On the heels of a regular season that saw three of the network’s four TV partners post ratings gains vs. the previous year, the first round of the league’s postseason action saw meaningful growth vs. 2015. In Nielsen’s overnight ratings representing 56 of the nation’s largest markets, this weekend’s quartet of wild-card games averaged a 20.4 household rating — up 11% from last year’s 18.3.
Variety reports the top-rated game of the weekend was the 4:40 p.m. ET kickoff on Sunday between the Green Bay Packers and Washington Redskins on Fox (pictured), which averaged a 23.6 overnight rating, the highest for any program since last year’s Super Bowl.
ABC and ESPN opened the weekend Saturday with the 4:35 p.m. ET matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans, which averaged a 16.2 overnight rating (and 25.2 million viewers) — up 24% vs. last year’s Arizona-Carolina matchup on ESPN alone.
In primetime Saturday, the Pittsburgh-Cincinnati contest on CBS, in which the Steelers improbably won 18-16 when two late personal fouls by the Bengals enabled the team to move closer and kick the game-winning field goal, averaged a 19.3 in the overnights. This was up 11% vs. last year’s wild-card Saturday night game between Pittsburgh and Baltimore on NBC (17.9).
The first game on Sunday, between the Seattle Seahawks and Minnesota Vikings, averaged a 22.5 overnight rating (and 35.3 million viewers) from 1:05-4:15 p.m. ET on NBC, up 25% vs. last year’s Cincinnati-Indianapolis on CBS (18.0). The game, which went down as the third coldest in league history with a kickoff temperature of minus-3 degrees and was won 10-9 by the Seahawks, generated a massive 82 share in Minneapolis and an 87 in Seattle.
The NFL Playoffs continue this weekend with a pair of games on both Saturday and Sunday. The league championship series follow on Jan. 24, and the Super Bowl is set for Feb. 7 on CBS.
(Reuters) -- Media mogul Rupert Murdoch announced his engagement to former supermodel Jerry Hall on Tuesday and gave details of plans for his fourth marriage in a classified advert in one of his British newspapers.
How Rival NYDN Played It
Published in the Births, Marriages and Deaths section of the Times newspaper, the advert read: "Mr Rupert Murdoch, father of Prudence, Elisabeth, Lachlan, James, Grace and Chloe Murdoch, and Miss Jerry Hall, mother of Elizabeth, James, Georgia and Gabriel Jagger, are delighted to announce their engagement."
The 84-year-old executive chairman of News Corp and 21st Century Fox and Hall, 59, a former supermodel and actress, began dating in the summer last year after being introduced by one of Murdoch's sisters and his niece while in Australia, the paper said.
They were first pictured together at the Rugby Union World Cup Final in London in October, and the Times reported they had become engaged in Los Angeles where they had been attending the Golden Globes awards ceremony.
"They have loved these past months together, are thrilled to be getting married and excited about their future," a spokesman for the Murdoch family told the Times.
Murdoch has been married three times previously. He divorced his third wife, Wendi Deng, a former executive at Murdoch-owned Star TV in China, in 2013 after 14 years saying their marriage had been irretrievably broken.
Hall, from Texas, was married to The Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger for more than 20 years, although in divorce proceedings Jagger claimed that they were never legally married.
Before her relationship with Jagger, she had dated British pop star Bryan Ferry, frontman of the band Roxy Music.
Lee had worked since 1993 at Country WITL 100.7 FM most recently serving as assistant program director.
“You can’t overstate that she was the heart and soul of WITL,” says WITL brand manager and Townsquare Media operations manager Chris Tyler. “She truly was a person who loved the radio station and loved the listeners. She was a radio mom to a lot of people here at the radio station.”
Those who worked with Lee are remembering her today.
“She was a very sweet, honest and hard-working person,” said Andrea Kay Carfagno, who worked with Lee from 2001 to 2013. "I will always admire the passion she showed working on WITL. I will always miss Jordan's smile and calm soothing voice.”
Glass was born Sept. 28, 1958, in Canyon, Texas, and began broadcasting in 1983, according to Lee's WITL biography. The bio goes on to say she worked as news director at KMML in Amarillo, Texas, and was often a correspondent for the Associated Press. She changed paths from news to on-air talent in 1990 and moved to Michigan.
In 1925...WGBI-AM Scranton, PA signed on the frequency of 1250 kHz owned by Edward Megargee.
In 1927, the station moved to 1300 kHz which it time shared with Scranton's other radio station, WQAN (now WEJL). The two stations which were time sharing a single frequency, moved to 880 kHz in 1931, and then again to 910 kHz by 1941 (the later move, forced by a nationwide frequency reassignment which took place in 1941). WGBI remained at 910 kHz (at 1,000 watts) when WQAN moved on to its own broadcast tower and new frequency of 630 kHz in 1948. This meant that WGBI had full-time use of the 910 kHz frequency where it remains to this day, as WBZU. WGBI was a CBS Radio network affiliated station by the 1940s.
The Megargee family's company, Scranton Broadcasters, spawned an FM station (now WGGY) and northeast Pennsylvania's second television station (now WYOU). The Megargees held on to the radio stations well into the 1990s. By the turn of the century, WGBI had been sold to Entercom and become a repeater of WILK-AM, existing mainly to improve its signal in Scranton. While WILK's daytime signal easily covers most of Scranton, the northern portion of the city only gets a grade B signal. At night, WILK-AM must power down to 1,000 watts, leaving most of Scranton with only a grade B signal.
WBZU in 2007 moved its transmitter to the tower location atop the Times Building at 149 Penn Avenue in downtown Scranton also being used by WEJL's transmitter. The full-time switch over to the new transmitter facility and tower location happened on August 2, 2007. This tower sharing arrangement repeats an arrangement the stations shared over 60 years ago in their early history. The efficiency of the new transmitter tower location also caused WBZU to slightly reduce its power to 900 watts to keep within FCC rules on signal strength and coverage.
In 1926..."Sam 'n' Henry" began a two-year stay on Chicago's WGN Radio. The show's creators, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, quit the show and WGN when the station rejected a proposed syndication deal for the series. Since contractually their characters belonged to WGN, they changed the title and reworked the premise in 1928 to create the long running Amos'n'Andy show, orginally broadcast from WMAQ in Chicago.
In 1951...Rush Hudson Limbaugh IIIIwas born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Limabugh is the most popular and most listened to conservative radio host in the United States.
Limbaugh began his career in radio as a teenager in 1967 in his hometown of Cape Girardeau, using the name Rusty Sharpe. Limbaugh graduated from Cape Girardeau, Missouri Central High School in 1969. He played football. Because of his parents' desire to see him attend college, he enrolled in Southeast Missouri State University but left the school after two semesters and one summer. According to his mother, "he flunked everything", and "he just didn't seem interested in anything except radio."
After dropping out of college, Limbaugh moved to McKeesport, PA. In 1972, he became a Top 40 music disc jockey on WIXZ, a small AM radio station that reached much of the Pittsburgh area. He started with an afternoon show and later did mornings, broadcasting under the name Jeff Christie. Limbaugh moved to Pittsburgh station KQV in 1973 as the evening disc jockey, succeeding Jim Quinn. He was fired in late-1974, when the station was sold to Taft Broadcasting.
Jeff Christie Aircheck: Click Here (courtesy of Jeff Roteman's radio website)
Limbaugh was reportedly told by management that he would never make it as on air talent, and should consider going into sales.
For the rest of the '70s, Limbaugh took jobs at several radio stations, working in music radio, before settling in Kansas City. In 1979, he left radio and accepted a position as director of promotions with the Kansas City Royals baseball team. There he developed a close friendship with then-Royals star third baseman and future Hall of Famer George Brett; the two remain close friends.
In 1984, Limbaugh returned to radio as a talk show host at KFBK-AM in Sacramento, CA, where he replaced Morton Downey, Jr. The repeal of the Fairness Doctrine—which had required that stations provide free air time for responses to any controversial opinions that were broadcast—by the FCC in 1987 meant stations could broadcast editorial commentary without having to present opposing views.
On August 1, 1988, after achieving success in Sacramento and drawing the attention of former ABC Radio President Edward McLaughlin, Limbaugh moved to New York City and began his national radio show. He debuted just weeks after the Democratic National Convention, and just weeks before the Republican National Convention. Limbaugh's radio home in New York City was the talk-formatted WABC 770 AM. Limbaugh now hosts from West Palm Beach.
In 1954...Howard Stern was born in Roosevelt, New York.
Stern's Class Photo
His first on-air job in radio was WRNW, where covered shifts in late December 1976. Stern was hired full-time, working a four-hour midday shift for six days a week on a $96 weekly salary. He subsequently became the station's production and program director for an increased salary of $250.
In 1979, Stern spotted an advertisement in Radio&Records for a "wild, fun morning guy" at rock station WCCC in Hartford, Connecticut. He submitted a more outrageous audition tape featuring Robert Klein and Cheech and Chong records with flatulence routines and one-liners.Stern was hired.
It was at WCCC where Stern met Fred Norris, the overnight disc jockey, who has been Stern's writer and producer since 1981. According to news reporter and author Paul Colford, Stern was influenced by listening to tapes of Steve Dahl sent from Chicago. In early 1980, Stern left WCCC after he was denied a pay increase.
1983
On April 21, 1980 Stern began a new morning position at WWWW, a rock station in Detroit after management praised Stern's audition tape during their search for a new morning man. Stern was determined to be more open on the air, "to cut down the barriers ... strip down all the ego ... and be totally honest" to his audience. However, the station struggled to compete with the city's three more popular rock stations. By January 1981, when Stern's quarterly Arbitron ratings showed no signs of a strong audience, the station changed to a country music format, much to Stern's annoyance. He lasted two weeks on the air as "Hopalong Howie" before his departure. He declined offers to work at WXRT in Chicago and CHUM in Toronto, Canada.
Following his exit from Detroit, Stern moved to Washington, DC, to host mornings at rock station WWDC on March 2, 1981. Feeling determined to develop his show further, he looked for a co-worker with a sense of humor to riff with on news and current events.[49] The station then paired Stern with Robin Quivers, a newscaster and consumer affairs reporter from WFBR in Baltimore.
In 1982, NBC approached Stern with an offer to work afternoons at WNBC 660 AM in NYC. After he signed a five-year contract worth $1 million in March 1982.
On April 2, 1982, NBC Magazine aired a news report on "shock radio" by Douglas Kiker that featured Stern in DC. The piece caused NBC executives to discuss the possible withdrawal of Stern's contract; however, Stern began his afternoon program in September 1982 with management closely monitoring the show and advising Stern to avoid sexual and religious discussions.
In his first month, Stern was suspended for several days for "Virgin Mary Kong", a segment featuring a video game where a group of men pursued the Virgin Mary around a singles bar in Jerusalem. The station also installed a "dump button" that could cut Stern off the microphone should potentially offensive areas be discussed. This became the task of program director Kevin Metheny, who Stern nicknamed "Pig Virus".
In 1985, after hiring his new agent Don Buchwald, Stern signed a five-year contract with WNBC to continue his radio show. Despite management's restrictions, Stern's popularity increased.
In May 1985, Stern claimed the highest ratings at WNBC in four years with a 5.7% market share. In a sudden turn of events, Stern and Quivers were fired for what management termed "conceptual differences" regarding the show on September 30, 1985 Though Stern was not told whose decision it was, Stern believed that Thornton Bradshaw, chairman of RCA who owned WNBC, heard his "Bestiality Dial-a-Date" segment that aired ten days prior and ordered him to be fired.
Stern declined offers to work in Los Angeles, wishing to stay in New York to "kick NBC's ass". He signed a five-year contract with Infinity Broadcasting worth an estimated $500,000 to host afternoons on its rock station WXRK from November 18, 1985. Determined to beat Imus and WNBC in the ratings, Stern moved to the morning slot in February 1986.
The show entered national syndication on August 18 that year when WYSP in Philadelphia began to simulcast the program.
In 1955...WTRN 1340 AM signed-on. WTRN's beginnings were part of a boom in local radio station construction in the northern and central part of Pennsylvania that began in 1950. In 1947, Allegheny Mountain Network founder Cary H. Simpson helped build WHUN, where he also would serve as program director, in his hometown of Huntingdon, PA; approximately 20 miles southeast of Tyrone in Huntingdon County. Inspired by the station's success, Simpson built the first station in his group, WKBI-AM in St. Marys, PA. As this was the very first station in his group, WKBI served as the flagship station for the other stations that Simpson would build and put on the air over the next four decades.
courtesy of radio-locator
Desiring to put a station on the air in his newly adopted hometown of Tyrone, Simpson petitioned the FCC for an AM license to be assigned to Tyrone. A construction permit was granted, and Simpson signed WTRN on the air on January 12, 1955. Simpson also successfully applied for an FM license to also be assigned to Tyrone. That station, WGMR (which was sold to Forever Broadcasting in Altoona in 2008), was granted license to operate at 101.1 FM and signed on August 15, 1961.
As WTRN was close to his home, Simpson moved AMN's corporate operations to this station. Many of AMN's properties were in communities that were large enough to make the radio business profitable, but perhaps not quite large enough to support a typical radio station's staff at the time. Thus, many duties were centralized (traffic, billing, upper management) in the Tyrone office, requiring only airstaff and sales consultants at the individual stations. This business model would start to become the accepted standard following the first round of FCC ownership limit changes that began in 1992.
In the early summer of 2009, WTRN began broadcasting in Tyrone on W264BZ. In 1956...At the KHJ Studios in Hollywood, Frank Sinatra recorded "I've Got You Under My Skin." He first sang this song in 1946 but he didn't actually record it until 1956 where it became a big hit for him.
In 1959...Berry Gordy Jr. borrowed $800 from his family and rented an eight-room house in Detroit at 2648 W. Grand Boulevard, which became Hitsville U.S.A., the home of his Motown Records and its subsidiary labels. His first release, "Come To Me" by Marv Johnson on the Tamla label, came nine days later. In 1963...In London, Bob Dylan recorded the BBC Radio play "Madhouse on Castle Street," featuring his first recorded version of "Blowin' In The Wind" and his only recording of the original "Swan on the River." In 2003...Bee Gees member Maurice Gibb died of a congenital bowel condition that he was unaware he had. He was 53.
In 2015...Lou Miliano, who reported for CBS Radio News on the local and national levels as part of a distinguished 40 year career as a broadcast journalist, died Monday in a Pinellas Park, Fl., hospice.
He was diagnosed with lung cancer several years ago; he was 67. Miliano spent much of the 1980s overseas as radio correspondent before joining the local News Radio WCBS 880 AM in New York in 1989, where he could also be heard nationally on other CBS-owned stations.
Nielsen has responded to a dissmical motion from attorneys for Bubba The Love Sponge. Last month, attorney argued the $1M lawsuit filed by Nielsen didn't belong in a federal court.
Bubba’s attorney argued that the case didn’t belong in federal court because Nielsen hadn’t demonstrated at least $75,000 in damages, the minimum for a case to be heard in that jurisdiction, and that Nielsen failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted.
In a 21-page response filed Friday, Nielsen notes it lost two months of license fees from Beasley rocker WBRN 98.7 FM, Clem’s Tampa flagship for his syndicated morning show, after delisting the station.
According to InsideRadio, each time it uncovered an instance of alleged ratings tampering, Nielsen says it had to locate the tainted data, remove it from the ratings and re-determine the estimates—“all at a significant expenditure of time, effort and resources.”
It also hired outside investigators in addition to using its in-house investigative unit. “The costs of this ongoing investigation continue to accrue,” Nielsen’s response states.
On top of that, Nielsen said Clem’s actions required it to recruit and train 7 new Tampa PPM panelists and 5 South Carolina diary panelists. Perhaps most pointedly, Nielsen says the scandal caused one of radio's largest groups to question the integrity of its ratings and seek compensation from Nielsen.
Nielsen argues it has “more than sufficiently” pled its fraud-based claim with descriptions of five separate panelists whom Clem allegedly encouraged and instructed to provide false listening data.
For its upcoming GOP debate from New Hampshire, ABC News will have one less partner.
The network decided to remove the Union Leader, New Hampshire’s leading newspaper, from participation in the Feb. 6 debate. According to TV Newser, yhe decision comes a day after this Donald Trump tweet: "I'm protesting the @UnionLeader from having anything to do w/ ABC debate. Their unethical record doesn't give them the right to be involved!"
It’s not a surprise that an ABC source would try to assign blame somewhere besides a bow to Trump’s wishes, but Trump and the Union Leader have been in a verbal running gun battle for weeks, and Trump isn’t the only one who is reading the move this way, according to Mediaite. This season, the paper has given its endorsement to Chris Christie, putting him in the fine company of 2012 NH Union Leader pick Newt Gingrich.
Martin O'Malley is dangerously close to missing the next Democratic presidential debate, CNN Politics is reporting. On Friday, NBC News released the criteria for its Jan. 17 debate—the Democrats' last before the primary voting season kicks off in February—and the former Maryland governor is hanging on a razor's edge. To qualify, candidates must reach 5 percent either nationally or in Iowa, New Hampshire, or South Carolina in the five most recent polls recognized by NBC News and published before Jan. 14, 2016, the network announced.
O’Malley has been particularly critical of the Democratic National Committee for sanctioning just six 2016 primary debates. Two of them have been on Saturday night, the graveyard for broadcast network TV viewership. Now, according to Variety, O’Malley is criticizing NBC News: “This election is not up to NBC executives. It’s up to the voters. We must not let NBC dictate which candidates voters get to hear from,” O’Malley tweeted on Friday. “This isn’t The Apprentice. Media execs shouldn’t be able to fire ppl from the debate stage. The voters should get to make an informed choice.”
(Reuters) -- David Bowie, a music legend who used daringly androgynous displays of sexuality and glittering costumes to frame legendary rock hits "Ziggy Stardust" and "Space Oddity", has died of cancer.
He was 69.
"David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18-month battle with cancer," read a statement on Bowie's Facebook page dated Sunday.
January 10 2016 - David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18 month battle... https://t.co/ENRSiT43Zy
"David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18-month battle with cancer," read a statement on Bowie's Facebook page dated Sunday.
Born David Jones in the Brixton area of south London, Bowie took up the saxophone at 13. He shot to fame in Europe with 1969's "Space Oddity".
But it was Bowie's 1972 portrayal of a doomed bisexual alien rock star, Ziggy Stardust, that propelled him to global stardom. Bowie and Ziggy, wearing outrageous costumes, makeup and bright orange hair, took the rock world by storm.
Bowie said he was gay in an interview in the Melody Maker newspaper in 1972, coinciding with the launch of his androgynous persona, with red lightning bolt across his face and flamboyant clothes.
He told Playboy four years later he was bisexual, but in the eighties he told Rolling Stone magazine that the declaration was "the biggest mistake I ever made", and he was "always a closet heterosexual".
The excesses of a hedonistic life of the real rock star was taking its toll. In a reference to his prodigious appetite for cocaine, he said: "“I blew my nose one day in California," he said. “And half my brains came out. Something had to be done."
He stopped touring after his 2003–2004 Reality Tour, last performing live in 2006. Bowie's latest studio album, Blackstar, was released on 8 January 2016, his 69th birthday, just two days before his death.
Throughout his career, he has sold an estimated 140 million records worldwide. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked him 39th on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" and 23rd on their list of the best singers of all time. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
Apple has passed 10M subscribers for its music streaming service, taking six months to hit a milestone which took its arch-rival Spotify six years to hit, according to people familiar with the matter.
The rapid growth of Apple Music, which launched in more than 100 countries in June, raises the stakes in streaming, a form of distribution that offers hope to the music industry after decade in the doldrums.
“It’s good news that Apple is making streaming work but it is also going to accelerate the decline of downloads,” said Mark Mulligan, music industry analyst with Midia Research. Apple was rapidly gaining on Spotify and at its current growth rate had “the potential to be the leading music subscription service sometime in 2017.
Streaming is becoming the dominant form of digital music consumption and is growing rapidly as download sales decline. In the US, total sales of album downloads fell 9 per cent in 2014 while sales of individual tracks declined 12 per cent, according to Nielsen Music data. However, CNBC reports demand for streaming increased more than 50 per cent, with 164bn songs streamed.
Longtime Anchorage broadcaster Mark Colavecchio will be returning to the morning talk show slot on KFQD-AM starting Monday.
Colavecchio is replacing conservative talk show host Bernadette Wilson, whose contract was not renewed by KFQD for the coming year.
In late December, station manager Joe Campbell said the show's audience and revenue hadn’t been the same since Wilson lost her former co-host Ethan Berkowitz when he entered the Anchorage mayor’s race, and the station decided to head “in a different direction.”
With Colavecchio, Campbell said the station hopes to engage more of what he called the “sandwich generation” -- people with kids in school as well as aging parents.
Colavecchio hosted the morning slot on KFQD for several months in 2010, and was the “Mark” of the "Bob and Mark Show” duo on 106.5 KWHL. That show ended its run last January. He currently works in marketing for Coastal Television, the company that owns the local Fox News and ABC affiliates.
KFQD 750 AM (50 Kw)
In a phone interview with Alaska Dispatch News, Colavecchio said he’d like to inject entertainment and humor into his KFQD show.
“People are just fed up with straight politics,” Colavecchio said, adding he wants to “keep it more lighthearted.”
Scott Shannon famously took Top40 WHTZ 100.3 FM “Z100” WHTZ New York “from worst to first” in the ‘80s and altered the sound of morning radio with “The Morning Zoo.”
A New York radio icon for three decades, Shannon spent a record-setting 22 years as morning cohost on hot AC WPLJ 95.5 FM. With the second anniversary of his arrival in mornings at CBS Radio classic hits WCBS 101.1 FM approaching, heoffered a progress report, a look back and his advice for aspiring young talent in an interview with InsideRadio.
How has your show evolved in the nearly two years since you joined WCBS-FM?
They had a very good radio station when I arrived. Our goals were to increase the female listenership, do a better job at penetrating the New Jersey market and get the average age down a little bit. And I’m happy to say we’ve succeeded at doing all three.
You’ve said one of the most important attributes of a successful personality is curiosity. What are you most curious about and how do you turn that into entertaining morning radio?
People enjoy looking into someone else’s life. If you can put yourself out there and make it interesting, that’s a big part of a compelling morning show. As many people have said in the past, it’s like “Friends” or “Seinfeld”—you have characters on your show and you try to bring out their personalities and things that would be interesting to other people. Sometimes you might have to magnify their characteristics but that’s called show business. We have a group of people that come from different backgrounds and have different ideas and different opinions. It’s fun to see it all mix together, or clash. It’s almost like “Today” or “Good Morning America” where we talk about the day’s events. We don’t do Phone Taps or a War Of the Roses, we just talk about what’s going on in the world and in New York. Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it’s intriguing and sometimes it’s sad. It’s different every day.
On CNN's 'Reliable Sourses' Sunday, Talkers magazine publisher Michael Harrison & conservative talk radio host Ben Ferguson share two different perspectives about Donald Trump & talk radio woth with host Brian Stetler.
Conservative talk radio, with its undercurrent of anger at the establishment, "jump-started" Trump, radio host Ben Ferguson said. Talkers' Harrison disagreed and said "Trump's media success was created by NBC and 'The Apprentice.' He's a shock jock that is now running for president."
In conjunction with the launch of the Ed Lover Show live from Atlanta, Boom W275BK 102.9 FM is now simulcasting on WUMJ 97.5 FM.
The Ed Lover Show features Classic Hip Hop music, celebrity interviews from the hottest artists and influencers. The show airs weekdays from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. ET.
“It is perfect timing,” said Tim Davies, Vice President and General Manager of Radio One Atlanta.
“A year ago we launched Boom and our audience told us we needed to expand our coverage. We found that almost all of our listeners of MAJIC 107.5/97.5 were only listening on 107.5 since we upgraded our signal three years ago. So now with The Ed Lover Show live from Atlanta in the mornings along with DJ Nabs in the afternoons, it is a one-two punch of Classic Hip Hop….with two signals booming all over the city of Atlanta!”
WUMJ 97.5 FM (8.5 Kw) Red=Local Coverage
Ed Lover is a rapper, actor, comedian, musician, radio and television personality who gained a loyal following as a host of Yo! MTV Raps.
Ed’s co-host, Grammy nominated Monie Love is an MC and radio personality. Born in England, she moved to the United States where audiences have embraced her wit and her love for Hip Hop. Songs like “Monie in the Middle” and “It’s a Shame (My Sister)” laid the foundation for her status as a Hip Hop icon.
Americans are heading South and West again in search of jobs and more affordable housing, as the nation’s economic health continues to improve.
Census population estimates show that the 16 states and the District of Columbia that comprise the South saw an increase of almost 1.4 million people between 2014 and 2015. The 13 states in the West grew by about 866,000 people.
According to pewtrusts.org, the gains represent the largest annual growth in population of the decade for both regions and signal that the multi-decade migration to the Sun Belt has resumed after being interrupted by the Great Recession of 2007-09 and the economic sluggishness and anxiety that followed.
In comparison, population growth in the Northeast and the Midwest — including what’s known as the Snow Belt — remained sluggish, growing by about 258,000 residents combined.
“Clearly, the Snow Belt-to-Sun Belt migration is coming back after a huge lull in response to the recession and post-recession period,” said demographer William Frey, of the Brookings Institution. “Up until now, regional migration was not picking up at the same time that other economic indicators — jobs and housing — seemed to be on the upswing.”
The numbers indicate Americans’ growing willingness to pick up and go after having sat still earlier in the economically tenuous decade, when the U.S. Census Bureau reported that only one in five people who wanted to move somewhere else did so.
The new estimates, released last month, arrive midway through the decade, halfway to the next census, in 2020, and provide some indications of where the nation is headed from the standpoint of governing from Washington.
If the population shift continues, Texas could gain three new seats in the U.S. House, Florida two, and Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina and Oregon one apiece after the next census, according to an analysis by Election Data Services, a political consulting firm based in Virginia.
Nine states — Alabama, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia — could meanwhile lose a seat apiece.
Having suffered the loss of her mother in October 2015, and surviving a debilitating stroke which occurred shortly thereafter, beloved WDAS 105.3 FM radio personality Patty Jackson returned to the microphone last Monday, receiving an enthusiastic welcome from listeners, fans, friends and colleagues.
“I’d like to thank everybody for their love, calls, support and prayers,” Jackson said during a recent exclusive interview with the Philadelphia Tribune.
“I am ever so grateful! I have a new lease on life. I thank God for giving me another chance. I realize the importance of taking care of yourself, especially when you’re a caregiver. You’ve got to take care of yourself, because if you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of nobody else.
Jackson, now well on her way to recovery, observed that having a stroke, though unfortunate, was an eye-opening experience.
“I got to see another way of life, because I had to re-learn how to walk again and all that kind of stuff, because my right side just went out on me,” she said. “My vision is still messed up. I know my vision will return, I’ve just got to be patient, but when you’ve got to learn how to walk again, and you can’t bathe yourself, and you can’t wipe yourself, it’s very humbling.”
On her first day back to work, Jackson, who began broadcasting professionally in 1982 and was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia in 2006, received in-studio visits from colleagues Rick Williams (6ABC) and Ukee Washington (CBS3) as well as friend and colleague Joyce Evans (Fox29). Jackson also received a personal phone call from two-time Grammy winner Patti LaBelle, and said that it felt “great” to be back at the microphone, adding, “It felt so good to return back to work! It’s what I do, and it’s what I love to do!”
WDAS 106.3 FM (16.5 Kw) Red=Local Coverage
Previously known as the hardest working woman in Philadelphia radio — taking on scores of hosting engagements and public appearances, Jackson, who is raising a young son, now acknowledges the importance of scaling back her schedule at this point in her life.
A suburban Chicago man is believed to have shot his wife to death and then turned the gun on himself Friday, authorities said Saturday.
Daniel Kudrna, 55, and Catherine Kudrna, 54, were found dead Friday afternoon in their home in the 300 block of Norton Lane in the west suburb of Bloomington, according to a statement emailed from the DuPage County coroner, Dr. Richard Jorgensen. The two died in an apparent murder-suicide, according to police.
Police were called to the home about 5:05 p.m. Friday following a report of a woman yelling for help, “followed by the sound of gunfire,” Bloomingdale Police Chief Frank Giammarese said in an email.
Catherine Kudrna, worked in radio sales in Wichita for 15 years as an account executive before moving to Chicago in October 2014.
A Linked-In profile for Cathy Kudrna shows she worked in Wichita from 1999 to 2014. She spent 10 years as a national sales manager and senior account executive, and worked at Connoisseur Media LLC in the same roles from January 2010 to October 2014.
According to the profile, Kudrna returned home to Chicago in October 2014 and started work as an account executive for Comcast Spotlight Chicago.
In 1927...the Royale Theater opened at 242 West 45th in New York City. It became home to several Radio program including "CBS Radio Playhouse".
In 1947..."Murder and Mrs. Malone" first aired on ABC radio.
In 1964...‘Louie Louie’ by Seattle’s The Kingsmen was the number one song on the Cash Box music chart. For a while, the record was banned by a handful of US radio stations because of its indecipherable lyrics, which were rumored to contain some naughty words. Even the FBI investigated the song, but finally concluded that they could find nothing wrong.
In 1993...Howard Stern's radio show began airing on WKBW 1520 AM, Buffalo, New York.
In 2006...Ray Hoffstatter died from injuries sustained in a hit-and-run accident from November 20, 2005. Hoffstatter was "Cowboy Ray" on the Mancow Morning Madness radio show.
In 2013…Former disc jockey (Los Angeles radio stations KRLA, KFWB, KDAY; WCAE-Pittsburgh) and network TV host (Shindig!) Jimmy O'Neill died after many years with a heart condition and diabetes at 73.
O'Neill was born in Enid, Oklahoma. After taking a broadcasting class at Enid High School, he began his career in radio at WKY in Oklahoma City, OK. One year later O'Neill landed a job at KQV in Pittsburgh, PA at age 19. He also worked at WCAE. He was hired at KRLA in Los Angeles, CA a year after working at KQV.
O'Neill was the first voice heard on KRLA-AM when it switched from a country-western format to top 40. He worked at KRLA-AM from 1959-1962, then moved to KFWB from 1963 to 1967. He spent two years at KDAY from 1969 to 1971. He also hosted The Jimmy O'Neill Show on KCOP-TV.
After O'Neill moved to Los Angeles, Chuck Barris, then-ABC daytime programming executive, green-lit the pilot for Shindig!. The nationally syndicated show ran from 1964-1966. He and his show were depicted on The Flintstones television animated sitcom in the season six episode "Shinrock A Go-Go," which originally aired on December 3, 1965. This episode featured O'Neill, as "Jimmy O'Neillstone", hosting the Bedrock analogue of Shindig, called "Shinrock"; that program featured as one of the guest performers The Beau Brummels (as "The Beau Brummelstones") performing their recent hit, Laugh, Laugh.
In the 1970s, he worked at KOB in Albuquerque, then it was on to Omaha, Nebraska, radio stations WOW (now KSXP) and KOIL. He returned to Los Angeles for two more stints at KRLA from 1984-1985 and from 1990-1993.
He retired in the mid 1990s and lived in West Hollywood, California. O'Neill died in his West Hollywood home five days after his 73rd birthday.
Ben Freedman
In 2013...Ben Freedman, owner of the oldest continuously operated radio ID jingle company, died in Plano, TX at age 64. Freedman was recovering from an October heart attack when he died. He was also forced to cope with injuries sustained in a car accident a few years previously.
Freedman established WAY Productions and started producing jingles when he was just 14-years-old in his hometown of Buffalo, NY.
Ben had formed an admiration for the truly great jingle companies PAMS, Pepper and CRC, while serving as a "go-for" at WKBW 1520 AM with the famous jocks including Joey Reynolds, Dan Neaverth, Rod Roddy, Jay Nelson, Jeff Kaye, Stan Roberts and others.
In 1966, he landed his first air shift at Gordon McLendon’s WYSL FM in Buffalo under direct supervision of the Old Scotsman himself.
He first visited Texas in the late 70s and formed a new marketing association with several other audio producers including International Programming Services in Los Angeles, Tommy Calandra Productions in Buffalo, House Q Studios in Buffalo and ATB Productions in London. The new association is called Creative Productions Marketing Group or CPMG Incorporated for short.
In 2013...Cumulus took control of WFME 94.7 FM with simulcast of WPLJ in NYC
The 94.7 FM frequency signed on in 1947 as WAAT-FM, and was owned by the Bremer Broadcasting Company along with sister station WAAT (970 AM, now WNYM).
On January 6, 2012, Family Radio applied to the FCC to change the license of WFME from noncommercial to commercial. This move followed the sales by Family Radio of stations in the Philadelphia (WKDN-FM, now WKVP) and Washington-Baltimore (WFSI, now WLZL) markets, and quickly prompted conjecture from radio industry monitors that WFME would be sold next. The application was approved on February 7, 2012.
The sale rumors were confirmed on October 16, 2012, when Family Radio announced that it would sell WFME to Atlanta-based Cumulus Media; the originally undisclosed price was later confirmed to be $49.5 million. In addition, Family Radio acquired Cumulus' WDVY 106.3 FM in Mount Kisco, NY. The FCC approved the sale/station trade January 4, 2013, making 94.7 FM a sister station to Cumulus' two existing New York market stations, WABC and WPLJ. Four days later, on January 8, 2013, Cumulus completed the purchase of WFME. Family Radio programming on 94.7 FM ended on January 11, 2013; prior to signing off of the frequency, station manager Charlie Menut stated that the network's programming would be transferred to 106.3 FM, which became the new WFME on January 15, and that efforts to acquire an AM frequency that would cover the New York City area were being made. Family Radio would announce in 2014 its acquisition of WQEW 1560 AM, the former East Coast flagship of Radio Disney, which is set to end terrestrial distribution.)
WNSH 94.7 FM (23.5 Kw) Red=60dBu Coverage Area
On January 11, 2013, under Cumulus's new ownership, 94.7 FM began a simulcast of WPLJ, which broadcasts a HotAC format. The frequency's call sign was changed three days later to WRXP, a call sign previously used on the 101.9 FM facility in New York City under two different owners and two different stints as an alternative rock station. The WPLJ simulcast ended on January 18 in favor of stunting with a self-described "Wheel of Formats."
The stunting continued until January 21, when WRXP adopted a new country music format branded as Nash FM 94.7. The first song on "Nash FM" was "How Country Feels" by Randy Houser.
