Beginning Monday, June 26th, The GAME will become the official ESPN radio affiliate for both the greater Lafayette and Lake Charles metropolitan areas as the station will be now known as ESPN 103.7 Lafayette and 104.1 Lake Charles.
In addition to becoming an ESPN affiliate, the station will also welcome to its airwaves Matt Moscona — the Louisiana Association of Broadcasters award-winning host of “After Further Review.”
“In an ever-evolving media landscape, a commitment to being live and local has never meant more,” Moscona said. “That’s why partnering with a great local company like Delta Media Corp. was a no-brainer. I couldn’t possibly be more excited for the opportunity to join the KLWB-FM – 103.7 and KLCJ-FM – 104.1 lineups to bring great daily content to sports fans in Southwest Louisiana about the teams we all love.”
Longtime Central New York radio personality Becky Palmer has died. Palmer’s longtime radio partner Tom Owens tells NewsChannel 9 Becky passed away Sunday. She was 68 years-old.
Palmer had been a staple in local radio since the early 1980s when she got her start at WSEN-Radio. In the 1990s she teamed up with the late Ron Bee and then Tom Owens to host the number-one local morning show on WBBS B104.7 for over 20 years.
Ron and Becky were named CMA Personalities of the Year in 2004 and she was part of the ACM Radio Station of the Year in 2014.
During her long career, she was nominated for countless CMA and ACM nominations for Personality and Station of the Year.
Tom and Becky’s final radio show on B104.7 was in December 2019.
B 104.7 posted a message on Facebook recognizing Palmer for her years of service to the station and commitment to the community.
➦In 1925...the first live broadcast of the Kentucky Derby was originated by WHAS Louisville and was also carried by WGN in Chicago. The call of the Derby featured an announcer who watched from the windows of one of the famous twin spires of Churchill Downs.
➦In 1929...the anthology crime series True Detective Mysteries began its almost 30 year run, debuting on CBS radio, though its most popular years (1944-58) were on Mutual.
True Detective Mysteries were truly audience participation shows - each show provided descriptions of the true-story criminal and encouraged audiences to provide information leading to their capture. Rewards of $500 and later $1000 were offered in return for helpful clues from listeners.
➦In 1932...the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Act was passed in Ottawa, subjecting private stations to the control of the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC). Five years later the Commission became the CBC.
➦In 1942...The Whistler, a radio mystery drama, made its debut on the west coast regional CBS Network. It aired on until September 22, 1955.
The show was also broadcast in Chicago and over Armed Forces Radio. On the west coast, it was sponsored by the Signal Oil Company: "That whistle is your signal for the Signal Oil program, The Whistler." There were also two short-lived attempts to form east-coast broadcast spurs: July 3 to September 25, 1946, sponsored by the Campbell Soup Company; and March 26, 1947, to September 29, 1948, sponsored by Household Finance.
➦In 1947...Jack Mullin demonstrated the Magnetophon at Institute of Radio Engineers convention. The Magnetophon tape recorder was one of the first recording machines to use magnetic tape in recording voice and music.
According to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, months of tension between Fred Toucher and Rich Shertenlieb culminated in a meeting Wednesday with management.
At its best, “Toucher and Rich” is the rare show in the Boston sports radio market that seeks to make listeners laugh rather than agitating them.
Cadd Fin at The Boston Globe writes the show is good when just one of the hosts is on the program. When both are there, fully engaged and playing off each other’s strengths, it’s often exceptional.
Right now, it feels like a long time since that has happened. And given the drama around the program over the past few months, which seemingly came to a head this past week, it’s fair to wonder if the show will ever be at its best again.
According to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, months of tension between Toucher and Shertenlieb culminated in a meeting Wednesday with station and parent company Beasley Media management in which Shertenlieb, among other frustrations, accused Toucher of creating a hostile work environment.
Here’s the condensed version of how it got to this point:
Over the past several months, Toucher had dealt with a mysterious throat problem that affected his voice so much that at times he struggled to talk without coughing. He missed several shows, with Shertenlieb, Wallach, and a fill-in third host picking up the slack.
On April 10, Toucher took a leave of absence to receive treatment. On more than one occasion during that absence, Toucher took to Twitter to complain that Shertenlieb and other show personnel hadn’t reached out to see how he was doing. One example: On April 29, he wrote on Twitter, “They don’t need me. Cancer scare and I don’t hear a word for weeks. Then I reach out to them … Nothing back.”
On May 5, Toucher tweeted that his previous comments were not true and that he actually had heard from Shertenlieb and Wallach, among others. Toucher elaborated when he returned to the show this past Thursday. “[The tweets were] completely unfair,” said Toucher, who revealed that he was being treated for leukoplakia, a condition caused by smoking. “I talked to Jon, I talked to Rich, [he] had offered his connections at Dana Farber [Shertenlieb’s wife, Mary, is a cancer survivor], he had offered these things. In retrospect, it was a stupid thing to do … I was sitting home scared of all this happening, not that this is an excuse.”
Shertenlieb was not there to hear Toucher’s mea culpa. He had called in sick Wednesday evening, several hours after staffers learned of Toucher’s imminent return. He was not on the show Friday, either. But he is scheduled to be in Monday … when Toucher has a previously scheduled day off.
Perhaps they will work together Tuesday. But it seems to be at least possible that they won’t work together again. According to sources, during Wednesday’s contentious meeting, Shertenlieb asked management what the plan was for the show.
He was told that Toucher was coming back Thursday, they remain cohosts, and the show — which has maintained its massive Nielsen Audio ratings though all the drama and absences — will go on.
Will Cain, co-host of “Fox & Friends Weekend,” is the next Fox News host to take a turn subbing this week in Tucker Carlson’s old 8 p.m. primetime spot.
The Wrap reports Cain is the fourth host to hold down the fort while Fox News searches for a permanent replacement for Carlson, who was booted along with ratings juggernaut “Tucker Carlson Tonight” last month in the wake of Fox’s legal settlement with Dominion Voting Systems. Brian Kilmeade was the first in rotation, followed by Lawrence Jones and Kayleigh McEnany.
Will Cain
Cain shares “Fox & Friends Weekend” hosting duties with Rachel Campos-Duffy and Pete Hegseth on Saturdays and Sundays from 6 a.m.-10 a.m., and brings a strong sports background as a former ESPN contributor; his Fox News Audio show “The Will Cain Podcast” is a fusion of politics and sports.
Ratings for Fox’ 8 p.m. hour have fallen precipitously since the demise of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” which was still hovering around 3 million nightly viewers in its latter days. As Fox rolls out fill-in hosts, the primetime slot has lost roughly half its audience, falling at times behind competitors like MSNBC’s “All in With Chris Hayes.”
But the real test will come with a permanent 8 p.m. host at Fox, which has still easily remained the most-watched network in cable news overall since Carlson’s April 24 exit, and is still the overall 8 p.m. ratings winner in viewers and the 25-54 demographic. So far there’s no indication that the current rotation of substitute hosts constitutes a tryout, and Fox has not commented on the state of its search.
The reach of podcasting is now rivaling the reach of AM/FM and TV … at least in one age group. That’s a key finding described by Tom Webster in his Podcast Upfront presentation (see video below) in New York Thursday, reports RAIN News.
Unsurprisingly, this dramatic finding points to young users, age 18-34. Webster showed the following illustrative graphic:
Digging into the generational disparity between podcast reach and AM/FM and TV reach, Webster shows the mean age of each media category, compared to the mean age of the U.S. population. The basis here is a measurement of users of each media type in the last week. The following graphic illustrates this:
The Beatles achieve another milestone as ‘Here Comes the Sun’ has become the first Beatles song to hit 1 billion Spotify streams, according to Digital Music News.
“Here Comes the Sun,” a George Harrison-penned track from the Beatles’ Abbey Road album, became the 406th song to join Spotify’s Billions Club — the first Beatles song to achieve that milestone.
In 2016, Drake became the first artist with a song to reach one billion streams on Spotify with his hit “One Dance” from the album Views. As the platform has grown, songs can generate massive streaming numbers rapidly, like Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers,” which she dropped in January. Last week, the track became the fastest song on Spotify to achieve 1 billion streams.
But why did it take so long for the Beatles to have a song of such magnitude on Spotify? First, the Fab Four were among the industry greats to hesitate regarding the online distribution of music. Their catalog wasn’t available on iTunes until 2010, where it remained exclusive until December 24, 2015.
The fact that the Beatles are a classic group and the demographic that typically uses Spotify factors in. Many older music enthusiasts still listen to physical versions of albums, like compact discs and vinyl records. While younger listeners may also enjoy the Beatles, they’re likelier to listen to newer artists whose staying power on streaming platforms already dominates, such as Taylor Swift, Beyonce, and Bad Bunny.
Notably, “Here Comes the Sun” is the first Beatles song to reach 1 billion streams and the first song from the ’60s to achieve that milestone. But it won’t be alone for long — Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s 1967 single “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” is estimated to reach that goal within ten days.
Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son” is expected to become the third by the middle of June, although CCR already has a song from the ’70s on that list: “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” from the 1970 album Pendulum. That track joined the prestigious club in March of this year.
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Sunday he expects to meet with congressional leaders on Tuesday for talks on a plan to raise the nation's debt limit and avoid a catastrophic default. Speaking to reporters in Delaware, Biden said he remained optimistic about agreeing on a deal. Biden had been scheduled to meet with lawmakers on Friday but the meeting was postponed. Biden said he had received an update on how talks had gone between administration staffers and their congressional counterparts . "I remain optimistic because I'm a congenital optimist," Biden said. He said he believed there was a desire on both sides to reach an agreement. "I think we’ll be able to do it.” Biden said he still planned to leave on a trip to Japan this week for a meeting of G7 leaders. He has been scheduled to leave on Wednesday.
Wall Street and Washington got jolted this month by government warnings that the U.S. could become unable to pay all its bills as soon as June 1. That crunch came months sooner than expected, raising the specter of a default on federal obligations unless Congress increases the debt ceiling. The reason: the expected annual gusher of tax-season payments didn’t flood into the Treasury. When the Congressional Budget Office analyzed tax collections for the current fiscal year through April, the tally fell about $250 billion short of predictions from just a few months ago. The immediate impact is that the U.S. may run out of cash before mid-June tax payments roll in, and that is spurring urgent talks between the Biden administration and congressional Republicans on how to lift the debt ceiling.
Border agents arrest man on FBI terror watchlist amid migrant influx: CBP sources https://t.co/3ekMGkSmhu
➤U-S SAYS MIGRANT CROSSINGS HAVE DROPPED: Migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border have unexpectedly fallen, not risen, since Title 42 curbs expired and reinstating criminal penalties for illegal entry is likely the biggest reason, the Biden administration said on Sunday. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said border patrol agents have seen a 50% drop in the number of migrants crossing the border since Thursday, when President Joe Biden's administration shifted to a sweeping new asylum regulation meant to deter illegal crossings. "The numbers we have experienced in the past two days are markedly down over what they were prior to the end of Title 42," Mayorkas said on CNN's "State of the Union" program. He said there were 6,300 border encounters on Friday and 4,200 on Saturday, but cautioned it was still early in the new regime.
ABC's Jon Karl suggests Biden admin 'too tough' on migrants during Mayorkas interview https://t.co/9oTrFZRpM5
➤YUMA SHOOTING KILLS 2, WOUNDS 4: Two people have died and five others were injured after a shooting about 10 miles from the US-Mexico border in Arizona. Cops were called to South J. Edward Drive in Yuma, Arizona, just before 11pm on Saturday night. They found several people injured after gunfire erupted at a gathering. Two men, aged 19 and 20, have since died from their wounds after being taken to the Yuma Regional Medical Center. Four other teenage boys, aged 15, 16, 18, and 19, were rushed to hospital with injuries. A fifth victim, aged 16, was flown to Phoenix in critical condition. Yuma Police Department are still trying to track down a suspect and the motive for the shooting, but believe there is no wider threat to the community.
➤RUNOFF NEXT FOR TURKEY: Turkey headed for a runoff vote after President Tayyip Erdogan led over his opposition rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu in Sunday's election but fell short of an outright majority to extend his 20-year rule of the NATO-member country. Neither Erdogan nor Kilicdaroglu cleared the 50% threshold needed to avoid a second round, to be held on May 28, in an election seen as a verdict on Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian path.
❗️The Ministry of Defense of Russia reports that during the battles near Bakhmut, the deputy commander of the Army Corps for military and political work, Colonel Yevhen Brovko, died.
Also, the commander of the 4th motorized rifle brigade, Colonel Makarov, died in the Chervonoye pic.twitter.com/pFfAP6lgsM
— 🇺🇦Ukrainian Front (@front_ukrainian) May 14, 2023
➤RUSSIA LOSES 2 MILITARY COMMANDERS: Russia's Defense Ministry said on Sunday that two of its military commanders were killed in eastern Ukraine, as Kyiv's forces renewed efforts to break through Russian defenses in the embattled city of Bakhmut. In a daily briefing, the ministry said that Commander Vyacheslav Makarov of the 4th Motorized Rifle Brigade and Deputy Commander Yevgeny Brovko from a separate unit were killed trying to repel Ukrainian attacks.
The Philadelphia Inquirer and outside cybersecurity experts continued Sunday to scramble to restore systems after an apparent cyberattack disrupted operations over the weekend.
The Inquirer had been unable to print its regular Sunday newspaper, and it was not clear until late Sunday afternoon that it would be possible to print Monday’s editions of The Inquirer and Daily News newspapers. Online posting and updating of stories to Inquirer.com continued, though sometimes slower than normal.
It was unclear when systems would be fully restored, and Inquirer publisher Lisa Hughes said in response to emailed questions that “we are currently unable to provide an exact time line.” The incident was the greatest publication disruption to Pennsylvania’s largest news organization since the blizzard of Jan. 7-8, 1996, and it came just days before Tuesday’s mayoral primary election.
“We appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding as we work to fully restore systems and complete this investigation as soon as possible,” Hughes said in the emailed answers through a spokesperson. “We will keep our employees and readers informed as we learn more.”
Employees would not be allowed into The Inquirer’s offices through at least Tuesday because of the ongoing disruptions, Hughes said in an internal email update Sunday night. She said the company was “looking into coworking space for Tuesday,” meaning Inquirer journalists would be unable to use their newsroom on election night. However, Hughes said that the situation won’t affect coverage.
Vice Media Group, the company popularly known for its websites such as Vice and Motherboard, said on Monday it had filed for Chapter 11 protection to facilitate its sale.
The company said in a court filing that it listed both assets and liabilities in the range of $500 million to $1 billion, reports Reuters.
Vice also said the group agreed to the terms of an asset purchase agreement with a consortium of its lenders, which included Fortress Investment Group, Soros Fund Management, and Monroe Capital.
The consortium agreed to provide total purchase consideration of approximately $225 million in the form of a credit bid for substantially all of the company's assets, in addition to the assumption of significant liabilities upon closing, the statement said.
The bankruptcy filing comes amid a challenging period for several technology and media companies, as they resort to downsizing in recent months due to a turbulent economy and a weak advertising market.
Vice has also obtained commitments for debtor-in-possession financing from the lenders, as well as consent to use more than $20 million of cash that constitutes the cash collateral.
Inflation recently has been impacting the cost of food, gas, and streaming, to name a few things. Now 56% of Americans plan to cut a streaming service, according to citing a report from Benzinga.
According to Cord Cutters News survey, most cord cutters subscribe to 3 to 4 streaming services on average. Increasingly cord cutters are looking for ways to bundle severs to get them from other services they already pay for also. Walmart offers Paramount+ with Walmart+. Verizon offers the Disney bundle, and T-Mobile offers several options for streaming.
Now though even with these bundles, a growing number of cord cutters have decided they don’t need all of these services.
According to Benzinga, when asked what services Americans would keep, they said Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. Other services they said would be kept include YouTube 8%, HBO Max 8%, Disney+ 7%, and Paramount+ 5%.
Increasingly we are hearing our readers plan to rotate subscription services. Instead of constantly paying for one, they may pay for it for a few months to watch a show and binge-watch everything it has to offer before switching. Recent price hikes have made this more popular.
Sizable swathes of young people in the US are replacing physical world activities with online experiences, according to Deloitte’s 2023 Digital Media Trends report. In a survey of more than 2,000 US consumers, half (50%) of Gen Zers and Millennials combined said they believe that online experiences are meaningful replacements for in-person experiences, and a similar share (48%) said they spend more time interacting with others on social media than in the physical world.
In each case, only about one-fifth of older respondents (Gen Xers, Boomers, and Matures combined) felt the same way.
Additionally, fully 40% of Gen Zers and Millennials combined said they socialize more in video games than in the physical world, compared to 9% of the older group.
The survey indicates that playing video games and watching user-generated content (UGC) are particularly appealing to younger demographics. About one-fifth (19%) of Gen Zers and Millennials combined said they enjoy playing video games more than other activities including watching TV shows or movies, listening to podcasts, and listening to music. The same share (19%) said the same about watching UGC.
By contrast, 55% share of the older cohort said they enjoy watching TV shows or movies more than the other activities listed. Only 30% of Gen Zers and Millennials could say the same. A previous study from Hub Entertainment Research shows 13-24-year-olds said they spent more of their screen-based leisure time with video games and non-premium video than with TV.
His smooth, comforting voice having served as the soundtrack for a generation of Bruins fans, Chris Roberts died early Friday morning at his Glendora home of complications from Parkinson’s disease and a recent stroke. He was 74, reports The L-A Times.
Known for his warmth and radiant smile as much as his ability to capture the essence of games, Roberts mentored a host of broadcast partners, including Johnson, Mike Warren, Don MacLean, Tracy Murray, David Norrie, Matt Stevens and Wayne Cook.
Roberts’ rise was as dramatic as that of the players he covered. Born Robert LaPeer on March 23, 1949, in Alhambra, he played football, basketball and baseball at Baldwin Park High and baseball at Cal Poly Pomona, where his interest in broadcasting was sparked.
Formally known as Chris Roberts, he called UCLA’s first home football game at the Rose Bowl on Sept. 11, 1982, as a member of the 49ers’ broadcast team. He worked out of a primitive radio booth consisting of a wood shed with a countertop perched atop the press box.
When Roberts was hired in 1992 to replace John Rebensdorf, a friend and former colleague who had died of heart failure, UCLA was on its fifth broadcaster in as many years. The Bruins would not have to go back on the market for more than two decades, enjoying stability during a golden age of UCLA sports.
On the way to becoming a four-time Golden Mike Award winner who was inducted into the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Assn. Hall of Fame in 2012, Roberts developed catchphrases such as “Uh-oh, Ed-O” whenever star forward Ed O’Bannon dazzled. He memorably described a simultaneous sack by defensive ends Mat and Dave Ball as “a twin Ball sack!”
The WJZ call sign was first used on what is now WABC in New York City. The original Westinghouse Electric Corporation, whose broadcasting division is a predecessor to the current broadcasting unit of CBS Corporation, launched WJZ in 1921, located originally in Newark, New Jersey.
WJZ was sold in 1923 to the Radio Corporation of America, who moved its operations to New York, and in 1926 WJZ became the flagship station for the NBC Blue Network. NBC Blue would become the American Broadcasting Company in 1942. ABC later established WJZ-FM and WJZ-TV at the same time in 1948.
In 1953 ABC merged with United Paramount Theatres, and changed the call letters of their New York area stations to WABC, WABC-FM (now WPLJ) and WABC-TV. Four years later, Westinghouse Broadcasting acquired Baltimore television station WAAM (channel 13) and changed its call letters to WJZ-TV, which remained an ABC affiliate until 1995 when the station switched to CBS.
➦In 1933...the radio serial “Today’s Children” was heard for the first time. The woman who would soon become a soap opera icon, Irma Phillips, who was an NBC Blue network program-features writer, starred in the role of Mother Moran. Today’s Children became the #1 radio soap by 1938.
➦In 1961...Peter Tripp of WMGM 1050 AM in NYC found guilty of 35 counts of "commercial bribery". Tripp was a Top-40 countdown radio personality from the mid-1950s, whose career peaked with his 1959 record breaking 201 hour wakeathon (working on the radio non-stop without sleep to benefit the March of Dimes). For much of the stunt, he sat in a glass booth in Times Square. After a few days he began to hallucinate, and for the last 66 hours the observing scientists and doctors gave him drugs to help him stay awake. Tripp suffered psychologically, after the stunt, he began to think he was an imposter of himself, and kept that thought for some time.
His career soon suffered a massive downturn when he was involved in the payola scandal of 1960. Like several other disc jockeys (including Alan Freed) he had been playing particular records in return for gifts from record companies. Indicted only weeks after his stunt, it emerged that he had accepted $36,050 in bribes. Despite his claim that he "never took a dime from anyone", he was found guilty on a charge of commercial bribery, receiving a $500 fine and a six-month suspended sentence.
Even his wakeathon record did not endure for long. Other DJs had quickly attempted to beat it (such publicity stunts being common in radio broadcasting at the time) and Dave Hunter, in Jacksonville, Florida, soon claimed success (225 hours). Six years after Tripp's record, it was smashed by high school student Randy Gardner, who lasted 11 days.
Peter Tripp
After leaving WMGM, Tripp was unable to re-establish himself in the world of radio, drifting from KYA in San Francisco to KGFJ in Los Angeles and finally WOHO in Toledo, Ohio, before quitting the medium in 1967. Returning to L.A., he had more success working in physical fitness sales and marketing. He diversified into freelance motivational speaking, writing and stockbroking before settling into a Palm Springs, California retirement.
Overall he had spent twenty years in broadcasting: he began with WEXL in Royal Oak, Michigan, in 1947 then on to Kansas City, Missouri in 1953 where he worked for KUDL (where he adopted the nickname "The Bald Kid In The Third Row", apparently a description made by a parent upon spotting him among many rows of new-borns in a hospital shortly after his birth) and then WHB (restyling himself as "The Curly-headed Kid In The Third Row"; he was not, in reality, bald) where he was pioneer in the Top-40 format. It was in 1955 that he landed his ill-fated job with WMGM in New York, presenting "Your Hits of the Week".
Tripp died in 2000 at the age of 73 following a stroke, leaving two sons and two daughters. His four marriages all ended in divorce.
➦In 1984...Canadian broadcaster Gordon Sinclair suffered a heart attack following his regular midday broadcast on CFRB Toronto; he died two days later, two weeks short of his 84th birthday. He is best remembered for his many years on CBC-TV’s Front Page Challenge.
➦In 2001...XM Satellite Radio completes satellite system.
