Helene Forecast To Hit Florida as Category 4

Hurricane Helene reached sustained winds of 85 mph and is expected to strengthen, the National Hurricane Center said Wednesday afternoon. The storm’s center moved past Cancun and heading toward the southeastern Gulf of Mexico. Helene is forecast to slam into the Florida Panhandle on Thursday evening.

The western coast of Florida, including Tampa Bay, are under a hurricane and storm surge warning. The storm’s winds are forecast to reach at least 120 mph, making it a Category 3 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale.

The Weather Prediction Center forecasts a high risk of excessive rainfall that could cause flash flooding in the region between Atlanta and Asheville, N.C., on Thursday. ”Landslides are possible in areas of steep terrain in the southern Appalachians“, Robbie Berg, a meteorologist at the NHC, wrote in the hurricane center’s last advisory.

“A catastrophic and deadly storm surge is likely along portions of the Florida Big Bend coast, where inundation could reach as high as 20 feet above ground level, along with destructive waves,” said NHC Warning Coordination Meteorologist Robbie Berg. “There is also a danger of life-threatening storm surge along the remainder of the west coast of the Florida Peninsula. Residents in those areas should follow advice given by local officials and evacuate if told to do so.”

FCC Greenlights Power Increase For HD Radio

The FCC has decided to allow FM stations to use asymmetric sideband power is a significant development for the radio broadcasting industry. This change means that FM stations can now operate with different power levels on the upper and lower digital sidebands, which can enhance digital FM coverage while minimizing interference with adjacent analog stations12.

This flexibility is expected to help broadcasters optimize their digital signal coverage, making digital radio more accessible and reliable for listeners. By allowing stations to adjust power levels independently on each sideband, they can better protect adjacent analog stations from interference3.

It’s a move that should support the broader adoption of digital radio, providing a more robust and flexible broadcasting environment. How do you think this will impact the radio industry, especially in terms of digital adoption and listener experience?

\The new rules will streamline the notification process for FM stations adopting this technology. Stations can now notify the Commission of changes to their digital power levels using Form 2100, Schedule 335-FM, without the need for ongoing experimental licensing. This change is expected to lead to increased adoption of digital broadcasting among FM stations and enhance the reach and quality of digital radio.

The rulemaking followed petitions from the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), Xperi Corporation, and National Public Radio (NPR), who have long advocated for increased flexibility in FM digital broadcasting. The FCC acknowledged their studies, which demonstrated that many stations could operate at higher digital power levels on one sideband while protecting neighboring analog signals by reducing power on the other sideband. The FCC also noted that such operations have not led to significant interference in tests.

The FCC's decision affects nearly all FM stations, except for those operating on Channel 300 (107.9 MHz), which still require experimental authorization for asymmetric sideband use due to concerns about interference with the Aeronautical Radio Navigation Spectrum.

MSNBC Harris Interview: 'She doesn't answer the question'

MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle called out Vice President Kamala Harris for not answering her question on how she plans to raise taxes with what would likely be a divided government. 

Wednesday night Ruhle pressed where Harris would "get the money" to fund her pricey economic proposals if Republicans on Capitol Hill block her efforts to raise the corporate tax rate.

"Do you still go forward with those plans and borrow?" Ruhle asked. 

"But we're gonna have to raise corporate taxes," Harris responded. "We’re going to have to make sure that the biggest corporations and billionaires pay their fair share. That’s just it. It’s about paying their fair share."

WATCH: Fox’s @tracegallagher calls out MSNBC’s Ruhle for weak interview with Kamala: “The interview went exactly as expected: Questions were asked, answers were not given. And MSNBC called it a huge success.“ pic.twitter.com/J2YLWP1E35

— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) September 26, 2024

Appearing on "Deadline: White House" after the interview, Ruhle admitted that Harris "doesn't answer the question."

"If the GOP is controlling the Senate, if she can’t raise corporate taxes, where is she going to get the money from to expand the child tax credit and do whatever she wants to do. And she says, ‘we just have to do it,’" Ruhle told MSNBC colleague Nicolle Wallace. "That’s great and that’s a campaign promise, but the issue is, if it means we’re gonna just borrow again, then what we’re doing is we’re just never addressing the deficit. And back in the days when you were a proud Republican, debts and deficits matters."

Baltimore Radio: WWMX Signs Extensions With Steve and Jessica

Jessica and Steve 

Audacy has announced a multiyear contract extension with morning show hosts Steve Kramer and Jessica Dutra, co-hosts of “Kramer & Jess” on Mix 106.5 FM (WWMX-FM) in Baltimore. The show will continue to be heard weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. ET.

"I am thrilled that we have successfully extended ‘Kramer & Jess,’” said Tracy Brandys, Senior Vice President and Market Manager, Audacy Baltimore. “This morning duo’s outstanding talent and dynamic presence have truly made a remarkable impact in Baltimore, and I am confident that our listeners will continue enjoying and engaging with their entertaining show."

“We've worked hard the last four years and have created a cool community here in Baltimore,” said Kramer. “We're excited to grow with Audacy and connect with Maryland listeners for years to come. Thanks to the whole team for believing in us!" 

In addition to hosting mornings, Kramer is the voice and creative mind behind the “Certified Mama’s Boy” podcast. He has had radio stops nationwide in Flordia, San Diego and Phoneix, including at Audacy’s KMLE Country 107.9 (KMLE-FM). 

"I’m so grateful for our strong relationship with Baltimore,” said Dutra. ”Our listeners have been a part of some of our biggest milestones, including my engagement and wedding. I’m so excited to continue waking up with Baltimore and building our connection!" 

Before joining Audacy in 2020, Dutra was co-host, producer and social media coordinator for “Geena The Latina and Frankie” on Channel 933 (KHTS-FM) in San Diego, 

NYT Launching Podcast Subs on Apple Podcasts and Spotify

With the launch of “The Daily” in 2017, The Times began a push into audio journalism that changed the role it plays in people’s lives. Since then, The Times has built a comprehensive audio report that helps listeners understand the world around them and has taught them how Times journalism is different from what they’ll find elsewhere. The Times now reaches tens of millions of people who find Times podcasts more valuable than ever before.

Along with our stand-alone Audio app and the Listen tab in The New York Times app, we remain dedicated to getting our journalism to subscribers in more creative, accessible and direct ways. Today, we’re excited to expand where people can subscribe to listen to our world-class audio journalism by teaming up with Apple Podcasts and Spotify, two of the biggest platforms where listening is happening.

On Apple Podcasts, listeners who purchased their subscription to The Times in The New York Times app will have their subscriptions automatically connected the next time they open Apple Podcasts. Listeners can also connect their subscriptions by signing into their account from The New York Times channel page and from individual Show pages on Apple Podcasts.

On Spotify, listeners can also connect their subscriptions by signing into their account from any of our New York Times podcasts. Listeners wishing to become subscribers from Spotify can follow a few simple steps to become subscribers and return to listening.

“Our audio journalism connects The Times with millions of people every day, and now we’re taking a significant step forward in transforming this powerful connection into a key driver of our subscription business,” said Ben Cotton, head of subscription growth at The Times. “We believe that our audio journalism, featuring the most authoritative coverage of the most important and interesting stories, is worth paying for. And working closely with Apple Podcasts and Spotify has allowed us to create a seamless experience that’s both intuitive to use and easy to understand. This collaboration allows us to expand our reach while making it easier than ever for listeners to not only engage more deeply with The Times but support our original, independent audio journalism by subscribing.”

“Our audio report has gotten much bigger over the past few years, and it has a lot more breadth. We now have several news programs, more shows in tech, politics, culture and lifestyle, and we’ve even expanded our shows in Opinion and Sports. We’re excited to get all our shows in front of more people,” added Paula Szuchman, The Times’s director of audio.

A podcast subscription will cost $6/month and $50/year. New York Times All Access and Home Delivery subscribers will continue to have full access at no additional charge.

InfoWars Media To Be Auctioned

Alex Jones' Infowars media business can be auctioned off starting next month so the far-right conspiracy theorist can make payments to the families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting as part of a $1.5 billion settlement, a Houston judge has ruled.

Alex Jones

CBS News reports Infowars' assets, including its social media accounts, copyrighted material and trademarks owned by parent company Free Speech Systems, will be liquidated in November. Additional Infowars assets, including studio equipment, would be sold at a later auction.

In a court hearing Tuesday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez said he would approve the sale, but that he must first change a previous order to make clear that the trustee overseeing Jones' personal bankruptcy case controls all of Free Speech Systems' assets.

Jones and the company filed for bankruptcy in 2022 after losing defamation and emotional distress lawsuits by Sandy Hook families after he repeatedly called the Connecticut school shooting a hoax staged by "crisis actors." Adam Lanza killed 26 people, including 20 children, in the shooting, in Newtown, Connecticut.

The outcome of the Infowars auctions could determine Jones' broadcasting fate. He has vowed to continue hosting talk shows and could do so through a new website or his personal social media accounts, which are not part of the sale. 

Number of Women's Sports Podcasts Growing

Sports podcasts hosted by men and about men’s teams and leagues still rule the Apple Podcasts and Spotify charts, but there’s been a recent explosion of sports podcasts by, for, and about women, and interest from media companies, listeners, and advertisers only continues to push the category forward.

According to Marketing Brew, the roster of women’s sports podcasts on the market has been quietly growing for the past several years. The Athletic first introduced Full Time with Meg Linehan, a women’s soccer podcast hosted by the veteran reporter, in 2020, the same year Hyslop and the team at The Gist got The Gist of It up and running. A year later, start-up consultancy and media platform Goals started its podcast, The Business Case for Women’s Sports. And ahead of the Women’s World Cup last summer, soccer stars Christen Press and Tobin Heath debuted their women’s soccer podcast, The Re—Cap Show.

Gayle Troberman

Around the time of the Paris Olympics this summer, there were even more shows that came into the fold. iHeartMedia teamed up with agency Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment to create the Women’s Sports Audio Network audio platform. Vox Media signed Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird’s A Touch More podcast to its network. Dear Media inked a deal with woman-hosted sports podcast Sunday Sports Club. Betches Media, which has introduced a sports vertical, is currently developing a vodcast to further build out its sports coverage, and is in talks with potential advertisers, Chief Content Officer Kate Ward told us.

“For years, whenever I’ve turned on pre-game or halftime reports, I have always been disappointed to see almost exclusively all-male roundtables and chat shows on my screens,” Ward wrote in an email. “It’s the reason we are psyched to be amplifying women’s voices in the space even further.”

iHeartMedia CMO Gayle Troberman said the programming team noticed increased interest in women’s sports content from both audiences and advertisers, prompting a rapid move into the space earlier this year. The company debuted its women’s sports network at Cannes, which includes the daily women’s sports podcast Good Game with Sarah Spain and women’s sports broadcast dispatches across 500 iHeart radio stations.

Audiences seem to like what they hear. The Gist of It, which covers both men’s and women’s sports, has grown its audience about 20% year over year without any paid marketing support since it started, Hyslop said, and more than 90% of its mainly millennial and Gen Z listener base identify as female or non-binary, she said.

Radio History: Sep 26

➦In 1887…Inventor Emile Berliner was granted his first patent for what he called the "Gramophone". The patent described recording sound using horizontal modulation of a stylus as it traced a line on a rotating cylindrical surface coated with an unresisting opaque material such as lampblack, subsequently fixed with varnish and used to photoengrave a corresponding groove into the surface of a metal playback cylinder.

In practice, Berliner opted for the disc format, which made the photoengraving step much less difficult and offered the prospect of making multiple copies of the result by some simpler process such as electrotyping, molding or stamping. Soon Berliner was using a more direct recording method, in which the stylus traced a line through a very thin coating of wax on a zinc disc, which was then etched in acid to convert the line of bared metal into a playable groove.

Ted Weems band on set of Fibber McGee & Molly - 1937

➦In 1901...Bandleader Ted Weems born in Pitcairen, PA (Died at age 61 - May 6, 1963). His work in music was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Weems moved to Chicago with his band around 1928. The Ted Weems Orchestra had chart success in 1929 with the novelty song "Piccolo Pete", which rewarded him with his second Gold Record, and the #1 hit "The Man from the South". The band gained popularity in the 1930s, making regular radio broadcasts. These included Jack Benny's Canada Dry program on CBS and NBC during the early 1930s, and the Fibber McGee & Molly program in the late 1930s.

In 1936, the Ted Weems Orchestra gave singer Perry Como his first national exposure; Como recorded with the band (on Decca Records), beginning his long and successful career.

The first season of the Beat the Band radio show on the NBC Red Network (1940–1941) included Weems and his orchestra as part of the cast.

In 1940, Weems and his orchestra were featured on Beat the Band on the NBC-Red radio network.

➦In 1908...Saturday Evening Post ad for a Victor 'talking machine'.

➦In 1919...Actress Barbara Britton born Barbara Maurine Brantingham (Died from pancreatic cancer at age 60 – January 17, 1980). She is best known for her Western film roles opposite Randolph Scott, Joel McCrea, and Gene Autry and for her two-year tenure as inquisitive amateur sleuth Pam North on the television and radio series Mr. and Mrs. North.

➦In 1960…John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon squared off in the first televised presidential debates in American history. The debates were staged at the studios of WBBM-TV in Chicago. The Kennedy-Nixon debates not only had a major impact on the election’s outcome, but ushered in a new era in which crafting a public image and taking advantage of media exposure became essential ingredients of a successful political campaign. They also heralded the central role television has continued to play in the democratic process.

CBS Anchor Jeff Glor Pushed Out By Paramount Layoffs

Jeff Glor

Jeff Glor, who anchored the CBS Evening News for two years before co-hosting CBS Saturday Morning, is leaving CBS News amid a wave of layoffs, according to a report TVLine.

Glor was currently a co-host of CBS Saturday Morning, along with Dana Jacobson and Michelle Miller, a position he’s held since June 2019. Glor also serves as a CBS News special correspondent, traveling the world to report on breaking news stories on location. He has interviewed dozens of authors as well as part of the show’s extensive book coverage.

The network news division is also parting ways with three veteran correspondents, including Ben Tracy, who covered environmental issues out of Los Angeles; Anna Werner, the senior consumer investigative correspondent; and Chicago-based reporter Roxana Saberi, according to people briefed on the cuts.

The staff reductions hit CBS stations as well. Morning news anchor Marci Gonzales of Los Angeles outlet KCAL is among those who will depart.

During O’Donnell’s five years at the helm, the ratings have plunged roughly 25%, cementing the newscast firmly behind rivals at ABC and NBC.

CBS News top brass announced this summer that O’Donnell would vacate the anchor chair after the presidential election in November. The network will also bring the show back to New York in a cost-savings measure and revamp it under CBS News journalist John Dickerson and WCBS anchorman Maurice DuBois.

The changes come as CBS-parent Paramount is in the throes of laying off 2,000 staffers in order to cut $500 million from the budget ahead of its planned merger with Skydance Media, which is expected to be finalized next year.

Glor has been with CBS News since 2007, first serving as a reporter and anchor and filing reports for CBS Sunday Morning and The Early Show, which was later rebooted as CBS This Morning. In December 2017, Glor became the anchor of the CBS Evening News, taking over for Scott Pelley. Glor was then replaced in June 2019, with 60 Minutes correspondent Norah O’Donnell taking his place in the anchor’s chair. That same month, he joined CBS Saturday Morning as a co-host.

Report: FCC Not Following Normal Process For Audacy Transaction

Commissioner Brendan Carr of the Federal Communications Commission has sounded the alarm over a pending purchase which would allow billionaire Democratic donor George Soros to purchase hundreds of U.S. radio stations.

During a House Oversight Committee hearing last week, Carr objected to a deal that would allow a Soros-backed group to take ownership of 200 stations across 40 markets. He claimed the FCC was deviating from its normal procedure by allowing the purchase to take place.

“I think what’s interesting about it is that the FCC is not following its normal process for reviewing transactions that it has established over a number of years,” Carr warned. “It seems to me the FCC is poised, for the first time, to create an entirely new shortcut.”

The National Desk reports the transaction would break a rule preventing more than 25% foreign ownership of U.S. radio stations, Carr alleges. Despite this, Carr claimed the agency was expediting its review process.

“What we usually do is require people to file a petition with us, bring in the National Security Agency to review the foreign ownership—it’s probably no big deal here—but we review that foreign ownership and then we vote,” Carr said. “Here, they’re trying to do something that’s never been done before at a commission level.”

Inside Radio reports to get through the bankruptcy process as quickly as it could, Audacy set up the transaction in a way that would allow the restructuring to be completed and maintain short-term compliance with the foreign ownership limits until it secures approval from the FCC to have indirect foreign ownership of more than 25% — a process that can take up to a year to complete. Audacy’s alternative plan is to use special warrants that will not convert to equity until the government signs off.

But critics call that a “Soros shortcut” and have asked the FCC to reject Audacy’s plan that will allow it to go forward with its reorganization while the government’s review of the Soros-backed offshore fund’s involvement is reviewed. If the FCC were to agree, it would sideline Audacy’s proposed restructuring.

Insiders say Audacy isn’t looking for a new shortcut or a fast-track process, and that a full foreign ownership review will still take place after Audacy emerges from bankruptcy. They point out it is similar to the structure that has been used in several other Chapter 11 reorganizations in radio during the past several years, including iHeartMedia in 2019, Cumulus Media in 2018, LBI Media in 2019, and Alpha Media.

Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., said during the hearing he was “extremely alarmed” by the purchase.

“Looking at the facts, it seems the administration is giving a left-wing billionaire, who is a major donor, a close ally, one of the chief funders of all of their efforts and their dark money, a free pass to take control of hundreds of local radio stations, flooding the airwaves with leftist propaganda and I think it’s blatant,” he said.