Andrew Breitbart On MSM's "Contempt" For Americans

Conservative publisher Andrew Brietbart sat down for an extensive interview with Brian Monopoli of CBSNews.com Friday in which he discussed his disdain for the mainstream media, offered his perspective on the Republican presidential field, said President Obama should have released a post-mortem photo of Osama bin Laden, and complained that men have been turned into eunuchs by political correctness.

Breitbart, author of "Righteous Indignation," said reporters don't respect the people they see as "middle Americans from flyover country."

People in the mainstream media and Hollywood, he said, see such people as "heathens" who are "beneath contempt."



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Glenn Beck Interviews Radio Legend Don Imus

Glenn Beck Friday interviewed his good friend and radio legend Don Imus about the 22nd Annual Imus Radiothon, benefiting the Imus Ranch for Kids with Cancer, the Tomorrows Children’s Fund and the CJ Foundation for SIDS.  Click here for more info and to find out how you can donate.

Don Imus is a longtime friend of Glenn, and the two had a hilarious back and forth that you can see in the clip above. You can find out how Don Imus has tricked people into listening to him for years, how Don’s wife convinced Tania to put Glenn on his hippie diet, and of, course, how to donate to the Imus Ranch.

Rick Dees' Humor Returns To LA Radio On KHHT

In the 32 years since Rick Dees arrived in Los Angeles, he had worked at just three radio stations: KHJ, KIIS-FM - where he spent an amazing nearly quarter of a century waking up Southern California - and Movin' 93.9.

Last Wednesday, he added a fourth employer, Hot 93.9 FM (KHHT), where you can hear Dees from 5 to 9 a.m. weekdays. Technically, he's on until 10 a.m. but the last hour is continuous new old-school.

According to a story by Richard Wagoner, at dailybreeze.com, it was just over two years ago that Dees left Movin' due to a station sale and format change, and it has been more than seven years since he left the employ of Clear Channel Communications, replaced on KIIS-FM (102.7) by Ryan Seacrest.

Did Dees think he would return? Did he think he would make it back to morning drive, and on another Clear Channel station?

"I have to admit right now it feels a little weird. Great, but just a little strange," Dees said in an interview Wednesday, after his first shift back on the air. "But I am so excited to be back and so excited to be working with old friends again. We have some amazing people here."

Those people include Greg Ashlock (Clear Channel Los Angeles market manager), John Ivey (Los Angeles programming manager) and Ron Shapiro (Hot 92.3 assistant program director).

"We have some of the most talented people in the business, and we have a mutual admiration for each other," Dees said. "At the same time, it is humbling to have had my name in the survey."

The survey Dees is referring to was one conducted by the station asking listeners who their favorite radio personalities were. Two names dominated - Art Laboe (heard on the station nightly) and Dees.

Humbling, perhaps, but not unexpected. You don't have a 23-year run on one of America's most popular radio stations without building a reputation - in this case, a reputation for good, clean, usually family fun, someone you can listen to as you drive your kids to school.

To celebrate his return to the morning airwaves, Dees threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Dodger game April 27. It was a throwback day, with the Dodgers and Cubs both sporting old-school uniforms - the perfect way to highlight the old-school tunes Dees is playing on Hot 92.3

At Hot 92.3 (website), Dees is bringing back old favorites, some with a twist: "Candid (Smart) Phone," celebrity gossip "Dees Sleeze," and the "Cast of Idiots" including Willard Wiseman.

Humor is where Dees shines, of course. And if you pay close attention, you'll notice he always leaves the more risque humor or double entendres to one of his alter-egos, such as the Wiseman.

Not that it ever gets out of hand. Dees is a master of clean humor and, like Jerry Seinfeld, can make people laugh over everyday events.

"I want to be there when Justin Bieber's voice changes," he quipped.

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'Golden-voiced' Ted Williams Heads Back To Rehab

X17online photo

The homeless Ohio man who became a worldwide internet hit because of his golden voice was back in rehab Friday as he continued his battle with drug and alcohol addiction, according to a story posted at poconorecord.com.

Ted Williams was due to return to the Origins Recovery Center on Texas' South Padre Island.

The center is the same place he retreated to in January as he faced his drug and alcohol demons after seeking advice from TV's Dr. Phil McGraw.

"I'm going back to get some real recovery and some rest," Williams said at Port Columbus International Airport as he was about to board a plane to Texas. "Dr. Phil's concerns and cares will not go in vain. I hope I can successfully complete this whole journey and come back and say, 'Hey Dr. Phil. I did it.'"

McGraw offered to pay for Williams' treatment at the facility after he appeared as a guest on the TV doctor's show. Williams took up the offer -- but left the center after just two weeks' treatment in January.

He said he was unsure if McGraw's offer was still on the table but added, "If I have to pay for it myself, that's what I'll do."

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Williams' manager tells E! News that his decision to head back to rehab is not due to a drug relapse. He claims the problems are all "emotional."

His manager Al Battle tells us that after a joint decision between Williams and himself, they've decided to send him back to Origins in Texas, to commit to a 90-day program.

"All of the shooting for his reality show has taken a serious toll on him," Battle said. "This is not a trip back to rehab because of a drug or alcohol relapse. It's all emotional. Ted is exhausted."

Battle added that getting Williams away from the spotlight for a while would be the "right start."

"It was more of an emotional thing. He just needed to get back to his psychologists," Battle said, adding that the program Williams is entering is "intensive" and that he will embrace the treatment this time around.

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ALERT FM Plays Key Role in AL Storm Coverage

ALERT FM, the system that uses the reliable FM radio platform to deliver emergency alert text messages, helped save hundreds of lives during the devastating tornados that ripped across the South last month.

In Alabama, the ALERT FM system is deployed in 18 counties, across one-third of state. ALERT FM uses Radio Broadcast Data Service (RBDS) FM-subcarrier technology to deliver text alerts up to 240-characters to any electronic device with ALERT FM software and an enabled FM radio receiver chip.

“With an FM receiver chip in every fixed and mobile device, the ALERT FM emergency alert text message broadcast would be ubiquitous and reach even more people during times of local or national disasters and other emergencies,” explained Robert L. Adams, President and Chief Executive Officer, Global Security Systems (GSS), parent of ALERT FM. “In addition,” adds Adams, “ALERT FM ‘wakes up’ the FM enabled device when an emergency alert message is delivered, further enhancing public safety.”

David DuBose, Vice President and Market Manager for Cox Media Group’s Birmingham, Alabama radio stations -- a seven-station cluster that played a key role in sending ALERT FM messages to help protect thecommunity -- stated, “I know we saved a lot of folks because we are saw the posts on our Facebook page. Many people called our stations to say their power was off at their home due to the storms early on Wednesday morning before the killer tornados even touched down. They relied on our stations and The GSS ALERT FM system for vital information.”

Pickens County, Alabama, Emergency Management Director Ken Gibson confirmed that the ALERT FM system functioned exceptionally well during the multiple tornado storm warnings and without interruption–an advantage of the FM-based delivery system in contrast to cellular signals that are notorious for experiencing drop-outs from overload, most notably during high-volume usage like in an emergency.

In addition, ALERT FM can target FM-enabled devices in a single school, a football arena, or the entire country.

The deployment in Alabama was part of the Remote Community Alert Systems Program, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Weather Service (NWS) effort to provide for outdoor alerting technologies in remote communities underserved by commercial mobile services.

The Sunday Funny

WFAN'S Imus In The Morning Montage of shows on MSNBC. Featuring Imus in the Morning executive producer Bernard McGuirk and co-host Charles McCord and Imus engineer Lou Rufino.

The Saturday Aircheck

IMUS FLASHBACK - Don Imus & Charles McCord

Charles Gets Mad At Don over Whittaker Chambers Bio Book And The Nixion Book In 1997! .... Funny!!

2.7 Terabytes of Data Recovered From Compound

CBS News graphic

A law enforcement source tells CBS News that 2.7 terabytes of data were recovered from the laptops, computers, hard drives and other storage devices seized from the bin Laden compound, according to a story by Emily Rand at cbsnews.com.

It's unclear whether all of the 2.7 terabytes are original files or if there are multiple copies of files. To put the amount of data recovered in perspective, just one terabyte of data could hold about 2,000 hours of audio or 220 million pages of text.

Intelligence officials have not said how they are analyzing the data, but a DOD computer forensic analyst who works on computers captured on the battlefield tells CBS News forensic analysts are most likely using search indexing tools and software to rapidly analyze seized electronic devices to locate information of interest to the intelligence committee.

Sources said much of the material seized in the daring raid was encrypted so the messages could not be read if they were intercepted.

Among the material confiscated was al Qaida propaganda material including al Qaida messaging strategies to inspire and recruit new Jihadists. There is some indication that bin Laden was continuing to develop his strategy to utilize homegrown operatives that were intimately famiilar with the countries in which they lived.

There was also material on current events, in an apparent effort to keep bin Laden abreast on news from around the world.

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Talk Radio Rides to the Rescue in Tuscaloosa

How Clear Channel stations promoted a remarkable network of volunteers for tornado relief

From David T. Beito for wsj.com:

Much of the strength of Tuscaloosa's extensive mutual aid comes from an unlikely source: right wing talk radio. The four Tuscaloosa Clear Channel stations have pre-empted their normal fare of Rush, Hannity and top 40 songs to serve as a relief clearinghouse through simulcasts. Gigi South, the local market manager for Tuscaloosa Clear Channel, says that it was her decision to begin the simulcasts.

It was hard to do otherwise. Employees saw demolished neighborhoods outside their windows and the desperate calls for help came in almost immediately. Because many residents lost power and were unable charge cell phones, battery-operated and car radios often became their only form of communication.

These stations have only 12 full-time employees among them, but they've have had a vast impact. The on-air jocks have taken on grueling shifts, sometimes working 10 hours straight.

The goal of the simulcasts is simple: Connect givers and victims and allow them to exchange information. According to Ms. South, "this whole thing has been about connecting listener to listener. They are the ones doing this. We're just the conduit."

Ms. South is being modest. In many cases, people have dropped off goods—sometimes dozens of cooked meals—at the station's door. The on-air jocks have rushed them to those in need. The higher-ups at Clear Channel have fully supported the local initiative to pre-empt normal programming and have provided generators and engineers to keep the stations on the air round the clock.

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Mr. Beito is a professor of history at the University of Alabama and is author of "Black Maverick: T.R.M. Howard's Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power" (University of Illinois Press, 2009) and "From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services" (University of North Carolina Press, 2000).

TomzTake:  Kudos on a job well-done to the staffs making it happen at Clear Channel, Tusacloosa: Sports WACT-AM, News/Talk WRTR-FM, Country WTXT-FM and CHR WZBQ-FM 

Farewell Charles McCord!

The Imus in the Morning Team sends off Charles McCord!

Students Protest Newspaper's Controversial Cartoon

A group of University of New Mexico students protested a controversial cartoon printed in the Daily Lobo that depicted the president and Osama bin Laden

NPR Hires Lobbyist For Taxpayer Funding

National Public Radio (NPR) is paying the lobbying firm Bracy, Tucker, Brown & Valanzano to defend its taxpayer funding stream in Congress, according to lobbying disclosure forms filed with the Secretary of the Senate.

According to a story by Matthew Boyle at The Daily Caller, the taxpayer-funded radio network hired the firm in the second quarter of 2011 to work on issues regarding “funding for NPR and affiliate stations.”

It will remain unclear how much NPR is paying for these lobbying services until second quarter lobbying forms are filed. But before NPR hired the firm to represent it on funding issues, the network spent $131,666 in 2011’s first quarter on an in-house lobbyist.

NPR’s hiring of a lobbying firm to preserve its funding has riled some of the network’s critics.

“It’s astonishing that at [a] time we are looking to get a grip on out-of-control Washington spending, NPR is using hard earned tax dollars to pay for a lobbyist to extract more tax dollars,” Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer said in an email to The Daily Caller.

Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado, who is among those leading the charge to defund NPR, told TheDC NPR’s new lobbying campaign won’t help them out in Congress.

“NPR’s misguided attempt to buy goodwill on the Hill will go nowhere,” Lamborn said in an e-mail to TheDC. “The simple truth is, our government is broke and the gravy train has run out of steam. NPR ought to focus its efforts on replacing federal revenues with private donations.”

Bracy refused to say how much NPR’s contract with his firm is worth.

Read More.

New CBS Anchor Visits DC Affiliate

Tina Brown Is Still Hungry for Buzz

From NYTimes Magazine Profile By Peter Stevenson:

NYTimes photo

At 57, Tina Brown — the woman who in the words of The New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg “has been a celebrity since she was in college” — has a magazine again.

While Newsweek is bruised and limping, it can still lay claim to a position on the main playing field of American journalism. But for how long? Last year it lost more than $20 million; its new partner, Brown’s three-year-old Web site, The Daily Beast, lost an estimated $10 million...

Brown drives her staff at warp speed. “I’m up from 5 a.m., going online and sending BlackBerry messages out from then until I go to bed,” she said. “People get used to that. I like to have a structure of things that are in place, and then I constantly disrupt it with a new thing, an idea that’s just in the air.

“I’m not very good with people who aren’t committed,” she continued. “Kathy O’Hearn from CNN has come over to develop our Web TV. Kathy says, ‘Don’t come here unless you’re balls to the wall!’ So now we call it ‘B to the W!’ We say, ‘Is he B to the W?’ Because otherwise someone comes in and says, ‘Well, two days a week I have to teach at N.Y.U. . . .’ And we say, ‘Not B to the W!’ ”

The “NewsBeast” merger — orchestrated by Barry Diller and Newsweek’s owner, the late audio mogul and philanthropist Sidney Harman — was one of necessity for both men. Newsweek had been rudderless since Harman bought it last August for $1 from the Washington Post Company and assumed $40 million in liabilities. Diller meanwhile was in the same boat as anyone trying to make a stand-alone Web site profitable.

Ideally, The Beast would mimic the success of The Huffington Post, the Web site that Brown’s friend Arianna Huffington hawked to AOL for $315 million in February. But HuffPo has what The Beast lacks: a tribal identity, one that draws 31 million monthly visitors. With the Newsweek deal, Diller and Brown tethered The Beast to a print landmass — albeit a fairly scorched one — and avoided having to answer the inevitable question of whether The Beast by itself could ever be a viable business.

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CC Media See Losses Narrow

CC Media Holdings Inc. and its sister company Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc. reported narrower losses as lower radio-segment costs and growing billboard ad sales boosted their bottom lines, according to a Dow Jones Newswires story.

The Clear Channel companies have benefited of late from rising advertising demand, which tends to follow broader economic conditions.

"Our digital revenues were particularly strong as we benefited from an expanding footprint and continued demand across many of our markets," Clear Channel Outdoor Chief Financial Officer Tom Casey said.

CC Media, the vehicle used by private-equity firms Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP to privatize Clear Channel Communications Inc. in 2008, posted a first-quarter loss of $131.8 million, compared with a prior-year loss of $175.4 million. Revenue rose 4.5% to $1.32 billion, or about 4% excluding the effects of exchange rates.

Revenue in radio broadcasting, the largest segment, grew 2.8% as earnings climbed 15% on lower operating expenses.

The outdoor company posted a first-quarter loss of $9.5 million, or 3 cents a share, compared with a prior-year loss of $47.8 million, or 14 cents a share. Revenue rose 6.8% to $650.2 million and grew 5% on a constant-currency basis as the Americas and international segments posted sales growth at essentially the same rates.

Rival CBS Corp. (CBS) last week reported its outdoor revenue grew 5.4% as the business' operating loss narrowed.

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Report: NBC Broadcast Will Take Years to Turn Around

Comcast Corp., the U.S. cable company that took control of NBC Universal in January, will likely have to spend “a number of years” turning around the unit’s broadcast business, said Comcast Executive Vice President Stephen Burke.

According to a story by Alex Sherman at bloomberg.com, Comcast will try to boost ratings and revenue for NBC, which has lost ground against rivals such as CBS Corp. and News Corp. Fox. Comcast said yesterday that broadcast television revenue fell to $1.35 billion in the first quarter from $2.08 billion a year earlier, when results included the Olympics.

“We are under-performing relative to the other three of the big four dramatically, hundreds of millions of dollars worse that the other three,” said Burke, who is also chief executive officer of NBC Universal, in a conference call Thursday.

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CC's Pittman Plays Up Traditional Radio's Stability

Bob Pittman made a personal, minority investment of $5 million in Clear Channel in November, when he took on an executive role at the privately owned San Antonio-based company. In a recent interview with The LA Times, Pittman talked about what he's doing to bring the traditional radio company into the digital age, online radio and whether he thinks Pandora Media Inc. is a threat.

How is traditional radio doing in the digital age?

The perception out there is that radio is somehow in trouble. The reality is that we have the same percentage of the population listening to radio, at 93%, as we did in 1970 when it was 92%. It's not declining. Clear Channel reaches 237 million listeners a month, and that doesn't include our online listeners.

What do you think of Pandora, Slacker and all the online radio stations that are grabbing so many ears these days?

Pandora is not really radio in that it's not curated. It's more like a playlist that you put on shuffle. They don't have local information or local personalities. That said, Pandora is a nice feature. When I was at AOL, we had Instant Messenger. It was a nice feature, too. But it remains to be seen whether Pandora can be a free-standing business model.

So, what's it going to take to make money online?

The problem is that advertising comes slowly to any new medium or product. When I was at MTV, we projected $10 million in ad revenue for the first year. We did $500,000 and almost went out of business. Coca-Cola did not advertise with us for the first five years. That's how slow advertisers are to warm up to new media. It was the same thing at AOL. But over time, it will grow.

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Erie-area FM Signal Goes to Local Company

Richard Rambaldo is returning to the Erie airwaves

A local company co-owned by the Fairview advertising executive, who was once involved in the ownership of six local radio stations, has won a permit for the region's newest signal -- the 6,000-watt 92.7 FM.

According to a story by Ed Palattella at the Erie Times-News, Rambaldo's First Channel Communications LLC submitted a final high bid of $2,068,000 on Tuesday in a government auction of the frequency, which is licensed for Lawrence Park Township.

The signal was the first to go up for auction in the Erie market since 1999.

First Channel owns no other radio stations in the Erie market, so the Federal Communications Commission gave the company a 35 percent discount toward its final bid. The discount means the actual cost of First Channel's purchase of 92.7 FM will be $1,334,000.

The purchase must undergo regulatory review, but Rambaldo said First Channel has emerged as the winner at the auction.

"This day couldn't be happier for First Channel Communications," Rambaldo said on Tuesday.

He said First Channel will survey the local market before deciding on a format for the new station, which he said he expects to be on the air in early 2012.

"It will be a musical format," Rambaldo said.

With the purchase, First Channel, whose other co-owner is Erie car dealer Dave Hallman Jr., is the only local owner of a commercial radio station in the Erie market. Out-of-town media groups own the other 10 stations -- seven FM and three AM.

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