 74-page manifesto, which included a host of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric. That file has since been deleted and the video was removed.
The Sun, another tabloid, also showed edited footage of the shooter’s video, defending its decision by saying any parts of the clip explicitly showing violence were cut out.
Meanwhile, The Daily Mirror was forced to take down a story after it published parts of the shooter’s video, including clips where he is seen shooting at people on the street.
Sky News also initially aired parts of the attacker’s video on its broadcast, only to have its entire show taken down and replaced with Fox Sports. The broadcast was still aired in Australia since Sky Australia is an independent company.
Friday's attack and the subsequent footage renewed a challenge for many media outlets balancing coverage of the shooting that left 49 people dead with a desire not to glorify the perpetrator of a high-profile attack.
"We are seeing, even on social media, a backlash," Jaclyn Schildkraut, an associate professor at the State University of New York at Oswego who has researched mass shootings, told NBC News.
Billings radio host Jason Harris, know as Big J, was in the Yellowstone County Detention Center over the weekend charged with partner or family member assault (PFMA).
Jason Harris, known on the radio as Big J, was booked into jail on a misdemeanor count of PFMA.
Harris hosts a morning radio show on KRSQ Hot 101.9 FM. No details surrounding the incident have been released.
The Big J program’s Facebook page published this announcement:
“We are aware of the rumors floating around Facebook today. While we don’t have any details on what happened, we can confirm that it is Big J listed on the YCDF’s website. There will be no further comments at this time.”
Jimmy Dolan may soon have a bidder for MSG Networks, which broadcasts games for the New York Knicks, the Rangers and the Islanders, according to The NYPost.
Dolan’s old pal John Malone is said to be eyeing the regional cable and satellite TV network as part of his master plan to own regional sports networks from Miami to New York, sources said.
Malone is the billionaire owner of Liberty Media, which owns SiriusXM and the Atlanta Braves. He is currently in the mix to buy 21 Fox-owned regional sports channels, including SportsTime Ohio and Fox Sports Florida, that Disney is selling as a regulatory condition of its $71 billion merger with Twenty-First Century Fox.
If Malone, 78, succeeds in buying the Fox RSNs, he will soon turn his attention to New York, analysts said.
“Whatever RSNs you own, you want one in the biggest market,” said Joe Favorito, a sports-marketing consultant and Columbia University professor.
“Malone had known [Chuck, Jimmy’s father] Dolan since his earliest days in the industry, and he regarded himself as a friendly adviser to the family rather than an actual competitor,” author Mark Robichaux wrote in “Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business.”
The deal that seems to have solidified their friendship came together in the late ’90s when cable company Cablevision, which the Dolans controlled, bought a New York-area cable asset from Malone‘s company, TeleCommunications Inc.
MSGN, the country’s only publicly traded RSN, said it doesn’t “comment on rumor or speculation.”
But Dolan has tried off-loading the network before. In 2017, he put MSGN on the block only to pull back a few months later after no suitors showed up, The Post reported at the time.
Democrat Presidential candidate and former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke was a member of a famous "hacktivism" group as a teenager, a Reuters report revealed Friday.
O'Rourke joined the group, called the Cult of the Dead Cow, when he was in high school, Reuters reported, citing interviews with members of the group.
The Cult of the Dead Cow, which still exists today, released a pair of tools in the late 1990s that hacked into computers that used Windows operating systems. The move caused Microsoft to increase security for their products, according to Reuters.
But O'Rourke told Reuters that he had stopped participating in the group by the time he enrolled at Columbia University in 1991.
According to The Hill, the report is an excerpt from an upcoming book by Reuters reporter Joseph Menn titled "Cult of the Dead Cow: How the Original Hacking Supergroup Might Just Save the World."
O'Rourke wrote pieces for the group under the username "Psychedelic Warlord." The posts are still online.
Among the pieces he wrote were critiques of racism and a fictional piece describing hitting two children with a car.
O'Rourke on Friday acknowledged that he was part of a hacking group as a teenager, saying he is not "proud" of the fact.
The former Texas congressman told reporters in Iowa while on the campaign trail that the hacking group was something "that I was part of as a teenager, not anything that I'm proud of today," according to the Texas Tribune.
"That's the long and short of it," he added.
Meanwhile, The Daily Caller reports the Reuters' reporter Joseph Menn, who has a forthcoming book about the CDC, first learned that O’Rourke was a member of the group over a year ago in late 2017.
Reuters explained in a “backstory” article late Friday that Menn held onto the story until after O’Rourke’s high-profile Senate race in exchange for an on-the-record interview. Menn says he was on leave from Reuters at the time in order to work on his book.
Menn had been looking into the CDC for years and “found out that they had a member who was sitting in Congress … and then I figured out which one it was.”
However, Menn said the CDC wouldn’t confirm that O’Rourke was the member in question unless the reporter agreed to hang on to the information “until after the November election” in 2018. After agreeing to the group’s terms, Menn approached O’Rourke for an interview with the promise that it would not be published until after his Senate race. O’Rourke agreed.
Dick Dale, who was known as the King of the Surf Guitar and recorded the hit song “Misirlou,” which was revived on the “Pulp Fiction” soundtrack, died on Saturday at a hospital in Southern California.
His death was confirmed by Dusty Watson, a drummer who played live shows with Mr. Dale. The cause was not immediately known.
Dale was a surfer, sound pioneer and guitarist whose unusual, percussive playing style and thick, thunderous music earned him the nickname the Father of Heavy Metal, and influenced the Beach Boys, the Cure, Eddie Van Halen and Jimi Hendrix.
Sam Bolle, a bassist who played with Mr. Dale’s namesake band, Dick Dale, for about 15 years, described him as “an aggressive and ferocious” musician who played like one of the lions he raised at his home.
“I played a gig with him about a month ago,” he said, and “he was still slaughtering people with volume.”
Dale was born Richard Monsour in Boston in 1937. He developed a musical signature that was influenced by the traditions of his Lebanese father and Eastern European mother, and by the flamboyant big-band drummer Gene Krupa.
After moving to California as a child, Dale defined the sound of surf guitar as a musical expression of the elemental surge of the ocean, with its savage waves, its volatile crosscurrents and its tidal undertow. He played melodies that crisscrossed the beat with the determination of a surfer riding through choppy waves, forging a triumphant path above deep turbulence.
“Surf music is a heavy machine-gun staccato picking style to represent the power of Mother Nature, of our earth, of our ocean,” he told The New York Times in 1994. His almost constant tremolo created friction so intense that it melted his guitar picks and strings as he played.
“The staccato is so fast it heat-treats the strings,” he said. “They turn purple and black and they snap. And when I play, you’ll see a flurry of plastic — it just falls down like snow. I used to think it was dandruff. But I grind so hard that the guitar picks just melt down."
Los Angeles actor, writer and television host Tom Hatten, whose long and diverse career included hosting "Family Film Festival" on KTLA, died Saturday at age 92, according to longtime friend and former KTLA producer Joe Quasarano.
Hatten was a fixture on Los Angeles television since the 1950s as an announcer, actor, singer, producer, writer and television host, reports KTLA-TV5.
He was born on Nov. 14, 1926 in Jamestown, North Dakota, and grew up in Caldwell, Idaho. He served in the U.S. Navy before attending the Pasadena Playhouse on the G.I. Bill.
Hatten joined KTLA as an announcer in 1952.
As his career expanded, he was seen on shows including “Gomer Pyle, USMC,” “Hogan’s Heroes,” “Get Smart,” “Wings” and “Hawaii 5-0”.
He delighted children with his "Popeye and His Friends" show from 1976 to 1988, and hosted KTLA's "The Family Film Festival" from 1978 to 1992.
Hatten also served as entertainment editor at KNX 1070 News Radio from 1978 to 2007.
David Harvey "Detour Dave" Sandler Jr., the longtime News/Talk WBAL 1090 AM Radio and WIYY 98 Rock traffic reporter who warned drivers of Bay Bridge backups and JFX accidents for three decades, died of a pulmonary condition Thursday at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
“Dave grew up loving radio and sports. He idolized Chuck Thompson,” said a family member, Dorrie Anshel, who lives in Ocean View, Del. “It was his life’s dream to be on the air.”
He broke into radio work at a small State College, Pa., station and worked as an assistant in the news department at WCBM Radio in Baltimore.
In a 2017 interview with the Frederick Community College student newspaper, Mr. Sandler said of his early days at WCBM, “This got my foot in the door. [I] made very little money and I got my start in the radio business.”
“He learned the business through the back door and the front door,” Dorrie Anshel said.
He got a job with Metro Traffic Control and flew with pilots in a helicopter and later a Cessna aircraft. He created a persona for himself, that of the unflappable Detour Dave.
He formed a 31-year association with WBAL Radio and 98 Rock. He worked the morning shift and an afternoon drive-time slot and became recognized at Detour Dave. He also appeared on camera on WBAL television. In a 2017 interview in The Sun, he said he got the job on a handshake. "We never really had what I would call a contract. We had an agreement...”
John Patti, a WBAL morning news anchor, said, “Dave was always calm and easygoing. He was reassuring. Nothing rattled Detour Dave Sandler. … He was an icon on the radio. He became a personality.
➦In 1911...Lester Alvin Burnett was born (Died at age 55 from leukemia – February 16, 1967). He better known as Smiley Burnette, was an American country music performer and a comedic actor in Western films and on radio and TV, playing sidekick to Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and other B-movie cowboys. He was also a prolific singer-songwriter who could play as many as 100 musical instruments, some simultaneously. His career, beginning in 1934, spanned four decades, including a regular role on CBS-TV's Petticoat Junction in the 1960s.
He began singing as a child and learned to play a wide variety of instruments by ear, yet never learned to read or write music. In his teens, he worked in vaudeville, and starting in 1929, at the state's first commercial radio station, WDZ-AM in Tuscola, Illinois.
Burnette came by his nickname while creating a character for a WDZ children's program. He was reading Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" at the time, which included a character named Jim Smiley. He named the radio character Mr. Smiley and soon adopted the moniker as his own, dropping the title.
He made 80 western movies with Autry, then in TV became a regular on Ozark Jubilee, and played Charlie the railroad engineer on Petticoat Junction.
Art Gilmore
➦In 1912... Art Gilmore born in Tacoma, WA (Died at age 98 – September 25, 2010) . He was an actor and announcer heard in on radio and television programs, children's records, movies, trailers, radio commercials, and documentary films. He also appeared in several television series and a few feature films.
Raised in Tacoma, Washington, Gilmore attended Washington State University in 1931, where he was a member of the Chi chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity and a member of the Alpha Omicron Chapter of Theta Chi fraternity. In 1935, he got hired to work as an announcer for Seattle's KOL Radio. In 1936, he became a staff announcer for the Warner Brothers' radio station KFWB in Hollywood and then moved to the CBS-owned station KNX as a news reader. During World War II, he served as a fighter-director U.S. Navy officer aboard an aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean.
Leaving the Navy, he decided to become a professional singer and returned to Hollywood. With a group of notable Hollywood radio stars, including Edgar Bergen, Ralph Edwards and Jim Jordan, Gilmore founded Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters in 1966.
Gilmore's announcing voice became a part of many classic radio programs. Drawing his inspiration from the radio sports commentators of the 1930s, he became the announcer for Amos 'n' Andy, The Adventures of Frank Race, Dr. Christian, Sears Radio Theater, Stars over Hollywood, The Golden Days of Radio and other radio shows. It was Gilmore who introduced Herbert W. Armstrong and Garner Ted Armstrong, reminding listeners to request free religious literature at the conclusion of "The World Tomorrow" on radio and television.
He narrated 156 episodes of syndicated TV’s Highway Patrol with Broderick Crawford, 39 segments of Mackenzie’s Raiders with Richard Carlson, and 41 episodes of Men of Annapolis.
➦In 1922...WHN-AM, NYC signed-on at 833Kc
According to Faded Signals, WHN, New York City, signed on in 1922 as the radio station of The Ridgewood Times newspaper. It was one of the city’s first radio stations, featuring a format of jazz and dance music of the era, as well as children’s shows, variety programs and newscasts. The Loew’s Theatre Organization bought the station in 1928.
The station played jazz and contemporary dance music, including Sophie Tucker, Fletcher Henderson, and Duke Ellington, as well as broadcasting Columbia University football games. In 1928 the station was bought by the Loew's Theatre Organization.
During the 1920s the station's frequency changed to 830, 760, and then 1010.
In the 1930s it broadcast the Major Bowes Amateur Hour, which was picked up by the CBS Radio Network.
WHN made its final frequency change to 1050 in 1941.
During the 1940s the programs Radio Newsreel and Newsreel Theater were prototypes for what would later become the all-news radio format. The station broadcast Brooklyn Dodgers games with Red Barber as well as the New York Giants and New York Rangers with Marty Glickman.
In 1948, WHN became WMGM, reflecting the Loew’s then-ownership of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studio. The station continued its diversified format until flipping to Top 40 and rock music in the mid 1950s. While it included some R&B, country and instrumentals in the Top 40 mix, WMGM carried a narrower, more up-tempo playlist.
By the early 1960s, WMGM 1050 AM had several competitors in the Top 40 radio market. WINS, WABC and WMCA all were playing rock, and WMGM was falling behind in the ratings.
Storer Broadcasting bought the station in 1962, renaming it WHN and dropping the Top 40 in favor of slow-paced “beautiful music” and standards. Here’s what the switchover sounded like:
WHN also became New York City’s Mutual Radio Network affiliate. Bob & Ray, WABC legend Herb Oscar Anderson and Jim Ameche were some of WHN’s on-air personalities.
The station picked up New York Mets baseball and launched Marv Albert’s sportscasting career.
WHN’s ratings were low and skewed toward older demographics. After researching the market, Storer converted WHN to a country format in 1973. Here’s an aircheck from WHN’s Bruce Bradley in 1973:
Mutual bought WHN in the late 1980s. An FM competitor flipped to country from 1980 to 1984, hurting WHN’s ratings.
Doubleday Broadcasting bought WHN in 1985, and Emmis Communications bought it the following year. Emmis added sports talk in the evenings, keeping the country format during the day.
In 1987, Emmis announced WHN would become all-sports WFAN. When Emmis purchased NBC’s New York radio stations in 1988, the company moved WFAN from 1050 AM to 660 AM, formerly occupied WNBC.
Spanish Broadcasting System purchased the 1050 AM license and became WUKQ, a Spanish Adult Contemporary station. Spanish Broadcasting System wanted to swap 1050 AM with cash for the Jewish Daily Forward’s FM station, WEVD 97.9. The deal was approved in 1989.
WEVD’s call letters and programming moved to the 1050 AM frequency. The station mainly carried a brokered format of ethnic programs, talk shows and foreign-language programming. By the mid-1990s, WEVD moved to a left-leaning news-talk format.
An agreement with ABC/Disney brought ESPN’s “The Dan Patrick Show” to WEVD in 2001. A public campaign to save the old format failed. On the final day of the news/talk format, soon-to-be-terminated staffers occasionally interrupted portions of the brokered programming with sometimes-profane audio clips. On September 2, 2001, WEVD became “1050 ESPN Radio.”
The call letters were changed to WEPN in 2003 after Disney bought the station, competing directly with WFAN’s all-sports format. In 2012, WEPN’s programming moved to 98.7 FM. ESPN Deportes later moved the 1050 AM frequency.
➦In 1939...saxophone player Frank Mane, who knew Frank Sinatra from Jersey City radio station WAAT where both performed on live broadcasts, arranged for him to audition and record "Our Love", his first solo studio recording. ➦In 1940...the daytime drama “Light of the World” began airing on the NBC Blue Network. It aired for 10years and was unique in that it featured the Bible as the center of the story line.
➦In 1974...Jim Kerr started morning WPLJ 95.5 FM NYC
He began his career at age 14 in Ypsilanti, Michigan. After working at stations in Howell and Ann Arbor Michigan, Kerr joined WORJ, a progressive rock station in Orlando, Florida. At 18, he returned to his hometown and joined the airstaff of WKNR, Detroit. At 19, he served as morning host at WDAI, Chicago, at 20 he moved to the legendary WLS, and when he was 21, he became New York’s youngest morning show host at WPLJ.
Kerr has been the morning show host on six NYC stations, most notably 15 years at WPLJ and as of 2018, 15 years at WAXQ Q 104.3 FM.
➦In 1985... Capital Cities announced that it would purchase ABC Radio for $3.5 billion, which shocked the media industry, as ABC was some four times bigger than Capital Cities was at the time. Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett helped to finance the deal in exchange for a 25 percent share in the combined company. The deal was, at the time, the largest non-oil merger in world business history. However, this record would be surpassed by year's end by the merger of General Electric and RCA (the latter company then being the parent company of rival network NBC).
NY Times story 3/20/85
The newly merged company, known as CapCities/ABC, was forced to sell off some stations due to FCC ownership rules. Between them, ABC and CapCities owned more television stations than FCC rules allowed at the time. Also, the two companies owned several radio stations in the same markets.
Of the former Capital Cities television stations, the new company opted to keep the outlets in Houston, Durham, and Fresno. WFTS and ABC's WXYZ-TV in Detroit were divested as a pair to the E.W. Scripps Company's broadcasting division (then known as Scripps-Howard Broadcasting).
WTNH and WKBW-TV were sold separately to minority-owned companies; WKBW-TV would eventually be acquired by E.W. Scripps by 2014. WTNH would have been sold in any event due to a significant city-grade signal overlap with ABC flagship WABC-TV in New York City. At the time, the FCC normally did not allow companies to own two television stations with common coverage areas (known commonly as the "one-to-a-market" rule), and would not even consider granting a waiver for a city-grade overlap.
Capital Cities/ABC originally planned to retain WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, but FCC rules could have forced a sale of that station as well due to a large signal overlap with WABC-TV. Citing CBS' ownership of television stations in New York City (WCBS-TV) and Philadelphia (at the time WCAU-TV) under grandfathered status, Capital Cities/ABC requested, and received a permanent waiver from the FCC allowing it to keep WPVI-TV. If the waiver request were denied, WXYZ-TV would have been retained.
On the radio side, new owners were found for CapCities' WPAT stations (Park Communications was the buyer), WKBW (Price Communications, the new owner, changed its call letters to WWKB, which was necessitated due to an FCC regulation in effect then that forbade TV and radio stations in the same city, but with different owners from sharing the same call letters) and KLAC and KZLA-FM (to Malrite Communications), and ABC's WRIF-FM in Detroit (to a minority-owned concern), among others.
The merger was completed on January 3, 1986.
The new company retained ABC's radio and television combinations in New York City (WABC, WABC-TV and WPLJ), Los Angeles (KABC, KABC-TV and KLOS), Chicago (WLS, WLS-FM and WLS-TV), and San Francisco (KGO and KGO-TV), along with WMAL and WRQX-FM in Washington, D.C.; CapCities' aforementioned television outlets and the Detroit, Providence, Marietta and Fort Worth radio stations; Fairchild Publications; the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Kansas City Star; and other broadcasting and publishing properties.
In May 1991, Capital Cities/ABC's Farm Progress Cos. closed its purchase of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc.'s 12-magazine farm publishing group. In February 1993, the company formed a TV production joint venture with Brillstein-Grey Entertainment to tap into their managed talent and to take advantage of relaxed production regulations. In July, CC/ABC purchased a majority ownership in animation studio DIC Animation City, forming a joint venture called DIC Entertainment L.P. Later in July, CC/ABC reorganized into 4 groups, ABC TV Network Group, CC/ABC Publishing Group, the CC/ABC Broadcast Group, and a newly formed CC/ABC Multimedia Group overseeing the network, magazines & newspapers, stations and new technology & miscellaneous operations respectively. Network Group president Bob Iger was also promoted to executive president of CC/ABC.
CC/ABC in December 1994 agreed to a $200 million seven-year TV production joint venture with the new DreamWorks SKG studio.
Capital Cities/ABC merged with The Walt Disney Company on January 5, 1996. A Disney subsidiary operating the combined company's television operations, ABC, Inc., was established on September 19, 1996
➦In 1991...Former Radio/TV personality, Jack McCoy, died at age 72.
➦In 2005...Pat Cashman aired his final show on KJR-FM, Seattle, after 12 years doing morning drive.
Following his graduation from the University of Portland (Oregon), he worked at various small radio stations in Oregon. But after moving to Eugene, Oregon, he left full-time radio work to take a job at a TV station as a commercial writer and director. For a period of time, he even served as the station’s weathercaster, though his humorous bits often took more time than the weather during this brief stint.
Pat Cashman
He moved on to another TV station in Boise, Idaho – this time serving as production director. While there, he originated a legendary Saturday late night TV show called “Peculiar Playhouse.”
Pat moved to Seattle in the early 1980’s, hired as a commercial writer and producer by KING TV. In 1984, he became the station’s first-ever creative director – writing, producing and directing a vast number of award-winning promos and commercials. He was honored with Clios, Addys and Tellys
In 1991, Pat returned to his radio roots on 1090 AM Seattle. He hosted his morning drive time news/comedy show until 1994, when KING Radio was purchased by Bonneville Broadcasting – and moved Pat to become the morning host on another station (then KIRO FM, later called “The Buzz”).
In 1999 Fisher Broadcasting – KOMO Radio hired Pat to immediate strong ratings. When KOMO switched to an all-news, no-Pat format, he left the building… and concentrated on his freelance work.
In the summer of 2003 Pat joined the legendary KJR FM 95.7 as host of the morning show from 6 to 10 AM.
“I am so grateful to have been recognized with such a prestigious honor,” said Hicks. “The Chattanooga and North Georgia community is my home and I am fortunate to have the opportunity to give back. Thank you to the Georgia State Senate for this incredible distinction and to my team at Entercom Chattanooga for the support.”
