The Wires (May 8, 2010)

Jay Posner TV/Radio Sports: Enberg knows his best is yet to come.

John Maffei TV/Radio Sports: VAN DOORN: We must be prepared for Baseball 101.

New York Times: Will the Internet Kill Traditional Car Radio? The Internet's tentacles seem to have no limit, reaching out and strangling CDs, bookstores, newspapers and magazines. Now it has its sights set on the car radio.

St. Louis Media: They were once found just about everywhere, but now they're nearing extinction. Almost all radio veterans have encountered them, and many members of this vanishing breed had similar traits. Fortunately, a few stood head-and-shoulders above the rest. They were individuals who owned a radio station. More commonly found in the nation's small and medium markets, these folks used their own money to buy or build a station. When payroll time came, they had to make sure there was enough money to cover it.

Radio Survivor: A gaggle of major Internet content companies say they support the Federal Communications Commission's proposed new net neutrality rules, and the signers of their letter include Sony Electronics.

Mel Phillips: Terrestrial Radio Gets A Failing Grade In Marketing Its Product -- Instead of marketing its product better, terrestrial radio is trying to duplicate successful alternative programming and social networking. Sorry radio but it's way too late for that. The answer to terrestrial radio's problems is staring them right in the face and they can't see it.

Inside Music Media: If we've learned anything from watching radio's consolidators try, try again to reinvent the industry, it is that the radio listener has by and large become collateral damage to refinancing.

Rich Lieberman: Bay Area radio is so predictable. A once-great market with loads of talent and outlets has become stale and overly predictable. KGO has simply not changed with the times. In sports, at halftime, you make adjustments; KGO hasn't made an adjustment in ten years. They think that giving tickets away to Jimmy Buffet and playing rap music bumpers is reaching out to younger listeners. Good luck with that, the kids have tuned out radio and are too busy with their IPods. Yo, Mickey, you want to cultivate a younger listener base?, try hiring YOUNGER talent instead of middle-aged retreads--that'd be a good start.

Mat, Carlos, and Sammi have exited 91X on Friday. They hosted their final 91X Morning Show after the "Punk Music Saved My Life" feature. 91X PD Capone said, "The station has decided to move in a different direction with our AM-drive programming, effective immediately."

TV/Radio Broadcast: CBS is Ready to Shed TV Stations (Television Broadcast).

Twice: Roxio: Consumers Ready For Home-Based 3D TV (TWICE).

L.A. Times: FCC Tries Middle Ground on Net Neutrality.

The Wires (May 7, 2010)

Gary Lycan: Will we ever know why Frosty, Heidi and Frank were off the air for three days at KABC 790 AM? Probably not, the May 6 show was any indication when they started it off at 9 a.m. saying, "We are back in studio. We are laying in our regular chairs." With that, they moved into regular talk topics for their three-hour show. Still, fans are left wondering what really happened?

Radio Insights: Despite a massive propaganda effort to marginalize local radio and portray it as walking dead, people keep listening. This upsets the new-media pundits, and it makes them do transparently manipulative things, like selectively present research, and then explain it using twisted logic.

NY Times: The FCC chairman will try to regulate broadband Internet service despite a recent court ruling that the commission had limited powers to do so.

Inside Music Media: I got a kick out of some of the radio industry comment that Apple was shuttering recently acquired Palo Alto-based Lala - a company it purchased less than six months ago for $80 million. The presumption being that Apple was not going to be offering a streaming music service that was thought to be another competitor to terrestrial radio. What is really happening - to borrow a phrase from the great Delfonics Philly soul song "La La Means I Love You" is that Apple loves streaming from the "cloud" so much it is shutting down the failed Lala site in favor of redeploying Lala's streaming technology.

Lake Murray Playground Needs Playground Fix (May 6, 2010)

E-mail from Jen Reik: Hi everyone! I'm the admin for the Patrick Henry High group, and I wanted to alert everyone to a cause that requires our attention. Pepsi has chosen the Lake Murray Playground Project as a finalist for grant money as part of the Refresh Everything campaign. From what I understand, the playground is in desperate need of improvement. Most of us have spent time their ourselves; perhaps the older alumni spend time there with kids or grandkids. You can help by voting at the following website daily.

http://www.refresheverything.com/lakemurrayplaygroundproject

Thanks a bunch!

-Jen

The Wires (May 6, 2010)

Dave Kohl: Ernie Harwell's timing was perfect even in his passing on Tuesday night (May 4). It was just like him to pass on during a night with a full slate of baseball games around the country. I'm sure that those of you who heard the sad news during a baseball broadcast like I did will understand. It seemed so fitting. I recalled growing up in Chicago and being able to pick up most of the Tigers broadcasts on the radio and listening to Ernie's unique style.

AZ Family: Los Angeles radio duo John and Ken are among the supporters of Arizona's new immigration law. On Tuesday the disc jockeys broadcast live from the Arizona State Capitol to boycott the boycott on Arizona and explain why they think the new law is fair.

Ron Jacobs: The 45th Anniversary of Boss Radio: The date May 5th, 1965, the place Los Angeles, California, the time 3 pm. Pioneer radio station KHJ, 930 on your AM radio dial since 1922 goes "rock and roll" -- It is now "Boss Radio - 93 KHJ" -- "When I arrived at KHJ Radio in March 1965 I wasn't ready for how huge the physical plant was. There we were in an anonymous pink bunker surrounded by the Desilu, Columbia and Paramount Studios. The address was 5515 Melrose Avenue--before that street got "hip" - As I have said for the past 45 years, the person who convinced me that I arrived in Hollywood, the man who taught me so much about life while perfectly executing his role as and Bill Mouzis, Chief Production Engineer on our Production Team: Ron Jacobs, Writer/Director and Robert W. Morgan, Chief Announcer".

Now and Then: The most significant finding in the SNL Kagan 2010 Internet Radio Report is not that the big guys like, CBS (350 stations), News Corp/My Space Music, Clear Channel's Iheartradio (750+ stations), Pandora, etc. are raking in the big bucks, it's this: Online listeners streaming Internet-only stations monthly have overtaken the percentage listening to AM/FM stations' simulcast streams, 55% to 40%.

Jacobs Media: Pandora has emerged as the premier Internet radio station, now amassing more than 50,000,000 sign-ups. This is significant because as a media source, Pandora now has critical mass. And its position in Apple products, in cars with Ford SYNC, and through the Facebook network guarantees growth and exposure for the foreseeable future. In many ways, Pandora has redefined the space.

All Access: Report: FCC To Propose Regulating Internet Like Phone Companies.

Greater Media: "Radio is in danger of walling itself off from the new Internet-based competition that has emerged", says Peter Smyth. The Greater Media CEO's latest "Corner Office" essay for May finds him thinking about graduations and "new blood." Peter says "we need new thinkers on our staffs who will challenge the traditional truths.and find ways to co-opt and learn from our competition, rather than avoiding and ignoring it." He says it's "time to question everything." Read his "New ideas need new blood" column at the link provided.

DSC on Facebook Postings (May 5, 2010)

From Dave Rickards' Facebook Page: I'm watching the news tonight and I am pissed. Another potential bomb goes haywire, by a, and I don't know how to say this..."guy who looks like he is from...a country that hates us..." Jesus, God Almighty, when will we stop worrying about profiling, and start protecting our country?

From San Diego's PPGH: 1015 KGB fm sucks... I was just laughing at 1015 KGB fm's FB page. They have 47 fans/friends. I have 91. I have only been here on FB for about a month. KGB has been here since I was a kid, and they have been on FB since the beginning of FB. I graduated high school in 78, and I remember Susan Hemphill was a dj. Dave Rickards has 2,293 friends. Dave had a morning show with Shelly Dunn, and Cookie "Chainsaw" Randolf. They were called the DSC, and they were the funniest bit in town. I can't tell you how many times friends of mine would come up and ask "Did you listen to the DSC today"? Hey KGB, do you think you shot yourself in the foot on this one? Your ratings have got to be in the toilet, and your music programming sucks. You keep playing the same boring crap over and over, and now with the DSC gone you play even more crap. At least you have the one guy that thinks you rock "bigtime". You have really done a tremendous dis-service to the community. The DSC sold their "best of" Cd's, and used the profits to help less fortunate people during the holidays, and made us all feel a little better about ourselves, like we were part of it. Thanks for taking that away too. Hopefully you'll pull your heads out of your asses and get the DSC back on the air where they belong, but then you're probably a bunch of suits that think you're doing a great job anyway...

The Wires (May 5, 2010)

Politico: "Mother's Day, it's a scam. It's a big business scam. And I said, I bet it was started by Woodrow Wilson. Look it up, Sarah. And she didn't. I said, look it up. She's like, no, I'm not going to look it up. I said, look it up, I'll bet you, I'll bet you. Mother's Day? Started 1914. Woodrow Wilson. Hate that guy. Love my mom. Hate the holiday" says Glenn Beck, interrupting a Mother's Day-themed Vermont Teddy Bear Co. ad during his radio show Monday

Full Throttle Cowboy: Something is not right in the Wild, Wild West. PPM has not been kind to Country radio in a significant amount of markets in the West. San Diego, Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, to name a few

Now and Then: Social Networks Are Facing Revenue Problems -- Whether you use Facebook, Twitter or MySpace, you might be losing your favorite social network according to Haymarket Media, the global media watchdog. Unless the social nets start charging premium rates for ad space, they may not survive.

Hear 2.0: So Apple buys subscription streamer Lala, then shutters Lala. If you don't think there's a bigger play in motion, then you don't know Apple.

FMQB: Ernie Harwell, the beloved 40-plus-year voice of the Detroit Tigers, has died of cancer at his Michigan home. He was 92.

Star Wars Edition Podcast (May the 4th, 2010)

Happy Star Wars Day! May the 4th will be with you, always!

The Wires (Star Wars Day, May the 4th, 2010)

Politico: "Mother's Day, it's a scam. It's a big business scam. And I said, I bet it was started by Woodrow Wilson. Look it up, Sarah. And she didn't. I said, look it up. She's like, no, I'm not going to look it up. I said, look it up, I'll bet you, I'll bet you. Mother's Day? Started 1914. Woodrow Wilson. Hate that guy. Love my mom. Hate the holiday" says Glenn Beck, interrupting a Mother's Day-themed Vermont Teddy Bear Co. ad during his radio show Monday

Sam Francisco Chronicle: "I wouldn't exist without FM rock," said Tom Petty. "They were totally behind me. KSAN really was the first place ... SAN and WBCN in Boston. For a while, they were the only people playing our first album. They were open-minded. I think those guys, Tom Donahue and people like that, were truly pioneers" + Joey Reynolds' had enough of Ryan Seacrest taking every broadcasting job he can - replacing Dick Clark, Casey Kasem and Rick Dees. "He's OK, he's cute, but hey, he is not THAT talented".

CBS 4 Miami: Conan O'Brien Breaks His Silence -- Comedian Speaks Out About Leno, 'Tonight Show' Disappointment on 60 Minutes.

Mel Phillips: Will The Cloud Rain On Radio's Parade??? It's a pretty safe bet that a "cloud" music service is coming to Apple. That cloud will allow mobile device users to bypass their computers to download their music.

Radio Insights: What do the pundits say about local radio? (Radio) is hilariously obsolete in the digital world. Radio has been thrown out the door. IÆm not so sure how savable radio is. The radio industry is a melting ice cube. (Radio) programming is just not appealing enough. What do listeners say about local radio? Yes, there are new options, but IÆll continue to listen to radio as I do now.

All Access: 10x AM Power Increase Suggested? NEW JERSEY radio engineer RICH ARSENAULT is at it again with a proposal to allow all AM radio stations to increase daytime power ten-fold.

All Access: KFI's John And Ken 'Boycott The Boycott' With Arizona Show

Smooth jazz disappears from Denver dial. In tandem with its pending acquisition by Christian broadcaster Way-FM Media Group, KKHI (101.9) shuttles its smooth jazz ôK-Highö format to internet-only distribution. The Centennial, CO-licensed station was plagued by anemic ratings in both the diary and PPM ratings. KKHI was one of a handful of non-Spanish language stations owned by seller Bustos Media, has been restructuring its operations.