Pittsburgh Radio: Toy Drive Is Q&R's First Public Appearance

Quinn&Soe (Post-Gazette photo)

Listener Mark Rickard showed up early, taking a detour on the way to work at software company. His destination: a toy drive Friday featuring conservative talk radio hosts Jim Quinn and Rose Tennent.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, he wasn't the first to arrive in the pre-dawn hour, but he must be among Quinn and Rose's biggest supporters. For five years, Mr. Rickard maintained a Facebook page for the radio show, "The War Room With Quinn and Rose." Then treatment for colon cancer forced him to shut it down last February.

"One of the reasons I started it was to share their values with people out there," said Mr. Rickard, who said his health is "fine now."

When news spread that Clear Channel had severed ties with the duo, effective Nov. 18, he re-activated the Facebook page, and it became a sounding board for dismayed listeners.

He was hardly alone Friday. Between 6 and 9:30 a.m., a steady line of fans streamed into the salon, its bright-white, modern decor in stark contrast to the wet, black morning. What was originally planned as an annual fundraiser -- Toy Treasures is a favorite charity of Ms. Tennent's -- instead became the hosts' first public appearance since the show was abruptly canceled.

Clear Channel Communications, which owns WPGB 104.7 FM, where the show originated, said in a statement that Quinn & Tennent could not reach financial terms. A no-compete clause in their contracts means they cannot be on the air in the Pittsburgh market for six months. 

Tennent said her contract allows her to fill in for nationally syndicated host Sean Hannity, however, and she is scheduled to do so Dec. 30.

"We never had a chance to say goodbye," Ms. Tennent told a well-wisher at the salon. "Oh, I feel like I'm going to cry now."

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Report: Ryan Seacrest Invests $1M Into Typo Keyboard

Ryan Seacrest

TV personality and “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest is an iPhone owner, but his latest investment indicates that he's not happy with Apple's built-in keyboard for the device. According to ibtimes.com,  on Thursday, Seacrest invested $1 million in the Typo Keyboard, which is a physical keyboard accessory for the iPhone that looks eerily similar to the keyboard built for BlackBerry devices.

According to Los Angeles-based Typo Products LLC, Seacrest is listed as a founder of the company alongside CEO and co-founder Laurence Hallier, who is the CEO of Show Media and privately held Hallier Investments. The press release described how Seacrest came to be involved with this venture:

Laurence Hallier

“The back story of Seacrest’s interest in this — for many of his friends and colleagues, carrying two phones was a habit: One for typing and correspondence and an iPhone for virtually everything else. One night, Ryan and his friend Laurence Hallier, CEO of Show Media, were out to dinner and both had phones on the table. Two people, four phones!”

Soon after that experience, Seacrest and Hallier decided to take matters into their own hands – to build “an easy solution to the problem, a keyboard for the iPhone” – and after about two years in development, the Typo Keyboard was born.

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LA Radio: Sound Troubles Mar KIIS-FM Jingle Ball

Selena Gomez stormed off stage without completing her set at this year's 102.7 KIIS-FM iHeart Radio Jingle Ball concert in Los Angeles on Friday night.

According to StarPulse.com, the singer was visibly upset over technical difficulties during her set, when her microphone failed several times .  "Sorry, the sound isn't working!" she told the crowd. "Are you guys having a good night? I promise, a lot cooler people are gonna come out tonight.

"Is it okay if I perform two more songs and you guys can get to it?"

But things still didn't go well with the sound and Selena was even heard dropping an f-bomb at one point, shouting, "What the f***?" after one song finished and the arena went dark. Her microphone worked just fine at that moment .

Miley Cyrus also performed and twerked with Santa Claus, natch.

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This year's official charity for KIIS FM's Jingle Ball 2013 Presented by T-Mobile & Samsung was the Ryan Seacrest Foundation - $1.00 of each ticket sold will be donated to the non-profit organization, which is dedicated to inspiring today's youth through entertainment and education focused initiatives. 

Tim McCarver May Join MLB Cards’ Broadcast Team

Tim McCarver

Tim McCarver left the Fox television booth after the World Series following his record-shattering 34-year run as a network baseball analyst. But he never said he was retiring from broadcasting.

Dan Caesar at stltoday.com, cites sources saying there have been discussions about Carver being a part of the team’s broadcasts.

McCarver, contacted Thursday, did not want to talk about any specific job possibilities for next season. But he did reiterate that he hasn’t retired at age 72.

Longtime radio broadcaster Mike Shannon’s contract expired after the World Series, but he is expected to return. But Shannon, now 74, had significantly reduced his schedule of road games last year — and that was before he was sidelined in August for most of the rest of the regular season after undergoing aortic-valve replacement surgery.

Cards television analysts Al Hrabosky and Rick Horton helped fill in on radio for Shannon, and if he has a significantly reduced schedule in 2014 there would be room for another voice — and McCarver has plenty of experience calling games of individual teams as well as at the network level. He has worked in the booths of the Phillies, Mets, Yankees and Giants.

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Milwaukee Radio: WI Badgers Football Ink Deal With CCM+E

Listening to Wisconsin Badgers football games on the radio is as much a fall tradition as raking leaves.

And for 86 years, those games were carried on WTMJ 620 AM.

As of the 87th year, football, and all Badgers sports in Milwaukee, will air on Clear Channel Communications stations WOKY 920 AM and WRIT-95.7 FM, according to Dave Dudek at jsonline.com

Clear Channel stepped in this month after Journal Broadcast Group station WTMJ 620 AM declined to renew its contract with Learfield Sports, which owns the broadcast rights to all University of Wisconsin-Madison sports.

WTMJ declined to renew the contract because Learfield required full clearance of all games. But Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Brewers and Milwaukee Bucks games on WTMJ often caused the station to pre-empt Badgers games.

When that occurred, the games often went to WOKY.   When WOKY switched from classic country music to sports talk on Jan. 7, it joined a marketplace rife with sports stations: WTMJ's game coverage and sports talk, as well as sports talk on Entercom's WSSP-1250 AM and on Wisconsin-based Good Karma Broadcasting's station WAUK 540 AM.

The November A.C. Nielsen ratings showed WOKY facing an uphill battle and sliding back down to a 0.2 share from a 0.4 share in October, among listeners 6 and older.  WSSP was at a 0.5 share in November. WAUK is not a Nielsen subscriber, but its numbers are similarly slim. By comparison, the top-rated Milwaukee station, Clear Channel's country music WMIL-FM (106.1), had a 10.6 share.

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McCartney Opening DJ Shares Favorite Mixes

Chris Holmes & Paul McCartney

Chris Holmes has been touring as Paul McCartney's opening DJ act for four years. He recently shared with fans a collection of his favorite remixes that he made over his tenure traveling with the former Beatle, whom he describes as "the nicest boss in the world," accoridng to Rolling Stone.

"I finally had some time to put together a mix for all of you who've been asking over the years of my Beatles/McCartney stuff for tour," the DJ said in his notes for the Soundcloud mix. "I've had the best time in the history of the world making the tracks and putting it together."


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Jay Z Leads Grammy Nominees

Jay Z leads the nominations for this year's Grammy awards. Magna Carta Holy Grail received nods in almost every rap category, outpacing LPs by Kendrick Lamar and Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

According to theguardian.com, even Nirvana benefited from Jay Z's nine Grammy nominations: the track Holy Grail borrows lyrics from Smells Like Teen Spirit, so Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic are listed among the songwriters for best rap song.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis stand to be the biggest Grammy breakout act for 2013. The indie MC and DJ are nominated for two of the most prestigious prizes; album of the year and song of the year, as well as best new artist, and three rap awards.

They compete with Lamar, Daft Punk, Taylor Swift and Sara Bareilles in the best album category; for best song, Same Love is up against Katy Perry's Roar, Bruno Mars' Locked Out Of Heaven, P!nk's Just Give Me A Reason and Lorde's Royals.

This year's nominees for best rock album include Black Sabbath, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin and Neil Young.

The 56th annual Grammy Awards will take place in Los Angeles on 26 January. Read the full list of nominations: Click Here.

Lincoln Radio: KLIN's Dave Miller Recovering From Heart Surgery

Dave Miller

Lincoln radio personality Dave Miller quit smoking on Nov. 27.  A heart attack at age 47 tends to result in those kinds of lifestyle changes.

“I’m not in that good of shape,” Miller, co-host of “Jack and Dave in the Morning” on KLIN 1400 AM admitted Thursday during a phone interview with journalstar.com from his home, where he’s recovering from open-heart surgery. “I’m overweight for my age, and it isn’t any secret that I’m a smoker and enjoy a good cigar.

“If your body’s a temple, I treated mine like a landfill.”

Miller went to the emergency room with chest pains on the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

“The best way to describe it is like having an eagle tattooed across your chest, but somebody’s doing it from the inside,” he said. “It burned, and it hurt.”

After a series of tests, he went under the knife the following day. He’s been off the air since Nov. 22.

Miller said he hopes to return to KLIN before Christmas, but that decision will be left up to his doctors and his family.

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Post by Jack & Dave in the Morning.

R.I.P.: NOLA Radio Host Larry McKinley

Larry McKinley

Larry McKinley, an influential radio personality, music promoter and pivotal figure in the history of the city’s rhythm and blues and rock ‘n’ roll scene, as well as the longtime voice of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, has died.

He was 85, according to wwltv.com.

His daughter, advertising and public relations executive Glenda McKinley English, said in a statement that her father died of complications from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

McKinley had been a fixture on New Orleans radio waves as far back as 1953, on WMRY, which later became WYLD-AM.  He was also the co-founder of Minit Records, which produced many hits in the golden era of New Orleans early rhythm and blues.

The label came about when promoter Joe Banashak approached McKinley, who was managing singer Ernie K-Doe at the time, and was looking for a record deal for his young client.  He joined Banashak to form Minit in 1959, and soon the duo had signed a young man named Allen Toussaint as a songwriter, producer and arranger.

From then, Minit’s string of 1960s hits grew and grew.  Its biggest was Ernie K-Doe’s “Mother-in-Law,” which went to number one on the charts in 1961 and spawned a string of popular K-Doe songs.  Other hits included Jessie Hill’s “Ooh Poo Pah Doo,” Irma Thomas’ “It’s Raining” and “Ruler of My Heart” as well as Benny Spellman’s “Lipstick Traces (On a Cigarette)” and “Fortune Teller,” among dozens of local and regional favorites.

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December 9 In Radio History

In 1940...The Longines Watch Company became the first FM radio advertiser when it signed a contract with W2XOR in New York City, an experimental station.

In 1968...Douglas Engelbart demonstrates the computer mouse

In 1977...Gene Klavan last show at WNEW 1130 AM NYC

In 2004...Boston radio listeners lost one of that city's most listened to and respected talk show hosts, David Brudnoy, who succumbed to cancer. During his career, he worked at WBZ-AM, WHDH-AM, and WRKO-AM. He was 64.

December 8 In Radio History

In 1928…In Nashville, George D. Hay used the term "Grand Ole Opry" for the first time when introducing the show to the WSM radio audience.

In 1940...the first NFL championship was broadcast on national radio. The Bears beat the Redskins, 73-0.


In 1941…A Presidential Address was delivered at 12:30 p.m. to a Joint Session of Congress by U. S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, one day after the Empire of Japan's attack on the Pearl Harbor Naval Base in Hawaii. Roosevelt described the previous day as "a date which will live in infamy." Within an hour of the speech, Congress passed a formal declaration of war against Japan and officially brought the U.S. into World War II. Britain and Canada also declared war on Japan, although both countries already had been fighting World War II in Europe against Germany.

In 1943....The Doors' lead singer Jim Morrison was born. He died of heart failure in Paris on July 3, 1971 at 27.

In 1962…In New York City, disc jockey and promoter Alan Freed appeared at his payola trial and admitted to receiving money from record labels to play their songs on the air. He was found guilty, fined $300, and given six months probation, but the irreparable damage to his reputation and career had been done. Dick Clark, host of ABC-TV's "American Bandstand," was also questioned but was cleared of all charges.

In 1962...New York newspaper strike begins - WABC FM goes all news


In 1980…Two months after his 40th birthday, John Lennon was murdered by Mark David Chapman, outside his home at the Dakota apartment building on the northwestern corner of 72nd Street and Central Park West in New York City. After approaching the former Beatle and calling his name, Chapman dropped into a combat stance and shot John in his chest, back and left arm. Lennon staggered into the porters' vestibule and was comforted by porter Jay Hastings, who covered him with his jacket and removed his glasses. Police were quickly summoned and took John to Roosevelt Hospital on West 59th Street. Doctors did everything they could to save him, but John Lennon was pronounced dead at 11:07 p.m. A sobbing Yoko Ono cried "Oh no, no, no, no ... tell me it's not true," and was led away in shock.

The 24-year-old Chapman remained at the scene, took out his copy of "The Catcher in the Rye" and read it until the police arrived and arrested him without incident.

Many Americans learned of the tragedy while watching ABC-TV's "Monday Night Football." Howard Cosell announced the news of the murder: "This, we have to say it, is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy, confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous perhaps of all of the Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival."

After being denied parole multiple times, Lennon's killer remains in prison.

In 2004…Producer/former "American Bandstand" host Dick Clark was hospitalized in Los Angeles after suffering a stroke. Clark later reduced his workload and public profile but returned to Times Square for limited TV segments during the annual New Year's Eve celebrations. He died of a heart attack in April 2012.


  In 2012…Arnold Dean, a radio broadcaster for nearly 65 years and the host of WTIC-Hartford's "SportsTalk" show since 1976, died a day after he had his pacemaker replaced at age 82.