Bakersfield Radio: Buckley Sez Station Sales 'Rumors'

The president of Buckley Broadcasting, owner of four Bakersfield radio stations, said Monday there was "nothing definitive" pending with the sale of any of its stations.

Joe Bilotta, president of the Hartford, Conn.-based company, said any talk of selling Bakersfield's KNZR 1560 AM and  97.7 FM, KKBB 99.3 FM and KLLY 95.3 FM were "rumors."
"As we speak right now we have nothing definitive with any contract of sale for any of our assets in the state of California," Bilotta said. "These kinds of rumors come and go."

Recently, however, the family-owned company has been in a selling mode. In July, Buckley sold five Hartford stations to Connoisseur Media for $7.9 million.

In addition to its Bakersfield stations, Buckley retains two FM stations in Merced and an AM station in Monterey, according to the Californian.

NYC Radio: Scott Shannon Intros Neil Diamond At Surprise Concert

WCBS-FM Photos

Neil Diamond said, "Hello, my friends, hello" to a hometown crowd on Monday night.

"It was awesome! It was great!" one concertgoer told ABC-TV7.

The legendary artist delighted fans in the same hall where he took piano lessons and had detention he says a time or two when he was late for school.

Diamond, 73, was born in Brooklyn and attended Erasmus Hall High School in Flatbush from 1954-1956.

It's also where he sang in the chorus.

"This is a meaningful place for me. My life changed here. I learned so much at Erasmus Hall," Neil Diamond said.

Fans lined up hours before hoping to get the free tickets.

Diamond was introduced by Scott Shannon from WCBS 101.1 FM.  The performance was filmed for a documentary Neil Diamond is working on. He was supposed to perform five or six songs but ended up doing much more than that.



The legendary singer was also promoting his new album, "Melody Road", out later next month.

FCC Asks For Comcast Contracts

The Federal Communications Commission is pushing for media companies to submit details of their programming agreements with Comcast Corp., as it reviews the cable giant's proposed $45 billion merger with Time Warner Cable.

The Wall Street Journal reports the agency believes the documents—which cover details of the carriage arrangements between Comcast and TV channel owners—contain information that would be relevant in its review, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Media companies, though, are pushing back. Though many of them would like to see the FCC put in place strict conditions on a deal to restrain Comcast's market power, they don't want to reveal details of their contracts with the cable giant, fearing that would give competitors an advantage.

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Study: Radio Can Persuade Swing Voters

Brent Seaborn

A new national survey from Vox Populi Polling, a leading polling company that designs and fields surveys to uncover what is happening within the political and public policy landscape, finds radio an extremely effective way to reach swing voters. Research shows that 81% of swing voters say they listen to AM/FM radio on a regular basis.

Moreover, voters across the political spectrum report that radio ads are more credible than the ads they see on the internet by a 56-35 margin, which increases to a 62-38 margin among low turnout voters. The survey, commissioned by Katz Media Group, examined how much influence radio has in the electoral marketplace. The sample size for the survey was 1,059 active voters and has a +/-3.0% margin of error.

Other key findings from the survey include:

• Swing voters spend 10% more time with radio daily than the average American voter.
• 67% of swing voters listen to FM regularly, while 14% are exclusively AM radio listeners.
• 65% of low turnout Republicans and Democrats say they listen to FM music on a regular basis.
• 61% of swing voters agree that radio is a good way for political candidates to reach them.

Stacey Lynn Schulman

“As political campaigns shift gears into the final stretch, they will increasingly focus on the all-important swing voters and radio is an extremely effective way to reach and influence them,” said Vox Populi pollster Brent Seaborn. “Our research indicates radio is even more effective in reaching those who are undecided or may change their mind before Election Day. Radio should be a key part of any political advertisers’ strategy.”

“This research illustrates that radio is both a habitual and influential medium for reaching voters who can make the difference on Election Day,” added Stacey Lynn Schulman, Executive Vice President of Strategy, Analytics & Research at Katz Media Group.  “In the race for credibility, radio outshines online advertising by a wide margin in the minds of still impressionable voters.”

Click here for a memo outlining the poll results. To see the toplines and methodology: Click Here.

NYC Radio: News Anchor Judy DeAngelis Caps A Career

Judy DeAngelis (Daily News)

Longtime 1010 WINS morning news anchor Judy DeAngelis signs-off today

She has been waking up the metropolitan area since 1988. That’s when she joined 1010 WINS as their number one female morning drive anchor. She’s been a favorite ever since.

Judy began in radio on Long Island, at WALK, then ran toward New York City. She was first hired by WCBS 101.f FM, before being lured to then-WNBC 660 AM, where she worked with the greats like Don Imus, Soupy Sales, Alan Colmes, Joey Reynolds and others. She also cut her teeth on radio comedy, doing voices and bits for the above-mentioned madmen.

When WNBC became WFAN, Judy’s vast knowledge of sports landed her on the street with no job. 1010 WINS came a’courting within a week and the rest, as they say, is history.

Beyond 9/11, a morning no one is likely to forget, DeAngelis doesn't single out particular stories she's reported over the years.

"Almost everything tends to happen on the morning shift," she told the NY Daily News last week. "You try to get it as quickly and accurately as you can.

"I'm sitting in a little booth, but I really feel like people are in there with me — the staff, all the people at WINS and the listeners."

She says it's also important to have a little subtle fun where it’s appropriate.

"Listeners want to be entertained while they're being informed," she says, suggesting that occasionally WINS management has considered her a bit of a wild card in that area.

She quickly adds that fun can't get in the way of the news.

"People tune in WINS in the morning to find out what they need to know about the day," she says. "Is it going to rain? Where's the traffic? What's going on in the world?

"You have to get the listener in your first sentence. If you fail to do that, they won't stay."

News Media May Have Been Hookwinked

Did the U.S. Government invent the al Qaeda affiliate known as the Khorasan Group? That's what the Intercept's Glenn Greenwald and Murtaza Hussain charge in an extensive new report. They depict a carefully orchestrated campaign by U.S. officials to depict an imminent threat of terror attacks by Khorasan against U.S. targets.

News Media outlets zeroed in on Khorasan. Claims that Khorasan planned to launch attacks on the U.S. came from anonymous sources who provided thin evidence that any such attacks were at risk of being carried out.

However, days after after stories of sophisticated, far-reaching plots, officials are backtracking. A new AP story notes that FBI director James Comey and Pentagon spox Adm James Kirby have said they don't have "precise intel about where or when the cell ... would attempt to strike a Western target."

Meanwhile, sources on the ground told NBC's Richard Engel that they've "never heard of Khorasan or its leader," while former CIA official Ali Peritz and former federal terror prosecutor Andrew McCarthy have also cast doubt on Khorasan's existence.

Former ambassador to Syria Robert Ford has also stated that while govt officials used "Khorasan" to describe some militants, "they don't call themselves that."

September 30 In Radio History

In 1929…"The National Farm and Home Hour," a series that first aired locally for a year on Pittsburgh's KDKA Radio, debuted nationally on the Blue Network (later known as ABC). It moved to NBC in 1945 where it remained a part of the broadcast schedule until 1958.



In 1930…The radio anthology series "Death Valley Days," stories based on actual events, began its 15-year run on the NBC Blue network. The television version of the program, hosted by Stanley Andrews as "The Old Ranger," then Ronald Reagan, Robert Taylor, and Dale Robertson, aired from 1952 to 1975.

In 1933...WLS (then 870 AM)  radio in Chicago's popular program The National Barn Dance, one of the first country music radio programs, goes national with a move to NBC radio.


In 1935…The police drama series "The Adventures of Dick Tracy" made its debut on the Mutual Radio Network after being heard on CBS four times a week earlier that year. The serial had a long run on radio, starting in 1934 on NBC's New England stations and ending on the ABC Network in 1948.


In 1950...WSM Radio's "Grand Ole Opry" was first broadcast on television.

Original Home Ryman Theater

The Grand Ole Opry started as the WSM Barn Dance in the new fifth-floor radio studio of the National Life & Accident Insurance Company in downtown Nashville on November 28, 1925. On October 18, 1925, management began a program featuring "Dr. Humphrey Bate and his string quartet of old-time musicians." On November 2, WSM hired long-time announcer and program director George D. "Judge" Hay, an enterprising pioneer from the National Barn Dance program at WLS in Chicago, who was also named the most popular radio announcer in America as a result of his radio work with both WLS and WMC in Memphis, Tennessee. Hay launched the WSM Barn Dance with 77-year-old fiddler Uncle Jimmy Thompson on November 28, 1925, which is celebrated as the birth date of the Grand Ole Opry.

On December 10, 1927 the phrase 'Grand Ole Opry' was first uttered on-air. That night Barn Dance followed the NBC Red Network's Music Appreciation Hour, a program of classical music and selections from Grand Opera presented by classical conductor Walter Damrosch. That night, Damrosch remarked that “there is no place in the classics for realism,” In response, Opry presenter George Hay said:

"Friends, the program which just came to a close was devoted to the classics. Doctor Damrosch told us that there is no place in the classics for realism. However, from here on out for the next three hours, we will present nothing but realism. It will be down to earth for the 'earthy'."

Hay then introduced DeFord Bailey, the man he had dubbed the "Harmonica Wizard", saying

"For the past hour, we have been listening to music taken largely from Grand Opera. From now on, we will present the 'Grand Ole Opry'."

Bailey then stepped up to the mic to play "The Pan American Blues", his song inspired by the Pan American, an L&N Railroad express/passenger train.


In 1967...the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) began its own Pop music radio station.

In 1978...The Hot 100...The classic "Kiss You All Over" by Exile moved to #1, tapping "Boogie Oogie Oogie" by A Taste of Honey on the shoulder to move.  Olivia Newton-John remained in the third position with "Hopelessly Devoted To You" and it had been six weeks since the Commodores were at #1 with "Three Times a Lady" but they were still at #4.

The rest of the Top 10:  "Summer Nights" by Olivia Newton-John & John Travolta, Boston's "Don't Look Back", Nick Gilder edged up with "Hot Child in the City", the Little River Band was up to 8 with "Reminiscing", John Paul Young reached the Top 10 with "Love Is in the Air" and Andy Gibb closed out the list with "An Everlasting Love".





In 1996...Charlie Greer, 77 WABC died

Charlie Greer (1923-1996) was a radio personality at WAKR in Akron, Ohio before moving to  New York City's WABC on December 7, 1960, where he did middays and overnight.

Given WABC's 50 thousand watt clear channel signal, Greer became a popular all-night disc jockey heard on more than 38 states punching his way through famous tongue twister commercials for an all night clothing store called Dennison's in Union, New Jersey.



Greer also spent time with New York City's WCBS-FM in 1973, then and became part of WCBS-FM's Rock and Roll Radio Greats Weekend in the eighties and nineties.

He moved to Philadelphia's WIP in 1969 and then back to the New York area to WRKL in New City for a short while, and later worked at WHAM (AM) in Rochester, before returning to Akron. (Ted David, Moderator, New York Broadcasting History Board)




In 1997...Al “Jazzbeaux” Collins, WNEW, WINS passed away

The name "Jazzbo" derived from a product Collins had seen, a clip-on bowtie named Jazzbows. Just as Martin Block created the illusion that he was speaking from the Make Believe Ballroom, Collins claimed to be broadcasting from his inner sanctum, a place known as the Purple Grotto, an imaginary setting suggested by radio station WNEW's interior design, as Collins explained:

Collins grew up on Long Island, New York. In 1941, while attending the University of Miami in Florida, he substituted as the announcer on his English teacher's campus radio program, and decided he wanted to be in radio. He began his professional career as the disc jockey at a bluegrass station in Logan, West Virginia. By 1943, Collins was broadcasting at WKPA in Pittsburgh, moving in 1945 to WIND in Chicago and in 1946 to Salt Lake City's KNAK. In 1950, he relocated to New York where he joined the staff of WNEW and became one of the "communicators" on NBC's Monitor when it began in 1955. Two years later, NBC-TV installed him for five weeks as the host of the Tonight show when it was known as Tonight! America After Dark in the period between hosts Steve Allen and Jack Paar.

He officially changed the spelling of his name to Jazzbeaux when he went to Pittsburgh's WTAE in 1969. He moved to WIXZ in Pittsburgh (1973) before heading back to the West Coast three years later.

In 1976 Al Collins returned to San Francisco working at KMPX, followed by a three-year all-night run at KGO which drew callers throughout the West Coast. He always opened with Count Basie's "Blues in Hoss flat". He also worked a late night shift at KKIS AM in Pittsburg, CA in 1980. After returning to New York and WNEW (1981), he was back in San Francisco at KSFO (1983) and KFRC (1986). Then came one more run at WNEW (1986–90), and then he joined KAPX (Marin County, California) in 1990, and from 1993 until his death, Jazzbeaux did a weekly jazz show at KCSM (College of San Mateo, California).

He died on September 30, 1997, at the age of 78, from pancreatic cancer.





In 2012...Bob Vernon 'with a V' 66 WNBC died at the age of 70

Vernon grew up in Ohio and dreamed of being an artist, until a trusted high school teacher told him to make it a hobby. He launched a career in radio and went on to work for WNBC in New York on the show “Vernon with a V.”

After radio, his news career carried him back to Ohio where he switched to TV, and moved around to several different newsrooms.

Vernon worked as the noon news anchor at WRAL-TV in Raleigh, NC from 1989-1995.

Robert Vernon Cosart Jr., passed away in Parker, Colorado, after suffering blood complications.

Jeter Farewell A Home Run For YES Network

Derek Jeter

Derek Jeter's Final Yankee Stadium Game Sets YES Network Record, according to TV Media Insights.

The final Yankee Stadium home game in the career of New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter on Thursday, Sept. 25 became the all-time most-watched game on the regional sports outlet, the YES Network.

The New York Yankees' 6-5 victory over the visiting Baltimore Orioles (7:00-10:45 p.m.) averaged 1.24 million total viewers and a massive 10.84 household rating within the New York market.

The viewer figure is also the largest ever set from any sports telecast on any New York regional sports network. The entire game telecast was the most-viewed program on any single network in the New York market on the night (including the competing New York football Giants' victory over Washington, which drew 1.225 million viewers on New York's CBS affiliate, WCBS -- 218,000 viewers saw the NFL Network game simulcast.

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Cox Merges Two Units To Form 'Gamut'

CoxReps today announced the launch of Gamut, a new company that combines the assets and strengths of what were formerly Cox Digital Solutions and Cox Cross Media.

The new company, which is comprised of four distinct channels of solutions, was formed to offer publishers and advertisers a full spectrum of support and comprehensive media solutions that capitalize on a deep-rooted expertise and heritage of media excellence to deliver top-quality service.

Leveraging deep-rooted expertise, technology, real-time data, and precision targeting, Gamut executes on a local, regional, and national level. The business offers a robust suite of capabilities and a streamlined service for publishers, advertisers, agencies, and small-to-mid sized businesses.

Gene Pizzolato

“We are committed to providing our clients with services that adapt to the ever-evolving media landscape,” said Gene Pizzolato, president and general manager of Gamut. “As Gamut, we bring together powerful technology and end-to-end expertise to deliver solutions that help publishers and advertisers optimize results.”

Gamut is comprised of four channels of solutions, which offer a broad-spectrum of media solutions that serve publishers and advertisers.

The channels include:

• Programmatic + : Enables publishers to maximize yield for their display, mobile, and video inventory with a real-time pricing (RTP) engine, and delivers access to exclusive inventory and superior cross-channel audiences for advertisers. The technology offers proven profitability that optimizes across the inventory value spectrum, delivering more flexibility and ease of use.
• Reps + : Offers guidance on a full campaign lifecycle, working to identify the right audience, digital media mix, and platforms to drive peak performance. An experienced team helps advertisers achieve digital, cross-channel campaign goals, powered by deep-rooted media expertise and access to high quality data.
• Reach + : Provides a turnkey wholesale product for publishers to deliver expanded access to audiences, generating more advertising revenue while effectively extending the magnitude and frequency of cross-channel campaigns. A customized white-label solution, Reach+ provides access to large audience pools solving display, mobile, video inventory shortfalls, helping to ensure success.
• Cross Media + : Delivers custom solutions for fully integrated, multi-market, television-driven campaigns, complemented by digital solutions, providing access to key audiences based on televised events that attract large audiences. With deep expertise in local markets, CrossMedia+ offers a streamlined service to execute on a local, regional, or national scale, supported by a team that executes full media planning, buying, execution, and post-campaign reporting.

“We are excited to announce the launch of Gamut as the newest brand in the Cox Media Group family,” said Neil Johnston, executive vice president, strategy and digital innovation at Cox Media Group. “As a media company, we fully understand the needs of both publishers and advertisers, and we will continue to deliver quality service and optimized results as Gamut.”

For more information on Gamut and the services it provides: Click Here.

SF Radio: Veteran Angie Handa Joins NashFM 92-3

Angie Handa

Cumulus announces that KBBY/Ventura Program Director and popular on-air talent Angie Handa has been appointed Assistant Program Director and Midday personality for KSJO 92.3 FM /NashFM  in San Francisco.

Handa’s show will debut on NashFM 92.3 on Monday, October 20, and will air weekdays from 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

In the newly created position of Assistant Program Director, Handa will work with Program Director Mac Daniels on production, imaging and music scheduling.

Handa has programmed radio stations in markets including Cleveland, Tucson, Phoenix, Charleston and Fresno. She is a graduate of San Jose State with a B.A. degree in Radio and Television.

Daniels said: “Angie brings a high degree of talent and broadcast experience on and off air with a fresh perspective that will continue to grow the NASH brand in the San Francisco – Oakland – San Jose Bay Area. I am very proud and excited to have her joining the team."

Handa said: “I'm so grateful to Mike McVay, Mac Daniels and Brian Thomas for this amazing opportunity. The Cumulus NASH platform is the most exciting thing happening in Country radio today, and I'm honored to be a part of this history-making team."

Toledo Radio: Cumulus Names Cody Welling DOS For Cluster

Cody Welling

Cumulus announces that Cody Welling has been promoted to Director of Sales for Cumulus Toledo/Monroe where he has served as General Sales Manager since July.

Prior to that, he was General Sales Manager for Great Plains Media in Bloomington, IL, and was also an Account Executive and Local Sales Manager for Cumulus Toledo/Monroe. Welling was a 2012 Radio Wayne Award Finalist as General Sales Manager of the Year.

Andy Stuart, Regional Vice President and Market Manager for Cumulus Toledo/Monroe said: “Cody has done an exceptional job leading our sales team and creating positive revenue growth for the Toledo/Monroe Cumulus station cluster. This promotion reflects Cody’s growing responsibilities and our confidence in his ability to  maximize our ever-expanding list of opportunities in Toledo and Monroe.”

Welling said: "It's been tremendous working with an exceptional sales team, along with a very talented group of on-air personalities and support staff members that are dedicated to our radio stations, the community, and to our clients. I would like to thank Cumulus for providing me with this expanded role and opportunity. Working with great leaders in the local market such as RVP Andy Stuart, and the dedication provided by SVP Gary Pizzati has made the difference in growing revenue for our Toledo and Monroe stations."