Lawyers for U.S. pop star Taylor Swift and the Colorado DJ she accuses of groping her were due to deliver closing arguments on Monday before the federal court jury weighing her sexual assault claims against his assertion that he was wrongfully fired.
Reuters reports, the trial stemming from Swift's allegations against radio personality David Mueller headed into its final phase after the 27-year-old singer-songwriter won an important ruling on Friday, which dismissed the DJ's accusation that she wrongfully got him to lose his job.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge William Martinez left standing Swift's assault and battery countersuit against Mueller, who insisted during the trial that he was falsely accused.
The judge also left intact a single claim by Mueller accusing Swift's mother and another member of her management circle of interfering with his contract, bringing about his ouster from his $150,000-a-year job at radio station KYGO 98.5 FM.
The weeklong trial stems from allegations by the Grammy-winning artist that Mueller clutched her bare buttocks during a pre-concert fan reception while they posed together for pictures.
Mueller, 55, initiated the litigation, suing Swift, her mother and her radio station liaison Frank Bell for his termination.
The elder Swift said she wanted Mueller fired, and Bell reported the allegation to KYGO management, who sacked Mueller two days after the incident.
The country’s top cable and satellite TV providers just wrapped up another quarter of record subscriber declines as customers flee traditional pay-television distributors in favor of streaming and on-demand services, according to a research note from MoffettNathanson.
Combined declines for the second quarter of 2017 came close to a million subscribers, the firm estimates, with Dish Network, DirectTV, and AT&T hit especially hard. As bad as it was, the customer exodus was not as bad as some analysts had predicted
If all this sounds familiar, it’s because three months ago, the industry had just logged its worst quarter in history, losing an estimated 762,000 pay-TV subscribers. This time around, that number has jumped to 941,000 subscribers. Even Comcast, which had been bucking the trend over the last few quarters, ended Q2 with a net loss of 34,000 pay-TV customers.
According to FastCompany, what’s really interesting is to look at the trend over the last two years. Traditional pay-TV providers–that is, if you don’t factor in streaming services–saw combined subscription declines of more than a half-million customers per quarter in five of the last nine consecutive quarters. In only one of those quarters was there a net growth.
Sam Nunberg, a former political adviser to Donald Trump, warned Sunday of dire consequences for National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Matt Drudge if White House chief strategist Steve Bannon is pushed out of the West Wing.
“If Steve is fired by the White House and a bunch of generals take over the White House there will be hell to pay,” Nunberg, a longtime Trump aide who left the presidential campaign in August 2015, told The Daily Caller in an exclusive interview. His comments came after an Axios report that claimed Bannon’s job is in jeopardy due to damaging leaks against McMaster and anger over a recent book touting Bannon’s role on the Trump presidential campaign.
Steve Bannon
Nunberg told TheDC that he was “very perturbed” by the Axios story and tied in Bannon’s reported downfall to the Drudge Report, which continues to link to stories that are negative to the White House chief strategist.
Drudge has not made it known why he doesn’t favor Bannon on his site. However, he has previously suspected Bannon of leaking in to an email reviewed by TheDC, and he is known to link to articles that paint reported Bannon foe Jared Kushner in a positive light.
“Matt should understand there will be serious f#%king consequences if he continues this jihad against Steve Bannon,” Nunberg told TheDC. “I was somebody with [Trump] for four and half f#%king years who understood and came up with a formula to win…Matt Drudge is somebody who wants web traffic.”
He added, “I’ll get conservative radio to talk about how Matt Drudge pushed out Steve Bannon so McMaster can control the White House.”
The conflict between McMaster and Bannon spilled out into the open Sunday with McMaster unable to say if he can work alongside the chief strategist during an appearance on “Meet the Press.”
Throughout TheDC’s interview, Nunberg focused on the idea that he and Bannon know the voter base that elected the brash New York real estate developer president.
Vice President Mike Pence accused the news media on Sunday of being more concerned with attacking President Donald Trump's response to the deadly violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, than on condemning the violence itself.
On his arrival here on a weeklong tour of Latin America, Pence singled out "white supremacists" for the attack at a "Unite the Right" rally on Saturday, telling NBC News: "We will not tolerate hatred and violence of groups like white supremacists, the KKK and neo-Nazis. These extremist fringe groups have no place in the American debate."
One person was killed and 19 others were injured Saturday when an Ohio man allegedly drove his car through a group of counter-demonstrators, police said.
The vice president's language went further than that initially used by Trump, who condemned "hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides." Trump endured a drumbeat of criticism throughout the weekend, from many Republicans as well as Democrats, among them Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Cory Gardner of Colorado.
Pence said Sunday that Trump "stated clearly that he condemns hate and violence in all of its forms."
Pence said he took issue with "the fact that many in the media are spending more time criticizing how the president addressed the issue yesterday."
"Many in the media spent an awful lot of time focusing on what the president said and criticisms of what the president said instead of criticizing those who brought that hatred and violence to the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia," Pence said.
A White House spokesman stated Sunday that President Donald Trump explicitly condemns all extremist groups, including white supremacists and neo-Nazis.
“The President said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred and of course that includes white Supremacists, KKK, neo-nazi and all extremist groups,” a White House spokesman said Sunday. “He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.”
Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci hit at Steve Bannon for his controversial views a day after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, descended into violence.
During ABC News’ livestream interview after "This Week," Scaramucci was asked if he believes Bannon is a white supremacist or white nationalist. Scaramucci said that he didn't know and hasn't directly asked Bannon about his views.
“I’ve never sat down with Steve Bannon and said, ‘Hey are you a white nationalist or a white supremacist?’ But I think the toleration of it by Steve Bannon is inexcusable,” Scaramucci said.
Ahead of the livestream, Scaramucci gave his first television interview since his short-lived tenure in the White House, speaking out against Bannon and saying the president “knows what he’s going to do with” him.
Speaking with ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on "This Week" this morning, Scaramucci criticized the influence of the website Breitbart and Steve Bannon, who was the executive chairman of Breitbart before joining the Trump campaign and later the administration, saying that there's "this sort of 'Bannon-bart' influence" in the White House that he thinks "is a snag on the president."
When asked by Stephanopoulos if that influence stemmed from Bannon, Scaramucci said, "I think the president knows what he's going to do with Steve Bannon."
To better understand how people are using their voice-activated smart speakers at home, Pandora commissioned Edison Research to analyze nearly 15,000 queries across 444 Amazon and Google devices to see how they used them.
AdWeek reports Edison Research asked participants who had owned a device for at least a month to provide a full record of a week’s worth of interactions, revealing just how important music and other audio is to how people use the smart speaker.
This isn’t the first study Edison has conducted recently about the future of audio. In June, Edison and NPR release their “Smart Audio” report, which found that 7 percent of people in the U.S. over the age of 12 own a smart speaker. The study also found that 70 percent of respondents reported listening to more audio at home than before as a result of owning a device.
Rosin said marketers seem to “under-consider” the category of audio like Pandora and others are in.
Here are some of the results:
58 percent of users used their Echos for music, averaging about 4 hours and 34 minutes per week.
69 percent regularly tuned into audio content.
46 percent checked the weather.
42 percent requested a joke, an “Easter egg” or a conversation.
40 percent asked a question abut where to find a store or how to cook a recipe.
29 percent plan to make a purchase.
Top categories for purchases include tech, household goods and beauty products.
One in three people already have two or more voice-enabled devices in different rooms.
40 percent of device owners were 35 to 54 years old.
35 percent were 18 to 34 years old.
77 percent listened to music with friends and family.
Amazon.com Inc is seeking to partner with U.S. venue owners to sell event tickets, four sources have told Reuters, a move that could loosen Ticketmaster's powerful grip on the lucrative ticketing business.
If Amazon moves ahead, it would represent the latest attempt by the world's largest online retailer to use its massive customer base, tech savvy and bargaining power to shake up a big market.
According to Reuters, the Seattle-based company sees the U.S. ticketing market as ripe for attack. Consumers dislike ticket fees, and venue owners, sports leagues and teams want more distributors for their tickets as they seek to boost sales.
Access to tickets could be another means to lure members to the Amazon Prime shopping club. For music acts and sports teams, selling tickets through Amazon could help sell their merchandise.
Currently Ticketmaster, owned by Live Nation Entertainment Inc (LYV.N), is the exclusive seller of primary tickets for many top venues in the United States. Would-be challengers have struggled to compete in the face of Ticketmaster's strong relationships with the operators of major U.S. sports stadiums, arenas, concert halls and other venues.
Amazon has had success with ticketing in Britain, where it has been selling seats to West End shows since 2015, even outselling Ticketmaster for some events, according to one of the sources, who owns venues in that country. It is less common for venues in Britain to have an exclusive ticket provider.
Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. returns to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, notching its fourth total week atop the tally. Meanwhile, Brett Eldredge scores the week’s top debut, as his new self-titled album bows at a career-high No. 2.
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 Aug. 26-dated chart (where DAMN. returns to No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard’s websites on Tuesday, Aug. 15.
Lamar’s DAMN. climbs 2-1 on the latest Billboard 200, clocking a fourth nonconsecutive week at No. 1, and its first since the May 20-dated tally. The set earned just under 47,000 equivalent album units (down less than 1 percent) in the week ending Aug. 10, according to Nielsen Music.
DAMN.’s four weeks at No. 1 is the most by an album since The Weeknd’s Starboy claimed its fifth nonconsecutive frame on the Feb. 11-dated chart.DAMN. was last No. 1 on the May 20 chart. The album’s 13-week break from No. 1 is the longest gap between weeks at the top in more than four years.
Notably, DAMN.’s sum at No. 1 -- a little under 47,000 units -- is the second lowest weekly total for a No. 1 album since the chart began raking by consumption units in late 2014. The only time the No. 1 album clocked a smaller total was on the Aug. 22, 2015-dated list, when the Descendants soundtrack bowed at No. 1 with 42,000 units.
At No. 2 on the new Billboard 200 is Brett Eldredge’s self-titled album, which bows in the runner-up slot with 45,000 units (36,000 in traditional album sales). It’s the highest charting album yet for the country singer, surpassing the No. 3 peak of his Illinois album in 2015. In total, his new album is his fourth charting effort; he also visited the list with the 2016 Christmas album Glow (peaking at No. 29) and his debut album Bring You Back (No. 11 in 2013).
Brett Eldredge is the fourth country album to debut at No. 2 in 2017, following Zac Brown Band’s Welcome Home (June 3), Chris Stapleton’s From A Room: Volume 1 (May 27) and Brantley Gilbert’s The Devil Don’t Sleep (Feb. 18). So far, however, no country albums have hit No. 1 in 2017 (all those No. 2-debuting sets peaked in the runner-up slot). The last country album to be No. 1 was Jason Aldean’s They Don’t Know, when it bowed at No. 1 on the Oct. 1, 2016 chart. (It spent one week at No. 1.)
With 36,000 copies sold, Eldredge’s new album is also the top selling album of the week, and debuts at No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart.
WBZ personality/commentator Neil Chayet has died at 78 years old.
Chayet was the voice behind the popular Looking at the Law segment. Heard on NewsRadio WBZ 1030, the segment featured Chayet’s signature words “This is Neil Chayet – Looking at the Law!”
After 42 years on air, Chayet retired in June. He recorded more than 10,000 episodes of Looking at the Law during his career.
Chayet announced at the time of his retirement that he would be receiving treatment for an aggressive form of cancer.
WBZ Director of News & Programming Peter Casey said Chayet was a “treasured member of our WBZ family for decades.”
“He and his wife, Martha Chayet, were wonderful friends to me for many years. Neil touched so people with his work on the radio through Looking at the Law, and with his countless hours of work helping people through his advocacy for community health centers,” said Casey.
“His life was his family, friends, and helping others resolve either legal or personal problems. He would probably want all of his listeners to think of one of their favorite Looking at the Law puns and smile.”
➦In 1909...announcer Ed Herlihy was born in Boston.
He is perhaps best remembered as a newsreel narrator for Universal-International, but he was also a staff announcer for NBC radio & TV in New York. He was a host of radio’s The Horn and Hardart Children’s Hour in the 1940’s and 50’s, while announcing on dozens of other productions. Herlihy is fondly remembered as the voice of Kraft Foods radio and TV commercials from the 1940s through the early ’80s.
When he died at age 89 on January 30th 1999, his New York Times obituary called him “A Voice of Cheer and Cheese”.
'Ma Perkins' Cast
➦In 1933..., Crossley Broadcasting’s WLW in Cincinnati premiered the daytime drama “Ma Perkins.” Just four months later, “Ma” moved to WMAQ Radio in Chicago and was heard over the entire NBC radio network. Virginia Payne (below) was 23 years old when she started in the title role, playing a middleaged Ma operating a lumberyard in Rushville Center. Her children were Evey, Fay and John (who was killed in the war). One of the other characters in the show was Shuffle Shober.
Virginia Payne played Ma Perkins for an incredible 27 years — and 7,065 episodes. ➦In 1942...Garry Moore hosted a new radio program on NBC. “The Show Without a Name” was an effort to crack the morning show dominance of Arthur Godfrey (CBS) and “Don McNeil’s Breakfast Club” (ABC). A prize of $500 was offered to name the show and someone came up with the title, “Everything Goes”.
➦In 1945...radio brought the news of Japan’s surrender ending World War II. On the CBS radio series, “Columbia Presents Corwin,” Orson Welles did a special reading about the fall of Japan, titled, “Fourteen August”.
➦In 1957...1010 WINS-AM New York went top-40. 1010 WINS adheres to a strict playlist, except for Alan Freed and Jack Lacy.
➦In 1957...ABC radio announced an experiment with a “live” music show hosted by Herb Oscar Anderson. The show would be in sharp contrast to DJ shows and recorded music.
John, George, Paul, Peter Best
➦In 1962…It was decided that Pete Best would be let go from the Beatles. Producer George Martin was unhappy with his drumming and it was said that some group members felt overshadowed by Best's teen idol good looks.
It was not until two days later, after one more performance at Liverpool's Cavern Club, that manager Brian Epstein told Best he was dismissed, giving him no real reason, and abruptly cut off contact with the other members of the group.
John Lennon later admitted to the group's "cowardly" handling of the event. Ringo Starr, drummer for the Liverpool group Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, was asked to join the group as Best's replacement. Ringo made his first appearance with the Beatles on August 18.
Tom Harmon
➦In 1962...It was announced that starting in September, sportscaster Tom Harmon will be heard on ABC radio where he will have a 10-minute weekday sports broadcast and he’ll also be heard on weekends in eight five-minute broadcasts. He joins ABC after 13 years with CBS’ Pacific radio network.
Once a member of the Los Angeles Rams, Tom Harmon was one of the first athletes to go into broadcasting. He was an All-American football player in 1940 at the University of Michigan.
One of Tom’s daughters would marry Ricky Nelson and, later, son Mark would become a well-known actor. He currently stars in NCIS on CBS-TV.
➦In 1962...Disc Jockey Bob Crane of KNX, Los Angeles is signed to star in “Send Me No Flowers” by the Laguna Beach (Calif) SummerTheate
➦In 1973...In the past six years, FM radio listeners have increased by 152%, according to Arbriton and a statistic that should give AM music stations some pause. The study covered 8 of the top-10 markets.
➦In 1973...Philadelphia adds its third FM rock station as WYSP 94.1 FM joins the frey behind WIFI 92.5 FM and WMMR 93.3 FM. WYSP (Your Station in Philadelphia) jocks included Tom Straw, Dean Clark, and Doug Cristian with Frank X. Feller as program director. The music included popular cuts from albums by artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Chicago, and Crosby Stills and Nash.
➦In 1983...WFIL 560 AM Philadelphia switched to all oldies.
Starting on September 18, 1966, WFIL began playing "Top 40" rock and roll. It quickly became the most successful non-RKO "Boss Radio" formatted station, known locally as "The Pop Music Explosion". The original line up of air personalities, or "Boss Jocks" were scheduled as follows:
6-10am: Chuck Browning
10am-2pm: Jay Cook ("Captain Jay Cook")
2-6pm: Jim Nettleton ("Diamond Jim" Nettleton)
6-10pm: George Michael ("King George" Michael)
10pm-2am: Long John Wade
2-6am: Dave Parks ("Dave the Rave" Parks)
Weekends: Frank Kingston Smith
WFIL announcers heard in later years of the Top 40 era included Dr. Don Rose, Jim O'Brien (who later also became a WPVI-TV weather broadcaster and station personality), Dan Donovan, J. J. Jeffrey, Dick Heatherton, Tom Dooley, "Tiny" Tom Tyler, Mitch "K.C." Hill, "Big" Ron O'Brien, Kris Chandler, Geoff Richards, Joel Denver, Brother Lee Love (Alan Smith), and Banana Joe Montione.
➦In 1988...Shadoe Stevens takes over as host of “American Top 40”
Casey Kasem left the show over contract concerns with ABC. Industry trade paper Billboard magazine reported that the main disputes between Kasem and Watermark/ABC were over his salary, because of declining ratings and a smaller group of stations airing the show. Casey's final AT40 show aired on August 6, 1988. At no point during that final show did Kasem ever let on that any changes were afoot, and simply omitted the phrase "join me next week" while closing the show.
Kasem was replaced by Shadoe Stevens, whose first American Top 40 show aired on August 13, 1988, on 1,014 stations. Kasem joined the Westwood One radio network less than a year later to start a rival show, Casey's Top 40. Many AT40 listeners were upset by Kasem's departure and, as a result, many stations dropped American Top 40 in favor of Casey's Top 40 once it hit the airwaves on January 21, 1989.
➦In 1993...It was announced Teens are listening to country music more and more. Country has climbed from a 2.3% share of teens in the summer of 1989 to an 8.7% share this year.
➦In 2007...CBS settles its termination dispute with Don Imus who was fired in April after referring to a mostly black university women’s basketball team as “nanny-headed hos.”
➦In 2007...Ryan Seacrest is tapped to host the 59th annual Emmy Awards. “I’ve covered the Emmys before from many different angles and I’m thrilled, honored and excited to be hosting it this year. With my schedule, there’s always that final check to make sure I could do it all, but with the Emmy’s you make the time.”
➦In 2012…Actress Rosemary Rice died after a heart attack at 87. She provided the voice of Betty Cooper on the Archie Andrews radio series, played the oldest daughter and narrated the early 1950s TV series, "Mama," appeared on Broadway, recorded 15 children's albums, and earned three Clio Awards for her work in television commercials – on camera and as a voiceover artist. For Clairol, she became the familiar voice of the ad slogan, "If I've only one life to live, let me live it as a blonde."
