The Mouth Of The South Retiring This Month

From Doug Monroe at AtlantaMagazine:

When Neal Boortz retires from WSB radio this month after forty-three years of hosting a raucous, rancorous, and utterly compelling right-wing talk show speckled with flakes of libertarianism, he will have outlasted two Atlanta radio stations and one Georgia political party. Boortz agreed to a Q&A with Atlanta magazine contributor Doug Monroe, an occupant of the other end of the political spectrum. 

Are you going into retirement cold turkey or will you continue to blog, write books, and make speeches? 

The main reason I’m retiring is so that I’ll have the freedom to travel. I’m in great health and still love what I do, but it’s just too restrictive. In forty-[three] years of talk radio I think I’ve had exactly four two-week vacations, and never one longer than that. But yes, I’m keeping my hand in. I’ll continue with the blog on boortz.com, I’m currently finishing Maybe I Should Just SHUT UP and GO AWAY!, my sixth book, and have two in the hopper to write. I’m listed with Premiere Speakers Bureau and they still give me the ones Hannity turns down. And last but not least, I’ll be doing daily commentaries every morning on WSB and will be the substitute fill-in host for Herman Cain, and anyone else who will have me. And yes—the Boortz Bus is equipped for broadcast. 

When you first went on the air on Atlanta’s WRNG-AM—fifteen years before Rush Limbaugh started his show—did you have any idea how successful and dominating conservative talk radio would become?

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R.I.P. Former WMC-FM GM Don Myers Was 84

Funeral services were held today in Memphis for Don Meyers, former GM of WMC-FM (FM100).  He died Friday at the age of 84.

Meyers was WMC’s GM from 1979-1994 and consulted the station in 19967 and ’97.  He also managed WAKY 790 -AM during its heyday in Louisville and hired Gary Guthrie.

At FM100, Meyers as hired Randy Lane, Smokey Rivers, Ron Olson, Steve Conley, Tom Prestigiacomo and Chuck Morgan among many others.

Meyers graduated from the Cincinnati Music Conservatory in 1948 and hosted a radio show “Matters, Music with Meyers”. The show launched his passion for radio.

Face-Off: Piers Morgan, Alex Jones

The radio personality who wants Piers Morgan deported for advocating gun control faced off with the CNN host on Morgan's show Monday night, denouncing Morgan as "a hatchet man of the New World Order" and warning of a new American revolution, according to CNN.

Radio talk show host Alex Jones backed a petition on the White House website calling on Morgan, a British citizen, to be deported "for his effort to undermine the Bill of Rights and for exploiting his position as a national network television host to stage attacks against the rights of American citizens."

"We did (this) to point out that this is globalism, and the megabanks that control the planet and brag they have taken over in Bloomberg, AP, Reuters, you name it -- brag they're going to get our guns as well," said Jones, who said his show is carried on 140 U.S. stations. "They have taken everybody's guns but the Swiss and the American people. When they get our guns, they can have their world tyranny while the government buys 1.6 billion bullets, armored vehicles, tanks, helicopters. Predator drones, armed, now in U.S. skies, being used to arrest people in North Dakota."

Morgan has been outspoken in calling for restrictions of semi-automatic rifles like the kind used in last year's mass killings in Newtown, Connecticut, and Aurora, Colorado. But Jones said the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of a right to bear arms "isn't there for duck hunting. It's there to protect us from tyrannical government and street thugs."

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Alex Jones Detained By TSA

Talk show host threatened with arrest for not removing shoes

Radio talk show host and ardent Homeland Security critic Alex Jones was detained by the TSA at Austin-Bergstrom airport earlier today and threatened with arrest for refusing to take his shoes off at a security checkpoint, according to Paul Joseph Watson at infowars.com.

Traveling to New York to appear on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight, Jones had already showed his ID as he approached the metal detector. Jones and colleague Rob Dew noticed that a large number of people across all age ranges were not removing their shoes as they walked through the metal detector. The x-ray body scanners were not in use.

As soon as he approached security, Jones was addressed by a TSA screener who said, “Hello Mr. Jones,” indicating that she knew who he was, and immediately ordered him to remove his shoes.

When Jones refused, citing the fact that innumerable other people had not removed their shows, the TSA screener claimed that only under 12′s and over 75′s were not mandated to remove footwear under TSA policy.

When Jones contested the point, arguing that numerous travelers in their 40′s had not removed their shoes, other TSA agents ordered him to take off his shoes, before Jones was approached by a police officer who immediately got in his face and started threatening him with arrest.

Despite Jones’ protests that he was clearly being discriminated against because he was a known critic of the TSA (the rest of the TSA screeners also knew him by name), the officer growled, “Take your damn shoes off or I’m gonna arrest you.”

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Bieber Fever Meets Millie Mania

Seven-year-old Millie Flamm, of Salt Lake City, was crushed when she had to sell her Justin Bieber concert tickets. Millie has been battling leukemia for three years. She had planned on attending Bieber's concert Saturday night at Energy Solutions Arena until she relapsed two weeks ago, according to a story at Deseretnews.com.

What happened after that was an incredible online and social media campaign started by friends and family members that went viral. Thousands of people campaigned to have Millie meet Bieber.

Saturday morning, Amanda Flamm, Millie's mother, said they didn't know if the meeting would happen, and they weren't sure Millie would even be able to meet him. She had been running a fever and was on oxygen.

But at the last minute, the efforts paid off as Bieber met with Millie and her family in private.

"All of a sudden it pulled through and we were able to do a really intimate little meeting with just her and us and Justin and it was incredible and he was so sweet to her," Millie's mother said. "He walked in and her whole face just lit up, and she turned around and hugged her dad, and then he ran over and came next to her and gave her a big hug."

Bieber sang Millie's song to her, "Baby," while holding her hand and gave her his guitar pic.

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CC Appoints, Borneman, Cuddy To WOR Positions

Tom Cuddy

Veteran NYC Radio programmer is joining Clear Channel’s WOR 710-AM.  Cuddy will oversee programming and digital operations for the station.

CC also has named Steve Borneman as station manager.  Borneman is a former Cumulus Media Market Manager in NYC. He joined Clear Channel in November.

Cuddy spent 19-year as VP of programming at WPLJ 95.50FM.

When Cuddy came to WPLJ at the dawn of the '90s, he says, they chose a different course - targeting a smaller group of listeners from whom the station could make more money.

Steve Borneman

He reflected on his WPLJ game plan in a 2009 interview with David Hinckley of the NYDailyNews.

"We saw a hole between Z-100 and Lite-FM," he says. "We went after that audience, with music and a lot of personality.  The station was losing millions of dollars," he says. "The last Miller-Kaplan report I saw, 'PLJ was the third-highest billing FM in the city."

If radio fans sometimes joke about 'PLJ being a safe "Soccer Mom" station, or still identify it by its old positioning tagline - "No rap, no hard stuff, no sleepy elevator music"

Auto Makers Sign Up For iHeart Radio

Keeping up the pressure on Pandora, the radio station giant Clear Channel this morning announced a deal to integrate its Internet-based iHeart Radio service into Chrysler and General Motors vehicles.

Forbes.com reports the company also unveiled iHeartRadio for Auto, a made-for-driving version of its Internet radio app, which it is offering through a variety of after-market radio vendors.

Clear Channel made the announcements this morning at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Clear Channel said that starting later this year iHeartRadio will be feature in GM’s new app catalog, which will included in some 2014 GM infotainment systems. “GM drivers will have access to a native and easy-to-use iHeartRadio experience directly from their dashboards giving them the ability to personalize their listening experience by searching for both broadcast and custom stations and by using iHeartRadio’s exclusive Discovery Tuner to control how much variety they want in their music,” Clear Channel said in a statement.

The iHeart Radio apps provides access to 1,500 live radio stations, as well as more than 15 million songs that can be included in user-programmable stations.

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Pandora Announces December 2012 Audience Metrics

The internet radio service Pandora announced today new metrics that were reached in the month of December 2012:

• Listener hours for Pandora during the month of December 2012 were 1.39 billion, an increase of 54% from 906 million during the same period last year.
• Share of total U.S. radio listening for Pandora in December 2012 was 7.19%, an increase from 4.71% at the same time last year.
• Active listeners were 67.1 million at the end of December 2012, an increase of 41% from 47.6 million during the same time period last year.

Pandora is releasing key audience metrics on a monthly basis to provide the most current information regarding Pandora's users and usage across platforms.

FCC Okays Cumulus Acquiring 94.7 FM NYC

If you’ve been wondering how soon the format will be flipping at WFME 94.7 FM, the FCC has given its okay to the $40M dollar deal announced a few months ago.  The deal has Cumulus buying the Newark, NJ licensed facility from Family Stations.

So how soon can a change be expected?  Well, not until more bureaucratic maneuvering.

The FCC still needs to okay a waiver needed by Family to takeover WDVY 106.3 FM (Mount Kisco).  WDVY would replace WFME with Family Station content in the NYC metro area.

As for what format to expect on 94.7 FM, the speculation continues on the Radio Discussion message board. Click Here. 

However, a recurring guess is “Nash FM”..a new national format being developed by the Cumulus programming trust.

SC Radio: Love & Hudson Return To Earth

Morning radio personalities Bill Love and Howard Hudson have reunited and partnered with broadcasting veteran Bob Nations to form the Spartanburg-based venture Earth Radio Broadcasting LLC, which will operate WOLI 910 AM and (W289BS) Earth 105.7-FM (250watts).

WOLI has dropped Yahoo! Sports to flip to Classic Hits.

According to goupstate.com, Love and Hudson will bring back their morning show that aired on WFBC-FM and WMYI-FM, and rose to be the “most-listened-to program” in the area, according to Arbitron ratings. They will be accompanied by their sidekick K.C. Carson and a parade of other hilarious characters contrived by the fun-loving comrades.

“I'm just along for the ride,” said Nations, a radio executive who started Rock 101 WROQ-FM. “Bill came to me about a year ago and asked me if I was interested in doing something. We had been looking for a frequency and when this one became available we jumped on it. I feel privileged to be a part of this and I'm excited to see what the future holds.”

Hudson, of Clemson, said he first started working with Love, who is of Greenville, at WFBC in 1982.

“I had the mid-day show and Bill was on in the late afternoon,” he said. “I would drop in and we sort of did a group thing with people popping in and out. Management liked it and we got good customer feedback. They said ‘why don't you guys keep doing that.' So we put together a formal morning show.”

Their show aired on WFBC until 1984 until the station was sold. The duo was moved to Richmond and then to Jacksonville, Fla.

Eventually they came back to the Upstate, where they found a home at WMYI through the end of 2003.

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Fresno Radio: Dave Thompson Segues To KSOF

Veteran radio personality Dave Thompson has joined KSOF Soft Rock 98.9 Fresno for mornings.

Thompson most recently ended 14-years waking up Sacramento at CBS’s KYMX Mix 96.

Thomson's radio resume includes WRQX/Washington, WMGK/Philadelphia, WLOL/Minneapolis, WKQI (Q95)/Detroit and KKBQ & KHMX/Houston.

"We casted a nationwide net to land the best morning radio talent we could find and that person happened to be just up the road in Sacramento," said Clear Channel Regional Programming Manager Tony Banks.    He added, “Dave brings a fresh, new, fun and family-friendly morning show to the Valley.”

Bob Wolf Back On-Air In The Empire State

A longtime Capital Region disc jockey, dropped by his station last spring, is back on the air at Radio Woodstock 100.1 WDST.

Progressive, award-winning radio station, Radio Woodstock 100.1 (WDST) announces the addition of Bob “The Wolf” Wohlfeld as host of the station’s new morning show, “Wakin’ Up With The Wolf”.

Wohlfeld, former morning jock on WPYX (Albany) from 2000-2012 and WPDH (Poughkeepsie) from 1990-2000 brings his talents and long history of success to the Hudson Valley along with his signature dry and direct voice and cutting wittiness.

“I am thrilled to be the new morning show at Radio Woodstock 100.1,” says Wohlfeld. “A legendary station in its own right, owned and run by actual humans."

The Wolf will take to the airwaves of 100.1FM and 106.5FM (in Beacon) as well as Radio Woodstock’s online stream at radiowoodstock.com on Monday morning, January 7th.

Radio Woodstock’s current morning show host, Greg Gattine, will take over as afternoon drive-time host, and Jimmy Buff will now cover middays.   Music Director and current midday host, Carmel Holt, will now host Radio Woodstock’s evening programming, focusing more strongly on new music.

CC’s TTN Does Deal with Toyota

Clear Channel Media and Entertainment's Total Traffic Network, a groundbreaking programming and technology service that delivers real-time local traffic flow and incident information, and Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc. today announced a three-year agreement that will integrate real-time traffic and The Weather Channel information into the dashboards of select 2013 calendar year Toyota and Lexus models.

These new Toyota models will feature the first consumer facing real-time delivery of information and graphics inside a vehicle via an HD Radio signal.

Toyota also plans to expand the service coverage beyond the HD boundaries for those vehicles equipped with Entune by providing these same services through a customer's cell phone.

Featured In-dash Services:

•  Doppler Weather radar: Drivers will have instant access to The Weather Channel's Doppler weather radar overlaid onto their existing in-dash navigation map.
• Current weather conditions and forecasts: Drivers will be able to easily access The Weather Channel's local and national forecasts for over 120 cities with a touch of the console screen.
• Real-time traffic: These easy-to-understand maps and incident coverage reports are updated every two minutes and offer current conditions, as well as upcoming 15-, 30- and 45-minute predictive traffic information. 

"Innovation is an essential part of what we do including leveraging our national distribution platform in new ways," said Kevin Dorsey, President of National Media Groups for Clear Channel Media and Entertainment. "This new agreement with Toyota highlights our ability to leverage our distribution, programming and technology platforms to bring consumers what they want, where they want it and without annoying subscriptions."

60 Minutes: Outcry After NOLA's Daily Paper Cuts Back

The Times-Picayune cut back to a three-day-a-week publishing schedule in October, causing New Orleans to be the largest U.S. city without a daily paper. Morley Safer reports.

Concert Ticket Sales Getting Sleazier

From Scott Maxwell, The Orlando Sentinel:

The story of modern-day ticket sales is murky and complicated. 

It involves many moving parts — from ticket scalpers to insider privileges. 

But all of these parts have a common effect: driving up ticket costs. 

But there are those who believe the public deserves better — especially when it comes to venues such as the Amway Center (in Orlando), which was financed with tax dollars. 

"These public facilities are party to all this," said Dean Budnick, who wrote "Ticket Masters: The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped." "And the public has a right to know how it all works." 

So how does it work? 

Well, in Taylor Swift's case, the hot young country star planned two stops in Orlando — something city officials describe as a coup and proof that building the new, $480 million facility was an investment that paid off. 

But 85 percent of the tickets to the April 12 show were gone before the general public ever got a shot. For the April 11 show, 78 percent of the tickets were gone before the public sale. 

So who got the early offers? 

Well, according to the city, 970 of the Orlando Magic's higher-end season-ticket holders got right of first refusal to the Friday-night show. 

Taylor Swift's management company and the promoter got 3,700 — for everything from gifts to pre-sales for members of Swift's fan club. 

Then there are the "insider" deals: more than 5,700 tickets for holders of certain credit cards, such as American Express, and those on the city's arena-insider email list. 

Really, though, many of these early-access deals are snatched up by professional ticket brokers with sophisticated software systems. They snatch up the tickets and then sell them for higher prices — you can find them now for anywhere from $100 to $1,000 on places such as stubhub.com and ticketsnow.com. It's all perfectly legal in most states, including Florida. 

But it gets even sleazier. Some artists are now cutting themselves in on the scalping action — by "holding back" big blocks specifically for the brokers, who then cut the artists in on the markups.

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What Makes Social-Media Followers Flee?

From Mirna Bard for SmartBlogs.com

SmartPulse — our weekly reader poll in SmartBrief on Social Media — tracks feedback from leading marketers about social-media practices and issues. 

Last week’s poll question: What causes you to unfollow an individual or a business on social networks?

• Their over-communication gets overwhelming — 44.81%

• The don’t add value to my day with their irrelevant postings — 36.79%

• They only talk about themselves or act irresponsibly toward their audience — 9.91%

• They are not open to feedback, two-way dialogue or user-generated content — 5.19%

• They under-communicate or may not be active for weeks/months at a time — 3.30% 

We all can see how popular Facebook business pages have become and how quickly businesses on Twitter find followers. Nonetheless, it does it take huge effort and dedication to grow an online community with real staying power. Similar to anything else in business, it is difficult for you to get to the top with social networking, but it is even harder to say there. Thus, the main challenge is not growing followers, but to keep your followers loyal on social networks.

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This post is written by Mirna Bard, a blogger, speaker and consultant. She serves as the social-media chairwoman of the Orange County (Calif.) chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners, and she teaches social media at the University of California at Irvine.

R.I.P.: Former PA. Radio Owner Bill Brady Was 80

Decorated Marine owned Berwick radio station

William S. "Bill" Brady, 80, formerly of Berwick, died Friday, Jan. 4, 2013, at the Wilkes-Barre V.A. in Pennsylvania.

Brady earned his Master's Degree in Broadcast Journalism in 1959 from Boston University and served in the US Marine Corps during the Korean War.   He was decorated with the Korean Service Medal with a Bronze Star, the Purple Heart Medal and the National Defense Service Medal.

Brady had a long career in radio broadcasting. Early in his career he was employed by WABI TV in Bangor, Maine, for two years and then WVEC TV in Norfolk, Va., for 3½ years as an anchorman.

In July 1965, he was employed by KDKA TV Pittsburgh, where he was a producer, assistant news director; and then radio news director for nine years. In 1976, he purchased WBRX radio station in Berwick, (now WBWX 1280-AM which simulcasts WHLM 930-AM in Bloomsburg), until 1985 when he retired and sold the station.

Boston 96.9 FM Format Wheel Lands On Classic Rock

Greater Media's transformation of WTKK 96.9 FM continued Sunday when the Wheel of Formats landed on classic rock.  GM launched 96.9 The Bone… Classic rock that really rocks!

Listen Line, Click Here.

No other developments to note.

The Radio Discussions message board is smokin' with speculation. Click Here.