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The Wires (Dec 29, 2007)Third-party stories are copyrighted by their respective owners. SDN has no affillition with these stories.NY Times: From Bill Carter -- David Letterman has secured a deal with the striking Writers Guild of America that will allow him to resume his late-night show on CBS next Wednesday with his team of writers on board (read more at NY Times) SDRadio.net: Former 1360 KLSD host Stacy Taylor will be on the air starting Jan. 3 at 4 p.m. at San Diego 1700 AM (read more at sdradio.net) From Twice: From Amy Gilroy -- HD-Radio developer iBiquity weighed in on the proposed merger of Sirius and XM in a letter to the FCC. Although iBiquity said it has no formal position on the merger, it urged that FCC approval of the merger be contingent on two stipulations Gary Lycan reviews Los Angeles radio in the year 2007. Amazon Offers WRM DRM-Free (Dec 29, 2007)In another sign that DRM (Digital Rights Management, music with restrictions) is on its way out: Amazon MP3 now offers DRM-free MP3s from Warner Music Group’s catalog.Disclosure: sandiegoradionews.com is an affilliate of Amazon.com This makes Amazon’s MP3 download store the first to offer DRM-free music from Warner Music and brings Amazon’s library up to 2.9 million songs, all without restrictions, and Warner’s catalog includes some of the most popular artists: Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Madonna, Green Day, Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc. R. reviewed the Amazon MP3 and says "I reviewed Amazon MP3 when it first came out and switched to it from iTunes as my primary method of buying music. In short, Amazon MP3 works well for me when compared to the competition: it’s cheaper ($0.89/track), it’s all DRM-Free, it’s higher quality (256 kbps), it’s more accessible (MP3), and there are no switching costs (integrates seamlessly with iTunes)." Here are the PR quotes from the two companies: “Our customers are delighted with our DRM-free MP3 service. We have received thousands of emails from our customers since our September launch thanking us for offering the biggest selection of high-quality MP3 audio downloads which play on virtually any music device they own today or will own in the future,” said Bill Carr, Amazon.com Vice President of Digital Music. “With the addition of great Warner Music Group content, our customers will discover even more of the music they love on Amazon MP3.” “Consumers want flexibility with respect to what they can do with music once they purchase it, and we want them to have that flexibility, which is why we’re pleased to offer our artists’ music on Amazon MP3,” said Michael Nash, Senior Vice President, Digital Strategy and Business Development for Warner Music Group. “We believe that giving consumers the assurance that the music they purchase can be played on any device they own will only encourage more sales of music. Amazon shares our vision with respect to offering feature-rich music based digital products, and we look forward to making available an array of exciting new digital products over time that will transform the relationship between and among consumers, labels and artists.”
Netscape Dead in 2008 (Dec 29, 2007)AOL announced Friday that it will shutter support for Netscape Navigator effective February 1, and encouraged the Netscape faithful to make the move to Firefox, according to a blog post."While internal groups within AOL have invested a great deal of time and energy in attempting to revive Netscape Navigator, these efforts have not been successful in gaining market share from Microsoft's Internet Explorer," wrote Tom Drapeau, director of AOL/Netscape development. "Recently, support for the Netscape browser has been limited to a handful of engineers tasked with creating a skinned version of Firefox with a few extensions." AOL has been battling rivals like Microsoft and Google in an effort to establish itself in the ad-supported Web business, so resources for Netscape are limited, Drapeau said. Netscape Navigator launched in 1994, and AOL acquired Netscape Communications Corp. five years later. Since that acquisition, AOL has been working on converting the Netscape Communications web suite into the open-source Mozilla browser, which launched in 2003, Drapeau wrote. AOL will continue to release security patches for the most recent version of Netscape until February 1. After that, there will be no "active product support" for any version of the Netscape Navigator browser. Netscape will still be available for download from the Netscape Archive, but no support will be offered. AOL recommended that users instead download Firefox and add the Netscape theme and Netscape extensions. AOL stopped short of an official "Netscape is dead" proclamation, as Netscape.com will remain as a general use Internet portal, Drapeau said.
Ford Sync Gadget of the Year (Dec 28, 2007)From the Detroit Free Press: The best feature to come from any car company in years, Ford’s new Sync system improves safety, convenience and communications.The breakthrough system also shows how automakers can team up with the consumer electronics industry to improve the products they both make. Best of all, it’s affordable. Many automakers would have slapped a $1,000 price tag on it, offering it only on expensive luxury models. True to its history, though, Ford chose to make the new technology available to the masses, launching the innovative system on its low-priced Focus compact and quickly rolling it out across the Ford, Lincoln and Mercury model lines. Sync, which Ford developed with Microsoft, allows the driver to use spoken commands to control a mobile phone and iPod-type music players. Telephone calls are piped in through the audio system, and you respond through an effective microphone in the car. It also reads text messages to you. Groove Salad Returns (Dec 28, 2007)Earlier this week, KPBS-FM's HD3 digital FM subchannel has just returned Groove Salad to the local airwaves. It was on HD2 until October when KPBS flipped it to classical music.Passings 2007In 2007, we said goodbye to some of the following celebrities:
d.2007/01/01 (94) Tillie Olsen -- b.1/14/1912 Feedback (Dec 28, 2007)From Leonard: About those non-Christmas songs.Those songs contain references to snow,and way too many people associate Christmas with snow.Everyone forgets about people in parts of the country who has never experienced a white Christmas (Add San Diego to the list).What about Florida,and Hawaii?also?Heck, I think a palm tree is just as beautiful as snow.At least we get to see them year-round>From noname: Check on this rumor. Is KFMB DTV moving from 55 to 7? From Jason: Is Dr. Demento retiring? He hasn't announced the 16th Basement Tapes yet. Might as well. His show isn't as good as it used to be. He plays the same artists too much. From Bill: We need a new urban radio station. The two big ones play just hip hop all the time. The old XHRM back in the 80s had it right and so did the Z90 of the early 90s. I want an urban station that plays variety like R&B, dance, non-bling hip hop and rap, soul crooners, old school funk, gospel, and reggae in one station. It's the variety that brings in the listeners, not the one genre formats that bore me to death. Neither Z90 or 98.9 got it right. Their morning shows from Los Angeles stink. I want live local morning shows from the 619, not from the 818. I want my urban radio station back.
The Wires (Dec 28, 2007)Third-party stories are copyrighted by their respective owners. SDN has no affillition with these stories.RadioWorld: Ibiquity: XM+Sirius Would Have Greater Power to Block IBOC From Cars. While Ibiquity Digital says it has no formal opinion on the satellite radio merger, it has told the FCC that if approved, the combined XM and Sirius would be in a better position to block HD Radio from the car through exclusive deals with automakers.. (editor: one reason why XM+Sirius could be more dangerous than Clear Channel.) |