Newsweek Relaunch Hits Newsstands Monday

Readers of Newsweek will get their first full dose of new editor Tina Brown today when her official relaunch hits newsstands sporting a new font and thicker paper, more photos and graphics, and articles covering a wider range of topics from politics to fashion, according to a story by Russell Adams at wsj.com.

The revamped issue features Hillary Clinton on the cover with an article inside about how the secretary of state has used her position to advance women's causes globally. The new Newsweek also lists 150 women who "shake the world," a prevailing theme in an issue that was timed to this week's "Women in the World" summit in New York.

Newsweek was acquired last summer by stereo tycoon Sidney Harman, who later agreed to combine the asset with the Daily Beast news-and-commentary website in a deal that made Daily Beast co-founder Ms. Brown editor-in-chief of the merged operation.

Executives said the tie-up of the two-year-old site and Newsweek would get both properties to profitability sooner and restore some of the publication's lost appeal among readers and advertisers that have abandoned it in recent years.

Ms. Brown, a former editor of Vanity Fair, the New Yorker and Talk, had already implemented a number of changes in recent weeks. The front section, previously called "Scope," has devoted more space to lifestyle topics like fitness, entertainment and food, while articles on fashion and art have crept into a feature section traditionally dominated by politics, economics and international affairs. Newsweek has also de-emphasized the essays that had become pillars of the publication over the past two years.

In 2009 Post Co., suffering steep financial losses that forced major job cuts at Newsweek, reoriented the magazine around opinion, moving away from the news and investigative articles that required reporters it no longer had.

Read more here.

WMAL Disputes Pressure Over Islam Comments

A statement by management at 630 AM WMAL disputes Foxnews.com report that morning talk Fred Gandy was fired for his views on Islam.  The story also reported that WMAL was pressured by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) to fire Grandy.

The source for the Fox story was Grandy’s wife, Catherine. She told Fox her husband resigned after getting pressured by Citadel management to soften his on-air criticism of Muslims.

WMAL President/GM Jeff Boden initially released this statement:    

"Fred Grandy has informed WMAL of his intention to resign from the station and its morning program, The Grandy Group. Veteran broadcast talent Bryan Nehman will continue to anchor the morning program and in the interim will be joined by several notable guest hosts and regular contributors. The station’s morning show will also continue to provide the latest news, traffic and weather reports to its audience."

Then, this past weekend another Boden statement commented directly on the CAIR connection: 

"WMAL did not terminate Fred Grandy’s employment, and never had any intention to do so. Fred informed us on March 2nd of his intention to resign from the station. To be clear, at no time has WMAL told Fred that he was not allowed to discuss his views on Islam over the air. In fact, he has done so on numerous occasions. Further, WMAL has not been contacted by any organization seeking to restrict his broadcasts. I wish Fred success in his future endeavors."

Fred Grandy, best known for his role as Gopher in "The Love Boat," had been on air as a host at Washington, D.C.'s WMAL since 2003. He worked most recently as host of "The Grandy Group" -- his wife made regular appearances on that show under the nickname "Mrs. Fred."

According to Foxnews.com, WMAL, which carries several programs featuring conservative pundits, dumped host Michael Graham several years ago following comments he made about Islam and a subsequent campaign against the station's advertisers by CAIR.

CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper attributed the charges against his group to the "extreme anti-Muslim blogosphere."

"That claim is as credible as any other claim these hate mongers make," he told FoxNews.com. "They make it up out of whole cloth."

Hooper said CAIR had not even made any complaints to the station about Grandy.

Planted Phoners: Good Or Bad?

UPDATE 3PM:

Al Peterson at NTS Media Online is quoting a Premiere network exec as saying, “Premiere On Call is not utilized by any of Premiere’s nationally syndicated talent, including Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck. Premiere On Call is a recently launched audio service connecting local entertainment radio stations with great voice talent to supplement their programming needs. The service is not utilized by News/Talk programs or stations.”

From Liel Leibovitz, tabletmag.com

Last year, a young man called in to a radio station with a problem. He’d recently attended a bachelor party, he said, and a friend of the groom-to-be, clueless of the unwritten etiquette of maledom, brought his girlfriend along, derailing what was supposed to be a weekend of gambling, girls, and general debauchery. The caller told his story with passion and verve, and then asked the station’s listeners for their advice on how to treat his clueless pal.

Or at least he would have, had this been a real conversation. The young man—who asked to remain nameless in order to protect his chances for future employment—was an actor, and the staged call an audition. A short while later, he received the following email: “Thank you for auditioning for Premiere On Call,” it said. “Your audition was great! We’d like to invite you to join our official roster of ‘ready-to-work’ actors.” The job, the email indicated, paid $40 an hour, with one hour guaranteed per day.

But what exactly was the work? The question popped up during the audition and was explained, the actor said, clearly and simply: If he passed the audition, he would be invited periodically to call in to various talk shows and recite various scenarios that made for interesting radio. He would never be identified as an actor, and his scenarios would never be identified as fabricated—which they always were.

“I was surprised that it seemed so open,” the actor told me in an interview. “There was really no pretense of covering it up.”

Curious, the actor did some snooping and learned that Premiere On Call was a service offered by Premiere Radio Networks, the largest syndication company in the United States and a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications, the entertainment and advertising giant. Premiere syndicates some of the more sterling names in radio, including Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity. But a great radio show depends as much on great callers as it does on great hosts: Enter Premiere On Call.

“Premiere On Call is our new custom caller service,” read the service’s website, which disappeared as this story was being reported (for a cached version of the site click here).

Read more here.

Sheen's Webcast: Losing

Charlie Sheen lost Saturday night, blabbering endlessly on a live webcast that quickly lost viewers and drew heaps of online scorn.

According to a story at nydailynews.com, Sheen's show started with fart noises and endless references to "winning" - and ended with the troubled actor drinking from a sippy cup and repeating the word "duh."

"This was just sad, and boring, and pointless," a viewer with the Twitter handle Sasu_Uzumaki posted online.

The forgettable 50-minute webcast, dubbed "Sheen's Korner," featured Sheen and a group of his misfit pals, including "goddess" girlfriend Natalie Kenly.

With more than 100,000 viewers tuning in, the former "Two and a Half Men" star opened the show with a "big shout-out" to his children. "Daddy loves you, and if you're watching, tell mom to leave the room," said Sheen, wearing a black hat and black T-shirt with a neon dollar sign. "It's on."

Much of what he said afterward was unintelligible. In one of his few moments of clarity, Sheen revealed that he got the word "Winning" tattooed on his left wrist.

"Guess what we were doing all day, every second of the day? Winning," Sheen jabbered.

Read more here.

Reliable Sources Looks At The Sheen Frenzy

How Kurtz interviews ABC's Andrea Canning, who says Sheen threatened to walk when she asked him about porn stars.



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SNL: Winners And Losers

The Sunday Funny

Here's a hilarious classic stand up routine of Rodney Dangerfield doing on of his sets from his dvd special "I Can't Take it No More" .



For more classic entertainment and informationm click here.

The Saturday Aircheck

Excellent quality: Charlie Greer, WABC NYC November 27, 1968.  

At WABC Greer did middays and overnight. Given WABC's 50,000 watt clear channel signal, Greer became a popular all-night disc jockey heard on more than 38 states punching his way through famous tongue twister commercials for an all night clothing store called Dennison's in Union, New Jersey.

Greer also spent time with New York City's WCBS-FM in 1973. Died in October 1996.

Click here to listen.  (Hat Tip to Rock Radio Scrapbook)

Sheen: SiriusXM Bows Tiger Blood Radio

Friday brought good news for the millions of Americans frustrated by the lack of coverage of Charlie Sheen, according to a story by Eric Sass at mediapost.com.

"Tiger Blood Radio," named for the implausible trans-species kinship claimed by Sheen, will air for precisely 24 hours, beginning 6 a.m. EST on March 5, on Sirius channel 108 and XM channel 139.

According to the company, Tiger Blood Radio, named for the implausible trans-species kinship claimed by Sheen, will be a 24-hour limited run channel on Sirius channel 108 and XM channel 139. The channel will explore the breaking news, facts, fallout and career implications of the Charlie Sheen controversy.

Tiger Blood Radio will take you behind the headlines, exploring the media frenzy and reaction, the medical, psychological, psychiatric and pop culture/celebrity angles and beyond. Additionally, through a recap of news coverage, it will offer a timeline of recent events.

A large part of the "reporting" would appear to be salacious details from Sheen's personal life, as related by a succession of porn-star girlfriends to Playboy Radio. Content will include Playboy Radio clips featuring Sheen's current live-in girlfriend and "goddess" Bree Olson, a Playboy Radio contributor; ex-fiancée Ginger Lynn sharing stories on Tiffany Granath's Playboy Radio Show; and adult film star Kacey Jordan talking to Playboy Radio's Night Calls about her times with Sheen.

Read more here.

Mariah Carey 'Embarrassed' About Khadafy Gig

Beyonce donates fee to charity

Singers Mariah Carey and Beyonce have sought to distance themselves from the tainted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, for whose entourage they both performed at glitzy New Year's eve parties, according to a story by Reuters.

They joined Canadian artist Nelly Furtado, who used her Twitter account on Monday to declare she would give away the $1 million she received to perform a 45-minute set in Italy for Gaddafi's family in 2007.

Pop stars' association with Gaddafi and his sons has caused considerable embarrassment this week as the Libyan ruler orders a brutal crackdown on an uprising against his rule.

The music press has highlighted how artists including Beyonce and Carey have earned large paydays for sometimes brief appearances at lavish parties hosted by Gaddafi family members, including his son Muatassim. The stars have faced calls from fans and the public to give back the money they made.

Beyonce said she donated the cash she earned at a private party on the Caribbean island of St. Barts on New Year's Eve, 2009 to earthquake relief efforts in Haiti after learning the promoter had links to Gaddafi.

"Once it became known that the third party promoter was linked to the Qaddafi (Gaddafi) family, the decision was made to put that payment to a good cause," she said in a statement posted on her website.

On Thursday, Carey confirmed she had performed at a similar function "thrown by the sons of vicious, crazy dictator" Gaddafi and expressed her embarrassment, although she stopped short of promising to give the cash earned to charity.

A statement on her website said: "At the time, Libya was not in the news...Now it's become an issue in hindsight, which is sort of ridiculous."

Read more here.

Let The Charlie Sheen Backlash Begin

While his co-star's antics continue to draw attention, Jon Cryer kept busy with a humorous appearance on Ellen DeGeneres's talk show - as her receptionist.

Charlie Sheen may be breaking world records with his tweeting, he may be attracting mondo ratings with the many interviews he's given on various TV and radio shows, but is he really, as he has suggested, "winning!" when it comes to the hearts and minds of Americans? Is he convincing the people who buy tickets to see his next movie, program their TV to watch his next TV project, and otherwise help him support his five children, two ex-wives and, who can forget, the goddesses? 

Not so much, accortding to the TV column by Lisa de Moraes at washingtonpost.com.

According to new studies, conducted by marketing and consumer research companies HCD and Rasmussen Reports, Sheen's Scorched Earth Media Tour - in which he's been railing against his "Two and a Half Men" employers Warner Bros. TV and CBS - has backfired. 

Hardly any of the 748 people HCD polled after Sheen's campaign erupted on ABC's "Good Morning America" were buying Sheen's cured-himself-of-substance-abuse-with-a-blink-of-an-eye gag. 

About half of them said they don't even believe Sheen feels bad about the decision of the network and studio to cancel the show for the rest of this TV season - a decision they made after Sheen's wild rant on a syndicated radio show went viral. 

About 60 percent of the poll participants said they thought Sheen was mentally ill after seeing him on "Good Morning America."

Read more here.

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REUTERS:  Sheen's legal case against studios not so crazy

Stern Wants Sheen For His Sirius Channel

Through the wonders of television technology, Howard Stern was again able to appear on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' (Weeknights, 12AM on ABC) without the bother of having to fly there. The pair have used green-screen magic for interviews before, and it remained almost seamless, according to  tvsquad.com.

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CHICAGORADIOANDMEDIA.COM:
WKSC-FM Willing To Become 'Charlie-FM' For Actor Sheen

DC Radio Station Caves to CAIR, Fires Talker

Former U.S. Rep. Fred Grandy has been forced to walk away from his popular morning drive-time radio talk show in Washington after the station's management insisted he avoid discussions of radical Islam, foxnation.com cites sources close to Grandy.

The station, 630 AM WMAL, also reportedly banned Grandy's wife from future broadcasts. The outspoken "Mrs. Fred" was a regular guest on his show.

Grandy, who before entering politics played "Gopher" on the hit TV show "The Love Boat," refused WMAL management's terms and left his broadcasting job with the station Tuesday. WMAL confirmed his resignation in a brief statement on its website.

In recent months, Grandy invited Muslim activists on his morning show, "The Grandy Group," to debate the threat from the radical Muslim Brotherhood. He also hosted several U.S. security officials - including former CIA, FBI and Pentagon officials - who all warned the Brotherhood was infiltrating Washington through its U.S. front groups.

Read more here.

DeMint: PBS, NPR Execs Make More Than Obama

Opinion: If these outfits can afford to pay lavish salaries to their heads, they don't need taxpayer help

Written by Senator Jim DeMint, Wall Street Journal Op-Ed

When presidents of government-funded broadcasting are making more than the president of the United States, it's time to get the government out of public broadcasting.

While executives at the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR) are raking in massive salaries, the organizations are participating in an aggressive lobbying effort to prevent Congress from saving hundreds of millions of dollars each year by cutting their subsidies. The so-called commercial free public airwaves have been filled with pleas for taxpayer cash. The Association of Public Television Stations has hired lobbyists to fight the cuts. Hundreds of taxpayer-supported TV, radio and Web outlets have partnered with an advocacy campaign to facilitate emails and phone calls to Capitol Hill for the purpose of telling members of Congress, "Public broadcasting funding is too important to eliminate!"

PBS President Paula Kerger even recorded a personal television appeal that told viewers exactly how to contact members of Congress in order to "let your representative know how you feel about the elimination of funding for public broadcasting." But if PBS can pay Ms. Kerger $632,233 in annual compensation—as reported on the 990 tax forms all nonprofits are required to file—surely it can operate without tax dollars.

The executives at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which distributes the taxpayer money allocated for public broadcasting to other stations, are also generously compensated. According to CPB's 2009 tax forms, President and CEO Patricia de Stacy Harrison received $298,884 in reportable compensation and another $70,630 in other compensation from the organization and related organizations that year. That's practically a pittance compared to Kevin Klose, president emeritus of NPR, who received more than $1.2 million in compensation, according to the tax forms the nonprofit filed in 2009.

Today's media landscape is a thriving one with few barriers to entry and many competitors, unlike when CPB was created in 1967. In 2011, Americans have thousands of news, entertainment and educational programs to choose from that are available on countless television, radio and Web outlets.

Read more here.

Mr. DeMint, a Republican, is a senator from South Carolina.

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