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RDN Central Archives II

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Viva International announced that Legends Production Company  has signed a national and international radio syndication agreement with "Sports ByLine" radio network. Under the syndication agreement, twice weekly programming of "Legends on Sports and other stuff" radio talk-show will be broadcast to over 50 US station affiliates, in addition to Armed Forces Radio and "Sirius Satellite Radio" network as well as Sirius subscribers on EchoStar's "Dish Network."  (read more)

From KentBurkhart.com -- I was having lunch in Dallas last week with broadcasters Marty Greenburg, Michael Spears, and George G. Before we began our business conversation I mentioned that hurricane Ivan might be looking at Florida to join cousins Charley and Frances. Marty said, “I don’t know why anyone would live there…with that threat all the time”. And I responded, “Because the other 364 days of the year are so beautiful”. Since then I have had some time to think about both statements, and I have come to the conclusion that I must be crazy!!!!  (read more - www.kentburkhart.com)

Adelaide talkback radio host Leon Byner's failure to disclose personal sponsorship arrangements breached broadcasting laws, the Australian Broadcasting Authority said today. The ABA said it had found 15 breaches of the commercial radio standards involving popular 5AA announcer Mr Byner. They included 12 occasions between October 7 and December 18, 2003 when Mr Byner failed to make disclosure announcements when he interviewed his personal sponsors (read more - Adelaide Advertiser)

95.5 KLOS personalities Cynthia Fox and Joe Reiling will participate in the California Coastal Cleanup Day on Saturday, September 18 from 9AM-noon at Santa Monica Beach just north of the Pier. Coastal Cleanup Day is a nationally organized effort and is the premiere volunteer event focused on preserving the marine environment (visit KLOS)

From Sonny Melendrez -- Formats come and formats go.  Some say there is nothing new in radio.  I disagree.  What if you built a radio station that went against all the rules?  A station that presented the largest segment of the audience, Baby Boomers, with the greatest music of their generation.  And what if you appealed to their children and  their parents?  Imagine seniors enjoying the same songs as their grandchildren or 30 something's grooving to that music at the office.  And, visualize teenagers fascinated by the kind of radio they have never heard. That's right, at least 3 generations connected by good clean radio and the "greatest music of all-time."  What a concept. This is what I am proud to say we built on KLUP Radio in San Antonio (read more - Sonny Melendrez)

That radio restaurant show is back. And on Saturday, it's our show. Radio host Jim White of Dallas is in his 10th year talking about restaurants and wine on a weekly show, now on KLIF/570 AM. Each week, he devotes a segment to Star Time and the restaurant news from Fort Worth, Arlington and Tarrant County. But this week, he's away at a charity event. So Eats and Drinks With Jim White will become an Eats Beat talk show (read more - Bud Kennedy/Star-Telegram)

From JimRoseOnline.com -- Buddy Holly made such a tremendous mark in music in such a short 21 year time frame before his tragic plane crash during that bitter cold 1959 winter flight over North Dakota.  The bands were on their way to put on a performance. The bus was frozen over. BUDDY leased a small private airplane.  Buddy, the Big Bopper, J.P. Richardson and Richie Valens were the three chosen for that fatal flight. The Big Bopper was truly large. He was a Dee Jay at my alma mater in Beaumont, KTRM.  Waylon Jennings, a guitar pickin' member of the troupe, was a Lubbock Dee Jay (read more - JimRoseOnline.com)

A state appeals court Thursday ruled an out-of-work racetrack announcer who paid a radio station to let him host a talk show must repay unemployment benefits even though he was not paid for the air time. John Bothe lost his appeal of a state board's decision telling him to repay $605.50 in benefits paid between April and July while he hosted the weekly radio show for free (read more - The Buffalo News)

Ralph Wendel Wright, better known to many as Mike Rivers, Mike Donahue and Ed Richards has passed away.  He dominated the airwaves from 1967-1970 at The Big 8 CKLW Windsor-Detroit.  He worked at KVIL in Dallas-Fort Worth, as well as at stations in Austin, Oklahoma City and Philadelphia (read more from Art Vuolo)  (read more from Steve Eberhart)

A new talk radio station has opened in the Iraqi capital Baghdad that for the first time, lets callers vent their frustrations at government officials over everything from trash pick-up to the continuing violence. It is called Radio Dijla and it is making waves across the capital and beyond (read more - Voice of America)

Al Rantel talks with Kitty Kelley and Newt Gingrich on KABC 790 (visit KABC)

CBS curmudgeon Andy Rooney indicated yesterday he believes the controversial documents on President Bush's National Guard service are fake and said it could cost Dan Rather down the road.
"I'm surprised at their reluctance to concede they're wrong," Rooney said, referring to CBS brass. Despite praising Rather as "a good, honest newsman," Rooney added, "I'm unsure if they're whistling in the dark instead of apologizing." (read more - Paul D. Colford-NY Daily News)

Former WCBS/Ch. 2 anchor Gerry Grant this week was moved to a work-release center for sex-offender treatment after spending two years and a month in the Texas prison system. In August 2002, he was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty of possession of child porn. Meanwhile, one-time Ch. 2 weatherman David Rogers was released from prison after serving four months for a mowing down two highway workers while driving drunk in Cleveland. At the time of the July 2003 incident, he was still employed by Ch.2 (read more - Richard Huff - NY Daily News)

By now, most sports fans have seen footage of Wednesday's melee at Network Associates Coliseum in Oakland ... Jennifer Bueno stands dazed and bloodied after a chair hurled by Rangers reliever Frank Francisco hit her in the face. Thursday, her husband Craig Bueno and their lawyer joined Jeff Rickard on Sporting News Radio's The Jeff Rickard Show to discuss speculation that he and other fans crossed the line when heckling the Texas bullpen, something Bueno flatly denies (read more - Sporting News)

On Feb. 12, 1996, I picked up a phone at CBS News in New York and called Dan Rather, who was in Des Moines covering the Iowa caucuses. It was a call that I--then a CBS correspondent--wasn't anxious to make. I'd written an op-ed for this page about liberal bias in the news that was going to run the next day. I knew I had to give Dan a heads up. "I wrote a piece for the Journal, Dan, and my guess is you won't be ecstatic about it." (read more - Bernard Goldberg - Wall Street Journal)

Republican William Bennett and Democrat Howard Dean will debate opposing political ideologies and key issues that will determine the upcoming Presidential election on Thursday, September 30, in Portland, Maine. The titled "The Maine Event," begins at 1 p.m. at the Holiday Inn By the Bay. Bennett currently hosts a syndicated radio show, "Bill Bennett's Morning in America." (read more)

Denise Plante and Scott Patrick seem like nice people. Attractive, outgoing, play well together. They're co-hosts of "Colorado & Co.," KUSA-Channel 9's hour-long happy-talk infomercial that debuted Monday and airs at 10 a.m. weekdays. After watching the show, I feel like the three of us are buddies. Mind if I call you "Denny" and "Scotty"? (read more - Dick Kreck)

After trying out consultants for the era of digitalisation and migration from the present set-up, broadcast and cable regulator, Telecom Regulatory of Authority of India (Trai), now wants to engage consultants for satellite radio broadcast to advise it on a policy framework for the segment. Trai has invited expressions of interest from reputed consulting firms by 1 October, 2004. Presently, worldover, there are three satellite digital radio systems, which are in operation. These are World Space, XM Radio and Sirius Radio. The three systems are capable of individually providing about hundred radio channels of digital quality. World Space, through the western beam of its Asiastar satellite is providing about 40 radio channels over the Indian sub-continent. The satellite digital radio has great potential for India due to its large size, Trai feels (read more - Indian Television)

Boston Red Sox fans in the Ellsworth area have had to "get their Sox on" from another radio source for the last month with Ellsworth station WDEA (1370 AM) off the air. "We lost our main transmitter [at noon on Aug. 19] and at the same time, our backup failed," said WDEA general manager Tom Preble. "And because it's one of the best-sounding AM signals in the area, we didn't want to rush to replace it." (read more - Bangor Daily News)

HarperCollins Children’s Book Group, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, signed a two-book deal with news analyst Cokie Roberts. The first book will be a picture book for kids based on Ms. Roberts’ adult bestseller, “Founding Mothers: the Women who Raised our Nation” (read more - Crains NY)

Charter Communications announced the resignation of Margaret A. "Maggie" Bellville, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, effective September 30, 2004. "We have appreciated Maggie's positive contributions over the past two years, and respect her decision to depart the Company," said Carl Vogel, President and Chief Executive Officer (read more)

Clear Channel Communications Inc. moved to strengthen its hold in Hispanic broadcasting with a plan to convert up to 25 stations to Spanish-language programming in the next 12 to 18 months. "The Hispanic radio audience remains largely underserved, especially outside the largest markets," said John Hogan, chief executive officer of Clear Channel's radio division (read more - Reuters)

It's pop quiz time. Question: You're a radio morning host, and a guy calls the studio and says he's thinking about killing himself. Do you (a) Call the suicide prevention hotline; (b) Call the police; or (c) Talk to the man on the air. If you answered (a) or (b), well, you sure don't belong in broadcasting. Consider what happened Monday morning when a man named "Greg" called A.J. Machado, host of "A.J.'s Playhouse" on Channel 933, and said he wanted to kill himself by jumping off a bridge. Machado brought in Dave Rickards, co-host of KGB's "Dave, Shelly & Chainsaw," to help, and after about 30-45 minutes, Greg found himself live on the air, talking about his emotional breakdown after a run-in with an armed car burglar nearly cost him his life. "I've got that feeling again, Dave," the man said ominously at one point (read more - Randy Dotinga-North County Times)

Radio listeners looking for on-demand access to talk and music programs might want to consider a new Internet service that records radio shows. Like a kind of TiVo for Internet radio, AudioFeast can be set to save hundreds of shows, from "Washington Journal" to "Stamp Talk," and manage their transfer onto certain audio players. AudioFeast carries news, weather, business and entertainment programs from dozens of media partners, including National Public Radio, the Arts and Entertainment Network, and The Wall Street Journal (read more - NY Times)

U.S. broadcasters could do more in terms of election coverage as part of their public interest responsibilities, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell said Wednesday. Citing a "public interest expectation" of political content in programming, Powell said in a press conference that "The question is: Do (broadcasters) do enough?" "We believe they could do a bit more," he added, noting that broadcasters are "potentially taking a pretty woeful step" (read more - Dow Jones)

Back in the '80s, Todd Pettengill is saying, "I remember people listening to the radio and saying, 'This music is so forgettable.' Now it's totally the opposite. People look back and say this music was amazing." He's got a point. No one beats up on the '80s they way they beat up on, say, the '70s. With Michael Jackson, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Prince, the Police, rap, new wave and punk, the decade in retrospect created some mighty lively radio.
That makes a new retro radio show called "Saturday Night at the '80s" a very logical thing, and Pettengill, who grew up in the '80s, a very logical host (read more - David Hinckley-NY Daily News)

Tom Clendening returns to Entercom talk stations KIRO-AM and KTTH-AM today as program director with a big question mark in the middle of KIRO's schedule. With former morning host Dave Ross a primary winner in his race for Congress, Clendening will have to wait until November to see if Ross will be elected to office or return to the airwaves + KTTH-AM (770) has tweaked its schedule, carrying Michael Savage 3-6 p.m. weekdays and moving Bill O'Reilly to 6-8 p.m (read more - Bill Virgin's Seattle Radio Beat)

CBS anchor Dan Rather acknowledged for the first time yesterday that there are serious questions about the authenticity of the documents he used to question President Bush's National Guard record last week on "60 Minutes." "If the documents are not what we were led to believe, I'd like to break that story," Rather said in an interview last night. "Any time I'm wrong, I want to be right out front and say, 'Folks, this is what went wrong and how it went wrong.' " Rather spoke after interviewing the secretary to Bush's former squadron commander, who told him that the memos attributed to her late boss are fake -- but that they reflect the commander's belief that Bush was receiving preferential treatment to escape some of his Guard commitments (read more - Howard Kurtz-Washington Post) (read more - NY Post)

The Armed Forces Radio Network, an online streaming radio station dedicated to providing broadcast quality radio and information to the personnel of all divisions of the armed forces, police, and firefighters at home and around the world, has decided to raise and distribute funds to help those families “torn apart to defend America”. The Armed Forces Radio Network will provide funding for Housing, Medical, Scholarships, and many other needs to the families of armed forces members who have been killed or critically injured in the line of duty, as well as for victims of crime, terrorism, fires, and accidental death (read more)

From CBS 60 Minutes Wednesday -- “Did or did not Lt. Bush take a physical as ordered by Col. Killian,” Dan Rather asked Killian's secretary, Marian Carr Knox. “The last time, no he didn’t,” says Knox. “It was a big no-no to not follow orders. And I can’t remember anyone refusing to. Now for instance, with the physical, every officer knew that before his birthday he was supposed to have that flying physical. Once in a while they might be late, but there would be a good excuse for it and let the commander know and try to set up a date for a make-up. If they did not take that physical, they were off flying status until they did.”  Did Knox ever hear Killian talk about this, or did he write memos about Bush not taking the physical?  “He was upset about it. That was one of the reasons why he wrote a memo directing him to go take the physical,” says Knox. “I’m going to say this, but it seems to me that Bush felt that he was above reproach.” (read more - CBS 60 Minutes Wednesday)  You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" like it at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

Agents from the Federal Communications Commission raided a pirate radio station Wednesday in Knoxville. The three FCC officials were accompanied by three U.S. marshals when they closed down the station called Knoxville First Amendment Radio and confiscated all its equipment (read more - WATE TV)

The last official day of broadcasting as the local radio station K-BUC was actually Saturday, September 11, but you may still find the sounds echoing on your radio at 95.7 FM. Now sold to Border Media Partners, the signal will soon be carrying Hispanic programming. BMP already owns a large number of South Texas radio station and includes larger stations in Austin and Laredo. One of the aims of the group is to become the largest Hispanic group of stations in the nation (read more - Pleasanton Express)

A group of the largest US email providers filed six joint lawsuits against hundreds of spammers yesterday in a rare moment of corporate cooperation. AOL, EarthLink, Microsoft, and Yahoo! filed the suits under the recently enacted Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act of 2003, accusing major spammers in California, Virginia, and Washington of misleading consumers and illegally sending unsolicited email (read more - Connected Home Magazine)

Renegade Talk Radio welcomes comedian and voice artist Jim Florentine on Thursday, September 16, 2004. Jim will be featured on Scotch & Water at 4 PM Pacific Standard Time. Call in live, toll-free at 866-473-2170 with questions, comments or opinions. The forum is open; callers can ask anything. On Renegade, nothing is taboo. Renegade Talk Radio (www.renegadetalkradio.com) continues to make a splash in cyberspace with their brand of true cybershock radio. Renegade Talk Radio has visitors from over 50 countries and the international audience is growing every day (read more)

A former Cleveland weatherman received shock probation Wednesday, and was released from prison after serving four months of a drunk driving sentence. David Rogers was sentenced in May to 10 months in prison for running down two construction workers and leaving the scene of an accident. Rogers admitted to driving drunk through a construction zone on Interstate 480 and the Jennings Freeway on July 10, 2003 (read more - News Net 5)

Documents allegedly written by a deceased officer that raised questions about President Bush's service with the Texas Air National Guard bore markings showing they had been faxed to CBS News from a Kinko's copy shop in Abilene, Tex., according to another former Guard officer who was shown the records by the network. The markings provide one piece of evidence suggesting a source for the documents, whose authenticity has been hotly disputed since CBS aired them in a "60 Minutes" broadcast Sept. 8 (read more - Washington Post)  You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" like it at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

Having trouble with viruses through your Microsoft Internet Explorer?  Try downloading and using the free Firefox browser.  Open-source browsers Mozilla and Firefox have won over a significant number of defectors from Microsoft's Internet Explorer in the past nine months, Web site metrics suggest.  The gains for Firefox, which was released in a version 1.0 preview on Tuesday, and for Mozilla are most noticeable at Web sites popular by geek-chic early adopters (read more - ZDNET)

The Wall Street Journal will begin publishing on Saturday (read more - Crains NY)

You couldn't visit a radio or internet-related web site Tuesday without seeing the headline "Yahoo Buys Musicmatch for $160 Million." Welcome to the new world of radio, even if it really isn't "radio" as you know it. Today the fight for the online music audience is wrapped up in four names: AOL, Yahoo!, MSN, and Apple. It's these four companies that will drain the at-work and at-home audience from local radio because they are becoming ingrained in the minds of 18-24 year olds as an alternative to the Clear Channels of the world. One reason the online crowd is moving toward these four online music sources is their ability to promote. Among them, they reach upwards of 85% of those who use the internet. It's time for radio groups to fight back using the same ability to spread the word, and by altering the typical broadcast radio mindset for using the internet (read more - Audio Graphics)

Johnny Ramone, guitarist and co-founder of the punk band The Ramones, has died. He was 55. He had battled prostate cancer for five years (read more - CBS News)

Tuesday, September 21 is "Take a Loved One to the Doctor Day," a HHS-ABC Radio Networks campaign recently announced by HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson. The campaign is designed to reduce health disparities affecting racial and ethnic minorities by encouraging individuals to go to a doctor or health professional for a health screening. Joining with Secretary Thompson to lead the effort for the third year is Chairperson Tom Joyner, nationally syndicated radio personality and host of the ABC Radio Network’s Tom Joyner Morning Show (visit Tom Joyner's Web site)

"Bush's Brain", the film from the book of the same name, debuts in selected theater on Friday, September 17.  From their movie's Web site:  "Many Washington insiders believe that the strength of the Bush machine lies not in its leader but in Karl Rove, the man who picked Bush to run for Governor of Texas, tutored him on the workings of government, and ran brilliant yet brutal campaigns that would eventually sweep Bush into the Presidency. In Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential, readers will enter the powerful world of White House Senior Advisor Karl Rove and learn how this man created George W" (visit the Web site)  (click here to view the movie's trailer in QuickTime video) You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" like it at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

Olin Terry (O.T.) a talented corporate meeting producer, mentor to many, and friend to all, recently passed away in his hotel room while on a show in Montreal.  Born an only child in Mineral Wells, Texas in 1929, on scholarship to SMU, received his Degree in Theology. While at SMU he, along with Aaron Spelling and others, founded KSMU, the campus radio station. Olin worked as program manager for radio stations in Detroit and Amarillo before taking a pay cut to switch to television and a job at Channel 11 in Dallas (read more-OlinTerry.com)

After more than a year of litigation, an arbitration panel has unanimously ruled that EchoStar Communications Corp. (DISH Network) violated its contract with direct broadcast satellite (DBS) licensee Dominion Video Satellite Inc., owner-operator of Sky Angel, the nation's only faith-based direct-to-home satellite television service and the country's oldest DBS company. The order will enable Dominion to move forward with plans to expand its multi-channel Sky Angel programming service into more U.S. homes and locations while laying the groundwork to deliver the service internationally. The 36-channel Sky Angel package is available nationwide for $11.99 per month or $119.90 per year through a small satellite dish and will work alongside or without another television service. A free information video is available at www.skyangel.com   (read more - Broadcast Newsroom)

CBS News' Bob Schieffer said Tuesday he hopes the network does more reporting to definitively prove the authenticity of memos 60 Minutes II received about President Bush's service in the Air National Guard. "I think we have to find some way to show our viewers they are not forgeries,'' Schieffer, CBS' chief Washington correspondent and host of the network's "Face the Nation,'' said at a news conference in Sioux City. "I don't know how we're going to do that without violating the confidentiality of sources'' (read more - Sioux City Journal)

If you think you've heard the last of David Edward Smith and his crusade to rid the airwaves of indecency, guess again. Ready or not, he's back. Before approving a consent decree last month that essentially wiped the slate clean for Emmis (and cleared the way for renewal of its station licenses), the FCC had been pursuing dozens of indecency complaints against Q-101 and "Mancow's Morning Madhouse" filed by Smith and his Chicago-based Citizens for Community Values. On Tuesday, Smith announced that he was challenging the legality of the settlement, arguing that the FCC had overstepped its authority (read more - Feder of Chicago)

XM Satellite Radio announced the introduction of XM Radio Online, a premium Internet music service to debut in early October. As part of the launch, eligible Dell customers who purchase Dell Inspiron notebook and Dimension desktop computers will receive a special trial offer for the commercial-free online music service (read more)

So there it is, exposed for all to see on the front page of yesterday's Washington Post. The total cost of Bush's proposals at the Republican convention -- permanent tax cuts, prescription drugs, rural health clinics, the whole shmear -- is "likely to be well in excess of $3 trillion over a decade." This from a guy who's been hammering Kerry for proposing a mere $2 trillion in programs (a figure Kerry denies, just as the Bush camp disputes the $3 trillion). So will this now become the subject of endless cable debates, blogosphere posts and newspaper investigations? The conservative president, the apostle of limited government, is revealed as a Big Spender? Nah. The chatter is still about IBM Selectrics and Kitty Kelley. Whether we spend ourselves into bankruptcy: Booorring. Whether the candidates are over promising: Yadda yadda yadda. After all, there are no secret sources, no coke-at-Camp-David allegations, no 1972 documents with a raised "th." That's what media people like to argue about. Maybe the campaign coverage will turn serious at some point (read more - Media Notes-Howard Kurtz) You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" like it at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

Big changes are in store for the on-air shifts at WXKS-FM (107.9). Longtime DJs Artie the One Man Party and Ed McMann are out, and the new personalities include Deirdre Degata, who jumped from sister station WJMN-FM (94.5) to handle the 10 a.m.-3 p.m. shift, and Kory, a former New Haven DJ who will man the 7-11 p.m. shift. Current WXKS-FM personality Romeo will be the station's 3-7 p.m. personality (read more - Dean Johnson-Boston Herald)

Martha Stewart surrendered to start serving her prison sentence as soon as possible, in a move aimed at bringing some stability to her company (read more - Crains NY Business) (read more- Washington Post)

Election officials in Binghamton are hailing a local radio talk show host as a hero. They said it was Tony Russell's sharp knife that got things moving at a local polling place (read more Capital News)

NBC’s Tom Brokaw will deliver the keynote address at the Radio-Television News Directors Association’s Awards Dinner next month in New York. RTNDA will honor winners of the Edward R. Murrow Awards and the RTNDA/UNITY Awards on October 4 at the Grand Hyatt New York (read more - RTNDA)

Lex & Terry will debut in  Louisville, KY Monday, Sept 20th as the new morning show on WLRS, owned by Radio One (visit Lex and Terry)

The moving sign is up at Sinclair Communications, where two of its radio stations are scheduled to swap frequencies Sept. 23. The recently launched WPYA-FM, now heard on 106.1 Bob-FM, will move to 93.7. That frequency has been occupied by WKCK-FM or Kick FM, which in a previous incarnation was WKOC-FM, The Coast. Kick will take 106.1 (read more - Virginian Pilot)

MSNBC may be flagging in the cable news ratings war, but it does have a No. 1 ranking in Keith Olbermann. Playgirl magazine's tallies are in and it looks like the anchorman's robust campaigning has earned him the highly coveted sexiest male newscaster title. Winning nearly a quarter of the 50,000 votes cast, Olbermann beat Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity and CNN's Anderson Cooper, who placed second and third, respectively. Fox's Shepard Smith was fourth, and "60 Minutes's" Andy Rooney and CNN's Bill Hemmer tied for fifth place (read more - Reliable Source)

Several million Americans recently lost power when Hurricane Charley and Hurricane Frances came ashore in Florida. The refrigerator stopped working, the televisions went off, and air conditioning was no longer able to keep people cool from the summer heat. Unless you like to read books, you realize how few things there are to do without electricity.  However, Sirius Satellite Radio helped many find entertainment with their portable boombox. "They work GREAT!! I had no signal dropout, I had the tunes cranked sitting in garage, the neighbors came by just for some entertainment. One word of advice, fix the antenna well outside and buy a load of batteries" said one Sirius subscriber from Florida about how he dealt with the Hurricane Frances (read more)

Tribune Co. lowered its third-quarter earnings estimate Wednesday, saying publishing and broadcasting revenues were lower than anticipated (read more - Journal Gazette)

A man charged with raping and murdering a 12-year-old neighbor told two television stations that he would like to give the girl's father a chance to kill him. I did the wrong thing," John McGuckin told WZZM-TV in Grand Rapids on Monday. "I wish I could take it back, but I can't." (read more WAVE 3 TV)

"Enough is enough," Mark Greenberg says. "We keep waiting for the cash to come in. When it does, it seems they always have to make new growth acquisitions. And the real return to investors hasn't been that great." He's part of a growing army of disillusioned Wall Streeters hoping to force media giants, including Time Warner, Viacom and Comcast, to scale back the extravagant ambitions that for more than a decade made them so intriguing — but not lucrative for shareholders (read more - USA Today)

In the 8th district congressional race, radio talk-show host Ross outpaced Bellevue interior designer Heidi Behrens-Benedict and retired high-tech businessman Alex Alben. Ross credited hard-working volunteers and the appeal of his message, in addition to the fame he brought to the race (read more - Seattle Times)

An all-sports format is, indeed, coming to WEMP-AM (1250), but Entercom Milwaukee market manager Ray Quinn can't say just when + Audra Evans, late of WRIT-FM (95.7), has resurfaced doing part-time on-air work at smooth jazz WJZI-FM (93.3). She's filling in this week on the 10 a.m.-2 p.m. shift + more (read more Tim Cuprisin-Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Clear Channel Communications Inc., the largest U.S. radio station chain, is expected to tap the corporate bond market with a $500 million debt sale as early as Wednesday, dealers said (read more - Reuters)

Moshannon Valley Broadcasting, owner of Philipsburg radio stations WPHB-AM and WUBZ-FM, has confirmed that both stations will be purchased for more than $2 million by Magnum Broadcasting of Warren. "It was an offer that we could not refuse," Laura S. Mack, co-owner of Moshannon Valley Broadcasting and manager of the stations, said Tuesday (read more - Centre Daily Times)

Can ABC trump Trump? That's the question as ABC News' revamped newsmagazine "Primetime Live" takes on "The Apprentice" star and business icon in his own time slot. "Primetime Live" kicks off its new season at 10 p.m. with a lengthy segment on Donald Trump. The piece promises to look behind the self-styled billionaire's finances and his life beyond his new TV career. ABC promotional materials say the show attempts to discover "the real deal" about Trump, with interviews with critics and his ex-wife Marla Maples. The "Primetime Live" piece hasn't thrilled the Donald, who thinks that ABC wants to ride the "Apprentice" wave (read more - Reuters)

Sirius Satellite Radio on-air host Grandmaster Flash, with his former group the Furious Five, are semifinalists in the nominations to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. They are the first rap artists to be nominated for inclusion. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were nominated along with U2, Randy Newman, Percy Sledge, The Pretenders, ABBA, Jeff Beck, The Harptones, The O'Jays, Kraftwerk, Ringo Starr, Buddy Guy, the late Conway Twitty and others (visit Sirius Radio)

This has been a busy year for Maria Shriver, the NBC News correspondent of Kennedy clan fame whose movie-idol husband, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was elected governor of California 11 months ago.  Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET/PT, Shriver marks her return to television with an hour-long look at the recovery of Roy Horn, the Las Vegas performer who was mauled and nearly killed by one of his tigers last fall (read more Peter Johnson-USA Today)

Syndicated columnist Robert Novak apparently believes that the principle of not revealing confidential sources is rather flexible. The man who has stood on this principle for months, in deflecting calls for him to identify who in the Bush administration "outed" CIA operative Valerie Plame, said this weekend on national television that CBS should release the name of its source for the documents at the center of the dispute over its recent program on President Bush's National Guard service. On the CNN panel show, "Capital Gang," Novak expressed grave doubts about the CBS documents, then said: "I'd like CBS, at this point, to say where they got these documents from. They didn't get them from a CIA agent. I don't believe there was any laws involved. I don't think we'll have a special prosecutor, if they tell. I think they should say where they got these documents because I thought it was a very poor job of reporting by CBS ...." (read more - Editor and Publisher)

Millionaires — in some cases billionaires — all, men with enough money and clout to do whatever they wanted. They had gathered at a news conference in October 2003 to show their support for a foundation that was trying to buy KOCE-TV. With the support of these businessmen, raising funds for Orange County's PBS station seemed a cinch. But nearly a year later, the KOCE-TV Foundation still does not have the $7.9 million it needs to buy the station from the Coast Community College District (read more - LA Times)

ABC Radio Networks was recently recognized with eight awards by Radio Ink’s 2004 Reader’s Choice Awards for Network/Syndicated Programming. Each year, radio executives, managers, programmers, and marketing executives vote for their favorite personalities programs. Votes were submitted in thirteen categories, including Political Talk, Music, News and Sports (visit Radio Ink)

At the WBTM radio studios, Ned Richardson was the one constant. He was in the radio business for about 50 years - the past 48 at WBTM. Danville area residents have been buying and selling on his show “Trading Post” for 40 years. When the weather was too bad for him to drive to work, he walked. And in recent weeks, when his health was at its worse, he was still on the air. “That’s the kind of work ethic Ned always had,” WBTM program director Alex Vardavas said. “If he called in sick, you knew Ned was sick. That’s just the way he was.” Richardson, 77, died Sunday after a period of declining health (read more - Danville Register Bee)

On ABC NightLine: Today was one of the bloodiest days in Iraq in a long time. Almost 60 dead, well over a hundred injured. We see the pictures of fighting every day, tonight you'll hear from an ABC News producer who was embedded with the military during the worst of the Najaf fighting  (visit ABC NightLine)

ABC Radio will produce a special one-hour program celebrating television’s biggest night, the 2004 Emmy Awards, beginning Thursday September 16th. Hosted by Keith Carradine, star of the new fall ABC-TV comedy, “Complete Savages,” ABC News Radio’s Emmy Guide will be available for broadcast by affiliates all weekend, leading up to the awards show taking place live at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Sunday, September 19th (visit ABC Radio)

While the Christian community buzzed Monday about allegations that televangelist Paul Crouch had been involved in a homosexual tryst, Trinity Broadcasting Network officials said their leader would continue "God's call" as the network's president. They also said that Christian leaders from around the country offered private words of encouragement Monday for Crouch. He said the network received unsolicited backing from dozens of Christian leaders who called or e-mailed their support, including author Josh McDowell; Doug Wead, a onetime advisor to former President George H.W. Bush; and singers Pat Boone and Carman (read more - LA Times)

John Facenda Jr. has sued Campbell Soup Co. and an advertising firm over a Chunky Chili ad that allegedly misappropriates his late father's voice. Facenda charges in the federal court suit that the company spoke to him in May about using a "sound-alike" narrator in radio and television ads this NFL season, but later said they had were changing course. Campbell's spokesman John Faulkner said the commercial was voiced by a man with a similar - but "not a sound-alike" - voice. John Facenda Sr. was a prominent Philadelphia broadcaster who long served as the dramatic voice of NFL Films before his 1984 death (read more - Fort Wayne News-Sentinel)

Hard as it may be to believe, the Disney/ABC-owned news/talk station WLS could be on the verge of losing its morning-drive franchise --Don and Roma -- less than four months after its afternoon-drive duo imploded with the acrimonious exit of Garry Meier as Roe Conn's partner + Garry Lee Wright will be broadcasting his WGN-AM (720) weekend shows from Fort Collins, Colo., while his daughter, Amanda, remains hospitalized there. She was injured in an auto accident Aug. 26 in Laramie, Wyo (read more - Feder of Chicago)

Gospel and popular music have often had a wary relationship, despite their common roots and stylistic kinship. Not so at WRKS (98.7 FM), whose main musical turf is "old school and today's R&B," but which mixes daily gospel into a format that has lately become the hottest in New York. The most recent Arbitrend ratings put WRKS in second place with 5.1% of the audience, trailing only perennial leader WLTW (106.7 FM) at 5.6%. Back in early 2003, Kiss wasn't even in the top 10 (read more - David Hinckley)

You can forget about "Fahgeddaboutit!" as far as television catch phrases are concerned. According to a new list issued on Monday of top television buzzwords, the favourite expression from "The Sopranos" is so yesterday that it has been replaced by several new phrases this past TV season including Donald Trump's message to losers on "The Apprentice" -- "You're fired!" (read more - Reuters U.K.)

TVN Entertainment, a leading provider of on demand television programming, management and delivery solutions, announced today that Sundance Channel will provide encore presentations of Air America  Radio's The Al Franken Show exclusively for the Video On Demand (VOD) platform via TVN's TVNow rapid turnaround service (read more)

Fangs are bared at WSM-FM 95.5, newly branded as ''The Wolf.'' The Nashville country station, which has consistently languished in its rating category, repositioned itself at noon yesterday with a new music mix and a vow to overtake its competition. That doesn't just mean Nashville's other two FM country stations — WKDF and WSIX, which traditionally swap the top slot and leave WSM in their dust, according to John Sebastian, the station's new programming director. Sebastian is aiming for WJXA-FM, the ''lite rock'' format station, which consistently tops every other Nashville radio station (read more - The Tennessean) (read more - Nashville City Paper)

Yahoo Inc. is buying online jukebox provider Musicmatch Inc. for $160 million in a deal designed to broaden the Internet giant's appeal with the growing audience of consumers who buy songs off the Web. The all-cash acquisition, announced Tuesday, gives Sunnyvale-based Yahoo a major drawing card as it competes against the likes of Apple Computer Inc., RealNetworks Inc. and Napster in the rapidly growing field of digital music management (read more - Contra Costa Times)

If ever there was a workaholic, it's Larry Greene. He gets up at 2 a.m. to do the morning news on Channel 4, then does the noon news, does weather updates, does spots on KYGO 98.5-FM, and does the 4 p.m. news on Channel 4 on Fridays. He's also a regular as an emcee on the fundraising rubber-chicken circuit. He loves it, and he's good at it. "I still do 90 events a year. I don't charge a dime for any of them. They're trying to raise money. How can you go to them and say, 'I want some of that'?" (read more - Dick Kreck - Denver Post)

NBC Universal Chairman Robert Wright joked after hearing the news that "it's Eisner's job that I'm after." Wright was kidding, but for plenty of other media heavyweights, Disney's bombshell that its longtime CEO Michael Eisner will retire when his contract expires in 2006 is serious business. The surprise announcement will make the Hollywood parlor game of "who's on the rise" a little more interesting than usual. Indeed, the news was barely out before the Tinseltown rumor mill started buzzing about who would be a good choice to run the $30 billion-a-year media giant (read more - Mac News World)

View the video interviews of "Today" host Matt Lauer profiling controversial author Kitty Kelley as her new book "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty," is released + Kitty Kelley discusses the alleged cocaine use at Camp David + Lauer interviews Sharon Bush (visit and click at NBC Today)  

Record companies don't normally contact the AJC Buzz Central to discuss songs they're not making a buck off. That's what made Atlantic Records' recent e-mail missive unique. The label was touting "Dry Your Eyes," the unexpected, suddenly hot radio single by the Streets and Coldplay vocalist/celebrity shutterbug punch-out artist Chris Martin on 99X (read more - Peach Buzz)

I don't know if anyone has been paying attention to what is supposed to be local radio during this storm emergency. Local radio stations are doing virtually nothing to keep residents that may have lost power, and those without TV, abreast of current conditions. Simulcasting Channel 40 TV and their constant "look at this video," "look at this radar image" does nothing for radio listeners (read more - Dawn Scire-The Radio Babe-Sarasota Herald Tribune)

FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein -- I want to hear directly about your experience with television and radio. I want your perspective on how well broadcasters are meeting the needs of your community. Are they providing sufficient coverage of issues of local concern, including local elections? Do you have enough choice in news sources? Are broadcasters providing sufficient family friendly programming? Are you hearing local artists played on the radio? (read more - Detroit Free)

Memorial services for Audrey Jane Malkan, a radio pioneer whose holdings included three Corpus Christi radio stations, will be at 3 p.m. Friday at the Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz International Center.  Malkan died Aug. 29 in Decorah, Iowa, after a battle with cancer. She was 75.  Malkan’s career in radio began in 1965 when she and her husband Arnold Malkan moved from New York, bought a Fort Worth radio station and jumpstarted the Texas State Network, a group of interconnected radio stations across the state. The Malkans had owned and operated more than a dozen radio stations in Texas, Virginia, Ohio, Alabama, Tennessee and Indiana (read more - Corpus Christi Caller-Times)

A consortium led by the Sony Corporation of America reached a tentative agreement yesterday to buy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the Hollywood studio famous for James Bond and the Pink Panther, for about $4.8 billion in cash, snatching it from Time Warner at the 11th hour. The deal, which ends an auction that was filled with behind-the-scenes machinations for months, included one last surprise twist: Comcast, the cable giant, joined Sony's consortium as a strategic partner and a possible investor (read more - NY Times)

Sirius announced that Monday Night Football analyst and legendary NFL head coach John Madden has signed on with SIRIUS NFL Radio, the first 24/7 year-round radio channel devoted entirely to the NFL. Madden will serve as commentator on SIRIUS NFL Radio's Sunday pre- game program, The Stadium Tailgate Show (read more)

The Brazilian government wants to set up a broadcasting and television bureau to regulate television, video and broadcasting. This proposition was met by criticism, and the Ministry of Culture was forced to make concessions. These media-restricting policies are most directly aimed at repeated media reports about increasing corruption, including things such as the ruling party's manipulation of campaign funds. This Brazilian story should sound familiar to Taiwan's journalists and the Taiwanese public (read more - Taipei Times)

The eighth installment of the almost annual alternative rock concert X-Fest is headed back to where it began — Centennial Park. The concert will be held Thursday, Oct. 21. Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday. The concert is sponsored by 99X WJBX 99.3 FM (read more - News-Press)

The escalating battle for the votes of U.S. armed forces personnel is stoking congressional Democrats’ efforts to end what they see as a right-wing tilt on the Armed Forces Radio and Television Services (AFRTS). They are focusing on the broadcast of Rush Limbaugh’s popular daily talk show and say that its inclusion without a left-leaning counterweight violates Department of Defense (DoD) guidelines to provide balanced political programming to active-duty military personnel in 177 countries (read more - The Hill)

President Bush may have gotten a "bump' in support during the GOP convention, but it's already dissipated. Once again, he's tied with Democrat John Kerry. That's the evidence emerging from daily tracks by the Rasmussen poll. And focus groups in 17 battleground states conducted by Democratic consultant Bob Beckel also suggest that Bush failed to decisively convert undecided voters. Polling 1,000 voters a night, Rasmussen found that Bush went into the Republican convention with a one-point lead, 47 percent to 46 percent, and came out Sept. 4 with a lead of 4.4 points, 49.1 percent to 44.7 percent. By Sept. 7, however, the race had slipped back to 47-47 (read more - Mort Kondracke) You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" like it at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

Now it can be told. There was an ineligible player on at least one of those KMEN softabll teams of the 1960s. He was a ringer, actually. A teenage kid from San Bernardino named Chuck Street and he used to haunt the station at its old cow pasture site because he loved the hard-edged music its deejays played. So they gave him a glove and put him in the lineup. Most of those jocks have long sine disperseed to all parts of the country -- in at least one case, the world. And KMEN itself is no more.  Street, now Commander Chuck Street, the veteran traffic reporter/helicopter pilot for KIIS (102.7 FM), has been in the process of recreating it at a hangar in Fullerton. And he plans to bring the finished product to San Bernardino Monday (read more - San Bernadino Living)

The 13th Annual Meeting and Leadership Conference of the National Association of Black Telecommunications Professionals (NABTP) - will be held in Washington, D.C., September 16-18. The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC) will present an intensive seminar on the FCC auction process. In light of the high interest level among small and minority entrepreneurs in FM Auction 37 and Wireless Auction 58, the seminar will cover both wireless and broadcast auctions (details, details)

Analyst David Bank of RBC Capital Markets expects most of the US-based radio broadcasting companies to report their 3Q 2004 results in-line with or marginally short of expectations (read more - New Ratings)

Jeff Britton loves to throw in all the bells, whistles and sound effects. If he needs a bird call and doesn’t have the right one, he does it himself. “It’s awful,” Britton said of his bird imitations. But the sometimes humorous result only adds to the “goofy neighbor, over-the-fence feel” of “Nature Trust,” the weekly, three-minute program he produces for local public radio station WBOI, 89.1-FM (read more - News Sentinel)

Screaming "Let's Go Huskies, Let's Go," 26 students in Jeff Beechler's fifth-grade classroom seemed a formidable kickball force against Wallace and Steve O'Brien, the DJs from 93.9 The Song WISG-FM. The students' Orange Crush team gave it their best shot but came out a little slushy in the end, losing by three points. To prepare for the game, O'Brien said, the men decided to eat like fifth-graders. "We've been eating tater tots, Twinkies and Ding Dongs," he joked (read more - The Noblesville Ledger)

A bold stroke by a Houston-based company could establish the U.S. as the first nation with digital mobile TV broadcasting based on DVB-H, or Digital Video Broadcast-Handheld, a system originally developed in Europe. Crown Castle's spectrum coup comes as portable television, radio, broadcast multimedia and wireless Internet services are all vying to reach handheld terminals for content delivery. The industry is facing a number of technology choices including GPRS, 3G, Digital Mobile Broadcast and DVB-H — a variation on the terrestrial digital TV standard (read more - EE Times)

As if the 2004 campaign for the presidency has not been dirty enough -- get ready for a 700-page book by America's most famous tabloid biographer that alleges illegal drug use and other youthful misdeeds by President George W. Bush. More than 700,000 copies of Kitty Kelley's "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty" are set to hit bookstores on Tuesday with the 62-year-old Kelley launching into a series of television interviews starting with three days on NBC's "Today Show." Despite sensational allegations and the heavy duty publicity accompanying the book, the mainstream U.S. press has been reluctant to delve into the claims, partly because of doubts about Kelley's reporting and partly because the Republican party has labeled the book fiction. The White House spokesman has called it garbage (read more - Reuters)

On ABC NightLine: 50 days to go until Election Day and we are entering the homestretch. At the moment, the President is enjoying a post-convention bounce, which happens to coincide with the traditional Labor Day launch of the campaign. This is the time when people are supposedly really focusing on the election for the first time. And what are the candidates talking about? National security. And also tonight, what are the political cartoonists saying about this election? (visit ABC NightLine)

The founder of the world's largest Christian broadcasting network has sought repeatedly to prevent a former male employee from going public with allegations of a sexual encounter between them eight years ago, a newspaper reported today. Paul Crouch, 70, president of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, reached a $425,000 settlement in 1998 with the former worker who threatened to sue over claims he had been unjustly fired from the network, the Los Angeles Times said (read LA Times) (read more - Star-Tribune)

Could The Wolf be sniffing at doors of WSM-FM? That’s the rumor swirling around the radio station’s anticipated announcement today of a new sound and logo for the Nashville country station. Trying to turn the tide for Nashville’s third-rated country station, Cumulus Broadcasting Inc. of Atlanta will unveil a host of changes, including a new on-air line-up and branding campaign, starting at noon today. Radio wags and bloggers have been floating the idea that WSM-FM 95.5 will be known as The Wolf, particularly since Cumulus registered the domain name www.955thewolf.com on Aug. 4. The Wolf is used as a moniker for some other stations, including an Internet radio station in Nashville and KPLX-FM in Dallas, a country station that mixes in Texas-based music (read more - Nashville City Paper)

Kate Delaney, the former "Sports Princess" at KRLD/1080 AM, begins a morning show today on KMSR/990 AM "Main Street Radio." She'll take the place of the Don Imus Show, which will vanish from Fort Worth-Dallas airwaves once again. Her sidekicks, oddly enough, will include vice president of operations Dave Marcum and general manager Jerry Overton (another KRLD alum) +   Classic-rock fans, have you been checking out KZPS' "15 Years in 15 Days" stunt? It started Tuesday, with 1967, and ends next week with 1981. Each day, the station plays music exclusively from one year, and while that makes for some weirdness -- Sonny & Cher and Bobbie Gentry on KZPS, home of the never-ending Pink Floyd/Led Zeppelin/ZZ Top rotation? (read more - Robert Philpot-Star-Telegram)

Mike Missanelli and Steve Fredericks are going back to WIP-AM (610). For a week, anyway. Missanelli - a WIP-er from 1992 until 2003, when he quit for a morning stint that ran 13 months on WMMR-FM (93.3) - will cohost today's pre-Eagles broadcast from 1 to 4 p.m. with Angelo Cataldi and Rhea Hughes. Missanelli, last heard on the air on June 4, also will cohost WIP's afternoon show (3 to 7) all this week with his old on-air partner, Fredericks, who's been lured out of retirement. Fredericks' last shift after 14 years on WIP was April 16. The two are filling in for Howard Eskin, who on Thursday began a 30-day suspension as part of a lawsuit settlement. Eskin is due back Oct. 14 (read more - Michael Klein-Philly Inquirer)

Talk-show host Randi Rhodes joined a new liberal network hoping to advance her career while shaking up this election season. But things haven't worked out exactly as planned.  Randi Rhodes always gets stage fright before she goes on the air, even after 20-odd years in radio, but this is not her usual pre-show panic; this is different. This, she says, lighting her umpteenth Parliament Light, is "the tensest day of my entire adult life." She managed to sleep, for the first time in several nights, only because "somebody took pity on me and gave me an Ambien." (read more - Washington Post-Paula Span)

Infinity Broadcasting's WIP learned a costly lesson when it settled for "substantial compensation" a defamation suit filed by super-attorney Richard Sprague against perennial loudmouth Howard Eskin, but broadcasters doubt it will have a chilling effect on what Philadelphians hear on the radio. The settlement prohibits revealing the monetary award, but chatter around WIP (610 AM) is that the payout is "huge." One station source tells me he heard it was over $1 million, maybe well over. Someone familiar with Sprague and his attorneys, Shanin Specter and Tom Kline, describes them as "seven-figure lawyers. They wouldn't settle for less." Specter discussed the case with me, but not the cash (read more - Stu Bykofsky-Philly Daily News)

Talk about a stunner. KABC/790 AM's Ken Minyard caught listeners by surprise the other day when he announced on the air that he will be retiring Oct. 15 + KLSX/97.1 FM is running NFL games Sundays. KBIG/104.3 FM's Charlie Tuna hosts a three-day radiothon starting Saturday to benefit the Children's Miracle Network. Comedian Elayne Boosler appears with Duncan Strauss on "Talking Animals," 9-10 a.m. Monday on KUCI/88.9 FM. Boosler has her own animal-assistance foundation, Tails of Joy (read more - Gary Lycan-OC Register)

From ClaudeHallOnline.com -- I tapped into Chuck Blore's website at www.chuckblore.com.  Blore's interview with George Wilson is rather unique, as well as quite interesting.  It's a legend interviewing a legend + e-mails from Gary Allyn, Karin Moss, Bruce Goss, Garvin Rutherford, Duane Kirkland, Burt Sherwood, Dale Tucker and more (visit www.claudehallonline.com)

XM Satellite Radio announced that it has launched a new channel, XM Emergency Alert (XM Channel 247), dedicated to providing critical, updated information before, during and after natural disasters, weather emergencies and other hazardous incidents to listeners across the country (read more)

Nostalgia station CKWW-AM (580) is cutting its programming to the bone this week. Most music host shifts have been lengthened to 6 hours. Weekdays, it's Charlie O'Brien 6 a.m.-noon; Wayne Stevens noon-6 p.m. and Robb Duncan 6 p.m.-midnight with an interruption for the "When Radio Was" syndicated show at 10 p.m. Gone from weekends are the syndicated "Big Bands, Ballads & Blues" and "Broadway's Biggest Hits," a Saturday evening staple (read more Detroit Freep-John Smyntek)

Univision Radio, the largest Spanish-language radio broadcaster in the United States, is collaborating with Wal-Mart to host community-focused health fairs across the country. The effort is entitled "Pensando en su Salud", and is part of Univision's corporate health initiative, "Salud es Vida, Enterate!" Each health fair event will offer attendees the opportunity to receive free health screenings, and provide information/materials in a fun and family-oriented atmosphere on a variety of health topics affecting U.S. Hispanics. The fairs will be held at select Wal-Mart locations in eleven cities throughout the United States from September through November 2004 (read more)

From  Ken Hoffman: I am absolutely heartbroken that we are losing our only full-time classical music station (KRTS-FM). I can't believe that a city as large as Houston can't support one. And we really don't need another hip-hop, dance or R&B station. I am sick, I tell you, just sick. Laura K. Chapman, Houston --- There is a classic equivalent of a "goodbye" song. We may not have a symphonic arrangement of Goodbye to You by Scandal, but we do have stuff like March to the Scaffold or Death and Transfiguration , plus lots of requiems and famous dying scenes from operas. Madame Butterfly has a classy exit. Catherine Lu, Program Director, KRTS-FM (read more - Ken Hoffman-Houston Chronicle)

What it was like to be on the Radio September 11, 2001 -- There have been a handful of days where the medium I work in has been called to speak to all in a different voice. There have been just a few times when my mission was to be a messenger because I was the first to know something. I have broadcast during very adverse times. Early in my career, I stayed on the air 24 hours straight and broadcast during the worst blizzard in Ohio history. I was the messenger who said it was coming and during the darkest hours, when power was gone and people were scared, I was the lifeline of communication that gave solace and hope. When I worked on the Mississippi Gulf coast in Biloxi ... (read more - Corey Deitz)

Fox News' sometime war correspondent Geraldo Rivera has a battle to fight in his own backyard. Rivera is suing his co-op board in the Edgewater Colony, saying the directors wrongly kept a $10,000 deposit he made on a home he bought years ago and prevented him from buying another property that he wants to use as a guesthouse (read more - NY Daily News)

An Arab television journalist was killed and two other journalists were wounded Sunday when a U.S. helicopter opened fire to destroy a U.S. vehicle disabled by a car bomb, witnesses and their employers said.  Mazen al-Tumeizi, who was working for Al-Arabiya television, was taping a report when an explosion behind him caused him to double-over and scream "I'm dying, I'm dying." He died moments later, Al-Arabiya said after airing the video. An Iraqi working as a camera operator for Reuters Television was wounded and reported in stable condition, the agency said here. His name was withheld for security reasons (read more - KCRA Channel)

September 13, 2004, will mark the day for the launch of a new Internet radio rock show. Radio Warehouse will begin transmitting at 10:00 a.m. (CST) on Industrialinfo.com Radio and raise the bar for Internet radio shows. The show will feature the hottest songs of the past ten years, retro cuts from the 80's, tracks from emerging independent artists, and some of Houston's own local talent. Offering music from an array of genres and musicians, Radio Warehouse will transcend the blight pigeonholes of terrestrial radio stations, as well as be unhampered by corporate "suggested" play lists (read more)

Members of New Jersey's congressional delegation have asked federal regulators to examine whether plans to move much of WWOR-TV's operations back to New York violate a mandate to serve New Jersey. The request for a formal inquiry by the Federal Communications Commission was made by Sens. Jon Corzine and Frank Lautenberg, and Reps. Robert Menendez, Bill Pascrell, Donald Payne, Steven Rothman, and Rush Holt, all D-N.J. (read more - Newsday)

They've always been there, it seems, telling us whether we can count on sunshine for that Saturday picnic or a breeze for our early-morning run. But only in the past month have the five chief meteorologists for Tampa Bay's TV stations become such fixtures in our daily lives. "Life and death decisions are made based on what we say," says Dick Fletcher, chief meteorologist for Tampa Bay's 10. We count on them so much, and yet we know little about them. Here's what they don't talk about when they're standing in front of their maps: their education and training, what they base their predictions on, and their own plans for hurricane preparation (read more - Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler-St. Pete Times)  (read more - Hernando Today)

Former Arizona Channel 3 weekend sports anchor and now CNN babe Daryn Kagan is dating former Royals publicist-turned-conservative radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh. There are some things you just can't explain (read more - Arizona Central)

Life without Monday Night Football? Unimaginable. Dastardly. Empty. And, just maybe, possible. According to a recent Los Angeles Times report, ABC is looking hard at its popular franchise as it loses $150-million annually. According to the Times, "Disney executives under pressure to prove to Wall Street that they can reverse the network's fortunes and turn a profit by next year ... must decide whether the benefits of Monday Night Football outweigh the financial losses." (read more - St. Pete Times)

A showdown is looming between cable and satellite TV in Hawai'i. Tim Batchler, operations manager of Microcom in Pearl Harbor, explains an order to customer Max Paguio, a Pearl City resident who signed up at the Navy Exchange for services by DISH Network. Microcom is the main installer for DISH Network in Hawai'i. For years, cable television has dominated the state. Satellite TV was seen as a poor second choice, mostly for people who could not get cable. Not anymore. For the first time since it was introduced nearly a decade ago, satellite TV has become a serious player in Hawai'i. With a recently expanded all-digital channel lineup, addition of local channels and free installation and equipment, they've been siphoning off customers from Oceanic Time Warner Cable, the state's lone cable TV company (read more - Honolulu Advertiser)

No matter how hard you look, you won't find much regarding technology mentioned in President Bush's recent convention speech. Bush didn't bring up Internet taxes, cheaper broadband, tax credits or a host of other topics he could have squeezed into his 62-minute speech in Madison Square Garden. The closest he came was a mention of his campaign Web site. So have the last four years been good or bad when viewed through the lens of what's best for tech? (read more - CNET)

Air America, the left-leaning national talk radio network, has landed a home on an Atlanta radio station — on the far right end of the AM dial. The voices of Chuck D., Randi Rhodes, Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo will be heard at AM 1690 sometime next week once technical issues are resolved, said Air America president Jon Sinton, who is based in Atlanta. The 1690 spot on the dial recently was running classic country music but is now playing nothing as station owner Intermart Broadcasting prepares for the Air America launch. Current call letters are WSWK-AM but Sinton said the owners plan to change that to WWAA-AM (read more - Atlanta Journal Constitution)

In a report on Friday night's "CBS News Evening News," Dan Rather reported that many of those raising questions about the documents have focused on something called superscript, a key that automatically types a raised "th." Critics claim typewriters didn't have that ability in the 1970s. But some models did, Rather reported. In fact, other Bush military records already released by the White House itself show the same superscript – including one from as far back as 1968. In a report on Friday night's "CBS News Evening News," Dan Rather reported that many of those raising questions about the documents have focused on something called superscript, a key that automatically types a raised "th." Critics claim typewriters didn't have that ability in the 1970s. But some models did, Rather reported. In fact, other Bush military records already released by the White House itself show the same superscript – including one from as far back as 1968 (read more - CBS News)  You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" like it at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

Disney announced Friday that Michael Eisner, chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Co., will leave the company in 2006. In a letter to the board, Eisner said he plans to retire effective Sept. 30, 2006 -- when his contract with the company ends. Without Michael D. Eisner at the helm of the Walt Disney Company, will Harvey Weinstein and Steven P. Jobs stay as partners? That is the question on the minds of analysts and Hollywood executives . The strain between Disney and its two prominent partners and executives, Mr. Weinstein of Miramax and Mr. Jobs of Pixar Animation Studios, have been attributed in part to clashes with Mr. Eisner (read more - LA Biz News)  (read more - NY Times)

Three years before the Great Depression started, L.R.B. Braun founded General Outdoor Advertising Co., establishing the billboard business at 511 Madison Ave. in Downtown Indianapolis.  Nearly 80 years later, Clear Channel Communications Inc., a broadcast and outdoor media company that operates three radio stations in Indianapolis, owns Braun's company. And the bulk of billboards it has had produced -- called "posters" for their small size -- are what Braun founded his business on (read more - Indy Star)

On Friday Rap artist MC Hammer was at the new bar Celebrities, to promote the new Citidel station 102.5 The Praise. Hammer, along with his many other talents, is now serving an alternate cause, promoting inspirational selections in the ministry. He feels with all the turmoil in the world, that Arkansas needs a station like the praise to lift spirits (read more - KATV)

Air America will soon be on the air in the Boston area, according to local radio sources, likely on some combination of local Clear Channel properties WKOX-AM (1200) in Framingham and WXKS-AM (1430) in Boston. Clear Channel managers were unavailable for comment, but Herald sources indicate both stations are expected to simulcast a mix of Air America shows along with programs by such syndicated liberal talkers as Ed Schultz (read more - Boston Herald-Dean Johnson)

Guy Sharpe studied to be a minister instead of a meteorologist, but his sunny, warm personality ensured his popularity as an Atlanta weather forecaster for almost 50 years. He reported on radio and for all three network television affiliates here, starting on ABC, moving to CBS and ending his television career on NBC's Channel 11. Sharpe, 75, died Friday at Crawford Long Hospital. A longtime heavy smoker, he died of congestive heart failure, emphysema and lung cancer (read more - AJC)

In a move that could eventually transform the radio industry, central Puget Sound stations are adopting a new technology that replaces static-filled broadcasts with crystal clear, CD-quality sound. The new configuration is called high-definition radio, or HD radio. Seattle is central to the nationwide HD radio movement because the Corporation for Public Broadcasting selected it as a test market for public radio stations (read more - Puget Sound Biz Journal)

Empower MediaMarketing has signed a 10-year lease for a 32,600-square-foot office building on St. Gregory Street, filling the void left by Clear Channel Communications Inc.'s relocation of its eight local radio stations to Kenwood earlier this year (read more - Cincinnati Biz Courier)

KRTR-FM 96.3 listeners will hear a new morning show with familiar voices starting Monday. Chris Reiser and "Sista" Sherry Clifton are joining the ranks of radio hosts who have to drag themselves out of bed at oh-dark-thirty to help listeners start their days entertained, informed and with a smile (read more - Erika Engle - Honolulu Star-Bulletin)

From Kent Burkhart's "I Was There" series -- Everyone needs a Texas brother-in-law named Bubba!!! Indeed, I have one. Bubba, whose real name is Edward Bates Tomlinson III, came into my life when he was ten. Bubba is a guy who wears many cowboy hats…that is, he has a lot of talents. On labor day weekend my wife and I were with Bubba to discuss….well, wait, hold on… I am getting ahead of myself….lets do some of Bubba’s life/ history first. While in high school he realized he had musical talent, and formed a TOP 40 band called the Galaxys. Bubba could sing, and still can. I thought the group was good, and arranged an audition with music publisher/record producer/concert promoter Bill Lowery. Bill liked the band and took them to a recording studio where they made a number of cuts….and would you believe that Mercury records bought their masters, released a single, and it made it to the 40 range in the Billboard popular charts ... (read it all at www.kentburkhart.com)

Local radio personality Steve "Rhino" Reinhardt was arrested early Thursday morning on felony stalking and burglary charges, said Lawrence County Sheriff Tim Sexton. Reinhardt, 50, is program director and morning drive personality for WRYV-FM, 101.5, The River. A Tri-State radio personality for a number of years, his current show is the "Rhino in the Morning Show" (read more - Herald Dispatch)

A decision is expected to be announced about the middle of next week on the replacement for Jay "Jammer" Scott on the early afternoon program on WGOW, Talk Radio 102.3. Bill Lockhart, WGOW program director, said he interviewed one finalist on Thursday and had appointments with four others today (read more - The Chattanoogan)

A start-up is bringing radio to portable MP3 players, betting that digital audio fans will want a diet beyond their own music collections. AudioFeast announced on Wednesday that it is creating a subscription service that offers downloadable radio shows for portable players--the first of its kind, the company said. It hopes to attract customers who are looking to fill their commute time with something other than songs downloaded from the Internet or ripped from a CD, executives said. Right now, the company is offering a smattering of broadcast talk shows, including programs from National Public Radio and the BBC, available only on the company's Web site (read more - ZD Net)

New research indicates that two radio ads released this week by Saudi Arabia in an effort to improve its image in the United States fell on deaf ears. The ads, which are part of a $1 million radio ad campaign, highlight the September 11 commission's finding that the Saudi Government was not involved in the terrorist attacks on the United States.  A study conducted today revealed that 78% of responders indicated that they believe the ads are directly related to the presidential election. 50% of responders believe the Saudi Government knowingly funds terrorist organizations  (read more)

Howard Eskin, the long-time sports-talk radio-show host, is off the radio airwaves for 30 days after 610 WIP-AM's owners suspended him for comments that caused a lawsuit. Eskin, who is also an NBC 10 sports anchor, was reached by NBC 10 but said he was unable to comment. A statement has been issued by 610 WIP-AM on behalf of its parent company, Infinity Broadcasting (read more - NBC 10)  (read more - Seattle P-I)

Attendees at next week’s TalenTrak – the Conclave’s exclusive air talent seminar being held on Saturday, September 18th in Cleveland – will have an opportunity to see history! Moonlight Groove Highway, a loyal Conclave supporter, will supply a limited number of entrance passes to registrants and faculty to visit the world-renowned Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum on Friday, September 17. Those who pre-register for TalenTrak 2004 and plan to arrive in Cleveland on Friday afternoon are invited to tour the museum between 6 PM and 9 PM. Details are available by calling the Conclave office at 952-927-4487 (visit The Conclave)

Media rating giant Arbitron Inc. announced that it may buy back up to $25 million worth of its common stock in a program recently authorized by its board of directors (read more - Crains NY Biz)

From JimRoseOnline.com -- Reading some of the remembrances of those who write to you causes me to think back on my "formative" years in radio. My first job was at KMAE in McKinney, owned by George Smith and his wife. Had it not been for the Smiths radio would have remained an elusive dream for me. I connected up with some of my early day mentors and encouragers, names of legendary status in Dallas radio. Ron Jenkins taught me how to write news and how to read it, Sam Pate showed me the early ropes of his being THE ACE mobil reporter in Dallas...the best ever....and Ron Rice encouraged me to pursue my dream of becoming a jock. Rice, in fact, gave me my first "big city" job, working all nights on weekends at KBOX when he was the PD. Ron knew Joe Walker, one time RCA promo man in Dallas, who by then was PD at KCAW in Port Arthur, Texas. Joe hired me on Ron's recommendation to be afternoon drive and I was finally in full time radio. A year later Jack Pieper, News Director of KAYC, hired me as his number two man and my education quadrupled (read more at www.JimRoseOnline.com)

WISN-AM (1130) program director Jerry Bott has invited yours truly (Tim Cuprisin) to sit in as a guest on the morning show alongside Jay Weber on Monday and Tuesday from 5:30 to 9 a.m. The show's co-host, Bob Dolan, is jetting off to Ireland for the week, and it'll be a chance to see another morning radio show from inside. With the shift starting before dawn, Mr. Dolan clearly gets the better part of this deal (read more - Tim Cuprisin)

XTRA was on the cutting edge when the all-sports radio format was born in the 1980s. Industry insiders say the station's run may end soon. Sources said that Clear Channel will move its sports talk format from XTRA (690/1150) to Los Angeles-based KLAC (570), with 690 taking the music-for-your-life format and 1150 going to a news-talk format. What does that mean for San Diego listeners? (read more - North County Times - John Maffei)

NPR's Ivan Watson in Baghdad reports on an American military radio station that broadcasts pop tunes, advice and good news to U.S. troops in Iraq (read and listen at NPR)

Talk radio's Ken Minyard is hanging up the microphone. The "Ken & Company" anchor told listeners to his KABC-AM (790) morning show he'll retire Oct. 15 after 35 years on local airwaves. Minyard broke new ground. He and former radio partner Bob Arthur were the first to take their ever-affable show outside the studio for live remotes, now standard practice for radio programs (read more - LA Daily News)

Larry Wert, the onetime Chicago radio executive who became president and general manager of WMAQ-Channel 5, is suing his former employer over a fortune in stock options + Amy Scott, the former Chicago radio personality who made a successful transition to television, is returning to the cable network that brought her national recognition. Scott has signed on with VH1 Classic as an on-air personality and program host (read more - Feder of Chicago)

The Radio-Mercury Awards presents its sixth Radio Creative Workshop, and the second to be held in New York City, on Wednesday, September 22nd from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Marriott Marquis. The Radio-Mercury Creative Workshop is part of the Radio Advertising Bureau’s (RAB) Focus On Radio Series held in conjunction with Advertising Week in NYC, September 20 to 24. It is designed exclusively to help agency creatives explore the essentials of developing great Radio commercials (read more - RAB)

Last month, the FCC said it will overhaul the Emergency Elert System and possibly expand it to include cell phones and the Internet. But critics say officials are neglecting the existing system. "Unfortunately, I think it will take a major catastrophe where hundreds of thousands of people are killed for people to understand what (we) have been saying," said Jim Gabbert, a former Northern California broadcaster who oversees the state's Emergency Elert System and serves on a national advisory committee that's been exploring alert issues for two years. Despite decades of technological advances, the Emergency Elert System ---- which lost its old name, the Emergency Broadcast System, in 1997 ---- is hardly a model of high technology in action. In fact, it's not much more advanced than it was back in the 1950s when the federal government worried about nuclear bombs, not dirty bombs (read more - Randy Dotinga-North County Times)

A radio station broadcasting group, which includes two Clinton stations, has been sold. WPW Broadcasting of DeKalb, Ill., announced Wednesday a transaction with Prairie Communications, LLP. The transaction includes KCLN-AM (1390) and KZEG-FM (94.7) in Clinton. Local station manager Chris Streets said "all personnel and programming will remain the same." (read more - Clinton Herald)

Jodi Applegate, once a red-hot star at NBC News, may be headed back to New York City. She is currently co-host of the morning news on WFXT-TV, Fox's station in Boston, where she has worked for four years. But that could change - soon. There's been speculation for weeks on TV Web sites that Applegate was looking for a move to Fox-owned WNYW/Ch. 5 (read more NY Daily News - Richard Huff)

Rush Limbaugh, the Will Rogers of our time, jokingly ran a tape of a surgeon of Mr. Clinton's announcing the former president was sedated but capable of "arousal." Rush ran the risible tape more than once and doubtless his audience got the joke. Mr. Clinton's two terms may not be remembered for thwarting terrorism or making any geopolitical leaps. But they will be remembered for transforming the White House into Animal House, just what one would expect from 1960s youth (read more - Washington Times - R. Emmett Tyrrell) You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" like it at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

On ABC NightLine: New allegations about President Bush's service in the National Guard. Vice-President Cheney makes a statement that many in his own party consider over-the-top. Looking for the truth, but in politics these days, does the truth really matter? (visit ABC NightLine)

Sirius announced at the Custom Electronics Design Industry Association (CEDIA) Expo that it has joined forces with Monster Cable Products, Inc. (Brisbane, Calif.) to market and distribute SIRIUS branded accessories for the home and mobile entertainment markets (read more)

XM Satellite Radio announced the debut of its exclusive, original music series for the Fall 2004 season featuring many of the music industry's biggest stars.  XM's new season kicks off Sunday, September 12th at 8 PM ET with the one-on-one interview and performance series "Artist Confidential," this week featuring nine-time Grammy-winner Bonnie Raitt.  In the coming weeks music legends Tom Petty, Snoop Dogg, Quincy Jones and many others will deliver exclusive, original XM shows on a variety of XM channels for music fans nationwide (read more)

Hot 97 has gone to court to keep bad- boy DJ Star — whom it fired last year — from getting a new job in New York anytime soon. Hip-hop rival Power 105 has long been rumored to want Star. He is currently employed by a Hartford station that is owned by Clear Channel, the same company that owns Power 105. Star, aka Troi Torain, had killer ratings at Hot 97 until he was fired early last year for, among other things, allegedly threatening to "cut" the general manager (read more - John Mainelli - NY Post)

Six legendary figures in Chicago journalism -- including former WLS-Channel 7 news anchor John Drury and former WBBM-Channel 2 reporter John Drummond -- will receive Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Chicago Headline Club + Chicago's seven Infinity Broadcasting stations will be among all of the company's 185 radio outlets to participate in a one-day nonpartisan voter registration event on Tuesday + Carl Jeffers has signed off as Saturday evening talk show host at WLS-AM (890) to take on two weekend shows at KIRO-AM in Seattle. Jeffers' former on-air partner, David Jennings, is expected to continue solo on WLS (read more - Feder of Chicago)

Howard Stern wants to expand his Web site to maintain access to his fans after he gets fired. "With the site, we won't have to rely on terrestrial radio when the FCC finagles a way to get us thrown off the air because they put too much pressure on Viacom and all the other companies we work for," Stern told his radio audience this week (read more - Investors Business Daily)

It's over for Ken Jennings . The software engineer from Salt Lake City who'd won 41 "Jeopardy" shows — and $1.4 million — as of last night has finally lost. The episode where Jennings was defeated won't air until the end of the month, and everyone at yesterday's taping signed a strict confidentiality agreement (read more - NY Post)

The much-loved Scott Muni, now at WAXQ (104.3 FM), is still recovering from a serious stroke, with no timetable for his return. Fans who would like to send him a get-well card or a note of appreciation can mail it to: The Dewitt, 211 E. 79th St., Room 1102, New York, NY 10021 + Scott Shannon says his True Oldies Channel, distributed by ABC Radio, is "a two-year project that's going great." Besides WREF (850 AM) in Danbury, Conn., it's on in Los Angeles, San Diego, Knoxville, Tenn., and other cities (read more - David Hinckley)

TalkRadio 790 KABC’s Ken Minyard, host of Ken & Company (5-9AM, M-F), announced today that he will retire after completing thirty-five years of broadcasting in Los Angeles. Minyard will broadcast his final show on KABC on October 15, 2004, marking his thirty-fifth anniversary on Los Angeles morning radio. “Its been a great run, but I need to get some sleep,” said Minyard on his show on KABC today. “I went to management a couple of weeks ago and told them that I’m going to retire. Its hard because its been a lot of fun, but it seems that all the stars are lined up properly and now is the right time to do this.” (visit KABC Ken and Company)

A new style of liberal talk radio is coming to Asheville next week, as daytime-only station WPEK/880-AM drops its "adult standards" music format and joins the edgy Air America network. The station, formerly known as "The Peak," will morph into "The Revolution." (read more - Asheville Citizen-Times)

Talk radio programs help Pennsylvania voters from across the entire political spectrum form opinions on current issues, according to a new survey by Arbitron Inc. A quarter of Pennsylvania voters who consider themselves Independents tell Arbitron that talk radio programs help them form opinions on current issues. This survey also shows that half of Republicans and nearly a third (30 percent) of Democrats in Pennsylvania also believe that talk radio programs influence their views on current issues (visit Arbitron)

WMMR (93.3 FM) announces the addition of Paul Jaxon to the WMMR air staff. "Jaxon" will be hosting the afternoon drive show (3pm to 7pm) show beginning this Thursday (read more)

KMPS-FM (94.1) recently billed a concert it sponsored at the Evergreen State Fair as marking its 30th anniversary, although program director Becky Brenner says she wasn't sure whether the country station was marking the start or the end of its 30th year with those call letters and that musical format (read more - Bill Virgin's Seattle Radio Beat)

U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell endorsed setting a 2009 deadline for U.S. television broadcasters such as Viacom's CBS to switch to digital signals (read more - Seattle Times)

A Columbus radio station is trading little ratings for Lil John. The station, WBFA-FM 101.3, hopes to usher in a new era with help from the likes of, well, Usher, and Lil John, OutKast and other rap and R&B acts. Gone is the name B101. Station owner Clear Channel is calling the new station "101.3 The Beat." "The concept is true hip-hop, rhythm & blues," said Wayne Bishop, director of sales for Clear Channel Columbus (read more - Ledger-Enquirer)

A month after leaving Canadian TV network Chum Ltd. as part of a management restructuring, veteran TV executive Stephen Tapp on Wednesday was named president and chief operating officer of Canadian Satellite Radio. Tapp will steer a bid in November by the Toronto company to secure a broadcast license to operate a subscription-based satellite radio service (read more - Hollywood Reporter)

Daniel Frishberg, radio host of "The MoneyMan" on KIKK-A Talk 650, is leaving the station effective Wednesday afternoon to start his own radio station called K-BIZ.  Frishberg is leaving what was formerly known as Business Radio 650 with plans to launch the new radio station in Houston in January (read more - Houston Biz Journal)

George W. Bush had just graduated from Yale, and faced the prospect of being drafted himself. But former Texas House Speaker and Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes says he helped keep that from happening. So what happened with Mr. Bush, the draft and the National Guard? And why is Barnes finally telling his story? Dan Rather has new information on the president’s military service – and the first-ever interview with the man who says he pulled strings to get young George W. Bush into the Texas Air National Guard (read the transcript of the Dan Rather-Ben Barnes 60 Minutes II interview)  (read the memo's, official Dept of Defense documents, etc)  (read more - NY Times) (read GOP-USA) (read Salon.com)   You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" like it at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

Tribune Co. will ask the U.S. Supreme Court for permission to operate newspapers and television stations in the same markets, according to the company’s Washington lobbyist, Shaun Sheehan.  The Chicago-based media conglomerate suffered the latest in a string of frustrating setbacks last Friday, when a federal appeals court rejected Tribune’s request to lift the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) cross-ownership ban (read more - Chicago Business)

Happy music is back on the air weekday mornings on KULP, El Campo’s radio station. “What are you going to do? Polka music is happy music,” said KULP broadcasting director Stephen Zetsche. “I’ve never been to a polka dance where everybody wasn’t smiling.  
“Polka Time” made a surprise comeback at 8 a.m. Thursday morning after KULP general manager Jerry Aulds told listeners the station had a special guest to deliver a special message (read more - Wharton Journal-Spectator)

President Bush's former sister-in-law denied yesterday that she had given author Kitty Kelley any information about allegations of past drug use by Bush. Sharon Bush is quoted in Kelley's forthcoming book about the Bush family as making one of the allegations, and Kelley's editor said in an interview Tuesday that she had provided "confirmation" for the information. Publication day is set for Monday, when Kelley will begin three days of "Today" show interviews, but some of the allegations have already leaked to a British newspaper (read more - Washington Post - Howard Kurtz)

A federal appeals court ruled that rap artists should pay for every musical sample included in their work — even minor, unrecognizable snippets of music. Lower courts already had ruled that artists must pay when they sample other artists' work, but it has been legal to use musical snippets — a note here, a chord there — as long as it wasn't identifiable (read more - Washington Times)

The "Live 85" Hurricane Network continued a live simulcast for over 6 days, even when a few of the stations were forced off the air for a short period of time during the height of the storm. The station remained live and locally produced the entire time, using WFTL hosts and news people including Dave McBride, Neil Grant Trish Anderson and Andy Bass, most working double shifts. Air staffs from some of the other stations were called in for duty, too, including Don Agony and Joyce Kaufman from WJNA (visit Live85.com)

Viacom Inc. is trying to entice its shareholders the chance to swap some of their Viacom holdings for stock in Blockbuster Inc. by offering a ratio of 1-to-5.15 (read more - Crains NY Business)

The members of the Federal Communications Commission should be ashamed of themselves for continuing to capitulate to self-appointed moralists who believe the accidental flashing of one breast during the Super Bowl halftime show was a sign of the impending apocalypse (read more - Richard Roeper-Chicago Sun-Times)

In his first big move since taking on a wider role at media giant Viacom, CBS chief Les Moonves promoted several key network executives yesterday. The moves were made to shore up the network's executive ranks given that Moonves himself — while he retains the title of chairman of CBS — now has much broader responsibilities within Viacom (read more - NY Post - Tim Arango)

Letters to Feder -- Gary McLaughlin: Why do you waste ink on this crude, talentless, self-promoting hack? Mancow Muller is a stain on Chicago and his constantly changing network of cow town affiliates. Tim Murphy: Are you kidding? I listen to Don and Roma most mornings and consider myself more conservative than Don, but to say that WLS-AM (890) can "ill afford to lose the Wades" is poppycock. Don is insufferable at times because he can be so condescending and insolent. Roma just does not have a clue about real life. Lee Johnson: I'm no fan of Don Wade and Roma, but at least they do commit good radio. But that Teri O'Brien is the absolute worst: a shrill, one-note conservative who seems to get testy with the callers and rides the dump button a little too hard. But I could listen to Jay Marvin all day. I've long thought he was the best thing in local talk radio (read more - Feder of Chicago)

Peter Jennings calls ABC News' experiment a "guerrilla operation." Correspondent Chris Cuomo says it has "unvarnished appeal." Tune in, says producer Mike Clemente, and you'll know you're not "driving Dad's Oldsmobile." What they're talking about is ABC News Now, a low-budget channel now available via an increasing number of digital TV channels over the air and on cable in major cities, the Internet and, in some cases, your cell phone (read more - Peter Johnson-USA Today)

The 2004 inductees for the Texas Radio Hall of Fame have been announced and there's a trio of Houstonians on the list. One, Dave Morris, owned a legendary rock station. One, Skipper Lee Frazier, is still a legendary gospel disc jockey. And one, Laura Morris, is currently the most powerful woman on the dial (read more - Ken Hoffman-Houston Chronicle)

The numbers for the start of NBC's coverage of the Athens Olympics have been strong, with some 56 million Americans tuning in to some of the opening ceremonies, and prime-time weekend coverage winning both nights. Overall, ratings are off a bit from the 2000 Sydney Games (read more - Tim Cuprisin-Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

At 2:30 p.m. every weekday, Bill O'Reilly descends from his office on the seventeenth floor of the News Corp building in midtown Manhattan to the Fox News Channel's basement bunker deep below street level. There, he moves with a studied, gunslinger's stride borrowed from his hero, Clint Eastwood, past long rows of office pods where teams of producers cook up the cable network's daily lineup of "fair and balanced" programming. O'Reilly graduated from Marist College in 1971, then worked for two years as a high school teacher in Miami. Unhappy, he enrolled in the master's program in broadcast journalism at Boston University. After graduating in 1975, he landed a job at a tiny station, WNEP-TV in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Within nine months, he caught the eye of one of the country's best local TV stations: WFAA in Dallas. From the start, O'Reilly had an innate understanding that emotion and outrage grabbed viewers. "In a business where there are a lot of reprehensible people," says longtime WFAA reporter Byron Harris, "he stood out as particularly dishonest, obnoxious, self-centered." After two years at WFAA, O'Reilly moved to KMGH-TV, a station in Denver. He was at first as unpopular in Denver as he had been in Dallas (read more - Rolling Stone)

Tom Joyner is not only going to be inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame on October 30th in San Antonio, but he is also now an author. JOYNER is co-author of the hottest and latest of the best-selling "CHICKEN SOUP" series, "CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN SOUL, CELEBRATING AND SHARING OUR CULTURE ONE STORY AT A TIME." The 384 page book is available on HCI BOOKS for $12.95, and is set to release on SEPTEMBER 14th. A portion of book sale proceeds will benefit the TOM JOYNER FOUNDATION, which has raised more than $25 million to help keep students in historically black colleges and universities to date (visit HCI Books Web site)

For decades, KLUV-FM DJ Ron Chapman has had a monopoly at the microphone, but on Thursday, he will hand it over to his tormentors when he is skewered at the Dallas Ad League's annual Ad Roast. Almost three years ago, the Wall Street Journal took note when Ron's boss, Viacom's then-president Mel Karmazin, paid $14.9 million for Ron's vacation home in Naples, Fla. This week, Mel is jetting in to be a roaster along with advertising exec Stan Richards , state Sen. Florence Shapiro and Ron's veteran sidekick Suzie Humphreys. The voice of the Cowboys, Brad Sham, is emceeing the gathering at the Fairmont (read more - Alan Peppard-Dallas News)

In San Antonio, "The Beat" (KBBT-FM) and KONO FM and AM continued to capture top honors among the young and more mature crowds, respectively, there were a couple of surprises. Rock is starting to really rock with San Antonians, who are going not only for the perennial winner, KISS-FM, but also for relative newcomer KSRX — which switched from KTFM's dance-tune beat to a harder rock format last year + "The Ticket 760" (KTKR-AM) team of Rob and Jason Thompson, Clear Channel's one-and-only sibling sports team, are so fun to hear that Fox actually runs their live Sunday night show — 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. — nationally  (read more - Jeanne Jakle-SA Express-News)

Marches will proceed under the eyes of a massive police, FBI and Secret Service presence, as more than 10,000 local officers will patrol the barricaded streets around the convention. Undercover police have infiltrated meetings of anarchist groups, and prosecutors are ready to process as many as 1,000 arrests per day. The FBI acknowledged Monday -- after a report in the New York Times -- that agents have interviewed potential demonstrators across the nation. In some cases, protesters say they were asked about their political views. FBI officials insisted their agents conducted interviews only after learning of people planning disruptions at the conventions. "Dissent is a cornerstone of a democratic society," said Norman Siegel, former director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. "It's how we measure whether we're an open society, and it's under a lot of stress now." Tension is already evident  (read more - Washington Post)  (read more - Fox News) You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" like it at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

Buddy Smith, a spokesman for the American Family Association, said the way to keep the attention of stations is through their licenses — and the threat of non-renewal. "That's the only way," he said, "that this kind of activity is going to be deterred in the future." FCC Commissioner Michael Copps took his fellow commissioners to task for the settlement. "If we are not actually changing the rules of the game," he wrote, "we are, at a minimum, sending a wrong and discouraging signal to those citizens upon whom we rely in implementing the law." TAKE ACTION/FOR MORE INFORMATION -- Let Michael Copps and the four other FCC commissioners know how you feel about the "Mancow" Muller fine and the agency's fight against broadcast obscenity in general by visiting the CitizenLink Action Center. You'll find an easy-to-use e-mail form that will allow you to send one message to all five commissioners (read more - Family.org)

Running as a Republican in a heavily Democratic district in Texas against a five-term incumbent, Ms. Klein, 39, has received more in donations and fund-raising help from the telecommunications and power industries than any other rookie candidate in the nation. Why is Ms. Klein such a draw? Because administration officials have said that in the event of a second Bush administration she would be considered by the president, whom she served as a senior policy adviser when he was governor of Texas, as a candidate to be the next head of the Federal Communications Commission. And even if that does not work out, she is expected to receive a seat on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, should a vacancy occur. Her husband is a senior official at the Pentagon (read more - NY Times)  You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" like it at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

Tom Reynolds describes his voice as "helium-filled." The Ansonia resident jokes that customer service workers occasionally address him as "ma'am" on the telephone. Now Reynolds is using his voice to communicate his liberal ideas as a host of the "News Maverick Radio Show" on WXCT-AM 990. "My main goal for the show is that everybody should vote, regardless of party," he said (read more - Connecticut Post)

Oprah Winfrey was picked to serve on a jury in Cook County Criminal Court. Winfrey reported for jury duty along with about 300 other prospective jurors (read more - Palm Beach Post)

Fans of Opie and Anthony are in heat . The duo, which was last heard locally on 92.3 FM WXTM (Xtreme Radio), will be back on the air with a live weekday program on XM Satellite radio, beginning October 4. Their show will be carried on a new premium channel, which will cost an additional buck ninety-nine per month to subscribers. XM's basic monthly subscription rate is $9.99. XM has 2.1 million subscribers. Rival Sirius has half a mil (read more - John Gorman-Cleveland Free Times)

Mountain Stage will be part of XM's new public radio channel starting Sept. 1. XM is the nation's largest satellite radio company, so it should mean even more exposure for Mountain Stage. Satellite radio is becoming more popular as people buy systems by XM and its smaller rival, Sirius, for their automobiles (read more - Charleston Daily Mail)

RealNetworks plans to announce on Tuesday that it is putting its digital music offerings on sale at half price as part of an aggressive strategy to force its way onto Apple Computer's popular iPod digital music player.  At the same time, the company acknowledged that the sale - which lowers the price of songs on the online RealPlayer Music Store to 49 cents and the cost of most albums to $4.99, tentatively through Labor Day - would have an impact on the company's finances (read more - NY Times)

For seven years Tolo hosted a nightly sports talk show on Pittsburgh's KDKA-AM, the nation's oldest commercial station and still one of its best-known. He anchored Pittsburgh Steelers' pre- and post-game shows in the sports-mad town.  Today he's doing an afternoon drive talk show on politics, current events and issues, culture and religion on KGNW-AM (820), a Christian-programming station that is one of Salem Communication's five Seattle outlets (read more - Bill Virgin's Seattle Radio Beat)

WorkSafe Victoria claimed a landmark victory yesterday after a Ballarat radio station was fined $50,000 for failing to act against bullying in the workplace. Ballarat Radio was convicted in the Ballarat Magistrates Court over the verbal harassment of staff by an announcer after pleading guilty to a series of incidents between February 2000 and October last year (read more - The Age)

The Wichita Eagle editorializes on Rush Limbaugh's "disrespectful" comments about Lawrence and Kansas: Mr. Limbaugh had great fun telling his listeners about the "big boondoggle." "This is 'believing in America,' my friends -- a stinking wave to crazed followers in a liberal college town at 1 in the morning?" he asked. But Mr. Limbaugh didn't stop with mocking the Kerry campaign. He also had plenty to say about Lawrence and Kansas -- none of it kind. Among his comments: "The only people that go to Lawrence are the students and the visiting football teams. Nobody goes there." Hmm. We thought Lawrence was a fast-growing city and a nice place to visit. "Lots of professors there. Lots of students. Lots of students that date the professors. And it's just all that you've thought liberal academia is rolled into one little population center." Has he been talking to state Sen. Susan Wagle, R-Wichita? We weren't aware of all this dating. "The one thing people in Missouri know is you go through Kansas at night, because there's nothing to see there anyway." (read more - Wichita Eagle)

John Hogan, Clear Channel Radio President & CEO, today announced the appointment of Steve Gable as the Vice President of Technology for Clear Channel Radio. Gable in his new position will assume a leading role in strategically maximizing efficiencies provided by Clear Channel Radio’s information technology infrastructure. Gable will report directly to Hogan + Clear Channel Radio announced the hiring of Greg Gillispie as Program Director for Pittsburgh’s WWSW-FM (3WS) and WBGG-AM (AM 970) + the appointment of Rick Beck as Market Manager for Alexandria, LA. (visit Clear Channel)

A black ministers' group is asking listeners and advertisers to tune out WBLS' sometimes controversial afternoon host Wendy Williams. "What we're hearing now is just too much," says the Rev. Amen-Ra Jamal, coordinator for the NAACP and the Black Ministers Conference (BMC) + Little Steven Van Zandt's first Underground Garage Festival, running all day Saturday on Randalls Island, will be carried live, 11 a.m.-11 p.m., on Sirius satellite radio (read more - David Hinckley)

In what may be nothing more than a bargaining ploy, WLS bosses have been conducting a survey this week among select listeners to gauge opinions about possible replacements for Don & Roma. Alternative teams listed include midday hosts Jay Marvin & Eileen Byrne, and weekend hosts Jake Hartford & Teri O'Brien + Ryan Hermes, a reporter at WOKV-AM in Jacksonville, Fla., is joining Illinois Radio Network as a Springfield-based reporter (read more - Feder of Chicago)

It seemed like a match made in liberal heaven: Air America Radio, the upstart lefty radio network, and the San Francisco Bay Area, the progressive capital of the Left Coast. But it looks as if the Anti-Rush won't be coming to local airwaves -- at least not anytime soon (read more - EastBay Express)

Late Central Texas broadcaster Frank Fallon, who spent more than 40 years behind the microphone as the voice of the Baylor Bears, is one of the more than 20 people who will be inducted this fall into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame. Fallon died in May after a long illness. His home was in Waco, but he enjoyed a national reputation (read more KWTX) (read Dallas Biz Journal)

Dear RadioDailyNews.com: I am contacting select DJs from the 440 Satisfaction Web site hoping they can help me out with some work I’m doing for the 60’s band “The Doors”. What I do is help The Doors track down audio and video items for their archive. I have found DJs to be great contacts since they tend to know people, such as soundmen, who may have recorded show in the 60’s or possibly have these recordings themselves. Would you happen to have any information that might help me in my research? In case you were curious about the e-mail address, I am also Ray Manzarek’s webmaster. Thank you and I look forward to any response. Dave Dutkowski (Can you help Dave? Send him an e-mail at webmaster@raymanzarek.com)

Rolling Stone magazine will hit newsstands Friday. This issue features an article that blasts Clear Channel Communication's radio and live concert business, calling Clear Channel "a music company on steroids" and it reports "that Clear Channel uses its size to crush the competition while force-feeding audiences the same playlists no matter where they live." (read more - San Antonio Express-News - LA Lorek)

Regent Communications, which purchased Radio Bloomington's four stations and a Pontiac station early in the year from Citadel Communications, took the top three spots, with WBNQ-FM, 101.5; WJBC-AM, 1230; and WBWN-FM B-104 at first, second and third respectively (read more - Pantagraph)

An examination of the Washington Post's coverage on WMD's, and interviews with more than a dozen of the editors and reporters involved, shows that The Post published a number of pieces challenging the White House, but rarely on the front page. Some reporters who were lobbying for greater prominence for stories that questioned the administration's evidence complained to senior editors who, in the view of those reporters, were unenthusiastic about such pieces. The result was coverage that, despite flashes of groundbreaking reporting, in hindsight looks strikingly one-sided at times. "The paper was not front-paging stuff," said Pentagon correspondent Thomas Ricks. "Administration assertions were on the front page. Things that challenged the administration were on A18 on Sunday or A24 on Monday. There was an attitude among editors: Look, we're going to war, why do we even worry about all this contrary stuff?" (read more - Howard Kurtz-Media Notes) You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" like it at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

On ABC NightLine: For all of the expectation, or fear, that there might be a terrorist attack right before the election, or even on election day, what would we do? Cancel the election? Delay it? There really is no mechanism to deal with something like that (visit NightLine)

A Republican-funded group is running ads on black radio stations in Ohio and four other competitive states calling Democrat John Kerry "rich, white and wishy washy" and criticizing Teresa Heinz Kerry for highlighting her South African background   (read more - Louisville Channel)

On the Street -- What do you think about the comments Rush Limbaugh made about Lawrence, Kansas? "He's a jerk. I know at least two conservatives in this town." — Jesse Johnson, patient care technician, Lawrence ... "The professors don't sleep with their students. I'd like to know where he came up with his information because I haven't seen that." — Catherine Tonroy, Kansas University student, Mill City, Ore. (read more - Lawrence Journal World)

Smokey Rivers moves to DFW's KVIL as PD.  Kurt Johnson continues to wear the PD badge at Jack-FM and The Oasis  (visit KVIL)

The Texas Radio Hall of Fame has announced the names of the 2004 Hall of Fame inductees and Hall of Honor instatees.  The names are posted online at www.trhof.com or www.texasradiohalloffame.com  The 2004 Induction Celebration will be held on Saturday evening, October 30th in San Antonio at the San Antonio Radisson Hill Country Resort and Spa.  For the 3rd consecutive year, the celebration will be sold out! A limited number of super-discounted rooms and suites are available for attendees - while they last!  Full event details at www.trhof.com  (read Robert Philpot - Star-Telegram)  (read more - KLTV)

Midday radio jock Willard of Z93 is now account executive Willard Arbour of Dave FM. He admits this is an unusual career switch. After 21 years on air at 96rock and another six with Z93, the native Atlantan was canned last month by owners Infinity Broadcasting when classic rock Z93 became a younger, broader rock concept called Dave FM. (Former morning hosts Mara Davis and Jeff Dunham are still under contract but remain in limbo until the station owners figure out what the new lineup will be.) (read more - Peach Buzz)

CBS News veteran Mike Wallace, 86, was arrested Tuesday evening outside a New York City restaurant and issued a summons for "disorderly conduct." (read more - NY Daily News)  (read more - CNN) (read more - CBS 2 NYC)

Al Jazeera has been deemed acceptable viewing for Canadians ... but Fox News? No. It's currently only available to Canadians with illegal satellite connections. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), a federal agency that decideswhat constitutes appropriate viewing and listening for Canadians, and that, last month, granted Al Jazeera the right to broadcast in Canada, is a paleo- concept  (read more - Christian Science Monitor)

Just because Mancow Muller dropped his harassment lawsuit against his anti-indecency nemesis doesn't mean David Edward Smith is out of the picture + "Radio Free Chicago," which aired every Thursday night for six years on Loyola University's WLUW-FM (88.7), has returned in the form of an online music and media blog -- with an emphasis on radio -- at: radiofreechicago.blogspot.com (read more - Feder of Chicago)

A familiar name has returned to Milwaukee radio to take the helm at WMCS-AM (1290), the all-talk station targeting African-American listeners. Don Rosette will officially take over station manager duties by Aug. 23 (read more - Tim Cuprisin)

Jonathan Schwartz, who plays American standards Saturday and Sunday, noon-4 p.m. on WNYC (93.9 FM), and also programs the standards channel "Frank's Place" on XM satellite radio, has signed five-year contracts with both WNYC and XM + WXRK (92.3 FM) is breaking out a new show called "Mash-Up Radio" Friday at 10 p.m., with DJ Muggs of Cypress Hill mixing rock and rap by combining vocal tracks from one song with instrumental tracks from another (read more - David Hinckley)

BBC Radio 2 is Going Digital from 30 August, with a month long campaign to highlight the opportunities offered by digital media. The initiative will see the launch of the ‘World Wide Wogan’ and the Johnnie Walker ‘MP3 Shuffle’ as Radio 2 finds new ways to help listeners understand the digital age (read more - UK Radio)

St. Olaf College is going to sell its radio station, WCAL, to Minnesota Public Radio (MPR). The price and other details will be announced later (read more - Minneapolis St Paul Biz Journal)  (read more - Star-Tribune)

Bernie Sanders' career as a weekly radio talk show host on WDEV came to an end last week, but Vermont's lone congressman won't be gone from the airwaves for long (read more - times Argus)

Brian Lamb's "Booknotes," the weekly C-SPAN interview series is ending. The final broadcast will be December 5 (read more - CNN)

The Walt Disney Company reported earnings for the quarter and nine months ended June 30, 2004. Diluted earnings per share for the third quarter were $0.29, up 21% from $0.24 in the prior-year third quarter. During the quarter, the Company recorded restructuring and impairment charges totaling $56 million ($0.02 per share) in connection with the proposed sale of the Disney Stores in North America and the closure of certain other stores (read more - NY Daily News)  (read more)

Five thousand angry radio listeners from Quebec City descended on Parliament Hill Tuesday. They came to protest the decision by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to refuse to renew the licence for the controversial radio station CHOI-FM (read more - CBC Ottawa)

When I heard Clear Channel radio, a.k.a. the Darth Vader of broadcasting, a.k.a. the Evil Empire, was promising to cut the amount of airtime devoted to commercials each hour, I was certain someone was smoking crack. I mean, come on. Clear Channel?  As K102's operations manager and program director, Gregg Swedberg, explains it, the squeeze will allow him to add as many as two and possibly three more songs per hour, depending on the time of day (read more - Brian Lambert-St. Paul Pioneer Press)

Tammy Bruce joins the 630 WMAL line-up Saturday nights from 7pm-9pm, live on the nationally-syndicated Tammy Bruce Show.  630 WMAL listeners will get a preview as she hosts The Chris Core Show during his vacation, this week from 6pm-9pm (visit WMAL)

The amount of money received through subscriptions by the television industry has overtaken advertising revenue for the first time in the sector's history (read more - UK Media Week)

A lawyer in New York wants to launch a Jewish television network. John Odoner has lined up programs for Jewish Television, the proposed new Jewish cable channel.  He hopes it will air early next year (read more - JTL)

Don Imus rubbed out Victoria Gotti's scheduled appearance on his radio show yesterday because of last-minute restrictions on questions about the mob. "You don't tell me what I'm going to ask," said Imus, whose wakeup show airs on both WFAN (660 AM) and cable news channel MSNBC (read more - NY Post-John Mainelli)

U.S. communications regulators have asked a federal appeals court to reconsider its decision putting on hold new, tighter radio ownership limits, according to a copy of the petition obtained on Monday (read more - Reuters)

Candidate John Kerry has courageously opposed big media companies on a dispute close to their financial hearts: the issue of how many TV stations, radio stations and newspapers one company may own in the same town. The Bush administration wants to allow more (read more - Seattle Time Editorial)

Joy Hearn has turned up the heat in a nonpartisan race for Palm Beach County Appraiser by accusing incumbent Gary Nikolits of showing favoritism toward the rich and famous by approving tax breaks for Donald Trump and Rush Limbaugh  (read more - Palm Beach Post)

A federal judge has ordered "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert and  Matthew Cooper of Time magazine to testify before a grand jury investigating the leak of the identity of a covert CIA officer. Cooper and Russert could appeal the court's decision (read more - ABC 15)  (read more - Washington Post)  (read more - Peter Johnson-USA Today)

XM Satellite Radio announced that Eric Logan, former President of Programming at Citadel Broadcasting, will be joining XM as Executive Vice President of Programming (read more)

A promotional party on a cruise ship sponsored by a Capital Region radio station got out of hand Wednesday night with fights, partygoers jumping into the Hudson River and police being called in. Police were called to the Snow Dock in Albany by the Dutch Apple Cruise Line. Some attendees at the weekly event, sponsored by WQBK Radio and called "The Edge Booze Cruise," were allegedly getting out of control (read more - MSNBC)

Chris Ryan, who was fired along with the rest of the air staff when CC's KEGL/97.1 FM "The Eagle" switched from hard rock to soft-oldies "Sunny 97.1 FM," is back on the air at sister station KDGE/94.5 FM "The Edge"  (read more - Robert Philpot)

The challenges faced by music radio today simply demand the aggressive employment of innovation and creativity. The mediascape is changing at a velocity that is difficult to grasp. This is particularly true for pre-recorded music which is again approaching a "pong" moment. The last such moments were in the eighties - Sony introduced "The Walkman," Jerrold rolled out Cable Radio and a new storage media was introduced - the disc and along with it the multi-disc player. Then, as now, we were warned that consumers no longer had a need for music radio. Then, as now, a significant group of consumers purchased the new hardware and began programming, producing and listening to their own mixes of pre-recorded music. Today consumers have iPODs and hard drives loaded with their favorite music, they burn their own cds (read more - David Martin)

Two Wichita radio stations are changing frequencies effective Aug. 30. KNSS and 1330 on the AM band. The call letters will swap as well. KFH will continue to broadcast on 98.7 FM in simulcast coverage (read more - Wichita Biz Journal)

Cox Radio announced that it will use iBiquity Digital Corp.'s HD Radio technology to upgrade 80 percent of the company's stations over the next four years to digital (read more - San Antonio Biz Journal)

Boring, liberal Bush-haters. That was Rush Limbaugh's characterization of Lawrence on his radio program Monday, a day after Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards visited town. "I got to tell you about liberal Lawrence, Kansas," Limbaugh, the conservative radio commentator -- and native Missourian -- said during a segment of his show. "They hate Bush there as much as they hate Bush anywhere in the country, and they desperately want to love Kerry." Limbaugh was lampooning Edwards' decision to return to Lawrence on Sunday (read more - Lawrence Journal-World) You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" like it at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

Interep, the largest independent sales and marketing company specializing in radio, the Internet and complementary media, today announced its second quarter financial results. Commission revenue decreased $2.2 million, or 9.6%, to $20.6 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2004, from $22.8 million for the same period last year (read more)

ARBitrends for Albuquerque, Baton Rouge, Charleston SC, Des Moines, El Paso, Greenville SC, Jackson, Madison, Spokane, Bowling Green, Battle Creek, Clarksville, Cookeville, Lawton, Williamsport (read 'em)

On ABC NightLine: Service in the Vietnam War, or lack of service, has become an issue in this election. John Kerry is running on his service record, the President is still dogged by questions about his service in the National Guard. Now there are veterans for Kerry, and veterans against him (visit ABC NightLine)

WPDR/WDDC will host an on-air auction Wednesday to raise funds for a John Muir Elementary fifth grader with leukemia, 10-year-old Brandon Craig. The station will auction off four tickets to the National PGA Championship to be held this weekend (read more - Portage Daily Register)

Regulators have denied complaints that TV stations violated indecency rules when they aired episodes of NBC's "Will and Grace" and UPN's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" with fake lesbian and heterosexual sex, according to orders released on Monday (read more - Reuters)

Since the early 1990s, Rush Limbaugh’s three-hour radio talk show could be heard every Monday through Friday on an Arkansas River Valley radio station. At 11 a.m. July 1, however, the conservative talk show host’s voice was silent when listeners tuned in to Russellville radio station KCAB (980 AM). River Valley Radio’s general manager explained Friday the decision to not renew the station’s annual contract with Limbaugh had nothing to do with previous allegations of Oxycontin abuse. “It was strictly a business decision,” Jim Kelley said. “Rush Limbaugh was one of the first shows we broadcast when KCAB came back on the air in the early 1990s. I listened to Rush Limbaugh, and it was a part of the day that attracted many listeners. “However, over the past few years, sponsorship for the show has dwindled to the point we had one sponsor for the show last year (June 30, 2003 through July 1, 2004). The bottom line is we were losing money on the show for the past year, so we asked not to renew our annual contract with Rush Limbaugh earlier this year.” (read more - Courier News)

From Claude Hall Online -- For several years at Billboard, I carried a little Vivitar flash in one coat pocket, my mini Rollei  35S in the other.  I would take out the flash, snap it onto the camera, take a picture, then put flash and camera back in their pockets and continue taking notes for a story.  I've thus taken pictures of George Wilson, Sam Phillips, Marty Robbins, Ron Jacobs, Bill Stewart, Bill Randle, Joe Smith, John Mayall, Flip Wilson...countless others.  All on the fly, so to speak.  My photographic life was rather simple. Not so now + e-mails from Artie Kornfield, Raul Cardenas, Sam Hale, Chuck Blore, Diane Kirkland and more (read more at  www.claudehallonline.com)

Local radio was largely responsible for inflating the profiles of these bands. Back then, before monolithic radio corporations gobbled up all the stations and wrapped red tape around their entrances, bands could simply walk into stations like KFJZ and hand their recordings to Mark Stevens (Mark E. Baby) or Randy Robins, two popular Fort Worth DJs. If they liked it, they played it. "If a band made a recording and it was halfway decent, they could get it played on the radio just like that," says Joe Nick Patoski, a music historian and former Texas Monthly editor who grew up in Fort Worth in the '60s. "Radio treated local acts a lot differently back then. Larry & the Blue Notes were huge because they cut singles that got played on the radio all the time. It's very different than the way things are today." (read more - Malcomb Mayhew-Star-Telegram)

Not many years ago, news came but twice a day. There were two news cycles, one for A.M.'s, morning papers delivered to your door, and one for P.M.'s, for afternoon papers on the newsstands and the evening TV news. Then, in 1961, a radio pioneer named Gordon McLendon, aiming for the Los Angeles market, turned XETRA in Tijuana into the first all-news station. In 1965, WINS in New York adopted and enlarged the format, becoming one of the most listened-to stations in America. In 1980, Ted Turner brought America's eyes into the picture with CNN, all-news cable television. TV kept evolving with the arrival of Fox as a fourth network, more cable networks and satellites that enabled local stations to report from distant places. In the mid-70's, there were 617 members of the Senate's TV and radio press gallery. Today, there are 3,031 (read more - Jack Rosenthal-NY Times)

From Chuck Dunaway's "Radio Diaries" -- Frank Haley/Albuquerque, New Mexico: I remember this well because I was the news director of KILT at the time and no one knew how long the kid could stay on the dome ... Well, one week day at about 10 in the morning, Podna’ Dickie the GM came rushing into the news room and said, "Get your tape recorder and come with me." That was weird, 'cause he never ask me to go anywhere with him ... (read 'em all at www.chuckdunaway.com)

Crystal Mountain Productions Ltd. today announced the creation of an innovative overnight live radio show from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio . The program, called Moonlight Groove Highway -- Rock and Roll Through the Night, is a midnight to 6 a.m., seven-days-a-week production that delivers a wide range of music and commentary on the cultural, social and personal impact of rock and roll music. Produced from the Alan Freed Radio Studio in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum as well as from other locations around the world, it offers recorded music, interviews, live performances and listener feedback celebrating the art form that is rock and roll. Legendary Team of Personalities Includes Raechel Donahue, David Spero, Dusty Street, Ben Fong-Torres and Billy Bass (read more)

The din of commercials is becoming toxic financially, judging by No. 1 U.S. radio giant Clear Channel Communications Inc.'s decision last month to drastically cut the number of ads and promotions it airs over its 1,200 radio stations. Listeners have apparently grown weary of repetitive jingles, jarring catcalls and other incessant advertising banter. And lately, rather than putting up with it or switching stations, they've been steadily tuning right off the dial. "Clutter is a major issue in our industry and our decision to limit the amount of commercial time and length of breaks, while reducing promotional interruptions, will benefit listeners, advertisers and the industry as a whole," John Hogan, Clear Channel Radio's chief executive, said in a statement announcing the company's intentions (read more - Toronto Star)

Jeff Katz is back on the air with a regular gig. The talk host who left WPHT (1210 AM) around New Year’s presides over the 5 to 7 p.m. show on WMET (1160 AM) in Washington. He and his wife, Heidi, are expecting their third child at the end of September (read more - Delcotimes)

Satellite radio's two providers recently began announcing new programming -- something neither did before, except for a few tweakings in the first year of inception -- seemingly going head-to-head to increase business. A new way to hear XM is the Audiovox's Delphi Roady2 XR9, which plugs in to existing car units and has its own FM adapter. The device also displays almost 20 stock quotes (read more - Radio Babe-Dawn Scire)

Imagine a radio station that plays 59 minutes of music every hour. No DJ patter or jingles, no contests or pledge drives. No commercials. Just music. Welcome to WMUD, a 100-watt FM station operating out of an 1830 farmhouse in Bridport (read more Burlington Free Press)

Today the mega corps that control radio all across America, believe that all you want is "entertainment", defined as, "sexy, light, trashy, or provacative in some daring, bold, or outrageous" way. Sort of Entertainment Tonight, combined with Howard Stern! The Infinity guy who fired Eliza Sonneland and me said he thought really great contemporary radio includes asking girls in to show their breasts on the air, while describing them, or making fun of handicapped people, or topics that have a lot of sex talk. No, I'm not kidding ... (read more Carl Wiglesworth commentary - San Antonio Lightning)

Richard E. "Dickie" Schock, 71, a WLEC Sandusky country music host of almost 40 years, died of complications from cancer Thursday, in Firelands Regional Medical Center after a long bout with the illness. Lease Schock said his father's career and the popularity of his Dickie Schock Show, which for years was the only country radio show in the area, were rooted in "his 40-year love affair" with Sandusky (read more - Toledo Blade)

A North Dakota radio talk-show host has inked a book deal.
Ed Schultz hosts a show on Fargo's K-F-G-O radio. He also hosts an afternoon show that is nationally syndicated, and is aired by 40 stations. Schultz says he's writing the book with author Judith Regan (REE'-gan), who has penned books on Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern (read more - KFYR)

Progressives, libertarians, and all who take the First Amendment to heart may be holding their noses these days - and covering their ears. For the latest challenge to free speech targets a lowbrow radio personality who traffics in banal sexuality, physical oddities, racial stereotypes, and pathetic ignorance. He thinks such sideshow subject matter is fascinating. So do millions of his listeners. There is no accounting for taste. But Howard Stern has made several fortunes by keeping his mind - and mouth - in the electronic gutter (read more - Christian Science Monitor)

This is what radio used to mean around these parts. Not all the way back, not in 1919, when Frank Conrad became the first platter-pushin' poppa from his "studio" in the family garage in Wilkinsburg. Folks were thrilled with the music suddenly popping up on their amateur crystal receivers. All Conrad wanted was to give his voice a break. And let's not go back to the '30s and '40s, either, when entrepreneurs began piping in all sorts of noise -- from FDR's fireside chats, to finding out what The Shadow knew, to big bands, to Amos 'n Andy antics, to live bands in local radio studios, to the ethnic music that inspired sentimental journeys for thousands of western Pennsylvania's immigrants. Let's go back to the '50s and '60s, when a nation was still fiddling with the knobs on newfangled black-and-white televisions to stop the snow from falling on the few channels their rabbit ears could collect (read more - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)

A Chicago man who has battled with Emmis Communications over a Chicago-based shock jock is objecting to renewal of licenses for the company's Indiana radio stations. David Smith has asked the Federal Communications Commission not to renew broadcasting licenses for Emmis stations, including WIBC-AM (1070), one of Indianapolis' top-rated stations. Smith said Emmis lacks the "basic character qualifications" required for a license (read more - Indy Star)

Jane Pauley has a new daytime talk show on Ch. 4. Jane Pauley and the folks behind her new daytime talk show are trying to lure female viewers by addressing a highly sensitive issue - hair styles. Pauley's, not theirs. In fact, one of the promo spots for "The Jane Pauley Show," premiering Aug. 30 at 11 a.m. on WNBC/Ch. 4, is a comical montage of the longtime newswoman's many different hair styles (read more - NY Daily News)

Speaking out can cost an entertainer some fans, but Bruce Springsteen and others are doing so together. On Wednesday, Bruce Springsteen, the Dixie Chicks, R.E.M., John Mellencamp and other pop stars announced a series of concerts addressing ''the need to make a change in the direction of this country.'' The Vote for Change tour, as it's called, is the latest salvo fired by a music community galvanized by debate over Iraq and an election that promises to be among the most feverishly scrutinized in history. Other musician-supported initiatives range from P. Diddy's nonpartisan ''Vote or Die'' campaign and similar efforts in concerts by many bands, including Bush-supporting Christian rock band Third Day, to Nashville's Music Row Democrats, who have staged regular ''Kerry-oke'' shows (read more - Jackson Sun)

Reasons real men listen to Rush Limbaugh: Rush knows the meaning of the word "is." Rush is confident. He doesn't try to be John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt or for that matter, Ronald Reagan. In short, when Rush sits in a room all by himself, he behaves just like he does in public. When Clinton is in a room all by himself- it's empty. More people listen to Clinton when he is on a Rush sound bite than when he gives his State of the Union speech. These are just a few examples of the many jokes and satirical comments that pepper the recently published "Real Men Listen To Rush." Self-proclaimed conservative and BYU alumnus, Shane Fortune, said he wrote the book for entertainment and lighthearted fun.
"This being a presidential year, I thought it very appropriate to come up with something like this," Fortune said. Fortune is a teacher who instructs junior high students in history and drama. He finds that a little bit of humor goes a long way (read more - BYU NewsNet)

I have a stock question for network news and programming honchos. It's a question that never fails to set the gurus' eyes rolling, and it invariably elicits a big sigh, as if to say I must have just fallen off a turnip truck or something. It is: "Why not move the nightly news into prime time? Either at 7 or 9, you pick it. But something other than 5:30 in the Midwest, when the only guaranteed audiences are retirees, the homebound and agoraphobics. At 5:30, your target audience — working men and women with families, mortgages and, presumably, an interest in the news of the day — is either stuck in rush-hour traffic or dealing with after-school activities/chaos. "At the very least, it might help you with that upper-end household income demographic." (read more - Brian Lambert)

Seven more people have told investigators they were victims of a scam in which an Indianapolis man allegedly pretended to be a radio personality to get people to remove their clothes. Investigators on Friday filed 14 new felony charges against 40-year-old Richard Brown, officials said (read more - Indy Channel)

In Washington and swing states across the country, a manly chunk of politically unpredictable and historically apathetic voters are hearing the call of a New York City shock jock bent on ousting President Bush. Some analysts predict that syndicated radio host Howard Stern and his legions of listeners, most of whom are young male swing voters, will tip the presidential election in favor of Democratic nominee John Kerry (read more - Seattle P-I)

Sunday night at 9 o'clock, Trio kicked off a month-long look at the Lone Star State. It starts with "Texas: America Supersized," an engrossing hour written and hosted by journalist Christopher Hitchens. This is so good, it easily could have been stretched to two hours. The film looked at President Bush and the Texas sensibilities that state's one-time governor brought to Washington. "He's not a bad guy," a man says of Bush in the film, "but he's guided by people with an agenda." That's about as critical as the hour gets, except for some comments by Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Molly Ivins and Archer City, Tex.-based author Larry McMurtry ("Lonesome Dove"), who says casually, "I don't like him." (read more NY Daily News)

Jonathan Adelstein has gained a surprising ally in his efforts to continue serving on the Federal Communications Commission. Mississippi Republican Senator Trent Lott helped stall Adelstein's nomination in 2002 after Democrats in the Senate blocked Lott's friend from appointment to the U-S Court of Appeals. Lawmakers eventually called a truce, and Adelstein began serving an FCC term that expired in June 2003. Lott joined 16 other Senate Commerce Committee members in signing a letter urging President Bush to send Adelstein's nomination to Congress (read more - KOTA)

ARBitrends for Little Rock, Huntsville, Omaha, Shreveport and Wichita (read 'em)

Veteran public radio anchorman Bob Edwards, legendary Chicago disc jockey Larry Lujack, broadcasting executive L. Lowry Mays of Clear Channel Communications, Dick Purtan of WOMC/Detroit and the late Walter Winchell make up the Radio Hall of Fame Class of 2004. The announcement was made by RHOF President Bruce DuMont. The induction ceremony will be nationally broadcast at 9:00 PM (CT) on Saturday, November 6th, from the Renaissance Chicago Hotel. Tickets are $500 per person (visit Radio Hall of Fame)

Bill Clinton has been all over television promoting his new book. But one show he won’t be visiting is “Saturday Night Live.” The former president has turned down an invitation to be guest host of the NBC sketch-comedy series next season, spokesman Marc Liepis confirmed Friday (read more - MSNBC)

After 10 years at CNNRadio Atlanta, Senior Producer Ken Pauli is moving southeastward. Ken relocates to sunny-warm South Florida to become the News Director for "Live 85," WFTL Fort Lauderdale/West Palm Beach/Miami (say your hello or goodbye to Ken at kfpauli@yahoo.com)  

After two years of radio silence, Opie & Anthony have been hired by a broadcaster that will let them say whatever they want — even the infamous f-word. But the question is: How long will that shock-jock nirvana last in a post-Janet Jackson world? "O&A" told a fan-packed news conference yesterday that they're joining XM Satellite Radio Oct. 4. Satellite radio is not regulated by FCC censors — for now (read more - John Mainelli-NY Post)  (read CNN/Money)

From Kent Burkhart's "I Was There" series -- "Clarke Brown is a wonderful person and a fine broadcaster as you will read below. As I recall Clarke’s father was in the media business in Atlanta. If not, Clarke certainly learned about the world of media from someone who knew a lot about it. I first met Clarke when he was hired by Gerry Blum to be a sales person at WQXI AM-FM in Atlanta. Gerry assured me that Clarke was a super winner. And did he perform!!! I recall a memo I wrote to him in 1967 that stated something like this ..." (read it all at www.kentburkhart.com)

U.S. radio stocks have slumped in 2004 amid investor concern that advertising revenue will decline for a second year. Growth in jobs and the economy may spark a rebound in the shares, if history is any guide (read more - Bloomberg)

Once upon a time, disc jockey Vin Scelsa believed radio's accessibility served as the industry's bedrock — a transistor radio and fistful of batteries is all one needs. Now, the veteran gabber isn't so sure.  Mr. Scelsa is spinning discs for Sirius radio these days, one of two satellite radio companies offering consumers a new way to hear music and talk. The disc jockey's conversion may smack of pragmatism — his long-running "Idiot's Delight" program long ago ran out of homes on the commercial radio dial (read more - Washington Times)

Every single radio personality, radio station, and radio company in the United States has been negatively affected by the Radio Indecency crackdown which turns out to be a bloated, over-compensated response to programming that was permitted to continue mostly unfettered for several decades by both the industry, the Federal Communications Commission, and lawmakers. In short, it’s all been one major freak-out which will takes years to settle down  (read more - Corey Deitz)

Some TV shows offer an extreme makeover, others a bid for pop stardom. But the hottest reality show in the U.S. Hispanic market is offering the ultimate prize -- a potential green card to immigrants desperate to pursue the American dream (read more - Reuters)

Radio bad boys Opie and Anthony are coming back, and they just might be badder than ever. This time, however, they do come at a price for listeners. Starting Oct. 4, the former WNEW afternoon hosts will do a four-hour show each morning on XM Satellite Radio, where there are almost no content restrictions and which is creating a premium channel just for Gregg (Opie) Hughes and Anthony Cumia. That means fans have to buy an XM radio, pay the regular $9.99 monthly subscription fee and then pay an additional $1.99 per month for the new channel, which will start with just Opie and Anthony before it adds other programming (read more - David Hinckley)

Dave Jarrott writes: "I had been working in Austin at KTBC AM doing afternoons and working on my Master's Degree at UT in Radio/TV/Film and was getting tired of the whole scene and wanted to go to Hollywood and be a famous movie star. Then in the late spring of 1968 I got an offer from an independent producer to do a TV show in San Antonio. I moved my wife and infant son to SA, where I had grown up and first decided to try to be a radio star, and lived in an apartment complex near what is no Loop 410 and Broadway. That's where I knew (just to say "hello") Johnny Enos. In retrospect, I probably should have gotten to know him better and tried to get a job at KTSA, but..." (read more - Jim Rose Remembers)

Indianapolis' new contemporary Christian station, WGRL-FM (93.9), has lured an Atlanta radio personality to host its morning show. Kurt Wallace's Wallace & Company is the rise-and-shine program on WVFJ-FM (93.3) in Georgia. He's leaving Atlanta for the smaller market here to take over the 5:30 to 10:30 a.m. time slot at WGRL (read more - Indy Star)

Oprah Winfrey,  has renewed her contract.  She's one of the highest-paid woman in U.S. television.  The new contract will take her top-rated daytime show to 2011(read more - Feder of Chicago) (read more - Reuters)

Nearly all traditional radio stations regard the two satellite radio networks - XM and Sirius - as intruders and pests looking to steal listeners, talent and revenues. But WBUR-FM (90.9), Boston University's public radio station, has taken a different approach. It has embraced the fledgling medium in a big way. Starting Sept. 1, WBUR will provide almost 20 hours of weekly programming to XM, much of it in live time (read more - Dean Johnson-Boston Herald)

Hootie & The Blowfish will perform live in-studio with Mark & Brian Friday morning (visit KLOS Mark and Brian)

XM Radio is totally worth the 10 bucks a month. Just for the sheer thrill of hearing a song you haven't heard since '87 that makes you smile. I like that there are stations like America Left and America Right that offer someone who isn't heavy into politics the chance to see both points of view. And me being the traffic Nazi that I am, we can scroll to the traffic channel for the city we are entering to make sure we aren't stuck on some highway. Definitely worth the money (read more - Ari Hest-Denver Post)

ARBitrends for Fort Walton Beach, Kalamazoo, Chattanooga, Greenville and Columbia SC (read 'em)

On ABC NightLine: Arrests in Albany, N.Y. More arrests in England. Barricades and heavily armed police on the streets in New York, Washington, and Newark. The new intelligence is too old, or too new. What should we make of all this? (visit ABC NightLine)

It's available now.  The just-published RAEL Guide to Commercial Testing Services (click here to read), a directory of companies which provide ad testing services oriented toward Radio (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

XM Satellite Radio today announced that talk radio personalities Opie and Anthony will make their long-anticipated return to radio on XM Satellite Radio. Opie and Anthony will premiere a live, weekday program on XM on October 4. The show will be carried exclusively on a new premium XM channel. We learned a lot during our two years away from our fans, and we can't wait to get back on the radio and reconnect with them," said Greg "Opie" Hughes. "This is a huge milestone for us because XM provides a nationwide audience that local radio simply can't match." Anthony Cumia added, "XM is the future of radio as we know it, and it is the perfect platform for us to entertain our radio fans, in the same way that HBO provided more creative freedom for people in TV."  (visit O & A at XM)  (read more)  (visit the Opie and Anthony Web site)

A controversial radio consultant hailed as a ''turnaround king'' will take over programming at Nashville country station WSM-FM 95.5. John Sebastian is currently program director for WLXX-FM, a Lexington, Ky., country station, but he has had a long — some say checkered — history in radio, working in a number of formats, including classic rock, Top 40 and smooth jazz, over the past three decades. He will begin in Nashville on Aug. 16 (read more - The Tennessean)

WMTR (1250 AM) in Morristown, N.J., has increased its night power to 7,000 watts and will now see how well a format of pre-Beatles rock 'n' roll can do on AM. The new signal, directed toward the city, "has already gotten a good response from the five boroughs," says Dan Finn, regional vice president of WMTR's parent, Greater Media. With oldies leader WCBS-FM dropping most pre-1964 music, WMTR is hoping a good number of fans will find WMTR an alternative (read more - David Hinckley)

The next time you hear a traffic report on a local radio station, remember the voice. You might be hearing the next host, co-host or team member of a radio show. Many local radio personalities got their start as traffic reporters, including three women with regular daytime gigs on Seattle radio: Lisa Foster, teamed with Mitch Elliott mornings on KLSY-FM (92.5); Flo (she doesn't give a full name) middays on KYCW-AM (1090) and as part of the afternoon team at KMPS-FM (94.1); and Angela Kirby, a recent addition to Pat Cashman's morning crew at KJR-FM (95.7) (read more - Bill Virgin's Seattle Radio Beat)

Satellite radio service XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. on Thursday reported significant second-quarter subscriber growth, which, together with an improving outlook for both the retail aftermarket and new car business in the second half of the year, is causing the company to increase year-end subscriber guidance to 3.1 million subscribers from 2.8 million subscribers. As of June 30, the company had 2.1 million subscribers, up from 692,253 subscribers at the same time last year (read more - Forbes)

On June 2, 2003, the Federal Communications Commission, under the Republican stewardship of Commissioner Michael "Son of Colin" Powell, decided on a radical rewrite of media ownership laws. The Bush-approved decision would have allowed any one of the Big Five media giants – AOL Time Warner, Walt Disney Company/ABC, Viacom, News Corporation and Vivendi-Universal (now NBC Universal) – to own both a newspaper and a broadcast station in the same market. On that day, participatory democracy in America took another step toward extinction and most citizens didn't even know it happened. It was a sadly ironic summation of the state of the media in this country. Yet, thanks to the below-the-radar work of groups like the Prometheus Radio Project and other media-reform organizations, word managed to spread and, once people were finally made aware of what happened, an unprecedented public response to the agency's corporate media giveaway erupted and the FCC received more than two million comments, most of which were highly critical of the decision (read more - Orlando Weekly News)

The Parents Television Council has come out with its annual 10 worst and best list and surprisingly says the WB's "Everwood" is less family-friendly than NBC's "Fear Factor" + Bill Clinton's Tuesday chat with David Letterman pulled in the show's best ratings since March 29, beating the "Tonight Show" for just the 13th time this TV season, according to Nielsen numbers (read more - Tim Cuprisin)

Terra Lycos global Internet group, today announced its fourth annual list of the most popular radio talk show hosts with Web users based on The Lycos 50(TM). The Lycos 50 is a weekly list of the most popular people, places and things users are searching for online.  Howard Stern is #1, Rush Limbaugh is #2. Although Bill O'Reilly, Dr. Laura, Larry King, Clark Howard and Paul Harvey all made this year's list, search activity for each is down over last year. Dropping out of the top 20 this year are Don Imus, Click and Clack, Laura Ingraham, Don and Mike, Neal Boortz and Dr. Drew and Adam Corolla, whose search activity all dipped dramatically over the past year  (read the full list)

Citadel Broadcasting Corporation announced its second quarter results: -- Second Quarter Net Revenue Up Over 12% -- Second Quarter Operating Income Up Over 700% -- Second Quarter Station Operating Income Up 13% -- Second Quarter Free Cash Flow Up 56% (read more)

Cable-TV executives scoffed at satellite television services and their huge 8-foot dishes when they began sprouting in rural lawns in the 1980s. By the mid-1990s, the dishes were the size of pizza pans. But the cable industry still dismissed satellite TV as a mild nuisance. Today, satellite is trouncing cable in the battle for subscribers in rural and urban areas alike, badly damaging the cable industry's reputation as a growth sector on Wall Street (read more - Las Vegas Review-Journal)

When the Iraq war began, artists such as Darryl Worley and Clint Black rushed to defend the country, while war-related songs by more skeptical artists such as Lenny Kravitz and the Beastie Boys barely got a drop of attention on the airwaves. Then the Dixie Chicks got in hot water ---- and bounced off San Diego's two country stations ---- for daring to say something snotty about President Bush at a concert. There was a hit protest song ---- "Where Is the Love" by the Black Eyed Peas ("A war is goin' on but the reason's undercover") ---- which got plenty of airplay on stations such as San Diego's Star 100.7. But its criticism of war was blunted by a grab bag of other complaints about gangs, racism and the media. Now, the tide is turning. Three new protest songs are making news in the radio world and beyond.
In San Diego, both Channel 933 and Jammin 'Z90 play the rap song "Why."  (read more - Randy Dotinga)

Baseball might have lost its influence and importance -- as well as many of its personalities -- on the English end of the radio dial, but the sport is enjoying an epoca dorada in Spanish broadcasting. Although many of baseball's legendary English-language radio voices have either retired or moved on to television over the past few seasons, more teams are broadcasting more games in Spanish than ever. Nearly half of baseball's 30 big-league teams do at least some games in Spanish (read more - Miami Herald)

"About 75 percent of my friends have satellite sets," Alif said. "No matter what you want to listen to, you can find it. And there aren't any of those stupid commercials to interrupt the music." Satellite radio's audience is mushrooming. In less than three years, XM Satellite Radio Holdings has signed more than 2.1 million customers, who pay $9.99 a month to listen to 120 channels of music and talk. Its smaller competitor, Sirius Satellite Radio, has about 400,000 subscribers at $12.95 a month (read more - Christopher Boyd)

The American Red Cross, the Blood Bank of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties and 95.5 KLOS announced that the 23rd Annual KLOS Blood Drive collected a total of 6,250 units of blood, smashing the previously held national record (5,021 units) for the most blood collected during a multi-day donation event (visit KLOS)

Technicians and engineers at Channel 9 are up in arms over an incident involving a minicam truck traveling at high speed on the Bishop Ford Expy. Tuesday. Without warning, a tire and wheel broke off the truck, whose commercial vehicle inspection sticker expired last February. No one was injured. Union representatives say the inspection lapse is typical of management's attitude toward employees and their welfare.  "Our bad -- the inspection sticker was expired," said Greg Caputo, news director of the Tribune Co.-owned station. "We don't know why the wheel fell off, but we're hoping to find out." (read more - Feder of Chicago)

On ABC NightLine: Can celebrities and artists influence an election? This year, quite a few are going to try. Ted Koppel talks to Bruce Springsteen, who along with a high-wattage group of other artists, is going to do a series of concerts in key 'swing states.' Can this really change the way people vote? Or does it further divide an already divided nation? (visit ABC NightLine)

Since December, Republican legislator Jeff Kropf  has been substituting off and on as the host for Lars Larson, the Portland talk show host whose radio program is syndicated around the country. Now KXL Radio in Portland has signed him up for a weekly talk show of his own. Starting Sept. 5, Kropf will be holding forth and taking calls from 7 to 9 a.m. every Sunday morning (read more - Albany Democrat-Herald)

"Southside" Steve Rickman, the 39-year-old ponytailed workhorse at 96rock, has survived five morning shows over his 10-plus years at the rock station but has always been the sidekick, the foil, the whipping boy. Until now. 96rock last week rewarded Rickman and his bud Tim Rhodes with an afternoon drivetime radio show, the second most lucrative time slot after mornings (read more - Peach Buzz)

ARBitrends for Nashville, Syracuse, Oklahoma City, Knoxville, Grand Rapids, Greensboro, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Lansing and Johnson City (read 'em)

Univision Communications Inc. announced financial results for the second quarter ending June 30, 2004, exceeding second quarter guidance as to net revenues, operating income before depreciation and amortization, and earnings per share (read more)

RAEL will hold a Press Conference and Breakfast to announce the release of the Wirthlin Worldwide Study: Personal Relevance, Personal Connections: How Radio Ads Affect Consumers --  This new report concerns a large-scale project conducted in 2004 with Wirthlin Worldwide to better understand how Radio advertising affects consumers in ways that are different from television and newspapers. It is the first in a series of major research studies from RAEL, all designed to help advertisers and agencies maximize Radio ROI (read more - RAB)

Irving's Nexstar Broadcasting Group Inc. on Wednesday posted a $1.2 million second-quarter profit -- relatively small, but a big improvement over the $15 million net loss reported for the same quarter the year before (read more - Dallas Biz Journal)

ChickChat, Town & Country, and London Jewelers celebrated “The Spirit of Carnival” at the 7th Annual Summer Celebration held at London Jewelers in The Hamptons on Saturday July 31st. Partygoers sipped martinis from ChickChat Martini glasses and enjoyed a sizzling evening of music and hors d'oeuvres while surrounded by award-winning jewelry, timepieces and a custom-designed collection of whimsical carnival masks.  All proceeds from the event benefit Operation Smile (visit ChickChat Radio)

After years of operating on the fringes of Chicago radio, media mogul Fred Eychaner has finally gotten serious about turning his Newsweb Corp. into a real player + Congratulations to the incomparable Dick Biondi, who this week celebrates his 20th year on the air at oldies WJMK-FM (104.3) + Terry Foxx, former afternoon personality at WBBM-FM (96.3), has been named director of programming for X-Radio Network  (read more - Feder of Chicago)

Results from the most important radio ratings period of the year -- the spring Arbitron ratings "book" -- have been released, and nobody should be unhappier locally than Infinity Broadcasting, parent to WCCO (830 AM) and WLTE (102.9 FM). Despite a stellar season for the Twins, whose games air on WCCO, the station's 7.7 ratings share hasn't been this low in years. WLTE has dropped as well, raising the question: What's going on over at Infinity? (read more - Star-Tribune)

In late June, the BBC put out new editorial standards. The BBC wants to prevent another "unfounded report" like the one last May from reporter Andrew Gilligan. On live radio, Gilligan suggested that British officials knew the claim that Iraq could use WMDS within 45 minutes was weak. Gilligan relied on an off-the-record conversation with scientist David Kelly, who later committed suicide. The BBC's new standards make editors, reporters, anchors, and producers more accountable. They call for limited use of anonymous sources; better note-taking; better preparation for anchors; and editorial lawyers in the newsroom (read more)

Ken Herrera's time at Chicago's WBBM-AM (780) played a big role in his landing the morning anchor job at WTMJ-AM (620). "He's a guy who's been close enough to Milwaukee to know something about it for the last six years," says WTMJ program director Rick Belcher, "both the city and WTMJ."  Herrera leaves his afternoon co-anchor job at the all-news station to take the helm at "Wisconsin's Morning News." (read more - Tim Cuprisin)

President Bush's most prominent bashers and boosters are broadcasting in an echo chamber, according to a new study. Fans of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 and of Rush Limbaugh's radio show are like-minded audiences who already agree with the partisan preaching, the University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey found. Accordingly, Mr. Moore's movie isn't changing many minds. Of the 5,051 people polled, only 12 had both tuned in to Mr. Limbaugh and watched Fahrenheit 9/11. Darin Decator, a Michigan resident, told the survey that he wanted to hear opposing views before making up his mind. "There are different sides to everything, and there's a truth somewhere in the middle," he told pollsters. In general, though, Mr. Moore and Mr. Limbaugh are playing to friendly crowds. "Preaching to the choir isn't entirely a bad thing," said Adam Clymer, political director of the survey. "It makes the choir more attentive. It makes the choir more energetic." (read Howard Kurtz-Media Notes) (read more - Dallas News) You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" like it at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

From football phone-ins to consumer complaints, Radio Dijla is flourishing within the constraints of a deeply unstable Iraq. While the station confronts ministers and public officials with complaints in its regular interview slots, and sometimes intervenes directly to help particularly needy listeners, Majid Salim argues that listeners appreciate the chance to air their grievances at all. Not surprisingly, given the continuing failure to reconstruct Iraq's utility infrastructure, electricity leads the list of complaints, with with water and sewage second and health services third (read more - The Independent)

Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Murphy, who covered the New York Mets from the team's inception in 1962 until his retirement after last season, died Tuesday. He was 79.  Murphy died at the Hospice of Palm Beach County, the team said. He had battled lung cancer since his retirement (read more - Newsday)  (read more - CBS Sportsline)

"NAB remains mindful of the challenges of and potential trade-offs involved in converting the nation’s radio stations to hybrid digital operations, especially in the case of AM nighttime operation, which, because of the mercurial nature of nighttime propagation, will require careful monitoring and, in many cases, individual resolutions. But we remain steadfast in our belief that digital radio will be transformative of both the AM and FM services, in terms of greatly improved audio quality, robustness of reception and opportunities for new, innovative services. This will be particularly so for the AM service, which, we are confident, will see a resurgence of formats, audiences and new services. These benefits will justify efforts to deal with instances of interference and some trade-offs of secondary service ..." (read the full text of NAB's comments to the FCC about digital broadcasting in PDF format)

ARBitrends for Harrisburg, Memphis, Mobile, Tucson and York (read 'em)

Sirius announced that it has promoted Doug Kaplan to Senior Vice President, Business Affairs and Business Development, Entertainment and Sports. Kaplan, previously SIRIUS' Vice President, Business Affairs, has worked with Greenstein to negotiate many of the company's recent content initiatives, including agreements with the NFL, Maxim, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Tony Hawk and the company's just-announced venture with rapper Eminem, Interscope Records and Shady Records. In his new position, Kaplan will oversee all entertainment and sports transactions for the nationwide satellite radio broadcaster (read more)

Entercom Communications Corp. announced plans to accelerate the rollout of digital broadcasting on nearly all of its radio stations. Entercom has already taken a leadership role in the digital radio upgrade process by initiating HD RadioTM broadcasts in Boston and Seattle with upcoming launches in Denver and Portland in the next few months. Entercom’s digital radio plans include upgrading 80% of its stations over the next four years. Entercom said Tuesday that second-quarter earnings rose 26 percent, beating analysts' estimates.   (read more - Forbes)

Nancy Reagan has gone on record in "full and complete support" of President George W. Bush's re-election despite his opposition to embryonic stem cell research. Reagan spokeswoman Joanne Drake said: "The campaign is certainly about more than one issue." (read more - NBC 4) You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" like it at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

WQAM's decision Friday to add the Howard Stern radio show, effective Aug. 16, could impact the Dolphins' willingness to stay on the station long-term. WQAM has one season left on its contract and has been trying to negotiate an extension (read more - Sports Business News)

Bill Clinton came to sell his book on "Late Show with David Letterman" Tuesday night but left a copy as a gift for Letterman's son. Reading aloud the inscription in his hefty 957-page memoir, the former president wished Harry Letterman (born to Dave and his girlfriend, Regina Lasko, Nov. 3) a happy 9-month birthday. "With luck," Clinton went on, "you will finish this by your 21st birthday. Meanwhile, carry it around and build more muscles than your dad has." (read more - Newsday)  (read NY Daily News)

SanDiegoRadio.net reports that Air America radio hits San Diego as early as Monday, no later than a week from .... at KPOP AM 1360 (visit SDRadio.net)

XM Satellite Radio and Audiovox Electronics Corporation are introducing the Audiovox XR9, the newest plug-and-play satellite radio (expected MSRP: $99.99, plus car kit or home kit for $69.99) which is expected to ship to retailers in October (read more)

Granite Broadcasting Corporation announced that the Company's Common Stock (Nonvoting) will be delisted from the Nasdaq SmallCap Market effective with the opening of business on Thursday, August 5, 2004. Granite Broadcasting Corporation operates eight television stations in geographically diverse markets reaching over 6% of the nation's television householdsGranite Broadcasting Corporation operates eight television stations in geographically diverse markets reaching over 6% of the nation's television households (read more)

Bill O'Reilly interviews first lady Laura Bush on "The Media": O'REILLY: What do you think of the media in America? BUSH: I mean, I think there are a lot of reasons to be critical of the media in America. I think a lot of times, the media sensationalizes or magnifies things that really shouldn't be, different issues maybe or different opinions more than reporting. I do think there's a big move away from actual reporting, trying to report facts. And you know, it's in newspapers and everything you read that a lot more is opinion. And a lot of words... it's very, you know, I'm interested in words, I'm interested in language. I'm a librarian. I'm a big reader and I see words that are actually subjective in a lot of news accounts (read the full transcript on Fox News Channel)

Over the weekend, the frequency of 94.3 FM began its transformation by showcasing a variety of possible formats with the “Wheel Of Music”. After much speculation, the "Wheel” landed on NewsRadio! Charleston’s ONLY FM NewsRadio station, NewsRadio 94-3 WSC-FM is now on the air as of this morning. News Radio 94-3 WSC-FM will simulcast on AM 730 (visit 94-3 WSC-FM)

“IT’S WAR,” the New York Post declared last Friday, over a front-page photo of a beaming John Kerry. The message worked nicely in two senses: The candidate had just called out his opponent in bold terms—”Kerry bashes Bush in prez race kickoff”—and he had done it while wrapping himself in the bullet-shredded flag of his Vietnam swift boat. But there was the third sense: the Post’s own war, waged during the Democratic National Convention as at no other time yet in the campaign. It was a noisy conflict, but a subtle and indirect one—the target was John Kerry, but the real foe was the rest of the press (read more - NY Observer)

It's almost like they're trying to provoke a reaction. Many conservative radio hosts use popular songs from known liberals – Bruce Springsteen, Bruce Cockburn, John Mellencamp – as filler or background music on their shows.  One host uses Bruce Hornsby's civil-rights ballad The Way It Is, "and all my fans are freaking out about it," Hornsby says (read more - Mark Brown-Rocky Mountain News)

Young Broadcasting announced stronger results for the second quarter and six months ended June 30, 2004. The Company's net revenue in the second quarter grew 8.1% and operating income grew 48.6% compared to the same period last year (read more)

Crude oil futures today jumped to a new record high, riding upward on continuing concern about threats to supplies from Iraq and Russia. U.S. light crude for September delivery briefly hit an intraday high of $44.30 a barrel in electronic pre-session trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That price was the highest on record since oil futures began trading on the Nymex 21 years ago (read more - Houston Chronicle)

A message to my fellow journalists: check out media watch sites like campaigndesk.org, mediamatters.org and dailyhowler.com. It's good to see ourselves as others see us. I've been finding The Daily Howler's concept of a media "script," a story line that shapes coverage, often in the teeth of the evidence, particularly helpful in understanding cable news. For example, last summer, when growth briefly broke into a gallop, cable news decided that the economy was booming. The gallop soon slowed to a trot, and then to a walk. But judging from the mail I recently got after writing about the slowing economy, the script never changed; many readers angrily insisted that my numbers disagreed with everything they had seen on TV. If you really want to see cable news scripts in action, look at the coverage of the Democratic convention (read more - Paul Krugman) You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" like it at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

Former long-time Channel 8 sports anchor Gerry Oher is now a successful PR exec at Wheatley & Timmons www.wheatleytimmons.com in his hometown of Chicago. Oher stopped in studio for a chat on 990 MainStreet radio with Kevin McCarthy while visiting Dallas on a business trip

While Anderson Cooper's all over CNN, mom Gloria Vanderbilt's autobio, "It Seemed Important at the Time," is about to drop on us. Next month Vanity Fair excerpts some juicy parts — like her Brando one-nighter, Sinatra fling, Howard Hughes affair, and "restless search for love." (read NY Post)

Former radio talk show host Jon Matthews was formally sentenced to seven years' probation on a charge of indecency with a child for exposing himself to an 11-year-old girl last year in his Sugar Land home. After sentencing, the father of the victim read a statement in the court of state District Judge Brady Elliott describing Matthews' actions as inexcusable.  Matthews then took some potshots at the American judicial system. "Those of you who have listened to my radio show and read my newspaper columns over the years know how strong a supporter I was of our criminal justice system. I can only say how misguided I was. Our criminal justice system is not based on justice; it is a quota system where conviction is the only scorecard," he said. Matthews said he hopes one day to talk about the case (read more - Houston Chronicle)

Attention, Rush Limbaugh and everyone else who thought that liberal talk radio couldn’t work: Portland is proving otherwise. At least if you believe the folks who measure listenership.
The spring Arbitron ratings show that KPOJ (620 AM), which carries the upstart Air America Network with Al Franken, Randi Rhodes, et al., has made huge strides since its March 30 launch. In the midday period from10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Air America’s Al Franken and Schultz rank No. 1, leaving Limbaugh, KPAM’s (860 AM) Sean Hannity and KXL’s (750 AM) Lars Larson in their wake (read more - Pete Schulberg - Portland Tribune)

The federal government may have to compensate for any damages incurred by the controversial Quebec City radio station CHOI-FM if its broadcasting licence is not renewed, the station's lawyer has warned Prime Minister Paul Martin. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ruled in July that it would not renew CHOI's licence, citing a long pattern of offensive, harassing comments by its morning shock-jock hosts (read more - The Globe and Mail)

The spacious headquarters of Sirius Satellite Radio, which launched a 24/7 NFL channel from its state-of-the-art studios in midtown Manhattan yesterday, is just a few miles from WFAN's Astoria basement. But everything from Sirius' digital technology, the scope of its marketing and promotion ($30 million spent in advertising in 2003) and the NFL's equity stake in the project, make other comparisons to WFAN's meager beginnings totally invalid. Yet if the niche channel grows to dominate its field as WFAN did, you'll see Sirius executives doing the Ickey Shuffle down Sixth Avenue (read more - Newsday-Steve Zipay)

ClearSky Mobile Media, Inc. announced that Ron Willett, a nine-year veteran of Clear Channel Radio, has joined the company to expand the company's leadership position in mobile entertainment for radio broadcasters. Through his radio career, Mr. Willett has worked both on-air as a DJ and as a promotions director. His broad experience provides insight into all aspects of the radio business (read more)

The "Starbucks Hear Music" channel, featuring music programming from Hear Music, the voice of music at Starbucks, will debut this fall for XM Radio's more than 2.1 million subscribers. Beginning in 2005, millions of Starbucks customers will be able to listen to the "Starbucks Hear Music" channel programming and be exposed to XM in more than 4,000 Starbucks locations nationwide (read more)

"There is nothing right now that we're hearing that is new," said one senior law enforcement official who was briefed on the alert. "Why did we go to this level? . . . I still don't know that."  Much of the information that led the authorities to raise the terror alert at several large financial institutions in the New York City and Washington areas was three or four years old, intelligence and law enforcement officials said on Monday. They reported that they had not yet found concrete evidence that a terrorist plot or preparatory surveillance operations were still under way  (read more - NY Times) (read Washington Post)  You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" like it at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

Satirist-commentator Al Franken will return to his TV roots next month when his radio show begins appearing on cable's Sundance Channel.  Beginning Sept. 7, "The Al Franken Show," heard live each weekday from noon to 3 p.m. Eastern on Air America Radio, will go on display in a one-hour edition on Sundance each night at 11:30 p.m. and 2:30 a.m. (read more - Miami Herald) (read Seattle P-I)

Satellite hasn't killed the radio star — at least not yet. These days, commercial-free satellite radio is just one alternative to its broadcast counterpart. Analysts say radio broadcasters
will eventually have to change their ways to keep up with the trends. Clear Channel Communications, the nation's largest radio station owner, is already planning a lower cap on its commercial time, citing too much clutter on its stations.  "There have been declining ratings across the board," said Peter Mirsky, a media analyst with Oppenheimer & Co. "Listeners are going somewhere. A lot of it is attributed to too much of a commercial load." He says that satellite radio is not yet converting the masses, but rather adding fuel to the competition. "It's out there on the fringe and one more piece of ammunition," Mirsky said (read more - Houston Chronicle)

It looks like WTMJ-AM (620) has decided to go outside again for a morning news anchor, picking up Ken Herrera, an afternoon anchor from Chicago's all-news WBBM-AM (620).
There's no official word from the station just yet, but Herrera has resigned from WBBM. He told the Chicago Sun-Times that his new Milwaukee morning job would give him more on-air freedom than the traditional anchor role on Chicago's all-news station (read more - Tim Cuprisin)

While radio fans have been buzzing about satellite radio making a splash by hiring edgy hosts like Opie and Anthony who could push the content envelope, XM went the other way last week and hired long-time National Public Radio "Morning Edition" host Bob Edwards. Edwards will start on XM Oct. 4 (read more - NY Daily News-David Hinckley)

Alice Porter was supposed to be the traffic reporter, alerting Bruce Murdock and Tim Hunter's radio listeners on KLSY-FM (92.5) about congestion and delays. But it quickly became clear that Ms. Porter could chat about much beyond morning commutes. So what had been the "Murdock and Hunter Show" within weeks became the "Murdock, Hunter and Alice Show."   Ms. Porter, of Maple Valley, died Friday (July 30) at Overlake Hospital Medical Center in Bellevue after a sudden illness. She was 44 (read more - Seattle Times)

When Al Gore spoke to the Democratic convention here last Monday, Fox News Channel didn't carry it live. Host Bill O'Reilly allowed viewers to hear the former vice president for about 40 seconds before saying: "Oh man, I wish I was out there. I would have said hey, a deficit, we've got a war on terror, we're attacked. What are you talking about?" Whatever happened to "we report, you decide?" Shouldn't Fox viewers get to hear Gore before O'Reilly and his guests start sounding off? O'Reilly, responding to this reporter's criticism of that move on washingtonpost.com, told viewers: "The newspaper pinheads claim that because we aren't covering the speeches we aren't fair. That, of course: a bunch of baloney. . . . How desperate some in the print media are to smear Fox News. In the words of Teresa Heinz Kerry, the newspaper critics can shove it." But sometimes even pinheads have a point, as some Fox staffers, both publicly and privately, acknowledge (read more - Howard Kurtz-Media Notes)

Cumulus Media Inc. reported financial results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2004. Lew Dickey, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "We are pleased to announce strong results for the second quarter of 2004. For the quarter, pro forma net revenues grew 5.5% versus the prior year. Same station net revenues grew 6.3% for the quarter (read more)

Four Infinity stations are affiliated with All Comedy Radio, and one's in Tampa. Yessir, the brand new WBZZ 1010 AM (the former WQYK AM) adds the mix of news/sports parodies, standup comedians, prank/funny calls, radio comedy and celebrity interviews 1 to 6 a.m. weekdays, and at least once on the weekend  (read more - Radio Babe-Dawn Scire)

WKQX-FM (101.1) morning personality Mancow Muller has dropped the lawsuit he filed last March against the indecency crusader who's been dogging him with the federal government (read more - Feder of Chicago)

Internet radio stations have long been popular because of the wide variety of music they offer and the relative lack of commercials. But for those who crave musical playlists tailored to their personal tastes, it might be difficult to find a service more useful than Last.fm. Last.fm is an online radio site -- but with a twist. It works hand-in-hand with Audioscrobbler, a small software plug-in that works with popular software music players like Winamp and iTunes. The plug-in scrutinizes the music files on users' computers and sends the information to a server. From that, Last.fm creates a personalized Internet radio station based on each user's taste (read more - Wired)

ARBitrends -- San Antonio, Austin, Tulsa, Raleigh-Durham, Rochester, Albany, Fort Collins, Marion-Carbondale, Pueblo, Daytona Beach (read 'em)

Salem Communications announced today results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2004. Commenting on these results, Edward G. Atsinger III, President and CEO said, "Our second quarter 2004 net broadcasting revenue and station operating income growth of 10.1% and 18.9%, respectively, will, once again, significantly exceed the performance of the overall radio industry (read more)

SIRIUS NFL Radio will provide in-depth radio coverage of the NFL, including daily live shows hosted by legendary NFL figures, including Cris Carter, Dan Reeves, John Riggins and Shannon Sharpe. Each show will feature team-by-team reports, expert analysis, exclusive conversations with team personnel and sports insiders - and best of all, phone calls from football fans from around the country. The channel will  also cater to fantasy football fans with a show dedicated to fantasy leagues every Friday (read more)

It was a hard decision for Christina Burr to leave her broadcasting position at public radio station WQCS-89FM in Fort Pierce, but it turned out to be a good one. Willi Miller took over Burr's Arts Spotlight program in 1997 and Burr, a flutist, got back to focusing on her music career (read more - Palm Beach Post)

Experts say that it's time that the traditional yardsticks used as gauges — network and cable ratings — be updated to give a better sense of the many forums today, from MTV and political Web logs to talk-radio shows and e-mail. "We're going to have to come up with a whole new way of measuring 'public interest,' " PBS anchor Jim Lehrer says. "Right now it's all anecdotal. The networks have numbers and I will tell you about our numbers, but beyond that? Somebody smarter than me has got to figure out how do you take this factor, that factor and come up with something that is meaningful, that you find yourself nodding when you hear it." Networks down, cable up  "Just because Americans don't tune in for NBC's or ABC's analysis doesn't mean they don't care," says Brian Stelter, editor of mediabistro.com, a Web site about  broadcast news. Last week, "I woke up to newspaper headlines and morning show segments about the convention. As I rode into work, the local deejay joked about it. At lunch, I talked about the speeches with colleagues. Before dinner, I checked AOL to preview the night's schedule. None of those actions were recorded by Nielsen. But they all contributed to my awareness of the convention." (read more - Peter Johnson-USA Today)

"In New York City, the top four companies control 80 percent of the [radio] market," says Jenny Toomey, executive director of the Future of Music Coalition. The top ten rated FM stations in New York City are owned by four companies: Clear Channel Communications, Emmis Communications, Spanish Broadcasting System, and Viacom. Radio station WEVD, was sold in 2001 to the Walt Disney Company media conglomerate, and the local, independent, multi-lingual station was reformatted into just another outlet for the sports network ESPN Radio. And even though New Yorkers are in a better situation than most other places of the country – we have, for instance, eight local daily newspapers in Spanish and English owned by six different companies – media consolidation gives a small group of people huge influence over what we see and hear (read more - Joanna Erenberg-Gotham Gazette)

From Claude Hall Online -- Mysteries still grow up like weeds around the man Jerry Wexler.  Even down these long years.  How really well did any of us know the man?  Is he really 87  years old now?  Hard to believe.  The man I knew was ageless + e-mails from Novella Smith Cromer, Chuck Blore, David Martin, Pat Walsh, Gordon Hull -- "An old friend of mine, Greg Perdue of Birmingham AL, says you and I need to talk; your advice may prove to be invaluable.  I'm a broadcaster who has created a dynamite format, along with a fine veteran  programmer as a partner ..."  and more (read www.claudehallonline.com) 

Prominent former Los Angeles radio executive Bill Ward has died. Ward died at his home in Sherman Oaks. His son says Ward started his career at age 15 in Waxahachie, Texas, near his hometown of Italy, Texas, at W-R-R Dallas. At the time he was a student at the University of Texas at Arlington. In 1967, he joined K-B-L-A in Los Angeles as programming director. He became station manager at K-B-L-A in 1970. Ward went on to become general manager of K-L-A-C in Los Angeles, and eventually president of Golden West Broadcasters, where he became manager of K-M-P-C. He was most recently at K-S-C-A in Los Angeles when he retired in 1997 (read more - KESQ)

Corey Deitz has done radio shows in Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Richmond, Norfolk, St. Louis, Toledo, Little Rock and other cities. He's seen the business from top to bottom. Through his humorous and casual writing style in "The Cash Cage," you'll meet an army of wanderers who spin tunes, give the time and temp, take the requests and when the pressure is on are easily discarded by a cutthroat business that disguises itself as your favorite song. The ordinary perception that disc jockeys have a glamorous life, flanked by popularity and perks, is quickly put into perspective as the darker side of an industry is exposed where constant moving, loneliness, backstabbing and job termination are the prerequisites for success (read more - "The Cash Cage")

A man was busted outside Madison Square Garden after allegedly stalking radio personality Monica Crowley for more than a year, The NY Post has learned. Crowley, a talk-show host for WABC and political analyst for the Fox News Channel, was leaving the radio station's Penn Plaza studios when she spotted Ronald Martin outside the Garden about 2 p.m., authorities said (read more - NY Post)

From Chuck Dunaway's "The Radio Diaries" -- Rene’ Lynn/San Antonio:  When I was hired as the evening news anchor for a now long-defunct country station KBUC in San Antonio, TX summer 1981 I was told that whenever a news person was on duty he or she was responsible for the meter readings, which I thought odd since this equipment was located to the exact left of the on-air DJ! + Ray Whitworth/San Antonio:  It was the summer of 1975. I had an all night shift at KEEZ in San Antonio, which was then Clear Channel's very first station. The studios were located on the 28th floor of the Tower of Life Building in downtown San Antonio. I had a beautiful view of the San Antonio River and of the Hilton Palacio del Rio Hotel + Larry Vance/Nebraska: I spent twenty years at KNUZ Houston, first as a jock, then as Program Director then finally General Manager. Dave Morris was my boss and I wish I could have told him how much he meant to me. He was "second to none!" more (read www.chuckdunaway.com)

After a federal judge rebuffed radio shock jock Erich "Mancow" Muller's claim that Chicago decency advocate David Smith's filings with the Federal Communications Commission violated his freedom of speech, Muller dropped a $3 million lawsuit against Smith last week. Mancow, who is currently involved in contract renewal negotiations with Emmis Corporation, pleasantly surprised Smith with his decision to drop the lawsuit (read more - Illinois Leader) (read more)

It's improving all the little things that will lift WCBS-FM (101.1) out of its modest recent slump, says Vice President Chad Brown - and he says newly hired program director Dave Logan is just the guy to get that done. "I can't emphasize enough that we're staying the course with the music," says Brown (read more - David Hinckley)

Since he was 5 years old, Dave Ross has never been far from a microphone. In his nerdy youth, he wired his parent's suburban New York home into a de facto radio station. He would put on shows in his bedroom, wrangling siblings as interview subjects. But in recent years, Ross began to express some dissatisfaction with his work, said his father, Richard Ross. "He felt that he wanted to do more than be a guy on the radio," the elder Ross said. "He felt that he wasn't doing anything constructive; he felt that he wasn't contributing enough." Last month, Ross walked away from the broadcast microphone and onto the campaign trail as a candidate for Congress. It's a move that appears driven by a convergence of his itch to have a direct hand in policy and the Democratic Party's fervent desire to win the 8th District. Campaign theme: I want to go to Washington, D.C., with the common sense I cultivated on the radio talking about public policy with hundreds of people. "Talk is cheap," Ross said in a recent interview, as he sat on the front porch of his Mercer Island home (read more - Seattle Times)

Clear Channel Radio's plan to remove the "clutter" on its 1,200 or so stations with across-the-board cuts in commercial and promotional spot inventories has been hailed by some of its competitors as a bold move that could help spark positive change throughout the industry. But it is a move that could cost the San Antonio-based company untold advertisers and revenues (read more - SA Biz Journal)

The buzzing noise emanating from U.S. District Court in Nashville is echoing in radios all across the country. But according to the plaintiffs in a federal copyright case, the only place that the ''Buzz'' should be heard is over the signals broadcast by Nashville-based Cromwell Group Inc. It is fighting national broadcasting behemoth Clear Channel Communication's use of the marketing moniker to describe several of its own radio stations. The corporate branding battle over Buzz Babes, Buzzweiser, Buzz Armies, BuzzFests and BuzzHeads has raged since at least 2000, according to federal court records, when Cromwell realized that Clear Channel had registered the Internet domain name, www.1021thebuzz.net, for a station it owned in Dallas (read more - Tennessean)

ABC Radio Networks announced the debut of "Saturday Night At The 80s," a new weekly program featuring hits from the decade that gave the world Flashdance, Men At Work and MTV. Hosted by WPLJ's Todd Pettengill and originating from New York, "Saturday Night at the 80s" will be carried on stations from coast to coast including WPLJ-FM (New York), WRQX-FM (Washington, D.C.) and WDVD-FM (Detroit) beginning September 25 (visit ABC Radio Networks)

Coming out of the Democratic National Convention in Boston, Sen. John Kerry now holds a seven-point lead over President George W. Bush (49 percent to 42 percent) in a three-way race with independent Ralph Nader (3 percent), according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll.  The poll was taken over two nights, both before and after Kerry's acceptance speech. Respondents who were queried after Kerry's Thursday night speech gave the Democrat a ten-point lead over Bush. Three weeks ago, Kerry’s lead was three points (read more - Newsweek) You'll find this and other "Talk Bites" like it at RDN's sister site, www.talkradiodailynews.com

At 5 a.m. Monday on Channel 5, WNEM, Lenise Ligon and Craig McMorris will launch a new era in mid-Michigan media -- the cross-ownership of a television and radio station in the same market. Pulling the plug on WKNX-AM, 1250, Channel 5's parent company Meredith Corp. begins WNEM-AM, 1250, with a simulcast of Ligon and McMorris' morning news show (read more - MLive)