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When big corporations have bad news to announce, they often hold off until as late as possible on a Friday afternoon. By burying the story over the weekend, they hope to minimize criticism from the press and outcry from the public. That no doubt figured into the timing of Infinity Broadcasting, which waited until 4 p.m. Friday to blow up two of its heritage oldies stations -- WJMK-FM (104.3) in Chicago and WCBS-FM in New York. With absolutely no warning, their popular and successful formats were replaced with a trendy pop/rock hybrid known as "Jack FM." To Joel Hollander, chief executive officer, and his younger brother, Les Hollander, whom he hand-picked to oversee Chicago and five other major markets, WJMK is just another line on a ledger. In their infinite wisdom (pun intended), the Hollander brothers have latched onto "Jack FM" as their company's savior. They've already installed it in eight markets, and trade reports suggest many more of their stations soon will succumb. Reaction to the switch of WJMK-FM (104.3) from oldies to "Jack FM" has been universally and unequivocally negative among readers who wrote in  (read more - Feder of Chicago)

I listened to Jack for a couple of hours yesterday, and it was okay, but if I was supposed to be getting the feeling of listening to someone's iPod, it was probably the iPod of a friend with incredibly obvious, middle-of-the-road taste. It did inspire an idea, though. If commercial FM radio really wants to become relevant again, maybe it needs to take a page out of its past as well as a page from what AM did 20 years ago when it faced extinction because of FM. Personality. Rush Limbaugh and all the other talkers out there revived AM radio. Finding and cultivating a new generation of personality jocks, the next Cousin Brucie (and Don Imus, Wolfman Jack, Frankie Crocker, etc), and firing the program directors with their rigid playlists and letting the DJs play what they want, when they want, may be the only way to create a market that doesn't suffer when compared to listening just to what you like or that's rigidly formatted by genre. Not celebrity DJs like XM and Sirius are hiring, but real people who love music, have eclectic taste and have the ability to find and break new bands and songs, the way DJs used to (read more - David Lidsky-Fast Company Blog)

Viacom's Les Moonves defended the decision to can “Cousin Brucie” Morrow, Mickey Dolenz and Harry Harrison at WCBS-FM, which switched from oldies to the new “Jack FM” format. He said he was amazed at the public reaction: “God, it seemed like we had shot somebody when we changed the WCBS-FM format” (read more NY Post)

Think the iPod and other personal music players aren't influencing broadcast radio? Think again. Infinity Broadcasting Inc.'s decision to dump its oldies format at WJMK-FM 104.3 after 21 years Friday for a new format called "Jack FM" is being described by many in the industry as the radio version of the iPod shuffle (read more - John Schmeltzer-Chicago Tribune)

Long-time listeners to WCBS-FM are still steaming about Infinity Broadcasting's decision to dump the oldies format for a new concept called "Jack." Indeed, Mickey Dolenz, the morning host, learned the same day he held an on-air blowout marking his 100th show. "I'm fuming," said Vincent Malingo, who was at Dolenz's show at B.B. King's. "What the heck do you have a big live broadcast for to celebrate a positive thing and hours later disband the whole thing?" (read more - Richard Huff-NY Daily News)

I wish I could take credit for propelling WCBS-FM instantly to the top, but I can't. For years after it switched to oldies on July 4, 1972, its ratings were mediocre. It probably would have dropped the format if it hadn't shown promise among young males like me. Then in 1981, Joe McCoy took over as program director and things changed. McCoy's mandate was to broaden the station's appeal beyond '50s street stuff like doo-wop and he did - even though, ironically, he loved that stuff. Soon the station was built around '60s music - a brilliant move considering what a golden age that was. Throw in such '60s deejays as Harry Harrison and Ron Lundy and by 1989, WCBS-FM hit No.1, a phenomenal achievement for an oldies station. Before that, radio stations shunned the word "oldies." Once WCBS-FM became one of the top 10 revenue-generating stations in America, it sparked a national rush - and, frankly, a lot of them sounded pretty cookie-cutter. WCBS-FM in its golden years never did, though. It always sounded New York (read more - David Hinckley-NY Daily News)

Dave Jarrott Observes -- One small movement does not a trend make, but a small station located behind a Chinese restaurant in Watsonville, in Santa Cruz County, will begin beaming its signal to San Francisco, Marin County and the East Bay come July. KPIG is described as an old-school station that is one of the last of its breed--offering real live deejays 24/7 who can play listener requests, and sometimes do on a real, working turntable with real vinyl records (read more - DJO)

Dramatic changes in New York and Chicago radio last week offer Milwaukee radio listeners a glimpse of what may be the next music format to arrive here. Think Jack + Judy Steffes, who has been news director at West Bend's WBKV-AM (1470) and WBWI-FM (92.5) for more than five years, has chucked it all to take an ambitious bicycle tour around Canada, Europe and New Zealand over the next six to eight months (read more - Tim Cuprisin-Milwaukee JS)

Don Imus apparently apologized yesterday for a sidekick's on-air comments that actor Tom Cruise is gay. Although Imus' statement on WFAN (660 AM) sounded like a formal retraction, a spokesperson for Infinity Broadcasting declined comment on whether Imus had been forced by Cruise's lawyers to issue one (read more - John Mainelli-NY Post)

Coming within days to RDN CENTRAL -- Commentary and comments that will ponder what was once imponderable and probe the possibilities that come with the redefining of "radio" as we know it now -- Including "Is There Talk Radio Life After Rush Limbaugh?" Is "Jack Talk" on the way? The mobility of cell phones was a major factor in the growth of talk radio in the 80's. Will the enormous versatility of cell phones as PDC's (Programming Distribution Channels) in the 2000's shred talk radio's shares of listeners? Will the iPods, MP3 players as wells as the Jacks, Bills, Eds, Bunkys and other "First Name Basis" radio formats be around in a year or two?  What's next? Can there be or is there "The Next Rush Limbaugh?" Has Limbaugh run out of fresh and new ideas? Is Limbaugh pondering retirement?  Will his legal problems hasten retirement?  RDN welcomes your comments and will publish many in the commentary. You may choose to remain anonymous or identify yourself. Include your choice in your e-mailed comments. (e-mail editor@radiodailynews.com)

From Jim Rose Remembers -- Bob Crowley e-mails:  I remember hearing this story when I was in Houston. A dee-jay heard from a co-worker he was going to be let go. So he goes into the PD's office, pulls a knife, and says "I hear you're going to fire me, is that true?" The PD says "No! I'm not going to fire you! You do a great job. In fact, I'm looking for a way to give you a raise!". The jock folds the knife, puts it in his pocket, and says "That's what I expected you to say. I could never work for a lying S.O.B. like you". He walks out, gets on his motorcycle, and rides off, never to be seen again. I was told it happened at KILT. Know anything about it? (read more - Jim Rose Remembers)

Audible Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. on Tuesday said that in 2006, they will co-launch a new handheld device that can play both the XM service and Audible's audio content. The portable, handheld satellite radio devices will receive both XM's 150 + digital radio channels, as well as audio programs from broadcasters, and audio book, newspaper and magazine publishers, which can be downloaded from the Internet (read more - XM Radio)  (read more - ZD Net)

CNN has replaced Bill Hemmer with Miles O'Brien as anchor of its morning show, reconfigured its afternoon schedule and hired two new executives to run Anderson Cooper's and Paula Zahn's shows. O'Brien will team with Soledad O'Brien on "American Morning," from 7 to 10 a.m. EDT. Cross Fire and Inside Politics are no longer on the schedule (read more - Gail Shister-Philly Inquirer)  (read more - Richard Huff-NY Daily News)

WALR Atlanta  has won  6 GABBY Awards from the Georgia Association of Broadcasters plus 4 more Merit Awards (visit WALR)

Radio’s ROI Advantage, the third major study from the Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab (RAEL), concluded that Radio campaigns show significantly better Return On Investment (ROI) for advertisers than national television campaigns. The findings were released this morning at a press conference in New York City (read more - RAEL)

WCAU’s Bill Henley loves his two jobs – weekday morning meteorologist and co-host of the weekday magazine show, “10.”  “So how can “10” compete with the national talk shows? “We are local and are fun. For people that want to know what is happening in town, we are your show. We don’t have DNA tests,” Henley joked, referring to competitor Maury Povich and his proclivity for paternity tests (read more - Laura Nachman)

XM Satellite Radio announced that it has awarded Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) a contract for the design and construction of its XM-5 satellite. XM's selection of SS/L followed an intense industry competition (read more - PR Newswire)

Two years ago, the Republican former head of Voice of America and Reader's Digest set out to restore what he called objectivity and balance to the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio. Now Tomlinson's makeover attempts have made their own news: angry chiefs at PBS and NPR; an investigation of whether his actions amounted to illegal political interference, and questions about whether he may have overreached. Media specialist Patricia Aufderheide said Tomlinson's actions show a "wanton disregard" for the corporation's mission (read more - Steve Goldstein-Detroit Free Press)

CBSNews.com, an Internet leader in free broadband news video, will make many of these CBS Radio News programs available in podcast form. Programs available for podcasting include "The CBS Weekend Roundup;" "What's in the News" with correspondent Christopher Glenn;" "Wired Magazine;" "Entertainment Report with People magazine's Lisa Karlin;" and "Larry Magid's Tech Report," among others. Programming will include regularly scheduled programs and features, as well special in-depth series (visit CBS News)

As viewership continues to grow for Spanish-language TV, No. 1 network Univision is opening up a daypart -- the late-night slot -- neglected until now by Spanish-language television, in search of even bigger audiences and more ad dollars (read more - ICXO)

It was somewhat predictable, when Howard Dean won the DNC chairmanship, that he'd become embroiled in flaps like this. The red-meat rhetoric that so excited his liberal base in 2003 and '04 is problematic when a chairman speaks, since he is presumed, fairly or unfairly, to be speaking for his party. As a candidate, he can imitate Rush Limbaugh snorting coke, I suppose, but as a DNC chairman, it creates controversy. CNN even trotted out The Scream yesterday (read more - Howard Kurtz-Media Notes)

Salem Communications Corporation announced an increase in its revenue guidance for the second quarter of 2005. Specifically, the company is projecting net broadcasting revenue of between $51.1 million and $51.6 million, a $0.2 million increase from its previous guidance provided on May 5, 2005. Salem continues to project net broadcasting revenue growth in the mid- to high-single digits and same station net broadcasting revenue growth in the mid-single digits (read more - Business Wire)

ARBitron numbers for Birmingham, Honolulu, Indianapolis, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City (read 'em)

Verizon Communications pressed the Bush administration to quickly fill slots at the Federal Communications Commission.  The commission is evenly split with two Republicans and two Democrats since FCC Chairman Michael Powell stepped down. Kathleen Abernathy, also a Republican, plans to leave the agency soon (read more - Reuters)

Seattle and San Francisco are the most "unwired cities" in America - top spots for computer junkies who send e-mail and surf the Web at restaurants, libraries or public plazas. Also in the top 10: Austin, Texas; Portland, Ore.; Toledo, Ohio; Atlanta; Denver; the Research Triangle area of North Carolina; Minneapolis; and Orange County (read more - ABC 7) 

Today's Rabbitt Report - Motown's Marvellettes!

Media executives and observers agree that Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's reporting on Watergate was a textbook case of how and when to use confidential sources. But they also say that recent abuses of the practice, which contributed to scandals at Newsweek, CBS News, USA TODAY and The New York Times, have prompted media outlets to impose stiffer restrictions and that as a result, newsgathering is stronger. "Clamping down is good. It had gotten out of control," Harvard media analyst Alex Jones says (read more - Peter Johnson-USA Today)

KILT (610 AM) stayed at 21st place among persons 12-plus in the most recent Arbitron trends report for February-April. KBME (790 AM) dropped to last among the 33 stations reporting. By the way, their combined rating of 1.8 (1.4 for KILT, 0.4 for KBME) compares to 4.4 in Dallas-Fort Worth for KTCK, The Ticket, which ranks 12th in the market with a 3.1 rating, and KESN, which ranks 28th at 1.3 (read more - David Barron-Houston Chronicle)

Ford Motor said on Monday that it's extending a deal with Sirius Satellite Radio Holdings. The exclusive contract allows the centennial automaker to offer Sirius radios as factory-installed options in select models (read more - Forbes)

XM Satellite Radio, the PGA TOUR, and Pure Golf today announced that the PGA TOUR Network (XM Channel 146) will debut June 9 with live coverage of the Booz Allen Classic at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland (visit XM Radio)

Consider the perverse logic of Hollywood: In 2003, the six major studios—Disney, Warner Bros., Sony, 20th Century Fox, Universal, and Paramount—spent, on average, $34.8 million to advertise a movie and earned, on average, just $20.6 million per title. Even if the studios had made the movies for free—which, of course, they didn't—they would have lost $14.2 million per film on the theatrical run, or what the industry calls "current production." Given the fleeting attention span of the target audiences (mainly TV-watching teens) and the unmemorable nature of the ad copy, the studios believe they must show the same ad on the same programs at least eight times in order to draw an audience. As a result, the studios spend more to lure a teenager into a theater than they receive at the box office, which is reminiscent of the joke about the idiot in the garment business who "loses money on every sale but makes it up on volume." (read more - Slate)

Sirius Satellite Radio will debut Radio Margaritaville, its new commercial-free music channel, with a special live broadcast of Jimmy Buffett's concert performance from the Nissan Pavillion in Bristow, Virginia on June 15th (visit Sirius)

Move over Terry Wogan, get back to your studio John Humphrys, the most important person on radio is now officially Jonathan Ross. In a move that will please lisp-sufferers everywhere, the Radio 2 star was chosen for the top spot by 70 industry bods. The cheeky chappy hosts a Radio 2 show on Saturday mornings as well as his TV counterpart Friday Night With Jonathan Ross (read more - Sky U.K.)

News-Talk 930 KLUP will offer San Antonio residents some practical tips on how to keep their homes in tip-top shape through a new radio program, "DreamHome Radio," a live local show hosted by home improvement expert David Yates (read more - San Antonio Biz Journal)

Famed radio deejay Bruce Morrow said it's a drag being booted off the air, but vowed yesterday that rock 'n' oldies listeners haven't heard the last of their Cousin Brucie. The Brooklyn-born Radio Hall of Famer said a "couple slide rules and the pocketbook" were all that were considered when his bosses pulled the switcheroo with little notice to him or the legion of listeners who dig oldies music. "When they did this, they created havoc," Morrow said of Infinity Broadcasting's format flip-flop. Bruce Morrow, better known as Cousin Brucie, has a dictum that has served him well through four decades on the radio, and he delivers it with a boom. "Familiarity breeds contentment," he says in a voice that is at once a megaphone shout and a friendly halloo. "That has been the way I've lived my life." His genial bombast has made him one of the top disc jockeys in the country not just once, but twice: first at WABC-AM in the mid-1960's, when he reached nearly a quarter of the New York audience, and more recently at WCBS-FM. But on Friday afternoon Mr. Morrow, 69, and his colleagues at WCBS became the latest casualties of corporate radio when the station's owner, Infinity Broadcasting, abruptly switched it from oldies to a new, more eclectic format called Jack. Although Morrow said WCBS-FM "has been very good to me," he blasted the station's new format as "not New York."  (read more - Ben Sisario-NY Times)  (read more - David Hinckley-NY Daily News)

Kurt Johnson has been named Vice President, JACK Programming, it was announced today by Rob Barnett, President, Programming, Infinity Broadcasting. The appointment is effective immediately. Johnson will continue to serve as Vice President, Programming, Infinity Dallas and Program Director of KJKK-FM and KOAI-FM in Dallas. "As Program Director of our first JACK station, Kurt has been instrumental in the format's adoption at several Infinity stations across the country," said Barnett (visit Infinity)

From Don Keyes' "Gordon McLendon and Me" -- Why would a successful broadcaster turn from radio to motion pictures?  Part of the answer to that question is that he really didn’t turn “from radio”, he simply took a hiatus.  But why movies, why not stamp collecting or plumbing?  I think the answer comes in two parts.  Legend has it that years ago, Gordon’s father, B. R. McLendon, while making his living as a lawyer in deep East Texas had a client who could not pay his legal bill.  Instead, he gave up his movie theater to Mr. McLendon, and that’s how the McLendon business interests began.  That theater in Atlanta, Texas became the keystone for Tri State Theaters, a company with both hard-top and drive-in theaters in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.  Long about that same time, Mr.McLendon bought the first  “McLendon Station”, KNET in Palestine, Texas.  It was here that son Gordon cut his eyeteeth in radio doing literally everything that was, and is, required from a small town operator (read more - www.donkeyesonline.com)

The long-running debate about the ownership limits placed on US media companies could come back to life as early as today, when the Supreme Court is expected to announce whether or not it will review a Philadelphia appeals court decision that lies at the centre of the contentious issue. If, as is widely expected, the court decides not to take on the case, the responsibility for deciding how big media companies such as Viacom and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation should be allowed to become will revert to the Federal Communications Commission and its new chairman, Kevin Martin  (read more - Financial Times)

From Claude Hall -- Ernest Hemingway spoke of writing’s tip of the iceberg. As a working journalist covering not only radio, but radio during one of its most-exciting periods, I kept that in mind. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why some of the greatest geniuses of radio and music let me hang around. I considered David Moorhead not only one of the greatest radio men I ever met, but realized that I could not write everything I knew about him. Nor did I wish to. Whether he was actually as great in radio as I thought doesn’t matter. In time, he became a good friend. Probably the greatest friend I ever had + photographs from Bobby Vee's Las Vegas concert and friends get together + e-mails from Joel O'Brien, Kent Burkhart, Diane Kirkland, Martin Greenberg and more (read it all at www.claudehallonline.com)

For Mel Karmazin, the prospect of retiring held some appeal last June after resigning as president of Viacom Inc. At that time, "I hadn't had more than four days off (in a row) in 40 years," Mel Karmazin told an audience of executives and journalists at a conference this past week. Then, a few months later, Karmazin got a call from Leon Black, the venture capitalist whose firm Apollo Advisers L.P. had helped back the upstart company Sirius Satellite Radio Inc.  The opportunity sounded familiar to Karmazin, who had worked his way to the top of CBS after starting his career as an ad salesman for CBS Radio. After hearing Black's pitch, Karmazin decided to throw in his lot with the company, which, along with rival XM Satellite Radio Inc., is attempting to shake up the audio broadcasting industry (read more - Joe Shinal-MarketWatch)

Dear P. and L.M.: You've stumped Radio Babe! WBBN (97.3 FM) does not appear to exist in the state of Florida or anywhere else in North America. R.B. did find WBBN in Laurel-Hattiesburg, Miss., on 95.9 FM. (read more - Dawn Scire-Radio Babe)

Dave Jarrott Observes -- 69-year old Cousin Brucie has been Cousin Brucie since 1959, and he says that the Internet, and the iPod lack the ability to communicate directly with an audience. "To me an iPod is a very cold little jukebox," he said. "It's a little digital marvel, but it's not radio." (read more - DJO)

Club 95, a new radio station in Phoenix made its debut to cater to Latinos using a mix of English and Spanish songs in hip-hop, Spanish pop and dance music formats.  "This is a new format, and we think there are four in the country right now, including Denver, Houston and Albuquerque," Jose Rodiles said (read more - Phoenix Biz Journal)

From George Mair -- By this time everybody knows Paris (Hilton) is engaged to Paris (Latsis) ***Her mother, Kathy Hilton, is happy since her Paris grew up with another French connection - Vincent van Gogh - she only listened with one ear****Hilton's dog. Tinkerbell -- doesn't understand his mistress's videotape circulating everywhere. He says if he did that they would throw water on him**** The last celebrity-Greek shipping guy romance was Jackie and Ari *** Marriage is a useful institution because it keeps us from fighting with strangers (read more - George Mair's LaLa Land)

Shep, his fans called him. Shep, the kind of familiar name you give to someone who's a pal, someone who can walk in your front door without knocking. That's the kind of pal Jean Shepherd felt like on the radio. From 1955 to 1977, Shep was the late-night host on WOR. He'd come on, maybe banter a little, then tell a story. Many Shepherd fans today may mostly know him as the author of the perennial holiday film "A Christmas Story," which finally made him, in his own mocking words, "filthy rich."  (read more - David Hinckley-NY Daily news)

Steve Fifer - still best known among Milwaukee sports radio listeners as "Sparky" - has officially been named co-host of the morning show on all-sports WSSP-AM (1250) + Bill Clinton is doing the TV rounds these days, and tonight at 9, he's hitting Fox News Channel, where he's sitting down with Wisconsin's own Greta Van Susteren (read more - Tim Cuprisin-Milwaukee JS)

Radio One, Inc. announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program for up to $150 million of Radio One's Class A and Class D common stock over the next 18 months (read more - Business Wire)

Local radio voices continue to vanish. Latest casualty: Doug Steckler, of (Tim) Conway and Steckler fame on talk KLSX/97.1 FM. "We did not renew Doug's contract," e-mailed KLSX program director Jack Silver. His replacement, though, is an excellent choice - Brian Whitman, most recently weekends on KABC/790 AM (read more - Gary Lycan-OC Register)

Was Watergate bad for journalism? On its face, the question seems absurd. The drama of two young metro reporters for The Washington Post helping to topple a corrupt president cast a golden glow over the news business in the mid-1970s. Newspapermen became cinematic heroes, determined diggers who advanced the cause of truth by meeting shadowy sources in parking garages, and journalism schools were flooded with aspiring sleuths and crusaders. But the media's reputation since then has sunk like a stone, and one reason is that some in the next generation of reporters pumped up many modest flaps into scandals ending in "gate," sometimes using anonymous sources who turned out to be less than reliable (read more - Howard Kurtz-Media Notes)

The former television news presenter, Clive Hale, who helped the ABC record some of its best ratings, has died in Sydney aged 68.  He had been ill with cancer. Will Lowes, a former senior journalist with ABC News, was a colleague of Mr Hale's in Adelaide and says he combined quality work with a personable television manner. "A real icon in South Australian television and responsible for the highest ratings ABC television news ever got," he said (read more - ABC News Online Australia)

Syndicated radio talk show host Paul McGuire says, "Conservative talk radio suffers from Farenheit 451 Factor when it comes to President George W. Bush." Paul McGuire whose conservative talk show host is syndicated and broadcasts from KBRT in Los Angeles believes, "Conservative talk radio show hosts have one standard for the Republica Party and Geroge W. Bush, and another standard for the Democratic Party and someone like Hillary Clinton. Like the firemen in Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451 they censor anything they don’t believe in." (read more - PR Leap)  You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

The Web site of Q102 FM got lots of traffic this weekend after putting up a clip of a Friday interview with MTV star Bam Margera's ex-fiancee, Jenn Rivell. On Saturday, we reported that Rivell called Friday's "Chio in the Morning" show and said Margera, the Pocopson Township, star of "Viva La Bam," told her that he'd recently slept with married pop tart Jessica Simpson (read more - Dan Gross-Philly News)

Premier Radio has reached its tenth year of broadcasting. Over the past decade, communication has advanced and Premier Christian Radio is now being heard by over 400,000 people around the world (read more - Christian Today)

More than the format is changing at Oxford's modern rock icon, WOXY-FM (97.7). The new owners, who ditched alternative rock last Sunday in favor of a wide variety of rock hits, plan to move the station to Mason from northwestern Butler County, allowing their signal to reach Greater Cincinnati better. First Broadcasting Investment Partners, which bought WOXY-FM last year from the Balogh family, has been waiting for approval of the transfer from the Federal Communications Commission (read more - John Kiesewetter-Cincy Enquirer)

It is important to note that a recent survey of the American public commissioned by the CPB, undertaken jointly by a Republican and a Democratic polling firm, found that "the majority of the U.S. adult population does not believe that the news and information programming on public broadcasting is biased." Specifically, 78 percent of the general respondents indicated that NPR did not have a liberal bias.  In another study, the NPR listening audience identified itself as one-third conservative, one-third independent and one-third liberal. And congressional support for public broadcasting is and always has been bipartisan in nature (read more - Anthony S. Brandon-Baltimore Sun)  (read more - Salt Lake Tribune)

Internet radio, sometimes overlooked in the hubbub about downloads, comes in every conceivable flavor. Reid Kanaley checked out a few sites that proved entertaining. For listening at work, he recommends headphones (read more-visit the sites - Wichita Eagle)

Att Boudreau says he has been "hooked" on podcasting since he first figured out how to post his audio shows online. The engineer/producer/drummer of Broken Radio Studios in Emeryville interviews musicians on the first and 15th of the month through the medium known as podcasting. The name of his podcast also is Broken Radio, and can be found at his Web site, brokenradio.com. "I can expose people all over the world to independent bands of the Bay Area ... completely unknown artists," Boudreau said. "If I had to jump through the hoops to get on Clear Channel to do this, forget it." Advertisers such as Volvo and Durex have established their presences in the medium, even though podcasting purists disparage the commercial entrance into this field. There will be much more advertising to come, analysts predict (read more - Francine Brevetti-Inside Bay Area)

A small-town radio station with a cult following and a notorious past is expanding into the San Francisco Bay Area. The question is whether KPIG -- an old-school station that lets its DJs play what they like and celebrates rural humor, American roots music and moose turd pie -- can make it in the big city (read more - Mary Alicia Gaura-San Francisco Chronicle)

The media establishment emerged at a time when Americans generally respected those in authority. But when, beginning in the 1960s, authority took a severe beating, the media establishment was the one authority that actually gained in strength. For the establishment media, life was very good. Since the 1980s, however, more and more Americans have stopped relying on the traditional media for news. Newspaper circulation has been declining, and network ratings are sharply down. Mainstream outlets no longer have a monopoly on the news, their journalism is subjected to sometimes withering scrutiny, and they are ignored when they are not criticized. Life is no longer so good. There are many explanations for this (read more - Dallas Morning News)

From the boxy Methuen building where New Kids on the Block recorded their first album, a radio station now is trying to fight its way into Boston, in Spanish. Its frequency barely stretches beyond the Merrimack Valley, but Power 800 AM will be the dominant player in the region's Spanish-language radio market after mid-June, when Jamaica Plain's Mega 890 AM switches over to sports talk (read more - Angelica Medaglia-Boston Globe)

The Arab TV channel, Al Jazeera, has rejected accusations by Donald Rumsfeld that it was encouraging Islamic militants by airing beheadings of foreign hostages in Iraq. The channel voiced 'deep regret and surprise' at the US Defence Secretary's remarks. In a statement, Al Jazeera said it 'has never at any time transmitted pictures of killings or beheadings'. (read more - RTE News)  You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

Oldies radio is dead in New York City. After more than three decades as the top oldies station in the country, WCBS-FM (101.1 FM) abruptly scrapped its format Friday for a concept called Jack  (read more - Richard Huff-NY Daily News)  (read more - NJ Star-Ledger)  (read more - NY Times)  (read more - Newsday)

Podcasting — delivering recorded audio programs through the Internet to iPods or other portable music players — lined up its biggest name yet Friday when talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh jumped into the field. His move is the latest sign that the grass-roots podcasting movement is being invaded by commercial ventures and powerful brands. The influx of popular broadcasters could help push mainstream audiences to adopt the new medium, which emerged about a year ago as a hybrid of blogs and radio broadcasting (read more - Jon Healey-LA Times)  (read more - Market Wire)

Apple is coming under pressure from rival digital music players, which are starting to gain a following and eat into iPod's still-commanding market share. Apple is expected to react to the apparent sluggish sales by improving its Shuffle line-up, perhaps adding a display screen or bulking it up to 2GB of memory, or 480 songs, about double its current max (read more - NY Post)

Michael Andrews and his wife, Aliki, both of Bethel Park, have been hosting "The Greek Hour of Pittsburgh" for 30 years on radio station WEDO (read more - Pittsburgh Tribune Review)

Claiming that conservative bias is a "major crisis in the U.S. media," a panel of liberal journalists and media analysts said news organizations should promote "truth" over "balance." "The conservatives have got us, as a country, now believing that balance -- giving both sides -- is the same as truth, and there are some things that are just false," said Linda Foley, president of The Newspaper Guild, during a panel discussion on media reform at the "Take Back America" conference in Washington, D.C. "The discussion that we have to have balanced reports is kind of crazy" when a story is false, she added (read more - Town Hall-CNS)

As far as female DJ’s, Wendy Williams is among the ‘elite’ in her field. She is a strong black female who has more than ‘good looks’ going for her. She is educated, outspoken and has been in the communications industry for almost 20 years and her radio show is syndicated in over 10 different markets. And did I forget she knows her stuff. Not only a radio personality she is also a New York Times best selling author, has a TV show on VH-1 and now she is bringing the fire in her new venture, a CD release titled ‘Wendy Williams Brings The Heat, Vol. 1’ to be released June 28th on Virgin Records (read more - Thug Life Army)

Satellite TV has arrived in America's minivans and SUVs, furthering the family vehicle's evolution into a living room on wheels and suddenly making those TV screens in the back seat good for much more than watching Disney movies and 10-year-old episodes of "The Simpsons" on DVD. "It makes the drive more exciting — you can have something besides the radio," says Leon Bostick in Detroit, who has satellite TV in his 2003 Dodge Grand Caravan. Bostick uses a wheelchair and usually has caregivers and relatives riding with him; often he'll sit in back to watch TV while someone else drives. "It makes time go a lot faster," he says, "because you can watch CNN and ESPN." (read more - USA Today)

I'm writing about the (Sun Sentinel) editorial about Rush Limbaugh. I am a Limbaugh fan and so have really searched my soul to be sure that my opinion is based on what I believe to be right and not any loyalty to Rush. I think we should all be nervous about the decision to allow medical records to be used in this way (read more - Letter to Sun Sentinel)

CBS news magazine "60 Minutes" is struggling to relocate about 75 producers, editors, assistants and others who worked on its canceled Wednesday broadcast - with at least 40 of them expected to lose their jobs, The New York Times reported Friday (read more - DJ)

For the first time since WKTU (103.5 FM) started doing top-103 countdowns for each decade, Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" is not No.1 for the '70s. This shocking news came out when 'KTU did its latest countdown and the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" bumped Gloria to No.2 (read more - David Hinckley-NY Daily News)

Extravagance of language, swelling sometimes to full-throated verbal hysteria, is a defining quality of today's politics. Even so, we confess to being surprised at the cascades of abuse that have recently fallen about the ears of Kenneth Tomlinson, the chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Tomlinson is a bit taken aback too, apparently--though so far he shows no signs of withering under the assault. Good for him (read more - Andrew Ferguson-The Weekly Standard)

The early '90s witnessed the explosion of the alternative music scene with genres like the grunge of Seattle and the progressive hip-hop of the East Coast finding audiences eager to embrace new and innovative sounds. Unearthing the alternative music scene shot acts like Pearl Jam and the Fugees to the top of the music industry, with each garnering awards and mainstream acceptance along the way. Unfortunately, mainstream radio's support of diversity in the music industry fell flat not long afterwards, says Maurice Bernstein, founder of giantstep.com, a multimedia company specializing in the promotion and marketing of alternative music (read more - Terry Wynn-MSNBC)

WJMK-FM and WCBS-FM launched the original variety format, JACK FM, Friday at 4:00PM, CT. The new format features a playlist of more than 1200 hit song titles from the 70s, 80s, 90s and early 2000s from artists spanning at least 10 different genres of music, including rock, AC, alternative, CHR and rhythmic.  The stations, whose new motto is ‘Playing What We Want,’ will be presented with limited interruption. (visit WCBS-FM) WJMK-FM's new website can be found at www.iknowjack.com WJMK-FM also announced today that the Oldies music previously heard on the station would be featured exclusively online at www.WJMK.com

ARBitron numbers for Colorado Springs, Columbus OH, Denver-Boulder, Fresno and Seattle-Tacoma (read 'em)

From Janet Donovan -- The spin doctors at Fox News Channel dispatched a press release with such rapidity regarding the "imminent" departure of Rita Cosby you'd think they were in a NASCAR race bolstered by performance enhancing drugs. The massive effort to ensure her departure looked like she was relieved of her duties was ironic since they were racing to the finish line solo. A statement from the other folks came much later in the day. While the FOX press release was factual, it's tone and wording created an onslaught of cloaked "poor Rita" condolence messages to my in-box. Having known of her switch to NBC prior to the FOX announcement, it took me by surprise. The press jumped in: "Rita Cosby, host of two weekend shows on Fox News Channel, is departing immediately." "Daily Variety reports that Cosby and the cable network were unable to agree on terms for a contract extension." "Fox has made no announcements yet on a Cosby replacement or on whether the shows will continue with other hosts." (read more - HollywoodOnThePotomac.com)

U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin named Donna Gregg, an executive for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, to head the agency's bureau for overseeing the media industry (read more - Reuters)

Radio revenue for total combined spot and non-spot dollars remained flat for April 2005 compared to April of last year. Local ad sales figures were also flat this April over April of 2004. National advertising business dropped by 2% in the month compared to the same month from a year ago. Total combined local and national ad sales figures dipped 1% this April versus April of 2004. Non-spot revenue grew a healthy 6% in April 2005 compared to April 2004 (read more - RAB)

Facing what its chairman called "difficult financial challenges," the Museum of Television & Radio has laid off more than a dozen employees and accepted the resignation of its president, Stuart N. Brotman. The layoffs, announced to the staff on Thursday afternoon after a meeting of the museum's board, included 14 full-time employees and one part-time employee. Diane Lewis, a spokeswoman for the museum, said the layoffs would affect its operations at both the museum's locations, on West 52nd Street in Manhattan and in Beverly Hills (read more - NY Times) (read more - LA Times)

Spanish-language television giant Univision Communications Inc. said Friday that its chief financial officer resigned a little more than a year after taking the job. Jeffrey Hinson, 50, is being replaced by Andrew W. Hobson, a longtime associate of billionaire A. Jerrold Perenchio, Univision's chairman (read more - LA Times)

I've spent my analytical life estimating the real worth of media companies--the prices they fetch when they sell. So I've often been asked, "What are you going to do when everyone has merged and there are no sellers left?" I've always answered: "That's easy; I'll just analyze the spin-offs." That time has arrived (read more - Paul Kagan-CableWorld)

KSFO's Melanie Morgan will be broadcasting live in Sacramento for the second annual Capitol Clear Speak 2005 - Direct to the People, Monday June 6, 2005. Melanie will provide listeners with access to the inner workings of the State Capitol. Guests include award-winning author Gerald Posner, in his latest, SECRETS OF THE KINGDOM: The Inside Story of the Saudi-U.S. Connection (visit KSFO)

Rush Limbaugh has won a small victory in his fight to keep his medical records sealed to prosecutors who are investigating whether he illegally purchased painkillers. Palm Beach Circuit Judge Jeffrey A. Winikoff's ruling Thursday transfers the sealed records to another judge who will then decide how prosecutors will review them. The action keeps Limbaugh's records sealed for at least a few more days.  The conservative talk radio host has lost repeated court battles to keep the records sealed (read more - WPBF TV)

Clear Channel Radio has unveiled a major podcasting initiative centered around America’s most listened to radio station – WHTZ-FM Z100, New York. Listeners will now be able to download, stream or podcast the outrageously funny, edgy and off-the-wall “Phone Tap” featuring weekday morning personalities, including Elvis Duran and the Z Morning Zoo (visit WHTZ Z100)

Dave Jarrott Observes -- News item: Radio companies already are trying to turn some of their traditional programming into podcasts to capture new ad revenue. Leave it to the front office to suck the creativity out of yet another form of broadcasting (read more - DJO)

Alexander Rousseau, 50, pleaded guilty last month to criminal contempt for violating an order of protection filed by K.T. Mills, a disc jockey at WALK-FM in Patchogue. Mills claims that Rousseau had been stalking her since 1993. She said he visited the station and even once gave her a wedding ring and slept outside the station's studios. Rousseau has been found mentally incompetent and has been receiving outpatient help in Tampa, Fla. But he came back to Long Island in January. He was arrested at a motel after he tried to deliver a letter to Mills (read more - WNBC TV)

Based on the growing popularity of FM Radio amongst mobile phone users, Samsung India on Thursday launched SGH-C230 with Digital Stereo FM Radio. This is the first phone in the Samsung product portfolio to support Digital Stereo FM Radio and at 70 gms, it is the lightest in the category of Mobile Phones with Radio FM (read more - Economic Times)

ARBitron numbers for Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Orlando and West Palm Beach (read 'em)

From Kent Burkhart -- Richard Dearborn is a media technology consultant and has taught college-level communication courses. The article is titled “Will WIMAX be the New Radio?”. With the tech world booming with new inventions/concepts it is correct to look into the future. Mr. Dearborn has accomplished that with his article. You and your engineering people should read the article. Then e-mail me and let me know what you think. His site is www.rickdearborn.com +  Last week’s column dealt with commercial loads, as well as research results. I received a number of calls and e-mails both positive and negative (read more - www.kentburkhart.com)

There are plenty of people claiming they knew Deep Throat was actually former FBI man Mark Felt. Carl Bernstein's ex-wife Nora Ephron wrote Wednesday on huffingtonpost.com, "For many years, I have lived with the secret of Deep Throat's identity. It has been hell, and I have dealt with the situation by telling pretty much anyone who asked me, including total strangers." Ephron complains nobody believed her (read more - NY Post)  (read more - Karen Feld-DC Examiner)

Len Weiner was named program director of the Tribune Co.-owned flagship, effective Tuesday. Since 2003, he has been program director of ABC sports/talk WMVP-AM (1000) + Secret Service agents showed up at sports/talk WSCR-AM (670) Wednesday to seize a tape of Mike North's morning show. Earlier that day, a caller to the Score told North he'd like to kill the president + more (read more - Feder of Chicago)   (read more - Patrick Kampert-Chicago Tribune)

Mark Felt's admission that he was Watergate's Deep Throat has solved one of the world's great mysteries, hitherto known only to a handful of people. But there are plenty of other secrets out there. Even in a world which prides itself on its great knowledge and sophisticated detection methods, there are some questions only a few can answer. Unsolved crimes, trade secrets and instances of political intrigue endure despite intense scrutiny from the media and the authorities. Here are 10 things we still don't know (read more - BBC)  You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

From Richard Huff -- My column saying the Parents Television Council was misguided in attacking the Paris Hilton commercial for the Carl's Jr. burger chain generated a few notes this week. "I agree with you completely," wrote Jesse Davis. "The prudes always invoke children to hide behind." Meanwhile, D. Eaton wrote: "OK, I've stopped, breathed and thought. And I've come to the conclusion that like many of your brethren in the media, you are lost in the abyss of moral relativism and situational ethics. ... Your unwillingness to call the ad agencies on this stuff indicates a contempt for decency." (read more - Richard Huff-NY Daily News)

"Diamond Gems," the syndicated baseball show out of Chicago, airs a Bob Uecker tribute at 8 a.m. Sunday on WSSP-AM (1250) featuring audio clips dating back to the mid-1960s. . . . Last week's on-air fund-raiser by WKLH-FM (96.5) morning team Carole Caine and Dave Luczak pulled in more than $1.4 million for Children's Hospital of Wisconsin (read more - Tim Cuprisin-Milwaukee JS)

There's no RSS for Rush -- Premiere Radio needs to authenticate Rush Limbaugh users against its database of subscribers who pony up $6.95 per month for the “Rush 24/7” service. The company is using Maven Networks content delivery service to authenticate customers and push shows down to them when they become available, typically a few hours after the live radio broadcast, says Brian Glicklich, vice president of interactive services at Premiere Radio (read more - Network World)

From J.M. Dempsey --  " ... in light of all the talk about the future of radio (in view of competition from iPods, etc.) and the interest in the “Bob” format as some kind of savior … I suggest radio programmers give a listen to BBC-Radio 2 on the Internet. (click here to listen to BBC-Radio 2)  It shows what radio is still capable of being. Daytime and overnight: a combination of oldies and adult contemporary and very, very intelligent, witty chat. Great interaction with callers. Evenings: specialty programming, similar to NPR, but without the “aren’t we special” quality that I think turns a lot of people off when they listen to NPR. BBC-2 is the most listened to station in Great Britain, maybe the world. The question is could something like this be done commercially on the local level? (It takes really great broadcasters to make it go.) And would an American audience respond to it? But, at least, I’m certain NPR would be much, much more popular than it is if it adopted a similar approach, perhaps on a separate channel (e-mail J.M. Dempsey)

SMG, the Scottish radio broadcaster and TV group, sounded caution over the radio advertising market today but unlike rivals said it has not seen a major downturn in spending. The radio industry has been sent into a spin in recent weeks as the likes of Chrysalis and GCap Media both warned of tough radio advertising in April (read more - ShareCast)

Writers Guild of America East and West issued a statement Thursday accusing House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of attempting to censor writers on the television series "Law & Order: Criminal Intent." DeLay has referred to the use of his name in the May 25 episode as a "failure of stewardship of our public airwaves." (read more - Hollywood Reporter)

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) and XM Satellite Radio announce that OOIDA will join XM's programming for truckers with the launch of its own daily one-hour show. 'Land Line Now' will debut at 7p.m. EDT, June 6 on XM's Channel 171, known as Open Road, with a rebroadcast at 6a.m. EDT the following morning. Open Road features a variety of talk and entertainment programs targeted primarily at professional truckers (read more - Layover)

After nearly a decade of false prophet-eering and misguided and influence-peddled direction from designer brand radio consultants and some corporate programmers, music radio’s in critical shape. That burns me because I love radio; know of opportunities to save it and realize that we’d better start soon because it’s going to take undoing a lot of damage done (read more - John Gorman-Cleveland Free Times)

From Jim Rose Remembers -- One time when I was still a news reporter at KBOX-1480, there was a pretty important Dallas executive who held someone at gunpoint in his home. The cops had the place surrounded. Used the huge criss-cross directory and phoned that address. Guess who I got on the phone? This guy probably still had the gun in his hand ... Dan Cutrer e-mails: Jim, I got Martha Mitchell on the phone like that at WFAA in mid '73. She had just pulled a Martha, was "unavailable." I forget just how, but I learned she was at a Soriety Sister's house in Mississippi. I called "Is Mizz Mitchell theah?" Sure enough, "Hello." "I'd like to ask you a few questions on tape." "Oh, S----, you found me!" Number was busy for the next couple days, she surfaced again in Washington DC (read more - Jim Rose Remembers)

Glenn Beck kicks off his “Glenn Beck on Ice” tour in Memphis, Tenn., on June 7. Hosting the first show will be Beck’s affiliate, WREC-AM. The live stage show was created to bring Beck and his listeners together in a fun forum of comedy and entertainment that goes beyond politics. Audiences across the country will not only be treated to Beck’s multi-media stage show, but they will also be the first to receive the debut issue of Fusion, Beck’s new monthly magazine that launches this July (read more - GlennBeck.com)

Cash-strapped Beecher school officials are moving forward with Cumulus Broadcasting with a new marketing effort.  The Board of Education voted unanimously to approve a one-year advertising contract with Cumulus (read more - Flint Journal)

New Zealand is a very small market and there were genuine difficulties introducing a digital service.  "It is hard to construct a business case for digital, especially for the commercial broadcasters. It is slightly different for the public broadcaster who has got a responsibility to pursue social and cultural objectives."
In New Zealand about 34 per cent of homes received digital signals through the Sky network. In England 59 per cent of homes receive digital television, half of them through the pay service BskyB. They also had access to Freeview, a digital terrestrial service offering 35 channels with no fee. The New Zealand free to air service is an analogue service. Mr Norris said digital broadcasting presented "very exciting developments." He said it meant moving to an environment where people could view any content, at any time, in any place on any device (read more - Stuff NZ)

What does 610 WIP management think about Angelo Cataldi's bashing of Howard Eskin? "They didn't applaud it," Cataldi tells us. Yesterday he spent the bulk of his morning show attacking his fellow radio host, and attacking station management on his Web site. "The bosses at WIP stand by and twiddle their thumbs... He cost the company thousands and thousands of dollars in the slander suit that led to his suspension - and yet they see no irony in his use of that pulpit to try to devalue the other shows on the station," says a rant at angelocataldi.com (read more - Dan Gross-Philly Daily News)

Despite the measured tones and even delivery he brings each week to his longstanding variety show, ''A Prairie Home Companion," Garrison Keillor can get plenty riled up. Just try asking the veteran broadcaster about the current state of the medium: ''The center has been lost," he laments during a phone interview from his St. Paul home base. ''As popular culture has become fragmented, compartmentalized, so has radio." ''I wouldn't buy stock in any of these big broadcasting empires right now," he says. ''They are targeting an audience that is slipping away from them." (read more - Clea Simon-Boston Globe)

Morning host Mickey Dolenz of WCBS-FM (101.1) marks his 100th show Friday by broadcasting live from B.B. King's, 237 W. 42nd St., 6-10 a.m. To get free tickets, go to www.wcbsfm.com  ... Chris Carlin has been named permanent sports guy with morning man Imus on WFAN (660 AM). WFAN says it hopes to have a new overnight host by the end of the month (read more - David Hinckley-NY Daily News)

Next up in the line of Hot-107.9 announcers turned nationally known talents may be Rashan Ali. On Memorial Day, the lead host of Hot's morning show "The 'A' Team" made her debut as co-host of TV One's "Bid Whist Party Throwdown." The funny thing is she didn't have a big viewing party at her Cobb County home because, alas, she can't get TV One (read more - Peach Buzz-Atlanta JC)

Coming to RDN CENTRAL -- A commentary that will ponder what was once imponderable: "Is There Talk Radio Life After Rush Limbaugh? "  Can there be or is there "The Next Rush Limbaugh?" He's not as active as he once was.  He hasn't written a book in many years after writing two best sellers.  Is Limbaugh pondering retirement?  Will his legal problems hasten a retirement? 

Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh has made a pre-emptive strike while awaiting word on when prosecutors will have access to his medical records. Limbaugh's attorney, Roy Black, filed a motion Wednesday asking that the medical records stay sealed, pending appeals, if a circuit judge grants prosecutors immediate access to all records. Circuit Judge Jeffrey Winikoff heard arguments Tuesday, but has not yet ruled, on whether investigators will have access to all of Limbaugh's records or whether they must wait for another judge to determine which records relate to a criminal investigation (read more - Michele Dargan-Palm Beach Daily News)

Radio companies already are trying to turn some of their traditional programming into podcasts to capture new ad revenue.  Clear Channel Radio says it's planning to offer edited versions of its on-air shows, focusing on popular interviews and comedy sketches. Clear Channel's Glenn Beck and Phil Hendrie will be the first syndicated radio personalities to be podcast. And podcaster Adam Curry now has a show on Sirius Radio called Adam Curry's Podshow. Some of the same companies that advertise on the radio shows are being offered slots on the podcasts, but without as many breaks, and the ad content is not as long (read more - The Iowa Channel)

LG Electronics Inc., South Korea's second-largest consumer electronics maker, said Thursday it has begun selling a new mobile phone that allows users to view digital television programming via a satellite (read more - Yonhap News) The chances are good that, by 2010, your digital television will double as a cell phone, but that doesn't mean people will use them for that purpose, according to a study release Wednesday by research firm Strategy Analytics (read more - Mobile Pipeline)

Seattle's top two conservative-talk stations have dueling national and local hosts, dueling marketing campaigns and promotions and dueling positions in the ratings. Now they've got something else to compete with: proposed ballot initiatives. Talk-radio's involvement in initiative campaigns is nothing new for Washington (read more - Bill Virgin-Seattle PI)

1985 serves as a good year to mark the coming end of top 40 as we knew it, especially on AM. FM receivers had become common in homes and cars. The coming of age for FM greatly increased the choices available to listeners. Back in 1965, AM was the king of music radio with FM relegated to automated “beautiful music”, classical, or other fringe formats for the “older” demographic. The 80s also mark the beginning of the golden age of music research (read more - Bill Gable's "Researching Ourselves to Death" - Broadcast Dialogue -[scroll down to article])

Radio- and television-station owners, already grappling with a government crackdown on sex and profanity, expect to face new scrutiny soon over excessive violence in programming. Broadcasters are bracing for a Federal Communications Commission report on media violence later this year. Some fear that the report, which was ordered by Congress, will be used to push for new restraints on violent programming (read more - Winston-Salem Journal)

Radio commentator Paul Harvey has signed off, and for the broadcaster’s Columbia fans, it was not a good day. Harvey, a syndicated ABC Radio Network newscaster whose broadcasts were heard locally on WVOC-AM 560, lost his spot on Columbia’s airwaves when ABC Radio Network’s contract with the station’s owner expired. “As of today, we’re Fox,” said L.J. Smith, of Clear Channel Columbia, WVOC’s owner. “Every Clear Channel station (in the country) is gonna flip over eventually.” Listeners who rely on news/talk station WLW-AM (700) for their radio news fix are going to notice significant changes come Aug. 1. That's when WLW will drop its 15-year affiliation with ABC Radio News and pick up the fledgling Fox News Radio network as the station's main source for national news (read more - The State-South Carolina)  (read more - Cincy Post)

Longtime Classic Country outlet WSDS-AM 1480 Ypsilanti has dropped the format and gone fulltime Spanish. The change happened on Wednesday June 1st under new owner Birach Broadcasting, which acquired WSDS from longtime owner Koch Broadcasting for $1.5 million in a deal that was announced last fall (read more - Mike Austerman-MichiGuide)

Remember TimeTrax from Scott MacLean, a Canadian who wanted to record straight to his PC in WAV or mp3 format from his XM Satellite Radio PCR receiver? And Greg Ratajik's StationRipper, designed to get you a list of available Shoutcast stations you can record, "creating a single mp3 file for each song the station plays"? Now enter Applian Technologies' Replay Music, one of the growing number of applications that lets you plug in and save. It's a, “unique streaming music recorder that captures MP3 files from any streaming source," says the company (read more - mp3newswire.net)

SD Radio reports -- Two LPFM's on air in San Diego County.  John Lynch of The Mighty 1090 responds to the petition to deny filings.  KOGO and KGB go HDRadio. Paul Harvey jumps stations to 760KFMB as KOGO goes Fox Radio News (read more - SDRadio.net)

Clear Channel announced the appointment of Tom English to Regional Vice President, Nashville Trading Zone. English will be responsible for 27 radio stations in Chattanooga, Cookeville, and Nashville, Tenn. and Dalton, Ga. markets and he will report directly to Senior Vice President Mid-South Region Alene Grevey (visit Clear Channel)

Emmis Communications announced that it has entered into settlement agreements with holders of more than 66-2/3% of its outstanding convertible preferred stock to settle its previously announced lawsuit concerning the anti-dilution provisions of the convertible preferred stock. Successful resolution of the lawsuit allows Emmis' previously announced "Dutch Auction" tender offer to proceed. The expiration time for the "Dutch Auction" tender offer remains 12:00 midnight, New York City time, June 13, 2005, unless extended by Emmis (read more - PR Newswire)

Wednesday's column questioning the induction of WBBM-AM (780) morning news anchor Felicia Middlebrooks into the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame struck a nerve with many readers. Robert Feder has from their comments (read more - Feder of Chicago)

Advance Tickets are now on sale for the Texas Radio Hall of Fame Induction Celebration on Saturday November 5th! (click here for info) Voting deadline is quickly approaching as members fill out their ballots to select the 2005 Texas Radio Hall of Fame inductees for "The National Radio Hall of Fame of Texas" ... The 2005 induction celebration will be held at the Grapevine Convention Center on Saturday evening, November 5. More information, the ballot and list of this year's nominees are available now on the Web site at www.texasradiohalloffame.com

To most local radio listeners, the new 100.7 Jack FM ---- home to a huge song playlist and no disc jockeys ---- is an interesting curiosity and nothing more. But it's a whole different story in the broadcasting industry, which is carefully watching as more than a dozen ---- and counting ---- "Jack" stations spread across the United States and Canada. While the commercial radio business isn't on its deathbed, it's definitely ailing, and some experts say the prognosis isn't great. Insiders wonder if the Jack clones in cities like Los Angeles, Seattle, Baltimore and Buffalo could change things by preventing listeners from defecting to alternatives like satellite radio, Internet broadcasts and iPods (read more - Randy Dotinga-North County Times)

ABC Radio Networks announced an exclusive multi-year agreement with talk-show personality Mark Davis to syndicate nationally “The Mark Davis Show” to radio outlets across the country.  The show will run from 12 Noon - 2 pm ET with a tentative launch date around Labor Day. The program is heard daily on WBAP News/Talk 820 AM.  A member of the Texas Radio Hall of Fame and the winner of three Achievement in Radio (AIR) awards, Davis is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel, CNN, and other television networks, discussing current events. For more information concerning exclusive market availability, affiliates should contact Ron Nahoum at (212) 735-1152, or ron.nahoum@abc.com

Come September, Carson Daly will get a space of his very own: Studio 9 in Burbank, formerly home to various late-night standup specials and "Saved by the Bell." "If I can just have half the success that Screech has had," said Daly, referring to a popular "Saved" character, "I will be a very lucky man." (read more - Marisa Guthrie-NY Daily News)

Coming Friday from Kent Burkhart -- "Will WIMAX be the New Radio?”  I think large radio groups should definitely hire a few veterans for their corporate office to instruct those who have not been in the trenches - in actual combat (read it all Friday at www.kentburkhart.com)

By August, the Fox News service's radio outlets will reach about 500 nationwide. Fox will offer a newscast with the same tone and many of the same personalities seen on Fox News Channel, said Kevin Magee, senior vice president of Fox News Radio. Privately-owned WOR (710 AM) recently signed a deal with NBC Radio News, but owner Rick Buckley says nothing is forever. "We'll definitely look at [Fox] when the contract comes to an end," Buckley told The Post, "but it's got about a year to go at least." Laurie Dhue was scheduled to anchor the first five-minute newscast (read more - John Mainelli-NY Post) (read more - Dean Johnson-Boston Herald)

Dave Jarrott Observes -- Today is national "Leave the Office Early Day." A story in the Chicago Tribune, however, indicates that today's workers, even the most disciplined ones, report that an 8 hour workday doesn't get the job done--so to speak. A 2004 study by the Families and Work Institute suggests that about a third of American employees feel chronically overworked.  The study also says it's not only longer hours, but being asked to do too many things at once, and having trouble focusing because of constant interruptions. And what's to blame?  Some say technology (read more - DJO)

After several delays, the new UPN 57 morning news quietly debuted on Tuesday morning. Called “The Wakeup News,” the traffic and weather intensive show will air weekdays from 5-9 a.m. from the Traffic Pulse studios in Chesterbrook, PA. Traffic Pulse also provides traffic services for WCAU-10 and KYW-3, UPN-57’s sister-station. The broadcast features Karen Adams, formerly of KYW 1060-AM on news, Melissa Sander formerly of WTXF-29 on weather, and Sean Murphy, formerly of Comcast SportsNet on traffic (read more - Laura Nachman)

There’s hardly any reason to panic over the future of public radio. Kenneth Tomlinson’s ability to wreak financial havoc is limited, and he seems to know it. During a recent appearance on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show, for instance, he sounded more than willing to back down, and his obsequiousness toward the host bordered on the embarrassing. But there’s no question that public radio finds itself at something of a crossroads (read more - Dan Kennedy-Boston Phoenix)

Publisher Judith Regan is moving her HarperCollins imprint, ReganBooks, to Los Angeles.  “People have a very hard time having a life here,” says this single mother of two and recent paramour of ex–New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik. Over the last 20 years, she explains, New York has turned into a city that’s better suited to bankers, Wall Street lawyers and the superrich than it is to publishers ... though she works for Rupert Murdoch and has been pegged as being “to the right of Genghis Khan” politically, she has published books by Michael Moore, Ralph Nader, Joe Trippi, Arianna Huffington, Mark Green and Alan Colmes, among others (read more - Brendan Bernhard-LA Weekly) 

Audio Graphics has completed "It's All About the Audience V.2,"
the most comprehensive data source about online radio listeners.
If you are looking for direct answers on how to reach this affluent, educated group through online radio advertising, this is the Bible of the industry. The study is comprised of over 45,000 responses from RRadio Network listeners about their personal lives, online activities, and internet radio listening habits. This version expands, by over 10,000 participants and six surveys, the volume of information first introduced in 2004 (visit Audio Graphics for more details, the executive summary and to order your copy)

Next year, if I were a Howard Stern fan and my wife favored Opie and Anthony, we'd have big trouble since Howard will be migrating to Sirius and Opie and Anthony found their way to XM after their sex-fueled antics got them bounced from traditional airwaves. Still, no matter how much fabulous content Sirius and XM buy for hundreds of millions of dollars, the battle of satellite radio, it would seem, is still being fought in auto showrooms rather than over the airwaves where it ought to be. In short, satellite radio is here to stay. And as soon as I can hear both my Pats and Red Sox, I'll give three solid cheers (read more - David A. Andelman-Forbes)

Yahoo today plans to introduce a section of its Web site housing a redesigned version of "Smash," which as a program on the WB network attracted an average of just 1.3 million viewers in eight episodes last summer. Yahoo and Pepsi are reviving the show as a collection of video segments on the Web, with plans to serve up digital streams of live performances from Coldplay, Kanye West and Gwen Stefani, along with new clips designed for short-attention-span online viewing (read more - NY Times)

Despite the recent Newsweek controversy, six in 10 Americans generally trust the media to report the news accurately, and more approve than disapprove of the use of anonymous sources by journalists. Fifty-eight percent in this ABC News/Washington Post poll trust the media to report the news fully, fairly and accurately. That's up from 44 percent in a similar question in a Gallup poll last September, in the midst of the CBS "60 Minutes" scandal, and just above where it was in the late 1990s through 2003 (read more - ABC News)

The live concert industry continues to suffer from lagging ticket sales and too few top-drawing acts. So, Clear Channel Music Group says it is working to revitalize the outdoor music scene this summer at its amphitheaters with top artists, lower prices, and more perks (read more - SA Biz Journal)

ARBitron numbers for Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston-Galveston, Minneapolis-St Paul and Tampa-St Pete (read 'em)

The 3 hour Jeff Foxworthy Countdown radio show is celebrating its 300^th show this weekend.  It debuted 1999 and features the current Top 25 country hits and interviews with the stars.  The show airs nationally on more than 220 stations (visit the Jeff Foxworthy Countdown Show)

Premiere Radio Networks announced that Marty Bender has been promoted to vice president of operations for The Bob and Tom Show (visit Bob and Tom)

Starting on Sunday, June 12, from Midnight to 1 a.m., Southern Ghosts Radio will explore the world of the paranormal with insight from some of the field's most renowned experts.  The hosts redefine how you think about things that go bump in the night. Paranormal field investigators Ray Couch, Jack Roth and Scott Flagg discuss topics such as hauntings, poltergeists, apparitions, high-tech equipment, spirit photography, EVP, ESP, urban legends, UFOs and other incidents of "high strangeness." (read more - Market Wire)

The 2005 New Haven Advocate Readers' Poll chose UltraRadio.com's Happy Hour at Neat Lounge as the Best in New Haven (visit Ultra Radio)

Interep announced that three additional industry representatives in the fields of technology and research will speak at its upcoming Radio Symposium, "Radio's Reinvention," Thursday, June 16th at the Grand Hyatt in New York. The symposium will address the current opportunities and challenges facing the radio industry. As part of the symposium's second session, "Radio Looks Forward," Philippe Generali, President/ Media Monitors, George Nadel Rivin, Partner/Miller Kaplan Arase, and Kristen Fechner, Sr. VP Corporate Strategy Development/Marketron will join the list of presenters discussing the theme "Tracking and Selling Radio's Audience." (read more - Interep)

From Chuck Blore's Okay, Okay, I Wrote the Book -- Once the KEWB air staff was put together, I headed North to San Francisco where I had planned to spend the next few weeks of my life. I was about to put the new guys through the same kind of intensive ‘Color Radio’ training that we had done in L. A. prior to the KFWB launch. One thing was different. They all knew about our success in South California and when at least three of them mentioned they had heard ‘air-checks’ of KF, I thought that was a good place to start. At our first deejay meeting, I played bits and pieces of KFWB and pointed out ‘why’ what they were hearing, was contributing to the overall sound. We wanted to emulate KFWB, but also, because it was San Francisco, I thought it ought to be a little more sophisticated than what we were doing in L.A. (read more from Chuck Blore)

Could there be any odder couple than Rush Limbaugh and Al Sharpton? Not if I have anything to do with it. Last week - after Matrix Media announced a deal for Sharpton to host a "Limbaugh of the Left"-type talk radio show - the conservative radio star said he'll think about mentoring the minister in the finer points of the medium. Yesterday, Sharpton contacted me to say he's eager to accept the sort-of offer to (as Limbaugh put it on his own show Friday) "let [Sharpton] guest-host the program for, like, 30 minutes at a time while I am sitting here critiquing him." Yesterday Limbaugh's producer, Kit Carson, assured me that he's in earnest  (read more - Lloyd Grove-NY Daily News)

Len Weiner, program director of ABC sports/talk WMVP-AM (1000), has emerged as the No. 1 candidate to become program director of WGN-AM (720) + Dan Waddick, promotions assistant at WRXQ-FM (100.7), WJOL-AM (1340), WSSR-FM (96.7) and WCCQ-FM (98.3), has moved up to promotion director for the NextMedia Group stations (read more - Feder of Chicago)

Arbitron released the results of its first ever surveys of radio listening by Chinese language consumers in the Los Angeles and New York metropolitan radio markets. Conducted during the Winter 2005 radio survey, the two local market surveys found that 56.2 percent of radio listening by Chinese-speaking Asian Americans is to Chinese language radio. The leading English language formats for these listeners are adult contemporary (6.4 percent), news (6.2 percent) and pop contemporary hit radio (5.2 percent) (read more - Business Wire)

Emmis Radio filed a lawsuit against KXOL-FM (Latino 96.3) after the station flipped its Spanish language format to reggaeton and English-language hip-hop, allegedly competing with Emmis rhythmic top 40 KPWR (Power 106) Los Angeles. The complaint, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, claims that KXOL owner Spanish Broadcasting System of Florida broadcasts from tower space at Flint Peak, Calif. leased from Emmis (read more - Hollywood Reporter)

Houston rock radio fans, still recovering from the demise of veteran station KLOL in November, woke Tuesday to find another rock station had moved without warning. KIOL-FM, or Rock 97.5 FM, disappeared, giving way to a new mix of news and entertainment on KFNC-FM, or FM News Channel 97.5. But the scare was short-lived: KIOL wasn't gone; it just moved up the dial and took the new name Rock 103.7 FM (read more - Bruce Westbrook-Houston Chronicle)

Howard Stern really must be "The King of All Media." Just hours after he complained on-air about FHM editor-at-large Jake Bronstein's assertion that three-time FHM cover girl Beth Ostrosky is only famous because she dates Stern, Bronstein was fired (read more - Page Six)

Sean Hannity hits the skyways for a four city whirlwind tour this week.  Click a city for each event -- June 1, Dallas; June 2, Phoenix; June 3, Las Vegas and June 4 in Houston  (read more on the Hannity calendar)

Just after 1:40 p.m. the day before Thanksgiving, a luxury Gulfstream IV jet owned by Barry Diller’s publicly traded media conglomerate took off from Teterboro Airport near New York. The jet was headed for St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It returned the Sunday after the holiday ... Diller, its chief executive officer, racked up $832,000 in free “personal use” of the company’s plane in 2004, a perk whose value rivals that of his $930,000 salary. Diller was the only top executive listed as using the company’s jet. Companies have long defended corporate jets as vital business tools, needed to efficiently carry top executives to far-flung operations or meetings. But new disclosures, prompted in large part by a crackdown by the Securities and Exchange Commission, show that executives are using the jets for vacation and leisure travel to a far greater extent than previously known (read more - KC Star) You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

Rush Limbaugh's attorney urged a judge Tuesday to limit the medical records that prosecutors can review for their investigation into whether the best-selling commentator illegally purchased painkillers. Assistant State Attorney James Martz said he had no objections to keeping the records from being disclosed publicly until they are reviewed for relevancy, but Martz wants investigators to have access to the records in the meantime. The state attorney's office obtained search warrants from a local court after learning the hard-line radio commentator had received about 2,000 prescription painkillers from four different doctors in five months. Prosecutors suspect that Limbaugh had been ''doctor shopping.''  "In criminal law, there's not an investigation that gets better with time," Martz said. "This thing has been protracted, protracted protracted . . . the fact of the matter is, a year and a half ago investigators in this case saw all the records. Nothing has been disclosed. "The investigators have shown they can be trusted," Martz said (read more - Peter Franceschina-Sun Sentinel)  (read more - Michele Dargan-Palm Beach Daily News) (read more - Sara Olkon-Miami Herald) (read more - Sun Sentinel) 

“Playing anything we feel like,” the new BEN 95.7-FM is living up to its mantra, as it is the only station in town that would play “The Point of No Return” by Kansas and Expose. “BEN,” named after famous Philadelphian Benjamin Franklin, is called “Jack” in most of the other cities where this year-old format plays songs from different genres of the last three decades and is inspired by the “iPod shuffle.” Since its debut March 21, BEN is experiencing modest ratings gains – improving from a 1.5 to a 1.8 share of the Philadelphia audience ages 12 and over in the most recent Arbitron ratings for 19th place out of 30 stations. In comparison, brand new station WRNB107.9-FM broke out of the gate and is in seventh place in the same category with a 4.1 share (read more - Laura Nachman-Bucks County Courier Times)

The Shamrock, Texas City Council will take up changing the name "12th Street" to "Bill Mack Boulevard" at their June 3rd meeting. Bill Mack was formerly The Midnight Cowboy, but is now known as The Satellite Cowboy, was raised in the Texas Panhandle town of Shamrock and pays tribute to Shamrock daily on his XM radio trucker¹s program.  Today is "Willie Wednesday" on Bill's XM Open Road Channel 171 show.  It's a live, weekly one hour call-in show with Bill and Willie Nelson from 1-2 pm CDST (e-mail David Rushing)

ARBitron numbers for Cincinnati, Dayton, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, St Louis, Tucson (read 'em)

With a newly constructed Manhattan studio and expanded news offerings, the fledgling Fox News Radio is marking a key step in its growth plans. The service started two years ago and has offered one-minute newscasts to affiliate stations. As of this morning, it's offering the longer newscasts that many talk-oriented stations demand (read more - Star-Tribune)

As if anyone needed further proof, the just-ended "Disco Explosion Reunion Weekend" on WNEW (102.7 FM) confirmed that disco music has held up a whole lot longer than its critics hoped and predicted. "You hear a song recorded in 1978 or 1982 and it sounds like today," says Paco, one of the jocks on the original WKTU (Disco 92) + Christine Nagy, formerly of the WHTZ (100.3 FM) Morning Zoo, yesterday joined the morning team at sister station WLTW (106.7 FM) (read more - David Hinckley-NY Daily News)

The one-time afternoon duo at KFMD 95.7-FM ("Kiss") in Denver popped up in Colorado Springs two weeks ago, part of a makeover of longtime radio outlet KVUU 99.9-FM. The "new" KVUU, known, seemingly forever, as "K-View," is now "My 99.9." (read more - Dick Kreck-Denver Post)

National Public Radio is looking for some good Milwaukee stories as its "StoryCorps" mobile recording booth parks in town for five days. The soundproof recording studio in an Airstream trailer labeled a "MobileBooth" - somebody in this oral history project just loves to run two words together to make one cutesy, smushed-together word - opens up shop Thursday afternoon (read more - Tim Cuprisin-Milwaukee JS)

Beyond the ridiculous flap over alleged Republican efforts to “censor” public broadcasting or “push it to the right,” there’s a bigger question: Do we need government-assisted public broadcasting anymore? (read more - Mort Kondracke-News Tribune)

David Friend, Vanity Fair's editor of creative development, has been pitched many sensational stories that never panned out. As such, when attorney and writer John D. O'Connor approached the magazine in 2003 and said he represented the most famous anonymous news source — the Watergate scandal's "Deep Throat" — Friend was skeptical. But he listened. There was something about O'Connor's story that "felt a little too odd not to be true (read more - Peter Johnson-USA Today)  (read more - NY Times)  (read more - Slate)  (read more - Washington Post)

Dave Jarrott Observes -- It just doesn't seem fair: Back when we were teenagers, our parents warned us about...well, you know...it would make you go blind if you did it.  Now I hear on the tv news that Viagra can cause blindness, too.  One way or another...one way or another (read more - DJO)

Web loggers, who pride themselves on freewheeling political activism, might face new federal rules on candidate endorsements, online fundraising and political ads, though bloggers who don't take money from political groups would not be affected. Draft rules from the Federal Election Commission, which enforces campaign finance laws, would require that paid political advertisements on the Internet declare who funded the ad, as television spots do. Similar disclaimers would be placed on political Web sites, as well as on e-mails sent to people on purchased lists containing more than 500 addresses (read more - Dawn Withers-Chicago Tribune)

How clean are your market's TV station's cafeterias? WCBS/Ch. 2 has been trying to scare viewers for years with its "Eat at Your Own Risk" series of reports on restaurants that run afoul of the Health Department. But the station's own cafeteria at 524 W. 57th St. was cited for three violations in March, including evidence of rats and roaches. Don't expect to see a report on Ch. 2 anytime soon (read more - NY Post)

Boeing Co. said it had lost a competition to provide a satellite to subscription radio provider XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., but it and XM declined to say who had won. XM would confirm only that it plans to buy a fifth satellite - to be kept on the ground as a spare - for about $186 million (read more - Chicago Business)

Jim Ryan signed off from "Good Day New York" after 17 years following an emotional farewell yesterday. The show devoted most of its two hours to Ryan, who has been the signature figure of "GDNY" since its first day on the air, with a "This Is Your Life"- type celebration.  Ernie Anastos' last night anchoring at WCBS 2 New York was Friday night.  Anastos moves to Fox 5 NY in July (read more about Ryan - Michael Starr-NY Post)  (read more about Ryan and Anastos-NY Daily News)

More than one dozen media companies with television stations located across the country have requested that Nielsen Media Research postpone the continued roll out of Local People Meter (LPM) service. The list of station owners included Allbritton Communications Company, Barrington Broadcasting Company, Belo Corporation, CBS, Cox Television, The Dispatch Broadcast Group, Emmis Communications, E.W. Scripps Company, Fisher Communications, Fox Television Stations, Gannett Broadcasting, Liberty Corporation, LIN-TV, Media General Broadcast Group, NBC- Universal Television Stations, Post-Newsweek Stations, Inc., and Tribune Broadcasting Company (read more - PR Newswire)

As if the "Today" show didn't have enough problems with slumping ratings and the sniping over Katie Couric's leg shots, it now has to contend with a staff member snatching free books, CDs and DVDs sent to the producers and selling them on Amazon.com (read more - NY Post)

Bob Miller has discovered selling radio is more complicated than selling cars, particularly when highly paid, highly strung creative personalities are involved. The former Toyota executive, who helped launch the "Oh, what a feeling" slogan, agreed to step aside as general manager of 2UE yesterday after 15 months. The group general manager of Southern Cross Broadcasting, Graham Mott, flew from Melbourne yesterday to speak to Mr Miller at 2UE's Greenwich headquarters (read more - Sydney Morning Herald)

A woman who claims she had an affair with former NBA star and Fox Sports Net sportscaster John Salley has filed a lawsuit alleging he mentally and physically abused her during the relationship (read more - ABC News)  (read related story - AZ Central)

Houston's FM News Channel 97.5 lineup features mornings with Mike Shiloh and Robyn Geske; 9 a.m. to noon A.W. Pantoja and Martha Martinez; noon to 1 Laurie Kendrick and Mike Shiloh and a one-hour "Clark Howard Show." Afternoons includeJim Pruett, Brian Shannon and Craig Roberts from 2 to 5 p.m.; Jim Carola anchors evening drive-time from 5 to 7 p.m.; Phil Hendrie's on the air from 7 to 10 p.m.; and overnights feature The Dream Doctor (read more - Houston Biz Journal)

On Monday, the San Francisco airwaves began to quiver with the most inscrutable experiment in corporate radio since Orson Welles's "War of the Worlds." KYOURadio.com—broadcasting on San Francisco's 1550 AM, streaming worldwide on the Web, owned by the Infinity mega-network—has been live all week with the nation's first all DIY format, playing nothing but user-uploaded content. Call it a broadcast podcast. Call it "open-source radio" (if you don't mind parroting the station's marketing copy). But drift through a couple hours of the KYOU Radio current—a rambling ex-stockbroker's thoughts on time travel segueing into an armchair lecture on martinis followed by a half-hour of Gassaway, West Virginia's finest bluegrass music—and you won't be calling it anything but what it is: public access, 2.0. (read more - Village Voice)

Eric S. Coats has recently been appointed account manager at Annapolis-based Research Director Inc., a U.S. media research firm, providing ratings analysis for over 350 radio and television stations annually (visit Research Director)

Vanity Fair magazine said on Tuesday that Mark Felt, a former FBI official, had revealed himself to be "Deep Throat," the legendary source who leaked Watergate scandal secrets to the Washington Post and brought down President Richard Nixon (read more - Reuters)  (read more - MSNBC)

He has denounced shoddy journalism, defended whipped-cream-covered strippers on television, discussed the pope on MSNBC, called in to Howard Stern, exchanged erudite letters with the editor of the New York Times, and championed the idea that any citizen can be "a Wolf Blitzer in sheep's clothing." In the process, he says, he has "rebranded" himself as Blog Boy. Jeff Jarvis, a former critic for People and TV Guide and a founding editor of Entertainment Weekly, has moved from writing for millions to blogging for thousands, slinging opinions on subjects ranging from the war on terror to car stereos. "God knows how many bits and bytes I've wasted on my blathering," he says (read more - Howard Kurtz-Media Notes)

Country music wasn't working for radio station 95.7 FM in San Francisco, so earlier this month, it dumped the format in favor of something new and a little bit harder to hang a name on. Call it "whatever" radio (read more - San Francisco Chronicle)

In Houston, FM News Channel 97-5  has hit the airwaves. A.W. Pantoja and Martha Martinez are in the 9-noon slot with Robin Gessky on the news microphone

WCAA (105.9 FM) is betting that a hot new sound blending reggae with hip-hip and Latin tropical will be a winner with 18- to 34-year-olds. WCAA has switched from "Latino Mix," a more adult-targeted sound, to "La Kalle 105.9/92.7," which features the style dubbed "reggaeton." While some radio people wonder if reggaethon could be a passing fad, it's hot at the moment. A station in Los Angeles just picked it up as well  (read more - David Hinckley-NY Daily News)

Look at who owns the top 10 stations. It's pretty clear (pun intended) that Clear Channel is doing a fairly good job in the Detroit market. It has four of the top 10 stations (WMXD, WJLB, WKQI and WNIC) and runs most of them on low overhead. WKQI, with its play-the-hits competitor WDRQ now doing the "Doug -- we play everything" format), is showing real muscle. Clear Channel chieftains Dave Pugh, Darren Davis and Dom Theodore impressively implement the corporate vision (read more - John Smyntek-Detroit Free Press)

Steve Newberry, President and Chief Executive Officer of Commonwealth Broadcasting Corporation, will serve as Chairperson of RAB2006, the largest gathering of sales and management professionals in the Radio industry. Presented annually by the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB), RAB2006 takes place at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans, February 9 through 12, 2006 (read more - RAB)

NextMedia Group announced that its subsidiaries, NextMedia Operating, Inc. and NextMedia Licensing LLC, have signed a definitive agreement to sell four radio stations in Reno, Nevada and four radio stations in Lubbock, Texas to Wilks Broadcast Group for $34.0 million in cash (read more - PR Newswire)

Twenty-five years ago today, the country's first all-news, 24-hour cable channel was launched. And although Cable News Network (CNN) was initially derided as the "Chicken Noodle Network," it grew into a powerful, global news organization (read more - Marisa Guthrie-NY Daily News)

Leaders of BBC journalists and technicians will meet today to decide whether to accept a deal on job losses - or threaten new strike action. Thousands of BBC staff were due to walk out for 48 hours from today but the stoppage was averted after 20 hours of talks between the corporation and union officials last week. Union representatives and national officials of three trade unions will meet to discuss a proposed peace deal (read more - Sky News U.K.)

Today's Rabbitt Report from JimmyRabbitt.com - "Vince Gill"

Dave Jarrott Observes -- Too bad Shamrock Broadcasting isn't still around! The Irish Broadcasting Commission is considering over 50 "expressions of interest" for possible new radio stations in Ireland.  Most are for new regional stations, with at least 9 for new services in the Dublin area. A decision on the new licenses is expected soon. Wonder what kind of broadcasting they will offer? (read more - DJO)

Few sports radio shows anywhere in the United States take even five minutes to discuss boxing, except to decry Mike Tyson, Don King or the sport's other worst-case scenarios. Every Friday, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., Murray takes the microphone at WURD-AM (900) and covers the complete boxing scene, with surprising call-in guests (read more - Philadelphia Inquirer)

The video, titled "Steve Wilson, the Inventive Reporter," shows Wilson in a variety of unflattering situations, including using profanities while trying to interview his subjects. Wilson has targeted Warren officials for questionable travel at city expense and has been a consistent tormentor of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, chasing down rumors of hard partying and free spending by the mayor. Admittedly, Wilson's tactics are often obnoxious. It is hard to defend such ambush journalism. But nothing Wilson has done excuses the misuse of publicly owned cable television resources by Warren and Detroit. Nor does it justify the physical assaults Wilson has endured at the hands of Kilpatrick's bodyguards ... The Federal Communications Commission ought to investigate, as should state elections officials (read more - Detroit News Editorial)

From Jim Rose Remembers -- Mike Shiloh writes: I've really enjoyed your website and finding that so many of the good people I've worked with over the years are still doing well. I'm glad Chuck Tiller's doing better after the recent health scare, and was greatly saddened to hear about Royce Guinn's death. I've still got some great video of Royce back in the KFMK days (1987). And I recently came across a board tape of Hal McClain's from KENR that I'd boxed away years ago. Barry Kaye's back on the air on KVST 99.7 in Conroe, Larry Galla tells me (Larry's still doing the best classic country show I've ever heard, middays with Mary McCoy at KVST). Now if we could just get Joe Ford and Dan Gallo back on the air. We're revving up a new news/talk station for 97.5 FM for June, with Jim Carola, Jim Pruett, Brian Shannon, Laurie Kendrick, Martha Martinez and many others (read more - Jim Rose Remembers)

There are many software products that cover this growing demand as Internet radio takes hold. Folks realize that a computer can do a better job recording--not to mention saving tape storage space and ending the hassle of fast-forwarding and rewinding cassettes. The best-known software for recording Internet-based radio broadcasts is Replay Radio, a $30 program that currently offers TiVo-type radio recording of nearly 1,000 specific shows and around 1,300 Web accessible radio stations (read more - James Coates-Chicago Tribune)

Juan Pedro "J.P." Villaman, 46, of Lawrence, a play-by-play announcer for a Spanish-language radio station that broadcasts Boston Red Sox games died in a car crash early yesterday, only hours after broadcasting the team's win over the Yankees in New York (read more - Berkshire Eagle)

Scottish Radio Holdings (SRH) is to buy Highland Radio in Co. Donegal for €7m (read more - Fin Facts) (read more - Business World)

Vice President Dick Cheney says he's offended by a human rights group's report criticizing conditions at the prison camp for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay. The report Amnesty International released last week said prisoners at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba had been mistreated and called for the prison to be shut down. William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA, responded to Cheney's comments: "It doesn't matter whether he takes Amnesty International seriously. "He doesn't take torture seriously; he doesn't take the Geneva Convention seriously; he doesn't take due process rights seriously; and he doesn't take international law seriously. "And that is more important than whether he takes Amnesty International seriously." (read more - CNN) You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

Some new cars come with it already installed. Newspaper ads list it for sale at the local electronics store. But if you live in Hawaii, you can't use it. Drivers here can't tune in to satellite radio. Subscribers pay $12.95 a month or more on the U.S. mainland to listen to commercial free satellite radio. But the only way Hawaii residents can hear Sirius is over the internet. "We are not available in Hawaii," said Patrick Riley from Sirius' Corporate offices in New York. After checking with his company, Riley said the satellite Sirius uses to transmit across the U.S. doesn't reach Hawaii. Also unattainable in Hawaii is Sirius' main competitor, XM (read more - KHON -2)

Jim Fisher, talk radio host for WOC-1420 AM, is arguably the best known radio personality in the Quad-Cities. Cadres of fans tune in or call every weekday from 3 to 6 p.m. Many of the politicians and government bureaucrats that he regularly jabs loathe him. Fisher says he wishes they wouldn’t take it personally, but a little anger and resentment comes with the job. His is not a news show, he says. It’s a combination of entertainment, pot stirring and a forum for those who want to vent their opinions on an uncensored platform where reporters and producers don’t pick and choose what gets aired (read more - Quad City Times)

From Don Keyes' "Gordon McLendon and Me" -- In the autumn of 1957 Gordon found himself in Washington, D.C. He had his usual suite at the Ritz Carlton and thought he would have some friends over for a drink that evening. Among those present were Richard Milhouse Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover along with some other luminaries of lesser stature. Prior to the get-together, Gordon had visited the studios of WTOP where he recorded a bit of doggerel he had just written. Affecting a soft southern accent, he made believe that he was Orval Faubus, the Governor of Arkansas (read more - www.donkeyesonline.com)

It's not often there's a gathering where topics as unlikely as Howard Stern, tsunami warning systems, combat radio gear, spy satellites and high definition television are uttered in the same breath. But in the high-flying world of satellites, that's exactly what will happen beginning today at the Long Beach Convention Center. The 4th Annual International Satellite and Communications Conference and Expo is scheduled to continue through Thursday with a roster of top military, government and entertainment representatives discussing the quickly evolving satellite industry (read more - Felix Sanchez-Press Telegram)

None of the folks who screamed the last time ABC's "Nightline" listed American war dead from the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq seems to have any problem whatsoever with tonight's second edition. This airing happens on Memorial Day, but the news program is doing precisely what it did last year in showing the pictures of hundreds of dead service people. It's just as much of a tribute as the first one, although nobody's trying to turn it into a political issue this time (read more - Tim Cuprisin-Milwaukee JS)

In a city known for one of the lowest church attendance rates in the nation, KCMS, a Christian music radio station has become a surprising market leader (read more - Puget Sound Biz Journal)

Tonight, A&E presents a story straight out of the Viet Nam Era, but without the era. Neither the protests nor the politics surrounding the war are allowed to intrude on this specially made-for-Memorial Day TV movie about future Sen. John McCain's experiences as a prisoner of war in Hanoi from 1967 to 1973.
The movie is based on the Arizona Republican's own memoir of the same name about his years as a POW in the notoriously dreary facility known as the Hanoi Hilton. This TV movie — which basically disregards the context of discontent and upheaval that was such an integral part of the Vietnam War story — is so gung-ho that it makes the Vietnam War seem as unambiguous as World War II (read more - NY Post)

From Claude Hall -- People already do not know about him.  Rick Sklar, left.  A bookkeeperish sort of Top 40 program director, but nevertheless a great one.  WABC, New York.  During an International Radio Programming Forum in Manhattan, he grabbed a few people, including me, and we went out into the Hudson River in the ABC boat.  David Cassidy, the recording artist, is beside Rick + e-mail from Neil Young: "We're listening to a tape the kickoff of KFYI as a talk station 20 years ago with Charlie Van Dyke and his news anchor Brad Messer. I knew I had heard of Brad from somewhere in the past and then I made a connection...when I first starting working for Radio Report, he did a column didn't he? Was he on the air in LA at the time? (read more - www.claudehallonline.com)

Corus Québec president Pierre Arcand has announced that the transaction with Astral Media is officially complete, making Corus Québec the largest talk radio broadcaster in Quebec. In this transaction, Corus Québec acquired seven AM stations and one FM station (read more - Broadcasting Magazine)

Radio broadcasting is a dog-eat-dog business filled with many sharp-toothed players. Then there is "Radio Rich" Dalton. Rock jock, guitar player, husband, father and - as corny as it sounds - genuinely nice guy. "I've had a magical life," said Dalton in a recent interview. "I've found out that if you do what you love, what your heart tells you to, it will lead you to the right place." (read more - Joe Holleman-St Louis Post-Dispatch)

The Ad Council, which produces public service announcements about issues ranging from emergency preparedness to obesity prevention, received a record-breaking $1.7 billion in donated media time and space last year. That is a 33 percent increase over 2003 and the seventh straight year the Ad Council campaigns have received more than $1 billion in donated media (read more - Washington Times)

In one corner: high-tech legend Dave “The Geek” Winer, who claims to have launched the first podcasts in 2003 when he was a fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for the Internet & Society. Across the ring: Adam “Pretty Boy” Curry, a former MTV music presenter, tabloid celebrity in Holland (don’t ask), supercool helicopter pilot, and promoter extraordinaire, who just started hosting a Sirius satellite radio show devoted to podcast music, comedy sketches, commentaries, monologues, etc (read more - Financial Express)

Let's be blunt: KTVT/Channel 11 should be doing much better in the 10 p.m. news race. Here is a newscast that's on an affiliate of CBS, the hottest network in the biz; that has one of the most recognizable faces in Fort Worth-Dallas news in co-anchor Tracy Rowlett; that has spent big bucks sending reporters to South Asia, Rome and Iraq to cover big stories this year. And yet it continues to fight for second place in the 10 o'clock hour, wrangling with WFAA/Channel 8 in a time slot where viewership is slightly down for CBS-11 but trending up for Channel 8 (read more - Robert Philpot-Star Telegram)

A former tea girl has been unveiled as the new host of Forth One's Drivetime show. Yasmin Zemmoura, who started at the station running errands for the presenters, was to present her first show between 4pm and 7pm today. The 26-year-old has worked at a number of local Scottish radio stations since her humble beginnings at Forth (read more- The Scotsman)

Last week it came out that Radio Free Ohio was not a prank on Clear Channel but in fact a prank by Clear Channel. Tuesday, an AM station the company owns in Akron will switch formats from sports talk to progressive talk, and Clear Channel would very much like anyone suspicious of corporate media to tune in (read more - NY Times)

Do you remember rock 'n' roll radio? It's a valid question, more so now than when Joey Ramone posed it in 1980: "We need change, and we need it fast/Before rock's just part of the past/'Cause lately it all sounds the same to me." Now the format, which is even more derivative than it was in the '80s, is speeding down the freeway to irrelevance (read more - Ricardo Baca-Denver Post)

When Ted Koppel, host of ABC's "Nightline" program, announced last year he'd recite the names of 721 fallen soldiers on Memorial Day, a firestorm of controversy erupted. Conservative groups protested, a major television station owner boycotted the show and a fierce debate raged for days about Koppel's motives.  It's a whole different ballgame this year, with Koppel at it again and a Dallas-Fort Worth talk radio station doing its own version, featuring Tony Snow of FOX News, syndicated advice host Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Glenn Beck, Alan Colmes of FOX's "Hannity and Colmes", George Noory (of Coast to Coast AM) and KLIF-570 AM morning host Darrell Ankarlo.  (read more - The Radio Equalizer)

The growing controversy over the Bush administration's attempts to replace what it sees as a "liberal bias" in PBS programming with what would appear to be "conservative bias" has forced me to think the unthinkable — or at least the heretical, certainly in my cultural/ideological circle: Do we really want or need PBS anymore? (read more - David Shaw-LA Times)

It may be the computer age, but city and county governments across the nation are turning to an old reliable -- AM radio -- to reach their residents with important messages. From offering warnings of emergency road closures to touting community events, low-power, government-operated radio stations are broadcasting around the clock to anyone who cares to listen. And, soon, some may broadcast hurricane information, if necessary (read more - Orlando Sentinel)

Michael Jackson - who is deeply in debt and hasn't sold a new record or toured in years - is in talks with casino king Steve Wynn to become the house headliner at the new Wynn Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas (read more - NY Post)

From George Mair -- One hot headline says Viagra may cause blindness*****We can see a gold mine of jokes just waiting for the Double L (Leno and Letterman) treatment*****But to get serious on a REALLY important national issue, PARIS Hilton and her new hamburger TV commercial is too hot for Washington .lawmakers. They object to the wiggling even though politicians are the first ones to wiggle around on political issues (read more - George Mair's LALA Land)

Nine Inch Nails won't perform at the MTV Movie Awards because of a dispute over an image of President Bush the band planned to use as a backdrop. MTV says it was "uncomfortable" with the performance it deemed was built around a "partisan political statement." (read more - 9 News)

When Hoppy Adams excitedly announced "Tonight! Tonight! Tonight!" over the airwaves at WANN 1190 AM, it signaled one thing: Somebody big - maybe James Brown or the Coasters - was about to step on to the stage at Carr's Beach. Mr. Adams was part of the "Original Ten," a group of African-American radio announcers in the country who gained a reputation with their own playlists of up and coming songs. On the air in Annapolis for 40 years, he was more than a radio personality. Charles Walter Adams Jr. died at North Arundel Hospital after suffering from cancer (read more - The Capital-Annapolis)

It's like Tivo for radio, but is it legal? Various devices that enable listeners to record Internet radio streams and then convert them into MP3 files are catching on and making Web radio and streaming services more appealing to the general public. But some legal experts say the recording software may violate digital copyright laws and does little more than promote piracy (read more - Reuters)

CBS chairman Les Moonves should thank the Writers Guild of America for burnishing his reputation as a tough executive willing to fight greedy unions to maximize profits for his Viacom shareholders. The WGA, whose contract with CBS recently expired, has gotten personal in its battle for a new one. The union came up with a slogan — "We need to work harder for more, not work harder for Les" (read more - NY Post)

Companies could bid as much as $28 billion if the Federal Communications Commission auctions licenses for 700 MHz-range frequencies, "assuming that the spectrum is unencumbered," wrote William P. Zarakas and Dorothy Robyn of The Brattle Group, a consulting firm in Cambridge, Mass., specializing in economic research. One reason why the 700 MHz band might generate hefty bids is because it is "well-suited to provide broadband wireless services," related to high-speed Internet access, digital television and wireless communication, their letter said (read more - Science Daily)

Already reeling from a canceled season, the NHL has taken another hit: ESPN has decided to not pick up a $60-million option to retain its broadcasting rights in the United States, a source familiar with the situation said Friday (read more - LA Times)

Verizon Wireless has hooked up with Clear Channel to give its customers a sampling of some of the hottest music on the road today. The two companies recently announced the V Cast Encore Channel, where Verizon Wireless V Cast customers can listen and watch recent recordings of their faves performing. And, best of all, it's free (read more - Poll Star)

The White House press corps that travels with the president wherever he goes treats these presidential visits as largely ho-hum events. They've seen it all before. But what we forget is that in the local communities, it is an entirely different story (read more - USA Today)

Rush accused me and other Harvard students of hating America because we put on a play about Abu Ghraib. Bill O'Reilly lambasted the play on his television program -- for both its subject matter and because the university did not permit his film crew to tape the show. He attacked the play as "creepy" and called us stupid, anti-American college kids who have something to hide. Not only did he reveal his profound moral ignorance, he lost a man who used to be Limbaugh's biggest fan -- my dad. When I was 12 years old, I was Rush Limbaugh's biggest fan. In mid-May, I played an Iraqi prisoner in the opening night of the play "Abu Ghraib," an original student production at Harvard University ...  My character is based on a real Iraqi prisoner, Huda Alazawi, arrested by American soldiers in December 2003 after she inquired after her missing brother. They detained her at Abu Ghraib overnight, and in the morning they threw his dead body at her feet. My father has stopped trusting Limbaugh because he knows his daughter does not hate America. But I don't want to give up on Rush. The cast of "Abu Ghraib" is happy to extend an invitation to him and Bill O'Reilly to a special performance. Come see our play (read more - Valarie Kaur-Salon) You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

Dallas' The Watch Ltd. which operates radio stations KCAF-AM (990) and KXXT-AM (700) Texas Talk Radio 990 and its subsidiary have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.  It's the second bankruptcy filing in less than two years (read more - Dallas Biz Journal)

ARBitron numbers for Akron, Baltimore, Fredericksburg VA, Hartford and Washington DC (read 'em)

Univision Radio launched "La Kalle 105.9/92.7 FM," a new youth-targeted Spanish-language radio station that will cater to New York Hispanics in the highly sought-after 18-34 demographic. La Kalle's high-energy format will primarily feature Reggaeton and Latin Hip-Hop music (read more - Business Wire)

The folks at the Parents Television Council, the group that aims to protect children against sex, violence and profanity on TV, might be best served by taking advice from Steve, the former host of "Blue's Clues." See, on the Nickelodeon show, Steve advocated that when kids got angry they should "Stop, breathe and think."  The people running the PTC might do the same the next time they get their undies twisted by a new commercial, like they did with Paris Hilton's sexy spot for burger joint Carl's Jr. "This blatant, sexually charged ad has no place on the public airwaves, and especially when children are in the audience," PTC head L. Brent Bozell said. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Want to save the kids? In this case, fight the fat in the burgers (read more - Richard Huff-NY Daily News)

For one week now, radio listeners in Akron, Ohio, have been irritated by a pirate-radio broadcast that keeps bleeding into the programming on their favorite stations. How could a shadowy pirate-radio syndicate manage to keep up this illegal activity against the largest radio network in the country for so long? Well, it couldn't. The fake pirate broadcasts and Web site, RadioFreeOhio.org, are all an elaborate promotional prank from radio giant Clear Channel to hype one of their new radio stations (read more - MTV News)

Talk Radio 570 KLIF-AM morning talk host Darrell Ankarlo will spend the 7am hour of his Memorial Day Monday show reading the names of more than 1,000 soldiers from Texas and the U.S. who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. “These brave men and women have made the ultimate sacrifice so that all of us can enjoy freedom,” Ankarlo said. “Reading their names on-air is the least I can do to honor them on Memorial Day.” (read more - visit KLIF-Ankarlo)

As the summer movie season begins to heat up, WIP 610-AM's Glen Macnow brings back his Thursday night "Movie Club for Men." I guess they won't be discussing "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." Probable "guys" movies for this summer are "Star Wars," "Batman Begins," "The Longest Yard" and "The Bad News Bears." Need a good Father's Day present? How about the trivia game "ESPN 920 Philly Sports Challenge CD-ROM" game. Go to www.phillysportschallenge.com (read more - Laura Nachman)

Fondly remembered for his years as co-anchor with and husband to WWL-Channel 4's Angela Hill, and recently retired from corporate public relations, why would Garland Robinette risk his reputation and good health in the most disputatious medium of all, talk radio? "I'm mentally ill," joked Robinette, who on Monday was installed as the 2-to-5 p.m. weekday voice of WWL AM-870 (read more - News Orleans Times Picayune)

From Kent Burkhart -- David Field is one of my new heroes!!!! David runs Entercom… a large, well known company. Entercom has the reputation of doing things the right way!!! I know 95% of the group heads; however I have never had the pleasure of meeting David. I don’t think that I have met his father Joseph M. Field either. Matter of fact I do not believe my former consulting company (Burkhart/Abrams) consulted any of their many stations. So why am I proclaiming that David Field is a new hero of mine??? I recently read that he would like to see a maximum of 7 minutes of advertising per hour by 2008. I recently wrote that eight spots an hour would be a magic number. But, I like David’s number better (read more - www.kentburkhart.com)

Mike Ditka, who signed off earlier this week as resident football analyst at Infinity Broadcasting sports/talk WSCR-AM (670), already has lined up a national radio deal with ESPN + Mike LeBaron has exited WTMX-FM (101.9) after five years as weekend/fill-in host at the Bonneville International hot adult contemporary station (read more - Feder of Chicago)

Stu Haskell stood in a hot spot that he’ll soon call his workplace. Haskell, 55, market manager and vice president of Clear Channel Radio in northern Colorado, said there’s a reason why the broadcast complex that houses more than 50 employees and five radio stations — The Bear 107.9 FM, Sunny 97.9 FM, KCOL-AM 600, KIIX-AM 1410 and KISS-FM 96.1 — is moving from its Fort Collins home of 4,600 square feet (read more - Windsor Tribune)

A 48-hour strike by BBC staff next week has been suspended after talks between the corporation and unions. The two parties held talks through the night at conciliation service Acas to avert Tuesday and Wednesday's strike. The unions said the BBC had made significant concessions over privatisation, but had not yet addressed fears over job losses. The BBC said it welcomed the decision and that it was having a "productive relationship" with unions (read more - BBC)

The radio conglomerates, chipmakers and other companies behind HD radio--a digital form of broadcasting that essentially fits into the same spectrum as current analog channel--say their campaign to promote the technology is about to begin. Boston Acoustics and other companies are expected to show off HD radios next week at the Computex trade show in Taipei. While $400 HD radios are now available in limited quantities, tabletop HD radios selling for $150 to $250 will start to appear in stores later this year. HD radios are also heading for car dashboards. Alpine plans to come out with a car model in August. BMW will include HD radios in its fall 2006 car lineup, said Patrick Walsh, chief financial officer of Ibiquity Digital (read more - Michael Kanellos-ZDNET)

KDJE-FM Little Rock  radio personalities, Corey Deitz and Jay Hamilton, used a few minutes of their morning show to present $5,000 dollars in scholarships to this year’s recipients of The September Fund. Deitz and Hamilton created the non-profit fund on the second anniversary of September 11, 2001 as a memorial to the civil servants who died and sacrificed on that day (visit The September Fund)

The 30th Annual Conclave Learning Conference – long known as “the best value in the industry” – is proving it once again, as it extends it’s $399 tuition until Thursday, June 23rd! With this tuition rate and $105 Marriott City Center Hotel rooms, the Conclave saves hundreds of dollars over other industry gatherings, while presenting a superior curriculum of learning! The 30th Learning Conference gets underway on Thursday, July 21st in Minneapolis with a program featuring over 40 different sessions and events PLUS 12 different Format Symposiums, six meals, and more networking in 4 days than most people accomplish in a year (visit The Conclave)

On April 22, “Max 910 Talk Radio for Guys” was taken off the air. Entercom, which owns the station, moved oldies station KKSN from 97.1 FM to 910 AM to make room for a new format called “Charlie FM.” Radio is hemorrhaging listeners who prefer their iPods, homemade CDs and satellite radio. Charlie FM is Entercom’s desperate move to cling to relevancy. It figures that by mimicking the iPod shuffle (Charlie will have a playlist of 1,500 songs instead of the regular 300), listeners will stay tuned. This new plan is both stupid and shortsighted (read more - Todd Werkhoven-Portland Insight)

So the newly declassified FBI documents showing allegations of U.S. guards abusing the Koran have made a huge splash in the media, right? Uh, no. There were only a few mentions of it on television yesterday. The big stories were "American Idol," Paris Hilton's soft-porn burger ad, Jacko, a guy threatening to jump off a bridge, the allegedly wounded Zarqawi, the Bush-Abbas sitdown, Bolton and more filibuster fallout. The Koran ? That was last week's obsession. In other words, "Magazine Retracts X" is apparently a more compelling story line for TV than "Is X True?" The New York Times and Washington Post (which owns Newsweek) fronted the new Koran allegations, but that was about it for prominent play. Now I don't contend that these FBI papers, unearthed in an ACLU lawsuit, get Newsweek off the hook. Newsweek made a bad mistake. But you'd think they would be getting more attention (read more - Howard Kurtz-Media Notes) You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

Subject: Old KXOL studios Jim, I was just reading the conversation you've been having with Dave Jarrott regarding the downstairs of the KXOL 7th street building. When I was with KNOW/Austin, Wendell Mayes owned KXOL. At the time, there was a recording studio down there. In about '66-'67 I was managing a rock band and we drove to Fort Worth and recorded several tunes there. I remember the studio engineer's name was York. I can't remember his first name, but I'm sure York was his last name. Later, when I was PD in '75-'76, Turner owned KXOL (read more - Jim Rose Remembers)

Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c18273) has announced the addition of 2005 Outlook: Online Radio Advertising to their offering.     Local radio broadcasters are about to join the ranks of the disrupted as thousands of online-only radio stations get their footing. The audience has grown to about 20 million listeners, half of whom may have come on board in the past year (read more - PR Newswire)

The Federal Communications Commission has proposed fining three Washington area television stations for failing to provide adequate closed-caption information for hearing-impaired viewers during a tornado watch in May 2004. NBC-owned WRC (Channel 4), ABC affiliate WJLA (Channel 7) and Fox-owned WTTG (Channel 5) face proposed fines totaling $40,000, the FCC said yesterday (read more - Frank Ahrens-Washington Post)

Dave Jarrott Observes -- I'm still getting used to my desktop PC, and now I find there is yet another time- and labor-saving internet appliance I must have. Nokia is coming out with a hand-held tablet for Web-browsing using wireless broadband.  Translation?  It's supposed to be a smaller, cheaper, quicker way to connect to the World Wide Web and to check your e-mail at home. Think of it! No longer will I have to walk the 20 or 30 feet from my bedroom or kitchen to read the latest issue of RDN or to go to the Martha Stewart homepage to get a recipe for dinner (read more - DJO)

Amid indications that the weather will finally warm up a little, radio will help kick off summer with its usual round of Memorial Day specials. They include WABC's popular "Rewound" on Monday - 12 hours of tapes from the days when WABC was America's most popular top-40 station. A new entry to the radio weekend this year will be WNEW's "Disco Explosion" with a reunion of jocks from the original WKTU (read more - David Hinckley-NY Daily News)

After a pre-launch featuring thousands of Beatles songs, Mighty 1190(SM) returns to its roots as North Texas' top AM music station when it unveils "Rock & Roldies®" Friday at 3 p.m. Under its "Guess What's Next?!(SM)" slogan, the station features local radio's broadest and deepest mix of pop, rock, soul, disco, R&B, classic rock, and oldies. Throughout the summer, Mighty 1190 will play Rock & Roldies nonstop, commercial free, 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week (read more - PR Newswire)

ARBitron numbers for Boston, San Francisco, San Jose, Providence and Monterey (read 'em)

Nationally syndicated Neal Boortz, a Texas Aggie and Texas Radio Hall of Fame nominee, recently displayed another of his many talents at the 580 WDBO Neal Boortz Golf Invitational in Florida.  WDBO is donating a portion of the proceeds to The American Cancer Society, in memory of WDBO Reporter, Keith Altiero, who passed away in December 2004 from cancer.  Boortz, or "The Slicemeister" as he's rumored to be known on golf courses, has a new book on the way -- this one on fair tax -- in July. (Photo: Neal instructs WDBO's Morning Show intern, Heather, how to properly hold a club - Photo courtesy WDBO) (read more - view more photos-WDBO)

The victory by sweet-voiced country singer Carrie Underwood over long-haired retro-rocker Bo Bice in Wednesday's finale of "American Idol" drew an estimated 29.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research overnight numbers. That's up a bit from the 28.8 million who watched Fantasia Barrino win last year's crown. Powered by Jerry Taff's monthlong retirement party, Channel 12 scored a victory at 6 p.m. to go with a victory at 5 p.m. in the May ratings sweeps that wrapped up this week (read more - Tim Cuprisin-Milwaukee JS)

ESPN Radio announced the creation of a new show for golf lovers – Inside Golf on ESPN Radio – that will tee-off June 11 and continue to air Saturday’s in the 7-9 a.m. ET time slot on ESPN Radio. It will be co-hosted by Hank Haney, the legendary Dean of Instruction for ESPN Golf Schools and the expert to whom Tiger Woods recently turned when he decided he needed to change his swing, Stevin Gribin, host of Sunday Tee Time on ESPN Radio 103.3 FM in Dallas, and Golfweek magazine lead columnist Jeff Rud (read more - ESPN Radio)

CNNRadio will air a special live one-hour program focusing on file-sharing and the legal issues surrounding downloads of music, movies and other media. The program will be hosted by CNN Headline News anchor Renay San Miguel for the nearly 2,000 CNNRadio affiliates. The program, "The Fight over File-Sharing," will air live Thursday, June 2, from 3-4 p.m. (ET) (visit CNN Radio)

Spanish Broadcasting System announced the re-branding of KXOL-FM in Los Angeles as the new "Latino 96.3." (read more - PR Newswire)

The Voice of America has officially launched a 24-hour-a-day FM radio programming stream in the capital city of Accra. Ghanaians can now listen to their favorite VOA Africa programming all day, every day, on 98.1 FM (read more - VOA)

Almost 60 expressions of interest have been filed with the broadcasting commission for possible new radio stations in Ireland. Most are for new regional stations and many have come from existing stations (read more - Ireland Online)

Prosecutors will have to wait until at least next week before finding out which medical records they may use in pursuing their criminal investigation against Rush Limbaugh.Circuit Judge Jeffrey Winikoff postponed hearing arguments Monday when he did not receive copies of two defense motions even though Limbaugh's attorney Roy Black filed the papers Friday. Winikoff attributed the delay to security procedures put in place after 9/11, requiring paperwork to go through the clerk's office instead of directly to the judge. The hearing is reset for Tuesday (read more - Palm Beach Daily News)

ARBitron numbers for Philadelphia, Detroit and Bakersfield (read 'em)

Some radio hosts will tell you that doing a morning show with a person is like being married to that person. As of Saturday, Johnny Stone and Stacey Austin of WAWZ (99.1 FM) will take that a step further: They will be married + Imus of WFAN (660 AM) said yesterday the decision to drop sports guy Sid Rosenberg was his (read more - David Hinckley-NY Daily News)

Two talk radio show hosts have apologized on-air for comments they made last month about a Korean-American man who is running for mayor of Edison, remarks that Asian-American groups took as racist. The controversy stemmed from statements Craig Carton and Ray Rossi made in their April 25 "Jersey Guys" show on NJ 101.5 WKXW-FM. The duo are known for their crude humor and earlier this year infuriated acting Gov. Richard J. Codey over disparaging comments they made about Codey's wife, Mary Jo, and her experience with postpartum depression (read more - Philly Enquirer)

Luis Jimenez, co-host of the city's top-rated morning radio show on WSKQ (La Mega, 97.9 FM), has startled the local radio world by threatening to quit (read more - David Hinckley-NY Daily News)

Computer giant Apple is apparently planning to incorporate a program into the next version of its iTunes music system that enables users to download podcasts (read more - ETMag)

Eva Longoria — milking her man-eating "Desperate Housewives" image to the max — has taped a spot for Sirius Satellite Radio where she huskily pants: "Some women have to guess what a man wants, but I know what a man really wants, something that will keep a smile on his face for a really long time — over 120 channels, enough to satisfy any man" (read more - NY Post)

The Rev. Al Sharpton has signed with Chicago-based Matrix Media to host a nationally syndicated weekday afternoon talk show, set to start late this summer +  Friday is the registration deadline for the Illinois Broadcasters Association's 2005 convention June 7-9 in East Peoria. Highlights of the event will be presentation of the annual Silver Dome Awards and the induction of actor Jim Belushi and WGN-AM (720) agribusiness guru Orion Samuelson into the IBA Hall of Fame (read more - Feder of Chicago)

"Smooth jazz is laid back and fits in with the beach and sunny atmosphere," says Todd Kennedy, program director at WFIT-FM (89.5), which has offered smooth jazz during its daytime hours since 1993. "There does seem to be a trend that some of the most successful smooth jazz stations are in sunny areas -- like California, Phoenix, Tampa." (read more - Florida Today)

Interep announced that Joel Hollander, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Viacom's Infinity Broadcasting, has joined the list of prominent speakers participating in Interep's 2nd Annual Radio Symposium, "Radio's Reinvention," Thursday, June 16th at the Grand Hyatt in New York (read more - PR Newswire)

Neal Shapiro, the president of NBC News since 2001, has told his superiors at the network in recent days that he would like to leave his post, two senior executives at NBC Universal said yesterday ...  the request was characterized as coming at Mr. Shapiro's initiative (read more - NY Times)

Wednesday night was a sweet night for multi-hall of famer Gary Owens. The Fabulous 690 afternooner was honored at the 2nd Annual Shirley Kayne Community Service Award ceremony benefiting the American Diabetes Association. A full ballroom of guests at the Marriott Hotel at the Warner Center in Woodland Hills were treated to many of the stars from Laugh-In plus comedians Stan Freberg, Jonathan Winters, and Shelley Berman (read more - LARadio.com)

Have the Mets acquired The Curse of the Limbaugh? Mike Piazza got an autograph from Rush Limbaugh, his main political influence, then compared the experience to meeting George Washington, Abraham Lincoln or the pope. From that point on, Piazza went 0 for 9 with six strikeouts and hit into a double play. The Curse of the Limbaugh was in full effect Wednesday, as Piazza also bounced four throws on attempted stolen bases (read more - Lee Jenkins-NY Times)

74% of journalists said outlets quickly report serious errors, while only 30% of the public does. That finding concerns Kathleen Hall Jamieson, dean of the Annenberg School of Communication. The survey of local and national print and broadcast journalists finds 86% think news organizations generally "get their facts straight," compared with 45% of a representative sampling of people 18 and older. Only 11% of journalists said the media are "often inaccurate" compared with48% of the public (read more - Peter Johnson-USA Today)

WKLH-FM (96.5) morning hosts Carole Caine and Dave Luczak continue their on-air "Miracle Marathon for Children's Hospital" through 5 p.m. Friday. . . . WFMR-FM (106.9) will air the 25-week "Twelfth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition" at 9 p.m. Fridays starting June 10. . . . The name of the scholarship given out by the WMCS-AM (1290) "1290 Scholarship Fund" has been changed to the "Willie D. Davis Scholarship Fund," after the Packers great who happens to own the station (read more - Tim Cuprisin-Milwaukee JS)

The ABC Television Network announced today that the Country Music industry's crown jewel, the CMA Awards, will move to the network in 2006, and that the network will air a major Country Music special in the summer of 2005 (visit CMA Awards)

So far, I've caught the tail end of some West Coast baseball games on XM while driving home from work late at night, and it's been nice to hear Vin Scully and Jon Miller on the radio. But Radio Margaritaville holds promise for my late-night drive home, too. With the air conditioning in my truck on the fritz and the local constabulary frowning on boat drinks on the highways, Sirius' Buffett-heavy blend might be the only cool breeze I can catch (read more- Bill Lammers-Cleveland Plain Dealer)

MJI Programming, a division of Premiere Radio Networks, brings the excitement of “Country Music’s Biggest Party” to radio listeners nationwide as the 2005 CMA Music Festival takes place in Nashville. For the fifth year in a row, MJI partners with the Country Music Association to give radio an exclusive pass to the four-day festival (June 9-12) via a comprehensive package of programming (visit CMAFest.com)

The chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Kenneth Tomlinson, is ushering in an era when National Public Radio member stations may, reportedly, soon be encouraged by the corporation to shift their programming from news to music. News has made NPR America's great radio success story of the last 20 years. While commercial radio has cut news, gone Top 40, and stumbled, NPR's listenership has soared. It now tops 23 million a week, its largest audience in history (read more - Tom Ashbrook-Boston Globe)

Tomorrow's television? Now we're talking vast. Start with the screens—wide, flat, high-definition monsters that delineate tire treads on NASCAR rigs and zits on an anchorperson's chin—and move to the programming choices, which will expand from a lousy 200 or so channels to tens of thousands of 'em, if you figure in video-on-demand (VOD). It'll be a cosmic video jukebox where you can fire up old episodes of "Cop Rock," the fifth game of the 1993 World Series, a live high-school lacrosse game, a ranting video blogger and your own HD home-movie production of Junior's first karate tournament. While it's playing, you can engage in running voice commentary with your friends, while in a separate part of the screen you're slamming orcs in World of Warcraft. Then you can pay your bill on screen. And if you ever manage to leave your home theater, you can monitor the whole shebang in your car, at a laptop at Starbucks or via the laundry-ticket-size screen on your cell phone. The ethos of New TV can be captured in a single sweeping mantra: anything you want to see, any time, on any device. "We are at a watershed moment in home entertainment," says Brian Roberts, CEO of the cable giant Comcast (read more - Newsweek)

KUOW-FM (94.9) is shifting its schedule starting this weekend to make room for the return of Tavis Smiley + "Imagination Theatre" is the creation of Jim French, who began writing dramas on a weekly basis at KVI-AM and later for KIRO-AM's "Mystery Playhouse," all while also hosting a daily show (read more - Bill Virgin-Seattle PI)

Sirius Satellite Radio Chief Executive Mel Karmazin told shareholders Wednesday that the company would be interested in another high-profile radio host such as Don Imus, but only if it could reach cash-flow profitability faster by doing so. Karmazin, responding to questions during the annual Sirius shareholders' meeting in New York, reiterated that the company is likely to be finished with large contracts like those it currently has with the NFL, the NBA and radio celebrity Howard Stern (read more - MarketWatch)  (read more - Mac Daily News)

A former Radio One DJ from Bracknell appeared before magistrates this week, accused of a string of indecent assaults on boys aged between 10 and 14 years. Radio One pioneer Chris Denning, aged 64, faced nine charges of indecent assault spanning a 15-year period. Wearing a dark anorak, light green shirt and faded blue jeans, the bald former producer of the Beatles listened intently as the charges were read to him at Guildford Magistrates' Court on Tuesday. Denning worked alongside Radio 1 legends John Peel, Tony Blackburn and Kenny Everett (read more - IC Berkshire U.K.)

Dave Jarrott Observes -- My son, the DJ. David Junior has just finished his 10th year as the orchestra teacher at Austin's Kealing Junior High School, a magnet school, where he is also the Fine Arts Department Chair.  He is an amazing musician and a gifted teacher. So how did he get into scratching?  (read more - DJO)

Minnesota Public Radio has sold for-profit radio stations KLBB 1400 AM and KLBP 1470, ending its involvement with commercial radio stations, it announced today (read more - Star-Tribune)

Ofcom (U.K.) has released its new broadcasting code for TV and radio, which comes into effect July 25, with an emphasis on freedom of expression and protecting the under-18s. Ofcom Chief Executive Stephen Carter said, “The new Code sets out clear and simple rules which remove unnecessary intervention, extend choice for audiences and allow creative freedom for broadcasters. It also secures the protection of the under 18s—which our research has shown to be an important priority for viewers.” (read more - WorldScreen)

Arbitron announced a program that is designed to increase the stability of its radio audience estimates in 110 small markets that are part of the ³condensed market² radio measurement service. The program will be implemented in two phases. 
Beginning with the release of the Fall 2005 radio survey results, Arbitron will include the in-tab diaries from the Fall 2005 and Spring 2005 survey when tabulating the audience estimates in 110 of the ³condensed² markets, and, Beginning in January 2007, Arbitron will begin surveying these condensed markets continuously, converting them from two quarterly reports (Spring/Fall) to four quarterly reports (Winter/Spring/Summer/Fall). Arbitron will take the sample currently allotted for Spring/Fall surveys and distribute it equally across the four quarterly surveys (visit ARBitron)

Why Is This Man Smiling? $500 million for Howard Stern, that's why. XM chief Hugh Panero thinks his rival, Sirius, has gone a bit bonkers -- which just might leave him with the last laugh. Before my interview begins, XM Satellite Radio's CEO informs me that, no matter how relentlessly I pummel him, our session is bound to be a breeze compared with the grilling he's just endured -- as a Career Day speaker at his son's elementary school. "It was like talking to a bunch of analysts at an investor conference," Panero quips as we sit in a conference room in XM's headquarters near the Capitol in Washington. "One kid raised his hand and asked, 'So, were you negotiating with Howard Stern too?'" (read more - John Heilemann-Business 2.0)

As our public television WVIZ and NPR affiliate WCPN prepare to merge into their new downtown digs at Playhouse Square, it will be minus WCPN news director Dave Pignanelli, who’s relocated to the rival Kent-licensed NPR affiliate, WKSU.  This leaves WCPN with Renita Jablonski and Janet Babin, both of whom are among the very best this city has, holding down what’s left of WCPN’s battle-scarred news fort.  There’s no confirmation that WCPN will reinstall its revolving door and boxing ring at the new site (read more - John Gorman)

An inmate at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp accused US guards of flushing a Koran down the toilet back in 2002, declassified FBI documents reveal. The disclosure follows a row over a similar claim made in Newsweek, which the magazine was forced to retract. But the FBI documents made public on Wednesday, after a request from the human rights group American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), show that such allegations had been made at Guantanamo Bay (read more - BBC)  You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

Media conglomerate Gannett Co. said Wednesday that Craig A. Dubow will become its president and chief executive in July, taking over from Douglas H. McCorkindale, who will stay on as the company's chairman. Dubow is currently head of Gannett's 21-station broadcasting division. He has also been elected to the board of directors, which will bring the board's total to nine members (read more - Forbes)

Thurl Ravenscroft, the booming voice of Tony the Tiger, whose hearty interpretation of a catchphrase used to sell cereal — "They're g-r-r-r-e-a-t!" — became an enduring slice of Americana, has died. He was 91 (read more - Houston Chronicle)

A commentary on The Washington Times' "Insider Politics" weblog by chief political correspondent Donald Lambro featured numerous falsehoods relating to the current debate over public broadcasting. Lambro inaccurately asserted that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) grants $400 million in annual funding to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and National Public Radio (NPR); that the directors of both organizations are White House appointees; that CPB ombudsman Ken Bode is a "liberal"; and that the PBS program Washington Week features only "liberal journalists." (read more - Media Matters)

ARBitron Numbers for Los Angeles, Chicago, San Diego and Milwaukee (read 'em)

The late Chuck Leonard gets a final WABC spotlight Monday when the station makes its annual visit to its top-40 past with production ace Johnny Donovan's 12-hour "Rewound" special. Each year, Donovan, a WABC jock who stayed after the station switched to talk in 1982, assembles blocks of programming from the days when WABC (770 AM) was the country's dominant top-40 station (read more - David Hinckley-NY Daily News)

By visiting www.Museum.TV (click on Education/ Resources), teachers and students statewide can see and hear 215 television and radio programs documenting the struggle for civil rights in America online. These programs highlight dramatic events and include personal accounts describing life before, during, and after the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. In addition, many of the programs trace the influence and accomplishments of the Movement's leaders, including Rosa Parks, Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Reverend Jesse Jackson

Mike Piazza broke away from the Mets' pregame stretch when he saw conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh in the front row of the stands. Limbaugh signed a baseball for Piazza's brother, Vincent, who is the head of the Republican Party in Montgomery County, Pa. "It was like meeting American royalty," gushed Piazza, who compared meeting Limbaugh to meeting George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, General Douglas MacArthur and the Pope. "I think I pulled a fine in kangaroo court, but it was worth it," he said (read more - NJ Star-Ledger)

A former news anchor for CNBC has become unhinged after four years of being off the air. Bonnie Behrend, who worked for CNBC from 1998 to 2001, has sent rambling, demented e-mails to NBC head Bob Wright, accusing him of ruining her life by condoning rampant sexual harassment. "You helped kill my father . . . Your goons frightened my mother," she wrote to Wright.  On her Web site, Behrend writes, It took me two and a half years to realize NBC helped to kill my father and frighten my mother. Two and half years of running and riding my motorcycle away from the most excruciating emotional pain that was – thank God – initially blocked by survivor’s denial then unleashed in the cool ocean breezes across the continent in Southern California (visit Bonnie Behrend.com)  (read more - Page Six)

Controversial sportscaster Sid Rosenberg has been bounced from Don Imus' wakeup show — for good this time — after joking about breast cancer. "He will not be returning to the 'Imus In the Morning' show," a spokesperson for WFAN-owner Infinity Broadcasting said yesterday, declining to elaborate (read more - John Mainelli-NY Post)

Attempting synergy at WGST-AM, talk-show king Rush Limbaugh was seen hitting a golf ball on Turner Field Monday night before the Braves-Mets game. He came in fourth in a contest with local folks such as Larry Wachs and Steve Rickman of 96rock to see whose golf ball was closest to a target in center field. Also, CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta threw out the first ball (read more - Peach Buzz - Atlanta JC)

From Chuck Blore's Okay, Okay, I Wrote the Book -- KFWB Color Radio was so successful in Los Angeles that Chuck put KEWB on the air just up the coast in San Francisco-Oakland.  How did he manage to hire Art Nelson, Ken Knox, Casey Kasem, Michael Jackson and Gary Owens to work at KEWB?  It took some doin' ... (click here to read more and how from Chuck Blore)

Peter Jennings was back in the office Monday, but has yet to reappear on air since revealing he was battling lung cancer. According to a source, Jennings, who made the stunning health announcement on April 5, hadn't been in the office for a while as he underwent chemotherapy. "I should mention that Peter Jennings was in the office this afternoon, helping put tonight's broadcast together," substitute anchor Charles Gibson told viewers at the end of Monday's "World News Tonight." "We had a great time, a lot of laughter." (read more - Richard Huff-NY Daily News)

A car bomb exploded next to a U.S. Army convoy in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing three soldiers, while another American died in a drive-by shooting a half-hour later. Their deaths pushed the number of U.S. troops killed in three days to 14, part of a surge in attacks that have also killed about 60 Iraqis. Eighteen U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq during the past week, raising concerns that insurgents may again be focusing their sights on American forces in addition to Shiite Muslims
 (read more - Des Moines Register)  You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

ABC's ``Nightline,'' which ignited a brief political battle last year with its decision to read the names of Americans killed in Iraq, will do so again this year. Ted Koppel's news program will pay tribute to the more than 900 U.S. servicemembers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past year in a special Memorial Day broadcast Monday at 11:35 p.m., ABC said Tuesday (read more - KDKA 2)

XM Satellite Radio announced that it will provide the first satellite radio broadcast of The Indianapolis 500 with coverage of the race on Sunday, May 29 (visit XM Radio)

Public radio station WLRN-FM has been granted a temporary Federal Communications Commission license and this summer will roll out a 24-hour classical station (read more - Miami Herald)

The New York Times Co. plans to cut 190 jobs at its flagship newspaper and the New England Media Group, which includes The Boston Globe (read more - Crain's NY Biz)

Sean Hannity travels to the Dallas-Fort Worth area for an appearance at Southfork Ranch on June 1. Tickets will be discounted with a special Memorial Day price for WBAP 820 listeners. A portion of the proceeds from the Sean Hannity Live Broadcast on June 1 at Southfork Ranch will go to support our United States Military (read more - WBAP)

Mike Ditka, the former Bears coach who's been resident football analyst at WSCR-AM (670) for most of its 13 years on the air, has parted company with the Infinity Broadcasting sports/talk station (read more - Feder of Chicago)

FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein called yesterday for an investigation of experts who tout products on television without disclosing payments from the manufacturers.  He said that such appearances violate the federal law against "payola" and that he is urging the agency to take action against networks, stations and individuals who fail to disclose the payments involved. "I was shocked by the lack of awareness that there were laws in place to try to prevent these things," said Adelstein (read more - Howard Kurtz-Washington Post)

New Holstein boy Kipper McGee - who got his start in the radio business at Sheboygan's old WKTS-AM, now WCLB-AM (950), is the new program director at Chicago's WLS-AM (890). Also on his long résumé is a stint as operations manager at WOKY-AM (920) and WMIL-FM (106.1). Most recently a consultant for the Talk Radio Network, McGee starts his Chicago job in mid-June (read more - Tim Cuprisin-Milwaukee JS)

Dave Jarrott Observes -- My former manager at KEY 103, Mark "This Will Only Take 5 Minutes of Your Time" Kiester called yesterday raving about "Jack."  Mark had been in Denton for his son Brett's college graduation and they have the "Jack" variety station there which Mark says is better than Austin's "Bob" because it plays more old rock & roll.  They have the same voice-over guy doing the same drop-ins, but Mark just couldn't quit raving about the variety of rock on "Jack."  Harrumph.  And all these years I've been accusing Mark of not knowing Jack ... (read more - DJO)

PBS President Pat Mitchell said Tuesday that the taxpayer-supported network is independent and free of political bias, rejecting Republican arguments that there is a need for more conservative programming to balance the content of public television (read more - Indy Star)

Conservative bias in the American news media is "not simply a matter of taste, but of life and death," a panel of liberal radio talk show hosts and representatives of leftist organizations told a group of Democrats on Tuesday. "There is no more urgent problem facing America today," stated Mark Lloyd, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP), one of 10 panelists who spoke on "Media Bias and the Future of Freedom of the Press." The forum was chaired by U.S. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, and focused on what Lloyd called "ideological distortion" that is "built into the current system." (read more - Town Hall)

The federal broadcast regulator's authority to close down a radio station because of offensive and shocking comments is being challenged before the Federal Court of Appeal this week in an unprecedented case that could redefine the limits on freedom of speech. Quebec City's controversial radio station CHOI-FM is appealing the non-renewal of its licence last summer, calling the decision "censorship" by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. The station says that the regulator overstepped the constitutional boundaries that protect freedom of speech (read more - The Globe and Mail)

Bridge Ratings & Research has just released their latest study of radio listeners who own MP3 players. They have been tracking a group of over 3000 radio listeners for the last three months.  On their Web site, click on the home page story "How is use of Digital Music Players impacting Time Spent with Traditional Radio? " (visit Bridge Ratings)

Joe Nick Patoski writes -- I read Michael A. Smith's column before reading Lynn Woolley's response.  Did Woolley read the same column I did, or was he just being emotional and illogical because the writer challenged Limbaugh? I know, if you listen to Limbaugh then maybe you really do believe global warming is supposed to just be a theory, woman who want the right to choose rather than have the government telling them what they can or can't do with their bodies aren't really women but femi-Nazis, and diversity is bad. It's too bad you can't be open-minded enough to allow that people who think like that might have a point. But then again, that's thinking like a "librul" and aren't "libruls" just this side of Commies? DeLay is clean because "everyone does it" is no defense. Unity's great, but not when it's shoved down your throat. And what about constitutional rights for femi-Nazis? And using logic only when it fits your belief-system is no different than calling programs Healthy Forest and Clear Skies when they achieve the opposite effect. And speaking of Limbaugh, how come he won't respond to the history challenge from the Illinois high school students he slammed for taking multicultural classes? Just wondering (visit www.joenickp.com)  (click here to read the Michael A Smith commentary)  (click here to read Lynn Woolley's commentary) You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

It's said by many that Dallas is the "Cradle of Modern Radio" .  Already, requests are coming in from radio people around the country who want to buy tickets for this year's Texas Radio Hall of Fame Induction Celebration on November 5.  But, hold your horses. First things first ...  The competition is more fierce that ever this year. Voting is now underway as members are filling out their ballots to select the 2005 Texas Radio Hall of Fame inductees from the list of nominees for "The National Radio Hall of Fame of Texas" ... The 2005 induction celebration will be held in the Dallas area at the Grapevine Convention Center on Saturday evening, November 5. More information, the ballot and list are available now on the Web site at www.texasradiohalloffame.com

In the latest twist in the broadening battle overdecency standards, the glam-metal band Mötley Crüe filed suit against NBC yesterday. The suit states that the network violated the group's free-speech rights and weakened its sales by banning it after Vince Neil, the lead singer, used an expletive on the air in a Dec. 31 appearance on "The Tonight Show" (read more - NY Times)

Oprah Winfrey gave out great bonuses to her staffers during her end-of-the-season wrap party last Thursday: all-expenses-paid vacations in Hawaii. The trips to Maui include chartered flights, lodging at a five-star resort and a stipend (read more - NY Post)

A conservative Christian group has ended its boycott of the Walt Disney Co., launched nine years ago in response to what leaders perceived as the erosion of the company's squeaky-clean image (read more - Houston Chronicle)

With names like Jack and Bob (or Fickle and Nine), radio stations promising an anything-goes mix of pop and rock hits are springing up across the country. The variety format is seen, in part, as a way to appeal to listeners used to loading their own iPods with music from different genres or to keep those thinking about switching to satellite (visit ABC News)

ABC News and NBC News announced plans Tuesday to offer podcasts, the rapidly growing mobile technology. ABC News launched its podcast through its Web site, ABCNews.com, offering immediately a combination of original and repurposed content (read more - Hollywood Reporter)

Former television executive Sheila Johnson became the WNBA's first African-American female owner Tuesday when a group she headlines purchased the Washington Mystics. Johnson, co-founder of Black Entertainment Television, joined Lincoln Holdings LLC to purchase the Mystics from Abe Pollin's Washington Sports & Entertainment (read more - The Detroit News)

The Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab (RAEL) will hold a news conference to release its third study documenting radio’s return on investment on Tuesday, June 7, 2005. The Radio Ad Effectiveness Lab (RAEL) is an independent organization and is funded by Radio industry companies and works with advertisers, agencies and Radio broadcasters to further the understanding of how Radio advertising works, to measure Radio’s effectiveness and to increase advertiser and agency confidence in Radio (read more - visit RAB)

Radio Videographer Art Vuolo reports that on Friday the 13th, John Records Landecker pulled morning drive for Mike North at Infinity's sports WSCR-AM (670) The Score. For the next couple of days he'll be following Steve Dahl from 7 till 10 pm on Infinity's hot talk WCKG-FM (105.9). Then on Monday, Memorial Day, he'll switch hats and fill in for Spike O'Dell at talk powerhouse WGN-AM (720) and four days later he'll spin the classic rock at The Loop WLUP-FM (97.9) (visit Art Vuolo's Video Web site)

Rush Limbaugh is calling on DNC chairman Howard Dean to release his medical records.  Dean, on NBC's Meet the Press, said he was standing by an allegation that Limbaugh was a cocaine addict. On Monday, prosecutors with the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office were to appear at a hearing in front of Palm Beach Circuit Judge Jeffrey Winikoff after filing a motion to obtain the conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh's medical records (read more - NewsMax) (read more - Fox News)

With the appointment of a new program director Monday, the rallying cry among talk show hosts at WLS-AM (890) may be to "win one for the Kipper." Kipper McGee, a nationally renowned veteran of talk radio, was tapped Monday to fill the program director vacancy at the ABC-owned news/talk station. Starting June 13, he'll succeed Michael Packer (read more - Feder of Chicago)

Being that New York has dozens of radio stations, no single one dominates the market like, say, a Microsoft. But from time to time one station clearly leads the pack, like WABC in the early '70s, and these days that would be WLTW (106.7 FM), popularly known as Lite-FM. It's not just that Lite has been the top-rated station for most of the last five years. Last week, BIA Financial released its estimates of radio advertising revenue for 2004 and Lite-FM made $10 million more than any other station in America - $70.2 million compared to $60.6 million for second-place WINS (1010 AM) (read more - David Hinckley-NY Daily News)

Al Franken and Randi Rhodes serve as key testifiers in a Congress-assembled forum on media bias, which will be broadcast live on The Al Franken Show today beginning at 1 pm (Tuesday, May 24th). The Randi Rhodes Show (3 PM to 7 PM Central) will follow-up with full analysis. Listen via the Internet http://www.airamericaradio.com/listen.asp Or, if you miss the live broadcast, listen to the archives (includes podcast download): Al Franken
http://www.airamericaplace.com/archive.php?mode=show&id=5

Erin Weber, a former DJ at Detroit country station WYCD-FM, said that a co-worker's perfume made her sick.  She's has won a $10.6 million federal jury verdict against her former employer,  Infinity Broadcasting (read more - Detroit Free Press)

The civil case between former Louisville media personalities could be in the hands of the jury Tuesday. WLKY NewsChannel 32's Jim Bulleit testified Monday, and said that he and his wife introduced Darcie Divita and John Ziegler while Bulleit worked with Divita at WDRB in 2003. Divita is suing Ziegler for personal comments Ziegler made on his talk show on WHAS Radio two years ago. The controversy led to Ziegler's firing, and he has since taken his show to Los Angeles. Divita, who was co-hosting the morning show on WDRB at the time, now lives in Phoenix and is no longer in the business (read more - WLKY TV)

As our public television WVIZ and NPR affiliate WCPN prepare to merge into their new downtown digs at Playhouse Square, it will be minus WCPN news director Dave Pignanelli, who’s relocated to the rival Kent-licensed NPR affiliate, WKSU.  This leaves WCPN with Renita Jablonski and Janet Babin, both of whom are among the very best this city has, holding down what’s left of WCPN’s battle-scarred news fort.  There’s no confirmation that WCPN will reinstall its revolving door and boxing ring at the new site (read more - John Gorman-Cleveland Free Times)

Media Matters has launched a 'Hands off Public Broadcasting' Campaign (read more - ArriveNet)

The top-rated CHOI-FM will have its case heard before the Federal Court of Appeal Tuesday. The Commission considered that offensive comments made by the hosts over the station's airwaves tended or were likely to expose individuals or groups of individuals to hatred or contempt on the basis of mental disability, race, ethnic origin, religion, colour or sex. The Commission also considered, among other things, that the station's hosts were relentless in their use of the public airwaves to insult and ridicule people. The shock radio station in Quebec City was ordered removed from the airwaves in 2004, by the Canada Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. The CRTC judged the Broadcasting Act was violated repeatedly by radio host Jeff Fillion (read more - CBC Montreal)

ABC News Radio and Consumer Reports, the expert, independent nonprofit source for buying information and advice, announced today the first program in a new series of jointly produced broadcasts featuring tips and information drawn from the expert resources of Consumer Reports. The first one-hour program, “ABC News Radio Consumer Reports Summer Guide 2005,” will debut exclusively on ABC News Radio affiliates nationwide beginning on Thursday, May 26 for broadcast over the Memorial Day holiday weekend (visit ABC News Radio)

Who invented podcasting? Who cares? File this one under the term `inside baseball.' Still... When you think of the folks who count as the early movers behind podcasting, Dave Winer and Adam Curry immediately pop to mind. Curry, the former MTV guy, and Winer, a curmudgeonly coder.  Curry had faded from public view after leaving MTV and moving to Europe in 1994. But his career revived after Curry began doing his Daily Source Code podcasts in the fall of 2004 (read more - Charles Cooper-CNET News)

From "Jim Rose Remembers" -- Larry Todd writes:  I was born and raised in Amarillo. First broadcasting job.. you know the bit. I delivered the afternoon paper which also meant Sunday mornings. I froze my butt with 110 customers. Snow and wind. That sure dug into my psyche to move to Austin. Having retired and becoming ordained. I'm doing chaplain work. Marriages, funerals and the like. I love it. I hope to become a police chaplain to work with cops, deputies, firefighters NOT inmates...nor victims. A chaplain ins not a minister nor preacher, but mostly a listener and helper. As to signing autographs...not a single person has recognized me from TV ... (read more - Jim Rose Remembers)

Disability News Views is a radio show hosted by Monica Moshenko and it's now in syndication.  You can hear it on the Global Talk Radio network at www.globaltalkradio.com  The radio show assists in building bridges for people with disabilities and people without and helps to make people aware of disabilities issues (read more - Buffalo Biz Journal)

A recent column in the Galveston Daily News, written by Michael A. Smith (click here to read it), is a shining example of thought from an Illogical.  Noting that Outside Magazine's online edition had named Rush Limbaugh to a list of anti-environment propagandists, Smith wrote, "With so many to hate - women, blacks, gays, etc. - why would Limbaugh waste his breath on something as beaten down and friendless as the environment?"
Strange as it may seem, to an Illogical, this is not sloppy research; it is truth.  It MUST be truth because everyone that agrees with Mr. Smith, from Al Franken to Molly Ivins, would believe it to be so.  If you're a Logical - fan of Rush Limbaugh's or not - you have to consider whether Rush is truly a hater of women, blacks, and gays before you can decide if Mr. Smith's point is well taken.  If you listen to Rush's show, you know that his ire is reserved for liberals, regardless of gender, race, or sexual preference. But Mr. Smith is not thinking with his brain; he is using his heart.  And his heart tells him that Rush Limbaugh, with whom he does not agree, must be a bigot ... (read more - Lynn Woolley)  You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

ARBitron numbers for New York, Nassau, Middlesex, Riverside-San Bernadino and the Hamptons (read 'em)

A 48-hour stoppage of BBC programmes looks inevitable next week after the director general, Mark Thompson, insisted that the upheaval caused by yesterday's strike involving thousands of staff was "a price worth paying" to push through his reforms. Officials from the three unions behind yesterday's strike hailed it as the most successful in the BBC's history, claiming that between 13,000 and 15,000 staff around the country had stayed at home, affecting 95% of all production (read more - The Guardian U.K.)

A congressman says comedian Bill Maher's comment that the U.S. military has already recruited all the "low-lying fruit" is possibly treasonous and at least grounds to cancel the show. Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., takes issue with remarks on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, first aired May 13, in which Maher points out the Army missed its recruiting goal by 42 percent in April. "More people joined the Michael Jackson fan club," Maher said. "We've done picked all the low-lying Lynndie England fruit, and now we need warm bodies" (read more - Newsday)

Bill Moyers says that journalists have a responsibility to question those in power. Rush Limbaugh, speaking for the economic and political elites that currently hold sway, responds by charging that Moyers is "insane." (read more - John Nichols-Capital Times)

Boston public radio listeners went without their daily dose of ``The Beeb'' Monday as British Broadcasting Corp. staffers walked out on a one-day strike. The strike forced the cancellation of most live BBC news programming, Reuters reported. BBC World Service was running large blocks of prerecorded programming, which could be heard locally on satellite radio (read more - Greg Gatlin-Boston Herald)

SIRIUS Satellite Radio Inc. announced that it plans to hold its Annual Meeting of Stockholders on Wednesday, May 25, 2005 at 9:00 a.m. ET. A live audio webcast of the meeting will be available via the Investor Relations section of the Company's website www.sirius.com on Wednesday, May 25, 2005 at 9:00 a.m. ET.

By day, the 53- year-old is, by her own account, a nerdy geophysicist who works as a seismologist at the U.S. Geological Survey office in Menlo Park. But at night and on weekends, she makes the earth move for polka lovers across the Bay Area as Big Lou the Accordion Princess. On Thursday nights she hosts "Big Lou's Polka Universe" on KUSF, which she says is the only polka radio show in Northern California (read more - SF Chronicle)

Former Radio Luxembourg and Radio 1 DJ Chris Denning has been charged with a string of child sex offences after being deported from Austria. Denning is being held following his arrest by Surrey Police at Heathrow Airport in a swoop co-ordinated jointly by Austrian and British authorities. The 64-year-old, who is credited with the discovery of the Bay City Rollers, will appear today at Guildford Magistrates' Court accused of nine counts of indecent assault against children (read more - Waveguide U.K.)

Dave Jarrott Observes -- Random observations from Jarrott-in-the-Morning...or, what might have passed for "show prep" back in the day. News item: This pretty much speaks volumes in and of itself: "President Bush has launched a probe into how pictures of Saddam Hussein in his underpants were leaked.  His spokesman said: 'He has been briefed.  He wants to get to the bottom of it.'"  Better briefed than de-briefed, I supposed (read more - DJO)

Cumulus Media Inc. announced that it has entered into a contract with Katz Media for national advertising sales representation (read more - Cumulus)

Dear Radio Babe, Thanks for the recent mention of "Route 66" in your (Feb. 14) column. I was not especially fond of the 4-to-6 a.m. thing myself, and am happy to report that the program has been kicked upstairs by management.  "Route 66" will air from 9:30 to 11 p.m. Thirty minutes shorter but, hey, might even get some listeners in this new slot! I'm looking forward to sleeping through the night again. Best, Mike Vinyl (host of "Route 66"). Dear Mr. Vinyl, Thanks ever so much for the update. Indeed, the earlier time and different day definitely allows for broader audiences, and longer sleeping hours for you (read more - Dawn Scire-The Radio Babe)

The Beltway crowd is buzzing over Tim Russert's softball interrogation of Howard Dean on "Meet the Press" on Sunday. Said one observer: "The Democrats were terrified of how Dean would do, but Russert — famed for grilling people till they are fried — basically tanked and asked no follow-up questions, leaving Dean relatively unscathed." (read more - NY Post)

Thousands of employees, including technicians, news correspondents and anchors, stayed away from work at the British Broadcasting Corporation today in a strike over the company's plans to cut nearly 4,000 jobs in the next three years. Although the BBC tried to keep its programs on the air, it had to curtail or cancel much of its live television and radio coverage because of the strike, set to last 24 hours (read more - NY Times)

A Radio 1 disc jockey has become the latest victim of cash machine fraudsters. Scott Mills had details of his bank card copied as he tried to withdraw money from a hole-in-the-wall machine which had been fitted with a 'skimming' device. Mills, 31, made the discovery when he tried to use the card again. 'I tried to take out some money and it said I'd exceeded my limit and I thought I hadn't taken any money out for two days,' he said. 'It's not nice when it happens to you.'  (read more - This is London)

Iowa's three university-based public radio stations will soon be working together to improve statewide coverage. Iowa State's WOI, the University of Iowa's WSUI/KSUI and the University of Northern Iowa's KUNI/KHKE plan to merge later this year (read more - Iowa State Daily)

Clear Channel Online Music & Radio launched stripped TM – the raw and real, in-studio performance series available exclusively through Clear Channel Radio station Web sites. The first installment of the breakthrough video series features John Legend and with 125 stations participating, it effectively doubles the number of Clear Channel Radio stations featuring his music (visit Clear Channel)

ABC News Radio, America’s largest radio news organization, announced today the promotion of Jeff Fitzgerald to Director, Operations. In his new position, Fitzgerald will oversee a range of initiatives critical to ABC News Radio’s continued competitive success. He will also continue his valuable involvement in ABC News Radio’s editorial coverage (visit ABC News Radio)

Jonathan Walsh and Rachel Pfanner will co-anchor WTOL’s AM Saturday until a permanent replacement is named, according to news director Mitch Jacob. Melissa Voetsch, the anchor for 12 years, stepped aside May 14 and will focus on her weekday anchoring duties (read more - Russ Lemmon-Toledo Blade)

Country music icon John Conlee will make a special appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity & Colmes” this Memorial Day – Monday, May 30, 2005 at 9 PM ET. Conlee joins the politically-opposed pair in-studio for a discussion of what it means to truly support our Nation’s troops and the families and friends that are behind them – all the while never forgetting those that have passed on before us for the cause of America (visit Hannity and Colmes)

Beginning today, May 23, Fox Sports Radio affiliate KTKR-AM 760 ("Ticket 760") in San Antonio, Texas, will air The Drive on Fox with Chris Myers weekdays from 2 - 4 p.m. CST (visit Ticket 760)

Cox Radio announced today that David Keiser has been named Local Sales Manager for News/Talk 750 WSB-AM/Atlanta. David was formerly GSM of Emmis Communications’ KSHE/St. Louis. His position is effective June 6th (visit WSB)

Baltimore radio personality Bob Lopez, an iconoclastic newsman and talk-show host at 98 Rock (WIYY-FM) for 27 years and member of its popular Kirk, Mark & Lopez morning team, died of lung cancer yesterday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. He was 52 (read more - Baltimore Sun)

Prosecutors with the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office have filed a motion to obtain conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh's medical records. A hearing had been scheduled for 8:30 a.m. this morning (Monday) in front of Palm Beach Circuit Judge Jeffrey Winikoff.  Winikoff is the judge who first granted prosecutors access to the records in December 2003  (read more - Sun Sentinel updated)  (read more - Sun Sentinel) (read text of the motion-Newsday) (read more - Palm Beach Post) (read more - NewsMax)  (read more - Herald Tribune)

Anyone who wonders why Infinity keeps two all-news stations in one city only has to note that WINS and WCBS-AM bill $116.3 million between them. WCBS-FM (101.1), while it's doing well, has been flat in ad revenue the past few years, which is one reason it gradually reworked its musical format. When Howard Stern leaves WXRK by year's end, K-Rock will take an enormous revenue hit, which is why management is now mulling what to do next. Neither all-sports WFAN nor morning man Imus are top-10 in listeners, but they make huge money because they reach an elusive audience that is perceived to respond to ads (read more - David Hinckley-NY Daily News)

From Claude Hall -- e-mail from Scotty Brink, “Boy! I wish we could join you out there on the 4th. Unfortunately, we already have obligations that weekend. We'll be seeing Bobby Vee et al in August when they work the fair in Tulsa, if not before then. That will, of course, be great but I wish you were going to be there also. One of these days we'll actually make it to Vegas ..." From Frank Jolley: “Claude, I'll try to make it ..." From Bobby Rich, KMXZ, Tucson:   “I was lucky enough to see Bobby and his boys at the Conclave a couple of years ago. The band is terrific. But the highlight was talking to Bobby after their showcase ..." (read more - www.claudehallonline.com)

What was radio? In the United States, it was always primarily a local phenomenon emanating from that local station downtown or out on the beltway. The way American radio frequencies are assigned you could be sure that almost any radio station you could pick up on your receiver came from within a short drive. Somewhere inside the typically unprepossessing squat building was a studio with a real live person in it, a DJ or a talk show host. Whether through the medium of music or of talk, the local radio station was filtering the unfamiliar and far-away through the medium of the familiar and local ... but starting in the '90s with the increasing consolidation of ownership and digitization of operations, more and more local-seeming radio in fact came from some distant corporate location (read more - Michele Hilmes-Boston Globe)

Saturday night, city power brokers gathered at the Highland Park mansion of beer distributor Barry Andrews and his wife, Lana, to hug Ron and his wife, Nance, and to say, "Thanks for the memories."  Don Keyes, the man who launched Ron's Texas odyssey was there. According to Ron, "He was national program director for Gordon McLendon (the Dallas radio titan) back when Top 40 was new and hot and KLIF ruled the roost (read more - Alan Peppard-Dallas Morning News)

The bashing of Newsweek over its horribly handled item on Koran desecration has mushroomed into a sweeping indictment of the media, which some conservatives now accuse of deliberately slandering the military. Newsweek "wanted the story to be true," says Rush Limbaugh, because the media "have an adversarial relationship with America" and "end up siding with the bad guys." Some news outlets "magnify every mistake the military makes in order to hammer the Bush administration," says Bill O'Reilly. The Wall Street Journal editorial page blames "a basic media mistrust of the military that goes back to Vietnam." Columnist Jonah Goldberg decries "the media's unreflective willingness to undermine the war on terror." Is any of this true? Or has Newsweek's retracted story simply handed the right a new club with which to beat journalists? (read more - Howard Kurtz-Media Notes)

Radio One announced that today begins a new era in Los Angeles radio as KKBT-FM, 100.3 the Beat morning show host, Steve Harvey, hangs up his headphones, turns off his microphone and hands over the reigns to John Salley who will debut "The John Salley Block Party" (read more - Business Wire)

It's not just unusual for a DJ to send out a press release when he or she splits a station -- it's unheard of. So it was a bit of a surprise last week when WRR/101.1 FM announcer Steve Cumming sent word he was leaving his morning post at the classical-music station (read more - Robert Philpot-Star-Telegram)

There is "a credibility problem in the media regarding the use of anonymous sources," Scott McClellan said on Tuesday during a regular White House press briefing.  "That's one of the issues that concerns the American people when they look at the media," he added, "and I think sometimes the media does have difficulty going back and kind of critiquing itself." Criticism of the media by the White House press spokesman is nothing new. What is different is how many national news organizations seem to agree with him (read more - NY Times)

FCC-free scripts, 75-second ads and branded entertainment radio shows. That's how Terry O'Reilly and Tom Eymundson of Pirate Radio & Television in Toronto see "The New Wild West" of radio, brought on by the every expanding boundaries of good taste the advent of satellite radio such as XM and Sirius Satellite Radio. In a talk at the Clio Awards Festival in Miami Beach on Sunday, the radio directors noted how HBO and shows like The Sopranos widened acceptance for profanity and sexual explicitness on television (read more - AdWeek)

It's 5:45 a.m. and Erich "Mancow" Muller is scribbling notes on sheets of paper while pinching and pulling switches on the control panel at Q101's studio in the Merchandise Mart. Mancow's full of energy, despite having woken up at 2:30 a.m. nearly every weekday for more than a decade. His zeal is contagious as he takes calls from listeners, rants about high gas prices and calls on his various sidekicks for comments. RedEye joined Mancow for a broadcast, watching while his studio buzzes on coffee, and passersby try to catch a glimpse of the DJ in action through a large window (read more- Chicago Tribune)

ABC Radio’s Gil Gross moderates this year’s Conclave College SuperSession – “Hard Core Realities for the Future” – on Thursday, July 21st, at the 30th Annual Learning Conference in Minneapolis! Joining Gross on stage will be John Dickey/Cumulus, Peter Smyth/Greater Media, and Don Benson/Jefferson-Pilot. The distinguished faculty will tackle top-of-mind industry topics from the group owner/president perspective, answering questions like: Are the days of de-regulation over, or just beginning again? How soon will HD change the face of radio, and what will the medium look/sound like when it does? How do the heads of terrestrial radio really view present and future listener technologies like iPods, WiFi, Satellite, etc? What competition for terrestrial radio hasn’t been identified yet? (read more - visit The Conclave)

The Quantas Media Award winners have been named: Senior Winner: SUE INGRAM, Radio New Zealand Finalists: JENNIFER DANN, Radio New Zealand BRAD MARKHAM, Radio New Zealand, Junior Winner: REBECCA BEEHRE, Radioworks Rotorua Finalists: JANE O’LOUGHLIN, Radio New Zealand RACHEL MORTON, Newstalk ZB, Radio Network CATHERINE WILSON, Radio New Zealand Sub-Categories (read more - Scoop NZ)

From Don Keyes - "Gordon McLendon and Me" -- Somewhere back in the 1970’s Fortune magazine ran an article on the richest men in America. I don’t recall specifically where Gordon placed, but I do remember that they listed his net worth at $250,000,000. Today, that sum is not all that staggering, but remember we’re talking about 1970 dollars! What’s noteworthy is the fact that Gordon made no outward show of that wealth. His uniform of the day was a navy blue suit, white shirt, tie and black loafers. I never saw him wear a sport jacket or a suit of another color. It was always navy. On Fridays he might wear a khaki shirt and pants with brown cowboy boots, and that was also the uniform of the day at the ranch. He never wore a Rolex watch or sported any other flashy jewelry. His cars were routine also. The fanciest car he ever owned was a basic 4 door Mercedes sedan. His favorite lunch was a hamburger. Gordon could have easily dominated the Dallas social scene by attending all the various openings, plays, musicals, ribbon cuttings, etc. but that was not his style. He just didn’t care one whit about trying to impress people (read the rest - www.donkeyesonline.com)

Stephanie Martin is now in Iraq. You may recognize Martin — or at least her flattened Texas voice. She tells us who is what in the Triad for WFDD (88.5 FM), Winston-Salem’s National Public Radio station. But not now. Until May 28, she’ll be in Iraq, bird-dogging stories about life in the N.C. National Guard (read more - Jeri Rowe-Triad)

The world of advertising turns upside down when the advertisers - not the agencies - are the ones pushing the envelope. But that is what has been happening. The advertising business is undergoing an upheaval, forcing executives to radically change how they do business. Marketers are trying desperately to stay ahead of the technological innovations that are changing how consumers view their messages - and are putting pressure on their agencies to adapt. The ad firms are more eager to please than ever. The major public agencies face shrinking profit margins and sagging stock prices, leading to a shakeout and a frenzied effort to cut costs. It's unclear if the traditional agencies will be nimble enough to halt a slow decline (read more - NY Times)

BBC Radio (click here to visit and listen to BBC Radio)

Stars of BBC radio broke the picket line and went to work as normal - despite a 24-hour strike by thousands of journalists and technicians. BBC staff have voted to go on strike - but why are they taking action and what will it mean for viewers? Director general Mark Thompson is cutting 3,780 jobs at the corporation - almost one in five of its UK public service staff. That involves 15% cuts across most departments - with some sections suffering greater losses and others less affected. Mr Thompson has said the cuts are necessary to streamline the BBC and take it into a rapidly-changing hi-tech broadcasting environment (read more - The Journal U.K.) (read more - Reuters) (read more - News.com Australia) (read more Q&A - BC News)  (read more - Business World-Ireland)  (read more - The Inquirer U.K.)

Freke Vuijst of the Boston Globe interviewed Bob Edwards about his switch to satellite radio -- I feel I'm bringing that back in my program now. My show is not a news program, where you have to be dead serious and give 12 different points of view. I do an interview program and, if I want to, I can talk with somebody for an entire hour instead of the eight-minute segments I used to do on ''Morning Edition." (read more - Boston Globe)

From Ron Wortham --  I moved back in with my folks that spring of 1962 and began to plot my radio career in earnest. For my part breaking into the radio business was both easy as pie and hard as hell. My first opportunity was filing a phone report of a fatal accident. It was picked up by KFJZ and broadcast state-wide on the Texas State Network. It was easy as pie. Getting a real radio job was hard as hell. I spent the next three months on my motor scooter systematically canvassing every radio station in Dallas and Fort Worth for work. I had no resume' or any real background. "You gotta HAVE a job to GET a job" I was told over and over. Toward the end of the summer I was blessed. A tiny station in Grand Prairie between Dallas and Fort Worth had just traded hands and the manager had an opening (read the rest - Ron Wortham's  "Plant Your Seeds - Chapter 12 - The Giant Rats of Sumatra")

Jerry Taff himself says that he's been an unlikely Milwaukee celebrity during the quarter-century since he began anchoring the news on WISN-TV (Channel 12). "I'm not pretty," he said. "I'm not especially smart. I'm certainly polarizing: You either like more or you can't stand me - and, wow, Milwaukee has taken me in for 25 years." The Taff era formally ends Wednesday, when the 64-year-old Taff reads the news for one final time on the 6 p.m. newscast and then begins his retirement. "I've worked for 51 years, and I'm tired," he says. "I need a break." His plan is to move down to New Braunfels, Texas, where he has a new home and a new Corvette parked in the garage. "This Texan is ready to go" (read more - Tim Cuprisin-Milwaukee JS)

Dave Jarrott Observes -- The phone companies apparently need to find another way to gouge us since cell phone use has eroded their telephone business.  And if they gouge us less than the cable companies do currently, then I'm all for it. It would be nice to be able to pick the stations you want, rather than have to pay for all those channels you never watch.  It would also be nice to have high speed internet via cable without having to subscribe to a certain level of television cable service. Whether those things would actually happen if and when SBC and Verizon actually get into the tv business remains to be seen.  Literally (read more - DJO)

J.D. Freeman has been named Regional Vice President of Clear Channel Radio’s Dallas Region. J.D. will be based in Dallas (visit Clear Channel)

Why land like a 10-ton bomb on a news magazine for what, at bottom and despite the dire consequences in the street, finally was just a garden-variety error? Because this has become another skirmish in the ongoing culture war. Newsweek is the moment's target of opportunity. There has been a game afoot on the right for some time now to discredit the mainstream media and its leading institutions. Conservatives endlessly bellyache about the supposed liberal bias of every newspaper, magazine or TV network that is not overtly on their side. "Liberal" has been redefined as any utterance that is not markedly conservative. The idea is to cow the media from any reporting that doesn't suit conservative ends or, failing that, to poison readers and viewers against the source. The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, public radio and television and the commercial TV networks that aren't Fox are constantly flogged. CNN is especially vilified (read more - Tom Teepen) You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

The majordomos at KILT (610 AM) and KBME (790 AM) both like what they read in Houston's first Arbitron book as a two-sports-station town, thus proving that, unlike the lilies of the field, they can spin as well as toil. The broadest audience measurement, persons age 12-plus from 6 a.m. to midnight Monday through Sunday, doesn't look too good. KILT slipped from 21st place in the fall book to 23rd for winter 2005 (January-March), and KBME came in 31st, or next to last. KILT, however, is pleased that its morning and afternoon drive numbers combined are in the top 10 among men age 25 through 54 with a 3.7 rating, and KBME is happy that it showed significant growth in that same demographic in its first full ratings period since making the move from music to sports (read more - David Barron-Houston Chronicle)

Walking to his car in the parking lot after another frustrating day on the job, local on-air personality Capt. Kirk had an epiphany. He could start his own radio station, but in cyberspace. "I kept thinking, 'I could do this myself. I could form my own radio station on the Internet,' " said Kirk Haskell, aka Capt. Kirk. "I had been a DJ for live events, radio broadcasts, radio stations up and down the dial from Maine to Florida, and finally I saw the light and started the Heartbeat." The Heartbeat, a fledgling Internet station Haskell started in his home less than a month ago, appears to be Flagler County's first Internet-only station (read more - Daytona Beach News Journal)

From George Mair -- A Russian woman had her fingers badly bitten cleaning her son's fish tank, not aware it was full of piranhas + We  predict top designers will be vying to get their label on Hussein's shorts. Remember when they just wanted their names on everyone's lips? ***Almost every day George Bush is asking us to support him on Social Security, on Iraq, and stem cell research. Could George be the first orthopedic President? (read more - George Mair's LALA Lane)

The United States has CNN and Fox, while the Arab world can watch Al-Jazeera or American-financed Al-Iraqiya in Iraq. Now, an initiative pushed by Hugo Chavez, the left-leaning president of Venezuela, will soon give Latin America Telesur, a regionwide television station that he says is aimed at "counteracting the media dictatorship of the big international news networks." A venture that involves Argentina, Cuba, Brazil and Uruguay but is largely financed by Venezuela, Telesur will have a decidedly Latin feel (read more - Philly Inquirer)

Bill Moyers gave an historic speech last Sunday in St. Louis, a clarion defense of quality journalism and public broadcasting from the partisan attacks of the White House and its minions at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) ... The speech is ricocheting around the Internet and has been broadcast nationwide on TV and radio. The right-wing responded by going into attack mode. On Thursday, Rush Limbaugh went apoplectic, unleashing an on-air tirade against Moyers. Limbaugh had taken a break from his golf game to watch a few minutes of the hour-long speech on C-SPAN2 because he’d heard “my name was taken in vain so often.” (And Limbaugh accuses Moyers of having a God complex.) Moyers’ speech didn’t mention Limbaugh once (read more - Common Dreams)

Every war has its collateral damage. And when K-Rock conceded Seattle's alternative-radio war to The End on April 22, it was morning host Andy Savage and his crew who went MIA. As Savage's fans have organized a Web site to bring him back, it's remained unclear for most listeners how events went down and what's going on with the well-known Seattle jock (read more - Mark Rahner-Seattle Times)

Satire from Corey Deitz -- (Has anyone noticed how both XM and SIRIUS Satellite Radio seem to be in a fevered competition to acquire and announce more "strategic partnerships" than the other? Every week these guys announce a new show, a new channel, a new host - in an endless hail of press releases. Well, here: this press release should put an end to that.) In a bid to once-and-for-all out-position its competitor, SIRIUS Satellite Radio announced today a strategic partnership with God. According to the deal – heralded by trumpets with a special appearance by Gabriel himself - God confirmed he will be doing his own Sunday show beginning in July (read more - Corey Deitz-About)

It came as no surprise to find Rush Limbaugh on a list of 20 leading anti-environment propagandists published last week in Outside magazine’s online edition; still, it was cause for reflection. With so many to hate — women, blacks, gays, etc. — why would Limbaugh waste his breath on something as beaten down and friendless as the environment? Limbaugh hates and proselytizes against what he fears, and thinking about that led an insight. Nothing gets him spitting into a microphone like women who aspire to be more than a frat boy’s sex fantasy. It is vitriol inspired by fear, and Limbaugh has reason to be afraid. He operates in a world of stereotypes, so you can bet that anything soft, round and endowed with cleavage is female to Rush  (read more - Michael A. Smith-Galveston County Daily News)

Was The King actually a Martian? A new book claims that Elvis Presley believed he came from another planet and had childhood contact with extraterrestrial beings. According to tape recordings of conversations Elvis held with a female fan to be published by Michael C. Luckman in his book, "Alien Rock: The Rock 'n' Roll/Extraterrestrial Connection" (VH1/Pocket Books), Elvis also claimed that UFOs visited Graceland (read more - NY Post)

If you're a long-haul trucker, stop reading, polish up your big belt buckle and just go buy one. If you're a troll living under a bridge where reception's bad, save your dough. For the rest of us, deciding whether to shell out for satellite radio — and if so, which one to pick — is a little more complicated. So I did some legwork and test-drove a couple of satellite setups to find out more about the pros, the cons and the differences between the two options, Sirius and XM (read more - Mark Rahner-Seattle Times)

The radio industry is going through its biggest technological change since FM radio became popular in the early 1970s. That change is satellite radio, which receives its signals from space. The signals almost never fade. Someone driving from North Carolina to California can listen to the same channel (read more - Fayetteville NC Observer)

Focus on the Family may advertise on more reality shows after getting a big response from spots that it ran during the ABC television show ``Supernanny.''  The ads were the first that the Christian ministry has run on national, prime-time TV.However, the ads have reopened a debate over religious advertising on television (read more - Register Guard)

Voice-over-IP (VoIP) provider Vonage has launched in the UK, with full approval from Ofcom to offer stiff competition to BT. "We will offer call quality as good or better than BT," said chief executive Jeffrey Citron, at the London launch. The £9.99-a-month flat rate service allows customers to use any existing phone, which they plug into a Vonage-enabled broadband router. Calls are then free, except international calls and calls to mobiles. The Linksys-made routers will be available from Staples for about £25 (read more - Techworld)

After five years of comedy and community activism, Steve Harvey, the morning radio host at KKBT-FM (100.3), known as "The Beat," signed off for the last time on Friday (read more- LA Times)

President George Bush launched a probe into how pictures of Saddam Hussein in his underpants were leaked. His spokesman said: “He has been briefed. He wants to get to the bottom of it.” Mr Bush stressed he did NOT believe The Sun’s snaps yesterday would cause a backlash in Iraq. The fascinating photographs — which also show the fallen tyrant, 68, washing his socks and sleeping in his cell — provided the first glimpse of his life in captivity. After appearing in The Sun they were shown around the world on TV and in newspapers. In Baghdad, Iraqis gathered in coffee shops to laugh out loud as our front page picture of their ex-president in his Y-fronts was screened by Arab networks (read more and view the photos - The Sun U.K.)

A month after launching Spaces, its home for bloggers, internet giant ninemsn says it has more than 100,000 users. Now the company is taking its message to advertisers, hoping to convince them that the personal diaries and commentary websites are the next wave in the online marketing revolution. Others fear, though, that advertisers may affect and perhaps even destroy the nature of blogs – which tend to be opinionated and often controversial – if they are allowed to get a foothold (read more - The Australian)

The voices in our heads took form Friday as some of talk radio’s brightest stars worked their microphones at Old Dominion University. National squawkers Don Imus, Sean Hannity, Tammy Bruce and Rusty Humphries joined locals Tony Macrini and Pasquale Giovani for a 13-hour opinion marathon known as Talkfest at the Ted Constant Convocation Center. “I’m in Norfolk, Va., today,” Imus told his national cable TV and radio audience, “in a convention center, a convocation center. What is this building – a hockey rink?” Feminist Tammy Bruce was a bit better on her geography. It was her technology that left something to be desired (read more - Virginian Pilot)

XM Satellite Radio has the technology to provide consumers with a TiVo-like feature in their vehicles. This will give users the ability to download cartoons and music videos into the memory of their infotainment systems. "We've got the technology, but we're just looking for the right business model," said Roderick J. MacKenzie, XM Satellite Radio director of advanced applications. "Video uses substantial bandwidth and we have to do a trade-off between the number of audio and video channels. We won't have the capacity to offer 100 channels of cable or download movies, but we've developed the ability to do live streaming video. This would enable you to keep up-to-date with live sports or news in your vehicle" (read more - Inside Line)

After six short months, Larry FM has been turfed. Northwest Broadcasting has rebranded the low-power radio station for the fourth time in four years, switching from Larry FM to Hot FM as of Wednesday. The change comes just as the BBM radio ratings service showed Larry FM lagging far behind Thunder Bay’s other five stations — The Giant, Magic 99.9, 580 CKPR, CBC Radio One and Rock 94 — in terms of total listeners. The new station’s music format appears to be similar, with top-40 music mixed with pop hits from the 1980s and ’90s (read more - Thunder Bay Chronicle)

Liberal organizations and bloggers are in overdrive, after nationally syndicated, conservative talk show host Glenn Beck was said to have threatened Michael Moore's life. It's sparked a write-in and telephone campaign to get Beck off the air, via his syndicator, complaints to the FCC and a call for his arrest (read more - The Radio Equalizer)

WOR, Buckley Broadcasting's legendary News/Talk flagship, has become New York City's first radio station to broadcast from studios built with Livewire switched Ethernet audio routing infrastructure from Axia Audio (read more - Digital Pro Sound)

Choking up on the witness stand, former WHAS Radio talk-show host John Ziegler painted an unhappy picture of his life yesterday to jurors who will decide whether his on-the-air comments about a television host he dated were defamatory and violated her privacy. Although he described himself as extremely lucky, Ziegler, now a radio talk-show host in Los Angeles, said broadcasting the truth as he sees it has caused him anguish and pain (read more - Louisville Courier-Journal)

WCBS/Ch. 2 reporter Arthur Chi'en was fired yesterday after he used the f-word on-air during a 6 a.m. broadcast. Chi'en was standing in front of a subway station delivering a live intro to a segment about a MetroCard scam when two men walked up behind him, held up a sign and began chanting, "Opie & Anthony" ... For a few moments, as the knuckleheads heckled him and gave the finger to the camera, Chi'en kept his cool and continued talking. But as soon as he finished his report, he spun around and shouted at the intruders: "What the f--- is your problem, man?" If he thought the WCBS control room had already cut to tape, he was wrong. The expletive went out over the air  (read more - NY Post)  (read more - NY Daily News)

From Kent Burkhart -- As an honorary judge of American Idol his main job was to select three songs that would best show off the talent of the three finalists….Bo, Carrie and Vonzell. For Bo he selected “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down”, etc. For Carrie he selected “Cryin’”, and for Vonzell it was “I’ll Never Love This Way Again”. Clive nailed it!!!! A perfect match of song and vocalist. But that is nothing new for Clive Davis. He has a long and successful career as President of Columbia Records, Arista Records, and J Records. Clive is very active in the business ... (read more - www.kentburkhart.com)

Jay Marvin, the former news/talk WLS-AM (890) personality who left earlier this year to host mornings at KKZN-AM in Denver, will be heard in Chicago today when he fill in for nationally syndicated afternoon host Ed Schultz on progressive talk WCPT-AM (850) + WSRB-FM (106.3), Crawford Broadcasting's rhythm-and-blues station, has begun live streaming online at: www.soul1063radio.com  (read more - Feder of Chicago)

This Monday, May 23, the Atlanta Braves will host a Celebrity Closest to the Pin Challenge that will take place before the Braves take on the New York Mets. Conservative radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh leads the list of celebrity competitors which also includes baseball Hall of Famers Phil Niekro and Don Sutton.  Georgia State Representative Earl Ehrhart, WGST radio personalities Tom Hughes and Pete Davis along with 96 Rock regulars Southside Steve (Rickman) and Larry Wachs of "The Regular Guys" round out the field (read more - Atlanta Braves News)

Kenneth Y. Tomlinson remembers exactly when it was and what he was watching when the thought struck him: Public television has a problem. A liberal problem. It was November 2003, and he was watching Bill Moyers, host of the Public Broadcasting Service show "Now," talk about how free-trade policies had harmed small-town America. Tomlinson knows small-town America -- he grew up outside tiny Galax, Va., in the Blue Ridge Mountains -- and Moyers's presentation of the issues struck him as superficial and one-sided. Indeed, it struck him as "liberal advocacy journalism." Right then, Tomlinson said, he decided it was time to bring some "balance" to the public TV and radio airwaves (read more - Paul Farhi-Washington Post)

A British tabloid newspaper published photos Friday of what it said were ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in his underwear. The newspaper, which published the photos in its second edition, did not indicate how it obtained the images. The Sun said it would publish more photos on Saturday. The Sun's front-page photo shows Saddam clad in only his underwear. Another photo inside the paper shows Saddam washing a piece of clothing by hand. The U.S. military said in a statement early Friday that an investigation was under way,  Saddam Hussein is reduced to shuffling around his prison compound in his underpants and washing his own dirty socks in a simple bowl. The Sun newspaper's world exclusive shots give a first fascinating insight into his pathetic life behind bars (read more - MSNBC) (read more - The Sun U.K.) You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

The Today programme and other flagship Radio 4 shows, including The World at One and PM, have joined the growing casualty list for Monday's BBC strike, which will take huge swathes of the corporation's TV and radio news output off air (read more - The Guardian-Media U.K.)

NASCAR Nextel Cup driver Tony Stewart has a debt to settle with WMC-AM's Ron Martin.  Before the Busch Series race at Daytona in February, Stewart was boasting to Martin, who also has a nationally syndicated radio show, "Focus on Racing Radio," about what a good car he had. As a joke, Martin asked Stewart for a sample from the car's sponsor, Mr. Clean AutoDry Car Wash, if Stewart won. Stewart's response: "I'll make you a deal. If I win ... I'll personally wash your car myself." The rest is history (read more - Memphis Commercial Appeal)

Dave Jarrott Observes -- Okay, help me out here; I'm an old guy having trouble keeping up with the new technology. As I understand it, podcasting is a new entertainment technology where just about anyone can create his/her own little music program and make it available for those with digital devices like iPods that can play podcast audio files. It's like pirate radio for the new millenium, right? It's radio without borders, free of those pesky announcers shilling for their sponsors. Or is it? (read more - DJO)

Cranston Mayor Stephen P. Laffey will return to the radio as a guest on "The Steve Kass Show," with an "Ask the Mayor'' call-in segment at 10 a.m., members of the mayor's staff said. Laffey, who had been forced out of his own WPRO-AM call-in show last month by the state Board of Elections, will return to the airwaves in a format similar to regular guest segments done by Governor Carcieri and Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline, also on WPRO (read more - Providence Journal)

WWBA-AM Tampa is the latest station to join the growing Sci Fi Zone affiliate list. This new two hour weekly show features stories, news, and celebrity guests from the world of science fiction including fantasy, horror, games, film, and television. The show provides programming each Saturday night 10p-12m ET. The Sci Fi Zone is hosted by John Fuld, Frank Dowler, and Anime Angie. Recent programs have included a May 18th broadcast from Universal Studios Florida to commemorate the opening of the new Star Wars movie (visit Radio Linx)

Club 95-Latino Vibe launches in Phoenix, featuring Reggaeton, Spanish Hip-Hop (Urbano) and Spanish Pop (visit Club95LatinoVibe.com)

Is Rush Limbaugh ducking and dodging a debate request from high school students? During a May 10 radio broadcast, Limbaugh criticized Evanston Township High School for having a multicultural curriculum. "The kids at Evanston don't know anything about World War II; they've probably never heard the name Adolf Hitler, but they know everything there is to know about the UN ... and all of its efforts," Limbaugh said in the broadcast. Bruce Romain, ETHS associate principal of grades 11 and 12, said Limbaugh does not know enough about the school to make such comments. "I don't think (Limbaugh is) well-informed," Romain said. "I think (ETHS's curriculum is) balanced probably more than most schools." Limbaugh did not respond to the student's request for him to debate them. Lisa Oberman, an English teacher at ETHS, said she would be interested to hear a debate between students and Limbaugh.  "Some kids don't realize until they leave the Evanston (area) that there's this big conservative enclave," she said. ETHS Spokeswoman Kathy Miehls said that there would not be a debate. "There are three weeks left of school," Miehls said. "Students (need) to focus on their studies and ... finals and not Rush Limbaugh." So, will Limbaugh answer the challenge and debate the students after the school year has ended?  The students wait for the answer with great anticipation across the fruited plains (read The Daily Northwestern)

With 2004 a disappointing year for radio in terms of growth, the top ten revenue generating stations from 2003 maintained their lead positions in 2004, according to the most recent estimates released by BIA Financial Network.  The top stations continue to be located in the New York City or Los Angeles markets, and are owned by Infinity Broadcasting (5 stations), Clear Channel Communications (4 stations), or Emmis Communications (1 station). A closer inspection of the rankings show the top two spots remaining the same – WLTW-FM number one, and WINS (AM) number two – with the number three station, KROQ-FM jumping up one spot and the number four station KFI (AM) jumping up four (read more - BIA)  (read more - www.johnrook.com)

From Charles F. Payne -- Funniest thing that happened to me? A slip of the tongue. My first summer in radio had me at KAND Corsicana. Had a scripted show of island music 5:45-6:00 pm. Script calls for segue into closing theme "Aloha Oe" - fade at appropriate time and I approached the mike and actually said the following (fade) "Aloha Oe and so the song of farting pades away." At 16 I was so rattled I don't really recall what happened next. After the song of "farting pading away", I was butt of bunch of jokes. Don't tell Cambridge, They might choose to recall my Doctorate, ugh  (read more - Jim Rose Remembers)

If Howard Eskin joins KYW's Sunday night sports show, "Sports Access," it will be interesting to see if he can improve the popularity of the show, which usually trails WCAU's "Sports Final" in the ratings at 11:30 p.m. A contributor to WCAU's "Sports Final" since 1996, Eskin announced that he was moving on to new challenges on Sunday (read more - Laura Nachman-Philly Burbs)

Premiere Radio Networks Inc. is expanding at its corporate headquarters in Sherman Oaks, CA, just outside Los Angeles. The Clear Channel subsidiary, which lists Rush Limbaugh, Donald Trump and Casey Kasem as on-air talent, renewed its lease with landlord Douglas Emmett three years early to take a total of 90,000 square feet in two buildings (read more - CPN)

AM 580 WDBO recently brought nationally syndicated radio and television talk show host Neal Boortz to Orlando for their first golf tournament at The Legacy Club Alaqua Lakes. WDBO donated $5,000 to the American Cancer Society in memory of Keith Altiero, former WDBO reporter who passed away. WDBO plans to do another golf event next year (visit 580 WDBO)

There is no media organization with more diverse content than public broadcasting and none more able to: educate a rapidly changing America; remain a safe harbor for children; serve as the classroom content of choice for teachers; conduct in-depth investigations of the day's local, national and international news and issues; produce local programs that directly serve unique communities; and reach beyond media to have an impact on citizens' lives. CPB officials have recently claimed that public broadcasting needs to improve its ability to reach more Americans. While we applaud such calls to improve our ability to reach more people with noncommercial public-interest programming, we do not accept assertions that public broadcasting lacks balance, or that Americans perceive public broadcasting to be biased (read more - Jeff Clarke-SF Chronicle)

Washington ESPN said during its upfront presentation Wednesday night it would extend its growing ESPN Deportes cable brand with the launch of the nation's first around-the-clock Spanish-language sports radio network (read more - AdWeek)

To comply with new regulations and reassure concerned customers, Vonage has struck deals to gain access to SBC's and BellSouth's enhanced 911 (E911) systems, the VoIP leader said today. Federal regulators had addressed a growing safety concern Thursday by voting to require Internet-based phone services to provide full-featured 911 service this year just as wireline phones do. VoIP service, which can offer unlimited local and long-distance calling for as little as about $16 a month, routes phone calls over a subscriber's broadband Internet line. About half the USA's 3 million VoIP customers get their service from cable companies that do provide E-911. But the other half get their service from Vonage and other suppliers (read more - Internet News) (read more - USA Today)

Scottish Radio Holdings reported higher first-half adjusted pre-tax profit, but added to the gloom in the radio sector by warning of "lacklustre" radio advertising in April and May (read more - The Herald U.K.)

Salem Music Network program director Vance Dillard, added the program duties for the syndicated Solid Gospel Network to his job. Dillard continues to serve as program director for Salem's Today Christian Music Network and The Word in Praise Network (read more - Nashville Biz Journal)

New Rock & 90's Alternative 99X is bringing its FREE summer concert series back to Downtown Atlanta for six Saturday nights, July through August 13, at Underground Atlanta! 99X Program Director Leslie Fram and Music Director Jay Harren are staying tightlipped about the impressive six-week lineup that they have been booking since January (read more - The Weekly)

KNHC-FM (89.5), the student-operated, nationally recognized dance-music station at Nathan Hale High School, isn't for sale.  Not yet anyway. But the Seattle School District, desperate to close budget deficits projected at $12.2 million for 2005-2006 and $20.7 million in 2006-2007, is considering all sorts of ideas (read more - Bill Virgin Seattle PI)

The Imus morning show on WFAN (660 AM) is known for its blunt remarks, but sports guy Sid Rosenberg pushed that envelope yesterday. The crew was discussing the report that singer Kylie Minogue has breast cancer and someone commented that she's attractive. Sid said, "She won't look so pretty when she's bald with one -----." + WNEW (102.7 FM) will rekindle the spirit of '78 over Memorial Day weekend, with a "Disco Explosion Reunion" that brings back four of the key jocks from the original WKTU   (read more - David Hinckley-NY Daily News)

Border radio was a cultural phenomenon ... that influenced American music, advertising, religion, politics and sex," said Texas writer Gene Fowler, author of "Border Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics and Other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves." Fowler's book, co-authored with Bill Crawford, is several years old, but it's in the news these days in the wake of a new album called "Heard It on the X" by the band Los Super Seven. It pays tribute to the blend of music styles heard on Mexican stations in the 1950s and 1960s. Most people think of that era when they hear the phrase "border radio." The words invoke a time when disc jockeys such as Wolfman Jack became the shock jocks of their day, bringing R&B and soul to listeners whose local stations were afraid to play it. But border radio goes even further back, to the beginning days of broadcasting (read more - Randy Dotinga-N C Times)

A federal jury went home Wednesday without deciding the case of Erin Weber, a former top-rated Detroit country music radio host who says the station dumped her after she developed a debilitating allergy to another host's perfume. Weber said she developed the allergy in 1999 after a supervisor at WYCD-FM made her work in a broadcast booth after a guest from an earlier show accidentally spilled acetone on the carpet while giving another host a pedicure (read more - Detroit Free Press)

Robert Feder celebrates 25 years as radio-TV columnist.  (click here to send him an "Attaboy, Bob" e-mail) Twenty-five years ago today, I joined the Chicago Sun-Times and began covering the television and radio beat. Since then, it's been an absolutely exhilarating ride. And I'm grateful to you for coming along. As I reflect on how fortunate I've been to do a job I truly love for the newspaper I grew up reading, I invite you to join me in looking back on some of the most unforgettable stories of the last 25 years (read more - Feder of Chicago)

The venerable “Mr. Movie” show hosted by Steve Friedman on WPHT 1210-AM Saturdays from 10 p.m. – 1 a.m. is a good way to keep up with the summer movies. Expect the new “Star Wars” movie opening today to make at least 125-million dollars this weekend. Though I love the new mixed bag format of BEN 95.7-FM (The "Can't Get Out of the Car Because I Love These Songs" of the week - “Don’t Shed a Tear” by Paul Carrack and “I Can’t Hold Back” by Survivor), I miss the disco music of “Boogie Nights” on the weekend (read more - Laura Nachman-Philly Burbs)

When I bought a new car equipped with Sirius satellite radio, I had no idea how the technology would alter my sense of the passing American landscape. With its clear, unvarying signal, which seems to arrive from a spot beyond the moon, and its vast profusion of music, news and talk shows, the medium places you at the center of everything, even when you're in the middle of nowhere. The problem is that the center of everything is not an actual, inhabitable place but a floating media mirage, an invisible digital bubble of information located somewhere in the fifth dimension. Having passed through the canyonlands of Utah while listening to Caribbean pop and having crossed the Black Hills of South Dakota immersed in a disco channel called the Strobe, I feel after a year of nonstop driving (50,000 miles in all) that I haven't, in fact, gone anywhere except deeper and deeper inside my radio. It used to feel different out there on the road (read more - Walter Kirn-Time)

570 KLIF Dallas-Fort Worth is now offering podcasts of its talk programming. (click here for the KLIFpod) "The beauty of podcasting is that you get to listen whenever you want, wherever you are," quips KLIF (visit KLIF 570)

Clear Channel radio host Glenn Beck said he was "thinking about killing [filmmaker] Michael Moore" and pondered whether "I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it," before concluding: "No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out -- is this wrong?" (read more - Media Matters)

V-103, despite sky-high ratings, keeps shaking things up, dropping nighttime guy Toss Swaid after three years. Greg Street, recently re-hired full time at V-103, takes over the 6 to 10 p.m. slot (read more - Peach Buzz-Atlanta JC)

A recent study by Forrester Research found that people spend 34% of their media consumption time, including both home and work, on the Internet. After years of siphoning ad dollars from newspapers and magazines, the Internet is starting to chip away at the biggest and most powerful medium of all: television (read more - LA Times)

Ken Auletta of The New Yorker and Meryl Gordon of New York magazine are working on stories about the vicious war between the morning news shows. Auletta is said to be getting more cooperation from the folks at NBC, who are on the defensive because of the recent firing of "Today" executive producer Tom Touchet and the steady erosion of their ratings dominance. " 'Today' had a 6-million viewer lead a couple of years ago. Now they are down to a 70,000 margin" (read more - NY Post)

Longstanding complaints by pro-Israel groups about unbalanced Mideast coverage by National Public Radio could be ammunition in a raging battle over what the Bush administration sees as the network’s liberal bias. That pleases pro-Israel media watchdog groups that have been pressing NPR to end what it calls the station’s journalistic bias against Israel. But it worries some Jewish leaders because of the possibility the pro-Israel agenda could become ensnared in a political spat involving charges of censorship and partisan bias (read more - The Jewish Week)

Adam Curry's name rings a bell for a lot of people who came of age in the 1980s watching the former video jockey, who was a mainstay on MTV. But Curry, who left the music channel in 1994 and moved to Europe, may be remembered by even more people for his pioneering work in the emerging field of podcasting. Curry, who dabbled in various Internet ventures after leaving his television gig, resurfaced last year as perhaps the most well-known face associated with podcasting, a technology that's opened the door for thousands of amateurs to create radio programs and find an audience for them on the Web (read more - CNET)

Dave Jarrott Observes -- So CBS has cancelled "60 Minutes Wednesday" and says it was all about ratings (or lack of them) and not content? And yet, "48 Hours Mystery" which was 98th, well below number 74 "60 Minutes Wednesday," will return.  Right. Not that I'm complaining.  Even that old warhouse, the original Sunday night version of "60 Minutes" gets tedious sometimes (read more - DJO)

President George Bush is expected to issue a directive in the next few weeks giving the US air force a green light for the development of space weapons, potentially triggering a new global arms race, it was reported yesterday. The new weapons being studied range from hunter-killer satellites to orbiting weapons using lasers, radio waves, or even dense metal tubes dropped from space by a weapon known as "Rods from God" on ground targets (read more - The Guardian U.K.)  You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

"Gilligan's Island's" Bob Denver, 70, is recuperating from quadruple heart bypass surgery  (read more - ABC News)

57 year old newsman Mike Jasinski of Rapid City's KOTA has died. Jasinski died in his sleep after a battle with diabetes (read more - Rapid City Journal)

For the third week in a row, conventional wisdom won out on Fox's "American Idol" as 21-year-old Vonzell Solomon was cut from the competition for a recording contract. That leaves likable country singer Carrie Underwood to face hard-rocking Bo Bice in next week's finals. "You, in particular, have grown the most in this competition," host Ryan Seacrest told Solomon, just before telling her that she had ended her run on the top-rated talent competition (read more - Tim Cuprisin-Milwaukee JS)

Interep announced that four additional industry leaders in research and marketing will speak at its upcoming Radio Symposium, "Radio's Reinvention," Thursday, June 16th at the Grand Hyatt in New York. The symposium will address the current opportunities and challenges facing the radio industry. The four speakers are Pat Walsh, Chief Financial Officer for iBiquity; Bill Koenigsberg, President/CEO of Horizon Media; Pierre Bouvard, President, Portable People Meter and International for Arbitron and Erwin Ephron, founder of Ephron, Papazian & Ephron and the acknowledged father of modern media planning (read more - Interep)

Concerned listeners to the Michael Graham Show on 630 WMAL were to gather outside the main entrance of the Washington Post/Newsweek offices in Washington DC Wednesday from 5-6pm to demand accountability from the media giant for their handling of the bogus “Koran in the Toilet” story. Graham was to join his listeners outside the Washington Post’s corporate offices at 1150 15th Street NW (15th and L) for a “Heads Must Roll” rally, demanding that the Washington Post/Newsweek hold themselves to the same standards they demand from those they cover (visit Michael Graham-WMAL)

Is that a Podcast in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? Further insuring the cell phone's position is the center of the universe, FreeRange Communications today introduced FreeNews, an RSS news and weblog reader for mobile devices, phones and PDAs. With FreeNews, people can get feeds of Web information such as news, sports, weather, stock quotes, or company news" directly on their phones (read more - AdRants)

Chuck Blore is taking a break this week. He asked Mel Hall to write a few words ... Mel writes: Chuck is busy this week, producing or directing some God-awful infomercial that will, no doubt, add luster to “The Legend”. Right. “The Legend”. What a piece of crap this is. Let me tell you a few things about Legendary Charlie. Every time he writes a chapter for this column he drives me nuts. He emails his first draft to me and asks me to ‘edit’ it for him. Have you ever tried to edit the ramblings of a high school dropout? Legendary? Give me a break ... (read more - on Chuck Blore's page with Mel Hall)

Kenny Chesney won his first entertainer trophy from the Academy of Country Music, and he had plenty of time to thank his supporters. Keith Urban and Gretchen Wilson carried off two major awards, assuring the music industry (who submitted the ballots) that their individual careers are still exploding. Urban won for top male vocalist and his Golden Road won for album of the year. Tim McGraw's new signature song, "Live Like You Were Dying," won for single record of the year (read more - CMT) (read more - NY Post)

Bob Feder gets letters:  Matt Smith: Does it amaze you that they could elect a pope faster than WLS or WGN can find program directors? Lisa Dowling: Can I just tell you, I hate radio. In my opinion, there is not one single radio team in the morning I enjoy. Jeff Blumenthal: Why is WYLL special enough to be granted 50,000 watts day and night when WJJD was never afforded the same opportunity? WJJD might still be around if it had the increased power (read more - Feder of Chicago)

Emmis Communications Corp. received a subpoena in March from the office of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, related to an investigation of a contest at an Emmis-owned radio station in New York City. Emmis disclosed the subpoena Monday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (read more - Indy Star)

Sirius Satellite Radio and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum today announced an agreement making SIRIUS the Official Satellite Radio Partner of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Under the partnership, Sirius DJs will broadcast live on a daily basis from the Alan Freed Radio Studio located inside the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. Sirius also plans to produce and broadcast exclusive special programs and events related to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's inductees, as well as live performances from the Museum (read more - Rock Hall of Fame)

Two of the biggest names in Detroit radio -- national syndicated power Tom Joyner and longtime Detroit urban morning star John Mason -- will likely be changing broadcast places before the month is out. Joyner's show is now owned by the Radio One chain that owns and operates Detroit's WDMK-FM (102.7), WDTJ-FM (105.9) and WCHB-AM (1200). That said, he's expected to leave his 6-10 a.m. weekday spot at Clear Channel-owned WMXD-FM (92.3) for WDMK, WMXD's primary competitor (read more - Detroit Free Press)

It's strike three for "60 Minutes Wednesday," the news magazine that was at the forefront of one of the biggest scandals in CBS history. The network officially cancelled the program Wednesday morning. At a press conference announcing the new fall schedule, CBS chief Leslie Moonves insisted the cancellation "was a ratings call and not a content call - I know that's a question," adding that "it was the oldest-skewing show on the schedule [and] down in every single [ratings] category" (read more - Newsday)

Susan Karis, Clear Channel Radio Senior Vice President, Southwest region, today announced the appointment of Joe Puglise to Market Manager of the Phoenix radio cluster. In his new role, Puglise will oversee eight radio stations, the Total Traffic Network, integrated marketing and web operation. He will report directly to Karis (visit Clear Channel)

Less than a week after being yanked off the air, on Tuesday Coyote McCloud and Cathy Martindale prepared to return to the FM radio band today to dish up oldies from the 1960s. The morning disc jockeys, who were out of a job on Thursday when WMAK-FM 96.3 switched to a new format called JACK-FM, were hired to assume nearly their same show from WMAK at WRQQ-FM by station owner Cumulus (read more - Chris Lewis-Nashville City Paper)

If the Corporation for Public Broadcasting went after NewsHour, "I would raise unshirted hell," Jim Lehrer says. Keep your shirt on, Jimbo. Controversial new CPB boss Kenneth Tomlinson - in hot water for hiring an outside consultant to monitor the political content of lefty Bill Moyers' Now on PBS - is loopy for Lehrer (read  more - Gail Shister-Philly Inquirer)

Corey Deitz, a veteran Radio personality and commercial voiceover talent has launched PodcasterVoiceOvers.com to provide Podcasters on a small budget the professional and quality voiceover services only up to now radio stations relied on. Podcastervoiceovers.com produces custom show intros, outros and any other type of production or voiceover needs a Podcaster may have (read more - www.podcastervoiceovers.com)

AM 760's Jay Marvin mans the nationwide progressive microphone Friday afternoon May 20 when he fills in for Ed Schultz.  The former Texas, California, Florida and Illinois radio vet recently joined AM 760 in the Denver-Boulder market after several years at WLS Chicago (listen to Ed Schultz Show)  (visit Jay Marvin-AM 760)

"Europe is dying. Europe is in shackles. There is unemployment in double digits and zero growth." That was just one of Jack Welch's pronouncements yesterday at breakfast at '21' as Charlie Rose peppered him with questions in front of a crowd that included Ed Koch, Mario Cuomo, Georgette Mosbacher, William O'Shaughnessy, Kenneth Cole, Robert Zimmerman, Muriel Siebert, Cartier president Stanislas de Quercize and former Giants coach Allie Sherman. "Neutron Jack," who turned General Electric into the world's best-run company, also said: "Outsourcing is good for the American economy ..." (read more - Page Six)

Virgin Radio breakfast hosts Pete and Geoff called an end to three years of early starts yesterday, telling bosses they want to leave the show at the end of the year (read more - BBC)  (read more - The Guardian U.K.)  Award-winning DJ Christian O’Connell has quit Xfm to join rock and pop station Virgin Radio. He will hit the airwaves early next year, replacing Pete Mitchell and Geoff Lloyd on the breakfast show (read more - the Scotsman)

Jurors in a Louisville courtroom are being asked to decide how far is too far in exposing the personal relationships of media personalities. Former WDRB morning TV host Darcie Divita is suing her former boyfriend and ex-radio host John Ziegler. Divita's attorneys said they'll prove Ziegler's on-air comments in 2003 about Divita after their breakup were full of malice, and added that they're seeking a significant financial settlement, WLKY NewsChannel 32's Bill Alexander reported (read more - 32 WLKY TV) (read more - Louisville Courier-Journal)

Steve Parker Productions is looking for an experienced, motivated and qualified salesperson to represent their radio and TV properties  (visit CarNutTV.com)

Video killed the radio star ... not in Dubai it didn’t! The radio stars were brought to life in a contest recently hosted by Reef Mall. The contest was conducted in collaboration with Channel 4 network and their associate channels: 89.1, 104.8 and Al Rabia 107.8 (read more - Gulf News)

Mary Mapes — the disgraced CBS News producer fired for using phony documents in a pre-election story trashing President Bush — is unrepentant and still claiming her forged National Guard memos are real. Mapes stood behind Dan Rather Monday as he accepted a Peabody Award for their "60 Minutes II" story, "Abuse at Abu Ghraib." (read more - NY Post)

"If corporations marked up their products in similar manner, the same stations would lambaste them for their greed, but "free speech" radio never gets criticized for their own greed." Well, it's fund-raising time once again at Pacifica Radio. People of conscience who tend to love the content of the various programs, such as Guns and Butter, Democracy Now, Flash Point, Against the Grain, etc., find ourselves bombarded once again with pleas to "call us and let us know you are out there", especially if you can spare fifty bucks or a hundred or two in order to receive a "gift" from your local station or favorite program (read more - Media Monitors)

For those who can’t get enough of Garrison Keillor, Tribune Media Services Tuesday announced an agreement to begin syndicating the droll humorist’s new weekly column (read more - Chicago Business)

Before the hearing before the Senate committee began, George Galloway, the MP for Bethnal Green and Bow had some scorn left over to bestow generously upon the pro-war writer Christopher Hitchens. "You're a drink-soaked former-Trotskyist popinjay," Mr Galloway informed him. "Your hands are shaking. You badly need another drink," he added later, ignoring Mr Hitchens's questions and staring intently ahead. "And you're a drink-soaked..." Eventually Mr Hitchens gave up. "You're a real thug, aren't you?" he hissed, stalking away. It was a hint of what was to come. When it was his turn to speak, Mr Galloway drew frequent gasps of amazement from watching journalists and other interested parties, astonished at the chutzpah he was displaying. For the Americans in the audience, this was a new experience; for the Britons, it was all too familiar (read more - Washington Post) (read more - The Guardian U.K.) (read more - The Scotsman)  (read more - The Times of India)  You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

The Federal Communications Commission is set to rule on Thursday on the issue to set strict new 911 requirements for most Internet phone providers. Public safety groups and traditional telephone companies support the idea, citing the need to support the general public's expectations for emergency calling (read more - Washington Post)

Voting is now underway as members fill out their ballots to select the 2005 Texas Radio Hall of Fame inductees for "The National Radio Hall of Fame of Texas" ... This year's induction celebration will be held in the Dallas area at the Grapevine Convention Center. More info, the ballot and list are available now on the Web site at www.texasradiohalloffame.com

Rush Limbaugh has announced that his site will begin offering a commercial podcast starting June 3rd (read more - Podcasting News)

I had a chance to do a live radio interview from South of the Border. Without extensive research, I think it is safe to say no one in the history of radio has done a live interview from South of the Border. OK, well, maybe nobody had done an interview on sports talk radio from South of the Border. All right, if we really want to be safe, I believe I am secure in saying no one in the history of XM sports talk radio has done a live interview from South of the Border. It was truly a milestone in broadcasting. If you are one of the unfortunate souls who has never passed by South of the Border, it is like a Pocono Mountains souvenir shop on steroids (read more - Thom Loverro-Washington Times)

HD Radio has been much examined by the engineers and sellers and owners and programmers. But from what I can tell not a single consumer marketer has ever tried to make sense of it. Until now. Will HD Radio die a premature and ignominious death? I hope not. But the difference between the success of, say, digital photography and the failure of, say, AM stereo is the difference between understanding the way consumers think and ignoring it. So far, we’re ignoring it. Here are the reasons why HD Radio could die on the vine – unless you and I do something about it now (read more - Mark Ramsey-Mercury Radio Research)

On May 21, Premiere Radio Networks will deliver the exclusive radio call of The 130th Preakness Stakes live from Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md. The Preakness features The Kentucky Derby winning horse Giacomo. The broadcast will be distributed to more than 185 radio stations nationwide including New York/WFAN-AM and Los Angeles/KLAC-AM, with clearances in 49 out of the top 50 markets, as well as worldwide clearance on the American Forces Radio Network. The one-hour broadcast will begin at 5:30 p.m. (ET) with The Preakness Stakes post time scheduled for 6:05 p.m. (ET). (visit Premiere Radio)

ABC Radio Networks announced an agreement to syndicate The Michael Baisden Show on up to six urban adult contemporary stations owned by Citadel Broadcasting. The program, syndicated nationally since January 2005, is already heard on stations in five of the top 10 U.S. markets, including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Detroit. It is currently among the highest-rated afternoon drive programs in the New York Metro area (visit ABC Radio Networks)

Dave Jarrott Observes -- There's a legend in the Zanzibar spice islands in the Indian Ocean of Popo Bawa, a winged batlike ogre that sodomizes women, men and children alike. A Reuters story out of Tanzania tells us: Although no one ever has seen it, belief in the monster and his unnatural lust is so strong that entire villages will sleep out of doors for protection: Popo Bawa (Swahili for Bat's Wing) prefers to attack behind closed doors at night (read more - DJO)

Arbitron will be briefing its customers on the enhancements the company plans to make to its radio ratings services in small markets. Over the past months, Arbitron has talked about this initiative in general terms as they worked with the Radio Advisory Council and a variety of customers. On May 25, Arbitron would like to share with the radio industry the specific details about their enhanced small market service, along with information on when small market subscribers can expect these new enhancements. They've already extended this invitation to their small market customers (register online -  Arbitron)

This year I nominated Rush Limbaugh for an honorary doctorate at the University of Southern California, where I am a professor. Why Limbaugh _ a man with whom I disagree at least as much as I agree? (read more - Leonard M. Adleman-LA Daily News)

A.W. Pantoja has resigned after 10 months as morning personality at "Nine FM," the eclectic music simulcast combo of WDEK-FM (92.5), WKIE-FM (92.7) and WRZA-FM (99.9), to join Cumulus Broadcasting as midday host of a new FM talk station in Houston + Eddie Volkman and Joe Bohannon take their WBBM -FM (96.3) morning show on the road Friday when they broadcast from the Elmhurst Dunkin' Donuts (read more - Feder of Chicago)

Arbitron announced that it will boost the sample size of its RADAR network radio ratings service by twenty-five percent from 80,000 diarykeepers to 100,000 diarykeepers. In addition, this increase in RADAR sample size will allow Arbitron to expand the new Market by Market Reporting tool, which currently reports the top 10 DMAs, to the top 25 DMAs by June 2005 (read more - Arbitron)

The best of Hollywood visual effects meets high-definition television in an exclusive HDNet telecast of the third annual Visual Effects Society (VES) Awards, premiering Thursday, May 19 at 9:00 p.m. ET. The one-hour telecast of this Oscar-like celebration, recognizing outstanding visual effects in 19 categories of film, television, commercials, music videos and games, features high-def presentations of the winning effects, as well a sneak peek into the secrets behind how the amazing effects were conceived and created. This year's winners include "Spider-Man 2," "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," "The Day After Tomorrow," "The Aviator," "Lost" and "The Incredibles." (visit HD.net)

Podcasters took over KYCY 1550 AM, a San Francisco radio station, Monday, replacing traditional radio personalities like Don Imus with a homespun potpourri of shows featuring independent musicians, martini-making and mortality. "It's a grand experiment,'' said Rob Barnett, Infinity's president of programming. "More than anything else, this is about opening up the gates and letting people inside a large broadcasting corporation to give (them) immediate access to the airwaves.'' (read more - Benny Evangelista-SF Chronicle)

TV Land will step into the Comedy spotlight at the new $22-million Museum of Broadcast Communications, now being developed in Chicago. The 10-year partnership includes an undisclosed monetary donation as well as a major promotional commitment from the network that underscores TV Land's commitment to the preservation of television and radio comedy (visit MBC)

WABC (770 AM) must be pleased with Warner Wolf's contribution to the Curtis and Kuby morning show, because after just nine months he's up there with them on the new WABC billboards. Wolf has been in town for decades, but this is his first billboard (read more - David Hinckley-NY Daily News)

The shock jock is apparently shocked -- shocked -- that some people dislike his program. Howard Stern got a thumbs-down from some Hyundai customers surveyed by the carmaker earlier this year, Hyundai spokeswoman Toni Honsowetz said. A handful of customers said in unsolicited comments that they'd prefer XM Satellite Radio to avoid hearing Howard Stern on rival Sirius Satellite Radio, she said ... Karen Mateo, a spokeswoman for Infinity Broadcasting, Stern's employer, refused to comment on or confirm Stern's remarks regarding the survey (read more - Newsday)

The rapid growth in cell-phone only households is pressuring public opinion researchers to adapt their surveying methods, which are based heavily on telephone interviews of people with traditional landline phones. The number of households using only a cell phone doubled in less than two years, with the rate rising faster among certain groups, researchers found. "The polling community needs to come up with a strategy sooner rather than later," said Stephen Blumberg, a senior scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (read more - Forbes)

When Ruth Koscielak, who hosts a radio show in Minneapolis, asked Jane Fonda if she would ever run for political office the actress exclaimed: "No way! It's not my thing . . . When I was married to Ted Turner, he talked about running for office and I threatened to leave him if he did." (read more - NY Post)

XM Satellite Radio's chief executive Hugh Panero said Monday that he is holding active discussions with wireless carriers about offering a form of its radio service on cell phones (read more - Reuters)

A bomb sent in a gift box to a radio announcer in Mindanao exploded, killing a teenage boy and hurting another person, police said yesterday. The bomb, sent to dzRH-MBN radio station announcer Lucio Ceniza, exploded in the home of Mt. Diwalwal barangay chairman Tito Franco in Monkayo town in Compostela Valley last Friday night, police said (read more - Philstar)

Rush Limbaugh took a question from a caller who asked if podcasts were on the way to the EIB audio environs. Limbaugh said "we are in the process of setting up a system for that to happen."  No timetable yet, but El Rushpod says there may be an "attempt here to tie it in with the Apple Music Store" (read more - RushLimbaugh.com transcripts)

Houston Hawk is working on a column about the latest and upcoming frequency shake-ups and shake-outs in the Bayou City.  Coming sooner than later in RDN CENTRAL (visit Houston Hawk)

Clear Channel Radio provided an update on its progress with its “Less is More” initiative. “Clear Channel Radio stations sound great and are clearly the best environment for listeners and advertisers. The response from both is exceeding our expectations,” said John Hogan, President and CEO of Clear Channel Radio. “Early ratings reports show audience share is up and we’re meeting with more advertisers, at higher levels, than in the past 20 years. Radio’s importance to advertisers is clearly being elevated and that benefits Clear Channel Radio and the industry as a whole.” (read more - Business Wire)

When WLTQ dropped its soft rock format last fall and became '80s rocker WQBW-FM (97.3) - which calls itself the Brew - devoted female fans of the syndicated nighttime stylings of Delilah lost their reason for listening to the radio at night. Well, Delilah resurfaces on the Brew's sister station, WOKY-AM (920) June 1 in the 7 p.m. to midnight weeknight slot. That means "When Radio Was," a showcase of old-time radio programs, disappears from WOKY's evening lineup (read more - Tim Cuprisin-Milwaukee JS)

Web logs, or blogs, may be a powerful new force in U.S. politics but they have not displaced traditional media in terms of information and influence, a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project revealed on Monday.  (read more - Reuters) (read more - Pew)  (read more - Vox News)

Twenty years ago, contemporary Christian music was a cottage industry with annual sales of $85 million. Thanks to sophisticated production, marketing, and distribution, sales totaled $720 million last year. So far, corporations haven't shown as much interest in Christian radio. That's surprising because "Christian music is the fastest-growing area of radio," says Frank Wright, president of National Religious Broadcasters, which represents most of the nation's 2,000 religious stations, almost all run by evangelicals. "And the vast majority of these are run by nonprofit organizations," says Wright. The most notable exception, publicly held Salem Communications, has more than 100 Christian talk, music, and news-talk stations concentrated in the nation's 25 largest markets. Salem Chairman Edward Atsinger, a committed evangelical, made his mark as one of the pioneers of modern Christian radio (read more - BusinessWeek)

Dave Jarrott Observes -- Let's get back to basics.  Let's start the school year after Labor Day.  And if our children don't get two weeks off in December and have to study for finals over that shorter break, well...hmmmm ... I thought the idea was for them to learn something in school, not to just spend time in class in between holidays and breaks. Most of us had school schedules like that and we managed to learn something and graduate and get jobs.  Okay, maybe not real jobs.  Maybe they were radio or television jobs.  But we survived public school nonetheless. Okay, where's that Pink Floyd album, "The Wall"? (read more - DJO)

Ask some businesses about radio advertising and they'll tell you it's the greatest investment they ever made while others will tell you it was a complete waste of time and money. So why does radio work for some and not for others? What's the secret to successful radio advertising? (read more - Hal Eisenberg-WebProNews)

Contrary to White House assertions, the allegations of religious desecration at Guantanamo published by Newsweek May 6 are common among ex-prisoners and have been widely reported outside the United States, RAW STORY has learned. Several former detainees at the Guantanamo and Bagram airbase prisons have reported instances of their handlers sitting or standing on the Quran, throwing or kicking it in toilets, and urinating on it. Where the Newsweek report likely erred was in saying that the U.S. was slated to acknowledge desecrating the Quran in internal investigations, and in relying on a single anonymous source to make grave allegations. But reports of desecration are manifold. One such incident—during which the Koran allegedly was thrown in a pile and stepped on—prompted a hunger strike among Guantanamo detainees in Mar. 2002, which led to an apology. The New York Times interviewed former detainee Nasser Nijer Naser al-Mutairi May 1, who said the protest ended with a senior officer delivering an apology to the entire camp. "A former interrogator at Guantanamo, in an interview with the Times, confirmed the accounts of the hunger strikes, including the public expression of regret over the treatment of the Korans," Times reporters Neil A. Lewis and Eric Schmitt wrote in "Inquiry Finds Abuses at Guantanamo Bay."  (read more - Raw Story)  (read more - Salon)  You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

After a drumbeat of criticism from the Bush administration and others, Newsweek magazine yesterday went beyond an apology it issued Sunday and retracted an article published May 1 that stated that American interrogators at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, had tried to rattle Muslim detainees by flushing a Koran down a toilet (read more - NY Times)  (read more - Dennis Prager) (read more - Bill Murchison)

From Jim Rose -- ...  it was still very dark outside and I didn't have the front door locked. Into the control room quietly walked a fella who was dressed in his Sunday best. He never uttered a single word. Just stood there and stared at me. Didn't recognize him, but he seemed innocent enough. Figured he was another one of the record promo people. Had my headphones on and was about to do a stop-set. Told him to wait just a minute. When I finished, removed the headphones and turned around to face him, he moved toward me in a quick manner. Just like in the movies when detectives flipped out their badges, he flipped out his  ... (read more - Jim Rose Remembers)

On ABC NightLine -- NightLine took a look at what Newsweek did and what it means for the United States in its so far uphill battle in the PR front launched after 9/11 to reach out to the Muslim world to convince many of them that the United States is not waging a war against Islam. Among their guests, Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker (visit ABC NightLine)

Dear Radio Babe, What happened at station WIBQ? I tuned in to hear the "Mid-day Magazine," one of the best programs on the air. They have interesting interviews, book reviews, guests from show business, city officials; (and) Don Blair from NBC and Jack Perkins are regular "drop-ins." To my surprise, I hear jocks talking sports to a mid-day audience of retirees and housewives who could care less about some baseball player taking steroids.Either they have changed station managers, or they need to. Very truly yours, T.K. Dear T.K., Strong words, there (read more - Dawn Scire-The Radio Babe)

The New York Times announced that it will start charging for some online content, beginning in September. The new, premium level of membership will be called TimesSelect, and participants will have exclusive access to Op-Ed and news columnists on NYTimes.com, easy and in-depth access to the paper's online archives, and early access to certain articles on the site, among other features.  Home-delivery subscribers will automatically receive TimesSelect membership. For non-subscribers, it will cost $49.95. Most news, features, and multimedia on the Times site will remain free (read more - Editor & Publisher)

ABC News Radio, has promoted Andrew Kalb to Executive Director, Programming. In his new position, Kalb will identify new programming opportunities. Kalb most recently served as Director, News Programming, for ABC News Radio (visit ABC News Radio)

Boston's WRKO-AM  has cancelled, "Newsweek On Air". A statement was read announcing the program's removal. It was indicated that its yanking was a result of the still-developing flap. The Radio Equalizer contacted WRKO Program Director Mike Elder, who said he'd already begun to prepare for the show's eventual removal before this incident, but added, "then, the situation over the weekend with NEWSWEEK saying their report was a mistake, led me to move forward more quickly than originally planned." (read more - Radio Equalizer Blogspot)

Sean Hannity of WABC (770 AM), today's No. 1 afternoon talker, has often said Bob Grant was one of the major figures on whom he went to school. WFAN morning man Imus will at times, as a kind of radio in-joke, growl Grant's signature phrase, "Get off my phone!" Grant has talked about retirement over the years, but says he'll "keep coming to work as long as I enjoy it, and they'll let me in the door." (read more - David Hinckley-NY Daily News)

Radio used to be so straightforward. A signal traveled over the airwaves, into your radio and out came a Cubs game or a Coldplay song. But now, alternatives that don't act like traditional radio are competing for your ears. You can hear a Cubs broadcast via satellite while driving in Boston or listen to hours of Coldplay from a customized Internet radio station. What's at stake for terrestrial broadcasters are the advertising dollars that have been the lifeblood of their business since commercial radio hit the airwaves in 1920 (read more - Judy Artunian-Chicago Tribune)

XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. said Monday it had surpassed the 4 million subscriber mark and was on track to hit its goal of 5.5 million subscribers by the end of the year (read more - San Diego Union Tribune)

Bill Moyers denounced on Sunday the right wing and top officials at the White House, saying they are trying to silence their critics by controlling the news media. He also took aim at reporters who become little more than willing government "stenographers." And he said the public increasingly is content with just enough news to confirm its own biases. Moyers spoke in St. Louis at a conference on media reform. "The flag has been hijacked and turned into a logo, a trademark of a monopoly on patriotism," Moyers said. Moyers had harsh words for reporters who simply recount what officials say, without scrutinizing what they say and do. He said New York Times correspondent Judith Miller, among other reporters, had relied on official but unnamed sources "when she served essentially as the government's stenographer for claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction." Moyers said he has come to understand that "news is what people want to keep hidden and everything else is publicity." He said that kind of reporting has never been tougher to do (read more - St Louis Post-Dispatch)  (read more - David Rossie-Press and Bulletin)  (read more - The Nation)

KYOURADIO, Infinity Broadcasting's podcast-based radio station, has launched, featuring podcasts submitted via the Internet. The station is available in San Francisco at 1550 KYCY-AM and streamed online at www.kyouradio.com (read more - Podcasting News)  

The world’s first portable compact Internet radio device, developed within Australia by Torian was recently highlighted at the 2005 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES). It's called InFusion. A technology called iRoamer, from fellow Australian company Grey Innovation, provides Infusion with a portable Internet radio connection allowing it to tune into any streaming radio station, anywhere in the world while in a wireless hot spot (read more - Corey Deitz-About)

Rita Cosby, host of two weekend shows on Fox News Channel, is departing immediately. She'll be working at MSNBC according to reports   (read more - Washington Times)  (read more - Variety)

Emmis Communications Corporation announced today that it has commenced its previously announced "Dutch Auction" tender offer to purchase up to 20,250,000 shares of its Class A common stock at a price per share not less than $17.25 and not greater than $19.75 (read more - PR Newswire)

In an era of massive corporate radio consolidation, calling Brooks Brown an anomaly hardly does him justice. The WEQX-FM owner, creator and operator is to the rest of the industry as the Flintstones are to the Jetsons (read more - Rutland Herald)

Executives at National Public Radio are increasingly at odds with the Bush appointees who lead the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In one of several points of conflict in recent months, the chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which allocates federal funds for public radio and television, is considering a plan to monitor Middle East coverage on NPR news programs for evidence of bias, a corporation spokesman said on Friday. The corporation's board has told its staff that it should consider redirecting money away from national newscasts and toward music programs produced by NPR stations (read more - NY Times)

For 51 years, the sounds of Spanish life have flowed across the airwaves in the Tampa Bay area, thriving today on five Spanish-only AM radio stations (read more - Will Rodgers-Tampa Tribune)

Ricky Gervais is returning to the airwaves after taking a year-long break to write his latest sitcom Extras. The Office star will present a radio show with his comedy partner Stephen Merchant on London-based indie station Xfm (read more - GMTV)

Howard Stern's contract with the E! cable channel to air a TV version of his radio show could be extended until December, but it's unlikely that the program will continue beyond that, sources said (read more - Reuters)

From Don Keyes' "Gordon McLendon and Me" -- I looked out the window of the DC-9 as we sat on the ramp at Love Field and felt reassured as I saw my luggage on the cart being loaded into the big belly of the aircraft. Along with my suitcase there were cardboard boxes containing tapes, copy and electrical transcriptions. The latter contained promos and jingles for the newest McLendon station, WAKY in Louisville. Gordon along with our Chief Engineer, Glenn Callison, and our V.P. for P.R., Mitch Lewis, had caught an earlier flight, but I was delayed for some reason and was traveling alone. As I deplaned in Louisville I headed for the baggage claim, found all my gear and hailed a cab. “Take me to the Alamo Plaza Motel” I said to the driver and away we went into the darkness of early evening ... (read more - www.donkeyesonline.com)

BBC Radio 1, once the most popular radio station in Britain, has been told to implement a brutal round of cost-cutting in which it will have to slash its budgets by 15 per cent. The cuts, part of the BBC director general Mark Thompson's sweeping programme of reforms, will mean that the radio station will have to axe some of its most expensive contracts and will threaten its involvement in covering major music events (read more - The Independent U.K.)

Almost from the moment Arianna Huffington's blog  www.huffingtonpost.com went live last week, it became the epicenter of digital snarkiness. Seemingly everyone with access to the Web—and more than a few spitballers from mainstream media—took a shot at the socialite pundit's site, a compendium of the views, opinions and random remarks of 350 actors, pundits, writers and politicos ... Bloggers complained about its cluenessness, lack of focus and self-aggrandizement. One writer called it "the box-office equivalent of Gigli, Ishtar and Heaven's Gate rolled into one." Someone even created an anti-Arianna blog, with the Web address huffington.isfullofcrap.com (read more - Newsweek)

"Don't know much about history. . .'' A line from Sam Cooke's "Wonderful World"? No, it's the central theme struck on his radio show by Rush Limbaugh in besmirching the multicultural curriculum at Evanston Township High School. Claiming multiculturalists are ''balkanizing this country'' and diluting pride in American culture, he charged the Evanston students ''don't know anything about World War II'' and ''probably never heard the name of Adolf Hitler.'' The right wing icon may have been expecting from the students the same wimpy response he usually gets from liberals. Instead, they called him out, challenging him to a debate on American history to expose serious gaps in his own understanding about the teaching of American values in a multicultural education. Limbaugh should do the honorable thing and accept the challenge (read more - Chicago Sun-Times)

From Claude Hall -- Come Join Us! It's going to be a great evening. June 4. At the Fremont Experience in downtown Las Vegas. Bobby Vee and his band, the Vees. A free show in what used to be the street in front of Binion's Horseshoe.  I will be there. And the legendary radio disc jockey, program director, and general manager George Wilson. I believe that Carla and Ed Strange who operate Krazy Kat Records in Albuquerque will also be there. We hope you will be able to join us for a fun, highly nostalgic evening. Bobby and George and I and the Stranges would like to say hello + e-mails from Chuck Buell, Shelby Singleton, Ted Adkins, Roger Carroll, Bob Dearborn, Ben Fong-Torres, Jack Gale, Jack Hakim, Bob Levinson, Bill Kingman, Ted Marvelle and more (read more - www.claudehallonline.com)

CBS News may be in trouble again for twisting the facts to suit its liberal bias. Kenneth Starr is accusing CBS News of editing an interview he granted the network's Gloria Berger to deliberately distort his meaning (read more - NY Post)

When the NHL lockout commenced, it looked as if he faced a bleak winter workwise. Dave Goucher, the Bruins' play-by-play announcer on WBZ radio, doing fill-in duty for Gil Santos or Tom Cuddy delivering drive-time sports reports, went to WBZ program director Peter Casey and asked if there was anything else he could do to help out around the station. ''I challenge you to find a news manager anywhere who wouldn't want an extra body in the newsroom, especially one like Goucher," said Casey, who recognized that Goucher had the interviewing and people skills to make an immediate contribution (read more - Boston Globe)

From George Mair -- Wouldn't you know? Oprah has hired a "dog shrinks because her cocker spaniel is bothered over some "issues" which she says the dog thinks are Oprah's fault. Given that, the dog may be right*****Is that any more ridiculous than the report that Paris Hilton refuses to read restaurant menus for herself?  Pamela Anderson says when she and the Hilton heiress were out dining together, Paris wanted a waiter to read out the menu contents to her. Is there a blonde issue here? ****The troubling part is that I am the author of Oprah and Paris' biographies*****At least I have not done Paula Abdul's biography. You can watch that on TV's American Idol…Then, of course, there is Nicole Kidman who has announced she'd like to be preggers so she could become better endowed topside (read more - George Mair's LaLa Land)

Actors’ Equity Association (Actors’ Equity), the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) announced an unprecedented joint health care survey of their members nationwide. All union members are asked to go to the site: www.zplink.com/healthcare and take a few minutes to complete the survey

After a decade on the Saturday night shift, WIP 610-AM's Rob Charry finally can go out on "date night," since he moved to afternoons a few months ago. The unflappable WIP veteran said, "It actually doesn't feel much different. I've never been a 9-5 person, and I've gotten used to working an odd schedule since I've been in radio (1976). Whenever anything important came up, I took the night (Saturday) off anyway." (read more - Laura Nachman-Philly Burbs)

Time Magazine's affable Matt Cooper could be writing his tome behind closed doors, very closed doors. Despite his optimism, the closer it gets to a "Free Matt Cooper" going away party, the more intimidating it becomes. This is no laughing matter for Cooper who refused to reveal his sources in the Valerie Plame affair (read more - Janet Donovan-Hollywood on the Potomac)

Last summer, conservative columnist Cal Thomas was on television saying the country had lost the fight against gay marriage. He predicted problems ahead and offered a biblical context, saying: ''Paul talks about this eloquently in the New Testament and his letters, that the world will grow worse. People will believe whatever they wish to hear. Jesus said many will come in my name, false gods, false prophets, telling you things that are not of God, have nothing to do with them. This is the prophecy of the end times." Where did Thomas air his views? On public television. The very same public television system that is currently being accused of having a liberal bias. This critique is being led by Kenneth Tomlinson, the conservative chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which Congress created in 1967 to ''facilitate the development of public telecommunications and to afford maximum protection from extraneous interference and control." Tomlinson claims that PBS television lacks balance (read more - Boston Globe Editorial)

Kenneth Tomlinson, chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, has entered unauthorized territory by trying to bring balance and objectivity to the news coverage on PBS and NPR, which, for too long, has been dominated by liberal bias. His efforts have drawn the retribution of The New York Times and have prompted some Democratic members of Congress to call for an investigation to determine if he crossed the line by trying to influence news coverage. I chatted with Tomlinson Tuesday night at an event where he would receive a lifetime achievement award for his long career in journalism. To read much of the coverage about him one might conclude that he is just some Republican political hack appointed for the singular purpose of gutting public broadcasting. He comes to his current position with years of journalism experience (read more - David Sanders-Arkansas News Bureau)

Twenty-three Chinese radio and television stations signed a proposal here Sunday, committing to turning down any advertisement that is against law or moral standards. The 23 stations, including national ones like Central People's Broadcasting Station, and China Central Television as well as local stations, agreed that radio and TV stations should "refuse to broadcast any advertisement that are not in line with laws or social moral," on the proposal, which is drawn up the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, the broadcast authority. The broadcast watchdog urged radio and TV stations to reject all sham or illegal advertisement, improve censorship over the qualification of advertisement producer and content and stick to the principle of "one-vote veto by censor" (read more - Xinhua News)

For the latest on the exploding toads of Germany, the swamp ape of the Everglades or the legal status of skimpy Speedo swimsuits in Cape May, there is only one place to turn. It's called "Hometown Tales," and it sounds something like a radio talk show. That is, if radio shows were recorded by best pals in a Somerset County living room, on a home computer, about topics such as spontaneously combusting amphibians. "Hometown Tales" is a podcast. Podcasting is not about catching a group of whales with a fly rod. It's a sizzling audio trend that marries the popular Apple iPod portable music player with broadcasting.  The premise is simple: Download shows from the Internet to your computer, transfer them to your iPod or another digital audio player, and listen whenever and wherever you feel like it. Almost like TiVo (read more - Star Ledger)

JoAnn Fede feels as if she's constantly on media alert: What are her kids watching on television? What are they doing on the Internet? What are they listening to on the radio? "It's a lot of work," said Fede, whose three children are 11, 13 and 16. Lawmakers are joining the fight as well. The Child Internet Protection Act already requires filters on computers in most public schools and libraries, and there is legislation proposed to increase fines for indecency on radio and television (remember Janet Jackson's bare breast during last year's Super Bowl?) as well as more controls over cable and satellite broadcasts. But Steven Brown, executive director of the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the government shouldn't be deciding what's appropriate for kids to see and hear. "This is a parent's job," he said (read more - Providence Journal)

It's tough being on TV at the best of times, tougher still when your face does not quite fit your serious, grown-up profession, but Andrew Marr has managed to make even this work in his favour. As the BBC's political editor, he seems, some days, to be everywhere all the time: on the radio when you leave for work in the morning, then popping up on the lunchtime and tea-time news, as well as on Newsnight. On election night, he clocked up 27 consecutive hours live in the studio (read more - Guardian U.K.)

Four formats -- news-talk (such as WTOP and WMAL in Washington), adult contemporary (WASH and Z-104), pop hits (Hot 99.5) and black-oriented (WPGC, WKYS, WHUR, WMMJ) -- account for more than half of all radio listening in the nation. For more than a generation, the radio industry has attributed this to listeners, saying they demand that narrow focus. But the on-demand media revolution has revealed that argument to be little more than corporate spin. Younger listeners, at least, are grabbing hold of the idea that they can control their media landscape, and they are choosing a far more varied menu of music and other aural entertainment than the big radio companies have been serving up (read more - Marc Fisher-Washington Post)

AM -- No Static at All? Infinity is now streaming their News-Talk stations.  You can listen online (no static) to AM stations KCBS, KFWB, KRLD, KDKA, WINS, WCBS, KMOX, KNX, WBBM, WBZ, KYW and WWJ (visit RadioMat.com and click-pick a station)

Newsweek magazine has apologized for errors in a story alleging that interrogators at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Quran, saying it would re-examine the accusations, which sparked outrage and deadly protests in Afghanistan (read more - MSNBC)  (read more - NY Post)

Bartcop had a link to an article at Arab News which stated that an outfit calling itself "Freedom House" had rated the world’s media, and that in terms of having a free press, America ranked only 27th in the world. That the free press in America has taken a catastrophic plunge over the past 15 years is pretty much beyond dispute ... The Arab News story on the survey began with the acid remark, "Recent polling data shows that most Americans think their press is the freest in the world — indeed, some believe it is too free." Obviously, an attitude like that left a lot of room for encroachment that an at best passive and at worst timid populace would tolerate quite willingly. But I got around to wondering what the criteria of the survey was, exactly. On one end of the American journalistic spectrum, you had outfits like Moon’s rag or Faux News, which are often only one step above newspapers in some countries where the daily headline better sing the praises of the Glorious Leader, or a certain managing editor would be taken out and shot. At the same time Bartcop could level his daily blasts against Putsch and manage to avoid falling into the American Gulag. Did Freedom House factor in such wide variation? So I went to Freedomhouse.org and examined their methodology. I was wondering if they considered the influence of private ownership on the media. They do, along with a host of other factors (read more - Zepps Commentaries)

The alarms about a small plane violating White House airspace not only disrupts traffic and business as usual, but Wednesday's breaking news drama also caused gossip doyenne Liz Smith, who was sitting in CNN's Washington studio at the time, to get bumped from an interview about her new book, "Dishing." Wouldn't viewers have rather heard the latest dish on Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt instead of hearing about the repeated speculation of who trespassed into illegal airspace and why they did? If so, they wouldn't be alone. Later that evening while speaking at the Corcoran, Liz Smith said that she was at a dinner party in New York just last week with Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell and other "titans of industry." "All they wanted to know was about Brad and Jen and their split." (read more - Karen Feld-Washington Examiner)

Radio personality "Crazy Cabbie" will spend a year in prison for tax evasion that was discovered by the IRS after he boasted about it on the nationally syndicated "Howard Stern Show." The WXRK-FM disc jockey, whose given name is Lee Mroszak, pleaded guilty in December to not paying taxes for three years beginning in 2001 (read more - 1010 WINS)

American progressives finally are taking seriously the threat posed by the U.S. news media’s swing to the right, which – perhaps more than any other factor – has transformed the U.S. democratic process into a mess of disinformation, fear and irrationality.  Many of the depredations of the last four-plus years – from the war in Iraq and the collapse of America’s image abroad to assaults on the teaching of evolution and inaction on the looming global-warming crisis – can only be understood by factoring in the Right’s powerful propaganda apparatus and the mainstream media’s complicity. Still, there remains widespread confusion on the Left about what can be done and how to get the most value from investments of money and talent. From our perspective as a 10-year-old independent investigative Web site and my own personal experience of more than three decades in journalism – mostly at mainstream news outlets, such as the Associated Press, Newsweek, PBS Frontline and Bloomberg News – here are some suggestions: (read the suggestions - Robert Parry-Consortium News)

Infinity Broadcasting's KYOURADIO, the world's first podcast-based radio station, is set to launch on Monday, May 16 at 9:00 AM, ET. KYOURADIO will feature podcasts created exclusively by its listeners, and be available in San Francisco at 1550 KYCY-AM and streamed online at www.kyouradio.com. The station's inaugural podcast will be from Dave Winer, a software developer who was instrumental in the development of podcasting technology (read more - Podcasting.com)  (read more - The Chronicle)

The loss of Nashville’s oldies radio station lasted only a day Friday when another station stepped in to pick up the slack, announcing plans to bring popular DJ Coyote McCloud back on the air. Friday afternoon, WRQQ-FM switched from Star 97 to Oldies 97.1, filling a void left by WMAK-FM, which Thursday replaced its oldies station with a new format called “96.3 JACK-FM” – a classic hits station aimed at younger listeners (read more - Nashville City Paper)

Slate's Today's Blogs -- Death of the iPod?: In an interview with a German newspaper, Microsoft founder Bill Gates said that Apple's iPod success is unsustainable and predicted that cell phones, powered perhaps by future Microsoft software, would replace MP3 players. "I can see where Bill's coming from. I mean, why do we have MP3 players now?" asks Joe at Akron blog RubberBuzz. "Because they're a lot smaller then a CD player and a stack of discs. If you already have a cell phone, it'd be awesome to have it play MP3's too." Others think Gates' proclamation stinks of premature triumphalism. I think most people won't [use cellphones for MP3s]," guesses Mad Anthony, a tech support worker in Baltimore. "For one thing, all in one devices tend to do lots of things, but do few things well" (read more - Today's Blogs-Slate)

The days of famed baseball announcers Harry Caray, Mel Allen, Jack Buck and Bob Prince have segued into those of Skip Caray, Jon Miller, Bob Uecker and Marty Brennaman, but the ritual never changes. Sit on a porch swing or an easy chair, slide into a car seat or a poolside chaise lounge, flip on the radio and listen to the pleasantly paced passage of another season. But it’s unlikely Harold Arlin, the first play-by-play man 84 years ago on Pittsburgh’s KDKA radio, envisioned technology quite like this. Harry Caray might have uttered a “Holy Cow!” had he cradled a wallet-sized XM satellite radio that enables fans to listen to every game, all season, no matter their location (read more - MSNBC)

BBC journalists and technicians have voted to stage three days of strikes in a row over job cuts. Television and radio output could be disrupted on May 23, May 31 and June 1 and a fourth stoppage will be added later. Members of three trade unions voted overwhelmingly to back the walkouts. They are protesting against Director-General Mark Thompson's plans to cut almost 4000 jobs in the Corporation (read more - ITV U.K.)

In a testy exchange on talk radio, Denver City Attorney Cole Finegan Thursday accused Rep. Tom Tancredo of exploiting the killing of a Denver police officer to push an anti-immigration agenda. Finegan and Tancredo lambasted each other on KHOW's "Peter Boyles Show" in a continuing debate over whether Denver offers sanctuary to illegal immigrants (read more - Denver Post)

Rush Limbaugh recently blasted a multicultural program at Evanston Township High School and, as NBC5's Charlie Wojciechowski reported Friday, that has some students planning a response.  Controversy is the life blood of talk radio and Rush Limbaugh is no stranger to controversy, but he may not have anticipated the response from Evanston students.  The students are so confident in the programs Limbaugh targeted and in their education that they are challenging the radio host to a debate. The high school has a campus larger than some colleges. It's a diverse student body and the school has a solid academic reputation. So, Wojciechowski said, Evanston Township High School students are wondering why the radio pundit is picking on their school. "I think he was foolish," one student told NBC5 (read more - NBC 5 Chicago)

I finally forced myself to watch CNBC's Dennis Miller show this week, since the network announced his show would end today, after an unsuccessful run. Nothing against him, but his cable talk program just never grabbed me and I wanted to figure out why, before it disappeared. Its new lineup has just been revealed and it's yet another stinker: At 7pm, primetime kicks off with Chris Matthews while Countdown remains at 8pm. At 9, Tucker Carlson begins a new show for the network, Joe Scarborough holds down the 10pm hour and former Fox anchor Rita Cosby initiates her brand new offering for 11pm weeknights. I have no idea how Cosby will fare, she can't do any worse than what's been there before, but who in their right mind would give Tucker Carlson yet another shot at a successful TV show? (read more - Brian Maloney-The Radio Equalizer)

BBC staff at Radio Foyle will down tools in opposition to sweeping job cuts at the corporation, it was claimed. And speaking to the Telegraph today Eamonn McCann, chair of the North West and Derry branch of the NUJ, urged the public to rally in the workers' defence. BBC NUJ members overwhelmingly voted in favour of industrial action this week following management's refusal to defer the axing of over 3,000 jobs across the corporation (read more - Belfast Telegraph U.K.)

In the early 1970s a civil war erupted inside the fledgling world of public television. Upset with what they saw as its liberal news and public affairs programming, and particularly its tough coverage of the Vietnam War and the Watergate hearings, Nixon administration officials moved to rein in public television by stacking the board at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which acts as a governing body for the hundreds of local stations nationwide. The board then sought to control national programming decisions and curtail news programming. "There were tremendous fights, with the Nixon Administration trying to prevent public television from doing any public affairs programming at all," former PBS president Lawrence Grossman once recalled to the New York Times. But Nixon's end run ultimately failed. In 1979, Newsweek quoted a PBS executive who insisted, "The war between CPB and PBS is over." Today it's back on (read more - Salon)

Thompson Kent Organization, Inc./TKO Radio Network has appointed Michael Hilber, Jr. as Director of Affiliate Relations.  For the past two years, Hilber has been with Envision Radio Networks. TKO has offices and studios in Dallas and Cleveland (visit TruckinTom.com)

Steve Parker Productions is looking for an experienced, motivated and qualified salesperson to represent their radio and TV properties  (visit CarNutTV.com)

Nicole Raven is promoted to senior director of events and promotions from director, at Premiere Radio Networks.  Based in Sherman Oaks, Calif., she still reports to Beth Tepper, vice president of marketing and promotions.  In her 13th year at Premiere Radio, Raven continues to implement hundreds of customized promotions for the company’s key national client base.  In addition, she produces radio remote broadcasts like the Radio Music Awards, which aired on 100 top music stations around the country last October, and the Ame