If It's 12:01 AM Friday... (November 25, 2005)

Let The Holiday Season Begin!

Oh...you can still boycott Disney. Disney sucks.

Carla Ulbrich Checks In (November 25, 2005)

"well here I sit full of pumpkin pie, apple pie, and pumpkin cheesecake. And turkey and sweet potato(e) casserole. yum. I drove to South Carolina with my beau to eat and hang with my family: mom, dad, sisters, brothers in law and 4 nieces. The weather in Sc is awesome, as it usually is in the fall. I went to see Harry potter with my beau, my younger sister and my oldest niece (who is also known as "Little Carla." she's really funny and she loves to sing and make up ridiculous stories.) We made up our own madlibs in the car on the way to the movie and back. I'm so pleased she's finally old enough to know nouns and verbs so she can play one of my favotire games of all time. I've been known to take out the manual to my car and turn various paragraphs in there into madlibs with anyone who will play along. Of course the high point of the day was playing with the 2 "real" woopie cushions I brought for my nieces. I think I am the only adult of all of us who never gets tired of the sound of woopie cushions. I'm sure my sisters will be thanking me for months for giving woopie cushions to their kids... it's good to be the aunt :) and on that note.... tata til next time!"

The Wires (November 25, 2005)

(read more - Information Week). The U.S. digital satellite radio market is expected to grow from 12 million installed units this year to 55 million units in 2010, according to a new report. Jupiter Research announced the 35 percent compound annual growth rate Tuesday. While 23 percent of online consumers surveyed reported an interest in satellite radio, only six percent have it, according to Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director at JupiterResearch.

Warner Music To Pay $5 Million In Payola Settlement. NEW YORK—November 23: Warner Music Group has agreed to pay $5 million and reform its business practices to settle charges its employees paid off radio stations in exchange for airplay for Warner recording artists.

FRSD 96.9FM Has Resumed At Full Power (November 25, 2005)

Letters: Christmas Too Soon? (November 25, 2005)

I love Christmas more than any other holiday, but I want to be sick of it on Dec. 24th not NOVEMBER 24th.

When I was growing up, the Friday after Thanksgiving 'officially' kicked off the Christmas season on TV, radio, and department stores.

Seasons seem to come too fast. We have Halloween coming before Labor Day. Christmas coming before Halloween. Valentines Day coming before Santa even leaves the North Pole, and Easter before Valentines Day.

What happened to the seasons in between them? Columbus Day. Thanksgiving. Martin Luther King Day. St. Patricks Day. Can't we have these seasons coming in louder than the holidays that follow them?

From B.J.: Radio City Music Hall was decorated more than a week before Halloween. This is ridiculous! This makes me want to join a tree preservation club and force the loggers to wait until after Thanksgiving Day to begin chopping down Christmas Trees.

You wait too early, as in Veterans Day, and the trees are already dead and brown by the time Christmas arrives. This is greed out of control.

From Richard: I agree with you. Thanksgiving season needs to be louder and prouder with two holidays anchoring the season: Veterans Day and Thanksgiving. I'm not even thinking Christmas until after the ball games and parades are over.

From Mike: Why can't the Equimas shopping season start in November also? Given that the holiday is in March instead of December, this could give me a jump on preparing for the biggest holiday of the year which falls on March 21 and not December 25 where I can celebrate with anybody regardless of whether they have a religious culture or not. And yes, I'm an atheist, and whoever created the holidays in December to make fools out of religious followers by making them feel too good to control their spending and end up with big fat bills in March. Thank God I don't believe in the holiday season in December.

DFSX Cancels Five (November 25, 2005)

The newest specialty music show, the Sunday night "DFSXmas" series, was cancelled after three airings after word got out that the show was playing too many tracks from several albums in a four-hour span as well as featuring unreleased material that did not meet the rules criteria of the DMCC, which, to put it in layman's terms, means that you can't broadcast an all-Bob Marley two-hour block on the Internet.

Also cancelled immediately is the series "Four-Play," which featured too few artists per hour, "The Best of Dave's Gone By," which is in questionable doubt whether non-music talk will pass the DMCA rules, and "D.T.'s CD Dump," a seven-hour block featuring all of the tracks from 3-4 albums.

And at the end of the year, the weekly countdown series "The Dementia Top 20" will also be gone at the end of December. The series has counted down numerous unreleased and bootleg recordings on their weekly survey.

"This is f---ing ponderous, man," says programmer David Tanny. "The DMCA is laying the hammer down on creative programming concepts. The elimination of the unreleased recordings will effectively put UFO Phil and Positive Attitude out of business on dfsx and that's not fair to them unless they can make an official CD release of their material."

The remaining three series, "I Still Get Demented", and "DFSX Time Machine" will be put on hiatus at the end of the year while their playlists are scrutinized for material that can't be used on the live365.com stream.

"That's more work for me," says Tanny. "Now I have to go back through the recordings and get rid of the unreleased material as well as excerpts from Blue Collar TV and Manic Mondays."

The DMCA rules in brief as it affects webcasting:

Do not play a song within one hour of its being requested.

Do not intentionally program more than three songs from the same recording in any three-hour period.

Do not intentionally program more than two songs in a row from the same recording in any three-hour period.

Do not Set a playlist that is less than three hours long playing on a continuous loop.

Do not publish an advance program guide that says what you will be playing.

Do not play bootlegs, mash-ups, unauthorized or unreleased recordings.

The rules allow the live365.com stations to only broadcast sound recordings that are authorized for performance in the U.S.

Radio Briefs (Nov 25-27, 2005)

91X is also bringing out the songs I grew up with from the 70s and 80s with the Resurrection Weekend beginning Thursday at 6am.

FM 94/9 is airing the sold-out Matisyahu concert at the Belly Up Tavern live on New Years Eve at 8pm without any commercials.

FM 94/9 is also letting listeners take over the station beginning Wednesday at 2pm with another Anarchy and Chaos weekend. It will end Sunday at 6pm.

Friday at 4pm, Mike Halloran the afternoon deejay at FM 94/9 has a live interview with Henry Rollins hours before his concert later that evening.

Halloran asks about the movie based on the life of Johnny Cash, "I Walk The Line": "what are you waiting for? Go see it." My answer: I'm waiting for it to come out on free TV. I don't care to pay to watch a movie if I have to sit with a whole bunch of strangers doing strange things while you're trying to follow the movie. No more theaters for me. Movie theaters are obsolete and cost too much to attend.

Tom Leykis, heard on Free-FM 103.7, has cancelled his Boys Night Out show to be held next month in Dallas as he announced on his radio show yesterday due to a lingering minor ailment. People who purchased tickets through Ticketmaster should contact the company for a refund.

A Smooth Jazz Christmas Season (November 25, 2005)

KIFM 98.1 the local smooth jazz station is presenting its own mix of Holiday music beginning this Friday from 10am until 6pm as it kicks off its annual "Christmas Music Weekends" special programming mix.

Listen to non-stop "Christmas Music Weekends" weekends from 10am until 6pm through Christmas Day, which falls on a Sunday this year. This station will feature timeless classics along with the coolest Smooth Jazz versions of your holiday favorites.

Also check out http://www.kifm.com/ for details on their Santa's Helpers benefit concert, two holiday shows, trip-a-day giveaway, and more.

More Holiday Music (November 25, 2005)