In today’s economy, with recent consolidations and a technological shift, many stations have cut their news staffs. Some stations have done away local news and news entirely. If your station uses mostly network or satellite-delivered or even voice-tracked local programming, there may be times where there is no one at your radio station at all.
What can you do when the big live news event happens?
Even without a news staff, RadioInfo suggests stations do the following:
1. How to prepare and train your present staff to function in different emergency situations
2. How to pull in emergency “reporters” when you need them most
3. What you need to have on hand when disaster strikes.
Alan Eisenson, who in 2010 was PD of iHeartMedia’s spoken word stations in Sacramento, lives with the reality of a news staff that’s a lot smaller than it used to be. Still, he’s prepared. “Because,” said Eisenson, ”even if you have a skeletal news staff, when events happen and calls start pouring into the station, the receptionist or board op or webmaster is overwhelmed, and the GM yells, ‘Do something!,’ you have to have a plan.”
Eisenson suggests, “Arrange in advance for any stations in your cluster or area that have news staffs to record reports for stations that don’t. Have them sent over by WAN, or any other method you can get onto your airwaves. You may need to use any or all of your frequencies to disseminate life saving information.”
➤VALERIE GELLER’S EMERGENCY PREP POINTS TO COVER WITH ALL STAFF:
How to maintain credibility in order to collect, gather and verify that information is correct before it goes to air.
How to get in touch with local authorities on the scene who can give you credible information.
What is the right time and place for listener calls?
What role should Twitter and other social media play in disaster or major event coverage?
Valerie Geller
According to Geller, the staff you train should be reminded that what’s most important is to keep your community safe and informed. Managers also need to be clear about what you can and cannot expect from your non-broadcast staff. While it may be reasonable to expect a professional reporter to get up in the middle of the night and come in to the station when a big story breaks, it may not be reasonable or safe to ask the same thing of your sales or traffic staff, Geller states.
That said, you may be surprised to find hidden and useful experience with talent you may have hiding right under your nose.
As KOA in Denver Managing Editor Jerry Bell pointed out, “You may be surprised to find that people on your sales staff may have had past on-air experience. It’s helpful to identify who they are and make them some of your go-to people in an emergency.”
Bell also recommends that you keep a “how to” guide in your studio for emergencies.
What goes into the Red Binder?
Emergency numbers and contacts
A map of where staffers live and numbers where they can be reached 24/7
Beasley Media Group’s WBZ-FM 98.5 The Sports Hub, the official flagship station of the New England Patriots, will salute longtime Quarterback Tom Brady with “Brady’s Best”- a rebroadcast featuring Tom Brady and the New England Patriots’ most memorable games. The special programming will air at 1pm this Sunday, March 22, 2020.
Sports fans can tune into 98.5 The Sports Hub/WBZ-FM as well as via 98TheSportsHub.com and the radio station’s App to hear a rebroadcast of all of the play-by-play excitement of the Patriots’ AFC Championship overtime thriller against the Kansas City Chiefs. That game will be followed by Brady and the Pats’ miraculous 24-0 comeback win against Peyton Manning and the Broncos at Gillette Stadium in 2013.
“Brady’s Best”, as well as other classic games by the Patriots, Bruins and Celtics, are planned to air on 98.5 The Sports Hub/WBZ-FM in the coming days and weeks as the station continues to provide the best content and relief for loyal listeners during these challenging times!
On Wednesday, March 18th, Sun Broadcast Group’s “Throwback Nation Radio” began offering listeners a new way to calm their fears and channel their energy during the Coronavirus outbreak with a new feature, “60 DAYS of Throwback Nation Inspiration.”
“Just like our listeners, we’ve been re-arranging our work and family lives to cope during this period of uncertainty,” said Tony Lorino, CEO and host of Throwback Nation Radio. “While we can’t predict the future, if we can offer our listeners creative ideas to do with their families, or by themselves, we might just be able to make this difficult time a little bit easier for all.”
The tips – one each day for the next 60 days – will live in video form on Throwback Nation Radio’s Facebook,Twitter and Instagram channels using the hashtag “#ThrowbackNationInspiration.” They’ll also appear nightly in the show, hosted by Lorino Monday-Saturday and Danny Hustle on Sunday. Throwback Nation Radio Affiliates will receive customized content to integrate the feature into their programming on air, online, and on social media to help stations integrate the campaign as they see fit.
Lorino continues “A show like ours isn’t just about playing music; we are here to provide a connection and a common bond for people during these uncertain times. Our phone lines ring, and social media channels populate with people reaching out who are going through tough times. If we can make life better for just one of them, then we as broadcasters have done our job.”
“During this difficult time, it’s important than ever to help listeners by calming their fears” said Rich O’Brien, VP Programming and Affiliate Relations for Sun Broadcast Group. “TNR is doing exactly that with their ‘60 DAYS of Throwback Nation Inspiration’ and I believe this is something the listeners will be able to listen to and learn creative inspirational ideas."
For more information on Throwback Nation Radio, call Sun Broadcast Group (800) 871-6163 or visit our website at sunbgi.com.
Cumulus Media has announced that Frank Lopez-Balboa has been appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
Lopez-Balboa, who brings over 30 years of experience in finance, business strategy, M&A and executive leadership to Cumulus, will report to Mary G. Berner, President and Chief Executive Officer.
“We are pleased to welcome Frank as our new Chief Financial Officer,” said Berner. “A widely respected executive, he is an ideal fit with Cumulus. Frank comes to us with a deep understanding of our industry, significant expertise in corporate finance and strategy and an impressive record of running a major, multi-location finance organization. I am confident, especially in these challenging times, that Frank will make a significant contribution to our progress against our financial goals and key strategic initiatives to continue creating value for our shareholders.”
“I have followed Cumulus closely over the last several years and greatly admire the success it has achieved in executing its turnaround,” said Lopez-Balboa. “I am excited to have this opportunity to join Cumulus and look forward to working closely with Mary, the finance team and the entire company to continue driving strong results.”
The Academy of Country Music® and dick clark productions announced Wednesday, with appearances and concerts canceled, Country Music’s biggest stars are practicing social distancing by staying home – and inviting fans to join them for a new kind of entertainment special.
ACM® PRESENTS: OUR COUNTRY will feature intimate conversations and at-home acoustic performances with top Country artists along with clips of their favorite moments from the Academy of Country Music Awards’™ 55-year history. The new special will be broadcast Sunday, April 5 (8:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Participating artists will be announced in the coming weeks.
Artists will appear from their homes via video chat to share some heartfelt thoughts and perform acoustic versions of Country hits. Additionally, video clips from previous ACM Award® broadcasts will allow viewers to reminisce with them about their favorite ACM moments. It will be a night filled with entertainment, hope and reflection, bringing the healing power of music to Americans at a time when they need it most.
Postponed
“Although the highly anticipated 55th ACM Awards show is unable to take place on April 5th due to the health crisis, we still wanted to deliver fans an entertaining ACM Country Music special as planned,” said Damon Whiteside, CEO of the Academy of Country Music. “We are thrilled to announce ‘ACM Presents: Our Country,’ an all-new special that allows fans to connect with their favorite Country artists and to relive some of the greatest moments of the ACM Awards, all from the comfort and safety of their own homes.”
“Music has always served as a powerful form of hope and solidarity during challenging times,” said Amy Thurlow, President, dick clark productions. “It’s our privilege to offer audiences an uplifting message through music as well as a look back at some of the best moments in ACM Awards history.”
“Broadcast television and music have always been mediums that bring people together,” said Jack Sussman, Executive Vice President, Specials, Music and Live Events, CBS Entertainment. “From their living rooms to yours, CBS is pleased to partner with the ACM and dick clark productions to have some of today’s biggest country artists connect with and entertain fans in an intimate way while allowing everyone to stay safe.”
ACM PRESENTS: OUR COUNTRY will broadcast during the time slot previously scheduled for the 55th Academy of Country Music Awards, which are postponed to air on CBS in September, at a date, time and venue to be determined.
CUMULUS MEDIA’s Westwood One today drops The Prof G Show, with bestselling author and business professor Scott Galloway offering his no mercy, no malice take on how to win in the digital economy. The Prof G Show is available at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, and Google Podcasts, among other platforms.
We live in a winner-take-all economy that’s bifurcating into those who are part of the innovation economy and those who aren’t. Every week best-selling author, professor, and entrepreneur Scott Galloway answers questions from his listeners on who’s winning and losing, and offers advice on how to get ahead. Other professors, practitioners, and entrepreneurs join Scott to contribute their ideas and alternate opinions on how to thrive at work. Listeners can submit questions to Galloway by emailing a voice recording to OfficeHours@Section4.com.
“Our inspiration is the nineties sitcom Frasier, where listeners can call in, ask questions, and be part of an environment that encourages people to keep learning,” said Galloway. “The Prof G Show aims to help listeners be successful professionally and personally.”
“Scott is a compelling and brilliant entrepreneur and author who shares his business insight in an irreverent and accessible way,” said Suzanne Grimes, EVP Marketing, CUMULUS MEDIA and President, Westwood One. “With The Prof G Show, we can all interact with this guru and learn very practical and practicable information.”
In Episode 1, Galloway explores the idea of “Love in the Time of Corona” answering listener questions about how to prepare, adapt, and respond during these volatile times. Scott also sits down with Aswath Damodaran, Professor of Finance at the NYU Stern School of Business, to understand his take on the virus, markets, and investing.
As Americans move encase to conduct their work, schooling and overall social interaction at home via the internet, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, residential broadband usage is soaring, nexttv.com reports.
OpenVault, which offers data, insights and consulting to broadband service providers, said that average downstream residential data usage for urban dwellers reached 5.16 gigabytes on Tuesday, March 10, the day after dire warnings from the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization and other health authorities inspired many companies to issue work-from-home edicts and many school districts to shut down.
Average downstream usage for urban dwellers on Monday, March 16, also clocked in around 5.1 GB, more than double the amount of average data consumed nine weeks earlier, on Monday January 20. Monday’s average downstream usage was 98% higher than the most recent baseline Monday, March 9, a day when the stock market endured a record plunge and seemed to accelerate concern about the spread of coronavirus in the U.S.
Average upstream usage surged to 0.326 GB Monday, OpenVault said, up 68% over Monday March 16.
The figures are based on "hundreds of thousands" of high-speed internet subscribers in the U.S., OpenVault said.
The increased internet traffic from remote office work and schooling only adds to increased traffic generation by entertainment applications as Americans stay at home, with Nielsen projecting a 61% increase in U.S. video streaming usage.
Operators of wireline broadband networks are responding confidently to questions as to whether their infrastructures can handle the increased load.
Remote working software is seeing a surge in use as the spread of coronavirus moves many jobs and classes online.
The Hill reports Microsoft's Teams chat and conferencing app has gained more than 12 million daily users in the last seven days alone, a spokesperson for the company told The Hill on Thursday.
Teams now has 44 million daily users that have produced 900 million meeting and calling minutes each day of the week.
"It's very clear that enabling remote work is more important than ever, and that it will continue to have lasting value beyond the COVID-19 outbreak," Jared Spataro, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365, wrote in a blog post on Thursday.
"We are committed to building the tools that help organizations, teams, and individuals stay productive and connected even when they need to work apart."
Remote conference service Zoom has also seen an uptick in usage as coronavirus has spread.
While the company declined to provide The Hill with specific figures on usage rates, it pointed to commentary from CEO Eric Yuan during a conference call on fourth quarter earnings earlier this month.
➦In 1902... Nathan Stubblefield demonstrated ship-to-shore broadcast to multiple receivers in Washington, D.C., where voice and music transmissions were made over a third of a mile (535 meters) from the steamer Bartholdi, anchored in the Potomac River, to shore.
Stubblefield with wireless phone
He later demonstrated wireless telephony in Philadelphia on May 30, 1902 to a distance of a half mile.
He joined wireless inventor Archie Frederick Collins and stock promoters in the Collins Wireless Telephone Company. In December, 1909 the company became came a part of the Continental Wireless Tel. & Tel. Company, with A. Frederick Collins as Technical Director. Stubblefield resigned as a director in December 1911, because of what he described in a letter as their sometimes-fraudulent stock promotion practices. The other principals of the company were later convicted of fraud.
However, he continued to experiment with wireless telephony, using large circular conduction coils to transmit voice frequencies to receiving stations. In 1903, he could transmit 375 feet without earth connections, using induction. In 1904, he could transmit 423 yards.
The total wire required for the transmitting and receiving coils was of a greater length than what would be required to simply interconnect the transmitter and receiver, but the invention would allow mobility.
On May 12, 1908, he received U.S. patent 887,357 for his Wireless Telephone, using the voice frequency induction system. He said in the patent that it would be useful for "securing telephonic communications between moving vehicles and way stations". The diagram shows wireless telephony from trains, boats, and wagons. In foreign patents he showed wireless telephony with cars. However, there is no indication that he was using voice-modulated continuous high frequency waves, as used for radio today.
➦In 1906...Oswald George Nelson was born (Died of cancer at age 69 – June 3, 1975). He was a band leader, actor, director, and producer. He originated and starred in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, a radio and television series with his wife Harriet and two sons David and Ricky Nelson.
Earlier, he & wife Harriet Nelson were regulars on the Red Skelton radio show, before he developed The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet for ABC radio from 1944 to ’54. It developed quite a following & moved to TV from 1952 to ’66. As son Rick Nelson became a recording star in real life, the program focussed more on him, ending each show with a performance.
➦In 1908...Frank Nicholas Stanton born in Muskegon, Mich. (Died at age 98 – December 24, 2006). He was a broadcasting executive who served as the president of CBS between 1946 and 1971 and then as vice chairman until 1973. He also served as the chairman of the Rand Corporation from 1961 until 1967.
Stanton helped lead the fight for color television. By 1950 CBS had been working on its field-sequential system of color TV for a decade. On October 11, 1950 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved CBS's system as the first official color standard for commercial broadcasting in the U.S., although subsequent court challenges delayed actual commercial broadcasting until June 25, 1951.
On that day, Stanton appeared on an hour-long special, Premiere, with Robert Alda, Faye Emerson, Ed Sullivan, Arthur Godfrey, William S. Paley and others to introduce the CBS color system.
CBS color broadcasting only lasted for four months. CBS suspended it when the manufacture of color television receivers was halted by the US government as part of the Korean War effort. When the ban on color sets was rescinded in 1953, CBS announced that it had no plans to resume broadcasting using its field-sequential color system. A major problem with the CBS system was that the video was not "compatible" with existing black-and-white TV sets. A competing dot-sequential color system being developed by RCA was compatible, and in late 1953, the FCC switched its approval to an RCA-based system of broadcasting color TV.
➦In 1922...WIP-AM, Philadelphia, signed-on.
Founded by Gimbels department store, the station first went on the air on as Philadelphia's first commercial radio station with the call sign WIP, which people mistakenly think stands for "Wireless In Philadelphia," "We're In Philadelphia" or "Watch Its Progress." In fact, WIP was a call sign randomly issued by the federal government.
In 1938, the station began a full 24 hour a day broadcast schedule and used the slogan "Philadelphia's Pioneer Station." In 1940, the station was granted a power increase to 5,000 watts and the transmitter site was moved to Bellmawr, NJ. The previous tower at 21st and Hamilton was dismantled and the property sold.
Wayne Cody
From the beginning, one of the most popular personalities on the station was children's show host "Uncle Wip." While Uncle Wip was portrayed by several people, one of the longest running was Wayne Cody. By 1933, Uncle Wip's "Kiddie Club" had over 500,000 names on its list, and over 750,000 by 1941. In addition to making numerous appearances, some of Uncle Wip's other activities included an Aviation Club, a "Toyland Parade" and a "Drum and Bugle Corps."
In 1958, WIP AM and FM were sold for $2,500,000 to WIP Broadcasting, Inc., a new syndicate headed by Benedict Gimbel, Jr., the station's former General Manager.
In 1960, the Metropolitan Broadcasting Division of Metromedia, Inc., owned by John W. Kluge, purchased WIP AM and FM for $2,700,000. This essentially ended any connection the station had with the Gimbel family or retail concern. On May 11, 1961, WIP's licensee name was changed to the parent company name, Metromedia, Inc.
Today the station call letters are WTEL, owned by Beasley Media Group and airs sports talk.
Bob and Ray
➦In 1922...."Ray" Goulding was born in Lowell MA (Died – March 24, 1990). He was a comedian, who, together with Bob Elliott formed the comedy duo of Bob and Ray.
Upon graduation from high school at age 17, Ray Goulding was hired as a $15-a-week announcer on local station WLLH, using the name 'Dennis Howard' to avoid confusion with his older brother Phil, an announcer in Boston radio at the time. A year later Ray was hired by Boston radio station WEEI under his own name
Bob & Ray's career spanned 5 decades, all the time satirizing radio & TV. He said the billing “Bob and Ray” came from their first radio show “Matinee with Bob and Ray” which they thought sounded better than “Matinob with Ray and Bob”. They had an NBC television show from 1971-1973. Goulding died of kidney failure March 24, 1990, mere days after his 68th birthday.
➦In 1935...the Lucky Strike Hit Parade premiered on NBC, featuring the top 15 tunes of the week. The show would be a Saturday night radio staple for the next 24 years…second in longevity only to Grand Ole Opry.
B. Mitchel Reed
➦In 1965...B. Mitchel Reed aired his last show at at Top40 WMCA 570 AM in NYC.
He was known as "The Fastest Tongue in the West," for the voice speed. He had left KFWB Los Angeles for WMCA in his home state of New York on February 7, 1963. He soon became part of a team of disc jockeys known as "The Good Guys," among them Jack Spector, a fellow alum from Boys High School in Brooklyn who had graduated two years ahead of him.
By 1965, Reed decided to return to Los Angeles. His last show at WMCA was on March 20. Thousands of his fans cheered him at the airport upon his departure. Many fans who were thrilled of his return greeted him when he arrived in LA. This ushered in his second stint at KFWB and The Wide Wide Weird World of BMR.
➦In 1972...Marilyn Maxwell died from a heart attacked at age 50. She started her professional entertaining career as a radio singer while still a teenager, before signing with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1942 as a contract player. Among the programs in which she appeared were Beat the Band and The Abbott and Costello Show.
Some of her film roles included Lost in a Harem (1944), Champion (1949), The Lemon Drop Kid (1951), and Rock-A-Bye Baby (1958). The song "Silver Bells" made its debut in The Lemon Drop Kid, sung by Maxwell and Hope.
She was also 'whistle bait' on Bob Hope’s many USO tours around the world.
➦In 1974...Chester Robert "Chet" Huntley died of lung cancer at age 62 (Born December 10, 1911). He was a TV newscaster, best known for co-anchoring NBC's evening news program, The Huntley-Brinkley Report, for 14 years beginning in 1956.
Chet Huntley and David Brinkley
Huntley began his radio newscast career in 1934 at Seattle's KIRO AM, later working on radio stations in Spokane (KHQ) and Portland. His time (1936–37) in Portland was with KGW-AM, owned by The Oregonian, a Portland daily newspaper. At KGW he was writer, newscaster and announcer. In 1937 he went to work for KFI in Los Angeles, moving to CBS Radio from 1939 to 1951, then ABC Radio from 1951 to 1955. In 1955, he joined the NBC Radio network, viewed by network executives as "another Ed Murrow".
In 1956, coverage of the national political party conventions was a major point of pride for the fledgling broadcast news organizations. NBC News executives were seeking to counter the growing popularity of CBS' Walter Cronkite, who had been a ratings success at the 1952 conventions. They decided to replace their current news anchor, John Cameron Swayze, but there was a disagreement on who the new anchorman should be. The two leading contenders were Huntley and David Brinkley. The eventual decision was to have both men share the assignment. Their on-air chemistry was apparent from the start, with Huntley's straightforward presentation countered by Brinkley's acerbic wit.
➦In 1989…After 37 years, Dick Clark announced the end of his hosting of "American Bandstand" on ABC-TV.
Dick Clark
American Bandstand premiered locally in late March 1950 as Bandstand on Philadelphia television station WFIL-TV Channel 6 (now WPVI-TV). Originakly it was hosted by Bob Horn as a television adjunct to his radio show of the same name on WFIL radio, Bandstand mainly featured short musical films produced by Snader Telescriptions and Official Films, with occasional studio guests. This incarnation was an early predecessor of sorts of the music video shows that became popular in the 1980s, featuring films that are themselves the ancestors of music videos.
Horn, however, was disenchanted with the program, so he wanted to have the show changed to a dance program, with teenagers dancing along on camera as the records played, based on an idea that came from a radio show on WPEN, The 950 Club, hosted by Joe Grady and Ed Hurst. This more-familiar version of Bandstand debuted on October 7, 1952 in "Studio 'B'," which was located in their just-completed addition to the original 1947 building in West Philadelphia (4548 Market Street), and was hosted by Horn, with Lee Stewart as co-host until 1955.
Stewart was the owner of a TV/Radio business in Philadelphia and even though he was older, his advertising account was a large one for WFIL-TV at the time and was put on the program to appease the account. As WFIL grew financially and the account became less important, Stewart wasn't needed and was eventually dropped from the program.
On July 9, 1956, Horn was fired after a drunk-driving arrest, as WFIL and dual owner Walter Annenberg's The Philadelphia Inquirer at the time were doing a series on drunken driving. He was also reportedly involved in a prostitution ring and brought up on morals charges. Horn was temporarily replaced by producer Tony Mammarella before the job went to Dick Clark permanently.
In late spring of 1956, the ABC television network asked their O&O's and affiliates for programming suggestions to fill their 3:30 p.m. (ET) time slot (WFIL had been pre-empting the ABC programming with Bandstand). Clark decided to pitch the show to ABC president Thomas W. Moore, and after some badgering the show was picked up nationally, becoming American Bandstand on August 5, 1957.
"Studio 'B'" measured 80' x 42' x 24', but appeared smaller due to the number of props, television cameras, and risers that were used for the show.
➦In 2005...NYC Radio, TV Personality Theodore David Brown died (Born - May 5, 1924) In 1953, Brown began working at WNEW 1130 AM as an air-personality.
He worked there off and on and at one point he worked at WMGM playing rock and roll. He returned to WNEW-AM and then worked at WNBC from the late 60s to the early 70s. At that point he went back to WNEW as afternoon drive air personality. He moved to mornings in 1978 and remained after WNEW began evolving in 1979 to Adult Standards/Big Bands by 1981. He continued working at WNEW until 1989 when he semi-retired.
From 1993-95, Brown worked mid-days at WRIV, a standards station in Riverhead, New York, and on WVNJ 1160 in Oakland, New Jersey, playing standards and big bands from early in 1996 to about 1998 when he suffered a stroke. He signed-off his show with the phrase "Put on the coffee Mama. I'm coming home."
Nielsen on Wednesday, March 18, 2020 released the third batch of February 2020 PPM data for the following markets:
22 Portland OR 23 Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill NC 25 San Antonio 27 Sacramento
28 Pittsburgh 29 Salt Lake City-Oden-Provo 30 Las Vegas 31 Orlando 32 Cincinnati 34 Cleveland 35 Kansas City 36 Columbus OH Click Here to see Topline numbers for subscribing Nielsen stations.
Things got heated on the Kevin in the Morning with Allie & Jensen on KROQ 106.7 FM Wednesday morning as host Kevin Ryder jumped on the air to talk about what happened to the show’s staff — he said in a tweet that the morning team had been “fired” — after their show on Tuesday.
The L-A Daily News reports Ryder was allowed to say goodbye to fans, but not before laying into his bosses.
“Along the way, the one criticism of the station I’ve had since day one is that they’ve always treated me, along with everybody else here, like we’re lucky to have jobs,” he said on-air. “The management of the station uses that at times to be incredibly cruel to people … some of the more higher-profile ones — Lisa May, Ralph Garman — you guys know those stories all too well.”
Ryder continued to say that there were numerous staff members at KROQ, who were “discarded like trash” or left because the station was “toxic.”
Entercom, who owns KROQ as well as many other Southern California radio stations released a statement Wednesday morning that said in part, ”We’ve taken a deep look at our station, and have made some recent changes,” it said. “Thank you Kevin and Bean for 30 entertaining years!”
In a separate release, Entercom said that Stryker and Klein, who currently host in the afternoon, would be the new morning team.
Shame on you @kroq "management" for caring so little about the people who gave you so much. Especially now. https://t.co/4MZgAlNs8D
Last year, Ryder’s longtime co-host, Gene “Bean” Baxter, left The Kevin & Bean Morning Show after nearly 30 years on air together. The duo was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters’ Broadcasting Hall of Fame in 2015 and, just after Baxter’s departure, inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame last year.
The new show, dubbed Kevin in the Morning with Allie & Jensen, debuted on Jan. 2 of this year. On Monday, Ryder, along with his co-hosts Allie Mac Kay, Jensen Karp, producer Dave “The King of Mexico” Sanchez, Jonathan “Beer Mug” Kantrowe and more, were told the morning show was done.
Employers are cutting shifts, suspending work and starting to lay off workers as the new coronavirus devastates business across the country.
The Wall Street Journal reports companies from restaurant operators to wedding caterers have started to let workers go as they ratchet down operations. Many firms have moved cautiously to date, furloughing employees and moving workers to part-time status. But for many companies, economists say, layoffs are likely next.
More than 3,600 people, most of them from entertainment and leisure industries, have been laid off in the U.S. due to the pandemic, according to new data released Wednesday from Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., an outplacement firm. That count doesn’t include job cuts at bars and restaurants in more than a dozen states and some cities that face restrictions on operations.
Unite Here, a labor union that represents over 300,000 people working in hotels, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textiles, laundry, transportation and airports in the U.S. and Canada, said Wednesday it expects 80% to 90% of those workers to be laid off.
People who have lost jobs are filing for unemployment benefits, resulting in a surge of claims in some states. Kentucky typically handles 2,000 cases a week, but received 9,000 claims on Tuesday. State websites that handle benefits in New York and Oregon have malfunctioned due to higher traffic.
Shrinking schedules are happening as roughly 40% of Americans said they would have difficulty covering $400 in an emergency, needing to borrow the money from family or friends or put it on a credit card, according to a Federal Reserve Bank survey in 2018.
And while the public gives the news media fairly high marks when it comes to their coverage of the virus, about half of U.S. adults (48%) report that they’ve seen at least some made-up news about the pandemic.
For example, when asked about the origin of the current strain of the coronavirus (COVID-19) while roughly four-in-ten U.S. adults (43%) correctly answer that it most likely came about naturally, about two-in-ten (23%) believe it was developed intentionally in a lab. A majority of adults (62%) say the news media has exaggerated risks from the coronavirus outbreak, while 52% of U.S. adults say Trump has not taken the risks seriously enough.
Explore differences by party on this Trump measure in Pew's related report.
Partisanship is evident throughout the survey results, but even within party difference emerge based on media diet, especially when it comes to perceptions about the news media's coverage of the virus and certain beliefs surrounding the outbreak.
The new analyses stems from a survey of 8,914 U.S. adults who are members of the Center's American Trends Panel, conducted March 10-16, 2020.
As movie screens, amusement parks and concert halls go dark in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus, leaving consumers stuck at home, new polling finds that adults are nearly twice as likely to say they expect to spend more money on streaming services than they were just a week ago.
A Morning Consult survey conducted March 6-9 found that 1 in 10 adults said they anticipated spending more money on movie and TV streaming services because of the coronavirus pandemic. Six percent said they were likely to spend more on music streaming services for the same reason.
Both of those numbers nearly doubled by March 13-16, when a survey found that 19 percent of respondents now predict they’ll spend more money on movie and TV streaming, while 11 percent of those surveyed said they would likely spend more on music streaming.
The surveys, conducted among roughly 2,200 U.S. adults each, both have margins of error of 2 percentage points.
Millennials and boomers experienced the highest share of growth between the two surveys. In the initial survey, 14 percent of millennials and 6 percent of boomers said they expect to spend more money on movie and television streaming. By March 13-16, those numbers had risen to roughly a quarter of millennials and 15 percent of boomers saying they now foresee shelling out more on streaming.
Millennials were also the most likely overall to say they expect to increase their spending on video streaming.
There are strong expectations that all types of TV viewing -- in all dayparts -- will rise, given the number of U.S. viewers staying at home due to coronavirus issues. Broadcast TV networks witnessed some higher results in the most current week, Mediapost reports.
Four top broadcast networks totaled 18.1 million Nielsen-measure viewers when looking at prime-time live program/plus same day for the most recent week ending March 15 -- versus 16.9 million the week before.
This past week, CBS led with 6.17 million; ABC is next at 5.15 million, NBC, at 3.71 million and Fox, 3.02 million.
The week before, CBS was at 6.8 million; ABC, 6.1 million; NBC, 2.3 million; and Fox, 1.7 million.
All these numbers are down versus current season-to-date data: CBS, 7.77 million through March 15; Fox, 7.13 million; NBC, 6.97 million; and ABC, 5.53 million.
Many networks have recently announced sharply higher TV rerun programming on prime-time schedules, as well as a wave of postponements/shutdowns of TV production of new episodes from existing series.
Nielsen has predicted a 60% rise in all TV consumption due to anticipated longer-term effects of coronavirus with workers staying at home to avoid infection.
