John Oliver took a look at the Sinclair group on Sunday night, examining the conservative-leaning station’s ownership of many local news networks.
“Our main story tonight concerns the potential problems in corporate consolidation of local news,” Oliver began. “National cable news gets a lot of attention with their big budgets and their fancy graphics packages. Meanwhile, local news often has to do a lot more with a lot less.”
He went on to show clips of broadcaster Mark Hyman railing against “political correctness and multiculturalism”.
“Hyman is a commentator and former executive at Sinclair Broadcast Group, and Sinclair may be the most influential media company you’ve never heard of,” Oliver explained. “Not only are they the largest owner of local TV stations in the country, they could soon get even bigger,” referring to the company’s proposed $4bn acquisition of all Tribune Media stations.
According to The Guardian, The Last Week Tonight host then showed several examples of typical Sinclair broadcasts, which lean “noticeably conservative” and even conspiratorial in nature.
“If the opinions were confined to just the commentary or the ad breaks, that would be one thing. But Sinclair can sometimes dictate the content of your local newscasts as well, and in contrast to Fox News, a conservative outlet where you basically know what you’re getting, with Sinclair, they’re injecting Fox-worthy content into the mouths of your local news anchors, the two people who you know, and who you trust, and whose on-screen chemistry can usually best be described as two people.
“You may not realize it’s happening,” Oliver warned, “because Sinclair and its digital news subsidiary Circa not only produce and send packages to their stations; they even write scripts that local anchors use to introduce the pieces.
With the help of some of pop and R&B's biggest names, music producer DJ Khaled's latest album "Grateful" debuted atop the weekly Billboard 200 album chart on Monday, according to Retuers.
"Grateful," with songs such as "Shining" with Beyonce and Jay Z and "I'm the One" with Justin Bieber, Chance the Rapper, Lil Wayne and Quavo, sold 149,000 album units, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan.
The Billboard 200 album chart tallies units from album sales, song sales (10 songs equal one album) and streaming activity (1,500 streams equal one album).
Other new entries in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart this week include alt-rock group Imagine Dragons' new album "Evolve" at No. 2, late pop star Prince's reissued "Purple Rain" album at No. 4 and rockers 311 at No. 6 with "Mosaic."
Last week's chart-topper, Lorde's "Melodrama," dropped to No. 13 this week.
On the Digital Songs chart, which measures online single sales, Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi's summer hit "Despacito" featuring Justin Bieber continued its reign at No. 1 with another 136,000 copies sold.
His birth name was Terry Thaine Frazier, but Wichita and much of central Kansas knew him as Roger Mundy, the KEYN radio personality whose nightly playlist was ever so cool from the 1960s through the 1980s and whose catch phrase over the airwaves was “this is Roger Mundy on a Tuesday till Wednesday.”
According to kansas.com, Frazier died at age 70 on June 28 – a Wednesday.
He attended Wichita State University for a few years before deciding to go into radio. He attended a Kansas City broadcasting school before moving to Wellington and working for the KLEY radio station.
In the 1970s, almost every teenager in the Wichita metropolitan area listened to Mr. Frazier’s Mundy voice.
He was best known for singing the daily school lunch menu and for doing jingles before each song.
“He could set the jingle in the same key as the song so it made a nice transition,” his wife Sue Frazier said.
Mr. Frazier also established the Christmas Crusade for Children, which raised money for children’s toys that Wichita police could then distribute during the holiday season. The fundraiser was a hit. Mr. Frazier asked radio listeners to each donate $1.
McKenzide moved to Seguin in 1950 and became a radio personality, station manager and later one of the owners of KWED 1580 AM.
“I came into contact with Stan McKenzie more than 50 years ago when I joined the station; he was the station manager at the time,” former KWED personality Ed Engelbardt said.
“It was my pleasure to work with him for many years and I just am glad I was part of that team in those days and will miss him very much. The thing I remember the most is how he treated his employees with a bunch of respect and we respected him. We had a small staff at the time, but he instilled in us a good work ethic. He was a very nice person to be around.”
At the time the radio station operated only in the daytime — they signed on at sunrise and signed off at sunset, Engelhardt said. However, with McKenzie’s help, they were able to obtain a full-time license to operate all day, everyday. He also helped the station get a FM license so they could broadcast on as both an FM and AM station, Engelhardt said.
During his career as a radio broadcaster, McKenzie was a color announcer for the Southwest Conference, announcing college football on the weekends during football season, Engelhardt said.
McKenzie had an extensive list of involvement as the Chairman of the National Association of Broadcasters to the President of the Texas Education Broadcast Association.
“He was involved in so many civic organizations, he loved the community,” Wallock said. “He touched so many lives that we will never know the total impact of his life. If there was something going on in Seguin, he was there or if he wasn’t there then he’d send somebody there.”
Wallock said she’ll always remember McKenzie’s smile, sense of humor and how genuine he was.
➦...boxing’s reknowned blow-by-blow ace broadcaster Don Dunphy was born in New York City. For more than 50 years he was America’s foremost announcer of boxing matches on radio and TV. He called more than 2,000 fights, many of them over a 19 year span when he was the voice of Gillette’s Friday Night Fights on NBC. He called the Joe Louis-Billy Conn title bout in 1941 and the famous Muhammad Ali-George Foreman match in Zaire in 1974. He died July 22, 1998 at age 90.
➦In 1929...WOWO-AM, Fort Wayne, Indiana went back on the air - one day after its transmitter burned down.
➦In 1935...the first broadcast of "Hawaii Calls" occurred.
Hawaii Calls was a radio program on the Mutual Broadcasting System that ran from 1935 through 1975 that featured live Hawaiian music conducted by Harry Owens, the composer of "Sweet Leilani". It was broadcast each week, usually from the courtyard of the Moana Hotel on Waikiki Beach but occasionally from other locations, and hosted by Webley Edwards for almost the entire run.
The first show reached the West Coast of the continental United States through shortwave radio. At its height, it was heard on over 750 stations around the world. However, when it went off the air in 1975, only 10 stations were airing the show. Because of its positive portrayal of Hawaii, the show received a subsidy for many years—first from the government of the Territory of Hawaii, and then from the State of Hawaii.
➦In 1943...After a three-month run with J.B. Williams in the title role on the New England Network, the detective series "The Adventures of Nero Wolfe," now starring Santos Ortega, moved to ABC Radio. Luis Van Rooten succeeded Ortega the following year. Between 1943 and 1982, Wolfe was portrayed in four radio series on five different networks.
➦In 1945...Ann Southern starred on CBS Radio as Maisie for the first time, based on the MGM movie series. The 2-year network run was followed by a 4-year syndicated version, featuring a who’s who of Hollywood radio veterans.
Lucille Ball, Richard Denning
➦In 1948...“My Favorite Husband”, with Lucille Ball, became the gifted redhead’s first regular radio program on CBS. Lee Bowman, and later, Richard Denning, co-starred with Lucy as “two people who live together and like it.” She would use the character as a stepping stone to TV’s iconic classic “I Love Lucy” three years later.
➦In 1951..."The Silver Eagle," a radio series starring Jim Ameche as Jim West of the Canadian Northwest Mounted Police, began its four-year run on ABC.
➦In 1951...Dr. William Shockley made the announcement that he had invented a junction transistor.
A junction transistor is a type of transistor that relies on the contact of two types of semiconductor for its operation. BJTs can be used as amplifiers, switches, or in oscillators. BJTs can be found either as individual discrete components, or in large numbers as parts of integrated circuits.
➦In 1963...it’s announced that CONELRAD, a means ofwartime communication among the civilian population via AM radio frequencies 640 and 1240Khz, will be going away on August 5 to make way for a new system.
CONELRAD (Control of Electromagnetic Radiation) was a method of emergency broadcasting to the public of the United States in the event of enemy attack during the Cold War. It was intended to serve two purposes: to prevent Soviet bombers from homing in on American cities by using radio or TV stations as beacons, and to provide essential civil defense information. U.S. President Harry S. Truman established CONELRAD in 1951.
After the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles reduced the likelihood of a bomber attack, CONELRAD was replaced by the Emergency Broadcast System on August 5, 1963, which was later replaced with the Emergency Alert System in 1997; all have been administered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Unlike its successors, the EBS and EAS, CONELRAD was never intended to be used for severe weather warnings or local civil emergencies.
Ben Alexander, Jacb Webb
➦In 1969...actor Ben Alexander, who was Officer Frank Smith, Sgt. Joe Friday’s partner on both radio & TV versions of Dragnet, died at age 58.
➦In 2008...Rush Limbaugh signed a lucrative deal, believed to be $38 million a year with Premiere Radio Networks that keeps on the air until 2016.
Westwood One talker Mark Levin's new book 'Rediscovering Americanism' has now been at the top of Amazon's best seller list for more than a week.
Over the weekend, people lined up for his book signing in Ridgewood, NJ, where Levin met with fans and signed books for five hours.
In 'Rediscovering Americanism', Levin revisits the founders’ warnings about the perils of overreach by the federal government and concludes that the men who created our country would be outraged and disappointed to see where we've ended up.
Levin returns to the impassioned question he's explored in each of his bestselling books: How do we save our exceptional country? Because our values are in such a precarious state, he argues that a restoration to the essential truths on which our country was founded has never been more urgent. Understanding these principles, in Levin’s words, can “serve as the antidote to tyrannical regimes and governments.” Rediscovering Americanism is not an exercise in nostalgia, but an appeal to his fellow citizens to reverse course.
➦In 1884...lawyer and radio station manager George W. Trendle was born in Norwalk Ohio. He became co-owner/manager of Detroit radio station WXYZ, and oversaw the creation and development of three classic action/adventure radio series aimed at young audiences, The Lone Ranger, The Green Hornet and Sgt. Preston of the Yukon, all of which later made a transition to TV. An avowed penny-pincher, Trendle insisted that the music used on these shows be classical, to avoid paying royalty fees. He died May 10 1972 at age 87.
George W. Trendle
During the 1920s, George W. Trendle had established a reputation as a tough negotiator specializing in movie contracts and leases. Trendle became involved in the Detroit area entertainment business in 1928 when local motion picture theater owner John H. Kunsky offered Trendle 25 percent ownership in exchange for his services.
Trendle and Kunsky formed the Kunsky-Trendle Broadcasting Company in 1929 after purchasing Detroit radio station WGHP. The radio station's call letters were changed to WXYZ.
Trendle was the president and Kunsky was the vice president of the company. Trendle was active as the station manager. Kunsky is rarely mentioned except as co-owner.
WXYZ was initially affiliated with the Columbia Broadcasting System but became an independent station within a year. (WXYZ is now WXYT Detroit) Trendle's partner, Kunsky, legally changed his name to King in 1936, and the Kunsky-Trendle Broadcasting Company became the King-Trendle Broadcasting Company. WXYZ improved its technical facilities through the 1930s, expanding its studios, raising its daytime power from 1,000 to 5,000 watts in the late 1930s, and increasing nighttime power to 5,000 watts in time for its mandated 1941 move from 1240 to 1270 kHz under the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement.
In 1931, Kunsky-Trendle acquired WASH and WOOD in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The two stations merged facilities, including studios and transmitters, but retained both station licenses. WASH was on the air from 8 a.m. to noon, and WOOD from noon to midnight. WOOD-WASH became an NBC Red affiliate in 1935. King and Trendle decided to drop the WASH license in 1942, keeping the WOOD identification.
In 1946, the newly formed American Broadcasting Company purchased the King-Trendle Broadcasting Company and its radio stations for $3.65 million. This sale was for the broadcast facilities (including WOOD, WXYZ, and the Michigan Regional Network) and a construction permit for what would later become WXYZ-TV (channel 7) but did not include ownership of Trendle's radio programs. The FCC approved ABC's purchase on July 18, 1946. In 1952, Paramount Theaters (owners of Kunsky and Trendle's former chain of Detroit area theaters) acquired ABC, including WXYZ. WXYZ (now using the call sign WXYT) is today owned by CBS, the network Trendle dropped shortly after taking over the station.
Trendle entered into a new partnership with long term business associates H. Allen Campbell and Raymond Meurer. The Trendle-Campbell Broadcasting Company was formed in 1946 and started radio station WTCB in Flint, Michigan. The new radio station went on the air April 26, 1946, with a four-tower 1000-watt broadcast array. The call letters were later changed to WTAC. In 1953, they added UHF television station WTAC-TV affiliated with ABCTV and DuMont. The TV station went out of business less than a year later because too few TVs at the time were equipped to receive UHF channels. The radio station has changed owners several times and its call sign was changed to WSNL in 1997. The station is currently owned by The Christian Broadcasting System. Three of the four towers were demolished in 2003 to make room for redevelopment of the site. The fourth tower was removed in 2004 after new transmitting facilities were completed in Gaines Township, southwest of Flint.
Penny pinching
The Kunsky-Trendle business venture began at the start of the Great Depression, and Trendle took many cost-cutting moves that earned him a reputation as a penny-pincher. According to Dick Osgood in his book Wyxie Wonderland: An Unauthorized 50-Year Diary of WXYZ Detroit, he was assisted in this by H. Allen Campbell.
Campbell was an advertising salesman for the Hearst organization whom Trendle hired to find sponsors for his radio programs. Campbell is credited with signing Silvercup Bread as the first sponsor for the Lone Ranger series. This was a big account and helped to bring the show to nationwide syndication. Apparently, Campbell's contributions to the business were significant. He continued working for Trendle for the next twenty years and eventually became one of Trendle's business partners.
Campbell reportedly kept a set of books to show employees that the company was losing money and could not afford to pay higher salaries. Trendle and Campbell often responded to employee requests for salary increases by downplaying their value to the company and threatening to fire them. This threat was particularly effective during the Depression.
Trendle specified the music on WXYZ shows should be non-copyrighted classical so that the music was royalty-free. This is the reason that the William Tell Overture was adopted as the Lone Ranger theme and The Flight of the Bumble Bee became the theme for the Green Hornet show.
New programming
Fran Striker
In June 1932, Trendle decided to drop the network affiliation to operate WXYZ as an independent station. His station would produce its own radio drama series and broadcast locally produced music programs rather than pay for syndicated programs. Jim Jewell was hired as the station's dramatic director and supplied the actors from his own repertory company, the "Jewell Players." Freelance radio writer Fran Striker was hired to write many of these programs. The earliest dramatic radio series included Thrills of the Secret Service, Dr. Fang, and Warner Lester, Manhunter. Striker wrote many of the scripts and eventually became head of WXYZ's script department.
Late in 1932, Trendle began discussing ideas to create a new radio series with a cowboy as the hero. He wanted a mysterious hero who would have the same type of appeal as Zorro or Robin Hood. The target audience included children, so Trendle insisted on a wholesome hero with high moral standards. Violence and romance were to be minimized. Trendle worked out the basic concept of a masked vigilante, a lone Texas ranger with a big white horse, in staff meetings with Jim Jewell and studio manager Harold True. Then it was turned over to Fran Striker to flesh out the details and provide the scripts. His contributions included silver bullets and an Indian companion. The result was The Lone Ranger, which began broadcasting January 30, 1933, on WXYZ and the seven other stations of the Michigan Regional Network.
Fred Foy (far right) during a broadcast of THE LONE RANGER at WXYZ, Detroit. At left are John Todd (Tonto) and Brace Beemer (the Lone Ranger)
The Lone Ranger was an almost immediate hit. In May, a free popgun was offered to the first 300 listeners to send a written request; the station received nearly 25,000 replies. In July, the Lone Ranger made a public appearance at a park and a crowd estimated at 70,000 gathered.
By the beginning of 1934, the show was syndicated to WGN, Chicago, and WOR, Newark. Other stations soon followed. The live broadcasts were transmitted over telephone lines to the other stations. When the Mutual Broadcasting System was created in 1934, WXYZ became a charter member and the Lone Ranger program was featured on the Mutual Network. Although WXYZ dropped out to join NBC Blue about a year later, contractual obligations kept The Lone Ranger on Mutual until 1942, during this period The Lone Ranger was produced at WXYZ but heard in the Detroit area over Mutual's new affiliate, CKLW. It then switched to the NBC Blue Network, which became ABC in 1943. The popularity of the series rapidly grew and it was eventually heard on 249 radio stations nationwide.
➦In 1913...radio & TV hostess Virginia Graham was born in Chicago. In the 1940’s she wrote scripts for such radio soap operas as Stella Dallas, Our Gal Sunday, and Backstage Wife. She hosted her first radio talk show in 1951. She succeeded Margaret Truman in 1956 as co-host of the NBC radio show Weekday, teamed with Mike Wallace. She was hostess of TV talk shows from the 50’s to the 70’s that are considered forerunners to today’s daytime TV. She was best known for the nationally syndicated ‘Girl Talk’ on ABC from 1963-1969, ‘The Virginia Graham Show’ from 1970-1972, and guesting on other talk shows, including a dozen appearances on ‘The Tonight Show.’ She died following a heart attack Dec 22, 1998 at age 85.
➦In 1916...the woman tried for treason after WW II as notorious broadcaster Tokyo Rose, Iva Toguri D’Aquino was born in Los Angeles. She was one of at least a dozen women who did Japanese propaganda broadcasts from Radio Tokyo. The post-war trial convicted her on just one innoquous charge not involving treason, while she claimed to have subtly subverted the Japanese war effort, and was eventually pardoned by President Ford. She died Sept. 26 2006 at age 90. ➦In 1929...WOWO-AM, Fort Wayne, Indiana lost its transmitter when it burned down.
WOWO resumed broadcasting the next day, as operations were moved across the street until damages could be repaired. In November 1929, the station held a grand opening of the rebuilt studios.
➦In 1948...the radio panel show Life Begins at 80 debuted on Mutual. Jack Barry hosted the program patterned in reverse on his successful Juvenile Jury.
➦In 1958...WKBW 1520 AM, Buffalo, changed its format to "Top 40".
WKBW was founded in 1926 as a religious station, operating at the frequency of 1380 kHz. As the story goes, founder Clinton Churchill applied to the Department of Commerce for a license to operate under the call signs WAY. That call sign, however, was being used for a ship at sea, so instead, Churchill chose the letters "WKBW," which were next in the random assignment pool. Churchill proclaimed the call letters to stand for "Well Known Bible Witness"; later usage referred to the middle letters "KB" standing for King of Buffalo (alluding to its 50,000 watt broadcast power).
During the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, WKBW became a major force in pop radio over the East Coast. KB had a 50,000 watt transmitter (the maximum power allowed) at their transmitter site in Hamburg. This high power caused WKBW to blanket the entire eastern U.S. with top 40 music every night, and the station actually had a better signal at night in the western Boston suburbs than Boston's own top 40 station, WMEX, located at 1510, right next door to WKBW. Disk jockeys included future Price is Right announcer Rod Roddy, Dick Biondi, Danny Neaverth, Jack Armstrong, Joey Reynolds, Steve Mitchell, Bud Ballou, Norm Marshall, Tom Shannon, and the Amazin' Jim Quinn. Irv Weinstein, later Buffalo's most popular television news anchor, served as news director, and Stan Barron, a holdover from the pre-rock and roll era, handled sports until his departure in 1965.
WWKB's daytime signal decently covers Rochester and the Southern Tier, and reaches into Toronto and as far east as Kingston. At night, it must direct its signal eastward due to sharing a frequency with KOKC in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (the former KOMA, another flame-throwing 50,000-watt top 40 powerhouse in the 1960s and 1970s). Thus, while the station can be heard across most of the eastern half of North America at night, its signal is spotty at best only 20 miles southwest of Buffalo. Its directional quality is due to the configuration of its transmitter tower array, which has resulted the station being commonly heard very well in parts of Sweden at night during the winter months.
➦In 1970...American Top 40 began on the Independence Day weekend in 1970, on seven radio stations, the very first being KDEO in El Cajon, California (now KECR), which broadcast the inaugural show the evening of July 3, 1970.
The chart data broadcast actually included the top 40 songs from the week ending July 11, 1970. The very first show featured the very last time both Elvis Presley and The Beatles had songs simultaneously in the Top 10.
It was originally distributed by Watermark Inc., and was first presented in mono until it started recording in stereo in September 1972.
In early 1982, Watermark was purchased by ABC Radio and AT40 became a program of the "ABC Contemporary Radio Network". The program was hosted by Casey Kasem and co-created by Kasem; Don Bustany, Kasem's childhood friend from Detroit, MI; radio veteran Tom Rounds; and 93/KHJ Program Director Ron Jacobs, who produced and directed the various production elements. Rounds was also the marketing director; the initial funder was California strawberry grower Tom Driscoll.
The show began as a three-hour program written and directed by Bustany, counting down the top 40 songs on Billboard's Hot 100 Singles chart. The show quickly gained popularity once it was commissioned, and expanded to a four hour-program on October 7, 1978, to reflect the increasing average length of singles on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.
The producing staff expanded to eight people, some of them still in the business: Nikki Wine, Ben Marichal, Scott Paton, Matt Wilson, Merrill Shindler, Guy Aoki, Ronnie Allen and Sandy Stert Benjamin. (Bustany retired from AT40 in 1989; since 1994, he has hosted a political talk show on listener-sponsored KPFK.)
By the early 1980s, the show could be heard on 520 stations in the United States and at its zenith, the show was broadcast on 1,000-plus stations in some 50 countries.
Kasem told the New York Times in 1990 "I accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. That is the timeless thing."
AT40's first countdown:
40: END OF OUR ROAD - MARVIN GAYE
39: SILVER BIRD - MARK LINDSEY
38: SPILL THE WINE - ERIC BURDEN
37: GO BACK - CRABBY APPLETON
36: I JUST CAN'T HELP BELIEVING - B.J. THOMAS
35: SPIRIT IN THE DARK - ARETHA FRANKLIN
34: MISSISSIPPI - JOHN PHILLIPS
33: WESTBOUND #9 - FLAMING EMBER
32: IT'S ALL IN THE GAME - FOUR TOPS
31: SAVE THE COUNTRY - FIFTH DIMENSION
30: OHIO - CROSBY, STILLS, NASH AND YOUNG
29: EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL - RAY STEVENS
28: CHECK OUT YOUR MIND - IMPRESSIONS
27: QUESTION - MOODY BLUES
26: SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED - STEVIE WONDER
25: SUGAR, SUGAR - WILSON PICKETT
24: TEACH YOUR CHILDREN - CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG
23: WHICH WAY YOU GOIN' BILLY - THE POPPY FAMILY OLDIE: LITTLE OLE MAN - BILL COSBY
22: LOVE ON A TWO-WAY STREET - MOMENTS
21: MISSISSIPPI QUEEN - MOUNTAIN
20: MAKE IT WITH YOU - BREAD
19: ARE YOU READY - PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC
18: LOVE LAND - CHARLES WRIGHT & THE WATTS 103RD STREET RHYTHM BAND
17: TIGHTER & TIGHTER - ALIVE AND KICKING
16: MY BABY LOVES LOVIN' - WHITE PLAINS
15: A SONG OF JOY - MIGUEL RIOS OLDIE: HELLO DOLLY - LOUIS ARMSTRONG
14: UNITED WE STAND - BROTHERHOOD OF MAN
13: GET READY - RARE EARTH
12: OOH CHILD - STAIRSTEPS
11: GIMME DAT DING - THE PIPKINS
10: HITCHIN' A RIDE - VANITY FAIR OLDIE: SPINNING WHEEL - BLOOD SWEAT & TEARS
9: THE WONDER OF YOU - ELVIS PRESLEY
8: THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD - BEATLES
7: CLOSE TO YOU - CARPENTERS
6: LAY DOWN (CANDLES IN THE WIND) - MELANIE
5: BAND OF GOLD - FREDA PAYNE
4: RIDE CAPTAIN RIDE - BLUES IMAGE
3: BALL OF CONFUSION - TEMPTATIONS
2: THE LOVE YOU SAVE - JACKSON FIVE OLDIE: SATISFACTION - ROLLING STONES
1: MAMA TOLD ME NOT TO COME - THREE DOG NIGHT
➦In 1972...WCBS 101.1 FM, New York, changed its format to "Oldies".
At first, the station focused on rock-and-roll hits from 1955 to 1964 and mixed in some softer hits of the late 1960s and early 1970s, as well as a few then-current songs. WCBS-FM also played a moderate amount of adult standards from the rock era. The station played two current hits per hour known as "future gold". By the late 1970s however, the station dropped most of the adult standards, with a few exceptions, and added rock hits from the late 1960s.
WCBS-FM's oldies format weathered many trends and corporate moves.
By 1979, three FM stations owned by CBS had begun playing disco music. In 1981, all of CBS's FM stations, except for WCBS-FM, adopted a CHR format known as "Hot Hits". The oldies format on WCBS-FM continued to be a success.
One ongoing favorite feature was a countdown of the top 500 songs of all time, as voted by the station's listeners. The countdown always took place on Thanksgiving weekend (with a new survey taken every other year. On even years, up to 1990, the survey from the previous year was played. In the first Top 500, The Five Satins' doo wop classic "In the Still of the Night" was #1 and "Earth Angel" by The Penguins was #2.
➦In 2003...radio & TV veteran Tyler McVey died of leukemia at age 81. By 1940 he was a regular in radio’s Hollywood stock company, playing regular roles in Glamour Manor, One Man’s Family, The Hermit’s Cave and Wild Bill Hickok, and announcing on the syndicated Smiths of Hollywood. He was a regular on TV’s Men Into Space and You Are There, with numerous guest roles on Bat Masterson, Death Valley Days, The Wild, Wild West, The F.B.I., Bonanza, Ironside, Ellery Queen, Eight Is Enough and Highway to Heaven, to mention just a few.
➦In 2003...financial expert and Radio personality, Larry Burkett, died at age 64. Best known for his show "Money Matters", which aired on 1,000 radio stations.
➦In 2005…Former NFL coach/Pro Football Hall of Famer Hank Stram, who was a football commentator for CBS Radio and television for 20 years, died from complications of diabetes at 82.
In an internal email first obtained by Sports Business Daily’s John Ourand, Fox Sports President Eric Shanks informed employees that Jamie Horowitz, the president of national networks, is leaving FOX Sports “effective immediately.”
“We realize this news may come as a surprise for many of you, but we are confident in this decision,” Shanks said.
Shanks’ email suggested that Horowitz’s sudden departure could be related to a conduct issue, according to philly.com.
“Everyone at FOX Sports, no matter what role we play, or what business, function or show we contribute to — should act with respect and adhere to professional conduct at all times,” Shanks said. “These values are non-negotiable.”
Until a replacement is named, Shanks will step in to handle Horowitz’s responsibilities, which include overseeing programming on FS1 and FS2 and managing FoxSports.com.
FOX Sports did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Here is the full email, sent by Shanks to employees on Monday morning:
Dear Colleagues:
I regret to inform you that Jamie Horowitz, President of National Networks for FOX Sports, will be leaving FOX Sports effective immediately. We realize this news may come as a surprise for many of you, but we are confident in this decision.
Everyone at FOX Sports, no matter what role we play, or what business, function or show we contribute to — should act with respect and adhere to professional conduct at all times. These values are non-negotiable.
Until Jamie’s replacement is named, I am stepping in to handle his former responsibilities including programming, marketing and scheduling for FS1 and FS2, as well as digital. All of these functions will now report directly to me.
We understand how difficult this will be for many of you, but in these times it is important that we remain unwavering and focused in continuing the great work of FOX Sports.
Best, Eric
According to Radio Sports Consultant Jason Barrett, Horowitz sent shockwaves throughout the industry last week when FOX Sports ditched its digital strategy in favor of a video distribution model. The change resulted in a number of staffers being let go and industry pundits questioning whether or not FOX was making a critical mistake.
Barrett writes in his blog, "What will be interesting going forward is if FOX stays committed to the vision Horowitz set in place or if they look to reverse course and pursue an alternative path. With Nick Wright and Cris Carter on their way to New York to launch a new morning show in September, Katie Nolan sitting on the sidelines awaiting word on what her new role will be, and others like Cowherd and Bayless being expensive acquisitions and huge supporters of Horowitz, the future at FOX Sports suddenly became very cloudy. For the sake of all involved, let’s hope better news is on the way soon."
Alpha Media, West Palm Beach changed WMEN 640 AM has rebranded from Fox Sports 640 to 640 The Hurricane as of Tuesday. The station will still be an all sports Fox affiliate, but carry more edge and attitude.
640 The Hurricane is also the new radio home for the Miami Hurricanes. The “Canes” will join a play by play lineup that features the New York Yankees, Florida Panthers, and weekly NFL games. In addition to the play by play, the station will offer top-notch talent including; Dan Patrick, Colin Cowherd, and Doug Gottlieb.
Alpha Media, West Palm Beach, SVP/Market Manager Elizabeth Hamma commented on the announcement, “640 The Hurricane is like a CAT 5 storm that will whip up the South Florida market with relevant and entertaining content for men. It’s a station designed for the passionate sports fan.”
WMEN 640 AM (7.5 KwD, 460 wattsN, DA2)
“With big brands and big names we will be the fan’s evacuation route from boring sports talk radio. 640 The Hurricane will give the sports format a much-needed edge in the market,” remarked Paul Mason, WMEN Program Director.
Bloomberg Radio, the world’s only global 24-hour business and radio station, in conjunction with Beasley Media Group, Inc. hAS announced that starting tomorrow July 4th at 12:00pm ET, Bloomberg Radio can now be heard on Beasley Media Group’s W291CZ 106.1 FM, WRCA 1330 AM and WBOS 92.1 FM HD2.
Bloomberg Radio will continue to broadcast on iHeartMedia's WXKS 1200 AM / WJMN 94.5FM HD2 for the next few months.
“We have been eager to expand our presence in the Boston area to deliver the best of Bloomberg Radio to this important market of those who manage money, move markets and shape the future of global business and the innovations of tomorrow,” said Al Mayers, Global Head of Bloomberg Radio and Television.
WRCA 1330 AM (25 Kw-D, 17 Kw-N, DA2)
“We’re excited to partner with a global news and business leader of Bloomberg’s magnitude,” said Beasley Media Boston Vice President and Market Manager Mary Menna. “This unique programming underscores the company’s commitment to providing our listeners with the very best content and compliments our five existing music brands in Boston.”
W291CZ 106. FM ( 99 watts)
Listeners will also be able to tune in to Bloomberg’s broadcast of the 2017 Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular, tomorrow at 8:00pm ET. Bloomberg is the exclusive media partner of this year’s concert.
Voice-driven technology in today’s connected home is creating new opportunities for terrestrial radio broadcasters to tap a market, even as the sales of tabletop radios have evaporated in the United States, experts say, according to Randy J. Stine at RadioWorld.
Smart speaker systems like Amazon Echo and Google Home can readily stream radio stations, via web streams like TuneIn and iHeartRadio, and can be programmed to find individual station streams.
Smart speakers use voice-recognition technology and artificial intelligence to act as a multi-purpose — and relatively inexpensive — in-home entertainment device.
In Jacobs Media’s 2017 Techsurvey 13, approximately 11 percent of core radio listeners had an Amazon Echo or a Google Home. Estimates are that up to 10 million Amazon Echo internet-connected “smart speakers” have been sold in the United States, so the numbers are substantial, and soaring sales are expected, underscoring the opportunity for the radio industry. RBC Capital Markets predicts Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa could generate $10 billion in worldwide revenues for that company by 2020.
Mike Cooney, chair of the NAB’s Radio Technology Committee and VP of engineering of Beasley Broadcast Group, said his company’s digital development team has already developed a set of rules to describe each station so they can be found easier, typically involving a combination of call letters, frequency, location and slogan, as if programmed for a search engine.
“When I first began using [Echo]in late 2016 it didn’t always find our radio stations. That was before we knew much about it. We have learned it’s very important how you put your radio station information in TuneIn or iHeartRadio,” Cooney said.
Radio futurologist James Cridland agreed with Cooney’s observation. “Many of my friends claim that their Amazon Echo has not just replaced their radio, but that they listen to more radio as a result.”
TuneIn and other aggregators are so far serving radio broadcasters well, but Cridland wonders if radio needs to reconsider its long-term strategy for smart speaker success.
“If the U.S. radio industry is happy about leaving the default ‘skill architecture’ to TuneIn — a company which isn’t in the radio business, doesn’t care about radio’s future, is a gatekeeper that you don’t control and one that actively sells ads in front of your streams — then I might suggest the radio business needs to take a long hard look at itself,” he said. He’d like to see radio broadcasters “work together to ensure a strong radio experience in the United States and each country.”
Radio, TV host Maria Menounos has announced that she is leaving E! News following her February brain tumor diagnosis.
“My deal ends this August and after that I’m gonna take some time and focus on some passion projects and see what’s next,” the 39-year-old tells PEOPLE. “I’m not rushing into anything.”
The Sirius XM radio host had been with the company for three years after first joining the E! News team in 2014. In a statement, E! officials thanked Menounos for her “many contributions” over the years.
“Our thoughts and support go out to Maria and her family and we wish them all the best knowing that Maria will tackled this with the same fierce dedication she is known for,” they said in their statement.
The news comes just weeks after Menounos underwent a complex, seven-hour surgery, in which doctors were able to remove 99.9 percent of a benign brain tumor.
“[The doctor] said there’s a six to seven percent chance that we’ll see it come back,” she tells PEOPLE in the magazine’s exclusive new cover story. “But I’ll take those odds any day.”
She first began recognizing troubling symptoms in February –“I’d been getting lightheaded on set and having headaches,” she says. “My speech had gotten slurred and I was having difficulty reading the teleprompter."
She remained at the hospital for six days after the June 8 surgery before returning home to heal alongside her mother, Litsa,who has stage 4 brain cancer.
“I don’t have my balance fully yet but as long as I’m holding on to Keven, I’m sturdy and fine,” Menounos says. “My face is still numb. This is something that takes at least a month of healing, but I’m getting stronger and stronger every day and I’ll be back to normal very soon.”
(Reuters) -- President Donald Trump stepped up his feud with the media on Sunday by tweeting a mock video of himself tackling and repeatedly striking a man with a CNN logo super-imposed in place of his head, followed by a logo saying "Fraud News Network."
The video appeared to be a modified version of a 2007 appearance by Trump at World Wrestling Entertainment's WrestleMania 23 promotion, in which Trump "takes down" WWE Chairman Vince McMahon. In Sunday's video, McMahon's head has been replaced with the CNN logo.
After Trump appears to beat on the CNN effigy, a logo, "FNN Fraud News Network" appears at the bottom of the screen in script similar to that of CNN.
Trump appointed McMahon's wife, Linda McMahon, as the head of the Small Business Administration, a Cabinet-level agency. She was active in the management of WWE for many years.
As a presidential candidate and as commander-in-chief, Trump has repeatedly made known his disdain for the media, calling it "the enemy of the American people" and frequently referring to mainstream news organizations as "failing" or "fake news." He has been particularly scathing of CNN.
The video takes his criticism to a new level and drew criticism from CNN and on social media.
"It is a sad day when the President of the United States encourages violence against reporters," CNN said in a statement.
"Instead of preparing for his overseas trip, his first meeting with Vladimir Putin, dealing with North Korea and working on his health care bill, he is instead involved in juvenile behavior far below the dignity of his office," CNN said.
Thomas Bossert
Trump leaves later this week for a trip to Poland and Germany, where he will attend a meeting of Group of 20 leaders including the Russian president.
White House homeland security and counterterrorism adviser Thomas Bossert said the tweet was not a threat.
"I think that no one would perceive that as a threat. I hope they don't,” Bossert said on the ABC program "This Week."
"But I do think that he's beaten up in a way on cable platforms that he has a right to respond to," Bossert said.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a group that advocates for journalists' rights, condemned the president's tweet and said it "glorified physical violence against members of the press."
Bill Kristol, the conservative commentator and editor-at-large of The Weekly Standard, compared Trump's actions to behavior that caused the fall of the Roman Empire.
"The speed with which we're recapitulating the decline and fall of Rome is impressive. What took Rome centuries we're achieving in months," Kristol wrote in a Tweet.
Trump's Sunday tweet followed his scathing and highly personal Twitter attack on two MSNBC anchors last week, which drew condemnation from Republicans, including Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan, and Democrats alike.
Trump, who is spending a long weekend at his property in Bedminster, New Jersey, took to Twitter on Saturday to call the media "fake" and "fraudulent."
At an event honoring veterans at the Kennedy Center in Washington on Saturday evening, he told the crowd that the media had tried to stop him from coming to the White House.
President Trump has a new target in his war of words with “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski: their NBC bosses.
“Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad!” Trump tweeted at 9:20 am Saturday, according to the NYPost.
Crazy Joe Scarborough and dumb as a rock Mika are not bad people, but their low rated show is dominated by their NBC bosses. Too bad!
The former Fox News host’s MSNBC show lasted just six months. AdWeek reported she had the No. 30-rated cable news show. Her main competition at 6 p.m., Fox Newser Bret Baier, ranks No. 5.
Julie Roginsky, a Democratic Fox News contributor suing the network over alleged sexual harassment by its former CEO Roger Ailes, said on Thursday that she is leaving the company.
"I've enjoyed it; I've enjoyed you. Thank you so much for watching 'The Clapback,' thank you so much for watching me on TV all these years," she added. "One of the joys in my life was interacting with you, whether it was agreeing with you, or clapping back at you."
Roginsky, a former Democratic strategist, joined Fox News as a contributor in 2011 and hosted the web series "The Clapback," according to The Hill.
Roginsky filed a bombshell lawsuit against Fox News, Ailes and then-co-president Bill Shine in April, alleging that Ailes had sought a sexual relationship with her in exchange for a regular hosting spot on the show "The Five."
In the lawsuit, filed in the New York Supreme Court, Roginsky says she refused Ailes's proposition and that by doing so, the network denied her certain on-air opportunities.
Ailes resigned as chairman and CEO of Fox News in July 2016 amid a slew of allegations that he sexually harassed female employees. He passed away in May.
Shine, a close ally of Ailes, was forced out at the network in May. He faced accusations that he sought to cover up Ailes's behavior and failed to address sexual harassment complaints by Fox News' female employees.
Roginsky did not specify her reason for leaving the company in her farewell message on Thursday.
WDFN 1130 AM lost yet another voice after a staffing trim.
The Detroit Free Press reports Gregg Henson, one of the afternoon drive time hosts, revealed on Twitter that iHeart Media let him go. He was not heard on Friday's show which was simulcast on WMAX 96.1 FM in Grand Rapids.
One of the original employees of WDFN when it switched to all sports in 1994, the 49-year-old Henson eventually became program director there. He later was hired by WXYT 1270 AM when it got into the all-sports format and hosted a show there.
WDFN lost morning show host Matt Shepard back in May when his job was eliminated. The weekday afternoon show, still hosted by McCarthy and Costa, is the lone locally produced show on the station.
Once the leader of local sports talk in Detroit, WDFN has struggled in the ratings race, especially since WXYT 97.1 FM jumped into the format.
What’s old is new again at radio station KTGP-LPFM Mix99.5, “The Heart and Soul of St. Louis.”
The old school R&B-heavy station brings back a number of veteran St. Louis radio personalities, some off the air the years, and gives them a new home, according to stltoday.com.
The station officially launches Monday after rolling out quietly six months ago, and is available online at mix995FM.com.
Longtime St. Louis radio personality Lou Thimes Jr., a.k.a. “The Real JR,” senior vice president and operations manager at 99.5, says the radio station fills “a longtime void in the marketplace for a locally-owned, locally-managed, locally-operated radio station.”
MIX 99.5 FM comes loaded with many names known in St. Louis radio, some formerly employed at stations past and present such as Majic 104.9, WESL 1490, Foxy 95.5 and Gospel 1600. In same cases, programs and segments that were popular on those stations will be resurrected on the new station.
Among those newly on-air at MIX 99.5 are Jim Gates, Niecy Davis, Tossin’ Ted, Nappy DJ Needles, Calvin King, Edie B, DJ VuDu, Darrel “EZ” Eason and others, not to mention Thimes himself.
“They’re heavily recognizable names, marketable names. They’re people I grew up with, who I have an emotional attachment to,” he says. “We have market credibility and market leverage with these names. And we need these names to lure people from other stations.”
KTGP-LPFM 99.5 FM (8 watts)
The daily rundown at MIX 99.5 begins with “The Mix Morning Madness Sho;w” (6 a.m.-10 a.m.) with Tossin’ Ted, DJ Vudu, Deneen Busby, Ladyre Richardson and Theo Louis Clark. “The Midday Mix with Niecy Davis” (10 a.m.-3 p.m.) follows. Then it's “The Real Afternoon Show” with Thimes (as the Real J.R., 3p.m.-6 p.m.) with Khandy Kane and traffic from Tony J, “The World of James Earl” (6 p.m.-9 p.m.) with “Gentleman Jim” Gates, Darrel “EZ” Eason (9 p.m.-1 a.m.) and “Your Lady” Edie B. (1 a.m.-6 a.m.)
Netflix Inc.’s popularity among U.S. consumers is on the rise this year, according to Morning Consult Brand Intelligence data, with similar increases in both subscribers and share price as the company’s second quarter drew to a close on Friday.
Fifty-four percent of Americans said they have a “very favorable” opinion of Netflix as of June 29, up from 41 percent at the beginning of the year, according to Morning Consult Brand Intelligence. In October, that level of favorability was as low as 31 percent.
This year’s gains in popularity come alongside a rise in subscription numbers and the company’s stock price, which has jumped more than 18 percent since the beginning of January. The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company added 1.42 million U.S. customers and 3.53 million international subscribers — both below expectations — in the first three months of the year.
Some of those competitors include Hulu LLC and YouTube Inc., which both debuted live television subscription services this year. Amazon.com Inc. launched its video service globally in December 2016.
➦In 1913...columnist & TV panelist Dorothy Kilgallen was born in Chicago. For 27 years she wrote a gossip column for Hearst’s New York Herald American, halfway through which time she achieved national fame as a panelist on Goodson Todman’s Sunday night TV institutuion, What’s My Line? Beginning in 1945, she co-hosted a long-running breakfast radio talk show on WOR, with her husband Richard Kollmar. She died after an alcohol-and-seconal-fuelled heart attack Nov. 8 1965, just 12 hours after her weekly TV game show, dead at age 52.
➦In 1939…Chic Young's comic strip character "Blondie" became a radio sitcom, initially as a summer replacement for "The Eddie Cantor Show" on CBS. When Cantor did not return in the fall, "Blondie" continued on the air and bounced between several networks until 1950.
➜In 1940…In 1940, the legendary comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello debuted their own network radio show on NBC. After two years of wowing the audience of the Kate Snith Show the duo replaced Fred Allen for the summer months. In the fall of ’42 they began a seven year run with their own Thursday night show. In 1952 Abbott and Costello produced 52 episodes of one of the most successful and repeated programs in TV history. A cartoon version of The Abbott & Costello Show followed in 1966.
➦In 1949...Actress Jan Smithers, Bailey Quarters on WKRP in Cincinnati, was born
➦In 1955...Tom Clay, a Buffalo DJ on WWOL-AM, staged a famous billboard publicity stunt in Shelton Squareconducts his famous Billboard stunt in Buffalo's Shelton Square.
Tom Clay
Clay in the 1950s was a popular radio personality in the
Detroit area on WJBK-AM both as a DJ, and for his on-air comic characterizations.
In the early 1950s Clay, using the pseudonym "Guy King," worked for
WWOL-AM/FM in Buffalo, New York; on July 3, 1955, he conducted the stunt in which
he played "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley & His Comets
repeatedly from atop a billboard in Buffalo's Shelton Square, an incident that
led to his firing and arrest. In the
mid-1950s he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio and was equally popular.
He was caught up in the payola scandal of the late 1950s,
and admitted to having accepted thousands of dollars for playing certain
records. After being fired from WJBK, Clay worked at the short-lived Detroit
Top 40 station WQTE (now WRDT 560 AM) only to be fired again when the station
changed format to easy listening music in 1961. After moving to Los Angeles and
becoming a popular personality on KDAY and KRLA, Clay returned to the Detroit
area and found work at CKLW in neighboring Windsor, Ontario, at the time one of
the foremost Top 40 AM stations in North America.
Clay is best remembered for his single on Motown's MoWest
label "What the World Needs Now Is Love"/"Abraham, Martin and
John", a compilation of clips from the two popular records, interviews,
and speeches of Jack and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King emphasizing
tolerance and civil rights. It went to #8 on the Billboard Hot 100. It sold
over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.
Clay died of stomach and lung cancer at the age of 66, in Valley
Village, Los Angeles, California in 1995.
➦In 1961...Dan Ingram did his first show on WABC 770 AM, New York. He filled in for Chuck Dunaway.
➦In 1971...Rock Hall of Fame rock singer Jim Morrison of The Doors died of heart failure. He was 27.
➦In 1972...Bob Crane went back to radio - but only for one week.
He was filling in for Dick Wittinghill - his former archrival on KMPC 710 AM in Los Angeles beginning July 5. Wittinghill and Crane battled it out for the morning ratings in Los Angeles from 1956 to 1965, when Crane left to star in “Hogan’s Heroes.”
➦In 1973...KMEN 1290 AM San Bernardino, CA broadcasts an “all-girl” day on Wednesday of this week. Guest DJ’s heard – Jackie DeShannon, Donna Fargo, Sylvia, April Stevens, Jean Knight, Carla Thomas and Maureen McCormick of the Brady Bunch.
➦In 1976...The Los Angeles comedy radio team of Hudson and Landry split.
Bob Hudson wanted to keep it together with their KFI 640 AM radio show, nightclub appearances and possibly more comedy records, but Ron Landry wanted to go into television as a writer and producer. Ron Landry says – “Doing this show was a lot of fun. We had five great years and, I think we did some interesting things in broadcasting.”
➦In 1978...Supreme Court ruled 5-4, FCC had a right to reprimand NY radio station WBAI for broadcasting George Carlin's "Filthy Words".
➦In 1983...KNX-FM – Soft rock in Los Angeles changes calls and format to KKHR (Hit Radio). Looks like it’ll be direct competition for KIIS-FM.
➦In 1986...depression era singer and bandleader Rudy Vallee died following a heart attack at age 84. He had a succession of popular radio variety shows beginning in the late 20’s, introducing a succession of future stars. His biggest hit was the “Stein Song (University of Maine)” in 1930. ➦In 1986...It was announced that Howard Stern, the often controversial New York City DJ/talker, will be syndicated by DIR to other stations.
Stern, who joined rocker WXRK (New York) late last year, has seen his ratings rise from a 1.2 to a 3.4 and up to a 5.2 share in the recent ratings. “The Howard Stern Show” will mix music and talk equally. At WXRK, Stern plays about 6 songs per hour. The national show will be weekly only.
Stern is following a pattern with high-profile DJ’s and national weekly shows: Rick Dees at KIIS-FM, John Lander at KKBQ Houston and Scott Shannon from Z-100 all have national weekly shows, but Stern’s will present or lean heavy personality and will not emphasize the music.
➦In 1987...Tom Snyder will move from TV to radio this fall to host a national call-in talk show announced this week by the ABC Radio Networks. Look for it early September.
➦In 1993…Sports broadcaster (ABC, Superstars, Wild World of Sports, NBC, Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago White Sox, California Angels, Texas Rangers, Montreal Expos, Los Angeles Rams)/syndicated radio show host (Radio Baseball Cards)/Baseball Hall of Famer Don Drysdale died following a heart attack at age 56.
➦In 2014...the Sirius-XM radio team of Opie & Anthony was forever broken up, as the network fired Anthony Cumia for making a series of tweets following an alleged off-air incident with a black woman on the street. Cumia tweeted that he was punched by the woman while attempting to take a picture in Times Square. The tweets were described by Sirius XM as “racially-charged and hate-filled.”
