What Drives Political Partisanship?

Was it actually the rise of cable entertainment, not partisan news channel like Fox News and MSNBC, that really drove the nation's increase in political partisanship?

Politico reports that's the argument made by Princeton professor Markus Prior, who argues in a new academic paper,

"The culprit turns out to be not Fox News, but ESPN, HBO, and other early cable channels that lured moderates away from the news and away from the polls."

Prior says that while cable news channels may be partisan, very few people actually watch them, no more than about 10 to 15 percent of the voting age population. By contrast, he says that in the 1960s and '70s, quote, "even people with little interest in news and politics watched network newscasts because they were glued to the set and there were no real alternatives to news in many markets during the dinner hour."

The cable news channels needed a way to draw viewers from the growing entertainment options, and therefore made news itself more "entertaining" with partisanship and bombast.

Politico writes, "Talk to cable news hosts now and many of them will tell you that they don't view other cable news hosts as the competition. Their competition is CSI or Dancing With the Stars.

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Report: Why CBS Is Buying Half of TV Guide Network

CBS executives announced on Tuesday that the network is buying half of TV Guide Network (and the website tvguide.com), which CBS will eventually re-brand and operate with co-owner Lionsgate.

The price of the sale, according to Bloomberg News, is more than $100 million.

TV Guide Network, the one-time listings channel, has staggered through the basic cable hinterlands in a state of existential confusion since the advent of one-click cable menus. Why would CBS Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves want it?

The chief appeal to CBS is that TV Guide Network is currently available in more than 80 million homes. That’s a lot of channel surfers, in other words, that Moonves can potentially woo with re-purposed CBS programming.

And at a time when cable distributors are wary of annoying customers by adding channels to their already hefty bundled-subscription packages, media companies hoping to create a basic cable channel can find it easier to buy and re-brand an existing network (as Al Jazeera did recently, in buying Current TV) than to build one from scratch.

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Richmond Radio: Radio Legends Document Music History

Mitch Malone

For Mitch Malone, a host with Urban Contemporary WKJZ 99.3/105.7 KISS FM, getting into the radio business in Richmond, VA was mostly luck. Brad Johnston had it in his blood with a brother in the business.

But, according writer F.M. Wiggins at progress-index.com,  both men made an impact on radio and Johnston last year completed a documentary on R&B radio in central Virginia.

"He was one of the guys I followed growing up," Johnston said of Malone. Johnston goes by the name 'Elbravador' on the radio and for his filming projects.

Johnston began his documentary, "The Soul: R&B Radio Legends of Central Virginia," more than four years ago.

"I'm one of those individuals who is so lucky, I don't even know how to describe it," Malone told Wiggins. "I was thrown into a situation where I was basically manning a radio station that served the Richmond-Petersburg area by myself. I had nobody else on the air but me. That was WPLZ."

He said that the station he first applied to, WSSV, played mostly music from bands including The Beatles and Herman's Hermits.

"I put in an application there just for the fun of it, I didn't think they would hire me," he said. "The first couple of nights I played rock and roll, but then my ears, I just couldn't stand it, so I started slipping in a few R&B songs here and there, and quickly realized that once the staff went home they didn't listen to the radio."

"The boss caught on three or four months later," Malone said. "He asked me, 'Mitch, what do you think about a black FM station in this market?' "

Malone says that was how Magic 99 was formed; it was later simulcast on WPLZ.

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Report: R.I. Radio Hall of Fame To Induct Six

The Rhode Island Radio Hall of Fame announced Wednesday that six radio personalities will be inducted in a ceremony in May that will also be a fundraiser for the Special Olympics.

According to Thomas Morgan at The Providence Journal, they are:

• Vincent A. "Buddy" Cianci Jr., former mayor of providence, whose radio career began during his first term in the 1970s.
• John "Coach" Colletto, who began his radio career as a disk jockey and newscaster at WARA-AM, Attleboro.
• Bill Corsair. A Rhode Island native, he has multiple Rhode Island radio credits in the '60s and early '70's. He was the original voice of Hasbro's G.I. Joe.
• Mike Gonsalves - Known as "Doctor Metal," Gonsalves was a staff DJ on WHJY-FM for 17 years. He died the West Warwick Station nightclub fire of 2003.
• Fred Grady. Grady began his career in the 1950's on WPAW. He became a fixture as an announcer for the Newport Jazz Festival. He died in 1987.
• Bob Sullivan, news director of WADK and for more than 30 years was the host of "The Open Forum." He died in 2007.

 Tickets and further information may be found at (401) 258-7423.

Book On Radio's "Luther" Celebrates 72-Year Career

WRCBtv.com | Chattanooga News, Weather 

The longest running broadcaster in the history of the world is celebrated in a new book: "My Life With Luther" by James Howard.

Howard, part of the WDEF Sunny 92.3 FM radio morning show for the past twenty years, wrote the book to honor Luther Masingill, his co-worker and a recent inductee into the National Radio Hall of Fame.  "Luther has been such an inspiration to all of us in the radio business," Howard said. "But even more importantly, he's a hero to thousands of people who have started their day with him since 1940."

Appearing on WRCB-TV's "3 Plus You" program Wednesday, the man known to his fans as "Luther" said, "I still look forward to going to work each morning. People ask me if I have any plans to slow down, but I don't know what that means."

R.I.P.: Gordon Stoker of The Jordanaires Was 88

Gordon Stoker, the tenor and manager of Elvis Presley's early vocal backing group, the Jordanaires died on March 27th after a long illness at the age of 88.

Stoker and the group were featured on such hits as "Hound Dog," "Don't Be Cruel," "Love Me Tender," "Don't," "All Shook Up," "Love Me," "I Beg Of You," "Hard Headed Woman," "Jailhouse Rock," "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You," and many more.

Stoker and the other Jordanaires accompanied Elvis on his 1950's live appearances, including such high profile TV spots as The Ed Sullivan Show and The Steve Allen Show, as well as appearing in his early films Loving You and King Creole.

In addition to their work backing "The King," the Jordanaires were featured on numerous hits by Ricky Nelson, Ferlin Husky, Conway Twitty, Jimmy Dean, Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Kenny Rogers, and Ringo Starr, among others.

Documentary Planned On SiriusXM's Dino Costa

Dino Costa

Chesapeake Films announces that it has started pre-production for a documentary to be completed in 2013 about the life of controversial SiriusXM Radio personality Dino Costa.

Filming will begin in Cheyenne, Wyoming on April 18, 2013. The film will begin shooting in Wyoming, where Dino Costa resides and produces his daily radio sports talk show, The Dino Costa Show.

The crew will then follow Costa to New York, NY, to continue filming Costa's hometown, friends, fans, and family.

Franco wanted to do the film because, "Dino is a breath of fresh air in the world of cookie-cutter sports talk radio. He is fiercely independent, and connects with his audience like few can. I just knew that under that big personality was a story waiting to be told. I am so excited to begin."

When asked about the film, Dino Costa said, "When I embarked on my career as a talk show host, I wanted to achieve many objectives; I never thought about the possibility of someone wanting to do a film about my career and my life. In speaking with Joel about his vision for this film, I'm confident that collaborating with the crew at Chesapeake Films will culminate in a documentary about my life that people will find interesting and compelling."

CC Holdings Bob Pittman To Become ‘Board Chairman’

Bob Pittman

According to the company’s latest Schedule 14A SEC filing, Bob Pittman will become Board Chairman on May as Mark Mays completes his turnover of executive titles.

Mays has been Chairman of the Board since March 31, 2011 when he relinquished titles of President and CEO.  Mark Mays will continue on the board – but his brother Randall is leaving. According to the filing, Randall “is not standing for re-election,” and he won’t be replaced.

That shrinks the size of the board from 13 members to 12, following the upcoming annual meeting.

The filing stated having Pittman as CEO and Board Chairman will “help facilitate the flow of information between management and the board.” The company also states it believes Pittman provides us with a clear leadership structure.

Bob Pittman made $3,645,145 last year from Clear Channel. The board added a discretionary bonus of $597,000 follwing what it termed  “subjective review” of his performance.

As for John Hogan, he made about $300,000 less than Pittman.  His total 2012 compensation was $3,335,324 – up substantially from $2,477,307 in 2011, thanks to stock awards.

EVP/CFO Tom Casey took home even more than Hogan or Pittman – a total of $4,265,256.

CC Outdoor Faces Digital Dilemma

The Los Angeles City Attorney last Thursday asked Clear Channel and CBS Outdoor to comply with a court order and turn off more than 100 digital billboards the two had erected throughout the city.

According to Miriam Gottfried at wsj.com, that followed an order from a three-judge panel in December to remove the billboards, capping a years-long legal saga. In 2008, competitor Summit Media challenged a 2006 city council decision to give permits for digital billboards to the two companies, skirting existing law.

Clear Channel petitioned the California Supreme Court to review the case. But its request was denied on Feb. 27.

Clear Channel, which is 90% owned by radio operator Clear Channel Communications, gets about 45% of U.S. revenue, which itself is slightly less than half of total revenue, from the top 10 markets and L.A. is the largest market for outdoor advertising in the U.S.

Clear Channel in its most recent financial filing says that if forced to remove or modify the displays, "our operating results could suffer."

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Websites' Performance Varies Across Devices, Metrics

When it comes to website performance, a number of factors need to be considered: How sticky is the content? Are users encouraged to drill deeper into web pages? How much time are they spending per visit? And increasingly important, how well are websites optimized for tablets and smartphones?

eMarketer.com reports a January 2013 study by Adobe examined how various industries’ US websites stacked up in terms of site performance and pinpointed those industries that stood out in certain categories.

When it comes to how long consumers spend on websites, for instance, Adobe found that the top-performing media and entertainment site kept users on the site for about 12 minutes per visit. Although it might not be that surprising that an entertainment site would capture the most user time, it’s interesting to look at the gap between the top-performing media and entertainment site and average site performance, which clocked 8.88 minutes per visit. Adobe noted that adding video and rich media to websites helped boost minutes per visit.

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Cleveland Radio: NFL Browns To Get New Home(s)

The Browns are changing radio homes in Cleveland and it will include unprecedented triple coverage on game days.

Multiple sources have told Tom Reed at The Plain Dealer the Browns are entering into a long-term deal to have their games broadcast on WKNR 850/AM, WKRK 92.3/FM and WNCX 98.5/FM. The franchise’s games had been aired on Clear Channel Communication stations since they returned in 1999.

The Browns, who declined comment, are expected to make an announcement on Thursday, a source said.

Browns play-by-play voice Jim Donovan, along with analyst Doug Dieken, will continue in their roles on the team's new radio homes WKNR, WKRK and WNCX.

The most unusual aspect of the agreement is that WKNR (ESPN) and WKRK (CBS) are rival sports talk stations. They entered into negotiations with the Browns bidding against each other, a source said, but at some point decided to join forces against Clear Channel, which had broadcast Browns games on flagship WMMS 100.7/FM and simulcast on WTAM 1100/AM.

The agreement allows the Browns to be aired on AM and FM stations without worries of a conflict with Indians games. That occasionally was a problem on WTAM.

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