Editor: David Tanny
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News Wires (May 18, 2002)Fox Life:GO>> Weakest Link Host: Americans Are Dumb. Friends Finale Includes Rachel, Joey Twist.
Winners at 29th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards
Supporting actor, drama series: Josh Duhamel, "All My Children"
Radio Wires (May 18, 2002)Inside Radio:GO>>> Rich "Brother" Robbin now PD at Citadel's KOOJ-FM, Baton Rouge.... San Diego radio legend Robbin comes to Citadel from American General Media's KCOO-FM, Bakersfield. Robbin held similar duties at KCOO-FM before the station switched its format from oldies to rock. Bob Lewis is now the PD at KCOO-FM. KOOJ-FM has been struggling with its ratings ranging from 1.5 - 2.2 since switching to an oldies format almost three years ago. Radio Wires (May 18, 2002)Kurt HansonGO>>> "Should the RIAA get their wish of seeing the CARP-proposed royalty rate accepted next week, it could set an unintended chain of events into motion that could cost the record industry BILLIONS of dollars in lost revenues in upcoming years!" That's the point of the first half of a two-part editorial by RAIN publisher Kurt Hanson. You can read part one of Kurt's editorial in a very special issue of "RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter," available right now at http://www.kurthanson.com. (Look for part two first thing Monday morning.) Also today in RAIN today, the highlights of an opinion piece on why artists should NOT support the proposed CARP royalties, and news of how the Canadian government, artists, and record labels plan to fight digital piracy in their country. On Monday morning, in the second half of Kurt's editorial, he'll propose a possible compromise solution for royalty rates and recordkeeping that might work for everyone. (And if you've got an opinion on the subject, you can send it to us by simply replying to this e-mail. Thanks!)
Radio Wires (May 18, 2002)91XHey there, 91X listener! It's shaping up to be a huge summer! We've got Star Wars Episode II in theaters, plus great weather, Four O'Clock Fridays at the Del Mar Racetrack, and maybe a Padres game or two to look forward to. And to kick it all off, it's 91X's X-Fest! 91X's X-Fest 2002 --- Saturday, June 8th, 91X is taking over the Coors Amphitheater! So far, we've announced Cake, Jack Johnson, Unwritten Law, Face To Face, Trik Turner, Doves, The Vines, Mix Mob, Sugarcult, Elbow, and Richard Cheese's Lounge Against The Machine. Head on over here for a 91X E-File eXclusive chance to win some tickets! Also, do you know anyone in a local band? Wanna see them play at X-Fest? Go here for info about getting your favorite local band on stage at X-Fest 2002. 91X.com --- Not only can you get X-Fest information online at www.91X.com... but you can also win yourself passes to our advanced screening of the new Ben Affleck flick, "The Sum Of All Fears", or you can win yourself some Warped Tour 2002 tickets where you can check out Bad Religion along with a slew of other bands, or you can win yourself some tickets to May 25th's One Love Reggae Festival happenning at the Open Air Theater at SDSU. We have an eXclusive stack of these 91X reggae tickets set aside for you 91X E-Filers who enter here. Good luck! And now, as they say, for the news: RADIOHEAD WORKING ON NEW ALBUM --- Yes yes yes... Radiohead are in the studio and making "good" progress on their next album. Frontman Thom Yorke revealed in a recent webchat at ateaseweb.com that the band is hard at work and that the album will be ready "sooner than you think". They are kicking off a 14 date tour in Portugal on July 22nd and plan on taping some of their shows and possibly using some of that audio to augment tracks on the new album. They are koo koo like that. KORN, BILLY CORGAN IN THE MOVIES? --- Well, kinda. Both Jonathan Davis of Korn and the former Smashing Pumpkins leader are both diving into the world of Hollywierd movie scores. Davis teamed up with former Oingo Boingo keyboardist Richard Gibbs for the "Queen of the Damned" soundtrack, which hits stores June 4th. Because of contractual obligations that prevented Davis from singing, you won't be hearing his voice anywhere on the album. Billy Corgan also has scored a new movie for director Jonas Ackerlund, director of controversial Prodigy and Madonna music vdeos; the movie features actor/Phantom Planet drummer Jason Schwartzman, along with Blondie's Debbie Harry, and John Leguizamo. Look for that one later this year. May the force be with you, The 91X team: Brand X, Robin, Hilary, Muckley, and Trev! Radio Wires (May 16, 2002)Forget Springer, Radio Talk Is Where Brains Get Real Exercise!... Governor Dufuss said he was going to raise taxes. Also, there is a move to impose a soda-tax, a new gas-tax, and perhaps to raise the price of smokes again. With all that going on, you'd think that TV would get in gear and put on talk shows to cover these topics? Nope! It's the radio. Rick Roberts of KFMB-AM and Stacy Taylor of KOGOare making regular appearances on MSNBC and other news outlets. The Radio Mayor Roger Hedgecock will get his listeners to phone, fax, email, and visit lawmakers and other offices to stop the bleeding of hard earned money from tax payers. Radio is getting their audiences to change the outcome of what goes on in the State Capitol. Why isn't TV doing the same?Radio Wires (May 16, 2002)Sez David TannyGray Davis's tax increase will cost me $1,500 extra a year...I CAN'T AFFORD IT! SIMON FOR CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR!!!
Roger Hedgecock Flashfax: NEW TAXES..Dufuss promises back in January that (read his lips) there will be no new taxes despite his bungling and incitement of the CA energy gouge and the huge debt that saddles us with.of course that was horse hockey.yesterday he takes the wraps off a 2-billion tax hike plan. And of course, he'll maintain that he is not proposing these new taxes..those dang democrats in the legislature are doing it..and boy are they.take a gander at this field of cow chips: SB 1373 (O'Connell).a Pet Tax. (yep) Buy a pet pay a fee. Sell a pet pay a fee. (Freedom ain't for sale but he ain't gonna like this at all).SB 1417 (Romero) An Alcohol Tax.the spoof is that the tax will "mitigate adverse health effects," from drinking.this despite evidence out every day saying a splash of red wine or a couple of fingers of Jack Daniels does a body well (yikes).SB 1618 (Keuhl) A Marriage Tax.(huh?).increases the cost of a license by 10 bucks to pay for domestic violence prevention (folks with good marriages have to pay folks with bad marriages?.any break for homopartners?).We'll share a few more of these gastric exploding items in days to come. Recall as you read each one that we have sent these nutballs to Sacramento. They are doing stuff that we want them to do. You are for all of these taxes. It is representative gummint. Yeeech!! 100000watts.com Sold To Clear Channel? (May 16, 2002)http://radio-info.com/boards/ctc/Unconfirmed rumors on the CTC board are stating that Chip Kelley, the creator and operator of the radio station information website 100000watts.com, selling his website to Clear Channel Worldwide for an undisclosed sum. In the weeks that followed, Kelley was apparently looking for the highest bidder to take over his website along with the contents of it since he could no longer afford to spend a large amount of time to keep the website updated, as well as facing higher expenses of paying for the webhost that carries his website. No word whether Clear Channel plans to maintain the website as it is or to take the data in-house. Give Chip credit for creating a massive radio station database that took a lot of time and effort to maintain and update. As he explained in a message on his website, Chip's job at Nortel got zapped during a massive corporate restructuring earlier this year (after all the economy is in a high-tech meltdown these days) and I think that he would need to refocus his energies in redirecting his life. Maintaining such a massive amount of info didn't fit into the picture any more. Another small independent startup, Mr. Showbiz, was absorbed by Disney years ago. Egroups, a mailing list community, and Geocities, a once-bustling free website community, was eaten up by the ruthless Yahoo who took Geocities into a pay service and may do the same with the former Egroups. DejaView was absorbed into Google. Clear Channel thought it was valuable enough to them to give Kelley top dollar for his website and its data. Some offers came to the table and he did what any wise man would do - take the best offer. The fact that CC was in the bid just goes to show you how much the industry respected his website. Maybe the Clear Channel purchase of an independent website will spark a trend in big time content providers buying up the well-known independents and incorporating them into their business models. Corporate support for independent websites may become more of a reality rather than the exception. As the Internet economy takes a sluggish turn, like the radio business, the smaller companies find out that its more profitable to run a Krispy Kreme franchise than to run a website or operate a radio station. As for me, David Tanny, I've been working several websites for almost eight years, including the massive Dr. Demento/ Funny Music pages, which could be of use to radio stations that feature novelty music in the mornings or educational stations, perhaps the big radio companies could sell some of the funny records on their radio station websites. Maybe CCU could be interested in buying eightisenough.com and its contents since the website is not getting any bigger without adding expensive multimedia and other stuff that makes TV show websites enjoyable. I can't afford to put in the bandwidth-hogging streaming video stuff as per ISP bandwidth limits rule. I can't figure out any of this Java stuff that web programmers put in nowadays. I'm too old to program computer languages. I've been running the website since 1999 and I plan to shut it down in June 2003 with or without a buyer. I've also been thinking of selling my Today in History website clusters. I'm getting sick and tired of working three jobs (driver, webmaster, content provider), and I'm losing my passion for keeping the facts updated. Maybe I could get a big enough price for my Today in History database, formatting, QBASIC program, and data for me to retire in wealth for the rest of my life. I could help the programmers convert my formerly-owned database format to whatever works with their computer language, whatever that is. Chip put a lot of time and money into his 100000watts site, and now, he's getting rewarded for it at the time when he needs it most. He was downsized out of his job, and he may now be able to support himself for quite some time, maybe for life or maybe just until he finds the right job. How many of us have been stuck in miserable jobs we've wanted to leave but couldn't because those miserable jobs were what we depended on to put food on our tables? Maybe, now, Chip will be able to use that money to spend enough time on finding a great job that will be rewarding. Radio Wires (May 15, 2002)Radio Business Report:GO>>> AFTRA says "No" to CCU voice tracking in NYC (5/14)... AFTRA members at three Clear Channel NY stations have petitioned the company to drop voice tracking there, claiming voice tracking is a "disservice" to listeners. WKTU-FM, WLTW-FM and the new WWPR-FM all have expired AFTRA contracts and the union is negotiating new deals.
Radio Horizon: That, anyway, is the view of Internet pioneer turned virtual organizer Joe Kraus, who has proposed a technology "Bill of Rights" so consumers can legally copy music and television programs in the digital age, just as they have done for decades with audio and video tapes. Digital music is so easy to copy it has spawned rampant piracy, and a wave of laws and bills aimed at stopping it, many of which are now being debated in Congress -- and Hollywood. Personal computer maker Gateway Inc.GTW.N sells more than half its computers with drives which can write CDs, creating mixes of songs with perfect quality. As it gets easier to make infinite, perfect copies with digital technology, copyright owners want to make this slightly fuzzy fair use concept cut and dried. Kraus argues they are going too far by taking aim at the technology itself. That's where the Bill of Rights comes in. It has six points, and he gives examples of what they mean: -- the right to time-shift -- lets you watch a tape of a television show after it was broadcast -- the right to space-shift, which means you're allowed to make your own CDs for personal use, like jogging or other out-of-home listening -- the right to make backup copies -- the right to look at content on the platform of your choice, meaning you can watch a DVD on a computer instead of a TV -- the right to translate content into comparable formats, which would let a blind person read a book with a text-to-speech program -- the right to use technology to secure the rights above: This is the kicker. Some new CDs can be read by audio CD players but not by computer CD drives. This would let you use a program to overcome that anti-copying technology, for instance. However, if you bought a license to a song for a weekend and then used technology to keep it longer, breaking the contract, you would not be protected. Since it was founded in mid-March, DigitalConsumer has received requests from some 35,000 people to request more than 100,000 faxes in favor of the bill be sent to legislators, and Kraus hopes to find Congressional sponsors soon. Radio Wires (May 16, 2002)North County Times "San Diego Radio Static" - Randy DotingaCall Spider-Man: The Web needs help!
The San Diego Reader Blurt - Various journalists
Radio Wires (May 16, 2002)Electronic Media:GO>> Viacom closes KCAL-TV purchase: Viacom closed today on its purchase of independent KCAL-TV, Los Angeles. Don Corsini, general manager at KCAL will run Viacom-owned KCBS as well. The acquisition gives Viacom a duopoly in Los Angeles. News Bytes (May 15, 2002)Inside Radio:GO>>> Jimmy Verros resigns from KCLB-FM, Palm Springs... Verros held Assistant PD duties at Morris Desert Media's KCLB-FM. Verros has been hired as Executive Producer of the weekday 3pm-6pm Greg Alan Show at Clear Channel's WSCC-AM, Charleston. Verros has been with KCLB-FM since the beginning of the year. Before KCLB-FM, Verros was with Greater Media's WLIF-FM, Detroit as a part-time weekend jock. KCLB-FM has yet to replace Verros. Verros' first day at WSCC-AM is June 3rd. Letters About San Diego Radio and DFS News (May 15, 2002)It's been a while since I've featured a letters only section, but here's the best of the letters that I have been receiving in the past six months, none of which have been seen here before.Rob Phillips: Hey, I've noticed that you "cherry pick" some of the stuff from Chris Carmichael's site, but convieiently avoid relaying anything about the KGB morning show from his site to your webpage. What's the deal? Ed: No need to repeat everything seen. Besides, they've gotten enough press anyway, so instead of wasting my bits and bytes on these guys, I rather use them to publicize stuff that deserves to be called news such as funny/comedy music, dance music, fun TV shows, and none of that bogus NBC demographic mentality that's screwing up everything in the media nowadays. Darth Badder: Resistance is futile! Come with me to the dark side of the radio universe. A representative from Clear Channel will be contacting you shortly. Ed: Ha ha. Very funny! William Hutchinson: I'm in the target 25-54 age range many advertisers desire to reach, and I hate those so-called soft music stations that are ruling the Arbitron charts. Can't these radio programmers program in some bluegrass, folk, world beat, polka, and real jazz into a commercial format? Oh, that's right. Radio programmers don't know music. Hire a music programmer that will do the job. Yeah, that's it. Have one of them happen to be the ex-husband of...Morgan Fairchild. Yea, that's the ticket! Ed: Last week's That 80's Show sucked less when Morgan guested on it. Looks better than Sarah Michelle Gellar anyday! Krispy Creamichael: Dear David. What happened to your bimonthly imaginary treks into the "El Zona" crazy zone diaries you bring up? They were funny and many times more imaginative than even The Simpsons. Ed: I'm still a marked man in El Zona ever since I smartened up the blonde airheads and their redneck muscular hubbies are mad at me for turning their kittens into soccer mom cats over there! But don't blame me. Blame it on Valerie Bertinelli for scaring them into nagging wives that not even I can stand to be near! Where is Anna Kournikova when I need her, and I don't want a fake Anna this time! The Great Eggplant: Is there a chance that 99.3 will be going dance? That would be an excellent format choice. Ed: You'd think that after three low-rated years, 99.3 would replace their country format with a format that serves an underserved audience. Personally, I'd like to see SBS expand their Party dance franchise into San Diego on a Mexican frequency like 99.3. I heard the San Francisco Party station on an Internet feed. Though it sounded like the playlist on Party in Miami, it sounds good. When will they wise up and stop picking on KSON and just give us a fun music station like Party we can all listen to. Reggie Deamons: Why no press for radio talk shows in your column? Ed: nobody's been sending them in. I guess none of my readers care for radio talk shows.
Radio Wires (May 14, 2002)Radio OnlineGO>>> Clear Channel/N.Y. Employees Seek End To Voicetracking... Three letters signed by 60 AFTRA-represented air personalities at WKTU, WLTW and WWPR/New York, respectively, were sent to Clear Channel Radio CEO Randy Michaels last week requesting that the company cease its use of voicetracking at the stations. The staffers claim the use of voicetracking would eliminate jobs, compress salaries and "destroy the very connection that keeps listeners and advertisers coming back." AFTRA is in ongoing negotiations with Clear Channel over new contracts at the stations. WKTU's AFTRA deal expired in December 2000, while WWPR's expired in June 2001 and WLTW's contract ended in March 2002. Calls to Clear Channel's San Antonio headquarters were not returned by presstime.
New Radio Star:
Radio Wires (May 14, 2002)Radio Business Report:GO>>> KFWB-AM LA auctioning used space shuttle... Believe it or not, KFWB-AM LA is auctioning off a used space shuttle. The Russian Buran space shuttle made one unmanned space flight in 11/88, orbiting Earth twice before landing and ending up in storage in Kazakhstan. Bids are being accepted now through 5/22 at www.kfwb.com. |