James Mitchell Died (on Jan 22, 2010)

The Wires (Jan 23, 2010)

John Maffei: TUBE TALK: FCC ruling has Padres, Cox Cable thinking about the future

Jay Posner: Olympics may not bring NBC in from the cold

Neil Baron: Comedian Dennis Miller really digs his gig as a radio host - "I'm 50 feet from my bed," Miller said recently by phone from his home in Santa Barbara minutes after going off-air. "I get up in the morning, stumble down the hall in my gym shorts and gym shirt, talk for three hours and my day is mine"

Inside Music Media: Many, many fired radio people have lost their self-esteem since their livelihood was taken away. Fired en mass in some cases. Relieved and then shown the door in others without being able to say goodbye or take their personal belongings. Nothing about these layoffs has been done with dignity. Cumulus, the lean mean Dickey machine, has even been accused of trying to keep people they discarded from working for competitors by threatening to enforce non-competes. In other cases employees were forced to sign non-competes after they were let go to get their final paychecks. Citadel is apparently coming up lame with severance money û guess that bankruptcy is just another excuse. And Cumulus among other radio groups is being accused by former employees of not paying commissions owed upon termination or resignation

Steve Harvey will become the new host of the daily, syndicated ôFamily Feudö when the long-running game show begins its 12th season next Fall

FMQB: DOJ Upholds $675K File-Sharing Fine As Constitutional. Also, judge lowers Thomas-Rasset's $1.9 million fine.

Radio Ink: Hogan: CCR Is 'Logical' Company For Stern's Return. Clear Channel Radio President/CEO John Hogan tells Bloomberg that CCR may be interested in being home to Howard Stern if he chooses to come back to broadcast radio when his Sirius XM deal is up. Hogan said, "We would be the most logical company for him to optimize his exposure and financial return." Hogan also told Bloomberg that a deal would hinge on whether Stern would be willing to work "within the limitations" of broadcast radio. Clear Channel took Stern's syndicated show off its stations in several cities back in 2004, citing indecency concerns.

CBS RADIO Hot AC KSCF (SOPHIE 103.7)/SAN DIEGO morning show host JENNIFER WHITE has renewed her contract for an additional two-years

Didja Hear? (Jan 22, 2010)

Radio News Dissapoints In Times of Disastrous Weather (Jan 22, 2010)

It's too bad that the only local commercial news operations of any credibility are KOGO and KFMB-AM, yet they prefer to run needless syndicated programming instead of going live with news coverage with timely information. Instead after the first two minutes, I had to tune around the dial until I stumbled on a live deejay on other stations (mostly on the FM dial) that were making some announcements about traffic conditions and news of a tornado in Santee. Thanks to Jim McInnes on Jack-FM and KFMB-AM for trying his best to squeeze in as much traffic conditions as he can in a short period of time, but on Jack-FM, why not expand it to two minutes?

The local news operations on cable 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J, Q, K, and A (ok, forget the last four, it was a joke) may have done a great job with coverage of the super stormy weather, but unfortunately, since they were forced by the FCC to turn off the analog transmitters last year, their digital signals on a portable digital TV set remain a massive epic fail to get a reliable signal while driving with the set on (I put the TV set on the passenger side floor so the cops won't catch me with a TV on). I used to be able to turn on the TV set to get local news coverage with the analog signals at least semi-reliably (with ghosts, some signal fading in and out, etc.), but it's more reliable than the fussy digital signal that we have to put up with.

AM stations could have used TV audio especially in a case of continuous news coverage the listeners need to know about, and the local news audio on AM signals would have been a better fit for commuters than the syndicated talkers.

I said it before and I'll say it again. Local TV stations need to put their TV audio on AM radio stations. Digital TV may be great for stationary TV setups like satellite and cable in the home, but digital broadcasts are an epic fail for over-the-air broadcasting.

The Wires (Jan 22, 2010)

NBC: Conan O'Brien reaches $45M exit deal. Conan O'Brien bid NBC good riddance Thursday in a $45 million deal for his exit from "The Tonight Show," paving the way for Jay Leno to return as host on March 1, the first time that a former host has ever returned as host of The Tonight Show. O'Brien's last show is Jan 22. Under the deal, O'Brien will get more than $33 million, NBC said. The rest will go to his 200-strong staff in severance.

Gary Lycan-OC Register: Air America Bankrupt, Calls It Quits. Locally, Air America aired on KTLK/1150 AM, a sister station of KFI-AM. Scheduled shows included Ron Reagan, 3-6 p.m.; Richard Greene, 9-11 p.m., and Rachel Maddow, 2-3 a.m. KFI and KTLK program director Robin Bertolucci said, "(Their) operations ceased live (Thursday) afternoon. They go dark Monday. We will change Monday." Air America launched in April, 2004, and was on an estimated 100 radio stations nationwide (including KLSD 1360 for a few years until 2007), the announcement said. An open letter on its Web site said, "Air America helped build a new sense of purpose and determination among American progressives." KOST changed to an adult contemporary format in 1982. Lycan has even more radio news at his link.

Reno Gazette Journal: Comedian Dennis Miller really digs his gig as a radio host - "I'm 50 feet from my bed," Miller said recently by phone from his home in Santa Barbara minutes after going off-air. "I get up in the morning, stumble down the hall in my gym shorts and gym shirt, talk for three hours and my day is mine"

All Access: Howard Stern Admits To Talking To Terrestrial Radio. SIRIUS XM star HOWARD STERN confirmed rumored speculation that he may return to terrestrial radio. In an on-air discussion between him and syndicated morning host (and SIRIUS XM compadre) BUBBA THE LOVE SPONGE, the topic was addressed for over a half-hour.

The Wires (Jan 21, 2010)

FCC Votes To Close Terrestrial RSN Exemption: Cable operators that do not share their owned terrestrially delivered regional sports networks with their competitors will be presumed to be in violation of Federal Communications Commission rules against unfair acts or practices. Although they will get to rebut the presumption, the FCC majority made it clear Wednesday it was taking action against what it saw as a loophole for multichannel video providers to withhold must-have programming from competitors. As expected, the FCC Wednesday voted to close, or at least narrow, the exemption of terrestrially-delivered networks from program access rules. Read the rest of the article at the link.

Randy Dotinga: For ex-mayor, past comes alive on air

NY Biz: Network television and cable networks have a bright future, despite the inroads of TiVo and the threat of free video on the Web. And book publishers may also see growth in the years ahead, if they can learn to relax and love the e-reader. Newspapers, however, can pretty much pack it in. Those are some of the findings from the second annual "Hidden Opportunities in New Media Survey" from L.E.K. Consulting

Motley Fool: The most encouraging sign of Sirius XM's relevance comes from its conversion rate. Buyers of new -- and in a growing number of cases, used -- cars with satellite receivers typically receive free trials to check out the service. The percentage of users opting to pay for Sirius or XM service after the free trials had been steadily declining during the recession, but is finally bouncing back

First In: It is getting to the point where even the sports stations are not reporting what is truly sports "news" when it comes to the Super Bowl. The sports outlets are making it a media event instead of a football game. I can understand if music stations and local TV newscasts take that angle, but it's getting out of hand

Rick Dees strikes goes retro. "The Rick Dees Weekly Top 40" airs in more than 125 countries worldwide. With decades of show archives sitting in storage, Dees' latest deal will look to leverage his longevity. Impact Radio Networks will begin offering "WT40" shows from the 1980s and 1990s for syndication

Notes To Webmasters (Jan 20, 2010)

The Wires (Jan 20, 2010)

Wall Street Journal: NBC to Pay $40 Million to Show Conan O'Brien the Door

CNN International: The New York Times is reportedly getting ready to charge readers for access to the newspaper's online content

Inside Music Media: How could radio consolidators be so shortsighted to be firing their personalities and injecting voice tracked programming and network shows when the best defense against new media is doing local radio with favorites on-the-air. Consolidators are in financial trouble not because of the recession (remember radio has survived many recessions in its history) but because stations have stopped innovating

Ron Jacobs: I am the fan the Rams left behind. Our relationship began in 1965 when I took over as Program Director of KHJ Radio in Los Angeles. Among the job perks: Six Ram season tickets. Harlan Svare was in his third and last year as the team's head coach them The glamour and victories of the Fifties had vanished. The Rams had plenty tickets available to pass out to the media

All Access: KBRT to Move Its Transmission Facilities from Catalina Island to the Santa Ana Mountains area of Orange County.

All Access: X1FM Makes Offer to Conan O'Brien.

Wired: Copyright Criminals Charts Hip-Hop's Cultural, Legal Influence

The Wires (Jan 19, 2010)

Yahoo/AP: Ratings soaring for Conan O'Brien as a nasty exit nears

TV Barn: A view of the Late Night Wars from the year 2027