The Wires (Feb 13, 2010)

Gary Lycan: Doug McIntyre admits challenges for 'Red Eye Radio' + Tammy Trujillo, former news anchor on KFWB-AM, is the new fill-in traffic personality on KKGO "Go Country 105.1 FM" + KCRW 89.9 FM's Warren Olney is recovering from a recent bicycle accident

All Access: Carroll Joins KFI; Handel Weekday Syndie Show To End. Carroll Replaces Handel. BILL HANDEL's syndicated midday weekday show for PREMIERE RADIO NETWORKS is coming to an end, and his flagship, CLEAR CHANNEL Talk KFI-A/LOS ANGELES, is bringing in ASTRAL MEDIA Talk CFRB-A/TORONTO host BILL CARROLL as its new local noon-2p PT host, effective FEBRUARY 22nd. HANDEL will continue his local KFI morning show and weekend PREMIERE "HANDEL ON THE LAW" show.

Jay Posner: Olympics, NASCAR fill former sports TV vacuum

Jay Posner: Super Bowl XLIV Ratings Smash M*A*S*H

John Maffei: No surrender: Networks not giving in to NBC and Winter Olympics

The Wires (Feb 12, 2010)

Gary Lycan: Doug McIntyre admits challenges for 'Red Eye Radio' + Tammy Trujillo, former news anchor on KFWB-AM, is the new fill-in traffic personality on KKGO "Go Country 105.1 FM" + KCRW 89.9 FM's Warren Olney is recovering from a recent bicycle accident

Mel Phillips: I'm always leery of writing about rumors, especially rumors about Howard Stern, the poster child for the boy who cried wolf. This is my first and last mention of the rumor about Howard replacing Simon Cowell as an American Idol judge because the story is over

Inside Music Media: It always worries me when I see radio people taking a shot at Pandora, the wildly popular customizable radio that is setting its sights on a local platform. It's kind of foolish because radio is doing more damage to itself than Pandora can do by diluting local personality radio. But that doesn't stop radio CEOs and their suppliers and hangers-on who are increasingly getting mad at Pandora founder Tim Westergren for simply picking up where they left off. Look, let's put it out there - if radio groups wanted to be in the local broadcasting business no one could beat them

Magic 92.5's Old School a Unique Concept (Feb 11, 2010)

This mix of adult contemporary 70s and 80s funk, soul, disco, freestyle, classic rap, R&B, and even reggae (Bob Marley and UB40) is unique to San Diego and it's hard to find a mix like that anywhere else.

Magic started out in early 1997 on 95.7 FM, then moved to the more powerful 92.5 in September of 1998, replacing The Flash alternative mix. Until 1993, 92.5 was the home of R&B and urban music when the old school classics were once new during the time the station first played them back in the day.

Magic starts off with Jagger and Kristi, veterans since they entered radio in the mid 90s. Kristi was once at 92.5 before when the station was known as The Flash playing alternative rock. Jagger was at the now defunct Star 100.7 since about 1994 when Kristi was hired to do afternoons and was paired off with him on the "Drive You Home" afternoon show. The chemistry proved so successful that they moved to My 94.1, and then to Magic, both morning shifts.

During the day, Magic plays an upbeat mix of classic urban in the lean towards adult without playing the gangsta rap, which makes it suitable for all family members. At noon and at 5pm, you can hear about 20 minutes of classics mixed together medley style. Sherry Knight and the X-Man take on the midday and evening shifts.

Weeknights at 7pm, 92.5 goes into quieter mode with "The Quiet Storm" playing a smoother mix of old school to wind down to. Todd Himaka is the host for the shift from 7pm to midnight.

Sundays from 8am-11am is the Gospel Jubilee. The Art Laboe special playing really old classics from further back in the day is on Sunday nights from 8pm-2am (at 10pm, 92.5 breaks for one hour for the Mexican government-mandated Mexican National Hour.)

This Friday is the Love Jam at the San Diego Viejas Arena, featuring Percy Sledge, The Intruders, The Impressions, The Persuaders, The Moments, Jojo, Gene Chander, and One Way.

Listen online at magic92.5.com

The Wires (Feb 11, 2010)

Randy Dotinga: local liberals, radio still beckons

Wall Street Journal: Google said it will begin selling ultra-fast Internet access to consumers soon in cities of 50,000 to 500,000 population with speeds up to 1 gigabit per second

Abilene Reporter News: "The predictor for bankruptcy is not going to be whether a radio company is into new media or has made the move online," said Ben Downs, a member of the boards of the Texas Association of Broadcasters and the National Association of Broadcasters. It lies in the recent history of consolidation into operations like Citadel and Clear Channel. During the heyday of radio station consolidations in the mid-to-late `90s, buyers sometimes paid as much as 15 times the station's cash flow, said Downs, general manager for Bryan Broadcasting's five radio stations in College Station

Inside Music Media: When radio consolidators or big-eyed record industry entrepreneurs buy companies at high interest rates, there is only one thing they can do. Refinance at higher rates

Hear 2.0: The value of Howard Stern is equal to the net present value of his future revenue streams across any and all distribution channels where his content will be found. In other words, Stern is worth the current value of the future dollars he can earn for the largest terrestrial broadcaster if, in fact, he were providing content for such a broadcaster (as he may one day do)

RIAA Asks For Third Trial Vs. Thomas-Rasset

Radio Ink: Lotus Entravision Reps Signs MVS/San Diego. Lotus Entravision Reps adds MVS Radio's Regional Mexican XOCL-FM and Spanish Contemporary XGLX-FM in San Diego to its representation lineup. LER already reps Imagen Group's XLTN In the market.

All Access: Report: Diane Sutter To Run KFWB/L.A. For Trust. Also, CFO: Lincoln National Not Looking To Sell Stations.

Inside Radio: Chicago is Mancow-less. Erich "Mancow" Muller is closely-associated with the Chicago market, but as of today he's off the air in the Windy City after Citadel news-talk WLS, Chicago (890) pulled the plug on his midday show. Mancow's syndicated morning show continues, but no Chicago station currently airs the Talk Radio Network program.

ESPN360 to become ESPN3. The sports network is making a further push into online video and will rebrand its ESPN360.com website into ESPN3.com in early April. The Wall Street Journal says the re-launched website will offer subscribers video of sports events and will target mobile device and gaming device users, as well as television viewers.

Tom Taylor: ReelRadio.com observes its 14th anniversary as an invaluable online museum, with the "Fab 40 Countdown" - highlighting the 40 best airchecks of 2009. They started the countdown on Super Bowl Sunday and conclude it Friday, February 12 around 4pm Pacific time. ReelRadio is a non-profit subscriber-supported "top 40 radio repository" that pioneered a place online long ago - February 12, 1996. That's the Pleistocene Era, in website terms. The 2009 Top 40 includes Robert W. Morgan on KHJ, L.A., Jack Spector on Radio Caroline and Chicago's Larry Lujack on WCFL.

The Wires (Feb 10, 2010)

Fox 40: A rumor that Sirius-XM Satellite Radio's Howard Stern may replace American Idol judge Simon Cowell hit a little too close to home when the self-proclaimed "King of All Media" aired portions of FOX40 Live during his Monday radio program

Inside Music Media: What is odious is the meanspiritedness of some radio CEOs (unfortunately the most powerful ones) in having their way with other people. In the end, theyÆve killed local radio and all the iPhone apps, HD radio and simultaneous webstreams in the world wonÆt put this genie back in the bottle Tom Taylor of radio-info.com: ôThe time has arrived for the FCC to approach the Canadian and Mexican governmentsö about AM frequenciesààsays GA-Carolina Radiocasting CEO and AM-band fan Art Sutton. His response to last week's discussion in T-R-I about Corus shutting down 50-kw ôCanadian clearsö CINF (690) and CINW (940) in Montreal looks both north of the border and south. He argues that many Canadian and Mexican AMs are leaving the band for FM. So ôwhy should U.S. stations which operate on the channels (540, 690, 730, 740, 800, 860, 900, 940, 990, 1010, 1050, 1220, 1550 and 1580) be required to protect a silent frequency? At present, U.S. stations operating on these channels must protect the nearest border to Mexico and/or Canada.ö Sutton says ôIt would seem the time has arrived for the FCC or the appropriate governmental agency to approach both the Canadian and Mexican governments about a relaxing of the protection to their clear channels. If not a total elimination of those protection levels, perhaps protection levels to their interference free nighttime contours. Obviously the United States will continue to operate on the AM band long after Mexico and Canada have left for FM. It's no longer fair, and the United States must protect their AM clear channel frequencies.ö Can it make a difference? Read on û

When MontrealÆs 940 went dark, you could hear a Massachusetts station in Canada. IÆm told the chief engineer at MontrealÆs CINW (940) called the U.S. station to say he was picking up WGFP, Webster, MA. And WGFP has nowhere near the signal of the signed-off 50,000 watt CINW û itÆs licensed for 1,000 watts daytime and 4 watts at night. But with the right ground conductivity and no co-channel interference, it can travel great distances. These ôCanadian clearö sign-offs are a reminder of how the radio dial worked in the 1920s, 30s and 40s, before the FCC began licensing many local AMs when the World War II freeze was lifted. In the 1930s it was common to listen to stations hundreds of miles away. NashvilleÆs WSM at 650 and CincinnatiÆs WLW at 700 blanketed much of the population of the U.S.

The Wires (Feb 9, 2010)

The Wrap: Howard Stern told his satellite radio listeners on Monday that he is considering leaving Sirius - and radio altogether -- to become a judge on "American Idol"

Sunday's Super Bowl was the most watched event in US TV history, attracting 106.5 million viewers, beating the finale of "MASH." If you remember, THAT contest ended in a tie.

NY Times: The head of News Corp. - Rupert Murdoch - and the editor of The Guardian - Alan Rusbridger - are facing off over whether newspapers should charge for content on the Web

San Jose Mercury News: With the exploding popularity of smartphones, wireless laptops, and if Steve Jobs has his way, tablet computers, it's fast becoming a wireless world. But the breakneck growth of all things wireless is threatening to cause a traffic jam of the airwaves that deliver calls, Web searches and video to those data-hungry devices. Left unchecked, that could eventually mean more dropped calls, slower service and a lot of frustrated customers

All Access: Howard Stern talks about Idol Job.