Katie Tells Us What We Already Knew

UPDATE 4pm:

OFFICIAL: Katie Couric said Tuesday that her anchor stint on “CBS Evening News” will conclude this spring, ending a five-year run that brought some accolades, but saw its flagship newscast lose viewers.

“I have decided to step down,” she said as part of an interview with Time Warner Inc.’s People Magazine, confirming what people close to Ms. Couric have been saying was likely for weeks.

earlier story...
Katie Couric is contemplating a move to ABC as she prepares to end her five-year run as the “CBS Evening News” anchor, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

Couric, 54, is expected to announce this week that she will leave the show and hasn’t made a final decision about her future, said the people, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly, according to a story at bloomberg.com. Her contract with CBS ends June 4.

Both NBC and ABC are said to be discussing talk shows with Couric that would start in 2012, according to one executive with knowledge of the talks. ABC, part of Walt Disney Co. (DIS), has made a late run at Couric, said two of the people. The anchor and ABC News President Ben Sherwood met at least once for lunch to discuss the move, one person said.

Scott Pelley, a correspondent on “60 Minutes,” will take over for Couric as CBS anchor, one of the people said. Prior to joining “60 Minutes,” he was CBS News’ chief White House correspondent.

Couric is being advised by Jeff Zucker, former chief executive officer of NBC Universal and previously her producer at NBC’s “Today” show.

Neither ABC nor NBC would offer her the evening anchor position, one of the people said. She would likely work on specials, including the upcoming presidential elections.

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Also Read:

NY DAILY NEWS: Barbara Walters is 'really worked up' over Katie Couric's supposed upcoming daytime show: source

70s Singer Phoebe Snow Dies

Phoebe Snow, who was nominated for best new artist at the 1975 Grammys, died Tuesday morning in Edison, N.J., from complications of a brain hemorrhage she suffered in January 2010.

Opinion: Did The NAB Throw Radio Under The Bus?

From Radio Insights, Harker Research

After years of opposition, why did the NAB and its President and CEO Gordon Smith seem so anxious last Fall to cut a deal requiring radio stations to pay millions of dollars in royalties to record labels?

Think back to October when the NAB Radio Board tried to quickly push through a deal committing radio to pay a 1% royalty with musicFirst, the labels’ front organization.

Coming out of radio’s worst recession that saw $5 billion dollars of revenue evaporate, the last thing radio needed was a new multi-million dollar expense item.

Polls at the time showed overwhelming opposition to the deal by broadcasters, yet the NAB pushed hard for the deal.

The people behind the NAB’s Terms Sheet warned that radio needed to complete a deal before Congress forced a more onerous one on radio.

But was that true? Or was there something more behind the NAB’s interest in giving away millions of radio’s dollars?

Smith’s recent key-note address at the Las Vegas convention suggests it had little to do with radio, and a lot to do with the NAB’s priorities.

Here’s what Gordon Smith now says about the royalty fight:

Last year we stopped the legislation that would impose a performance tax on local radio stations. This was a freight train headed for passage.

The White House was for it. Congressional leadership supported it. Both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees had passed it.

We brought the freight train under control by seeking a good faith, workable agreement with the music industry, while at the same time aggressively opposing the bill as written.

It is an interesting re-interpretation of the events of last Fall.

In truth, 260 House members and 27 Senate members were already on record opposing the radio “performance tax” by March of last year. The bill hadn’t advanced since the Summer of 2009 when the proposal was voted out of committee.

The NAB had already proudly announced the tax proposal dead months before. The royalty deal had no chance of passage.

So why does Gordon now declare the bill a freight train headed for passage? 

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Orlando TV Anchor: Tumor Was Benign

WKMG-Channel 6 (Orlando)  anchor Lauren Rowe had wonderful news for Easter: She won’t need more surgery after a tumor was removed from her thyroid last week.

“Everything is good, the tumor was benign, we’re done,” Rowe told the TV Guy, Hal Boedeker at orlandosentinel.com.

She should return to the CBS affiliate on Tuesday, and look for an update during the 6 p.m. newscast.

“I’m sure I’ll mention it and that we should be able to move forward,” Rowe said. “The scar is pretty big. We’ll talk a little bit about it.”

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Arrest Made In Attempted Rape Of On-Air Radio Host

A man with a long criminal history broke into a Christian radio station in Pine Hills area of metro Orlando Monday morning and performed a sex act in front of the program host while threatening to rape her, according to a story posted at orlandosentinel.com.

The incident happened about 6 a.m. while listeners tuned in to the live religious programming.

Orange County, FL deputies are interviewing suspect Donald Destin, 30. The sheriff's fugitive unit arrested him about 4:30 p.m.

The host told investigators she was on the air when the suspect entered the station without permission. She said the man exposed himself, performed a sex act and threatened to rape her.

A listener heard the threat and called 911.

The host remained calm and lured the man outside the building, the Sheriff's Office said. Then she got him to go back inside while she locked herself inside her car and waited for deputies.

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Brighthouse Cable 13 news reports  the encounter happened at La Voix Evangelique D'Orlando, on the SCA channel of WMMO (98.9) on Pine Hills Road and Alhambra Drive.  The station broadcasts to Haiti from a church.  It requires a special transmitter to pick up the signal. The encounter inside the station was caught on surveillance video.

Lady Gaga Breaks Down In Clip From HBO Special

Under all those crazy outfits, wigs and horns, Lady Gaga is just like everyone else.

In a newly released clip for her May 7 HBO documentary, "Lady Gaga Presents: The Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden," the singer breaks down into tears backstage before her NYC performance while explaining how important her fans are to her, according to a story by Kathleen Perricone at nydailynews.com.

"I still sometimes feel like a loser kid in high school and I just have to pick myself up and tell myself that I'm a superstar every morning so that I can get through this day and be for my fans what they need for me to be. But sometimes I still feel like people are trying to destroy me. I cannot be destroyed, I will not be destroyed and you will never destroy the kingdom that is my fans. I'm fighting for every kid that's like me, that felt like I felt and feels like I still feel. I just wanna be a queen for them and sometimes I don't feel like one."

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Emmis CEO Takes Issue With Ramsey Blog

Jeff Smulyan Says Mark Ramsey "Demonstrates A Frightening Lack of Comprehension"

From Radio Ink.com

In a rare rebuttal from a radio CEO, it appears Jeff Smulyan has had enough of Mark Ramsey's online ramblings.

Ramsey posted a blog entitled "Radio Rocks My World Strains Credibility." Smulyan reveals some stunning company details about his streaming experience and takes Ramsey to task for a recent blog he posted criticizing the NAB for its recently released 'Radio Rocks Your Phone" campaign. Smulyan says Ramsey "demonstrates a frightening lack of comprehension on this subject" of cell phones.

Here is the Smulyan letter:
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I've just read another of Mark Ramsey's blogs about FM chips and I decided that it is time for a vigorous response.  When Mark asks, "Does NAB know the magic of streaming already makes radio available to those same devices and does so with features enabled by technology that no FM chip can match?"  I feel compelled to answer for the NAB, and the rest of the radio industry,  so Mark, here goes.

Yes, I know all about streaming. Like thousands of other broadcasters, I've been doing it for nearly two decades.  I don't know if anyone else has made money at it, but we haven't, and I haven't heard of anyone else who has.  At Emmis, we've invested millions of dollars in our interactive ventures because we want to be where our audiences are, but we are also realistic about economics.

Streaming is a one-to-one, interactive medium, which does allow us to do lots of great things, but there is a tremendous cost to that. The best example I can give is to compare streaming with over-the-air transmission. In our Los Angeles station, KPWR, we reach around 2.8 million people a week.  Our annual electric costs from our transmitter are $39,500, a cost that does not rise if we serve one person in Southern California, or all 16 million within the reach of our signal.  If we were to take down our transmitter and reach every person we currently reach through streaming, our cost to disseminate the signal would be nearly $1 million per year!  Is there enough value in making a broadly based entertainment medium a one-to-one medium?  That's the current debate in this country, and I would submit that consumers haven't found that value yet.

Royal Wedding: Elton John Slams British Press

2 FMs Opt for News/Talk

Two more FM station have made the switch to talk radio.  In Florida, Clear Channel's Aloha Trust WPHR flipped to conservative talk and is branding as 'Rush Radio 94.7 FM' (website).

The station is licensed to Gifford, Florida and serving the Vero Beach / Fort Pierce market. The FM 50,000 watt signal also creeps into the Melbourne, FL market where Clear Channel also airs N/T on WMMB 1240 AM and WMMV1350 AM.

The station features a local morning show, The Morning Rush with Jim Edwards, Brian Mudd, Joel Malkin, and producer Brenna.   Then it's syndication with Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Jason Lewis and Coast-To-Coast.

The station has a history concerning its call letters.  The Aloha Trust filed in December to change the station's call letters from WSYR-FM (Hot/AC) to WPHR-FM.  The change allowed Clear Channel's WSYR to use the FM calls for its new News/Talk AM-FM simulcast for it's 106.9-FM signal (licensed to Solvay, NY, a suburb of Syracuse). The Syracuse station had used WPHR-FM for an urban format, which continues on 620-AM.

The other format change was in Memphis, Citadal flips it's 98.9 FM WKIM frequency from GenX to talk at "News-Talk FM 98.9" (website).

The station was originally located in Kennett, Missouri, and used the call sign KTMO prior to its move-in in 2001. The station then would target Memphis with a Smooth Jazz format as Smooth Jazz 98.9 WJZN.

In November 2004 the station changed to a Rhythmic Contemporary format as WMPW, putting it in direct competition with rivals Urban WHRK, fellow Rhythmic Contemporary Hit KXHT and Mainstream Top 40 rival WHBQ-FM.

On September 15, 2006 they would become 98.9 Kim FM with an adult hits format under new call letters of WKIM. After several years of substandard ratings and programming, the station abruptly flipped formats to hot AC about more than a year later.

The change was still unsuccessful at the station, and on March 31, 2010 to 98.9 Gen X, airing a retro-based format of mostly music of the 1990s. More recently, the station added some current music, as of September 26, 2010 the station airs a mix of 1990s-2000s product with some currents. Today the station could be defined as a 1990s/hot AC format reminiscent of Sirius The Pulse before the merger.

Man Attempts Rape Against On-Air Radio Host

A man broke into a Christian radio station in the Pine Hills neighborhood of Metro Orlando Monday morning, performed a sex act in front of the radio host while threatening to rape her, according to a story by Walter Pacheco at orlandosentinel.com.

The attempted rape and indecent exposure took place while listeners tuned into the live, early morning religious programming.

Deputies with the Orange County Sheriff's Office said the man, described as having a tall, thin build and in his 30s with 2-inch twists in his hair, remains on the run.

Investigators did not release the name of the radio station, but said it broadcasts near the area of Pine Hills Road and Alhambra Drive.

Officials said they were notified by a listener who heard the suspect threaten the radio host.

Reports show the incident took place just before 6 a.m.

The host told investigators she was on the air when the suspect entered the station without permission. She said the man exposed his sexual organs, performed a sex act in front of her and threatened to rape her.

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Mac vs. PC: The Stereotypes May Be True

(CNN) -- Remember those Apple ads that cast the Mac as a 20-something, self-satisfied hipster while the PC was portrayed by an older, square-looking guy in a brown suit?

Well, those characterizations, unfair as they may be, appear to have some truth to them, according to a story by Brandon griggs at cnn.com.

An unscientific survey by Hunch, a site that makes recommendations based on detailed user preferences, found that Mac users tend to be younger, more liberal, more fashion-conscious and more likely to live in cities than people who prefer PCs.

Of the 388,000 Hunch users who responded to a question about computer loyalty, 52% identified themselves as PC people as opposed to 25% who said they are Mac devotees. Hunch then cross-referenced those responses with answers to other questions to draw cultural distinctions between the rival Mac and PC camps.

The results suggest Mac users can be seen, depending on your perspective, as bolder and more creative -- or elitist and more pretentious.

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Legal: Newspapers vs. The Internet

Newspapers have been teaming up with a lawfirm called Righthaven, to file lawsuits against people posting copyrighted content on the web.

Righthaven's detractors call them "copyright trolls," but they say they're much needed protectors of a newspaper's intellectual property.

NPR's "On the Media" programs talks to Joe Mullin of Paidcontent.org who has covered Righthaven's lawsuits, and Righthaven CEO Steve Gibson.

Hannity Show Hits NYTimes For Bias

Friday night's "Hannity" on FNC was devoted to media bias.  Here is a highlight that focused on the New York Times.

'Mob' Talk Dooms Radio Show

A profanity-filled call from "Mob Wives" star Drita D'avanzo got a 970 AM WNYM radio host canned after only two broadcasts of his 2-week-old Sunday night talk show, according to a story over the weekend at nypost.com.

"It's both discrimination and censorship," said the host, finance expert John Tabacco,who launched his show, "Family Business with John Tabacco," this month.

Tabacco ill-advisedly invited curse-crazed D'avanzo and her VH1 reality co-star, Renee Graziano, as call-in guests on his first two shows. According to their bios on the "Mob Wives" Web site, Graziano -- who owns greeting card company JailMail -- is the daughter of Anthony Graziano, who the feds believe was a high-ranking member of La Cosa Nostra. D'avanzo, a makeup artist, is the wife of Lee D'avanzo, who federal prosecutors say is the leader of a Bonanno and Colombo crime family farm team and is currently in prison for robbery.

Both women used profanities during their call-ins, but D'avanzo's F-bombs were so frequent during her show on Sunday, producers couldn't erase them. Although Tabacco tried several times to discourage D'avanzo from swearing, she spat, "If someone asks you how you feel, you answer the [bleeping] question."

The next day, Tabacco said, station execs were livid. "They told me, 'Your choice of guests is unacceptable, your programming is unacceptable.' We're talking about single women with families who have businesses."

Then, on Thursday, 970 AM programming director Peter Thiele wrote a letter to Tabacco informing him that his last show, which he co-hosts with his brother, Derek, will be May 15.

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"Cousin Brucie" on Broadway

From Jim Beckerman, northjersey.com:

"Cousin Brucie" Morrow, one of the legendary radio hosts of rock-and-roll's early days, has been around.

In 1965, he was at Shea Stadium, introducing The Beatles. In 1987, he was sawing Jennifer Grey in half, as a borscht belt magician in the movie "Dirty Dancing."

One place you would not have run into him was on the airwaves of Memphis, Tenn., in 1951. But thanks to a slight tweaking of history, that's where he'll be May 3-8, when he makes a guest appearance in the Tony-winning Broadway musical "Memphis."

"I play the white disc jockey, but they rewrote it so this white disc jockey is Cousin Brucie," he says. "Isn't it amazing what poetic license can do?"

"Memphis" begins with a quick tour of the radio dial, circa 1951 – the "white" stations at the center of the dial, the "black" stations ghettoized to one side. Morrow, 75, does not play the deejay hero — loosely based on Dewey Phillips, the Memphis on-air personality who daringly integrated the two races on radio. Instead, he'll play the mainstream deejay at the beginning of the show, whose Lawrence Welk world is about to be turned upside-down by rock-and-roll.

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Oprah Sez She Can't 'Save The Soaps'

The Sunday Funny

Bob Hope guest stars on The Muppet Show and sings "Don't Fence Me In". Season 2 (1977-1978)