Happy Feb 12 Part 3? (Feb 12 3/4, 2009)

XHAS-DT 34 On The Air (Feb 12 3/4, 2009)

The Wires (Feb 12 3/4, 2009)

TV Tech: Shutoff Delay Enacted, But With Conditions. It's official. President Obama has signed Senate Bill S.352 delaying the mandatory full power analog TV shutdown until June 12

TV Tech: Winegard Provides Portable DTV Alternative. Throughout the DTV transition, there has been concern about viewers losing TV reception on battery-operated portable TV sets. Throughout the DTV transition, there has been concern about viewers losing TV reception on battery-operated portable TV sets. As discussed in previous issues of RF Report, some portable DTV receivers are available now, and more are coming. USB tuners offer the convenient option of viewing DTV signals on a laptop. One problem with all of these options is that battery life on these portable DTV sets and laptops is likely to be limited. Read more at the link.

TV Tech: Man Builds TV Antennas From Coat Hangers. The story says that “believe it or not, they actually work.”

Radio World: Muzak Seeks Chapter 11 Debt Relief. Calls itself 'a solid business with an outstanding customer base'

Radio World: Reports: Sirius XM Talks to Liberty to Fend Off Takeover. Also preparing bankruptcy paperwork and seeks to renegotiate costly content deals

Inside Radio: Bill Clinton backs Fairness Doctrine. Former President Bill Clinton says he never supported ending the equal-time policy, and the current debate over economic stimulus shows why there should be "some opportunity for people to offer countervailing opinions." In an interview with "Progressive Talk 1150" KTLK, Los Angeles, the ex-President also has some nice things to say about Rush Limbaugh.

ZDNet: Microsoft at the mall? Mary Jo Foley: Following in Apple's footsteps, Microsoft plans to launch a number of company-branded retail stores to showcase Windows 7, Windows Mobile and Windows Live. A 25-year Wal-Mart veteran will lead the effort.

ZDNet: Free Audio Editor allows you to edit, record, mix, filter and add effects to audio files. License: Free. OS: Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista

Inside Music Media: Sounds like Google's plan was made in heaven for a bunch of radio consolidators who still can't tell local radio from Ryan Seacrest. So, when first I went nuts about this outrage -- on day one -- most of you agreed that even Google can't force a square peg into a round hole. Translated that means: even though Google can sell search advertising like a commodity, radio can only be sold as on a relationship basis. Now, you knew that -- and I knew that -- but some consolidators got to fantasizing about a radio station without salespeople and Google was their inspiration.

Radio Ink: KOST/L.A. Hit With $6,000 Contest Fine. WASHINGTON -- February 13, 2009: Clear Channel's KOST/Los Angeles has gotten a $6,000 notice of apparent liability from the FCC over alleged failure to fully disclose the terms of a contest giving away tickets to Les Miserables.

Radio Ink: Sirius XM May File For Chapter 11 Tuesday. NEW YORK -- February 13, 2009: In a statement on the exchange of some senior secured notes, Sirius XM Radio said that if its larger restructuring effort isn't completed, it may file for bankruptcy protection as soon as Tuesday, February 17. The Wall Street Journal reports, meanwhile, that the satcaster may be closer to a deal with EchoStar.

Partial Los Angeles Digital TV Lineup (Feb 13, 2009)

Does anyone see a pattern? This looks more like the lineup of the Pittsburgh Steelers defense than a TV lineup!

Crime Tip from Smooth Jazz 98.1 (Feb 13, 2009)

Did you know that you can reduce the chances of your home ever being burglarized by just keeping your home locked and secure? That seems like a "no-brainer," but 80% of home burglaries are through unlocked doors and windows.

The typical burglar is a male between the ages of 13-22 and lives within a mile of the homes he breaks into. They're opportunists and look for the easy target. They spend an average of 5-10 minutes inside a home and go straight to the master bedroom looking for jewelry, so hide your valuables in creative places.

The Wires (Feb 13, 2009)

Tom Taylor, radio-info.com from Tuesday: The clock’s ticking down to the 2009-2010 NFL season, and there’s still no radio syndication deal. Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal hears the same names T-R-I has been reporting – Westwood wants a continuation of the deal but wasn’t able to get a pact completed during their exclusive negotiating window. (I’ve told you that could be because neither Westwood One nor backer Gores Group were willing to guarantee their offer of as much as $25 million.) ESPN Radio, as you’d expect, is also in there. Though Sports Business journal says its offer of more than $12 million a season was contingent on obtaining long-term rights. And my own sources suggest it’s the other way around – ESPN only wants a radio deal that runs through the remainder of its existing ESPN cable TV contract, through early 2011. While Sporting News Radio (says the SBJ) would accept a two-year deal with the league, but wants revenue sharing. And Sports USA Radio is also in the field, somewhere. The NFL might prefer to split up the radio rights that are now bundled in the existing Westwood deal, hoping to get more fees in total.

AccuStream Research says online music radio listening hours increased 38% last year to a cumulative 6.67 billion hours. The firm says webcast sell-out rates improved last year to an estimated 45%.

Boston Globe: When the country converts to digital television, that little black-and-white box in the kitchen will convert to a paperweight. The hand-me-down in the college dorm? Obsolete. The good news is that there is a place where televisions go when they die - a TV heaven, if you will. It's the Radio & Television Museum in suburban Bowie, Md., and it is a shrine to the RCAs, Zeniths, and DuMonts of yesteryear.

Sirius XM Now Reportedly In Talks With Liberty Media. Meanwhile, Howard Stern says satellite radio is here to stay

Radio Ink: CBS Radio's News KFWB/Los Angeles will soon be a second home for the Los Angels, simulcasting weekday games from crosstown flagship KLAA and any postseason appearances by the team. CBS Radio/L.A. also takes over in-game commercial sales.

All Access: A pirate FM in WINTER HAVEN, FL has been shut down in a raid by the FCC with POLK COUNTY deputies and the WINTER HAVEN Police Department. "ONE LOVE RADIO" was broadcasting with a 100-watt transmitter at 87.9 FM, causing POST-NEWSWEEK CBS affiliate WKMG-TV/ORLANDO, which broadcasts its analog signal on TV channel 6, to complain about interference. ANTHONY DAVIS, a security guard who operated the pirate station, has been charged with a third degree felony of unlawfull radio transmissions.

Randy Dotinga: Reelin' and rockin', album-style. Music from Chuck Berry showed up on alternative rock station FM 94/9 the other day. Not just a single tune, but all 20 songs that appear on an album of his greatest hits

Two OLTL Legends Pass (Feb 11, 2009)

A lot of people were too young to remember this way back in the 60s but I remember it as a kid watching it on the old black and white analog TV. Carey was doing commercials for what is probably a now defunct potato chip brand called "Granny Goose."

There have been some other eerie coincidences in the timing of deaths. One notable was the passing of Charles Schultz the day before his final edition of Peanuts was officially published in a newspaper (Schultz on Feb 12, a Saturday).

Finding FM Pirates? (Feb 11, 2009)

A few minutes later, I landed on 104.1 FM and heard a couple of 80's rock songs. I heard a couple of beeps during the broadcast. Huh? Then it disappearred.

As they may have turned out, I was commuting with two people who have an FM transmitter hooked up to Sirius XM radio, and they were transmitting a signal so strong that it reached my car.

I thought I found a couple of pirates. Turns out that it wasn't so.

There's still a pirate on 106.1 FM broadcasting something like reggaeton from who knows where. Picked it up almost everywhere in the metro area plus East County. Power must be stronger than Free Radio San Diego ever used, or it must be on top of Mount Laguna putting out a puny amount of wattage that is just high enough to reach everywhere in the county.

D.T.'s Car Radio Presets (Feb 11, 2009)

FM1: 94.9, 91.1, 102.1, 105.3, 100.7, 105.7

FM2: 98.1, 106.1, 98.9, 90.3, 92.5, 93.3

AM: 600, 760, 1700, 1090, 1360, 1170.

Reggae Legends Festival (Feb 11, 2009)

President's Day is Monday! For many of us that means no work and/or no school. It also means that the Tribute to the Reggae Legends Festival will be at the Sports Arena on Monday, February 16th. It kicks off at 1pm and some of the artists playing the festival include Stephen Marley, Buju Banton, Midnite, Ky-mani Marley, Tony Rebel, Mad Professor, K'Naan and many others. Tickets for the festival are available now on-line and at the Sports Arena Box Office. The Tribute to the Reggae Legends Festival, formerly Bob Marley Day, exemplifies the traditions that Bob Marley championed.

As an FM 94/9 Insider, we want to give you the opportunity to win tickets to the festival. Enter below by this Thursday, February 12th at midnight and we'll let you know on Friday if you've won. We'll pick a total of 10 winners to receive a pair of tickets to the festival, as well as a special surprise when you get to the festival (and no, it's not that).

Halloran and Hilary will be broadcasting live from the Tribute to the Reggae Legends Festival. They'll be in the Arena Club, so come by and say "HI" to them.

As always, thanks for being an Insider. We'll see you amidst the smoke.

Sincerely,

Owen - FM 94/9 Promotions

The Wires (Happy 40th Jennifer Aniston!, Feb 11, 2009)

From Inside Radio: Station drops Chris Brown. Clear Channel CHR "Kiss 96.5" WAKS, Cleveland says it won't play any Chris Brown songs following his arrest Sunday for allegedly attacking girlfriend and fellow artist Rihanna. The station says it won't play any Brown tracks until the legal case is resolved. (editor's note: never heard of Chris Brown.)

Muzak files Chapter 11. The satellite music service has sought voluntary protection from its creditors as it restructures its debt. The South Carolina-based firm says it has debt totaling as much as $500 million but assets of less than $50,000. CEO Stephen Villa says their lenders have shown "tremendous support" and "have committed to funding this restructuring process."

NY Times: Sirius XM Prepares for Possible Bankruptcy. Last summer, Mel Karmazin was rattling off his trademark one-liners to talk up the future of Sirius XM Radio, the combined company he ran that had just been blessed by regulators. He was planning to cut costs and expand a business that was already a fixture in the lives of millions of Americans. “Forty-three cents a day — it’s not even vending machine coffee,” he said at the time, parrying a question about whether the softening economy might hurt subscriptions. But now Sirius XM, the satellite radio company, has problems with much bigger price tags. It has hired advisers to prepare for a possible bankruptcy filing, people involved in the process said. That would, of course, be a grim turn of events for the normally upbeat Mr. Karmazin, Sirius XM’s chief executive, who had hoped to create a mobile entertainment juggernaut with stars like Howard Stern. It is unclear how a bankruptcy would affect customers. Service is unlikely to be interrupted, but the company might have to terminate contracts with high-priced talent like Mr. Stern or Martha Stewart. A bankruptcy would make Sirius XM one of the largest casualties of the credit squeeze. With over $5 billion in assets, it would be the second-largest Chapter 11 filing so far this year, according to Capital IQ. The filing by Smurfit-Stone, with assets of $7 billion, has been the year’s biggest to date. Read the rest of the story at the link.

Wall Street Journal: Networks Mull Cutting Out Local Stations With Move to Cable. Local television stations like Ms. Howfield's dominated the TV business for more than half a century. They inspired the term "network": a web of Channel 7s and 11s that delivered shows from ABC, CBS, NBC -- and later, Fox -- plus local news, syndicated reruns and talk shows. Because the stations owned the licenses to the airwaves that broadcast TV signals, big networks couldn't distribute content without them. In turn, local stations became the vehicles for the greatest mass-market advertising blitz in history. Now, with their viewership in decline and ad revenue on a downward spiral, many local TV stations face the prospect of being cut out of the picture. Executives at some major networks are beginning to talk about an option that once would have been unthinkable: eventually taking shows straight to cable, where networks can take in a steady stream of subscriber fees even in an advertising slump. Read the full article at the link.

MichiGuide: The recent rounds of "budget cuts" have seen the radio business lose an incredible number of exceedingly talented people. It sounds like a late-night TV offer - but wait there's more. Clear Channel promised more cuts on February 20 and other companies are sure to follow. One insider at CC-Detroit said that after 7 p.m. there are no humans in any of the studios in the massive Farmington Hills building (read more - Art Vuolo - MichiGuide)

Big Vinny: There have been recent rumors that Howard Stern, the self-proclaimed "King of all Media" and Sirius XM Satellite Radio mega-performer, and one of the most highly-paid talents in the biz, may be headed back to terrestrial radio, maybe even CBS.

John Gorman: The Record Industry Association of America (RIAA), the lobbying arm of the recording industry, wants Congress to impose a performance tax on radio. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the lobbying arm of the radio industry, opposes it. Radio already pays annual fees for music airplay to ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. There are no good guys here. Pot, meet Kettle. Glass House, meet Stones. Deflation, meet Stagnation. Wrong, meet wrong.

Fred Jacobs: As those of us in radio well know, things weren't exactly going well before last fall, when all hell broke loose for the country as a whole. Radio's fate had been sucking for quite some time, layoffs were already taking place, local and national radio dollars were shrinking, radio stock prices were cratering, and budget cuts were already underway. But now the combination of a media industry that is being challenged to its core and the overriding hurricane of an economy have created an environment that none of us could have imagined. Many are living with their own Plan B's at work.

Attention KGB-FM (Feb 10, 2009)

What the hell is going on with KGB! Bring back Bobbie Hill and Ditch now and send the other guy back packing.

Didja Hear? (Feb 10, 2009)

The Wires (Feb 10, 2009)

L.A. Times: Classical music is returning to the AM radio dial, right where K-Mozart used to be. Starting Feb. 15, KGIL-AM (1260) will devote a four-hour block every Sunday to the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony

Top 5 Headlines Of The Week (Feb 2-8, 2009)

4. FM 94/9 Goes HD

3. Westwood One Drops Tom Leykis

2. House and Senate Pass DTV Deadline Extension

1. Rain, Rain, and More Rain in San Diego!

Sirius XM RIP in 2009? (Feb 9, 2009)

Excerpt: Sirius Satellite Radio. (SIRI - parent company; about 1,000 employees; stock down 96%). The music rocks, but satellite radio has yet to be profitable, and huge contracts for performers like Howard Stern are looking unsustainable. Sirius is one of two satellite-radio services owned by parent company Sirius XM, which was formed when Sirius and XM merged last year. So far, the merger hasn't generated the savings needed to make the company profitable, and Moody's thinks there's a "high likelihood" that Sirius will fail to repay or refinance its debt in 2009. One outcome could be a takeover, at distressed prices, by other firms active in the satellite business.

San Diego Union-Tribune Censoring Your Thoughts? (Feb 9, 2009)

Several posts of unknown nature have been removed by the staff. Any ideas why? Were they of some kind of pro-Firefighter viewpoints?

KUSI Delaying the DTV Deadline Date? (Feb 9, 2009)

http://www.kusi.com/features/digitalswitch/15359636.html

The conversion to mandatory digital broadcasting is fast approaching. On June 12, 2009, analog signals will end and viewers will need to own digital receivers or purchase digital converters for their old television sets in order to watch TV. Here at KUSI NEWS, we want our viewers to be ready. Therefore, in the coming months we will be airing a series of reports about the upcoming switch to digital. These reports will include lots of information viewers will need to be ready for the digital conversion. Still have questions? Go to DTVAnswers.com.