Redstone Sues, Moonves Gives Utimatum, Board Member Gets Physical

Shari Redstone’s National Amusements has returned fire at CBS, suing Leslie Moonves and most of the CBS board of directors as the battle for control of the company escalates.

According to Variety, the 66-page complaint filed Tuesday by National Amusements Inc. (NAI) in Delaware Chancery Court seeks to block the CBS board’s effort to dilute NAI’s overwhelming voting control in the company. The complaint also challenges the legality of Moonves’ severance package, asserting that the rich pact was never reviewed by the full CBS board. The NAI lawsuit follows CBS’ stunning decision to file suit May 14 against its controlling shareholder, claiming that NAI’s agenda in pursuing a merger of CBS and Viacom was detrimental to the interests of other CBS shareholders.

The Wall Street Journal reports Shari Redstone shot back at CBS Corp. Tuesday, alleging that CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves gave the CBS board an “ultimatum” that he would resign unless directors voted to strip her family of voting control.

In a complaint filed Tuesday in the Delaware Court of Chancery, Ms. Redstone and her family holding company, National Amusements Inc., say that CBS’s action to strip National Amusements of voting control by issuing a dilutive dividend to all shareholders is invalid.

They say that the recent legal attacks against the Redstone family aren’t motivated by the CBS board’s concern over being forced to merge with corporate sibling, Viacom Inc., as CBS says. Rather, Ms. Redstone says that the motivation is Mr. Moonves’s opportunistic seizure of the moment to throw off the yoke of having a controlling shareholder that he has long chafed against, according to the complaint.

And NBC's Claire Atkinson writes Extraordinary revelations emerged Tuesday about the tense — and, at times, allegedly physical — closed-door meetings between senior executives at CBS and Viacom, which remain locked in a battle over a potential merger. Legal filings describe how 64-year-old Shari Redstone, one of the most powerful women in media, was reportedly manhandled by a member of the CBS board, with Charles Gifford "grabbing her face and directing her to listen to him."

Redstone, who is vice chairman of CBS and Viacom and the daughter of ailing media mogul Sumner Redstone, is under fire from CBS, which claims that National Amusements, the holding company that retains 80 percent of the voting shares in CBS and Viacom, was usurping its role by trying to force a merger of the two and potentially replace CBS board members.

Redstone suggested that Gifford for one not be renominated. Gifford later told her that he meant no offense, adding "that was how he treats his daughters when he wants their attention" according to the filing. Redstone responded that "She was not Mr. Gifford's daughter but instead the vice chair of CBS."

Pandora Launches Premium Family Plan

Priced at $14.99 a month or $164.89 annually, the new plan offers all the same perks as Pandora Premium – on-demand listening with unlimited skips and replays, no ads, higher-quality audio than the free tier, and the ability to create playlists and download music for offline access – for up to six unique accounts simultaneously.

Considering Pandora Premium costs $9.99 a month for just one account, this new option is a good deal for families, according to Fox News.  For the sake of comparison, family plans from rival music streaming services Spotify and Apple Music also cost $14.99 a month and offer support for up to six individual accounts.

"Each of your Premium Family members will get full access to Pandora Premium features, but they'll have their own account," Pandora wrote in a FAQ article about the new plan. "In other words, you won't have to share your music unless you want to."

Subscribers will also get access to "Our Soundtrack," a "regularly-updated playlist created just for your family that combines each person's unique musical tastes," Pandora wrote.

Analyst Spencer Osborne at SeekingAlpha writes family plans in streaming services have become more common over the past year or so. With connected homes, connected cars, and streaming on cell networks, the trouble of one person at a time being able to listen to music has gotten cumbersome for consumers. In the past, multiple individual accounts in one family have proven to be difficult to keep active. A big assist in the creation of family plans has to go to smart speakers and advancing technology that has more people listening to music in more places.

With its new features, Pandora has almost re-invented itself. Early in the life of streaming services, Pandora's music genome was seen as revolutionary. It built a service around the user's tastes and created a "station" that learned over time. As good as that technology is, instant access to a particular song or even an album was lacking. Spotify filled that need and grew to a massive size by allowing full customization. One of the critical downsides of Spotify has been that it was having extreme difficulty in making money with its business model.

Time Spent With Media Approaching Total Awake Time

Thanks largely to the ubiquitous access of mobile devices, the total time people spend consuming media continues to grow, and according to the head of forecasting at Publicis’ Zenith unit, will max out around total awake time.

“I think we’ve got a way to go,” Zenith Head of Forecasting and Director of Global Intelligence Jonathan Barnard told Media Daily News during a briefing on the eve of the agency’s new Media Consumption Forecast, released today. But with new technologies -- especially 5G connectivity and Internet of Things connected devices -- Barnard predicts the upper limit of media consumption will only be limited by sleep.

Currently, the average American’s non-sleeping day is about 912 minutes, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Zenith’s new forecast estimates the average American will spend 636.6 minutes daily with media this year, or about 70% of the time we are awake. Over the next two years, Barnard forecasts we will add another 13 minutes per day consuming media.

The U.S. indexes among the highest nations in the world in terms of time spent consuming media, but Barnard says the global average is catching up, due to more ubiquitous access via mobile technology, and ultimately, from IoT connected devices too.

Shreveport Radio: Aaron Criswell To Manage Cumulus Cluster

Aaron Criswell

Cumulus Media announces that it has appointed 18-year media industry professional Aaron Criswell as Vice President and Market Manager of Cumulus Media-Shreveport/Bossier City, LA.

Criswell will lead Cumulus Media’s five-station cluster, which includes: Sports KRMD 1340 AM The Ticket,  Urban Contemporary KMJJ 99.7 FM; HotAC KQHN Q97.3 FM; UrbanAC KVMA  Magic 102.9 FM, and Country KRMD 101.1 FM.

Criswell joins Cumulus from Adams Radio Group, where he was Vice President/General Manager for its Las Cruces, NM, stations. Prior to that, he was Senior Media Consultant and Senior Marketing Manager for CBS Radio in Sacramento, CA, and General Manager/Market Manager for Mapleton Communications in San Luis Obispo, CA. Criswell was also formerly Senior Marketing Manager for Cumulus Media-San Francisco, CA. He began his career as Senior Broadcast Media Buyer for Young & Rubicam/Media Edge in San Francisco, CA. Criswell holds a B.A. degree in Communications from San Diego State University.

Mark Sullivan, Regional Vice President, Cumulus Media, said: “We’re really enthused about Aaron joining our team. I’m looking forward to working directly with him and extending his long track record of success!”

Criswell said: “I am excited for the opportunity to lead the Shreveport-Bossier City cluster for Cumulus. Based on past experiences and industry knowledge, I look forward to implementing a strategic plan to maximize ratings and revenue results. The opportunity to work alongside Mark Sullivan, Bob Walker and Mary Berner is just icing on the King Cake.”

Morgan Freeman's Lawyer Demands CNN Retraction

Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman’s lawyer has asked CNN to retract its report about sexual misconduct allegations against the actor.

The 10-page legal letter, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, is addressed to Jeff Zucker, president of CNN, and claims the story has defamed and “inflicted serious injury” on Freeman’s reputation and career.

“At a minimum, CNN immediately needs to issue a retraction and apologize to Mr. Freeman through the same channels, and with the same level of attention, that it used to unjustly attack him on May 24,” reads the letter from attorney Robert M. Schwartz. “CNN also needs to retract the portions of the story that concern Lori McCreary and apologize to her for defaming and injuring her.”

Freeman’s lawyer says they have begun an investigation into the story and shared some of the findings of their review:

• Of the three people CNN identified as being a “victim,” the first, CNN’s own Chloe Melas, had no reasonable basis to have interpreted what Mr. Freeman said or did at the Going In Style interview last year as having been directed at her or as any form of harassment. The videotape confirms that his statement had nothing to do with her and was not harassing. And an independent third party, the Warner Bros. Human Resources Department, investigated her claim and concluded that it was not supported by the facts.
• The second person CNN identified, Tyra Martin, has gone on record twice since CNN published the article to state that CNN misrepresented what she said to CNN and that Mr. Freeman did not harass her.
• The third person CNN identified, Lori McCreary, told CNN that Mr. Freeman never harassed her. And as to CNN’s gratuitous sideswipe at Ms. McCreary herself, yet another independent party investigated the claim when CNN raised it, and found it to be meritless.
• Ms. Melas baited and prodded supposed “witnesses” to say bad things about Mr. Freeman and tried to get them to confirm her bias against him. Thus, no reader of the article can have any confidence that any of the anonymous sources, which make up the balance of CNN’s article, can be relied upon at all.

In the May 24 CNN report, eight women accused Freeman of sexual misconduct, describing multiple incidents of the actor’s alleged inappropriate behavior throughout his career. In all, 16 people spoke to the news outlet as part of the investigation; eight witnesses and eight who claim to be victims. CNN entertainment reporter Chloe Melas — who co-authored the article with An Phung — was the only victim who spoke on the record.

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D-C Radio: Report..Phil Zachary To Manage Entercom Cluster

Phil Zachary

There were several reports circulating Monday indicating that longtime broadcast veteran Phil Zachary is now SVP/Market Manager for the Entercom stations in Washington DC.

He succeeds Steve Swenson, who is no longer with Entercom.

Zachary joins the D-C cluster from Hartford DT, where he has been SVP/Market Manager since, November 2017.  He will continue to oversee the Hartford station until a replacement is named.

The ENTERCOM/ENTERCOM includes Top 40/Rhythmic WPGC, Hot AC WIAD, Talk WDCH, Sports WJFK-F, Spanish WJFK-A, Tropical WLZL.

Prior to Hartford, Zachary was VP/Market Manager for four years for the CBS Radio cluster in Boston.

GA Radio: WGCO Flips To CHR as 'Hot 98.3'

Dick Broadcasting Company has announced the launch of CHR WGCO Hot 98.3 FM “All the Hits!”

Launching commercial free on Memorial Day with 10,000 songs in a row, Hot 98.3 will welcome their new listeners with a chance to win a family getaway every week. The 100,000-watt powerhouse will reach previously underserved listeners to the hits they crave. Following the launch, Hot 98.3 will feature live and local favorite Stacy Scott during Middays. Scott will also serve as the station’s Program Director.

DBC Savannah-Hilton Head Market Manager Aaron Wilborn commented on the announcement: “It’s a special day at Dick Broadcasting as we round out our cluster of stations with something this hot. So much time, energy, research and resources have gone in to this project and I could not be more proud of Gabe Reynolds, Stacy Scott, John Marshall, Sean Daley, Reggie Peterson and Jason Goodman. Get ready Lowcountry and Coastal Empire! The summer just got hotter!”

“I couldn’t be more excited to launch Hot 98.3 here in Savannah-Hilton Head,” remarked Stacy Scott, “our ability to have a huge presence in our community and touch our new listeners with great promotions will be unlike any other in the market! I am so excited to show Savannah how it’s done!

WGCO 98.3 FM (100 Kw) Red=Local Coverage Area

Vice President of Programming for DBC, Jason Goodman, was quoted as saying, “After extensive research, we discovered that the Top 40 audience is being underserved in the Savannah-Hilton Head market and surrounding areas. Hot 98.3 will be super-serving the local community and will add a new flavor of hit music and content.”

Jacobs Media Expands Relationship With Podcast Movement

Now there are twice as many reasons for radio broadcasters to attend the Podcast Movement conference this year. Jacobs Media and the event’s organizers have doubled the agenda for the radio-focused podcast track, “Broadcasters Meet Podcasters.” For the upcoming 2018 convention in Philadelphia on July 23-26, Jacobs Media has developed nine sessions over two days targeted at members of the radio industry.

This year, "Broadcasters Meet Podcasters" is sponsored by the Beasley Media Group. Company President Fred Jacobs announced, “Podcasting represents a tremendous opportunity for the radio industry to expand its content delivery and brands, and Podcast Movement is the best forum to learn about the space and where it’s going. We are thrilled to have Beasley Media Group as our presenting sponsor.”

“Podcasting plays an important role in our company’s continued commitment of offering unique content to our dedicated listeners and advertisers across multiple platforms,” said Beasley Media Group Chief Executive Officer Caroline Beasley. “We look forward to being a part of this exciting event with Jacobs Media in one of our company’s largest markets, Philadelphia!”

Podcast Movement’s Co-Founder/Organizer Dan Franks recognizes the important relationship between broadcasting and podcasting, remarking, “We are so excited to be joining forces with the Jacobs team for the second year at Podcast Movement. The feedback we got from last year’s ‘Broadcasters Meet Podcasters’ was so great we knew we had to do it again! We expect the turnout to this year’s event to be the largest yet, due in part to the increased presence of the broadcast professionals. We can’t wait to see even more new faces in 2018.”

NPR CEO, Jarl Mohn, will be keynoting the first day of Jacobs Media’s sessions. He notes, “I am excited to be part of the ‘Broadcasters Meet Podcasters’ track of Podcast Movement. I look forward to discussing what podcasting has meant for NPR and public radio. We are in the golden age of audio storytelling. Thanks to podcasts, people are connecting with the human voice and narrative again. And discovering public radio in the process. At NPR we have been using podcasts to experiment with new formats, ideas, talent and voices. It is a cornerstone of our growth.”

Slated for Day Two of “Broadcasters Meet Podcasts” is a stellar lineup of radio execs that includes Caroline Beasley (CEO, Beasley Media Group), Ginny Morris (CEO, Hubbard Radio), Bill Hendrich (EVP, Cox Media Group), Suzanne Grimes (EVP, Westwood One), and Julie Talbott (President, Premiere Networks).

Bobby Bones, National Radio Hall of Fame inductee, iHeartRadio syndicated star, stand-up comedian, author, chart-topping recording artist, TV personality, philanthropist and podcaster will also be keynoting the second day of the Jacobs sessions.

The 2018 Podcast Movement will take place in Philadelphia, July 23-26, at the Downtown Philadelphia Marriott. More information on the agenda can be found at http://jacobsmedia.com/podcast-movement-2018/

Jacobs Media has arranged for a discount on the registration price for broadcasters and an additional discount for groups of five or more. Please contact Paul Jacobs at Jacobs Media for the discount code at Paul@jacobsmedia.com

TV Ratings: 2017-18 Season Race Closer Than It Appears

The 2017-18 broadcast season officially came to a close on last Wednesday night, and while each of the Big Four networks issued the usual about how well they had fared over the course of the last 35 weeks, there's little of substance to celebrate in the final ratings numbers, according to Anthony Crupi at AdAge.

According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, the average demo delivery for a show that's been re-upped for the coming season is a 1.2, which works out to 1.55 million adults 18 to 49. Three years ago, the average rating for a renewed series was a 1.9.

According to Crupi, that there's almost nothing separating the doomed from the saved speaks volumes about the ongoing ratings erosion. The average draw for the 30 shows that have been terminated is a 0.8. As such, the gap between those that shall live to fight another day and those that have a date with the undertaker can accommodate only around 515,600 demographically desirable viewers. Three years ago, you could fit about twice many adults 18 to 49 (around 1.03 million) on the dividing line between the quick and the dead.

The Top 20 TV Shows on Broadcast TV 2017-2018 Season

That the division between televised success and failure is more a crack in the sidewalk than a yawning canyon is in many ways a function of necessity—and an acknowledgment that the legacy business model is evolving to emphasize ad revenue less.

On the one hand, if broadcasters canceled every low-rated show, they'd either be forced to dump billions of additional dollars into a development process with an 85 percent failure rate or pare their schedules down to 12 to 14 hours per week. Instead, the Big Four simply renewed more low-rated series than ever before, re-upping 19 shows that failed to deliver so much as a 1.0 in the demo. Three years ago at this time, only four fractional shows were salvaged.

On the other hand, it's fair to say that the push to diversify the business model has begun to lessen the significance of guaranteed commercial impressions. CBS in the first quarter reported that advertising accounted for 44 percent of its revenue, down from 51 percent in the year-ago period. The first to exploit the hitherto untapped riches tucked away in its distribution agreements—CBS is on pace to generate $2.5 billion in retransmission consent and reverse compensation fees by 2020—the network also has aggressively pursued a homegrown content scheme that helps pump out billions more on the back-end (licensing, streaming deals, etc.). When there's that much money to be made outside the ad market, CBS in many respects is no longer at the mercy of the incredible shrinking GRP.

Product Placement Is Back In Vogue

There's a scene in the second season of Netflix's "Stranger Things" where two characters are having an awkward dinner at a friend's parents' home. The teens know something the parents don't: Their missing daughter has killed by a creature from a parallel universe.

To lighten the tension, they stuff their mouths with KFC.

"This is finger-licking good," says Steve Harrington, who is played by actor Joe Keery.

According to CNBC, it's not happenstance there's a red and white bucket of fried chicken featured prominently. It's a paid product integration, brought to you by the "Stranger Things" production team, KFC and Netflix.

"They [Netflix] handle their content in a very respectable way, and we felt it was a property where we have shared values," explained KFC chief marketing officer Andrea Zahumensky, who said Netflix approached them about the opportunity. "You set boundaries, but you have to let them have creative freedom. We didn't know precisely what the script was."

Thanks to Netflix, Amazon, HBO and other "commercial-free" TV experiences, people are gravitating away from shows with traditional ad breaks. So especially in cases where commercial time is scarce to non-existent, some media buyers and companies say they're increasingly looking at product placement opportunities.

Branded Entertainment Network (BEN), an advertising and licensing agency founded by Bill Gates (it was formerly known as Corbis), projects it will place 6,000 product integrations in various types of video content during 2018. The deals will create a total media value of $1.2 billion, about 20 percent more than last year.

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Smart Speakers: Worldwide Google Beats Amazon During 1Q 2018

Smart speakers continue to be the world’s fastest-growing consumer technology segment, with year-on-year growth in Q1 2018 of 210% as shipments reached 9 million units.

Google took the top spot, beating Amazon for the first time, shipping 3.2 million of its Google Home and Home Mini devices, against the 2.5 million Echo devices shipped by Amazon.

The US market share fell below 50% for the first time, partly due to Google and Amazon’s focus on expanding beyond their home markets, but also because of the increased traction that the technology is seeing with new vendors in markets such as China and South Korea. Vendors shipped 1.8 million smart speakers into the channel in Q1 2018 in China, while Korea overtook the UK to become the third largest market with 730,000 shipments.

Alibaba finished third overall and retained its number one position in China with 1.1 million Tmall Genie speaker shipments in Q1 2018. “Alibaba has done well to sustain its strong sales momentum since the 11.11 shopping festival in Q4 last year, largely due to Tmall’s superior channel reach and Alibaba’s powerful marketing capabilities,” said Hattie He, Canalys Research Analyst. China’s smart speaker market is growing, with shipments up sequentially by more than 60%. Xiaomi, whose main business is selling smartphones, shipped over 600,000 of its Xiao AI speakers to China in Q1, coming a distant second after Alibaba’s Tmall Genie. “Awareness of smart speakers and their uses is growing steadily among Chinese consumers. But competition is building quickly for Alibaba, as IPO-hopeful Xiaomi takes to the smart speaker segment with much vigor in 2018.”

Google’s success comes on the back of shipments into new markets, such as India, where it has explored new go-to-market strategies by partnering with service providers, such as Jio and ACT Fibernet, to reach users. “Google has several advantages over Amazon that have helped it move ahead,” said Canalys Analyst Ben Stanton. “But its biggest advantage is in the channel. Operators and retailers tend to prioritize Google’s speakers over those from Amazon, as Amazon is in the tricky position of being a direct competitor. But Amazon is fighting back hard, and the sheer quantity of Alexa Skills and smart home integrations will be tough for any competitor to match.”

Smart speaker quarterly estimate and forecast data is taken from Canalys’ Smart Analysis service.

R.I.P.: Radio Host, Imaging Voice Nick Michaels

Nick Michaels

Radio host and voice-over artist Nick Michaels has died in Miami.  The 67-year-old Michaels died from an apparent heart attack over the weekend.

His death was announced on his Facebook page.

Michaels started in radio while still in high school. After copywriting for AdGroup International in Montreal, he moved to Toronto in 1973. He became one of the top commercial voice-over actors in Canada with multiple national accounts such as Molson's Beer, Kodak, Texaco, Kellogg's, P&G and Toyota. A 1977 move to New York City resulted in some long running campaigns for advertisers like Excedrin Gillete, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Coppertone, Maybelline and others.

His voice has appeared on over a billion dollars of paid advertising. As a narrator, he appeared on a dozen episodes of National Geographic Explorer and Bud Greenspan's feature-length documentary, Barcelona 92 Sixteen Days Of Glory.

He was the co-creator and the original voice-over host of Friday Night Videos on the NBC television network, from the program's inception in 1983 until he left the show in 1986. His voice was heard on NBC late night promos for much of the 1980s. In 1992 he became the voice of topical promotion for CNN television world wide as well as many television stations including WBBM-TV Chicago, WCBS-TV New York and WCCO-TV Minneapolis, as well as several cable television networks. He was considered one of the top creative services providers in media.

Beginning in 2015, his company, American Voice Corporation, began providing custom creative services to advertisers, radio, television and the internet and produced and syndicated his national radio program The Deep End with Nick Michaels, and its spin-off, Stories From The Deep End, in the United States and New Zealand.

R.I.P.: 2 WYFF-TV Reporters Killed By Falling Tree

WYFF-TV News 4, Greenville SC, anchor Mike McCormick and WYFF News 4 photojournalist Aaron Smeltzer died Monday when a tree fell on their SUV.

The accident happened while they were covering the impact of heavy rain in that area, according to the WYFF-TV website.

Tryon Fire Chief Geoffrey Tennant said the engine of the SUV was running and the transmission was in drive when authorities arrived at the scene about 2:30 p.m.

He said the tree that fell on the SUV was about 3 feet in diameter and had stood back off the road.

Tennant said the ground was saturated and the tree's root system failed.

"I have never seen an event like this one," Tennant, who has been in fire service in Polk County for 44 years, said.

WYFF-TV Coverage Area

Tennant said he had just spoken with Mike and Aaron before the accident.

"It personally affected me a little bit because I had done an interview with Mr. McCormick about 10 minutes before we got the call. And we had talked a little bit about how he wanted us to stay safe and I wanted him to stay safe and of course 10 or 15 minutes later we got the call and it was him and his photographer," Tennant said. "It's the first time I ever met either one of those two gentleman, but you feel a sense of responsibility to them."

Mike joined WYFF News 4 in April 2007 as a reporter in the Spartanburg newsroom. In 2014, he was also named anchor of WYFF News 4 on Sundays at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.

Mike came to the Upstate from Arkansas, where he was a reporter and fill-in anchor at one of WYFF 4's sister stations, KHBS/KHOG, for nearly three years.

Aaron was the photographer in the Spartanburg bureau. He joined the WYFF News 4 family in February of this year.

R.I.P.: Former CBS News Radio Correspondent Bob Fuss

Robert J. "Bob" Fuss, a veteran radio journalist, died Sunday at his Falls Church, Virginia, home. He was 64. The cause was a rare form of leukemia, his close friend Peter Maer said.

Fuss served as a CBS News congressional correspondent from 1998 until his retirement in 2014.  His first major assignment for CBS News was coverage of the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton. Prior to joining CBS News, Fuss covered Congress for Mutual and NBC Radio for seven years.  He previously worked as Los Angeles bureau chief for UPI Radio. He began his professional radio career as a freelance reporter for UPI covering the 1974 Patty Hearst case. He originally aspired to be an attorney but he was attracted to broadcasting at Stanford University's campus radio station KZSU.

When California Governor Ronald Reagan launched his 1980 presidential bid, Fuss covered the campaign and went on to report on every presidential election through 2012.

Following his retirement from CBS News, Fuss wrote a self-published autobiography, "Kidnapped by Nuns and Other Stories of a Life on the Radio." He wrote that he was born "with a whole range of birth defects similar to spina bifida." His parents were told he was unlikely to live past childhood.  Walking with the aid of crutches, Fuss more than defied the dire medical prediction. In his book, he recalled being "a busy and active kid" who "never let anything slow me down."

Robert Fuss was born March 15, 1954, in Bay Shore, New York. His family moved to Woodland Hills, California, when he was a young boy. He graduated with honors from Stanford University in 1974 after completing majors in communication and history. 

Former CBS News Vice President Harvey Nagler remembered Fuss for his "rare combination of being an extraordinarily talented journalist and one of the nicest and most positive individuals on earth."  He paid tribute to his ability to "put complicated Washington stories in perspective.

May 29 Radio History

Bob Hope - circa the '40s

➦In 1903...comedian Bob Hope was born Leslie Townes Hope in London England. He debuted on NBC radio in 1935, and was heard on a weekly basis for the next 23 years, though the last 4 years were repeats.  His TV show debuted in 1952, and his final special aired in 1996 when he was 93.  He died July 27, 2003 at the remarkable age of 100.


➦In 1918...humourist/radio-TV host Herb Shriner was born in Toledo.  He had his own CBS radio show in the late 40’s, and later scored on TV as quizmaster (a la Groucho) on Two for the Money.  Homespun humour (a la Will Rogers) was a feature of all his appearances.  He died in an auto accident April 23 1970 at age 51.


➦In 1939…The radio serial "When a Girl Marries" began its 18-year run, first on CBS, then on NBC starting in 1941, and switching to ABC in 1951.


➦In 1941...Robert David “Bob” Simon was born in the Bronx New York.  During his 48-years as reporter and correspondent for CBS News, he covered crises, war, and unrest in 67 countries.During the Persian Gulf War in 1991, he and four of his TV crew were captured and imprisoned by Iraq for 40 days. He became a correspondent for CBS’s 60 Minutes in 1996, and continued providing compelling stories to that program until his untimely death in a New York City traffic accident Feb. 11 2015 at age 73.

Bing Crosby

➦In 1942…Bing Crosby, backed by the Ken Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra, recorded Irving Berlin's "White Christmas," which became the biggest-selling single of all time until Elton John surpassed it with "Candle In The Wind (Princess Diana Tribute)" in 1997. Crosby re-recorded "White Christmas" in 1947 and the re-recording is the version heard most often on the radio at Christmastime.

➦In 1961...Jack Spector began working as a disk jockey in New York in 1961 at radio station WMCA 570 AM, where he was a member of a group of broadcasting personalities called the Good Guys. He labeled himself Your Main Man Jake and usually closed his shows saying, "Look out street, here I come!"

He switched to WHN 1050 AM in 1972, then for nine years was the host of the "Saturday Night Sock Hop" on WCBS 101.1 FM. He also worked for a brief period as the host of a sports talk show for WNBC 660 AM.

Mr. Spector broke into broadcasting in Martinsburg, W.Va., in 1955, then worked for stations in Albany, Providence, R.I., and Chicago before returning to New York. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he attended Brooklyn College and had a brief tryout as a minor-league baseball player with the Brooklyn Dodgers organization. He served in the United States Army in Korea.


➦In 1963…Del Shannon's cover of the Beatles' "From Me to You" became the first song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney to appear on the American record charts.

➦In 1977...the NBC News & Information Service, which was a 24-hour-a-day news service, came to an end.

NBC launched the NBC News and Information Service (NIS) in 1975.  According to Faded Signals, it allowed local radio stations to launch all-news formats, providing affiliates with up to 55 minutes of news per hour.

NBC aired the service on its Washington station, WRC.  It also added the all-news format on its network-owned FM stations in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco.

Many stations signed on with the service, but by 1976, NBC was not sure if its network would ever become profitable.


➦In 1978...former disc jockey and actor Bob Crane (Donna Reed Show, Hogan in Hogan’s Heroes), died at age 49, the victim of a brutal murder. 

Bob Crane

A drummer from age 11, Crane began his career as a radio personality, first in New York City and then Connecticut before moving to Los Angeles, where he hosted the number-one rated morning show. In the early 1960s, he moved into acting, eventually landing the lead role of Colonel Robert E. Hogan in Hogan's Heroes. The series aired from 1965 to 1971, and Crane received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his work on the series. After Hogan's Heroes ended, Crane's career declined. He became frustrated with the few roles he was being offered and began doing dinner theater. In 1975, he returned to television in the NBC series The Bob Crane Show. The series received poor ratings and was cancelled after 13 weeks. Afterwards, Crane returned to performing in dinner theaters and also appeared in occasional guest spots on television.

While on tour for his play Beginner's Luck in June 1978, Crane was found bludgeoned to death in his Scottsdale apartment, a murder that remains officially unsolved. This suspicious nature of his death and later revelations about his personal life gradually changed Crane's posthumous image from a cultural icon to a controversial figure.


➦In 1979..."The Source", considered Radio's first rock news network, debuted.

George Fenneman with Groucho Marx

➦In 1997...announcer George Fenneman, who was best known for his work on radio’s Dragnet and You Bet Your Life on both radio & TV, died of emphysema at age 77.


➦In 2012…Radio actor Dick Beals, for many years the voice of "Speedy" in Alka-Seltzer TV commercials, died at the age of 85.

In January 1949, as a senior at MSU, Beals got a call to do a radio commercial for WXYZ, Detroit. After the show, the director asked him to be on call for all the children's voices as well as those of small, talking animals on all three network radio shows produced by WXYZ - The Lone Ranger, Green Hornet and Challenge of the Yukon.

In 1952, after performing in an episode of The Green Hornet, WXYZ station manager Jack McCarthy referred Beals to Forrest Owen of Wade Advertising. Owen showed Beals a rendering of a proposed product spokesman for their client, Alka-Seltzer and had him record a voice audition. Four months later, Beals was notified that he had been selected as the voice for Speedy Alka-Seltzer as well as the voice of Sticky, the Vaseline mascot.

Standing just 4'7" tall due to a glandular problem that also gave him his youthful voice, Beals provided the voices of 10-year-old boys well into his 70s.


➦In 2014…Former WNEW 102.7 FM NYC personality Dave Herman died of an aneurysm at 78 while in federal custody awaiting trial on charges of attempting to transport a 7-year-old girl from New Jersey to the Virgin Islands for a sexual liaison.


➦In 2014…Longtime KOMO-TV, KOMO-AM Seattle news reporter/commentator Ken Schram died of kidney, liver, and heart failures while fighting an infection at age 66.