Saturday, May 12, 2018

May 13 Radio History


➦In 1941...Pop singer Ritchie Valens, remembered for the hits "La Bamba" and "Donna," was born. He died in a plane crash with singers Buddy Holly and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson on Feb. 3, 1959 at 17.

➦In 1942..in the middle of WWII. Herr Adolph Hitler and his Nazi occupiers of the Netherlands and other European countries confiscated all radios.



➦In 1956... after 16 years as a Sunday feature on CBS Radio, “Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch,” aired its final episode. The half-hour  broadcast for Wrigley’s Gum featured 10 to 15 minute western action skits featuring Autry and his sidekick Pat Buttram, plus musical selections by “the ‘Singing Cowboy.” Autry went on to be owner of a chain of West Coast radio stations, Golden West Broadcasters, and LA TV station KTLA.

➦In 1963...Dave Kurtz and Jerry Lee signed on the Philadelphia station now known as WBEB 101.1

Previously called WDVR (Delaware Valley Radio) and WEAZ, the station pioneered the Beautiful Music format beginning in 1963.


The station was known for playing Beautiful Music featuring pop tunes reworked in the form of instrumentals. They played two vocalists per hour, as the instrumentals would be based on the works of such artists as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Neil Diamond and The Carpenters. By the 1980s, the station increased the amount of music with vocalists to four per hour as they also added more artists suited to an adult contemporary format. Also in 1980, WDVR changed its call letters to WEAZ, and began using the slogan EAZY 101 with Patrick O'Neal (later Robert Urich) as its spokesperson. By 1984, EAZY 101 became the #1 rated station in Philadelphia.

In 1988, the station dropped Beautiful Music for a soft adult contemporary format. This format change came after research tests showed that people who grew up after the advent of rock and roll did not like instrumental music. With the format change, the station was satellite-delivered, but by the next year, some of the airstaff returned. By 1990, the station's name was shortened to "EZ 101". The station would shift to a mainstream adult contemporary format in 1993, and its call letters would eventually change to WBEB, B101.

Airchecks form 1982-84...



On December 10, 2013, WBEB announced they would be rebranding as "MoreFM at 101.1". The DJs and format would stay the same. The name change took place on December 26. With the name change, the station dropped their "Saturday Night 80's" program.


➦In 1969...The Beatles, now with beards and long hair, met at EMI House in London to replicate the cover of their first album for the cover of their current album project, "Get Back." When that project evolved into "Let It Be," the photograph was put aside until its eventual use for the cover of the compilation release, "The Beatles 1967-1970," nicknamed the "blue album."

➦In 2010...one of the most prolific organists in the Golden Age of Radio, Rosa Rio died at age 107.  During her 22 years in radio, the “Queen of the Soaps” provided the organ background music for 24 soap operas and radio dramas, and played for an average of five to seven shows per day, including Bob and Ray, Ethel and Albert, Front Page Farrell, Lorenzo Jones, My True Story, The Shadow and When a Girl Marries.





➦In 2016…Retired advertising executive Bill Backer died at the age of 89. He wrote the lyrics to the Coca-Cola jingle/hit song "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing (In Perfect Harmony)," and ad slogans "The Real Thing" and "Things go better with Coke" for the same client, "Everything you ever wanted in a beer … and less" and "Miller Time" for the Miller Brewing Company, and "Soup is good food" for Campbell's brand.

Music Modernization Act Gets U-S Senate Introduction

Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) Friday introduced the Music Modernization Act. According to Variety, the fact that the Senate bill, S.2823, is virtually identical to HR 5477 – the House MMA bill passed unanimously on April 25 – signals all systems go for smooth passage and an update to music laws that the industry has been laboring to update for the past decade.

The bill has been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee and has been scheduled for hearing Tuesday.

Having opposed the House version, background music company Music Choice as well as SiriusXM are those expected to oppose Senate passage, but they are among a small minority; the industry overwhelmingly supports the bill Hatch called “crucially important” earlier this year, stating, “our music licensing laws are convoluted, out-of-date, and don’t reward songwriters fairly for their work. They’ve also failed to keep up with recent, rapid changes in how Americans purchase and listen to music.”

The industry, including the National Association of Broadcasters,  applauded this latest move to update the nation’s music laws.

As in the House, the new Senate bill combines three separate pieces of legislation:
  • The Music Modernization Act of 2018, S.2334, introduced by Hatch and Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) in January, which updates licensing and royalties as pertains to streaming.
  • The CLASSICS Act (or Compensating Legacy Artists for their Songs, Service, & Important Contributions to Society Act), introduced in February by Chris Coons (D-DE) and John Kennedy (R-LA) to ensure that songwriters and artists receive royalties on pre-1972 songs.
  • The AMP Act  (or Allocation for Music Producers Act), introduced in March by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley(R-LA) and ranking committee member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA.) with the support of and Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and Kamala Harris (D-CA).

K-C Radio: Danny Clinkscale EXITS WHB 810 AM

Danny Clinkscale
Danny Clinkscale, one of the most recognizable voices on the Kansas City sports talk radio scene, has concluded his tenure at WHB 810 AM.

On his Twitter account, Clinkscale used the term “downsizing.”

According to kansascity.com, WHB moved to a sports format in 1999 and Clinkscale soon joined after a stint at KMBZ. He wore many hats for the station, including play-by-play duties for UMKC men’s basketball and Missouri Mavericks ice hockey. He was also the first to call the Kansas City T-Bones' minor-league baseball games.

He’s a co-host on Between the Lines with Kevin Keitzman, a SportsCenter anchor and has been the long-time host of “College Football Gameday,” and the Chiefs’ postgame call-in program.

When Clinkscale started, Kansas City was an incomplete sports town. The Royals were lousy and Sporting KC, then the Wizards, was in its infancy. The Chiefs and college sports dominated the conversation.

But Sporting became a consistent winner after rebranding in 2010, and the Royals grew into a championship team. Those events helped change the city’s sports dynamic.

Clinkscale said he’s not ready to leave the business.

“I don’t know where it (the future) leads,” Clinkscale said. “It (the parting of ways) wasn’t expected and isn’t ideal. But 18 years in one place in the radio business is a remarkable run.”

St. Louis Radio: Bob Romanik Hit With Protection Order

Bob Romanik
Radio talk show host Bob Romanik, has been hit with a court order of protection filed by an Affton-area man who claims the radio host has targeted him for violence.

According to stltoday.com, Caleb Friz was granted the order May 4 by St. Louis County Circuit Court Associate Circuit Judge Mary B. Schroeder.

Romanik is the host of “Kool Killer Kountry Radio” on KQQZ 1190 AM  and bills himself as the “Grim Reaper of Radio.” He is regularly criticized for making racist, homophobic and misogynistic slurs on the show.

In his filing to get the order, Friz said Romanik has given out Friz’s home address both on live broadcasts and on the station’s website. Friz told the court that Romanik has told his listeners to “visit” Friz.

“He threatened me and is trying to incite an assault against me,” Friz wrote in his petition. He also said in the petition that Romanik’s action may have stemmed from Friz’s attempt to get advertisers to boycott the station.

Romanik called the court action the “biggest, bogus court order I’ve ever seen” and denied he gave out Friz’s address to incite violence.

“He wants to get me to stop talking, so he went after my advertisers, a boycott. That’s what started all this. And he put my home address on his Facebook page, so I put his address on the air,” Romanik said Friday in a phone interview.

The order prohibits Romanik from threatening violence against Friz, either on the radio, on social media, through podcasts; to communicate with Friz in any manner; and to physically stay at least 500 feet away from Friz.

MA Radio: Kevin McGonagle, Dana Hersey OUT At WBOQ

Kevin McGonagle, Dana Hersey
Two popular North Shore radio personalities are looking for a new place to call their broadcast home. WBOQ 104.9 FM, better known as North Shore 104.9, has parted ways with long-time morning co-hosts Dana Hersey and Kevin "Mugs" McGonagle.

According to Patch.com, a spokesperson for Weststport Communications, which owns the station, was not immediately available for comment Friday afternoon. The station's Website has been stripped clean of references to the two hosts. A message on McGonagle's personal Facebook page confirmed that the two are no longer with the station.

The move comes less than five months after switching its format to adult contemporary from Oldies and unveiling a "Keep it Local" branding campaign. But for many listeners, it didn't get more local than Hersey, a long-time Massachusetts radio and TV personality perhaps best known for hosting the "Movie Loft" for several years on WSBK.

The station shifted formats the day after Christmas to what it called a "more family-friendly" format. The shift came after months of testing, Westport said at the time.

WBOQ 104.9 FM (6 Kw) Red=Local Coverage
"The Adult Contemporary format at 104.9 has been in the works for months," it said. "Keep It Local Radio" highlights the station's commitment to live and local programming including local news, weather, sports, happenings, and an interactive local experience with listeners and advertisers, it said.

Columbus OH Radio: Sports WBNS Teams Bishop & Laurinaitis


WBNS 97.1 FM The Fan in  Columbus, OH, has teamed  James Laurinaitis and Beau Bishop fpr a new show entitled "Bishop & Laurinaitis." The new program will focus on the Buckeyes, NFL and all things sports, airing weekdays from 10am-noon.

Laurinaitis, a former Ohio State linebacker, will reunite with fellow Buckeye greats Bobby Carpenter, AJ Hawk and Beanie Wells on the 97.1 lineup.

Laurinaitis is a three-time consensus All-American and former second round NFL draft pick, who announced his retirement from the NFL last year and joined the Big Ten Network as an analyst. Laurinaitis returns to Columbus where he was a four-time Big Ten Champion, two-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and the recipient of the 2007 Butkus Award. He left the NFL as the franchise tackles leader for the Los Angeles Rams.

WBNS 971. fM (20.5 Kw) Red=Local Coverage Area
Laurinaitis is joined by co-host and Montana native Beau Bishop. He recently co-hosted a show on WKRK 92.3 FM The Fan in  Cleveland and hosts "The Eleven Warriors Report" on Spectrum Sports. Beau has covered Ohio State Football since 2007 and has previously worked with Anthony Rothman on 97.1 The Fan.

'Last Man Standing' Gets New Legs


Fox is bringing back the Tim Allen comedy "Last Man Standing" next season.

According to AdAge, the sitcom, which stars Allen as a man trying to maintain his manliness as a father of three girls, was canceled by ABC last year following its sixth season.

At Fox, it's expected "Last Man Standing" will fill one of the holes left on Sunday nights following the cancellation of the comedies "Last Man On Earth" and fan-favorite "Brooklyn Nine-Nine." Fox also canceled the comedy "The Mick."

If it does end up slotted on Sunday nights, "Last Man Standing" will likely air with a rejiggered ad format. Fox is looking to cut about 40 percent of the ad time on Sunday nights, which is also home to animated comedies "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy." It is out selling JAZ pods, or "just a and z pods," which are one-minute commercial breaks with just two spots.

In its final season on ABC, "Last Man Standing" averaged 6.4 million viewers and a 1.2 rating in the core 18-49 demographic. That grew to 1.4 in the three days after the program aired, an industry standard known as C3. This made it ABC's second most-watched comedy behind "Modern Family" at the time.

"Team LMS was in the sixth inning, ahead by four runs, stands were packed and then for no reason, they call off the game. It leaves you sitting in the dugout, holding a bat and puzzled," Allen said in a statement. "Now we get the news from Fox that it's time to get back out on that diamond – hell yes, I'm excited! When I heard the offer to create more episodes of 'Last Man Standing,' I did a fist pump so hard I threw my back out. It's the fans! I could not be more grateful for the fans who wrote petitions and kept up the passion and incredible support for the show…I'm sure audiences will be curious to see what we look like after all these years. Oh, has it only been one year? Well, just goes to show you – a lot can happen in a year."

ABC received plenty of backlash when it pulled the plug on "Last Man Standing," with critics contending the decision had to do with Allen's conservative politics and the right-leaning views of the show.

Stormy Daniels Attorney Gets $175M in Earned Media


Michael Avenatti, the attorney for adult-film star Stormy Daniels, has done 108 interviews on cable news outlets CNN and MSNBC since March 7, according to an analysis by the conservative Washington Free Beacon released Friday.

A study by the publication found that Avenatti, a ubiquitous presence on cable television for the last two months, has appeared on CNN 65 times and MSNBC 43 times between March 7 and May 10.

The 47-year-old attorney has also appeared on broadcast network programs, including NBC's “Megyn Kelly Today” and “Today,” ABC's “The View” and “Good Morning America,” HBO's “Real Time with Bill Maher” and CBS's “Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and “60 Minutes.”

The Hill reports Avenatti has not appeared frequently on Fox News, but was interviewed by anchor Shannon Bream on “Fox News at Night” on March 20.

His cable hits have not nearly been the extent of his media blitz. Avenatti has also been featured on CBS comedy show "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," Showtime's "The Circus," NBC's "Megyn Kelly Today," ABC's "The View," HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," and network morning shows "Today," "CBS This Morning," and "Good Morning America."

Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, is locked in a legal battle with Trump over a $130,000 payment she received weeks before the 2016 election.

The payment was part of a nondisclosure agreement, which Daniels says was regarding an affair she says she had with Trump a decade earlier.

Meanwhile, The Hill reports Avenatti needs to come forward with exactly who is financing his operation, who his sources were for detailed banking information, and whether he really is an attorney solely representing Stormy Daniels or just using her as cover to wage a political operation.

Daniels’s previous lawyer advised her to stick to her agreements. In contrast, Avenatti okayed her violating with impunity her non-disclosure agreement on “60 Minutes” despite a binding arbitration judgment against her. She acknowledged on Twitter that she is not paying for her lawyer. So who is? And did he indemnify her against all multimillion-dollar penalties?

Nashville Radio: Country Artist Kane Brown Visits Ty, Kelly&Chuck

Ty Bentli, Kane Brown, Kelly Ford and Chuck Wicks




It’s a boy! This morning Kane Brown helped Ty Bentli reveal that he and his wife Corri are having a BOY for the second time!



Kane also discussed what getting a number 1 song means to him, as well as what it feels like being nominated for a CMT Award with one of his best friends, Lauren Alaina.

May 12 Radio History


➦In 1908...wireless Radio broadcasting was patented by Nathan B Stubblefield

Stubblefield
Stubblefield (November 22, 1860 - March 28, 1928) was an American inventor and Kentucky melon farmer. It has been claimed that Stubblefield demonstrated radio in 1892, but his devices seem to have worked by audio frequency induction or, later, audio frequency earth conduction (creating disturbances in the near-field region) rather than by radio frequency radiation for radio transmission telecommunications.

He made public demonstrations of voice and music transmission to five receiving locations on the courthouse square in Murray on January 1, 1902, witnessed by at least 1,000 people, apparently using voice frequency transmission through earth conduction, to a radius of one-half mile. Later he demonstrated wireless telephony in Washington, D.C. on March 20, 1902, where voice and music transmissions were made over a third of a mile from the steamer Bartholdi to shore. He demonstrated wireless telephony as well in Philadelphia on May 30, 1902 to a distance of a half mile. His experiments were discussed in leading scientific journals.

In 1903, he could transmit 375 feet without earth connections, using induction. In 1904, he could transmit 423 yards. The total wire required for the transmitting and receiving coils was of a greater length than what would be required to simply interconnect the transmitter and receiver, but the invention would allow mobility.

By 1907, with a 60-foot transmitting coil, he could work 1/4 mile or 1,320 feet "nicely." On May 12, 1908, he received U.S. patent 887,357 for his Wireless Telephone, using the voice frequency induction system. He said in the patent that it would be useful for "securing telephonic communications between moving vehicles and way stations". The diagram shows wireless telephony from trains, boats, and wagons. In foreign patents he showed wireless telephony with cars. However, there is no indication that he was using voice-modulated continuous high frequency waves, as used for radio today.

Stubblefield's inventions did not lead directly to radio as the technology works today, but the public demonstrations in 1902 and the press coverage in the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Washington Post, the Louisville Courier-Journal, Scientific American, and elsewhere helped to spur public interest in the possibilities of wireless transmission of voice and music. Most other inventors of the era sought to provide point-to-point messaging, to compete with telephone and telegraph companies.

Stubblefield in the 1902 was in a sense the "Father of Broadcasting", in that he said to the St. Louis Post Dispatch reporter in 1902, "..it is capable of sending simultaneous messages from a central distributing station over a very wide territory. For instance, anyone having a receiving instrument, which would consist merely of a telephone receiver and a signalling gong, could, upon being signalled by a transmitting station in Washington, or nearer, if advisable, be informed of weather news. My apparatus is capable of sending out a gong signal, as well as voice messages. Eventually, it will be used for the general transmission of news of every description".

➦In 1914...radio & TV newsman Howard K Smith was born in Ferriday Louisiana.  He covered WWII in Europe as one of ‘Murrows Boys’ for CBS radio.  He moderated the first Kennedy-Nixon presidential debate, and went on to be anchor of the ABC evening TV news.   He died Feb 18 2002 at age 87.

➦In 1930…Syndicated gossip columnist Walter Winchell made his radio debut on WABC (then a CBS Radio affiliate) in New York. From 1930 to the late 1950s, his Sunday night broadcasts on the ABC Radio Network were heard by an estimated 20 million people.

Winchell was raised in New York City, and when he was 13 he left school to go into vaudeville with Eddie Cantor and George Jessel. Then he teamed with a singer named Rita Greene (whom he later married and later divorced) as Winchell and Greene. After two years of service in the U.S. Navy during World War I, he returned to the Winchell and Greene act. Quick-witted and inquisitive, Winchell rapidly learned personal and family background and gossip about others with him on the vaudeville circuit, and he took to posting such intelligence, neatly typed and punctuated and with often far-fetched puns, on theatre bulletin boards. One of these documents reached the publisher of Vaudeville News, and he became its Western correspondent. This evolved into a full-time job in 1927, and Winchell’s career as a gossip columnist was launched. In 1924 he was given a show-business column, “On-Broadway,” in the New York Evening Graphic, which he conducted for five years. He moved to the New York Daily Mirror, where his widely syndicated column appeared until 1963. He introduced a weekly radio program in 1932, continuing it until the early 1950s. Winchell’s news reports, always very opinionated, brought him both admirers and detractors. But the reports interested millions of people, as did the Broadway idiom in which he wrote and spoke.

Here's audio from a 1941 broadcast...



➦In 1965…In Hollywood, the Rolling Stones re-recorded "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction," which they had first recorded in Chicago two days earlier. It was this Hollywood version that was released. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked "Satisfaction" #2 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, runner-up to Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone." In 2006 it was added to the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.



➦In 1975...Jefferson Starship gave a free concert for a crowd of 60,000 in New York’s Central Park. Later the band and sponsor of the concert WNEW 102.7 FM were charged $14,000 to cover the cost of the clean-up and damage the mob did to the park.

➦In 2001...the singing barber, Perry Como, a first-line star of radio, TV & recording, died at age 88. He scored fourteen No.1 singles among 150 US chart hits, including the singles ‘It’s Impossible,’ ‘Magic Moments’ and ‘Catch A Falling Star.’  In the 1960’s Como had been television’s highest-paid performer.

➦In 2016… Singer/radio host (WNEW and WNSW-New York)/actor Julius LaRosa, who gained notoriety for being fired by the host on a live, national radio broadcast of "The Arthur Godfrey Show," died at the age of 86.

Friday, May 11, 2018

Salem's Phil Boyce Responds To CNN Report

According to a CNN report, executives at Salem Radio pressured their hosts to support Donald Trump during the 2016 election and even fired one for failing to do so.

Given the fact that media bias is a frequent show topic for most conservative talk show hosts, the idea that a conservative radio company like Salem had some sort of “speech code” for their talent where if they didn’t support Trump they’d be canned fits into a perfect “gotcha” moment for CNN, a favorite target of many talk shows.

Elisha Krauss
But some parts of this story don’t quite add up, according to Larry O'Connor at The Washington Times.

Phil Boyce
Elisha Krauss was one of three hosts on The Morning Answer on KRLA 870 AM The answer in Los Angeles. Her co-hosts were liberal radio veteran Brian Whitman (a staunch opponent of Trump) and conservative wunderkind Ben Shapiro who after leaving KRLA went on to digital super-stardom with his very popular podcast and The Daily Wire website. Krauss went on the record with CNN telling the details of her dismissal at the hands of Salem execs which she believes was due to her criticisms of Trump.

The one remaining member of the Shapiro/Krauss/Whitman morning show is Whitman, the liberal who was the loudest, most vociferous critic of Trump. O'Connor opines if Salem was looking to do some sort of purge in the name of ideological purity, what’s the liberal Trump-hater doing with the plum gig doing mornings in LA?

Phil Boyce, Senior Vice President in charge of Talk Programming for Salem says it had nothing to do with ideology and all to do with good radio.

“Elisha was let go because she failed to develop chemistry with Brian Whitman,” Boyce told O'Connor. “Brian was a keeper, very talented and also against Trump."

Research: The Internet Dominates Mom's Media Time

92% Of All Moms own a smartphone..and sometimes they use them to make phone calls.  The rest of the time, Moms uses them on-line.

The newest Moms and Media 2018 Report was released Thursday by the moms at Edison Research.  The reports indicated smartphone ownership among moms is still on the rise, actually the mobile device remains a must-have. With smartphones, moms are consuming media, engaging social sites and staying organized with various apps. Two-thirds of smartphone moms report using the voice assistants like Siri and Google Assistant.



With data points drawn from both the Infinite Dial series from Edison Research and Triton Digital, the latest report shows how moms in the United States continue to own their tech toolkit, as well as how they perceive the influence of technology on children.

Takeaways:

Total U-S Digital Ad Spend Sets Record

Total U.S. digital ad spend reached a record-setting $88 billion last year, according to the latest IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report, released Thursday by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), and prepared by PwC US.

This represents a 21 percent uptick over the previous year at $72.5 billion, and marks the first time in this report that digital ad revenues have overtaken television (broadcast and cable combined).

Mobile built on its momentum from 2016, when it first took more than half of total revenues--
claiming an even bigger slice of the pie in 2017 at 57 percent. Spend onmobile rose from $36.6 billion in 2016 to $49.9 billion in 2017, marking a 36 percent increase year-over-year.


Other highlights from the report include:
  • Digital video hit a record $11.9 billion in 2017, a 33 percent year-over-year increase from $8.9 billion in 2016
  • On mobile devices, video revenue surged by 54 percent to $6.2 billion, representing the first time that mobile video revenues have surpassed desktop video
  • Social media advertising commanded $22.2 billion last year, rising 36 percent over $16.3 billion in 2016
  • Search revenues reached nearly $40.6 billion in 2017, up 18 percent from $34.6 billion in 2016
  • Banner advertising is up 23 percent to $27.5 billion, 67 percent of which is derived from mobile banners.
  • Digital audio, measured for the second time in a full-year report, is up 39 percent to $1.6 billion from $1.1 billion in 2016
“Consumers are increasingly spending a tremendous amount of time with interactive screens and content – from mobile to desktop and audio to OTT – and brands are in lockstep with a growing commitment to digital ad buys,” said Randall Rothenberg, CEO, IAB. “Mobile captured more than half of the total digital ad spend last year and we can easily expect that share to continue to climb. Video also saw significant growth. That is no surprise—especially after seeing buyers clamoring to get into last week’s NewFronts presentations in New York.”

“Smartphones and tablets have become indispensable tools in the hands of consumers, from the moment they wake up to right before they go to sleep,” said Anna Bager, Executive Vice President, Industry Initiatives, IAB. “A double digit uptick in spend on mobile video is testament to both the pull of mobile and consumer’s never-ending demand for sight, sound, and motion—even while on-the-go. In addition, brands are embracing digital audio at a fast clip, recognizing the power of this burgeoning medium.”

Net Neutrality Rules End June 11

The Federal Communications Commission's rules preventing Internet service providers from blocking or slowing legal traffic, or charging for faster delivery of some content, passed with much fanfare in 2015, will be history on June 11.

According to USAToday, that's two months later than expected but way too soon for supporters of the Obama-era measures, who are suing and pushing for Congressional measures to bring back the so-called net neutrality rules.

These are set to replaced by a set of lighter-touch regulations passed five months ago. The new rules, the Restoring Internet Freedom order approved by the FCC in December 2017, require ISPs to disclose any blocking, throttling or prioritization of their own content or from their partners. But they aren't prevented from doing so.

ISPs have said they won't block or throttle legal websites, though they've left open the potential for charging more for some data delivery.

The order will go into effect next month. Originally, it was expected the rules would take effect in April, but the Office of Management and Budget needed additional time to vet the new regulations.

“Now, on June 11, these unnecessary and harmful Internet regulations will be repealed and the bipartisan, light-touch approach that served the online world well for nearly 20 years will be restored," FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a statement Thursday. Pai, a Republican, who voted against the 2015 rules enacted under an Obama-era FCC, was appointed chairman by President Trump in January 2017.

FCC Call Sign Activity For April 2018


During the period from 04/01/2018 to 04/30/2018 the FCC accepted applications to assign call signs to, or change the call signs of the following broadcast stations.


NBC, Fox Unveil TV Ads Cut Back Strategy


To counter the platforms where ads are sparse or non-existent, networks are trying to cut back. While the effort has been fitful, next season will see its biggest push yet. But one stubborn obstacle persists: making the money work.

To maintain revenue while trimming ads, networks must raise prices on the remaining spots. Less commercial clutter seems like it should make ads more effective (and reduce the chance that viewers change the channel during breaks), but how much that's worth is in debate.

AdAge takes a look at some of the places where you'll find fewer ads next season.

Fox Networks Group

Fox plans to shrink commercials within shows on Sunday nights by as much as 40 percent, according to media buyers familiar with the pitch. During shows like "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy" it plans to implement "just A and Z" pods, or JAZ for short, which include just two spots and run no more than a minute.

It won't extend shows to fill the time. Instead, Fox is also out selling "Fox Blocks," three to six minutes of branded content to air before or after a show.

NBC Universal

NBCU will cut the number of ads in at least 50 original prime-time shows across its broadcast and cable channels by 20 percent and shrink ad time by about 10 percent. This will extend the content of the programs where the ads have been reduced.

The company is also pitching a "prime pod," which it says uses A.I. to match advertising with shows' content. The program could identify a sad scene in an upcoming "This Is Us," for example, and suggest running a contextually relevant ad from Kleenex. The resulting 60-second pod will take the first or last ad break of the show and include two advertisers max.

Revenue Increases 6% For News Corp


News Corporation Thursday reported financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2018.

Fiscal 2018 Third Quarter Key Financial Highlights
  • Revenues of $2.10 billion, a 6% increase compared to $1.98 billion in the prior year, with growth in every segment
  • Net loss was ($1.1) billion compared to nil in the prior year. The loss includes non-cash impairment charges and write-downs of $1.2 billion
  • Total Segment EBITDA was $182 million compared to $215 million in the prior year
  • Reported EPS were ($1.94) compared to ($0.01) in the prior year – Adjusted EPS were $0.06 compared to $0.07 in the prior year
  • Digital Real Estate Services segment revenues grew 27%, benefiting from product innovation and improved yield at both REA Group and realtor.com®
  • Digital revenues represented 29% of News and Information Services segment revenues, compared to 24% in the prior year, reflecting strong paid digital subscriber growth at mastheads
  • Completed the transaction to combine Foxtel and FOX SPORTS Australia in April 2018, with the Company holding 65% of the combined company
Commenting on the results, Chief Executive Robert Thomson said:

Robert Thompson
“We finished the fiscal third quarter with strong revenue growth, led by outstanding performances at our Digital Real Estate Services and Book Publishing segments. Revenues this quarter improved by 6 percent and are up 4 percent for the first nine months of this fiscal year.

We welcome Foxtel to our corporate family. We believe the company is uniquely positioned, given its potential in a rapidly expanding OTT market, with unrivaled sports offerings and premium entertainment and news content. From the fourth quarter, the combination of digital real estate services and pay-TV businesses will account for more than half of our profits and significantly increase recurring subscription-based revenues.

The third quarter once again highlighted the strength of our global digital real estate platform. The segment posted robust 27 percent growth in revenues, as both REA Group and realtor.com® benefited from product innovation and higher yields while becoming more holistic sites for home buyers and sellers.

At our mastheads, digital audience expanded at a time when premium news has become more important to readers and advertisers. The Wall Street Journal, The Times and Sunday Times, and The Australian reported average growth in digital subscriptions of more than 20 percent for the quarter, a testament to the success of their digital transformation."

Brokaw Accuser Calls For Outside Investigation

Linda Vester
A former NBC News correspondent who accused veteran anchor Tom Brokaw of sexual misconduct is refusing to participate in an internal investigation into the matter, instead calling on the network to commission an independent probe.

Variety reported Thursday that Linda Vester has rejected NBC’s offer to conduct an internal investigation into her allegations that Brokaw inappropriately touched her and harassed her in the 1990s.

Ari Wilkenfeld, Vester’s attorney, told Variety that his client would be “more than willing” to participate in an outside investigation.

A spokesperson for NBC Universal told Variety they had reached out to Vester about her claims.

"So far she has not accepted our offer,” the spokesperson said.

In interviews with Variety and The Washington Post, Vester detailed inappropriate encounters with Brokaw, including one in which he invited himself over to her hotel room while in New York, where he then tried to kiss her.

She also alleged Brokaw inappropriately touched her during an encounter in full view of other NBC News employees.


The Hill reports Brokaw has vehemently denied the allegations, calling them a "drive by shooting" and an "assault."

Portland OR Radio: KBOO Hacked By 'Drupalgeddon2' Attack

Hackers hijacked the website of Portland community radio station KBOO 90.7 FM last month, injecting rogue code into the site in order to use the radio station's servers to mine cryptocurrency.

According to Willamette Week, the attack infected computers on April 28, during the last week of the station's spring fundraising drive, says Jenka Soderberg, the web and new media coordinator for the station. KBOO's website is still down.

"The objective of these scripts that were injected into our site seems to be to be part of a cryptocurrency mining scheme—which could be random, or could be that someone suggested our site to the hackers as one they should target," Soderberg wrote in an email to station staff and volunteers.

"We do not know who these hackers are, but have logs that trace their IPs to all over the world," she wrote. "We are working on figuring it out, but it's not easy to do that."

Soderberg tells WW the station usually brings in between $6,000 and $7,000 each day during a drive, but after the attack those numbers were much lower as potential donors struggled with a slow website that kept timing out.

The community station's site has been down intermittently to "disinfect" the code and remove the hostile software. Soderberg says the station hopes to have the website back up on Friday or Saturday.

The breach is part of a massive attack that targeted hundreds of websites, including sites for Lenovo, the University of California at Los Angeles, and the US National Labor Relations Board, that failed to patch a vulnerability in the Drupal content management system. The injected code drained 80 percent of the computing power of infected devices, using the stolen resources to mine cryptocurrency. The hack is being called "Drupalgeddon2".

In the email to staff and volunteers, KBOO said none of its files were accessed. The hackers had IP addresses located across the globe, but the station does not know who is behind the attack.

"It's costing money to fix it," Soderberg says. "It's pretty worrisome."

FBN Host Apologizes For Remark About Senator McCain


Fox Business Network host Charles Payne apologized on Thursday, after an analyst who appeared on his show said that torture "worked on" Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) during his time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

"This morning on a show I was hosting, a guest made a very false and derogatory remark about Senator John McCain. At the time, I had the control room in my ear telling me to wrap the segment, and did not hear the comment," Payne tweeted.

"I regret I did not catch this remark, as it should have been challenged. As a proud military veteran and son of a Vietnam Vet these words neither reflect my or the network’s feelings about Senator McCain, or his remarkable service and sacrifice to this country."

According to The Hill, Payne's apology came after Thomas McInerney, a former Fox News military analyst, rebuked McCain, who urged Senate colleagues on Wednesday to reject the nomination of Gina Haspel, President Trump's pick to lead the CIA.



Haspel has faced criticism from many lawmakers — mostly Democrats — for her ties to a brutal CIA detention and interrogation program in the years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In her confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Haspel vowed not to reimplement such interrogation techniques, calling the tactics "immoral."

Payne asked McInerney on Thursday whether Congress should evaluate Haspel on her personal feelings or on her stated commitment to avoiding the use of such interrogation techniques, which have widely been condemned as torture.

"Well, she can't use it [torture] anymore because we have determined in Congress that it's not legal. The fact is, is John McCain, it worked on John. That's why they call him 'Songbird John,'" McInerney said, asserting that such tactics are effective.

As a POW in Vietnam, McCain was brutally tortured ultimately leading him to falsely confess to crimes.

Report: Barbara Walters Is Done Watching ‘The View’


RadarOnline.com is that Barbara Walters, the founder and original host of 'The View' is disappointed by how much it has changed since her retirement — so much so that she doesn’t even bother to turn on the TV to watch it anymore.

“Barbara never once missed an episode, even when she was traveling she would make sure the program was taped and she would review it,” a source said.

“The content and the tone of the show was everything to Barbara. She saw it as her legacy, and no detail was too small for her to obsess about. But now, she doesn’t even watch the show!”

The insider claimed Walters, 88, believes “it’s too painful to see how much the show has changed,” and how “nasty” the show has gotten.

“Watching the ladies fighting every day does not interest her. It has become so mean that it’s hard to remember a time when the hosts could disagree but still be nice,” the source added.

R.I.P.: Austin TX Radio Icon Sammy Allred

KOKE Fm Website Screenshot
Austin radio legend Sammy Allred passed away at the age of 84.

Allred was on KOKE FM and KVET for decades and brought humor to the shows he hosted. He started his radio career in 1961 as a regular on the Arthur Godfrey Show.

KXAN reports he also appeared on "The Tonight Show" and "Merv Griffin Show."

After KOKE FM, Allred became a DJ at KVET in 1969 where he remained for a decade.

In 1979, Allred and his band, The Geezinslaws, went on tour with Willie Nelson. In the mid-80s Allred made his return back to radio at KVET.

Sammy Allred
In the 1990's Allred joined with broadcast partner Bob Cole to co-host the popular Sam and Bob morning show. The program often took on political topics, with local and state leaders appearing as guests.

Allred was fired from iHeartMedia's KVET 98.1 FM in 2007.  He returned to the air few years later on non-profit radio station KDRP to host a weekly talk program.

Accoridng to the Austin Statesman, Allred and Dewayne Smith formed the comedic country music duo the Geezinslaw Brothers in the 1950s. They were regulars on the “Louisiana Hayride” radio show based in Shreveport, La., in the late 1950s and once opened for Elvis Presley.

The Geezinslaws were the first Central Texas act to land a major-label recording deal, signing with Columbia Records for their 1963 debut “The Kooky World of the Geezinslaw Brothers” after Austin radio personality Cactus Pryor introduced them to New York TV and radio broadcaster Arthur Godfrey.

The Geezinslaws moved to New York in the mid-1960s, and several albums for Capitol Records followed. They made TV appearances on network shows, including Ed Sullivan’s and Jackie Gleason’s, as well as “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson. They also toured with musical giants Roger Miller and Perry Como.

Allred, a member of the Texas Radio Hall of Fame, joined KVET-FM in 1969. In 1990, he joined Bob Cole for a morning show that played country music.

“Sammy Allred was without a doubt the most colorful radio star in the history of Texas,” Cole said Thursday. “He taught and schooled us all in the profession of radio entertainment.”

May 11 Radio History



➦In 1888...American songwriter Irving Berlin was born Israel Isidor Baline in Siberia, Russia.

Whether for Broadway musicals or films, for humorous songs or romantic ballads, his compositions are celebrated for their appealing melodies and memorable lyrics. His many popular songs include “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “God Bless America,” and “White Christmas.” In 1968 Berlin received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

He died following a heart attack Sept. 22 1989 at age 101.

➦In 1912...comedian & actor Foster Brooks was born in Louisville.

Foster Brooks
His career started in radio, notably with Marshall Krieger at station WHAS-AM in Louisville. He was a staff announcer, and his deep baritone voice was also well-suited for singing. Brooks gained fame for his reporting of the Ohio River flood of 1937, where he was featured on emergency broadcasts by WHAS and also WSM-AM from Nashville, Tennessee. In 1952, Brooks appeared on local TV in a short-lived spoof of Gene Autry and his "Singing Cowboys".

He later worked in local broadcasting as a radio and TV personality in Buffalo and Rochester, New York, before moving to the West Coast to launch a career as a stand-up comic and character actor. In Buffalo, Brooks performed with a country and western vocal group known as the Hi-Hatters.

In 1960, Brooks moved with his family to Los Angeles to seek more professional opportunities

He then began his drunk act, which went over well with crowds at Las Vegas nightclubs and on television. Brooks was a frequent guest on talk and variety shows and numerous Dean Martin celebrity roasts. Despite his on-screen personna he actually quit drinking in the early 1960s, on a bet, and remained a teetotaler for the rest of his life. He died Dec. 20 2001 at age 89.


➦In 1946...Jack Barry, later a familiar face on TV game shows, hosted Juvenile Jury as it premiered on WOR radio in New York City. The show was such a hit after five weeks on the air that it moved to the Mutual Broadcasting System coast to coast. Maybe Barry became a bit too familiar in 1959. It was Twenty One, the enormously popular show that Barry hosted, that led to the Quiz Show Scandal that rocked television and the U.S. Congress.


➦In 2006...actor Frankie Thomas, the star of the juvenile adventure series “Tom Corbett Space Cadet” on both radio and TV (he beat out Jack Lemmon for the role), died of respiratory failure following a stroke at age 85.