Editor: David Tanny
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A Note About Blogging (Jan 15, 2009)At SDN, we provide links to newspaper articles so you can read more about the articles.What SDN doesn't do is to print the entire articles on the website like what some other irresponsible webbloggers often do. To do that would deny the newspaper or the sourced article the opportunity to receive a visitor hit to read the article and see the sponsors that help pay for that website's existance. If everybody copied and pasted everything, then the sources wouldn't get enough hits for the advertisers on that site to continue and eventually go out of business. The newspaper business isn't what it used to be. It's only a matter of time before the larger publications flip to web-only publication. Smaller content costing 75 cents and issue for a hard copy just isn't worth it anymore. Back in the day, we could get three times the content for a quarter. That was before the Internet started posting newswires (legally) on the out of town affilliate websites so that visitors would read them for free. This caused the local newspapers in whatever given city you're in to compete with them by putting themselves online, but in turn, they gave most of all of their newspaper content online for free with paid advertising. As the number of paying hard copy subscribers shrank as they moved to the Internet to read the news, the costs of advertising on the papers go down, the content decreases, and the price goes up. At 75 cents, it might eventually be raised to a dollar for a daily newspaper, which would be the day that the newspapers would stop publishing a hard copy. ComputorEdge, a local weekly computer magazine, went online-only last year. PC Magazine is going online only this month. More newspapers and weeklies to follow. Even the San Diego Reader and San Diego City Beat, two local weeklies, may eventually go online only. Once again, SDN doesn't publish entire blogs and articles of other websites. Just a few paragraphs and a link for visitors to read more about the articles. If you want your articles published on the SDN site, you need to contact the editor by e-mail. SDN wants to publish entire articles as long as its related to radio and television. While SDN doesn't generate any advertising revenue, payment would not be possible for your articles, so what you should do is to get someone to sponsor you (barter) and your article as well as your sponsor will be published on SDN, link and banner as well. If you want to advertise your goods on SDN, just contact the editor or see the Advertise pages for more information.
Disco Channel Returns to XM (Jan 15, 2009)As of today, Sirius XM has The Strobe as part of its lineup.What We Play: Donna Summer, KC & The Sunshine Band, The Bee Gees, Madonna, Kool & The Gang Read more on this:
Disco Returns to Sirius XM (Dec 17) The Wires (Jan 15, 2009)Third-party stories are copyrighted by their respective owners. SDN has no affillition with these stories.From All Access: KYXY 96.5 adds Delilah to its weeknight slot. It will air from 7-Midnight. NY Times: Banks Demanding More Money! Bailout A bank in Michigan refuses to LEND bailout money, claiming that after the economy tanked it was hard to find qualified borrowers. Isn't that how we got here folks!? Here is how the NYT spins it: "This is not what the Treasury Department had in mind when it started this program, saying it would give the nation's "healthy banks" enough money to start lending again, so that people could buy homes and businesses could invest and create jobs, thereby invigorating a disintegrating economy." We are asking for a trillion more dollars so that big banks can buy little banks. It hasn't worked so far, so how about throwing in another 350 billion? From Tom Taylor of Radio-Info: High anxiety around Clear Channel. January 20 Calendar Yep - January 20 sounds like the date Clear Channel's planning to "do it." Yes, that is also Inauguration Day, and I'm again saying that it appears to be the day Clear Channel managers are instructed to take whatever personnel actions they're going to. That's what they were told at last week's managers meetings in Dallas. Now - could that change, with an audible from San Antonio? Sure. But I'm increasingly confident that those personalized jump drives the market managers were handed contain the road map for what they're supposed to do on January 20. That presumably would mean the RIFs would be taking place while most of the nation is watching the new president get sworn into office. How big are the rumored cuts? Are they really going to affect sales as much as or more than programming? Is there going to be more centralized "national programming" with the new 2009 budgets, and less local talent? I've heard and told you all those things, and we'll just have to wait until next Tuesday, January 20 to start finding out. One former Clear Channel exec tells me "it's a little sad that it's dragging on so long there." It must feel like purgatory. Randy Dotinga: Happy Hare kept radio jumping. "Well, hi there! This is Happy Hare." If you're a San Diegan of a certain age, you know the name and the voice. Decades ago, Harry "Happy Hare" Martin dominated the local dial like no one else. Martin, who chose radio over retirement, passed away last week of cancer in San Diego. He was 81, a class clown who gained newfound fans whose parents weren't even alive when his popularity was at its height. "He had an abundance of that mysterious thing called 'talent,'" said Cookie "Chainsaw" Randolph, co-host of KGB's morning show. "To the very end, Harry always 'got it.' " Martin's late-'60s show on KCBQ-AM attracted an amazing 40 percent of the local radio audience. "Today, stations are clawing for a 5 (percent) share," said Chris Carmichael of sdradio.net. "Happy Hare in his heyday at KCBQ had nearly half the audience in the county. This will never happen again." Martin, a native of Galveston, Texas, landed in San Diego in 1955 and worked at KCBQ until 1962. He returned to KCBQ from 1969-1972 after gigs in Chicago and Detroit. In more recent years, he worked at KPOP and, just last year, at The San Diego Union-Tribune's online radio station. Read the rest at his website. Washington Post: Plans to become a digital nation are in disarray just five weeks before television stations are supposed to shut off analog broadcasts. Consumers do not have quick access to coupons to purchase converter boxes, Congress is toying with postponing the switch, and now a possible way to distribute more coupons may no longer be plausible (read more - Kim Hart - Washington Post) Inside Music Media: Revenues began to decline. Listening fell off -- especially in the crucial next generation demographic and then lately the recession slammed the door. In all that time, radio as an industry failed to come up with a plan for the digital future fully aware that the Internet was taking over everything. Whatever lip service a few groups might have given to Internet projects, it was never backed up by adequate funding in the budget. Now, consolidators panicked over the dollar stocks that they have created, are in the final stages of doing what they do best -- taking their eyes off the goal. Translated, that means firing people. I can't stop them -- and neither can you, but I can certainly bring light to how low they are stooping to get what they want Another Smooth Jazz Format Bites the Dust. All Access reports that Radio One has released the entire local air staff of Smooth Jazz WJZZ/ATLANTA, including PD DAVE KOSH and GREG FITZGERALD. The format wheel is spinning, but no decision has been made yet on exactly what the new direction will be. (editor's question: is Smooth Jazz next in line to be an extinct format on terrestrial radio? For some, it's a welcome extinction.) San Diego Union-Tribune: nothing worth 75 cents to waste on! The Wires (Jan 14, 2009)Third-party stories are copyrighted by their respective owners. SDN has no affillition with these stories.Kurt Hanson: George Reed-Dellinger, an analyst with Washington Analysis, says the Performance Bill has a “surprisingly high” chance of passing through Congress this year. He says the bill -- which would impose a performance royalty on broadcast radio -- will benefit from what he characterizes as the NAB's weakened and misguided state , and "substantial changes in the political and economic landscapes." Inside Radio: Weight loss firms fatten ad budgets. (Translation: more of Valerie Bertinelli hawking Jenny Craig!) Weight Watchers was the biggest diet-related advertiser on radio last week running 4,781 spots. The bad news for dieters: McDonalds aired 22,198 radio ads. Media Monitors says that made it the third-biggest national radio spender, behind Geico and the HD Radio Alliance. Inside Radio: Genachowski to head FCC. President-elect Barack Obama will turn to a former classmate at Harvard Law with experience inside the FCC as his pick to lead the agency. There's no official announcement from the transition team, but insiders say Julius Genachowksi will succeed Kevin Martin pending Senate approval. Inside Music Media: It's apparently the calm before the storm. Clear Channel managers who attended last week's corporate meetings are now back at their local stations and waiting to carry out the executions mandated by the company. John Gorman: Clear Channel is rumored to be offering its terminated non-contract employees who had worked full-time and steadily for three years or longer nine months of severance provided they sign a don’t squeal to the media non-disclosure form. From All Access: SALEM Talk KTIE-A/SAN BERNARDINO-RIVERSIDE adds WESTWOOD ONE's DENNIS MILLER for 6-8p weeknights. MILLER replaces TALK RADIO NETWORK's MICHAEL SAVAGE in the station's evening slot. |