Jane Matenaer, who has been a major presence on Milwaukee morning radio shows for nearly four decades, worked her last day Friday at WTMJ 620 AM and told the Milwaukee Business Journal she’s not planning to retire.
Matenaer discussed her departure on the air Friday during “Wisconsin’s Morning News” with Vince Vitrano. She expressed her gratitude for the station’s news staff including their generosity.
“It’s been a wonderful, wonderful experience,” Matenaer told the Business Journal.
Matenaer had co-hosted the 620 TMJ morning show with Gene Mueller for about six years until Mueller’s retirement in February. Since then, she has filled in as a show host and anchored news reports with the last one at 10 a.m. on Friday.
Steve Wexler, the vice president and market manager of Good Karma Brands’ Milwaukee radio stations, said Friday that Matenaer “let us know that she felt it was time to move on.”
“She has been an important contributor to WTMJ for seven years and a welcome voice in Milwaukee radio for over 40 years,” Wexler said via email. “We are so appreciative of her work, including reporting, anchoring and hosting.”
Matenaer, 62, has been one of the leading Milwaukee morning show personalities since her 25-year stint at WMYX-FM (99.1) that ended in May 2009. She followed that with about five years at WDLB-FM (93.3) before joining WTMJ radio in 2015 and being named as Mueller’s co-host in December 2015.
As for her next move, Matenaer said she’s “looking at some options” but had no specific information to share other than that it will be in the media industry.
Friday, Latino Media Network (LMN) announced its formation. Founded by social entrepreneurs Stephanie Valencia and Jess Morales Rocketto and backed by several Latino luminaries, they also announced their first major deal with Univision to acquire a set of radio assets to reach nearly a third of the US Latino population.
In one of the largest capital raises of a Latina owned & operated startup in the U.S with over $80m in capital raised from a diverse set of investors, Latino Media Network will be a media company serving the Latino community, owned by Latinos for Latinos. Its mission is to help Latinos make sense of the world and their place in it by inspiring, informing and celebrating Hispanics through an audio focused multimedia network. The network will embrace cultural pride by telling Latino stories, addressing community concerns and talking about opportunities for a better future.
To coincide with its launch, LMN also announced that they have signed a definitive agreement with TelevisaUnivision to purchase 18 radio stations in 10 cities from coast to coast in a $60 million all cash deal. This deal is one of the largest single acquisitions of stations by a Latino owned and operated company in history.
George Soros
LMN has secured equity investments from leading Latino investors, and debt financing for the acquisition from Lakestar Finance LLC, an investment entity affiliated with Soros Fund Management LLC.
“As Latinos drive population growth in the United States they continue to navigate the ocean of information on what is happening in the world and their place in it. With minority media on the decline, now is the time to be investing in more resources to create content for Latinos by Latinos. Through the unique combination of creative content and new and existing media platforms to serve our community, we can embrace cultural pride and collectively empower Latinos,” said LMN Founder Stephanie Valencia. “I want to thank TelevisaUnivision for the great work they have done building these stations in Latino communities and entrusting us to grow them moving forward.”
“Our company, and these stations, are for our community,” said LMN Founder Jess Morales Rocketto. “We believe in the power and reach of radio and it remains a main source of media for a significant number of our community. We hope to create relevant content for radio and other audio platforms with content that our community can trust and rely on. Latino Media Network is going to ensure that the Latino community continues to be served with the news and information that local communities deserve.”
The 18 stations in the deal are a combined set of AM and FM stations in the largest US markets, and 8 of the top 10 Latino markets, reaching 33% of U.S. Latinos: LA, NYC, Miami, Houston, Chicago, Dallas, San Antonio, McAllen, Fresno, and Las Vegas. These stations primarily consist of sports, entertainment and music programming.
The 18 stations in the deal are a combined set of AM and FM stations in the largest US markets, and 8 of the top 10 Latino markets, reaching 33% of U.S. Latinos. The stations included are:
Transition of the stations will happen following FCC approval and a one year transition agreement between TelevisaUnivision and Latino Media Network, which is expected to conclude in Q4 of 2023. LMN is in the process of recruiting outstanding talent and will make an announcement about the senior management team later this year. LMN intends to retain current TelevisaUnivision employees who work at the stations included in this acquisition.
➦In 1933...Radio producer/voice actor Dick Orkin was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
Orkin was 16 when he began his radio career as a fill-in announcer at WKOK 1070 AM Sunbury PA . After earning his BA in speech and theater from Franklin & Marshall College he attended the Yale School of Drama, then returned to Pennsylvania to become the news director at WLAN 1390 AM Lancaster in 1959. Later he joined the staff of KYW Cleveland. In 1967 Orkin moved to WCFL Chicago and created 'Chickenman', a Batman parody which chronicled the exploits of a crime-fighting “white-winged warrior” and his secret identity as mild-mannered shoe salesman Benton Harbor.
Chickenman’s 250-plus episodes have been syndicated around the world and can still be heard on internet, making it the longest-running radio serial of all time. At WCFL Orkin also produced more than 300 episodes of another popular serial, 'The Secret Adventures of the Tooth Fairy'.
Inspired by the commercial parodies on Stan Freberg and Bob & Ray’s radio shows, Orkin created the Famous Radio Ranch in 1973 to produce his own comedic radio spots. Stationed in California since ’78, the Radio Ranch, currently headed by his daughter Lisa, has produced hundreds of memorable ads for a variety of clients, ranging from Time magazine to First American Bank to the Gap, and garnered more than 200 awards in the process.
Dick Orkin was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2014. He died December 26, 2017.
➦In 1955..."(We're Gonna) Rock Around The Clock" by Bill Haley & The Comets peaked at Number One, where it remained for eight weeks. It was the first rock 'n roll record to hit Number One on the Billboard charts.
Dick Clark
➦In 1956…In Philadelphia, 26-year-old Dick Clark made his debut as host of "Bandstand" on WFIL-TV following the DUI arrest of the show's former host, Bob Horn. The program's name changed to "American Bandstand" when it became a network show on ABC in 1957. Clark relinquished his hosting duties in 1989 to David Hirsch, but the program was cancelled within a matter of months.
➦In 1960…77WABC-AM, New York introduced the WABC MusicChart
➦In 1972....Johnny Donovan started at Musicradio 77 WABC.
He grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York, nicknamed "Sarge," after his father's rank in the United States Army during World War II.
A radio enthusiast from an early age (with an amateur radio station K2KOQ in a corner of the basement), he became a DJ ("Large Sarge") on WHVW in nearby Hyde Park, after helping build the station.
He went on to stations in Kingston (WBAZ) and Binghamton (WENE), New York and Atlantic City, New Jersey (WMID) before landing in New York City, first at WOR-FM, and finally at WABC.
Donovan stayed on at WABC as Production Director and staff announcer when WABC went to a talk format in 1982.
After 44 years of service at both MusicRadio and TalkRadio 77 WABC production guru Johnny Donovan retired in May 2015.
Eric Sevareid
➦In 1992…News correspondent and commentator Eric Sevareid died of stomach cancer at age 79 in Washington, D.C. He was one of a group of war correspondents who were hired by CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow and nicknamed "Murrow's Boys." Sevareid was the first to report the Fall of Paris in 1940, when the city was captured by German forces during World War II.
Traveling into Burma in the Pacific theater in 1943, his transport aircraft was shot down, and he was rescued from behind enemy lines by a U.S. Army Air Forces search and rescue team.
Sevareid followed in Murrow's footsteps as a commentator on the CBS Evening News for thirteen years, for which he was recognized with Emmy and Peabody Awards.
➦In 2004...longtime Cleveland deejay Bill Randle succumbed to cancer at age 81. He had been instrumental in introducing Elvis Presley, along with the likes of Tony Bennett, Bobby Darin, Rosemary Clooney, Johnnie Ray, Sarah Vaughan and Fats Domino to the national music scene.
Bill Randle
He was born William McKinley Randle Jr. on March 14, 1923, in Detroit, Michigan. He hosted a popular show on WJLB-AM radio (now WDTK) called The Interracial Goodwill Hour, featuring rhythm and blues music and hot jazz. Curiously enough, Randle almost did not survive early radio. One Thanksgiving, he played an unusual version of "Silent Night" sung by gospel and blues artist Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Many persons called in to complain and the station manager, longtime radio and television fixture Sidney Andorn fired Randle. The next morning, WERE owner Ray T. Miller, the chairman of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party, rehired Randle after he learned he had so many listeners to Randle's program, and fired Andorn instead.
As a pioneering disc jockey at radio station WERE in Cleveland, Ohio he helped change the face of American music.
In the 1950s, Time Magazine called Bill Randle the top DJ in America. His popularity and huge listening audience allowed him to bolster the careers of a number of young musicians, including the Four Lads, Bobby Darin, and Fats Domino. Nicknamed "The Pied Piper of Cleveland", a 1955 musical documentary film was made about him titled The Pied Piper of Cleveland: A Day in the Life of a Famous Disc Jockey. The film includes a Cleveland concert at Brooklyn High School on October 20, 1955 featuring Pat Boone and Bill Haley & His Comets with Elvis Presley as the opening act. It is the first film footage of a Presley performance.
While working in Cleveland, Randle would travel back to Detroit for some radio programs. In the late 1950s, Randle would fly back and forth from Cleveland to New York where he produced radio shows in both markets (at WERE and WCBS-AM, respectively). He sat alongside other top DJs of the era including Carl Reese, Phil McLean and Howie Lund.
Many songs that Randle championed on-air ended up as commercial hits, the most successful of which was an edited 45 rpm single of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's "Battle Hymn of the Republic." That version, which Randle suggested to and arranged with Columbia Records (then owned by CBS and a sister property to WCBS-AM) was an unlikely hit in 1959; it ended up on the Billboard charts for 11 weeks and reached as high as #13 on Billboard's "Hot 100" that autumn.
Bill Randle - 1992
During the 1970s and 1980s, Randle resurfaced on several different Cleveland radio stations, even hosting a talk show on WBBG 1260 AM in 1977. In the 1990s, Randle joined the airstaff of the now-defunct WRMR 850 AM, anchoring the "Big Show" on Sunday afternoons and an late-afternoon program.
➦In 2016…Longtime New York City radio personality Vaughn Harper, died at age 71.
Vaughn Harper
As one of the deejays mentored by Frankie Crocker on WBLS, Harper entered radio in 1976. In May 1983, WBLS hired Champaine, an African American woman deejay, and together Harper and Champaine developed a quiet storm late night format patterned after the successful show which had been introduced by WHUR jock Melvin Lindsey in 1976. Others took to the format but WBLS had greater reach and more listeners. The Harper/Champaine quiet storm program became a staple that lasted thru station changeovers and garnered a following in the New York Market. With a deep, mellifluous voice, listeners said Harper sounded romantic, eliciting a peaceful respite at the end of the day.
In 1979 along with his co-horts Ken Webb, Johnny Allen, and Frankie Crocker, WBLS reached #1 in the Billboard Radio rankings as rated by Arbitron.
In 1993 Harper suffered a stroke and spent years effecting a comeback. In his absence, Champaine hosted Quiet Storm II on WBLS. Harper left WBLS for WWRL in 1997. Reading live ads upon returning to radio in 1998 had improved his delivery to his pre-stroke professionalism and at WBGO-FM he felt the energy returning to his program. Listeners will get a certain energy from me he promised.
Harper rejoined WBLS and continued as a radio host until 2008.
Linda Stark is 44
🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:
Singer-actor Ed Ames of The Ames Brothers is 95.
Actor Richard Roundtree is 80.
Singer Dee Dee Kenniebrew of The Crystals is 77.
Actor Chris Cooper is 71.
TV personality-turned-musician John Tesh is 70.
John Tesh is 70
Country singer David Ball is 69.
Business leader Kevin O’Leary (“Shark Tank”) is 68.
Singer Debbie Sledge of Sister Sledge is 68.
Actor Jimmy Smits is 67.
Actor Tom Hanks is 66.
Singer Marc Almond of Soft Cell is 65.
Actor Kelly McGillis is 65.
Singer Jim Kerr of Simple Minds is 63.
Singer Courtney Love is 58.
Bassist Frank Bello of Anthrax is 57.
Actor David O’Hara (“The District”) is 57.
Actor Pamela Adlon (“Louie”) is 56.
Actor Scott Grimes (“ER,” ″Party of Five”) is 51.
Musician Jack White is 47.
Singer-guitarist Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse is 47.
Actor Fred Savage is 46.
Singer Dan Estrin of Hoobastank is 46.
Actor Linda Park (“Star Trek: Enterprise”) is 44.
Actor Megan Parlen (“Hang Time”) is 42.
Singer-actor Kiely Williams of 3LW (“Cheetah Girls” films) is 36.
Actor Mitchel Musso (“Phineas and Ferb,” “Hannah Montana”) is 31.
Actor Georgie Henley (“The Chronicles of Narnia”) is 27.
🕇DEATH ANNIVERSARIES
Actress Isabel Sanford, who played Louise on The Jeffersons, died on this day in 2004. She was 86.
Audacy announced the return of on-air personality Nick Wilson to WKRK 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland.
Wilson will join the station’s afternoon show alongside co-host Dustin Fox weekdays from 2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. ET beginning July 18. Wilson previously served as one of the station’s evening hosts from 2015 to 2018.
“Having Nick back in Cleveland to rejoin our lineup is a great moment for the Fan, the radio home of the Browns and the most local sports talk in Cleveland,” said Tom Herschel, Senior Vice President and Market Manager, Audacy Cleveland.
“Leaving Cleveland was an impossible decision four years ago,” said Wilson. “It's an honor to be rejoining 92.3 The Fan. Afternoon drive in Cleveland is hallowed ground, and I can't think of a better person to team up with than Dustin Fox. I can't thank Tom Herschel, Andy Roth and the entire leadership group at Audacy Cleveland enough for making my dreams come true again.”
Wilson, an Akron, OH native and Bowling Green State University graduate, rejoins 92.3 The Fan after spending the last four years as an on-air host for WFNZ in Charlotte. During his first stint with the station from 2015 to 2018, Wilson was a part-time anchor before rising to host the “The Nick Wilson Experiment” each weeknight. In 2016, he helped Cleveland sports fans celebrate the NBA championship all night long.
➤Listeners can tune in to 92.3 The Fan (WKRK-FM) in Cleveland on air and nationwide on the Audacyapp and website. Fans can also connect with the station via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot and mortally wounded in an assassination Friday in the city of Nara during a campaign speech ahead of parliamentary elections. Abe was airlifted to the hospital, but AP cited officials as saying he wasn't breathing and his heart had stopped. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the 67-year-old Abe has died. Abe, who is very conservative and is a divisive figure in Japan, was the country's longest-serving leader before stepping down in 2020 because of a chronic stomach condition.
The alleged gunman was immediately tackled and arrested, and has been identified as 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, with reports saying he served in the Maritime Self-Defense Force for three years in the 2000s. Japan has very strict gun laws, and the suspect appeared to have used a homemade gun that was boxy and double-barreled.
Public broadcaster NHK aired the moment former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot while delivering a campaign speech Friday in western Japan. https://t.co/u8MXjC3qrPpic.twitter.com/77ep2QLuJ8
➤BIDEN TO REPORTEDLY TAKE EXECUTIVE ACTION ON ABORTION: President Biden will take executive action today to protect access to abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade, according to the Associated Press. The report says the actions are expected to be limited, including formalizing instructions to the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services to push back on efforts to limit the ability of women to get federally-approved abortion medication or to travel across state lines to get an abortion, and direct agencies to work to educate medical providers and insurers about how and when they are required to share privileged patient information with authorities.
➤CHAUVIN SENTENCED TO 21 YEARS IN PRISON ON FEDERAL CHARGES IN FLOYD'S DEATH: Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced by a federal judge to 21 years in prison for violating George Floyd's civil rights when he kneeled on his neck for more than nine minutes in May 2020, leading to his death. Chauvin’s plea agreement called for a sentence of 20 to 25 years for the federal charges to be served concurrent with his 22 1/2-year sentence for his state conviction in Minnesota of murder and manslaughter. Because of differences in parole eligibility in the state and federal systems, Chauvin will serve a little more time in prison than he would have on the state sentence alone. However, he will be put in the federal prison system, where AP says he may be safer and may be held under fewer restrictions than in the state system.
Treasury faces mounting scrutiny for giving Hunter Biden 'cover' with new rule for document requests https://t.co/94FGbLPu0G
➤IRS COMMISSIONER ASKS WATCHDOG TO PROBE AUDITS OF COMEY, MCCABE: IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig has asked the Treasury Department's internal watchdog to investigate the intensive tax audits that targeted former FBI Director James Comey and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, both of whom were targets of Donald Trump’s anger when he was president. Rettig, whose term is set to expire in November, was nominated to the job by Trump. Even though Rettig requested the probe, IRS spokesman Jodie Reynolds said yesterday (July 7th) that it's, quote, "ludicrous and untrue to suggest that senior IRS officials somehow targeted specific individuals" for the audits. The action came after the New York Times reported Wednesday that both Comey and McCabe were targeted for the rare intensive audits of their taxes, Comey in 2019 and McCabe in 2021.
James Caan
JAMES CAAN DEAD AT AGE 82: A statement posted to The Godfather star’s Twitter Thursday read, “It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Jimmy on the evening of July 6. The family appreciates the outpouring of love and heartfelt condolences and asks that you continue to respect their privacy at this difficult time.”
Friends and costars paid tribute to the star on social media, including his Misery director, Rob Reiner, who wrote, “So sorry to hear the news. I loved working with him. And the only Jew I knew who could calf rope with the best of them. Love to the family.
Al Pacino, who starred alongside Caan in The Godfather told The Associated Press, "Jimmy was my fictional brother and my lifelong friend. It's hard to believe that he won't be in the world anymore because he was so alive and daring. A great actor, a brilliant director and my dear friend. I'm gonna miss him."
We were lucky enough to work with James Caan on Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. He brought a pathos and authenticity to the role of Tim Lockwood that held the film together. RIP to a legend pic.twitter.com/tmk3JdOgE3
He was also well known for his roles in Elf, Brian’s Song, The Gambler and Funny Lady.
Uber reported 141 incidents of rape and 998 incidents of sexual assault overall in 2020, even as the business was crippled by the ramifications of the pandemic and ridership plummeted, according a company report. https://t.co/HoZnhxVEnT
👮ARIZONA BANS CLOSE RECORDING OF POLICE: Phone video of police actions taken by bystanders has become increasingly common, and has sometimes been used to show police misconduct. But that will become more difficult to do in Arizona, where Governor Doug Ducey signed legislation Wednesday banning recording police within eight feet of law enforcement activity. Violations are a misdemeanor, however only if someone continues to record after being warned about it. The law, which goes into effect in September, has exceptions for people at the center of an interaction with police, anyone in an enclosed structure on private property where police activity is taking place, and occupants of a vehicle stopped by police as long as recording doesn't interfere with police actions. The bill's sponsor, state Rep. John Kavanagh, said the intent it to protect officers from potential harm or distraction from outside the incident they're dealing with. Opponents, including First Amendment experts and news organizations, charge the new law is unconstitutional, lacks specificity, and gives police too much discretion.
The car, which had three teenage girls inside, drove into the Pascagoula River in Moss Point, traveled about 20 feet away from shore and started sinking.
➤STUDY..SOCIAL INTERACTIONS TIED TO SENSE OF PURPOSE IN OLDER ADULTS: A new study shows older adults tie a sense of purpose to the people in their lives. The data was collected in Switzerland from retired adults in good health. The average age of a participant was 71. Adults with a higher sense of purpose tend to live longer, healthier, and happier lives. This is good news for geriatric care and for caring for older adults.
➤TIKTOK SUED OVER DEATHS OF TWO GIRLS PARTICIPATING IN CHALLENGE: TikTok has been sued over the deaths of an eight-year-old girl and a nine-year-old girl who were doing the "blackout challenge" promoted by the social media platform. The challenge encourages users to hold their breath until they pass out. Nine-year-old Arriani Jaileen Arroyo was found hanging in her Milwaukee home in February 2021, and eight-year-old Lalani Erika Renee Walton of Temple, Texas, was also found hanging at her home that same month. The Social Media Victims Law Center, which is representing the parents, said TikTok's algorithm regularly made blackout challenge videos appear on the girls' "for you" pages.
🏑CANADIENS TAKE SLAFKOVSKY FIRST IN NHL DRAFT: The Montreal Canadiens took Juraj Slafkovsky, a member of the Slovakian national hockey team, with the first pick in the NHL draft yesterday at Bell Centre in Montreal. Slafkovsky, who led Slovakia to its first Olympic gold medal months earlier and was named tournament MVP, was the first player from his country to be taken Number 1. One of his countrymen on the gold medal-winning Slovakian team, Simon Nemec, was taken by the New Jersey Devils with the second pick. Rounding out the top five, the Arizona Coyotes took Logan Cooley third, the Seattle Kraken chose Shane Wright fourth, and the the Philadelphia Flyers took Cutter Gauthier fifth.
🎾INJURED NADAL WITHDRAWS FROM WIMBLEDON BEFORE SEMIFINAL MATCH: Second-seeded Rafael Nadal withdrew from Wimbledon with a torn abdominal muscle yesterday, one day before his scheduled semifinal match against 40th-ranked Nick Kyrgios. Kyrgios now advances to the final, the first time he'll play for the title at a major tournament. He'll play the winner of today's semfinal between top-seeded Novak Djokovic and Number 9 Cam Norrie.
Jabeur, Rybakina to Play for Women's Title: Third-seeded Ons Jabeur will play 17th-seeded Elena Rybakina for the women's title on Saturday after winning their semifinal matches yesterday. Jabeur of Tunisia beat unseeded Tatjana Maria, becoming the first African woman and Arab woman to make it to a Grand Slam singles final. Rybakina defeated 16th-seeded Simona Halep to reach what will also be her first Grand Slam final.
🏀GRINER PLEADS GUILTY AT RUSSIAN TRIAL: WNBA star Brittney Griner pled guilty to drug possession in her trial in Russia yesterday, telling the court she hadn't intended to commit a crime, and had unintentionally had vape canisters with cannabis oil in her luggage because she'd packed in a hurry. Griner was detained at a Moscow airport in February and has been held since. AP cited Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying earlier that no action -- including a potential prisoner swap -- could be taken by Russia on Griner's case until the trial was over, and her guilty plea could be an effort to speed up the court proceedings. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Griner’s guilty plea, quote, "will have no impact on any of the negotiations" involving her case.
Padres’ CJ Abrams and Jurickson Profar collide in the outfield while going after fly ball. 🙏 pic.twitter.com/tamj5l3mba
⚾PADRES PROFAR COLLAPSES AFTER COLLISION WITH TEAMMATE ABRAMS: San Diego Padres left fielder Jurickson Profar collapsed as he was trying to walk off the field after a collision with his teammate, shortstop C.J. Abrams, last night as they both tried to catch a fly ball hit by the San Francisco Giants' Tommy La Stella in the fifth inning. Profar, who never lost consciousness, was then taken off the field on a stretcher and brought to the hospital for further evaluation. Padres manager Bob Melvin said, "No tingle or anything in the arms, but what we're worried the most is probably a concussion at this point." The Padres won the game 2-1.
🏈RAIDERS HIRE MORGAN AS PRESIDENT, FIRST BLACK WOMAN NFL TEAM PREZ: The Las Vegas Raiders announced yesterday (July 7th) that they'd hired Las Vegas attorney Sandra Douglass Morgan to be their new team president, making her the first Black woman to be the president of an NFL franchise. Morgan previously served as chairwoman and executive director of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, and has also been director of external affairs for AT&T Services Inc. in southern Nevada and a litigation attorney for an international gaming and hospitality company.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson swatted away suggested ties to white supremacist ideology when pressed about the rhetoric on his nightly show during a tense interview at an event on Thursday, reports The Hill..
“I’ve never had a white supremacist work for me. I don’t think I’ve ever talked to a white supremacist,” Carlson said during event hosted by Semafor, a new media company founded by journalist Ben Smith and media executive Justin Smith. “I’m not sure what that means. I know it’s a slur and the worst thing that a person can be. I don’t really understand the terms.”
Carlson had been asked by Ben Smith about comments the host has made in recent years on matters of immigration, race relations and demographic changes in the American electorate.
Smith played during Thursday’s event a widely shared clip from one of Carlson’s recent shows, which pulls in an average viewership of more than 3 million people every weeknight, in which the host argues that Democratic politicians are working to “replace” what he called “legacy” Americans with new voters from other countries.
WATCH: Former New York Times journalist spends 10 minutes trying to call Tucker Carlson a racist.
Critics have likened comments like those to so-called great replacement theory, a racist ideology that suggests white people are being deliberately replaced by minorities. A recent analysis conducted by The New York Times found Carlson has mentioned variations on the replacement theory idea in more than 400 episodes of his show since 2016.
“I have no empathy for people who derive their judgments about anything from 30-second clips on Media Matters,” Carlson said Thursday, referring to the liberal watchdog group that tracks narratives present on Fox News and in other conservative media.
Smith pressed Carlson specifically about a number of staffers that formerly worked on his show who were found to have posted on white supremacist message boards, something Carlson argued at the time he did not know about.
Elon Musk’s deal to buy Twitter is in serious jeopardy, three people familiar with the matter say, as Musk’s camp concluded that Twitter’s figures on spam accounts are not verifiable.
The Washington Post reports Musk’s team has stopped engaging in certain discussions around funding for the $44 billion deal, including with a party named as a likely backer, one of the people said. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the ongoing discussions.
Talks with investors have cooled in recent weeks as Musk’s camp has raised doubts about the recent data “fire hose” — a trove of data sold to corporate customers — they received from Twitter. Musk’s team’s doubts about the spam figures signal they believe they do not have enough information to evaluate Twitter’s prospects as a business, the people said.
Now that Musk’s team has concluded it cannot verify Twitter’s figures on spam accounts, one of the people said, it is expected to take potentially drastic action. The person said it was likely a change in direction from Musk’s team would come soon, though they did not say exactly what they thought that change would be.
The spam accounts are not the only reason Musk might try to wriggle out of the deal. Twitter’s share price has fallen dramatically since his takeover bid in April, leading to the impression that he is overpaying. And Musk also runs two other major companies, Tesla and SpaceX, along with some start-ups.
But the terms of the deal mean it wouldn’t be easy for Musk to walk away. Musk has agreed to complete it unless something major happens to Twitter’s business, and legal experts doubt the bot issue would qualify. Twitter, which initially fought Musk’s takeover bid, would be a weaker company if the deal falls apart than when Musk first bought a stake, and experts expect Twitter to fight to get it done. Twitter itself has said it intends to complete the deal. Even if Musk convinces a judge to let him walk away, he could still be on the hook for the deal’s $1 billion breakup fee
The head of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. said the media industry will focus on creating fewer, better shows as the streaming TV wars enter a new phase after Netflix Inc.’s surprise loss of customers earlier this year, reports Bloomberg.
“The world has changed and it’s not about how much, it’s about how good,” Chief Executive Officer David Zaslav told reporters Tuesday at Allen & Co.’s Sun Valley Conference in Idaho.
The 62-year-old media mogul addressed changes at the company’s CNN network. The 24-hour news channel posted somewhat tepid ratings during the recent Jan. 6 hearings as it looks to reinvent itself as a channel appealing to both sides of the political aisle under its new CEO, Chris Licht.
David Zaslav
“Chris is doing a great job pivoting CNN, journalism first, America needs a news network where everyone can come and be heard,” Zaslav said. The executive said he was more concerned with repositioning the channel than short-term viewer numbers.
“We’re not going to look at the ratings and in the long run it’s going to be worth it,” he said.
Zaslav is among several high-profile media moguls expected to descend on the mountain resort this week for the annual invite-only conference, where deals are famously hashed out behind closed doors. It’s his first time attending since his company was formed via the merger of Discovery Inc. with WarnerMedia, which was completed in April.
“I think it’s gonna be a great week -- lotta turmoil in the business,” Zaslav said. “But that means, I think, a lot of opportunity.”
He lauded rival Netflix’s experimentation with so-called appointment television, by releasing episodes of hit show “Stranger Things” in installments, rather than making the entire season available for streaming at once.
“I think we’re all going to experiment,” he said. “We gotta create more content that people will pay for before dinner, or they rush home to see. That’s our focus: great storytelling. That’s what Netflix is focused on. If we continue to do great content we’ll do great.”
Signals are weak at Hubbard Country KBLB 93.3 and AC WJJY 106.7 after lightning struck an antenna on top of Mount Ski Gull, near Nisswa, MN.
The Brainerd Dispatch reports Hubbard Radio Station Manager Jeff Hilborn said Thursday, July 7, the antenna that was hit transmits for both KBLB and WJJY, affecting the signal on both stations. It is unclear when the lightning strike happened, as Hilborn said the signal can take time to erode when things like this happen. The severe Memorial Day storm might have been the culprit, but that can’t be said for sure.
“We’ve had transmission failure — or transmitter failure — on one select station; we’ve had tower strikes, etc., but where it actually took out the antenna for both, we’ve never experienced that,” Hilborn said.
With the antenna compromised, both stations are now being transmitted through a studio transmitter link at the Hubbard office in Baxter, though the tower there is only 100 feet tall, compared to the Ski Gull tower’s 400 feet and position on top of the hill.
“FM signals are what they call line of sight,” Hilborn said. “It will just shoot it out as far as it can go, and it goes out in a circular pattern. And so when you get up high on that tower and you shoot it out, the higher you are, the more distance you’re going to get with your signal. And now when we’re doing that there, and we’re doing it on a backup transmitter with a backup antenna, it’s just very, very compromised.”
As of Thursday, Hilborn said he had ordered a new custom-built antenna, which should take about two weeks, or 10 business days, to complete. It then has to be shipped out to the transmitter site and installed. Hilborn estimates about a three-week process to get the new antenna up and signal strengths back to 100%.
In the meantime, the station is acquiring new coaxial cable from Bemidji to string onto the tower. How far up the tower the cable can go will depend on how much cable can be secured. The cable will be hooked up to on-site antennas that were being used by AM stations but will be re-tuned to WJJY and KBLB. The new hookup should strengthen the signal to cover Brainerd and Baxter but will still likely only cover about half of the station’s typical 60-mile radius.
Comedian Lewis Black, who has turned angry rants into a career, is irate with streaming giant Pandora, which he claims is airing his material without permission, reportsBloomberg.
The recurring guest on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” sued Pandora Media LLC for copyright infringement, seeking more than $10 million in damages, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles federal court.
Black’s claim is the latest in a series of lawsuits brought by comedians against Pandora that may reveal how the streaming industry deals with novel licensing issues around the growing popularity of spoken word content. Comedians say streaming platforms need to pay them -- as the authors of jokes -- in the same way songwriters are paid royalties for writing lyrics.
“Pandora did what most goliaths do: it decided it would infringe now to ensure it had this very valuable intellectual property on its platform to remain competitive, and deal with the consequences later,” Black said in the complaint. “Later is now.”
Pandora, which was acquired by Sirius XM Holdings Inc. in 2019, says on its website that it’s the largest digital broadcast and streaming music provider in the US, with 70 million listeners and users each month.
Pandora used 68 of Black’s works without permission, according to the complaint. He’d be entitled to $150,000 for copyright infringement for each work under current law, Black said in the complaint.
Audacy/Los Angeles has promored Imaging and Creative Director Jake Kaplan to the newly-created role of Director of Imaging & Sound Design for the company.
Jake Kaplan
He previously named Operations and Creative Director for CHR KAMP-FM (97.1 AMP Radio in Los Angeles and its digital outlets Channel Q and Firelane in December, 2019. Before that, Kaplan had been with the local L.A. cluster since 2005 as Imaging Director for co-owned Adult Hits KCBS-FM 93.1 JACK FM.
In his new role, Kaplan will oversee national vendor relationships, creating collaborative teams for brand imaging projects, oversee exclusive station imaging, build format imaging teams, oversee campaigns for national initiatives and events and more.
Kaplan joined KCBS and KROQ from WHFS-FM/Washington, DC, where he also served as Imaging Director. Before that, he held similar duties for Rock KISW-FM and Alternative KNDD-FM/Seattle.
➦In 1954…Memphis' leading Top40 station of the day earned a historical first when personality Dewey Phillips, played a recording of "That's Alright Mama" by Elvis Presley, a young truck driver and budding musician, marking the first time an Elvis recording was broadcast on the radio. Phillips played the song a total of 14-times based on strong listener reaction.
Phillips started his radio career in 1949 on WHBQ, and was the city's leading radio personality for nine years and was the first to simulcast his "Red, Hot & Blue" show on radio and television.
Phillips' on-air persona was a speed-crazed hillbilly, with a frantic delivery and entertaining sense of humor. However, he also had a keen ear for music the listening public would enjoy, and he aired both black and white music, which was abundant in post-World War II Memphis, a booming river city which attracted large numbers of rural blacks and whites (along with their musical traditions). He played a great deal of rhythm and blues, country music, boogie-woogie, and jazz as well as Sun Records artists.
Phillips briefly hosted an afternoon program on WHBQ-TV/13 in the mid-1950s. It mostly consisted of Phillips playing records while he and others clowned around in front of the camera.
Though Phillips was not involved in the payola scandals of the time, he was fired in late 1958 when the station adopted a Top 40 format, phasing out his freeform style. He spent the last decade of his life working at smaller radio stations, seldom lasting long. A heavy drinker and longtime drug user (mainly painkillers and amphetamines, which contributed to his manic on-air behavior), Phillips died of heart failure at age 42.
➦In 1957...Radio Personality Herb Oscar Anderson debuted at 77 WABC (first time, before station flipped to Top40.)
➦In 1960...Storer Broadcasting Company purchased 1010 WINS radio in New York City for $10 million.
It was the highest price paid for a radio station at the time. Many great radio personalities including Murray the K, Bruce Morrow and Alan Freed were stars on WINS Radio. WINS, under Storer ownership, also aired some very clever promotions, including the clay tablet, ostensibly of Egyptian origins, found in the back seat of a taxicab. Upon closer examination, it read, “Everybody’s mummy listens to 10-10 WINS!”
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, as the transistor radio became popular, especially with young people who could carry radios with them everywhere, rock and roll solidified as a genre, thanks in large measure to what became known as Top 40 radio. In New York, four stations battled in the category: 570 WMCA, 1050 WMGM, 770 WABC, and WINS. While WMCA was only 5,000 watts, it was at the bottom end of the dial, which gave it better coverage than might be expected for its power. The other three were all 50,000 watts, but only WABC was both non-directional and a clear channel station. Of those three, WINS was the most directional (aimed straight at New York's inner boroughs), with a weaker signal than the others toward the New Jersey suburbs and the Jersey Shore.
Newspaper Clipping
In 1962, WMGM adopted a beautiful music format under its previous call letters, WHN, while WINS was purchased by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation. WMCA enjoyed some early success after WINS and WMGM left the Top 40 format. But WABC became the dominant Top 40 station in New York City by 1965. On April 18, 1965, around 8 p.m., WINS bowed out of Top 40 competition with the song "Out in the Streets", by The Shangri-Las,
On April 19, 1965, after weeks of speculation, WINS changed its format radically. It became the third radio station in the United States to attempt all-news programming, going with the new format around the clock. WINS immediately established a template for its format with an easily identifiable, distinctive Teletype sound effect playing in the background. Most other all-news stations later dropped this, but WINS continues to use it to this day despite Teletype machines themselves becoming obsolete by the mid-1980s. WINS used memorable slogans such as "All news, all the time"; "The newswatch never stops"; "Listen two, three, four times a day"; and "You give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world". The latter tagline was a reference to WINS's format clock, which returns to the top stories every twenty minutes.
➦In 1979…Radio-TV quiz show host John Reed King died at age 64 following a heart attack.
King was one of the announcers for The American School of the Air on CBS, and he had one of the top-rated radio shows of the 1930s in New York City with Missus Goes A-Shopping. He was also an announcer for the radio version of Death Valley Days and for The Jack Berch Show.
He worked at KDKA radio and television in Pittsburgh during the 1960s. He was a morning news anchor and hosted a daily talk show on television. In 1970, he was a news anchor at KGO 810 AM and KGO-TV, the ABC owned-and-operated television station in San Francisco, California.
Kevin Bacon is 64
🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:
Singer Steve Lawrence is 87.
Drummer Jaimoe Johanson of The Allman Brothers is 78.
Actor Jeffrey Tambor is 78.
Actor Kim Darby is 75.
Actor Jonelle Allen (“Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman”) is 74.
Children’s singer Raffi is 74.
Actor Anjelica Huston is 71.
Actor Kevin Bacon is 64.
Country singer Toby Keith is 61.
Maya Hawke is 24
Guitarist Graham Jones of Haircut 100 is 61.
Singer Joan Osborne is 60.
Actor Rocky Carroll (“NCIS”) is 59.
Actor Michael B. Silver (“Instinct,” ″NYPD Blue”) is 55.
Actor Billy Crudup (“Almost Famous”) is 54.
Actor Michael Weatherly (“NCIS,” ″Dark Angel”) is 54.
Singer Beck is 52.
Country singer Drew Womack of Sons of the Desert is 52.
Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco is 49.
Guitarist Stephen Mason of Jars of Clay is 47.
Actor Milo Ventimiglia (“This Is Us,” ″Gilmore Girls”) is 45.
Actor Lance Gross (“House of Payne”) is 41.
Actor Sophia Bush (“Chicago P.D.,” ″One Tree Hill”) is 40.
Guitarist Jamie Cook of Arctic Monkeys is 37.
Actor Maya Hawke (“Little Women,” ″Stranger Things”) is 24.
Actor Jaden Smith (“The Pursuit of Happyness”) is 24.
🕇DEATH ANNIVERSARIES
Former First Lady Betty Ford, who founded the Betty Ford Center for the treatment of drug and alcohol abuse, died on this day in 2011. She was 93.
North Korean dictator Kim Il-Sung, who founded the Communist nation and was the grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-Un, died on this day in 1994. He was 82.
Glee actress Naya Rivera drowned in a California lake on this day in 2020 while swimming with her four-year-old son, who was found alone on their rented boat. She was 33.
Responding to FCC proposals to increase regulatory fees on broadcasters, the NAB has filed new comments criticizing the FCC’s proposed fees as “unfairly, unlawfully, and disproportionately burdening broadcasters.”
TVTech reports the NAB also complained that the FCC is proposing to “raise broadcasters’ fees by a staggering 13%, despite the Commission’s budget increasing by 2.1%,” a fee increase that is more than six times the magnitude of the Commission’s budget increase.
The NAB noted that “for years, broadcasters have urged the Commission to reform its methodology to ensure that the fees broadcasters pay bear a meaningful relationship to the work performed by Commission…to benefit or regulate the broadcast industry” and that “the Commission last year made important strides in conforming its fee methodology to the law by acknowledging that broadcasters do not benefit from the Commission’s broadband activities and modifying its methodology to exempt broadcasters from certain broadband-related costs.”
“Though last year’s regulatory fee process represented a step forward,” the NAB noted, “this year’s fee proposal takes significant steps backward by abandoning the modifications and taking no action on the growing need to expand the base of payors to include the beneficiaries of the bulk of the Commission’s primary activities – broadband internet service providers.”
“The FCC must ensure that its regulatory framework, including its assessment of regulatory fees, does not hinder broadcasters’ abilities to operate as viable private enterprises in a competitive market and to effectively serve the public interest and their local communities,” the NAB said.
“The Commission must also disabuse itself of any notion that broadcasters can easily absorb unjustified regulatory fee increases. Fee proposals that require broadcasters to pay more than their fair share of the Commission’s costs directly harm broadcasters’ ability to compete in the communications marketplace, and have detrimental impacts on the Commission’s effort to advance digital equity for all by threatening small broadcasters’ ability to continue to serve rural and underserved communities.”
“Broadcasters are already subject to far more regulatory costs and burdens than other regulatees, and radio industry margins are already very thin,” the NAB continued.
“Most radio stations operate with staff in the single digits, many doing more than one job to keep the station going. With stations dealing with continued fallout from the coronavirus pandemic and other inflationary pressures, many stations are simply trying to stay in business. A dollar more in regulatory fees is a dollar that can no longer go to the provision of local programming, including local news, or the purchase of equipment. Given these realities, and the Commission’s duty to preserve the public interest in free, over the air broadcast radio and television service, it is essential that the Commission approach regulatory fees with the same care it would if its own money or that of its employees were at stake.”
To remedy the unfair fee structure, the NAB urged the Commission to:
Ensure its methodology to properly account for the benefits received by the payor by the Commission's activities;
Refrain from holding broadcasters responsible for costs associated with the Commission's broadband work;
Reallocate broadband-related costs among fee payors that benefit from the FCC’s broadband activities; and
Audacy welcomes country radio veteran Cadillac Jack to WDSY Y108 in Pittsburgh.
He will join “Y’d Awake” alongside co-hosts Kristen and Maria weekdays beginning July 11.
“Cadillac Jack brings an energy and engagement that country fans in Pittsburgh will love,” said Michael Spacciapolli, Senior Vice President and Market Manager, Audacy Pittsburgh. “As Y108 continues to grow as a leading county outlet on a variety of platforms, welcoming a talent like Cadillac will add to our evolution and growth.”
“I am beyond excited to join Audacy and Y108 in Pittsburgh,” said Cadillac Jack. “It’s a great opportunity to be in an incredible city with amazing staff and work for this incredible company.”
Cadillac Jack is a multiple-time nominee for the Academy of Country Music’s “On-Air Personality of the Year” and CMA’s “Broadcast Personality of the Year” awards. He was most recently morning personality and assistant program director for WHEL-FM in Ft. Myers, FL. Prior to that, he served as morning personality and assistant brand manager for WITL-FM in Lansing, MI. Additional career stops include country stations in Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Tampa and Audacy's 99.5 WYCD (WYCD-FM) in Detroit.
➤Listeners can tune in to Y108 (WDSY-FM) in Pittsburgh on air and nationwide on the Audacyapp and website. Fans can also connect with the station via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Songwriters earned a stalled victory last week in their ongoing battle for higher streaming royalty pay, reports The Tennessean.
After a lengthy appeal from a handful of digital powerhouses, the Copyright Royalty Board upheld a nearly 44% bump in streaming royalties for songwriters. The ruling increases streaming rates from 10.5% to 15.1% for a four-year period stretching 2018 to 2022, according to trade groups the National Music Publishers' Association and Nashville Songwriters Association International.
The board initially ruled in favor of an increase in 2018, but leading music streaming companies Spotify, Amazon Music, Google-YouTube and Pandora pushed back against the decision via the U.S. Court of Appeals in 2019. Apple Music did not appeal the ruling.
"Today the court reaffirmed the headline rate increase we earned four long years ago, confirming that songwriters need and deserve a significant raise from the digital streaming services who profit from their work," National Music Publishers' Association president and CEO David Israelite said in a statement.
He added: “This process was protracted and expensive and though we are relieved with the outcome, years of litigation to uphold a rate increase we spent years fighting for is a broken system. Now, songwriters and music publishers finally can be made whole and receive the rightful royalty rates from streaming services that they should've been paid years ago."
Still, it may be months before songwriters see retroactive royalty checks cut from streaming services.
