The Wires (July 6, 2006)

Grupo Televisa said it will not roll over its 11.4 percent stake in Univision Communications to a consortium of private-equity investors who beat out the Mexican broadcaster's bid for the Los Angeles-based Spanish-language network (read more - Mercury News)

The Wires (July 4, 2006)

Happy Hare: When Specs and I began our WXYZ journey 40 years ago, he and I should have taken it as a grim portent when our champion Hal Neal, the president of ABC Radio, died shortly after signing us up to go to WXYX.. Neal had wanted us to ”rock”, as a wedge against the deeply entrenched MOR personality, J.P. McCarthy Show on WJR. J.P. sported a 40 Hooper his first hour as a carry-over from Tiger Baseball the preceding night. In the following hours of his show, he scored mid and high 20’s. That 40 was a steep mountain for us to climb. We were not daunted by the 20’s. The rock format that Neal wanted us to do gave us a creneau to fill against his MOR big band and ballads. Neal was replaced by Ralph Beaudine, who met us the when we appeared in New York at Leonard Goldenson’s ABC penthouse suite to meet the Blair Reps. That evening was elegant, the stuff of fantasy, then we descended an elevator with Beaudine to a dark little coffee house down the block where he informed us that things had changed, that we were to go head-on against McCarthy, playing MOR. Then, the coup de grace ... (read more - www.HappyHareOnline.com)

RadioandRecords: KIFM/San Diego PD Mike Vasquez picks up mornings starting July 31, plugging the hole made by Melissa Sharpe's exit last week. APD/MD/afternoon goddess Kelly Cole hands off her APD stripes to new hire J. Wiedenheimer, who was last seen in Fresno as PD of now-defunct Smooth Jazz KEZL and recent Smooth Jazz sign-on KUUS.

Steve West isn't just filling in middays on 91X. It's been announced that he's back as the midday host from 10am-2pm.

The Wires (July 1, 2006)

MAJOR-MARKET RADIO SPOT LOAD DROPS TO 7-1/2 MINUTES. Radio has chopped a minute off commercial loads, according to broadcast data company Media Monitors.

SENATE PANEL OKAYS AUDIO FLAG. So-called audio flag language was approved by lawmakers, who were voting on numerous amendments to the Senate's version of the rewrite of the Telecom Act.

"Laura" to Return to General Hospital (July 1, 2006)

Well, as far as I know, that ain't going to happen, but they did have something up their sleeve that was revealed this past week on this slow news day.

LAURA is coming back to Luke.

Genie Francis, the actress who played Laura Spencer on the longtime soap opera "General Hospital," will return to the cast some time this fall.

The show set in the fictious town of Port Charles will be reuniting Luke Spencer with ex-wife Laura, arguably the most famous soap couple ever in the history of daytime, in time for the 25th anniversary of their famous, on-air wedding, which took place on November 17, 1981, in a Charles and Diana-level ceremony that resulted in a surprise return of Laura's ex-husband Scotty Baldwin near the end of the show.

In the next few episodes that followed that same week, Elizabeth Taylor made a cameo as the malicious Helena Cassadine, whose husband Mikkos Cassadine was frozen to death by Luke.

The wedding, seen by 30 million viewers, remains the biggest event ever on daytime TV. This pairing was credited with defining the term supercouple, and caused other soap operas to copy the successful formula.

Francis left the show in 2002, after her fictional marriage to Anthony Geary, who plays Luke, fell apart from the year before. Francis left the show in 1981, then returned for a brief spell in the fall of 1983 and 1984, and a long run from 1993-2002. Genie Francis was abruptly maneuvered off the show during a dispute over vacation time, and the plot had a disturbed Laura murdering her stepfather, Rick Webber, in a psychotic episode, shortly before she and Luke were to remarry. She was sent to a mental hospital in Switzerland.

Francis, 44, will appear in a series of episodes beginning in the middle of October, the network said.

"I'm very happy to be returning to my `General Hospital' family and look forward to portraying a role that means a lot to me as well as the fans who have supported the character throughout the years," Francis said in a statement.

The pop culture skyline in 1981 was an oddity in a sense that it was the first time that anything of that magnatude from a daytime soap opera has ever been in the same league as 1980's "Who Shot J.R." craze from Dallas. Luke and Laura and General Hospital were the targets of a MAD Magazine parody, a disco rap record by the Afternoon Delights, the actors portraying the couple guest hosted one episode of ABC's "Fridays" as well as appearring on the cover of Newsweek magazine, and even Rick Springfield, who played a doctor but didn't sing on the show, was selling hit records, neither one of his jobs were plugging one another.

Francis joined the soap at age 14 on December 28, 1976, and last left in 2002 to relocate to London, where her director husband, Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek's Commander Riker), shot 2004's Thunderbirds. Francis, the mother of two children, had a small role in the film as an investigative reporter.

DFSXRadio.com Switches to 56K Feed (June 30, 2006)

DFSX made the streaming upgrade from the longtime 24kbps rate to the 56kbps rate that can accomodate a stereo feed instead of mono that it has been using since 2004.

"It's about time dfsx went stereo," says proprietor David Tanny. "Since broadband outnumbers dial-up users nowadays, it only makes sense to give the listeners what they want: the best radio station from San Diego playing the most stimulating music in stereo. It makes Led Zeppelin and Napoleon XIV sound better."

The first specialty radio show to air with the new stereo feed will be the Dementia Top 20 radio show airing tonight at 7pm on the Pacific coast.

The Wires (June 30, 2006)

Hear 2.0 Survey: A hear2.0 nationwide Study finds that among those Americans who have listened to streaming Internet radio, 40% do so at specialized sites such as Live 365, Launchcast, or Yahoo Music, many more than listen to online radio at local or distant radio station sites. Further, online radio usage of these specialized sites is dramatically higher than for radio station sites among persons 12-34. In total, 40% of online radio listeners say they've tuned in a specialty Internet radio site, while 26% said they had listened to local radio stations online and 22% reported listening to websites of distant stations

Portable MP3 Player Ownership Continues To Rise. One in five Americans ages 12 and up now has a portable MP3 player.

Hilary Leaves 91X (June 30, 2006)

The dirt about Hilary:

"My first day on 91X was April 1, 1997. Rossman still worked here and I remember being afraid of walking into the studio and finding him naked again. Cantore and I started on the same day and S.T.P. played at our next staff meeting. Like, set up and played in our conference room. Madness occurs here on a daily basis - the state of being, not the band - lately things like Kallao playing the Mexican National Anthem into The Gossip into the Saved By the Bell theme song during Crowd Control and Marco getting Pink to jam with Pete Thurston on the air have become the norm.

"I bow down in humble gratitude: It's been a rollercoaster ride, that's for sure. Since we've been become a truly independently owned lil' 91X again, it's been nothing but up up up. Thank YOU for all the love! 91X listeners are unbelieveably cool. When they aren't emailing me asking for pictures of my bare feet, tops and bottoms, that is.

"Good times: Beck serenading me with an a cappella version of "Debra" and Eddie Vedder calling in to talk about independent radio. Angels & Airwaves taking over my show and turning 91X into KAVA fm. Mike Ness playing songs live about a week after Ben Harper had come in and done the same thing. Broadcasting live from my apartment in Mission Beach. Talking with Omar from the Mars Volta on the air for almost an hour. He is one smart cookie and a dancing fiend to boot. Going on the Warped tour. Dancing with Marco while Ruggy dry humps the studio door, a weekly occurence. Johnny Rotten teaching me how to correctly pronounce "bollocks" while we ate sushi.

"Not so much: Anthony Kiedis, his girlfriend, and I alone in the studio for an interview - they made out the whole time while I twiddled my thumbs. He was one of the coldest people I've ever interviewed, which sucked because I was a HUGE Chili Peppers fan. Major disappointment, but I guess even rockstars have their bad days. Bad hair days, at least.

"So. If you have a millisecond, check out some goodness:"

www.surfrider.org
www.listenlocalsd.com
www.mcasd.org
www.freecycle.org
www.doctorswithoutborders.org
www.treehugger.com
www.lowercasepeople.com
www.utne.com
www.savedarfur.org
www.avalontattoo.com
www.myspace.com/hilahil

Weather Forecast Through July 4th, 2006

Tips For Visiting the San Diego County Fair (June 10-July 4, 2006)

From Tanny 101:

1. Carry as much water as possible. A 20 ounce bottle may sell as much as three freakin' bucks apiece! Do not buy any drinks there if you can.

2. SUV pool as much as possible. Parking fees is expen$ive! Split the costs between you.

3. Do not ride on the rides until after 6pm. The sun wreaks havoc on your skin. At this time of the year, the noontime sun is as high as 81 degrees from the southern horizon, more than enough to cause skin damage when exposed to sensitive skin for over ten minutes.

4. Better yet, do not arrive at the Fair until after 5pm. By that time, the threat of a sunburn and skin damage is minimized, and the Fair's earning potential is minimized. Also, the risk of dehydration is much greater when you arrive at 10am and you would need at least 60 ounces of water by 5pm, wasting away $9 of your hard-earned money during the course of the day.

5. Buy nothing from the concession stands if all possible. Food is probably full of transfats and high amounts of sodium and sugar. Just listening to Star or Magic on the radio getting there is enough poison for you for the day.

6. Buy no merchandise from the Fair. It's overpriced and the vendors just don't deserve your hard-earned money.

7. Play the games at the Fair responsibly. Spend no more than $10 if you must play games. If you spend $10 and win nothing, just accept yourself as a loser and stop the hemmorage of your hard earned funds.

8. Go to the Fair every other year, or only when somebody at the Grandstand is of interest of you to see at night, or just go only for the Grandstand performance when you go after 5pm.