The Wall Street Journal reports companies in the U.S. are expected to spend 15% more on advertising this year than they did in 2020, emboldened by swelling consumer confidence and the pace of Covid-19 vaccinations.
The current rate of ad-spending growth is likely to be the fastest in the postwar era, according to Brian Wieser, president of business intelligence at ad-buying giant GroupM, and comes as many companies had severely cut back on marketing expenses in the early months of the pandemic.
“We are seeing ad surges pretty much across the board as things get back to normal. Some of the categories that were most impacted are starting to pick up again, like travel,” said Dani Benowitz, president of U.S. for Magna Global, an ad-buying arm of Interpublic Group of Cos.
Advertising outlets aren’t benefiting evenly from the ad-spending rebound. Major players in digital advertising— which beyond behemoths like Google and Facebook Inc. include Snap Inc. and Pinterest Inc.—are getting an ever-growing share of the advertising pie.
GroupM expects TV advertising to rebound from last year—growing 9.3%—and newspapers and magazines to continue bringing in fewer ad dollars every year.
Marketers say they keep shifting more money toward digital ads because they offer better return on their investment. Beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev SA said it found consumers are spending more time on digital media and traditional TV isn’t reaching the audience sizes it used to.
Digital also allows the company to be “more flexible and efficient,” said Marcel Marcondes, U.S. marketing chief for Anheuser-Busch.
The pandemic accelerated the shift of ad dollars to Google, Facebook and Amazon. com Inc. as the trio also benefited from an increase of new small businesses that typically rely largely on digital ads.
GroupM had been expecting digital-ad platforms to capture 51% of all advertising in the U.S. this year, up from 44% in 2019. The firm said it would likely adjust its estimate upward because of the better-than expected results from Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., which on Tuesday said first-quarter revenue surged 34% to $55.31 billion.
“There is no question digital is certainly taking even more share,” Mr. Wieser said. “No one expected the numbers we saw from Google.”
If the pandemic had never happened, the tech industry’s clout likely would have risen over the past year.
But according to The Wall Street Journal, the economic effects of Covid-19 have catapulted the tech titans to heights few might have imagined possible a year ago.
The past week of quarterly financial results from Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc. and Google-parent Alphabet Inc. put that dominance on vivid display. Each of these companies—already juggernauts pre-pandemic—recorded revenue growth near or above its fastest pace in years.
The quintet set records for sales and profits. Revenue at Apple, the world’s most highly valued company, jumped 54% to the highest level it’s ever hit for the first three months of the year. Amazon logged its fourth straight record quarterly profit—a stretch when its total earnings exceeded those of the previous three years combined.
“Over a year into the pandemic, digital adoption curves aren’t slowing down. They’re accelerating,” said Satya Nadella, chief executive of Microsoft, whose revenue rose 19% in the latest quarter.
The stock market gives a glimpse of just how enormous these companies have become in this extraordinary period: Combined market value for the five Big Tech companies is now over $8 trillion, accounting for nearly a quarter of the total value of the companies in the S&P 500. That is nearly double the percentage five years ago.
Jacobs Media will present its Techsurvey 2021 results in a free webinar on Thursday, May 6 at 2pm Eastern, 11am Pacific, sponsored by Veritone. This year’s annual study, “Radio in the Year of COVID,” is comprised of more than 42,000 core radio listeners from 470 participating stations and charts the impact of COVID-19 and its disruptive effect on radio listening and other media consumption.
In this year’s survey, the impact of COVID on broadcast radio was a major focus. Overall, 13% of the total sample indicated listening less to radio during the prior year. The reasons driving the downturn are different, however, from past years where the culprits tended to revolve around “too many commercials” or more car dashboard listening options. Techsurvey 2021 reveals that seven in ten of these respondents say they’re simply spending less time in their cars, while more than six in ten cite “lifestyle changes.” Clearly, job loss and layoffs, stay-at-home orders, health issues, and family matters all conspired to disrupt lives.
Jacobs Media President Fred Jacobs comments, “This year’s Techsurvey reveals seismic shifts in radio listening, and changes in media consumption, owing to the impact of the pandemic. Digital platforms have already seen impressive growth in the past few years, and it is clear there is even greater momentum now due to the transcendent changes of the last thirteen months. We will continue to closely monitor the media landscape as we continue on the path to ‘normal.’ We hope you can join our webinar Thursday, May 6 as we reveal these important insights and more.”
TV ad industry consortium OpenAP is launching a so-called identifier to help advertisers more efficiently place and measure ads across separate digital and traditional TV systems.
The Wall Street Journal reports the feature, called OpenID, will help advertisers better target audiences across those siloed systems and strip out some of the high costs typically associated with using and managing data to buy media, the organization said.
In the coming months, OpenAP also expects that advertisers will be able to use the identifier to measure the number of individuals their campaigns reached across traditional and digital publishers, and ultimately have a clearer understanding of how well their campaigns performed, it said. Today, measurement techniques and data formats vary depending on the TV network or digital platform, making it difficult for advertisers to see how many individuals any one campaign reached.
OpenAP, whose founding members included broadcast competitors such as Fox Corp. and Viacom, today ViacomCBS Inc., has been working to build a system that improves a historically manual trading process for TV ad buyers and sellers.
It wants its latest initiative to continue to simplify a media-buying and planning process that has become more complex and disjointed as media platforms proliferate and most large TV companies launch streaming services.
Nearly all broadcasters, including Walt Disney Co. and AT&T Inc.’s WarnerMedia, as well as advertising agency holding companies, have agreed to use the identifier, OpenAP said. The collaboration is a turnabout in the competitive TV industry, and reflects the urgency around capturing streaming viewers and the ad dollars they attract.
With OpenID, the organization is aiming to reduce costs for its users by eliminating a step that’s usually handled by third-party vendors, said Mr. Levy. Typically, advertisers and publishers pay vendors hefty fees to move and match separate data sets while adhering to privacy rules throughout the ad-buying process.
The new offering will have that capability built in, according to OpenAP. Advertisers won’t be charged for moving or matching data, or for using the planning and buying tools within OpenAP.
TV ad sellers such as networks, however, will pay a percentage of the media spending they collect on each campaign.
They’re two classic questions: “What’s your favorite song?” and “what happens to us when we die?”
Ringo Starr is an expert on at least one of those issues, but he weighed in on both with Stephen Colbert, reports The NY Daily News.
On a Friday episode of “The Late Show,” host Colbert went through 15 rapid-fire questions with the Fab Four drummer, a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer with the Beatles and on his own.
“You get one song to listen to for the rest of your life. What is it?” Colbert asked Starr. The 80-year-old musician quickly replied “Come Together” one of the Beatles most popular songs.
“There’s lots of favorites, but if you want one, ‘Come Together’ can’t be bad,” Starr explained of the John Lennon track that kicked off the “Abbey Road” album. “I just think it worked perfectly with the band and the song and John being John. I loved that moment.”
In the segment, Colbert also asked Star about his thoughts on the afterlife.
“I think we go to heaven,” Starr said. “Heaven’s great, but you don’t stay there too long; you just gotta get yourself together again and come deal with all that s--t you didn’t deal with last time you were here.”
The New York Times, Washington Post and NBC News all issued retractions Saturday for their coverage of Rudy Giuliani following a raid of his Manhattan apartment by the FBI.
The NY Post reports The Times appended their correction to a story about the role Giuliani may have played in the 2019 recall of ambassador Marie L. Yovanovitch and whether he received a warning from the FBI about Russian disinformation.
“An earlier version of this article misstated whether Rudolph W. Giuliani received a formal warning from the F.B.I. about Russian disinformation. Mr. Giuliani did not receive such a so-called defensive briefing,” The Times wrote Saturday in a note attached to the piece.
Rudy Giuliani
The Washington Post’s correction, on a story about prominent Americans being targeted by Russian disinformation, was similar.
“An earlier version of this story, published Thursday, incorrectly reported that One America News was warned by the FBI that it was the target of a Russian influence operation,” the paper said.
“That version also said the FBI had provided a similar warning to Rudolph W. Giuliani, which he has since disputed. This version has been corrected to remove assertions that OAN and Giuliani received the warnings.”
NBC News also issued a mea culpa, claiming its reporting was based on a source but that a second source “now says the briefing was only prepared for Giuliani and not delivered to him, in part over concerns it might complicate the criminal investigation of Giuliani. As a result, the premise and headline of the article below have been changed to reflect the corrected information.”
Giuliani seized on the corrections, tweeting demands for the news organizations to reveal their sources.
The sound of National Public Radio means many different things to its 60 million weekly followers. There's in-depth news coverage with "Morning Edition," "All Things Considered" and "Weekend Edition." Music's biggest stars come to NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C., to play for staff members (and millions of fans) at "Tiny Desk Concerts." And there's even a weekly quiz show, "Wait, Wait … Don't Tell Me!," where CBS "Sunday Morning" correspondent Faith Salie has been a panelist for a dozen years.
It all began fifty years ago...
Salie asked her, "What do you think it will take for NPR to have another 50 years?"
"I don't know what the future of radio programs, per se, will be," Stamberg replied. "It may not be that long. But people will always listen and want to hear stories told by human voices."
The Weather Channel Saturday celebrated its birthday; back in 1982, the cable network went on-air, reports WeatherBoy,com.
Founded by meteorologist John Coleman with Frank Batten, then-CEO of Landmark Communications, the duo kicked-off the cable network at 8pm ET with meteorologists Bruce Edwards and Andre Bernier.
A lot has changed since that first broadcast, with changes in leadership, ownership, and network content.
John Coleman made headlines in 2017 for being a self-proclaimed “scientific realist” that disagrees with climate change theories being proposed by others, including those promoted by the cable network he founded. “Shame on you, Al Gore,” Coleman said. Meteorologists and climatologists “can rarely get on TV, ever since Al Gore made it a plank of the Democratic Party,” Coleman said in a TV news interview. The views of its founder were so different from The Weather Channel in 2017 that it prompted the network to issue a statement of the matter: “Mr. Coleman does have a place in our company’s history, and we appreciate the contributions he made more than 30 years ago. However, we want to be clear: John Coleman is no longer affiliated with our company, and his opinions do not represent The Weather Company. We regret any confusion this has caused.” John Coleman passed away in 2018.
Early Logo
In October of 2012, the Weather Channel became part of “The Weather Company”, which was the combination of other weather entities within its umbrella including WSI and The Weather Underground.
Before becoming the Weather Company, in 2002 The Weather Channel was acquired by NBC Universal and private equity firms The Blackstone Group and Bain capital in 2008. A year later, NBC Universal was acquired by Comcast.
In 2015, The Weather Company was almost entirely acquired by IBM. The website, Weather.com, the cable network’s mobile app, and all weather forecasting technology and talent associated with WSI and the Weather Company became part of IBM’s Watson arm. One key property wasn’t acquired: the cable network itself. As a result of the deal, The Weather Channel cable television station would simply license weather data and analytics under a long-term deal.
In March 2018, the cable network was acquired once again. Media mogul Byron Allen made the deal through his Entertainment Studios to acquire the network from its owners, The Blackstone Group, Bain Capital and Comcast/NBCUniversal. While the terms of the deal weren’t made public, the Hollywood Reporter pegs the deal to be around $300 million. The deal does not include The Weather Channel’s digital properties, such as their websites, weather.com and wunderground.com, or their mobile app; those remain the property of IBM. IBM continues to license its weather data to the cable network.
Pablo de Jesús Colón Jr., a groundbreaking radio personality who founded WCUM 1450-AM in Bridgeport CT and was among the first group inducted into the Connecticut Broadcaster’s Association Hall of Fame, died Thursday.
The younger de Jesús Colón described his father as a tireless advocate for the Bridgeport Latino community, who would use his radio program as a platform for listeners to reach their elected officials. The elder de Jesús Colón would make sure the program’s phone lines were open whenever local officials were interviewed.
“He really served and believed that the role of the station was to serve as the voice of the community,” his son said in a phone interview Saturday.
In 2015, the Connecticut Broadcaster’s Association selected him to be among the 11 first inductees into the organization’s hall of fame.
He began his radio career in the Dominican Republic in 1955, before emigrating to Puerto Rico in 1961 where he continued his radio career, according a video produced for his induction into the Connecticut Broadcasters Hall of Fame. The video was narrated by his son.
He came to the United States in 1969, settling in Hartford, where he worked as a radio personality at WEXT. Later he moved to WLVH, where he worked as a radio announcer, sales manager and executive vice president.
In 1989 he would found his own company, WCUM 1450-AM.
Legendary voice of WCCO Radio Howard Viken passed away Saturday morning at the age of 97, the WCCO website reports.
Viken had been in "so-so" health recently, according to former WCCO Managing Editor Steve Murphy who spoke to Viken just last week. He had retired to Florida, but returned to the Twin Cities in recent years.
Viken joined WCCO in 1950 and began an amazing 39-year run for the station. Viken became one of the most recognized names in his home state of Minnesota.
Murphy credits Viken for transitioning WCCO Radio from "formal" radio to "friendly" radio.
"When Howard started, he told me his job was to introduce segments of network radio like soap operas and comedies," Murphy said. "Once television came along, the local radio stations had to come up with local programming and Howard was one of the first to pick-up that mantle."
Viken's legacy at WCCO Radio is still felt today.
"When you hear 'CCO Radio as opposed to WCCO Radio, think of Howard, because that's when the station made that transition to becoming the good neighbor and the friendly station people enjoyed having on at home, in the car, and in the barn," added Murphy.
Viken was a former Marine who fought in World War II in the Battle of Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. He returned home to study speech and journalism at the University of Minnesota, and then continued on to further study broadcasting at Brown College.
Viken did shows that were an extension of his personality. His shows were lighthearted, full of laughs and fun. If he liked a song or comedy routine, he figured his audience would, too––most often he was right.
"He was very intelligent, but never condescending," longtime WCCO personality Denny Long told The Star-Tribune over the weekend. "He was just a gem."
Viken worked at WCCO Radio from 1950 to 1989, during its heyday as a powerhouse statewide station. Especially during wild winter weather, he was a trusted voice for many Minnesota households.
In 2004, he was inducted into the Minnesota Broadcasting Hall of Fame.
➦In 1904...Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby born (some sources list May 2 – Died from heart attack October 14, 1977).
He was he first multimedia star, Crosby was a leader in record sales, radio ratings, and motion picture grosses from 1931 to 1954. His early career coincided with recording innovations that allowed him to develop an intimate singing style that influenced many male singers who followed him, including Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Dick Haymes, and Dean Martin. Yank magazine said that he was "the person who had done the most for the morale of overseas servicemen" during World War II. In 1948, American polls declared him the "most admired man alive", ahead of Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII. Also in 1948, Music Digest estimated that his recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music.
Crosby won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Father Chuck O'Malley in the 1944 motion picture Going My Way and was nominated for his reprise of the role in The Bells of St. Mary's opposite Ingrid Bergman the next year, becoming the first of six actors to be nominated twice for playing the same character. In 1963, Crosby received the first Grammy Global Achievement Award. He is one of 33 people to have three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in the categories of motion pictures, radio, and audio recording. He was also known for his collaborations with longtime friend Bob Hope, starring in the Road to... films from 1940 to 1962.
Crosby influenced the development of the postwar recording industry. After seeing a demonstration of a German broadcast quality reel-to-reel tape recorder brought to America by John T. Mullin, he invested $50,000 in a California electronics company called Ampex to build copies. He then convinced ABC to allow him to tape his shows. He became the first performer to pre-record his radio shows and master his commercial recordings onto magnetic tape. Through the medium of recording, he constructed his radio programs with the same directorial tools and craftsmanship (editing, retaking, rehearsal, time shifting) used in motion picture production, a practice that became an industry standard.[10] In addition to his work with early audio tape recording, he helped to finance the development of videotape, bought television stations, bred racehorses, and co-owned the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team.
On September 2, 1931, Crosby made his nationwide solo radio debut. Before the end of the year, he signed with both Brunswick and CBS Radio. Doing a weekly 15-minute radio broadcast, Crosby became a hit.
His first commercial sponsor on radio was Cremo Cigars and his fame spread nationwide. After a long run in New York, he went back to Hollywood to film The Big Broadcast. His appearances, records, and radio work substantially increased his impact. The success of his first film brought him a contract with Paramount, and he began a pattern of making three films a year. He led his radio show for Woodbury Soap for two seasons while his live appearances dwindled. His records produced hits during the Depression when sales were down. Audio engineer Steve Hoffman stated, "By the way, Bing actually saved the record business in 1934 when he agreed to support Decca founder Jack Kapp's crazy idea of lowering the price of singles from a dollar to 35 cents and getting a royalty for records sold instead of a flat fee. Bing's name and his artistry saved the recording industry. All the other artists signed to Decca after Bing did. Without him, Jack Kapp wouldn't have had a chance in hell of making Decca work and the Great Depression would have wiped out phonograph records for good."
His social life was hectic. His first son Gary was born in 1933 with twin boys following in 1934. By 1936, he replaced his former boss, Paul Whiteman, as host of the weekly NBC radio program Kraft Music Hall, where he remained for the next ten years. Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day), with his trademark whistling, became his theme song and signature tune.
Crosby's vocal style helped take popular singing beyond the "belting" associated with Al Jolson and Billy Murray, who had been obligated to reach the back seats in New York theaters without the aid of the microphone. As music critic Henry Pleasants noted in The Great American Popular Singers, something new had entered American music, a style that might be called "singing in American" with conversational ease. This new sound led to the popular epithet "crooner".
During the Second World War, Crosby made live appearances before American troops who had been fighting in the European Theater. He learned how to pronounce German from written scripts and read propaganda broadcasts intended for German forces. The nickname "Der Bingle" was common among Crosby's German listeners and came to be used by his English-speaking fans. In a poll of U.S. troops at the close of World War II, Crosby topped the list as the person who had done the most for G.I. morale, ahead of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, General Dwight Eisenhower, and Bob Hope.
The biggest hit song of Crosby's career was his recording of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas", which he introduced on a Christmas Day radio broadcast in 1941. The song then appeared in his movie Holiday Inn (1942). His record hit the charts on October 3, 1942, and rose to No. 1 on October 31, where it stayed for 11 weeks. A holiday perennial, the song was repeatedly re-released by Decca, charting another sixteen times. It topped the charts again in 1945 and a third time in January 1947.
The song remains the bestselling single of all time. According to Guinness World Records, his recording of "White Christmas" has sold over 100 million copies around the world, with at least 50 million sales as singles. His recording was so popular that he was obliged to re-record it in 1947 using the same musicians and backup singers; the original 1942 master had become damaged due to its frequent use in pressing additional singles. Although the two versions are similar, the 1947 recording is more familiar today. ➦In 1910...Norman Lewis Corwin born (Died at age 101 – October 18, 2011) . He was a writer, screenwriter, producer, essayist and teacher of journalism and writing. His earliest and biggest successes were in the writing and directing of radio drama during the 1930s and 1940s.
Corwin was among the first producers to regularly use entertainment—even light entertainment—to tackle serious social issues. In this area, he was a peer of Orson Welles and William N. Robson, and an inspiration to other later radio/TV writers such as Rod Serling, Gene Roddenberry, Norman Lear, J. Michael Straczynski and Yuri Rasovsky.
Corwin was a major figure during the Golden Age of Radio. During the 1930s and 1940s he was a writer and producer of many radio programs in many genres: history, biography, fantasy, fiction, poetry and drama.
In the early 1930s, he became involved with radio broadcasting. He first worked as the radio editor of the Springfield MA Republican and subsequently began broadcasting his own radio program. The date of his first broadcast has been reported as early as 1931. As radio editor of the Republican, he became known for his column "Radiosyncracies," which he published under the pseudonym 'Vladimir Shrdlu.' He also worked as a news commentator over WBZ and WBZA. In June 1935, Corwin accepted an executive position in Cincinnati at station WLW. By 1937, Corwin was hired to host a poetry program called "Poetic License" on New York station WQXR, which led to his being hired by the CBS Radio Network to produce and direct cultural programs. He remained with CBS until 1949.
Rosemary Rice
➦In 1925...Rosemary Rice born (Died from a stroke at age 87 – August 14, 2012). Rice was best known for her role as Katrin Hansen, the oldest daughter in the television series, Mama, which aired on CBS from 1949 to 1957. She provided the opening voice narration for Mama through her character.
Rice's acting career began during junior high student in Montclair, when she was cast in her first Broadway production, later attending New York's Professional Children's School. She appeared in twelve plays and musicals on Broadway. Her Broadway credits included the 1943 production of The Naked Genius, a play written by Gypsy Rose Lee, as well as Dear Ruth and Junior Miss.
Rice's first radio appearance was on Grand Central Station. She enjoyed an active career in radio, appearing in mysteries, comedies and soap operas. Her best known role was as Betty Cooper in the Archie Andrews radio series.Other radio credits included Ma Perkins (as Laura), The Right to Happiness (as Susan Wakefield), CBS Radio Mystery Theater, NBC Playhouse, Calvacade of America, Playhouse 90, When a Girl Marries (as Kathy), My True Story, Westinghouse Studio One, Young Doctor Malone (as Jill), and Let's Pretend.
In 1949, CBS debuted Mama, an early, live television series adapted from "Mama's Bank Account", a book written by Kathryn Forbes. The series, which was set in San Francisco, California, in the early 20th Century, centered on the life of a Norwegian American family.
➦In 1958...NYC personality Alan Freed faced controversy in Boston when he told the audience, "It looks like the Boston police don't want you to have a good time." As a result, Freed was arrested and charged with inciting to riot, and was fired from his job at 1010WINS.
➦In 1965...Personality The Real Don Steele started at 93KHJ-AM, Los Angeles in what would be a career that lasted decades at the station. Here's some audio...
Steele became nationally-known as a DJ on radio station KHJ in Los Angeles, where he helped to promote the "ultrahip" Top40 Boss Radio format which began at 3pm on April 27, 1965.
He also appeared on TV as host Boss City and The Real Don Steele TV Show, a show which ran from 1965 to 1975 on KHJ-TV channel 9 in Los Angeles.
When the popularity of AM radio gave way to FM stereo in the 1970s, Steele continued to remain a popular personality at the station. Following the years at 93/KHJ, The Real Don Steele continued to be heard on Los Angeles radio stations, including KIQQ (K-100), KRLA, KCBS-FM and KRTH-FM (K-Earth 101), until his death in August 1997.
➦In 1971...National Public Radio began in the US with 112 affiliates, mostly at colleges and universities, and the afternoon drive show that continues to this day, “All Things Considered.”
➦In 1982...President Ronald Reagan began the traditional of Saturday radio addresses by the Presidents. While the Mutual Broadcasting Service estimated that as many as 1.5 million people could have been reached by the addresses, few stations carried the broadcasts and citizens seldom provided responses to the radio stations. However, the network news often reported on the speeches and The New York Times often times ran full texts of the addresses.
The growth of the Saturday presidential address is one element in the evolution of presidential rhetoric and a chief executive's drive to reach citizens. When President Ronald Reagan sought to harness his legislative agenda amid congressional and media wrangling.
➦In 1982...Beautiful music WTFM changes to Album WAPP in NYC
➦In 1992...Elizabeth Lennox died at age 98. She was early recording artist during the 1910s. She was an early radio singer. She recorded cylinders for Thomas Edison. In addition to her recordings Elizabeth appeared on NBC Radio until she retired from performing.
➦In 2006...Bob Dylan hosted his first show on XM Satellite Radio, playing favorite tracks by Prince, Wilco, Blur, Billy Bragg, Blur, and LL Cool J, among others.
🎂HAPPY BIRTHDAY:
Frankie Valli is 87
Actor Alex Cord (“Airwolf”) is 88.
Singer Frankie Valli is 87.
Sports announcer Greg Gumbel is 75.
Singer Mary Hopkin is 71.
Singer Christopher Cross is 70.
Drummer Cactus Moser (Highway 101) is 64.
Keyboardist David Ball of Soft Cell is 62.
Country singer Shane Minor is 53.
Actor Amy Ryan (“Bridge of Spies,” ″The Office”) is 53.
Actor Bobby Cannavale (“Boardwalk Empire,” ″Nurse Jackie”) is 51.
Cheryl Burke is 37
Music producer-actor Damon Dash is 50.
Bassist John Driskell Hopkins of Zac Brown Band is 50.
Country singer Brad Martin is 48.
Actor Marsha Stephanie-Blake (“When They See Us”) is 46.
TV personality Willie Geist (“Today”) is 46.
Actor Christina Hendricks (“Mad Men”) is 46.
Actor Dule’ Hill (“Psych,” ″The West Wing”) is 46.
Country singer Eric Church is 44.
Actor Tanya Wright (“Orange Is The New Black”) is 43.
Dancer Cheryl Burke (“Dancing With The Stars”) is 37.
