CBS launched its Television Critics Assn. press tour session presenting its fall season in Beverly Hills on Sunday with a statement about the network’s embattled CEO Leslie Moonves — and then opened up the room to an array of tough questions from reporters.
According to E-W, CBS entertainment president Kelly Kahl took the stage and began the day with this statement: “Obviously this has been a tough week at CBS. I know there was some speculation we would cancel today. There are literally thousands of talented producers, writers, actors, crews — not to mention all the people at CBS — who have been preparing for months to launch the fall season. They worked incredibly hard and they deserve our best efforts to share all the new shows with all of you. We are committed to a collaborative, inclusive and safe workplace. I have had many female colleagues who have come to us this week who have been saddened by what they’ve read about our company. They said it does not represent their experience at CBS. I’m not saying we’re perfect. No large company is. And there’s always room for improvement. But a lot of us have been here a long time precisely because CBS Entertainment is such a fulfilling place to work. Everyone here has remained laser-focused on the job at hand. That means nurturing more than 40 shows in production… Even with all that’s going on around us, we’re running our business. We have the best execs in television and we’re doing our jobs.”
CBS EVP Thomas Sherman, New Entertainment President Kelly Kahl
“In regard to Leslie, a few people at CBS have already attempted to put their thoughts into words,” the executive added. “I think Terry Press, president of CBS Films, wrote eloquently about the situation. And Stephen Colbert spoke thoughtfully and powerfully on his show this past week. I know they both struggled to express their feelings. I struggle as well. Leslie has been an excellent boss and a mentor for a long time. He put me in this job. At the same time, we must respect the voices that come forward. All allegations need to be and are being taken seriously.”
Then Kahl took a seat and opened up the room to questions. One reporter asked: Yes or no: Does CBS need a radical cultural change for all employees?
To which Kahl replied: “We take workplace safety really seriously. If you look up and down the halls, you will find a safe environment, over 40 shows in production, the vast majority of those shows have excellent sets. Everybody is very happy and safe.”
KFMB 760 AM has announced that Brett Winterble will continue hosting afternoon drive for the heritage news/talk outlet. Winterble originally joined KFMB-AM in 2012 as part of the Roger Hedgecock Show and began hosting afternoon drive in 2015.
“We are excited to continue our relationship with Brett! His ability to digest the daily news cycle and make it relevant for the San Diego community is unmatched and truly impressive!” said KFMB Director of Programming Dave Sniff. “Brett will play a key role in creating unique content, not only for KFMB-AM, but also for our various digital platforms”.
“I am thrilled to continue to work with America’s Finest News Talk Station in America’s Finest City,” Winterble said. “The next several years will see an amazing amount of change in our community, our country and world and I am excited to leverage all of our assets to bring our audience the most entertaining and informative content available anywhere.”
Prior to joining KFMB, Brett worked as a producer and host for local and national radio shows in Boston, New York and Los Angeles. Today Winterble is a tireless multi-platform performer and is considered a rising star in spoken word content creation. In addition to his radio show and podcast productions, he recently began hosting a two hour show for Newsmax TV.
KFMB 760 AM (5 Kw DA-N) Daytime 2 mV/m contour
The Bret Winterble Show can be heard live from 3:00 pm – 7:00 pm pacific on AM 760 and www.760kfmb.com.
Despite all the knocks being made to the integrity of TV news outlets, including White House attacks characterizing cable news channels like CNN as “fake news,” TV still is the No. 1 source most Americans go to in order to form their opinions about key issues facing the nation.
That’s one of the findings in a new report released Friday by the Video Advertising Bureau. According to MediaPost, the report, which is based on a survey of more than 1,000 American voters conducted in June by Research Now, shows that regardless of party affiliation, occupation or demographic skew, TV is the go-to source for two-thirds or more of American voters.
Not surprisingly, the study also found that political ads on TV are most likely to get the attention of American voters and to help them form their opinions.
Sinclair Broadcast Group and Tribune Media have been hit with at least three separate antitrust suits for allegedly conspiring to set the price of TV ads.
According to MediaPost, the companies "effectuated their scheme by having members of their advertising sales teams share competitively sensitive information and data with each other, which they used to raise advertising prices to levels higher than they otherwise would have been," Randall Ford, an attorney who operates the Ford Firm, alleges in a class-action complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for Maryland.
Ford, based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, says in his complaint that he purchased TV ads from a marketing consultant at Sinclair. The other two lawsuits were also brought by lawyers who say they purchased TV ads: Peter Miller, based in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Clay, Massey & Associates, based in Mobile, Alabama. Miller filed a class-action complaint in federal court in Maryland, while Clay Massey brought a class-action complaint in the Northern District of Illinois. Clay Massey's complaint also names Gray Television, Hearst Communications, Nexstar Media Group and Tegna as defendants.
All three suits came soon within a week of The Wall Street Journal's report that the Department of Justice is investigating possible collusion between Sinclair and Tribune. Officials who were reviewing Sinclair's proposed $3.9 billion merger with Tribune reportedly uncovered evidence that ad sales representatives at the companies had discussed performance issues, according to the Journal. The DOJ has not brought antitrust charges against Sinclair or Tribune.
The Federal Communications Commission recently moved to prevent Sinclair's merger with Tribune by referring the deal to an administrative law judge for review.
Ford's complaint alleges that the TV industry was "ripe for collusion" and that Sinclair and Tribune had both the opportunity and motive to collude.
Even though iPhone sales came in just short of analyst expectations in the quarter ending June 30 and Huawei just overtook Apple in the global smartphone market for the first time, Apple’s flagship product is on track to have its biggest year ever, according to Flix Richter at Statista.
Through the first three quarters of Apple’s fiscal 2018 (which ends September 29), the company’s iPhone revenue amounted to a whopping $129.5 billion, beating the previous nine-months record of $122.8 billion dating back to 2015.
Considering that the smartphone market as a whole is no longer growing and iPhone unit sales are also more or less flat, Apple’s decision to release the $1,000+ iPhone X last year can be considered key to the iPhone segment’s latest success. Taking its average selling price to $724 in the most recent quarter, Apple is not even close to its competitors in the smartphone market in that respect.
Songwriters and music publishers have struck a compromise with SESAC that puts the Music Modernization Act back on the fast track to becoming law this year, reports The Tennsessean.
The Music Modernization Act, the first substantial copyright reform legislation to advance in Congress in decades, hit a speed bump last week with the revelation that SESAC, the nation's third largest performance rights organization, wanted to amend the bill.
SESAC took issues with the provision of the bill that would create a new organization to administer, collect and distribute digital mechanical royalties. SESAC, a private company owned by the investment firm Blackstone, already owns a company that does such administrative work. That led SESAC to propose amending the bill to allow firms like Harry Fox to provide administration work.
The SESAC proposal came after the Music Modernization Act unanimously cleared the House and the Senate Judiciary Committee, in addition to garnering 43 bipartisan cosponsors.
Advocates of the legislation, led by the Nashville Songwriters Association International and prominent artists such as Maren Morris and Jason Isbell blasted SESAC for its late-inning amendment proposal.
Under a deal brokered on Thursday, the legislation will be changed to effectively keep the new collective out of the business of handling other areas of licensing. In addition to digital mechanical licensing, the legislation would have allowed the collective to handle synchronization and other licenses.
With this new deal in place, the collective will only handle digital mechanical licenses.
SESAC Chairman and CEO John Josephson said that all parties went to the negotiating table at the encouragement of the Senators closely involved in the legislation.
Mid-West Family Broadcasting in Springifled, IL has announced to addition of Perry Stone at Operations Manager and personality.
Stone will oversee the four-station cluster. In addition to his OM duties for both stations, Stone will host the afternoon show on Rock WQLZ 97.7.
Stone was most recently with Saga Communications in Charlottesville, Virginia as operations manager for news/talk WINA-AM/FM and rock WWWV.
Stone “has worked on-air in markets as large as New York City and San Francisco and as small as Carbondale, Illinois. So, he not only knows Illinois, but he understands the opportunities and challenges in markets of all sizes.”
Mid-West Family Springfield general manager Harvey Wells says, “We conducted a nationwide search for this position and Perry’s experience both in management and on-air made the difference. I’m looking forward to him joining our off and on-air team.”
WQLZ 99.9 FM (6 Kw) Red=Local Coverage Area
Stone remarks, “It’s great to get back to the Midwest. I spent time in Carbondale and in Milwaukee and have always enjoyed the people and places there. I’m looking forward to getting to know all that Central Illinois has to offer. In addition, Mid-West Family Radio is one of the most respected companies in radio. I could not be happier.”
Most of U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s podcasts from his right-wing media platform Infowars have been removed from Apple’s iTunes and podcast apps, the media news website BuzzFeed quoted a company spokesman as saying on Sunday.
According to Reuters, the move by Apple is the most sweeping of a recent crackdown on Jones’s programs by Facebook and other online sites that have suspended or removed some of his conspiracy-driven content.
Apple told Buzzfeed that it has removed the entire library for five of Jones’s six Infowars podcasts including the shows “War Room” and the daily “The Alex Jones Show”.
Only one program provided by Infowars, “RealNews with David Knight” remained on Apple’s platforms on Sunday, according to media accounts.
In other recent actions against Jones, Facebook suspended the radio and Internet host’s personal profile for 30 days in late July from Facebook’s site for what the company said was bullying and hate speech.
Also, Spotify, a music and podcast streaming company, removed some specific episodes of Jones’s programs last week.
“We take reports of hate content seriously and review any podcast episode or song that is flagged by our community,” a spokesperson said late on Sunday.
“Spotify can confirm it has removed specific episodes of ‘The Alex Jones Show’ podcast for violating our hate content policy,” the spokesperson said.
Since founding Infowars in 1999, Jones has built a vast audience. Among the theories he has promoted is that the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington were staged by the government.
The Newseum in Washington, D.C., came under fire last week for selling T-shirts bearing the slogan "You Are Very Fake News."
Accord To AdAge, a lot of people found it bizarre that the museum was selling merch emblazoned with President Trump's media-bashing catchphrase, since its mission is to boost public understanding of the need for a free press.
Over the weekend, the Newseum apologized for the T-shirts, adding something that should be obvious: "A free press is an essential part of our democracy and journalists are not the enemy of the people."
But it says it will keep on selling "Make America Great Again" merch, which had also raised eyebrows.
"As an organization that celebrates the rights of people from all political spectrums to express themselves freely, we've historically made all types of political merchandise available for our guests to purchase," the statement says. FWIW, there are a few other unexpected items in the Newseum shop, including a sleeveless men's tank top with the slogan, "Just exercisin' my right to bare arms."
➦In 1881...gossip columnist Louella Parsons was born in Freeport Illinois. Her rather lacklustre radio personality didn’t keep her from fronting a succession of big budget star vehicles on network radio, including Hollywood Hotel & Hollywood Premiere. For six years she also had a 15 minute showbusiness gossip show on Sunday night. She died of arteriosclerosis Dec 9, 1972 at age 91. ➦In 1911...actress/comedienne Lucille Ball was born in Jamestown New York.
She was successful in film, on stage & in radio, but is best remembered as the Emmy Award-winning star of CBS TV’s I Love Lucy, and her successive sitcoms The Lucy Show & Here’s Lucy. Her career in TV spanned some 30 years. She died of an aortic aneurism April 26, 1989 at age 77.
Jim Ameche
➦In 1915...announcer/actor Jim Ameche was born in Kenosha Wisconsin. His is best remembered as the original title character in Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy. He succeeded his older brother Don Ameche as the host/announcer for The Chase and Sanborn Hour, and was heard as Mountie Jim West on ABC’s Silver Eagle (1951–55). He had featured roles in radio’s Grand Hotel, Hollywood Playhouse, and Big Sister. For many years, he was the afternoon announcer on WQXR, the classical radio station of The New York Times and a host on WHN 1050 AM in the '60s, and did numerous radio ads in Phoenix, Arizona in his later years. He died Feb. 4 1983 at age 67.
➦In 1939...after becoming a success with Ben Bernie and Eddie Cantor on network radio, and being featured on NBC’s Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street, Dinah Shore started her own Sunday evening show on the NBC Blue radio network. Later Dinah would also have a successful TV career spanning more than three decades. ➦In 1973...Wolfman Jack did his first broadcast on WNBC 660 AM, New York.
The Wolfman was paid handsomely to join WNBC in New York in August 1973, the same month that American Graffiti premiered, and the station did a huge advertising campaign in local newspapers that the Wolfman would propel their ratings over that of their main competitor, WABC, which had "Cousin Brucie" (Bruce Morrow).
The ads would proclaim, "Cousin Brucie's Days Are Numbered", and they issued thousands of small tombstone-shaped paperweights which said, "Cousin Brucie is going to be buried by Wolfman Jack".
After less than a year, WNBC hired Cousin Brucie, and Wolfman Jack went back to California to concentrate on his syndicated radio show.
➦In 1982...WQXI 790 AM in Atlanta is 1st to use Harris Corp AM stereo system
➦In 1991...Broadcast journalist Harry Reasoner died. He was 68.
➦In 1998…Baseball Hall of Famer Jack Brickhouse, a Chicago Cubs broadcaster for four decades, died of heart failure at 82.
➦In 2008...WHTT becomes WNYM 970 AM with conservative talk format.
➦In 2011...songwriter/deejay Fred Imus, the younger brother of Don Imus, and himself a country music host on Sirius-XM Radio, was found dead in his mobile home in Tucson at age 69.
➦In 2012.. R. Peter Strauss, former WMCA NYC owner passed away at age 89.
Straus, who took over WMCA in the late 1950s and turned it into one of the nation’s most innovative radio stations, broadcasting what are regarded as the first radio editorials and political endorsements and helping to popularize rock ’n’ roll, died on Monday at his home in Midtown Manhattan.
The son of a radio entrepreneur and the scion of a family steeped in public service, Straus counted diplomats, cabinet officials, legislators and philanthropists among his forebears. He became a United Nations official, director of the Voice of America and administrator of American aid to Africa.
WMCA pioneered public service radio in New York. It was the first station in the country to run editorials on political and civic issues, with Mr. Straus himself reading opinions on the air, and the first to endorse a presidential candidate, backing John F. Kennedy in 1960.
In December 1963, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” wailed out over WMCA, and Beatlemania, with a big boost from the station, soon engulfed the region. It was hardly a surprise. WMCA had been playing rock ’n’ roll since the 1950s, and WMCA’s Top 40 format, along with that of its fierce rival WABC, dominated the New York airwaves through the 1960s. WMCA’s disc jockeys, known as the Good Guys, became almost as well known as the stars whose records they played.
After Straus converted the station to an all-talk format in 1970, WMCA was known for years as a forum for liberal causes. It was the first station to call for the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon in the Watergate scandal, the first to ban cigarette advertising and the first to accept ads from abortion rights advocates and makers of contraceptives.
It broadcast “Call for Action” programs featuring an ombudsman to help listeners who had problems with government agencies, corporations and landlords, and “Crime Stoppers,” to help the police solve crimes.
