Glenn Beck To Leave NYC

Plans To Take On Jon Stewart And Stephen Colbert

Talk show host Glenn Beck announced Saturday he has finally sold his Connecticut home and will be moving out of New York City in the near future, according to a story by Joe Brookes at wireupdate.com.

After a year of teasing on both his radio and television programs, Beck made the announcement during a live broadcast on GlennBeck.com from Albany, New York. Beck said leaving New York would be part of his post-Fox News life.

Other notes from the broadcast:

• Glenn Beck: @theblaze is only the beginning of news and information that i will be providing for radio, television, and internet.
• Glenn Beck: I’m about to build a research department that will utilize the idle brains that we have, retired CIA, military, phd’s
• Glenn Beck: I’m going to make sure that Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart don’t occupy the space of comedy alone
• Glenn Beck: What you are about to see in a few months is a new way to communicate with each other
• Glenn says he going to build a way to deliver news directly to the youth of America.

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Also Must Read:

THE DAILY CALLER: Conservatives hit Beck for taking content without Attribution

Why Radio Needs To Jump On The Digital Bandwagon

From Rich McLaughlin For The Business Insider

Digital platforms provide opportunities to enhance a terrestrial radio company’s core competency. Yes, I’m referring to content! It might be inaccurate to claim that a lack of diverse and compelling content options on the AM/FM radio dial was singlehandedly responsible for the influx of new offerings and platforms as digital was born. Regardless, that perception certainly played a role in the eyes of the consumer.

Satellite and Internet radio found their wide audience, in part, by exploiting terrestrial radio’s reputation of having narrow and repetitive playlists. How? They emphasized the depth and quality of their content offering. Terrestrial radio must now do the same. Inevitably, superior content will merge with superior technology to form the optimal listening experience. That’s where this will all end up. Terrestrial radio must focus on fighting the content war, and digital platforms enhance the user’s experience.

Digital presents an opportunity, not a threat, for terrestrial radio companies. Contrary to what some industry executives might believe, radio listeners consume the same content digitally as when listening on a frequency. All that’s changing with online and mobile listening is the means by which they consume it. “The Infinite Dial 2011” report confirms the finding that online radio listening is a complement to over-the-air radio, not a substitute. The study concluded that 89% of weekly online radio listeners listened to over-the-air AM/FM radio versus 11% those who listened exclusively to online radio, and not AM/FM. While online only stations, commonly referred to as “pureplay” stations, are an effective means of adding depth and increasing listenership on a platform, they don’t do so at a cost to AM/FM streaming.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, fighting the transition to digital is not a battle terrestrial radio companies can win. Rather than taking the failed record label approach of ignoring, or worse, attempting to force the hand of technological progress (I’m talking to you HD Radio), the radio industry should accept what it cannot change and use digital to its advantage.

Time will tell if the recent call-to-arms for a digital revolution from radio’s top ranks will galvanize the industry to make the transition with meaningful and significant urgency. The future success and relevance of terrestrial radio companies will depend on it.

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Rich McLaughlin is the Digital Program Director for Clear Channel's iheartradio platform.

Lady Gaga's 'Judas' Upsets Religious Groups

"She is trying to rip off Christian idolatry to shore up her talentless, mundane and boring performances," says the president of the Catholic League, according to a story by Lindsay Powers for The Hollywood Reporter.

Lady Gaga is stirring up controversy with the lyrics and video for her new song, "Judas."

The tune features lyrics like: "I want to love you,/but something’s pulling me away from you/Jesus is my virtue, and Judas is the demon I cling to….I’m just a holy fool,/ oh baby he’s so cruel,/ but I’m still in love with Judas, baby.”

Fumes Bill Donahue, president of The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, in a statement: "This is a stunt... Lady Gaga tries to continue to shock Catholics and Christians in general: she dresses as a nun... she swallows the rosary. She has now morphed into a caricature of herself.

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NPR's Andy Carvin Enjoys The Tweet Life

From Pam Harbaugh, Florida Today:
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It's no wonder Andy Carvin turned out to be a news junky.

While growing up in Indialantic, Florida at least two newspapers always were lying around the house. The local news was on television in the background during dinner.

Andy and his brother, Eric pored over the newspaper at breakfast, discovering a world beyond Brevard County.

So, yes, the world had a strong influence on Carvin. Now, the 1989 Melbourne High graduate is returning the favor.

As National Public Radio's senior strategist specializing in social media, Carvin, 39, is known to more than 43,000 Twitter followers as @acarvin.

From his office in Washington, he spends up to 17 hours sending nearly 300 Twitter tweets a day about minute-by-minute events, mostly in North Africa and the Middle East. Called a curator of information, he re-tweets first-person experiences, often shocking and heart-wrenching, of the so-called Jasmine Revolution. In the process, he puts a human face on the Arab and Muslim freedom fighters.

"If part of my tweeting helps expose the American public to a broader understanding to what Arabs and Muslims are like, so much the better," Carvin said.

His effect is so far reaching that Time magazine recently included him in its poll of "100 Most Influential People." As of Monday, he was ranked 66 out of 203 entries, two places behind Colin Firth.

"Everybody who follows the Middle East owes a debt to Andy," said New York Times columnist and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Nicholas Kristof. "He's the maestro of the region's Twitter feed."

Public Radio Listeners Show Off Their Loyalty

Love me, love my NPR

From Andrew Phelps, neimanlab.org:

NPR executives have been known to brag that theirs is just about the only news organization to show up in people’s personal ads. For example: “I am in need of some intelligent male company…I am an avid reader, npr listener, talkative, curious and always up for trying something new.”

Media companies salivate over that kind of loyalty and identification with the brand. “People not only have an affinity for NPR but an affinity for each other, as listeners,” Kinsey Wilson, NPR’s general manager of digital media told me. “We’re the only news organization where public trust has increased over the last decade.”

While there is as yet no dating site for public radio nerds — though Wilson said the idea has come up — his development team recently whipped up a way for listeners to show off their support and discover friends with similar passions. A new Facebook app called I Heart NPR asks fans to put themselves on a map with thousands of others. Users can play games, such as Name That NPR Theme Song (I earned four-of-four virtual tote bags, thank you), and then share the results with friends. Secret games will be “unlocked” with every 100,000 new users, Wilson said.

NPR is already among the most “liked” news organization on Facebook, with 1.4 1.6 million fans. So what’s different about this?

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Employers Use Social Media To Find Candidates

A new survey from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reveals that 56% of employers use social networking websites in their search for appropriate candidates, and another 20% said they plan to do so in the near future, according to a posting by blogger David John Walker at socialbarrel.com.
The survey from the world’s biggest association of hiring managers shows that LinkedIn currently dominates this space, with 95% of hiring managers who use social networking website reporting that they use LinkedIn to find and evaluate new candidates.

The SHRM survey underscores what has become increasingly evident to job hunters and employers alike: for the job seeker, an updated LinkedIn profile is a necessity and for the employer, LinkedIn should be the first stop in the recruitment process.  The SHRM report explains that employers are gravitating to social networking websites because they “allow an employer the opportunity to gather initial information about a job candidate before a single word has been exchanged."

A good Linked in profile will provide a potential employer with a concise, clear picture of the candidate’s strengths and talents, experience, and current occupation. A really good LinkedIn profile will also have recommendations prior employers, colleagues, and clients.

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The Sunday Funny

Jimmy Kimmel and The Donald for President.

The Saturday Aircheck

Aircheck from 1969 with Todd Wallace on KILT AM 610 - Houston.

KDWB Remains Under Fire After Ethnic Song Parody

Protestors are keeping the pressure on a Twin Cities radio station that aired in March a parody song called "30 Hmongs in a house."

According to a story at kare11.com, a group of of 9 individuals from the Hmong and allied communities entered the home of Clear Channel Communications, demanding to speak with executive. Instead, the protestors claim they were denied a meeting and removed from the premises by police and security officers.

The 9 were part of a larger group of dozens of protestors that rallied in front of KDWB FM Friday morning demanding that the station take responsibility for the song that aired March 22nd, a segment they call "an intolerable racist joke."

KDWB released a statement that reads "We fully support the rights under the first amendment of individuals to gather together and to express their thoughts and opinions. We share a committment to racial justice."

"The March 22nd song segment in no way reflects the values and viewpoints of our station or individual KDWB personnel," the statement continued. "We are reaching out and engaging directly with members of the Hmong community, as well as with other community leaders to make things right."

The rally, organized by TakeAction Minnesota's Hmong Organizing Program and others, was held to encourage KDWB to consider five requests. Among them are the firing of morning show co-host Steve LaTart, known as Steve O on the Dave Ryan morning show.

The Facebook page for The Dave Ryan in the Morning Show was filled in the hours following the protest with a running dialogue from both protestors and supporters of the show.

Other requests from the group include prohibiting offensive anti-ethnic and racist commentary; requiring annual diversity training for employees; requiring community service in the Hmong community; and dedicating airtime to discuss the matter and educate listeners about the Hmong culture.

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Entercom Slays Country 'Wolf' For Sports In SF

We probably should have seen this coming. A little over two weeks ago Entercom did a deal with the Oakland A's to become the local MLB outlet.  Today the other shoe dropped, as the country format was booted on 95.7 FM KBWF for SportsRadfio. The station is now stunting with Gary Glitter.

Staff Update:  All talent is out, including PD Mike Krinik. He is expected to possibly move to another Entercom market.

From Chronicle Staff Writer Susan Slusser

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Tom's Take:  The Wolf forfeits a 1.1 share 6+. Will the cume move to Empire's KRTY, which also scored a 1.1 share in the latest PPMs? 

KNBR AM is currently owning a 2.4 sports share.

Interesting news in A's - and Sharks' - land today. The A's new station, 95.7 FM, is switching from country music to an all-sports format, and the name changes from The Wolf to SportsRadio 95.7 FM.

There have been several attempts to wean some audience away from KNBR over the years, with little overall success. This is the first try on FM, and with a big company, Entercom, with lots of sports programming experience behind it.

The station promises A's and Sharks' programming, with on-air personalities and other programming to be announced at a later date. Sharks' playoff games will remain on KFOX for the playoffs, with simulcasts on 95.7 FM when possible (i.e., not during A's games) and Entercom is in discussions with the Sharks about moving their broadcasts to 95.7 FM next season.

Dwight Walker, Entercom's market manager and vice president, tells me that Entercom also will be having talks with Stanford (currently on the dying KTRB) and Cal today.

If this station picks up Stanford and if the A's ever get permission to move to San Jose, Entercom might have positioned itself well as a South Bay alternative to KNBR. In addition, the A's and Sharks have fan bases that feel particularly under-served by KNBR, so that gives 95.7 FM some hungry listeners from the get-go.

Walker tells me that listener studies show that 80 percent of those who listen to the radio stay on the FM side and never switch over to AM at all. He and Entercom believe there are plenty of sports fans in general who are listening to FM radio and who are currently under-served. SportsRadio 95.7 FM is calling itself the biggest large-market all-sports station in the country.

"We'll be talking A's and Sharks, two winning franchises that aren't getting as much attention as they could," he said. "But we'll also be talking Warriors, Giants, Earthquakes, SaberCats.

Bubba Buys Florida Speedway

Syndicated radio host Bubba The Love Sponge and a group of investors have purchased the famed Ocala Speedway in Ocala, Florida. It’s the oldest track in the state dating back to 1952.

Floridaflagstand.com quotes Bubba, whose real name is Todd Clem, “I obviously bought this place as an investment, but also want to give back to the racers.”

Bubba is an avid racer himself and has raced at Ocala and other speedways in Florida during the past 10 years.

Of race track owners, Bubba says “Most park track owners are greedy sum-bags. They want to make a great living at the expense of the racers. Very few track owners want to give back, well those days are over at my track."

After a Monster Truck show this weekend, Ocala Speedway will close until a May 13th grand re-opening.

The Bubba The Love Sponge show airs on five radios and on-line at www.radioio.com.

Orlando TV Anchor Faces Surgery For Tumor

WKMG-Channel 6 anchor Lauren Rowe will have surgery Tuesday after doctors found a tumor on her thyroid, according to The TV Guy, Hal Boedeker at orlandosentinel.com.

“There’s something growing that shouldn’t be there,” Rowe, 39, said today. “They have to remove the tumor to know if it’s malignant or benign. They will remove the tumor and half of the thyroid.”

She will anchor through Monday at the CBS affiliate, and her “Flashpoint” this weekend focuses on the Casey Anthony case.

“We think I’ll be gone at least a week,” Rowe said. “As long as everything goes well, I hope to be back within a week.”

How is Rowe doing?

“The reaction at first was fear, nervousness,” she said. “My 4-year old daughter was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes on Thursday. My original fear for myself shifted, and I’m focused on my daughter. I want to get the surgery over with so I can focus on my daughter. It’s been sort of a one-two punch.”

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Feder: Meet CC's Brotha' Fred

"I expect to have to prove myself"
From Robert Feder, chicago.timeout.com

Anyone who knows him will tell you that Christopher “Brotha’ Fred” Frederick (pictured left) was born to do radio. The question no one can answer yet is whether he was born to do radio in Chicago.

His grandfather was a station owner and manager. His father was a legendary disc jockey. As a kid growing up in Scottsdale, Arizona, young Christopher spent hours pretending to be a DJ. During high school, he hung out around radio stations. In college, he turned his passion into a profession.

Last January — following on-air stints in Austin, Texas, and Charlotte, North Carolina — Frederick, 30, landed his “dream job” as morning personality at WKSC-FM (103.5), the Clear Channel Radio Top 40 station known as Kiss FM. He replaced seven-year veteran Kevin “DreX” Buchar, who’d been dropped because of declining ratings.

Although the jury is out on whether Brotha’ Fred will make it in the long run, the latest Arbitron Co. figures are looking up: In March his ratings jumped from eighth place to fifth with a 5.0 percent share of listeners between 18 and 34 — Kiss FM’s target audience. But he still faces an uphill battle against his main rivals, Jamar “J Niice” McNeil and Julian Nieh on CBS Radio rhythmic Top 40 WBBM-FM (96.3), now second with a 6.0 share.

In his first extended interview since he started here, Brotha’ Fred reflected on his move to Chicago, his new show, his heritage — and that awful nickname.

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Bruce Springsteen Talks Early Rock with Little Steven

From David Hinckley, New York Daily News blog:

If you like Bruce Springsteen or just like music of the 1960s, you should tune in WAXQ (104.3 FM) Sunday night, 10-midnight, for the third part of Bruce’s conversation with his pal Steve Van Zandt on “Little Steven’s Underground Garage.”

It’s a sort-of-chronological chat that started two weeks ago with Bruce’s earliest rock ‘n’ roll influences and finishes up this Sunday with Bruce talking about how the music was changing in the late ‘60s just as he was getting serious about making his own music with his own bands.

Jimi Hendrix, for instance, got his attention. As did less-remembered bands like King Crimson.

It’s interesting that the better and more successful a musician becomes, the more he or she talks about where the music came from. From Keith Richard, Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan to Eddie Vedder and John Legend, they’ll all tell you what they do didn’t come out of either nowhere or just their own heads.

The Springsteen conversation is particularly interesting because like everything else he does, Bruce plunges into it. He’s articulate and he’s got a great memory. Plus he and Steven have been pals forever and while we've seen them sing a lot (above), we've never eavesdropped on a real conversation before.

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Russ Parr Going Strong, and Global

From Avis Thomas-Lester, The Washington Post

It’s 7 a.m. on a recent Thursday, and Russ Parr has welcomed actor and singer Jamie Foxx, in town to promote his new album, into his Lanham studio for a chat.

As with most urban music artists who come to the D.C. area to publicize projects, an audience with the host of the nationally syndicated “Russ Parr Morning Show,” heard locally on WKYS (93.9 FM), is an essential stop. Parr banters with Foxx for 90 minutes about everything from the album to the historic TV miniseries “Roots” to Michael Vick buying a Porsche.

“That’s what I do with my show — improv on the radio,” Parr said in an interview. “You can’t write it down. It just has to happen. I like to take something that happened five minutes ago and make it funny. It’s a challenge. It makes you unpredictable, which is good, because I don’t think people like predictable radio.”
Parr airs in 38 markets on Saturdays and in 24 on weekdays. His show, which begins at 6 a.m., blends news, commentary and raucous repartee.

Although the show is down from its 45-station peak, Parr said he still has 1.8 million listeners. His show is the District’s second-place morning-drive program among 18- to 34-year-olds.

He acknowledges that the radio game is more complicated than it was when he started spinning rap records at Los Angeles’s KDAY (93.5 FM), which 25 years ago touted itself as the first 24-hour hip-hop station.

For example, Parr now draws a significant number of listeners from apps on smartphones. “I get texts from Switzerland answering the people-poll questions that I do,” he said. “I get texts and phone calls from Wisconsin, Utah, places like Tampa Bay, Florida, and I’m not on in those places. We’re global now, but there is no way to know exactly how many people are listening to us on apps. Everybody has the potential to be global with the Internet.”

But radio alone cannot contain him.

Parr is on tour promoting a book, “The Game Behind the Game: Mastering the Art of [Expletive]”, which was released this month. His newest film, “35 and Ticking,” is to be screened May 20 in the District, Baltimore and Atlanta. He begins shooting his fifth film in June in Los Angeles and will shoot another film in the District starting in August.

Alfred Edmond Jr., a senior vice president and editor at large at Black Enterprise magazine, said Parr is among a handful of popular nationally syndicated morning show hosts, including Tom Joyner and Steve Harvey, whom local stations rely on to draw larger audiences and bigger advertising dollars.

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My (Academic) Life Was Saved by Radio

By Robert A. Weisbuch, The Chronicle of Higher Education

Last month I found Lee Baby Simms. Lee Baby ranks for me as the world's greatest Top-40 DJ, and my opinion on that is shared by many radio insiders. He was astonishingly fast, funny, edgy, and creative within an art form where you had just seconds between the hits to establish a personality.

There were lots of great DJ's, and many more famous than he was. Lee Baby worked for stations in 26 cities over 40 years, sacrificed job security for doing it his way, and could have used an agent. But the Baby made the others seem like they were trying too hard, screaming and sweating too much. When I was a student at Wesleyan University, running the campus station, he took over Hartford—or, as he called it Hard-up-for-it—radio against superb competition. (You can hear samples of his work on the Web site of Reelradio.) I invited him to the campus as a special guest. "Hello, Mr. Simms," I tremblingly said to a handsome fellow just a few years older than myself. "Please," he smiled, "you can call me Mr. Baby."

Forty years later, I wrote him an e-mail, shyly, like a baseball fan addressing Babe Ruth. Amazingly, Lee Baby wrote back in a very generous and personal way. We are now in frequent and delightful contact as I actually begin to write a book on Top-40 radio. I cannot tell you how much an e-mail from Lee Baby lifts my budget-wearied spirits. But you are probably wondering why I am telling you all of this in the pages of what is not, after all, Billboard or Broadcasting, but The Chronicle of Higher Education.

It's because I have been thinking a great deal lately about what led me to academe and how that might provide clues for engaging our students.

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Official: Imus Wingman Charles McCord Retiring

Don Imus is losing his wingman

The WABC radio and Fox Business Network morning man announced Friday morning that Charles McCord, his long-time newsman, sidekick and partner in humor, will retire on May 6, according to David Hinckley at nydailynews.com.

"He's been going home to his family early, every afternoon, day in and day out for 48 years," Imus deadpanned. "He has decided he now wants to spend less time with them. So beginning the week of May 9th, Charles will be in Arkansas fishing, alone, on the Bull Shoals Lake. . . . eating pork rind sandwiches and drinking Budweiser."

McCord's departure alters the foundation of the Imus show, where for more than four decades he and  Imus developed one of radio's longest lasting partnerships.

McCord is leaving at a time when Imus's radio and TV ratings have been diverging.

His average Fox Business Network audience for the first quarter, according to Nielsen, was 65,000 viewers, down about 45% from 2010. He is no longer the network's No. 1 show, as others have gained viewers.

Imus has said on the air that his advertising revenue remains strong.

Meanwhile, his 770 AM WABC radio ratings have risen. In January, he had the third-ranked morning show in the market.

McCord's replacement would likely come from Fox Business Network, whose staff Imus integrates regularly into his program. Among those who have sat in for McCord has been news anchor Connell McShane.

The rest of the Imus team, including producer Bernard McGuirk, engineer Lou Ruffino, sportscaster Warner Wolf and comedians Rob Bartlett and Tony Powell, would remain.

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From WABC: