Despite an uptick in national disasters over the past few years, members of the general public still admit they are not fully prepared, a new survey finds. Fewer than half of national respondents to an Ipsos survey have obtained or accessed basic information to prepare for a disaster such as emergency responder contact info, evacuation routes or shelter locations. During a disaster, they rely more on traditional communications channels such as websites, radio and TV, as opposed to social media, but want better options.
The general population feels most prepared for blizzards (51 percent), floods (47 percent) and hurricanes (33 percent) and least prepared for shootings (15 percent).
Recent post-disaster conversations have focused on social media innovations to address the next disaster —functions like Facebook’s “safe check-in” or live-tweeting from inside the eye of a storm. Despite these conversations, the survey respondents were surprisingly traditional in their preferred communications channels.
Respondents (83 percent) agree that technology plays a critical role in disaster preparedness, particularly in synchronizing efforts and data sources between first responders, aid organizations and other relief personnel. However, respondents (51 percent nationally) are less likely to rely heavily on social media during an event, preferring radio (63 percent) and television (55 percent). Respondents believe that information about shelters, contacts, what to pack and disaster locations would be most helpful to prepare, and would also prefer a text messaging service that provides disaster updates or even a telephone hotline.
Ipsos and Booz Allen Hamilton surveyed more than 1,000 respondents nationally and an additional more than 300 each in California, Florida and Texas, states particularly vulnerable to disasters. Respondents were queried about their preparedness and the value of technology in preparing for and surviving a variety of disasters.
A TV tower in Webster County, Missouri collapsed Thursday morning, killing a man and injuring several other people, according to the Springfield News-Leader.
The tower was used to broadcast KOZK Ozarks Public Television, according to a spokeswoman for Missouri State University.
Police said Stephen LaMay, 56, of Washington state was killed while working on the tower that collapsed along at 905 State Highway FF.
Authorities says just before 10 a.m., six workers were performing routine maintenance on the 1,980-foot-tall tower when it went down.
The workers were about 105 feet high at the time of the collapse, Talburt said.
Andrea Mostyn, spokeswoman for Missouri State University, briefed reporters at the scene of the incident.
Mostyn said MSU owns the tower and uses it to broadcast KOZK Ozarks Public Television.
MSU spokeswoman Suzanne Shaw said the workers were installing structural support to accommodate new equipment associated with a channel change.
MSU issued a statement, calling the tower's collapse and the ensuring death a "tragedy."
“We are shocked and saddened by the news,” Shaw said in the statement. “Our condolences go out to the victims and their families. We are also providing support and resources to the other team members affected.”
The statement said there was a crew from the state of Washington working on the tower, three of whom were transported to Springfield for medical evaluation.
Gil Santos, the New England Patriots’ longtime radio voice, died Thursday on his 80th birthday and 57th wedding anniversary.
The NY Post reports son Mark Santos confirmed the death to The Boston Globe. He said the cause of death wasn’t immediately clear to the family.
Santos started working Patriots’ broadcasts games for WBZ 1030 AM in 1966 as a color analyst. He took over play-by-play duties when the team moved to Foxborough in 1971. WBZ lost the team’s broadcast rights in the 1980s, and Santos returned with the station in 1991 and remained a fixture through the 2012 season.
Santos called 743 games in 36 seasons, and also did many Boston College football games. He retired from WBZ in 2009 after 38 years as a sports anchor, and was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame that year. In 2013, he went into the Patriots Hall of Fame.
“It was my privilege to honor Gil with his induction into the Patriots Hall of Fame in 2013,” Patriots Chairman and CEO Robert Kraft said in a team statement. “His legacy and most memorable calls will live there for future generations of Patriots fans to enjoy.”
➦In 1935...“Your Hit Parade” debuted on NBC Radio as a one-hour Saturday night program, with 15 of the week’s top songs performed in random order.
The dramatic countdown to the #1 song was adopted several years later, after the show had moved to CBS. Lenny Hayton was the initial orchestra leader, and Kay Thompson one of the first singers.
➦In 1952...the "Big Show" finished a two year run on the NBC Radio Network.
The Big Show was radio 90-minute variety program featuring top-name comics, stage, screen and music talent, and was aimed at keeping American radio in its classic era alive and well against the rapidly growing television tide. For a good portion of its two-year run (November 5, 1950-April 20, 1952), it was hosted by legendary stage actress and personality Tallulah Bankhead,
The show's success was credited to Bankhead's notorious wit and ad-libbing ability in addition to the show's superior scripting. She had one of the funniest writers in the business on her staff: Goodman Ace, the mastermind of radio's legendary Easy Aces. She included renowned ad-libbers in the show—particularly Fred Allen (he and his longtime sidekick and wife, Portland Hoffa, appeared so often they could have been the show's regular co-hosts) and Groucho Marx, both of whom appeared on the first season's finale and appeared jointly on three other installments.
As Bankhead recorded in her memoirs, she took the show because she needed the money but nearly changed her mind when she feared she'd be little more than a glorified mistress of ceremonies with nothing to do but introduce the feature performers. "Guess what happened?" she continued. "Your heroine emerged from the fracas as the Queen of the Kilocycles. Authorities cried out that Tallulah had redeemed radio. In shepherding my charges through The Big Show, said the critics, I had snatched radio out of the grave. The autopsy was delayed."
➦In 1961…The U.S. Federal Communications Commission approved FM stereo broadcasting.
In the late 1950s, several systems to add stereo to FM radio were considered by the FCC. Included were systems from 14 proponents including Crosby, Halstead, Electrical and Musical Industries, Ltd (EMI), Zenith, and General Electric. The individual systems were evaluated for their strengths and weaknesses during field tests in Uniontown, Pennsylvania using KDKA-FM in Pittsburgh as the originating station.
The Crosby system was rejected by the FCC because it was incompatible with existing subsidiary communications authorization (SCA) services which used various subcarrier frequencies including 41 and 67 kHz. Many revenue-starved FM stations used SCAs for "storecasting" and other non-broadcast purposes. The Halstead system was rejected due to lack of high frequency stereo separation and reduction in the main channel signal-to-noise ratio.
The GE and Zenith systems, so similar that they were considered theoretically identical, were formally approved by the FCC in April 1961 as the standard stereo FM broadcasting method in the United States and later adopted by most other countries.[
➦In 1985...Flashback..From the pages of Radio&Records...
➦In 2007...a survey was released which said 54% of Americans thought firing talk show host, Don Imus, several days earlier, was justified for his comments about the Rutgers women basketball team. ➦In 2011…Former Los Angeles radio personality (KFWB, KRLA, KEZY, KFI) Ted Quillin, the first to play a Ritchie Valens record on the radio and portrayed by Rick Dees in the film "La Bamba," died at age 81.
Ted Quillan
Born in Oklahoma City, Quillin moved to El Paso, Texas where he finished high school and attended Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy now known as UTEP. During this time, while still in high school Ted started his broadcast career at KEPO, an ABC station in El Paso. He started as a ‘gofer’ on a morning show from 6 to 7 AM, before he went to school. He graduated to staff announcer. After that he took a job in Corpus Christi, Texas at KSIX. The program director from KXYZ in Houston heard him, and hired him as a staff announcer. From there he went to WACO in Waco, Texas. Ted moved to KELP which was a Gordon McClendon station, doing top 40. This is where he met Chuck Blore and when Chuck got the call to Hollywood he took Ted with him and Ted became one of the original "Seven Swingin’ Gentlemen", who took Rock and Roll into its first major market, at KFWB. His listeners became known as the "Quiverin' Quillin Clan."
Quillin's years in radio include: KFWB–Hollywood, 1958–61; KRLA–Pasadena, 1962–64; KORK–Las Vegas, 1964–1966, KFI- L.A, 1969; KFOX-Long Beach 1969-71; XPRS-1972, and finally, KORK-Las Vegas, 1972, when he became a permanent resident of Las Vegas.
In 2005 Ted was inducted into the Broadcasters' Hall of Fame in Nevada.
A broadcast tower in Webster County, Missouri collapsed Thursday morning, killing one individual and injuring several others, according to the assistant fire chief of the Logan-Rogersville Fire Protection District.
According to the Springfield MO News-Leader, the tower was used to broadcast non-com radio KSMU 91.1 FM and Ozarks Public Television KOZK.
Assistant Chief Rob Talburt said the 50 to 60 people from multiple agencies have responded to the tower collapse at 905 State Highway FF, near Fordland, east of Springfield MO.
At 11 a.m., Talburt said officials were still not sure what caused the tower collapse.
Talburt said just before 10 a.m., six workers were performing routine maintenance on the 1,980-foot-tall tower when it went down.
He said the workers were about 105 feet high at that time.
One worker was trapped and killed, and the other five suffered non-life-threatening injuries, according to Talburt.
"It's very lucky that we didn't have more fatalities out here," Talburt said.
There are what appears to be tangled metal pieces at the base of the tower, which is completely on its side.
Talburt said the surviving workers were in a state of shock when first responders arrived.
According to a November architectural bid document from Missouri State apparently referring to the tower that collapsed, the tower stood 1,891 feet tall.
The area in Webster County has an elevation of 1,600 feet above sea level, 300 feet higher than Springfield, making it a desirable location for tower transmissions.
Most-Liked: David Muir and Least-Liked: Megyn Kelly
You like David Muir! You really like him! Muir, the anchor of ABC’s “World News Tonight,” is our nation’s most-liked TV media personality, according to TheWrap‘s latest study of Q Scores.
The anchor’s ratings reflect America’s ongoing love affair. “World News Tonight” is now the most-watched newscast in the country, having won last season in total viewers for the first time since Peter Jennings anchored the program 21 years ago.
It’s worth noting here that although NBC’s Lester Holt still wins in the key news demographic, adults 25-54, Muir has closed that gap by a huge 46 percent compared with last season.
Muir’s strong Positive Q Score of 25 ranks him well ahead of Holt, who has a strong 18.
Q Scores are an entertainment industry-used measurement of a celebrity or a brand’s likability. The higher the Positive Q Score, the more the 25 to 54-year-old survey respondents marked the individual or company as being among their favorites. The lower — well, you get it.
Poor Megyn Kelly. The host of the third hour of NBC’s “Today” show and of summer series “Sunday Night With Megyn Kelly” is America’s least-liked TV media personality.
Kelly, who jumped from a successful primetime show on Fox News last year to a lucrative new gig at NBC, has struggled a bit at her new network.
Muir’s 25 ranks him a full four Q Score points ahead of a mini logjam in second place.
Fox News host Chris Wallace, “Good Morning America” co-anchor Lara Spencer and “CBS Evening News” anchor Jeff Glor all have a 21 Positive Q Score, though only Wallace — with a 31 Familiarity score — is better-known to the general public than Muir (a 25 for Familiarity too).
CBS’ John Dickerson is the fifth most-liked TV media personality, with a 20.
The Tampa Bay Times, one of the largest US newspapers by circulation, plans to lay off around 50 people starting Thursday in a direct response to a new tariff imposed by President Donald Trump's administration.
In March, Paul Tash, the Times' chairman and CEO, wrote in the paper that new tariffs on imported newsprint would increase the company's costs by roughly $3 million a year.
"These tariffs will also hurt our employees, because payroll is the only expense that is bigger than newsprint," Tash warned. "To help offset the extra expense of paper, publishers will eliminate jobs. Make no mistake: These tariffs will cause layoffs across American newspapers, including this one."
BusinessInsider reports the tariffs were imposed on imports of Canadian newsprint after a Washington-based paper producer owned by the hedge fund One Rock Capital lodged a complaint with the Department of Commerce.
Using a similar investigation process that led to new tariffs on steel and aluminum, the Commerce Department imposed a tariff on newsprint imports in January and increased their size in March.
The tariffs left local newspapers, already facing financial constraints, worried about how their businesses could handle the cost increase.
For the Tampa Bay Times, the cuts represent another round of trouble in a string of tough financial decisions. According to the Tampa Bay Business Journal, the paper was forced to take out a $12 million loan and a $20 million secured credit line in 2017 to shore up its finances.
The Tampa Bay Times is owned by the nonprofit journalism school the Poynter Institute. It a daily circulation of just under 240,000 and reaches 1.6 million people a week online and in print. The paper is one of the 15 largest in the US by circulation.
Jon Marks and his WIP 94.1 FM co-host, former Eagles linebacker Ike Reese, defeated WPEN 97.5 The Fanatic’s longtime ratings champ in the 2018 winter ratings book, which uses data gathered from January through March to measure popularity.
According to philly.com, it was a narrow victory, less than a share among men ages 25 to 54, the most important listening demographic for both radio stations (all numbers in this story are for men 25 to 54). But it was the first time WIP defeated Missanelli in a quarterly book since 2015, when Missanelli lost to WIP’s short-lived duo of Josh Innes and Tony Bruno. Marks and Reese ended the most recent quarter in third place in the market, while Missanelli finished narrowly behind them in fourth place.
But Eric Johnson, who took over as program director of The Fanatic in December, isn’t ready to concede the victory. Johnson pointed out that if you combine the terrestrial numbers with streaming ratings offered by Nielsen, Missanelli eked out the win over WIP.
Most radio stations count only the terrestrial ratings numbers to determine things like advertising rates and bonus offers, which is why Nielsen reports the two as seperate numbers. But stations rarely use Nielsen numbers to sell ads online anyway, due to their volatility and web analytics that let companies track the exact numbers of their streaming audience.
WIP finished third overall in the market, nearly four full ratings shares ahead of The Fanatic, which ended the quarter in fourth place. Year-to-year, both stations were up, but WIP managed to grow its ratings more than 100 percent compared to 2017, and ended the quarter with the highest-rated winter ratings book in the station’s history.
MORNING DRIVE
Once again, Cataldi and the WIP Morning Show crew crushed Anthony Gargano, more than doubling his ratings for the quarter. The second-place finish isn’t in itself surprising, considering Cataldi’s popularity and WIP’s partnership with the Eagles. But Gargano and co-host Bob Cooney, who finished in fifth place, benefited the least from the ratings bump every sports show in the city enjoyed due to the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory.
Ironically, both sports stations were defeated during the Eagles’ historic postseason run by WMMR’s Preston & Steve, who have dominated ratings in Philadelphia for nearly a decade. Once again, the duo of Preston Elliot and Steve Morrison finished in first place in the market, well ahead of both Cataldi and Gargano.
Nielsen on Wednesday 4/18/18 released the third batch of March 2018 PPM Data for the following markets: 22 Portland OR 24 Charlotte / Gastonia / Rock Hill NC 26 San Antonio 27 Sacramento 28 Pittsburgh
29 Salt Lake City / Ogden / Provo 30 Las Vegas 31 Orlando 32 Cincinnati 34 Cleveland 35 Kansas City 36 Columbus OH Click Here to view topline numbers for subscribing Nielsen stations.
Entercom/Bston has announced a multi-year contract extension with "The TJ Show," hosted by TJ Taormina, Loren Raye and Producer Matt Shearer, to remain on WODS 103.3 FM AMP Radio.
TJ and Loren joined WODS for mornings in April, 2013 and along with Producer Matt Shearer. Prevoiusly, both Taormina and Raye were with the Elvis Duran Morning Show on WHTZ-FM (Z100)/New York.
"‘The TJ Show' is Boston's next-generation morning show," said , Entercom Boston Senior VP/Market Manager Mark Hannon. "We are thrilled that TJ, Loren Raye and Producer Matt will continue to entertain Boston morning listeners for years to come."
WODS 1033 FM (8.7 Kw) Red=Local Coverage Area
"We're grateful to continue our relationship with 103.3 AMP Radio here in Boston. I'm excited to continue growing the show with my co-host Loren Raye and Producer Matt Shearer," said TJ. "Many thanks to Chris Oliviero, Pat Paxton, Mark Hannon and Steve Salhany for this amazing opportunity. They're great guys who deeply value the power of local radio."
Nationally syndicated radio host Tom Joyner will return to Detroit’s WDMK 105.9 KissFM starting Monday.
“The return of Tom Joyner to Kiss FM is going to give his audience greater access and we’re going to celebrate his career,” said Radio One General Manager Kathy Stinehour.
Radio One owns both WDMK and W260CB Soul 99.9 FM, the translator station that is currently airing the “Tom Joyner Morning Show.”
Stinehour says Joyner will return to Detroit on Monday to broadcast his show live from the city on Monday and Tuesday to celebrate his return to Kiss FM.
His return marks the end of “Mason & Coco in the Morning.” Detroit comedian Coco has departed the show, and John Mason will move to a mid-day slot, noon-3 p.m. daily on WDMK.
WDMK 105.9 FM (20 Kw) Red=Local Coverage Area
As for what will happen on 99.9, Steinhour says they’ll simulcast Joyner’s show at first, and then they’ll have some other plans for the station which will be announced later.
More than 100 million people globally are now paying for Amazon Prime, a sign of how Amazon.com Inc. has used the service to evolve from an online marketplace that struggled with profitability into an e-commerce powerhouse.
The Wall Street Journal reports Amazon, which has never disclosed the number of Prime members before, revealed the figure Wednesday in Chief Executive Jeff Bezos’s closely followed annual letter to shareholders. The company said in late 2015 that it had “tens of millions” of Prime customers.
Amazon’s story to investors has largely been one of scale. In the company’s view, having a large numbers of customers and clients has allowed it to spread costs broadly and continue investing in technology.
This view is shown in its growing Prime membership, through its massive cloud-server business and how it lets third-party sellers onto its platform to compete against itself for customers. Amazon said Wednesday that a majority of goods shipped world-wide on its platform are now from these sellers.
Launched 13 years ago, the $99-a-year Prime service gives customers free, unlimited two-day shipping, access to free music and videos, and other perks.
Last year Amazon brought in $9.72 billion in revenue directly from subscription services, including fees from Prime members. The company also benefits from Prime members who tend to spend more money on Amazon than nonmembers and do so more frequently.
Mr. Levin’s firm estimates Prime members in the U.S. spend $1,300 a year with Amazon, while non-Prime members spend about $700.
The letter also said more new members joined Prime last year than in any previous year. Amazon has been expanding Prime internationally, including to Mexico, Singapore and the Netherlands in 2017.
Time Warner Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes on Wednesday defended his company’s planned merger with telecoms firm AT&T as necessary to compete effectively for advertising with internet giants like Google and Facebook.
Reuters reports Bewkes told Judge Richard Leon, who will decide if the $84.5 billion deal may go forward, that the U.S. Justice Department was wrong to say that AT&T would be reluctant to license Time Warner’s TV and movie content to rivals, causing blackouts, in order to win over new customers to AT&T subsidiary DirecTV.
Jeff Bewkes
“I think it’s ridiculous,” said Bewkes, who has been CEO for more than 10 years. “If our channels are not in distribution we lose lots of money (from lost subscriptions and advertising).”
Bewkes argued it was in Time Warner’s best interest financially to license its television channels, which range from movies to CNN to sports, broadly online.
He said Time Warner had been hampered in innovating and advertising because it does not have the granular information about viewers held by pay TV and internet companies.
With digital advertising, Chevrolet, for example, can target car ads at people looking to actually buy a car, he said.
AT&T has said a key benefit of owning Time Warner is that it can take data about its 141 million U.S. wireless subscribers and 25 million video subscribers and marry it with Time Warner’s programming to enable advertisers to target TV ads.
Targeted TV ads, also known as addressable TV, have yet to go mainstream because they involve renegotiating carriage deals with programmers and distributors, said Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research.
Targeted TV could represent more than $100 billion in revenue by 2030 for companies that offer it, according to an April Credit Suisse report, which called it “a largely overlooked benefit of the AT&T/Time Warner transaction.” The ads can be sold at triple the price of regular ads.
John Stankey
Advertisers’ spending on TV ads in 2018 is expected to be around $70 billion, a 1.45 percent increase from three years ago, according to research firm eMarketer.
According to Deadline, AT&T exec John Stankey finally had his chance to testify late Wednesday about the motivation behind the companies’ $85 billion merger.
“The market we are competing in is for time and attention,” he said under direct questioning from lead defense attorney Daniel Petrocelli. “Facebook, Google, Netflix — they are all distracting people from other things they used to do” like tune in linear TV, he said. “That’s the battle here.”
Joining forces, the defense insists, will unlock both efficiencies and customer benefits. The Department of Justice contends that the merger will harm rival companies and consumers through higher carriage fees given the companies’ merged might.
Stankey took the stand late in the day’s action. His two hours of testimony followed about three hours on the stand for Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes, whom Stankey would effectively replace if and when the long-gestating deal is approved. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, who is poised to run the combined company, will testify on Thursday morning.
President Trump’s Justice Department, barring any last-minute changes, is days away from clearing the controversial $6.6 billion acquisition of Tribune Media by Sinclair Broadcasting, The NYPost has learned.
Antitrust lawyers at the department, which has primary oversight, have recently reached out to colleagues at the Federal Communications Commission to advise them of the move, one source familiar with the matter said.
As currently configured, a post-merger Sinclair would own 223 stations covering 72 percent of US households.
To gain regulatory approval, Sinclair, which is acquiring 42 Tribune stations, is selling 13 of them, sources said. The Justice Department approval will come after Sinclair announces agreements on the divestitures, they said.
The FCC will continue its review, which is seen as a much easier hurdle to clear. That decision is expected in August, a source said.
