Gen Media Partners (GMP) has announced the debut of NexxGen News, a video news program for middle and high school students, educators, and parents.
Delivered in a fast-paced style that appeals to today’s tweens and teens, NexxGen News covers a wide range of topics, including financial literacy, STEM, health & wellness, college prep, the environment, anti-bullying, and more. A fully digital service, NexxGen News can be viewed on any device at any time and offers interactive features that connect viewers, schools, and communities.
“NexxGen News is a perfect addition to the expanding cross-platform solutions strategy that is the hallmark of Gen Media Partners,” noted Chuck Bortnick, Senior Vice President Gen Media Partners. “NexxGen News delivers high engagement, especially with the hard-to-reach Gen Z demographic.”
Edmodo, the digital distribution partner for NexxGen News, has an expansive platform that reaches more than 7,400 districts, 100 million members, and 400K schools globally.
“Our goal is to bring the world into the classroom through engaging content, which is a proven inspiration of learning for students,” stated David Drucker, Vice President and General Manager of NexxGen News and a former Senior Vice President with Channel One News. “With Edmodo as our distribution partner, we will reach classrooms across the country and help teachers deliver compelling current events content to today’s youth, as well as features and topics that students are passionate about.”
“NexxGen News is a high-quality news program that educators are looking for and that students respond to,” said Sumant Yerramilly, Head of Marketing Solutions for Edmodo. “This partnership aligns with our mission of connecting all learners with the people and resources they need to reach their full potential.”
NexxGen News offers sponsored content opportunities in each program. Sponsorable content also includes blog posts, quizzes, interactive options.
For more information about NexxGen News, please contact Meredith Walters, Director of Marketing & Operations atmeredith.walters@NexxGenNews.com.
iHeartMedia and WPP, the creative transformation company, today announced the launch of Project Listen to develop next-generation insights, planning and creative capabilities in audio.
The two companies will help brands better engage with consumers and win across all audio platforms: broadcast radio, digital streaming, podcasts, smart speakers and live events.
Consumer listening is at an all-time high, according to new iHeartMedia research. The study shows consumers say they are listening to audio content for an average of 17 hours a week, with millennials and younger generations listening the most. This ramp up in listening is the direct result of the rapid growth of digital streaming, podcasts, smart speakers and airpods, on top of the massive and consistent scale of broadcast radio.
The new partnership comprises:
Creative Audio Studio – Audio will be pushed higher on the agendas of creatives and media strategists with the launch of a new studio at GroupM’s headquarters at 3 World Trade Center in New York. Clients and creatives from across WPP will experiment with modern audio marketing programs, working with creative producers in a series of pilots.
Empowering Planning – iHeartMedia’s Smart Audio Insights and audience tools will be integrated with GroupM’s proprietary data and insights tools to uncover new insights and support novel measurement approaches, all of which will be shared in quarterly intelligence reports for clients and the market. A new audio certification program for planners at GroupM’s agencies will roll out later in 2019.
Raising Audio IQ – A new Project Listenmonthly podcast is launching in Cannes with plans for 18 episodes through 2020. Lessons from the client pilots and research will be shared to help inspire more advertisers to embrace audio’s new capabilities.
Project Listen is intended to raise the bar in audio creativity and media strategy through shared learning about what works in the evolving audio landscape. The partners will help marketers to mine audio data for insights and to deploy them across a cohesive planning framework, from creative strategy to media planning and implementation.
“At iHeartMedia, we understand the unparalleled power of audio and its ability to engage and make brands part of the daily conversation, with consumers of all ages, at a massive scale,” said Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia, Inc. “Project Listen is about tapping into the scale of audio and moving from the traditionally transactional radio business to the future of audio advertising where insights and ideas lead the way to growth for brands. Simply put, audio is the biggest greenfield for growth in media today, and we could not be more excited to partner with the talented teams across WPP to develop the tools and skillsets needed to unlock that growth.”
It’s been five years since Casey Kasem passed away in 2014 at age 82 — and the family war that ensued over the beloved patriarch is far from over, according to Fox News.
First and foremost, Kerri Kasem, the daughter of the late disc jockey and “American Top 40” host, told Fox News she wants to bring his body back to the United States from Norway, where he was transferred and buried six months after his death at a hospital in Gig Harbor, Wash.
Keri and Kasey Kasem
Kerri alleged that his widow, Jean Kasem, chose to bury her father halfway across the world during an ongoing heated dispute, while Kasem's widow explained the star "always said that Norway symbolizes peace and looks like heaven" and that she "would like to respectfully fulfill his wishes."
“As soon as we win the trial that Jean has done everything to delay, I will get a lawyer in Norway and I will show them the court’s findings that she’s an elder abuser and she did my father wrong,” Kerri claimed. “She harmed him. Once I can show what was found in the American court, I will go to Norway and I will have his body brought back and buried [at Forest Lawn] where he wanted to be buried.”
In November 2018, Gig Harbor Police Chief Kelley Busey announced law enforcement found no evidence of wrongdoing after investigating allegations that Kasem’s relatives were responsible for his death. Busey shared he will forward the case to Pierce County prosecutors for review. The star had a form of dementia and severe bedsore when he died at a Gig Harbor hospital.
According to Busey, the administrative investigation released by Gig Harbor Police found that Kasem received appropriate care and that any medical decisions were made by family authorized to act on his behalf. There was no evidence of collusion between the family members and doctors “that would construe any part of his incident to be considered a homicide."
Duaine Sanden, a Grand Forks radio personality who was a fixture at sporting events, county fairs, holiday music concerts and racing for decades, died Sunday.
At age 13, Sanden started his radio career in 1959 at KILO Radio. He later called high school sporting events and UND sporting events and in 2018 he was inducted into the North Dakota Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame.
His radio career, however, was diverse. For 55 straight years, Sanden recorded then broadcast area high school holiday music programs on Christmas Day.
He also was heavily involved in the Grand Forks racing scene for years. For years he did a weekly racing program and later was inducted into the River Cities Speedway Hall of Fame.
He was a fixture on weekend radio in Grand Forks. His weekends, for years, usually started with a Saturday morning coaches show.
His passion for county fairs was immense, said Mark Landa, who is on the Greater Grand Forks Fair board.
“He went the extra mile,” said former radio colleague Mike Hergert. “Whether it was high school sports, the music over the holidays or the county fair, those seemed to be his passions. His car was always filled with equipment.
➦In 1854....Edward Willis Scripps (Died – March 12, 1926). He was a newspaper publisher and founder of The E. W. Scripps Company, a diversified media conglomerate, and United Press news service. It became United Press International (UPI) when International News Service (INS) merged with United Press in 1958. The E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University is named for him.
Both E. W. and his half-sister Ellen worked with his older half-brother, James when he founded The Detroit News in 1873. E. W. started as an office boy at the paper. In 1878, with loans from his half-brothers, E. W. went on to found The Penny Press (later the Cleveland Press) in Cleveland. With financial support from sister Ellen, he went on to begin or acquire some 25 newspapers. This was the beginning of a media empire that is now the E. W. Scripps Company.
In 1907, Scripps created United Press Associations, later the UPI news service, from smaller regional news services. Scripps later said "I regard my life's greatest service to the people of this country to be the creation of the United Press", to provide competition to the Associated Press. ➦In 1905....James Kern Kyser born in Rocky Mount NC (Died at age 80 from a heart attack – July 23, 1985). Known as Kay Kyser, he was a bandleader and radio personality of the 1930s and 1940s.
Kay Kyser
"Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge." aired on the Mutual Broadcasting System in 1938 and then moved to NBC Radio from 1939 to 1949. The show rose in the ratings and spawned many imitators. Kyser led the band as "The Ol' Perfessor," spouting catchphrases, some with a degree of Southern American English terms: "That's right—you're wrong", "Evenin' folks, how y'all?" and "C'mon, chillun! Le's dance!"
Although Kyser and his orchestra gained fame through the "Kollege of Musical Knowledge," they were a successful band in their own right. They had 11 number one records, including some of the most popular songs of the late 1930s and early 1940s.
The band scored more than two dozen top 10 hits, including “Three Little Fishes”, “Jingle, Jangle, Jingle”, “The Old Lamplighter”, “There Goes that Song Again”, “Ole Buttermilk Sky”, “Managua Nicaragua”, “On a Slow Boat to China” & “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition.” One of his singers, Mike Douglas, went on to be a star of daytime TV.
➦In 1908...Bud Collyer born Clayton Johnson Heermance Jr. in NYC, (Died – September 8, 1969). He was was a radio actor/announcer who became one of the nation's first major television game show stars. He is best remembered for his work as the first host of the TV game shows Beat the Clock and To Tell the Truth, but he was also famous in the roles of Clark Kent/Superman on radio and in animated cartoons, initially in theatrical short subjects and later on television. He also recorded a number of long-playing 33 1/3 R.P.M. record albums for children. Some of these had Bible stories, in keeping with his strong connections with his church & deep spirituality.
Bud Collier
Collyer's best-remembered radio starring role began in early 1940 in The Adventures of Superman on the Mutual Broadcasting System, a role he also performed in the subsequent Superman cartoons. Collyer supplied the voices of both Superman and his alter ego Clark Kent, opposite radio actress Joan Alexander as Lois Lane. Every Superman episode featured a scene in which Clark Kent changed into his Superman costume, an effect which Collyer conveyed by shifting voices while speaking the phrase "This is (or "looks like") a job for Superman!" his voice always dropping when becoming Superman.
Collyer got his first helping of game shows when he co-hosted ABC's (the former NBC Blue network) Break the Bank with future Miss America Pageant mainstay Bert Parks; and, when he was picked to host the radio original of the Mark Goodson-Bill Todman team's first game, Winner Take All. Collyer went on to host the television versions of both shows.
➦In 1911...Sportscaster Russ Hodges (June 18, 1910 – April 19, 1971) was an American sportscaster who did play-by-play for several baseball teams, most notably the New York and San Francisco Giants.
Born in Dayton, Tennessee, Hodges began his broadcasting career in 1934. He was sports editor of WBT, Charlotte, North Carolina until October 1941, when he moved full-time to WOL in Washington, D.C., where he had already been doing play-by-play for the Washington Redskins.[2] He worked for the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Washington Senators, and Cincinnati Reds before landing in New York City with the New York Yankees and New York Giants, who during much of the 1940s only broadcast home games and shared the same radio team — lead announcer Mel Allen and No. 2 man Hodges.
From April 14, 1948 to April 22, 1949, Hodges hosted the 15-minute DuMont series Scoreboard, also known as Russ Hodges' Scoreboard. In 1949, Hodges became a No. 1 announcer when the Giants and the Yankees separated their radio networks to each broadcast a full, 154-game schedule. He would be the voice of the Giants for the next 22 seasons on both coasts.
Hodges was at the mike for Bobby Thomson’s 1951 home run, the so-called ‘Shot Heard Round the World.’ “The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!” He suffered a sudden & fatal heart attack April 19 1971 at age 59.
➦In 1939… the CBS radio network first aired radio drama The Adventures of Ellery Queen.
With Hugh Marlowe in the title role, Ellery Queen moved to NBC radio in 1942, airing until 1944. From 1945 to 1947, it was heard once again on CBS, returning to NBC in 1947 and then moved to ABC radio (1947–1948). The premise was that a mystery would be dramatized, but then interrupted when a panel of celebrities would attempt to solve it.
Dave Garroway
➦In 1955...NBC’s Monitor program expands to 8 AM Saturday to Midnight Sunday. According to the Monitor tribute site, it had everything -- news, sports, comedy, interviews, remote pick-ups from around the world, music -- a true magazine of the air. Listeners could tune in or out at any time during the weekend, wherever they were -- at home or in their cars. During any "Monitor" hour, dozens of different people, places and things were presented -- all presided over, live, by hosts Weaver called "communicators" in mammoth New York studios NBC named "Radio Central."
If "Monitor" had failed, NBC Radio would have disappeared decades before it did. But it worked -- indeed, it was a smash hit with listeners, advertisers and critics. It quickly became NBC Radio's biggest moneymaker and almost single-handedly kept NBC in the radio business. Simply put, "Monitor" became the biggest thing in radio.
➦In 1961…CBS Radio aired the final episode of "Gunsmoke." In the late 1940s, CBS chairman William S. Paley, a fan of the Philip Marlowe radio serial, asked his programming chief, Hubell Robinson, to develop a hardboiled Western series, a show about a "Philip Marlowe of the Old West". Robinson instructed his West Coast CBS Vice President, Harry Ackerman, who had developed the Philip Marlowe series, to take on the task.
Ackerman and his scriptwriters, Mort Fine and David Friedkin, created an audition script called "Matt Dillon Goes to Gouge Eye" based on one of their Michael Shayne radio scripts, "The Case of the Crooked Wheel" from the summer of 1948. Two versions were recorded. The first, recorded in June 1949, was very much like a hardboiled detective series and starred Michael Rye (credited as Rye Billsbury) as Dillon; the second, recorded in July 1949, starred Straight Arrow actor Howard Culver in a more Western, lighter version of the same script. CBS liked the Culver version better, and Ackerman was told to proceed.
The radio series first aired on CBS on April 26, 1952 with the episode "Billy the Kid", written by Walter Newman, and ended on June 18, 1961. The show stars William Conrad as Marshal Matt Dillon, Howard McNear as Doc Charles Adams, Georgia Ellis as Kitty Russell, and Parley Baer as Dillon's assistant, Chester Wesley Proudfoot.
➦In 1965...The call letters of KYW-AM, Cleveland, Ohio returned to Philadelphia.
In June, 1955, Westinghouse agreed to trade KYW and WPTZ to NBC in exchange for the network's Cleveland properties, WNBK-TV and WTAM-AM/FM, as well as $3 million in cash.
After clearing regulatory hurdles, the swap went into effect on February 13, 1956.
According to phillyradioarchives.com, NBC changed the 1060 call letters to WRCV and Westinghouse moved the KYW call letters to Cleveland.
NBC had been interested in acquiring a VHF TV station in Philadelphia for years, the largest market in which it did not own one. After being rebuffed more than once, NBC (according to Westinghouse) threatened to drop its network affiliation (and programming) from WPTZ and Westinghouse's Boston TV station unless they agreed to the trade.
Not long after the station swap in 1955, the government started an investigation into the transfer that ultimately led to a bitter and complex 10 year skirmish for control of the stations. The battle involved a large list of government and corporate players including the FCC, Congress, Department of Justice, RCA, Philco, Westinghouse and RKO-General. Ultimately, the swap was reversed, and Westinghouse regained control of the stations, renaming them KYW TV and KYW AM.
In September 1965, KYW 1060 AM became an all-news station.
➦In 1975...NBC News & Information Service debuted.
NBC launched the NBC News and Information Service (also referred to as "NIS"), which provided up to 55 minutes of news per hour around the clock to local stations that wanted to adopt an all-news format.
Not surprisingly, NIS achieved clearances on NBC's FM stations in New York (WNBC-FM, which became WNWS), Chicago (WJOI, the former WMAQ-FM which was renamed WNIS) and San Francisco (KNAI, the former KNBR-FM). WRC in Washington also picked it up, migrating their Top 40 format onto FM sister station WKYS (which would be blown up weeks later in favor of disco music). Other major affiliates for the NIS service included WBAL-FM in Baltimore, KHVH in Honolulu, and KQV in Pittsburgh.
The NIS service attracted several dozen subscribers, but not enough to allow NBC to project that it would ever become profitable, and it was discontinued after two years.
➦In 1984...Alan Berg, a combative radio talk show host at KOA radio in
Denver died of multiple gunshot wounds after being ambushed outside his
condominium. The 50-year-old Berg had reported death threats to police several times.
Alan Berg once worked at a shoe store and later opened a clothing store in Denver where he met KGMC-AM talk show host Laurence Gross. Impressed with Berg, Gross made him a guest on several occasions. When Gross left KGMC to take a job in San Diego, California, he requested that Alan Berg be named his successor.
From KGMC, which changed its call sign to KWBZ, Berg moved to KHOW, also in Denver. After being fired from KHOW, Berg went back to KWBZ before it changed to an all-music format and he again lost his job. The unemployed Berg was courted by both KTOK in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Detroit, Michigan. He was lastly hired by KOA and debuted on February 23, 1981. He worked at KOA until his death.
At about 9:30 p.m. on June 18, 1984, Alan Berg returned to his Adams Street townhouse after dinner. Berg stepped out of his black Volkswagen Beetle and gunfire erupted. He was struck twelve times. The murder weapon had been illegally converted to an automatic weapon, was later traced to the home of one of The Order's members by the FBI.
Berg was on a death list according to a former producer because he was Jewish and he challenged on the air the beliefs of an author who wrote that Jews were from the family line of the devil.
Four members of The Order were ultimately indicted on federal charges: Jean Craig, David Lane, Bruce Pierce, and Richard Scutari. However, only Lane and Pierce were convicted, though neither of homicide (which is a state crime). Rather, they were convicted of racketeering, conspiracy, and violating Alan Berg's civil rights (which are federal crimes). Both were sentenced to what were, for all practical purposes, life terms; Lane's sentence was 190 years; Pierce's was 252 years.
➦In 1988...WWKB 1520 AM, Buffalo, New York switched to a satellite oldies format, finishing 30 years of Top 40 and oldies.
WKBW was founded in 1922 as a religious station, operating at the frequency of 1380 kHz. As the story goes, founder Clinton Churchill applied to the Department of Commerce for a license to operate under the call signs WAY. That call sign, however, was being used for a ship at sea, so instead, Churchill chose the letters "WKBW," which were next in the random assignment pool. Churchill proclaimed the call letters to stand for "Well Known Bible Witness"; later usage referred to the middle letters "KB" standing for King of Buffalo (alluding to its 50,000 watt broadcast power).
On July 4, 1958, WKBW radio abandoned its adult approach and was converted into a personality-driven full service Top 40 music radio station, featuring foreground personalities, a tight playlist of current hits and an aggressive local news department, which it continued to program with great success for over 20 years. It was one of the first stations to present traffic reports in cooperation with police and state and local authorities. Capital Cities Communications, then known as Capital Cities Broadcasting, purchased the WKBW stations from Clinton Churchill in 1961.
During the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, WKBW became a major force in pop radio over the East Coast. KB had a 50,000 watt transmitter at their transmitter site in Hamburg. This high power with a direction signal caused WKBW to blanket the entire eastern U.S. with top 40 music every night, and the station actually had a better signal at night in the western Boston suburbs than Boston's own top 40 station, WMEX, located at 1510, right next door to WKBW.
From 1970...
Disk jockeys included future Price is Right announcer Rod Roddy, Dick Biondi, Danny Neaverth, Jack Armstrong, Joey Reynolds, Steve Mitchell, Bud Ballou, Norm Marshall, Tom Shannon, and the Amazin' Jim Quinn. Irv Weinstein, later Buffalo's most popular television news anchor, served as news director.
➦In 2002…Sportscaster John Francis "Jack" Buck died from Parkinson's disease at age 77 (Born - August 21, 1924). He was best known for his work announcing Major League Baseball games of the St. Louis Cardinals. His play-by-play work earned him recognition from numerous Halls of Fame, such as the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and the National Radio Hall of Fame. He has also been inducted as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum.
Buck was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, he dreamed of becoming a sports announcer with his early exposure to sports broadcasting coming from listening to Boston Red Sox baseball games announced by Fred Hoey.
After completion of his military service in 1946, Buck enrolled at (and graduated from) Ohio State University. His early sportscasting career included work for the minor league affiliates of the St. Louis Cardinals. In 1954, he was promoted to radio play-by-play of Cardinal games on KMOX, a position that he maintained for nearly all of the next 47 years. He was known in St. Louis for his trademark phrase "That's a winner!", which was said after every game that the Cardinals had won ➦In 2014…Johnny Mann died (Born - August 30, 1928). Mann was an arranger, composer, conductor, entertainer, and recording artist.
Johnny Mann and his vocal group The Johnny Mann Singers were involved in several classic rock 'n' roll and rockabilly recording sessions for Johnny Burnette (including "God, Country and My Baby"), The Crickets and several 1957–1958 sessions with Eddie Cochran, who was also signed to Liberty Records in Hollywood.
As bandleader with the Johnny Mann Singers, he and the group recorded approximately three dozen albums, hosted the TV series titled Stand Up and Cheer (1971–1974), and was the musical director for the 1967-69 ABC-TV late night talk show, The Joey Bishop Show. He was also musical director of The Alvin Show, and was the voice of Theodore. Mann was also choral director for the NBC Comedy Hour.
The Johnny Mann Singers' instrumental "Cinnamint Shuffle (Mexican Shuffle)" hit the US Pop chart in 1966. Their next single, a cover version of "Up, Up and Away", became the hit version of the song on the UK Singles Chart, over taking the US hit version by The 5th Dimension. The version also won a Grammy Award in 1968 in the Best Performance by a Choir of Seven or More Persons category. In total, Mann was nominated for five Grammys, two of which he won.
Mann wrote a number of radio jingles, the most famous being the "Sound of the City" jingle for KSFO in San Francisco, California. This jingle became as requested as many of the songs played by KSFO in the era of Don Sherwood, and it was adapted by Mann for other radio stations around the country which included KFRC (AM) in San Francisco and CKLW in Windsor, Ontario.
Nielsen has released it latest Audio Today report and again it show Americans are reached by radio more than any other media/
Radio reaches 92% of Americans each week (272 million people aged 6+). However, the new report also compares radio's monthly reach as compared with digital giants like Google and Facebook.
Citing Nielsen Scarborough data, radio reaches 244.5 million users 18+, surpassing the 190.9 million that use search sites and apps including Google, AOL, Yahoo, Bing and others. AM/FM’s lead is even larger compared to social media sites and apps like Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter and others which collectively reach 177.8 million. E-commerce sites/apps (144.5 million), video site/apps (143.1 million), news sites/apps (104.5 million) and sports sites/apps (57.3 million) also lag behind broadcast radio.
Nielsen’s June 2019 data could help dispel lingering myths in the eyes of ad buyers about the media habits of younger demos. Some 66.9 million persons 18-34 access the web on their smartphone each month, using an app or web browser vs. 71.3 million Millennials who tune into radio on a monthly basis.
Not surprisingly, adults 18-49 are the demographic that tunes in the most. The monthly reach for these listeners is 132.4 million (98% of the population), and Country is the format they prefer most. Adults 25-54 is the second most reached demo for radio, with 99% of the population (123.6 million) listening each month.
The new reports re-enforces radio as a daily companion for consumers. It helps them start their day usually in the 6 or 7 a.m. hour, accompanies them to work, and then peaks around the end of their workday or commute home. Teenagers use radio in similar patterns at the beginning and end of the day with reduced listening during school hours. On weekends, usage is slightly different without the demands of work and school driving the daily routine. Weekend listening spikes in the middle of the day, when consumers are most likely to be out of the house.
Brad Kelly, Managing Director for Nielsen Audio, states that where consumers lead, advertisers are sure to follow. However, he notes advertisers are also keen to realize that no one type of media can do the job alone anymore. New advanced analytics and powerful media planning tools are helping radio capitalize on its mass appeal by delivering incremental reach when used in combination with other channels. Understanding this cross-platform dynamic is more important than ever, and both buyers and sellers of media are developing an appreciation for how radio can supplement, augment, and amplify TV advertising. The combination of radio and TV make for a potent mix.
Hubbard Radio announced today that programming veteran and country radio specialist Bruce Logan will take the helm as Operations Manager and Brand/Content Director of Country WIRK 103.1 FM and Classic Hits WEAT 107.9 FM West Palm Beach.
Logan was most recently the VP of Programming for Entercom’s Houston Market and Program Director for Country KILT-FM and Adult Hits KKHH-FM. Prior to that Logan served as National Country Brand Coordinator and Regional Vice President of Programming for iHeart Media and programmed iHeart Media’s WKKT/Charlotte, WTQR/Greensboro and Country duo WSSL and WESC/Greenville, SC.
“A leader with experience, knowledge, passion, a strategic long-term view and the unique ability to develop people is a rare find. After an exhaustive search, I’m thrilled to have found those qualities and more in Bruce. I’m excited to welcome him to our Hubbard team and look forward to putting his talent to work on legendary West Palm Beach stations, WIRK-Country and Sunny 107.9.” said Hubbard Radio West Palm Beach SVP/Market Manager, Elizabeth Hamma.
Logan commented, “I feel like I have won the lottery, I get to join the Hubbard Broadcasting family, I get to program WIRK-FM and WEAT-FM and I get to live in South Florida! Thanks so much to Elizabeth Hamma and Greg Strassell for entrusting these great brands to me. Thrilled to be part of the West Palm Beach team.”
Beasley Media Group has unveiled the new Jammin’ 105.7 on KOAS-FM in Las Vegas. The new format officially launched with “Smile” by Li’l Duval & Snoop Dogg at midnight on Monday, June 17th, 2019.
The Old School + Today’s R&B/ Urban adult contemporary station will feature old school favorites, including: Prince, Michael Jackson, Usher, Notorious B.I.G., New Edition, TLC, Janet Jackson, Dre & Snoop, Keith Sweat, Aaliyah, Beyonce/ Destiny’s Child and more as well as Today’s Hit R&B, including H.E.R., Bruno Mars, Ella Mai, Queen Naija, SZA, Chris Brown, Nicole Bus and more!
The new on-air lineup will include:
5am The Steve Harvey Morning Show
9am Zenja Dunn remains in Middays
2pm Paco Lopez joins the team for afternoon drive
6pm Connie Breeze will handle evening duties
9pm-2am The Sweat Hotel featuring Keith Sweat
“Bringing back Steve Harvey was a key part of our strategy for KOAS,” said Beasley Media Group Las Vegas Vice President and Market Manager, Peter Burton. “He has had tremendous success in Las Vegas in the past. We are expecting big things from this great morning show. Paco Lopez provides a strong bookend in afternoon drive. His track record with the Hispanic audiences in New York, Washington and Houston is outstanding.”
“Our dedicated listeners spoke loud and clear,” said Beasley Media Group Executive Vice President, Justin Chase. “They want Harvey back! This programming shift will super serve our core audience and we’re excited to see the results.”
“This city didn’t feel right without Steve Harvey on the radio,” said KOAS-FM and KVGS-FM Brand Manager, Kris Fisher. “We’re excited to welcome him home and to give our listeners more of what has made them love this station over the years, while offering a new twist of today’s R&B that they can’t find anywhere else in Las Vegas.”
As the share of Americans who say they own a smartphone has increased dramatically over the past decade – from 35% in 2011 to 81% in 2019 – a new Pew Research Center survey finds that the way many people choose to go online is markedly different than in previous years.
Today, 37% of U.S. adults say they mostly use a smartphone when accessing the internet. This share has nearly doubled since 2013, when the Center last asked this question. At that point, 19% of Americans named their smartphone as their primary device for going online.1
Younger adults are especially likely to reach for their phones when going online. Fully 58% of 18-to 29-year-olds say they mostly go online through a smartphone, up from 41% in 2013.
Still, this growth is evident across all age groups. For example, the share of adults ages 30 to 49 who say they mostly use a smartphone to go online has nearly doubled – from 24% in 2013 to 47% today.
These trends are part of a broader shift toward mobile technology that has changed the way people do everything from getting news to applying for jobs.
Indeed, mobile devices are not simply being used more often to go online – some Americans are forgoing traditional broadband at home altogether in favor of their smartphone.
A majority of adults say they subscribe to home broadband, but about one-in-four (27%) do not. And growing shares of these non-adopters cite their mobile phone as a reason for not subscribing to these services.
A high-profile Los Angeles law firm representing multiple recording artists plans to file legal action as early as this week in response to news that a massive number of original master recordings were destroyed in a 2008 fire at Universal Studios Hollywood, reports The LA Times.
“We have many very concerned clients,” attorney Howard King, partner in King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano, said Thursday. “This has a potentially huge impact on their future, coupled with the rather disturbing fact that no one ever told them that their intellectual property may have been destroyed. There is a significant amount of discussion going on, and there will be formal action taken.”
The total number of master recordings lost in the fire could run as high as 500,000 recordings, the report said. Only a fraction of the original masters held in the facility were adequately copied, the story said, resulting in the loss of irreplaceable original masters by Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, the Eagles, Elton John, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Muddy Waters, Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Bing Crosby and dozens, if not hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other recording artists.
(AP Photos)
Original master recordings are the source material for commercially released versions that are sold, downloaded or streamed by consumers. They are typically the wellspring from which remastered or remixed reissues, box sets and other archival releases originate year in and year out, decade after decade.
Universal Music Group, or UMG, is the world’s largest recorded-music company. In 2018, its global market share was about 31%, well ahead of second-place Sony Music’s 21% and Warner Music Group’s 18.5%, according to industry figures.
UMG took issue with the New York Times Magazine story last Tuesday, citing “numerous inaccuracies, misleading statements, contradictions and fundamental misunderstandings of the scope of the incident and affected assets.”
The company’s statement insisted, “Music preservation is of the highest priority for us and we are proud of our track record. While there are constraints preventing us from publicly addressing some of the details of the fire that occurred at NBCUniversal Studios facility more than a decade ago, the incident — while deeply unfortunate — never affected the availability of the commercially released music nor impacted artists’ compensation.”
A UMG spokesman said Thursday that the company has no comment on the proposed lawsuits.
The following editorial from the Wall Street journal was published Friday, June 15, 2019:
"Last week marked a year since the Federal Communications Commission officially laid “net neutrality” to rest, ending the Obama Administration’s regulation of internet traffic. Miraculously, the free and open internet is still operating, making it easy to unearth all those doomsday forecasts that didn’t come true.
"Remember prophecies of a web slowdown? “If we don’t save net neutrality, you’ll get the internet one word at a time,” the Senate Democrats’ official account tweeted. Instead broadband speeds have gotten faster—a good thing given how many millions of people recently were simultaneously streaming “Game of Thrones.”
"Critics predicted high prices or new internet “fast lanes” for the affluent. “The repeal of these protections has corporate greed and corruption written all over it,” Elizabeth Warren said on the Senate floor. Meantime, socially conscious companies saw a marketing ploy. Burger King told a whopper with a web video that showed customers forced to wait for their food because they didn’t pay for faster MBPS—“making burgers per second.”
"Killing net neutrality was also said to be an affront to America’s system of government. “This is an egregious attack on our democracy,” Senator Bernie Sanders tweeted. The ACLU, Reporters Without Borders and other groups decried it as a threat to free speech, saying it would give cable and telecom companies “unfettered power” and have “a chilling effect on our rights.” Interfaith religious leaders wrote in an open letter that “communication is one of God’s great gifts to humanity,” and “we can either adopt policies that promote communications rights or that lessen them.”
"Naral Pro-Choice America proclaimed in a press release: “There is no Reproductive Freedom Without Net Neutrality.” Planned Parenthood tweeted an article arguing in its headline: “The FCC’s Net Neutrality Decision Is A Stealth Attack On Feminism.” Is that what they mean by “intersectionality”
"Cooler heads suggested taking some perspective: The FCC didn’t adopt net neutrality until 2015, yet American web surfers had managed fine. The repeal didn’t revoke all oversight of internet providers but simply returned regulatory responsibility to the Federal Trade Commission.
"The net neutrality hysteria began to subside after repeal took effect last June without incident. Still, Democrats continue to push legislation to reinstate the Obama-era rules. They’re calling their bill the 'Save the Internet Act.' Save it from what?"
U.S. stores reported broad-based gains in activity last month as 10 of 13 major sectors increased sales from a year earlier, reports Bloomberg.
In the past year, Americans’ boosted spending to "nonstore retailers" while clothing, food & beverage and building-material stores felt the brunt of consumers’ changing habits.
Spending at nonstore retailers, mostly Internet merchants, increased by $6.4 billion from a year earlier to $62.04 billion on an annualized basis. The nonstore retailer category is now a larger spending category than restaurant and bars.
Given the pace of growth, nonstore spending will likely pass food and beverage -- mainly grocery stores -- spending soon and move to the second largest retail category behind vehicles and parts.
Taylor Swift has been hit with backlash following the release of her pro-LGBTQ single, as detractors accuse the 'corporate' pop star of jumping on the 'queer bandwagon' to make profit, reports The Daily Mail.
The track, titled 'You Need To Calm Down', was released last week to mark Pride Month, and its lyrics positively reference gay activist organization, GLAAD.
The song additionally hits out at anti-LGBTQ sentiment, with the lines: 'Control your urges to scream about all the people you hate/ Because shade never made anybody less gay'.
While fans have been quick to praise Swift for being an 'ally' to the gay community, others are blasting the 29-year-old for what they believe is a cynical exploitation of queer culture.
Swift has been the subject of ire on social media, with hundreds of Twitter users hitting out at the new single.
'Taylor Swift has never been all loud for the LGBTQIA+ community before and now suddenly she's doing this? Another celebrity jumping on the Queer bandwagon and trying to capitalize off it', one blasted.
Another added: 'Swift jumped on the bandwagon of commercializing Pride only when it was safe to do so. Where was she five years ago? Ten? No Taylor Swift fan owns an album by an LGBT artist or even knows what GLAAD is'.
Others accused Swift of trying to make a 'corporate' cash grab, like the many brands who use Pride-themed promotions in order to sell their products.
➦In 1926...Colonel George Johnston and E. G. Hauselt took over WDBO, Orlando from Justice Lee and Maxwell Green.
According to cflradio.net, WDBO began in 1924 as a physics class project. In May E.F. Wineberg, a Rollins College math, physics and engineering professor, launched a 50-watt radio station in a small wooden building on the Winter Park campus.
The first night's programming - less than an hour - included talks by college officials, a violin solo and a performance by the men's glee club, according to the Rollins newspaper that week. It was the first radio station in Orange County and only the third in Florida. WDBO operated at 1250 on the dial with 50 watts of power for thirty hours a week. There are some conflicting stories surrounding the call letters.
Some research says the call letters were issued in alphabetical sequence as was the policy of the time. There was WDBN Bangor, Maine, and WDBP, in Superior, Wisconsin. That would make the next set of call letters WDBO. Other research shows a request for the call letters WDBO to stand for "Way Down By Orlando."
Rollins College decided the $600 budget to run WDBO was too much and gave the station to Col. George C. Johnston. Johnston was a radiologist from Pennsylvania who headed an investment bank called The Morris Plan, Co. Johnston named the corporation that took ownership of WDBO, The Orlando Broadcasting Company.
Today, WDBO 580 AM airs ESPN Sports.
➦In 1927...WOR switched to 710 AM.
WOR began broadcasting on February 22, 1922, using a 500-watt transmitter on 360 meters (833 kc.) from Bamberger's Department Store in Newark, New Jersey.
The station's first broadcast was made with a home made microphone which was a megaphone attached to a telephone transmitter, while Al Jolson's "April Showers" was played. Louis Bamberger's sale of radio sets to consumers explained their affiliation with the station.
The WOR call sign was reissued from the U.S. maritime radio service. The station initially operated limited hours, sharing time with two other stations, WDT and WJY, which also operated on 833 kc. WOR changed frequency to 740 kc. in June 1923 and shared time with WJY until July 1926, when WJY signed off for good and WOR received full use of the frequency. In December 1924, WOR acquired a studio in Manhattan.
On June 17, 1927, as a result of General Order 40, WOR moved to 710 kc., the channel it currently occupies (unlike most stations, it was not affected by NARBA). Later in 1926, WOR moved from its New York City studio on the 9th floor of Chickering Hall at 27 West 57th Street to 1440 Broadway, two blocks from Times Square.
➦In 1941...Experimental W2XBS received a commercial license under the calls WNBT (for "NBC Television"), thus becoming one of the first two fully licensed commercial television stations in the United States, along with CBS' W2XAB on channel 2, which became WCBW. The NBC and CBS stations were licensed and instructed to sign on simultaneously on July 1 so that neither of the major broadcast companies could claim exclusively to be "first."
However, WNBT signed on at 1:30 p.m., one full hour before WCBW. As a result, WNBC (and essentially, NBC) inadvertently holds the distinction as the oldest continuously operating commercial television station (and television network, respectively) in the United States, and also the only one ready to accept sponsors from its beginning.The first program broadcast at 1:00 EST by the sign-on/opening ceremony with the national anthem of the United States of America "The Star-Spangled Banner", followed by an announcement of that day's programs and the commencement of NBC television programming.
WNBT originally broadcast on channel 1. On its first day on the air, WNBT broadcast the world's first official television advertisement before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. The announcement for Bulova watches, for which the company paid anywhere from $4.00 to $9.00 (reports vary), displayed a WNBT test pattern modified to look like a clock with the hands showing the time. The Bulova logo, with the phrase "Bulova Watch Time", was shown in the lower right-hand quadrant of the test pattern while the second hand swept around the dial for one minute.
Today the station is WNBC-TV.
➦In 1945...Art Bell born (Died at age 72 – April 13, 2018). Bell was a broadcaster and author. He was the founder and the original host of the paranormal-themed radio program Coast to Coast AM, which is syndicated on hundreds of radio stations in the United States and Canada. He also created and hosted its companion show Dreamland.
Art Bell
In 2003, Bell semi-retired from Coast to Coast AM. During the following four years, he hosted the show many weekends on Premiere Networks. He announced his retirement from weekend hosting on July 1, 2007, but occasionally served as a guest host through 2010. Classic episodes of Coast to Coast AM can be heard in some radio markets on Saturday nights under the name Somewhere in Time hosted by Art Bell. He started a new nightly show, Art Bell's Dark Matter, on Sirius XM Radio, that began on September 16, 2013. It ended six weeks later, on November 4, 2013.
On July 20, 2015, he returned to radio with a new show Midnight in the Desert, which was available online via TuneIn as well as some terrestrial radio stations. He announced what would be his final retirement on December 11, 2015, citing security concerns at his home. He said that he and his family were subjected to repeated intrusions on his property in Pahrump, Nevada. The intrusions included gunshots, and he was in fear for his family's safety. He chose to leave the air and along with it, public life because he believed that the intruder or intruders wanted him off the air.
Bell was the founder and original owner of Pahrump-based radio station KNYE 95.1 FM. His broadcast studio and transmitter were located near his home in Pahrump, where he also hosted Coast to Coast AM. However, from June to December 2006, he lived in the Philippines. In March 2009, he returned to the Philippines with his family after he experienced significant difficulties in obtaining a U.S. visa for his wife, Airyn.
➦In 1968...Seattle's KOL-FM flipped from automated beautiful music to Progressive Rock.
The station's legacy on FM radio dates back to July 8, 1961, when it signed on as KOL-FM, a simulcast of their then-sister-station KOL 1300 AM. It was owned from 1962 until 1967 by television producers and game show moguls Mark Goodson and Bill Todman, and continued to simulcast KOL, which aired a Top 40 format. The pair of stations was sold to Buckley Broadcasting in 1967. The station had a progressive rock format from 1968 to 1975, competing with KISW, and starting in 1974, KZOK-FM. In 1975, the station changed its call letters to KEUT, and changed to Beautiful Music.
The station changed to its long-running country format as KMPS-FM on February 1, 1978, with a simulcast of its AM sister station. (KMPS started its life as a country station in 1975, initially on AM 1300.) It was a direct challenger to then-dominant country station KAYO 1150 AM. Throughout the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, KMPS was the dominant (and sometimes, only) country station in the Seattle area; it would later pick up FM competitor KKWF in 2005.
EZ Communications bought KMPS-AM-FM from Hercules Broadcasting in 1986. EZ would sell KMPS-AM (now KKOL) to Salem Communications in 1996. In July 1997, EZ would merge with American Radio Systems, with ARS merging with Infinity Broadcasting (owned by CBS) in September of that year. (Infinity would be renamed CBS Radio in December 2005.)
On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced it would merge with Entercom. KMPS would be retained by the new company, making it a sister station to KKWF, as well as KHTP, KISW and KNDD. To meet ownership limits set by the FCC, sister stations KFNQ, KJAQ and KZOK-FM would be acquired by iHeartMedia. The merger was approved on November 9th, and was consummated on the 17th. That same day, KMPS switched to all-Christmas music, leading to speculation that the station was planning to switch to a new format after the holiday season. On-air personality Deanna Lee denied that this was the case, and stated that KMPS would remain a country station.
However, on December 4, 2017, at 9:12 a.m., KMPS flipped to soft adult contemporary as "94.1 The Sound", launching with "Hello" by Lionel Richie. These changes briefly made KKWF the only country station in Seattle, before KVRQ abruptly flipped to the format later in the morning. The station's call letters were changed to KSWD on December 11, 2017; these calls were previously used by KKLQ, an Entercom station divested during the merger which had also branded itself as "The Sound". The KMPS calls were moved to sister station KRAK in Hesperia, California.
On January 16, 2018, John Fisher, former longtime morning host at KMTT, was announced as KSWD's morning host beginning January 22. Ten days later on January 26, it was announced that Seattle resident and nationally-syndicated personality Delilah would become the station's midday host beginning January 29th. Alongside her daytime program on weekdays, KSWD also carried her syndicated program on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights.
➦In 1986...Radio host and singer Kate Smith died at age 79 from complications of diabetes (Born May 1, 1907 – June 17, 1986). She was known as The First Lady of Radio for her rendition of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America". She had a radio, television, and recording career spanning five decades, which reached its pinnacle in the 1940s. Smith became known as The Songbird of the South after her enduring popularity during World War II.
➦In 2004...Longtime program director Joe McCoy departed Oldie WCBS 101.1 FM.
Joe McCoy
McCoy took over as program director in 1981, and at that point WCBS-FM began to gradually shift its focus to the 1964–1969 era, but would also feature a more pre-1964 oldies than most other such stations. The station continued to also feature hits of the 1970s and some hits of the 1980s while cutting future gold selections to one per hour.
Also in the 1980s, after 77 WABC and later WNBC 600 AM abandoned music in favor of talk, WCBS-FM began employing many disc jockeys who were widely known on other New York City stations, most notably Musicradio WABC alumni Ron Lundy, Dan Ingram, Bruce "Cousin Brucie" Morrow, Chuck Leonard and Harry Harrison, as well as former WMCA "Good Guys" Dan Daniels and Jack Spector.
Bob Shannon, whose only previous New York City radio experience before coming to WCBS-FM was as a fill-in DJ at WYNY, became well-known himself through his 19-year run as the station's afternoon disk jockey. Bill Brown (who had started with the station in 1969, during their rock days) and Don K. Reed (who started at the station 6 months before the switch to oldies) remained with the station during their entire first period as an oldies station.
In 1989, WCBS-FM limited current music to late nights and overnights. While most oldies stations were playing songs from exclusively 1955 to 1973, WCBS-FM continued to play a moderate amount of songs from the late 1970s as well as about one 1980s hit per hour. Most of the 1980s music came from core oldies artists.
The station's ratings increased during the 1990s (and were sustained into the 2000s) and market research studies showed a small and growing audience in the 35-to-49-year-old demographic as a new generation's "songs they grew up with" moved into the oldies format. The station even hit number one overall in the ratings on at least several occasions during the 1990s.
