Birmingham Radio: Spencer Graves Gets Wake-Up Duty At WDXB

Dollar Bill and Spencer Graves

iHeartMedia Birmingham’s WDXB 102.5 The Bull, Birmingham’s #1 For New Country, announced today the debut of the new Spencer Graves Show, effective April 24. Spencer Graves will broadcast weekdays from 5-10am CST.

Spencer takes over for “Dollar” Bill Lawson, who retires after 50 years in Alabama broadcasting. Graves has hosted shows in St. Louis, Wilmington and others, most recently for iHeartMedia WUBL/Atlanta.

“Spencer is an incredible talent and integral to the future success of 102.5 the Bull. He is well-liked and respected by listeners, clients and country artists alike. Alabama, let’s ride!” said Dino Conard, Program Director/102.5 The Bull.

“I’m honored to be given the chance to propel several iconic brands within radio and iHeartMedia and I look forward to taking the reigns at 102.5 the Bull.. Starting as a 17-year-old kid, from the middle of nowhere Virginia, I’ve been fortunate to be on air all over the US. With that said, nothing makes me more excited than being a part of these big changes,” said Graves.

BuzzFeed News Shuts Down

In a move that brings to a close a pioneering era of online journalism, BuzzFeed is shutting down its namesake news division. After beginning as a quirky digital upstart and rising to a Pulitzer Prize-winning operation, it ultimately fell prey to the punishing economics of digital publishing that has laid low many of its peers.

The NY Times reports it’s a sobering end for a publication once seen as a serious challenger to legacy media outlets that had been slow to adapt to the internet. It was also the final chapter of a venture capital-fueled digital period that left an indelible mark on how journalism is produced and consumed.

When BuzzFeed News was foounded in 2011, in the run-up to the next year’s presidential election, it explored stories both slight and serious through listicles and click-bait-style headlines designed to go viral on social media. That mirrored the practice of its parent company, an internet laboratory of sorts that Jonah Peretti started in 2006.

The news operation soon drew attention for its ambitious, sharp reporting, however, and went on to open overseas bureaus and invest in investigative journalism. A number of alumni work for the more established news organizations it sought to disrupt, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News, and those newsrooms have embraced many of the practices that BuzzFeed pioneered in search of readers online.

Twitter Verifications Disappearing

Twitter’s legacy blue checkmarks, which used to signify that a verified notable person was using the account, are now gone, with new owner Elon Musk preferring to include the icon in a paid subscription service instead.

Bloomberg reports the move has already spurred confusion. Celebrities, government officials and other notable users that choose not to pay $8 per month for Twitter Blue, the premium version, have lost the familiar check next to their names on the app. Users immediately shared screenshots of their previous checkmarked profiles or offered other means of verification.

“This is an authentic account representing the New York City Government,” posted @NYCGov, providing a link to a government website for verificaiton.

“No you’re not. THIS account is the only authentic Twitter account representing and run by the New York City Government,” replied @NYC_GOVERNMENT.

Even the Pope lost his check. But some celebrities, inexplicably, retained theirs. “My Twitter account says I’ve subscribed to Twitter Blue. I haven’t,” the author Stephen King tweeted. LeBron James, the athlete who previously said he wouldn’t pay for a subscription, also has a blue check by his name.

Larry Elder Announces GOP Bid For President

Conservative talk radio host Larry Elder, who sought to replace the California governor in a failed 2021 recall effort, announced Thursday he is running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.

AP News reports Elder, 70, made the announcement on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and followed up with a tweet.

“America is in decline, but this decline is not inevitable. We can enter a new American Golden Age, but we must choose a leader who can bring us there. That’s why I’m running for President,” he wrote.

“I am running for the Presidency of the United Stares” — Larry Elder tells Tucker Carlson he’s joining the 2024 White House race pic.twitter.com/VMeODOwWc7

— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) April 21, 2023

The long-shot candidate joins a Republican field that includes former President Donald Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has said he plans to seek reelection.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this month announced that he would not seek the GOP nomination in 2024.

Smith Pushes Back On Critics For Travis Podcast Interview

Stephen A. Smith sent a message to everybody who was upset that he had Clay Travis on his podcast.

Smith hosted the OutKick founder on his Audacy “Know Mercy” podcast earlier this week, and the two opinionists had a wide-ranging conversation that included their thoughts on cancel culture and whether or not Donald Trump would be the likeliest Republican candidate to defeat Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election.

There was some backlash on social media and sports blogs to the idea that Smith, an ESPN talent, “platformed” Travis, who has been persistently critical of ESPN as a company and personally mocked a number of on-air talents who work there for skewing too “woke.”

We need to have more conversations with those we disagree with.

Whether it is @ClayTravis or someone else, I’m going to talk with whomever the hell I please on @KnowMercyPod pic.twitter.com/151niuBter

— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) April 19, 2023

“I watched the reaction to my conversation with Clay Travis, obviously a successor to Rush Limbaugh on his radio show. You’ve got a lot of people writing stories and alluding to problems because I sat down and had a conversation.”

Fox Drops Australian Defamation Lawsuit

Fox Corp Lachlan Murdoch dropped a defamation lawsuit against an Australian news site over an opinion piece he said accused him of complicity in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, saying the defendant was trying to generate publicity.

Reuters reports Murdoch's lawyer in Australia said his client was confident he would have won the suit against online publisher Private Media and its site Crikey, but wanted to stop it from re-airing claims from a separate U.S. lawsuit involving Fox and the events of Jan. 6, which Fox paid $785.5 million to settle three days earlier.

"Mr Murdoch ... does not wish to further enable Crikey's use of the court to litigate a case from another jurisdiction that has already been settled, and facilitate a marketing campaign designed to attract subscribers and boost their profits," the lawyer, John Churchill, said in a statement.

A lawyer for Private Media, Michael Bradley, said Murdoch had discontinued his Federal Court claim without warning and that Murdoch would pay Private Media's costs. He declined to say how much those costs were.

"It's complete vindication of their stand on the principle of press freedom," Bradley said in an email, referring to Crikey and its employees.

Tupelo Radio: Stan Allen Is Ready To Sign-Off

The voice  off Stan Allen voice has been coming through the north Mississippi airwaves for more than four decades, but after next week, a longtime disc jockey will be signing off.

Stan Allen started his radio career at WCPC in Houston, Mississippi, after serving in the United States Army. At WCPC, he was featured in “The Group”, students from Ole Miss who showcased their singing and dancing skills. In fact, Allen was the first black member of “The Group”.

From there, the station manager recruited Allen to work an on-air shift and he never looked back.

“Had no intention, never thought about it, but God has a plan,” Allen said.

Stan Allen

After WCPC, Allen worked at stations throughout north Mississippi, Arkansas, and Memphis, before coming back to Tupelo, eventually landing at The Pulse 580 AM / 104.3 FM.

In 2001, Allen battled and eventually beat cancer. However, his cancer and the treatments left him hearing impaired. But that didn’t stop him from inspiring listeners, playing the hits, and meeting newsmakers, artists, and faithful fans.

Through the years, Allen has won numerous awards and accolades, and now, at 64 years of age, he said it’s time to slow down.

“I will spend time with my wife, and my grown children; they’re older. I will take some time for me,” Allen said.

While he will be missed on the airwaves, Allen wanted everyone to know that he will still be around and part of the community he has called home all his life.

Allen’s final day on air will be next Friday. A reception honoring his work and contributions to the community takes place Tuesday evening at “Char Cutie” on Clayton Avenue in Tupelo.

R.I.P.: Radio's Jo Interrante Dead At 78

Jo Interrante

The broadcast industry was saddened to learn of the death of Jo Interrante at age 78.

She is best known as a news legend at  KFRC San Francisco, She died Saturday, April 15 after a long illness. She was 78.

She began career as a newscaster on KNUS and KVIL in Dallas. From there, she moved to RKO's legendary KFRC/San Francisco, where she was eventually promoted to News Director. 

In the late 1970s, when the RKO Radio Networks launched, Interrante was named its inaugural VP of Programming. During the 1980's Interrante teamed with Rob Sisco and established IS Inc., to produce the weekly artist profile series MusicStar and The Hot Ones, hosted by John Leader and Dave Roberts. The company also launched and produced John Leader's "Countdown America" and "Countdown USA" that was hosted by Leader and Dave Sholin. Interrante was also an executive with ABC Radio based in Dallas until 2009.

April 21 Radio History

➦In 1940... The radio quiz program, “Take It or Leave It” aired on CBS. Contestants were offered a top prize of $64 by Bob Hawk. Losers left as there were no lovely parting gifts or consolation prizes.

"Take It or Leave It" was a very popular radio quiz show in America during its run. The title was derived from the fact that each time a contestant answers a question correctly, he or she will be asked to either "Take" his/her winnings and walk away, or "Leave" it and proceed with the next question.

The show ran for 10 years on CBS (1940-1947) and NBC (1947-1950), and was hosted by Bob Hawk (1940-1941), Phil Baker (1941-1947), Garry Moore (1947-1949), Eddie Cantor (1949-1950), and Jack Paar (1950). It became the precursor of another American game show called "The $64,000 Question" on NBC Radio.

➦In 1960…Dick Clark testified before a congressional committee investigating payola.

Dick Clark

In 1950, there were approximately 250 disc jockeys in the U.S. By 1957, the number had grown to over 5,000. The increase was partially due to the sheer amount of new records being produced, both by major and indie labels. As the name suggests, a disc jockey was responsible for sorting through all these releases (naturally, the sorting was influenced by payola). These on-air personalities had so much clout with younger listeners, Time magazine called them the “poo-bahs of musical fashion and pillars of U.S. low- and middle-brow culture.”

Aware of their rising status, jocks established flat rate deals with labels and record distributors. A typical deal for a mid-level DJ was $50 a week, per record, to ensure a minimum amount of spins. More influential jocks commanded percentages of grosses for local concerts, lavish trips, free records by the boxful (some even opened their own record stores), plus all the time-honored swag. As Cleveland DJ Joe Finan later described the decade, “It was a blur of booze, broads and bribes.”

Clark admitted that over a period of 28 months he'd had a financial interest in 27 percent of the records he played on his "American Bandstand" TV show. Clark was ordered to sell off some of his conflicting interests, but had his name cleared -- unlike disc jockey Alan Freed, who refused to admit that payola was an illegal or immoral practice.

Fox News' Payout Actually Comes With A Hefty Tax Write-Off

Fox News’s $787.5 million payout to settle wide-ranging defamation claims by Dominion Voting Systems is still the talk of the media world, including the size of that sum.

But more evidence suggests that the eye-popping number — which Dominion and its owner still claim as a win — might not be as costly to Rupert Murdoch’s media empire as it might seem, according to Andrew Ross Sorkin at the NY Times. Fox’s stock has barely budged since the deal was announced on Tuesday.

Fox can take a tax deduction from the settlement, Lever News reports. U.S. tax law allows companies to write off at least some portion of settlement fees as part of the cost of doing business. (There are some exceptions, including for cases involving accusations of sexual harassment or abuse with nondisclosure agreements; Fox News has paid out settlements involving those in the past.)

It is unclear how much Fox will save, though a spokesman confirmed that tax deductibility is at play. Lever News estimated that the company could reap as much as $213 million in tax savings.

That’s likely to further infuriate Fox critics, who already thought that Murdoch and his company got off better than expected. DealBook questioned yesterday whether much will change at Fox News post-settlement, given that the network won’t have to make an on-air apology or suffer potentially embarrassing public testimony by Murdoch or stars like Tucker Carlson.

Newly Found Secret Recordings Played Part In Fox Settlement

The prospect of a fired Fox News producer’s secret recordings being played during trial helped push the conservative network to its $787.5 million settlement of a defamation suit by Dominion Voting Systems Inc. over the broadcasting of false 2020 election-fraud claims, reports Bloomberg citing people familiar with the matter.

Abby Grossberg, then a producer for Tucker Carlson’s show, filed a sex and religious discrimination suit last month in which she also alleged that she’d been coerced into giving false testimony during depositions by Dominion’s lawyers. She subsequently provided recordings she’d made on a phone to the voting-machine maker, brief excerpts of which were played during a pre-trial hearing last week.

The unexpected development caused a major headache for Fox’s lawyers, said the people, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about the matter. The defense feared Grossberg’s testimony — and her recordings — would be used by Dominion’s lawyers against Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch and other witnesses expected to be called to the stand during trial.