The Wires (Dec 22, 2007)

Inside Radio: Carolla renews; Bonaduce goes solo. CBS Radio and Adam Carolla have agreed to a multi-year contract extension that will keep Carolla on KLSX, Los Angeles and several other West Coast markets. It's been two years since CBS tapped Carolla to replace Howard Stern. Carolla show co-host Danny Bonaduce will leave mornings and host a one-hour mid-afternoon show on KSLX - where programming chief Jack Silver says they'll "maximize Danny's exposure on the station."

XM, Universal Settle Recording Device Lawsuit. From a press release: XM Satellite Radio and Warner Music Group today announced that they have resolved the lawsuit brought by Warner Music Group against XM over its Pioneer Inno, a portable satellite radio with advanced recording features. The companies did not disclose terms of the deal. Warner Music Group is the second music company to resolve its dispute with XM regarding radios with advanced recording functionality. A similar agreement between XM and Universal Music Group was announced on December 17. Both agreements are multi-year deals that cover current XM radios and future devices. Warner Music Group has withdrawn as a party to the complaint filed by the major record companies against XM in May 2006.

Alley Insider: From Michael Learmonth -- Radio already pays music publishers -- the people who own the underlying compositions -- when they play their songs. This is one of the reasons that music publishing hasn't been beaten up as badly as the rest of the music business. But unlike Internet broadcasters, satellite broadcasters, and radio stations everywhere else in the world, U.S. terrestrial broadcasters don't pay "performance royalties" -- payments to the people who own the actual recordings of the songs.

FMQB: Webcasting One Step Closer To Competing With Regular Radio. TheRadio.Com has successfully tested the viability of Ford's new Sync device, a fully integrated voice-activated system developed in partnership with Microsoft that now is a dealer-installed option in 12 Ford-Lincoln-Mercury 2008 model year vehicles. The test involved both a cell phone and a laptop linked via Bluetooth to the in-dash Sync unit in a 2008 Ford Explorer. The test involved two different receiver devices in order to determine which software and hardware performed better with the Sync system. “Just as with last month’s test in the San Francisco Bay Area, this experiment clearly demonstrates the viability of Internet radio,” observed TheRadio.Com president and CEO Reed Bunzel. “New media critics have long argued that webcasting will never be a competitive with terrestrial radio broadcasting until it is fully functional in the dashboards of vehicles, but it’s quite evident through this test that streaming to cars and other mobile devices is very real, and coming very soon.” TheRadio.Com plans to conduct additional streaming tests in several medium and large markets within the United States in the coming months

Feedback (Dec 21, 2007)

From Alan: All of those Christmas holiday shopping ads just go over my head. I don't celebrate Christmas Day. It should have been a simple quiet day to celebrate a religious event in history instead of being an overcommercialized two-month season that climaxes into a quiet holiday. Just shut up with the ads already!

From Clark: Why is Christmas a legal holiday? Why is the U.S. government sanctioning a religious event that is the birth of Jesus Christ as a paid one-day vacation? Where is the separation of church and state in this case? My taxes are going towards giving people a day off to celebrate a religious anniversary? Last I checked, Halloween hadn't yet been made into a legal holiday. I'll bet you that the Wiccans that celebrate that holiday are demanding to get that changed. Either that or make Christmas just a quiet religous event that has no implied government endorsement and everybody works on this day. Let's be fair. The U.S. is not a religious state like some world countries are where religion is the law.

From Brian: Another thing I could think of for the "Cliffhangers 2008" posting from 12/19/07 is that AM 1240 could adopt a Catholic religious format to compete with KECR 910 and KPRZ 1210.

From Dan: You do mean Broadcast Company of the Americas, not Broadcast Radio of the Americas, right? Freudian slip.

The Wires (Dec 21, 2007)

Kurt Hanson: U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation to undo a 50-year-old exemption that lets big radio companies like Clear Channel Communications Inc and CBS Corp air songs without paying record labels or performers any royaltie

Inside Radio: The all-Christmas format holds steady. Inside Radio's 100000watts.com says there are 427 all-holiday music stations this year, down slightly from last year's record 431. HD-2 multicasts emerged as an option this year, while a growing number of stations also went all-Christmas on their webcasts. On the FM and AM dial, Clear Channel has 102 all-Christmas stations, more than any other radio group. It's followed by Salem and Entercom, both with 13 and Cumulus and Citadel with 11.

The Wires (Dec 20, 2007)

Inside Music Media: From Jerry Del Colliano -- The phrase "screw the pooch" appeared in Tom Wolfe's book The Right Stuff meaning to mess up, commit a grievous error. It's a euphemism from US military slang that uses much stronger language involving a dog. How apt, then, to apply this phrase -- which also appears in the Urban Dictionary -- to the current FCC which has begun the process of undoing some of the damage caused by consolidation

The Wires (Dec 19, 2007)

Inside Radio: Radio re-regulation moves closer. The FCC has voted to open a rulemaking that could pave the way to put several new regulations on the radio industry. Among the biggest changes - stations would be required to set-up permanent community advisory boards to discuss programming. The proposal also calls for stations to be staffed around the clock. The FCC has also opened the door to allowing AMs to get FM translators.

NY Daily News: From Richard Huff -- Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien are planning to bring funny back to NBC's late-night airwaves. The two late-night hosts have agreed to go back to work Jan. 2, some two months after they were sidelined when the Writers Guild of America went on strike. Their shows, like all of scripted late-night fare, have been in reruns ever since

Happy Hare: Sean Hannity proclaimed, in his strident tones, that music radio was on the way out and talk would be “in” with even greater presence. I agree, sort of, and this is why I am blazing a new trail that will meld both talk and music radio. Music, talk and news. I call it “Newsic Radio” for want of a better name. Music and talk combined: I have been advocating this approach for some years, along with a broadening of the narrow music lists that constrict most of radio presently. Write this down. There is no reason why you can’t play music in a talk show or talk during a music show. If you listen to most talkers, they run out of gas during their shows, and begin to repeat themselves. Time to take a short music break so they can oxygenate

Radio Ink: Performance Royalties Bills Introduced. Bills to impose a performance royalty on broadcast radio were introduced Tuesday in the House by Reps. Howard Berman and Darrell Issa and in the Senate by Sens. Patrick Leahy and Orrin Hatch; the NAB said it will "aggressively oppose" the legislation.

Radio and Records: Clear Channel AC KOSS (the Oasis)/Lancaster-Antelope Valley, Calif., has dropped the format and is now simulcasting CHR/top 40 sister KIIS/Los Angeles. KOSS is identifying itself on its Web site, which re-directs to the KIIS site, as “105.5 KIIS FM.” Sister station KVVS (97.7 KIIS FM) in the market also simulcasts KIIS.

All Access reports that Luke Spencer (Hagelberg) is leaving WKHQ in Traverse City, MI. He was OM/PD/afternoons at the station, and is resigning this Friday. He hopes to take a radio job in California. Wonder if he will meet up with another radio person with a "General Hospital" name such as Robert Scorpio, who used to work in Los Angeles radio years ago. Must be a slow radio news day.

All Access reports that after 16 years in radio and four at Finest City Broadcasting, alternative XTRA-FM (91X),/SAN DIEGO late-nighter Al Guerra exits. He can be reached at subjecttochanges@yahoo.com.

2007 Cliffhangers (Dec 18, 2007)

Will Chris Cantore still be on mornings on 91X in 2008?

Will KGB ever get a clue and rehire Jim McInnes for middays?

Will Magic or Z bring back the jammin' funk oldies mixes from the 70s and 80s? Z90 used to have a Sunday night old school show playing funky R&B hits from that era. Magic hasn't felt like Magic since they dropped the old school mix shows.

Will House of Sophie on HD2 replace Sophie on the main 103.7 FM channel? Will CBS put KRTH 101.1 on Sophie's HD2 channel?

Will Mike Cook ever resurface again and host Hooked on Trivia?

Will Music Without Boundaries live somewhere on local FM?

Will Tom Leykis return to San Diego?

Will Groove Salad ever show up on KPBS-FM's HD3 channel?

Will Stacy Taylor host a talk show again?

Will Air America get a new affilliate?

Will Radio Disney return on a new station?

Will ESPN bolt from the weak 800 AM signal and get some shows on a stronger signal?

Will the operators of XETRA 690 replace their W Radio format with the more lucrative oldies gold format?

Will Finest City Broadcasting merge with Broadcast Radio of the Americas to create a large local radio cluster?

Will 1040 AM pick up a new satellite network?

Will KLSD flip their calls to the legendary KGB-AM so that advertisers won't shy away from the Timothy Leary-suggestive calls for the station?

Could Pride Radio work on 95.7 as a main channel instead of HD?

Could Cindy Pace resurface at Magic?

Would KPRI-FM flip formats to punk country?

Would Jack get a new morning show?

Would XTRA 1360 carry some of the Laker basketball games?