In 1899...inventor Marconi demonstrated the first international radio transmission between Wimereux, France to South Foreland Lighthouse, England.
In 1921...announcer Fred Foy was born in Detroit. Although best remembered as the iconic narrator on The Lone Ranger on both radio & TV (1948-54), he also had high profile gigs as the announcer on ABC Radio’s Theatre Five, and ABC-TV’s Dick Cavett Show. He died Dec 22 2010 at age 88.
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In 1928...KGB-AM, San Diego, California began broadcasting.
KGB is the oldest continuing radio station in the San Diego Market. The station was granted a license in July 1922 to W.K. Azbill under the call letters of KFBC operating at 10 watts on 1210 kilocycles. This license was assigned to Dr. Arthur Wells Yale in 1927. Pickwick Broadcasting Corporation bought the station in 1928 and installed George Bowles as Vice President and Manager of the station. The call letters were changed to reflect his name as KGB. Under the Pickwick ownership, the station began operating at 1330 kilocycles. Stations used a variety of slogans to promote their identity. Among those KGB uses during this time were "The Sunshine State of California" and "Music for the Sick".
Don Lee, Incorporated bought KGB in 1931. Don Lee died in 1934 and the license was assigned to station manager Marion Harris. Art Linkletter got his professional start at KGB during this time serving as an announcer and program director. The station began operating at 1360 kilocycles in 1942. By 1949, KGB was operating at 1000 watts when Don Lee, Inc was merged with Mutual Broadcasting Company. The station was sold to Marion Harris in 1954 who increased the output to 5000 watts-days, 1000 watts-night.
On the Johnny Mann Singers web site Ron Jacobs said, "Willet Brown of Brown Broadcasting Company purchased the station in 1961 and operated it with his son Mike. Willet co-founded Mutual Broadcasting System, was pals with Howard Hughes, owned a cadillac dealership, a yacht, and his own Greyhound bus.
He expected winners from his assets. By 1963, the station's middle-of-the road (MOR) program format was going nowhere and they began the search for a strong proven programmer. They initially sought out the programmer of KMEN in San Bernardino, but didn't find who they were looking for. (Ron Jacobs had already moved on to make history at KMAK Fresno). His rival, Gene Chenault of KYNO Fresno, was trying to branch out in his new radio consulting business. Chenault became the station programmer after meeting with the Browns. Chenault brought in his partner Bill Drake and several DJs from Fresno that eventually led to KGB leading the San Diego market. They experimented and developed a new format called Boss Radio".
By the end of 1963, a more stylized bi-fold Silver Dollar Survey was being published introducing photos of the DJs as the Station of the Stars. The play list featured artists having more appeal to a younger audience.
In 1974, KGB-FM gave the world a piece of pop culture Americana. The "KGB Chicken," an advertising mascot played by Ted Giannoulas, was hatched that year when employees of KGB-FM hired Giannoulas (then a student at San Diego State University) from off the street to wear a chicken outfit for a promotion to distribute AM and FM Easter eggs to children at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. The Chicken, whose antics entertained steadily larger crowds, moved on to features at concerts and sporting events (appearing at more than 520 San Diego Padres games in a row). Conflict emerged between KGB Radio and Giannoulas, and the latter was fired in 1977.
Another unnamed employee was hired to don a chicken outfit at a Padres game.
Today, 1360 AM is KLSD and airs a sport talk format.
In 1930...the first U.S. ship-to-shore broadcast took place.
In 1942…The CBS radio serial "Myrt & Marge" ended its 11-year run.
In 1943..."Blue Ribbon Town" with Groucho Marx was first broadcast on the CBS Radio Network.
In 1958...CBS Records announces its sound lab's latest invention, stereophonic sound, which when played on a compatible phonograph will send sound through two channels instead of one.
In 1960...Representative Emanuel Celler (D-NY) introduces two bills designed to halt the practice of "payola" -- that is, DJs receiving cash or gifts to promote certain records. Celler, echoing the sentiments of his era, declares that "the cacophonous music called Rock and Roll" could not possibly have risen up the charts without the practice of payola.
In 1964...the original "Pirate Radio" station signed on, Radio Caroline.
Radio Caroline was founded by Ronan O'Rahilly to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly. Unlicensed by any government for most of its early life, it was a pirate radio station which only became formally illegal in 1967.
On a fund-raising trip to the US, O'Rahilly reportedly saw a Life Magazine photograph of Kennedy and his children in the Oval Office that served as the inspiration for the name "Caroline Radio". In the photo, Caroline Kennedy and her brother, John F. Kennedy Jr., are apparently dancing in the oval office as their father looks on, an activity which O'Rahilly reportedly interpreted as a playful disruption of government.
The Radio Caroline name was used to broadcast from five different ships owned by three different owners from 1964 -1989.
In 1977...Don Gardiner, ABC Radio died. He was one of the talented 27 staff announcers at ABC in the 1960s a group that included Milton Cross, the voice of the radio broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera; Fred Foy, who had been the radio and television announcer for The Lone Ranger: and Joel Crager who was the voice for Ivory Soap, Tylenol and E.F. Hutton for many years.
In 1963, Gardiner voiced the first bulletin on the shooting of U.S. President John F. Kennedy aired by a nationwide broadcast network.
This report was broadcast out of the New York headquarters of the ABC Radio Network on Friday, November 22, 1963 at 1:36:50 PM EST, approximately 6 1/2 minutes following the Kennedy shooting in Dallas, Texas.
In 1994...Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, married his third wife, Marta Fitzgerald.
Milton Berle
In 2002...comedian & TV pioneer Milton Berle died at age 93. Known as Uncle Miltie and Mr. Television, Berle rose to TV stardom as the host of NBC’s Texaco Star Theater beginning in 1948.
From 1934–36, Berle was heard regularly on The Rudy Vallee Hour, and he attracted publicity as a regular on The Gillette Original Community Sing, a Sunday night comedy-variety program broadcast on CBS from September 6, 1936 to August 29, 1937. In 1939, he was the host of Stop Me If You've Heard This One with panelists spontaneously finishing jokes sent in by listeners
In 2009…NBC News reporter Irving R. Levine died of complications from prostate cancer at 86.
In 2015…Retired basketball announcer/former Los Angeles Lakers guard "Hot Rod" Hundley, who was the voice of the Utah Jazz for 35 years, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease at the age of 80.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Republican Ted Cruz on Friday denounced an article in the National Enquirer tabloid claiming he had extramarital affairs as "complete and utter lies" and accused rival Donald Trump of being the source of the story.
The story took the Republican presidential race to a new level of personal rancor and Trump issued a statement saying he was not responsible for it.
"I have nothing to do with the National Enquirer and unlike Lyin' Ted Cruz I do not surround myself with political hacks and henchman and then pretend total innocence," Trump said.
Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, addressed the Enquirer story at a news conference in Wisconsin, saying, "Let me be clear. This National Enquirer story is garbage. It is complete and utter lies. It's tabloid smear and it is a smear that has come from Donald Trump and his henchmen."
Trump's statement pointed to other articles the Enquirer, a tabloid known for its gossip and unflattering celebrity photos, had been correct about in the past.
"Ted Cruz’s problem with the National Enquirer is his and his alone, and while they were right about O.J. Simpson, John Edwards, and many others, I certainly hope they are not right about Lyin’ Ted Cruz," the billionaire New York developer said.
Trump and Cruz have sparred in recent days about their wives as they battle to be the Republican nominee in the Nov. 8 election. Earlier this week Trump accused Cruz of posting a nude photo of Trump's wife, Melania, on Twitter. Cruz denied having any role in the photo being circulated on the Internet and Trump responded by threatening to "spill the beans" on Cruz's wife.
Cruz said the Enquirer story was evidence that Trump is unfit to be president. "This man would be an embarrassment," he said.
The Enquirer published blurred images of five women with whom it said Cruz has had affairs but did not name them. Two women who appeared to be pictured in the Enquirer stepped forward on Friday and called the article false.
The National Enquirer could not immediately be reached for comment on the story.
Cruz' wife, Heidi Cruz, was campaigning with him on Friday and he gave her a hug and kiss before he began a town hall event. She sat off stage smiling while he spoke.
The Enquirer's Cruz story exploded on the social media site Twitter overnight on Thursday. By Thursday afternoon, #CruzSexScandal was a worldwide trending topic on Twitter.
Hubbard Radio has announced that David Moore is the new Program Director for KSLX 100.7 FM .
David Moore
Previously, Operations Director at Entercom's three station cluster in Madison, Wisconsin. Prior to joining Entercom in September, 2006, he spent ten years as Program Director Cox Media's WFYV-FM in Jacksonville, joining from programming duties at WOCT in Baltimore in 1996.
Moore stated, “Programming KSLX for Hubbard means getting to work with Trip Reeb, Greg Solk, and Greg Strassell — a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It is a great station, a tremendous company, and I could not be more excited.”
Trip Reeb, VP/Market Manager for Hubbard Phoenix comments, “We talked to several talented people, but David impressed us with his knowledge and passion. He’s a great fit for our Hubbard Phoenix team.”
KSLX 100.7 FM (100 Kw) Red=Local Coverage
Moore will officially begin in his new position in April, 2016.
Fans dreading the day when they can no longer hear Vin Scully should know the feeling is mutual.
"I'll miss the fans and the sounds of the fans," Scully said Friday, before broadcasting the first Spring Training game of his 67th and final season at the Dodgers microphone.
Speaking at a MLB media gathering, Scully told a story about being an 8-year-old crawling under his family's radio and hearing the roar of the crowd at a college football broadcast "wash over me like water out of a showerhead. I used to get ecstatic over the roar.
"To this day, when the crowd lets out a roar, I shut up and I'm 8 years old again under the radio.
When it's over, that's the first thing I'll miss. The roar of the crowd, the goose bumps you get."
Scully, now 88, has devoted his life to broadcasting -- and the fans -- ever since.
An icon in the eyes of baseball, Scully wants the impossible -- no fuss over his farewell.
"I'm just an announcer; I belong in the press box," he said. "Believe me, from the bottom of my heart, I'm the luckiest person in the world. To allow me to go this far is fine, but it's not really me. I'm not going to bring me on a tour like I'm some Stradivarius.
"It bothers me making it sound like because it's my last year I'm almost more important than the game. That scares me to death."
The iHeartRadio Music Awards will honor U2 with its most prestigious award of the evening, the 2016 iHeartRadio Innovator Award.
The fan-fueled third annual televised music event will feature the biggest names in entertainment, bringing the music of the iHeartRadio app to life on Sunday, April 3 live on TBS, TNT and truTV at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT from the historic, fabulous Forum in Los Angeles and hosted by Jason Derulo.
The iHeartRadio Music Awards will broadcast simultaneously on iHeartMedia stations nationwide and across the iHeartRadio digital music platform.
iHeartRadio will honor the iconic group U2 for their undeniable impact on the world of popular culture and will pay tribute to their unparalleled contributions to the music industry and social causes. The group is also nominated in the 2016 iHeartRadio Music Awards’ Best Tour category.
U2 – comprised of band members Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr. – is celebrating 40 years together in 2016. During that time, the rock band has won a record-breaking 22 Grammy awards and has become one of the top touring and best-selling bands of all time as a result of their celebrated world tours – including the U2 360°, Vertigo, Zoo TV and Popmart tours – and iconic albums including The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, and All That You Can't Leave Behind. U2’s highly-anticipated, technically ambitious Innocence + Experience tour has been traveling the globe in support of their critically acclaimed Grammy-nominated “Songs of Innocence,” which Rolling Stone named the best album of 2014.
“U2 is a band of activists, not only in music but in politics, popular culture and human rights,” said John Sykes, President of Entertainment Enterprises for iHeartMedia. "They began as a punk band and that attitude still runs strong throughout their songwriting, albums and live performances. They will never stop testing the limits, and that’s why we are honored to recognize them with this Innovator Award."
“It is extremely rare to have a band that has spent four decades not only changing music, but helping change the world with their tireless dedication to important social causes focusing on AIDS, poverty, cancer, the environment, Hurricane Katrina and much more,” said Tom Poleman, President of National Programming Group for iHeartMedia. “We’re thrilled to be able to honor U2 with the 2016 iHeartRadio Innovator Award.”
For the third straight year, the iHeartRadio Music Awards will celebrate the amazing music that was heard throughout the year across iHeartMedia radio stations nationwide and on iHeartRadio.
The evening will include performances from Justin Bieber, Meghan Trainor, Zayn, Chris Brown, DNCE, Fetty Wap, Demi Lovato and more. The telecast will also feature first-time duets and collaborations, celebrity guest appearances, live award presentations, and exclusive can’t-miss special performances by Pitbull and Maroon 5 that will be simulcast from the Capital One JamFest, which is part of the March Madness Music Festival taking place in Houston, TX.
This is the first year for the Turner networks to simulcast the event, which is scheduled to take place on Sunday April 3, the night between the NCAA Final Four National Semifinals and the NCAA National Championship on TBS.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Michael O'Rielly and Ajit Pai will headline four separate sessions at NAB Show, April 16 – 20 in Las Vegas.
Chairman Wheeler will address a signature session open to all attendees, Wednesday, April 20, 9:00-10:00 a.m. In a conversation with Marci Burdick, NAB Executive Committee Member and former Television Board Chair, Wheeler is expected to discuss issues facing the FCC and the broadcasting industry, including the broadcast spectrum incentive auction, retransmission consent and the future of video delivery.
Commissioners Clyburn, O'Rielly and Pai will address three separate sessions within the NAB Show Broadcast Management Conference (BMC), April 18 - 20. The BMC brings together radio and television station management executives and digital professionals to examine broadcast and digital business accelerators and best practices, and provide an overview of regulatory and legislative issues impacting radio and television.
In 1923...comedian Bob Elliott of the comedy team Bob & Ray was born in suburban Boston.
Beginning a career as a radio announcer in the 1940’s, his rise to national recognition began when he was teamed with Ray Goulding on WHDH Boston. Moving to New York the pair appeared on various networks and radio/TV outlets with their unique brand of humour spoofing broadcasting until Goulding’s death in 1990.
He succumbed to throat cancer Feb. 2 2016 at age 92. In 1929...WQXR signed-on as W2XR in NYC.
John Hogan
Now using the call signs WFME began its life as W2XR, an experimental television station, owned by inventor John V. L. Hogan, operating at 2100 kHz, which went on the air on March 26, 1929. Hogan was a radio engineer who owned many patents, and wanted a permit for an experimental station. To avoid interference, the frequency granted in 1934 by the Federal Radio Commission was considerably above the normal broadcasting range, which at that time ended at 1500 kHz. Hogan's permit was one of four construction permits W2XR was licensed as an "experimental broadcast station" on June 29, 1934.
W2XR began to broadcast classical music recordings on 1550 kHz. His television broadcasts came to naught, but Hogan began to hear from unknown individuals who encouraged him to continue broadcasting music.
In 1936, Hogan and Elliott Sanger formed the Interstate Broadcasting Company, with the intention of turning W2XR into a commercial station at at time when there were already about twenty-five radio stations in New York.
The transmitter, which used a homemade antenna mounted on a wooden pole, was located in a garage in Long Island City, near the Queensborough Bridge, and its 250 watts provided just enough power to reach midtown Manhattan and parts of Queens. On December 3, 1936, W2XR became WQXR—the cursive form of the letter "Q" mimics the number "2". An FM service, W2XQR, was added in 1939.
The North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement of 1941 formally extended the AM band to 1600 kHz, ending the "high-fidelity" service but keeping all four original stations near their existing dial positions. WQXR was originally slated to move to 1600 kHz as a five-kilowatt class III-A regional station, but was able to persuade the FCC to make it a class I-B station on 1560 kHz instead.
The New York Post approached the company in the early 1940s about purchasing the stations. Sanger said publicly that he would have preferred to sell to The New York Times, and in early 1944, the Times agreed to pay just over $1 million for ownership of Interstate Broadcasting Company.
In 1971, the Times put WQXR up for sale. Many offers were received for the FM station, but none of the bids for 1560 AM were satisfactory to management. When the FCC agreed to waive rules prohibiting stations from simulcasting if they were broadcasting classical music, the Times took WQXR off the market.
WQXR AM circa 1989
In 1992 the station broke away from the FM simulcast for good, changing to a pop standards format, which was inaugurated by a live studio performance by Tony Bennett. The change followed close on the heels of WNEW's switch from standards to business information, and to reflect that heritage, WQXR changed callsign to WQEW. Although successful, the station's advertising revenues were not spectacular, and on December 28, 1998, the Times pulled the plug and LMAed with Radio Disney after entering an 8-year local marketing agreement with Disney. At the end of this agreement in late 2006, ABC/Disney exercised an option to purchase in early January 2007. Disney/ABC officially became the owner of the station on May 24, 2007.
On November 21, 2014, Radio Disney New York filed an application to sell WQEW to Family Radio, who also owns WFME-FM and WNYJ-TV (and who previously owned what is now WNSH, owned by Cumulus Media. Family Radio bought the station for $12.95 million. The FCC granted the sale on February 10, 2015. As a result, the station went silent the following Tuesday on February 17, 2015, in anticipation of the change of format. The sale was "consummated" on February 20, 2015 and the call sign was changed to WFME.
The station returned to the air on February 27, 2015, broadcasting Family Radio programming, again giving the network full coverage of the New York City market that it lost in January 2013, when Family Radio sold the original WFME to Cumulus Media.
In 1938...a performance of Howard Hanson's 3rd Symphony aired on the NBC Radio Network.
In 1954...Curtis Sliwa, was born: founder of the Guardian Angels and a Radio personality on WABC 770 AM NYC.
In 1996...WPAT 930 AM NYC Market switched to a Spanish format
In 2008…Radio personality/National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Famer/National Radio Hall of Famer Wally Phillips, who spent 42 years on the air at WGN-Chicago, much of it as the city's top-rated morning show host, died of Alzheimer's disease at 82.
Wally Phillips
Phillips was born in Portsmouth, Ohio. Six years later, after his father's death from tuberculosis, his family (including three siblings) moved to Cincinnati. Phillips later dropped out of high school to join the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, but he ended up in Georgia in a tow target squadron assigned to fly practice targets for fighter pilots and anti-aircraft artillery.
After the end of World War II, he attended drama school for a while and then became a disc jockey in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A year after beginning his DJ career he returned to Cincinnati.
Phillips expanded his career as a radio personality at WLW in Cincinnati where he established his call-in format and his trademark style of remixing prerecorded interviews as a comedy piece. He was eventually fired after he inserted a phony item into a newscast.
Later, Phillips moved to Chicago, Illinois. His WGN morning show was consistently top-rated in Chicago, and led to his being labeled "the king of morning radio." At the height of his popularity, Phillips attracted nearly 1.5 million listeners, a now unheard of half of the market's listening audience.
Phillips was one of the first broadcasters to routinely use humorous and offbeat phone calls in his show, including prank phone calls. Sometimes, he called random payphones to see who would answer. For example, he called a pet cemetery to arrange a funeral for his mouse, and on another occasion he tracked down Benjamin Gingiss, founder of Gingiss Formal Wear, while the man was on vacation in the Bahamas to ask him where the fire extinguishers were kept in the store.
Another time, Phillips called Ipanema, a neighborhood located on the southern region of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and inquired whether there were any women there who were "tall and tan and young and lovely." He tried to order pizza from Rome and even tried to return a natural Christmas tree weeks into the new year because it had browned and lost all its needles. On one occasion, he managed to obtain Luciano Pavarotti's hotel room number, and called to ask if the singer would give Phillips opera lessons and "teach (Phillips) to sing flat, like you do."
In 1998, he retired from WGN radio after 42 years, twelve years after giving up the morning show where he was succeeded by Bob Collins, who continued the format and the high ratings.
Phillips was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame, in the Museum of Broadcast Communications in 1993and into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1997, marking his 50th year in radio.
In 2009...Toronto radio station CHUM 1050 AM ended its music era again and this time it went to simulcasting the local cable-only TV news channel CP 24. The final full song played was “Release Me” by Engelbert Humperdinck, just before 5 am. The station changed to sports talk April 13, 2011.
CHUM AM was founded by four Toronto businessmen, including Al Leary, a former sportscaster, who had been the station manager at CKCL for 14 years. CHUM received its licence in late November 1944 to operate a station with 1000 watts. CHUM launched as a daytimer on 28 October 1945, with John H.Q. "Jack" Part, an entrepreneur in the business of patent medicines, as its president. The station broadcast a format typical of the late 1940s, with a combination of information, music, and sports.
CHUM was taken over in December 1954 by Allan Waters, a salesman from Part's patent medicine business. Waters' first major move was to secure a licence for 24-hour-a-day broadcasting for CHUM, along with a power increase to 5,000 watts.
Less than three years after Waters acquired the station, and soon after bringing the new full-time transmitter online, a major programming change was made. On May 27, 1957, at 6 AM, Waters switched the station to a "Top 50" format. Elvis Presley's "All Shook Up" was the first song played.
"1050 CHUM" pioneered rock and roll radio in Toronto, and was noteworthy for hosting many noteworthy rock concerts including, among others, visits to Maple Leaf Gardens by Elvis Presley (1957) and the Beatles (1964, 1965, and 1966). While the station was rising to the top of the popularity ratings in Toronto in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it also built yet another new transmitter in Mississauga, Ontario (a few miles west of the current Toronto city line) along the Lake Ontario shoreline, and raised its power once again to its current 50,000 watts around the clock.
CHUM 1050 AM (50 Kw-DA-2)
In the late 1950s, CHUM was calling itself "Radio One", as its ratings continued to increase. An important part of CHUM's success was the station's unpredictable morning man Al Boliska, who joined CHUM in October 1957, after working at station CKLC in Kingston, Ontario.
By 1959, Boliska had made a name for himself as a disc jockey who got listeners talking. He also made them laugh, and became known for telling what he called the "World's Worst Jokes". Boliska also did a number of stunts, such as taking part in a professional wrestling match with Whipper Billy Watson. When he lost, that led to another stunt, where Boliska stayed away from his show for several days, saying he was now too discouraged by the loss to do his show. A hypnotist was called in, and Boliska's self-esteem was restored. Boliska left CHUM in late 1963 to go 'across the street' to CKEY. He died of a heart attack in Toronto on April 7, 1972 on the eve of his 40th birthday
He was replaced by WKBW Buffalo radio & TV personality Jay Nelson, popularly known as "Jungle Jay" from his role as host of a children's show on Buffalo's Channel 7 which was also popular among Toronto youngsters.
He would be followed by housewives' jock John Spragge; singer/DJ Mike Darow; Pete Nordheimer, replaced in 1961 by Bob McAdorey, teen DJ Dave Johnson, and all night DJ Bob Laine. Later additions to the CHUM DJ lineup included Duff Roman and Brian Skinner, both of whom came from rival Toronto rocker CKEY (then owned by Jack Kent Cooke).
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, CHUM DJs included Duke Roberts (also known as Gary Duke for a time), Johnny Mitchell (better known today as Sonny Fox), J. Michael Wilson, Tom Rivers, Scott Carpenter, Jim Van Horne, John Rode, Don Reagan, John Majhor, Mike Cooper, Daryl B, Terry Steele, Mike Holland and current CHUM-FM morning man Roger Ashby. Among their later night-time hosts was J. D. Roberts, who joined CHUM for a time in 1977, eventually becoming known across North America as John Roberts, White House correspondent for CBS News, then the co-anchor of CNN's morning program American Morning. He now reports for the Fox News Channel. Rick Moranis, later famous for his work on SCTV and Ghostbusters, was briefly a late-night CHUM DJ in the mid-seventies under the name "Rick Allan".
CHUM became well known for its zany contests. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was contests such as 'The Walking Man', where listeners had to spot CHUM's mystery walking man using only clues given out on the air. The 1970s' "I Listen to CHUM" promotion had DJs dialing phone numbers at random and awarding $1,000 to anyone who answered the phone with that phrase. In 1976, there was the CHUM Starsign promotion. Listeners wore a button featuring their astrological sign. If CHUM's 'Starsign spotter' saw you wearing your Starsign, you won prizes such as money or concert tickets to major events.
The CHUM Chart was, for many years, the most influential weekly Top 40 chart in Canada and has been hailed as the longest-running continuously published radio station record survey in North America. The first CHUM Chart was released on May 27, 1957, with Elvis Presley's "All Shook Up" the first Number 1 song.
By the mid-1980s, CHUM had lost ground in the Toronto ratings to competing Top 40 station CFTR and FM-based music stations. On June 6, 1986, at 3 PM, after the playing of Starship's "We Built This City", CHUM dropped its Top 40 format for a gold-based adult contemporary format ("Favorites of Yesterday and Today"). The first song after the relaunch was "Beginnings" by Chicago. The change also discontinued the CHUM Chart, which ended the week of June 14, 1986 with Madonna's "Live to Tell" as the final Number 1 song. By 1988, the station had evolved into a brighter AC format, focusing on pop hits from the past decade and dropping much of the older music.
Following word of a possible sale or spinoff of CBS Radio, as announced by CBS Corp. chairman and CEO Les Moonves at the company's March 15 Investor Day, there has been much speculation as to radio buyers potentially interested in legacy CBS Radio stations. A list of those buyers could include Alpha Media LLC, Bonneville International Corp., Entercom Communications Corp. and Hubbard Broadcasting Inc.
However, according to Justin Nielson Senior Research Analyst, Broadcast & New Media at S&P Global, the low tax basis for CBS Radio stations and the lack of large-cap radio companies that could afford to take the group outright points to more likely scenarios of a tax-advantaged radio for TV swap or a complete spinoff of the business segment, similar to the 2014 spinoff of CBS Outdoor into OUTFRONT Media Inc.
CBS Radio consists of 117 stations (29 AM, 88 FM) with 76% in the top 25 rated markets. Based on S&P's combined 2016 ad revenue and cash flow estimates for the station group of approximately $1.2 billion and $400 million, respectively, and applying the average 12-month trailing 6.7x radio deal multiple would imply a private market valuation of $2.70 billion.
Justin Nielson
However, given CBS Radio stations have a commanding local ad share in some of the top 25 markets, Nielsen expects deal multiples to be on the higher end of the scale, if CBS indeed looks to sell certain market clusters.
Based on a higher 7.0x and 8.0x cash flow multiple, a sale of CBS Radio's station group could yield $2.8 billion to $3.2 billion. That potential deal volume range would rank as the second-largest radio deal in the last 10 years behind the Bain Capital Partners LP and Clear Channel Communications (iHeartCommunications Inc.) leveraged buyout back on Nov. 16, 2006, although that was at a much larger 10.7x multiple.
In CBS Radio station sales over the past 10 years, the average deal multiple was 9.8x, including 73 stations at a little over $1 billion in deal volume. However, the last three deals since 2012 — including the sale of five stations to Palm Beach Broadcasting for $50 million; the 14-station swap with Beasley Broadcast Group Inc. valued at $150 million; and the sale of KFWB-AM to Universal Media Access for $8 million — have been between a 6.3x to 7.2x multiple, more in line with current radio station deal values.
The Telos Alliance announced findings Thursday that show Voltair still provides broadcasters with a signficant ratings advantage, even on enhanced CBET (eCBET).
Nielsen launched eCBET in late 2015 in response to the disruptive Voltair, which broadcasters were using to optimize their transmission of watermarks. eCBET was supposed to address some of the encoding issues with CBET technology that the Voltair unit brought to light.
After several months of research both in the lab and in the field, the Telos Alliance has come to the conclusion that Voltair is still very useful for broadcasters who want to make sure they are getting credit for every listener using a Portable People Meter.
Broadcasters using Voltair have reported that it still provides a significant ratings advantage, even with eCBET. The proof is in toggle-testing, where a station can easily vary Voltair’s enhancement level for each quarter hour, then track the ratings results for the quarter-hours with and without Voltair enhancement. This capability is built into every Voltair.
Here are two examples of the many toggle tests underway in 2016:
An FM talk/music station in a top-10 market found that the quarter-hours with Voltair set to 12 were 7.8% higher than the quarter-hours without Voltair.
An AM news/talk station in a top-25 market experienced a 10.3% increase in the quarter-hours with Voltair set to 12 than the quarter-hours without Voltair.
Telos CEO Frank Foti Thursday told RadioInk, “Our goal at Telos is simple: We think radio should get ratings credit for all the listening that actually occurs. We love hearing our clients talk about 10% increases in Voltair toggle tests. To us, a 10% ratings increase is a pretty big deal.”
(Reuters) -- Microsoft Corp executives are in talks with equity firms considering bids for Yahoo Inc! saying that Microsoft might be willing to offer "significant financing" for their efforts, tech news site Recode reported on Thursday.
However, Microsoft has not made commitments so far to investors, and any discussions are exploratory, Recode reported, citing unnamed sources.
Microsoft's move is an attempt to ensure a good relationship with Yahoo's buyer, the website reported.
Yahoo launched an auction of its core business in February after it shelved plans to spin off its stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
In an interview with Reuters in February, Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer said the company will entertain offers as they come but its first priority is a turnaround plan.
Yahoo faces increasing pressure from shareholders and investors to sell its core business instead of going through a spinoff that would separate the company from its multibillion-dollar stakes in Yahoo Japan and Alibaba Group
Activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP on Thursday said it would nominate nine candidates for the board in an attempt to overthrow the entire board of Yahoo including its chief executive.
Starboard has been pushing for changes at Yahoo since 2014 and owns about 1.7 percent of the company.
Microsoft's partnerships and acquisition strategy head Peggy Johnson is also part of the effort to finance a possible Yahoo buyer, Recode said.
Microsoft, which made a hostile bid to buy Yahoo in 2008, had no interest in making a more significant bid, but others do, Recode said.
Deep Throat’s advice to Woodward and Bernstein was never so true. If you want to understand what’s happening in politics, “follow the money.”
In an Op-Ed piece for The NY Post, Ev Erhlich says consider this new FCC proposal to mandate rules for set-top boxes in your home. Even though you have never had so many options and choices for video, the FCC wants to require you to add a second box inside your home. Why? To help Google distribute television.
Today, you can get TV from cable or satellite, as well as Netflix, Roku, Apple and all sorts of other companies competing for your dollar. So why does Google deserve an FCC handout to get into the TV business — especially when every other company competing in this space has managed to do so without an FCC leg up? Follow the money.
Ev Erhlich
While the FCC says such a rule will promote retail competition in set-top boxes, a leading Wall Street analyst, Jason Bazinet, recently looked at the economic fallout from this idea and found that the mandate is really about a massive transfer of huge chunks of the TV business to tech companies like Google — essentially a government giveaway that will pile new monopolies on Google’s already heaping plate and give it a back door into the TV business without negotiating for programming or paying a dime for the rights.
Promoting set-top box “competition” — as proponents of the rule claim they want to do — is merely a decoy.
How does the FCC’s proposal do that? To start, according to Erhlich, it would allow Google to “scrape” all the programming running into your home and relay it through its own box. Then Google can serve you up its own ads, track your viewing habits and bury disfavored shows in its mysterious search algorithms.
It can also gain access to valuable revenue streams like on demand, digital-rights licensing, home-shopping services and more.
Cumulus Media has filed suit in a bid to ban an on-air personality from another station.
Cumulus's WMDH NashFM 102.5 in New Castle filed a Delaware Circuit Court 4 lawsuit this week against Amanda Rollen and Hoosier AM/FM LLC, which operates five radio stations in Marion and four in Kokomo.
According to the suit – filed by Indianapolis attorneys John Drake and Todd Kaiser – Rollen was an on-air personality and programming assistant for NASH-FM until last Oct. 2.
The Indy Star reports the lawsuit alleges Rollen, a Muncie resident, in December 2012 signed a “non-competition” agreement in which she promised to “not to engage in the same or essentially the same job for any commercial radio station within a 50-mile radius” of NASH-FM’s transmitter for six months after leaving the New Castle station.
The suit says Rollen began working for the Hoosier AM/FM stations in Marion and Kokomo on Oct. 20, in “direct violation” of the non-competition agreement.
Attorneys for Cumulus Radio Corp. are seeking temporary and permanent injunctions prohibiting Rollen from working for Hoosier AM/FM “as an on-air personality, conducting remote broadcasts (or) carrying out production and programming activities.”
The lawsuit also seeks monetary damages and compensation for legal expenses.
According to the suit, the transmitter for WXXC Star 106.9 FM in Marion is 40 miles from the WMDH FM transmitter along North Prairie Road in Springport, while the business address for several of Hoosier AM/FM’s Marion stations is 37 miles from the Springport transmitter.
ESPN has confirmed to Vocativ that Curt Schilling will be returning to the Monday Night Baseball booth as an analyst this season. Schilling has been a part of ESPN’s baseball coverage since last October and was originally announced as an addition to the booth in January.
On March 1, Schilling was a guest on Sports KCSP 610 AM in Kansas City. (See Original Posting, Click Here). The conversation veered to Hillary Clinton’s campaign and Schilling—a man not lacking for political hot takes—told the hosts, “If she’s allowed to get to the general election before she’s in prison I’ll be stunned and upset.” He went on to add that if he had his druthers, “after what happened to General Petraeus, she should be buried under a jail somewhere.”
Schilling was not immediately suspended or reprimanded, but at the time, an ESPN spokesperson said, “We are addressing it.”
Well, at some point in the past three weeks they addressed it. “We’ve addressed it with Curt,” an ESPN spokesperson told Vocativ via email.
Evidently, Schilling’s desire to see Clinton locked away in some horrible subterranean prison—or just buried in a grave that is conveniently located underneath a prison—did not violate ESPN’s guidelines for 2016 Presidential Election coverage, which state: “We should refrain from political editorializing, personal attacks or ‘drive-by’ comments regarding the candidates and their campaigns.”
In a rare move, Fox News host Megyn Kelly has directly responded to something Donald Trump has shared over Twitter, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
While the retweet from the GOP presidential frontrunner did not directly involve Kelly — for a change — it was criticized as being sexist, which was one of the questions Kelly put to Trump during the first network debate that enraged him.
On Wednesday night, Trump retweeted a meme someone made that used a glamorous picture of his wife, Melania, a former model, in comparison with an unflattering picture of Ted Cruz's wife, Heidi. The meme said: "No need to 'spill the beans.' The images are worth a thousand words."
The reference is to the most recent feud between Trump and Cruz, which started Tuesday night, when Trump threatened to "spill the beans" about Heidi after he accused the Texas senator of using a semi-nude picture of his wife in an attack ad aimed at Mormon voters in Utah.
Kelly responded to the Trump retweet Thursday morning with one word: "Seriously?"
WIRY Hometown Radio in Plattsburgh, NY (Burlington VT) is now broadcasting on 100.7 FM as well as 1340 AM.
"We've been working on this for about 15 years," said WIRY Hometown Radio Owner and General Manager Bill Santa said. "We believe it will give us a bigger audience and a wider reach."
The two stations will have largely the same format, Santa said. They may tweak their programming a little for FM, maybe with more music and possibly some syndicated shows at night.
Santa bought the station in 1995 and changed the name to Hometown Radio WIRY.
WIRY 100.7 FM (2.3 Kw) Red=Local Coverage Area
Santa said he is proud to be the only station that is still based in Plattsburgh and to now offer this additional service to its residents.
"I think Plattsburgh should have an FM station," he said.
Bob Woodruff, renowned ABC News television journalist, will receive the NAB Distinguished Service Award (DSA) during the 2016 NAB Show in Las Vegas. Woodruff will accept the award at the NAB Show Opening, sponsored by Blackmagic Design, on Monday, April 18.
“Bob Woodruff is a shining example of excellence in television news reporting,” said NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith. “From Afghanistan to Iraq to North Korea, Bob has been on the front lines of the most important stories. The personal tragedy he has faced in pursuit of the news, in addition to his philanthropic efforts, make him more than qualified for NAB’s highest honor.”
Each year, the NAB DSA recognizes members of the broadcast community who have made significant and lasting contributions to the industry. Previous award recipients include Jerry Lewis, Jorge Ramos, Bob Schieffer, Michael J. Fox, Mary Tyler Moore, President Ronald Reagan, Edward R. Murrow, Bob Hope, Walter Cronkite and Oprah Winfrey, among others.
Woodruff has been covering major national and international stories for ABC News since 1996. In December 2005, he was named co-anchor of “ABC World News Tonight,” taking over for Peter Jennings. Woodruff has provided live coverage of critical world events, such as the 2004 Asian tsunami, the war in Afghanistan and North Korea’s denuclearization process. In January 2006, while reporting on U.S. and Iraqi security forces, he was seriously injured by a roadside bomb.
In February 2007, only 13 months after being wounded in Iraq, Woodruff returned to ABC News with “To Iraq and Back: Bob Woodruff Reports.” The primetime documentary chronicled his traumatic brain injury and the plight of thousands of service members who suffer from similar injuries. Woodruff was honored with a Peabody Award in 2008 for his reporting on the topic.
Also from ABC, Ben Sherwood, Disney|ABC Television Group President and Disney Media Networks Co-Chairman, will deliver opening remarks and participate in a fireside chat with NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith at the NAB Show Opening. Smith will also provide the “State of the Broadcast Industry” Address.
A longtime WAJR 1440 AM radio personality has died. Jim Stallings, 54, passed away Thursday after a battle with an aggressive form of brain cancer, according to WV Metro News.
Stallings had worked with West Virginia Radio Corporation since 1985. For decades, he co-hosted “Morgantown A.M.” with Kay Murray on WAJR 1440 AM in Morgantown. “Jim and Kay,” as they became known, brought local issues to their many loyal listeners.
“He could take a boring subject on our talk show, a boring subject into a fun, entertaining subject,” Murray recalled. “It’s the one thing Jim thought radio should be. Entertainment. He used to tell me, man if you can’t leave the air without putting a smile on someone’s face, what are we doing here every day.”
“Jim Stallings was a great broadcaster and an even better person,” said West Virginia Radio Corporation President & CEO Dale Miller. “Jim takes a prominent place in WAJR’s 75 year heritage and our entire radio family already misses him.”
WAJR’s Kyle Wiggs, who handled the sports morning shift with Stallings for 20 years, said the radio personality was devoted and passionate every day.
In 1918...sportscaster Howard Cosell was born. He died Apr. 23, 1995 at 77.
After the war, Cosell began practicing law in Manhattan, primarily union law. Some of his clients were actors, and some were athletes, including Willie Mays. Cosell's own hero in athletics was Jackie Robinson, who served as a personal and professional inspiration to him in his career. Cosell also represented the Little League of New York, when in 1953 an ABC Radio manager asked him to host a show on New York flagship WABC featuring Little League participants. The show marked the beginning of a relationship with WABC and ABC Radio that would last his entire broadcasting career.
Cosell hosted the Little League show for three years without pay, and then decided to leave the law field to become a full-time broadcaster. He approached Robert Pauley, President of ABC Radio, with a proposal for a weekly show. Pauley told him the network could not afford to develop untried talent, but he would be put on the air if he would get a sponsor. To Pauley's surprise, Cosell came back with a relative's shirt company as a sponsor, and "Speaking of Sports" was born.
Cosell took his "tell it like it is" approach when he teamed with the ex-Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher "Big Numba Thirteen" Ralph Branca on WABC's pre- and post-game radio shows of the New York Mets in their nascent years beginning in 1962. He pulled no punches in taking members of the hapless expansion team to task.
Otherwise on radio, Cosell did his show, Speaking of Sports, as well as sports reports and updates for affiliated radio stations around the country; he continued his radio duties even after he became prominent on television. Cosell then became a sports anchor at WABC-TV in New York, where he served in that role from 1961 to 1974. He expanded his commentary beyond sports to a radio show entitled "Speaking of Everything".
Cosell rose to prominence covering boxer Muhammad Ali, starting when he still fought under his birth name, Cassius Clay. The two seemed to have an affinity despite their different personalities, and complemented each other in broadcasts. Cosell was one of the first sportscasters to refer to the boxer as Muhammad Ali after he changed his name and supported him when he refused to be inducted into the military. Cosell was also an outspoken supporter of Olympic sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith after they raised their fists in a "black power" salute during their 1968 medal ceremony. In a time when many sports broadcasters avoided touching social, racial, or other controversial issues, and kept a certain level of collegiality towards the sports figures they commented on, Cosell did not, and indeed built a reputation around his catchphrase, "I'm just telling it like it is."
Cosell's style of reporting very much transformed sports broadcasting. Whereas previous sportscasters had mostly been known for color commentary and lively play-by-play, Cosell had an intellectual approach. His use of analysis and context arguably brought television sports reporting very close to the kind of in-depth reporting one expected from "hard" news reporters. At the same time, however, his distinctive staccato voice, accent, syntax, and cadence were a form of color commentary all their own. In 1943...Jimmy Durante (actor/singer/comedian) & Garry Moore (actor/comedian/game show host) had their radio debut. They teamed for The Durante-Moore Show . Durante's comic chemistry with the young, brushcut Moore brought Durante an even larger audience.
"Dat's my boy dat said dat!" became an instant catchphrase. The duo became one of the nation's favorites for the rest of the decade, including a well-reviewed Armed Forces Radio Network command performance with Frank Sinatra that remains a favorite of radio collectors today.
Moore left in mid-1947, and the program returned October 1, 1947 as The Jimmy Durante Show. Durante worked in radio for three years after Moore's 1947 departure.
In 1958…Reporting to Ft. Chaffee, Arkansas by bus after his military induction, Elvis Presley had his famous hair cut short by Army barber James Peterson. The pop icon was assigned to the Second Medium Tank Battalion of the 2nd Armored Division, the "Hell On Wheels" division once led by General George Patton, based at Fort Hood, Texas.
In 1967…At the RKO 58th Street Theatre in New York City, the Who and Cream made their American debuts at Murray the K's Easter Show.
In 1968...actor Douglas Evans, who was an announcer at LA’s KFI
Radio in the 30’s, and appeared in more than 100 movies, died in
Hollywoood at age 65.
In 1971…New York's WNBC became the first U.S. radio station to ban Brewer and Shipley's hit "One Toke Over The Line" because of alleged marijuana references in the song's lyrics.
In 1979...personality Joe Montione started at 93 KHJ in L-A
In 1982…Humorist/radio and television writer (Milton Berle, Perry Como)/radio actor (Easy Aces and other programs with his wife Jane)/Radio Hall of Famer Goodman Ace died at age 83.
In 1998...Bernard Meltzer WOR 710 AM died.
Bernard Meltzer
His advice call-in show, "What's Your Problem?," aired from 1967 until the mid-1990s on stations WCAU-AM and WPEN-AM in Philadelphia, WOR-AM and WEVD-AM in New York and in national syndication on NBC Talknet.
A city planner by training, with a civil engineering degree from City College of New York and a master's degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Meltzer moved from a career as a Philadelphia expert in urban problems to a radio host on WCAU. In 1973 Meltzer's show moved to WOR in New York.
Meltzer's show provided counsel on a wide range of quandaries, ranging from financial to personal: callers were as likely to ask about family crises, parenting issues and romantic problems as they were to ask about plumbing, home improvement or investment problems.
Segments were often bracketed by Meltzer delivering aphorisms or reciting moralizing poetry ("What shall we do with grandma, now that she's old and gray?") in his distinctive smooth, soothing, quiet voice. His show at one time held the highest ratings among adults in his time slot. Thanks to a doctoral degree earned by correspondence from an unaccredited university, listeners usually referred to him as "Doctor Meltzer."
Meltzer learned he had Parkinson's Disease around 1985, continuing on WOR until a brief final stint on WEVD in the 1990s.
His favorite saying was: "Courts are made for judges and lawyers". Another favorite, used to provide some comfort to callers and listeners, was: "The good people in this world far outnumber the bad." In 2006…Country music singer/songwriter/TV co-host (Hee Haw)/radio station owner (KNIX AM & FM-Phoenix, KUZZ-FM-Bakersfield, California)/Country Music Hall of Famer Buck Owens died of a heart attack at 76.
In 2015…Radio veteran (WSGN, WERC) John Ed Willoughby, a popular morning show personality in Birmingham, Alabama for 37 years, partnered with Tommy Charles and then Doug Layton, died at age 80.
Former CBC broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi has been acquitted on four counts of sexual assault and one count of overcoming resistance by choking.
Judge William Horkins announced his ruling today in the Ontario Court of Justice. The decision follows an eight-day trial held in Toronto at the beginning of February.
In a decision that was scathing of the three complainants, Horkins repeatedly pointed to inconsistences in their stories that he said ultimately undermined their credibility and raised the issue of reasonable doubt.
Horkins says all he had to go on was the women's credibility, which he said cross-examination showed to be sorely lacking.
THE ACCUSED: Jian Ghomeshi, 48, was the former popular host of the CBC Radio program “Q” before he was fired in October 2014. Ghomeshi was born in England to Iranian parents and moved to the Toronto area as a child. While at CBC, he was regarded as a star media personality known for his dulcet tones and an interview style that drew out interesting nuggets of information from celebrity guests.
THE COMPLAINANTS: Three women, only one of whom can be named, are behind the charges brought against Ghomeshi. Lucy Decoutere, an actress known for her role on the TV show “The Trailer Park Boys,” chose to go public with her allegations that Ghomeshi choked her “to the point she could not breathe” and slapped her “hard three times on the side of her head.”
THE CHARGES: Four counts of sexual assault and one count of overcome resistance by choking. The alleged offences took place in Toronto between December 2002 and July 2003.
THE EARLY DEFENSE: Right as the allegations against him began to surface, however, Ghomeshi issued a lengthy Facebook post on the day he was fired from the CBC saying he had done nothing wrong. He said his employment was terminated because of the risk of his private sex life being made public “as a result of a campaign of false allegations pursued by a jilted ex girlfriend.” He said that while he engaged in “rough sex,” he only participated in sexual practices that were “mutually agreed upon, consensual, and exciting for both partners.”
WHAT'S NEXT?
Some image experts believe the 48-year-old Ghomeshi could possibly become a media star again.
The first thing Ghomeshi should do is start showing “a little bit of humility,” says one expert.
“Ghomeshi needs to demonstrate that he’s a human being, he’s sympathetic, that he understands that maybe there are two sides to every story and maybe the women who charged him, they have their side too,” says Martin Waxman, who conducts digital media training through Martin Waxman Communications.
The difference between an 18-year-old and a 34-year-old is often like night and day, according to Neilsen.
From where they live to what they wear to how much discretionary income they take home, a vast array of differences exist within what is often portrayed as a monolithic group of consumers.
Likewise, according to Nielsen’s Q4 2015 Total Audience Report, Millennials’ don’t have a uniform media palate. Their lives are in rapid transition as they finish their educations, join the workforce, move into their own homes and start families. And how they connect and what they connect with follows suit.
The report broke Millennials into three life stage groups and found true in media preferences and device penetrations within each. The life stages are:
Much has been made about Millennials turning their collective gaze toward PCs, tablets and smartphones, but the report noted that, like other media habits, digital consumption depends on life stage. While tablet ownership is lowest among On Their Own Millennials, this group actually used all three devices significantly more than the other two groups during the month of November 2015.
Overall, On Their Own Millennials spent more than 94 hours using these devices in November 2015—about 10 more hours than all 18-34 year olds and about 18 more hours than Dependent Adults. Conversely, Dependent Adult Millennials tie the other life stages for the highest penetration of PCs but have the lowest usage.
The report found that radio reaches 90% of Millennials who are Dependent Adults and 89% of Millennials who are On Their Own. But that number rises to 92% among Millennials who are Starting a Family. This group contains a higher percentage of Hispanics, who tend to be heavy users of radio.
Knowing how these segmented groups within the larger Millennial demographic use and have access to both media and devices gives a critical, cross-platform line of sight to programmers, advertisers and agencies seeking a path to reach them.
