Skydiver Breaks Speed of Sound

Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner broke the speed of sound -- at one point hitting Mach 1.24, according to a team official -- during his record-setting jump from 128,000 feet Sunday over southeastern New Mexico, according toCNN.

"He made it -- tears of joy from Mission Control," his support team said in a live feed.

Rising in a capsule attached to a huge helium balloon, Baumgartner got to 24 miles up then jumped, thereby setting the record for both the highest balloon ride and the highest jump ever.

According to Brian Utley, an official observer on the site, the Austrian man dubbed "Fearless Felix" at one point fell as fast as Mach 1.24, well above the speed of sound, with nothing but a space suit, helmet and parachute, his support team said.

Mission Control, though, said during the jump that the skydiver did not "break the record for time elapsed" before pulling the parachute.

Read More Here.

ALSO MUST READ: Sky diver Baumgartner says he felt no danger, Click Here.

Tom’s Take:  This was quite the media event Sunday with Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets buzzing on the internet.  How did your station tie-in?  And how will the stunt intern on your morning show top it?

Classic Rocker WTPA Sold! Format Change Next?

UPDATE Monday 1pm:  Inside Radio is reporting new owner Patrick Sickafus as saying rock & roll is "here to stay". This would be welcomed news for employees and fans of WTPA, but this plan has not yet been unconfirmed.

Original Posting...

The trust created when Cumulus merged with Citadel has announced intentions to sell spin-off WTPA 92.1 FM in the Harrisburg, PA. market.  The potential buyer is Patrick Sickafus and the sale price was announced at $530,000. A bargain basement price. The trust apparently is really eager to unload the station.

Sickfus is the owner of class country WWSM, 1510 AM in nearby Annville, PA.  Sickafus’ professional name is Pat Garrett who owns several other enterprises.  He’s also touring country musician, but he is not the well-known radio voice-over talent of the same-name.

Listeners to WTPA, long known as the Rock of Central PA, are fearful a format change is coming.

 In order to save the format on WTPA, program director and morning announcer Chris Tyler last June launched a campaign to get WTPA fans to register their support for the station’s classic rock format.

Chris Tyler

Fans were being asked to “like” the station on its Facebook page. At the time, Tyler stated “After 32 years as a heritage rock station, we don’t want that (format change) to happen. We are just trying to get the word out that we need listeners’ help.”

WTPA, was formerly owned by Cumulus Media Inc., it is one of two local stations - the other being former Citadel Broadcasting country station WCAT-FM 102.3 in Carlisle — left in trusteeship following a 2011 merger between Cumulus and Citadel. Cumulus, with 570 stations in 150 markets, is the second largest owner of radio stations in the country, trailing only Clear Channel Communications.

LISTEN TO WTPA, Click Here.

Although Cumulus receives profits from both stations in the wake of the Citadel deal, they are operated as independent stations under the trusteeship of Potential Broadcasting LLC. The decision to sell the stations was made in a deal with federal regulators in order to meet FCC limitations on media ownership in a given market.

RADIO DISCUSSIONS BOARD IS BUZZING, Click Here.

WPCV Lakeland Show Wins CMA Award for Personality

The Lakeland, FL morning radio show received word last week it won the Country Music Association Award for Broadcast Personality of the Year for Medium Markets.

This is the second major award this year for hosts Roger Todd, Tom O'Brien and Melissa Moran with special appearances by D.J. the Trucker. They won the Academy of Country Music Award in the same category earlier this year.

"We're still numb, we just can't believe it and it's just so exciting and humbling at the same time," Toddtold Todd Reinstetle at theledger,com. "It's just an honor to be chosen Broadcast Personality of the Year with the CMA and we couldn't have done that without our listeners."

Todd, O'Brien and Moran will fly to Nashville to attend the 46th annual CMA Awards on Nov. 1. They will receive their award at an event prior to the live broadcast on ABC.

The 97 Country Breakfast Club, airing on 97.5 FM WPCV from 5 to 10 a.m. weekdays, learned about the big win from this year's award show host and country music star Brad Paisley. Paisley called in to the show personally to congratulate the hosts.

Nominees for the Broadcast Personality of the Year Award are judged in several categories including community service, an air check and ratings. A group of more than 50 anonymous radio executives looks over the types of projects the nominees are involved in within their local communities, listens to an eight-minute sample of their programs and examines how well they do in ratings compared to other area stations. After the executives listen to the entries, they nominate the top five and go through the process again with those nominees.

Read More Here.

Yo! President Talks With Michael At WHYI

Y100 afternoon talent Michael Yo scored an on-air interview with President Obama last week.  Among the topics discussed on Y100 Miami was the Carey-Minaj “Idol” feud.

Opinion: Americans Are Sick of TV Talk Shows

And Yet, the Networks Just Keep Launching New Ones

by Kim Muraro for limelife.com 

Katie Couric, Survivor host Jeff Probst, Ricki Lake, comedian Steve Harvey … those are just a few of the talk shows that launched this fall season, and they joined an already crowded field of talk shows that compete to cover the same tired stories and drag the same tired anecdotes from the same lineup of celebrities. 

The result: viewers are quickly growing more and more weary of the tiresome genre, as this week's ratings prove. Couric's new syndicated daytime talk show, Katie, has so far led the new talk shows in ratings, but numbers for her show's second episode dropped 38 percent in the very important female 25-54 demographic, Deadline.com reports. 

More bad news for the talkers: Dr. Phil's show, the highest-rated talk show last season, debuted its 11th season on Monday, and the ratings were down 48 percent from the season 10 premiere. 

And Probst's new self-titled talk show? The ratings dropped 30 percent overall, and 50 percent in the female 25-54 demo from his Monday debut to his second episode on Tuesday. 

As for Couric's much-hyped revelation of Jessica Simpson's post-baby weight loss on her debut … again, paparazzi had covered Simpson endlessly, and her "big reveal" wasn't so big or revealing, as every step of her trip from Los Angeles to New York for the show had been photographed. 

What's the solution for the talk shows, which seem bent on continuing to air the same old same old, from B-list celebrities and Real Housewives stars pimping their book/hair/makeup/clothing lines to weight loss/makeover/ripped from today's headline-oriented generic topic episodes? 

We say bring back the daytime soaps. We've had enough "reality."

Read More Here.

Profile of Typical Twitter User Unveiled

She’s American, 28, has 208 followers, loves her iPhone, talks endlessly about her family and fashion – and her favorite color is purple. She’s also, according to new research, the average Twitter user.

According to a story by Quentin Fottrall at marketwatch.com, this composite character was pieced together through an analysis of 36 million Twitter profiles by Beevolve, a social media marketing firm based in London -- but it’s more of weird science than an exact one. For instance, among Twitter’s active followers, the mean number of followers is 208, but more than four-fifths of the micro-blogging site’s members have fewer than 50. And, according to the survey, 25% of Twitter’s 140 million accounts have never been used. (Though some 40% of users have not tweeted over the last month, they may log on just to read tweets by others, says Jim Prosser, a Twitter spokesman.) The average age of 28 was calculated by analyzing both user bios and tweets.

Here are some other results from the survey :

Roughly half of all tweets are sent from the U.S.

Members follow fewer people than follow them.

Female users outnumber males by 53% to 47%.

Women tweet more about family and fashion.

Men prefer to tweet about sports and technology.

The average user has sent nearly 800 Tweets.

Read More Here.

What’s In A Name: Plenty If it’s Gerry Sandusky

Ravens radio broadcaster Gerry Sandusky is inconvenienced daily by his name, and must repeatedly explain he is not the former Penn State assistant coach. But he has found peace with his name and refuses to change it.

Doug Hess Signs-Off After 31-Years

For many who have listened to the local radio waves, he was the voice of the Mid-Ohio Valley.

According to a story in the Parkersburg, OH  newsandsentinel.com, Friday  was the last day on the air for Doug Hess on the radio stations of Clear Channel of the Mid-Ohio Valley.

The local newsman signed-off after 31 years working in radio with the last 21 doing local news.

"It has been fun and a lot of work," Hess said. "Doing the news has been really interesting and rewarding."

He has taken a job with The ARC of the Mid-Ohio Valley as its new communications and outreach coordinator.

Hess started in radio playing music at a time when stations were still using turntables and records. He said the business is changing. He will turn 50 next year and the time had come to change gears as his children, ages 10 and 11, and other interests are taking more of his priorities.

Read More Here.

Missing Reporter Found Encased In Concrete

A body encased in concrete and buried in a Winder, Georgia backyard has been identified as that of a former Florida journalist who went missing in August.

The positive identification of 30-year-old Sean Dugas was made using dental records and facial bone CT scans, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Friday, according to a CNN Report.

Dugas, a former crime reporter at the Pensacola News Journal, had been missing since August 27.

William and Christopher Cormier, twin 31-year-old brothers, are charged with murder in Dugas' death, according to police in Winder, Georgia, where the body was found. The brothers had earlier been charged with concealing a death in the case.

Winder police went to the home of the brothers' father on Monday, acting on information from Pensacola police, Winder Police Chief Dennis Dorsey said.

Managing Editor Ginny Graybiel of the Pensacola News Journal said Dugas worked at the newspaper from 2005 to 2010.

"He started as a clerk and became a police reporter -- along the way he did a good bit of entertainment coverage," Graybiel said. "Sean was a very gentle, good-hearted soul. To be the victim of a crime like this is, of course, something we never could have imagined."

Dugas' girlfriend noticed he was missing August 27 when she went to pick him up at home for lunch that day, Pensacola Police Capt. David Alexander said in a statement.

Read More Here.

Who Will Be the Next Justin Bieber?

Justin Bieber's skyrocket to stardom all started on YouTube. Who's next? Here's a look at five of the most viral YouTube sensation pop icon hopefuls.

Want a Piece Of Elvis History? Here's A House For You

 The home shared by Elvis and Priscilla Presley  shortly after their marriage in 1967 is now up for sale. Elvis and Priscilla initially paid $400,000 for the 5,367 square foot, palatial French Regency house, which once leased for about $25,000 per month. Now, it’s up for sale at $12.995 million, according to a story by Colleen Kane at cnbc.com.

Although it’s been decades since the King died and even longer since he lived here, the house’s front gates are still scrawled with notes from fans.

The four-bedroom, five-bathroom French Regency estate is perched on 1.18 acres high up in Beverly Hills. In nearly every room, the floor-to-ceiling windows in this 1958 home boasts panoramic ocean views of Los Angeles.

To be certain, this is no Graceland—which many homebuyers might see as a good thing.

  

While the kitchen has been updated and the pool and spa resurfaced, the house still retains some of the throwback elements and glitz that once befitted the King of Rock and Roll’s flamboyant style.

The house is in Trousdale Estates, a development of midcentury modern homes built the 1950s and 60s that attracted many celebrity residents. Around the time of their residency, The neighbors of Rock and Roll's first family would have included Richard Nixon, Dean Martin, Angie Dickinson, Tony Curtis, Michael Caine and, right in the same cul de sac, Danny Thomas.

Read More Here.

RIP: Musician B. B. Cunningham Was 70

UPDATE Monday 7:45am:  Memphis Police have arrested 22-year-old Dock Britt and charged him with first degree murder in the death of  B.B. Cunningham.

Earlier posting....

Noted Memphis musician B.B. Cunningham Jr., a longtime member of Jerry Lee Lewis's band, was killed in a shooting over the weekend..

The Commercial Appeal reports police say, the 70-year-old Cunningham, a security guard in a apartment complex, heard a shot in the Cherry Crest Apartments in Southeast Memphis just before 2am Sunday and went to investigate. When police arrived at the complex at 1460 Cherry, both Cunningham and a 16-year-old boy were found dead from gunshot wounds.

Reached at his home in the Washington D.C. area, Cunningham's brother Bill, a founding member of '60s Memphis pop-soul band the Box Tops, could only verify that his brother had been shot and killed in the incident.

During a career that spanned more than 50 years, Cunningham proved one of the most versatile talents in Memphis, working as a musician, frontman, songwriter, session player, engineer and producer.

Born Blake Baker Cunningham Jr., he established a national reputation in 1965 as a member of Ronnie and the Daytonas, known for the song "G.T.O."

That band would eventually morph into the Hombres. Cunningham would play keyboards and sing for the group, which scored a #12 chart hit with "Let It All Hang Out" in 1967.

After the Hombres career slowed, Cunningham went to work behind the scenes at the famed Sounds of Memphis Studios. In 1971, he moved to Los Angeles where he served as chief engineer at Independent Recorders, working with the likes of Billy Joel, Elton John, and Lou Rawls.

He would ultimately return to Memphis a few years later, launching his own studio. Since 1997, Cunningham had also been a member of Jerry Lee Lewis' band.

Read More Here.