Atlanta Radio: Elliott, Carter Gets Mornings At B98.5

Jack Elliott

WSB-FM B98.5 has named former Bert Show cohost Melissa Carter as part of its new morning show, replacing Vikki Locke.

The new male host Jeff Elliott has extensive radio experience in markets such as Los Angeles, Dallas and most recently, West Palm Beach.  He takes over for Kelly Stevens.

Carter and Elliott debuts on Wednesday, August 14. The show will air from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m.

According to Rodney Ho at accessatlanta.com, Program Director Chris Eagan said he received more than 100 legitimate job inquiries nationwide after he posted for the job a few weeks ago. "We were just inundated," he said.

Although Elliott and Carter have never worked together before, Eagan paired the two in social settings and liked the chemistry.

Melissa Carter

Carter, Eagan said, "brings a good name from the market. The audience that listened to her on the Bert Show should now be the B98.5 audience. They've grown and evolved."

Eagan, who considers B98.5's core audience to be women in their 30s and 40s, said when he heard Elliott's demo tape, he knew that the radio host "understands our target demo and has the content to back it up."

Carter first entered Atlanta radio as the news writer at the Morning X on rock station 99X, then landed a full-time on-air hosting job with the new Bert Show in 2001.

The first openly gay on-air radio host in Atlanta, Carter was known on the Bert Show as the voice of reason. In 2011, she decided to leave voluntarily, unsure whether she even wanted to stay in radio. A year later, she turned up at the new All News 106.7 as an afternoon host but stepped down last week after just over a year on the job.

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R.I.P.: Savannah Broadcaster Burl Womack

Burl Womack

Burl Quentin Womack of Savannah, GA, passed away at his home, August 10, 2013 under the care of Hospice Savannah.

He was 90.

He graduated from Danville Arkansas High School in 1942; he was a WWII Veteran and received his honorable discharge from the US Army in 1946; in 1954 received a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Georgia. Burl's radio broadcasting career spanned fifty years, starting in 1948 in Atlanta with WSB and WCON. Then to WANS in Anderson, SC before spending six years in Athens, GA, at WUGA. In 1956 he was hired by WSAV in Savannah, the genesis of Breakfast with Burl.

In 1971 Burl went with WZAT-FM. His voice, a daily visitor in many homes in this community, was also heard on WJCL and WEAS over the years. Burl also did some television work on WSAV and WJCL. He always treasured his listeners and advertisers. His honesty in advertising was known throughout the area. In 1998 he was the recipient of The Gabby as a Georgia Area Broadcaster of the Year.

He was inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame in 2011.

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Detroit Radio: Greater Media Unveils Detroit Sports 105.1

Official: Greater Media unveiled the brand new Detroit Sports 105.1 in the Motor City with new afternoon drive personality Drew Lane at 3pm Monday.

Powered by ESPN, the new station will feature America’s top sports morning show, “Mike & Mike” each weekday morning from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.  From 10 to noon listeners will hear the outspoken Colin Cowherd on “The Herd.”  During both shows, listeners will receive news and information about local Detroit teams three times an hour.

Afternoon drive will be hosted by legendary former long-time WRIF-FM morning personality Drew lane from 3pm to 7pm. He will be joined by longtime producer Marc Fellhauer.

“We are thrilled to be able to offer Detroit a new alternative that will be designed with our loyal and dedicated sports fans in mind,” said Greater Media Market Manager Steve Chessare. “We look forward to providing the very best local and national talent on the airwaves for our listeners. We will have more announcements surrounding the new station in the near future.”

Detroit Sports 105.1’s agreement with ESPN will allow the station to use all of the resources of “The Worldwide Leader in Sports” to entertain the fans of Detroit.  ESPN Monday Night Football announcer and Ann Arbor resident Mike Tirico will make a weekly appearance on Detroit Sports 105.1.  The station will have access to the full slate of ESPN’s analysts and personalities.

CCM+E, RedOne Ink iHeartRadio Deal

Clear Channel Media and Entertainment, which has the largest reach of any radio or television outlet in America, and multiple Grammy-winning producer, musician and songwriter RedOne, have announced the launch of "Red's World Radio," a digital station on iHeartRadio, Clear Channel's radio platform.

The station is hosted by RedOne, along with Bilal the Chef, Porcelain Black, Novel and Prophet of the band 7Lions and will feature talk segments discussing their inspirations, topics and highlights of their careers and introducing some of their favorite music.

"With this station, the music creator becomes the music curator. It's a great way for listeners to discover tomorrow's hits early and hear the story behind the music from the man writing and producing the music," said Tom Poleman, President of National Programming Platforms for Clear Channel Media and Entertainment. "I'm glad to have someone as accomplished in the industry like RedOne be a part of iHeartRadio."

Demonstrating RedOne's love from music around the world and of all genres, the station will feature music from artists on RedOne's 2101 Records like Jennifer Lopez, Midnight Red, 7Lions, Havana Brown, Porcelain Black, Mohombi, Priyanka and Zander Bleck; to music and artists who RedOne has worked with including Enrique Iglesias, Jason Derulo, K'naan, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Paulina Rubio, Pitbull, Marc Anthony, Lykke Li; to current hit-makers like Anna Kendrick, Austin Mahone, Bruno Mars, Calvin Harris, Capital Cities, Chris Brown, Daft Punk, David Guetta, Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, Karmin, Lana del Rey, Maroon 5, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Phillip Phillips, Robin Thicke and more.

More News Reading Goes Mobile

A substantial percentage of smartphone and tablet users consumed news on their devices in Q1 2013, according to polling by the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute. The 35-to-44 age group showed the highest incidence of reading news on their smartphones, at 73% of users.

But, according to emarketer.com,  penetration rates for every other adult age group except those 65 and older were above 60%. Among the oldest smartphone users, the small screen size seemed to turn them off to news consumption; only 35% read the news on their phone.

Among tablet users, the figures were similar, with the percentage between 25 to 64 years old reading news on the devices hovering around 67%. Interestingly, those 65 and over were much more likely to read on the tablet compared with the smartphone, at 59%; bigger font seems to translate to older readership.

All this mobile news reading is likely having an impact on print news subscriptions. Although the percentage of print subscribers fell just 2.2 percentage points between Q1 2012 and Q2 2013, to 31.1%, the drop was especially pronounced among those age groups that showed a high incidence of reading on their mobile devices. The biggest dip was for the 45-to-54 age group; 34.4% had a subscription in 2012 vs. 28.0% in 2013.

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St. Louis Radio: Lawsuits Expected To Fly Over Pujols Comments

Kevin Slaten

Baseball star Albert Pujols isn’t the only one vowing to take legal action regarding a radio program on which the former Cardinals slugger was accused of using steroids.

According to Dan Cesar at stltoday.com,  so is Kevin Slaten and possibly Jack Clark, who were ousted early Saturday as co-hosts of the afternoon drive-time program on WGNU 920 AM. This follows Clark saying twice recently on the air that Pujols’ personal trainer had told him in 2000 of the player’s steroids use.

The story, first reported Friday in the Post-Dispatch, soon made national news. Late that night Pujols, now with the Los Angeles Angels, issued a lengthy statement denying the allegations and indicated he’ll sue Clark and the station to set an example for others whose names have been brought up in what he said is a "reckless" manner.

READ ORIGINAL POSTING: Click Here.

That led the company that owns the show, insideSTL Enterprises, LLC, to issue a statement shortly after 12 a.m. Saturday that said Clark and co-host Kevin Slaten in essence had been fired. (Technically the show was cancelled because inisdeSTL, which buys WGNU’s weekday airtime, says Clark and Slaten aren’t direct employees).

Slaten said Saturday afternoon that he’ll sue over his termination. Clark said he’ll make a decision on Monday.

“I don’t know what Albert Pujols’ damages are, but there are a lot of damages for me,” said Slaten, who left KQQZ 1190 AM to join WGNU. “Albert Pujols didn’t even mention my name. Why does this fall on me?”

Jack Clark

Clark wasn’t backing down.

“I stand by what I said,” he said Saturday. “I’m not sure what I’m going to do, but I’m doing something for sure.”

Slaten said he got the termination call from insideSTL president Tim McKernan around midnight.

“I said ‘What?,”’ Slaten said. “He said, ‘We have to do what’s in the best interest of the company.’ I said, ‘You tell me how firing me is in the best interest of the company when you and (WGNU boss Burt Kaufman) said (earlier) that I did nothing wrong.”

Slaten said McKernan told him, “‘I know that, but everybody associated with the show has to go.

“I said, ‘Did you fire the producer? Did you fire yourself, you’re the one who paired us, did you fire yourself?’”

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Detroit Radio: Frank Beckman To Retire From Play-By-Play

Frank Beckman

Frank Beckmann, the longtime Michigan football play-by-play announcer, said he has considered retirement for a while.

According to The Detroit News, he decided two weeks ago he would retire after the upcoming season. A formal announcement was made Friday, and Beckmann, who began calling games in 1981, will leave the booth he has shared for years with color analyst Jim Brandstatter.

“It’s not sad for me,” Beckmann said in a telephone interview with The Detroit News. “I’m glad. I feel good. I’ve had a great run and had a lot of fun and had some great moments and enjoyed it and met wonderful people. It’s a lot of work, and I’m just ready to back off for a while.”

Beckmann, who has a radio show five days a week on WJR and is a contributing columnist to The Detroit News, stirred controversy in late May with a News column. He took exception to the controversy that erupted with professional golfer Sergio Garcia’s racist joke involving fried chicken that was directed toward Tiger Woods. Beckmann issued an apology in The News within a week and was publicly reprimanded by the university.

He understands the timing of his retirement announcement might raise eyebrows because of the column. But Beckmann said there should be no conclusions drawn.

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CableTV: Speed Channel To Become Fox Sports 1 Saturday

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice sessions and the Camping World Truck Series race Aug. 17 from Michigan International Speedway will be among the live telecasts on the first day Fox Sports 1 goes on air in place of the Speed cable network.

And that could be a problem, according to The Sporting News.

  

Among those still negotiating carriage fees with Fox Sports 1 are DirecTV, Dish and Time Warner Cable. Spokesmen for DirecTV and TWC said Thursday that discussions are ongoing and Dish also has not signed a deal, according to the SportsBusiness Daily.

Speed is in nearly 86 million homes, but millions of its current subscribers won’t be able to see Fox Sports 1 unless a carriage deal is finalized.

DirecTV has 20 million subscribers, Time Warner Cable serves 14.6 million customers and Dish has 14 million subscribers. Not all of those subscribers pay for packages that include Speed (and would include Fox Sports 1), but those are three of the largest television providers in the country.

According to the SportsBusiness Journal, Speed costs about 23 cents each month per subscriber, and Fox is looking to increase that to 80 cents per month.

It’s not surprising that these negotiations go down to the wire, but it’s enough to make NASCAR fans nervous as the channel they know as Speed will cease to exist when Fox Sports 1 is launched in its place in about a week.

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NYC Radio: ESPN 98.7 Gets Mentions On WFAN

There always is a few ways to interpret ratings.

According to Bob Raissman at NY Daily News, WFAN-660 AM101.9 FM picked up ESPN Radio’s coverage of the All-Star Game from Citi Field and, according to recently released Arbitron ratings, scored a whopping 10.5 share (Men 25-54). ESPN 98.7 FM , which also aired the game, notched a 3.6 share.

Not so good for 98.7, right?

Not quite. Remember, for two innings Michael Kay, the host of WEPN 98.7’s afternoon drive show, was yakking away on WFAN about a variety of subjects including his program.

So, on WFAN, a competing station, Kay got the rare experience of actually performing on a radio broadcast that generated a higher rating than the Emergency Broadcast Signal. He also got the opportunity to spread the 98.7 gospel.

And there were plenty of ESPN plugs sprinkled into the WFAN broadcast. So in the end, WFAN’s hefty All-Star rating made a lot of people happy.

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Banned: No Radio, TV, Cellphones, WiFi

The town of Bomont outlawed dancing in the movie Footloose, but the kids in Green Bank, West Virginia live with much worse: no electronics.

That's because the small town of 149 people lies in the middle of the 13,000-square mile National Radio Quiet Zone, according to the Daily Mail.

Scientists use this space to project satellites into space for research, and they can't have waves from personal electronic devices interrupting their signals. That means no radio,  TV, WiFi, cellphones or bluetooth.

Green Bank is home to the largest steerable radio telescope in the world - the Green Bank Telescope. It is arguably the most powerful satellite observing space.

To let the telescope operate without disturbances the town has completely outlawed the use of electronic transmitting devices and a policeman actually patrols the streets looking for wireless signals.

Only first responders are allowed to use radios and there's only one pay phone. Residents still have access to the internet, but at the glacial streaming pace dial-up offers.

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Mike Rowe's Adventure In Voiceover

Just ask TV anchors -- there's an art to speaking clearly while someone is talking nearby ir into earpieces.

So get ready to be impressed by 51-year-old voiceover talent Mike Rowe.

Watch as he lets you listen in to an absolutely amazing recording session.

R.I.P.: Springfield, MO Personality Alex Stone

Anyone who listened to radio Springfield, MO knew the voice and the name, Alex Stone.

The veteran broadcaster died last week at the age of 63 of renal failure. He was scheduled for a kidney procedure Wednesday. He died Tuesday.

Stone, real name name Alex Grassi Jr., had a successful career with stops in Oklahoma City, Boston, Orlando, Joplin, MO Appelton, WI and finally to Springfield, MO.   He worked for Clear Channel group in Springfield.  Previously, he had been on then-Oldies KOMG for MidWest Family Broadcasting.  He also worked defunct KHTO Hot106.7 , KKHT, and KWTO-FM

Fellow broadcaster and Friend, Ron Davis of KSPR TV33 wrote about Stone:

"He was an institution and a survivor in an industry that routinely gobbles up and destroys talented people. 

Alex was unique in another way. He was a genuinely gentle man, a nice guy. He knew he had talent but I never saw him play the prima donna. He was a broadcaster and a personality, and when he opened his mic and started to speak you had to marvel at his talent."

R.I.P.: Florence, Al Personality Kevin Whorton

Kevin Whorton

Florence radio personality Kevin Whorton died in his sleep Thursday at the age of 52, according to a release from URBan Radio Broadcasting.

Whorton spent much of his 20-year career in radio as an afternoon drive-time on-air personality on WLAY-FM 103.5 FM, according to timesdaily.com.

“Kevin genuinely enjoyed his work and his daily interaction and chats with members of his extended family in the Shoals,” said Brian Rickman, regional director of programming for URBan Radio Broadcasting.

“Kevin was also a fervent supporter of Muscle Shoals music and well known in the area for his ear for up-and-coming talent.” Rickman said. “Each year he looked forward to assisting with the annual Spirit of Freedom Celebration in McFarland Park in Florence as it gave him an opportunity to spotlight talent such as this.”

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R.I.P.: Singer Eydie Gorme

Steve & Eydie

Eydie Gorme, a Jewish girl from the Bronx who alongside her husband Steve Lawrence became a one-name star before Madonna was born, died Saturday in Las Vegas.

She was 84. No cause of death was announced, though she reportedly had been suffering from cancer.

According to David Hinckley at NYDaily News, her representative Howard Bragman said Lawrence and their son David were at her side.

Lawrence issued a statement saying, "Eydie has been my partner on stage and in life for more than 55 years. I fell in love with her the moment I saw her and even more the first time I heard her sing.

"While my personal loss is unimaginable, the world has lost one of the greatest pop vocalists of all time."

Gorme's recording career, first solo and often later with Lawrence, lasted close to five decades. While she and Lawrence were best known for ballads in the classic pop style, her biggest hit was a semi-novelty dance tune, "Blame It On the Bossa Nova."

The single sold a million copies and peaked at No. 7 on the pop charts in 1963.

Long before she retired in 2009, she and Lawrence were better known for their stage act, which was known throughout the nightclub and Las Vegas world as just "Steve and Eydie."

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