Media Village Sprouts In Orlando For Trial

Police photos of Zimmerman's injuries

More than 200 journalists and media types are expected to be coverage the second degree murder trial of George Zimmerman  which gets underway today at the Seminole County  Justice Center in Sanford, Florida.

Zimmerman is accused of murder in the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in February 2012.

The trial is expected to be a bellweather for Florida’s Stand Your Grounds law.  Zimmerman, who was a member of a neighborhood watch program, claims he was attacked by and shot him in self-defense.  Martin allegedly had Zimmerman pinned to the ground and had slammed Zimmerman’s head into the ground.

The prosecution is going to claim that Zimmerman profiled, pursued and killed the un-armed Martin after he left a nearby 7/11. Martin was in the neighborhood visiting family friends.

The selection of a jury starts today.  Six jurors and four alternates will be chosen for the trial which also has civil rights and racial overtones. Zimmerman is white, Martin black.

Orlando area radio and TV stations as well as the major broadcast and CableTV outlets are covering the trial which is expected to take 6 to 8 weeks.

Courtroom seating assignments:

Selection of a jury, comprised of six jurors and four alternates,  is expected to take one to three weeks and the trial is expected to last from four to six weeks.  In seat 30 is Orlando-based blogger Dave Knechel.

Cyndia Lauper’s ‘Kinky Boots' Dances To The Top

Cyndi Lauper

The feel-good musical "Kinky Boots," with songs by pop star and Broadway newcomer Cyndi Lauper, won six 2013 Tony Awards on Sunday, including best musical, best score and best leading man.

Christopher Durang's comical "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" won the best play Tony. "Matilda the Musical" won four awards and three other shows -- "Pippin," "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "The Nance" -- shared three awards each.

According to Fox News, Lauper, who wrote the hit "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," was part of an impressive group of women who took top honors. Diane Paulus and Pam MacKinnon both won for directing -- a rare time women have won directing Tonys for both a musical and a play in the same year. (It also happened most recently at the 1998 Tonys.)

"Kinky Boots" also won for choreography and two technical awards, and Billy Porter won for leading man in a musical.

Porter beat "Kinky Boots" co-star Stark Sands and told him from the stage: "You are my rock, my sword, my shield. Your grace gives me presence. I share this award with you. I'm gonna keep it at my house! But I share it with you."

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WINNER'S LIST: Click Here.

Huey Lewis Talks His Stage Wardrobe

The lead singer of Huey Lewis and the News shows John Blackstone from CBS’ Sunday Morning some of the outfits his band wore from the early days of MTV.

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Report: Apple's Label Deals Pressures Clear Channel

Apple Radio’s much-anticipated music streaming service got closer to a reality Thursday when it inked rights deals with Sony Music and Sony/ATV.

Apple is telling its partners it expects its streaming service to grow into a $1 billion business over the next five years, according to the NY Post.

In addition, Apple is telling those same partners its deals are likely to put pressure on Clear Channel boss Bob Pittman to also negotiate new, more expensive terms for iHeartRadio, Clear Channel’s digital radio business, sources said.

Currently, iHeart pays labels and artists a set rate for simulcasting songs that are being played on the radio.

The labels get nothing for terrestrial airplay, that’s viewed as promotional.

Irving Azoff

Pittman is enlisting former Live Nation Executive Chairman Irving Azoff to help in the effort, sources tell The Post.

Those talks have so far yielded few results, sources added.

The big three music companies — Universal Music, Sony Music and Warner — have put iHeart talks on the backburner while dealing with Apple.

“Apple really took the window,” offered one music industry source. “It’s tough because Apple is their No. 1 customer.”

“But if you want a hit,” the source said, “you need Clear Channel, so Pittman’s got them [in a tough position.]”

A spokesman for Azoff said: “As a Clear Channel board member, he’s involved in many activities of the company.”

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NSA Leaker Edward Snowden Talks To Media

Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old American intelligence contractor who says he worked at the National Security Agency and the CIA, allowed himself to be revealed Sunday (June 9th) in Britain's The Guardian and The Washington Post as the source of the disclosures in both newspapers in recent days about two of the U.S. government's top-secret anti-terrorism surveillance programs.

Snowden, an employee of defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, told The Guardian, "My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them." The Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, has condemned the revelation of the intelligence-gathering programs covering phone calls and Internet use as reckless and said it has done, quote, "huge, grave damage."

Snowden, who could face criminal charges for revealing classified information, left his home in Hawaii late last month for Hong Kong, where he has reportedly been holed up in a hotel since.

SEE VIDEO INTERVIEW: Click Here.

Compensated Twitter Mentions Should Be Disclosed

Today, when celebrities and people with large followings on social networks promote a product or service, it’s often impossible to know if it’s an authentic plug or if they were paid to say nice things about it.

Thanks @blackjet for the flight to Silicon Valley! #wecantstop
— Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) June 3, 2013

Take Miley Cyrus, according to the NYTimes, the 20-year-old was traveling around America last week promoting her new album. One morning she posted on Twitter: “Thanks @blackjet for the flight to Silicon Valley!” The details of the arrangement between Blackjet, a Silicon Valley start-up that arranges for private jet travel, and Ms. Cyrus are unclear. But Dean Rotchin, chief executive of BlackJet, said “she was given some consideration for her tweet.” Ms. Cyrus did not respond to a request for comment.

Did her 12 million Twitter followers know about the arrangement? It’s unlikely, and that lack of clarity, increasingly common in the social media postings of celebrities, is starting to draw the attention of federal officials.

“In a traditional ad with a celebrity, everyone assumes that they are being paid,” said Mary K. Engle, associate director of the advertising practices division at the Federal Trade Commission. “When it’s not obvious that it is an ad, people should disclose that they are being paid.”

Under F.T.C. guidelines, companies and the celebrities they are sponsoring risk being deceptive by not noting that these endorsements are advertisements, Ms. Engle said. Sometimes, they are breaking federal rules called “Dot Com Disclosures” that require clarity about sponsorships, even on Twitter. People who violate the law can be given warnings or be fined, though the size of the financial penalty isn’t clearly defined.

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Glenn Beck: Media Matters Misses The Point

Glenn Beck

Last week, Glenn Beck spoke out about the importance of protecting free speech during the Talkers NYC 2013 conference. He spoke after accepting a Freedom of Speech award, and took the time to talk about why it’s important to protect all speech, especially speech that some might find offensive.

On his radio show  Beck says Media Matters, the left-wing blog that supports advertiser boycotts against anyone who doesn’t agree with them, once again managed to miss the point.

Video courtesy of glennbeck.com.

Yakima Radio: KIT’s Dave Ettl Off Air For Election

Dave Ettl

Yakima’s morning airwaves have been quieter since radio personality and Yakima City Councilman Dave Ettl went off the air last month after filing to run for re-election.

Ettl, who co-hosts KIT 1280-AM’s morning news show, “more than likely” will be off the air as long as he is in the race, Cheryl Salomone, regional manager for Townsquare Media told the Yakima Herald-Republic.

So long as Ettl is on the air, federal law says that his challengers for City Council in the Aug. 6 primary two other opponets can get equal time on air if they request it.

Reynaga said Townsquare Media has offered to run 240 30-second spots on KIT to make up for the 120 minutes Ettl was on air after filing to run.

Regardless of what he’s talking about, anytime Ettl is on air, that time counts toward equal time for his opponents. There are a few exceptions related to news coverage, such as if another station employee interviews Ettl, the councilman.

Ettl’s last broadcast was May 17, the day after he filed to run for re-election, although he has continued to write on the station’s website.

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Talker Joe Madison Appointed to Red Cross Board

Joe Madison

The "Black Eagle," Joe Madison, a legendary voice in radio has been announced as a new member of the Red Cross Board of Governors.

According to Atlanta Daily World, the new board was announced last week and Madison will join Afsaneh M. Beschloss, Jon M. Huntsman, Sr., and Tina M. Schiel as new members.  The board has 20 governors.

The Red Cross is led by a Board of Governors with all of the powers of governing and directing, as well as overseeing the management of the business and affairs of the organization.

Beginning his career at Detroit's WXYZ, Madison is a talk radio personality at Sirius XM Radio, Inc. and is listed by Talker Magazine as being among the Top Ten Radio Talk Personalities in America. Madison, known as "The Black Eagle," can be heard every weekday morning coast-to-coast on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio, Urban View, Channel 110.

Madison’s radio career spanning three decades, starting with WXYZ-AM, he later moved to WWDB-FM in Philadelphia. Madison continued his radio career in Washington, DC, first at WWRC-AM, then later at WOL-AM where he was the program director and morning talk radio personality for over 15 years.

He is currently serving as President of the Bethune-DuBois Institute.

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Cell Phone Ownership Hits 91% Of Adults

For the first time, the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project has found that cell phone ownership among adults has exceeded 90%. Cell phones are now being used by 91% of adults, according to the survey conducted between April 17 and May 19 of 2,252 adults.

While the adoption figures are stunning by every measure—the cell phone is the most quickly adopted consumer technology in the history of the world.

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Report: Newspapers Doing Better In The East

Like the sun, newspaper circulation rises in the East and falls in the West.

 The Economist reports the World Press Trends Report collects masses of data about newspaper circulation and revenues in over 70 countries. The headline figure shows circulation falling modestly from 537m in 2008 to 530m in 2012, but that masks huge regional variations.

Since 2008 circulation in America has fallen by 15% to 41m while advertising revenue has plummeted by 42%, accounting for three-quarters of the global decline in advertising revenue in the same period.

And revenues from digital sources such as websites, apps and so on have not made up the shortfall.

Looking further east, though, things look brighter. Circulation in Asia has risen by 10%, offsetting much of the decline elsewhere. With 114.5m daily newspapers, China has surpassed India to become the world's biggest newspaper market.

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AL Radio: Former Jock Sentenced to 21-Years

Clarence Whatley

A former Auburn radio disc jockey was sentenced to 21 years in prison following his conviction for first-degree sodomy.

According to al-com, Clarence Whatley, 45, was denied a new trial, but he was given a new sentence during a hearing this morning, the Opelika-Auburn News reported.

Whatley was an on-air radio personality for WGSI The Eagle 95.9 (now WQSI) before he was arrested in January 2012 for touching a 7-year-old in an inappropriate manner.

Whatley will also serve 10 years supervised probation following his release and will have to register as a sex offender.

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Monterey Radio: KRXA Talk Going Online Only

KRXA 540 AM, the Sand City, CA-based talk radio station that has been the voice of liberal politics on the Central Coast since 2005, will take its lineup to an Internet-only format this summer.

Hal Ginsberg, owner and general manager of KRXA, told the Monterey Herald he has sold the AM 540 dial position to Southern California-based El Sembrador, which will air Spanish-language Catholic programming. The change is expected to happen in late June or early July, pending approval of the license transfer by the Federal Communications Commission, he said.

Ginsberg said most of his radio lineup — nationally syndicated hosts like Randi Rhodes and Ed Schultz, and local shows like "The Morning Show," which he hosts weekdays from 6 to 9 a.m. — will begin airing exclusively at www.radiomonterey.com.

"I think it was the right time. I wouldn't say I had to do that much soul-searching; I've been exploring this for a while," Ginsberg said. "I had been approached on other occasions with offers to sell, but either the amount being offered wasn't sufficient or I still saw potential for big growth.

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‘Small Talk’ Kids Give NESN’s Tom Caron Advice

NESN’s Tom Caron has been in the television business for a while, but it’s never too late for some advice.

Caron took the hot seat on “Red Sox Small Talk” for some direction from the kids on social media and broadcasting. The most important lessons were: Don’t cry, wear something nice and don’t move too much.

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