Monday's Hot Links..What Others Are Saying

➤Don’t Touch That Dial: Comparing Streaming Radio Latency

➤Why Musicians Are So Angry At YouTube

➤Elizabeth Warren Concerned About Kid Rock's Potential Senate Run

➤SoundCloud Sinks As Leaks Say Layoffs Buy Little Time

➤WEBINAR (35:00): Changes To Radio Listening In The Home

➤Jeff Bezos: 6 Ways Traditional Media Can Save Itself

SAG-AFTRA Strike Averted At NPR

A threatened SAG-AFTRA strike against National Public Radio was averted oiver the weekend.

“We have a tentative agreement,” the union said on its website. The two sides edged to the brink of a strike when the union’s contract expired Friday night. NPR employees covered by the contract had asked for authorization to strike, but the new deal now precludes that.

According to deadline.com, the deal, which was reached near the end on a 24-hour contract extension on top of a two-week extension, provides for salary increases and “effectively repelled efforts to erode union protections and institute a two-tiered salary system,” the union said in a statement.

NPR wanted the right to pay lower wages to new-hires, but the union said this could stifle the hiring of women and minorities. “Management’s attempt to create a second-class of minimums for new employees may discourage diverse candidates from entering the NPR workforce,” said SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris. “Equal pay for equal work.”

The new agreement must now be ratified by the covered employees.

NPR (also known as National Public Radio) is a non-profit media media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States.

NBC 'Nightly News' Gets New Home Studio

With an eye toward using vibrant and dynamic storytelling walls in a flexible environment, “NBC Nightly News” will debut a new studio at Rockefeller Plaza tonight that blends a variety of LED panels with hard scenery and combines looks from the broadcast’s past with new visual motifs.

The move returns “Nightly” and anchor Lester Holt to Studio 3C after a six-year residence in Studio 3B.

Previously housing MSNBC, local newscasts on WNBC and “Nightly,” the studio has been completely revamped with a technology-driven storytelling environment that reconnects NBC News and MSNBC through a unified work space and window, a nod to the studio’s original 2007 design.

According to NewsCastStudio, the space includes 632 square feet of LED video tiles, according to an NBC News spokesperson, including a unique layered collection of cubes and rectangles and a “stacked block” arrangement to the right of this.

A double-height LED column, nicknamed “the tower,” also gives the venue a dramatic canvas to display graphics, including the towering 3D rendering of 30 Rock found in the show’s open.

The video walls are reminiscent of the large panels the network installed and later expanded in Studio 4E, a working newsroom space upstairs from this studio, which is used for a variety of both MSNBC and NBC programs.

Warm wood tones and metal finishes connect the space with previous design iterations, with slim vertical backlit reveals between slatted wood panels adding pops of light and color on camera.

The studio, from Clickspring Design, also features multiple presentation venues for Holt, correspondents and guests. Blackwalnut fabricated the scenic elements with technology from Leyard and lighting by NBC’s in-house team.

RNS Signs Maryland News Network For Content

Lesley Lotto

Benztown, a global leader in radio imaging, voiceover services, production libraries, programming, and jingles, announces that Remote News Service (RNS) has signed the Maryland News Network, The Voice of Maryland, to deliver news content to 14 stations in markets including: Frederick, Myersville and Salisbury. The group deal brings RNS professional news content to a total of 62 stations across the U.S.

RNS offers high quality, hyper-localized news content to radio stations in markets of all sizes and formats on a cash and barter basis through Benztown. Lesley Lotto, RNS President, and the professional news team at RNS collectively have more than 50 years experience providing award-winning news coverage to stations and networks across the U.S. In addition, RNS’s feature-rich website, www.remotenewsservice.com, offers free trending news to website visitors.

Lesley Lotto, President, Remote News Service, said: ""I'm thrilled to work with a fledgling network that Remote News Service will have a chance to watch grow and grow with. I see great things for the Maryland News Network!"

For more information and to get Remote News Service for your stations for cash or barter, visit www.benztown.com/remotenewsservice or contact Masa Patterson at Benztown at mp@benztown.com or (818) 842-4600.

Bob Seger Joins The Eagles On Stage At Classic West Concert

Alex Klutt Photography courtesy of ultimateclassrock.com

At Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium on Saturday for the first night of the ambitious Classic West concert, the Eagles started their show as they had so many times before: standing shoulder-to-shoulder at the front of the stage to beautifully blend their voices a cappella on the bluegrassy 1980 arrangement of "Seven Bridges Road." But there were some new faces in the mix,reports Billboard.

One was longtime Eagles friend and country superstar Vince Gill. The other could have been mistaken for a '70s-era hologram of band co-founder Glenn Frey, who died last year at age 67, but instead was the late Eagle's 24-year-old son Deacon, admirably filling his dad's massive shoes for the group's first concert since his death.

"We are the Eagles from Los Angeles," Joe Walsh said by way of (unnecessary) introduction following that opening number. "We're back, and we're back for our family, and you are part of our family. This one's for you, Glenn. You're in our hearts, and the music goes on. Let's give a warm Eagles family welcome to Deacon Frey."

Throughout the two-and-a-half-hour set, Frey was given the unenviable task of re-creating some of his dad's most recognizable hits for the tens of thousands of fans who know them best, starting with his signature, "Take It Easy."

It was an emotional start to the night for Eagles fans who might have expected to never hear these songs performed live again, given Don Henley calling the 2016 Grammy tribute to Frey "the final farewell" last year. "I don’t think you’ll see us performing again," he said back in March 2016. "That was probably it."

Henley echoed those sentiments Saturday night, hinting that The Classic West and East dates -- which continued Sunday night (July 16) at Dodger Stadium with Fleetwood Mac headlining before hitting New York's Citi Field on July 29-30 -- were all about closure for the blockbuster band. "In case this is our last dance, we want to thank all the fans of Southern California," he said.

And they were properly thanked throughout the night, with Frey and Gill trading off lead duties on Glenn's biggest hits. Before launching into "Peaceful Easy Feeling," Deacon thanked the Eagles family -- both on and off the stage -- for their part in easing the pain of his dad's untimely death. Deacon also handled lead vocals on the rocker "Already Gone," while Gill brought his Nashville touch to "Lyin' Eyes," "Tequila Sunrise," "Take It to the Limit" and "New Kid in Town."

There was one more person who wanted to join in on the Glenn tribute: Fellow Detroiter Bob Seger -- who met Frey as a backup singer in the 1960s -- surprised the crowd to perform a song he co-wrote with the band, 1979's "Heartache Tonight."

JAY-Z Scores 14th No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 Chart

JAY-Z collects his 14th No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as his latest release, 4:44, debuts atop the tally.

According to Nielsen Music, in the week ending July 13, the set earned 262,000 equivalent album units -- a larger-than-initially-expected sum, and the fourth-largest week of 2017 for any album. Of its total, 174,000 units were in traditional album sales.

4:44’s No. 1 arrival extends JAY-Z’s record as the solo artist with the most No. 1 albums in the 61-year history of the Billboard 200 chart. He distances himself farther ahead of the two acts with the second-most leaders among soloists: Bruce Springsteen and Barbra Streisand, who each have 11 chart-toppers. Among all acts, JAY-Z has the second-most leaders, behind only The Beatles, which have 19 No. 1s.

JAY-Z also furthers his own record as the artist with the most debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, as all 14 of his albums have bowed in the top slot. (Springsteen has the second-most No. 1 debuts, with eight.)

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new July 29-dated chart (where JAY-Z starts at No. 1) will be posted in full to Billboard’s websites on Tuesday, July 18.

Winchester VA Radio: Lisa Herndon EXITS WINC

Lisa Herndon

Well-known radio personality and Loudoun County native Lisa Herndon has resigned from WINC 92.5 FM after seven years with the station, according to The Loundon Times.

Friday was Herndon's final appearance on the WINC Wake-Up Show. She is leaving her position to become a public information specialist for the Herndon Police Department.

“This is the hardest Facebook post I have ever had to write,” Herndon wrote on the social media site this morning. “Over the past seven years The WINC FM listeners and my coworkers have become family. I have my dream job and have the best friends. That's why it is so hard for me to tell you that today is my last day on The WINC Wake Up Show. In an ideal world I would stay on The WINC Wake Up Show until the day I retire. But it just wasn't realistic for me and my family.”

“You have become my friends, my family, my most favorite memories, and I can't just walk away from that,” Herndon noted. “So while I will no longer be here on the radio with my best friend Barry, I will be at your parties and your events, at lunches and dinners and will stay connected with you.”

R.I.P.: WOWB GM, Morning Host Dale Reddick Was 59

Longtime radio broadcast/manage Dale R. Riddick has died at age 59.

He was diagnosed with myesloid leukemia this past January after experiencing extreme fatigue

Dale was the general manager or WOWB  90.9 and WOW 101.1 (Pensacola-Brewton AL).

As station rep Larry Steelman told AllAccess, "Dale was the major catalyst and one of the three founders of WOW 90.9. Besides being the station's General Manager, he has also been the morning man for the station from the beginning.

R.I.P.: Hall of Fame Sportscaster Bob Wolff

Bob Wolff, who called Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series, the Giants-Baltimore Colts epic N.F.L. championship game in 1958 and the Knicks’ two N.B.A. title runs in a record-setting eight decades as a sports broadcaster, died on Saturday in South Nyack, N.Y.

He was 96, according to The NYTimes.

Wolff was behind the microphone from the radio age to the rise of cable television. He was cited by Guinness World Records in 2012 as having the longest career of any sports broadcaster.

He started out in 1939 while a student and former baseball player at Duke University, broadcasting games on a local CBS radio station. He became the first sportscaster for Washington’s WTTG-TV on the old DuMont network in 1946. A year later, he began doing television play-by-play for the usually lowly Washington Senators when most of the tiny black-and-white sets were in taverns and hotels.

Wolff teamed with Joe Garagiola on NBC-TV’s baseball Game of the Week in the early 1960s. He was a broadcaster for Madison Square Garden for more than 50 years on staff and as a freelancer, calling Knicks and Rangers games, college basketball and the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. On radio, he called the last half of Larsen’s perfect game for the Yankees against the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the Giants-Colts sudden-death overtime N.F.L. championship game.



In April 2013, Wolff donated some 1,400 video and audio recordings, representing about 1,000 hours of his broadcast work, to the Library of Congress. They included interviews with Jim Thorpe, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb and Joe Louis.

He was inducted into the broadcasting wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1995. (At his induction ceremony, he played “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” on his ukulele.) He received the Curt Gowdy media award from the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008.

Bob Wolfe with Babe Ruth

Wolff served in the Navy as a supply officer in the Pacific during World War II, ending his service as a lieutenant. He then became the sports director for WINX radio in Washington in 1946. A year later, when he was hired as the Senators’ first TV broadcaster, there were only a few hundred sets in Washington. He and his wife, Jane, did not own one, so she went to an appliance store to watch the games.

R.I.P.: Frank Nodine, The Voice of Fort Myers, FL

Frank Nodine

Longtime Ft. Myers radio, TV personality Frank Nodine has died at the age of 93.

When WINK-TV in Fort Myeras went on air for the first time in 1954, the face that appeared on the small screens of the few television sets in Fort Myers was that of WINK’s first announcer, Frank Nodine.

Nodine would remain at WINK for the next 19 years, as sports announcer, live-show host, program director, administrative assistant, and ultimately as station manager and vice president. Then, after an absence of four years, he would return, first as an evening, weekend sports announcer on WINK-TV and then as the early morning deejay for WINK-AM.

In other words, there is little, if anything, that Frank Nodine did not do over the roughly 30 years of his career in radio and television in Fort Myers. Frank Nodine was the voice of Fort Myers, according to the News-Press.

In 1950, Nodine was invited to try out for announcer at WINK-AM, based on his performances iwth a little theater group in town. He recorded a sports program. About an hour before it was supposed to air, the station called Nodine and said something had happened to the tape and would he do it live.

He got the job.

July 17 Radio History

➦In 1912...broadcaster Arthur Gordon “Art” Linkletter was born in Moose Jaw Saskatchewan.


He migrated to California where he became internationally known as host of two long-running broadcasts: House Party, on CBS radio and television for 25 years, and the game show People Are Funny, which ran on NBC radio & TV for 19 years. Linkletter was famous for interviewing children on House Party and Kids Say the Darndest Things, which led to a successful series of books quoting children.

He died May 26, 2010 at age 97.

➦In 1934…FCC adopts Order No. 1

The Beach Boys

➦In 1962...The Beach Boys signed their first record contract with Capitol Records.

➦In 1981…Bruce Bradley did his final show on WBZ 1030 AM, Boston.

Bradley joined WBZ in 1960, when the station is still playing middle of the road pop music. Gradually, as the music becomes more top-40, “Juicie Brucie” Bradley’s night-time show became extremely popular.

The station moved from Top40 to Full-Service AC in 1974.

Bradley passed away in June 2013. Click Here for more.

➦In 2009…CBS newsman Walter Cronkite, anchorman of "The CBS Evening News" on television for 19 years (1962-1981) and called "the most trusted man in America," died of cerebrovascular disease at age 92.

He entered broadcasting as a radio announcer for WKY in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In 1936, he met his future wife, Mary Elizabeth Maxwell (known by her nickname "Betsy"), while working as the sports announcer for KCMO (AM) in Kansas City, Missouri. His broadcast name was "Walter Wilcox".  He would explain later that radio stations at the time did not want people to use their real names for fear of taking their listeners with them if they left.

In Kansas City, he joined the United Press in 1937. He became one of the top American reporters in World War II, covering battles in North Africa and Europe.  Cronkite was one of eight journalists selected by the United States Army Air Forces to fly bombing raids over Germany in a B-17 Flying Fortress part of group called the Writing 69th, and during a mission fired a machine gun at a German fighter.  He also landed in a glider with the 101st Airborne in Operation Market-Garden and covered the Battle of the Bulge. After the war, he covered the Nuremberg trials and served as the United Press main reporter in Moscow from 1946 to 1948.

In 1950, Cronkite joined CBS News in its young and growing television division

➦In 2011…WRXP NYC drops Triple A format.

On June 21, 2011, it was announced that majority ownership of WRXP was acquired by Merlin Media LLC, a new entity headed by veteran radio executive Randy Michaels.   The sale, which the FCC approved in September 2011, included two other Emmis-owned stations in Chicago, WLUP-FM and WKQX. They then registered several domains for what the new format of the station would be, including a return of WYNY's country format, but many promoted an FM news format. WRXP's rock format ended with the song "Long Live Rock" by The Who.

After a brief period of dead air, WRXP (whose call sign was changed to WEMP on July 21) switched to a stunt of Adult Contemporary music branded as "101.9 FM New," a stunt that served as a transition to the station's new format.  "FM New" featured a live morning show that began at 6AM on July 18, hosted by veteran New York City radio personality Paul Cavalconte (who has been with 101.9 since 1998), with Jeff McKay (formerly of Shadow Traffic and WINS) providing traffic and weather updates(until the next day when Meteorologist Scott Derek began).   News reports and news blocks were gradually introduced beginning with a 3PM newscast on July 25, 2011, anchored by Dave Packer and Mike Barker.

Walt Sabo

On August 12, 2011, the station ended its Adult Contemporary stunt and went full-time all-news as "FM News 101.9," following in the footsteps of its Chicago sister station WWWN (the former and current WKQX), which flipped to all-news on July 29.  As conceived by Merlin's then-COO, Walter Sabo, "FM News" was what Sabo considered a "redefining" of the all-news format;  the on-air presentation was generally looser and conversational in tone, while an emphasis was placed on lifestyle, health, and entertainment features.  The initial news staff at WEMP included those with experience in New York radio, including WINS alums Catherine Smith, Alice Stockton-Rossini, and Brett Larson, as well as former WCBS anchor Therese Crowley and WRXP holdover Paul Cavalconte.

Over time, the "FM News" approach on WEMP would be adjusted: The reliance on lifestyle and entertainment features was decreased; the station turned towards a tighter, polished on-air presentation; and several new features were added, including "ten minutes of non-stop news," the "top 5 trending stories" leading off every hour, and hourly sports and business updates.  Coinciding with the on-air changes was a major promotional push, including television ads and promotions that tweaked WINS' longtime "22 minutes" slogan, with WEMP proclaiming "Give us 10 minutes, we'll give you the world."   (After WINS owner CBS Radio sent a cease-and-desist letter to Merlin Media, WEMP dropped its "world" slogan.) 

Merlin’s WEMP-FM  NYC dropped news in 2012 in favor of new rock format.


➥In 2015…Sportscaster Van Miller, the play-by-play voice of the National Football League's Buffalo Bills from 1960 to 1971 and then again from 1977 until his retirement in 2004, died at age 87