The Wires (July 18, 2009)

NY Times' Brian Slater: Walter Cronkite has died at 92. Walter Cronkite has died at his New York home at the age of 92. Cronkite began his decades-long broadcast career in radio after the Second World War and anchored the nightly news for CBS Television from 1961-1982.

CNet: The Decade's Top 25 Biggest Tech Flops. Here's one of them. 11. HD Radio (2003-?). HD radio was supposed to be the next great thing in "free" radio, offering clear, digital "CD quality sound" and more listening choices. But it's been slowed by the manufacturing costs of both the HD Radio chips and the radios themselves--as well as poor marketing. This year, the prices for HD radios have come down considerably--note the Sony XDR-F1HD and portable Insignia NS-HD01--giving hope to backers and fans that the technology will find more success next decade.

Mel Phillips: There is no bigger topic in the radio industry than the "performance tax" proposal, now in Congress. While no vote has been scheduled on the tariff, House opposition to the tax continues to grow. The Local Radio Freedom Act, a bipartisan resolution opposing the record industry backed effort to levy performance royalties on local radio for airplay, now has the support of 240 lawmakers and 20 U.S. Senators. "Day by Day, more lawmakers are saying "no" to multi-national record conglomerates and saying "yes" to preserving local radio" says NAB Executive VP Dennis Wharton.

Inside Music Media: What do you get when you fire most of your local employees, revert to using voice tracking or cheap outside programming, manage from corporate headquarters, spy on stations and treat engineers like they are not necessary? No local radio -- or as I like to call it -- Nocal radio. You could call it Knuckleradio because you'd have to be a knucklehead to do what radio CEOs are doing in the name of economies of scale. Or Lowcal Radio -- because the costs for running consolidated stations are increasingly low. Whatever you decide to call it, consolidators are busy at work carrying out their plans to reduce expenses even if it hurts their product and industry

Are we going to see this happen in San Diego soon? A sign of the times. From All Access: BIG FISH BROADCASTING, LLC has taken several of its stations off the air and has filed with the FCC for Special Temporary Authority to remain silent for 90 days "so as to address financial needs." Among the stations going dark on JUNE 1st were WKES-A/KERSHAW, SC, WJES-A/SALUDA, SC, WROP-A/BELTON, SC, WCRS-A/GREENWOOD, SC, and WYOR/CROSS HILL, SC.

KRTM Blasting More Power From Temecula (July 17, 2009)

The station, at 88.9 MHz, has increased its power substantially so that its signal reaches as far south as I-8. The station also has a low power translator at 96.9 FM from San Pasqual near the Wild Animal Park.

The Wires (July 17, 2009)

Washington Post: Senate Panel Advances Health-Care Overhaul. President Obama's ambitious drive to overhaul the nation's $2.3 trillion health-care system cleared a key Senate committee yesterday. But the administration was promptly buffeted by criticism from some of the industry players and moderate Democrats it has courted for months, calling into question the prospects for a bipartisan landmark bill.

IBD Editorials: Private Insurance Will Be ILLEGAL!. It didn't take long to run into an "uh-oh" moment when reading the House's "health care for all Americans" bill. Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal.

Inside Radio: Fairness Doctrine block fails. Along a 7-4 party line vote a House committee has rejected an amendment that would permanently ban use of the Fairness Doctrine. Co-sponsor Rep. Mike Pence (R-IL) says he is "profoundly disappointed" with the vote. FCC nominees Mignon Clyburn and Meredith Atwell Baker told the Senate today they don't believe the agency should regulate content.

TV Tech: ATSC Mobile DTV Standard Advances. Final approval of the standard could come as early as September.

TV Tech: More Choices for Portable DTVs. Consumers looking for handheld portable DTV receivers for use inside or outside the house now have more choices at better prices.

TV Tech: Update on Limited Vizio ClearQAM Channel Choices. I have an update on my previous the article about a cable TV operator trying to make it easy for consumers to receive ClearQAM basic digital channels without a set-top box.

Gary Lycan: 'KMET Friday' a huge hit but will it happen again? On the radio: 'Buddy' is found in Bali, John Ziegler to MC Palin event. "I've never seen such a huge response to a day of radio. It was absolutely overwhelming and proof of the emotional connection that a generation of Southern Californians had with KMET," said Dave Beasing, program director at KSWD "The Sound" following The Day The Music Lived - if even for only a day - on "Finally, a KMET Friday" on 100.3 FM. "It exceeded my wildest expectations," Jeff Gonzer told LARadio.com's Don Barrett. Gonzer, a former KMET personality who is now at 100.3 FM, spearheaded the event planning for months. "It was so much fun to do and the audience responded in kind. It was living, breathing proof that entertaining radio can be successful. With all the talk of iPods, and the Internet taking away terrestrial radio listeners, the reason is simple. We have given people a reason to turn us off. (This) gave them a reason to turn us on and they did," he said. KMET, for those not in the know, pioneered pop culture underground rock from the '60s to the '80s. Beasing e-mailed me, saying, "Throughout the day, we were receiving unsolicited congratulatory e-mails at a rate of about 5 per minute. Over 30,000 watched the Whooya-Cam, our little studio web camera. And the phones still haven't stopped ringing. The ex-KMET personalities - Gonzer, David Perry, Sam Bellamy, Rick Scarry, Ace Young, Jack Snyder, Mary Turner and Dr. Demento, to name a few, sounded great, as if it were only yesterday when they were at KMET. The day's highlights included all the old jingles, Turner's interview with a laid-back Bruce Springsteen and the July 1978 "Live at the Roxy" concert following Dr. Demento. Read the rest at Gary's page.

The Wires (July 16, 2009)

Randy Dotinga: STATIC: On radio, still some reasons to listen.

San Diego Reader Blurt. Who cares?

Congressman Pence: U.S. Congressman Mike Pence joined Congressman Greg Walden of Oregon in introducing the Broadcaster Freedom Amendment to the Financial Services Appropriations Bill which would prevent the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from reinstating the so-called ‘Fairness Doctrine' or proposed broadcast localism regulations during the next fiscal year.

Inside Music Media: Yesterday I wrote about Radio's Lost Generation -- how they are so different sociologically and technologically speaking. But there also remains the issue of available radio listeners. You know, the Gen Xers and Baby Boomers who want to listen to radio programming and like it. They are also being misunderstood and it might be worthwhile to take a look-see as to what can be done to keep them. Traditional wisdom is that Gen X and Baby Boomers will always be radio listeners. Then again, radio CEOs thought the same thing about Gen Y -- and they let them get away. So much for traditional wisdom.

All Access: Rampant rumor become reality as CLEAR CHANNEL Top 40/Rhythmic KOHT and Oldies KWFM-A/TUCSON PD FRED RICO accepts the PD gig at FINEST CITY Top 40/Rhythmic XHTZ (Z-90) and Rhythmic AC XHRM (MAGIC 92.5)/SAN DIEGO. Current XHTZ-XHRM PD RICK THOMAS exits at the end of JULY to take the Dir./Programming post with VISIONARY RELATED ENTERTAINMENT in HONOLULU. (NET NEWS 6/29) Look for FRED RICO to start in SAN DIEGO on MONDAY (7/20) and for THOMAS to remain close to XHTZ-XHRM as a consultant.

Chris Carmichael Gets Into the Radio Surgery Business? (July 15, 2009)

San Diego Radiosurgery offers a revolutionary new treatment for treating harmful tumors that does not require an invasive procedure or anesthesia and lets the patient go home immediately afterwards.

So now you know.

Also, the website San Diego News Network has the initials SDNN, but my website, San Diego Radio News, aka David Tanny dot com, has the initials SDN. SDNN is not related to SDN.

The Wires (July 15, 2009)

TV Tech: ATSC Mobile DTV Standard Advances. Final approval of the standard could come as early as September

NY Daily News: A dozen of the country's largest minority broadcasters warn they'll be "extinct" if they don't get some federal bailout dollars - or at least a helping hand with bank loans. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, dated Sunday, the broadcasters say a credit crunch from "plummeting ad revenue" and other factors has led to an "unprecedented crisis".

Ars Technica: Pandora is now pushing radio to pay for music, too: In an e-mail to Pandora supporters last week, founder Tim Westergren called the current system "fundamentally unfair both to Internet radio services like Pandora, which pay higher royalties than other forms of radio, and to musical artists, who receive no compensation at all when their music is played on AM/FM radio".

MI2N: Radio One came under fire from the House Judiciary Committee for refusing to testify at a hearing billed as a forum to examine plummeting advertising revenues, increased media consolidation and pending legislation that would end a long-standing copyright royalty exemption for over-the-air radio, which broadcasters oppose.

Inside Music Media: Do you set an alarm clock to wake up in the morning? Maybe have the radio come on to wake you up? The next generation doesn't. They tend to use their cell phones as alarm clocks. After all, many sleep with their phones right by their beds. Now some of my radio friends would see this as an opportunity to get Gen Y to wake up with their smart phones and instantly hear a terrestrial radio station. That works in fantasy but not reality. The first thing this generation does is check their text messages, mail and what's happening. If you need music, there is always your iPod. A longtime industry friend and I had this conversation several weeks ago. One of the reasons so many radio CEOs are making bad decisions is because they don't know enough about the changing generations. Gen Y was abandoned while consolidators were out running up the debt acquiring their stations.

Gorman Media: I take it back. The more I immersed myself in studying this Internet radio deal, the less I liked it. Over this past weekend I discussed it with colleagues, friends, and those whose business sense I respect. My conclusion is that it’s a terrible deal for most webcasters.

The Wires (July 14, 2009)

Radio World: Indoor Reception 'Impossible' to 'Non-Existent,' Say iBiquity and Greater Media. Generally, the closer that testers went to the core of each building, the worse digital reception was

World Net Daily: Roger's Column: Will Congress Read The Bill? By now we've all heard the president's pitch for "health care reform." To summarize: 46 million Americans are medically uninsured. This is a disgrace in the "richest nation on Earth." Health care is a basic human right. "Health care reform" will guarantee every American affordable health insurance, regardless of ability to pay. The result of "reform" will be higher quality care available to more people at a lower cost. Any American satisfied with current insurance can keep it, and you can also keep the doctor of your choice...

Yahoo News: Boxer Faces 'Challenge of a Lifetime' on Climate Change Bill. If the Senate doesn't pass a bill to cut global warming, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer says, there will be dire results: droughts, floods, fires, loss of species, damage to agriculture, worsening air pollution and more.

Ars Technica: Pandora is now pushing radio to pay for music, too: In an e-mail to Pandora supporters last week, founder Tim Westergren called the current system "fundamentally unfair both to Internet radio services like Pandora, which pay higher royalties than other forms of radio, and to musical artists, who receive no compensation at all when their music is played on AM/FM radio".

Philadelphia Inquirer: Cutbacks, double shifts:The static of hard times. Radio is losing ad dollars, while listening dips slightly. Elroy Smith has been in radio since 1981, and it's not what it used to be. "Jocks are working double shifts," says Smith, Philadelphia operations manager for urban-oriented Radio One. "I'm doing three stations here, and one in Charlotte." "We have to survive. . . . This is no joke." Stations are streamlining operations and trying to adapt to the digital age, but radio people, traditionally the most creative local media moneymakers, are way behind newspapers, magazines, and television in extracting cash from the Internet. The deepening economic distress has frayed nerves. "Our lives are very stressful and unpredictable. There's more insecurity than ever before," says Smith, who manages WPHI (100.3), WPPZ (103.9), and WRNB (107.9) and began managing the Charlotte station in April. Two words apply to radio in 2009, says BIA research vice president Kip Cassino, who has spent 30 years as a media consultant: "Nothing good." Read the whole article at the link above.