The NFL once again dominates Variety’s ranker of the most-watched television telecasts of the year. No surprise, of course, Super Bowl LIV was easily the top program of 2020, with 102 million viewers on February 2.
Actually, seven of the ten telecasts of the year came from the NFL, and 28 out of the top 100 of the year. The other major sports leagues weren’t as lucky: Impacted by delayed seasons and playoffs due to COVID-19, only Game 6 of baseball’s World Series made it on the top 100 list, while the NBA Finals completely missed the ranker this year. And that’s despite teams from the nation’s second-largest market, Los Angeles, winning both of them.
Scripted series accounted for 39 of the top 100 slots, while competition series took up nine spots. The Season 4 post-Super Bowl premiere of "The Masked Singer" was easily the most-watched entertainment program of the year, with 27.4 million viewers. (It kept humming throughout the year, landing 16 slots in the top 100 telecasts among adults 18-49.)
Audiences gravitated to ABC’s January stunt “Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time,” as all four installments made it on the end-of year list. That was the most of any reality show.
And given how this was one of the most tumultuous years in recent history, news programs and coverage can be found all over this year’s ranker. CBS’ “60 Minutes” shows up five times, while 11 slots are devoted to debates or election coverage.
Ratings for Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Channel topped all news and basic cable channels for a fifth straight year in 2020, according to Reuters citing Nielsen data released on Tuesday.
The network averaged 1.9 million viewers per day and 3.6 million in primetime - record levels for cable news channels - during a news-heavy year marked by the coronavirus pandemic, protests for racial justice and a contentious U.S. presidential election.
While Fox was ahead in key metrics when looking at the year as a whole, AT&T Inc’s CNN beat Fox in total day ratings for 41 straight days after the Nov. 3 presidential contest, CNN said on Dec. 16. The channel also recorded its most-watched year in its 40-year history, with an average of 1.1 million viewers per day and 1.8 million in primetime.
After 28-years, WTIC 1080 AM Host Joe D'Ambrosio is making good on his promise to leave the Entercom station.
D'Ambrosio, a legendary Connecticut television and radio broadcaster, announced onTwitter that his last day at the station will Thursday, because he had negotiated a buyout. He has not publicly said what his next steps will be.
In the fall, following an exchange with a caller during his morning show with co-host Ray Dunaway, D'Ambrosio said he was not going to renew his contract which was set to expire in June 2021.
At the time, he said that he had grown frustrated at the station due to the political climate, and because he was not allowed to fully share his opinions.
SOME Personal professional news. Thursday will be my final day @WTIC1080 . I have negotiated a buyout and New Years Eve will be my last day on the radio station.
Among other festive feats, Eagles, Jackson 5 & The Beach Boys return after lengthy breaks.
As Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" returns to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, her 1994 carol is one of 39 holiday hits on the survey, the most ever in a week over the chart's 62-year history.
Each holiday season, Carey’s song and other holiday tunes begin to climb the Billboard charts as their popularity resurfaces through streaming, radio play and even digital sales.
As previously reported, a one-week record nine seasonal songs chart in the Hot 100's top 10, while 18 such hits rank in the top 20.
Here’s a full list of the 39 holiday songs on this week’s Billboard Hot 100 chart:
No. 1, Mariah Carey, “All I Want for Christmas Is You”
No. 2, Brenda Lee, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”
No. 3, Bobby Helms, “Jingle Bell Rock”
No. 4, Burl Ives, “A Holly Jolly Christmas”
No. 5, Andy Williams, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”
No. 6, José Feliciano, “Feliz Navidad”
No. 8, Dean Martin, “Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow”
No. 9, Wham!, “Last Christmas”
No. 10, Chuck Berry, “Run Rudolph Run”
No. 11, Nat King Cole, “The Christmas Song (Merry Christmas to You)”
No. 12, Kelly Clarkson, “Underneath the Tree”
No. 13, The Ronettes, “Sleigh Ride”
No. 15, Perry Como and the Fontane Sisters with Mitchell Ayres and His Orchestra, “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”
No. 16, Gene Autry, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”
No. 17, Ariana Grande, “Santa Tell Me”
No. 18, Andy Williams, “Happy Holiday/The Holiday Season”
No. 19, Darlene Love, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”
No. 20, Bing Crosby, “White Christmas”
No. 22, Perry Como, ”(There’s No Place Like) Home for the Holidays”
No. 23, Michael Bublé, “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”
No. 26, Gene Autry, “Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)”
No. 28, Paul McCartney, “Wonderful Christmastime”
No. 32, Thurl Ravenscroft, “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”
After her timeless tune “Downtown” played from the RV that exploded in Nashville on Christmas morning, Petula Clark on Tuesday sent well wishes to the rattled Tennessee capital.
In a statement published to social media, the British singer said: “I feel the need to express my shock and disbelief at the Christmas Day explosion in our beloved Music City.”
The bombing on a quiet holiday morning in the heart of Nashville left three people wounded and killed the man believed to be responsible.
Authorities said Anthony Quinn Warner, 63, of Antioch, Tenn., died when the RV burst into an orange ball and sent tremors into neighboring blocks.
Cops had rushed to clear the area after the RV blared a warning announcing the upcoming detonation. The vehicle also played Clark’s song, which celebrates urban cores as places where lonely people can escape their troubles.
“When you’re alone, and life is making you lonely, you can always go: downtown,” Clark sings in the 1964 song, which was inspired by New York City. “When you’ve got worries, all the noise and the hurry seems to help, I know — downtown.”
“I would like to wrap my arms around Nashville,” Clark, 88, said in the statement.
Sixteen months before Anthony Quinn Warner's RV exploded in downtown Nashville on Christmas morning, officers visited his home in Antioch after his girlfriend reported that he was making bombs in the vehicle, according to documents obtained by The Tennessean.
On Friday, 63-year-old Warner blew up a city block, police say, about 6:30 a.m. on Second Avenue outside an AT&T switch facility. The bomb caused massive destruction to 41 downtown buildings and crippled telecommunication systems throughout the Southeast over the weekend.
In the aftermath, The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Warner was "not on our radar" prior to the bombing. But a Metro Nashville Police Department report from August 2019 shows that local and federal authorities were aware of alleged threats he had made.
No actions appear to have been taken to stop Warner, a slender 5-foot-8, 135-pound man who died in the explosion, which injured three others.
On Aug. 21, 2019, the girlfriend told Nashville police that Warner "was building bombs in the RV trailer at his residence," the MNPD report states. Nashville police then forwarded the information to the FBI.
Police were called by the woman's attorney, Raymond Throckmorton III, who was concerned about comments she had made. When they arrived, they found her sitting on the porch with two unloaded guns nearby.
"She related that the guns belonged to a 'Tony Warner' and that she did not want them in the house any longer," MNPD spokesman Don Aaron said in a statement to The Tennessean.
While at the house, the woman told police about the bomb comments Warner had made.
Throckmorton, who served as the woman's attorney, told officers Warner "frequently talks about the military and bomb making," the document said.
Warner "knows what he is doing and is capable of making a bomb," the attorney said to the officers, according to the report.
In an interview Tuesday night, Throckmorton told The Tennessean he urged police at the time to look into the woman's claim. He said she feared for her safety, believing Warner may harm her.
Police then went to Warner's home, but he didn't answer the door after they knocked several times.
Officers saw his RV behind the house, but the vehicle was fenced off and police were unable to see inside of it, the report said. While there, police noted that there were "several security cameras and wires attached to a alarm sign on the front door."
The officers notified supervisors and detectives about the incident.
"They saw no evidence of a crime and had no authority to enter his home or fenced property," Aaron said of officers' unsuccessful attempt to make contact with Warner or look inside the RV.
The bombing outside an AT&T facility in downtown Nashville on Christmas triggered a cascade of technological failures that disrupted daily life and imperiled emergency services, offering a sobering reminder of the fragility of the nation’s critical communications systems, according to The Washington Post citing national security experts.
AT&T’s building on Second Avenue is a connection point for regional Internet services as well as local wireless, Internet and video. Battery power kept local service running in the hours that followed the bombing, but subsequent damage from water and fire overwhelmed backup power generators, leading to service disruptions across Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama, the company said in a statement. Local 911 service was impaired, and flights were halted temporarily at Nashville International Airport. Some phone systems at Vanderbilt University remained down Monday afternoon, including the on-call line for the Student Health Center, the university said in a statement.
Warner '74 Class Photo
Experts applauded the telecommunications giant for responding quickly to the explosion by deploying portable cellular sites to help restore some service. But they were alarmed by the widespread nature of the outages, both in terms of geography as well as the variety of services affected. Key to constructing systems that can withstand attacks and natural disasters — and recover quickly — is avoiding a single point of failure, they said.
“There’s a saying in security circles that if there’s no Internet ‘kill switch’ but you want to kill the Internet, kill the switching stations,” said Paul Rosenzweig, a former senior official in the Department of Homeland Security, referring to facilities that act as a node in a communications network, as the one in Nashville apparently did.
Investigators are still trying to determine whether the alleged bomber, Anthony Quinn Warner, who was killed in the blast, targeted the AT&T facility. The are pursuing the possibility that distrust of 5G technology and phone service generally played a role in his thinking, but they cautioned they have also gathered evidence suggesting Warner’s interest in other unusual subjects. Without a declaration of his intent, law enforcement agents are trying to piece together an understanding of his thinking from witnesses and other evidence.
Regardless of Warner’s motives, his actions have underscored how vulnerable communications infrastructure remains nearly two decades after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks focused the attention of government officials at all levels on protecting those systems and avoiding single points of failure.
The number of new smartphones activated on Christmas Day fell 23% from a year earlier, according to a report by mobile analytics firm Flurry. It attributes the decline to people having less money thanks to the disruptions caused by Covid. Smartphone sales have been weak all year, according to earlier reports from Gartner.
What’s most interesting about the latest reports, though, is what it says about the relative popularity of Apple’s newest iPhones. Flurry’s data shows that the most popular phone being activated last Friday was the iPhone 11, a year-old model, while the XR—which came out in 2018—was the second most popular. The newest iPhone 12 models ranked third and fourth. That may reflect widespread consumer attitudes—seen in online reviews—that the 11 models perform better than the 12s, thanks in part to better battery strength. The 12 line’s selling point was 5G capability. But 5G networks are still nascent in much of the U.S.
The American presence on Berlin’s airways since 1945 that carried English-language news and music ended this month when the last US radio station in the German capital stopped broadcasting, Politico reported Tuesday.
“It’s a sad moment embodying the end of a tradition,” Anna Kuchenbecker, a member of KCRW Berlin’s board, said. She blamed the financial fallout from the coronavirus pandemic for the shutdown, saying it led to deep cuts and layoffs.
The station operated in partnership with a California public radio affiliate with the same call sign, reports The NY Post. In 2017, KCRW entered into a partnership with NPR.
Because KCRW Berlin wasn’t eligible for the funds the German government collects to finance its public television and radio stations, it fell to KCRW in California and NPR, which receives some funds from the US government, to rescue it, former station staffers said.
US radio in Germany got its start in the summer of 1945 when the American Forces Network went on the air from Berlin-Dahlem, where US forces were headquartered. It was intended to keep the American troops informed and entertained, but it soon gained widespread appeal.
At the time of Germany’s unconditional surrender to the allies, the country’s radio stations went off air then reorganized in an effort to “denazify” Germany.
For Germans, used to listening to broadcasts of Adolf Hitler’s favorite marches, the American sounds of George Gershwin and Billie Holiday coming through the airwaves ushered in a new cultural era, one that was emphasized in the 1950s with the emergence of rock ‘n’ roll.
AFN was shuttered after the Cold War and its operations rolled into a German public station.
NPR Berlin launched in 2006 and picked up a loyal following but it had trouble sustaining itself financially because of its “listener support” fundraising format that was alien to German listeners.
➦In 1911..Actress Jeanette Nolan born (Died at age 86 from a stroke – June 5, 1998). Nominated for four Emmy Awards, she had roles in the television series The Virginian (1962–1971) and Dirty Sally (1974); and in films such as Macbeth (1948).
Nolan began her acting career at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California, and, while a student at Los Angeles City College, made her radio debut in 1932 in Omar Khayyam, the first transcontinental broadcast from station KHJ. She continued acting into the 1990s.
Nolan made more than three hundred television appearances,
➦In 1914...Radio & TV host Bert Parks born (Died at age 77 from lung cancer – February 2, 1992). He is best known for hosting the annual Miss America telecast from 1955 to 1979.
Parks entered radio broadcasting at age 16, for Atlanta's WGST. Three years later, he moved to New York City and was hired as a singer and straight man on The Eddie Cantor Show, then becoming a CBS Radio staff announcer. Parks was the host of Break the Bank, which premiered on radio in 1945 and was telecast from 1948 to 1957, as well as Stop the Music on radio in 1948 and television from 1949 to 1952.
Bert Parks
The success of Stop the Music took a toll on the ratings of the popular radio show hosted by satirist Fred Allen, who began spoofing Parks's program with skits mocking the premise of the show, one called Cease The Melody.
With other celebrities, he hosted NBC radio's Monitor during the 1960s.
Parks' first game show was Party Line on NBC (broadcast from New York City NBC flagship station WNBT), which involved viewers calling in to answer questions and win $5 prizes; Party Line ran from June 8 to August 31, 1947, making its one surviving episode the oldest known game show and one of the oldest surviving television shows to have been recorded. Commercial kinescopes did not come out until fall 1947 (co-sponsored by NBC, DuMont, and Kodak), and the only kinescopes known to predate Party Line are a few episodes of Kraft Television Theater from February and June 1947.
Parks is most famous for hosting the Miss America telecast from 1955–79; each telecast ended with Parks singing "There She Is, Miss America", as the winner was crowned. Following the 1979 pageant, he was unceremoniously fired by the organization (he heard a newscast while on vacation) in an attempt to attract a more youthful audience. The Tonight Show host Johnny Carson led an on-air campaign to get Parks rehired, but was unsuccessful. In 1990, for the 70th anniversary of the Miss America pageant (during which Miss America 1991 was crowned), Parks was brought on by host Gary Collins to sing "There She Is" to the new Miss America, Marjorie Judith Vincent. It was the last time Parks performed the song live.
➦In 1917...actress Nancy Coleman born (Died at age 82 – January 18, 2000). After working on radio and appearing on the Broadway stage, Nancy Coleman moved to Hollywood to work for Warner Bros. studios.
Early in her career as an actress, Coleman portrayed Alice Hughes on the radio version of the soap opera Young Doctor Malone. Coleman also appeared as the lead in the 04/13/1943 episode of "Suspense", entitled "Fear Paints a Picture". On television, she played Helen Emerson on Valiant Lady.
Jack Benny and Fred Allen
➦In 1936...The famous radio feud between Jack Benny and Fred Allen began. Good friends in real life, Fred Allen and Jack Benny inadvertently hatched a running gag in 1937 when a child prodigy, violinist Stuart Canin, gave a very credible performance on the Allen show, inspiring an Allen wisecrack about "a certain alleged violinist" who should hide in shame over his poor playing.
Allen often mentioned his show-business friends on the air ("Mr. Jacob Haley of Newton Highlands, Massachusetts" was Allen's way of saying hello to his pal Jack Haley), and on the Canin broadcast Allen knew Benny would be listening. Benny, according to Allen biographer Taylor, burst out laughing, then responded in kind on his own program. The rivalry gag went on for a decade and convinced some fans that the two comedians really were blood enemies.
The Allen-Benny feud was the longest-playing, best-remembered running gag in classic radio history. The gag even pushed toward a boxing match between the two comedians and the promised event was a sellout, though the match never occurred.
➦In 1942...the radio program, "Mr. and Mrs. North", began it's run on the NBC Radio network. The show was a radio mystery series that aired on NBC and CBS from 1942 to 1954. Alice Frost and Joseph Curtin had the title roles when the series began in 1942.
The characters, publisher Jerry North and his wife Pam, lived in Greenwich Village at 24 St. Anne's Flat. They were not professional detectives but simply an ordinary couple who stumbled across a murder or two every week for 12 years. The radio program eventually reached nearly 20 million listeners.
➦In 1942...Frank Sinatra opened at New York's Paramount Theater for what was scheduled to be a four-week engagement, but turned into eight weeks because of its popularity.
Police were called to help curb the excitement among the screaming teenage girls known as bobbysoxers -- a phenomenon not seen before for a pop singer
➦In 1943...Mike Nesmith of The Monkees was born.
➦In 1945...Singer Davy Jones, "the cute one" on TV's The Monkees, was born. He died February 29, 2012 at 66.
➦In 1962...Radio/TV talk host Sean Hannity was born. He started his career as a volunteer talk show host at UC Santa Barbara in 1989.
After leaving KCSB, Hannity placed an ad in radio publications, presenting himself as "the most talked about college radio host in America." Radio station WVNN in Athens, Alabama (part of the Huntsville market), then hired him to be the afternoon talk show host. From Huntsville, he moved to WGST in Atlanta in 1992, filling the slot vacated by Neal Boortz, who had moved to competing station WSB. In September 1996, Fox News co-founder Roger Ailes hired the then relatively unknown Hannity to host a television program under the working title Hannity and LTBD ("liberal to be determined"). Alan Colmes was then hired to co-host and the show debuted as Hannity & Colmes.
Later that year, Hannity left WGST for New York, where WABC had him substitute for their afternoon drive time host during Christmas week. In January 1997, WABC put Hannity on the air full-time, giving him the late-night time slot. WABC then moved Hannity to the same drive-time slot he had filled temporarily a little more than a year earlier. Hannity was on WABC's afternoon time slot from January 1998. The WABC slot continued until the end of 2013. Since January 2014, Hannity has hosted the 3–6 p.m. time slot on WOR in New York City.
Hannity's radio program is a conservative political talk show that features Hannity's opinions and ideology related to current issues and politicians. The Sean Hannity Show began national syndication on September 10, 2001, on over 500 stations nationwide. In 2004, Hannity signed a $25-million five-year contract extension with ABC Radio to continue the show until 2009. In June 2007, ABC Radio was sold to Citadel Communications and in the summer of 2008, Hannity was signed for a $100- million five-year contract. As of March 2018, the program is heard by over 13.5 million listeners a week.
In January 2007, Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia) signed a group-wide three-year extension with Hannity on over 80 stations. Hannity signed a long-term contract to remain with Premiere Networks in September 2013.
➦In 2005...Longtime Seattle radio personality Lan Roberts died of lung cancer at 69, just days after his birthday.
Lan Roberts
During the 1960s and 1970s, Roberts was a high-profile jock with KJR in Seattle.
Roberts left KJR for rival top 40 station KOL in a late 60s talent raid and returned to KJR in the early 70s. He was known primarily for comedic skits and gags, working the coveted morning drive shift. Lan Roberts was a master of voices and surrounded the top 40 hits of KJR with odd characters with names like Phil Dirt and The Hollywood Reporter.
Later in life, Roberts returned to live in his old home town and worked as a radio consultant. He gained a new following by sharing his liberal political views on his website. In the last ten years of his life he suffered from lung cancer, and urged visitors to his website not to smoke.
➦In 2014...Scotty Rhodarmer aired his final show on
WWNC 570 AM in Asheville, NC. Rhodarmer did the morning show for
50 years beginning in 1954. WWNC, whose call letters stand for "Wonderful Western North Carolina", signed on the air on February 21, 1927, as Asheville's first radio station,
In the days before FM became popular, WWNC was sometimes the most popular station in the United States with an Arbitron share over 40 percent, sometimes as high as 50 percent for Scotty Rhodarmer.
🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAYS:
Actor Russ Tamblyn is 86.
Singer Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary is 83.
Director James Burrows (“Cheers,” ″Taxi”) is 80.
Actor Fred Ward (“The Right Stuff”) is 78.
Singer Mike Nesmith of The Monkees is 78.
Actor Concetta Tomei (“Providence,” ″China Beach”) is 75.
Ellie Goulding is 34
Singer Patti Smith is 74.
Musician Jeff Lynne is 73.
TV host Meredith Vieira (“Today,” ″The View”) is 67.
Actor Sheryl Lee Ralph (“Moesha”) is 65.
Country singer Suzy Bogguss is 64.
Actor Patricia Kalembar (“Sisters”) is 64.
Actor-comedian Tracey Ullman is 61.
TV host Sean Hannity is 59.
Actor George Newbern (“Providence”) is 57.
Singer Jay Kay of Jamiroquai is 51.
Drummer Byron McMackin of Pennywise is 51.
Actor Meredith Monroe (“Dawson’s Creek”) is 51.
Actor Daniel Sunjata (“Rescue Me”) is 49.
Actor Maureen Flanigan (“7th Heaven”) is 48.
Actor Jason Behr (“The Grudge,” ″Roswell”) is 47.
Actor Lucy Punch (“Ben and Kate”) is 43.
Singer-actor Tyrese is 42.
Actor Eliza Dushku (“Dollhouse,” ″Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) is 40.
Guitarist Tim Lopez of Plain White T’s is 40.
Actor Kristin Kreuk (“Smallville”) is 38.
Singer-guitarist Wesley Schultz of The Lumineers is 38.
Singer Andra Day is 36.
Actor Anna Wood (“Falling Water,” ″Reckless”) is 35.
Singer Ellie Goulding (GOL’-ding) is 34.
Actor Caity Lotz (“DC’s Legends of Tomorrow”) is 34.
Actor Jeff Ward (“Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”) is 34.
VSiN, The Sports Betting Network, today announced the expansion of its partnership with iHeartMedia to significantly increase its audio reach.
As part of this wide-ranging multimedia partnership, on January 1, 2021 VSiN will move its dedicated streaming radio station from SiriusXM to iHeartRadio, the leading all-in-one free digital music, streaming radio and podcasting platform, bringing VSiN’s unique coverage of the sports betting markets to more listeners than ever, completely free for the first time.
“We’re thrilled to build on the success we’ve had with iHeart on the podcasting and betcasting front to announce an expanded partnership that will help us offer a better product to a broader audience for free,” said Brian Musburger, founder and CEO of VSiN.
“We believe that removing the subscription hurdle on audio platforms will launch the critical next chapter for us on a technologically ubiquitous platform and set us up for 24/7 live programming in the very near term. This not only allows VSiN to get to more listeners on more devices but also to capture more advertising revenue as legalized sports betting continues its rapid spread across the U.S.”
Building on the incredible momentum experienced over the past several months, VSiN is capitalizing on the expanded audiences and business opportunities offered by this new partnership with iHeartRadio.
The components of this partnership include:
Dedicated live iHeartRadio station – VSiN will broadcast live daily on iHeartRadio from sports books and gaming properties in Las Vegas and around the country. VSiN offers credible, straight forward sports betting information from authoritative sources who will share and discuss real-time news, analysis and data to inform and entertain sports fans, providing insights into how the lines are made.
Podcasts – The No. 1 podcast publisher will distribute VSiN’s current shows through the iHeartPodcast Network, plus iHeartRadio and VSiN will collaborate on the development of new upcoming sports betting podcasts.
Betcasts – The recently debuted EPL BetCast Radio brings real-time sports betting audio content directly to fans of the world’s most popular sport, soccer. The innovative new bestcasting product leverages iHeartRadio’s advanced technology platform to stream high quality, low latency audio feeds that are essential for delivering timely sports betting news and information. The live audio broadcast brings one marquee soccer match each week throughout the 2020-21 season. The partnership will also include the launch of several new sports betcasts.
“VSiN is at the forefront of the sports betting industry, delivering the most credible content in the industry since it launched in 2017,” said Darren Davis, President of iHeartRadio and iHeartMedia Network Groups. “iHeartRadio is the ideal platform to enable this team to reach an even larger audience, and to educate and entertain more sports fans on the betting industry.”
The free VSiN streaming station will begin on January 1, 2021 on iHeartRadio just as the ball drops at 12a ET.
The House of Representatives easily passed a more than triple-sized relief check for Americans yesterday, increasing the previous amount from $600 to $2,000 per person. Getting it through the Senate, though, will be tough. The House vote was 275 to 134, with the measure getting 44 Republican votes along with near-unanimous support by Democrats. The increase has been demanded by President Donald Trump, although most of his own party has opposed it in the past. The Senate takes up the measure today.
US House votes to override President Trump’s veto of the $740B defense authorization bill, the first override of one of Trump’s vetoes by a chamber of Congress during his time in office; override moves to Senate. https://t.co/LgnHiZG9vN
The House also voted to override President Trump's veto of the annual military defense spending bill. It was the first override of his presidency and came with bipartisan support in a vote of 322 to 87. If the Senate also votes to override, the military budget will become law. If it does not override, the bill dies and negotiations begin again.
➤PRO-TRUMP REPUBLICAN SUES VICE PRESIDENT: U.S. Representative Louis Gohmert, a Texas Republican, is suing Vice President Mike Pence in an effort to force him to ignore electoral votes cast for Joe Biden and award the election to President Trump instead. The vice president, as president of the Senate, oversees the official count of Electoral College votes in a joint session of Congress on January 6th. That's usually a formality.
More 190,000 ceiling fans sold at The Home Depot have been recalled amid reports its blades can detach while in use and cause injury or property damage. https://t.co/NeXE6SO4aX
➤BIDEN ACCUSES WHITE HOUSE OF OBSTRUCTING TRANSITION: President-elect Joe Biden has accused political appointees of obstructing the transition to his administration. He said his team is having a hard time getting information out of the Department of Defense on military operations around the world, and that the Office of Management and Budget won't share information on the government budget. In a speech yesterday, Biden expressed concern about the Defense Department. "Many of the agencies that are critical to our security have incurred enormous damage," he said. "Many have been hollowed out in personnel capacity and in morale."
🏈WASHINGTON RELEASES DWAYNE HASKINS: One-time first-round quarterback Dwayne Haskins has been released by the Washington Football Team. The decision, announced by head coach Ron Rivera on Twitter, came hours after Rivera said that Taylor Heinicke rather than Haskins will get the start if Alex Smith is unable to play in the regular-season finale. Last week, Haskins was stripped of his captaincy and fined a reported fined $40,000 for attending a party without a mask. Then, he got some of the blame for the team's 20-13 loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday, which cost Washington a chance to secure the division. Haskins was replaced with Heinicke late in that game. In a message posted on Twitter, Haskins said he "hopes to become a better man and player because of this experience."
🏒NHL'S LUNDQVIST TO UNDERGO HEART SURGERY: Washington Capitals goaltender Henrik Lundqvist revealed yesterday that he has to undergo open heart surgery. Lundqvist, who is 38, played with the New York Rangers for 15 seasons before signing a one-year deal with the Capitals. He had already announced that he would be unable to play the season. "We all have our mountains to climb," he said. "Staying positive here and set on the road to recovery."
🏀DUKE GAME AGAINST PITTSBURGH POSTPONED: Today's Duke University men's basketball game against Pittsburgh has been postponed due to a positive COVID-19 test, the university announced. No new date has been set. The Duke women's program canceled its entire season a few days ago.
🏀DINWIDDIE OUT FOR THE SEASON: Brooklyn Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie is out for the remainder of the season after suffering a partially torn ACL in his right knee during the team's loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday. He expects to undergo surgery next week.
🏈JARED GOFF ON THE MEND: Los Angeles Rams quarterback Jared Goff is hoping to make it back for the playoffs, but his teammates will have to get there without him. Goff just had surgery on a broken thumb and will miss the Rams' regular-season finale against the Arizona Cardinals. John Wolford is filling in, with Bryce Perkins as the number two quarterback.
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre radio station Alt 92.1 turned off the Christmas music and turned on the ’90s.
On Nov. 4, NEPA Scene broke the news that WFUZ Alt 92.1 made the sudden switch from alternative rock to 24/7 holiday music, indicating that a format switch was imminent. A new website and social media pages revealed this morning that the station is now rebranded as WQFM Q92.1, playing “the ’90s and now.” Programming will include “90’s at 9,” an hour of hits from the 1990s every day at 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., and Alt 92.1 personality Tom “Ferg” Ferguson is staying on as the program director.
92.1 FM has gone through many format changes over the years, from oldies to sports to rock station Fuzz 92.1 in 2012, which rebranded as Alt 92.1 in early 2017.
Q92.1 is owned by Times-Shamrock Communications, which also owns local radio stations WEZX Rock 107 and WEJL ESPN 630 as well as several newspapers including the Scranton Times-Tribune and Wilkes-Barre Citizens’ Voice.
Curtis Media Group has announced the launch of “Rock 92.9” on W225DF in Raleigh-Durham. The station will play the best real Classic Rock for the Triangle, and is led by veteran programmer Len Shackelford.
Shackelford commented, “The time is right for a real Classic Rock choice in the Triangle. We’ll have a much wider playlist with artists that still deserve to be heard, like Rainbow, Dio and Montrose. Plus, instead of just playing a few cuts from core artists like Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Van Halen and Guns N Roses, we’ll go deeper. It’s gonna be a fun ride with The Triangle’s Rock 92.9.”
Curtis Media Group President/COO Trip Savery added, “There is a long and proud history of great, locally programmed rock radio in the Triangle. Rock 92.9 marks a return to those roots with the best Classic Rock tailored to the unique tastes of listeners in the Triangle.”
Bell Media and iHeartRadio Canada have announced the launch of Canada's new national contemporary radio brand, MOVE Radio, in 10 markets across Canada. Each MOVE station plays the biggest hits and favorite blasts from the past, along with delivering local information and programming in each market.
iHeartRadio Canada's new MOVE Radio stations are:
Vancouver's MOVE 103.5
Ottawa's MOVE 100
Halifax's MOVE 100
Brockville's MOVE 104.9
Fredericton's MOVE 106.9
Kelowna's MOVE 101.5
Kingston's MOVE 98.3
Niagara's MOVE 105.7
Penticton's MOVE 97.1
Peterborough's MOVE 99.7
Each MOVE station across Canada retains local morning shows. Beginning Monday, Jan. 4, weekdays on MOVE feature 60 minutes of non-stop music every hour from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., giving Canadians the perfect workday companion. Weekends on MOVE offers listeners a mix of great local programming as well as MOVE RADIO'S EXCLUSIVE AT40 WITH RYAN SEACREST, featuring the Top 40 songs of the week on MOVE Radio stations across Canada. Please visit MoveRadio.ca to confirm local air times.
"We are thrilled to bring this fresh new brand to iHeartRadio Canada – MOVE with us at home, at work, or on the go," said Dave Daigle, Vice President, Radio and Local TV, Bell Media. "Across Canada, listeners can enjoy exclusive content, contesting, and their favourite songs from the biggest artists."
"With MOVE Radio, our adult contemporary stations will benefit from the scale of a national brand, while maintaining a local focus in their respective markets," said Rob Farina, Head of Radio Content, Strategy, and iHeartRadio. "We look forward to bringing MOVE energy to local communities across Canada."
Beginning Monday, Jan. 4, the following homegrown morning shows that listeners know and love anchor MOVE Radio in their local markets: Vancouver's THE NAT & DREW SHOW; Ottawa's MOVE MORNINGS WITH STUNTMAN STU, ANGIE & JANEL; Halifax's MOVE MORNINGS; Brockville's THE BRUCE WYLIE SHOW; Fredericton's MORNINGS WITH CRASH & SARAH BETTS, Kelowna's MORNINGS WITH STEPHEN KEPPLER; Kingston's REID & BEN IN THE MORNING; Niagara's LORI & CURTIS IN THE MORNING; Penticton's MORNINGS WITH KYLE STEWART; and Peterborough's BRIAN & ANGELA IN THE MORNING.
