The Trump administration has delayed until next month plans to send a message to all U-S cellphones testing a previously unused presidential alert system that aims to warn the public about national emergencies, officials said on Monday.
The test message was originally scheduled for 2:18 p.m. EDT (1818 GMT) on Thursday but is being pushed back to the same time on Oct. 3 because of response efforts to Tropical Depression Florence, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said in a statement.
Florence came ashore in North Carolina on Friday as a hurricane and has caused widespread flooding in North and South Carolina.
FEMA, which will send the alert, said last week that the messages would bear the headline “Presidential Alert,” and that phones will make a loud tone and have a special vibration.
The test has been scheduled to ensure that the alert system would work in the event of a national emergency, and U.S. cellphone users will not be able to opt out. The message will read: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”
Former President Barack Obama signed a law in 2016 requiring FEMA to create a system allowing the president to send cellphone alerts regarding public safety emergencies.
The country’s wireless emergency alert system was started in 2012 and has issued over 36,000 alerts for situations such as missing children, extreme weather and natural disasters, but never a presidential directive.
In its statement last week on the test messages, FEMA said the presidential alerts can be used only for national emergencies and the president has sole responsibility for determining when such alerts are used.
Julie Chen is sticking by her disgraced hubby, ex-CBS honcho Les Moonves, and giving up her job as a host on the network’s “The Talk.”
“She is definitely leaving ‘The Talk’ and will 100 percent stay with Les,” an insider told Page Six at The NYPost.
A date for her exit hasn’t been set yet, the insider said, but sources speculate she’ll step down in the next couple of weeks.
“When she’ll depart the show is unclear. It could be this week, or she could do it after ‘Big Brother,’ but she will be leaving. I wouldn’t be surprised if [CBS] asked her not to come back,” the source said. She also hosts “Big Brother,” which ends Sept. 26.
Chen announced she’d be “taking a few days off from ‘The Talk’ to be with my family” after Moonves resigned from CBS amid sexual-misconduct allegations.
Chen recently signed off as “Julie Chen Moonves” on “Big Brother” — the first time she’s used his name on-air since marrying him in 2004. She’s hosted the show since 2000.
When The New Yorker first reported the bombshell allegations in July, Chen said, “Leslie is a good man and a loving father, devoted husband and inspiring corporate leader. He has always been a kind, decent and moral human being. I fully support my husband and stand behind him.”
According to The Wall Street Journal, no determination has been made about Ms. Chen’s future as “Big Brother” host. A spokesman for the Endemol Shine Group production company that makes the program declined to comment. A person close to Ms. Chen said she expects to remain host of “Big Brother” for “years to come.”
An “Inside Edition” crew who baited “smash and grab” thieves in California’s San Francisco Bay Area were the victims of a true robbery — resulting in the loss of thousands of dollars worth of equipment, according to The NYPost.
In an effort to report on rampant robberies in the area, “Inside Edition” employees filmed themselves planting GPS trackers inside items that were placed in a car parked in an area well-known for theft.
The trackers were placed inside of a $250 speaker and a purse just before reporter Lisa Guerrero explains “for [their] last trick,” they also placed video cameras throughout the car in the event the products get stolen.
Sure enough, two people were soon spotted robbing the vehicle. A man was seen in the segment smashing open the car’s back window, pulling out the handbag and throwing it to a woman sitting nearby before removing the speaker.
According to a man whose surveillance footage caught the incident, he said “it all lasted maybe 20 seconds.”
The “Inside Edition” crew then tracked down the speaker and confronted the duo as they walked into a train station.
While the man tries to shy away from the camera person, and, at one point even pushing the camera down, the reporter informs him “five million people are going to see [him] steal that.” Refusing to give it back, the man says he’s going to call his mother — an offer Guerrero encourages.
“Inside Edition” said the man eventually left the speaker, and they later moved on to track the stolen purse, which was found in a garbage can.
While the crew was interviewing the man captured on camera in the initial theft, their actual crew car was broken into via the “smash and grab” method, leaving “thousands of dollars worth of equipment” stolen.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, more than 31,000 people reported “smash and grab” robberies in the city in 2017 alone.
Did the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office have knowledge of a low-level drug dealer "looking for someone to help a local doctor kill his wife" before April Kauffman, wife of endocrinologist James Kauffman, was murdered in May 2012?
According to philly.com, that was the bombshell argument made by Public Defender Mary Linehan on the first day of the long-awaited trial in the murder of April Kauffman. Linehan represents Ferdinand "Freddy" Augello, also known as "Miserable," a former president of a New Jersey Shore Pagan's Outlaw Motorcycle Club and the sole surviving defendant charged in Kauffman's slaying.
Freddy Augello
James Kauffman, 69, a prominent doctor whom the state says contracted with Augello to murder his wife in their Linwood home, killed himself in January while being held at the Hudson County Jail. Kauffman was first arrested on gun charges on June 13, 2017, after a standoff at his office. He and Augello were charged in the murder on Jan. 9.
"They've known since 2012," Linehan told a Superior Court jury on Monday. "The Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office had this information arguably before April Kauffman's death and positively after April Kauffman's death."
The 47-year-old radio host for WOND radio was found shot to death on May 10, 2012, in the bedroom of the couple's home.
The office, she said, did not act on that information for six years, even as a drug ring run out of Kauffman's Egg Harbor Township office continued to thrive.
"What the state has done and what the state has failed to do," Linehan said, "it's time for the accounting to be done."
Damon Tyner, the Atlantic County prosecutor who took over the investigation in 2017, declined to comment on Linehan's allegation. His office has been under a gag order in the case imposed by the judge after Tyner appeared on ABC's 20/20. Augello, who was posting on Facebook, is also under a gag order.
➦In 1907... Eddie “Rochester” Anderson was born in Oakland Calif. He was an essential member of the Jack Benny cast on radio & TV for more than 30 years. He died Feb 28, 1977 at age 71. ➦In 1927...the Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System debuted with a network of 16 radio stations. (Although other sources say 18.) The name was later changed to Columbia Broadcasting System, CBS.
The origins of CBS date back to January 27, 1927, with the creation of the "United Independent Broadcasters" network in Chicago by New York City talent-agent Arthur Judson. The fledgling network soon needed additional investors though, and the Columbia Phonograph Company, manufacturers of Columbia Records, rescued it in April 1927; as a result, the network was renamed the "Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System" on September 18 of that year. Columbia Phonographic went on the air on September 18, 1927, with a presentation by the Howard Barlow Orchestra from flagship station WOR in Newark, New Jersey, and fifteen affiliates.
William Paley
Operational costs were steep, particularly the payments to AT&T for use of its land lines, and by the end of 1927, Columbia Phonograph wanted out. In early 1928, Judson sold the network to brothers Isaac and Leon Levy, owners of the network's Philadelphia affiliate WCAU, and their partner Jerome Louchenheim. None of the three were interested in assuming day-to-day management of the network, so they installed wealthy 26-year-old William S. Paley, son of a Philadelphia cigar family and in-law of the Levys, as president. With the record company out of the picture, Paley quickly streamlined the corporate name to "Columbia Broadcasting System". He believed in the power of radio advertising since his family's "La Palina" cigars had doubled their sales after young William convinced his elders to advertise on radio. By September 1928, Paley bought out the Louchenheim share of CBS and became its majority owner with 51% of the business.
During Louchenheim's brief regime, Columbia paid $410,000 to A.H. Grebe's Atlantic Broadcasting Company for a small Brooklyn station, WABC (no relation to the current WABC), which would become the network's flagship station. WABC was quickly upgraded, and the signal relocated to 860 kHz. The physical plant was relocated also – to Steinway Hall on West 57th Street in Manhattan, where much of CBS's programming would originate. Other owned-and-operated stations were KNX in Los Angeles, KCBS in San Francisco (originally KQW), WBBM in Chicago, WCAU in Philadelphia, WJSV in Washington, D.C. (later WTOP, which moved to the FM band in 2005; the AM facility is now WFED, also a secondary CBS affiliate), KMOX in St. Louis, and WCCO in Minneapolis. These remain the core affiliates of the CBS Radio Network today, with WCBS (the original WABC) still the flagship (relocated in 1941 to 880 AM), and all except WTOP and WFED (both Hubbard Broadcasting properties) owned by CBS Radio. By the turn of 1929, the network could boast to sponsors of having 47 affiliates.
Paley moved right away to put his network on a firmer financial footing. In the fall of 1928, he entered into talks with Adolph Zukor of Paramount Pictures, who planned to move into radio in response to RCA's forays into motion pictures with the advent of talkies. The deal came to fruition in September 1929: Paramount acquired 49% of CBS in return for a block of its stock worth $3.8 million at the time. The agreement specified that Paramount would buy that same stock back by March 1, 1932 for a flat $5 million, provided CBS had earned $2 million during 1931 and 1932. For a brief time there was talk that the network might be renamed "Paramount Radio", but it only lasted a month – the 1929 stock market crash sent all stock value tumbling. It galvanized Paley and his troops, who "had no alternative but to turn the network around and earn the $2,000,000 in two years.... This is the atmosphere in which the CBS of today was born." The near-bankrupt movie studio sold its CBS shares back to CBS in 1932. In the first year of Paley's watch, CBS's gross earnings more than tripled, going from $1.4 million to $4.7 million.
Much of the increase was a result of Paley's second upgrade to the CBS business plan – improved affiliate relations. There were two types of program at the time: sponsored and sustaining, i.e., unsponsored. Rival NBC paid affiliates for every sponsored show they carried and charged them for every sustaining show they ran. It was onerous for small and medium stations, and resulted in both unhappy affiliates and limited carriage of sustaining programs. Paley had a different idea, designed to get CBS programs emanating from as many radio sets as possible: he would give the sustaining programs away for free, provided the station would run every sponsored show, and accept CBS's check for doing so. CBS soon had more affiliates than either NBC Red or NBC Blue.
Paley was a man who valued style and taste, and in 1929, once he had his affiliates happy and his company's creditworthiness on the mend, he relocated his concern to sleek, new 485 Madison Avenue, the "heart of the advertising community, right where Paley wanted his company to be" and where it would stay until its move to its own Eero Saarinen-designed headquarters, the CBS Building, in 1965. When his new landlords expressed skepticism about the network and its fly-by-night reputation, Paley overcame their qualms by inking a lease for $1.5 million.
➦In 1942...the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was authorized for radio service.
➦In 1949....actor Frank Morgan suffered a fatal heart attack at age 59. His radio career was largely spent telling lies, tall tales that stretched human credulity, to the exasperation of host John Conte on radio’s Maxwell House Coffee Time. Morgan is best remembered today as The Wizard of Oz in the 1939 film classic.
➦In 1965...Billboard's Hot 100..1965: The Beatles made it three consecutive weeks at #1 with "Help!". Barry McGuire edged up one spot closer with "Eve of Destruction" while Bob Dylan slipped with "Like a Rolling Stone". We Five had "You Were On My Mind" and the Dave Clark Five moved from 13-5 with "Catch Us if You Can".
The rest of the Top 10: The instrumental "The 'In' Crowd" from the Ramsey Lewis Trio, the McCoys slipped into the Top 10 with "Hang On Sloopy", the Turtles were moving slower with "It Ain't Me Babe", Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe" came in ninth and the Yardbirds reached the list with "Heart Full of Soul".
➦In 1967...Longtime NYC radio personality Martin Block WNEW, WABC, WOR died.
Martin Block
In 1934, he went to work for WNEW at a salary of $20 per week. In 1935, while listeners to New York's WNEW in New York (now information outlet WBBR) were awaiting developments in the Lindbergh kidnapping, Block built his audience by playing records between the Lindbergh news bulletins. This led to his Make Believe Ballroom, which began February 3, 1935 with Block borrowing both the concept and the title from West Coast disc jockey Al Jarvis, creating the illusion that he was broadcasting from a ballroom with the nation’s top dance bands performing live. He bought some records from a local music shop for the program as the radio station had none.
Block purchased five Clyde McCoy records, selecting his "Sugar Blues" for the radio show's initial theme song.
Because Block was told by the station's sales staff that nobody would sponsor a radio show playing music, he had to find himself a sponsor. Block lined up a producer of reducing pills called "Retardo"; within a week, the sponsor had over 3,000 responses to the ads on Block's radio show. Martin Block's style of announcing was considerably different than the usual manner of delivery at the time. Instead of speaking in a voice loud enough to be heard in a theater, Block spoke in a normal voice, as if he was having a one-on-one conversation with a listener. When one of Block's sponsors offered a sale on refrigerators during a New York snowstorm, 109 people braved the elements for the bargain Block advertised; by 1941 potential sponsors for his show had to be put on a waiting list for availabilities.
➦In 1968...Gary Stevens does last show at WMCA 570 AM
➦In 1970...Jimi Hendrix died in his apartment from an overdose of sleeping pills in London at the age of 27. Hendrix was pronounced dead on arrival at St. Mary Abbott's Hospital in London. Hendrix had left a message on his manager's answering phone earlier in the evening--"I need help man."
➦In 1971...on the album charts...Stanley, Idaho's Carole King dominated the album chart once again as Tapestry was #1 for the 14th week in a row. The Moody Blues remained in the runner-up spot with Every Good Boy Deserves Favour and Rod Stewart was next with Every Picture Tells a Story. Who's Next was next followed by Ram from Paul & Linda McCartney.
The rest of the Top 10: The self-titled Carpenters, Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon by James Taylor, the Soundtrack to "Shaft" by Isaac Hayes, Black Sabbath with Master of Reality and the epic What's Going On by Marvin Gaye.
➦In 1974...John Lennon was a guest DJ on WNEW 102.7 FM in New York City.
➦In 1978…"WKRP in Cincinnati," starring Gary Sandy, Howard Hesseman, Gordon Jump, Loni Anderson, Tim Reid, Jan Smithers, Richard Sanders, and Frank Bonner, started a four-season run on CBS-TV.
➦In 1983...For an MTV publicity stunt to promote KISS' new album, Lick It Up , the band appear in public for the first time without makeup.
➦In 1997....Ron Lundy retired from WCBS 101.1 FM in NYC. Aircheck from January 1990..
Lundy was born June 25, 1934 in Memphis, Tennessee, the only child of Fred Sr., a railroad engineer, and Mary Lundy. He served in the United States Marine Corps after graduating from high school. Following the completion of his military stint, he returned to his hometown and attended a local radio broadcasting school on the G.I. Bill. At the same time, he worked across the street at WHHM-AM, where he got his first on-air experience one night when he substituted for the regular disc jockey who failed to report for his shift. This resulted in Lundy being hired as a full-time radio announcer by Hodding Carter for WDDT-AM, the latter's new station in Greenville, Mississippi.
After a stop in Baton Rouge, Louisiana at WLCS-AM, Lundy was brought to WIL-AM in St. Louis, Missouri in 1960 by Dan Ingram, who was the station's program director until the middle of the next year. Nicknamed the "Wil' Child", Lundy had a style which was described as a combination of "country and crawfish pie" by Bob Whitney, who also played a major role in the appointment.
Lundy was reunited with Ingram at WABC-AM in 1965. He made his New York radio debut on September 1, working the overnight shift as "The Swingin' Nightwalker." Beginning in May 1966, he became the midday fixture at the station for the next sixteen years. With his catchphrase "Hello, Love–this is Ron Lundy from the Greatest City in the World," he usually preceded Ingram's afternoon drive time program, and sometimes when Ingram was running late to the studio, Lundy would keep going until Dan arrived, doing impressions of The Shadow, where he would play Margo Lane and Lamont Cranston. The two best friends hosted "The Last Show" before WABC's format conversion from music to talk radio at noon on May 10, 1982.
In February 1984, Lundy resurfaced at New York's oldies station WCBS-FM in the mid-morning slot, following former WABC colleague Harry Harrison. According to program director Joe McCoy, the station created the slot especially for Lundy, reducing other shifts from four hours to three.
On the following aircheck, Ron is working morning drive for Harry Harrison who was taking a few days off. Dan Ingram stops-by, at 10:10 into the audio, prior to doing Ron's regular late morning shift...
In June, 1997, Lundy's WCBS-FM show was awarded the 1997 "BronzeWorld Medal" at the New York Festivals Radio Programming Awards for the "best local personality".
Lundy retired from WCBS-FM on September 18, 1997. Upon retiring from radio, Ron and his wife Shirley moved to the small town of Bruce, Mississippi. However, during this time, Lundy did occasional interviews with Mark Simone on The Saturday Night Oldies Show for his former station, WABC.
Lundy was inducted the St. Louis Hall Radio Hall of Fame on January 1, 2006.
Lundy died of a heart attack at age 75 on March 15, 2010 in Oxford, Mississippi. He had been recovering from a previous heart attack after being dehydrated.
➦In 2006...WIYY-FM, Baltimore, becomes the 1,000th station to commence HD Radio transmissions.
➦In 2009…After 72 years on radio and television, the soap opera "Guiding Light," titled "The Guiding Light" until 1975, aired the last of its 18,262 episodes.
➦In 2017...Fox News Channel announced another shakeup in its prime-time lineup. Joining the network in the 10 p.m. EDT slot would be Laura Ingraham, a frequent contributor to Fox News and a well-known radio host.
In a memo addressed to the staff of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Martin Bandier, the company’s chairman and CEO since 2007, confirmed reports that he will be stepping down from his post at the end of March 2019, reports Variety.
Sources tell Variety that Bandier, 77, will be replaced by Jon Platt, who for 17 years was his associate at EMI Music Publishing.
Platt told his staff last week that he will be stepping down from his post as chairman/CEO of Warner/Chappell Music Publishing by the end of this year.
Lori Lewis, who last seek resigned her position with Cumulus Media & Westwood One, has announced that she is rejoining her former boss Lew Dickey.
According to Lewis, she'll join Dickey's company Modern Luxury as Vice President, Social Media.
She will be relocating to Atlanta. This past Friday was Lewis' official last day with Cumulus Media.
This is what’s happening!!
Rejoining Lew Dickey, and joining Michael Dickey, in the newly created role, Vice President, Social Media for Modern Luxury.
Lew’s last words to me when he left Radio 3 years ago were, “Stay focused. The best is yet to come.” How true it is! #Onwardpic.twitter.com/1jqvNCb12P
Lewis is the second Cumulus Media to join Dickey at at Modern Luxury. Gary Pizzati recently joined Modern Luxury Media as President & Chief Revenue Officer.
Before joining Cumulus in 2015, Lewis worked at the media consulting firm Jacobs Media, where she served as director of digital and social strategy for four years. Prior to that, she was multimedia content manager for Midwest Communications, after more than a decade as an on-air personality and programmer.
In addition to her work with Cumulus, Lewis has been instrumental in rejuvenating The Conclave Leaning Conference as chairperson of the nonprofit for the past nearly four years.
Ralph Lawler has announced his intention to retire as the television and radio voice of the Los Angeles Clippers at the end of the season, which will be his 40th with the NBA team.
Lawler said that it's important that he and his wife have a life after basketball. Lawler turns 81 next April, reports NBC Los Angeles.
He joined the then-San Diego Clippers in the team's first year in California in 1978, where he spent six years before the franchise relocated to Los Angeles. Lawler has called over 3,100 games.
His announcing career has included games for the NFL's Chargers, Major League Baseball's Phillies, the NHL's Flyers and the Clippers and 76ers.
Lawler has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and three Emmy Awards. He first began calling games in high school in his hometown of Peoria, Illinois.
The Clippers will host Ralph Lawler Night on April 10, with his bobblehead being given away to fans.
Entercom and the New York Mets have reached a multi-year agreement that will make WCBS 880 in New York the official new radio home of the New York Mets beginning in 2019 and going through the 2025 baseball season.
These broadcast rights include all regular season, spring training, and postseason games as well as Spanish-language broadcast rights. The station will also provide in-depth pregame and postgame coverage.
“We’re pleased to be the new radio home of the Mets,” said Susan Larkin, Regional President and Market Manager, Entercom. “We remain committed to bringing our listeners and partners the most exciting sports content from their hometown teams, especially in the New York metropolitan area, where we will be the radio home for both Major League Baseball clubs beginning in 2019.”
“We are excited to join the Entercom family, and look forward to leveraging the power of their portfolio of stations in the nation’s largest market,” said Lou DePaoli, Executive Vice President, New York Mets. “This new partnership allows us to continue delivering outstanding radio broadcasts to our passionate fan base, while also reaching a wide audience via cross promotions on all of Entercom’s New York stations.”
In addition, Entercom’s New York radio stations WCBS 880, ALT 92.3 (WNYL-FM), NEW 102.7 FM (WNEW-FM), WCBS-FM 101.1 (WCBS-FM) and 1010 WINS (WINS-AM) will offer promotional support. The Mets will work with each station on custom promotional opportunities on air and during Mets home games at Citi Field.
Listeners can tune in to WCBS 880 AM in New York on-air, as well as nationwide on the Radio.com app. Fans can also connect with the station on social media via Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Entercom Communications Corp. CEO David Field says the radio giant's retooling is over and now revenues are projected to grow for the first time since the CBS Radio deal closed in late 2017.
"We have accomplished essentially everything we set out to accomplish and we are extremely happy with what we have been able to do to date," Field said in a recent interview with the Inquirer and Daily News.
According to to philly.com, the 55-year-old Field declined to comment on what he called the "worst-kept secret" in the region — Entercom's plans to relocate its headquarters and broadcast studios to one location in Philadelphia. Entercom, which owns 235 radio stations nationwide, is based in Bala Cynwyd, and its local CBS Radio studios are scattered throughout the city and the suburbs.
Entercom expected to relocated here
Controlled by the Field family for decades, Entercom has gone largely unnoticed in the local media and the Philadelphia business community because of a portfolio of radio stations in mid-sized and smaller cities. But CBS Radio catapulted Field and Entercom into big-time radio, adding Philly stations KYW, WIP, WOGL, WPHT, and WTDY, in addition to CBS Radio stations in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, to its holdings. (Entercom also bought the independently owned WBEB in Philadelphia this year.)
Field was bullish on radio and Entercom/CBS Radio, even as he made dramatic changes while Wall Street punished the company's stock. Seeking to energize the company, Entercom replaced 17 of the 48 Entercom/CBS Radio market managers around the United States, reformatted seven stations to boost ratings, and launched both a new app and the Entercom Radio Network, with Proctor & Gamble, Walgreens, and Indeed.com as advertisers.
It was "the proverbial 'the bus is going 100 miles an hour and you are changing the tires,' " Field said.
In addition, Entercom reached deals to sell surplus property in Los Angeles and Chicago, and is preparing to close on the sale of eight radio stations to the Mormon Church-controlled Bonneville International Corp. The divestiture was required by antitrust attorneys at the U.S. Justice Department as part of the approval for Entercom to acquire CBS Radio.
The property and Bonneville deals are expected to generate $200 million in after-tax cash for debt reduction. Entercom says that it expects to easily comply with loan covenants on almost $1.9 billion in debt.
Classic Hits KGOR 99.9 FM in Omaha, has announced the debut of the new Mornings with Montez & Shari. Mornings with Montez & Shari will broadcast weekday mornings from 5:30 to 10 a.m.
Montez
Mornings with Montez & Shari will star long-time Omaha radio hosts Montez and Shari Stone and will showcase Omaha’s Greatest Hits, fun and energetic discussions on the headlines of the day, listener interactions and much more.
Shari Stone
“Being from Omaha, we both couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity to serve our community in a fun way because we love this town,” said Montez and Shari. “We can’t wait to entertain every morning and grow our big, radio family.”
“Stone joins 99.9 KGOR from KGBI-FM where she most recently served as digital project coordinator and midday host. She also served as the midday personality for 101.9 Fox. Stone, born and raised in Omaha began her career at WOW AM/FM in Omaha, Nebraska, where she was born and raised and is a graduate of Northwest Missouri. “
Montez is a seasoned media veteran with more than 20 years of radio experience in the Omaha region. He most recently served as afternoon host and music director for iHeartMedia’s 96.1 Kiss FM. After graduating from high school, Montez began his career at KESY-FM.
KGOR 99.9 FM (110 Kw) Red=Local 60dBu Coverage Area
“We are truly excited to have these two genuinely warm, funny and highly respected talents be a part of one of the biggest stations in town,” said Erik Johnson, Senior Vice President of Programming for iHeartMedia Omaha. “This show will bring a new element of fun to Omaha morning radio.”
According to the FCC, 20 FMs have been taken off the air by Hurricane Florence. The number comes from the agency’s Disaster Information Reporting System or DIRS.
In the 99-county area across North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia where DIRS data is being requested by the FCC, the latest count shows 100 FMs and 28 AMs reported being operational. That number is likely significantly much higher across the four-state region, but because DIRS reporting is voluntary, often times not every station that is operating normally checks in with the FCC.
Meredith Corp said on Sunday it entered into a definitive agreement to sell the Time media brand to Marc and Lynne Benioff for $190 million in cash.
According to Reuters, the media company said the Benioffs were purchasing Time personally and the transaction was unrelated to Salesforce.com Inc, where Marc Benioff is chairman, co-chief executive and founder.
Marc and Lynne Benioff will not be involved in the day-to-day operations or journalistic decisions, which will continue to be led by Time’s current executive leadership team, the company said.
As part of the transaction, Meredith will provide short-term business continuity services and entered into a multi-year agreement with the Benioffs to provide services such as consumer marketing, subscription fulfillment, paper purchasing and printing.
Meredith plans to use proceeds from the transaction to pay down debt and expects to reduce its debt by $1 billion during fiscal 2019.
Meredith acquired Time in a deal valued at $2.8 billion as part of its purchase of Time Inc in January, shortly after which announced it was selling Time Inc’s news and sports brands.
Premiere Networks has announced the launch of two new programs as part of FOX Sports Radio’s (FSR) weekday lineup. Beginning Monday, September 17, Straight Outta Vegas with RJ Bell will broadcast Monday through Friday from 6 - 7 p.m. ET, marking the historic debut of the first-ever national daily radio show focused on sports betting.
Hosted by Las Vegas personality and founder/CEO of Pregame.com RJ Bell, the one-hour program will give fans a real-time Vegas perspective on each upcoming game’s kickoff, opening tip, and first pitch. Featuring FOX Sports Radio personality Jonas Knox, as well as famed betting experts Brad Powers and Steve Fezzik, the program will inform and entertain sports fans with on-the-ground reporting – including breaking news and changing odds – right up until game time. The weekday launch of the program marks a successful year-long run for Straight Outta Vegas as part of FSR’s weekend lineup on Friday and Saturday evenings.
“Sports betting is quintessentially American, and Las Vegas odds literally create the framework for much of sports talk,” said Bell. “FOX Sports Radio’s understanding of this reality has been nothing less than visionary, and their commitment to Straight Outta Vegas made my decision an easy one. This is the pregame show America has always wanted, airing on hundreds of FSR stations from coast to coast. The promise of the show is simple: bettors can’t afford not to listen, and all sports fans will learn things others are missing.”
FOX Sports Radio is also excited to announce that The Odd Couple with Chris Broussard & Rob Parker will debut as a weekday show from 7 - 10 p.m. ET beginning September 17. The FSR and FS1 personalities, who first partnered on FSR in March 2018 to host The Odd Couple on Sundays, will continue to provide listeners with a dynamic discussion as the two polar opposites take listeners through the biggest hits in sports.
“This historic new lineup further solidifies FOX Sports Radio’s standing as the preeminent sports network in the nation,” said Don Martin, SVP Sports Programming for Premiere Networks, and Scott Shapiro, VP of Sports Programming for Premiere Networks, in a joint statement. “It’s now crystal clear that when you’re looking for the best, live sports-talk, this is the place to tune in. Listeners who want to be entertained, informed, and emotionally invested with the most-compelling personalities and storytellers in the industry will be rewarded with every listening occasion.”
As part of the changes to FSR’s weekday programming lineup, The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon has been extended from three to four hours, now broadcasting from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. ET, Monday through Friday.
Below is FOX Sports Radio’s new weekday lineup:
Monday through Friday (ET/PT):
6am-9am/3am-6am Outkick The Coverage with Clay Travis
9am-12pm/6am-9am The Dan Patrick Show
12pm-3pm/9am-12pm The Herd with Colin Cowherd
12pm-3pm/9am-12pm The Rich Eisen Show
3pm-6pm/12pm-3pm The Doug Gottlieb Show
6pm-7pm/3pm-4pm Straight Outta Vegas with RJ Bell
7pm-10pm/4pm-7pm The Odd Couple with Chris Broussard & Rob Parker
10pm-2am/7pm-11pm The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon
2am-6am/11pm-3am The Ben Maller Show
For more information, please visit www.FOXSportsRadio.com. For affiliations, please call Kurt Kretzschmar at 818-377-5300.
President Donald Trump may soon be communicating with you directly on your phone — even if you don't follow him on Twitter.
This Thursday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will do its first test of a system that allows the president to send a message to most U.S. cellphones.
More than 100 mobile carriers, including all the major wireless firms, are participating in the roll out, FEMA stated in a message on its website posted Thursday.
"The EAS [Emergency Alert System] is a national public warning system that provides the President with the communications capability to address the nation during a national emergency," FEMA said.
The test message will have a header that reads "Presidential Alert," according to NBC News.
Users whose phones are on will twice hear a tone and vibration and then see an English-only (for now) message: "THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”
The wireless emergency alerts (WEA) system was authorized by Congress in 2015 under a law that states the "system shall not be used to transmit a message that does not relate to a natural disaster, act of terrorism, or other man-made disaster or threat to public safety."
Experts didn't appear to be too concerned that Trump, known to use his smartphone to blast opponents, berate subordinates and take shots at the news media on Twitter, could abuse WEA.
A reporter from a ABC station in Raleigh-Durham NC was in the middle of a Facebook Live video on Friday when she stopped her broadcast to help rescue a dog caught in floodwaters from Hurricane Florence.
According to Fox News, WTVD’s Julie Wilson was in the middle of the Facebook Live video in New Bern, North Carolina, when she saw a woman struggling to save a dog, a Rottweiler, from the deep water. The dog had been injured.
Wilson continued her live stream of the storm’s damage when she saw the woman having difficulty steering the dog through the water. Wilson asked the woman if she could pick up the dog.
"Can we pick this one up?" Wilson asked the woman. The reporter gave the woman the camera and carried the dog.
“You are OK, baby girl,” Wilson told the dog.
“Nobody is leaving the dog in this mess," Wilson said. "That’s what we are doing out here.”
TO THE RESCUE: ABC station reporter interrupts live stream to rescue dog chest deep in the flooded streets of New Bern, North Carolina. After struggling to carry the big dog out at first, they all made it back to safety. https://t.co/lg5L9nNtmLpic.twitter.com/TXcva8LrUO
Wilson later explained what happened and why she jumped into action. She explained the dog was the woman's son's therapy dog.
“That dog wasn’t going to budge, it was just standing there. And quite frankly, [the woman] was just going to get hurt because she wasn’t going to be able to lift that dog. That dog wasn’t going to go, that dog wasn’t going to walk. The only thing we could do was lift it up and get it out so she could get out before more people got hurt in that situation,” Wilson said.
Veteran Atlanta and Portland radio personality Sean Demery has died eight months after suffering a massive stroke.
Demery had been most recently program director and afternoon host at a Portland rock station KINK 101.9 FM.
According to ajc.com, Steve Craig, current morning host at Atlanta classic hits station 97.1/The River and long-time mid-day host at WNNX 99X (now WWWQ), worked with Demery at the station from 1992 to 1999 and during Demery’s brief stint as morning host in 2006-07. He reported the unfortunate news on Facebook Saturday night.
“Words cannot adequately express the love & gratitude I have for Sean Demery. For 40 years, he's been my best friend, best man, mentor, career counselor, confidant and so much more. He taught me what unconditional friendship really is.”
Craig said on Saturday that Demery “peacefully passed away this afternoon surrounded by family, and in the company of friends and colleagues.”
Along with Leslie Fram and Rick Stacy, Demery (known on air at the time as “Shotgun” Sean) were working on a struggling top 40 station called Power 99 in the fall of 1992. Management had given them permission to shift the music more rock to reflect the changing scene as Nirvana and Pearl Jam were becoming hot.
Just as the station was about the make a shift, Demery and Stacy at the last second went rogue and basically dumped the top 40 format completely without official management clearance. Demery helped turn 99X into a hugely successful station in the 1990s, a ground-breaking blend of Gen-X insouciance, goofiness, sophistication and musical diversity which cemented loyalty among its listeners.
After his brain-stem stroke January 20, Demery could not breathe on his own and was paralyzed. He could only communicate through a device using his eyes. A GoFundMe site raised nearly $80,000 to help defray medical expenses. The only good news was he was mentally okay. But despite hope that he’d improve physically, that didn’t happen.
➦In 1931...RCA Victor unveils its new invention, the 33 1/3 rpm long-playing or "LP" record, at the Savoy Plaza Hotel in New York.
RCA Victor introduced "Program Transcription" discs, as Victor called them, played at 33 1⁄3 rpm and used a somewhat finer and more closely spaced groove than typical 78s. They were to be played with a special "Chromium Orange" chrome-plated steel needle. The 10-inch discs, mostly used for popular and light classical music, were normally pressed in shellac, but the 12-inch discs, mostly used for "serious" classical music, were normally pressed in Victor's new vinyl-based Victrolac compound, which provided a much quieter playing surface. They could hold up to 15 minutes per side. Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, performed by the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski, was the first 12-inch recording issued.
Unfortunately for Victor, it was downhill from there. Many of the subsequent issues were not new recordings but simply dubs made from existing 78 rpm record sets. The dubs were audibly inferior to the original 78s. Two-speed turntables with the 33 1⁄3 rpm speed were included only on expensive high-end machines, which sold in small numbers, and people were not buying many records of any kind at the time. Overall record sales in the US had crashed from a high of 105.6 million records sold in 1921 to 5.5 million in 1933, because of competition from radio and the effects of the Great Depression. Few if any new Program Transcriptions were recorded after 1933 and two-speed turntables soon disappeared from consumer products. Except for a few recordings of background music for funeral parlors, the last of the issued titles had been purged from the company's record catalog by the end of the decade. The failure of the new product left RCA Victor with a low opinion of the prospects for any sort of long-playing record, influencing product development decisions during the coming decade.
The new format to lie dormant for years until Columbia revives it in 1948.
Kate Smith
➦In 1936..the Kate Smith Hour began a decade-long run on CBS radio, presenting weekly a 60-minute mix of music, drama, comedy & human interest. The show first introduced America to the comedy team of Abbott & Costello, and to the future radio favorite ‘The Aldrich Family.’
➦In 1964...The Beatles break with established practice and agree to add an extra date to their current US tour after the group is offered a then-record $150,000 by the owner of the Kansas City (Missouri) Athletics to perform a gig in KC's Municipal Stadium. The Beatles cannily add their medley of "Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!" to the setlist, the only time they would play this song in concert in America.
Afterward, their hotel manager sells their unwashed bedsheets to two businessmen from Chicago, who promptly cut them up and sell the pieces for $10 a pop ➦In 1967...Appearing on CBS-TV's Ed Sullivan Show , the Doors are asked to change the line "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" in their hit "Light My Fire." Lead singer Jim Morrison agrees, then sings the offending words anyway, leading to a lifetime ban from the show.
➦In 1967...The Who performed on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. But that's just part of the story. Drummer Keith Moon rigged his drumset to explode at the conclusion of "My Generation", which he did for every show during the period. Only this time, the jokester rigged several times the normal amount of explosives, and didn't tell the rest of the group. The result of the stunt was a massive explosion on stage. One of Moon's drum cymbals shattered, causing cuts to Moon's leg and arms was cut. Guitarist Pete Townshend was closest to the blast, which singed his hair.
➦In 1976...Jay Thomas does first show at WXLO NYC
➦In 1983...The Hot 100..Michael Sembello remained at #1 with "Maniac" with Billy Joel climbing up with "Tell Her About It". Men Without Hats were up to #3 with "The Safety Dance" and Bonnie Tyler's great song "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" was going to be a serious factor in the weeks to come. The rest of the Top 10: two former 1's--the Eurythmics and "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) and "Every Break You Take" from the Police, Michael Jackson's "Human Nature" at #7, Taco with "Puttin' On The Ritz", Air Supply roared up from 15 to 9 with "Making Love Out Of Nothing At All" and Asia cracked the Top 10 with "Don't Cry".
➦In 1983...on the Album Charts...Synchronicity returned to #1 for the Police on the album chart, temporarily derailing Thriller by Michael Jackson. The Soundtrack to "Flashdance" was third
➦In 1989...WMCA 570 AM NYC flipped format to religious.
The WMCA Good Guys Meet The Beatles
Throughout the 1960s, WMCA beat other radio stations on most Beatles' promotions, scoring firsts, causing headaches in particular for rival WABC - most notably when Capitol Records printed a photograph of the "Good Guys" line-up - on the back of a limited edition record sleeve for the single, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (Side 2: "I Saw Her Standing There"). WMCA's Good Guys were also featured at both of the Beatles' concerts at Shea Stadium, on August 15, 1965 and on August 23, 1966.
WABC responded in different ways, scoring a success during the Beatles' second New York visit in August 1964 - when the band stayed at the Delmonico Hotel, rousing thousands of teenage fans into a frenzy - while broadcasting from one floor above the Beatles' rooms. WABC later went against its own music policies, promising promoter Sid Bernstein that it would play a new group he was handling before any other New York City radio station - if it could get exclusive access to the Beatles. WABC never added records "out of the box" - but it did for Sid Bernstein when it played The Young Rascals' "I Ain't Going To Eat Out My Heart Anymore" - before other radio stations.
Since WABC knew WMCA already had a relationship with the Beatles, with tapes of the group promoting the station - what could WABC do to achieve the same? In August 1965, WABC came up with what it thought was a brilliant idea - issuing "medals" called "The Order of the All-Americans" - tied to its own DJs. The strategy was to present the medals to each of the Beatles the next time they were in New York. Everything was set.
WABC's Bruce Morrow interview The Beatles August 1965
The goal was to get each Beatle to comment on the "medal" - and then to get each to say the station's call letters, "W-A-B-C." These in turn could be used in station IDs and promotions, etc. - thus matching WMCA's success at getting the Beatles to promote WMCA and its Good Guys. But WABC's plan backfired. The station got its interviews, but none of the band's members would utter WABC's call letters. According to Beatles' historian Bruce Spizer, manager Brian Epstein ordered the Beatles to stop "giving away valuable promotional spots to radio stations for free."
➦In 1997…Comedian/radio and TV host Red Skelton died of pneumonia at age 84.
On October 1, 1938, Skelton replaced Red Foley as the host of Avalon Time on NBC; Edna also joined the show's cast, under her maiden name. She developed a system for working with the show's writers: selecting material from them, adding her own and filing the unused bits and lines for future use; the Skeltons worked on Avalon Time until late 1939. Skelton's work in films led to a new regular radio show offer; between films, he promoted himself and MGM by appearing without charge at Los Angeles area banquets. A radio advertising agent was a guest at one of his banquet performances and recommended Skelton to one of his clients.
Skelton went on the air with his own radio show, The Raleigh Cigarette Program, on October 7, 1941. The bandleader for the show was Ozzie Nelson; his wife, Harriet, who worked under her maiden name of Hilliard, was the show's vocalist and also worked with Skelton in skits.
➦In 2011…TV entertainment reporter (E! News Live)/sports reporter (ESPN)/radio show host (WCCO-Minneapolis)/actress Eleanor Mondale, daughter of former U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale, died of brain cancer at 51.
➦In 2012…Fashion model/actress/radio personality (Miss Monitor on the NBC weekend radio series Monitor) Tedi Thurman died at the age of 89.
Tedi Thurman
Tedi Thurman, NBC radio’s Miss Monitor Weather Girl extraordinaire, posing in the '50s as a femme fatale seductress, costumed in a sun hat with batteries hanging off the side so that no one needs miss a word of her double entendre laden weather reporting. With the tongue in cheek sash reading “Miss Portable Radio,” take that baby with you everywhere!
Her gig on Monitor made her the most recognizable female voice on radio during the 1950s-1960s. Notably, not only does Tedi have one of the most iconic voices in radio history, and her weather girl antics influenced the entire profession.
➦In 2015…Baseball Hall of Fame broadcaster Milo Hamilton died at the age of 88.
