Mark Larson Out at San Diego's 1700 (9am, Dec 31, 2008)

Earlier this month, afternoon host Stacy Taylor was shown the door.

What's next for San Diego's AM 1700? Traveler's Information Service?

The Wires (Dec 31, 2008)

Inside Radio: Television remains the main source for national and international news. There’s a new #2 but it’s not a shocker. Four in ten people get most of their news regarding national and international issues from the web; 15 months ago, it was one in four.

All Access: Dick Bartley Exits ABC Radio Networks After 18 Years. After 18 with the ABC RADIO NETWORKS, DICK BARTLEY, host of "American Gold" and the "Rock & Roll's Greatest Hits" shows and the network have parted ways.

The Wires (Dec 30, 2008)

SF Chronicle: Bill Drake, who died last month of lung cancer at age 71, chose his radio name to rhyme with WAKE, the Atlanta station where he was a DJ in the early '60s. That's how devoted he was to radio, and his passion paid off - The formula couldn't have been simpler: less DJ patter, more music. Obviously, it's still working - witness stations such as KOIT (96.5 FM). But there was much more to Boss Radio than that (read more - Ben Fong-Torres - SF Chronicle).

Radio Locator: If, like me, you won’t settle for less than local radio, do I have a website for you. It’s called Radio-Locator.com and it’s guaranteed to transport you to streamer’s heaven. With links to over 10,000 radio station web pages and over 2,500 audio streams from radio stations in the U.S., Canada and around the world, it’s streaming nirvana on earth (read more - Mel Phillips)

Radio Ink: RIAA Can't Appeal Mistrial In File-Sharing Case. A Minnesota judge has denied the RIAA's request to appeal his earlier decision to order a retrial in the only one of thousands of peer-to-peer lawsuits that has gone to trial.

San Francisco's AM 1550 plans to flip from You Radio or whatever it's called to KFRC-AM oldies next month.

Mustang List: Even Jay Leno says that Howard Stern’s less visible in pop culture. Sunday’s front-page-business-section piece in the New York Times carries a large cartoon of a sunglass-wearing Stern cradling a satellite dish, panhandling next to a sign that says “Will @!#* for profits.” And the story starts out like this – “Did you hear what Howard Stern said the other day? Neither did we. But we read about it on a blog.” The story addresses both the pure-economic mess that Sirius XM is stuck in and the lowered profile of its signature talent, Howard Stern. Jay Leno tells the Times this – “On radio, Howard to me was a populist. The truck driver, the average guy would listen in the cafe, the old car that’s 50 years old and still has an AM radio.” [Hey, Jay – all car radios still have AM, okay?] “But I don’t hear him quoted any more. People don’t say ‘Hey, did you hear what Howard said today?’” I said something similar in print a couple of years ago, quoted by some mainstream newspapers, and Howard blasted me on the air. But the odd thing was, none of his fans flamed me – something that might’ve happened during his days on terrestrial radio. Now Jay Leno and others are saying that Howard has become very rich, but also much less a part of the daily watercooler talk. Yesterday’s New York Times piece by Tim Arango then delves into much more serious matters for Mel Karmazin -

KDXE 1380 in Little Rock goes silent. It tolds the FCC it has “suspended operations due to financial reasons.”

TV Tech: President signs ‘Analog Night light’ bill. 'Night light' conjures up images of a CRT glowing in a dark house.

Top 5 Headlines Of The Week (Dec 22-28, 2008)

4. Denver Broncos Become First Division Leader to Not Make the Playoffs.

3. New England Patriots Go 11-5, Don't Make the Playoffs! AFC Runs Out of Wild Cards!

2. No Number 2. Let's Hope that the other NFC Teams Kick Eli Manning's Giant Ass Out of Playoff Contention!

1. San Diego Chargers Become First 4-8 Team to Win Four in a Row and Win their third AFC West Division in a row.