➦In 1906...Harry Von Zell born in Indianapolis (Died of cancer at age 75 – November 21, 1981), He was an announcer of radio programs and an actor in films and television shows. He is best remembered for his work on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, and for once mispronouncing President Herbert Hoover's name on the air, a slip that was exaggerated on a later comedy record album.
Von Zell broke into show business as a singer and announcer at radio station KMIC in Inglewood, California in the mid-1920s. Later, auditioning for Paul Whiteman's radio show in 1929, he was chosen from a field of 250 announcers. When that series came to an end in 1930, he headed for New York and became a CBS staff announcer, working with Fred Allen, Phil Baker, Eddy Duchin and Ed Wynn. He also announced for The Aldrich Family, The Amazing Mr. Smith, and The March of Time. During the 1920s and 1930s von Zell served as announcer on some 20 shows a week.
His longest-running radio partnership was his nine seasons with veteran comedian Eddie Cantor. From October 1940 to June 1949 von Zell served as Cantor's commercial spokesperson and straight man. As Cantor cast member Dinah Shore's solo career began to blossom, she brought von Zell in as announcer on her Birds Eye Open House program.
As a young announcer, von Zell made a memorable verbal slip in 1931 when he referred to U.S. President Herbert Hoover as "Hoobert Heever" during a live tribute on Hoover's birthday. Hoover was not present at this tribute. Zell's blooper came at the end of a lengthy coverage of Hoover's career, in which Zell had pronounced the President's name correctly several times.
➦In 1934...the first appointments to the newly created Federal Communications Commission were made. The governing body was first served by seven men named as commissioners.
➦In 1938...Orson Welles brought his Mercury Theatre Players to CBS radio network for a critically-acclaimed 60-minute weekly series that Campbell’s Soups sponsored. ➦In 1951...Alan Freed debuted his "Moondog Rock 'n' Roll Party," playing mostly rhythm & blues records, on WJW 850 AM in Cleveland.
Freed had been inspired by an offbeat instrumental called "Moondog Symphony" that had been recorded by New York street musician Louis T. Hardin, aka "Moondog". Freed adopted the record as his show's theme music. His on-air manner was energetic, in contrast to many contemporary radio presenters of traditional pop music, who tended to sound more subdued and low-key in manner. He addressed his listeners as if they were all part of a make-believe kingdom of hipsters, united in their love for black music.He also began popularizing the phrase "rock and roll" to describe the music he played.
➦In 1970...Dandy Dan Daniel did his final show on WMCA 570 AM, NYC.
Roger Christian
➦In 1991...Los Angeles radio personality/lyricist Roger Christian died of kidney and liver failure at age 57.
Christian worked as a radio personality in Los Angeles in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. He was one of the original "Boss Jocks" when 93KHJ debuted in 1965. His radio career started in Buffalo, New York in the mid-1950s.
He moved to the west coast and worked for other radio stations in Los Angeles, including KFWB, KGBS (AM-FM), KBLA, KDAY, KRTH-FM, KRLA, and KIQQ-FM. Christian was also one of the writer/narrators on the 1964 Capitol Records documentary LP The Beatles' Story.
Christian suffered from periodic depression. He was the only original KHJ "Boss Jock" not to appear at the 25th reunion on May 9, 1990.
➦In 2005...singer Frances Langford died of heart failure at age 91. She sang weekly on Bob Hope’s NBC radio show in the 1940’s, and co-starred with Don Ameche in the wildly popular radio skit “The Bickersons”.
➦In 2010...the inimitable Yankee Stadium PA announcer for an incredible 56 years Bob Sheppard died at age 99. He was also the in-house voice for a half-century of NY Giants football games.
Debbie Dunning is 55
🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:
Singer Jeff Hanna of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is 74.
Ventriloquist Jay Johnson (“Soap”) is 72.
Actor Bruce McGill (“Animal House”) is 71.
Actor Stephen Lang is 69.
Actor Mindy Sterling (“Austin Powers”) is 68.
Actor Sela Ward is 65.
Singer Peter Murphy of Bauhaus is 64.
Reggae singer Michael Rose of Black Uhuru is 64.
Actor Mark Lester (“Oliver”) is 63.
Jazz saxophonist Kirk Whalum is 63.
Alessia Cara is 25
Guitarist Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi) is 62.
Singer Suzanne Vega is 62.
Actor Lisa Rinna is 58.
Bassist Scott Shriner of Weezer is 56.
Actor Debbe Dunning (“Home Improvement”) is 55.
Actor Greg Grunberg (“Heroes,” ″Alias,” ″Felicity”) is 55.
Wildlife expert Jeff Corwin (“The Jeff Corwin Experience”) is 54.
Actor Justin Chambers (“Grey’s Anatomy”) is 51.
Actor Leisha Hailey (“The L Word”) is 50.
Actor Michael Rosenbaum (“Smallville”) is 49.
Rapper Lil’ Kim is 47.
Actor Jon Wellner (“CSI”) is 46.
Rapper Lil’ Zane is 40.
Actor David Henrie (“Wizards of Waverly Place”) is 32.
President Joe Biden is challenging business as usual for the broadband industry, attacking murky pricing, high fees, and landlords restricting tenants’ choice of internet service providers. reports Bloomberg.
Steps outlined in a Biden executive order Friday reprise Obama administration policies that industry and Republicans have resisted or ignored, prefiguring a fight to come at the Federal Communications Commission and underscoring how hard it may be to deliver on many of Biden’s roster of changes.
A major cable group Friday called Biden’s statements “misleading,” and a group representing largest phone companies AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. said “context and facts are largely missing” from the White House’s release outlining its broadband policies.
“All the recommendations involve policies advocated by leadership in the Obama administration but were either reversed by the Trump FCC or were not implemented,” Blair Levin, an analyst for New Street Research, said in a note Friday. Furthermore, he said, none of Biden’s recommendations can be adopted until there is a Democratic majority at the FCC -- an agency that’s currently without a permanent leader or even a nominee.
Biden called for the FCC to bar excessive termination fees and to require internet service providers to report prices and subscription rates to the agency. “Comparison shopping is hard,” posing a potential barrier to switching providers, the White House said in a document outlining the executive order.
Biden also asked the agency to revive the “Broadband Nutrition Label” that offers details of promised price and performance of internet service. The FCC and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau jointly unveiled a voluntary label in 2016.
The label has been little used, and was abandoned by the administration of Republican President Donald Trump, according to New America’s Open Technology Institute. It said labels could help shed light on “hidden fees, surprise bills, and dense contracts.”
Biden also called for restoring so-called net neutrality rules passed by Democrats during the Obama administration. The rules bar internet service providers from interfering with subscribers’ web traffic, for instance by favoring content from business partners over other services. They were gutted by a Republican FCC during the Trump administration, a development backed by the broadband industry.
The idea that providers would keep consumers from internet content is a “tired and disproven assertion,” said NCTA - The Internet & Television Association, a trade group with members including largest U.S. cable provider Comcast Corp. and No. 2 Charter Communications Inc.
The administration’s policy statements read as if “exhumed from some time capsule in an alternate universe,” said Jonathan Spalter, chief executive officer of the trade group USTelecom, with members including AT&T and Verizon.
“The whiff of rate regulation referenced in the White House fact sheet is also concerning,” Spalter said in a statement. “Washington shouldn’t be setting broadband prices in a competitive market with lots of consumer choice. Government regulating prices in one of the country’s most dynamic industries is chilling and counterproductive to our shared goal of connecting everyone, everywhere.”
Levin, in his note, said Biden’s recommendations wouldn’t bring about price regulation or government-subsidized construction of competing networks.
Though the married mother of two gives few details about her departure, she did say “major changes” were coming to the station and “it’s time for your girl to move on.”
Audacy / Denver Senior VP/Market Manager Chuck Sullivan has exited to pursue other opportunities. The Denver clusters consists of Classic Rock KQMT 99.5 The Mountain, HotAC KALC Alice 105.9, Comedy KQKS-HD2, Timeless Classics KEZW 1430 AM, and Rhythmic Top 40KQKS 107.5 FM.
Sullivan originally joined the company in 2014 as the SVP/MM for its Milwaukee market. In 2015, his role expanded to include oversight of Madison, WI. Previously, Sullivan served in leadership roles for Cumulus Broadcasting, including as VP/MM for the company's Mobile cluster and Market Manager for five stations in Destin, FL.
Sullivan also served as a managing partner for Ocean Broadcasting in Wilmington, NC from 1996 to 2006.
It was also learned that KQKS Program Director Victor Starr has exited. He had led programming at KS107.5 since March, 2016.
After former ESPN personality Jemele Hill blamed radio host Clay Travis for her failed show, the Outkick founder on Friday argued that "she was wrong" because ESPN and many other companies made a mistake of gauging Twitter trends to create content.
"I sometimes feel that people become captured by social media," Travis told "The Brian Kilmeade Show."
FOX News reports Travis said only about 10% of the population actually uses Twitter. He argued Twitter is giving media pundits, public relations professionals, executives, and companies a "distorted vision of the reality."
"When you’re on your phone all day and you have your notifications turned on and people are constantly talking about you, it can make you feel like that is the real world," Travis said.
Travis reacted to Hill calling him an "idiot" in a recent podcast, appearing to blame him for recent drama happening at ESPN.
Clay Travis rips Jemele Hill for claiming ESPN wants ‘Black faces, but, not Black voices’ | https://t.co/aXYd2Bs2XL
On Tuesday, Atlantic writer Jemele Hill guest-starred on the podcast Le Batard And Friends for a segment called "An Honest Conversation About ESPN, Rachel Nichols & Maria Taylor."
On the podcast, Hill discussed the controversy alongside Amin Elhassan and quickly related the story to her own drama regarding ESPN. At the 12:50 mark, she shared her belief that ESPN was being led by "idiots" like Clay Travis.
"They let a false narrative persist about our show that people ran away with," Hill goes on. "They let the idiots in the room control the conversation, people like Clay Travis. They allowed those people to direct their course of action. They panicked, and suddenly, they were very intentional about the things that they were doing in our show. They wanted black faces. They didn’t necessarily want black voices."
Hill previously worked for ESPN as an anchor until 2018 when she stepped down to write for the ESPN website The Undefeated. However, many including Clay Travis have speculated her different position was a result of her frequent political statements.
In 2017, Hill originally came under fire for referring to then-President Donald Trump as a "white supremacist." While ESPN condemned her comments, she continued to keep her position through the year.
Travis said Hill fell victim to believing Twitter is real life.
"If you did that, you would be far left-wing and far, far out of touch with what the real viewer is," Travis said.
Travis concluded ESPN and many other companies "lost their way by making Twitter their lodestar and using that as evidence of what the audience as a whole wants from them."
The powwows between media bosses at the Sun Valley confab have reached a new level of intensity this year, including meetings between bosses at Disney and Netflix as well as at Comcast and Viacom/CBS, one source told The NY Post.
“It’s like speed-dating” one conference attendee said of the frenetic pace of meetings at the Allen & Company conference. “Everyone is on everyone’s dance card.”
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, who has been reportedly mulling a potential acquisition of media assets, met with ViacomCBS Chair president Shari Redstone on Wednesday, according to an attendee with knowledge of the sitdown.
“Shari, Brian, and the major sports commissioners — like MLB’s Rob Manfred and NFL’s Roger Goodell have really made the rounds,” the attendee said.
ViacomCBS' Shari Redstone
Diseny honcho Bob Iger met with Netflix bosses at Sun Valley, sparking talk of a potential media library collaboration.
“I meet with everyone,” a perky Redstone replied before grabbing a latte and heading off to a 9:40 a.m. session hosted by the King of Jordan.
Even rivals Disney and Netflix powwowed this year, said the source of a sit-down between Disney CEO Bob Chapek and Disney Chairman Bob Iger’s with Netflix’s Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos.
The meetings come as the streaming wars continue to heat up, forcing collaborations big and small, with the biggest so far being the planned merger between Discovery and WarnerMedia.
Looming large is the threat of Amazon or Apple taking an even larger role in the media space. Amazon’s $8.5 billion purchase of MGM Studios — which is facing federal antitrust scrutiny — has made it clear that Bezos and new Amazon CEO Andy Jassy are willing to shell out big bucks to compete with streaming rivals like Netflix and Hulu.
The online retailer on Thursday revealed that it’s also willing to join forces, saying it will offer new live action movies from Comcast’s Universal Pictures four months after they debut on NBC’s struggling streaming service Peacock. The news comes as Bezos — who was seen clinking glasses with Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg Wednesday evening — attends the Allen & Co. confab with Comcast’s Roberts and NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell.
Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN sports network renewed its contract to air the Wimbledon tennis championships for 12 more years, locking up another big sporting event, reports Bloomberg.
The agreement with the All England Lawn Tennis Club lets the company show weekend matches on the ABC network in the middle of the tournament and air coverage from all of the courts on the ESPN+ streaming service, the company said in a statement Friday. ESPN+ will also have full match replays. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.
Disney has continued to expand its sports portfolio, announcing long-term deals this year for professional hockey, baseball and football. The NFL agreement includes two Super Bowls. The company has also been seeking to include viewing options for its streaming businesses in all of the new contracts.
The deal with Wimbledon, one of the four Grand Slam tournaments in tennis, also expands the company’s Latin American rights to include Brazil. Disney is rolling out a streaming service in Latin America that includes sports.
ESPN began airing Wimbledon matches in 2003 and acquired exclusive rights nine years later. Two of the men’s matches, in 2012 and 2019, were the most-watched tennis events in the network’s history, drawing more than 3 million viewers.
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. has shut down Knewz, a website that aggregated articles in a bid to reclaim readers and advertising dollars from Google, reports Bloomberg.
Knewz began “as an experiment in news aggregation because we wanted to gather a diverse range of quality journalism, to highlight all sides of every story and to protect and project provenance,” the company said Friday. “We certainly had provenance, but not profits, and so we bid Knewz farewell.”
News Corp. has led efforts by publishers to be compensated by Google and Facebook for articles that generate ad dollars on their platforms. The company launched the site in January 2020, featuring headlines from a range of publishers. Its stated goal was to deliver news outside the confines of “rankings,” an apparent reference to search results from Google.
Knewz.com promised news that was “free of bias bubbles” that “frustrate so many discerning readers and thoughtful publishers.” When it launched, the website was pilloried on social media for its name and bright yellow design.
In its farewell note to readers, the site pointed readers to News Corp. publications like The Wall Street Journal and New York Post, which it called “some of the world’s most trusted news sources.”
In a recent interview with People Magazine, inaugural CMT Equal Play Award winner Jennifer Nettles describes how a year after receiving the honor from CMT — and after her renowned incident at the CMA Awards advocating for country radio to play more songs from female artists– representation is still not ideal.
On the red carpet of the 2019 CMA Awards, Sugarland vocalist Nettles made a statement about the lack of representation for female artists on country radio by wearing a cape printed with a drawing of a woman’s face, the female gender symbol, and the words “equal play” and “Play our f*@#!g records please & thank you” on the awards program’s red carpet. She also penned an essay for Glamour about her red carpet statement. This sparked CMT to implement equal play initiatives, including the Equal Play Award that Nettles won in October 2020.
Regarding the issue at present, Nettles told People that it was “disheartening at best,” and that women are missing out on “the opportunity to share our story and our very unique and rich and beautiful perspectives on the world.” She also named Kelsea Ballerini, Ashley McBryde, Brandy Clark, Brandi Carlile, Cam, and Mickey Guyton as deserving of greater airtime on country music’s airwaves.
“I really hope that women continue to gain support and visibility within the community. I hope that radio and the streamers will catch on. I would love to see more female voices represented and celebrated within the format. I hope that not only will the women that we have currently in the music industry be successful, but that those doors will be opened in such a way that we can have even more of them.”
CRS 360’s next webinar installment will take a look at re-entering the post-COVID workplace on Thursday, July 15 at 1 p.m. CST. Split into two parts, Part I will cover emotional IQ for employers and managers while Part II will take place in August.
July’s webinar features panelists Cory Colton, principal coach at Inflection Point Coaching, LLC, and Diane Watson, executive coach at PCC. CRS Executive Director, RJ Curtis, will moderate the panel.
The upcoming interactive session will offer valuable insight to leaders and help them use emotional intelligence, compassion, and communication to support employees in navigating the transition to a new environment of work post-COVID. The two-part series will examine the latest best practices for employers and company leadership to adjust, plan for, and manage potential challenges everyone may face as they return to the workplace.
“Last year’s COVID quarantine created sudden, seismic workflow and work/life balance changes for companies and their employees. Simply undoing those practices seems unrealistic as our industry returns to the workplace,” shares Curtis. “CRS wants to help leaders and their teams learn how to maintain efficiency and productivity. Cory and Diane will lead this interactive workshop and help navigate whatever the ‘new normal’ looks like.”
To register for July’s CRS360 webinar series, click here.
➦In 1856…Nikola Tesla was born. (Died – 7 January 1943). He was an inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist who is best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.
Nikola Tesla
Tesla, one of history’s most under-appreciated and under-acknowledged engineers. Credit for his work is often gray and debated, sometimes due to unscrupulous competitors and sometimes due to timing.
Indeed, Tesla is known to have worked on a radio before Marconi, an X-Ray machine before Roentgen, an induction motor around the same time Ferrari claimed his, and experimented to find “small charged particles” years before Thomson was credited with proving the existence of electrons.
Tesla is perhaps best known within engineering circles for his work on AC (alternating current) and his “War of Currents” feud with Thomas Edison (side note: Edison, an employer of Tesla’s for some time, is known in some engineering circles as the man who copied and stole from Tesla).
Even with such challenges and a lifetime of illnesses, Tesla accrued about 300 patents. He died penniless and in debt in his New York apartment on January 7, 1943, at the age of 86. After his death, much of Tesla’s papers and works were impounded by the United States' Alien Property Custodian office. This was despite the fact that Tesla had become a US citizen at 35 years old.
Eventually many of his personal notebooks and works were declared “top secret” by the FBI and shuttered away from public view. Reasons given for doing so were that Tesla had done significant work with various US government agencies.
Tesla's theories on the possibility of the transmission by
radio waves go back as far as lectures and demonstrations in 1893 in St. Louis,
Missouri, the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the
National Electric Light Association. Tesla's
demonstrations and principles were written about widely through various media
outlets. Many devices such as the Tesla
Coil were used in the further development of radio.
Tesla's radio wave experiments in 1896 were conducted in
Gerlach Hotel (later renamed The Radio Wave building), where he resided.
Tesla died January 7, 1943
In 1898, Tesla demonstrated a radio-controlled boat—which he
dubbed "teleautomaton"—to the public during an electrical exhibition
at Madison Square Garden. The crowd that
witnessed the demonstration made outrageous claims about the workings of the
boat, such as magic, telepathy, and being piloted by a trained monkey hidden
inside. Tesla tried to sell his idea to
the U.S. military as a type of radio-controlled torpedo, but they showed little
interest. Remote radio control remained a novelty until World War I and
afterward, when a number of countries used it in military programs. Tesla
took the opportunity to further demonstrate "Teleautomatics" in an
address to a meeting of the Commercial Club in Chicago, while he was
travelling to Colorado Springs, on 13 May 1899.
In 1900, Tesla was granted patents for a "system of
transmitting electrical energy" and "an electrical transmitter."
When Guglielmo Marconi made his famous first-ever transatlantic radio
transmission in 1901, Tesla quipped that it was done with 17 Tesla patents.
This was the beginning of years of patent battles over radio with Tesla's
patents being upheld in 1903, followed by a reverse decision in favor of
Marconi in 1904. In 1943, a Supreme Court of the United States decision
restored the prior patents of Tesla, Oliver Lodge, and John Stone. The court declared that their decision had no
bearing on Marconi's claim as the first to achieve radio transmission, just
that since Marconi's claim to certain patents were questionable, he could not
claim infringement on those same patents (there are claims the high court was trying to
nullify a World War I claim against the U.S. government by the Marconi Company
via simply restoring Tesla's prior patent).
Graham McNamee
➦In 1888...Graham McNamee born (Died – May 9, 1942). He was aradio broadcaster, who originated play-by-play sports broadcasting for which he was awarded the Ford C. Frick Award by the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2016.
Radio broadcasting of sporting events was a new thing in the 1920s. The announcers were a rotating group of newspaper writers. At the time baseball was America's most popular sport, and the reporters were at the games to write stories about them for print newspapers. Their descriptions were matter-of-fact, boring at best, had a lot of dead air, and were given in the past tense after a play was completed.
In 1923, announcer McNamee was assigned to help the sportswriters with their broadcasts. One day, Grantland Rice, told McNamee to finish the game on his own, and left. McNamee was not a trained sports writer, so he immediately began to describe what he was seeing as it happened, thus originating play-by-play sports broadcasting. He wasn't a baseball expert, but had a knack for conveying what he saw in great detail, and with great enthusiasm, bringing the sights and sounds of the game into the homes of listeners.
With Phillips Carlin, whose voice was so similar that few listeners could tell them apart, he quickly became famous. McNamee had various on-air responsibilities at WEAF, including baseball color commentary culminating in the play-by-play of the 1926 World Series. Over the course of the next decade McNamee worked for WEAF, and for the national NBC network, , when WEAF became the NBC flagship station.
McNamee broadcast numerous sports events, including several World Series, Rose Bowls, championship boxing matches, and Indianapolis 500s. He was broadcast the national political conventions, the presidential inaugurations, and the arrival of aviator Charles Lindbergh in New York City following his transatlantic flight to Paris, France in 1927. He opened each broadcast by saying, "Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the radio audience. This is Graham McNamee speaking."
He has been enshrined in the National Radio Hall of Fame, and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He died young on May 9 1942 of a brain embolism at age 53.
➦In 1900...One of the most famous trademarks in the world, “His Master’s Voice”, was registered with the U.S. Patent Office. The logo of the Victor Talking Machine Company, and later, RCA Victor, features the dog, Nipper, looking into the horn of a gramophone machine.
Sometime during the 1890s, English artist Francis Barraud painted a picture of his brother's dog, Nipper, inquisitively listening to a phonograph.
Barraud hoped to sell the painting to a phonograph company, but could not find an interested buyer. After receiving a suggestion to change the trumpet of the machine from black to brass, Barraud went to the Gramophone Company's office to borrow a machine to use as a model. In explaining his request, Barraud showed a photograph of his painting. The manager, Barry Owen, liked the painting and asked if it was for sale.
When Barraud replied that it was for sale, Owen agreed to buy the painting if the phonograph could be replaced with a gramophone.
When Emile Berliner visited England in May 1900 and saw the picture, he promptly registered it as a trademark -- in the United States on May 26th and in Canada on July 16th. The Victor Talking Machine Company began to use the painting as a trademark in 1902, and the Gramophone Company in 1909.
The original painting hangs in the offices of EMI, the successor of the Gramophone Company. It is one of the most widely recognized and valuable trademarks in the world. ➦In 1920...Journalist David Brinkley born (Died at age 82 – June 11, 2003). He was a newscaster for NBC and ABC in a career lasting from 1943 to 1997.
From 1956 through 1970, he co-anchored NBC's top-rated nightly news program, The Huntley–Brinkley Report, with Chet Huntley and thereafter appeared as co-anchor or commentator on its successor, NBC Nightly News, through the 1970s. In the 1980s and 1990s, Brinkley was host of the popular Sunday This Week with David Brinkley program and a top commentator on election-night coverage for ABC News. Over the course of his career, Brinkley received ten Emmy Awards, three George Foster Peabody Awards, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Following a medical discharge from the Army, he worked for United Press International in several of its Southern bureaus. In 1943, he moved to Washington, D.C., looking for a radio job at CBS News. Instead, he took a job at NBC News, became its White House correspondent, and in time began appearing on television.
➦In 1944...a radio show of international intrigue 'The Man Called X', starring Herbert Marshall, debuted on CBS radio. It was an espionage radio drama that aired on CBS and NBC from July 10, 1944, to May 20, 1952. The radio series was later adapted for television and was broadcast on the "small screen" for one season, 1956-1957.
➦In 1950…Radio's 'Your Hit Parade' made it's debut on American TV. From 1950 to 1959, it was sponsored by American Tobacco's Lucky Strike cigarettes. During this 24-year run, the show had 19 orchestra leaders and 52 singers or groups. Many listeners and viewers casually referred to the show with the incorrect title The Hit Parade.
After 15 years as a radio favorite, "Your Hit Parade" started a nine-year run on television – the first eight years on NBC, the last year on CBS – while continuing on radio until 1955.
➦In 1954…Following his success on the air in Cleveland, DJ Alan Freed moved to 1010WINS in NYC. 1010WINS remained Top40 until April 19, 1965—long after Freed left and three months after he had died—when it became an all-news outlet. Freed was the first disc jockey and concert producer of rock and roll; he introduced the phrase "rock and roll" on mainstream radio in the early 1950s and helped bridge the gap of segregation among young teenage Americans, presenting music by black artists (rather than cover versions by white artists) on his radio program, and arranging live concerts attended by racially mixed audiences. In 1956, Freed hosted "Alan Freed's Rock 'n' Roll Dance Party" on CBS Radio from New York.
➦In 1962…Telstar 1
launched. Telstar is the name of various communications satellites.
The first two Telstar satellites were experimental and nearly identical.
Telstar 1 was launched on top of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962. It
successfully relayed through space the first television pictures, telephone
calls, fax images and provided the first live transatlantic television feed.
Telstar 2 was launched May 7, 1963.
Telstar 1 and 2, though no longer
functional, were still in orbit as of October 2013.
➦In 1989...Mel Blanc died from heart disease (Born May 30, 1908). He was a voice actor and radio personality.
After beginning his over-60-year career performing in radio, he became known for his work in animation as the voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird, Sylvester the Cat, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Marvin the Martian, Pepé Le Pew, Speedy Gonzales, Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner, the Tasmanian Devil, and many of the other characters from the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoons during the golden age of American animation. He voiced all of the major male Warner Bros. cartoon characters except for Elmer Fudd, whose voice was provided by fellow radio personality Arthur Q. Bryan, although Blanc later voiced Fudd, as well, after Bryan's death.
He later voiced characters for Hanna-Barbera's television cartoons, including Barney Rubble on The Flintstones and Mr. Spacely on The Jetsons. Blanc was also the original voice of Woody Woodpecker for Universal Pictures and provided vocal effects for the Tom and Jerry cartoons directed by Chuck Jones for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, replacing William Hanna. During the golden age of radio, Blanc also frequently performed on the programs of famous comedians from the era, including Jack Benny, Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen and Judy Canova.
Having earned the nickname The Man of a Thousand Voices, Blanc is regarded as one of the most influential people in the voice acting industry.
Blanc began his radio career at the age of 19 when in 1927, he debuted as a voice actor on the KGW program The Hoot Owls, where his ability to provide voices for multiple characters first attracted attention. He moved to Los Angeles in 1932, where he met Estelle Rosenbaum (1909 - 2003), whom he married a year later, before returning to Portland. He moved to KEX in 1933 to produce and co-host his Cobweb And Nuts show with his wife Estelle, which debuted on June 15.
With his wife's encouragement, Blanc returned to Los Angeles and joined Warner Bros.-owned KFWB in Hollywood, in 1935. He joined The Johnny Murray Show, but the following year switched to CBS Radio and The Joe Penner Show.
Blanc was a regular on the NBC Red Network show The Jack Benny Program in various roles, including voicing Benny's Maxwell automobile (in desperate need of a tune-up), violin teacher Professor LeBlanc, Polly the Parrot, Benny's pet polar bear Carmichael, the tormented department store clerk, and the train announcer.
By 1946, Blanc appeared on over 15 radio programs in supporting roles. His success on The Jack Benny Program led to his own radio show on the CBS Radio Network, The Mel Blanc Show, which ran from September 3, 1946, to June 24, 1947. Blanc played himself as the hapless owner of a fix-it shop, as well as his young cousin Zookie.
Blanc also appeared on such other national radio programs as The Abbott and Costello Show, the Happy Postman on Burns and Allen, and as August Moon on Point Sublime. During World War II, he appeared as Private Sad Sack on various radio shows, most notably G.I. Journal. Blanc recorded a song titled "Big Bear Lake".
Arlo Guthrie is 74
🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:
Actor William Smithers (“Dallas,” ″Peyton Place”) is 94.
Singer Mavis Staples is 82.
Actor Mills Watson (“B.J. and the Bear,” ″Lobo”) is 81.
Actor Robert Pine (“CHiPS”) is 80.
Guitarist Jerry Miller of Moby Grape is 78.
Folk singer Arlo Guthrie is 74.
Bassist Dave Smalley of The Raspberries is 72.
Jessica Simpson is 41
Singer Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys is 67.
Banjo player Bela Fleck of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones is 63.
Actor Fiona Shaw (“True Blood,” ″Harry Potter” films) is 63.
Drummer Shaw Wilson of BR549 is 61.
Country singer Ken Mellons is 56.
Guitarist Peter DiStefano of Porno for Pyros is 56.
Actor Alec Mapa (“Ugly Betty” ″Half & Half”) is 56.
Actor Gale Harold (“Hellcats”) is 52.
Country singer Gary LeVox of Rascal Flatts is 51.
Actor Sofia Vergara (“Modern Family”) is 49.
Singer Imelda May is 47.
Actor Adrian Grenier (“Entourage,” ″Cecil B. DeMented”) is 45.
Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (“12 Years a Slave”) is 44.
Actor Gwendoline Yeo (“Desperate Housewives”) is 44.
Local TV news crews have faced verbal and physical abuse while on the job. A few reporters have been injured. Some have been robbed or had equipment damaged, reports The Washington Post.
Among recent incidents:
A man stole a car used by a Raleigh TV reporter and video journalist moments after they ended a live report last week, setting off a high-speed chase that ended with the man crashing into a highway patrol officer’s car. No one was hurt.
Two armed culprits attempted to rob a San Francisco TV crew’s camera and equipment last month as they were conducting an interview outside Oakland City Hall. The robbery was thwarted by a security guard who pulled a gun on the would-be robbers. The journalists were interviewing a city official in charge of violence-prevention efforts.
A reporter and video journalist reporting on unruly crowds in Miami Beach were pushed and shoved by bystanders while covering the story in May.
The Justice Department filed charges last week against demonstrators at the Jan. 6 Capitol riot who allegedly assaulted reporters and smashed TV cameras, tripods, lights and other equipment. Videos showed supporters of President Donald Trump destroying the equipment as rioters sought to disrupt a congressional vote certifying the election of President Biden.
The episodes continued the trend of 2020, which may have been the most dangerous year in history for TV reporters in the United States.
One in five TV news directors surveyed by the Radio Television Digital News Directors Association said their crews had been attacked at some point last year. About half of the episodes stemmed from covering mass gatherings, such as the protests that followed the murder of George Floyd and demonstrations protesting pandemic lockdowns.
Some of the increased threat may be an upshot of the pandemic and the tensions created by lockdowns and economic disruption, said Bob Papper, an adjunct professor at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications who conducted the industry survey.
But he blames some of it on the continuing demonization of the news media by Trump and his allies, including those in the conservative media.
“It’s clear a lot of people are still angry, and they’re angry at the media,” he said. “It’s the expected consequence of calling the media ‘the enemy of the people.’ ”
President Joe Biden on Friday will sign a new executive order aimed at cracking down on anticompetitive practices in Big Tech, labor and numerous other sectors, CNBC’s Ylan Mui reported.
The sweeping order, which includes 72 actions and recommendations that involve a dozen federal agencies, is intended to re-shape the thinking around corporate consolidation and antitrust laws, Mui reported on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Those wide-ranging goals and initiatives, according to a White House fact sheet on the order released Friday morning, include:
Lowering prescription drug prices by supporting state and tribal efforts to import cheaper drugs from Canada
Allowing hearing aids to be sold over the counter
Urging the Federal Trade Commission to “challenge prior bad mergers” that previous administrations let slide
Encouraging the Federal Communications Commission to restore “net neutrality” rules that were undone during the Trump administration
Asking the FCC to block exclusivity deals between landlords and broadband providers
Establishing a “White House Competition Council” to lead federal responses to large corporations’ growing economic power
“The impulse for this executive order is really around where can we encourage greater competition across the board,” White House chief economic advisor Brian Deese told Mui in an exclusive interview.
Biden is set to sign the executive order at the White House at 1:30 p.m. ET, according to his schedule.
Through its tech-related actions, Biden’s order aims to make the case that the biggest companies in the sector are wielding their power to box out smaller competitors and exploit consumers’ personal information, Mui said.
The order will call for regulators to enact reforms such as increasing their scrutiny of tech mergers and putting more focus on moves like “killer acquisitions,” in which firms acquire smaller brands to take them out of the market, according to Mui.
Brian Deese
The tech giants’ tightened grip has led to a decline in innovation, Deese told Mui.
Those platforms have “created significant problems,” Deese said. That includes “problems for users in terms of privacy and security” and “problems for small businesses in terms of entering markets,” he said.
The executive order “is not just about monopolies,” Deese said, “but it’s about consolidation more generally and the lack of competition when you have a limited set of market players.”
He noted that some research suggests wages are lower in more concentrated markets that are dominated by just a handful of firms.
The order could provide some relief to small and medium-sized businesses that have complained of the allegedly crippling grip of tech firms such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google over digital markets.
You may not know their names, but you know their sounds – Side Player Stories, a new podcast produced by WUCF 89.9 FM Jazz & More is now available. The first episode featuring Liberty DeVitto, Billy Joel’s long-time drummer, is available at wucf.org/sideplayerstories, with additional episodes released each Thursday.
In this weekly series, musician and WUCF FM producer Jesse Morgado gets an in-depth look inside the lives of professional musicians. Side Player Stories offers fast-paced and fun conversations with musical guests who are “side players” – artists including drummer DeVitto (Billy Joel); studio hitmaker guitarist/bassist Carol Kaye (You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin,’ Mission Impossible, La Bamba, etc); keyboardist Carey Frank (Tedeshi/Trucks Band and Social Distortion); and bassist Eva Gardner (Pink, Cher, Mars Volta), whose unique talents and musical abilities create opportunities to make their living playing for many different bands.
“As Central Florida’s Storytellers, we are proud to give our listeners an inside look at the life of professional musicians, some of the best in the industry, with our new podcast Side Player Stories,” said Dr. Phil Hoffman, WUCF Executive Director. “Listeners will learn the fascinating details on touring, recording, and what’s in between, all thru the words and experiences of some of the music industry’s elite artists.”
In the first episode, Billy Joel’s former drummer for 30 years, DeVitto tells all in his new memoir – and this unfiltered character has no problem sharing stories that will have you laughing along with him. Later in July, bassist, recording artist, songwriter and LA bar owner Eva Gardner, who has toured with Pink for the last 14 years and has made a name for herself as a first-call musician for countless artists, talks about her inspiration and the talent running rampant in the household from her father Kim Gardner and friends. Heard of the Dave Matthews Band? Well don’t miss a conversation with DMB saxophonist Jeff Coffin. Coffin has also been a part of Bela Fleck & the Flecktones – racking up 3 Grammy’s along the way.
Listeners can check out episodes now at wucf.org/sideplayerstories or listen on all major podcasting platforms.
OFFICIALS SAYS WON'T STOP UNTIL ALL REMAINS RECOVERED: The official death toll from the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida, rose to 64 yesterday, with the recovery of more remains on the first day of the effort having switched to being one of rescue to one of recovery. There are still 76 people missing. The rescue teams paused briefly to mark the two-week anniversary of the disaster yesterday. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky has said he expects the recovery effort will take several more weeks, and rescuers are saying they won't stop until all the remains are recovered. Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said a news conference yesterday evening that a fire official had told family members earlier that the rescuers, quote, "will not stop working until they’ve gotten to the bottom of the pile and recovered every single of the families’ missing loved ones." He added, "This is exactly the message the families wanted to hear."
➤TWO WITH DUAL U.S. CITIZENSHIP AMONG THOSE HELD IN HAITIAN PRESIDENT'S ASSASSINATION: Two men believed to hold dual U.S. and Haitian citizenship are among the 17 people who've been detained in the assassination of Haiti's President Jovenel Moise at his home early Wednesday. They were identified by Haitian officials as James Solages and Joseph Vincent. Solages started a charity in Florida in 2019 to help people in the Haitian town of Jacmel, and previously worked as a bodyguard at the Canadian Embassy in Haiti, according to charity's website. Canada said he was "briefly employed as a reserve bodyguard" by a private contractor. The chief of the National Police, Leon Charles, also said Thursday night (July 8th) that 15 of the suspects are from Colombia, and at least six of them are former members of Colombia's army. Charles said three other suspects had been killed and eight more are being sought. The head of the Colombian national police said President Ivan Duque had ordered the army and police to cooperate in the investigation.
➤BIDEN..U-S MILITARY OPERATION IN AFGHANISTAN TO END AUGUST 31: President Biden said yesterday that the 20-year U.S. military operation in Afghanistan will end on August 31st, pushing back against those calling for the U.S. to extend the involvement as the Taliban has made advances in significant parts of the country as the U.S. is leaving. Speaking from the White House, Biden said, "How many more, how many more thousands of American daughters and sons are you willing to risk? I will not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan, with no reasonable expectation of achieving a different outcome." While acknowledging that it's unlikely the Afghan government would control of the country after the U.S. leaves, Biden urged the Afghan government and the Taliban to reach a peace deal, stating, "We did not go to Afghanistan to nation build." Biden emphatically stated, "We went for two reasons: one, to bring Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell, as I said at the time. The second reason was to eliminate al-Qaida’s capacity to deal with more attacks on the United States from that territory. We accomplished both of those objectives. Period. That’s why I believe this is the right decision and quite frankly overdue."
‘I will not send another generation of Americans to war in Afghanistan with no reasonable expectation of achieving a different outcome,’ said President Joe Biden as he announced the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan will end on August 31 https://t.co/odZMSLCJmmpic.twitter.com/Gf8ToQUmKf
➤PFIZER TO SEEK AUTHORIZATION FOR THIRD DOSE OF COVID VACCINE: Pfizer will seek federal authorization for a third dose of its Covid-19 vaccine, saying yesterday that getting a third shot within 12 months could dramatically increase immunity and potentially help block the Delta variant if immunity wanes. Pfizer's Dr. Mikael Dolsten told AP early data from their booster study suggests people's antibody levels go up five- to 10-fold after a third dose, compared to their second dose. However, hours later, U.S. health officials said that fully vaccinated Americans don't need a booster shot yet. The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said any decision on boosters would take place only when, quote, "the science demonstrates that they are needed." Dr. Anthony Fauci said yesterday, "Let me emphasize, if you were vaccinated, you have a very high degree of protection."
➤STUDY..HANDWRITING BEATS TYPING AND WATCHING VIDEOS FOR LEARNING TO READ: Writing things out by hand is becoming less common as computers take over, but a new study finds handwriting serves an important purpose. Johns Hopkins University researchers found that people who practiced writing out Arabic letters by hand learned them much faster than those who simply saw the characters on a video screen, or those who typed the characters. They also found that writing things out by hand was associated with the ability to write the new letters, use them to spell new words, and use them to read unfamiliar words. Researchers say this is because handwriting marries together the perceptual-motor experience with what is being learned about the letters (their shapes, sounds, and motor plans), which in turn creates richer knowledge and fuller, true learning.
➤AVENATTI SENTENCED TO TWO-AND-A-HALF YEARS IN NIKE EXTORTION CASE: Attorney Michael Avenatti, who represented Stormy Daniels in her lawsuits against Donald Trump in 2018 and became a cable news favorite for his brash public attacks on the then-president, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison yesterday for trying to extort Nike, threatening bad publicity against them if they didn't pay him up to $25 million. Avenatti was representing a Los Angeles youth basketball league organizer upset with Nike for ending its league sponsorship. U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe said Avenatti had, quote, "become drunk on the power of his platform," and had "hijacked" his client's claims, quote, "to extort millions of dollars from Nike for himself." An emotional Avenatti spoke before his sentencing, saying, "I and I alone have destroyed my career, my relationships and my life." Avenatti also faces a fraud trial next week, a second criminal trial later this year, and a separate trial next year for allegedly cheating Daniels out of hundreds of thousands of dollars from a book deal.
➤AVANT-GARDE BECOMES FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN NATIONAL SPELLING BEE WINNER: Fourteen-year-old Zaila Avant-garde won the Scripps National Spelling Bee last night becoming the iconic contest's first African-American winner and only the second Black winner, after Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica in 1998. Zaila correctly spelled the word "Murraya" for the victory in the event that was nationally televised by ESPN2, which is a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees. In addition to her spelling smarts, Zaila, of Harvey, Louisiana, is a rising basketball star who holds three Guinness world records for dribbling multiple balls at the same time, and hopes to one day play in the WNBA.
13-year-old Zaila Avant-garde is the first African American champion in the history of the Scripps National Spelling Beepic.twitter.com/Wm38xiEqSn
The Spelling Bee was back after being canceled last year because of the pandemic, but most of it was held virtually, and only the 11 finalists got to compete in person at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex in Florida. The only people in the audience were spellers’ immediate family, Scripps staff, some media, and First Lady Jill Biden, who spoke to the contestants earlier and stayed for the event.
🙏STUDY: DECLINE IN RELIGIOUS AMERICANS HAS STALLED: A new study suggests that the decline in the percentage of Americans affiliated with a religion that has been going on for decades has stalled. The survey from the Public Religion Research Institute found that from 2006 to 2018 the percentage of Americans unaffiliated with a religion grew from 16 percent to to 26 percent, but then fell to 23 percent after dropping in 2019 and 2020. The decline in white Christians has also apparently stopped, in part because of an increase in white mainline Protestants. The percentage of white evangelical Christians, however, has continued to fall. The rise in non-religious Americans has been most pronounced among young people, with some 36 percent of U.S. adults under age 30 not affiliated with a religion, up from 23 percent in 2006 and 10 percent in 1986.
➤IF YOU STALK YOUR EX ON SOCIAL MEDIA, HERE’S HOW TO QUIT FOR GOOD: Breakups are rough, and social media can arguably make it harder to get over that person. If you’ve ever stalked an ex on social media you’re not alone. Licensed marriage and family therapist Anita Chilpala says figuring out why you want to stalk your ex on social media can help you master the habit. She says people may “want to see if their ex is happier without them, or dating someone (and comparing themselves to this person). […] They may try to get answers to why the breakup happened […] Also the first few weeks after a breakup are particularly difficult because you have a big void. So stalking an ex on social media can help fill that void.” But breakup coach Trina Leckie says this behavior usually means “you are having a really hard time letting go and accepting that the relationship is over.” If you can’t stop stalking your ex you may need to just block them. Leckie explains, “It can become an addiction to keep checking, which then keeps your ex top of mind all day, and that clearly isn’t healthy. You won’t be able to move on fully until you stop looking, so the sooner you stop, the better.” Ultimately, the experts say you should focus on your own healing process—spend time doing things you love, and put your well-being first. It could take weeks or months, but eventually you will heal, and you’ll feel a lot better.
🏀SUNS BEAT BUCKS 118-108 TO TAKE 2-0 NBA FINALS LEAD: The Phoenix Suns beat the Milwaukee Bucks 118-108 at home last night to take a 2 games to none lead in the NBA Finals, and are now halfway to winning their first-ever championship. Devin Booker led the Suns with 31 points, Mikal Bridges had 27 points and Chris Paul scored 23. Giannis Antetokounmpo had 42 points in a losing effort for the Bucks. Game 3 is Sunday in Milwaukee.
➤JAPAN ANNOUNCES FANS WON'T BE ALLOWED AT OLYMPICS: Organizers of the Tokyo Olympics announced yesterday that no fans will be allowed at the Games, which are beginning in two weeks with the opening ceremony on July 23rd. The news came hours after Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga put Tokyo under a Covid-19 state of emergency due to increasing infections and the spread of the highly-contagious Delta variant. The decision applies to Japanese spectators, as foreign fans were banned months ago. It means the Olympics, which were already delayed a year because of the pandemic, will now mostly be a TV event.
🎾BARTY, PLISKOVA WIN IN WIMBLEDON SEMIFINALS, TO PLAY FOR CHAMPIONSHIP: Top-seeded Ash Barty of Australia and Number 8 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic will play for the Wimbledon championship Saturday after winning their semifinal matches yesterdaY. Neither has played in a Wimbledon final before. Barty defeated 25th-seeded Angelique Kerber 6-3, 7-6 (3) and Pliskova upset Number 2 Aryna Sabalenka 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. The men's semifinals are today, with Novak Djokovic facing Denis Shapovalov and Matteo Berrettini playing Hubert Hurkacz.
⚾MILLER HITS THREE HOME RUNS IN PHILLIES' 8-0 CUBS SHUTOUT: Philadelphia infielder Brad Miller hit three runs as the Phillies shut out the Chicago Cubs 8-0 last night. Five of the Phillies' eight runs came from Miller, who hit a solo home run in the third inning and two-run homers in the fifth and seventh innings.
🥊REPORTS..FURY POSITIVE FOR COVID-19, WILDER BOUT POSTPONED: Heavyweight champion Tyson Fury has tested positive for Covid-19, and his third fight with Deontay Wilder will be postponed, according to media reports last night. Fury and Wilder were set to face off on July 24th at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas in the last of their three bouts. According to AP, the rescheduled fight is likely to be in October. Their first fight in December 2018 was a draw, and Fury beat Wilder in their second bout in February 2020.
⚾MLB EXTENDS BAUER'S LEAVE THROUGH JULY 15: Major League Baseball yesterday extended L.A. Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer's administrative leave by seven days through July 15th. Bauer was put on seven days' leave on July 2nd after a woman accused him of sexual assault, allegations MLB investigators and Pasadena police are investigating. The woman, who obtained an order of protection against Bauer last month, claims he assaulted her during two sexual encounters, including choking her to the point of unconsciousness, punching her repeatedly in the face, and punching her in her genitals. Bauer's agents have denied the accusations.
BREAKING: James Harden & Lil Baby were stopped & frisked in Paris. Lil Baby was arrested for transporting narcotics pic.twitter.com/zVyhl7mlb0
➤HARDEN STOPPED BY POLICE IN PARIS: Brooklyn Nets star James Harden was stopped by police in Paris Thursday, where he is for Fashion Week. Video posted on social media showed him being briefly frisked, but the city prosecutor's office said he wasn't arrested and was never taken into custody. According to French media, as cited by ESPN, Harden, who's been seen around Paris with Kanye West and rapper Lil Baby, was on the street when a car was stopped after police smelled marijuana. Harden was apparently nearby and tried to intervene, and that was when he was briefly stopped. The city prosecutor's office also said that Lil Baby was detained yesterday for allegedly transporting drugs.
CUMULUS MEDIA announces that it has elevated Dave Milner to President, Cumulus Operations, and Bob Walker to President, Cumulus Operations, effective immediately.
Walker, Milner
Both Milner and Walker report directly to Mary G. Berner, President and Chief Executive Officer, CUMULUS MEDIA, and previously served as EVP, Operations for the company.
Berner said: “This elevation is a well-deserved recognition of their respective contributions to the Company’s success. Over the past several years, not only has the scope of both Bob’s and Dave’s direct responsibilities grown beyond their market portfolios, they also play a significant and vital role in the operations of the Company overall. Moreover, in addition to being terrific executives, they are terrific colleagues as well.”
Walker joined the company in January 2013, as Senior VP of Brand Solutions, before rising to Senior VP of Operations and then Executive VP of Operations. He earlier held executive positions at The Weather Channel and at Gannett TV stations in Atlanta.
Milner has been with Cumulus for nearly seven years, joining as Senior VP based in San Francisco in December 2014 after serving as Market Manager for iHeartMedia in Sacramento and VP of Sales for Entercom in San Francisco. He earlier worked with Cumulus as General Sales Manager in San Francisco from 2004-2007.
SummitMedia has announced the appointment of Steve Fehder as President of its cluster in Louisville, where he will lead WQNU-FM, WVEZ-FM, WSFR-FM and WRKA-FM.
Steve Fehder
The 35-year radio and media sales and management vet is no stranger to WVEZ, as he managed the station for Prism Radio Partners in the '90s. Fehder was also co-founder and managing partner of Gulf Coast Radio Partners, and subsequently became an original member of Triad Broadcasting's executive management team, serving as Senior VP of Operations for over 10 years.
SummitMedia CEO Carl Parmer stated, "We are very pleased for Steve to lead our incredible Louisville team. He knows and loves the city, and we are very excited for our future."
Fehder, who most recently served as Market Manager for Kensington Digital Media in Nashville, returns home to Louisville to join SummitMedia.
"I am excited to be back home in Louisville where my career started," said Fehder. "I am extremely proud to be leading SummitMedia Louisville's great staff and heritage products."
