Betty White, the trailblazing television star whose more than eight-decade career saw her go from unforgettable roles on “The Golden Girls” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” to becoming a cultural icon in her 80s and 90s, has died just weeks before her 100th birthday.
Law enforcement sources told TMZ the 99-year-old icon passed at home Friday morning, reports The NY Post.
The eight-time Emmy winner had just spoken to People for this week’s issue celebrating what would have been her birthday and said that she was “in such good health.”
“I try to avoid anything green. I think it’s working,” she quipped at the time.
White held the record for the longest TV career of any entertainer — making her debut in 1939 when the medium was just an experiment and going on to appear as an actress, host and in-demand guest well into her 90s.
But she’ll be best remembered for her scene-stealing roles in two pioneering sitcoms — as the promiscuous cooking show host Sue Ann Nivens on the “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” in the 1970s and sweet-natured simpleton Rose Nylund on “The Golden Girls” in the 80s.
“If an actor can get one great character in their career that’s something,” Syracuse University TV professor Robert Thompson told The Post.
“Those two shows are her great legacy … because people will continue to watch that stuff. They’ve really got classic status.”
White was born in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park on Jan. 17, 1922, the only child of parents Tess, a homemaker, and Horace White, an electrical engineer.
The family moved to California a few years later — eventually winding up in Los Angeles, where the future star grew up in the shadow of Hollywood.
She was bitten by the showbiz bug when she wrote herself into the lead role of a school play. She then scored her first TV gig just a month after graduating from Beverly Hills High School in 1939 — singing “The Merry Widow” on an experimental local channel.
The appearance, at age 17, came months before the medium was introduced to the masses at the New York World’s Fair.
In 1952, White co-created and starred in a Saturday-night sitcom called “Life with Elizabeth” — becoming one of TV’s rare female producers and earning her first Emmy nomination.
She continued her pioneering role both in front and behind the camera with the short-lived NBC talk show “The Betty White Show” in 1954.
Some stations in the South threatened to pull the show off the air over the inclusion of African-American tap dancer Arthur Duncan in the cast, but White famously told them to “live with it.”
“She was probably one of the nicest, grandest, greatest people I’ve had the chance to meet in my life,” said Duncan in 2018. “Whenever she walked into a room, it lit up.”
During the 1960s, White became a regular guest on TV game shows — where she met her third and final husband, “Password” host Allen Ludden, who she stayed with until he died in 1981.
In 1973, the already popular “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” was looking to cast the character of Sue Ann Nivens, described in the script as an “an icky-sweet Betty White type” — and ended up hiring the real thing.
Nivens — a cooking show hostess at Mary Richards’ fictional TV station — was “cloyingly sweet on the surface and something of a dragon underneath, with a tinge of nymphomania,” White wrote in her 1995 memoir. “I was born for the role!”
For the 1970s, a character like that was “a big deal,” Thompson said.
“Sue Ann Nivens was a woman who enjoys sex and does things that allow her to satisfy that enjoyment. Betty White as Sue Ann Nivens was doing in the 1970s what ‘Sex and the City’ wouldn’t get around to the late 1990s,” he said.
The job netted White her first — and second — prime-time Emmy awards.
She followed the statue up with a third when she was cast on NBC’s “The Golden Girls” in 1985.
Initially, 63-year-old White was expecting to play the man-hungry Blanche Devereaux, but the pilot director felt it was too similar to her character on the “Mary Tyler Moore Show,” so instead she was gifted with the loveably dim-witted Rose Nylund.
Dave Hughes, whose popular DCRTV.com blog about the radio and television industry in the nation’s capital and Baltimore markets, has died at age 63, according to Neal Augenstein at WTOP.
Dave Hughes, whose newsy gossip blog DCRTV.com focused on the radio industry in the Washington and Baltimore markets years before the creation of Twitter and Facebook.
Patricia Hughes tells WTOP her brother, Dave, died on Dec. 27 — apparently of a heart attack.
“He was fine, then suddenly gone,” she said. “Dave was an amazing brother and a dear friend — I will miss him terribly.”
Hughes was born in New York City in 1958, lived in Reston, Virginia for years, and moved to North Carolina approximately two years ago. “Dave loved radio and TV his entire life,” said his sister.
Jim Farley was vice president of news and programming at WTOP in 1997, when DCRTV first launched.
“It was a funny little operation, run by a quirky guy,” said Farley. “A real radio junkie, not a regular journalist.”
Farley said Hughes launched the site shortly after “the Washington Post abandoned its radio column — DCRTV became the only game in town.”
According to Augustein, in the days before social media became the most prominent source of industry gossip, DCRTV’s short news blurbs — often leaked, without attribution by people employed by local radio and television stations were considered a “must read,” by local media personalities.
“People in the radio business like to know what’s going on in their industry,” said Farley. “DCRTV got some scoops, and he also got some things dead wrong.”
Unburdened by the tenets of journalism, well-placed gossip often appeared on DCRTV before local radio and television stations issued press releases.
After more than 40 years on Vermont radio stations, Terry Jaye is signing off today … although he expects he will not be gone forever, according to The Rutland Herald.
Terry Jarrosak, 66, who has been an on-air personality for WJJR 98.1 FM, is planning to broadcast his last regular show today. On Thursday, he explained a life in radio provided a connection to the community, which adopted him as part of their morning.
“For me, it was never about, ‘Hey, let’s play another great song.’ I mean, I’m going to play these songs over and over and over again. It wasn’t about playing the next great hit song. It was about what happens between the songs. Having fun with the public, doing stuff that meant something,” he said.
Jarrosak is from the Rutland area and went to school in West Rutland, where he worked on PEG-TV while a high school sophomore, and Dean College in Franklin, Massachusetts, where he majored in theater, before going to Castleton State College where he majored in communications.
He recalled that Bob Gershon, now a professor emeritus, who taught communications for 40 years, had convinced him to come back to the college where Jarrosak went on to teach classes on radio and television for 20 years. He added that a number of the students from those classes went on to work in radio and broadcasting.
Jarrosak, who said he adopted the on-air name “Terry Jaye” early in his career, which started in 1978 in
Bennington at WHTC-FM.
“It was a brand-new FM station. As a matter of fact, no one listened to FM. Everyone listened to AM back in those days. FM was the new thing. AM was where you wanted to be, so they stuck me on the FM station,” he said.
He went on to WSYB 1380-AM and 100.1-FM, around 1979 and realized that’s where he wanted to be.
He noted a number of “great mentors” including Jack Healey; Bob Bascomb; Alex Dunn; Brian Collamore, who is now a state senator representing Rutland County; Ralph Smith and Dick Noble, who had been the station manager.
Nanci Gordon, who had been Jarrosak’s on-air partner for almost 20 years, said she remembers that she and Jarrosak were known in the community as “Mr. and Mrs. Rutland.”
“The first morning show we did together was March 4, 1991. It was the bicentennial of the state of Vermont, which is why I remember it so vividly. At the end of the show, he closed the show, saying, ‘Freedom and unity forever.’ And I remember thinking, ‘This is gonna be good. We’re going to work well together.’ And, indeed, within two months, I felt like we had been working together for years,” she said.
The collapse of Hong Kong's last big pro-democracy news outlet, Stand News, caps one of the world's most dramatic declines in press freedom this year, reports Bloomberg.
From he closure of Jimmy Lai's Apple Daily newspaper in July to the raid, arrests and asset seizures that precipitated Stand News's shuttering Wednesday, the global financial hub has gone from being one of Asia's most free-wheeling media markets to one of its most regulated. In addition to employing a national security law that carries sentences as long as life in prison, Hong Kong authorities have began charging journalists and internet users under a colonial-era sedition law that can jail a writer for up to two years.
While Hong Kong's crackdown is unique to events in the former British colony, where Beijing is eager to prevent a return of the mass democracy demonstrations of two years ago, similar changes were seen across the globe in 2021. Governments — threatened by pandemic-fueled economic upheaval and emboldened by former President Donald Trump's campaign against "fake news" — appear poised for more steps to silence critical coverage in the year ahead.
In China, journalist Zhang Zhan is reportedly close to death amid a hunger strike in protest against her four-year jail sentence for reporting on Covid-19. Employees of Twitter Inc. who didn’t delete accounts criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government faced the threat of prosecution in India, the world’s biggest democracy. In Russia, authorities this month targeted two human-rights groups for closure, including one that tracks political prisoners. Iran, Egypt and Zimbabwe all moved to weaken journalists’ ability to report on the reality of the pandemic.
Journalism was completely or partly blocked in almost three-quarters of the 180 countries ranked in the latest survey by non-government organization Reporters Without Borders. The group found that 488 journalists were in jail, an all-time high since it began compiling numbers in 1995.
"Press freedom is on the back foot,” said Keith Richburg, director of the University of Hong Kong's Journalism and Media Studies Center and president of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong. “Trump helped create echo chambers of fake news, where anything that criticizes you is fake.”
"What's happening in Hong Kong is part of a pattern of retrenchment,” he added. “The scope of countries where the press is actually free is getting smaller and smaller. Countries play lip service to the idea of press freedom without actually practicing it."
The takedown of Stand News was more than just a blow to the local opposition. It marked the erasure of an influential organ of civic debate. The online platform founded in 2014 had in recent months investigated poor labor conditions and city officials receiving gift baskets from beleaguered property developer China Evergrande Group. The closure was the latest of several shocks since China imposed the national security law in June 2020 and began to crack down on Hong Kong civil institutions where criticism of the Communist Party once flourished. Over the past 12 months, some of the city’s largest labor unions have disbanded, international non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International have left town and a new legislature was elected under a system that vetted candidates for their loyalty to the ruling party. More than 160 people have now been arrested by the local national security department.
The top airlines trade group filed an emergency request with the Federal Communications Commission Thursday asking for a delay in the rollout of new 5G wireless service near airports that it says threatens to disrupt flights.
Bloomberg reports Airlines for America, which represents the 10 major U.S. passenger and cargo airlines, said more time is needed to resolve the dispute. It’s calling on the regulatory agency to delay use of airwaves near dozens of international airports, including Newark Liberty in New Jersey, John F. Kennedy in New York and George Bush Airport in Houston.
The FCC had awarded wireless network providers AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. access to new spectrum, called C-Band, with plans for new 5G service to begin Jan. 5. The airline group said the agency “has never provided a reasoned analysis of why it has rejected the evidence submitted by the aviation interests.”
An FCC spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Airlines and other aviation-industry groups have been warning that there could be significant flight disruptions if the 5G airwaves were expanded, saying they could interfere with aircraft equipment. So-called radar altimeters, which beam radio waves at the ground to determine a plane’s altitude, use frequencies that are close to those to be used by the new 5G service.
The Federal Aviation Administration on Dec. 23 issued a Safety Alert for Operators warning that “a wide range” of aircraft safety devices could malfunction and laid out the process it will follow to issue specific restrictions on flights if needed.
The wireless companies said they would roll out the 5G service at temporarily reduced power in the coming months to alleviate fears, but airline groups say the offer isn’t enough. CTIA, a trade group representing the wireless industry, said that active 5G networks using the same spectrum band work safely in almost 40 countries.
The total number of new COVID cases across the world now tops one million a day on average, according to The New York Times. The United States, Canada and most of Western Europe are hardest hit. Sixteen states and Puerto Rico have reached their highest levels yet in the pandemic.
Although 78,000 people are in hospitals for COVID treatment in the U.S., the death rate remains significantly lower than earlier in the pandemic. Early data suggest that the new Omicron variant is more contagious but less deadly than the Delta strain.
New York City is once again the epicenter of the pandemic, with 44,000 new cases recorded Thursday. About 30 percent of the Fire Department's emergency medical service personnel are out sick. The Centers for Disease Control has issued an advisory urging travelers to avoid cruise ships, whether or not they're vaccinated. The Cruise Lines International Association said it was "disappointed" and "perplexed" at the decision.
JUST IN: Amid a record-breaking surge, the U.S. is now averaging more COVID-19 cases per day than at any other point in the pandemic, according to new data from the CDC. https://t.co/qb3NMCQPqJ
CHECK IT OUT: The New York Times maps the virus county by county.
A ray of hope came from South Africa, where the omicron strain emerged. The South African government says infections have peaked and are declining as fast as they rose. "It was a flash flood more than a wave," said Fareed Abdullah of the South African Medical Research Council.
🔥BOULDER RESIDENTS FLEE WILDFIRES: More than 30,000 residents of Boulder County, Colorado, have been ordered to evacuate to escape wildfires fanned by powerful winds up to 80 miles per hour. The entire populations of Superior and Louisville were ordered to flee. There were at least three active fires yesterday.
Images from the crew from Brush Truck 11 as they assist in fighting multiple fires in Boulder County. pic.twitter.com/Re6t8wGTyk
➤TRUCKER'S 110-YEAR SENTENCE COMMUTED: Colorado Governor Jared Polis has reduced the 110-year prison sentence of a truck driver convicted of vehicular homicide to 10 years. More than five million people signed a petition asking for a reduced sentence for Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos. Four people died in the fatal accident after the truck's brakes failed on I-70 in Lakewood.
Colorado Gov. Polis commutes the prison term of a truck driver who was sentenced to 110 years following a fatal 2019 accident, reducing the sentence to 10 years. https://t.co/0iN4RBxIg3
Speaker Pelosi announces a series of events at the Capitol next week to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot. https://t.co/SzEFjg9TDK
🍬STUDY..A FAN OF BLACK COFFEE AND DARK CHOCOLATE? IT’S IN YOUR GENES: If you prefer your coffee black then you probably also prefer dark, bitter chocolate. Northwestern University researchers say coffee drinkers with the genetic variant that reflects a faster metabolism of caffeine prefer bitter, black coffee, and those same individuals prefer plain tea over sweetened tea, as well as dark chocolate over milk chocolate. It’s believed these people also prefer plain coffee and tea because they associate the bitter flavor with the boost in mental alertness they crave from caffeine, and it has nothing to do with the taste. Researcher Marilyn Cornelis explains, “It’s possible these people are just very sensitive to the effects of caffeine, and they also have that learned behavior with other bitter foods.” Future studies will try to look into the genetic preference for other bitter foods, which “are generally linked to more health benefits.”
➤HERE’S WHY YOUR KIDS LIKE FIDGET TOYS: Fidget toys, such as fidget spinners and pop toys, are very popular with kids. But why do kids like them so much? Richard Gottlieb, CEO of Global Toy Experts says fidget toys allow for manipulative play, similar to the satisfaction one gets from twirling a pencil around one’s fingers. Their collectability also makes them fun for kids, as they come in a variety of shapes and colors. Gottlieb says fidget toys also allow play that’s not about achieving any particular result, which could be a big reason why they are so popular. He adds, “The average kid works 60 hours a week if we consider anything overseen by an adult work. Sometimes the only place they get to relax is in the back seat of the car, and something like the fidget spinner or Pop It is portable, and they can just sit back and engage with it.” Another expert says the toys might be tapping into an unconscious need to train a child's fine motor skills, or a way to compensate for the lack of movement demanded by our daily schedules.
🏈 HALL OF FAME FINALISTS ANNOUNCED: The finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2022 have been announced, and they include three players in their first year of eligibility. They are defensive end/outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware, wide receiver Andre Johnson and wide receiver/returner Devin Hester.
CHECK IT OUT: For the full list of finalists, click here.
🏀BUCKS MAKE IT 5 IN A ROW: The Milwaukee Bucks extended their winning streak to five games in a row last night with a 136-118 victory over the Orlando Magic. Giannis Antetokounmpo alone scored 33 points.
Yesterday's scheduled Golden State Warriors game against the Denver Nuggets was postponed. The NBA said the Nuggets didn't have enough healthy players.
🏈PANTHERS QUARTERBACK INJURED: Pittsburgh Panthers quarterback Nick Patti was injured during the first quarter of the Peach Bowl against the Michigan State Spartans yesterday. Davis Beville, a sophomore, stepped in to replace Patti. Michigan State won the game, 31-21.
🏈SOUTH CAROLINA DEFEATS NORTH CAROLINA: The South Carolina Gamecocks defeated the North Carolina Tar Heels 38-21 in the Duke's Mayo Bowl in Charlotte on Thursday. Yes, the Mayo Bowl. South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer got drenched with more than four gallons of the stuff after his team won. We don't know what they did to the coach of the losing team. CHECK IT OUT: Beamer takes a bath (below).
🏈PURDUE DEFEATS TENNESSEE 48-45: The Purdue Boilermakers won the Music City Bowl in Nashville over the Tennessee Volunteers by 48-45. It has been Purdue's best season since 2003.
iHeartMedia Atlanta has announced the debut of the new WBZW El Patron 96.7, ¡Pura Musica Perrona!, effective January 1, 2022. The addition of El Patron 96.7 adds a second Hispanic brand to the Atlanta market, joining the Spanish contemporary hits station, Z105.7
El Patron 96.7 will broadcast regional Mexican music including a unique mix of Banda, Norteño and Rancheras. Artists featured include Grupo Firme, La Adictiva Banda San Jose de Mesillas, Calibre 50, Los Dos Carnales, Banda MS and Christian Nodal.
“With the launch of El Patron 96.7, we are proud to continue the tradition of being the innovator and leader of Atlanta’s Hispanic media landscape,” said Orlando Rosa, Program Director for Z105.7 and El Patron 96.7. “With the rapidly growing Hispanic population in Atlanta, as well as emerging musical tastes, this move puts us in a position to super-serve all of our Hispanic listeners, advertisers and the community.”
➦In 1910...Actor Dick Kollmar was born in Rigewood NJ. He starred as 'Boston Blackie' in the long-running radio show, and co-hosted a WOR New York chat show with his wife, gossip columnist Dorothy Kilgallen. On TV he hosted the series Broadway Spotlight & Guess What. He died Jan. 7 1971, an apparent suicide at age 60.
➦In 1914...Roy Rogers’ sidekick Pat Brady was born in Toledo Ohio. He appeared in more than 100 episodes of TV’s Roy Rogers Show, after hooking up with Roy in films & on radio. He also sang with the western group Sons of the Pioneers. He died in a car accident Feb. 27 1972 at age 57.
➦In 1920...cowboy actor & narrator Rex Allen was born on a ranch in Arizona. Although he sang on radio’s WLS National Barn Dance, published over 300 songs, and starred in 19 Republic western movies, he is best remembered today for his distinctive narration of dozens of Disney films & TV shows. He died Dec 17, 1999 just days short of his 79th birthday, after being accidently run over in his own driveway.
➦In 1923...In London,, the BBC began using the distinctive Big Ben chime ID.
➦In 1923...the first transatlantic radio broadcast of a voice occurred between Pittsburgh and Manchester, England.
➦In 1926...KOMO signed on the air in Seattle at AM 980. Today the longtime Fisher Broadcasting outlet has an all-news format at AM 1000.
In July 1926, KOMO was founded on Harbor Island as KGFA 980 by two owners: Birt F. Fisher, whose lease on Seattle radio station KTCL was about to run out, and the Fisher brothers of Fisher Flouring Mills, who had been on the island since 1911. (The Fisher Brothers and Birt Fisher were not related.) In preparation for the switch to the new station, Birt Fisher changed KTCL's call sign to KOMO.
In December, his lease ended, and he took the call letters with him to KGFA. KOMO 980's first broadcast was December 31, 1926. The studios moved to Downtown Seattle in 1927. The station also began a long-running affiliation with NBC Radio that year as well, primarily with the Red Network, but also with the short-lived West Coast NBC Orange Network from 1931 to 1933. Over the following years, KOMO's frequency would go from 980 to 1080, back to 980, down to 920, up to 970, then back to 920, and settled at 950 after the NARBA frequency shakeup in 1941.
Circa 1948
Fisher's Blend Station, owner of KOMO, bought NBC Blue Network affiliate KJR from NBC in 1941. In 1944, KOMO switched frequencies with KJR (then at 1000 kHz) and sold KJR off two years later. At its new frequency, KOMO began broadcasting with 50,000 watts of power from its current transmitter site on Vashon Island in 1948. New studios at the corner of Fourth and Denny, near what is now the Seattle Center, were dedicated in February 1948.
➦In 1928...For the first time Auld Lang Syne was played by Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians to bring in 1929, during the band’s annual New Year’s Eve Party at New York’s Hotel Roosevelt Grill. The event was heard on the CBS radio network, and became the longest running annual special program in broadcast history.
➦In 1940...ASCAP prevented the radio industry from playing any ASCAP-licensed music. The ban lasted for ten months. It was in reaction to a dispute between the radio networks and ASCAP, the American Society of Composers and Publishers.
➦In 1943...Country singer John Denver was born Henry John Deutschendorf. Denver was killed AT age 53 on Oct 12, 1997, when his home-built high-performance aircraft he was piloting over Monterey Bay, California. crashed.
➦In 1961...LA radio station KFWB hired the Beach Boys for $300, appearing under that name for the first time, to perform at their Ritchie Valen’s Memorial Dance in Long Beach. Previously the group had played California nightclubs as The Pendletones, as Kenny and the Cadets, and as Carl and the Passions.
➦In 1963...The "Dear Abby Show" premiered on the CBS Radio network. The 5-minutes program aired for 11 years.
➦In 1967...Radio stations across the nation had to comply with an FCC mandate that AM/FM outlets in major cities had to air non-duplicated programming. The limit was 50 percent for simulcasts. Here's a NY Times story dated December 31, 1966 concerning NYC stations...
➦In 1970...Paul McCartney filed a suit against the rest of The Beatles to dissolve their partnership.
➦In 1972... “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” aired for the first time on NBC-TV. The annual Times Square special moved to ABC-TV two years later. Three Dog Night, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Helen Reddy, and Al Green, performed.
➦In 1982...the "CBS Mystery Theater" aired its final episode after 8 years on radio.
➦In 1982...the NBC Radio network cancelled practically all of it's daily features.
➦In 1985...singer Rick Nelson was killed when fire broke out aboard a private plane that was taking him to a New Year’s Eve performance in Dallas. His fiancee and five other people were also killed. the fire was caused by a malfunctioning gas heater.
Nelson was 45.
➦In 1989...The final edit was added to the traditional WLS Music Montage.
Every New Year's Eve, the "Top 89" songs of the year were counted down on WLS-AM (and FM). After the #1 song was played at about 4 minutes before Midnight.
Each year added about a minute of the previous top songs in Chicago. The montage originally started short, as you can guess, and ultimately ended up as this 27+ minute marathon.
After WLS-AM changed to all-talk in 1989, this montage was no longer heard in Chicago. But thanks to Scott Childers, this version can be heard exactly as it was played every year. Kudos to Scott for putting this together!
This is an appreciation to the production work that Scott, Tommy Edwards (the originator) and the production staff created over the years.
Thanks to Scott Childers for the permission to post this. Check out his site at www.scottchilders.com.
➦In 2013...Veteran talk radio personality Bob Grant died at age 84. His career spanned more than 60-years.
Grant began working in radio in the 1940s at the news department at WBBM-AM in Chicago, as a radio personality and television talk show host at KNX-AM in Los Angeles, and as an actor. During the Korean War, he served in the Naval Reserve.
He later became sports director at KABC-AM in Los Angeles, where after some substitute appearances he inherited the talk show of early controversialist Joe Pyne in 1964 and began to build a following. Grant hosted three shows on KABC-AM in 1964 titled, "Open Line," "Night Line," and "Sunday Line."
Grant was approached to come to New York by executives at WMCA 570 AM when the station was becoming a talk station. He was recommended to them by broadcast executive Jack Thayer, who had been the station manager of KLAC. Grant was opposed to the move, as he hated what he knew about New York i.e. the subways, crime, and congestion. He also had four children and a home in Los Angeles.
Grant was convinced to come to New York when an executive said to him at the end of a meeting, "It's just too bad that the number-one talk-show host in America doesn't want to come to the number-one market in America." Grant came to New York and did his first show on WMCA on September 21, 1970, where he worked for station manager R. Peter Straus.
After being in New York for a short time, Grant wanted to go back to Los Angeles. He was contacted by the former news director at KLAC, who was now a program director at another station to join his station, but Grant declined, because he had signed a two-year contract with WMCA. Grant's unhappiness being in New York led to him becoming angry with the callers. He hoped to get fired by R. Peter Strauss, however his ratings soared as he got angrier.
Burton Cummings is 74
🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:
Actor Anthony Hopkins is 84.
Actor Tim Considine (“My Three Sons”) is 81.
Actor Sarah Miles (“The Big Sleep”) is 80.
Actor Barbara Carrera (“Never Say Never Again”) is 80.
Guitarist Andy Summers of The Police is 79.
Actor Ben Kingsley is 78.
Actor Tim Matheson is 74.
Singer Burton Cummings of The Guess Who is 74.
Actor Joe Dallesandro (“The Limey”) is 73.
Bebe Neuwirth is 63
Bassist Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith is 70.
Actor James Remar (“Dexter”) is 68.
Actor Bebe Neuwirth (“Madam Secretary,” “Cheers”) is 63.
Singer Paul Westerberg is 62.
Actor Val Kilmer is 62.
Guitarist Ric Ivanisevich of Oleander is 59.
Guitarist Scott Ian of Anthrax is 58.
Actor Lance Reddick (“Fringe,” ″The Wire”) is 52.
Singer-actor Joe McIntyre of New Kids on the Block is 49.
Cellist Mikko Siren of Apocalyptica is 46.
Singer Psy is 44.
Drummer Bob Bryar (My Chemical Romance) is 42.
Drummer Jason Sechrist of Portugal. The Man is 42.
Actor Ricky Whittle (“American Gods”) is 42.
Actor Erich Bergen (“Madam Secretary,” ″Jersey Boys”) is 36.
Good Karma Broadcasting will pay a total of $15 million — in multiple installments — to acquire ESPN Radio stations in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, according to The Milwaukee Business Journal citing a recent FCC filing.
Milwaukee-based Good Karma on Dec. 13 announced plans to acquire the stations and anticipates closing the transaction during the first quarter of 2022. The company filed documents the week of Dec. 20 with the Federal Communications Commission that include details of the acquisitions.
The ESPN Radio deals represent an expansion into the nation’s largest media markets for Good Karma, which is led by founder and CEO Craig Karmazubn. Good Karma owns multiple stations in metropolitan Milwaukee, including news-talk-sports WTMJ 620 AM and ESPN Radio station WKTI-94.5 FM as well as Wisconsin stations in Madison, Columbus and Beaver Dam and stations in Cleveland and in metro Palm Beach, Florida.
The transaction involves Good Karma acquiring ESPN 1050 (WEPN-AM) in New York, ESPN 710 (KSPN-AM) in Los Angeles and ESPN 1000 (WMVP-AM) in Chicago from ESPN. Good Karma also will perform ESPN’s obligations under an existing local marketing agreement for 98.7 ESPN (WEPN-FM) in New York.
Craig Karmazin
All three stations will remain ESPN Radio affiliates and continue broadcasting ESPN Network Radio content as well as locally produced programming. Good Karma has been running ESPN 1000 in Chicago since October 2019 under a local marketing agreement.
The FCC filing shows one transaction between Good Karma and ESPN for all three stations. Good Karma already paid $500,000 toward the $15 million total amount and will pay another $500,000 at the closing. After that, Good Karma will make $500,000 payments each quarter for seven years.
A spokeswoman for Good Karma said the company has no comment on the FCC filing and noted the deal will proceed pending FCC approval.
In addition to the transaction involving the three stations, Good Karma and ESPN said Dec. 13 they agreed to extend their ESPN digital sales agreement that began in 2015. The agreement calls for Good Karma Brands to represent display and video inventory on ESPN.com and the ESPN App to local and regional advertisers in 14 media markets.
Mike Francesa will become an unrestricted media free agent effective at midnight Friday.
Even though Francesa’s final show on WFAN 660 AM / 101.9 FM was in July of 2020 – when he ended what had been a limited role on the station – he has remained under contract to Audacy, WFAN’s parent company
He was limited in what he could do on other outlets and has turned down most requests to appear even as a radio guest, reports Newsday's Neil Best.
The limited exceptions have included a couple of mini-reunions with his former partner, Chris "Mad Dog" Russo, on SiriusXM. He also appeared on WFAN to wish departing former colleagues Joe Benigno and Steve Somers well.
But now, at 67, he is plotting his next media move, free to do as he wishes. Two things he said he will not do: Work full-time anywhere, or work in any capacity at WFAN.
It is not that he has ill will toward his former station. He considers himself a FAN lifer. But that ship has sailed.
"I have no interest in going backward," he said. "My time at the FAN is done. My story at WFAN is written. That wouldn’t interest me . . . I’d like to see the people there get opportunities."
Francesa left Audacy on good terms but has acknowledged regrets about his messy final act, including a return to the station in May of 2018, four months after an elaborate farewell that lasted most of 2017.
He left his full-time job again after 2019 and spent the first half of 2020 with a limited presence on Radio.com and WFAN before departing altogether.
Since then, his public sharing of sports opinions mostly has been limited to his Twitter account.
"From a FAN standpoint, to me, the book is closed," Francesa said. "But that doesn’t mean I still don’t feel like broadcasting. I’ve missed the audience. I’ve missed the buzz. I’ve missed some of that. It’s just logical."
Now anything goes. So what will it be, if not WFAN?
Francesa said he has had offers but is focused on something "that would be fun or gives me a chance to have a new experience . . . Maybe I’ll surprise somebody and do something that would surprise me."
Time marches on, in life and on radio. WFAN has undergone a significant generational shift over the past two years, to the point Francesa said he sometimes does not recognize the voices he hears on the station.
Salem Media Group has announced its Chicago, Illinois station WIND AM 560 The Answer will begin 2022 with an overhaul of its news and traffic operations.
For the past 17 years, Mike Scott has anchored newscasts on the station between 5am and noon each weekday. Scott appeared on the station through an agreement between AM 560 and Total Traffic and Weather Network and NBC News Radio. That agreement is not being renewed when it expires at the end of the year.
Effective January 1, 2022, Mike Scott will transition into a full-time position with AM 560 as News Director where he’ll continue to anchor newscasts and will begin handling traffic reporting duties, as well.
“I’m incredibly gratified to be able to continue in my role on the air with AM 560 and Salem Media,” Scott said. “We have some of the best listeners in all of Chicago radio and some of the best on-air talent. I look forward to providing the first look at the day’s news for our audience.”
In addition to continuing in his role on the air with AM 560, Scott will also assume anchoring duties for the Salem Podcast Network’s Daybreak Insider Podcast, which launched in September of 2021.
During his time with AM 560 in Chicago, Scott has also anchored newscasts for Salem’s WWTC-AM 1280 The Patriot in Minneapolis. He previously served as the Chicago City Hall reporter for MetroSource news, beginning in 1999.
Additionally, JoAnn Genette will join AM 560 as an afternoon news anchor through an agreement with Remote News Service. Genette will anchor weekday afternoon newscasts through 6:30pm. Genette has been heard on a number of Chicago stations, including WLIT-FM, WLS-FM, WLS-AM, WBBM-AM, and WKSC-FM, where she was heard in mornings and served as the station’s Public Affairs Director for seven years.
Another new addition to AM 560 will be longtime Chicago traffic reporter Jill Urchak who will begin handling afternoon traffic reports. Urchak has spent close to 25 years as a traffic reporter in Chicago, including WGN-AM, WBBM-AM, WSCR-AM, and WLUP-FM, as well as WBBM-TV.
“News and traffic are cornerstone elements for our format and for our radio station,” said Jeff Reisman, regional vice president and general manager of AM 560. “Keeping Mike Scott on our team while also adding Joann and Jill solidifies our commitment to serve our audience. We have a team of veteran broadcasters with experience and insight that our listeners can trust.”
Walt Disney stock had the worst performance of the 30 stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average this year, down 15% as of Wednesday, as the company struggled to overcome slowing growth in its streaming business and the reopening of its theme parks after pandemic shutdowns, reports Barron's Daily.
Disney reported slower-than-anticipated subscriber growth for Disney+ in November, but maintained its target of up to 260 million subscribers by the end of fiscal 2024, up from 118 million in September.
KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Brandon Nispel wrote earlier in December that Disney’s streaming position “is likely to drive multiple years of rapid growth,” with profitability improving as its theme parks and film businesses recover.
Disney World said Tuesday it will reopen its Typhoon Lagoon Water Park on Sunday after a two-year shutdown. Disneyland and Disney California Adventure reopened to non-California visitors in June.
Being a Dog of the Dow can have its advantages, according to Bespoke Investment Group. The Dow’s biggest loser for the past 25 years gained an average of 12% the next year, compared with a 6.7% gain for the biggest winner. More recently, the biggest loser has gained the next year only three of the past eight years.
The latest wave of the coronavirus pandemic may hit its peak towards the end of January. Then, if it follows the pattern seen in South Africa, it could subside quickly. That is the projection of Dr. Anthony Fauci, interviewed on CNBC yesterday. He added cautionary words about the unpredictability of the path of coronavirus thus far. A record number of coronavirus infections have been recorded in the U.S. this week.
The U.S. is now averaging more than 181,948 new COVID cases daily, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Of those, 73 percent are the newer Omicron variant.
The governor of Georgia has called on the National Guard to help overwhelmed healthcare staff in the state's hospitals and nursing homes. Other states that have called on the Guard include New York, New Hampshire, Indiana and Maine.
New record numbers of cases also were recorded in Denmark, France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy and Spain.
Yesterday was two years from the day that the World Health Organization was alerted to an outbreak of a mysterious new viral illness in Wuhan, China.
➤FDA..RAPID AT-HOME COVID-19 TESTS MAY NOT BE AS SENSITIVE TO OMICRON: Early research suggests some rapid COVID-19 tests may be less able to detect the Omicron variant. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Tuesday that while the antigen tests “do detect the Omicron variant” they “may have reduced sensitivity” meaning it’s possible the tests could miss an infection, particularly in the early stages of the disease. Still, the organization says, “The FDA continues to authorize the use of these tests as directed in the authorized labeling and individuals should continue to use them in accordance with the instructions included with the tests. Antigen tests are generally less sensitive and less likely to pick up very early infections compared to molecular [PCR] tests.”
A heavily armed California man has been arrested after he told law enforcement officers that he would "do whatever it takes" to kill government leaders on his "hit list," including President Biden and Dr. Fauci, authorities say. https://t.co/ENEnOo5vBJ
➤GHISLAINE MAXWELL GUILTY OF SEX TRAFFICKING: Ghislaine Maxwell has been found guilty on five out of six charges related to child sex trafficking. Prosecutors successfully argued that Maxwell recruited underage girls to engage in sexual acts with Jeffrey Epstein from 1994 to 2004. Maxwell faces up to 65 years in prison. Epstein committed suicide in prison in 2019.
➤RED CROSS SEEKS DONORS: The Red Cross is calling on healthy Americans to donate blood due to "historically low" supplies across the nation. Blood centers have less than a one-day supply ready, a Red Cross spokesperson told Fox Business. Blood donations typically are lower in the winter months, but the pandemic has made the shortfall more severe.
💲MINIMUM WAGE RISES ACROSS U.S.: The minimum wage will rise in 26 states on January 1st. There is a wide range among the states, though. Florida's minimum will go from $8.65 to $10 an hour, while California and New York minimums will go to $15 an hour for many workers. CNBC notes that many employers have already raised their wages in response to a tight labor market.
CHECK IT OUT: CNBC maps the minimum wage state by state.
IRS says income from stolen goods and illegal activities must be reported on taxeshttps://t.co/PnYjoVtxz3
➤RETURNING GIFTS ONLINE IS GETTING SO EXPENSIVE FOR RETAILERS THAT THEY MIGHT LET YOU KEEP IT : You might just luck out if you want to return a gift that was purchased online. Optoro, a returns processor, says the cost of online returns is soaring, contributing to increased prices, product shortages and supply chain stress. The company says returning a $50 item is expected to cost an average of $33, up 59 percent from 2020. The bad news: retailers are expected to pass on the cost of returns in the form of higher prices. But the good news: some retailers, namely Amazon, sometimes tell the returner to just keep it, as it would cost them too much to process a return. But, don’t try to game the system to get free stuff, as there’s tracking involved that could catch you trying to take advantage.
Jake Tapper producer quits; is second CNN employee investigated for potential crimes against minors | Just The Newshttps://t.co/XCbnmh3LQh
➤TRAVEL CHAOS CONTINUES: The holiday traveler's nightmare in the air continued yesterday, with about 800 more flights canceled and another 1,000 delayed. Crew shortages due to coronavirus combined with winter storms in the western U.S. are to blame.
🐶WESTMINSTER DOG SHOW POSTPONED: The 146th annual Westminster Dog Show, a perennial highlight of New York's January social calendar, has been postponed due to the spread of Omicron. The Westminster Kennel Club says it hopes to reschedule the show for later in 2022.
🏀CAVALIERS' RUBIO OUT FOR THE SEASON: Cleveland Cavaliers guard Ricky Rubio will be out for the rest of the season, the team announced. He tore the ACL in his left knee during Tuesday's game against the New Orleans Pelicans. Adding insult to injury, the Pelicans won, 108-104.
🏈YOU WIN ONE, YOU LOSE ONE: The Minnesota Vikings got running back Dalvin Cook back from reserve list limbo yesterday, in time for their game against the Green Bay Packers this weekend. Unfortunately, wide receiver Adam Thielen won't be there. An ankle injury has flared up and he'll be on injured reserve for the remainder of the season.
🎾DJOKOVIC WITHDRAWS FROM TOURNAMENT IN AUSTRALIA: Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from the ATP Cup in Australia, the first Grand Slam tennis tournament of the season. He did not cite a reason, but he has previously refused to comment on his vaccination status. Australia is requiring that all players, officials and fans to be fully vaccinated against COVID.
🏈CLEMSON WINS CHEEZ-IT BOWL: The Clemson Tigers beat the Iowa State Cyclones 20-13 in the Cheez-It Bowl in Orlando last night. Clemson quarterback Mario Goodrich had an interception and returned it 18 yards in the third quarter for the winning touchdown.
🏈MARYLAND TAKES PINSTRIPE BOWL: The Maryland Terrapins blew by the Virginia Tech Hokies 54-10 in the Pinstripe Bowl. The undisputed MVP was quarterback Taulia Tagovailoa, younger brother of Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
🏀HEAT-SPURS GAME POSTPONED: The NBA postponed last night's game between the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs because the Heat couldn't produce eight available players for the game. A total of 12 of its players are out with injuries or COVID-related issues.
🏀ISAIAH THOMAS POPS UP IN DALLAS: Isaiah Thomas is joining the Dallas Mavericks for 10 days. It's the last in a series of NBA temp jobs he's taken, the most recent of which was a 10-day stint with the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this month. Thomas was a star for the Boston Celtics until a series of injuries slowed his career.
Thomas is one of 80 players who have signed 10-day contracts with NBA teams this season to fill in for players sidelined by coronavirus protocols.
HISTORIC SNOWFALL: Timelapse video showed snow piling up at a Lake Tahoe backyard throughout December, as the area set a new 50-year snowfall record. The total December snowfall was 202.1 inches, breaking the previous record of 179 inches in 1970. pic.twitter.com/MW9QS8J9XP
Ratings success is nothing new to WBZ-FM 98.5 The Sports Hub. But what it achieved this fall is unprecedented since its launch in 2009, reports Boston.com.
The Sports Hub finished first overall in the fall Nielsen Audio ratings in the men 25-54 demographic, earning a massive 20.7 share in the period from Sept. 16-Dec. 8.
Afternoon-drive program “Felger and Mazz” finished the fall with a 25.0 share, by far the largest any single program has received in this reporter’s dozen years covering Boston sports media.
All of the Sports Hub’s weekday programs finished first in their time slots, with its morning and afternoon drive and midday shows all earning a share higher than 20.
WEEI 93.7 FM finished third (5.6, of which 0.2 is from its online stream). The Sports Hub’s online stream is built in to its overall share.
In morning drive (6-10 a.m.), The Sports Hub’s “Toucher & Rich” show took first (20.7), the highest three-month share it has ever received. WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show” was second (6.5 including 0.7 from streaming).
In middays (10 a.m-2 p.m.), the Sports Hub’s “Zolak & Bertrand” show took first with an all-time high share of 21.9. WEEI’s “Gresh and Keefe” finished third (6.5, including 0.1 for the stream).
In afternoon drive (2-6 p.m.), the “Felger & Mazz” show’s 25.0 share included a 26.7 in December. WEEI’s “Merloni and Fauria” program took fourth (4.5, with no share from streaming).
In the 6-11 p.m. window, The Sports Hub, which features “The Adam Jones Show” weeknights as well as Bruins and Celtics broadcasts, finished first (14.7). Tony Massarotti’s “The Baseball Reporters” show was part of that window in the 6-7 p.m. hour for the first five weeks of the ratings period through Oct. 25. WEEI’s programming, which included “Mut at Night” and some late-season and playoff Red Sox broadcasts, was third (6.8, including 0.4 for streaming).
Last fall, the Sports Hub was first (15.0), while WEEI was fourth (5.0).
In a move that could pave the way for faster WiFi service, an appellate court has upheld a Federal Communications Commission decision to make additional spectrum available for unlicensed use, reports Mediapost.
AT&T, Century Link, National Association of Broadcasters and others challenged the FCC's decision in court, arguing that the agency had discounted the risk of interference with services such as 911 dispatch, and electric grid monitoring.
In an opinion issued Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals largely rejected that argument.
“Petitioners have failed to provide a basis for questioning the Commission’s conclusion that the order will protect against a significant risk of harmful interference, just the kind of highly technical determination to which we owe considerable deference,” Circuit Judge David Tatel wrote in an opinion joined by Judges Patricia Millett and Justin Walker.
The FCC's order specifically freed 1,200 megahertz of spectrum in the 6 GHz band available for use by unlicensed devices, provided they are designed to prevent interference with incumbent users of the 6 GHz band.
The agency said at the time that its decision would result in next-generation WiFi service, which is expected to transmit data at speeds of at least 2.5 times the current standard.
FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel called the court ruling “an important step in clearing the way for next generation Wi-Fi access.”
While the appellate judges upheld the bulk of the FCC's order, they also said the agency hadn't adequately addressed an argument raised by the National Association of Broadcasters. That organization contended that the agency failed to protect broadcasters' licensed mobile operations from interference. The judges directed the FCC to respond to those concerns, but left in place the agency's underlying decision to make spectrum available.
➦In 1911..Actress Jeanette Nolan born (Died at age 86 from a stroke – June 5, 1998). Nominated for four Emmy Awards, she had roles in the television series The Virginian (1962–1971) and Dirty Sally (1974); and in films such as Macbeth (1948).
Nolan began her acting career at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California, and, while a student at Los Angeles City College, made her radio debut in 1932 in Omar Khayyam, the first transcontinental broadcast from station KHJ. She continued acting into the 1990s.
Nolan made more than three hundred television appearances.
➦In 1914...Radio & TV host Bert Parks born (Died at age 77 from lung cancer – February 2, 1992). He is best known for hosting the annual Miss America telecast from 1955 to 1979.
Parks entered radio broadcasting at age 16, for Atlanta's WGST. Three years later, he moved to New York City and was hired as a singer and straight man on The Eddie Cantor Show, then becoming a CBS Radio staff announcer. Parks was the host of Break the Bank, which premiered on radio in 1945 and was telecast from 1948 to 1957, as well as Stop the Music on radio in 1948 and television from 1949 to 1952.
Bert Parks
The success of Stop the Music took a toll on the ratings of the popular radio show hosted by satirist Fred Allen, who began spoofing Parks's program with skits mocking the premise of the show, one called Cease The Melody.
With other celebrities, he hosted NBC radio's Monitor during the 1960s.
Parks' first game show was Party Line on NBC (broadcast from New York City NBC flagship station WNBT), which involved viewers calling in to answer questions and win $5 prizes; Party Line ran from June 8 to August 31, 1947, making its one surviving episode the oldest known game show and one of the oldest surviving television shows to have been recorded. Commercial kinescopes did not come out until fall 1947 (co-sponsored by NBC, DuMont, and Kodak), and the only kinescopes known to predate Party Line are a few episodes of Kraft Television Theater from February and June 1947.
Parks is most famous for hosting the Miss America telecast from 1955–79; each telecast ended with Parks singing "There She Is, Miss America", as the winner was crowned. Following the 1979 pageant, he was unceremoniously fired by the organization (he heard a newscast while on vacation) in an attempt to attract a more youthful audience. The Tonight Show host Johnny Carson led an on-air campaign to get Parks rehired, but was unsuccessful. In 1990, for the 70th anniversary of the Miss America pageant (during which Miss America 1991 was crowned), Parks was brought on by host Gary Collins to sing "There She Is" to the new Miss America, Marjorie Judith Vincent. It was the last time Parks performed the song live.
➦In 1917...actress Nancy Coleman born (Died at age 82 – January 18, 2000). After working on radio and appearing on the Broadway stage, Nancy Coleman moved to Hollywood to work for Warner Bros. studios.
Early in her career as an actress, Coleman portrayed Alice Hughes on the radio version of the soap opera Young Doctor Malone. Coleman also appeared as the lead in the 04/13/1943 episode of "Suspense", entitled "Fear Paints a Picture". On television, she played Helen Emerson on Valiant Lady.
Jack Benny and Fred Allen
➦In 1936...The famous radio feud between Jack Benny and Fred Allen began. Good friends in real life, Fred Allen and Jack Benny inadvertently hatched a running gag in 1937 when a child prodigy, violinist Stuart Canin, gave a very credible performance on the Allen show, inspiring an Allen wisecrack about "a certain alleged violinist" who should hide in shame over his poor playing.
Allen often mentioned his show-business friends on the air ("Mr. Jacob Haley of Newton Highlands, Massachusetts" was Allen's way of saying hello to his pal Jack Haley), and on the Canin broadcast Allen knew Benny would be listening. Benny, according to Allen biographer Taylor, burst out laughing, then responded in kind on his own program. The rivalry gag went on for a decade and convinced some fans that the two comedians really were blood enemies.
The Allen-Benny feud was the longest-playing, best-remembered running gag in classic radio history. The gag even pushed toward a boxing match between the two comedians and the promised event was a sellout, though the match never occurred.
➦In 1942...the radio program, "Mr. and Mrs. North", began it's run on the NBC Radio network. The show was a radio mystery series that aired on NBC and CBS from 1942 to 1954. Alice Frost and Joseph Curtin had the title roles when the series began in 1942.
The characters, publisher Jerry North and his wife Pam, lived in Greenwich Village at 24 St. Anne's Flat. They were not professional detectives but simply an ordinary couple who stumbled across a murder or two every week for 12 years. The radio program eventually reached nearly 20 million listeners.
➦In 1942...Frank Sinatra opened at New York's Paramount Theater for what was scheduled to be a four-week engagement, but turned into eight weeks because of its popularity.
Police were called to help curb the excitement among the screaming teenage girls known as bobbysoxers -- a phenomenon not seen before for a pop singer
➦In 1943...Mike Nesmith of The Monkees was born. He died from heart failure December 10, 2021 at age 78.
➦In 1945...Singer Davy Jones, "the cute one" on TV's The Monkees, was born. He died February 29, 2012 at 66.
➦In 1962...Radio/TV talk host Sean Hannity was born. He started his career as a volunteer talk show host at UC Santa Barbara in 1989.
After leaving KCSB, Hannity placed an ad in radio publications, presenting himself as "the most talked about college radio host in America." Radio station WVNN in Athens, Alabama (part of the Huntsville market), then hired him to be the afternoon talk show host. From Huntsville, he moved to WGST in Atlanta in 1992, filling the slot vacated by Neal Boortz, who had moved to competing station WSB. In September 1996, Fox News co-founder Roger Ailes hired the then relatively unknown Hannity to host a television program under the working title Hannity and LTBD ("liberal to be determined"). Alan Colmes was then hired to co-host and the show debuted as Hannity & Colmes.
Sean Hannity
Later that year, Hannity left WGST for New York, where WABC had him substitute for their afternoon drive time host during Christmas week. In January 1997, WABC put Hannity on the air full-time, giving him the late-night time slot. WABC then moved Hannity to the same drive-time slot he had filled temporarily a little more than a year earlier. Hannity was on WABC's afternoon time slot from January 1998. The WABC slot continued until the end of 2013. Since January 2014, Hannity has hosted the 3–6 p.m. time slot on WOR in New York City.
Hannity's radio program is a conservative political talk show that features Hannity's opinions and ideology related to current issues and politicians. The Sean Hannity Show began national syndication on September 10, 2001, on over 500 stations nationwide. In 2004, Hannity signed a $25-million five-year contract extension with ABC Radio to continue the show until 2009. In June 2007, ABC Radio was sold to Citadel Communications and in the summer of 2008, Hannity was signed for a $100- million five-year contract. As of March 2018, the program is heard by over 13.5 million listeners a week.
In January 2007, Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia) signed a group-wide three-year extension with Hannity on over 80 stations. Hannity signed a long-term contract to remain with Premiere Networks in September 2013.
➦In 2005...Longtime Seattle radio personality Lan Roberts died of lung cancer at 69, just days after his birthday.
Lan Roberts
During the 1960s and 1970s, Roberts was a high-profile jock with KJR in Seattle.
Roberts left KJR for rival top 40 station KOL in a late 60s talent raid and returned to KJR in the early 70s. He was known primarily for comedic skits and gags, working the coveted morning drive shift. Lan Roberts was a master of voices and surrounded the top 40 hits of KJR with odd characters with names like Phil Dirt and The Hollywood Reporter.
Later in life, Roberts returned to live in his old home town and worked as a radio consultant. He gained a new following by sharing his liberal political views on his website. In the last ten years of his life he suffered from lung cancer, and urged visitors to his website not to smoke.
➦In 2014...Scotty Rhodarmer aired his final show on WWNC 570 AM in Asheville, NC. Rhodarmer did the morning show for 50 years beginning in 1954. WWNC, whose call letters stand for "Wonderful Western North Carolina", signed on the air on February 21, 1927, as Asheville's first radio station,
In the days before FM became popular, WWNC was sometimes the most popular station in the United States with an Arbitron share over 40 percent, sometimes as high as 50 percent for Scotty Rhodarmer.
Suzy Bogguss is 65
🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:
Actor Russ Tamblyn is 87.
Singer Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary is 84.
Director James Burrows (“Cheers,” ″Taxi”) is 81.
Actor Fred Ward (“The Right Stuff”) is 79.
Actor Concetta Tomei (“Providence,” ″China Beach”) is 76.
Singer Patti Smith is 75.
Musician Jeff Lynne is 74.
TV host Meredith Vieira (“Today,” ″The View”) is 68.
Actor Sheryl Lee Ralph (“Moesha”) is 66.
Country singer Suzy Bogguss is 65.
Actor Patricia Kalembar (“Sisters”) is 65.
Former “Today” show anchor Matt Lauer is 64.
Actor-comedian Tracey Ullman is 62.
TV host Sean Hannity is 60.
Ellie Goulding is 35
Actor George Newbern (“Providence”) is 58.
Singer Jay Kay of Jamiroquai is 52.
Drummer Byron McMackin of Pennywise is 52.
Actor Meredith Monroe (“Dawson’s Creek”) is 52.
Actor Daniel Sunjata (“Rescue Me”) is 50.
Actor Maureen Flanigan (“7th Heaven”) is 49.
Actor Jason Behr (“The Grudge,” ″Roswell”) is 48.
Actor Lucy Punch (“Ben and Kate”) is 44.
Singer-actor Tyrese is 43.
Actor Eliza Dushku (“Dollhouse,” ″Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) is 41.
Guitarist Tim Lopez of Plain White T’s is 41.
Actor Kristin Kreuk (“Smallville”) is 39.
Singer-guitarist Wesley Schultz of The Lumineers is 39.
Singer Andra Day is 37.
Actor Anna Wood (“Falling Water,” ″Reckless”) is 36.
Singer Ellie Goulding is 35.
Actor Caity Lotz (“DC’s Legends of Tomorrow”) is 35.
Actor Jeff Ward (“Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”) is 35.
